Session Dates
In Game Start Date
Okeanostag, 3rd prime post-Periastron 1054
Days in Game
2 days
Location
Record Kept
In Freelancers
TLDR
Fine Branch, Dryali, Tahu, and Kalleth go to Arnari and take a mission to investigate and hopefully stop the vandals defacing the walls of their building.
- Dryali, Tahu, Kalleth, and Fine Branch were in the Freelancers Tavern. Dryali had a glass of ice wine to hand. He found it immensely satisfying to drink it.
- Fine Branch was feeling adventuresome so everyone trooped up to Arnari to find out if there were adventures to be had. She also had a glass of ice wine to hand, increasing Dryali's satisfaction.
- Arnari's list of available work sounded very familiar to Dryali. Some of it felt familiar to everyone.
- Guard the Pilot's stable
- Seek out the Skyguard vandals and make them stop
- Find and destroy the kobold encampment endangering visitors to the Orderly Stones monastery
- Check out the forest attack on the way to the Children of Āhua town Mantzur. This was a flock of bloodhawks. They'd injured people, but not deaths… yet.
- Fine Branch wanted to seek out the vandals.
- Dryali noted that Arnari had said the day before, the way to the Children of Āhua was urgent.
- Tahu was also interested in the vandals. Dryali thought that maybe that would be a lead to the fool Daystar worshippers, and said so.
- Through not terribly clever conversation, Kalleth was manipulated into also wanting to seek out the vandals.
- Dryali demanded Arnari tell them how much everything would pay. Arnari said the Skyguard was willing to pay 400gp now. For comparison:
- Guarding the Pilot's stable was 100gp/person
- The kobolds are also 100gp/person
- As is also taking care of the bloodhawks on the way to Mantzur. 100gp/person
- A pause while the 4 adventurers pondered this coincidence of pay.
- Dryali asked, "Is there anything we need to know in advance?"
- Arnari replied, "As you know, most of the Skyguard are garuda; but their chief of Duquesne is a hanyou by the name of Bryseis Seere. Bryseis wants the vandalism to stop. Either convince them to stop, or turn them into the City Guard."
- She paused a moment. "Initially, it was rude drawings on the wall. I don't know if it's propagated further." She took a sip of her ice wine, as if to contemplate her word choice.
- Since there was nothing else to say, everyone took their leave of Arnari and headed up to the outpost, which was up Sangria Boulevard just past the square housing the Mayor's office which we really ought to name but haven't.
The Plan
TLDR
The Freelancers visit the Skyguard building, and observe the defacements thereon. They meet with Bryseis Seere, a female hanyou who is the chief of the Cliffshadow Skyguard. Fine Branch has a plan to make the vandals easy to track, and Tahu decides to look for similar graffiti elsewhere in Cliffshadow.
- The day was beautiful and sunny, which meant Dryali spared a grateful thought for his goggles. Some clouds skudded in the distance in front of skylith, their tops peeking over the cliff, as they crossed the square.
- <narrator voice> wait, this is a bulleted set of notes.
- The Skyguard Outpost was a 3 storey tall building that also looked like a government building. The top two floors were supported by beautifully carved marble pillars with [capitals that look like this except it's feathers instead of leaves]
- <narrator voice> wait, this is a bulleted set of playsession notes. sigh, I've been working too much lately and miss Skyway
- The pillars would have been more beautiful, were they not covered with phallic graffiti and blocked by scaffolding as workmen replace a broken window on the second storey. Other workmen were scrubbing "Skyguard sux!" "Steals our money!" off a wall.
- Kalleth, shocked, asked, "Who hates the Skyguard?!"
- Fine Branch, who had come to Duquesne from the skylith Zephyr, explained: "So, the Skyguard defends against natural and deliberate hazards - natural, like an impending collision, or deliberate, like bandits. The Skyguard charge tariffs to the ships for this." She paused. "The Skyguard also try to combat piracy, so smugglers and pirates hate them."
- <narrator voice> Matt Harris rolled a nat 20 on history
- Dryali walked around the building, trying to get a sense of the pattern of graffiti application. He determined they started on the southwest corner, and figured that's where they came from.
- Tahu exclaimed, "The Freelancers are in that direction!" as if Dryali had accused the entire guild.
- Dryali replied, "So is the sun-lotion place!"
- Everyone considered how to trace the vandals' origin. Dryali mused, "Who sells paints?" Tahu mused, "Is there a place people graffiti a lot?" Fine Branch prowled around the entire perimeter of the building, looking for paint drips.
- They located Bryseis Seere, a female hanyou who was in fine form, holding forth to all who would listen on the uselessness of the Freelancers. Kalleth interrupted, "We're here now."
- Bryseis stopped, surprised, and said "Thanks." She explained, "I tried to have one of the clerks watch, but they are tired after a full day of clerking."
- Dryali asked, "Do you have what broke the window?"
- Bryseis replied, "It was a rock or brick. People clean it up."
- Fine Branch requested, "Can you keep it, next time, for us?" Bryseis said "yes."
- The general feeling was, everyone should stake it out.
- Dryali asked Bryseis, "Has anyone checked if magic was involved?"
- Bryseis told him, "Yes. There was no magic."
- On that, Fine Branch declared a plan to use pigment + pitch around the building, which would force the vandals to step on it and leave tracks.
- That will be the plan.
- Tahu still wanted to look at places with graffiti. He and Dryali remembered seeing some in Trade District when they were trying to locate the sun lotion place.
- Tahu and Kalleth will go check that out, since Dryali really shouldn't go near there.
- Fine Branch and Dryali will get the pitch and figure out how best to place it.
- Tahu and Kalleth easily found the places people graffiti in Trade District. There was nothing they could deduce from the drawings and such that related to the crude phallic paintings on the Skyguard outpost.
- Fine Branch picked up pitch and pigments for it from a shop near the docks. They waited until near dark to apply it at places where any vandals would have to stand.
- Bryseis arranged for access to the roofs of the nearby buildings.
Stake Out & Follow
TLDR
The Freelancers apply pigmented pitch to the ground around the Skyguard building, then keep watch over night from nearby roofs. Once the miscreants show up, the Freelancers track the four of them to their rooms in the Trade District.
- Dryali and Fine Branch took the building to the south. Kalleth and Tahu took the building to the west.
- Dryali and Kalleth took the first watch. They didn't see anything. Dryali went into trance after Fine Branch took over watch.
- Fine Branch got distracted and chased after a moth fluttering by, and managed to disrupt Dryali. They looked down and there were people painting on the Skyguard building!
- Maybe it was 4 people? Even Dryali wasn't sure. 3 for sure, burly enforcer types, in rough clothing, which was dark coloured.
- There was a 4th! Very stealthy, hard to see. Small and thin humanoid.
- Dryali, peering closer, saw what they were, if not who: a short female human, a male Wind sagani, and a male Fire sagani, his hair bright even in the darkness.
- Fine Branch and Tahu, being the stealthier, went downstairs from the rooftops. Somehow Fine Branch managed to stumble and fall on her ass, but she recovered well enough that the preoccupied vandals did not see her.
- <narrator voice> Matt Harris rolled a 1 on stealth
- Fine Branch did something so Kalleth could make it downstairs with some modicum of stealth. Dryali also came downstairs, and managed to be reasonably stealthy.
- Even from the closer vantage point, they had a hard time seeing the 4th person.
- Fine Branch cast disguise self to look like the female human.
- Done with their labours, the miscreants headed towards the Trade District, leaving a distinct trail.
- It's about 3am. <narrator voice> Do we measure time here like this? We should probably count hours before/after sunrise, not noon and midnight. Or maybe periapsis.
- After some time they deduced the 4th person was the same height as the human woman, but much scrawnier. A half-elf of indeterminate gender, with brown hair, red highlights.
- Once in the Trade District, they followed down an alleyway. The vandals went left around the corner, and a door audibly shut. Fine Branch saw the door, then doublechecked if the tracks go to it.
- The place was a boarding house or hostel, renting rooms to persons of low quality.
- Circling back, Fine Branch found a back door. Dryali kept watch on the front door.
- The backdoor was unlocked. Fine Branch went in, to find a long hall with many doors into rooms.
- By following the pitch footprints, Fine Branch found the right door, and drew a dick on it.
- She came out and told the others, "Figured out the room."
The Raid
TLDR
The Freelancers attempt to apprehend the vandals, who would far prefer mayhem than detention. A melee ensues, in which a pseudodragon also participates. The Freelancers prevail, but not before one of them, "Jamie", escapes (as does the pseudodragon).
- Dryali pulled out his woodcarver's tools, and tried carving an eldritch cannon from the wood he had in his backpack. He must have done something right, everyone felt more robust
- <narrator voice> as they all got 5 temporary hit points
- Doing their best to be quiet, everyone went into the hallway, and Kalleth went up to the door with the dick drawn on it, and knocked.
- The female human answered the door, "What do you want? I'm sleepy!"
- Kalleth declared, "I don't think so! We're here on behalf of the Skyguard, because of vandalism you, uh, perpetrated!"
- The woman shut the door in his face, but it flew right back open! Fine Branch did it with thaumaturgy.
- She looked at the door, and exclaimed, "What the fuck! There's a dick on the door!"
- Kalleth stepped into the room and declared loudly, "You've all been seen defacing the Skyguard building! Resist us, or I'll take you in!"
- At this, Tahu moved behind Kalleth, to stand in the doorway where he had been. Dryali moved next to Kalleth, and carefully set the eldritch cannon on the floor behind & between them.
- The male Fire sagani was to the human's left, and the male Wind sagani was behind them. With their help, the human shoved Kalleth out the door, intending to shut it again. The half-elf, who was extremely attractive and somewhat androgynous, was in the other side of the room under a high -ish window.
- Dryali cast grease under the three near the doorway. They all lost their balance and fell prone.
- Kalleth threw his boomerang at the half-elf, and missed. It returned to him.
- The sagani moved out of the grease. The Fire sagani clocked Kalleth with his mace. The Wind sagani backed up and grabbed a heavy crossbow.
- The half-elf gestured - bamph! - and a pseudodragon appeared. It flew to Kalleth and bit him!
- Fine Branch failed to set the grease on fire.
- <narrator voice> GM rules, based on sage advice, that the substance in the spell grease is not flammable; and not based on sage advice, that it actually KY.
- <narrator voice> surely by now, you all have realized Skyway is NSFW
- Kalleth pulled out his axe and struck the female human with it. Scowling, he taunted her, "I heard it's harder to do graffiti if you don't have arms!"
- Tahu also struck at the female human, since they were fighting in the doorway.
- Dryali tried to shoot the pseudodragon attacking Kalleth. However since the entire fight was right there in the doorway, he was unable to get a clear shot.
- <narrator voice> Shari rolled a 1 because disadvantage.
- The female human hit Tahu with her mace, really hard. The Fire sagani hit Kalleth again, with his. The Wind sagani pierced his armour with a crossbow bolt.
- The pseudodragon flew to the other side of the room, to the closed window. At that, the pretty half-elf cut his hand, and vanished. The Wind sagani roared, "You fucker, Jamie!!!"
- Fine Branch tried to defuse the situation. "You're outgunned, outnumbered, and your leader just bailed!" The Wind sagani was having none of it. "And fuck you too! Gods damn it, Jamie!"
- Fine Branch ran back out the front door.
- Kalleth again attacked the female human. She seemed pretty tough!
- Tahu ran out the back door. The female human attacked him as he ran, but missed.
- Kalleth was looking none too good. Dryali, still unclear on proper use of his eldritch cannon, cast cure wounds on him. Good thing, too, because the Fire sagani smacked him twice with his mace.
- The female human, seeing Dryali's heal on Kalleth, swung her mace at Dryali instead, missing. The Wind sagani shot the crossbow again, but it was unclear at who: the shot went in between the combatants in the doorway.
- Fine Branch ran back in and cast healing word on Kalleth.
- Kalleth whapped the female human with the flat of his blade, knocking her out.
- Tahu returned, announcing, "Lost her, no trace." Dryali raised an eyebrow.
- Dryali then shot the Wind sagani in the shoulder, then ducked out of line of sight. The Wind sagani reached up to grab the bolt, which faded out, and swore again.
- The pseudodragon disappeared with a slight poof, and Kalleth started muttering.
- Fine Branch told them, "Just give up!"
- The Fire sagani brandished his mace. "We can do this!"
- The Wind sagani swore. "Fucking Jamie!" He lowered his crossbow. "Fine. what do we need to do?"
- Fine Branch told them, "Help us find Jamie, and we can work it out."
- The Wind sagani exclaimed, "We don't wanna get shot up with disappearing crossbow bolts!!" Dryali peered around the corner and grinned up at them.
- The Wind sagani sighed, and looked at his lowered crossbow. "Can we leave weapons here?" Fine Branch replied, "we'd prefer it." He set the crossbow down, and everyone relaxed some.
- Fine Branch moved to disarm the female human, causing the Fire sagani to move protectively. "Ah! Ah! You knocked her out!" He disarmed her, gently, casting reproachful looks at the Freelancers.
- Dryali became practical. "Where are we taking them?" Tahu did also. "The City Guard, if we expect them to pay us for this."
Perp Walk
TLDR
The Freelancers return to the Skyguard with the three apprehended miscreants, who agree to clean up the defacements from earlier in the evening. Bryseis is unhappy about the night's vandalism until she realizes the perpetrators are in hand, at which point she pays the fee of 400gp for their service.
- The Fire sagani picked up the female human and carried her as they walked towards the City Guard outpost.
- Fine Branch said, "Tell us what you know."
- <narrator voice> Fine Branch sounds like Lord Rell Margaster for some reason
- Dryali, giving Fine Branch a side eye, asked them their names.
- Human - Evvie
- Wind sagani - Aleki
- Fire sagani - Laki
- Aleki was super pissed at Jamie, and could not stop ranting. "I never trusted him, but it was good money! I dunno what his deal is!"
- Tahu asked, "How long have you been doing it?" Aleki told him, "A long time. It was really good money!"
- Kalleth asked him, "What was his deal?"
- Aleki shrugged ruefully. "Ask too many questions, and the pseudodragon would sting you!"
- Kalleth, rubbing his neck where the pseudodragon tried to poison him, said incredulously, "That thing sting you, and you still work for him?"
- Aleki told him, "The money is really good, and we got to draw dicks!" He talked about scrambling to pick up odd jobs to make ends meet.
- Someone noted he could have gone to Freelancers, and Aleki and Laki both scoffed.
- Fine Branch asked, "You know how much money we're getting paid, to bring you in?!" The Freelancers laughed.
- They were nearing the City Guard outpost. Aleki's face became sly. "How about, we promise not to [do this anymore], do we have to still go in?" The Freelancers decided to take them to Skyguard instead.
- On the way there, Fine Branch's disguise self dropped, and she again appeared as a nekomata.
- By this time it was near dawn. Bryseis was there, and unhappy. "We hired you to stop this!" she exclaimed.
- Tahu told her, "We did! Here they are, and they'll help clean it up, too." He scowled at the two sagani. They both sighed, but their attention was diverted as Evvie began to stir.
- Bryseis' demeanor changed immediately. "Oh!" she called over a clerk to take them in hand and lead them away.
- Tahu, watching them walk away, turned to Bryseis. "There's someone else you should know about…"
- The Skyguard took custody of the three miscreants, and after deposing them, paid the Freelancers 100gp each. Bryseis did not give any indication of prior knowledge, or lack thereof, of Jamie.
- Tahu → Level 3!
Loot
- Mission pay: 400gp (10% to Freelancers)
Log Entry Type
Storyline