A Superb Investigation

Terrance, Fine Branch, and Tahu towered over Cathance as the four of them rose to visit Arnari in the name of gainful occupation.  As they did so, they noticed Yan, one of the team of visiting Freelancers, sitting at a table across the tavern.  Her gaze sharpened as it fell on them, and she waved them over to her table.

Glancing at each other, they wandered over.  Yan was… mostly human, but the slight point in her ears betrayed a possible elf in her ancestry.  She was 5'6", well-endowed, with bronze skin and longish, dark hair.  She was beautiful and dressed the part, showing off her cleavage.

She glanced around the tavern… notably none of her compatriots were there.  "I'll pay you…" she said, "to prank the Academy of Magic."  Fine Branch's ears went flat and his eyes became speculative.  She smiled.  "I," dramatic pause, "went to the University of Magery.  And I'm bored, but I want plausible deniability."

Fine Branch scoffed, "This doesn't sound right; those pranks are needing credit."  He hailed from Zephyr, which has all three mage schools, who constantly prank each other.

Yan replied languorously, "Too bored, don't need credit."  Fine Branch considered her a moment, and then decided she really was bored.  They discussed whether a prank involving organization mascots could be arranged, and compared the University on Sullimany, where Yan was from, with the one on Zephyr.

In the end pranking Garth Nimblefingers didn't sound all that interesting, and they headed up to Arnari, leaving Yan to be bored.

Arnari's tea smelled quite restorative, and she seemed slightly more friendly to Terrance this morning than to the other three Freelancers who trashed her in the Academy of Magic's arena the night before.  But she got down to listing the missions as briskly as ever.

• "Boring" pollution cleanup for the wizard Gwidion: 50gp/person plus 1 uncommon potion each
• House Aldous would like more hippogryph eggs.  100gp/egg – or 120gp if they are for destrier hippogryphs.

"That's how I got Jigsaw!" Cathance burst out happily.  Terrance put on a face.  "Who's Jigsaw?" she asked, and Cathance actually started to answer, before remembering Terrance was one of the Freelancers who'd been on that mission.

• Search Cliffshadow to find Ethan of Daystar cultist fame.  Maybe even get him to the Church of Storms.  They will pay 150gp/person for this.
• The Waypoint Superb is close to Duquesne… maybe 5 or 6 days by airship.  This is a location the Daystar cult's lotion was shipped to.  Transport there and back is paid for, including the 5 days' there and back and whatever time in between.  This mission is slightly clandestine, and also 150gp/person.

Cathance asked carefully, "What do we know about Waypoint Superb, and does the transport include mounts?"

Arnari answered backwards:  "Transport includes mount.  Superb is a small skylith, with weather like Duquesne.  Some farming, but only really for subsistence for the couple dozen staff."

Tahu's eyebrows shot up.  "Only a couple dozen?"  Arnari explained, "That's staff, there are more in the supporting village.  Waypoints usually have supplies, airship repairs, and a place to stay; because of its location, Superb includes transshipment warehouses, so staff and families."

Of course the curious Freelancers chose this mission.  None of them had been to a Waypoint, and Terrance and Cathance had only left Duquesne once, to go to Pembroke.

Arnari picked up some other papers.  "Take passage on the Niekdekort, a mechanical airship which is usually Waypoint supply, but has some passengers.  You'll return on the Salvadorsanchez, a wind elemental airship which will pick you up a few days later."

The Niekdekort was definitely not set up like the smaller airships that hopped between Duquesne and Pembroke.  The upper deck was not one for sightseeing, and the large metal hull was there to transport in bulk.  Two teams of draft pegasus towed it away from the docks until the engines safely rumbled into motion, but by the time it reached the boundary the Freelancers were shooed into their cabins below.  At least the passenger cabins had viewports.  The hull groaned as they crossed the boundary, and then the drone of the engines lulled the Freelancers asleep.

The next day, the Niekdekort started to bounce and sway, as it was buffeted by the winds.  The sound of rain and sometimes hail was loud on the hull, but the crew reassured them this was a common occurrence.

Fine Branch and Cathance played dragonchess, but Tahu and Terrance turned unnatural shades, and spent this time unable to hold anything down, including the bucket they were puking in.  Cathance occasionally used prestidigitation to clean up the mess, and Fine Branch occasionally used thaumaturgy to whisk the porthole open briefly to clear the air.

The weather calmed at the end of the fourth day, much to the relief of Terrance and Tahu, also the wind was still a little brisk, it was safe to emerge on the upperdeck and clear enough to see the dance of the thalassae and skyliths.  A small thalassa was particularly close.  At the end of the fifth day, the Niekdekort arrived at Waypoint Superb.

The airship's trajectory was outward of the little skylith, which seemed to rush up underneath.  Suddenly, the airship, which had seemed previously to be floating in the sky, felt like it was moving very very fast, forward and down.  They caught a glimpse of a tower, its light blinking some sort of cadence, and then they were through the boundary, a team of hippogryphs flying up to meet them as the captain cut the engines.

The wings clanged together as the airship was brought in a flat area not far from a pair of extremely large buildings, beyond which was a small village.  Westward, beyond a bit of grain fields, a large round hill loomed, covered in trees.  Then the Niekdekort was on the ground, and gangplanks extended from the cargo holds.  Suddenly everything seemed very busy, as the airship crew began unloading goods for the nearby warehouse, and the hippogryph team was getting unhooked to go back to the stables.

About this time, it occurred to the Freelancers they should have checked before, if the airship was transporting any of the Daystar lotion.  Fine Branch and Cathance looked quickly, and considered what they had observed while Tahu and Terrance were indisposed, and concluded there was not.

As the Freelancers were considering "Now what," the crew brought out Jigsaw and Nighthawk.  Fine Branch and Cathance decided to find appropriate stabling, and after, room and board; meanwhile, Terrance and Tahu offered to assist the crew with offloading, which would get them views of the warehouse interior.

Cathance and Fine Branch followed the tug team to what looked like the only stables, leading Jigsaw and Nighthawk.  There they found a 7' tall Quinametzin, bald with grey skin, black eyes, and black tattoos.  He gave them a brief appraisal, but he focussed on the two hippogryphs and his eyes lit up as Fine Branch inquired about stabling.

"I'm Ingram," he introduced himself briefly.  "How long?"

Cathance told him, "Until the Salvadorsanchez arrives," as Fine Branch observed that Ingram's skin was chapped from too much riding in the winds.  "What do people do around here, when they lay over like this?" she asked.

Ingram shrugged.  "Not a lot to do.  Ride hippogryph, sit in tavern."  Cathance felt bad for the poor hippogryph who had to carry such a large person.

Fine Branch asked in return, "You got any shit needs doing?"  Ingram said, "Muck out stalls!"  Fine Branch held up his hands, claws fully retracted.  "NO thanks!"  Ingram snorted in amusement and waved his stablehands over.

"3gp each for the food/stable for hippogryphs," he told them.  A Quinametzin stablehand took Nighthawk, and a half-elf took Jigsaw.  "Anytime you are bored and want to fly, just come," Ingram gestured vaguely at the stablehands, then pointed at the tack room, "You can saddle 'em yourself.  When you're done, bring 'em back and put in the stalls."

Tahu and Terrance watched the airship crew and warehouse staff unloading the cargo for a brief while, then offered to help.  The warehouse manager, Nieri, was a no-nonsense Maker gnome, and demurred until Tahu offered to levitate stuff.

"How much can you levitate?" she asked.  Tahu replied, "500 lbs… one way only though."  Nieri's attitude immediately changed.  "This will save us so much time!"  She started organizing a pallet for him to levitate.

Terrance, meanwhile, put her height to good use, and carried the long packages.  The warehouse was the farther of the large buildings, and they walked past a large mechanic shop to get to it.

Once in the warehouse, both Freelancers tried to suss out information.  Tahu tried to figure out the goods layout and/or locate the ledgers recording cargo transfers.  He achieved neither goal, but did see where the office was.  Its door was closed.  Terrance looked for constructs working in the warehouse, and also saw none.  She did notice, as they trundled past the mechanic shop, a mechanical otter following a half-orc.  Someone called out "Ambrosia," and it wasn't obvious if that was the otter or the half-orc.

They finished and got directions to the inn at the same time Cathance and Fine Branch arrived.  It was a broad building with upper floors, but the entire ground floor was the tavern and kitchens.  The entire place was operated by a pair of Pewter dragonborn, Jack and Cybelle.  Jack ran the tavern, and Cybelle was the innkeeper.  Upon hearing their situation, Cybelle set the Freelancers up in two rooms for three nights, for 2gp/night per person.  Breakfast & dinner were included.

Cathance looked around the mostly empty tavern; some of the airship crew were in a corner.  "What do people do, when they layover like this?" she asked.  Cybelle smiled.  "Oh, people amuse themselves.  There's the woods, hobbies, books, the tavern…" she looked at the tavern.  "People here are working, right now.  The tavern is most energetic in the first 4 hours after nightfall," she assured them.

It all had a very small-town vibe.  "Do people get up early?" Terrance asked a little sadly.  "The stable hands do," Cybelle told her.  Then they headed up to their rooms; Terrance and Tahu took one room, Cathance and Fine Branch took the other.  On the way there, Tahu mentioned what he'd observed in the warehouse.

Once settled in, Fine Branch and Cathance went to the other room.  Fine Branch felt they could use locate object on the Daystar lotion, while everyone was in the tavern.  He didn't know Tahu had mentioned to Terrance that the two of them might want to try breaking into the warehouse office.

They headed to the tavern for dinner, and as Cybelle predicted, it got extremely busy right after dinner.  Around 2 hours after nightfall on Waypoint Superb, the Freelancers slipped out into the quiet town.

Almost the entire town was in range of locate object.  Fine Branch went to almost the center of town, making sure the entire warehouse was in range, and cast the spell.  He got a ping from the back corner of the warehouse.  Nobody saw or paid attention to them.

They went on a walkabout around the warehouse, and discovered a door in the back, not really close to the ping, but maybe 20' away.  They kept walking, and then all stealthed back to the door.  Terrance pulled out some lockpicks and opened it as if it hadn't been locked in the first place.  They slipped in, shut the door, and then brought up some light.

Now they were looking around the warehouse without having to be surreptitious about it, the layout was a bit more obvious.  Airship resupplies were near the front, and the transshipments were in the back.  Cathance was very concerned at their actions and how it would appear, and looked around for people; she saw none.  Terrance looked for traps and alarms, and saw none of those either.

Walking to the back of the warehouse, the Freelancers easily found the crates of Daystar lotion.  There were about half as many as they knew typically shipped out of Cliffshadow.  Unsure what to do, they looked at the nearby shelves for anything interesting.  All the shelves were labelled, but it was clearly that location on the shelf with the label, not the items.

Looking back at the three crates, they found one had been unsealed, so they looked inside.  It was half full of pamphlets extolling the virtues of the Daystar, and exhorting the reader to expose as much as they could to it (and apply the lotion liberally so they could spend more time growing closer to the Daystar).

Terrance asked plaintively, "Do we want to go check out the office now?"  The others said, "Sure," but Cathance hesitated, "Do we want to ask [about this instead]?"  Terrance said, "Nah," and they went over to the office.  It was locked.

Terrance picked this lock as well, although it was not as easy for her as the prior lock.  No alarm went off, so they slipped in and shut the door behind them.  The office had piles of ledgers.  Some dealt with inbound cargo, some outbound.  Terrance and Fine Branch started flipping through the inbound, and Tahu and Cathance looked at outbound.  Tahu was clearly lost at the recordkeeping system.

After some time poring over the ledgers, the Freelancers determined they'd received 6 crates, and the arrival had no special annotations, just "lotion."  2 of the crates were sent on to Waypoint Alarm, a routine forwarding not requiring a signoff.  Since there were only 3 crates on the shelves, that meant one was unaccounted for.

Fine Branch was obsessing on trying to find the missing crate using locate object.  He went back to the crates in the warehouse, and started scoring them with his daggar, so that maybe he could locate object on the unscored crate.  Cathance felt they'd learned all they could, and had little patience for this.  "Can we leave?" she asked crossly.

Fine Branch then thought maybe if he emptied the crates on the shelves and run locate object on a crate with lotion inside it.  Cathance was horrified at the idea of breaking the seal.  But a discussion ensued, as the distance from the warehouse shelf to where Fine Branch was when he cast locate object in the first place was about the limit of the spell.  What was left outside of the radius?  Would it be worth it?   Really just a few houses and farms.

They decided to leave, and doused the light before exiting, with Terrance locking the warehouse door behind them.  Then the four Freelancers returned to the tavern as if nothing happened.

The tavern was less full than it had been, but clearly had its "regulars" sitting at tables, enjoying their beers.  Cathance decided this was not a good time for dragonchess, and challenged Tahu to a game of darts.  Tahu's laugh drew some brief glances.  Cathance was not concerned.

Tahu dropped his darts in a neat triangle in the bullseye, but to her horror, Cathance… critfailed entirely.  One dart struck the wall 2' below the dart board.  The next dart landed in a nearby drink.  The last dart managed to flip out of her hand backwards, and landed in the shoulder of a tanned male human, who did not appreciate this occurrence at all.  His drinking companions were a Rocklit dwarf and an amused half-elf.

Cathance promptly hid behind Tahu.

"What in the clouds is going on here?!" he roared.  Tahu unceremoniously hauled Cathance out from behind his legs.  "We'll keep the darts away from this one," he said mildly, ignoring her bandolier of darts.  "Can we buy you a drink?"

The human pulled the dart out of his shoulder and sank it into the board.  Cathance's gaze sharpened as she realized his tan was unnatural.  "Beer is good!" he said, "Jack brews his own!"  They ended up sitting at the same table, splitting a couple pitchers; the beer was good.  Cathance mentioned how she missed the home-brewed ciders from Haven, and the dwarf waxed on about missing Pembroke, and his own home brews.

All three of them were unnaturally tan.  Nobody else was.  Cathance, kicking her feet on the too-large chair, kicked Fine Branch.  Fine Branch used his daggar to double-score a ball bearing, and dropped it in the half-elf's pocket.

But by then the tavern was emptying out, so they withdrew to their rooms to sleep.

The Daystar had barely crested the eastern edge of the little skylith when Fine Branch arose and donned his gear, then woke up the other Freelancers.  At his urging, they all trooped over to the warehouse again, to discover nobody was there.

Given Cybelle's words the day before, the only Freelancer surprised by this discovery was Fine Branch, and Cathance said, crossly, "Breakfast."  Terrance and Tahu agreed and the three of them headed back to the tavern.

Fine Branch cast locate object on the double-scored ball bearing, and found it was heading towards the wood.  He went to the stables and saddled up Nighthawk for an early morning flight.  He easily found their three drinking companions, plus a fourth, heading westward.

Fine Branch and Nighthawk were having a lot of fun flying around – the time in the cargo ship hadn't been fun for the hippogryph either – and Fine Branch found, about a mile into the wood, that he's lost where the four went.  Fine Branch cast locate object again, and found they'd gone into a clearing.

Leaving Nighthawk behind, Fine Branch stealthed up to the clearing, and saw the four people showing themselves to the Daystar, not a pretty sight so early in the morning.  The fourth person, a female human, he recognized as one of the tavern waitstaff from the night before.

Next to them was some of the Daystar lotion, and he concluded, This is where the missing crate went.  He left them alone, and crept back to Nighthawk, then flew back to the stable.  After seeing to Nighthawk's care, he returned to the tavern.

Cathance was very much enjoying her breakfast when Fine Branch walked in.  Across the table, pretty much only playing with their delicious food, Terrance and Tahu were barely awake.

Fine Branch announced, "The people are in an east-facing meadow, sunburning their assholes."  Cathance spit.  "I'm trying to eat breakfast!!!" she exclaimed, offended.

Tahu lifted up his head.  "Do we want to confront?"  Fine Branch assured him, "I've seen quite enough."  Tahu thought about it, coming more awake.  "I wonder how long it would last," he mused, "it" being the supply of lotion.

The conversation turned into an altogether improper discussion of the appropriate amount and use of the Daystar lotion.  But in the end Fine Branch and Cathance concluded these four were not proselytizing, just using it themselves.  "We should let them be," she decided distastefully.  After all, the entire affair was a blasphemy.  She touched the tortoise figurine on her throat.

Terrance asked, "Do we think they know where it's going?"  Cathance replied, "No… they are siphoning it off.  And we are not equipped to deprogram them."

Fine Branch went to get his own breakfast.  He deserved it, after so much successful early morning investigation.

The Freelancers spent the next day learning tidbits about Waypoint Superb.  Jack's beer was well-known for being good; one of the farms raised hogs, so the waypoint had excellent bacon.

Cathance asked around, and learned where to gather herbs in the wood, so took Jigsaw there to see what different herbs could be had, and gather them to identify and practice her herbalism kit.

That evening, they found out the tavern waitstaff person Fine Branch had seen worshipping the Daystar earlier was named Huila Azahar.  The half-elf, Randwulf Greystinger, was not there; the gossip was that Nieri had discovered the open office door and blamed him for not locking up properly.  As a punishment, he was tasked with crosschecking the warehouse inventory.  His compatriots, the human Dorcan Bullrazor and Achaios, the Rocklit dwarf, were just as happy he had that task, but did not say why.

A couple airships stopped by each day, dropping off cargo and picking up different cargo.  The crews gossiped in the tavern about pirates patrolling the skyways between Pembroke and Kizil, but none of them had seen such.

On the fourth day, the Salvadorsanchez stopped at Waypoint Superb, and the Freelancers boarded it to head back to Cliffshadow.  The trip back was uneventful.  Probably the captain of the ship felt no need to follow in the wake of a thalassa, since the wind elemental driving the airship wouldn't want to get wet; and certainly it would have no problems with wind.

Back in Cliffshadow, the Freelancers stopped by the Temple to talk to Adrian Bryant of the Church of Storms.  His grey robe flashed occasionally as the lightning patterns woven into it reflected the light just so.  They told him there were four persons at the waypoint who had fallen into Daystar worship, and two crates had shipped to Waypoint Alarm.  They noted half the lotion was still on Waypoint Superb.

Fine Branch gathered as much officiousness as he could about himself.  "Without due process of law..." he intoned, implying that confiscating the lotion was out of the question.

The Cleric of The Cat and the Priest of Whatitiri stared at each other, the former somewhat impudently.  Cathance looked up at them both, thinking, of course not.  But their gods had about as much regard for the law as the Hare.  Or was it the other way around?

Finally, Adrian said simply, "There are exceptions, for mind control lotion."  Beyond that, he let it go, and paid the Freelancers their fee of 150gp each.