Wealday, Desnus 29, 4713 morning
Yugureda Shosaito’s Island

“I told all of you, ‘Oh, look, there’s an island shrouded in unnatural shadows and so you know there’s going to be undead.’ But did anyone listen?”

Pookie was a bit miffed and was letting us all know it. It wasn’t that we hadn’t listened to her: we had come prepared with some spells that focused on undead (and besides, I can chanel energy to harm them). It’s just that there were so many other things that could explain the island’s odd appearance — things which might still hold true — and we wanted to cover all of the likely bases.

“Well I still think Shosaito could be a shadow-mancer or a dimensional sorcerer,” Huffy pouted.

“You’re not just making those things up, are you Huffy?” Timber asked.

Star interrupted, “I’m still pissed about that whole board game thing. It looked like a trap. It smelled like a trap. It felt like a trap. And still we walked right into it. And guess what? It was a trap!”

My friends were in a bit of an uproar. While the morning had not gone poorly, it had certainly revealed its share of surprises… or not, depending on which mouse you listened to. To put it simply, we had done better. The fact that we had also done a lot worse was not likely to end the debate and so I kept that to myself, occasionally saying, “Uh hum, uh hum” so they’d all know I was paying attention.

I was beginning to feel the headache coming on that usually arrived whenever they bickered incessantly like this.

The day had started innocuous enough.

We had slept overnight at the kappa’s river house and got up before dawn. Just as the sun rose I protected everyone with Life Bubble (because the island where we were heading was thick with misty shadows — it made sense, right?) and then used the wand to cast Fly on each of us.

The island was close enough that as long as we took no detours we’d be able to reach it before the low level spell wore off. This allowed me to prepare two high level spells I’d normally need for Wind Walk for some other purpose.

We flew across the lagoon and as we neared the island we saw pearl divers bobbing in the early morning sunlit waves. They saw us as well and dived out of sight. By the time we had landed on the shore the bright sunlight had been replaced by a shadowy haze.

A primitive village of clay huts huddled by the shingle above the water, and a path led up a hill to a walled manor, which was vague and indistinct in the distance.

Detect Magic showed a faint aura of magic all around us, but it was impossible to pinpoint either the source or the effect.

As my companions began to look about the huts the divers walked out of the water and approached us. Their shambling gate and cadaverous pallor suggested that they were some sort of ghoul.

Just moments before Zos and Kali had joked how undead would make perfect pearl divers. Zos’ brand of animated flesh holds none of the stigma of actual zombies, and I still wonder if using the Animate Dead spell actually creates true undead because, as with Zos’ constructs, no negative energy is involved, and no souls are pulled back from the afterlife to inhabit the corpses. It’s a pity that the priests at the Temple of Pharasma in Magnimar were never willing to have a frank discussion on the topic.

Beorn’s ears pricked up at this and he suggested, “Well it’s not too late to experiment.”

“Well now is not the time, ” I quickly replied.

The problem with most undead is that they have a habit attacking anything that was truly living. Speaking of which, we quickly destroyed the sea-ghouls (technically speaking they were lacedons, but I prefer Badger’s name for them).

It turned out that there was a hidden door in the floor of one of the huts that opened onto a shaft that led down to a tunnel that headed straight toward the house on the hill.

Following this we soon we came to a room that served as a wine cellar and junction with another plane. I said it made good use of what would otherwise be dead space, but nobody got my joke.

To the right was a glowing portal we suspected led to another plan. Someone suggested the Shadow Plane, and given what we’ve learned about the sorcerer Shosaito, this seemed likely.

To the left was another passageway, but its walls were clad in wood panelling and various household goods and supplies were stored here.

We had reached the house proper.

We decided to leave the portal for later and explore the house, but before we had gone very far we ran across a servant woman who was carrying a broom and other cleaning supplies, which she dropped in surprise.

She looked human and mortal, and to prevent her from running off and alerting the house I explained that her master had hired us to test the security of his houshouse, and could she please sit here quietly? She seemed confused, but compliant enough to have her hands tied with no protest.

Unfortunately another servant came down the hall, and after Olmas unsuccessfully tried to sell her the same “testing the master’s security” story, she called out and tried to run away.

Kali then called out, “Kill them. They’re undead.”

“Oh bother, ” McLovin said at the same moment Pookie scoffed, “Well, duh!”

They were a good bit tougher than you’d expect from house staff, and after they were dead Kali explained that they were a creature unique to Tien. They appeared as young women during the day, but at night their upper bodies tore away from their lower halves and they flew around consuming mortals.

They were called manananggals, which sounded a lot like the single word lyric to a song I had learned as a child. I started humming it, and quite a few of my companions picked up the tune. All of my little mouse friends collectively rolled their eyes.

We searched the house and grounds, slaying quite a few of these creatures, which I assume was significantly easier now than it would have been at night. Both Shalelu and Ameiko made good showings of themselves during the fights, which made me feel better about having them along.

The manor had seen better days, but at its height it must have been magnificent, with intricately carved rafters scrolling up beneath the tiled roof, richly painted panels, artfully arranged bamboo, and delicate wood frames supporting paper thin walls.

No, really, the walls were actually made from paper! The complete lack of privacy in such an arrangement seemed uncomfortable to me, but we had already seen that this was a common practice in Minkai.

Who knows, maybe it’s a culture of exhibitionists and voyeurs.

For having so many house keepers the manor was run down. Many of the rooms look unused and untidy. Even the master bedroom had a layer of dust upon all the furnishing within. I guess the master was living full time on the other side of the portal.

There was a very interesting shogi board in a large room in the center of the house. And by interesting I mean a) it had moderate auras of conjuration and illusion, and b) the pieces showed that a game was already in progress.

We had seen it earlier on our first pass through the house, and I had mentioned the magic auras and suggested it might be trapped. My companions agreed. “Yes, it looks like a trap.” “Oh, definitely trapped.” “Don’t touch it and set off the trap.”

All good advice, and so we let it be and went out into the courtyard to kill more manananggals.

But then when we came back in Kali and Zos decided they would try to play at the shogi table afterall. Just as I was trying to figure out how this came to pass, a loud voice proclaimed, “Clearly the game has started, but is the king winning or the jade general?”

And with that all of us in the room, which is to say all of us, were transported to a large game board, with shadowy walls isolating each of us in our own square.

We could hear one another through the walls, and from the shouts from the others it was obvious we had company. Shadows that drained strength with their touch were skulking about, and apparently not hindered by the walls.

I created a Spiritual Ally to provide some cover from these incorporeal attacks (with a “Good thinking!” from Star thrown in for moral support), which gave me time to think.

I had earlier detected a fairly strong illusion aura on the board, and that convinced me that at least part of the trap was fake. And sure enough, as soon as I realized that the walls became transparent.

I called out, “It’s an illusion! Disbelieve in the walls.”

A subtle dance then began where we moved toward the edge of the board while avoiding the shadows as best we could. Soon we all had exited the board and found ourselves back in the room with the shogi board trap.

“Burn it!” Star squeaked.

I was inclined to act upon her suggestion, but then we still have work to do here, and the walls are made of wood and paper. Perhaps when we are ready to leave.

Judicious use of our wands of Lesser Restoration cured the strength loss from various members of the party, after which we began to discuss our next actions.

But it seems our choice is limited to passing through the portal down below, defeating Shosaito, and rescuing O-sayum.