Jamie's Halfling Friend

Arnari looked the three Freelancers over; Kaikoa and Dryali were lounging in the chairs, Quelenna sitting more attentively, each of them sitting away from the others.  Dryali had definitely been paying attention to his gear; and from the styling, he was starting to miss Stormview.  They had not worked as a team before, but she figured they could handle Niastacia's minions.

"There's two tracking missions," she told them.  "Find the halfling man in Stormhaven, who freed Jamie; and find Jamie's boss in Hindmarsh, whoever it is."  She sighed, and looked at the report of the most recent mission.  "So, there's this pollution…" she stopped.

Quelenna asked, "What happened, after we found Ethan?"  Kaikoa sat up, interested.

Arnari told them, "Church of Storms is watching, and planning an assault."  She looked at the report again, and resumed her train of thought, "There's been a bunch of pollution.  Finding more might be a challenge."

She looked at another paper, then said, "The fourth is this farming hamlet having trouble ploughing fields.  I'm not sure anymore what is going on, you would need to check with Mayor Willowsteel of Cliffgate."

Kaikoa asked, "Which one pays best?"

Arnari compressed her lips, then said, "Hard to say, because of the travel time:"

• Stormhaven → 150gp/each
• Hindmarsh →  200gp/each, but it's far
• Pollution → 50gp + 1 uncommon potion each
• Farming hamlet → 100gp/each, but relatively close

Kaikoa's eyes narrowed but his tone was easy, "Does the farming hamlet have a brewery?  ...these places always do."  Arnari smiled, and told him, "They do.  They might have a distillery."  Kaikoa smiled back.

Quelenna had no patience for this.  "What about Jamie?" she asked.  She's been hearing them talk about him, but did not really know much about him or why some Freelancers cared.

"Jamie had been putting… obscene ...graffiti, around Cliffshadow, and also disrupting the Pilot's Guild stables," Arnari explained.  "After we tracked down and captured him, we turned him over to Bryseis Seere, Captain of the Skyguard outpost.  He was then broken out, and fire was set to the outpost.  That is when this halfling man was spotted.  Later, we found out a halfling man had hired these Blue Bandanna people to beat up Freelancers, and also a halfling man in Stormhaven was trailing Freelancers there for reasons unknown."

Quelenna digested this information, then asked, "What is our objective?"

Arnari said, "So… this has no Freelancers Cut."  Dryali sat up at that.  "Find him, do some investigation."

Dryali was not particularly threatened by any halflings he'd encountered on Duquesne.

Dryali: do you want us to capture him, then?
Arnari: yes.
Dryali: how about in parts?
Arnari: hard to question him, then
Kaikoa: that's no fun
Arnari: he can be turned into the Skyguard outpost at Stormhaven
Quelenna: what is your preference?
Arnari: we're not equipped here, to detain and question

Dryali turned to Kaikoa.  "This sounds more lucrative," he said, referring back to Kaikoa's original question.  Kaikoa was dubious. "I dunno… the farming hamlet might be more relaxing, with free flowing beer."

They talked about it, but in the end Quelenna and Dryali wanted to go after the halfling.  "I will buy you a beer!" Quelenna told Kaikoa.

"What do we know about this halfling man?" Quelenna asked.

Arnari described him: "He's a Mikumwes halfling: 3'3", bronzed skin, blond hair, hazel eyes.  He is wearing studded leather, and armed with many obvious daggers, and a rapier."  They all thought of Cathance, and also about how a rapier sized for such a person would be a good shish-ka-bob skewer.

"What is this organization?" Kaikoa asked.  He'd not paid much attention to Jamie since they captured him.  "He is working for the pirate ship Osprey," Arnari told him, and Kaikoa's face changed.  "I know about the Osprey," he said.  "Cap'n Starbreeze is kind of ruthless," he added.

Arnari lifted an eyebrow at him, and went on, "Jamie is not in charge; his boss is in Hindmarsh, and he is working with two other people to disrupt the Skyguard or the port, we think.  One is the halfling man in Stormhaven.  As far as we can tell, Jamie is not in Cliffshadow, and the third person is in Hindmarsh."

She added, "The person in Hindmarsh is coordinating."

Dryali proposed, "Suggest we go check for interference in the shipyards."  He rose, "But, we have a source to ask right here!"  He let himself out, and went downstairs.  After a moment, Quelenna followed him.

In the front of the tavern, nursing a beer, was the angry lady Leticia, who led the Blue Bandanna gang.  Dryali sat at her table, taking the posture of talking to her about work.  She looked at him, scowling, until he spun a platinum coin on the table.

"So, we are going to find him," Dryali said quietly.  She looked at him intently.  "What can you tell me?"  Leticia said, "A halfling, early 20's.  He didn't seem so strong, but did seem sneaky."

"Did he give you a name?" Dryali asked, as Quelenna came up and stood behind him.  "No, no way to contact him," Leticia said bitterly.  "He will only contact us if he hears of Freelancers getting beat up."

She scowled.  "Beginning to think he's hung us out to dry," she added, and Dryali nodded.  "Beginning to think," she repeated.

Quelenna said, "Not surprised," and Leticia spared a scathing look at the Child of Āhua.  "Screw you too, hippie," she said unkindly.

Quelenna opened her mouth, but Dryali cut in.  "How much was he gonna pay you?" he asked.  Leticia told him, "300 gold."  Dryali snorted.  "We'll let you know if he actually had it."  He and Quelenna went back into the Freelancers area.  Behind them, Leticia snatched the spinning platinum piece.

Kaikoa had just come downstairs, and told them the Skyguard captain in Stormhaven was a male half-elf named Salvemni.  It was plain from Kaikoa's attitude, he was unhappy to be interacting with Skyguard at all.

Unsure what they would encounter, and with Dryali and Quelenna travelling on foot, Kaikoa also wanted to get a cart for travelling.  Thus prepared, they took off for Stormhaven.

The trip to Haven was uneventful, although the roads were full of travellers who were clearly trying to arrive soon.  It took the Freelancers 2 days to get to Cliffgate, with the bulk of the traffic heading in the other direction, and they stayed at The Sleepy Dog Inn, which cost 5sp/person + 16sp to stable Mordant and the mule, even though they only got one room.

The road to Haven had heavy Cliffshadow-bound traffic for the first day, but that petered out the second day.  They passed occasional groups of halflings travelling towards Haven as they went.  Then they arrived, and got rooms at The Local Flavour.  It was the eve of the New Year, and they agreed with Jocelyn, the innkeeper, to say the next two nights.  This also cost, per night, 5sp/person + 16sp to stable Mordant and the mule, and they only got one room.

A couple carts rumbled in from Hindmarsh, Stormhaven-bound, but it was clear they had some herbs and other harvestings from the marsh set aside for the upcoming holiday.

The next day was New Years!  While many dedicated it to Toka or Moana, it was officially the Holiday of The Cat, and the staid folks of Haven took that designation seriously, with games and pranks and hide-and-seek.  Realizing that the halfling man for whom they were looking would have had to visit Haven from time to time, and perhaps was from there, the Freelancers partied with the halflings, and kept their eyes open for one who was blonder and better armed than usual.

Kaikoa looked around for shadier halflings, and found what he was looking for; a group that had an "in" to whatever that cart had brought, as well as some local substances.  He had a great time sharing with them, but nobody seemed to know the halfling of interest.

Quelenna went with a different set of halflings, some local and some visiting at The Local Flavor, all of whom were playing more physical games that involved agility and hiding.  She managed to bring the conversation around to the person she sought, and learned from them that actually, a person with that description did occasionally stay at the inn.  He flew in on a golden eagle gryphon.  No, he's not there now.

Dryali stayed mostly in the tavern, talking with others.  With very little disingenuity he talked up his excitement about going to Stormhaven, and visiting the Great Workshop of Eternal Refinements there.  He was trying to entice people with friends and relatives there to volunteer anything useful, but failed.  He did imbibe a large amount of excellent wine and cider, though.

The next morning, Dryali emerged from his trance wondering who installed the forge in his head, it was pounding so badly.  Kaikoa spent some time in the privy dealing with how woozy he felt.  Quelenna felt fine, and wondered just how her two compatriots forgot to drink enough water.

Dryali put up with the pounding for about as long as it took to pack up; then he cast protection from poison on himself, banishing the pounding hammer.

Dryali had to pick up another 5 days' rations, for 25sp, so by the time they were able to leave, other travellers had already resumed their travels.  Since Jocelyn wasn't excessively busy, Quelenna asked him about the halfling man.  Jocelyn said, "Oh yes, he seemed nice, but hasn't been through here recently.  Very charming, very polite."  Dryali asked if he was fine letting Dryali have a look at the register, to see when he'd been through.

Jocelyn showed him, and they flipped back through the register.  The Local Flavour did a lot of business!   "There, that's him," Jocelyn pointed to an entry:  Green Mais-Quand.

Dryali suddenly embarked on a crash course on how exactly Arnari kept her pleasantly neutral expression.

Flipping back through the book, Dryali noticed the visits were less often, now, and had dropped off right around the Celebration of Apastron, not long after Jamie escaped from the Skyguard.  But he thanked Jocelyn, and the Freelancers were on their way towards the southern edge of the skylith.

They were about 10 minutes outside of Haven when Dryali exploded in rage.  "Mais-Quand?!  Mais-Quand!!  So it is obviously a fake name!!  Jamie – !!!  Tuala will be Pissed!!!"  It took some time before Quelenna and Kaikoa were able to understand from Dryali that he and Tuala had researched Jamie in Cliffshadow and discovered his name on city records was Jamie Mais-Quand, which had led them to conclude he was from another skylith, perhaps isolated from primary trade.

It wasn't until they were camping for the night that he realized the name itself is a clue.  Clue to what, he wasn't sure.

They pulled into Stormhaven mid-afternoon the next day.  Despite having been warned, the sparse, low buildings surprised Kaikoa and Quelenna.  They got to The Safe Harbour, which was really a small office and a long, low stable.  Kaikoa and Dryali checked it, and saw several golden eagle gryphons with halfling-sized tack.  So, that's not something terribly unusual.

Leaving Mordant to guard the cart, the Freelancers went into the taproom, which was below ground, but before they did, Kaikoa told the others, "If we see him, we tell him we're from the Blue Bandanna gang, and it's time to pay up."  Once in the taproom, they saw a couple different halflings, scattered amongst patrons of a variety of peoples.  Dryali saw a particularly well-armed one in a dark corner, the others called "Green".  He pointed the fellow out to Kaikoa and Quelenna, and went to secure rooms for them, while the others stayed in the taproom to get a table, food, and beer.

Dryali got separate rooms for each of them and stabling for Mordant and the mule, then once in his room, cast disguise self so he would look like a Wild elf vaguely related to Quelenna.  The spell also hid his goggles.  Then he rejoined the others, who at first reacted poorly, until they realized it was Dryali.

Green was just sitting there drinking ale, until some music started up.  Then, various people kept coming up and talking to him.  All of these conversations were 5 minutes or shorter.  Dryali occasionally noted coins getting exchanged; but it was not always the halfling getting paid, or paying the other.  Nothing stood out about the people, and because of the music, none of the Freelancers could hear the conversation.

After a while, the conversations stopped, and the halfling got up and headed towards the taproom exits that led into Stormhaven Underground. 

Kaikoa growled to the others, "That's our cue."  The Freelancers finished their food and beer;  in as non obvious a way as they could.

They followed him a short way through the tunnels, and then Kaikoa said, "Hey!  You owe my friend a drink?  You bumped into him on the way out!"

Green turned and said, "A drink?  I don't think so, I didn't bump into anyone."  He glanced at Quelenna, and slightly longer at Dryali, then looked back at Kaikoa.

"Leticia would disagree with that," Kaikoa namedropped, closing the distance.  Quelenna moved to flank Green, but the latter realized it in time to back off.

"I haven't heard of Leticia bothering or even succeeding beating up any of those stupid Freelancers," Green smirked.  "You heard wrong, then" Kaikoa replied belligerently.

Green was not taken in by this statement.  "Leticia has taken far too long to beat up any Freelancers, let alone a specific set," he declared, to the Freelancers' surprise.

"A specific set?!" Quelenna exclaimed, "She never said anything about that!"  She missed Kaikoa's side-eye.

Green sneered, "She probably wasn't paying attention.  She's not the most intelligent person," he course corrected then, "But she should have known."

Kaikoa became magnanimous.  "Why don't you give us half, and we'll let you go."  Green didn't quite laugh.  "No word of broken bones, or even knees!"

Quelenna was still reacting as if this was a conversation. "How would you know?  You're not there!"  Green scoffed, "I have my ways."

Green glanced around at the broad tunnel.  It was well-illuminated here, the continual flame lanterns at regular intervals.  There was some foot traffic, but their conversation had drawn little attention.  "Perhaps, if you can give better instructions to Leticia, this can work better," he suggested, "But let's not discuss this here."  He gestured to a poorly-lit side cavern.

It was not poorly lit to Dryali.  The cavern was 10-15' tall, with a couple doors along the side; it went 30' back, then had a dog-leg to the left.  An alley, as inhabitants of underground cities (such as Dryali) would describe it.  As Dryali was looking, Green walked into the alley and around that corner.

Kaikoa and Quelenna walked in after him.  Dryali stayed back, out of Green's line of sight, and created a force ballista.  He looked up to see Kaikia gesturing, and then Green exclaiming, offended, "Hey!  Put me down!  We're just going to have a talk!"  After a second, "Why are you starting shit?"

Quelenna crossed her arms.  "We just want to make sure we're having the talk."  Dryali came around the corner, to see Green floating in the air; Kaikoa had cast levitate on him.  "Leticia was trusting you, man," he said, trying his best to sound like he was from Cliffshadow, or at least from Mantzur like Quelenna.  From the slight frown on Green's face, he had failed.  Dryali loosened his arcane firearm, ready to shoot a firebolt if the little fellow ran away.

Kaikoa hobbled up to the levitated halfling, and peered down the alley to the left, then told Green pleasantly, "It's time for you to start answering some questions."  Green sighed, then grinned, obviously not intimidated at all.  "I thought you wanted to talk, not threatening me!"

Quelenna said reasonably, "Clearly she thinks she has done something; seems you aren't in agreement in the terms of your deal."  Dryali, well aware of the limitations of his accent, simply stepped forward 5' and crossed his arms, arcane firearm tucked in between.

Kaikoa growled, "Anyone have rope?  Let's tie this guy up!"  Dryali said quickly, "I have rope," but before he could act on that statement, Kaikoa drew his longsword and swung at the floating halfling.

Green twisted out of the way, saying, "That's not very nice!"  His tone changed, "If Leticia is who you report to, kindly tell her to fuck off and do something useful, for once."  Then his daggar was in his hand, and he struck out, stabbing Kaikoa, who had not been expecting such a move.

Then Green said, "Get'em!"  Four henchmen rose up from hiding:  two halflings, a human, and a half-elf.  A halfling and the human attacked Kaikoa and missed.  The other halfling threw a daggar at Kaikoa and hit him.  Around the corner where Dryali could not see, the half-elf swung and missed Quelenna.

Quelenna swung and missed the half-elf, but followed up with a flurry of blows, punching them soundly.  Dryali said, not bothering to hide his voice, "I assure you, Leticia knows we are here," but both his firebolt and the force ballista missed Green.

Kaikoa attacked Green twice, the halfling avoiding the blows both times.  He drew on fighter's second wind to reduce his injuries from the daggar strikes.

Green looked at Dryali and said, "Tell Leticia to fuck off, or: tell me who you actually work for."  After a moment of glares, he then said, "Au revoir!"  He disengaged, broke out of the levitate, and took off.

His four henchmen also took off, as the surprised Quelenna lost her composure, yelling, "What the fuck?!"

They all ran with the insane speed of rogues.  The Freelancers hesitated; Quelenna could keep up, but Kaikoa could not.  Dryali realized, from the conversation, they were targeting the Jaime capture team, and was glad of his disguise self.

Kaikoa spit on the ground.  "Stupid rogues!  Always running away!"  He put up his sword.  Dryali came up to him and clasped his shoulder, casting cure wounds.

Dryali told the others what he thought about the targeting, and Quelenna asked, "Did you check into The Safe Harbour with your own name, Dryali?"  His face said it all.  Kaikoa said, "Time to check out!"

They changed inns to The Gallant Gryphon, with Quelenna securing the rooms and stabling this time.  Presumably, she used a fake name.

The next morning, Kaikoa wanted to return to Cliffshadow; he did not like the idea of being targeted by five rogues in a strange city when they'd actually found the halfling man and his alias.  Dryali argued for doing some investigation, to discover the purpose of all those conversations in The Safe Harbour taproom.  Kaikoa reluctantly agreed, but then, he said, they should depart.

Kaikoa went to the Harbourmaster's office, which had nice views.  The Harbourmaster, a Cloud elf artificer named Khellus, seemed fine; but while he was there, Kaikoa noticed that one of the clerks in the office had stopped by Green's table the day before.

Dryali went to two shipyards, to see if any sabotage was taking place.  First he went to Shipmonger, which was run by Eleonora Peleonor and known for building mechanical airships.  He then visited Dhoti's Ship Repair.  He confirmed there had been no sabotage (although with Dhoti's sloppy work, that was hard to say for sure); but he saw someone he recognized as getting paid by Green in the taproom, inspecting the schedules carefully.

Quelenna, unused to underground cities, got lost; but eventually found her way back to The Gallant Gryphon.

On his way back to the inn, Dryali cast disguise self, and paid a visit to the Great Workshop of Eternal Refinements, asking if he could speak with the guild master privately.  After alternating with fast talking and emphatic insistence, he saw Master Gilthur, a Rocklit dwarf, in his office.  Dryali dropped the disguise self, and explained to a far more receptive Gilthur that Freelancers had been working with Skyguard to track vandals perhaps working for Niastacia of the pirate ship Osprey (at this, the Master's eyes widened) and from what they've found on their incomplete investigation, they think there might be some effort to sabotage airships coming out of Stormhaven.  Gilthur thanked him for this information, and said the Workshop was good, but he'd keep his eyes and ears open for word out of the shipbuilders.  At that, Dryali took his leave, but not before resuming his disguise self.

Shortly afterwards, the Freelancers were rumbling north on the road to Haven.  They had started late, but made up the time on the way to Haven easily enough.

While in Haven they picked up a couple kegs of cider for 50gp, because might as well put the cart to good use!  They made it back to Cliffshadow without incident, and the barkeep at Freelancers Tavern was more than happy to buy a couple of kegs of cider from Haven for 70gp.

Leticia was sitting in the front, drinking a beer.  Dryali sat down at her table again, Quelenna and Kaikoa looming over him.  "So, you were targeting some of us.  Me, especially?"  She looked at him, eyes narrowed, and said, "O yah, we were supposed to target the short Dark elf, the firbolg, a dwarf paladin, a Black dragonborn, a tall Wind sagani."

Dryali propped his chin in his hand, staring at her.  Kaikoa said, "He might not like you as much, anymore."

Leticia got even angrier than she normally was.  "I figured this!" she exclaimed.  "O well, your beer sucks, anyway!"  She flipped them off, then stood up and left the tavern.

The three Freelancers looked at each other, then headed up to Arnari's office, and told her the tale.  Arnari, amazed, said, "I'm interested in the 'Mais-Quand' thing because it is not usual.  Is this random?  Is it a code?"

Kaikoa suggested, "Maybe it can help figure out their past actions."  Arnari thought about it.  "Maybe," she said, and got out the strongbox.  Since he was not captured, and the information gathered was sparse, they only got 100gp each, but there was no Freelancers Cut.