Hippogryph Eggs for House Aldous

Cathance stared at the dragonchess problem, but couldn't focus on it.  She'd enjoyed being out and about and wanted to explore more, not be stuck in a tavern in the city any longer.  She looked up as Osric stopped by and looked at the board.  He said, almost as if he didn't believe himself, "I need to get away from baby gryphons."

That did it.  They'd go ask Arnari for something to do.  Terrance joined them.  She'd just gotten in last night from Lakeview, and she was all fired up.  Cathance wondered where she got her energy.

As they emerged from the top of the stairwell, they saw Arnari rushing around between her office and her quarters, gathering her things and looking for all the system as if she was about to go on a mission!  Tomtom was leaning on his office doorway, arms crossed, watching her.  She stopped, harp in hand, seeing the three of them.

"Tomtom, you explain things, I've really got to head out," Arnari said.  She went in her room, and came back out with a backpack on, and the harp in its case.  Nobody had moved.  "Hopefully I won't be gone more than a prime or two," she told him, "Tanglar knows who to contact."

She handed Tomtom a sending stone, locked her office door, and then headed down the back stairwell, to the stables.  Tomtom tossed the stone in the air like a sling bullet, then said, "Well, come into my office, then."

Tomtom's office was near the back of the building, and had a window that overlooked the stables.  There were two big maps on the wall, of the outward side of Duquesne and Cliffshadow; and a variety of chairs to sit on; one of the chairs was even Cathance-sized.  Tomtom gestured for her to take it, and she did so, stretching her legs in front of her.

Various tchotchkes were on the shelves, and weapons on the wall.  While functional, they appeared to be trophies.

Osric nudged Cathance with an elbow and nodded towards the window.  She looked out… was that Arnari flying off on a sparkly gryphon?!  ...he smiled, then asked Tomtom, "Who is Tanglar?"

Tomtom raised his eyebrows.  "He's the leader of the Freelancers on Bizarre.  He's a badass."

Osric was a farmer from the top of Pembroke.  "What's Bizarre?  Another skylith?"

Tomtom hesitated, then explained the trader's bazaar and free-for-all market on the skylith Bizarre.  "The Freelancers on Bizarre, also provide security."

Cathance quickly connected the dots.  "Is that why Arnari wanted us to do that thing, with the club opening?" she asked.

Tomtom admitted, "That's decent experience for dealing with Bizarre.  But keep in mind that's 'also'."  Since he had been put in explainer mode, he decided to run with it.  "Freelancers will check out the mission requests before agreeing to them, and also will try to rescue people if things go poorly."

It was Osric's turn to connect the dots.  "Is she off to rescue someone?"  Tomtom simply said "yes" and left it at that.  He started examining a bunch of papers.

Osric wasn't done.  "So, is that where we end up?"  Tomtom shot him a look; obviously Tomtom had "ended up" on Duquesne.  "I guess," he said, and started reading the papers and sizing up the three Freelancers seated in front of him.

Tomtom said, "There was a recent mission to track pollution from Lakeview…"

Cathance said, importantly, "Terrance is just back from that."  Tomtom looked up at Terrance, who had been unusually quiet.  "Yes!  We want to find the source, and assess taking that out."

He looked back down at the papers, which he had rearranged somewhat.

• Hippogryph eggs for House Aldous [here, he rolled his eyes]
• Sonya Drogo needs assistants for Stormhaven…
• House Ha'aheo reports the supply of herbs is slowing down, and wants more exotic herbs from Hindmarsh

Terrance raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about the fellow in the front of the tavern who'd mentioned he was looking for a team to enter the marsh from the eastern end.

There was a moment of silence, as the three of them contemplated these missions.  Terrance wanted to climb; Osric wanted to use his talents out in the wilds; and Cathance wanted to go back to Haven.  So, Hippogryph Eggs.

Tomtom could not conceal his surprise and delight.  He was probably thinking about the flex it would be to tell Arnari this was the first mission he handed out.  "O good!  Someone has stepped up to take this!"

The three of them looked at each other, plainly sharing the same thought:  +1 Tomtom faction.

Tomtom, meanwhile, continued, "House Aldous – one of their 'things' is hippogryphs.  Odo is paying for this mission, to start new breeding lines.  100gp/egg, or a trained hippogryph gelding for 10 eggs."

"The Freelancers still want 10% of what you get!" he reminded them.  "Although, this might be difficult if you get a gelding."

The three of them filed out, talking about preparations.  Neither Terrance nor Osric had been to Haven, and Cathance started extolling its virtues as well as discussing more practical matters such as length of travel.

They stopped by the quartermaster, and each got 2 sacks [1cp each] and 2 blankets [5sp each], for egg transport; and Cathance picked up 10 days' worth of rations, and took off.

They rented a mule (named Rainy) and cart for their mission, and thus prepared, Cathance, Osric, and Terrance travelled 4 days to reach Haven, and took rooms at The Local Flavour.  They arrived early enough to enjoy an evening in the taproom enjoying the excellent local cider, and talking with people.

Terrance ended up talking to people about the trees in the orchards.  Osric and Cathance, however, talked to others about hippogryph sightings.  They were told hippogryph were seen flying about on both sides of the road to Stormhaven; east of it was pretty normal, but the ones to the west of it were new.

The next morning, they talked to the innkeeper, Joselyn Firetooth, and paid for rooms and mulestabling in advance; then went east into the hills, with Osric in the lead and Terrance bringing up the rear, since she could easily see over the other two anyhow.  Osric checked for nests and eggs.

They went deeper and deeper into the hills, with no avail, and the Daystar was well into the western sky when Osric thought he spotted a hippogryph nest, maybe, in a sheltered bit of the hillside.

Terrance pulled out her broom of flying.  "To the trees!" she exclaimed, to Osric's and Cathance's confusion, and took off.  She flew up, and did a few swoops over the nest from different angles, and circled it, before she returned to the others.

"I don't see an easy path to it," she told the others. "I'm pretty sure there's at least one egg!"  Cathance looked around for nearby hippogryphs, but critically failed to see any at all.

Osric, leery of Cathance's surety there were no hippogryphs, cast pass without trace on the three of them, and they started scaling the hill to the nest.  It did not seem to help him much, as he also critically failed at anything resembling stealth at all.  But, no hippogryphs appeared.

The nest was on a small ledge which formed from a natural outcropping of the rock.  Terrance peered in and declared there were 8 eggs!

The nest was 2-3 feet tall; Cathance could not see in it.   That also meant if she was in it, nothing could see her.  "Put me in the nest!" she commanded imperiously.  So Terrance lifted her in.  They started a line:  Cathance handed Terrance an egg, Terrance handed it to Osric to pack carefully.

The line went swimmingly, and Osric had packed 5 eggs, when they heard the scream of an angry hippogryph.  They hardly had a chance to look up before she was on Terrance!  Claws slashed, beak pierced.  Injured and angry, Terrance drew her scimitar and with a mighty slash, decapitated the hippogryph in one blow!  Blood gushed out, drenching Terrance, Cathance, and the eggs.

Cathance was appalled.  "Was that really necessary?" she asked Terrance.  "I was fighting back!" Terrance retorted, unrepentantly.

At that, the hippogryph's mate flew in and attacked Osric from behind, claws slashing, beak piercing!   Cathance hid in the nest.  Osric set the egg he had down gently (no mean feat when injured), and bonked the hippogryph on his head.  Terrance used her rapier this time, and skewered the hippogryph square in the chest, and he dropped.

Cathance climbed out of the nest, pulling out her healer's kit, and stabilized the skewered hippogryph, while Osric explained about "sustainable hippogryph egg-harvesting" to Terrance.

Terrance put Cathance back into the nest and they packed up the rest of the eggs, then climbed back down the steep hillside.

They had 8 eggs, and it was only the first day!  They tried to decide what to do:  go back, or look for more?  They decided to look for more, but weren't quite sure where.  Osric finally decided to start heading south west.

The Daystar was westering, and while they didn't find another nest, they did find a good campsite, confident they'd find more eggs the next day.  Cathance used prestidigitation to clear the blood off herself and the others as they figured out the watch order.

The night passed without incident, although Osric was sure he heard angry eagle calls in the distance, beyond the owl calls, during his midnight watch.

The next morning, they checked the eggs (all was well), and, once Osric spent an hour meditating on nature, started off in the same order, following a rough arc southwest that kept them the same distance from Haven.

The Daystar was approaching straight overhead, when they thought maybe they'd found a nest!  They hid in the trees and watched the pair of hippogryphs 30' up a cliff, under a steep overhang.  As they watched, a third hippogryph joined them.  And a fourth!  "Oh my, a herd," Cathance breathed.

But it was not obvious if there were any eggs.  Osric noted, he could cast locate animal or plant, and it would confirm if there are nests on that cliff with eggs.  Cathance and Terrance pointed out that would find the eggs in the backpack, instead.  In the end, Cathance and Terrance took all the eggs, and withdrew further away from Osric than the potential nest.

Osric's locate animal or plant confirmed there was a nest with eggs.  More discussion ensued.  Terrance wondered if she could speak to the hippogryphs to influence them somehow.  Osric mulled on whether they were able to subdue all the hippogryphs.  Cathance asked, "Are we sure there are four?"

They all moved to about 150' away from the nest, and looked more closely.  Well, Terrance was distracted by the nearby trees, and Cathance was already trying to work out a strategy.  Osric, though, discerned that there really were only four hippogryphs, and two were the parents; the other two were 2-yr-olds, just coming into full maturity.

The hippogryphs were flying faster than Terrance's broom of flying.

The Freelancers hid in the trees, and Cathance cast dancing lights, and the two younger hippogryphs saw it, and gave chase.  One "caught" them, and beaked the dancing lights, to no avail.  The second one saw Cathance, and clawed at her, but missed.

Cathance swung and missed with her warhammer.  Terrance crit the hippogryph on the dancing lights; it returned the crit on Terrance with its beak.  Osric swung his quarterstaff at the one attacking Cathance, but missed.

Terrance tried to hit the hippogryph again, but missed; she disengaged and moved back.  Osric summoned a bear spirit totem, given everyone a protective buffer, and then crit on the hippogryph that had attacked Cathance, smacking it soundly with his quarterstaff.  Cathance knocked it out with her warhammer!

The remaining hippogryph, no longer having Terrance as an immediate target, flew up, and then divebombed Cathance, knocking her prone.  Its beak missed, but it slashed Cathance with its claws.  A second slash missed.

The other two hippogryphs flew over, looking pretty angry.  Cathance, prone and injured, could not keep the dancing lights up, and they winked out.

Terrance emerged and attacked the hippogryph on Cathance, who blew a raspberry at it from her prone position.  Terrance knocked it out, thankfully not on top of Cathance.  Terrance hid.

Osric asked, "Cathance, are you okay?"  Cathance told him, "Yah, it just knocked me down!"  Osric turned to one of the two angry hippogryphs and bonked him with his quarterstaff.  Cathance stood back up, swinging her warhammer; but she was off balance and whiffed.  The hippogryph, unhappy at this state of affairs, ran away, and Osric knocked him out with his quarterstaff.

The other hippogryph flew up and divebombed Osric, piercing him with her beak, slashing him with her claws.  Osric was knocked prone, and the hippogryph slashed him again with her claws.  Ouch.  Osric lay there, blinking.

Terrance emerged from her hiding spot and attacked the hippogryph, who was distracted by Osric!   She disengaged and moved back.  Osric stood back up, healing himself as he did so, and knocked this last hippogryph out with his quarterstaff.

Cathance and Osric checked the hippogryphs.  They were out for a good hour.  Terrance pulled out her broom of flying.  "To the trees!" she exclaimed, and flew off towards the nest.  Cathance and Osric realized, that was the command word for the broom.

Terrance landed up at the nest and started loading the eggs into the sacks.  There were 4 of them!  As she did so, she replayed the fight in her head, and realized that this tackling fighting style was typical for destrier hippogryphs.

Now with 12 hippogryph eggs in hand, they did not think they could get more without endangering the ones they were carrying, and beelined back to Haven, arriving about 3 hours after the Daystar had set.

Worried about egg warmth, Cathance talked to Jocelyn about changing rooms to one with a fireplace, which he was happy to do, and Osric arranged the rooms so the eggs would stay warm overnight.

The next morning, they headed back to Cliffshadow, making sure the eggs were well-padded in the back of the cart.  It took another 4 days (and they made sure to get a room with a fireplace at The Hippogryph Wing), and they drove the cart straight to House Aldous on return.

They found the barn and training area, and asked the stablehands who they should talk to.  In short order, Odo of House Aldous, a male human in heavy duty work clothes, came out to talk to them.  He was all afire to hear their tale.  "What'd you bring?  Where'd you find them?  How did it go?"

Terrance told him a bit dramatically, "We've brought you twelve!  Four are destrier!"

Odo responded, "Oh, excellent!"  He climbed in the cart, looking at the eggs, inspecting the shells.  He nodded, happy.

Terrance and Cathance started pitching at Odo how destrier eggs were worth even more gold than Odo had promised.  Odo wasn't that impressed, but seeing as 12 eggs was quite the win, he concluded it was worth it to pay extra.

Then he asked, since there were more than 10 eggs, if they wanted the gold, or a trained gelding.  The three Freelancers looked at each other.  Obviously they were not going to share a gelding.  Cathance asked, just to eliminate herself from the option, "I don't suppose you have pony hippogryphs in there, do you?"  2'10" Cathance wasn't ever going to be mistress of a full-sized hippogryph.

Odo boomed, "Of course we do!" and Cathance's eyes got wide.  He sent a stablehand to bring out a gelding.  Cathance looked at Terrance.  "I got my broom," she said.  Osric shrugged.  "I'm in the stables all the time," he said.  "You take it."

The stablehand returned with a pony hippogryph, a brown-and-white paint with bird-portion resembling an osprey.  Odo handed the harness to Cathance.  "This is Jigsaw," he told her.  He started counting out the gold for the balance of the eggs:  280gp.  "Do not give Arnari the Freelancers cut," he instructed them, "I'll take care of that, too!"

Cathance did not give in to the temptation to fly the gelding around, and instead tied him to the back of the cart as they left to return it.  She told the others to split the gold, since she got the pony hippogryph.  Since she was clearly wondering how she would make up the 200gp each they otherwise would get, Terrance and Osric reassured her not to worry about coin.  But she resolved to remember this in future.

At no point did it cross Cathance's mind that the empathy she felt for the little hippogryph was in part because of his splotchy markings.