HOUSE OF PAYNE INTERNATIONAL: Archive: GMP
The Gold Monkey Project: Episode 12
After fewer than a dozen email exchanges in a year and a half or so, Tim and I decided to get together for some old-fashioned role-playing, using the newfangled 3rd Edition rules. This is a short story summary of part of those game sessions.
Shaft cautiously felt his way forward through the passage, shuffling his feet slowly to avoid running into the desk as abruptly as Chisaibu had. He reached the edge of the passageway and turned left, following the halfling's agonized groans. He gingerly felt his way around the wall until he stepped on a small foot. This elicited a shriek of pain and a new string of invective from Chisaibu, who cursed his friend's heavy, booted feet.
Shaft could not help it, and sank to the floor laughing. Chisaibu cursed him harder at first, and then began to chuckle himself. When they had just about recovered, Chisaibu knocked his elbow against the desk, which set them off again.
When they finally recovered themselves, Shaft said, "Well, we better pray noboby with a good ear is hanging around upstairs or we're dead men."
Chisaibu grunted. "Would have come down by now, I think."
"Yeah..." Shaft agreed. "Although the way we've been carrying on, somebody could have come down the ladder-- we never would have heard."
"Light your candle. We'll see if we alone."
Shaft reached for his belt pouch, but then remembered. "Dropped it back there," he said, gesturing with his thumb in the darkness, "when you were screaming bloody murder about how the desk was killing you."
Chisaibu chuckled.
"Here, hold on, though," Shaft said. "I've still got this old rag I can light. I bet there's a lamp down here or something. Stands to reason, if he's got a desk down here he's going to be doing some scratching around with an inkpen, and you can't do that in the dark."
As he spoke, Shaft fished around in his pouch again, pulled out the necessary items and struck sparks into the oil-soaked piece of cloth. When it caught, he stood and held it up, peering around in the faint light. Right atop the desk, he spied two large beeswax candles, which he lit. After extinguishing the oily rag, he stuffed it back into his pouch. Taking one candle for himself, he handed the other to Chisaibu, and the two of them examined the room.
"Well," said Shaft, "looks like we're all alone down here."
Chisaibu shook his head dismissively. "Can't be alone. Pointy-claw-monster kill Underregent got to be here, too. Unless we miss him in last room. Nowhere else to go." He walked back to the passage that led out and stood at the threshold.
"Nowhere else for us to go, either," Shaft hissed. "That's why I wanted to go out the window!"
"Quiet!" Chisaibu said over his shoulder. He slowly stepped forward through the passage, holding his candle out before him like a protective talisman.
Shaft ran his free hand through his hair and scratched his head vigorously. "By seven gods I hold dear and seven gods I don't," he muttered to himself, "why do I ever listen to a thing this crazy halfling says?"
He set his candle down on the desk and pulled his dagger from his sheath. Chisaibu's small form had disappeared, but his candle's feeble light leaking back through the passageway between the two rooms. Shaft stood outside the circle of light cast by his own candle, trying not to present an easy target with his silhouette. But the minutes passed uneventfully, and Chisaibu soon walked back in and tossed him his old candle stump.
"Don't leave things behind. Make it too easy for people know we here."
"That's all you found? No scary beast with nine-inch claws?"
"Nothing."
Shaft put away his knife and pocketed the candle stub. Looking around for a chair, he found one turned over behind him. "Well," he said, righting the chair, "I guess we can just relax then. Take a few minutes and catch our breath before we head back." He stretched and eased his powerful frame into the wooden chair. "Aaah! That's better. Hey, are you hungry? I'm hungry. You want something?"
Chisaibu shook his head, and sat down on the floor, setting his candle down in front of him. He stared silently into the flame as Shaft poked around looking for something edible. Disappointed, Shaft looked to his friend. "Hey! You got anything?"
Without a word, Chisaibu reached into one of his pockets and tossed him a little cloth bundle a little larger than a man's fist. Shaft unwrapped it and discovered it to be a pastry and a small wedge of cheese neatly tied up in a linen napkin. He took a bite and was pleased to find it a meat pie of some sort, bland but wholesome, and quite delicious when combined with the sharp cheese.
Shaft spent the next few minutes happily munching on his little meal. When he was finished, he washed it all down with a swig from his wineskin, which he then offered to Chisaibu, but Chisaibu declined with a shake of the head.
"Well, that was good! Where'd you get it?"
"Tavern. During fight, I think." He paused. "Something is wrong here. No way out, but no monster. Got to be other way out."
"You checked the room with the ladder out pretty well, did you?"
Chisaibu nodded, still gazing into the flame.
"Well," Shaft said, scratching his stubbly chin, "you haven't really checked this one out yet. Seems a little early to me to say there's no other way out."
Chisaibu's head snapped up and he stared for a moment at Shaft before his eyes drifed down to the candle. An unreadable expression passed over his face and he backed slowly away from it before rising to stand.
"Watch!" he said, his finger stabbing down at the candle. When he was satisified Shaft would indeed keep his eyes on the flame, he turned to examine the room. For his part, Shaft did nothing but shake his head. He'd been around Chisaibu enough not to be thrown by his minor oddities. He took another swig from his wineskin, and tried to relax.
Soon, though, he decided that it was impossible to get into a comfortable slouch in the hard wooden chair. He got out of the chair with a sigh and stooped to pick up Chisaibu's candle. Turning around slowly, he looked the room over. It was about the same as the other one, maybe twelve by fifteen feet. It was stark bare, though, with no furniture but the desk, chair, and a dresser which Chisaibu was running his fingers over.
Taking his cue from his curious friend, Shaft walked over to the desk, placing the candle next to the one he had set down earlier, and opened the drawers. He found nothing unusual: ink, writing implements, sand, sealing wax, a small knife, a few coins, and plenty of good, heavy, expensive paper. Hefting the paper in his hands, he whistled appreciatively, but put it back with the rest. As Chisaibu had said earlier, there was no point in letting people know they had been here.
"Well, nothing special here," he said aloud. "You find anything interesting in that bureau?"
He turned and saw that Chisaibu was still examining it, although now from the side. A closer look revealed the reason why: a large section of the floor in front of the dresser seemed to have dropped away.
Chisaibu gestured at the hole in the floor with one hand. "Trap door. I took care of it."
"Now I know why I bring you along," said Shaft, mentally reproaching himself for opening the desk so incautiously.
As if thinking the same thing, Chisaibu looked up at him with a wicked grin and said, "Lucky for you no surprises in the desk." He paused thoughtfully. "Or maybe you just don't notice surprise. Maybe drawer handles painted with poison."
Shaft quickly looked down at his hands. They looked normal to him, but the light was so dim it was hard to tell. He got a terribly feeling in his stomach.
"Chis, you don't really think... I mean..." He sat back down in the chair, trying to decide if he thought the pain in his stomach was just nerves or something more serious.
"Oh, hard to tell," said Chisaibu cheerfully. "Hard to know, hard to know with poisons. Some slow, some fast. Hard to know."
Shaft felt sick.
Chisaibu stepped back from the bureau, regarded it for a moment, and then gave it a solid shove. Along with a section of the floor beneath, it slipped smoothly to the side, revealing an opening in the wall somewhat smaller than the bureau itself.
Chisaibu stood motionless and silent for perhaps a full minute before speaking again. "I think I found something."
Shaft nodded slowly, still thinking about other things.
Hearing no reply, Chisaibu barked, "Hi, you! You are not dying! Get me candles! I need to see."
Next Episode!
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All text and images copyright � 2001 John Payne. All rights reserved.
Episode 12 of the Gold Monkey Project was posted on Sunday, May 6, 2001.