Assault on the Cliffshadow Church of Storms

Glesni, Sabah, Minji, and Murai had returned to Freelancers the prior evening, having travelled back from Three Rivers along the main road.  They'd had enough energy to get settled, eat, and brief Arnari on their trip (which was mostly uneventful, beyond spending Harvest Festival in Ophelia).  Arnari, Ondar, and Nix filled them in with their findings from talking to the Mayor.

"Watch out for this Natali person," Nix had said, "Natali seduced him into necromancy.  Apparently she knew Kaiea in the past, and they 'drifted apart'."  Ondar'd made scare quotes with his fingers as Nix said that.  Arnari had added, "The Mayor was not happy to hear she was still at large."

This fine morning, Glesni saw Nix was at a table with Kaelani, Osric, and Kaikoa, who of course was drinking breakfast grog.  Glesni grabbed a bowl of oatmeal, dumped some brown sugar on it, and joined their table.  Osric was eating pumpkin pancakes, and Kaelani was eating a hearty meal of potatoes, broccoli, chese, and sour cream.

Nix was eating nothing, but relaying the info on Natali to the others, Osric and Kaelani nodding as she talked.  As she was talking, Ondar and Nohea entered the tavern together, both sporting a rather glowing complexion.  They grabbed breakfast and Nohea went to Arnari's table, Ondar to Nix's.  Glesni got up and got some bacon, then returned to the table, and to gossipping about Kaiea.

It was all very relaxed.

Suddenly, Arnari sat straight up, her eyes unfocussed.  They widened, and everyone heard, "We are on our way, just hold on!"  Everyone paused, eyes on the normally unflappable Arnari, curious.

She rose, and pointed to Ondar's table.  "Head to the stables, and go to Church of Storms," she ordered, "They are under attack."  Everyone rose, although Glesni, Osric, and Kaelani did not have mounts.  As they walked to the stables, Arnari was saying, "Tomtom, stay here in case it is a two-pronged attack."  She moved after the other Freelancers to the stables.

"Apparently, the Storm Guard has been suborned," she told them, "so we are to land in the back; the Typhoon is under attack."

As Kaikoa, Nix, Ondar, and Arnari prepared their mounts, they decided the best way to transport the others was Glesni pillion on Mordant, and Kaelani, with his plate armour, rode with Ondar on Frostclaw.

Osric wild shaped a chipmunk, and rode with Arnari on her colourful gryphon, Peacock.  Kaikoa shook his head at Osric.  "Ah, suckin' up to the boss, huh?" he teased, and Chipmunk Osric squeaked in reply.

The Church of Storms was at the western end of Sparrowhawk Street, and it did not take the mounts long to fly there at full speed.

Arnari:  Adrian Bryant sent the message.  Land behind in the giant back courtyard.  Behind!
Glesni:  do we know he's not suborned?
Arnari:  that's why we left Tomtom
Ondar:  problem either way
Glesni:  just don't want to land in a killing field.

Peacock and Snowbolt (Nix's pegasus) were in front, with Mordant and Frostclaw in back, as they approached the Church of Storms and circled around back.  Glesni nocked an arrow as they looked at the melee below.  Storm Guard flickered in and out, centered around something, and it was very difficult to tell who was fighting whom.

Nix and Arnari could see the something was the Typhoon, Waiola Vaina, a Wind sagani with dark skin and very big hair, looking the worse for wear.  Half the Storm Guard were trying to attack her; the other half trying to defend, but with non-lethal force.

Off to the side of the melee was Adrian Bryant, in grey robes shot with gold and silver lightning bolts, rent by a greatsword and stained with blood.  He saw the Freelancers circling and looked up with pure relief.

Glesni's eyes narrowed as she tried to determine if he was suborned.  Before she came to a conclusion, Arnari landed next to him, and Glesni dismounted in mid-air, using her Winged Boots to stay aloft.  Kaikoa had Mordant land next to Arnari, and dismounted.  He instructed Mordant, with appropriate gestures, "Go to the roof, and if anyone attacks Arnari, pick them up and drop them."  Mordant flew up, going into Guard mode.

Ondar landed enough for Kaelani to dismount, then flew to Adrian, 10' up.  Nix stayed aloft, at 20'.  Osric hopped off Arnari's shoulder and dropped the wild shape.

Adrian said to Arnari, "So glad you're here.  I think it's some sort of spell.  I think we can dispell it; I got a few of them."  He turned to the others.  "Can the rest of you" – here, he pointed at the arched entrance to a low stone building bordering the courtyard – "Two tanned, and lightly glowing" – he paused, losing his words – "busted in, headed to the dungeons, I don't want them busted out."

Kaelani stepped forward, and lay on hands, calling on Ua to heal the devotee of Hau and Whatitiri.  "Thank you," Adrian said, considerably more calm.  Kaikoa brandished his scimitar; worked into the blade was the finely crafted sunburst symbol of the Daystar cult, with the words FUCK THE DAYSTAR scratched across it crudely.

Kaikoa <cheerfully>:  any day I can bust Daystar worshippers is a good day!
Glesni:  do we know the way?
Kaikoa:  brought a few prisoners here
Kaelani <simultaneously>:  we know the way
Glesni <to Osric>:  guess you want to just dispell.
Osric <to Arnari>:  I'll let you dispell.
Kaikoa:  who is coming!
<Ondar landed and dismounted.>
Ondar:  Frostclaw, guard Arnari.
<Arnari smiled at how Ondar and Kaikoa had set their mounts to guard her.>
Kaikoa:  Nix!  You gonna hang out up there, or you coming?

Nix landed and dismounted, sending Snowbolt up to circle the courtyard.  Glesni landed, and the Freelancers headed into the stone arch, Kaikoa and Kaelani in the lead.

Behind them, centered on the ongoing melee, a 15' wide beam of bright daylight struck the courtyard.  The Freelancers paused and glanced up at it in shock; it might have been thousands of feet tall.  Storm Guards in the beam crumpled, turning into burned husks, and the Typhoon was injured, with the upward half of her big hair scorched away.  Arnari cast healing word on her.

They turned and entered the building.

Ondar thought he knew the way, but he kept taking wrong turns.  Kaikoa did know the way, but was also taking wrong turns, because the breakfast grog was still affecting him.  Kaelani kept everyone on track.

The Freelancers hurried as much as one can, when two compatriots are dwarves.  Soon they were descending stairs in the dungeon which ended in a T-section.  The Daystar cultists, they knew, were being held in the right-hand wing.

A woman's voice rang out, confident and oddly compelling.  "Be Reborn, with the Light of the Daystar!"  A whooshing sound followed, and the light from the corridor flickered and brightened.

The Freelancers paused and readied themselves and a thought occurred to Glesni.  "How many people are we expecting to fight?  How many people have you dropped off?!"  Kaikoa, Kaelani, and Osric thought a second, then explained they were sure Gillian, Ethan, Petersen the bard, and Siress the liontaur were in there.

Small noises came from the corridor.  Nix cast dragon's breath on Mercury, and prepared to dodge.

Kaelani descended the stairs, to face two … Daystar elementals?!  They looked like a much brighter version of a fire elemental.  Behind, the Rock sagani saw four people, all glowing.  Two in the back were very tanned, and the closer two were Ethan and Petersen.  Ethan held a staff topped with a sunstone, and Petersen held a cittern.  The woman in back was tall and in shape, very blonde, very tan, with green eyes very much focussed on the task at hand.  She had a scimitar out, which glowed brightly.  Next to her was a burly man, 6' tall, with dark blond hair and brown eyes.  He held a glaive with a very bright blade, decorated with rubies and sunstones.

The Paladin of Ua used misty step to move past the elementals, and come up next to Ethan, then channeled Ua to afflict Ethan with then entangling vines of Nature's Wrath.  Ethan avoided the vines' grasp however.

• The man with the glaive struck Kaelani with the glaive three times, burning the Rock sagani with holy radiance, much to the latter's dismay.  The man put himself between Kaelani and the woman.
• Kaikoa saw the flickering and heard Kaelani, and moved forward.  Upon seeing the elementals, the last of the breakfast grog cleared his head.  He scowled and declared, "We should collapse the tunnel.  Nice knowing you," and he swung his magical scimitar at the closest elemental, missing.
• The tanned woman, from behind the man with the glaive, cast eldritch blast in the form of a sunbeam at Kaikoa, and missed.  So she cast it again.  And again.  And again.  These three hit the Wind sagani with force.
• Ondar became large.  He moved down the stairs next to Kaikoa, and saw both Kaikoa and Kaelani were doing poorly.  He moved around Kaikoa and attacked the Daystar elemental with his rapier.  While he hit the elemental, it did not seem like a piercing weapon did much harm to an elemental that was basically light, so he dropped the rapier and attacked with his Nightside Scimitar.  The magical weapon seemed to be more effective.
• A cell door swung open, and Gillian stuck her head out, right next to Kaelani.  She grabbed a sunburst symbol from Ethan and settled it around her neck, then smiled grimly as she started to glow.
  • Large Ondar called out, "Guys, we should rethink our policy of taking Daystar prisoners."
• Osric ran down the stairs, drawing out a gilded acorn and summoning a wolf spirit next to Large Ondar.  He also summoned a unicorn spirit totem between the Daystar elementals.
  • The wolf spirit attacked the Daystar elemental, but didn't really hurt it that much.
• Glesni dashed down the stairs, quickly assessed the scene, then rode a surge of adrenaline to send a piercing arrow through the two elementals and Petersen.  Thinking they had enough to contend with, without a bard casting spells, she moved against the wall and crit Petersen with an arrow through his shoulder.
• Petersen almost didn't care.  He asked the tall woman, annoyed, ”Is it time to get out?  I want to get out!"  He walked past Kaelani as if the Rock sagani wasn't even there, and was clocked by Kaelani's magical rainstick as a reward.  He walked past Gillian and grabbed her.
  • "The place, right?" he asked the woman.  "Yep," she replied, "just like we talked about."
  • Petersen and Gillian vanished.
  • Kaelani called back "Petersen and Gillian just disappeared; not sure if invisible or gone."
  • Kaikoa swore, "Motherfucker!"
• Kaikoa did not get a chance to say anything else, because the two Daystar elementals made an ominous whooshing sound and emitting painfully bright bursts of light.
  • Kaelani was overcome by the radiance and collapsed.
  • Mercury poofed out of existence.
  • Large Ondar avoided most of the damage, as did the tall blonde woman.
  • Everyone else was burned by the radiance and seeing spots.
• "The Daystar – fuck – too early – you, ugh," Ethan started, then said crossly, "I can't see shit, you stupid eles, I'm out."  He vanished.

Nix used her broom to fly up behind Large Ondar, then cast an uplevel'd cure wounds on Kaikoa, who exclaimed in delight, "Sweet healing rum!"

• Kaelani's breathing evened out.  Perhaps he dreamed of a tropical beach, in another world.  And needing sunscreen.
• The man with the glaive cast eldritch blast in the form of a sunbeam at Large Ondar, but the latter was able to turn it with his shield.  So he did it again, and missed.  So he did it again, and Large Ondar tried to turn it again with his shield, but was hit by force.
  • Large Ondar invoked his stone rune on the man, who tried to be indomitable, but he failed and turned into a drooling fool. 
• Kaikoa suited actions to words, and making use of his amulet of the drunkard, he chugged on his flask of rum to heal himself.  Then he swung his magical scimitar at the Daystar elemental, but missed because he was still seeing spots.
  • Kaikoa surged on his adrenaline and attacked it again, slashing it.  The elemental was starting to look tattered.
• The blonde woman patted the man on the shoulder.  "Time to go," she said, but enthralled by Large Ondar's rune, he did not respond.  A small frown creased her brow, but she grabbed him and they disappeared.
• Large Ondar slashed at the Daystar elemental in front of him and Kaikoa with his magical scimitar.  He slashed it, then crit, then he too rode a surge of adrenaline to slash it again, but the last attack whiffed.
  • Large Ondar invoked his fire rune on the Daystar elemental.  The chains could not hold it, but the fire was enough to overcome it, and the elemental disintegrated into a thousand rainbow sparkles.
  • Large Ondar moved up to the other Daystar elemental, then looked into the closest cell.  Within was the charred corpse of a Rain sagani, but the door was locked.  He moved into the next cell, which is where Gillian had been.
  • The Daystar elemental burned Large Ondar with its radiance.
• Osric called out gently, "Kaelani!  Time to get up now!"  He cast an uplevel'd healing word on the paladin, triggering the unicorn spirit totem.  It actually looked like the rainbow sparkles from the elemental justy reversed and floated up to the ceiling, healing everyone.
  • Kaelani's eyes flew open.  "Huh?"
  • Osric drew his scimitar, long ago silvered with purple mournlode, and slashed the remaining Daystar elemental.
  • The spirit wolf bit it, perhaps not effectively, as there was nothing of substance to bite on.
• Glesni hadn't forgotten that the humans could just be invisible, and even if they had just bamph'd out, it couldn't be far.  She sent a seeking arrow after Petersen, watching it retrace their route down stairs.  It did not tell her where he was though.
  • Frowning, she somewhat absently shot an arrow at the Daystar elemental, missing, and followed the seeking arrow upstairs.
• The Daystar elemental made another ominous whooshing sound and emitted another painfully bright burst of light, burning everyone but Glesni, who was too far up the stairs.
  • Kaelani passed out again.
  • Nix started seeing spots.

Despite the spots, Nix sent a ray of frost at the Daystar elemental, but critfailed badly.  The magic rebounded on her, ageing her by 6 years.  Feeling pretty weird, she moved up next to the wolf spirit.

• Kaelani's otherworldly dream of sleeping in the sun on a tropical beach intensified.
• Kaikoa slashed the Daystar elemental with his magical FUCK THE DAYSTAR scimitar, leaving it looking somewhat tattered.  He moved next to Osric, ready to impose his shield if the elemental attacked the Holder dwarf.
• Large Ondar emerged from the cell, whacking at the Daystar elemental with his Nightside Scimitar.  He slashed it, then crit.
  • Glesni:  aren't we going after these…?  Do we care about this elemental?
    Kaikoa:  we can't just leave it wandering Church of Storms!
    Glesni:  yes we can
    Osric:  but, Kaelani
    Glesni:  grab him
  • Large Ondar peered into the other locked cell, and saw the incinerated corpse of a liontaur.  He moved to the stairs.
  • The Daystar elemental tried to burn Large Ondar again, but missed somehow.
• Osric moved to Kaelani and cast cure wounds on him.  The unicorn spirit totem healed everyone but Glesni, who was too far away.
  • The wolf spirit bit at the Daystar elemental, but missed.
• Glesni realized that the escapees could be heading towards Arnari, so she invoked her figurine of the silver raven, and sent it to Arnari as an animal messenger.
  5 prisoners escaped heading your way.  2 are very powerful, watch out.  We are engaged with 2 elementals that appear to be Daystar.  Kaelani down.
• The Daystar elemental seemed to hesitate, then it struck at both Kaikoa and Osric, but somehow missed both of them.

Nix slid by the Daystar elemental to Kaelani, and cast cure wounds on him.

• Kaelani levered himself up using the rainstick as an assist, then clanked over to the Daystar elemental.  The paladin of Ua cast thunderous smite, then swung his magical rainstick at the elemental and completely missed.
• Kaikoa slashed the elemental again with his magical scimitar.
• Large Ondar dashed up the stairs.  Glesni told him, "The arrow went that way," pointing out the direction.  He nodded.
• Osric slashed the Daystar elemental with his purple mournlode scimitar.
  • The wolf spirit snapped and missed.
• Glesni shot the elemental with an arrow, and it dissipated into sparkles; but she did not wait to watch, and instead ran up next to Ondar.

* * session break * *

The Freelancers all ran up the stairs, with Osric's wolf spirit and unicorn spirit totem accompanying them.  As they ran, Glesni and Nix concluded the cultists had done something like Julian's teleport to get away.

It felt like it took forever to get to the courtyard, but in reality it only took about half a minute.  Of course, when one is entirely sunburned and in full garb, that is about equivalent to "forever".  Anyhow, they emerged through the arched entrance, they saw that the melee had wound down.

Arnari, Adrian, and Waiola, plus half the Storm Guard, were doing triage on about a third of the Storm Guard, who were down.  The remainder of the Storm Guard were tied up, and struggling against it.  A giant 15' scorch was on the ground from the beam of light, and within it were two very charred corpses.  All in all kind of a mess, but it appeared under control.  Arnari had a raven in her offhand.

Glesni glanced around for her arrow.  She did not see it, but saw the mounts circling overhead.  She glanced at the courtyard walls; they were 20-25' tall.  Glesni used her Winged Boots to go to the street side parapet and looked out.  An alley was to the east.

The others walked over to Adrian.  Large Ondar called Frostclaw down, mounted, and started circling.

Kaikoa:  tell us, how did this all start?
<Adrian looked at Kaikoa.  He appeared wiped, so Kaikoa offered him a shot of rum.>
Adrian <knocked back the rum>:  I wasn't out here when it started.  Probably the two people you chased did something
Kaikoa:  who was on guard?
<Adrian realized there were no prisoners and the Freelancers all looked sunburned.>
Adrian:  what happened?
Kaikoa:  talk to Ondar about that.

Kaikoa wandered off to talk to the Storm Guard.

Glesni and Large Ondar both looked from their vantage points for any sign of the cultists, but they saw nothing.  Large Ondar felt better, riding Frostclaw.  Glesni, on a wall looking out over a parapet, looked the most relaxed and natural any of the others had ever seen her.

Kaelani checked in with Waiola; it seemed things were under control so he started to give a report.  In addition to half of her big hair scorched away, Waiola had dried blood around her eyes, ears, and nose.  Arnari straightened up to listen, and Kaelani realized that she was beaten up like Adrian; slashed with a greatsword.  He lay on hands, to heal the deeper slashes, and Arnari thanked him.

Nix saw that Kaelani was still worse for wear, and cast cure wounds on him again.  Osric, however, had taken note of all the triage, and moved the unicorn spirit totem into the center of the down'd people.  He cast healing word on the Storm Guard who looked the worst off, triggering the sparkles.  3 or 4 others also stabilized, and the sparkles healed himself, Nix, Kaelani, Kaikoa, Arnari, Adrian, and, of course, Waiola.  The Typhoon's face was a study:  grateful, sad, and angry at once.

Then one of the down'd people Osric had healed leapt up, and tried to attack Waiola.  The other Storm Guard quickly subdued them.  The Freelancers observed that the Storm Guard had either subdual or defensive wounds.  Ah.

Comforting as it was, standing on the wall wasn't doing anybody any good.  Glesni gathered her second wind, to throw off her injuries, and came down to the courtyard to talk to Waiola.

Waiola did not look right, even apart from her ruined hair and bloody orifices.  She was without her glass javelin.  Perhaps that would be normal when she was out & about within the Church of Storms, but certainly not when in a battle.  Osric and Glesni both thought back:  no, she hadn't had the javelin when they'd arrived, either.

Glesni asked Waiola if it was acceptable to cast detect magic in the dungeon.  "Perhaps Adrian or Nix could come as well," she added, but keeping in mind it was a Church of Storms dungeon she added deferentially, "Perhaps you'd rather do this yourself."

Kaikoa, meanwhile, had asked about until he found the guard who had been on gate duty, Bachtell.  They looked like they'd been hammered with a sword pommel, and they explained to Kaikoa that the woman and man who'd gone to the dungeon came up to the back entrance, and made the entirely reasonable suggestion that they kill the Typhoon.  As they relayed this story to Kaikoa they were obviously deeply ashamed.  Kaikoa nodded, and sought out others to find out what happened next, to find out that as Bachtell opened the gate, the man pulled out a scroll, and cast mass suggestion on the training guards, to kill the Typhoon.

Kaikoa relayed his findings to Arnari, and Waiola listened with interest.  "I missed seeing it," she commented, then continued, "but right after they cast mass suggestion – these fucking evil Daystar worshippers – the woman cast some psychic shriek, stunning me, and the man used mage hand to lift Bright Thunder."

The javelin.  Kaikoa had seen her wield it as part of the Tumultuous Holiday celebrations.  "What kind of special does it do?" he asked.  "It turns into a lightning bolt, and returns to hand," the Typhoon told him, a note of wonder still in her voice.  "It is sentient, and helps the Church of Storms interpret what Hau and Whatitiri want from them."  As she spoke, tiny lightning bolts played about in her hair, as if to say, it's okay.

She turned back to Glesni.  "If you want, you can go down there, but I did see an arrow fly north, over our building."

Glesni immediately used her Winged Boots to fly to the top of the building, looking.  Nothing.  Osric commented mildly, "I will have to prepare locate object for the next day."

Glesni returned to Waiola and Arnari, and the latter handed back the raven, which Glesni put on her shoulder.  Then Glesni pulled out her wand of magic detection and cast detect magic.

• The restrained Storm Guards lit up with enchantment
• The beam char lit up with evocation
• Arnari lit up with abjuration, from her duster, and other items that were drowned out by it

Glesni started towards the stone arch, Osric and Nix with her.  The wolf spirit followed Osric.  Kaikoa and Kaelani went out the gate, and took a look around the alley.  Nothing really obvious there, other than a lack of beggars.

Ondar, who was no longer large, landed Frostclaw, and started looking around the courtyard.  He dismounted and also started talking to the Storm Guard about what happened.  He found out that the man definitely had used a scroll, but the woman did not have a scroll, and they both had cast mass suggestion.  A slightly terrified acolyte had seen the man shoving Bright Thunder into a shoulder bag that was too small for it.

Down in the dungeon, Glesni, Nix, and Osric got a look at the charred corpses for the first time.  One was obviously a liontaur.  They looked like they were lit up from the inside, and then charred.  Like an extreme sunburn, and Osric was sure the Daystar elemental had emerged from the inside.  The only thing left of the elementals was dust and ash.

• Both the corpses and the elemental remains lit up with transmutation
• The cells where the cultists had blinked out lit up with conjuration

The three Freelancers glanced at the two corpses again as they headed back up.  Even though burned, their visages looked like happy faces, turned into pain.

When Nix, Osric, and Glesni returned to the courtyard, Kaikoa exclaimed, "Let's find where this arrow went!  They couldn't have gone that far!"  He started for the gate, then paused.  "Wait, let's take flying mounts!"  He and Nix whistled for Mordant and Snowbolt, and the Freelancers mounted up.

Kaikoa:  o, hey Arnari!  Do you have anything to protect against being brain-fucked by these butthole worshippers?
Arnari:  sorry, no.
Kaikoa:  oh!  Adrian, anything for these elementals?
Adrian <dubiously>:  holy water, but mostly for undead; not sure it will do any good.
Glesni:  how do we know they aren't undead?  They came out of corpses!
Kaikoa:  well, let's try it!
Kaelani <thinking>:  unsure if divine sense can figure out if these elementals are undead in nature

Kaelani dismounted again, and clanked down to the dungeon again.  He invoked his divine sense, but there was no signature of undead, or fiend, or celestial.  He returned to the courtyard to see Adrian and Waiola off a ways with Arnari, in a serious discussion.  Adrian left and went to the main building, walking quickly, and returned to the group as Kaelani returned to Frostclaw.

Adrian handed each of the Freelancers, including Arnari, 15 plat.   To Kaikoa, he handed 4 small bottles of holy water.  Kaikoa held up a bottle.  The water was bubbly, with little flashes of lightning between the bubbles, almost too quick to focus on.  He handed the waters to Osric, Kaelani, Ondar, and Nix.  All but Ondar packed it away.

Waiola said, more formally, "Thank you very much for your prompt response," including all 7 Freelancers.  She turned to the 6 sunburned Freelancers and added, "Sorry the 6 of you were getting cooked by Daystar elementals.  I was busy getting my ass kicked, and Adrian did not see the start of this."

Glesni thought, wow, so convenient, and looked at Adrian intently.  He seemed very contrite, and her look was not lost on him.  "I'm out of practice being in fights," he apologised, "I've been here a while."

Ondar was still contemplating the holy water.  He really wanted to drink it.  But he finally packed it away, albeit reluctantly.

Waiola glanced at Adrian, then back at the Freelancers, and took a breath.  "I do not know where these people went, but I will pay 750 gold to each of you if you bring back Bright Thunder.  Kill the Daystar cultists who escaped.  They clearly can't be rehabilitated."

Kaelani:  so, dead or alive.
Nix:  just dead.
Kaelani:  more information
Adrian:  we got all the information.  We were trying to rehabilitate.
Glesni:  what info did you get?
Adrian:  it seems the Daystar cult is pretty compartmentalized.  They didn't really know a whole lot.  <paused>  got the recipe for the lotion, if you want it.
Ondar:  Ondar absolutely wants to know it.
Nix:  want to know it.
<Adrian looked at the recipe.>
Ondar:  Ondar has no interest in making a cult.  Ondar has much interest in increasing the foolishness of enemies.
Adrian:  it needs a second-level spell slot injected into it from a Daystar warlock.

Oh, well, okay then.

Osric had been quiet this whole time, but Glesni's look at Adrian had reminded him, and he asked Waiola, "Who cast that beam?"  After all, it came as the Freelancers were exiting the courtyard.

Waiola told him, "I was mostly stunned, but three things happened:  the two people came in, the Storm Guard started attacking me, and I got the splittingest migraine in the entire world."  She sighed.  "I'm not entirely sure, but that's when the man yanked Bright Thunder.  I saw the Daystar woman make a gesture" here, she raised her hand languidly above her head "but there was a lot of time before the beam came."

Nix looked at the recovering Storm Guard, then at Waiola.

Nix:  I've heard of this spell, psychic scream, and all these things seem to line up with its effects.  
Waiola:  while I appreciate this and would like to see them killed, getting Bright Thunder back is the priority.
Kaelani:  four eldritch blast.
Waiola <winced>:  yea
Osric:  worried...

Glesni cast animal messenger of the raven on her shoulder, and sent it to Tomtom.

Church of Storms attacked by the Daystar.  Attackers have left, is all well over there?

The raven returned fairly swiftly; Freelancers Tavern really wasn't that far as the crow flies.

Everything quiet here, do all the Freelancers...?

Glesni realized he would be worried about Arnari so cast animal messenger again.

Freelancers survived; Arnari and Kaelani rather injured.  Battered, bruised, and sunburned but otherwise fine.

The raven returned with a simple

Glad everything is fine.

Mordant was restless.  "How far does that arrow go?" Kaikoa asked, and Glesni told him, "600 feet!"  Mordant took off as Kaikoa said, "Let's see if we can find that."

The Freelancers headed north, except Arnari who was still helping with the battle aftermath.  Ondar didn't notice much, his mind's eye replaying the lightning between the bubbles of the holy water.  Glesni didn't observe anything remarkable; Kaelani saw the morning rush was ending.  Kaikoa noticed some ships were leaving the docks to the northeast.

Nix and Osric realized, the arrow had shot towards a dock.  Nix called out, "Pretty sure, the arrow went towards a dock."  Osric added, "If they headed towards the docks, they might be trying to get off the skylith!"

Kaikoa pointed out the airships that had left:  eight different airships, in the last ten minutes or so.  They were fanning out and up, with half of them still hooked to teams of draft pegasi, and the Freelancers peered at them as best they could.  None of them sported sunburst logos, and there were 2 sail airships, 3 mechanical airships, 1 fire elemental airship, and 2 air elemental airships.

Glesni, riding behind Kaikoa on Mordant, did her best to see if any of the airships or visible passengers were glowing, but they were pretty far away.  Nix pulled out her spyglass, and used it to get what airship names she could:

• Achaia - sail
• Haruoando - mechanical
• Shinichiro - mechanical
• Fivesparks - fire elemental
• Bleriot - air elemental
• Grigor'ev - air elemental

The Freelancers quickly formed a plan.  "You are responsible, you go talk to the Portmaster," Kaikoa said to Glesni, and dropped her off at the Portmaster's office.  Nix and Ondar also dropped off Osric and Kaelani, then the three mounted Freelancers took off in search of a more… talkative dockworker.

Glesni, Osric, Kaelani

Glesni composed herself as best as she could, post a battle with the impossibly existing Daystar elementals, and strode into the Portmaster's office.  Wymar Adelard, a stocky human man with brown hair and hazel eyes, sat behind the desk, going through papers.  His armour was splinted and a rather nice warhammer was within easy reach.  He cast a skeptical eye on his visitors.

Glesni was used to talking to the Portmaster in Cloudworks, and spoke without preamble.  "Are you aware of any ships waiting for passengers?" she asked, fairly formally, but not quite imperiously.

Osric attempted to pull out his Freelancers badge, and Glesni glanced down at the much shorter Holder dwarf, as if to say Don't rely on that thing, but she didn't say anything out loud.  Wymar didn't miss the badge, and observing that his visitors were obviously the worse for wear, prevaricated.

Wymar:  I'm not sure if anyone was holding...but there were several ships waiting to leave this morning.  You'd have to talk to the pilot assigned to the ship, or the dockworkers.
Glesni:  do you have a schedule of pilots assigned to each airship?
Wymar:  it'll take a while, but I can give you a list of the names.  <pulled out a piece of paper>
Glesni:  we'd really appreciate that. <glanced at Kaelani>  A handful of miscreants attacked the Church of Storms and did grievous injury to people there, and they've asked us to find them.
Wymar <shocked>:  attacked the Church of Storms?!
Glesni:  the Typhoon is quite injured.
Wymar:  the fuckers! <started writing quickly; 8 airships, captains, pilot names, destinations>  They took off from all over the docks, so I'm not sure where you'd want to go first..
Glesni:  do you know which ones are associated with which docks, due to nearness of Church of Storms?
Wymar:  we generally try to segregate ships by type… sails to the North, mech in the middle, elemental in the South.
<Wymar handed the tall Cloud elf the piece of paper.>
Glesni <still formally>:  thank you

The three Freelancers headed out the door.  As they did, Osric said,  "I’m not good at talking to people…but I got my badge!"

Ondar, Nix, Kaikoa

Kaikoa knew who he wanted to talk to:  the skeeziest-looking dockworker he could find, to bribe for information.  Mordant was gliding about, and he saw who he wanted:  a dockworker who'd clearly not bathed in a week, and had maybe 5 entire teeth.  He landed near the fellow, who we'll call Toothy.

Toothy:  whatchoo want
Kaikoa:  looking for some miscreant bastards down this way, very tan assholes.  Literally.  One had a staff… and a very blonde bimbo.
Toothy <stroked scraggly beard>:  for 10 gold can point to dock
Kaikoa:  go fuck yourself!  For 10 gold I can get Ondar to hang you off the edge of the skylith!
Ondar:  for free.
Toothy:  aw, fuck it.  <points upward at an empty dock>  one was glowing.
Kaikoa:  yeah, that's them.  What airship?
Toothy:  dunno.
Kaikoa:  fuck you!  You know all the 'ships here.
Toothy:  gimme at least one gold!
Kaikoa <impatiently>:  sure
<Toothy bit the coin to check it.>
Kaikoa:  if you told me wrong…
Toothy <offended>:  would not lie.  It was Grigor'ev – they were waiting a while.
Kaikoa:  what else.
Toothy:  dunno where it's going.  Tends to small waypoint runs.  I just steal shit.
Kaikoa:  what shit!
Toothy:  extra crate, textiles, rum… <wistfully> like rum.
Kaikoa <to Nix & Ondar>:  let's grab the others
Ondar <to Toothy>:  how was it provisioned?
Toothy:  okay; not too much.  Less, after I stole rum.
Ondar:  what waypoints could it have reached?
Toothy:  fuck if I know!  I dunno navigation!
Ondar:  fair enough.  <to Kaikoa & Nix>  okay let's check with the Dockmaster.

They landed just as Glesni, Osric, and Kaelani were starting to peer at the list Wymar gave them.  Kaikoa announced, "Found the ship name!"  Glesni replied, "Have the list" and waved the piece of paper.  Kaikoa said, "Grigorev?  Grygorii?  Grigev…"

They all peered at the list.

Ondar and Kaikoa thought back to their pre-Freelancer days, trying to remember what they knew about Waypoint Whim.  Kaikoa knew of it, but that was about it.  Ondar knew it was in a rather erratic, elliptical orbit, with a nodal nutation much like Pembroke, except perturbed by it.

Ondar also knew it was about 3 days' flight away, and wanted to go after them now.  Glesni objected.  They did not have their gear; they had literally flung themselves over to Church of Storms from the middle of breakfast.

While that debate was going on, Osric, Nix, and Kaikoa went into Wymar's office, and convinced him to inform them of an airship that would be looping past Waypoint Whim.  The Aakshi, captained by a human woman named Dedroza.  It was docked on the southern end, and would be leaving 10 hours hence.

So much for Ondar wanting to go now.  The Freelancers located the ship, and the Captain was there, so they started negotiating passage for themselves and their mounts.  The captain was pleasant enough about the mounts, at first.

"O, a lovely pegasus," she said, "Oh, a nice hippogryph.  Oh!  what the fuck, a bear?!"  she backed up and looked at Ondar.  "Is he under control?"

Kaikoa laughed, and said "Frostclaw definitely has Ondar under control!"  Everyone laughed.

Passage secured, the Freelancers returned to Church of Storms.  Adrian readily agreed to have Church of Storms cover passage, as they found the Typhoon and Arnari prepping for raise dead rituals.  The Freelancers, anticipating mayhem, asked for a Church of Storms badge, and Waiola had Adrian hand a badge to Nix.

At that, any more prep was to be done at Freelancers Tavern.  They returned there, gave a report to Tomtom, and all passed the fuck out.  They could pack after resting up.

• Kaikoa → lvl5!