Midnight psychedelics

It was breakfast time in Freelancers Tavern, traditionally the time where the back tavern was busier than the front.  This morning saw Aranel and Minji in a corner, the latter trying to comfort the former through the worst hangover she'd ever experienced.  Dominic, a mustachioed human druid, was also nearby, looking disappointed in both of them.

The Cloud elf Vin had acquired a red pseudodragon, which he'd named "Chantley", and was playing with it in a corner.  Some trick of the light combined with Vin's mantle and Chantley's shadow gave the impression that Vin had tentacles, causing observers to do a double-take; but Vin had zero tentacles.

A new Freelancer had joined:  Petrichor, a Wild elf from near Mantzur.  She had a shepherd's crook and poorly-made clothing.  She was at a table talking to Sabah and Carmen.  The former was happy to talk to a person from Mantzur and the latter happy to befriend a Wild elf.

The front tavern wasn't empty, however.  A few patrons were there breaking their fast out of the spitting rain; and also Shimni, a Rock sagani from Sullimany, was sitting at the bar next to a Dao who had shrunk himself enough to fit.

The teenager Shimni was clearly of elven extraction, with stone-grey skin, and chartreuse hair sporting blue/green highlights.  As the conversation progressed, it became clear the Dao was her father, Ozo the Humble, and he was dispensing life advice to his daughter, who was not thrilled to be the recipient of such advice.  Eventually Shimni stood up and walked into the back tavern, with Ozo following.  She turned at the door and said, "This is the private area."

The other Freelancers glanced up.  Nohea, who was on morning bouncer duty, crossed her arms.  At this point the big Fire sagani was taller than Ozo, who declared, "I didn't want to go back there anyhow!" and left.

Shimni turned around to see most of the Freelancers looking at her, so she said, "Hey!  Let's go up for a mission!"  Sabah and Carmen thought that was great, to get Petrichor involved; and Vin and Dominic were also interested, so they all went upstairs to talk to Arnari.

Arnari, a dark-skinned half-elf with her hair in small braids, was seated at her desk strumming idly on a very nice lap harp.  Nearby was a blue duster with yellow accents.  The mahogany desk was piled high with papers in a way that looked deliberate, but incomprehensible.

In front of the desk was a large bearskin rug, and two rows of mismatched chairs facing it.  To the left of the front row of chairs, two high-quality maps were on the wall, drawn by Dominic's hand.  The walls to the left of the door and the right of the chairs were both covered in shelves holding knick knacks or instruments; it looked like a pan flute had most recently been handled.

Shimni grabbed a chair in the back, and sat down.  She hadn't really wanted to go on a mission, but here she was.  She tried to pull out a book and read it surreptitiously, but Dominic and Carmen noticed.
Sabah stood between Arnari's desk and the maps, their decorative studded leather creaking as they moved.
Carmen sat next to Shimni, and pulled his cloak of elvenkind over his head, which didn't conceal the big firbolg at all in the well-lit room full of people who knew he was there.  He spent some time trying to figure out Shimni's book; its title, The Hostage Bargain: A 'why choose?' Romance, confused him.
Vin yanked a chair into the light from the window.  The rain was alternating spitting and clearing enough for the Daystar, and he sat in the light as if it was a pool.
Petrichor hesitated, watching the others, then sat over to the right to avoid being the center of attention.
Dominic went over to the wall and looked at the maps.  Arnari had transferred notations to them from her previous maps, and he frowned at some of them.

Arnari put her harp aside, studying the Freelancers more closely than usual.  This group had not worked together and she wasn't sure of the strengths of the more junior people.

She pulled out the egg missions, hesitated, then said, "If you want gryphon eggs – be careful with Petrichor, I'm a bit worried – mountains to the north.  150gp/each egg.  Hippogryph eggs are easier – in the Haven Hills, don't go too close to Mantzur.  100gp/each egg.

"If you take this mission – previous Freelancers did this – rent a cart and bring sacks & blankets for safe transport.  House Aldous for hippogryphs; Liona for gryphons.  They also train."

Arnari sat back.  "The other longstanding mission is to go up north of Lakeview, along Pirates River, and find something that shouldn't be and make it dead.  This pays 100gp plus an uncommon potion each.  Be a little careful, again, with Petrichor."

Sabah interjected, "Or giant elk."  Carmen frowned, and replied, "Giant elks are natural."  Vin retorted, "Not that one."

"Fourth and final mission," Arnari continued, "Korfel Goltorrah, leader of Mantzur, would like Freelancers to investigate the place of giant bees.  Bee-opatra told us about it – I think Sabah knows where–"

Sabah interjected again, "I think so."

"Anyhow bees are overly aggressive," Arnari explained, "Korfel wants them destroyed or moved, or maybe find out why?  …also find out why.  100gp/person."

Carmen:  …100gp/person
Dominic:  up for any of these?
Carmen:  what makes them aggressive?
Arnari:  I suspect Korfel will pay a bonus if Freelancers find out why.  Don't forget, Dominic already found out from Bee-opatra that there are animated armours.
Shimni <glanced up from her book>:  we could go to Pirates River, that's where Ondar got Frostclaw.
Everyone:  oooooo
Arnari:  Ohenui is still in the stables.
Carmen:  Ohenui is not natural.
Sabah:  also interested in bees, and pollution.
Carmen:  pollution, but also interested in bees.  <politely>  what does Petrichor want to do?
Petrichor:  slight preference for bees, but pollution
Vin:  beeeees

The group ended up going for pollution cleanup, and given the weather, they decided to take the roads to Lakeview.

In the face of the frequent but intermittent spitting rain, the Freelancers took the road to Lakeview, only needing to camp the first night, at the halfway point to Cliffgate.  Sabah rode their dire corgi Juru, Dominic had his dire wolf Grgnak, and Vin had a martial gryphon Elizabeth.

The campsite on the way to Cliffgate was fairly organized, with vendors the Freelancers ignored and signs that a group of workers were camped (hence the vendors) and digging out a cellar in preparation for establishing an inn.  At Cliffgate, they stayed at The Sleepy Dog Inn, for 8sp/night (and 5sp for each stabled mount).  Petrichor found this awkward, as she did not have the funds, but Carmen covered her.  Being warm and dry in the inn was nice, so they got an early start and pushed through to arrive at the Biting Badger in Lakeview in the early evening.  The cost was the same, and Carmen again covered Petrichor.  The food was all fish dishes.

The next morning dawned and the spitting rain gave way to a bright storm, with wandering cells dropping rain and lightning, and the Daystar shining through in between.  Dominic led the others along the south shore of Lake Mossey to Pirates Dream river that fed the lake on the northeast end, which took most of the day.  Carmen was distracted by the birds living on the lake, but the rest of the Freelancers were checking tracks, navigating around giant elk, noting dried wolf spoor.

Dominic easily found a dry place to camp which was near but not on the bank of the Pirates Dream river <Narrator voice:  Matt rolled a nat 20 on survival>, and the Freelancers set up double watches.  

Dominic & Petrichor took first watch.  It was a bit noisy; they heard the tree branches creaking, the raindrops falling.  A far-off owl hoot came from a single owl gryphon, far to the north.  They heard frogs and river sounds.

Shimni & Sabah tool second watch.  It started out very similarly, although without any owl hoots.  Closer to midnight, Juru and Fluffy, Sabah's wolpertinger familiar, got agitated.  Fluffy sent to Sabah an image of wrong-thing.  Frog-shaped wrong-thing, coming from the river.

Sabah stood up and started yelling.

Shimni saw nothing, but with Sabah yelling, she was looking around intently. <Narrator voice:  Brian rolled a nat 20 perception> She heard croaks and hops coming from the river, so she lit a lantern.  "I hear something that way," she told Sabah, and moved to the other side of Elizabeth.

• Three froggoths - aberrations with 5 legs and 7 eyes - came towards the campsite.  One approached Carmen, lighting up his detect evil and good; another was downriver of the spike growth.
  • The third froggoth was in the spike growth.  It didn't actually notice it was dangerous, and it died to the spiky vines.
  • The two remaining ones did their thing, and the entire campsite was caught in the double wave of altered reality, including Vin and Elizabeth, who had not flown high enough.
    • Elizabeth shook it off, as did Chantley.  Dominic and Carmen also shook it off, but everyone else watched the froggoths disappear and the world around them sworled together in a confusing, pretty, and scary array of movement.
    • Chantley flew up to Vin, sending :danger danger fuck up: and Vin snapped out of it, then sent an eldritch blast at the closest froggoth, but missed.  The blast was like… a linear tunnel of nothing, even as perceived by the Freelancers afflicted by the swirliness.
• Fluffy, unclear where they were, just burrowed into the comforting ground.
• Petrichor looked around, confused at the reality shift, and grasped her shepherd's crook to be at the ready.  That grounded her and the sworling receded.
• Sabah's world was especially sworly, and they mounted Juru, ready to punch the froggoths neither they nor Juru could see.  Some of the confusion receded for Sabah, and Juru shook it off entirely.

Shimni unable to tell where she was, cast armour of Agathys, the cold wisps contributing to the swirls around her.  She did her best to move away from the riverbank as far as she could, which was maybe 15'.

• Dominic was perfectly fine, although Grgnak was not.  He sent an arrow of starlight at the froggoth nearest Vin, and it zigged and zagged and then impaled the creature, its radiance killing the froggoth.
  • Dominic dropped the spike growth, and cast moonbeam on the remaining froggoth.  <Narrator voice:  I do not like calling this spell moonbeam.  There's no moon in Skyway.>
  • Grgnak remained confused and was growling, and Dominic did his best to calm the dire wolf.
• A tiny flying mouse creature buzzed Vin, then breathed acid breath on him, Elizabeth, and Chantley, who dissolved into smoke.  It had 3 heads and a stinger:  a chiminimera!
  • It slashed Vin with its claws, then critfailed trying to sting him and did a bit of a somersault as the stinger also missed itself.
• Another chiminimera buzzed in and breathed acid on Dominic and Grgnak!
  • This one slashed Dominic with its claws, then stung him with its stinger.
• Vin cursed loudly, losing his aplomb, "Get off me you little motherfucker!" and it was an actual curse, impeding the chiminimera's dexterity with a hex.
  • Vin also cast mind sliver on it but it avoided that somehow.
  • Elizabeth, also annoyed, slashed at the buzzing creature with claws and snapped at it with her beak, but it easily buzzed out of the way.
• Carmen cast toll the dead on the froggoth, the sound of a tiny bell barely heard  over the rest of the sounds.  Necrosis spread along its skin, and then it died in the moonbeam.
• Fluffy, no longer confused, burrowed back out of the ground, then flew towards the chiminimera.
• Petrichor, no longer confused, moved towards Grgnak, and used her sling to send a rock at the chiminimera plaguing the dire wolf.  She missed.
• Juru bounded over to Grgnak, and Sabah smacked the chiminimera with his fist, then neatly grabbed it out of the air.
  • He held it carefully, and Juru bit it, which killed the creature.

Shimni saw the chiminimera on Elizabeth above her, and just said "Nope!" putting her own hex on the creature.  She sent an earthen bolt, which looked like a rock trailing gravel, at the chiminimera, which slammed it with force and bludgeoning.  The creature fell to the ground, dead.

Elizabeth landed, and Vin exclaimed, "Yay go back to sleep!"   Shimni nope'd into her ring, which lay ostentatiously on top of her bedroll.  Nobody touched it as they all went back to sleep, other than Vin and Carmen, who started their watch, which was uneventful for the rest of the night.

The morning had scattered showers, which was rather an improvement over the prior few days.  The Freelancers rose and started investigating the area, other than Vin, who spent the time re-summoning Chantley.

Everyone but Petrichor easily located where the froggoths had been nesting, and they pointed it out to her.  The froggoths were hunting from there, and everyone saw where tracks of animals that had wandered too close got weird as they'd been hit with the psychedelic effects from the mutant amphibians.

A wider search found  a little "lair" from where the chiminimerae were hunting froggoths.  As they poked at it, Petrichor saw another chiminimera!  She sounded the alarm, putting her shepherd's crook at the ready and backing off.

Dominic cast faerie fire on the area, dispersing purple glittery sparkles on all creatures within.  Two birds fluttered up, one with purple sparkles.  He looked more closely.

Dominic:  it's a leaf.
Petrichor:  no!  I totally saw a chiminimera, it was there! 

<Narrator voice:  it was, actually, a leaf.  Kylie rolled a nat 1 on perception>

Near the froggoth nest was an eddy pool in the river.  Peering into it, Carmen and Dominic saw a number of unpolished gemstones in the mud below.  Apparently the froggoths liked the shiny.  They fished the stones out:  2 lapis, a hematite, a rhodochrosite, a tiger eye, and a moss agate.  Maybe they were worth 10gp each.

With the parameters of the mission fulfilled, the Freelancers headed back to Cliffshadow the way they came.  The weather perhaps was slightly milder, but only the most perceptive weather watchers would notice.  On the return leg, Shimni insisted on covering Petrichor at the inns, explaining they had now fought shoulder-to-shoulder.  

Once back at Freelancers, and a bit dried out, they reported into Arnari, who made a face as she considered how the area was backsliding, then paid them 90gp each for the mission (100gp minus the Freelancers Cut of 10%).  Despite knowing this in advance, Petrichor was amazed at being so flush with coin!

Arnari brought out the potion cache, and distributed it to the group:  Vin and Sabah each got a philter of love, Shimni got a potion of water breathing, Petrichor got a potion of fire breath, Dominic an oil of slipperiness, and Carmen got a potion of poison.

• Petrichor → lvl1 monk!