Guarding Hindmarsh Herb Gatherers

Terrance and Tuala had convinced Quelenna to join them for a mission, and despite his return the prior day, they convinced Dryali as well.  He studied Quelenna with interest from behind his goggles.  The Wild elf was fit, and 6" taller than he. 

Once in Tomtom's office, they watched the burly warrior shuffle papers somewhat impatiently.  He cited:

• A recent mission to capture Mansel went poorly.  A number of people saw Ethan, and the two of them escaped.  The Church of Storms would like to track down and capture Mansel.  150gp each.
  • Terrance made a face.
  • Dryali asked, "What if we locate him, and neither capture him or alert him of this?"  Tomtom considered, and said, "You probably still get a reward."
• Recently, we figured out the pollution coming from Pirates River, but not the cause.  Maybe track that.
  • Quelenna made a face.
• Herb shipments from Hindmarsh have stopped, Hanohano of House Ha'aheo wants this fixed.
  • Dryali made a face.

Dryali asked, "So go stop this?"

Tomtom told him, "Hanohano – not sure what's needed; looking for cause, escorting an expedition, or finding the herbs yourself."

Dryali, his memory still fresh of Tomtom discouraging ventures into the marsh, asked, "Why is this different from last time?"

Tomtom explained, "The paths are known, and Hanohano is more reputable," but Dryali was not mollified.  "How does his reputation keep us from landing in the muck?"

Tomtom snapped, "Well, I wouldn't take it," gesturing at his armour, "but known paths are less likely to have you sink below your knees."

There was a pause, as the others all looked at Dryali, who was perhaps less rested up than they.  Finally he asked, "What do we know about Mansel?"

Terrance launched into a rant, about how Mansel was able to light himself on fire and burned everyone.  Dryali took in this information in shock.  Quelenna supported her fellow Child of Āhua.  "I'll go with Terrance's opinion, here."

Dryali declared, "Does not answer my question."  Terrance snapped, "What?  Who cares?  No Mansel!"

Dryali turned back to Tomtom.  "Does he need to be captured?"  Tomtom replied, "Yes; they want him captured.  He's a Rock sagani."  Dryali countered, "No, he's not.  Can't the clerics just use speak with dead?"  Tomtom shook his head.  "Not that useful."

Terrance asked, "what about the pollution?"  Tomtom said, "They encountered a black pudding…" as Quelenna put her hands in front of her, shaking her head.

They took the mission to Hindmarsh.

The Freelancers decided to pay a visit to House Ha'aheo, and talked to Hanohano, a male Rock sagani.  The latter was relieved to see them, and introduced them to one of the House carters, Pike, who was also a Rock sagani, with eyes like orange agates.  Pike was returning to Hindmarsh, and would transport them; Hanohano provided appropriate supplies and food for the trip.

Crossing Duquesne the long way on a cart took 10 days, and the trip was uneventful and somewhat boring, because Pike didn't have much to say ever; and when he did he tended to speak in monosyllables. 

But on arrival, he told them he could drop the group at either The Anchor and Plough, which was a bit south of the center of city, and thus near the warehouses, or at The Tipsy Tornado, which was north of the airship landing pads, near the gladiator pits.

Dryali noted to the others that the former was recommended by Kaikoa, and that immediately made Tuala and Terrance suspicious; and Terrance, at least, liked the "T" name, so The Tipsy Tornado it was.

Pike dropped them off, and instructed the Freelancers to "Meet up with Vaughn Quickrain," and gave them directions to the warehouses at the south side.  They went in and spoke to Charis, the male human innkeeper, and secured rooms.

The Daystar was westering, and Dryali was wont to show Tuala the mighty tornados trailing behind the skylith, but Quelenna and Terrance wanted to hit the taproom, so they did that instead.  It was bustling, clearly full of local regulars and travellers.  Quelenna and Terrance were immediately approached to come to the gladiator pits for "special fighting."

Tuala and Dryali noted a group in the corner, surrounding a female human, with grey eyes, above average height, in plate with a longsword.  The person closest to her had an illusion on them, to appear as a female human with hazel eyes and blonde-ish hair.

As they kept looking around the taproom in general, they noticed some half-elf customers, and an elf in the corner, but the group with the female human were in nice mail, scale, or studded leather.  Her name was apparently Raquelle.  But they could not tell if she was a regular customer.

Intrigued, Dryali slipped an extra silver to a barmaid.  "Who are they?" he asked, indicating the party.  "That's Raquelle," she said shortly, and was not any further forthcoming.

Considering the plate mail, Dryali tried to discern any holy symbols, but saw none.

Early the next morning, the Freelancers were at House Ha'aheo warehouse talking to Vaughn, a male Rain sagani.  He was very unhappy, as he explained the herb gathering teams would go into the marsh, and fail to return.  Now there was great fear about these unexplained disappearances, and Hindmarsh itself was rather indifferent to it.

He brought over Hirrathak, a Black dragonborn who was a skilled guide as well as herb gatherer.  They discussed a plan, and decided Hirrathak would lead a team into the marsh, and the Freelancers would accompany them and be muscle, and find out what there was to find out about the nature of these disappearances.

The marsh was a day's travel, so after consulting with Hirrathak, Dryali bought another 6 days' rations for 3 gp, and another 50' silk rope for 10gp prior to departure; and a pot of insect-repelling grease, something he'd not needed since leaving Nadezdha.

The day's hike was uneventful, and they camped at the edge of the marsh on the first night.  It was very peaceful.  Then they entered the marsh, and their going slowed down.  Hirrathak picked their way carefully along paths only he knew.  There were lots of plants, and various sounds of insects buzzing and amphibians doing their amphibian thing.

They got to a place where the plants were thicker, and the gatherers spread out a little, quickly sorting through the growing plants, harvesting and tying together what they needed.  Dryali and Tuala were at one end of the group, and Hirrathak, Terrance, and Quelenna at the other end.

Suddenly, just like that, six frog persons armed with spears appeared, riding 4 giant toads.  They all dismounted and threw nets on the group, netting one of the gatherers, Hirrathak, Tuala, and Dryali.  The toads then bit, grasping another gatherer and Hirrathak in their mouths, knocking these two unconscious.  Another toad grasped Quelenna in its mouth, who was very vocal in her displeasure at this change in her circumstances, but the last one failed to grasp Dryali.

Dryali pulled out a daggar and sliced himself out of the net, but Tuala did not bother, instead he cast web and ensnared two of the frog persons [1][2] and the toad with Hirrathak in its mouth.  Quelenna, who continued exclaiming about how grossed out she was, wriggled ineffectively to get out of the toad's mouth, but failed to do anything other than avoid more injury.

Terrance drew her rapier and skewered an unsnared frog person [6], downing them.  She then drew her scimitar and whiffed at the nearby toad.

The three remaining unsnared frog persons then attacked Terrance, Tuala, and Dryali.   Terrance avoided the attacks[3], with spear and bite, but Tuala could not[4], still being stuck in the net.  The frog person[5] attacking Dryali overbalanced their spear thrust on Dryali and fell, but got back on their feet and bit him.

The giant toad holding Quelenna in its mouth chomped her again, eliciting more cries of dismay from the hapless Wild elf.  The toad who failed to bite Dryali failed again to bite him.  As for the other two toads, they turned and carefully spit out the unconscious people in their mouths.  Then they tried to bite two more gatherers, but one missed.

Dryali, free of the net, created a flamethrower eldritch cannon, set it on his shoulder, and put it to good use.  Flame shot out in a cone, hitting a frog person [5] (killing them) and two of the toads, including the one that'd attacked him and the one holding Quelenna.  He moved slightly to have a better angle.

Tuala used firebolt on his net, freeing himself, and then quickened his spells to attack the toad with Quelenna in its mouth with magic missile.  Quelenna, still in its mouth and grossed out, punched it from the inside.

Terrance attacked the giant toad that had one of the herb gatherers in its mouth, and then lost her footing and fell.  She got back up cautiously, backing up.  The giant toad also backed up, and she slashed it as it moved to avoid the web.

The remaining frog persons were clearly not prepared to encounter resistance.  The two stuck in the web [1][2] remained stuck, and the two not in the web [3][4] were unable to land an attack on Tuala or Terrance.

One of the other giant toads bit another gatherer, knocking them out, then turned and spit the gatherer out behind it.  The other giant toad bit Dryali, picking him up in its mouth.  The giant toad with Quelenna bit her again.

Dryali, super displeased he now had toad spit as well as marsh muck on his gear, had the flamethrower shoot its flames on the inside of the giant toad, which still hung on to him.  Then he cast thunderwave, which blasted through the toad to hit one of the frog persons [4] as well, pushing them away.  The toad still hung on to him!

Tuala again cast magic missile on the giant toad with Quelenna.  She was so unhappy!  Quelenna tried to punch the toad twice from inside its mouth, but was unable to do so properly.  She burst into tears.  Terrance felt bad, and skewered the giant toad with her rapier, killing it!

Quelenna stopped crying.  "You're my hero!" she announced, of Terrance.  For her part, Terrance moved to another frog person [3] and slashed them with her rapier.

The two frog persons in the web finally broke out, and moved towards Tuala [1] and Terrance [2].  The frog person Terrance had slashed [3] whiffed with their spear, but bit her.  The frog person Dryali had pushed with his thunderwave attacked Tuala, but missed.

The giant toad working the gatherers picked up another one, knocking him out.  The toad Terrance had slashed bit her, picking her up in its mouth.  Now Terrance got to have a lot more empathy for Quelenna's unhappiness!

Dryali lost his temper, and managed to get his hands on his inscribed pole of collapsing.  He shot a firebolt inside the giant toad, and had the flamethrower shoot its flames, effectively cooking the toad from the inside out.  Freed of the yucky toad mouth, he moved behind Quelenna.

Tuala disengaged and backed up, then cast sleep under the frog persons [1][4] attacking him, and the giant toad with a gatherer in its mouth.  The frog persons sank to the ground, sleeping, but the giant toad was unaffected.

Quelenna also lost her temper, and pulled out her family fan and unleashed a flurry of blows against the giant toad with Terrance in its mouth.  Only one of them landed.  She moved behind Dryali.  Terrance was unable to wriggle out of the toad's mouth, and it chomped on her again.

The toad with a gatherer in its mouth turned again and spit them out.  One of the frog persons [2] dragged a netted gatherer to the same place as the others.  The other conscious frog person [3] attacked Dryali, but missed.

Quelenna was looking a bit worse for wear, so Dryali clasped her shoulder and cast cure wounds on her.  He called out cheerfully, because after all he wasn't in a toad's mouth, "Hey Terrance, how you doin'?"  Terrance said, "I'm okay, other than being in a toad's mouth."

"You sure?" Dryali asked.  "Yes?" Terrance told him, and he had the flamethrower shoot a cone of flame at her.  The frog person attacking him died, the giant toad died, and Terrance caught the full blast as well.

Terrance was on fire, on the ground, in a dead giant toad's mouth.  She looked up at Dryali.  "I'm unhappy," she told him.  He grinned.

Tuala, witnessing this scene, kept his focus, but his firebolt shot harmlessly past the remaining conscious frog person [2].  Quelenna, still peeved, hit them with her family fan, and then followed up with an offhand punch.

Terrance extricated herself from the dead toad's mouth, and moved to the still-living giant toad, attacking it with both her rapier and scimitar.  The frog person [2] called out RIBBT at it, mounted, and fled, dodging an attack from Quelenna.  Terrance slashed the giant toad, and Dryali downed it with a firebolt.  The frog person tumbled off.

Dryali headed towards them, sending the flamethrower forward, but they were too far away.  Tuala dropped the web, and sent another firebolt whizzing past them.  Quelenna put on a burst of speed, and ran the frog person down.  Her first swing missed, but the second landed, killing them.

Dryali went to the netted herb gatherer, who was freaked out, and helped them out of the net.  He brought out his rope, and tied up the two sleeping frog persons.  Tuala, mindful of the loudly expressed unhappinesses about the giant toad bites, started wielding prestidigitation to clear all of the toad spit and muck.

Dryali also used a node on his earring of Āhua to heal Terrance slightly.  But there were too many knocked out gatherers to heal, so everyone decided to rest an hour, to clear the knockouts.

The frog persons awoke much sooner than that, and were dismayed apparently to be tied up.  Nobody had any sympathy for their sad ribeting.  After everyone was conscious again, they decided to head back to Hindmarsh immediately with whatever herbs had been gathered.  The prisoners were frog-marched along with them.

Once back in Hindmarsh, they brought these to Vaughn and told him the story.  Vaughn said he could take care of having them interrogated, but then what should be done?  The Freelancers, dignity still smarting, all suggested perhaps selling them to the gladiator pits was the best disposition, but deciding that depended on their tale.  Vaughn, clearly not wanting to admit this knowledge, told them he might know who to sell them to.

That afternoon, Vaughn had a person with comprehend languages come and interrogate the frog persons.  He found out they were bullywugs, and were from a newly established bullywug village in the marsh, that was further west than the other villages.  They were part of a squad whose job was to capture the gatherer parties for manual labour.  There was no remorse whatsoever for this activity.

The Freelancers looked at each other.  Terrance and Quelenna said simultaneously, "Fuck these guys!"  After more discussion and questioning, they determined there was no more information to be had, and sold the bullywugs to the gladiator pits.  The Freelancers split the 115gp take 5 ways with Vaughn; he also gave them 150gp each as their fee, and arranged for them to escort the partial herb harvest to Cliffshadow the next morning.

That night, Dryali showed Tuala the view off the back of the skylith, with the stars above, the clouds and great storm below, and the mighty tornadoes in the distance.  They threw brightly coloured vials off the edge to see where they went.  Terrance and Quelenna watched the gladiator fights, with new bullywug entrants.  One was torn to pieces, but the other was victorious in their battle.

• Quelenna → lvl3!