Gemhallow courier run and Fire Beetle harvesting

Pembroke had been looming larger and larger in the Duquesne sky, and on Fysitag morning it was big enough; so Dryali and Tahu got the courier bag from Arnari and headed to the docks for the shuttle to Gemhallow.

The elemental airship Tugendhat, captained by Letitia Herohouse, a female human, was their transport to Pembroke.  The Tugendhat was propelled by an air elemental, and it looked like it had a mini tornado behind it, pushing it forward.   The trip took 12 hours, and was pretty uneventful.  Dryali and Tahu rested belowdecks, but when they arose and looked around, wanting to watch the Pembroke approach, they did see some kind of creature flapping in the distance.

A dwarf pilot arrived on a peregrine gryphon to navigate the tunnels to Gemhallow.  Dryali was happy with the light levels in the tunnel, but the dim light did bother Tahu, who could not see that well.  Once they got to the point where the airship was too slow for the air elemental to propel it, a team of owl gryphons took the Tugendhat all the way to the docks.  The airship was settled on a docking shelf, and the owl gryphon team detached and flew a bit southward.

Dryali and Tahu looked at each other, thinking about the owl gryphon eggs incubating in the Freelancers gryphon stables.  House Lyona breeds owl gryphons, but… "Maybe some sort of training manual is available for owl gryphons here, since they are so common," Tahu suggested.  Dryali nodded.

They debarked and headed to Freelancers Tavern, as the Gemhallow cavern brightened with morning.

Einkil Logehr, leader of the Gemhallow Freelancers, was happy to receive Tahu and Dryali in his office.  Einkil was a Rocklit dwarf with brown hair, and a nicely trimmed darker brown beard with gold beads braided into it.  His office was full of hunting trophies, including a large cave bear head mounted on the wall, facing the door.   The floor had a luxurious fur rug.  His chairs were considerably more comfortable than the chairs in Arnari's office.

He paid Dryali and Tahu 100gp total for the courier run, and quickly flipped through the papers.  Then he looked up.  "Come back in a day or two."

Dryali, surprised, and possibly still full of air-elemental thoughts, said, "What, we just going to chill our jets?"

Einkil looked at him speculatively.  "I have a couple things, if you wanna keep busy."  He paused.  "There's a need of fire beetle glands, in the shipyards, from giant fire beetles."  Dryali made a face, thinking about tunnel duty in Stormview.  "Generally the shipyards pay 50gp/gland," Einkil continued.

Tahu looked interested,  "Do we have to preserve this?"

Einkil snorted.  "Just shove them in a sack!"

"Is there anything other than hunting vermin?" Dryali asked, trying not to sound like he was pleading.  "Not really, no," said Einkil, who had clearly marked Tahu's interest.  "You'll want to take them to Nicholas Duskfinger, a shipwright over in the north end of the docks."

While interested, Tahu wasn't keen on hunting vermin in dark tunnels.  He asked Dryali, "Do you think I can get goggles, like yours, but reversed?"  Dryali told him, "We totally do that, in Stormview."   [for sagani, was the implication.]

Einkil chimed in, "In the Market, maybe."

That reminded Dryali of their conversation at the docks.  He asked Enikil, "Anywhere we can go, to find out about the owl gryphons?"

Einkil warmed considerably at this question.  "I have a friend, Zell… He breeds and trains the owl gryphons used as tugs.  That's south of the airship docks… Why are you asking?"

Tahu explained how a group of Freelancers on Duquesne, including himself and Dryali, had rescued a clutch of eggs from kobolds, and now he and Dryali were curious about what they eat, and what to watch out for in young.

Einkil's demeanor showed increasing approval as Tahu spoke.  "I'm very glad to hear they are rescued, and will be raised by proper, strong peoples!  Go to Zell, he will help you out."

Upon taking their leave of Einkil, Dryali and Tahu immediately walked to the big owl gryphon stables, the streets under their feet glowing with the Gemhallow morning light.

Teams of 10-15 owl gryphons were heading in and out on a quasi-regular basis, to be hooked to the airships.  Most were harnessed to the bow of the airship to tug; with just enough harnessed to the stern to keep it from dipping, at these slow speeds inside the skylith.

The stables had quite a few stablehands and other dwarves working, and they directed Tahu and Dryali through one stable to Zell's office.  The stable only had adult owl gryphons, blinking at the Freelancers as they strode through.  On the other side of the stable was a small outbuilding, which was the office.  It was full of pictures of owl gryphons.

As they entered, Zell said, "Einkil sent you to me!  How can I help?"  He was a middle-aged Rocklit dwarf, with greying temples and lines in his face.  His hands had numerous small scars, from baby gryphons.

Tahu explained, "We have a few owl gryphon eggs about to hatch on Duquesne, and we are wondering about how to take care of them."

Zell stood up, rubbing his hands together.  "Come with me!"  He led them out, in a different direction from whence they came.

After passing multiple stables, they arrived at a smaller building, apart from the others.  Upon entering the barn, they saw a bunch of different clutches of owl gryphons around the sides.  They were of various ages.  The inside was warm; in the center was a big brick beehive stove.

Zell took an hour explaining newly hatched owl gryphons; how to care for them, how to socialize them, using the different clutches to illustrate his points.  He effectively walked the surprised Tahu and Dryali through the first six months.

Tahu said, gratefully, "If you need anything, just tell Einkil!"  Dryali followed up, "Let us know if you need anything from Duquesne!"

Zell smiled.  "Note," he cautioned them, "They are nocturnal, they prefer night time!"  Dryali smiled.  "If you are training them for battle, they have aerial stealth," Zell continued, "So encourage pouncing!"

Both Dryali and Tahu looked thoughtful as they took their leave, and walked to the Market.  By this time it was pretty busy, and they started checking about for vendors with ice wine.  It still wasn't clear to either of them why ice wine was rare in Cliffshadow, but they wanted to take advantage of their presence in Gemhallow.

Tahu found a Cloud elf vendor, somewhat snooty, declaring haughtily he had genuine ice wine from Coldstream.  Only the best!

Dryali and Tahu glanced at each other again, as the Cloud elf declared his ice wine to be 125gp/cask.  His accent was local to Gemhallow, not the melodic cadence of a Coldstream native.  Dryali said so, in Elvish, and demanded to see the seals on the casks.  They looked genuine.

The Cloud elf was unrepentant, but did offer a deal, 3 casks for 350gp.  Tahu and Dryali split the cost, then stashed the casks at Gemhallow Freelancers' for later.

Returning to the Market, they took thought about going after fire beetles.  They each bought a sack, and Tahu decided maybe he should look for goggles of night.  They looked around the Market and found nothing, so they looked around in the shops just to the east, where more specialized goods could be had, but were unable to find any sellers.  <narrator voice:  Shari rolled a 1 on investigation>

They kept heading east, leaving Gemhallow behind, deeper and deeper into the tunnels.  At first the tunnels were broad and well-maintained; where they weren't lit by glowing veins of quartz, lanterns were emplaced.  As they proceeded, sometimes the lanterns were not lit.

After about half an hour, they got to a mine, with the entrance being dwarf-sized steps carved downward into the chamber.  Looking around, there were lanterns still on the walls, but it was clearly played out.  There was a pit directly in front of them; Dryali walked up to it and peered down.  His eyesight could not penetrate the gloom.  "Hey, this is deep!" he declared, still trying to peer downwards.

Tahu walked up behind Dryali.  He considered pushing him in, but thought better of it.  Good thing, too, because when Dryali turned to look at Tahu, there were 5 giant fire beetles emerging from another pit behind him, next to the stairs!

Tahu turned and strolled over to them, pulling out a shortsword, and killed the closest one <narrator voice: Casey rolled a nat 20!> The four remaining split, with 2 each attacking Dryali and Tahu, but they all failed to do anything effective.  All this noise, however, disturbed the denizens of the dark pit, and 4 stirges flew up out of it!  One attacked Tahu and latched onto him.  Two attacked Dryali, who immediately invoked shield to repel these annoyances.

Dryali, thinking this talent would have served him well in Stormview pest patrol, created a flamethrower eldritch cannon, and flamed 3 of the stirges to death.

Tahu killed the giant fire beetle in front of him, then killed the stirge attached to him.  The remaining three beetles attacked and missed, and then 4 more giant fire beetles came from the other side of the stairs.  Dryali had the flamethrower hit the two beetles that had attacked him, killing them.  He shot another giant fire beetle next to Tahu, but the magical bolt basically bounced off its carapace.

Tahu exclaimed, "That flamethrower is pretty awesome!"  He killed the beetle which had repelled Dryali's shot, then ran up to the 4 newcomers, and killed the closest of those too.

One of the remaining fire beetles bit Tahu.  The other two attacked Dryali, but only one managed to bite him.  The flamethrower belched its flames again, killing one of the beetles and injuring the others.

Dryali, worried the flames would eat into their anticipated bounty, pulled out his rapier, and failed to hit anything with it.  Tahu used his shortswords to kill the remaining 2 fire beetles with panache.  Dryali looked at his rapier, then at Tahu.  "How you do that?"

Tahu explained, "You stab."  He demonstrated as he spoke.  "Step forward, lunge, step back."  Dryali sheathed his rapier, shaking his head.  He pulled out a dagger and the sack, and looked at the fire beetle, mystified how to begin, thinking about their conversation with Einkil.

Tahu said, "Let me do this."  Dryali replied, "Einkil said…" providing guidance.  Tahu told him, "This is like surgery."  Half an hour later, they had 18 fire beetle glands in the sacks.

They headed back to Gemhallow, but realized the tunnel actually was a road, and there were other underground towns in the environs.

In Gemhallow, they went to the north end of the docks, and easily found Nicholas Duskfinger, a male Rocklit dwarf.  He was more than happy to get 18 giant fire beetle glands and gave Dryali and Tahu 90plat for the lot.

As they left the shipwright's office, Tahu wanted to look for goggles of night again.  He talked to a couple dockworkers, and they gave him directions to a shop north of the Market.

Upon entering the shop, the proprietor, a female Rock sagani, saw Tahu and said, "Ah yes, some nice goggles of night for you, my dear," in a rather motherly voice.

Tahu, relieved he'd found a source for these, asked, "How much do they run?"  The proprietor told him, "Special deal!  1500gp."

There was a moment of silence.  <narrator voice:  Casey rolled insight on how reasonable a price this was.>

"Do they need attunement?" he asked.  "No," she told him, and brought them out.  "Try them."   Tahu did, then looked at them more closely.  "They're not as fragile as Dryali's," he noted.  The proprietor looked at the Dark elf.  Dryali raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly.

"I'll get them!" Tahu declared.  "They do not work, in magical darkness," the shopkeeper warned him, still with the motherly tone.  Dryali frowned; he should be able to cast darkness, but still had not mastered it.  "Thanks for the warning," Tahu told her.

They returned to Freelancers Tavern, and talked to Einkil again, giving him the 10% Freelancers' cut from the fee Nicholas paid.  "Thanks for the tip on the giant fire beetles," Tahu told him.  "That was fun!"

Dryali quickly changed the subject.  "Thanks for sending us to Zell!"

Einkil told them, "I'll have a courier pouch for Anari in the morning.  Feel free to make use of our barracks!  You'll be taking the Kenleven back."

In the morning, after picking up the pouch from Einkil, Dryali and Tahu headed back to the docks and boarded the mechanical airship Kenleven, captained by Cenwood Stalesong, a male half-orc.

They'd been on this airship the last conjunction!  Tahu asked if there had been any more troubles between cloud things.  "No, this conjunction has been pretty quiet," the captain replied.  Then the pilot arrived and his attention was elsewhere.

After everything was settled, the owl gryphon team tugged the Kenleven to the tunnels, at which point its engines whuff-whuff-whuffed into activity as the pilot guided them out.  Dryali took a closer look at the mechanics of it, having spent some time in Stormhaven since he last flew on a mechanical airship.

The flight to Duquesne was very uneventful, and they arrived in Cliffshadow the next morning (Okeanostag).  They debarked and returned to Freelancers Tavern, using a handcart to deal with the 3 casks of ice wine, which they left in the inner bar before going upstairs to Arnari with the pouch.

Arnari was glad of the pouch, and paid them 100gp.  Dryali said to her, "You do have sending stones, right?"  Arnari gave him a look.  "Of course, but they are limited."

Tahu crossed his arms.  "By the way, there are three casks of ice wine in the bar."  Arnari told him, "Will pay the 50% markup, still!  How much?"

Dryali told her, "350gp, but the guy was shadier than last time."  Arnari was dismissive.  "We'll make sure to check it," she assured him.

• 625 gp from Arnari, total