Take out the Grblin outpost near Marshfork

It was the morning of Fysitag, 4th prime past Tumultuous, and Meurig had just departed for Marshfork.  However if the grblins had a stronghold near Marshfork, Arnari knew he would not be enough.  She ducked into Airini's office.   "Can you fetch for me the dwarf Kalleth?  I have a mission for him."  Airini rose.  Arnari added, "also 2-3 others, that I can send to reinforce the team at Marshfork."  Airini nodded and went downstairs.

Arnari really wasn't sure about these skull-and-scimitar grblins.

She looked up as Airini opened the door and Kalleth, Kaikoa, and Manu trooped in.  "Tahu and Dryali are in Marshfork, on contract to take out the grblins that have been attacking travellers," she told them without preamble.  "I just sent Meurig to join them.  I don't know the grblin strength, but I doubt the three of them can handle all the grblins themselves."

Kalleth had already sat up straighter, pleased with the notion of such a clear cut mission.  Manu was very curious; she did not think he'd been further west than Haven.  "How much will we be paid?" Kaikoa asked, since pay was always top of mind for him.  "200gp, and of course whatever else you find when you're there, you get to keep," she told him, wondering this time, how true that would be.  "We'll do it!" Kaikoa exclaimed.

"Go, go," she shooed them back out of her office.  "The longer you dither, the more grblin loot the other three will have to themselves."

It took them 5 days to reach Three Rivers, which they did without incident.  They got rooms at the Mule's Rest Inn for a couple nights, as the next day was the Fulcrum Holiday.

They arrived in Marshfork to find Meurig waiting for them at The Cantankerous Goose.  He regaled them with the tale of the small grblin camp getting decimated, then described to them how to get there, and the northward path they could not miss.  Once they saw the tree, they should look for Tahu and Dryali, taking care to stay out of sight, as the grblins had sentries posted in the tree.

The next morning, Manu, Kaikoa, and Kalleth left The Cantankerous Goose on their way to the grblins, and Meurig departed for Cliffshadow.  They had to camp one night on their way there, but met up with Dryali and Tahu late the next day.  The latter had been watching since Meurig left, and saw a pack of wolves go in and out of the cave at its base a couple times, as well as the grblins in the tree change watch shifts.

Kaikoa questioned Tahu about the situation.  "How many?" he asked.  Tahu shrugged.  "Dunno."  Kaikoa scowled.  "Did you capture any and hold them by their ankles over this gully?"  Tahu shrugged again, thinking of the camp.  "We kind of accidentally killed them," he told Kaikoa.

Dryali said, "We could grab the guards after shift change."  Kaikoa said, "Let's do that in the morning."  They all agreed.

Tahu took the first watch, and saw the sentries change.

Manu took the second watch.  <narrator voice: Matt Boyce rolled a 1> so he heard some wolf howls at some point, but saw nothing.

Kaikoa took the dawn watch.  He was impressed at how it was a nice quiet night.

Once the morning awakened everyone, they resumed planning.

Kaikoa wanted just to grab the sentries.  "What can distract them?"

Dryali just wanted to use the flamethrower.  The others said No.

Kalleth suggested casting sleep.  Who has sleep?  Manu said, "I have sleep."  A discussion ensued.  What if the sentries fell out of the tree?  It was at least 30' tall.  More like 40'.

The plan was formed.  Kaikoa will fly up, and from 90' away, Manu will cast sleep.  Then Kaikoa would grab one of the sentries.  Not a single Freelancer considered that sleep only lasts like a minute.

Dryali cautioned Kaikoa about what to do and not (by which I mean he cast guidance), and then Kaikoa flew up.  Manu cast sleep, and the grblins konked out, but did not fall!

Kaikoa flew over on Mordant to grab one of the grblins.  That was harder than it looked!  A branch poked her in the eye and she shied away.  Kaikoa coaxed her close in again, but not close enough.  Finally, Kaikoa grabbed a branch, pulled himself onto the tree, and pushed the grblin out.  The grblin hit the ground, screaming.

Kalleth and Dryali looked at each other, then started to move through the scrub towards the screaming grblin.  Tahu dashed closer and tried to shoot him with his light crossbow, but missed.  Manu sent the necrotic hand of chill touch after the screaming grblin, but it only managed to make the grblin yell more.

Kaikoa was still in the tree.  He clambered over to the still-sleeping sentry, and tried to drop it on top of the screaming grblin on the ground.  He completely missed <narrator voice: because Vasily rolled a 1>.

That meant there were now 2 screaming grblins in front of the cave at the foot of the tree.  Out of said cave, 5 wolves leapt out, over the screaming grblins.  Kalleth declared, "This wasn't what I meant by 'putting them to sleep'!"  He pulled out his new longbow, drew back, and released, shooting the tree <narrator voice: because Matt Ness rolled a 1>.

Dryali paused in the scrub, and made a force ballista and set it there.  It fired, killing the screaming grblin.  The other grblin apparently did not break any bones; he stood up and shot at Dryali with a short bow, but the shot went high.  Tahu killed him with his light crossbow, then swapped it for a shortsword.

Manu who remained far behind the others, used Tides of Chaos to recover his spell and sleep 2 of the wolves.  The other 3 charged at Dryali,  Tahu, and Kalleth.  Then 5 more wolves emerged from the cave, howling.

4 of the wolves attacked Kalleth; 3 of them bit him, one of them pretty hard <narrator voice:  the GM rolled a nat 20!> .  Despite piling onto him as a pack, they failed to bring him down; Kalleth is strong!  2 attacked Tahu, but Kalleth intercepted and Tahu was left unscathed.  2 attacked Dryali, but only one managed to bite him.

Kaikoa was still in the tree.  Seeing the havoc he'd brought about below, he called Mordant over and remounted her; then swooped down to attack one of the wolves on Dryali with his longsword.  He whiffed, though.  Mordant did not have this problem, she used her beak on the wolf and killed it.  She took a swipe and the other wolf and missed.

Kalleth swung at one of the wolves with his battleaxe, and got entirely turned around <narrator voice: because Matt Ness rolled a 1>.  Dryali watched Kalleth, and hesitated.  The force ballista killed another wolf, and then Dryali stepped up and laid down a thunderwave… pushing away Tahu, and 3 of the wolves; injuring Kalleth, and waking up the sleeping wolves.

Tahu gave Dryali a look, then slew the 2 wolves closest to Kalleth.  He stepped in front.  Manu sent magic missiles at the wolves that were injured; he killed the wolves pushed away by the thunderwave, and injured another.  The awakened wolves ran up to Tahu, who was then beset by 3 wolves.  He could not avoid all the biting.

Kaikoa slashed the last wolf on Dryali with his longsword, then Mordant used her beak to kill it.  She turned and clawed at the last wolf on Kalleth, and killed it too.  Freed of wolves in his face, Kalleth backed up and pulled his longbow back out, but failed to hit anything with it. 

The force ballista also failed to hit anything, but Dryali backed up, and used the earring of Āhua to heal Kalleth a little.  Tahu swung at one of the wolves on him and missed; he slashed it with his offhand.  Manu called up Tides of Chaos to cast ray of frost on the wolf, killing it.

That left two wolves on Tahu.  One bit at him, but Kaikoa deflected and it missed.  The other wolf bit him.  Kaikoa attacked that one with his longsword, killing it.  Mordant used her beak to kill the last wolf.

The Freelancers looked around.  They were surrounded by corpses; 10 dead wolves, 2 dead grblins.  The wolves lacked saddles, but they had the marks of regularly wearing them.

Dryali put the force ballista on his shoulder, then moved to the grblin corpses and inspected them for anything interesting.  They both had the now-familiar skull-and-scimitar badges on them, and were armed with scimitars and short bows.  He found 9sp as well.

While he was doing that, Manu walked up to the still-mounted Kaikoa and entirely dressed him down.  "This is not what the sleep was for!" he exclaimed, in his oddly high-pitched voice.

Tahu, who had apparently put his time during the Fulcrum Holiday to better use than Dryali did, pulled out his healer's kit, and healed Kalleth and himself.

But at the conclusion of these activities, there remained 10 dead wolves and 2 dead grblins.  The Freelancers looked around.  Should they pile them up?  No!  The gully!  Maybe they should chuck all the bodies at the bridge.  After all, everyone had just witnessed how Kaikoa needs practice at this.

They went to the edge of the gully and peered over.  On the other side, over the bridge, was a gnarled tree growing out of the side of the gully.  They decided to have a contest, who could hit the tree.

• Kaikoa hit the tree with a wolf corpse.
• Tahu hit right below the tree with a wolf corpse.  <narrator voice: Casey rolled a nat 20, but Tahu isn't terribly strong.>
• Kalleth hit the far wall, under the bridge, with a wolf corpse.
• Dryali grabbed a grblin corpse and barely chucked it past the near side of the gully.
• Manu did not bother.  He used prestidigitation to emplace a cave-style painting depicting this recent exploit on the gully wall.

They disposed of the rest of the corpses in a similar fashion.

Tahu looked in the tree, and found a ramp curving down away from the gorge.  He couldn't see much more, and lit his lantern.  Dryali stuck his head in, and shook it wonderingly at the overpowering smell of wolf.  He took off his goggles and stowed them.

The Freelancers walked down the curving passageway to a big square room.  It was 10' tall, and 20'x30'.  Saddles and bridles were on the wall, suitable for wolves.  There were places for the wolves to sleep, and shelves with brushes.  It was like a little wolf stable!

At the far end of the room, there was a 5' wide opening to the rope bridge.  From here, it looked pretty sturdy!  There was a cave on the other side.  It was pretty dark, but Dryali saw it appeared to be a pretty empty room, which extended 30' back from the door.

They looked more closely at the bridge.  "Pretty sturdy" did not mean it could hold all five of them at once, and it was grblin-sized; not wide enough for them to cross abreast. Or with weapons out.

Kaikoa went first, followed by Dryali, 10' behind him, and Kalleth 10' behind him.  Manu and Tahu were waiting til Kaikoa was all the way across; as Kaikoa stepped off, Manu stepped on… and 4 arrows came winging down on Kaikoa from above.  One actually hit him.  He looked up.  In the ceiling of the 30'x40' room were two 5' square openings.  4 grblins stared down from above, bows in hand.

Tahu, still back in the little wolf stable, cast levitate on himself to cross the bridge, past everyone.  Kalleth pushed past Dryali and into the room.  Kaikoa cast levitate on himself as well, and floated up through one of the holes.  He attacked one of the grblins, and missed; on a second attack, he killed the grblin.  He glanced around.  There were 2 other grblins, who looked nastier than the 4 he'd already seen.  He yelled, "There's a bunch of the ugly fuckers up here!"

The grblin he didn't kill slashed Kaikoa with his scimitar.  Wounded, Kaikoa lost his levitate and floated back down to the room below.  The grblins at the other hole shot at Kalleth; one arrow hit.  One of the "nasty" grblins walked up to the ceiling port and threw a javelin down at Kaikoa.  Perhaps she didn't appreciate being called ugly.

There were stairs spiralling down from the far right corner of the room.  6 grblins charged up, led by another "nasty" looking guy.  Dryali finished crossing the bridge, and the force ballista on his shoulder shot and killed the grblin furthest away.  He stepped up to the grblins and dropped another thunderwave on the rest of them, boom.  3 grblins were pushed back, one even back down the stairs a bit.  2 of the grblins shooting from above were also injured.

Manu ran across the bridge.

Tahu, still floating from levitate, floated up through the portal in the ceiling nearest the bridge, attacking the grblins with his shortswords as he came through.  His first slash killed one, but missed the other.  He landed in the upper room, which was smaller than below.

Kalleth attacked the grblin on Dryali with his battleaxe, killing her.  Kaikoa used second wind to recover, then attacked the "nasty" grblin with his longsword.  The grblin returned the favour, hitting Kaikoa with both his scimitar and a javelin.

The grblins who had been pushed back by thunderwave ran back at the Freelancers.  One attacked Kalleth, injuring him lightly; another attacked Dryali, but Kalleth intercepted, preventing the blow from landing.  The grblin on Kaikoa entirely missed.  The grblin from upstairs, who had slashed Kaikoa before, sank an arrow into him.

The grblin who'd thrown a javelin at Kaikoa before, threw a javelin at Manu, but missed.  The other "nasty" grblin upstairs attacked Tahu, hitting Tahu twice with his scimitar and once with his javelin.  Ouch!

Dryali cast faerie fire, which lit up 4 of the grblins, including two on Tahu… and Kalleth.  Perhaps Dryali should practice his innate magic more.  Manu summoned forth the necrotic hand of chill touch and killed one of the grblins on Kalleth.  Tahu killed the grblin on him lit up with faerie fire, then dodged.  Kalleth killed the grblin on him lit up with faerie fire, then, irritated he also had faerie fire, moved out of melee.

Kaikoa swung at the "nasty" grblin on him with his longsword, and missed.  For his part, the grblin turned and attacked Dryali, who immediately summoned a magical shield.  The other grblin next to Kaikoa slashed him with her scimitar.  Kaikoa was not looking too well.

Upstairs, the "nasty" grblin on Tahu hit Tahu twice.  At the other portal, the "nasty" grblin hit Kalleth with a thrown javelin.  The grblin next to her shot Tahu with an arrow.

The force ballista hit the "nasty" grblin on Kaikoa, and Dryali used the earring of Āhua on Kaikoa.  It didn't do much good.  Manu sent his chill touch after the other grblin on Kaikoa, killing her.

Tahu attacked the "nasty" grblin one last time, wounding him pretty badly, then dropped back through the portal to the room below.  He slashed at the "nasty" grblin on Kaikoa, then backed off.

Kalleth pulled out his longbow, and shot the grblin above who'd hit him with a javelin.  Kaikoa ran through the "nasty" grblin in front of him with his longsword.  The grblin above threw another javelin at Kalleth, missing.  The grblin next to her shot an arrow at Dryali, missing.  The grblin Tahu had left in the upper room hit Manu with a javelin.

Dryali returned fire with his hand crossbow, killing the grblin archer.  The force ballista killed the "nasty" grblin who had thrown all the javelins at Kalleth.  Manu killed the last grblin, who'd hit him with the javelin, with magic missile.

Everyone noticed the surge of magic that followed.  Then Manu cried out, "there's a rope!" <narrator voice: because Matt Boyce finally rolled a 1 on wild magic surge.  What he got was advantage on perception checks, boring>.  Dryali use mage hand to toss it down, and then they all climbed up into the upper room.  There was a door at the far end, and a fireplace to the left of it.

After checking the door, and observing plenty of javelins and plush bedrolls, the Freelancers decided to hole up for an hour or so, and recover from their back-to-back battles.  Tahu pulled out his healer's kit again, and started mending Kaikoa and Kalleth.

When they were ready to stir again, Dryali spent some time with his tools to create a detect magic dowsing rod, and it went a bit nuts at the door.  After listening, they opened the door to find a small treasure room!

Within, they found:

• 2500cp, 200sp, and 170gp
• 1 shield
• 1 flail
• 1 shortsword
• 1 ring
• 2 healing potion
• 1 other potion
• 1 scroll
• 9 50gp gem:  2 chalcedony, 2 chrysoprase, 1 diamond, 1 moonstone, 1 quartz, 1 sardonyx, 1 zircon

All of the items were magic!

But even more amazing, was the half-dozen large eggs nestled against the left wall, behind the fireplace!   Eggs!  What were they?  Everyone looked closely.  They weren't the same as the owl gryphon eggs incubating in the stable at Freelancers Tavern.  Nobody knew.

Resisting the urge to take everything then and there, the Freelancers backed out of the treasure room and shut the door again.  They dropped down from the upper room to explore the rest of the outpost.

The room in which they'd fought was bare, other than the cooling bodies of the grblins.  They went downstairs, weapons drawn, to find a training area and a firepit area that looked like it was for food prep and eating.  There were no grblins or anything of value, and Dryali's detect magic did not ping.

They went back upstairs and removed everything from the treasure room.  They'd normally have taken the grblin weapons as well, but there wasn't really any way of transporting them to Marshfork without seriously risking the integrity of the eggs.

Back in Marshfork, the Freelancers checked in with Casimir Lightforger and reported their success.  The Mayor was pleased to hear the raids on travellers had been stopped, and paid out 200gp each, as promised.  They stayed one last night at The Cantankerous Goose, and in the morning, while others set about converting gems to coins, and coins to platinum, Dryali prepared the identify spell, so they could know what all these magical items were.  It took him almost 2 hours to get through it all.

• Sentinel shield
• +1 flail
• +1 shortsword
• Ring of water walking
• Potion of fire giant strength
• scroll of bless

The journey back to Cliffshadow took 8 uneventful days, during which they decided who got what:  Kaikoa took the Sentinel Shield; Tahu took the shortsword; Kalleth took the flail, the potion of fire giant strength, and the scroll of bless; Manu took the Ring of water walking.

Once back at Freelancers Tavern, Tahia told them the eggs were golden eagle gryphon eggs… "Your standard gryphon," she told them, gesturing at a couple of them in the stable.  Freelancers would incubate these too, and help raise them, but not pay for training.

• Manu → lvl 3!
• Kaikoa → lvl3!