Harpies at the Amabel Villa

Quelenna had been trying to befriend Koka, the giant crocodile, for a full prime, when she'd decided she was too restless for being in the stables.  She gathered Tai, Ana, and Cathance and persuaded them to go with her to get a mission from Damakaios.

Thus they found themselves in Damakaios' office, deciding where to sit, while Damakaios regarded them with interest.  Tai and Ana hesitated; the office was similar to Arnari's but not fully.  Wood-panelled walls were lined with display cases showing off various bladed weapons.  Damakaios' mahogany desk was clear, and finely carved with intricate geometric patterns.  Facing it were chairs of various sizes, which matched the craftsmanship of the desk.

Quelenna, who'd gone on a couple missions from Damakaios, leaned against the wall where it was lacking a display case.  Tai took a seat just left of center, near the back.  He sat gingerly until he was confident it would hold his bulk.  Ana took a chair front & center, appropriately-sized for a gnome.  Cathance looked at the two of them, then climbed into a chair sized for Tai, and kicked her feet.

Damakaios pulled on his goatee once, then visibly stopped himself.  He unlocked a drawer, and pulled out 4 missions, all on very tidy papers.  Then he launched into them without preamble, but of course elicited a lot of discussion from his Freelancers.

First mission.  Investigate what caused the ruckus at the Hadid garden party.  None of you were there… a couple nasty vines attacked the Freelancers, and then a cursed tree came alive and attacked!

Quelenna <frowning>:  Confused about a cursed tree
Damakaios:  Tahu did a good job of covering… pretty good job "Freelancer entertainment" <pause>  also, the vines were brought in, but the tree was not.  Hadid wants to know who cursed their tree, from myriad enemies.
Cathance:  do we have a list of these?
Damakaios:  politics are shifting daily; which is why Hadid will pay 300gp.
Everyone:  money good
Tai:  what else is there?

Second mission.  Also from House Hadid:  they need cheshire pelts; will pay 500gp for each pristine pelt, or less for a damaged pelt.

Third mission.  Ongoing, do not expect you to complete.  The Amabels are new money and decided to move to Commerce.  They acquired the deed to a substantive villa in the East/Southeast of Ripa Daneo, sight unseen.  It's overrun by native flora and fauna, which needs to be cleared.  Don't destroy the villa.  Thus far, Terrnace, Fine Branch, and Dryali found there were several harpies nesting in it.  250gp apiece.

Cathance:  what is success, here?
Damakaios:  killed at least a few creatures living in it?  We can't claim to clear a quadrant; who knows what will move in.
Cathance <wryly>:  so, you're trying to soak them for money.
Damakaios <stiffly>:  I'm not trying to soak them
Tai:  happening regardless
Damakaios:  I'm perfectly happy to have Freelancers take advantage of their poor decisions.  But we should hold up our good name.
Ana:  sssso, we are taking them, but we'll add value.
Damakaios:  Fourth mission is on a different skylith entirely.

Damakaios paused, and reassessed the Freelancers in the room, lingering slightly on Quelenna.  "So glad Arnari sent me Freelancers with flying mounts," he said, almost to himself.  He refreshed himself by rereading the paper, then launched into it.

Fourth mission.  Skylith Leander… it's strange because it rolls.  The top rotates over the course of the year, and it's populated by mostly nomadic centaurs.  A side city is Rock sagani.  The centaur tribes mostly do herding, and the Red Wind tribe will pay 300gp/person for the discovery and destruction of whatever has been destroying their herds.  … Their herds are mostly cattle & horses, and it's the horses getting wrecked.

The room was quiet for a moment, as the Freelancers contemplated the prospect of visiting a skylith they'd never heard of to see creatures they'd once thought were mythical (although Tai and Ana had encountered a liontaur before).  Damakaios straightened the papers on his desk, and then Cathance piped up again.

Cathance:  not really interested in cheshire cats.
Ana:  party and Leander.
Quelenna:  yea, me too.
Tai:  what was beyond the Hadids?
Cathance:  Amabel, interested in that, am curious what we would find!  <paused, looked at the others>  Leander sounds like… the kobolds, and monk herds.
Ana:  yeah.
Tai:  so top 2 are: Hadid and mansion.
Quelenna:  not really feeling like sussing out politics du jour and figuring out how it compares with what it was 2 eighths ago before we were here.
Cathance:  are the Amabels on Commerce?
Damakaios:  no; they would have seen it [the villa]
Ana:  let's go clear out rich persons' mansion
Tai:  let's go Scooby Doo it up
Cathance:  is there more info?
<Damakaios consulted his papers, one of which had a sketch.>
Damakaios:  Dryali, Fine Branch, and Terrance found harpies nesting near the top of it.  There are several entrances:  big ones north, east, and south walls of the villa; smaller ones west and southeast.
Quelenna:  which entrances were used the last time?
Damakaios:  none actually used; they had harpy problems.  But they noticed bones in the central atrium.  Most were harpy bones/dinner, but also shark teeth… perhaps from the thousand-year-old collision with a thalassa.
Ana <shocked>:  it's been abandoned for 1000 years?!
Damakaios:  seems it
Ana:  the last Freelancers killed the harpies?
Damakaios:  only some
Ana:  but, we can't destroy the building
Cathance:  let's kill the harpies!!
Damakaios:  don't shatter everything
Quelenna:  I just have my hands
Cathance:  fireball works.  <double take>  wait, the harpies have been there 1000 years?!
Damakaios:  not these harpies
Cathance:  should we consider trying to get them to move out, or just kill them?
Ana:  can they respond to logic?
Cathance:  we need to know, so we have the correct plan.
Damakaios:  they aren't stupid, but not too smart.  Convincing them to move out of a place they've decided is their territory will be hard.
Cathance:  so, kill them.
Damakaios:  they were unpersuaded last time.  The previous Freelancers had issues with the harpy's song.  Terrance in particular said she just wanted to dance with the harpy, and the others stabbed her.
Ana:  beeswax in ears, we'll communicate with hand-signals.
Cathance <appalled>:  but guys, how would I... 

Ana, Tai, and Quelenna laughed, and Damakaios raised an eyebrow, but the Freelancers got the directions to the villa in question, then stopped at the quartermaster to get some beeswax, and headed out.  Quelenna rode pillion on Spencer Thundersparks.

Cathance:  is that on Commerce?
Damakaios:  definitely on Commerce.  …I'm not sure where; needs a bit of investigation

As they flew to the villa on their mounts, Cathance asked again, "What's our plan?"

Quelenna half asked, half suggested, "Can we send Hawkie?"  Ana said, "Yes!"  and Hawkie suddenly shot past them, on their way to the villa.  The Freelancers watched as the red-tailed hawk passed over nearby villas, passed over the front of the overgrown villa, passed over the back, dove into the atrium, and then winged back to Ana, landing on her shoulder.

Hawkie proceeded to drop a shiny into Ana's hand, as the Freelancers landed about 50 yards away from the villa.  The area was kind of wild to the south and east.  Ana inspected the shiny, and Cathance invoked the guidance of the Tortoise on her.  It was a claw, or nail, with an iridescent sheen.  After regarding it a short while, Ana shook her head.  "Let us proceed, as if there are harpies.  Put in the ear plugs."

They did so, and flew up so they could view in the atrium.  It was very overgrown, with a tree on the western half of it.  The roof was three storeys high, but at the east and west sides of the atrium, there was an extension that was only one storey high.  They gesticulated wildly at each other:  Ana wanted to land on the roof, Cathance wanted to avoid the tree, and Tai wanted to be on the east roof.

So, that's where they landed.  From their vantage, they could see the villa pretty well.  Cathance and Tai hadn't really seen any other than Freelancers Tavern this close up.  As Quelenna dismounted, she and Ana saw that the third floor on the northern part of the villa had a nice balcony that looked out over the atrium.  They also saw, staring at them balefully and stretching their wings, three harpies on the balcony.  The furthest one had red wings; the other two had blue.

"Harpies!" Ana yelled, but nobody heard.  She gesticulated wildly.

Hawkie flew over to the tree, ready to dodge any harpy attacks.

• Ana cast an uplevel'd flaming sphere onto the balcony, and slammed it into the closest harpy.  Smoke wafted up from the harpy's feathers, and she shrieked in pain and rage.  The Freelancers didn't hear that, however, because of the beeswax.
• Quelenna used her Winged Boots to fly over to the closest harpy, carefully avoiding the flaming sphere.  She used her fans, slashing the harpy twice, then folded it up in her fist, and punched the harpy, who had a lot to say about this treatment.
• Tai stayed on his pegasus and joined Quelenna, dispatching that harpy with his magical greataxe.  He then flew over to the red-winged harpy, but his axe swing went wide.
• The remaining blue-winged harpy, shrieking, flew around Quelenna, over the atrium and away from the flaming sphere.  She produced a club and whacked Quelenna with it.  She also tried to claw the Wild elf, but missed.
• The red-winged harpy was calling out, they could not hear what, then she swiped at Tai twice with her claws.  The first swipe scored him badly, but she overbalanced badly on the second swipe and had to correct her balance wildly.
• Two new harpies appeared on the balcony!  That must have been what the red-winged one was calling.  A new blue-winged one immediately flew out and attacked Tai, to no avail.
• The other new harpy had red wings and a staff.  She hesitated, flew out past Quelenna, then frowned in concentration.
  • Tai was thrown into a vision of a field of flowers, with his son running to him.
  • Quelenna was thrown into a vision of returning to her home, in happy circumstances.
  • Spencer Thundersparks had a vision of flying up, up, past the webbing that kept House Ha'aheao pegasi in their paddocks, and discovering unknown delights of freedom.
  • Cathance and Ana narrowed their eyes speculatively, looked at each other, and… hesitated.
  • Tai embraced his son and said, "I'll always love you, but I don't think you're real," then the vision shattered into 1000 pieces.
  • Quelenna couldn't maintain her suspension of disbelief, and the vision faded out like a bad elven trance.
  • Spencer was soaring and soaring above the trees in eastern Duquesne… well actually, he seized up, and crashed to the ground of the atrium, 30' below.  Tai could not get out of the saddle in time and was also caught up in the mess.
• Cathance cried out, "Spencer!! Don't fall!!!" but the pegasus did not acknowledge her, nor did the other Freelancers hear her.  To even the odds somewhat, Cathance cast hypnotic pattern.  The red-winged harpy just off the balcony managed to avoid hypnosis.  The rest of the harpies were hypnotized…
  • Their wings stilled as they got caught in the pattern, and they crashed to the ground in various places around Spencer and Tai.  The falling injuries snapped them out of it; but they laid there, contemplating their life choices, or perhaps shrieking; the Freelancers could not hear.

Hawkie could hear, and they dodged further into the tree.

• Ana could see, and she had Pelorus fly towards the tree, and turn just so, and she cast burning hands on the harpies to her right of Tai and Spencer, 30' below Quelenna, scorching the red-winged one with a staff and a blue-winged harpy.
  • Eyes narrowed, Ana gauged the distance on the flaming sphere, then rammed it into the red-winged harpy still in the air.  Then on the bounce she let it drop onto the atrium floor… on top of the same two harpies burned by burning hands.
• Quelenna pivoted and attacked the red-winged harpy in the air next to her with her fans.  The first strike missed but the second slashed the harpy.  Quelenna used her ki for flurry of blows; again missing, then hitting the harpy, who was quite clearly expressing an opinion the Wild elf couldn't hear.
• Spencer still couldn't move, so Tai dismounted and stood up, tears pouring down his face about his son.  He flew into a rage, and a lavender-coloured flumph materialized next to the flaming sphere.
  • He turned to the blue-winged harpy prone in front of him and slashed her viciously with his magical greataxe, twice.  She was bleeding profusely.
  • The flumph exploded, and the blue-winged harpy next to the flaming sphere was damaged with force of it.
  • Spencer snapped out of his vision, and was visibly surprised and sad.
• The harpy next to Tai stood up, swaying, and swung her club at him, missing.  She slashed him with her claws, but he shrugged most of it off from sheer rage.
• The red-winged harpy on Quelenna frowned in concentration.
  • Ana counterspelled.  A vision began to build in her head of driving back to Stormhaven in a carriage laden with chests of gold and escorted by an honor guard, wowing her family.  But the counterspell shattered it.
  • Ana sighed.  Someday, not today, she thought.
• The other red-winged harpy, entirely unpleased at all this fire and burnination, flew directly to Ana and attacked the Maker gnome twice with her claws.  While the first swipe missed, the second swipe slashed Ana badly.
• The remaining blue-winged harpy flew up to Quelenna and smacked her with a club, but it was a glancing blow.  She swiped at the Wild elf with her claws and missed.
• Cathance pressed her lips together, considering how best to address the odds, then sent a bolt of pure chaos at the red-winged harpy attacking Ana.  The black smoke wrought severe mental distress on her.  "Two can play at that game," Cathance said, but was unaware of any reply.
  • Jigsaw flew over to the blue-winged harpy that had flown up to Quelenna, piercing with beak and slashing with claw.  It was too much, and she succumbed to her wounds, falling to the atrium floor.

Hawkie just dodged into the tree more, trying to avoid the red-winged harpy's notice.

• Ana did not want that harpy near her, so cast thunderwave, the echoing boom audible even to the Freelancers with beeswax in their ears.  The harpy, slammed by thunder, was knocked away from Ana towards the flaming sphere.
  • Pelorus flew the rest of the way to the tree, then Ana slammed the flaming sphere into the surprised harpy.  However the flaming sphere was guttering out, so she was more surprised than hurt.
• Quelenna attacked the red-winged harpy near her with her fans again.  She slashed with one, then critfailed with the other, and so much magic was swirling around that she turned invisible simultaneously with invoking flurry of blows with her ki.
  • Flurry of blows missed, then hit, and the strike made her visible again.
  • So, that was weird.
• Spencer Thundersparks, the destrier pegasus, was pretty unhappy.  He stood up, shook himself, then kicked the life entirely out of the nearby blue-winged harpy.
  • Tai mounted, still raging, and they moved next to the red-winged harpy Ana had boomed, who had caused the painful vision of his son; a lavender pixie materialized on the other side of her.
  • Tai struck with his magical greataxe twice, wounding her badly; then the pixie exploded, slamming the harpy with force.
• That harpy opened her mouth to sing, then finally noticed that Tai had his ears plugged.  Instead she slashed at Tai twice with her claws.  He again shrugged most of it off from sheer rage.
• The red-winged harpy on Quelenna did start to sing.  But the Freelancers' ears were plugged, and Jigsaw was unaffected.  She was visibly peeved.
• Cathance asked her, "Are you singing?  I can't hear you!"  Then she uplevel'd a chromatic orb in the harpy's face.  It settled on thunder before it struck, so Cathance and Quelenna heard that.
  • Jigsaw attacked, piercing with beak and slashing with claw.

Ana heard the chromatic orb as well, and thought that was a grand idea.  She sent her own chromatic orb at the harpy next to Tai, which also settled on thunder before it struck.  The harpy crashed to the ground, her insides kind of jellied from all the thunder.

• Quelenna attacked the remaining harpy with her fans.  She missed the first strike, but the harpy succumbed to the slash from the second strike, and crashed to the atrium floor.

The harpies were dead, but the Freelancers had made a tremendous amount of noise in the process, with all those thunder spells.  As they looked around the atrium, first Quelenna and Tai, then Cathance, then Ana, noticed that some of the skeletal bits were moving.

Little bits – of bone, and teeth – were bouncing across the atrium, gathering together in the middle.  Whatever it was, seemed big.  Cathance flew up, quite a ways, about 85' away from it.  Then she cast chill touch on it.

Tai attacked it with his magical greataxe, the blade smashing through some of the bone, but it just rearranged how it was coming together.  Another flumph materialized and exploded, knocking some of the bone around with force.

Ana also flew up, by about 50', and cast ray of frost at the coalescing bones, slowing them down with cold.

The bones coalesced into a skeleton of a really big swimming creature, the likes of which the Freelancers had never seen, although Ana had heard tales in Stormhaven from the thalassa harvesters.  All of them had heard the stories from Halysraft, and started thinking maybe Fine Branch, Tahu, and Terrance had not been telling tall tales about sharks.  Anyhow, as they watched, the skeleton started to lift off from the ground, as if it was swimming in the air.

Quelenna and Tai looked around.  Other bones were also bouncing together.  Quelenna grabbed onto Tai and swung up behind him.  Spencer disengaged and flew away.  Ana also flew away on Pelorus.

Cathance was already pretty far away, and held Jigsaw there to watch.  She wanted to see how fast this … skeleton could fly, and if it would give chase.  It flew up, maybe ⅔ as fast as Jigsaw.  She flew about 60' away towards Freelancers Tavern, still watching.  The skeletal creature came up over the atrium wall, but did not pursue past the edge of the house.  She couldn't tell if that was a territorial boundary or a magical binding.

Cathance pulled out her earplugs.  It was gnashing its teeth and air biting, but did not chase her past the edge of the house.  She flew back to the others.

"Guys!  It doesn't chase us past the house!" she called out to the others, as they all flew back to Freelancers.

So, the Freelancers had been gone little more than an hour; Damakaios hadn't even ended his morning office hours.  They informed him they'd slain five harpies, and two of them were "nasty", a statement which caused him to raise an eyebrow, because as far as Damakaios was concerned, all harpies are nasty.

Quelenna:  "show us our greatest desires," fucking bullshit!
Tai:  I turned one into a feather duster!
Damakaios <calmly>:  alright, 225gp <got out strongbox>
Quelenna:  I am done with the harpies, kinda pissed off
Tai:  some bullshit, there
<Damakaios pulled a handheld vault out of the strongbox.>
Quelenna:  was going to check out the house, but all this thunder <held up a hand> didn't damage the house – seemed to make the bones writhe and come together into some shark thing – let's just say, it made Koka look small.  It seemed to have friends, and that's when we decided you'd rather get this report, than have to come get our bodies.
<Quelenna held out her badge, and Damakaios put the 225gp on it.>
Cathance:  the shark thing didn't seem to go past the house, but it gnashed its teeth at us
<Damakaios waved to Cathance, Tai, and Ana to do the same with their badges.>
Damakaios:  glad you escaped the giant horrible shark and now know what to see, next mission?
Cathance:  any record?
Damakaios:  not really; may be 1000 years ago
Quelenna:  do we know anything about who might have left that much magic in the house?
Damakaios:  abandoned for centuries; do not know.
Cathance:  how was it able to be sold?!
Everyone:  Yeah!
Damakaios:  the Council of Houses is kind of… weird, and no doubt took an interest in turning an abandoned villa into a profit opportunity.
Quelenna:  this amount of magic "lying around" defies intuition
Ana:  I'm imagining the protective spells on the villa misfired when the thalassa hit, and somehow co-opted a giant shark.
Damakaios:  did the slain harpies also try to reform and rise?
Quelenna & Tai:  no.

That made it sound like Ana could be right; but for now that was the end of the mission.