6.26.22 - Meeting the Royals (Basket)

I do not know who these children are, but they could not have intervened at a better time; the duke knows no end in an argument. They seemed to know us and one of the children, the tabaxi kitten, ran to the duke for an embrace, calling him his dad. The other three were unlike anyone I had ever seen before. The little bird girl approached me while the odd ‘Sauran approached my metal guard and the kitten approached my dear friend Bene. They held out a letter to each of us saying that if we read them we would remember. Remember what?

I remember. This isn’t right. Yet, it is. We have to fix this.

I looked around the room at my friends and our kids before summoning Sunshine. With the information from the kids, I asked him to make preparations for me to adventure into Moonfall Keep to find my family, and that Bene, Klaub and Peytrice were to govern in my absence. Also, the Sheriff was to be arrested if she appeared in town and her second in command, Sargent Bubbles, had just gotten a promotion. Then I turned to Duke Vaccaro and told him that slavery was not the way of the True Bast and if he disagreed then he should remove himself from my court but he should consider if the Bast he was following was true. He gave a curt bow before he stormed out  in a huff. Having heard of Moonfall Keep before in my studies of the empire, I told Sunshine we should be back within three days, but if we weren’t back in five days he should send reinforcements to find us.

We set out towards the keep, but as we got close to the edge of the forest where it was located, we could see a few of my city guards standing watch. As we approached, they told us we could go no further. I revealed my identity to them to order them to move, but as soon as I did, someone fell out of a tree while trying to throw something at me. After that, we had to relieve them of their duties. In their pockets we found a letter informing them that they were to keep a group like ours from reaching the keep before they themselves could return. Pey also found a devil mask and blue necklace he kept.

Pushing on, we made our way to a silver hill with trees leading us towards a doorway in the hillside. Inside, there was a foyer with barrels labeled dirty and clean with clothing in each. On either side of the room there were doors, the one on the left opened to reveal a dark room with cages surrounding the walls and rats that began to scurry towards us. Pey stepped up, threw a bead from his new necklace, and closed the door before anyone else could react. Behind the door, we heard a little poof and then silence. We peeked back into the room to find all the rats dead and nothing of value in the room.

Back through the door on the right wall of the foyer, we entered a hallway that smelled of cooking. The first door we came to along the hallway led to a kitchen with a very nice minotaur lady and her living onion helpers. She told us dinner would be out in a second, so we would just have to wait with the others in the dining hall. Down the hall, was the dining hall where we found some tabaxi playing cards and enjoying some snacks. They did not believe us when we told them that we were the newest recruits and immediately drew their weapons on us.