Fae Bunny

Shimni threw herself in a chair in the back tavern, dramatically.  The short Rock sagani had just argued with her Dao father, Ozo the Humble.  It was clear he thought her joining Freelancers was a rebellious lark that was not to be taken seriously, and like any 19-yr-old daughter of nobility, Shimni knew she was following her destiny.

Dominic had been talking quietly with Aranel over breakfast, discussing her trip to Pembroke and his discovery of the benefits of having a mount which could fly.  Aranel was not terribly convinced, where would she put it when flitting about town?  But he glanced over at Shimni and had the insight to suggest they go on a mission with her to help reduce her frustration.

The three stuck their heads into Arnari's office asking about a mission.  

"Why don't the three of you go to the Haven Hills?" Arnari suggested, "Get hippogryph eggs, it's the season.  Still the standard fees, but extra awesome eggs will get you more coin."

The three looked at each other and shrugged.  "Sure," someone said, and they went downstairs to Zannawocket, the quartermaster.  Aranel bought a half-dozen blankets and sacks.  Dominic already had some, and offered to have Aranel ride behind him on Wilson.  Shimni had a broom of flying and would use that.

Unsure where they would go, the Freelancers headed towards Cliffgate.  They flew over the midpoint and saw the Wolfkiss Inn was proceeding with the construction, no longer stuck by supplies going missing.  At Cliffgate they stayed at the Hippogryph's Wing, and discussed where to go over dinner.

They decided to go to Haven, and as the Freelancers set out the next day, found that the weather had become windier, much to Shmini's discomfiture.  But they made it to one of the more established campsites for those who flew mostly along the road, and set up camp around other lite travellers.

Another group at the campsite was a group of humans and halflings on pteranodons and pterosaurs, which the Freelancers found intriguing.  They got to talking and learned the group had arrived in Stormhaven from the inner reaches and were travelling to Cliffshadow from there.

The three still set watches overnight:
Dominic took first watch.  The early night was quiet; not a lot of large animals other than mounts.  A group on pegasi were carousing.
Aranel took second watch.  The carousing had stopped, and Aranel cast about for anything of interest.  She noticed Dominic had cuddled up to Wilson, his gryphon, and was disturbed at the sight.  Anyhow, nothing happened.
Shimni took third watch.   As Aranel woke up Shimni the very first birds were also waking up.  As Shimni watched, various other campers started to rouse, but not the pterosaurs, which made tiny screechy snoring sounds.

However, dawn was a grey affair, as it was overcast for most of the morning.  The Freelancers were soaked by a rain shower soon after they took off.  The local clouds cleared by afternoon and the  Daystar dried them out before they arrived at Haven, and secured rooms at The Local Flavour, the large inn kept by Jocelyn Firetooth, a Mikumwes man.

After Wilson was in the stable and the Freelancers were settled in their rooms, they descended to the taproom for food and cider.  As they enjoyed their after-dinner beverages, Dominic was content to peoplewatch, and Aranel started to circulate, as bards and dilettantes do.

Shimni watched Aranel circulate, and assessed the crowded taproom.  Some patrons were travellers going from Cliffshadow to Stormhaven (or vice versa); some people were in Haven on business, to buy fruit products or alcohol; and others were locals.  That resulted in a mix of peoples, but a higher mix of halflings and gnomes than one normally saw in Cliffshadow.  Shimni, tired from riding that broom of flying all day, decided to enjoy her drink and only circulate if something caught her interest.

Dominic was able to follow several threads of conversation.  Some locals were discussing preparing for harvest, although it was a ways off.  A well-off group from Cliffshadow were travelling to Stormhaven to take care of airship repairs, and were grousing about pirates.  Two groups of field workers were gossipping about spotting a "flock of hippogryphs" over the orchards to the south.  One group was disbelieving them, "that's a flock of crows."

Dominic caught Aranel's attention, and she drifted over there to chat with them.  Shimni, meanwhile, started chatting with the burliest orchard workers.  With the entry of these two charismatic women into the conversation, the person claiming a "flock" was hushed, and the two of them were regaled with tales of hippogryphs and also, more importantly, directions…

<Narrator voice:  at this point, we learn that none of the rivers to the west of Haven have not been named, nor needed names until this very moment.  These rivers flow roughly west/northwest and one joins the Bountiful River, the other drains directly into the marsh.  The one that joins the Bountiful River has two equal forks, so Brian named the forks Cat Tails.  Shari proposed Kedisi for the forked river, and Suluova for the river that flowed into the marsh.>

…that the hippogryphs were nesting between the two Cat Tail rivers.  Even with the flying mounts, that was more than a days' travel from Haven, and the more so because with so many hippogryphs, they should be travelling cautiously.

Aranel bought a round of drinks for them all, and after that, the Freelancers headed to their rooms, for a night's rest before an early start.

The next morning, breakfast was only a subset of the taproom crowd from the night before, as travellers prepared to be on their way.  It had started to rain, and as breakfast went forth, the skies opened up with a storm from the southeast; thunder, lightning, small hail.  The Freelancers looked out at it and realized they were not in a hurry and any hippogryphs would be sheltering too.   They (and the rest of the travellers) decided to stay for second breakfast too.

The weather stayed nasty, so The Local Flavour had more custom; only sad people left whose business could not be postponed, and as the day progressed and the storm stalled, they were joined by soaked and bedraggled others.

The next day was much the same, except with everyone a bit sleep dep'd from the violence of the storm.  After elevenses, Shimni retreated into her ring, isolated from the noise, and took a nap.  Aranel brought out her shakuhachi and tried to play, but the lightning was making her jumpy, and one cannot be jumpy when playing a flute.

Dominic went out in the weather and found an herbalist's shop and offered to find rare plants they'd not been able to locate.  Delighted, they agreed and offered to trade more common herbs in return; specifically, those necessary for making healing potions.

The storm had lessened, but was still blowing on the Freelancers' third morning at The Local Flavour, and finally blew itself out mid-morning.  They waited for the outflux of travellers to sort themselves, then took off westward after elevenses.

From the directions they'd been given, the Freelancers were to follow the road to the southwest, then swerve towards the river and mountain.  Dominic, with his understanding of maps, led the way.

By mid-afternoon, they realized they'd focussed on a different mountain.  It was hard to tell really, since the storm had blown over trees.  Anyhow the Freelancers ended up going further south on the river than they'd wanted.  By the time they'd regained their bearings, it was time to find a place to camp for the night.

Their campsite was sheltered by a copse of trees, although the ground was still saturated.  Since they were west of the road, Dominic cast darkvision on both himself and Shimni for watches, and Shimni took the first watch.

It was the first night after the storm, and Shimni didn't hear a lot of creatures… until she did!  A huge creature knocked a tree over, 50' away!  Shimni cast minor illusion of an elk calf in distress, 10' towards that and about 45 degrees towards the right, away from the camp.  Then she hid, and waited.

After about 20 minutes, nothing further happened, so Shimni snuck back to where Dominic and Aranel were sleeping, and roused them.  She explained what happened, and all three of them went to the fallen tree and looked around.  Aranel, for whom darkvision was a natural ability, didn't see any tracks.  Dominic was sure he saw bear tracks, for a bear the size of a house.  Shimni also didn't see tracks, and saw no other fallen trees.

<Narrator voice:  Brian rolled a nat 1 on Shimni's watch.  Matt rolled a nat 1 on Dominic's perception for the tree.  Shari didn't roll a nat 1 for Aranel but her perception is for shit.>

They kept looking.

Dominic:  some bears have wings, it's why no other trees fell.
Aranel:  then why did this tree fall?
Dominic:  landed on tree, then flew away again.

After an hour, they returned to their camp, and Aranel took over the watch.  Oddly enough, Aranel had no problem with distractions on this particular watch.  Also, nothing unusual happened.

Dominic took the last watch.  He was unused to the night bird noises that started to emerge; but the night was peaceful.  As dawn approached, it was even more peaceful, as there was quite a bit of ground fog, as one expects after a big rain.

They slept a bit longer, until the fog burned off, to make up for fallen tree shenanigans.  Then Dominic recalculated where to look for the hippogryphs, and they took off.

The weather was lovely, a perfect flying day.  Dominic had his bearings again, and led the Freelancers towards where these hippogryph nests were, across the river and towards the mountain.

They crossed the East Cat Tail and the trees thinned a bit.  Dominic, looking down, spotted a small meadow, full of vibrant flowers, of many different colours.  They were so bright;  teal, yellow, purple, orange, red… some were stripey!

Utterly charmed by the colours (that includes Wilson!), the group landed in the meadow.  A humanoid rabbit person stood up from amongst the flowers.  He was wearing an ornate vest, poofy pants, a jaunty hat, and had a basket over one arm.  His fur was white.

"What ho, marauders!" he exclaimed in a baritone voice.  "Let us joust!"  At this, the charm dropped, and the Freelancers did a double-take as the bunny man hopped towards Wilson… a 30' leaping bound.  Everyone started, at that.  With the rabbit person so close, they saw his eyes were black; so, he was not a surprise arnabat scout they were encountering.

The bunny man hopped towards Wilson, then clawed at Aranel but missed, and bit at Dominic's shins but missed.  He reached into his basket to pull out a chicken egg, and threw it at Shimni's face, hard, leaving her bonked in the face with a projectile, and covered in raw egg and eggshell.

"Gross!" Shimni exclaimed, and took her broom of flying 50' straight up.  She hexed the bunny man's charisma, then rained down an earthen blast at him, which struck him with force and caused a little bit of necrosis.

"Oh!  Jolly good showing!  Jolly good showing!" the bunny man exclaimed, "Continue…!" and then he threw, rapid-fire, an egg from his basket on each one of the Freelancers and Wilson too, hitting everyone in the face.  He giggled, and then unnecessarily exclaimed "Eggs to your face!  Ha ha ha ha!"

Aranel, sliding off Wilson onto the ground, cracked a joke about cracked eggs, casting hideous laughter on the bunny man.  Egg on her or not, Aranel's appearance was so inspiring that Dominic, Shimni, and Wilson were bolstered, and Wilson flew 50' away from the bunny man.

"Jokes!!  I love it!" the rabbit person exclaimed in delight, which was about the only outcome Aranel achieved from her cast of hideous laughter.  Eyes narrowing, the bunny man gauged where the Freelancers were, and hopped out of range.

Dominic cast moonbeam on the bunny man, but a bit off-center, so he was at the edge of it.  The druid then took a starry form of the archer, and shot a star at the bunny man, burning him.  Wilson then flew by, avoiding the moonbeam, and struck the bunny man with beak and claws.  The slashes were vivid in the white fur, but for some reason his clothing was undisturbed.

"Ooh, moonbeam!  How Lovely!" he exclaimed, and threw another egg in Dominic's face, smacking him and getting raw egg in druid's starry mustaches.

The bunny man shimmied his shoulders as the moonbeam burned him slightly, then said, "That's nice, but I think I would rather not."  He moved over to Aranel, then bit and clawed her, wounding her badly and making her gasp with pain.  He threw another egg at Shimni, but she was 50' up and he missed.

Shimni repeated her earthen blast at the bunny man, but reimagined the rock comet to look like a decorated egg.  It struck with less force and more necrosis than the first one.

"Oh!  Throwing eggs back!" the bunny man declared in an amazed baritone.  "Well, I say Jolly Good Showing!"  At his words, all the flowers in the meadow poofed pollen, which shimmered and sparkled everywhere.  Shimni and Aranel saw it coming, and exhaled and closed their eyes just in time to only get a little eye irritation; but Dominic and Wilson were caught by surprise, and had a sneezing fit.

Aranel, eyes irritated and experiencing a considerable amount of pain from having been bit and scratched, said in a low, intense voice, almost a hoarse whisper, "Get away from me, evil bunny!"  Thus she cast dissonant whispers, which gave the bunny man a bit of a headache, but had no other effect.

Indeed, far from running away from Aranel, the bunny man merely hefted another chicken egg out of his basket, and egged Shimni in the thigh.

Dominic, still sneezing, moved the moonbeam back over the bunny man, who for some reason gave him an amused look.

The bunny man bounded to the center, away from the moonbeam and any of the Freelancers.

"What ho, that was a good show, I am highly amused!" he declared, and then gestured in a showmanlike fashion.  The vivid colours of the flowers faded with his gesture.  He set the basket down carefully at his feet, then hopped away from it, until the basket was halfway between himself and Wilson.

"For your efforts," he boomed, "you may each take one egg from my basket, for your reward!"  As he made this pronouncement, he dramatically fell into a lounging position, with his head propped up on an elbow, as if he hadn't a care in the world.  The Freelancers stared at him, astounded, as he grabbed a long stem of grass and started chewing on it, watching them.  He seemed to have totally relaxed, and perhaps more disconcerting, he didn't seem injured at all.

They looked at each others, and Shimni came back down to ground level.  Staring at him as she did so, she got off her broom of flying, and walked up to the basket to investigate within, and see what would be differentiating the chicken eggs.

The basket seemed alive!  Flowers were growing inside, just as vibrant as the meadow was initially.  Eggs were within; some were plain, boring chicken eggs, others were sparkly!

Shimni was her father's daughter; she picked a sparkly egg.  As she stepped away from the basket, the egg showed colourful striations, and then it cracked open!  A large, shimmering dragonfly clambered out of the eggshell onto the surprised Rock sagani's fingers.  It waved its wings lazily, as if to dry them, and grew, and grew, and grew, until it was standing on the ground, the size of a horse.

The fae bunny (for such he was, as the basket showed) sat up, clapping in delight.  "Oh, no, lovely!  A griffinfly.  I love it for you darling.  I'm sure it will serve you well!" he exclaimed.  "What are you going to name it?" he asked, a little intensely.

Shimni stared at the griffinfly.  It was an insect, a beast, she had no idea how to relate to it.

"You must come up with a lovely name," the fae bunny prompted.  "I believe in you, darling."

The griffinfly waved its wings again, leaving a hint of fae iridescence.  Shimni realized, somehow, it was happy with her, and noticed it sported leather riding gear perfectly sized for her, and also with a matching iridescent sheen.  "Damsel," she told the fae bunny.  The griffinfly flipped back its wings.

Aranel, meanwhile, had approached the basket.  She wondered if the plain eggs meant something, and concluded probably not, the entire thing was fae magic.  Steeling herself, she closed her eyes, and picked an egg by feel.  Opening her eyes, she had chosen a plain egg.

It fell open into two perfect halves, revealing a half-inch high tiny hippogryph!  Aranel gasped, and the creature also grew and grew, and grew into a full-sized hippogryph, the dun colour slightly metallic, and the claws and hooves had an iridescent sheen.  The saddle and bridle were also iridescent.  It looked at Aranel, and spread its wings, revealing a blaze of white.  Its wings and haunches appeared to have been built for speed.

The fae bunny had lounged on the grass again.  "Good choice!  Good choice!  Excellent hippogryph!" he proclaimed.  "What are you going to name it?"

Aranel watched the hippogryph test its wings, as if it never had room enough before.  The wingtip left a hint of an iridescent trail.  "Rainbow," she breathed, as if there were no other possibilities in the world.

Dominic had dismounted from Wilson, and gone up to the basket.  Looking back and forth from the fae bunny to the basket, he chose a sparkly egg.  Glittery zigzags ran across the egg in his hand, and it cracked in half.  A bat emerged, and looked at Dominic.  Its fur was iridescent.

Just as Dominic felt disappointed, the bat started to grow and grow and grow also, until Dominic found himself staring at a dire giant bat.

The fae bunny sat up in delight.  "Oh lovely, a bat suits you dahling; will serve you well.  What are you going to call it?" he asked.

Dominic replied, "Well, given it hatched from an egg… Robin."

"Excellent!" the fae bunny stood up, and sauntered back to the basket and grabbed it.  "Toodaloo! Don't do anything I wouldn't do," he admonished them, "but the field's wide open!"  He walked away, leaving the injured and egged Freelancers to contemplate their bounty.

Aranel was still wearing a backpack.  As Rainbow watched her adoringly, she took it off and dug out a sack, using it to clean off the raw egg and eggshells.  Shimni, seeing Aranel's action, broke off her contemplation of Damsel and used prestidigitation to get the egg off her own person.

Dominic:  we're just not going to talk about this when we get back, right?
Shimni <sullenly>:  kind of hard not to <gestured at Damsel>
Aranel <to Dominic>:  you seem to have an embarrassment of mounts <looked at Damsel, then at Shimni> Ozo would be proud of you

As they were talking, the flowers faded away, until they were in an ordinary forest clearing.  They mounted their new mounts, who were all perfectly well behaved and responsive, and headed back towards Haven, a slightly confused Wilson following behind Dominic and Robin.

It was, after all, a perfect flying day.

Wilson was stabled, and the 5 Freelancers were gathered as Sovelai found stalls for Rainbow, Damsel, and Robin.  Arnari saw that the iridescence wasn't just on Damsel, but on the other two.  Her face changed as she understood they were all fae, like her own gryphon, Peacock.

Tomtom:  I'm just curious, where did you get a griffinfly?  They are so fascinating
Arnari:  my darling Freelancers, what sort of shenanigans did you get up to?
<Dominic shot Arnari a sharp look at her "darling".>
Dominic:  don't wanna talk about it.  There was a bear the size of a house, and ‒ don't wanna talk about it.
Arnari:  a bear the size of a house?!  Did you go to the Pirates Dream river?!
Dominic:  no
Arnari <carefully>:  do you owe a creature . . . anything?
Dominic:  don't think so
Shimni:  not
Aranel:  perhaps, already been paid
Arnari <worried>:  okay <glanced briefly at the gryphon wing> if you do run into problems with these mounts, feel free to ask me any questions

As the conversation was going, Sovelai was installing the mounts in their new places, including Robin up in the rafters next to Blaze.  The mounts permitted her handling, but weren't friendly or enthused about it; just mostly indifferent.

Just like Peacock.

• Dominic → lvl 5!