Stealthy Stealing Eggpensive Eggs

Lorcan, Minji, Dominic, Peb, and Petrichor filed into Arnari's office and sat down.  Well, Dominic stood in front of the maps, examining them; and Minji sat on the bearskin rug, being somewhat of a hedonist.  That reminded Peb how nice the rug felt so they sat on it too.  So really only Lorcan and Petrichor sat on the comfortable-looking uncomfortable chairs.

Anyhow, it had been perhaps 3 days since they'd returned from the backbreaking, dirty labour of restoring the Shrine of the Snake, and now the food, drink, rest in a clean bed, and camaraderie had restored their spirits, they were chafing for something to do.  Well, Lorcan had put most of that time to good use and crafted a healing potion.  Another group had just returned the prior evening having caught some thieves who were stealing to pay for Daystar lotion, from a construction site halfway to Cliffgate.

Arnari looked them over and didn't even put her harp down (on which she was idly playing melancholy phrases), but instead said:

• Eggs mission.
  • hippogryphs – south in Haven Hills.  100 eagles/egg; 10 eggs for a mount.
  • gryphons similar – north in Northridge mountains.  150 eagles/egg, 12 eggs for a mount.
• Other "standard" mission
  • Go to Pirates Dream river, find an unnatural creature, remove it from circulation.  100 eagles/person, plus an uncommon potion.

The bard played a discordant run on the harp and put it aside.

Arnari:  Gwidion is still bankrolling.
Lorcan:  have you talked to him?
Arnari:  no?  Not exactly?  Still have funds from him… I am going to send a party up, once I put them together.  He said he stopped, but things are still appearing fresh.

Arnari pulled out a fresh piece of paper, and one that looked like it had been rolled up in a messenger case for a while.

• Followup on Wolfkiss Inn Daystar situation.  They said they were getting [Daystar lotion] from Stormhaven.  Go there and find where it's coming from, and act accordingly.
• Fifth mission – follow on to a really old mission.  Long ago Freelancers cleared out a cave, and Lorcan chased a grblin.  The Mayor of Marshfor would like to have Freelancers track back where that grblin went, and find out where the grblin was coming from, find out what'd there.  150 eagles/person.

Arnari finished and looked at everyone expectantly, during which time the Narrator got Confused and misnumbered the notes.  <Narrator voice:  possibly a page is missing, but cannot tell because of the mis-numbering, and cannot think of where it could have gone, and since this makes sense I'm just going with it.>

Petrichor:  how scary are gryphons?
Peb:  we were attacked by two, it's not, uh, bloody
Dominic:  let's go for gryphons.
Arnari:  get a large number of sacks and blankets, and you want the cart
Peb:  Ah will bring mah cart, Mary Jane is ready t'go.

They visited the quartermaster, Waywocket, and Lorcan bought 3 blankets.  Minji, Dominic, Peb each bought 10 blankets and 10 sacks.  While they were there, Shimni swung by and asked what they were doing, and decided to join them.

Peb wanted to use Lakeview as the jumping-off point, so they decided that's what they would do.

As the group headed west on the road to Cliffgate, Dominic noted the under-construction Wolfkiss Inn was halfway there, and he would add to the map.  Everyone nodded, they'd heard of it, since the other group had returned the night before.  The area had gotten more organized since they were last there, with vendors fairly well set-up.  The Freelancers stopped there for the night, and saw Ismay Wolfkiss and his crew building out the basement / foundation for the inn.

The next day they got to Cliffgate, and took rooms at The Hippogryph's Wing inn for 8 cats/person, 5 cats/mount).  They'd arrived early enough to spend some time for dinner and drinks in the common room, and since the inn had plenty of patrons that were eastbound traffic, the Freelancers mingled and listened for word of anything new.

Peb, Minji, & Petrichor heard about the upcoming growing season; and from westbound travellers, the Wolfkiss Inn; from eastbound travellers, they heard about travels.

Dominic heard a group discussing how the herbs from HIndmarsh had become expensive again.

Lorcan & Shimni heard a couple fishing people discussing their carts of dried & salted fish.  They were talking about how glad they'd stuck to fishing on Lake Mossey; Freelancers were "keeping things okay with the River," but to the northwest, gryphons were sighted.

The Freelancers rose early the next morning and had a long days' travel to Lakeview, getting rooms at the Biting Badger Inn and then hitting the taproom.

The locals were happy to see them, and assumed they were there to clean up nasty mutant creatures, and regaled them with tales of encounters to the northeast, which Minji found very distracting, being curious about all of them.  The other Freelancers heard a group of hunters at a large table, bemoaning that they'd taken down a giant elk just to have a pack of 4 gryphons steal the carcass, west-northwest of Lakeview.  The hunters speculated the gryphons were nesting in the southernmost mountain.

Tired from the day's travel, the Freelancers retired to their rooms.

The next morning, the Freelancers headed west.  Dominic was riding Grgnak, and Petrichor was driving Mary Jane and the cart, Shimni riding alongside.  The others were in the air, trying to keep a low profile and also scout.  The airborne Freelancers guided the cart away from hazards and towards an easy going route.  The land opened up for a while and they spotted herds of elk in the distance, both regular-sized and giant.

At the end of the day, they found a good camping spot at the edge of the forest, and passed an uneventful night.  In the morning Dominic prepared the locate object spell, intending to use it to find any gryphon eggs, once the Freelancers spotted any actual gryphons flying about.

Speaking of which, that reminded the others to look around for gryphon sign.  They headed west, keeping an eye out.  Unfortunately for Shimni, that's when Ozo the Humble chose to make an appearance.

Ozo:  Shimni, my love, my daughter, how have you been?
Shimni:  tryin'a look for sign of gryphon.
<The Dao produced an amazingly jewel-encrusted spyglass and looked about.>
Ozo:  look at this owl!  Look!  It's amazing.
<Shimni looked, to see an owl rendered within the spyglass lens, not even in a tree.>
Shimni:  dad

Above them, in the trees, Lorcan was perhaps spending too much time trying to stay camouflaged.  The rest of the Freelancers, though, saw clear signs of gryphons:  where they'd stood on a tree, where they'd dropped down, tufts of fur, very large feathers.  The sign headed west-northwest, and so did the Freelancers.

All of them noticed signs of elk.

After a short while, Dominic stopped, and used a ritual to cast locate object.  Then he climbed up behind Peb on Bettula.  Peb cast pass without trace, and they resumed their trek.  Two gryphons were circling high overhead, to the south, but Lorcan and Shimni did not notice them.

Peb spotted the nest, up on a ledge on the mountainside before the eggs were in range of Dominic's locate object, so everyone landed to discuss and strategize.  Peb said there were "a pretty good number, at least 10" eggs, so the Freelancers made some decisions.

• the cart should be left in the woods, since Mary Jane could not escape angry gryphons.
• Dominic dismounted from Bettula and resumed riding Grgnak.  He'd watch from below for returning gryphons and alert the others.
• Shimni rode pillion on Chen-gu behind Minji.
• Petrichor rode pillion on Bettula behind Peb.

Then they flew up to the nest, which had 17 eggs.

Petrichor, Shimni, and Lorcan dismounted, and started grabbing eggs; wrapping them in blankets then handing to riders to affix to the mounts.  Dominic cast summon beast to bring forth an air spirit in the shape of a vicious hawk, which flew at the nest.

They'd gotten maybe 8 eggs when Dominic spotted a returning gryphon,  It was a mere spec from the west but approaching very fast. He saw another gryphon coming over the mountain.  He alerted the Freelancers and sent the summoned hawk spirit to pretend it was attacking the eggs, but really, just do its best to dodge angry gryphons.

The Freelancers grabbed another 4 eggs and took off, Lorcan casting a minor illusion that the eggs were still there.  Peb still had pass without trace up, and then the group realized they were trying to outrun peregrine gryphons.

One gryphon flew to the nest, the other after the fleeing Freelancers.

Shimni, ignoring the pass without trace, just sent a blast of earthen rocks at the chasing gryphon, which struck it with force, but it only shrieked and sped up.  Lorcan had Bandit put on a burst of speed, and used message to "pss pss tweet tweet" at the chasing gryphon, distracting it.

Peb had Bettula also put on a burst of speed, then pulled out their longbow.  Twisting awkwardly, with Petrichor ducking down, they shot the chasing gryphon with an arrow.  Petrichor cast guidance on herself, suggesting, "Let's lose 'em in the woods," and then the two Freelancers got to talking.  They decided to swap, with Petrichor guiding Bettula and Peb riding pillion, and managed to do so as if they were born to it.

Grgnak was also dashing for the woods, and Dominic also cast guidance on himself to hide.  But the gryphon was chasing much faster.

Back at the nest, the other gryphon had arrived and attacked the spirit hawk angrily.  It beaked spirit hawk but critfailed with its claws.  Somehow the way they swiped triggered the spirit's magic, or maybe it had been hunting too close to the Pirates River, and the gryphon painfully grew a 3rd eye on its forehead.

Chin-gu put on a burst of speed, and both Minji and Shimni sent a blast at it; Minji's was leafy green, and Shmini's was earthen rocks.  Lorcan, falling increasingly behind the faster gryphons, saw the chasing peregrine getting struck by force and decided to cast sleep on it.

The chasing gryphon passed out, and somehow ploughed into the ground without hurting itself or waking up.

Peb:  uh, Petrichor, how about we circle back, so Ah can, uh, cast snare and try to capture these gryphons
<Petrichor wheeled Bettula around.>
Peb:  Ah got an idea.  Might be a dumb idea.
Petrichor:  okay, we'll do that

While they were talking, Grgnak still dashed for the trees, with Dominic keeping an eye on the hawk spirit.  The 3-eyed gryphon beaked it, killing it.  It inspected the nest, then flew straight up, roaring, calling its peers.  The other Freelancers, on their mounts, dashed for the woods.

Petrichor:  your idea better be quick.  We need to be elsewhere
Peb:  Ah'm reconsidin'
<Peb reconsidered, as Lorcan & Bandit disappeared into the forest canopy and the 3-eyed gryphon roared.>
Peb:  Ah was gon' say, was worth a shot, but let's get out of here.
Petrichor:  okay.  Don't forget to use guidance!

Peb and Petrichor changed places again, and Bettula shot back into the woods.  Peb did not, actually, use guidance, because they were maintaining pass without trace.

By this time all the Freelancers were hiding in the woods, and carefully converging on the cart.  The 3-eyed gryphon's roars had risen in tone to screeches, but there was no further pursuit.  After carefully loading the cart with eggs and padding, the group headed back to Cliffshadow.

The Pilot's Guild pays a premium for peregrine gryphons, so House Liona was absolutely thrilled to have Freelancers show up with a dozen eggs from the wild to improve their lines.  They were willing to pay a 20% markup on the eggs, or, if the Freelancers wanted a gryphon, they would also cover the Freelancers' Cut and pay 360 eagles in fees.

Freelancers did want a gryphon, in particular Dominic took a bald eagle gryphon called Wilson.  Everyone got 60 eagles except Dominic, who got a saddle and bridle suitable for his new gryphon friend.

• Peb →L2 Druid/L2 Barbarian!
• Shimni → L3 pact of the tome!