Now back in Kwantoom, the Mad Mystics of Kwantoom head for the Palace of the Red Gloveto party away some of their recent acquisitions and celebrate surviving a first expedition to the Pagodas. And maybe explain that they haven’t seen hide nor hair of the missing teenager yet. So back to the Kuan Loon district, have no special encounters, and go shopping and partying!

Day 1

Selling the huge lode of expensive inks is difficult as the party are not members of the Small Swords Society. The elf finally manages to unload them at Lo’s Famous Chopsticks, but only gets 80% value for them. Kuan Loon Shops Found:

• Caw’s Knotshop
• Koom-Pah Candlesticks
• Lo’s Famous Chopsticks
• The Lotus Shrine of the Nine Benevolent Ones
• Mong’s Weapon Counter
• Palace of the Red Glove (purchase one “Standard Revel with dinner & dancers”, 35gp)
• The Shrine of Avalokiteshvara
• Song Cooks & Cutleries (new!)
• Tian Lun’s House of Masks (new!) (The elf buys a red silk dragon mask, the monk buys a black silk mask of an oni, 30gp)
• Tuk Tam Travels (new!)

Again they try to recruit some footmen to join the expeditions (at 2cp / day), but once again they are not interested in working for such a motley crew. After an afternoon of shopping for silk masks and then having a nice private revel at the Palace of the Red Glove, the party retires to a quiet inn for the night with the goal of exploring more of the city tomorrow (2.4gp spent on daily expenses).

Day 2 – Gurglesnot’s spell is Floating Disc

Not knowing anything about the town except that the lack of awesome shops (well, except for the Palace of the Red Glove) in Kuan Loon, the party heads across the river to Dazibao district. It’s a bit higher class, demanding twice the daily expenses for food, drink and rest. There are no special encounters today, so we check the shops: Dazibao Shops Found:

• Coo Horse Fair
• Lung Freshwater Fisheries
• Onabi Fireflies (try to hire a linkboy who will also come to the Pagodas with us, but none are available)
• Stars of the Shan Fan – Imperial Astrology
• The Shrine of Lakshmi
• Sian Peng – Bowyer & Fletcher (buy a Daikyu – d10 damage longbow – for Doomhammer and 1 score arrows – 103gp )
• The Silk and Fur Market
• Tikan Street Market (buy 1 week of rice cake trail rations in case we need to stay overnight in the Pagodas – 7gp)
• Vishan’s Luxury Sweets (each buy 1 fortune cookie – 600gp)

They want to hire some men at arms or Kappa thieves, but each wants a 1/4 treasure share. They then crack open their fortune cookies and decide to stay in town another day. Fortunes!

• Healer: Fortune Cookie of the Wah Tung Hunter – Duan Man (+3 to hit and damage next time a Duan Man is met)
• Elf: Fortune Cookie of the Cheerful Friendship (+2 on reaction rolls until end of next adventure)
• Monk: Fortune Cookie of the Joyful Face (+1 morale until end of next adventure)
• Mystic: Fortune Cookie of the Cheerful Friendship
• Gibbering Mouther: Fortune Cookie of the Spellweaver (can cast Ventriloquism once)
• Fighter: Fortune Cookie of the Spellweaver (can cast Sleep once)

Day 3 – Gurglesnot’s spell is Protection from Evil

Deciding to go for broke, the crew heads to the uber expensive Jade Parkway today (20gp total for us to hang out here for the day!) There, they encounter a princess (level 0, 2hp, Chaotic) looking for bodyguards to escort her to the 1001 Pagodas out of curiosity. She pays 50gp per character per room or chamber explored, will take the first magic item found (if any) and will want to leave immediately after 6 rooms have been explored. Sounds like a plan! Jade Parkway Shops Discovered:

• Dong Peacock Inks (intrigued by the Magic Stamps, but cannot afford one today)
• The Golden Court of Delights (a much higher-class courtesan establishment, but they don’t host parties…)
• The Jade Palace (the elf and monk buy membership in the Small Swords Society – 200gp)
• Lei’s Carriages
• Mong Armory
• Nan Wang, Swordmaster (1 katana (d10 damage) for the elf, 1 two-handed scimitar (d12 damage) for the fighter – 75gp)
• The Seven Veils
• Spire of the Northern Wind
• The Tamash Court
• Wah Tung Fireworks Shop

The elf, now acting as team leader, hires four men at arms at 1gp / day plus 1/4 share of treasure each (1 full share for all 4, bringing us to 7 shares instead of 6). (5hp each, AC6, d6 damage)

Day 4 – Gurglesnot’s spell is Protection from Evil again

With the princess, the crew, their four men at arms and the princess head back to the Pagodas! It takes 2 turns to find a new entrance, so this Pagoda isn’t far from the last one. 2A – Reinforced wooden door to get in. Four intricately carved and painted wooden pillars surround a low marble-rimmed pool. A single Hanu Thug (an oriental relative of the gnoll) guard the pool. Neither side is surprised, and a moderately good reaction check keeps the violence from beginning immediately… until the party sees that the Thug is also guarding a pair of chests, and the curiosity about the pool and the chests gets to be too much. Gurglesnot casts his Protection from Evil, and the party launches to the offensive. To everyone’s surprise, Doomhammer slaughters the 2HD creature with a single blow of his new giant scimitar (13 damage!). Feeling safe with his protection from evil still active, Gurglesnot slips into the pool to examine (and consume) the water therein which grants him 5,000 XP (once only) – the magic of the pool makes him grow and stretch, coming out twice as big as he went in and with an additional mouth! The chests contain 1,500sp and 6 chunks of amber worth 100gp each.

2B – This smaller circular room also contains a pool with a collection of lacquered wood chairs around it for those who are not swimming within. Interested in finding out what was within this particular pool (and hoping for a repeat of the last one), Gurglesnot falls into a cunningly concealed pit just past the doors (but saves for half damage). Ersen the Younger is thus the first to get to the pool and slip into the steaming waters, which sap his vitality with dark magics, reducing his Con by 1 (permanently – from 10 to 9). Cursing this Pagoda of Pools, we continue.

2C – A statue of a divine crow-like humanoid watches the far door of this room that is home to 18 oriental dwarves dressed in chainmail. Seeing ourselves outclassed, and needing to explore three more chambers to finish the princess’ quest, we find ourselves negotiating safe passage through the chamber with the dwarves – at first offering some coin (100gp), but as the negotiations progress (that fortune cookie is making this easier!) we manage to get their blessing to go through deeper into the pagoda with promises that they will guard our backs from this room at no charge.

2D – A dry pool contains pieces of rotting wood. A small coffer is hidden under a secret panel in the floor on the far corner. In the coffer are ancient jade coins worth 200pp. 1E – Another circular room with a dry pool surrounded by wooden pillars.

2F – A stuck door blocks the way to this large room. A fireplace is in the near corner, and a collection of 20 Pa’kua Kobolds. Since this is the last room of our quest, the elf immediately casts sleep taking out the first 10 kobolds, and the carnage begins! In the ensuing fighting, it was almost as if the kobolds had decided that the healer was the greatest danger in the group, and even after casting a healing spell on herself, she was dragged down under a pile of kobolds which were then torn apart by the fighter and monk primarily… eerily leaving no sign of her body. The kobolds kept their treasure in a collection of burlap sacks, containing a total of 400pp worth of jade coins. At the urging of our now bored princess, we left the pagoda (giving a small “donation” of 100gp to the dwarves in order to keep them friendly for our next trip through this area) and returned to Kwantoom.

Expedition 2 Tally:

• Rooms Explored: 6 (11 total)
• Treasure: 3750 gp equivalent (535 given to the men-at-arms)
• Magic: none
• XP total: 3908. Divided by 5 survivors + 4 half-shares for the men-at-arms (so total of 7 shares) XP: 558 XP each (585 with 5% bonus) (614 with 10% bonus)
• Quest Bonus: 1500 gp from the princess (5 survivors, 6 rooms, 50 gp / survivor / room)

Gurglesnot levels up to level 3, requiring two weeks of non-stop eating to gain the extra 100lbs of mass, grow some more mouths and eyeballs, and develop the many sets of lungs that grant his new ability to scream incredibly loudly. Gurglesnot is now a 200 pound menace that bosses the rest of the party around as much as he can.