Defenders' Dogfight

The day after the Fulcrum Holiday, the back tavern in Freelancers Villa was relatively quiet.  The various Freelancers told tales of their holiday, or listened to Damakaios, Fiona, and Yan re-tell how they had rescued Julian and Wolf.  Fine Branch, of course, showed off her new hot-pink short shorts with the symbol of Rohe on the ass, her two tails waving lazily above.  Glesni thought about being offended, but the Cloud elf concluded that was, actually, a legitimate boundary, and if Lord Rohe could put up with it, so could she.

The next morning, five of the Freelancers paid a visit to Damakaios' office to see what missions he had to offer.  Damakaios' office looked much the same: mahogany desk carved with geometric patterns, matching chairs in neat rows, small weapons of high quality and various styles on display in cases and on the walls.  They noticed two new weapons had been put on the wall:  a daggar and shortsword bearing the Imperial Crest of San Pareil.

Terrance, a firbolg thief in stylish leathers, leaned against the wall near the window.
Tai, a Silver dragonborn sporting a purple-lined bearskin cloak, sat on a sturdy chair on the right.
Nix, a human with a pointed black hat, sat front & center in front of Damakaios' desk.
Mercury, Nix's winged cat familiar, twined between her feet and the chair legs.
Fine Branch stood a little to the side, still wearing her hot-pink shorts.
Glesni sat one seat over from Tai, so her back wouldn't be to the door.

Damakaios looked at Fine Branch, then did a double-take on the shorts; he hadn't been there the day before when the nekomata was showing them off.  Glesni immediately cast minor illusion to make Damakaios appear to be wearing hot-pink shorts.  Fine Branch said nothing, but pointed at Damakaios' lap.  Damakaios cast his own minor illusion to overlay Glesni's.

"Missions," Damakaios said, pulling some papers out of a drawer.

• Amabel Villa ‒ investigate next section.  250 eagles each plus whatever you can carry off that's not structurally needed.
• Head to Sugar Glider School of Hang Gliding ‒ they are still having issues with constructs hassling the hang glider students.

Glesni interrupted.  "I saw those, on Fulcrum," she announced, and described for them the small mechanical hawks hassling the fliers.  Damakaios wrote that down, then continued, "Also 250 eagles a person."

• Interior of the skylith in tunnels near Vathia Estia ‒ House Hadid still needs troll blood & teeth.
• Investigate bad poetry lady from wedding ‒ followup to the first mission, where Freelancers talked to the Houses and the veteran bodyguard lady.

Damakaios looked at them expectantly, and the Freelancers looked at each other, considering the last mission and its vagueness.

Glesni:  where are we supposed to look?
Damakaios:  probably within The Below.  Maybe other weddings been attacked?  You have her description
Glesni:  so you want us to go into The Below.  <Deliberately turned and looked at Fine Branch's hot-pink ass.>
Damakaios <stiffly>:  your choices for disguise are up to you.
Fine Branch:   what!!
Nix:  would rather do battle in the air, but would settle with the haunted house.
Glesni <nodded>:  also
Tai:  more satisfying to crack some skulls at Amabel
Terrance:  have not ridden Gruff [her gryphon] in a mission; would be exciting to do so.
Fine Branch:  would prefer the villa

A debate ensued on the merits of assisting the hang gliding school vs looting the Amabel Villa.  Finally they settled on the hang gliding school.  Damakaios helpfully gave them the name of  the lead instructor there:  Manaja, a Wind sagani.

Terrance, realizing Gruff could not go on a mission still using training equipment, left to talk to the quartermaster about proper saddle and barding.  The rest of the Freelancers went into the atrium, and Fine Branch harvested some catnip, which she'd been cultivating in the herb garden in the villa's atrium, and using a ritual, which appeared to involve her eating some of the catnip, cast divination.  She asked The Cat, "What should we expect on this mission?"

The catnip disappeared into golden sparkles, and Fine Branch's eyes turned into inky pools displaying a star field.  As The Cat became aware of the cleric's request, and also that the cleric was buzzed on catnip, the god sighed.

Shiny Baubles, fun to smash
Watch out, they don't take yer stash

And then Fine Branch was out of the mind vision, blinking in the daylight.  She put the remaining catnip away with exaggerated care.

As they headed to the stables to get their mounts, Glesni bought a couple nets from the quartermaster.  She put them in her saddlebags for later.

The Freelancers brought out their flying mounts, including Gruff, Terrance's golden eagle gryphon who was finishing training and quite eager to Go!  Terrance acquired a jaunty hat for flying, a newsboy hat that she was wearing tilted over goggles.

They took off towards the Sugar Glider Hang Gliding school, with Terrance in the lead as she had gone there a few times.  It is to the east of Ripa Daneo along the Rim, and as they flew there they chatted about how exactly to approach talking to the instructor about what to do.

Terrance was still getting used to flying Gruff, and Glesni, flying in the back, was still distracted by Fine Branch's hot-pink shorts, which somehow sort of matched Nighthawk's colouration; neither Freelancer even saw the hang gliding class floating above the crater below.  Tai, Fine Branch, and especially Nix not only saw the hang gliding glass, but saw 4 flyers approaching that looked like large hawks at first.  As they closed, the Freelancers realized they did not have soft feathers, but were pointy and metal, with sharp angles and spikes.

Nix remembered the mechanical owlbears, and recalled that they were immune to poison, and fire would be unlikely to work.  <Narrator voice:  actually, Brian rolled dual nat 20s, on perception and history.>

Fine Branch called out, mimicking Cathance, "Hey guys?  Things!"  she pointed at the "hawks", and Nighthawk swooped in that direction.  The hang gliding class was actually the instructor with 2 students, 400' away.  Glesni, taking in the scene, had Ikarus pivot and start climbing, as she pulled out her bow.

Glesni:  do we want to attack, or net?
Tai:  net; we can examine.
Terrance:  they aren't yet hurting things; net.

Glesni put her bow back into the quiver of ehlonna, and the Freelancers got out nets.  By this time the mechanical hawks were harassing the students, who were doing their best to dodge and did not see the Freelancers.  The instructor saw them, however, and started moving the group towards the Freelancers.

Fine Branch decided to attack the nearest construct, which was black.  Nighthawk grabbed it in his claws, then pecked at it with his beak, damaging a wing.  Then Fine Branch afflicted the others with bane of The Cat.

• Tai, seeing a construct was captured, and the others were hassling hang gliding students, flew into a rage.  Below them on the cliff, flowers and vines sprouted, and some others grew in Spencer Thundersparks' mane and tail.
  • Spencer flew towards a green construct, and Tai lashed out with his magical greataxe.  Just two swings and the construct was cloven in two, falling towards the cliffs below.
  • The instructor's eyes widened.  "Oh my, that's a big axe," he said to the Silver dragonborn, "thanks for hitting that and not me."
  • "Happy to help," Tai replied, then flew to the red construct, where Spencer attacked with his horseshoes, crushing the construct's shoulder and sending it a jolt of electricity.
• Glesni moved over the minty-green construct, readying her net to drop on it as soon as it moved away from the student it was hassling.  She did not want an error, or the wind, to result in the net fouling the student's hang glider.
• The constructs, other than the green one that had fallen, all started emitting a male voice, well, kind of androgenous:  WHEN YOU'RE ATTACKED, CALL FOR HELP!  It was on repeat.
• The minty-green construct flew up towards Glesni, who dropped the net on it.  The flyer avoided it, and the net fluttered away, useless.  Glesni made a face.
  • The construct attacked her, but Glesni can dodge too, and it was afflicted with bane.
• The red hawk construct attacked Tai, but it was afflicted by bane and missed.
• The black construct Nighthawk was holding wiggled to get out of the hippogryph's claws, to no avail.
• Mercury could not figure out where to be.  He hung onto Eris for dear life, ready to dodge.
• Nix flew Eris up to Glesni and the wyvern struck the minty-green construct in the chest, puncturing it.  Surprised that wasn't a death blow, Eris followed up with her claws.
  • That wasn't a death blow either, and the hawk constructs were still loudly emitting CALL FOR HELP.  
  • Nix used her sorcerous abilities to twin cast chromatic orb at the minty-green and red attackers, which settled on cold before striking, incapacitating, and silencing them.
  • Glesni's "Thanks…!!!" to Nix was heartfelt.

The black construct in Nighthawk's claws was still bellowing.  So Terrance, distracted by the loud CALL FOR HELP, focussed on the near events.  She tried to puzzle out if the construct was programmed with the message or if it was getting it from afar.  So she popped detect magic.

The metal hawk in the hippogryph's talons was a magically created construct; the hint of transmutation magic spiked when it said WHEN YOU'RE INJURED, CALL FOR HELP!  Maybe it was thaumaturgy.  Terrance and Gruff circled Fine Branch, trying to figure it out.

By this time the Freelancers were 60' out from the Rim's edge.  The students were flying back to the Rim as fast as they could, and the instructor called out "aaaannnnnddd we're going back!!!"   Fine Branch waved at them.

Fine Branch:  did we capture one?
Glesni:  you don't by any chance have silence, do you?  <brought out her bow>
Fine Branch <after a confused pause>:  oh yeah!  I do!
Construct:  WHEN YOU'RE INJURED, CALL FOR HELP!
Fine Branch:  do we want to keep this thing alive, or not?
<The other Freelancers hesitated.>
Construct:  WHEN YOU'RE INJURED, CALL FOR HELP!
Fine Branch:  ok, not.
<Narrator voice:  Matt rolled a nat 20 on Nighthawk squeeze and pull the thing in his claws.>
Construct:  WHEN YOU'RE ATTACK‒

Nighthawk passed the construct to Fine Branch, who put it in one of her saddlebags.

The Freelancers just had time to relax and look around, before they noticed the constructs were actually calling for help.  Three gold sentinel constructs fell upon them out of the sky, looking for all the world like golden rams with wings.

Each one of the golden rams tried to head-butt a Freelancer off their mount, and all of them overshot.  Thus Tai and Fine Branch got a good look at them, and Nix sorta did but the one on her badly overshot and barely missed Glesni.

Since one of them was right there in his face, Tai immediately applied his magical battleaxe, slashing the construct badly enough to slow it down.  Spencer Thundersparks kicked at it, but missed.

• Glesni had Ikarus drop behind the injured golden ram, so that it was between her and the one attacking Fine Branch; then the Cloud elf let loose a piercing arrow, the magic injuring both rams.
  • She loosed another arrow at the closer golden ram, but it bounced off the construct's rear.
• Mercury again held on ready to dodge, thinking these ram things were much bigger than those hawk things had been, and here's one in their face.
• Nix cast an uplevel'd chromatic orb at the golden ram attacking her, and it settled on lightning before it hit, sending a web of sparks bouncing along the construct's golden outsides.
  • Eris again attacked with her stinger, but the tail spike just bounced off the construct's plating.  She followed up with her claws, slashing through the plating.
• Terrance flew by the golden ram attacking Fine Branch, slashing it with her magical scimitar.  Then Gruff disengaged and she flew back to where she'd been circling.
• The hang gliders had made it back to the Rim, the students hyperventilating in fear.  The instructor's voice was audibly striving for calm as he said "and THIS is how you make a safe emergency landing…:

Nighthawk attacked the golden ram that was right there.  He managed to get a beak on it but the claws scraped at the plating ineffectually.  Since the construct was right there, Fine Branch cast sacred flame.  To her surprise, the beam reflected off the golden ram without harming it… and burned the cleric!

At this, all the rams reared back in the air, and would have mantled if they were not metal.  Their entire faces opened up to reveal flamethrowers within, and they spewed the flames at their opponents.  Fine Branch, Nighthawk, and Spencer Thundersparks were very burned; Nix, Eris, and Tai less so.  Mercury disapparated.

Tai drew back his greataxe to swing again, then realized that Spencer was in deep trouble.  "O Shit!" he swore, and balanced the axe on the pommel while the Silver dragonborn fed a healing potion to his pegasus.  That helped a little and Spencer kicked at the golden ram in revenge, but missed.

• Glesni, appalled at what she just witnessed, watched as the golden rams' faces went back together.  She again positioned herself to lose a piercing arrow, which did more magic damage to the two constructs.
  • She followed up with a normal arrow to the ram attacking Tai, and the arrow caught it where the wing joined, killing it… if one could consider defeating a construct "death".  It fell out of the sky, anyhow.
  • Amped on adrenaline, Glesni shot the golden ram attacking Fine Branch twice.
• Nix  was angry about Mercury, and Eris picked up on that.  She pierced the golden ram with her stinger, then slashed with her claws; chunks of metal fell under the onslaught.
  • Nix again cast an uplevel'd chromatic orb at the golden ram attacking her, and it again settled on lightning before it hit, sending a web of sparks bouncing along the construct's golden outsides as it fell out of the air.
• Terrance was also mad, and Gruff was surprised at the fiery turn of events.  She swooped over to the remaining construct and slashed at its wing with her magical scimitar.  The wing came right off, and the construct tumbled out of the air.
  • Gruff flew on up to Spencer.
    Terrance:  yo Spencer I got a healing pot

Fine Branch cast an uplevel'd mass healing word, which helped a lot of people and mounts feel better.  Glesni, meanwhile, had followed the last construct down, to see where it was going to land.  She saw it landing along the lower part of the Rim, below the road, so would avoid hitting people.  Circling, she marked where the golden rams fell, then rose back up towards the other Freelancers.

The Freelancers decided they needed to split up.  Glesni and Nix would see about retrieving the construct parts; Tai, Fine Branch, and Terrance would speak to the Sugar Glider School of Hang Gliding's headmistress.

Slowly, because Nighthawk and Spencer were not in great shape (and also because Fine Branch was feeling fragile since the catnip had burned off from the adrenaline), Terrance, Tai, and Fine Branch flew over to the school.  They saw a vaguely U-shaped building with the opening facing the crater's edge, with a couple other buildings separated by breezeways.  They landed in the opening, and saw the instructor and 2 students putting away their gear, and stealing furtive glances at the Freelancers, who dismounted stiffly and leaned on their mounts.

A Wind sagani of human extraction emerged from the building and approached them.  From Damakaios' description, this must be the headmistress, Manaja.

Manaja:  did you get them <noticed Tai and Fine Branch and their mounts are very burned>  what happened?!
Tai <wearily>:  we got here and saw the hawks and dispatched them, then the sheep things and, we dispatched those too.
Manaja:  what?  What sheep things?
Tai:  imagine, a mechanical winged sheep, with a flamethrower in its face.
<Manaja was obviously confused and frightened at this description.>
Tai:  that's what we thought
Manaja:  we did not see them
Tai:  the hawks seemed to call them when we attacked
Manaja:  good thing the students were too busy staying aloft to attack them!
<Manaja paid Tai the mission fee for the Freelancers.>
Tai:  any enemies?
Manaja:  we're a hang gliding school.
Tai <sighed>:  yeah, doesn't make a lot of sense

 

Terrance <to the instructor>:  how was the hang gliding session?  Did you learn anything?
Instructor:  I guess about 5!
Terrance <one hand on Gruff, other a thumbs up>:  flying is cool

 

Fine Branch:  do you have any food?
Manaja:  cafeteria to the right; help yourself

Fine Branch brought Nighthawk with her into the cafeteria.  That got them a bunch of looks but Fine Branch did not care.

Glesni and Nix circled down about halfway to where Glesni had marked the constructs.  Glesni pointed out the large pieces, but they didn't see the small ones.  So they decided to spread out and search.  Nix cast detect magic, and Glesni used her wand of magic detection, and with those advantages, the two women found everything.

They examined the golden rams closely, and saw these constructs were the same detailing and style as the clockwork owlbears.  It seemed the maker had graduated from owlbears that spit crossbow bolts to something that flies, and spits fire.

Glesni:  weren't previous incarnations of this for the purpose of stealing goods?
Nix:  perhaps a distraction.

They collected the little hawks, and put them in Nix's bag of holding.  But the golden rams were too big to fit.  Nix started pulling out subassemblies, but it was too much.  Glesni used her silver raven figurine to cast animal messenger to get the others to return, with their own bag of holding.

After collecting all the parts, they headed up to the school to eat.  Glesni got Manaja to confirm, there had been 4 hawks attacking.

Back at Freelancers, the group took over the meeting room opposite Damakaios' office to sort through all the parts, as well as give their report to Damakaios.  Alvyn also listened, as he sorted through all the parts, and became super excited at the idea of flying constructs that could breathe fire!!!

Fine Branch, Tai, and Nix, who were all still feeling their burns, were not nearly so enthused.  But Alvyn convinced Damakaios, and dipped into his coffers to buy all the golden ram parts for 4500 eagles total.  He was sure with all these parts, he would be able to get his bear, Arth, to fly.

Nix and Fine Branch seized that conversational opening, and tried to convince the battlesmith to buy the little hawks too.  But three of those were smashed, and not worth nearly so much.  In the end he paid 75 eagles for the intact one, and 25 eagles each for the smashed ones.

So excited!

• Terrance → lvl7!
• Nix → lvl 7!  (+1 sorcerer)