Amabel Villa's Ballroom Butlers

Fine Branch, Kaikoa, and Dryali rolled on into Damakaios' office.  Damakaios was seated at his desk.  On his right, glued to the desk, was a solid glass cylinder, and Dryali, fascinated, sat in front of it, studying it.  Kaikoa, with his bad knees, swung a leg over the back of another chair to sit down.  Fine Branch sat in a random chair, pointedly ignoring the glass cylinder.

Dryali had, in his rooms, the large glass handle of the juice golem affixed to the ceiling, imbued with dancing lights.  The artificer was considering how to apply the same magic to this cylinder.

Damakaios looked at them, then pulled out three missions and read them off without preamble.

• Next section of Amabel Villa.  clear it out; don't destroy it too much.  250 eagles each.
• House Hadid wants Freelancers to find death butterfly swarm and get a bunch of wings.  They will pay according to quantity and quality.
• Hasapis Vineyard has a repeat of weird behaviour.  Their easternmost vineyards had some small earthquakes, and they pulled their personnel and asked for help.  300 eagles per person.

He looked at them expectantly.

Dryali:  let's do vineyard; it pays better, unless you need magic stuff.
Kaikoa:  wow have either of you been to the magic house?
Dryali & Fine Branch:  yes, sure, you haven't?
Kaikoa:  no!
Dryali:  let's do that then
Fine Branch:  I can use divination to find out the best rooms
Dryali:  isn't that trivia-bothering your god?
Fine Branch:  …in whose name I'll use this stuff!
<Narrator:  here the GM tiredly informed everyone they needed to go into the 1st floor.>

So, the Freelancers grabbed their mounts and flew over to Amabel Villa.  On the way there, Dryali and Fine Branch explained to Kaikoa what they knew about the place.  They landed in the atrium, to hear music floating from the back two corners of the building.  From their left was organ music, and from the right, other instruments.  The music did not mix well.

Kaikoa:  is there any pattern to the rooms, or pick randomly?
<Narrator voice:  reader, all three of these people are devotedly chaotic neutral.>
Fine Branch:  no?  pick randomly
Dryali:  the organ music don't like short people
Fine Branch:  why do you care?

Kaikoa pulled out his amulet of the drunkard, and made a big show of trying to dowse for the wine cellar.  He ended up pointing to the front left.

Dryali:  do you really think any of that would be drinkable?
Kaikoa:  it has great preservation spells, why not?  At the very least, good bottles for forgery.
Fine Branch:  let's just go for the organ music
Kaikoa:  if you want
Fine Branch:  maybe I should cast hallow
<Narrator:  here the GM asserted "it will not make them go away.">

Anyhow, the three Freelancers entered the 1st floor via the reception room Fine Branch had cleared the last time he'd visited.  The non-organ music faded out.  Dryali created a protector eldritch cannon.  Kaikoa poked around, but the room had been thoroughly looted.  The room had doors to the left and right; the Freelancers chose the door on the right.  Kaikoa went first, then Dryali, then Fine Branch.  Dryali cast detect magic.

They found themselves in an L-shaped cloakroom.  Directly ahead was an open door; ahead to their left was a rack with assorted canes; and to their right an open door revealed a closet.  Beyond the closet, boot racks were visible on the long part of the L.  The detect magic lit up the canes, the closet, the house preservation spells, the Freelancers.

A couple of tall, nasty-looking undead were approaching from the boot racks with swords drawn, and Kaikoa drew his magical scimitar.  The Freelancers became aware of two swarms of undead snakes:  one near the assorted canes, one in the closet.

Dryali pulsed the protector cannon, bolstering everyone.  Then he cast web on the two approaching undead butlers and the snakes near the assorted canes.

• Fine Branch, chanting "Cats cats cats cats cats," moved in front of Dryali as he became surrounded by spirit guardians.  Seeing the swarm of snakes in the closet, he cast a twice-uplevel'd spiritual weapon in the form of a wood plane next to them, and it struck them with force.
• The undead snakes next to the assorted canes did not care at all about web, and crawled onto Fine Branch; but before they could bite him Kaikoa interposed his shield, preventing it.
• The undead snakes in the closet swarmed Dryali, biting him with poison.  He avoided any lingering effects, and kept the web up, but snapped, "Get OFF me!"
• Kaikoa attacked the snakes on Dryali, slaying some with his first slash, but missing with his second.  He moved between Fine Branch and the butlers in the web.
• The furthest butler was burned by the holy radiance of the spirit guardian cats, then stepped out of the web to move to Fine Branch.
  • Kaikoa slashed the undead with his magical scimitar.
  • The butler struck Dryali with his hand, and the claws drained a small portion of Dryali's life force.  The Dark elf still kept the web up.
  • The undead also slashed Fine Branch with his sword.
• The closest butler was held fast in the web, and also burned by the holy radiance.  He attacked Kaikoa with both longsword and hand, missing with both.

Dryali moved the protector cannon so it could bolster everyone.  But he was swarmed by undead snakes, and off his game, so when attempting to firebolt he critfailed, and the recoil knocked him off his feet.  Swearing, he stood back up.  <Narrator voice:  Shari rolled a double nat 1.>

• Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon wood plane to himself, to attack the snakes that had swarmed him with force.  Then he cast toll the dead, a cheerful music box tinkling in dissonance with the ongoing organ music, and many snakes dropped from the swarm, overcome by necrosis.
• The snake swarms succumbed to the spirit guardian cats, to both Fine Branch's and Dryali's relief.
• The web was blocking the open door in front of them, and the Freelancers could see, barely, a well-appointed room.  A ghost blinked in, just outside of the sworl of the spirit guardian cats, which apparently frustrated it.
  • The ghost looked at Fine Branch and screamed.  While the scream manifested physically in the Freelancers' ears, it was much louder in their heads.
  • Fine Branch was suddenly overwhelmed by a terrible memory of tripping and falling in the puddle and pretending he'd meant to do that.  Both Kaikoa and Dryali sensed it too.
  • Despite the headache, Fine Branch kept spirit guardians up.
  • The ghost moved out of view.
• Kaikoa attacked the restrained butler, slashing once and missing once,  He placed unwavering mark on the undead.
• The butler in the web was again burned by the holy radiance of the spirit guardian cats.  He attacked Kaikoa with hand and sword, but missed.
• The butler next to Dryali slashed the artificer with his longsword, a grazing blow, so the Dark elf still kept web up.  He tried to hit Fine Branch with his hand, but the cleric avoided the blow.

Dryali pulsed the protector cannon, bolstering everyone.  Then, uncaring the butler was in his face, he shot the undead with a firebolt, burning him badly.  The butler shrieked, the sound resembling the words "Rude Guests!"  Dryali ignored that and peered into the dark room beyond, trying to see the ghost, but saw nothing animate.

• Fine Branch cast toll the dead on the butler in the web, the cheerful music box again tinkling in dissonance with the organ.  Somehow necrosis caused this undead to deteriorate more.
  • The cleric moved the spiritual weapon wood plane to attack the butler in the web with force.
• The ghost drifted back in sight, a bit over the web, outside the reach of the spirit guardian cats, and screeched at Kaikoa, who was caught up in it.
  • Dryali tried flash of genius to snap Kaikoa out of it, to no avail.
  • Kaikoa fully relived the moment the two airships crushed his knees.  The pain and agony took a toll on him and the spillover dragged Fine Branch and Dryali along.
  • Dryali continued to keep web up.  Fine Branch almost lost his spirit guardians, but the mind sharpener infusion on his armour kicked in.
  • The ghost moved away, back into the room to their right.  A moment later, the organ music stopped.
• Kaikoa, discomfited, sliced entirely through the butler in the web, who fell apart in two pieces.
  • Dryali dropped the web.
  • Kaikoa moved to the other butler and sliced through him as well, and the undead just crumbled.
  • He moved to the door, peering into the room, to see the ghost on the other side of the room, and a second one too.  The room had a nice carpet, tables, comfy couches, all dusty and slightly moth-eaten.  The windows were covered in vines, causing the room to be very poorly lit.
  • "There's some asshole at the organ," he told the others, "alone with that ghost that's been messing with us."
  • Kaikoa moved up to the nice carpet.

Dryali sent the protector cannon through the door to the room, then himself moved to the door so he could see; then he moved the protector further, and had it pulse to bolster himself and Kaikoa.  The room was comfortably lit for him, and he saw the ghosts near the organ clearly; so he sent a firebolt through the screaming ghost, and noted with satisfaction that the firebolt appeared to hurt the ghost as much as he'd expected it to hurt.

• Fine Branch moved past Dryali, up to Kaikoa, and let the spirit guardian cats go.
  • He reached out and touched Kaikoa's scimitar blade, casting holy weapon.  The crudely-etched "FUCK THE" glowed, then the glow spread to the rest of the weapon.
  • Then Fine Branch cast toll the dead on the ghost that had screamed.  The living room was filled with the music box tones, and the ghost shrieked as necrosis affected it.
  • Fine Branch shrieked back as only a nekomata can, but backed up from Kaikoa about 5'.
• The shrieking ghost drifted back into the room away from the organ, and screamed at Dryali, who was caught up in it.
  • The Dark elf fully relived the time when his frustration at the College of Wizardry in Stormview overwhelmed him.  They were always comparing him to his older brother, and finding him wanting because he wanted to tinker with things and not the arcane.  Embarrassed and frustrated, he chopped his hair and departed for Duquesne, the most populous skylith…
  • The memory took a toll, and the others were caught up in the spillover too, imbued with massive headaches.
• The organ player drifted over to Kaikoa, then snapped his fingers.  Small black notes started orbiting, circling the three Freelancers.
  • Then he punched Kaikoa, to no avail.
• Kaikoa understood getting punched, and was excited about his glowy scimitar.  Then the black notes caused some necrosis on his person.
  • Kaikoa struck the organ player twice with his glowing scimitar, the bright blade dealing magical slashing and painful holy radiance to the spirit.
  • Riding a surge of adrenaline, Kaikoa reversed his blade and struck the organ player in the head with the glowing pommel.  The latter evaporated, and so did the orbiting black motes.
  • "That's why you can't trust fucking bards!" Kaikoa shouted through his headache, then moved to the screaming ghost, slashing him with the glowing blade, and emplacing unwavering mark on him.

Dryali had the protector cannon pulse again, bolstering the Freelancers again.  Then he sent a firebolt at … himself, because he critfailed.  The only thing that saved him was his purple mournlode shield, which very much protected against magical attack spells.  <Narrator voice:  Shari had rolled a nat 20 to attack self, but the purple mournlode imposed disadvantage, whew.>

• Fine Branch cast a thrice-uplevel'd guiding bolt at the screaming ghost, again burning it with holy radiance.  He moved his spiritual weapon wood plane, but the ghost was out of reach.
• The ghost screamed at Kaikoa again, and Dryali was faster this time with flash of genius.  While Kaikoa again remembered his knee pain, he was not caught up in it, nor were the others caught up in spillover.
• With one slash, Kaikoa dispatched the screaming ghost.

Kaikoa held his glowing scimitar aloft.  "This Room is Clear," he announced.

<Narrator voice:  not to be outdone, the GM then announced, "You are out of combat.">

Dryali turned to look at the room behind him, casting detect magic.  Apparently it was not a cloak room, per se:  more like a mud room, with boot racks and such.  He strolled around the small room.   Abjuration for the preservation spells; also some evocation and illusion.  As Kaikoa and Fine Branch came to the doorway, Dryali pointed out 2 magical cloaks, one of the canes, some magical shoes.

He moved to the living room.  There were two necklaces he pointed out.  At the far right was the organ room.  He stopped at the organ, considering.  Something there was magical… a pan flute.  The instrument had been deliberately strapped onto the organ pipes.

Dryali ran out of items to point out, so the other two Freelancers started looking at the mundane objects.  There were moth-eaten cloaks, bad boots.  A cane and a quarterstaff, made of nice mahogany with gold/silver/brass knob overlays.  They found a very nice dragonchess set, with precious stones, easily worth 500 eagles.  Scattered around the living room they found 11 silver goblets which had been individualized, but were matching.  Three silver wing jugs also matched, and there was also a crystal wine jug.

The Freelancers gathered all these items and brought them back to Freelancers Villa.  There, they collected the mission fee from Damakaios, ran identify on the magic items, assessed it all, and sorted out what to do with it.