Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
Rite Publishing Presents
Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
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Jade Mandarin (Design): Frank Carr
Imperial Gardener (Editor): David “Dave” Paul
Gwai Liao (Developers): Bill Collins and Steven D. Russell
Sun Tzu (Front Cover Artist: John Wigley
Infernal Scholars (Interior Artists): John Wigley and Wayne Reynolds
Kraken’s Pearl (Cartographer): Eric Blische (made with Dundjinni)
Royal Death Blossom (Layout): Steven D. Russell, Marie Small
Ghost Dragon (Pathfinder Conversion): Soren K. Thustrup
Brother of the Black Lotus (Proofreading): Ben Stowell
Lowly Farm Peasant (Publisher): Steven D. Russell
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Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
the days when the water god and the fire god wrestled over the
land and sea, the August Jade Emperor in Heaven doted upon his
newest and youngest children and forgot to remind them to be
careful of his greatest creation. The mortal lands that would one
day become the Lands of the Jade Oath.
At a small city that is literally under the shadow of the
sea, a martial arts tournament with dancing lion dragons racing to romance the spirits is attended by mystical
politicians, caring cultists, secret societies, Stone Monkey maidens, a runaway bride, a kidnapped thief, and
faen pirates. Things get even more complicated when
the city gets ransomed under threat of being drowned
by an ancient curse. If the mystical lover’s memento, the
Moon Shawl, isn’t returned to the Temple of the Moon
before the moon is full, the Great Dragon of the East will
crush the city of Langyin under a wall of water that has
been suspended above it for all these centuries. After all,
someone has to pay for the original dragon lady being
jilted at the altar of her temple, and if the demon lover
that resides within the Moon Shawl doesn’t make it in
time for the wedding, then the whole city might as well
pay for her embarrassment. It all adds up to an “Infernal
Romance at the Moon Temple,” a 7th – 9th level adventure.
Heng-O, the goddess of the moon, is one of the Jade Emperor’s
daughters and a most curious one at that. One day, she broke a
vase containing the essence of dragonfire. Some of her mischievous brothers got hold of it, which displeased the Jade Emperor
greatly. All ten of them harnessed the dragonfire, turned into
suns, and enjoyed the fire and havoc they rained down upon creation. They were having so much fun they would no longer listen
to the pleas and commands of their parents to cease their actions.
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The mortal kingdoms, fearing for the sudden drought and
wild fires that raged out of control, feared for their survival and
beseeched the Jade Emperor for aid. He banished his daughter
to the mortal realm, stripping her of her immortality, with the
condition that if she performed a great deed for the mortals,
she could return to Heaven and have her immortality restored.
However, though she performed many good deeds, none were
quite good enough, and the Ten Suns remained in the sky. So, she
remained in the mortal kingdoms for a time.
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Campaign Setting
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The Infernal Romance at Moon Temple adventure takes
place in the Lands of the Jade Oath setting but is flexible
enough to work equally well in other Pathfinder settings.
You could easily move “Infernal Romance at Moon Temple”
to another campaign setting, though the overwhelming
threat to the city posed by the sea means that the special
setting that is the city of Langyin must be preserved for
the adventure to work.
Then, a minor soldier within one of the mortal kingdoms
who was also a great archer, named Yi-Shan, stood forth, saying he could solve the problem if the Jade Emperor would only
grant him a great bow. The Jade Emperor granted his leave for
Yi-Shan to try his hand at solving the problem and with that,
Yi-Shan took aim with his new bow and shot nine of the suns out
of the sky before the Jade Emperor could stop him. The Jade Emperor was greatly displeased with Yi-Shan’s solution, though he
did solve the problem. In his wisdom, the Jade Emperor decided
to grant Yi-Shan a post within the celestial bureaucracy as a
reward, but he also needed to punish the archer. So, the Jade Emperor banished him to become a demon lord in the underworld.
Preparation
To play the Infernal Romance at Moon Temple adventure,
you will need a copy of Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook,
Heroes of the Jade Oath, Core Rule Books II, and III.
After starting service as a demon lord, Yi-Shan remained
pure, though one of the demon goddesses of the underworld,
Chang-Wu, did everything she could to corrupt him. Yi-Shan
merely tolerated her presence and did nothing more to encourage
her affections and advances, but the demon goddess laid claim to
him, proclaiming her love for him and that all should pay heed
to her claim. Yi-Shan continued to protest, though Chang-Wu
would not hear of his distaste for her.
Adventure Background
The players will need to know the story of the moon
goddess and her demon lover; most other folks of the region know it. See player handout #1.
Once, when the celestial court could still be seen from the
mortal kingdom, long before the time of the dramojh and after
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power; Chang-Wu vowed to break him of it. She came to Heng-O
posing in disguise as a friend, and through an elaborate scheme
that used Yi-Shan’s frequent absences while building the palace
for Heng-O to its advantage, she convinced Heng-O that he was
cheating on her with another woman and was merely using her
to gain immortality. He was a mortal demon after all…
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One day, while Yi-Shan was away hunting, Chang-Wu appeared and revealed to Heng-O that it was she that Yi-Shan
truly loved. Just then, Yi-Shan returned from his hunt and, in a
fit of jealousy, Heng-O imprisoned the confused Yi-Shan in the
extra dimensional prison of her shawl and drank the entirety of
the elixir of immortality that was meant for two. Heng-O’s spirit became so pure that she began to ascend to the heavens. Before
she could ascend very far, Chang-Wu tried to take the shawl that
contained the man she wanted to possess from Heng-O and in the
process accidentally revealed her true identity. Heng-O, realizing that she had been deceived and had made a terrible mistake,
began to battle Chang-Wu for the shawl. During the battle, the
shawl was torn to pieces and fell to the earth. Heng-O managed
to defeat Chang-Wu and banish her to the underworld, but not
before she lost all the pieces of her shawl.
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Yi-Shan and Heng-O
Heng-O eventually ascended so high that she came to reside
on the moon where she began to cry. Yi-Shan was now trapped
forever, never to wed Heng-O. Heng-O’s tears began to fall from
the moon in such a torrent that the land was under threat of being flooded under the ocean. In an effort to avoid this fate and
preserve the mortal realm, the Jade Emperor declared Yi-Shan
the Minister of the Sun, thus granting him immortality, and
created an observatory temple dedicated to watching the moon
and stars and used his knowledge of the dragon lines to create
a nexus where a mystical bridge of birds would form a bridge
between the site and the moon. With this, Yi-Shan could temporarily escape his prison and he and Heng-O could be united once
a year during the eighth lunar cycle when the moon was full. This
placated Heng-O and she ceased her crying though a tremendous
tidal wave now threatened to overwhelm the location where the
temple had been built. Using her power over the pull of the tides,
Heng-O, dragon goddess of the moon, froze the ocean in its place
so that her temple would not be destroyed.
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Yi-Shan still sought to prove his worth to the Jade Emperor,
so he began hunting down various rogue spirits and monsters
in the mortal realm. While hunting one evening, he came upon
a beautiful mortal maiden bathing in a waterfall and immediately fell in love with her. He suddenly felt the urge to steal her
clothes that were drying on the rocky shore nearby. Upon taking
her shawl and robes, he declared he would not return them until
she acknowledged his offer of courtship and told him her name.
Though put upon in such an aggressive manner, the beautiful
maiden recognized the demonic looking man she dealt with, and
knowing him for a righteous man, declared her name as Heng-O.
After a protracted courtship, Heng-O fell in love with and
eventually agreed to marry Yi-Shan. He promptly declared that
he would build her a beautiful palace for a home and she decided
to create a potion of immortality for him so that they might live
together forever. Seeing that Yi-Shan was doing good deeds, the
Jade Emperor approved of Yi-Shan’s marriage to his daughter,
and granted him an elixir of immortality for the two lovers to
drink on their wedding day. Meanwhile, Chang-Wu was seething
with jealousy.
However, Yi-Shan could not be freed until all the pieces of the
shawl were carried through all the portals at the Moon Temple
in the correct order. The emperor did this the first time and appointed that task to the mortals living in the valley around the
temple. Now the two celestial lovers could be married. After being reunited, Yi-Shan built Heng-O a palace on the moon and
visits her every year on the eighth lunar cycle during the Spring
Moon Festival. This is the origin of the Spring Moon Festival,
the Moon Temple, and the unusual wall of water that hangs suspended over Langyin.
Chang-Wu felt that she had been jilted by Yi-Shan when he
decided to court Heng-O. She was convinced that he only fell in
love with Heng-O because of a powerful enchantment in HengO’s shawl, which Chang-Wu recognized as a source of Heng-O’s
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darin, DzuDzu, or his bureaucratic advisors, the
local magistrate, Jangmu Nawa, or a patron or
faction that referred their service to the mandarin,
they begin in the offices of the magistrate within
the city of Langyin with Event 1.1.
• If the PCs have come to the city of Langyin on an
investigation independent of the Spring Moon
Festival, such as looking for a missing bride or
searching for pirates, then they can begin at Event
1.2 where the greatest number of citizens, and
thus information, can be found preparing to enjoy
the festivities of the Choosing of the Moon Hunter Tournament.
• If the PCs just came to attend the festival on their
own or at the behest of their school or other patron or benefactor in order to obtain the prestige
of winning the tournament, to win a bride, or to
win the favor of the mandarin, then they begin
at the arena preparing for the dragon-lion dance.
They begin with Event 1.2.
The Arrival
Lore
Characters with Knowledge (history), Knowledge
(local), Knowledge (religion), or Knowledge (planes)
or characters using Diplomacy can learn more about the
adventure background once they are in the city. When
a character makes a successful check, the following lore
is revealed; including the information from lower DCs.
Only ki powers or magic can reveal knowledge with a
Lore DC 31 or higher.
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The hilly city of Langyin is always under the shadow of the
ever present wall of water that is the side of the ocean suspended
above the heads of the populace like a gigantic tidal wave frozen in time. The tidal wave presents a surreal view of the southern coastal city where the ocean is higher in elevation than the
land the city rests upon. The architecture of the city is typical
of many of the southern cities of Xianguo with terraced balconies and wide, circular openings into the residential courtyards
of merchant and artisan class homes made of brick and mortar
with tile roofs. The homes all rest upon all sides of the steeply rising limestone hills of this fertile valley. Dominating the skyline
along with the mystically frozen tidal wave are the wood and
tile Wharf-Towers that rise roughly ten stories from the city
below to the top of the ocean far above the city. Also of prominence in the view of the city is an ancient temple atop one of the
city’s highest and steepest hills, as well as a stone arena at the
middle of the city. Near the arena is an unusually large tavern
that straddles the river running through the middle of the city,
eventually joining with the ocean at the base of the frozen wall of
water between two of the Wharf-Towers. The cool shadow of the
ocean provides a welcome respite from the increasing heat of the
southern climate this time of year, though the heat is not yet too
unpleasant. The smell of the ocean is strong with its bounty, and
the raucous cries of seagulls and street vendors assault the ears.
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Player characters arrive in a most unusual city with a
clearly ancient magic at work in its prosperity and preservation. The PCs arrive in the city to the following view:
• Player characters can be contestants who have
come to participate in the Spring Moon Festival,
or have come to investigate the missing Spirit and
her piece of the Moon Shawl at the request of the
provincial mandarin and his bureaucrats before
the problem is revealed during the festival. They
might have also come looking for a missing bride
that has fled both her home and her arranged marriage, or decided to come to Langyin after they
overheard faen pirates plotting at a wharf-side
tavern in another city.
• How the PCs begin the adventure depends upon
who recruited them and who they are working for
at the start of the adventure:
• If the PCs were recruited by the Stone Monkey
Rebellion or a faction associated with them, then
their faction will have intercepted the missive
sent to request investigators from the government
and they will have insinuated themselves as visiting investigators. They will start at the offices of
the magistrate with Event 1.1.
• If the PCs were recruited by the provincial Man-
DC 10: The port city of Langyin quite literally lies beneath the cool shadow of the side of the sea that is now
like a giant wall of water as the ocean itself was long ago
magically suspended from flooding the area. The city’s
Wharf-Towers rise to the top of the ocean above the city
itself. It is also home to the annual Spring Moon Festival
and its Choosing of the Moon Hunter Ceremony hosted
by the Eastern Celestial Court of the Cerulean Spring.
The ceremony is a most unusual martial arts tournament.
DC 15: The Spring Moon Festival is a minor annual
festival celebrated all across the empire of Xianguo, but
in the city of Langyin, they do it bigger and with more
flair than anywhere else does. It is celebrated with a
Choosing of the Moon Hunter Ceremonial Tournament,
which is a competitive dragon-lion dance. It is then followed up with a ritual courtship and those who win the
favors of the spirit attendants in the festival must race to
the Moon Temple high atop the highest hill in the city.
Winning the favor of the spirit attendants is signaled
by the spirit attendant bestowing a Moon Shawl upon a
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Moonrise over Langyin during the Spring Moon F
estival
is too frequent in the opinion of many other government
officials. However, when he captured one of the maidens
once, he was merciless, and his kangaroo court tried and
executed her without waiting for another night to fall.
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winning dragon dancer. The spirit attendants are notoriously fickle in granting their favor and they only give it
to those with the most outrageous or unique manner of
earning favor. Competition is rife with trickery and romantically embarrassing displays. The Spring Moon Festival is held in the multi-tiered Blue Tavern of the Eight
Tails amidst many banquet tables and floors filled with
celebrants, curtained booths, and gardened balconies.
As elsewhere in the south of the empire, the Stone
Monkey is a problem in this city and just as the vigilante
hero of the people unexpectedly pops up from time to
time in other cities, he also shows up here occasionally.
The city of Langyin is plagued with the mischievous
machinations of one of the Stone Monkey’s most renowned rebel groups. In particular, a band calling themselves the Stone Monkey Maidens are popular folk heroines in the area who defy the government’s policies while
championing the weak who have no voice in the affairs of
their rulers. The conflict between these maidens and the
local mandarin is unusual in that it is somewhat cordial
with the maidens sticking to vigilante actions that keep
the violence to a minimum. This has left the city relatively peaceful for the most part, except for the occasional
problem with faen pirates. Also, the mandarin frequently
affords the Stone Monkey Maidens opportunities to oppose him with public displays of fair play, even being
gracious in defeat when the maidens best him – which
DC 20: This year, it is rumored that the famous faen
pirate, Tiger Eye, and his crew, plan to attend the festival. It is thought that they are willing to risk capture by
government officials if it means being able to steal the
Moon Shawls, which are said to possess mystical powers
over the sea.
After the ritual courtship of winning the favors of the
spirit attendants is resolved, those who win favor must
race to the haunted Temple of the Moon where all five
pieces of the Moon Shawl must be carried through a series of 21 portals.
It is traditional for the provincial mandarin to grant
a political favor to the winning faction every year and
many factions are represented in the contest.
It is widely believed that ever since the Celestial Court
of the August Jade Emperor was sealed away, the city of
Langyin is one of the only places where the indisputable
presence of the divine can still be felt. Most anywhere
else, the gods will not answer the pleas of mortals, but in
that city the moon goddess still protects the inhabitants
by holding back the sea and her demon god lover remains
sealed by her power in the city. Perhaps it has to do with
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Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
the belief that both of them were not with the Celestial ance if they don’t win a race to the Moon Temple and
Court when it was sealed away.
correctly perform a mystical ceremony. Everything culminates in an unusual showdown at the temple. If they
DC 25: It is said that failing to perform the ceremony fail, a dragon goddess of the moon will be spurned at the
correctly in the Moon Temple will cause the sea to fall altar of her temple and she will crush the city of Langyin
upon the city.
under the weight of the ocean for her humiliation, while
It is rumored that there is an evil cult in the city that a powerful, but lovelorn, demon lord just might have
worships the demon, which, according to the old stories been set loose upon the world.
in the origins of the festival, was enchanted with the ancient dragon goddess of the moon. It is believed that they
want to somehow destroy or alter the festival in order
to release their demon-god from the enchantment of the
dragon goddess of the moon.
Recruit the PCs to investigate and resolve the issue of
the missing shawl or the kidnapping of one of the spirit
DC 30: What only the mandarin, the local magis- attendants in the city of Langyin. However, to keep with
trate, a couple of privileged servants, three high-ranking the themes of Arcana Evolved, let the PCs choose the reabureaucrats and advisors involved with the ceremony sons they joined together before placing them in the iniknow, is that one of the moon shawls has gone missing tial encounter (unless they have already done so in a prerecently. The spirit attendant that was to hold it has in- vious adventure). Below is a list of suggestions on which
stead been given a fake until the missing moon shawl can both the GM and the players can agree. This list is by
be found. (The GM may have decided to use this piece no means all-inclusive, and GMs are encouraged to tailor
of knowledge as a hook to get the PCs involved in the these to their unique group of PCs. It is important for the
adventure by bringing them in as investigators.)
adventure that the PCs agree to participate in the tournament and the rest of the events of the Spring Moon
DC 35: The moon shawls are magical. They were all Festival in Langyin. Regardless of their beginnings, the
once part of a larger whole that contained the entirety of PCs shall gain a reward (bounty or boon) of 8,000 gp (or
the soul of the demon god that came to love the dragon 2,000 gp per PC) for the recovery of the missing moon
goddess in the stories that are the foundation of the fes- shawl and, for the capture or death of the party or parties
tival. Each of the moon shawls has a fragment of the an- responsible, they can gain an additional reward of 500 gp
per head taken or captured.
cient demon contained within.
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Adventure Hooks
DC 40: The leader of the Cult of the Lost is actually
an undead creature that is a high priestess of the demon
goddess, Chang-Wu, which came between Heng-O and
Yi-Shan. Furthermore, she secretly believes that she is
the avatar or reincarnation of Chang-Wu.
• The PCs are young and newly appointed agents of
the Empire of Xianguo, Bureau of the Ebon Mirror, Ministry of the Dark Lantern, Celestial Lions or other Wu-lin society, or the Red Queen of
Lan Trangh. (DzuDzu, the Mandarin of Langyin
has heard of your exploits and requested you by
name.)
• Jangmu Nawa, the verrik spirit attendant, recruited them all, either separately or all at once, to secretly investigate the missing moon shawl that no
one else really seems to know is missing. She has
them contact one of the local magistrates, with
whom she has some influence, for further instructions. If this is the starting scenario, she will want
them to participate in the tournament and other
parts of the festival for the sake of their cover. The
PCs will, of course, recognize her when she appears later in the adventure.
• Nami Purva Varman, the mandragoran spirit attendant, recruits the PCs to participate in the
festival and make a show of winning her hand in
marriage through the course of the festival and
then have one of them go through a sham wed-
Adventure Synopsis
The adventure begins when the player characters arrive in Langyin and are quickly enlisted by the local magistrate, the mandarin’s bureaucrats, and their soldiers.
They must become finalists in a martial arts dragon-lion
dance in order to prove their worth as warriors capable
of protecting important artifacts. They are encouraged to
get involved in the romance of the festival and they begin
to discover clues to the missing moon shawl, encounter
strange and compelling witnesses, and meet difficulties
with mysterious martial artists, rebels, pirates, and cultists. The abduction of one of the important participants
in the festival leads to a chase with pirates through the
city all the way to the tower-wharfs. Things get worse
when it is revealed that the fate of the city lies in the bal5
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•
In this act, the PCs begin their participation in the festival in order to facilitate their investigation.
EVENT #1.1: Romantic Recruitment
The PCs meet a local magistrate at the offices of the
magistrates where many different soldiers and minor
bureaucrats can be seen busily at work. The magistrate
will brief them on the situation surrounding the reason
for their presence in Langyin after seeing to their comforts, having tea served, and inquiring after news of their
journey.
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Act I: Choosing Those Who
Hunt the Moon
• The mandarin has requested your assistance here during
the Spring Moon Festival because one of the five moon
shawls, a very rare and precious artifact, is missing.
• We know it was stolen seven nights ago, but we haven’t been
able to uncover who the culprit is.
• Today is the climax of the Spring Moon Festival, which
is composed of a dragon-lion dance combat tournament,
a courtship ritual, a race to the Moon Temple, and the
passing of the moon shawls through the portals within the
temple.
• We suspect that the thief was someone participating in the
festival’s events. Those are the only ones who could have
gained access to knowledge of the whereabouts of the moon
shawls.
• We have crafted a fake and are using that as a substitute,
but the original must be found quickly.
• If all five moon shawls are not presented for the final ceremony, it is said that the dragon goddess of the moon, HengO will express her displeasure with the destruction of this
city under the wave of the ocean you can see outside these
walls. That is the knowledge of the traditions that have
been handed down to us from ancient times.
• We are running out of time and need your help if we are to
recover the moon shawl in time. We need all this to be kept
a secret or panic will set in with the populace and that will
hinder the investigation that could save this city.
• The emperor has commanded the mandarin to recover the
moon shawl at all costs since the city is a major naval and
trade point.
• The mandarin wishes you to become contestants in the festivities so that you will have a cover for the investigation
without raising a commotion regarding whom you are and
why you are asking questions.
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•
ding and relocation to a faraway city with her in
order to mislead those coming after the runaway
bride. She is wealthy from her past adventures
and promises to pay handsomely for their discreet
assistance. (She offers 2,000 gp up front with a
promise of 6,000 gp more if they go through with
it – Naturally, she plans to renege and make another getaway afterwards since she does not really have that much money.)
The PCs actually all attended the same martial
arts school, and wish to prove to all that the martial style of their school is the best. The tournament at the festival is an excellent means to this
end.
The PCs have sworn to serve in the Stone Monkey Rebellion led by the Stone Monkey Maidens
in the city of Langyin. (A visiting noble’s message
reaches you, via a messenger who rides so hard he
kills his horse. The Mandarin of Langyin has sent
for help from the imperial government, and you
will go and take their place.) Use of this hook will
cause a change to their encounter with the Stone
Monkey Maidens later in the adventure.
The PCs all share the same adoptive mother or
come from the same clan, whether by adoption
or by blood, and have been ordered by the clan to
participate in the festival or to simply go and aid
their mother, who is a bureaucrat or craftswoman
involved in the organization of the festival.
The PCs are all members of a rival gang or pirate
crew that intends to disrupt the plans of Tiger
Eye.
The PCs are or were all wards of the same noble.
This noble is now and advising bureaucrat for
the Mandarin of Langyin and is now in potentially big trouble because the missing moon shawl
disappeared under his watch. The PCs are asked
to come in and investigate the matter before his
shame is made public.
The PCs are all part of the same wu-lin society or
secret society, who orders them to win the tournament and race in order to gain the favor of the
Mandarin of Langyin.
The PCs recruited each other. Every PC member
must recommend and have a connection to the
next party member (not the same one) until you
come to the last who has to give a connection to
the first party member. (All the various factions:
The local Mandarin and his advisors, the Stone
Monkey Maidens, the Cultists of the Red Rain,
the Mandrasengali nobles hunting a runaway
bride, and Tiger Eye, attempt to recruit a single
member of the company to help investigate.)
The magistrate immediately gets quiet as a minor bureaucrat walks in with papers for him to sign. He suddenly seems very rushed, and, speaking more loudly than
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Infernal Romance at Moon Temple
Map 1: The Arena
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