Pilot's Guild Stable Guard

A black dragonborn entered Freelancers Tavern, clad in chain mail and carrying a shield.  This caught Kalleth's and Cathance's attention, albeit for different reasons.  He declared his name Meurig, a squire, and the shield was that of his knight's; he's heard honorable work was available at Freelancers', and was interested.

Cathance and Kalleth took the tall dragonborn up to Arnari; and Fine Branch, having nothing better to do, went with.  Arnari, who had thought she'd seen it all, looked at  Meurig carefully, and suggested the four of them actually help guard the Pilot's Guild stable for the next 9 days; the Pilot's Guild will pay 100gp each for the service, and if they are successful in making sure the peregrine gryphon mounts are not harassed/chase off the perpetrators, another 50gp.

Arnari added, "They've been getting harassed, so no sleep.  Flying them is dangerous; they snap at people!"

Cathance imagined that.  "Wait!  If they snap at me, that's a bad idea!!!"

Arnari was dismissive.  "You leave them alone!  They need sleep!"

Fine Branch was all business.  "How much if we catch the perpetrator?"  Arnari replied, "No price for that.  As extra, you can negotiate."

She added, almost as an afterthought, "Also, the Children of Āhua report bloodhawks are trying to claim the path to Mantzur as territory.  They will pay 100gp each."

Meurig was enthusiastic.  "Good to take both!"

<narrator voice: the GM shot that idea down in record time.>

Fine Branch countered, "We should do the gryphon snores."

Cathance was quite concerned!  "But what if they try to eat me?"  Fine Branch failed to reassure her.  "You only worry, if they stop snoring!"

Kalleth declared, "We'll try to protect you."  Then he scowled at Arnari, the gears in his head turning slowly.  "Wait.  This has always been on the list.  Are there no others?"

Arnari explained, "The price climbed.  People took more lucrative missions."  She dismissed them.  "Go, talk to Kahale Aisake, the head of the Pilot's Guild."

They all got up and trooped out of her office, the big dragonborn looming over little Cathance.

They headed up Sangria Road, towards the big square with the pegasus statue.  It was noon of Vrontag, before the Tumultuous Holiday.  The Daystar shone down upon the square and there was a hint of a rainbow from a thalassa far overhead.

The Pilot's Guild was across the square from the buildings with the Mayor's office, facing west.  The cliff loomed behind it; the buildings would have morning shade.  Its façade was a tile mosaic, depicting 3 airships, one of each propulsion type.

The Freelancers entered the building through the central door.  The entrance to the stables could be seen in the back.  To the left were clearly offices; to the right was the barracks' entrance.

A female human greeted them, named Helvynya.  She had a pilot medallion around her neck, bronze with the Duquesne Pilot's logo in silver: a hippogryph, gryphon, and pegasus flying together.  Meurig introduced the party, very formal, with appropriate titles.

Cathance thought this was charming.

Helvynya was a mix of relieved and acerbic. "Finally, you have come!  My peregrine gryphon is having trouble keeping up, but he is so grumpy!"

Cathance was wanting to eliminate redundancy in the plan.  "What have you tried, thus far?"  Helvynya was taken aback.  "We have to get our own sleep!"

She escorted the Freelancers to Kahale Aisake's office.  His desk was very nice, and the guest chairs very comfortable.  Sitting in them, everyone realized, Arnari's office was more casual, and her chairs less comfortable.  Well, maybe that's just the office she has for hosting Freelancers, and for mission requests she had something fancier.

Kahale Aisake was a Wind sagani, with pale, light blue skin, and pale blue hair.  Grey streaks of pale hair accented the lines of his face, and he had a chin beard.  He was clad in expensive studded leather armour.  His pilot medallion was similar to Helvynya's, except the logo was in gold.

Unlike Helvynya, who let herself out, Kahale was not surprised at the Freelancers' arrival.  "We're happy someone is finally here.  They come, and harass the steeds," he explained.

Cathance asked, "They enter the stables?"  Kahale described what happens: "They pound on the walls from the alley outside.  They run off, too fast, when the stablehands chase outside."

Cathance narrowed her eyes, considering, while she kicked her feet dangling off the edge of the chair.  "Always at night?" she asked.  Kahale simply said, "Yes."  She kicked her feet some more, thinking.

Fine Branch declared that she wanted to catch the harassers, not scare them off.  Cathance replied, almost to herself, "We must be quiet, then."

Meurig asked, "How hard would it be to get buckets of gryphon poop?"  Kahale laughed and said that was always available!  Meurig said, "We can dump from the roof!"

Kalleth was startled.  "What?  Why?"  Meurig smiled.  "A fragrant way to tag them!"  So it was agreed this would be the way to go.

The stables in the back of the building extended out into the street behind, so it was effectively flanked by two small squares behind the rest of the Pilot's Guild, and a pair of alleys led west from each corner, towards the cliff.

Meurig and Cathance took watch from the stable roof, with buckets of gryphon poop handy.  Kalleth and Fine Branch stayed in the shadows of the alley entrances, with Kalleth in the northward one.

A couple hours after midnight, Fine Branch saw someone at the end of her alley.  But, nothing happened.

Dawn came, and the stables had been left undisturbed.  Kalleth was pleased.  The Freelancers reported this success to Kahale in the morning, before returning to the Freelancers Tavern to sleep.

He didn't look as pleased as Kalleth.  Cathance asked, "Kahale – is this good?"  He replied, "Sometimes, they skip."

As they walked back to Freelancers, Cathance suggested they run rope across the street to the alleys.  Fine Branch and Kalleth could pull it taught, and trip them.  Kalleth thought it would be seen.

Cathance prevailed, and Kalleth ran his rope across the street.  Cathance loaned her rope to Fine Branch, who had none.  Other than that, everyone was in the same position, listening to the gryphons snoring gently.  Fine Branch found the sound soothing.

After midnight, three figures headed south down the street.  As they drew even with Kalleth, two started banging on the wall of the stables.  The sounds of gryphons snoring stopped.  The third figure saw Kalleth, and hissed at the other two to stop!  This person had a heavy crossbow on his back.

Fine Branch stepped out of her hiding place, and called the Cat's sacred flame down, [miss?  Hit?].  Cathance dumped her bucket of gryphon poop on one of their heads and was rewarded with a string of expletives confirming a hit.

The fellow with the heavy crossbow shot at Kalleth, but missed.  The others pulled out light crossbows; the clean one shot at Fine Branch and missed.  Fine Branch yelled "Fuck you!" at him.  The one covered in gryphon poop of course shot at Cathance, and missed.  Cathance screeched, "Shithead!" in a fine Australian accent becuase why shouldn't Mikumwes halflings with Irish last names not have an Australian accent when they cuss people out.

They started to move off whence they came.  Kalleth stepped out of the alleyway and yelled commandingly, "Halt!"  This had no effect.  Meurig ran to the north corner of the stable roof… and breathed acid at them.  They were all hurt, although the person with the heavy crossbow was more stoic, and it appeared, ironically, that the gryphon poop helped protect the shithead by absorbing the acid.

Fine Branch called upon the Cat, and the sonorous tones of a bell rang about the shithead's head.  Necrotic damage appeared under the shit and the acid.  Cathance gestured, and a sickly hand appeared, grabbing the neck of the fellow with the heavy crossbow, also causing necrotic damage.  She started to climb down from the roof.

The two thugs with light crossbows started to run.  The heavy crossbow guy, still with a hand on his neck, sank a bolt into Fine Branch, who yelled "Fuck you!  OW!"  The other two thugs ran harder.

Kalleth challenged the remaining fellow, "Stay and fight!"  This appears to have an effect; he stopped moving away from Kalleth.  Meurig climbed down from the roof too.  Fine Branch called upon the Cat again, this time having the bell toll on the remaining fellow's head.  Cathance, not wanting to kill the remaining source of information, set up dancing lights on the other side of him, in case Kalleth's challenge was insufficient to prevent him from running away.  That also backlit him, which helped her to see better.  She finished climbing down from the roof.

The others were gone.  The remaining thug eschewed his crossbow, and pulled out a mace, swinging rapidly at Kalleth.  He missed the first one, but bonked Kalleth on the backswing.  Kalleth tried to knock him out with the flat of his axe, but missed.  He moved back, and the thug swung again, missing.

Meurig and Fine Branch both tried to subdue the thug, who had surprisingly good fighting defence.  They both missed.  Cathance moved up, but remained reluctant to hit at range, and risk a future conversation.  She drew her warhammer, which looked much larger in her hands than it actually was.

The thug whomped Meurig with his mace, and tried to catch Fine Branch on the backswing, but missed.  He clearly wanted to leave, and was still held there by Kalleth's challenge.  Kalleth threw his boomerang, but missed.  The others piled on, with poor success.  Meurig smacked him, but Fine Branch whiffed - with her claws - and Cathance bounced her warhammer off of his calf.

Trying to repeat his prior move, the thug then missed Meurig and whomped Fine Branch on the back swing.  Meurig hit him in the head with his sword hilt, knocking him out.

Everyone relaxed.

Cathance tried to see if the shithead's fragrant trail really lasted as long as Meurig thought it would… it didn't.  Perhaps the acid caused it to expire early.  Kalleth retreived his rope, and tied up the thug, who was human.  A quick search showed all he had was a silver.

They carried him into the stable for the 'hands to watch, and resumed their positions.  Cathance used prestidigitation to clear the draconic acid off him.

Nobody came back.

When the prisoner woke up, he was extremely unhappy, and protested he hadn't done anything.  This woke up the gryphons again, and the Freelancers came into the stables to talk to him.

Cathance, who was about eye level with this bound human sitting on the floor, asked who was paying.  He protested he preferred to hear the gryphons.  Cathance was stern and lectured him they had been making noise, cute little gryphon snores.  Fine Branch nodded solemnly from behind her.

Meurig stepped in, and earnestly explained how everything would be much better if the fellow just told them what was going on.  Persuaded, he explained that for roughly the last half-year, this guy Jamie had been paying them to come bang on the walls from time to time.

Kalleth glowered.  "Been looking for Jamie!"  The thug told him, "You don't find Jamie, he finds you!"  Kalleth fingered his axe.  "Looking forward to it!"  The thug laughed.  "Your funeral!"

Cathance asked, "Who's Jamie?"  Kalleth explained, he was the guy with the troublemakers who'd been messing with the Skyguard outpost.  "Easy on the eyes, too," he added.  "He got away, with his pseudodragon."  Kalleth rubbed his neck.

After some discussion, the Freelancers decided to keep this fellow tied up til morning.  Cathance asked him, "What is your name, anyway?"

"Fuck off!" he told her.  Cathance looked at him with a mixture of wonderment and innocence.  "Your name is fuck off?" she asked him.  He replied hotly.  "No, YOU fuck off!"

Kalleth had enough.  "You'll tell us your name if you know what's good for you!"  Cowed, he replied, "Raolin."  Kalleth growled at him, "you're on the right track?  Cooperate with us!"

Raolin explained, Jamie was paying them regularly.  Fine Branch was intrigued.  "I'm interested in this, can you hook me up?" she purred.  Raolin's look of give me a break said it all.

Cathance was more interested in locating Jamie.  "Where does Jamie pay you?"  Raolin said, "Wherever!"  He saw her look.  "I'm not telling you where I live!"  Cathance crossed her arms.

Meurig asked, "Does he pay you before or after?"  Raolin told him, "Sometimes either.  This time, before."

By this time, dawn had arrived, and so had Kahale.  So they trooped through the main area to Kahale's office with Raolin.  

Kahale hadn't heard of Jamie, so Fine Branch and Kalleth relayed to him the tale of the vandalism at the Skyguard outpost, which was also news to Kahale, despite the proximity of the two buildings.  He was very unhappy to hear the same individual was orchestrating an attack on both the Skyguard and the Pilot's Guild.

Kahale took custody of Raolin, and the Freelancers didn't see him again.

The rest of the stables guarding passed without incident, and Fine Branch was happy, spending her nights listening to the gryphon snores.  They talked off and on about how to get Jamie.  Maybe make Freelancers a target so he would take the bait?  Maybe the two who had been vandalizing the Skyguard had seen the error of their ways and joined Freelancers?

As they made their way back to Freelancers after their last night shift guarding, each with 150g pay for their efforts, drums started to boom across the square, commemorating the storms for the Tumultuous Holiday.