Bird Goes Home

A couple of days after returning from clearing more of Amabel Villa, the nekomata cleric Fine Branch grew bored again.  She made herself look mostly black, then easily convinced Dryali and Nix to go with her to discuss a new mission with Damakaios, the Pungarehu hanyou who led the Ripa Daneo Freelancers..

Damakaios was in his office and at his desk as if he was expecting them to visit.  His office was lined with racks and cabinets displaying small arms that no doubt would impress a visitor come to request a favour.  His desk was an impressive mahogany edifice, carved with geometric decorations… and on Damakaios' right, it hosted a cup, precariously close to the edge.

Fine Branch pointedly ignored the cup.  She looked at anything in the office but the cup.  She seated herself, tails lashing.

Nix casually walked up to the front row of chairs, and sat in the center, basically across from Damakaios, and smiled at him from under her pointed hat.  Her familiar, the winged cat Mercury, hopped up on the chair to her right.  He saw the cup, and hopped up on the desk to check it out.  Nix glanced at the cup; it had a minor illusion on it that made it appear to hold a bubbly beverage.  Mercury sniffed it, then returned to his seat, tail up as he jumped from the desk, butthole pointed at Damakaios, as cats do.

While all this was going on, Dryali sprawled lazily across the chair furthest from the windows.

With a slight shake of his head, Damakaios pulled out 4 papers attached to missions from deep within one of the desk's thin drawers, racked them, then started listing the missions.

1. House Hadid would like for Freelancers to procure a large number of death butterfly wings.  These often swarm in the southwest part of Commerce.

Dryali:  does anyone have a Portable Hole?
Damakaios:  the butterflies have to be deceased
Dryali:  wouldn't that be the case after 10 minutes within a Portable Hole?
Damakaios:  true
Fine Branch:  a butterfly net with a Portable Hole attached
Dryali:  exactly; just go to the swarm and whoosh, we are done

2. Hasapis Vineyard is having issues again.  <to Nix>  They are about 1 day to the northeast of Ripa Daneo.  They called Freelancers out when Fine Branch and Dryali first arrived here.  They had people missing and it turned out these worms were eating people.  <to everyone>  This will pay 300 eagles/person, because Hasapis want Freelancers to come before people start going missing.
3. Track down the bronze hawk… Alvyn has repaired one, and had an idea to reprogram it to go home.  I have convinced Manaja to pay 250 eagles/person to track down where it came from.  It's probably very dangerous; just track it.

Dryali:  is Alvyn coming with us?
Damakaios:  no

4. Investigate within Ripa Daneo – as suggested by Naranjos, the wedding/bad poetry lady – look to see if she is disrupting other Ripa Daneo weddings.

Fine Branch:  honestly, I'm curious about death butterflies
Dryali:  Hasapis pays better; tracking is more interesting
Nix:  I'm not interested in wedding lady, that sounds dull.  Our last try turned out to be a dud.

Somehow, this brief exchange led directly to the conclusion that they would take the tracking mission.

The three Freelancers had fought these constructs multiple times before, and had been frustrated at their own ineffectiveness, so Fine Branch decided to ritual cast divination, and ask The Cat for wisdom.  However, we suspect the frustrated nekomata had an ulterior motive for this activity, as she decided the ritual would be ascertaining how to, then knocking the cup off Damakaios' desk.

The hanyou leaned back in his chair, watching Fine Branch prowl around the desk, do the "cat is about to attack wiggle", fail to budge the cup, swipe at it with tails lashing, fall to her side clawing at it, and in sum look utterly ridiculous for 10 minutes.  Mercury watched, sitting stock still with his tail curled around his paws.  Dryali disappeared for a minute, maybe, and returned with a glass of port in his hand.

In Fine Branch's mind, her offering to The Cat was her dignity, and The Cat did not reveal what they thought of that, but did react to Fine Branch's request.  As Fine Branch clearly formed "what types of damage are likely to work on the types of constructs we are tracking?"  The Cat sent her visions of fires sputtering out, and poison bubbling away harmlessly.

All the others saw was Fine Branch acting ridiculous and then her eyes turning into starfields instead of pupils and irises.  Dryali finished his port and left to talk to Alvyn about what he'd learned about the bronze hawk construct.

Alvyn explained that when he reassembled it, it did the "WHEN YOU'RE ATTACKED, CALL FOR HELP!" call, but he'd blocked it and figured out the trigger.  He was pretty sure it was set up for someone to push a button, and it would fly back to its origin.

When it did so, Alvyn explained, showing the design and parts to Dryali as he did so, it wouldn't be sneaky, although neither would it be noisy; no calling for help, no attacking, no evasion.  He flipped it over and showed Dryali the energy sources and how it attacked, and estimated that "home" couldn't be more than 1 day of flying, if the creator had actually expected the construct to make it.

Dryali suppressed his regret at not helping Alvyn analyze it more (after all, he'd been trying to work on improving his ability to create eldritch cannons), and took thought about how Fine Branch usually liked to track items.

Dryali:  is there enough uniqueness about this thing for locate object to work?
Alvyn:  I folded a tail feather; hopefully not noticeable, but should make it unique to track.

Dryali nodded, and went to the stables to fetch Alanya.  He found Fine Branch and Nix already there.

Upon mounting up, Dryali suggested they circle, so the reactivated bronze hawk wouldn't immediately perceive enemies and start screaming for help.  They rose up into the air just as Alvyn emerged into the stable yard, carrying the construct like it was a pigeon.  He saw the circling Freelancers, and transferred the hawk to 1 hand.  He did something to the back of its neck with a tool, and tossed it in the air.

The construct came "alive", flapping, circling, spiralling upward.  It obviously oriented itself, and aimed for the clouds.  The Freelancers tried to pace it, also trying to be someone inconspicuous, but doing so was easy, since the construct was neither trying to hide (beyond flying in cloud cover) nor being ostentatious.  <Narrator voice:  and also, miracle of miracles, Shari rolled a nat 20 for Dryali's stealth, save the date!>

Nix had not really had an opportunity to fly Eris, her wyvern, at her capabilities, and she was really enjoying it, and was not bothering to concern herself about being inconspicuous.  Mercury was riding in front of Nix on the saddle.  Alanya understood stalking prey, and was super quiet.  Nighthawk was trying to play tag, but Eris kept Alanya between them.

The construct was actually following the crater rim, they realized, as they passed over the Hang Gliding School.  For a while the Freelancers felt like they were travelling to Hasapis Vineyard afterall, but they passed over that too.  As the rim curved more north and down, the bronze hawk started an evasion pattern, and cut a chord straight north across the crater.

Nighthawk's attempts at tag were more conspicuous now they were away from the Rim, and the others told Fine Branch to quit it.  At that point they were even with Moana's Eye, shining in the west, and the Rim again loomed below.  The hawk dropped a bit to fly through the hills (here, the Rim is less of a cliff, because of the angle on the round skylith).

The bronze hawk was hugging the hills, and then flew around a cliff face and disappeared.  The Freelancers flew over to a hilltop opposite the cliff and landed, peering over, and saw a partially hidden cave entrance in the cliff.

They glanced at the Daystar amongst the scudding clouds, and took their bearings.  It was mid-afternoon, and they'd flown maybe 33 miles.

They dismounted to give the mounts a break and a bite to eat, and peered at the cave entrance.  It seemed large enough to accommodate a large winged creature, like Nighthawk.  It faced northwest, so the afternoon Daystar lit it up, and from their position they could see a natural stone floor.

Dryali:  how is Mercury feeling?
Nix:  Mercury could be persuaded

So, as the Freelancers and mounts rested, Mercury took flight across to the cave entrance to investigate.  He paused at the entrance and looked around; there wasn't much to see.  A tunnel led in; there was a lip hiding it from below.  From above, a tree stump hid the entrance.

Mercury crept forward, looking and smelling.  The cave floor was indeed natural stone, but possibly had some minor work done to flatten it some.  He smelled from within oil, bronze, and forge smells… and perhaps the smell of an overworked bronze hawk construct.  The tunnel led into the cliff flat, then curved gently.

Nix related to the others, "There is enough space to land there without exposing ourselves," then she told Mercury to check further down the tunnel.

Mercury went down the tunnel, which twisted and turned until it got to another gentle curve. From there it descended more sharply, almost like shallow, wide stairs.  At the bottom of the stairs Mercury could smell fresh oil up ahead, which made him think there was a construct or two just around the next corner.  Nix had Mercury stop and relayed this to the others.

<Narrator voice:  The GM has revised the above description to be consistent with the geography of the complex.>

Dryali:  if we investigate and are noticed, what are the odds he will move again?
Fine Branch <darkly>:  hard to move if you are in custody!
Dryali <surprised>:  you think we can take them?
Nix:  dunno who "them" is, do we?

Mercury, left on his own for this discussion, had noticed the tunnel did not have a lot of wear, and made Nix aware of it.  She mentioned this observation, and the Freelancers realized they were looking at a flyer-only entrance, which meant it was highly unlikely it had been used for clockwork owlbears, which in turn implied another entrance could be found.

Dryali:  can Mercury see/detect anything like those dwarven ruins?
<Narrator voice:  i.e. when he and Nix had been in a group tracking the clockwork owlbears.>
Nix:  no

The Freelancers decided it was time to scout the surrounding geography; none of them had been on this part of the skylith before.  It was distinctly odd; the hills making the rim of the crater pointed northward of zenith, and what the eye thought ought to be level ground really sloped down to the north.  A glance far to the west, at Moana's Eye, confirmed this impression.  They weren't in any danger of needing to walk a skylith like a Rock sagani, but it was still counterintuitive.

Mercury came back out and they mounted up, then started to circle slowly, looking for any sign.  Mercury did not ride in front of Nix but also flew about on his own.  Since they were in the hills, they all tried to be quiet and stick to the shadows.  After a few minutes, Fine Branch cast pass without trace, and Alanya was not even a whisper on the wind.

After a while, they were actually on the other side of the Rim, and here the curvature of Commerce indeed fell away.  The hillsides were in shadow from the westering Daystar, but Nix saw it:  another entrance, really big.  Not big enough to allow an airship entry, but big enough to dock.

Looking more closely, she spotted where docking ropes could be, and the wear marks to confirm it.  Studying the entrance, Nix also spotted a couple suits of armour tucked into the sides of the entrance, and secreted elsewhere, still as statues, a couple other constructs that looked more at home in a bardificery tavern.

Nix pointed these out to the Fine Branch and Dryali, who looked closely themselves, but did not see any more constructs.

Fine Branch:  kinda want to go in fighting, but.
Dryali:  we could take these, but
Fine Branch:  these are just what we see

They pulled back again to consider their options.  Fine Branch suggested scouting the other entrance with pass without trace.  That led to their trying to piece together the geometry of the tunnels connecting these entrances, and noting that the mounts would have to walk, not fly, which really slowed them down.

Nix:  pass without trace with Mercury, maybe
Dryali:  then, more informed decisions

The Freelancers returned to the flyer entrance, and on the way there, they realized pass without trace, which was really an aura around the caster, would not work on Mercury scouting by himself.

Fine Branch:  anyone have invisibility?
Dryali:  that, and see invisibility.
Nix:  Mercury has see invisibility, actually

So the new plan was, Fine Branch would go with Mercury to the entrance, and cast detect traps.  Dryali would cast invisibility on Mercury, and then Mercury would scout.

Fine Branch flew over to the entrance on Nighthawk with pass without trace still up.  Then she cast detect traps, which informed her the 60-80' stretch of hallway she could see, had nothing.

Instead of withdrawing and leaving it to Mercury, though, Fine Branch proceeded until getting to the gently curving hallway.  Looking at it herself, instead of listening to Nix' relays, made her realize that Nighthawk would likely be able to negotiate the shallow stairs.  She went around the curve until she could see the foot of the stairs, and cast detect traps again, and a trap pinged ahead:  not physical danger, but a warning.

She murmured, "There's an alarm spell just ahead; if I cast detect magic, I have to drop pass without trace."  Nix heard that, through Mercury, and then Fine Branch climbed onto the wall, which was natural stone, and cast detect magic, also looking for mechanical traps visually.

The detect magic pinged on her own gear, and on invisible Mercury; the nekomata got halfway down the stairs and the corner at the base, where Mercury had stopped before, lit up with abjuration magic.  Fine Branch got a little closer and inspected it to see if she could tell whether it was a glyph of warding, but as far as she could tell it was too big an area.  Beyond that she didn't know if it was scrying or alarm, and she could not tell the full extent of the spell.

<Narrator voice:  the notes for the above 4 paragraphs are a hot mess, because Matt kept changing his mind.  The GM has revised these to be consistent with the geography of the complex.  Also Matt rolled a 3 arcana and a nat 20 on investigation, for this trap.>

Fine Branch considered casting dispel magic, and its consequences.  She decided not to do it; they knew the location of 2 entrances to the complex, and that's what Damakaios needed.  Re-casting pass without trace, she and Mercury made it back out safely, as the Daystar set and the next day began.

The Freelancers did not feel at ease camping near this complex at all; they decided to push it and return directly to Ripa Daneo.  Unfortunately, their trip was not as speedy as they would like; despite Alanya being thrilled to fly at night, she had never needed such stamina, having not been wild raised, and needed rest breaks.

Nighthawk also got tired, and if Alanya hadn't needed the breaks, he probably would also have needed them.  Eris was fine, and didn't care.

In all the breaks delayed the Freelancers enough that they arrived at their villa at dawn.  They found Damakaios meditating in the atrium, but he broke off at their appearance, and they informed him they'd found a complex with two entrances on the northeast Rim; they would debrief him later with maps and details.

Damakaios told them, "I am happy to hear we found 2 entrances!  I hope there isn't more!  Sleep, sleep."  They went to their rooms to pass out, and he resumed his meditation.

Later that morning, Damakaios went back to his office, per his normal routine.  The cup was gone from his desk, no sign of it ever having been there.

• Dryali → lvl 9!