Stake Out Jamie

Dryali had been watching Pembroke recede in the sky, as he continued his beginner hang gliding lessons at Club Cliffglider.  The owl gryphon clutch would hatch soon!  While talking to Tuala about it, they decided to ask Arnari about missions.  Maybe one was close by.

Arnari told them,

• House Aldous still wanted hippogryph eggs, and although there was a lack of interest, she'd promised to offer it.
• Lakeview continues to have a spider problem
• We've a request for bouncers, for the opening night of an Untz club, "Kowiri Music & Tavern"
• While a group is getting assembled to get Jamie… watch his house.  We're most interested in who is visiting.

Tuala had heard of Jamie in the tavern gossip, but had yet to be involved with any of the mission contracts Freelancers had taken on relevant to him.  The way the fellow got under everyone's skin was intriguing to him.  Arnari explained that he'd been putting dick graffiti on various institutions - the Skyguard, the Pilot's Guild, the Temple of Serenity, and they'd found his house a couple days ago.

She sighed, almost unnoticeably.

Dryali asked about the Untz club, this was intriguing to him.  Arnari explained that Martin, a human recently relocated from Pembroke, was setting it up in the eastern edge of Guildstrom.  Dryali thought that might be fun, but both he and Tuala thought just the two of them were insufficient for dealing with an orderly line and preventing any patron misbehaviour.

So they decided to watch over Jamie, since the other two missions put them too far away from their owl gryphon eggs.

They rose to leave, then Dryali asked, "Wait.  Who is paying?"

Arnari told them, "Bryseis Seere; it's 100 gp each.  She is getting support from the Pilot's Guild, and maybe the Temple of Serenity.  She's also negotiating with the city guards."

Arnari stood up as well.  She indicated the map of Cliffshadow to her right, and pointed at Horsefeather Street in Guildstrom district.  "Jamie lives here, on Horsefeather Street."  They looked carefully, nodded and left.

Tuala looked at Dryali, and said, "Plan?"  Before Dryali could answer, he kept going.  "We should check on the title of Jamie's house."  Dryali agreed, and they headed over to Pegasus Square to check in the Cliffshadow Hall of Records.

While walking there, Tuala explained he was interested in

1. Who owns Jamie's house
2. Any nearby unoccupied house.

The Hall of Records was open to all… for a price.  The Freelancers had to pay 5gp each for admittance, and since both had scholarly backgrounds before joining, were easily able to locate the records of interest, and they were interesting indeed.

The house was owned by one Jamie Mais-Quand, which was obviously not a Duquesne name.  The buildings on the street were a mix of houses and businesses, as well as some houses which were also businesses.  A couple hadn't changed hands in over 40 years; "That's not a big deal, when half-elves are involved," Dryali noted.  On the other hand, a couple had changed hands quite a bit; one back from the park was a business that had changed owners every other year.

Pleased with their information bounty, the Freelancers then swung by the Skyguard building, since it was on their way back to Guildstrom District.  Bryseis was busy, but made time to talk to them.  They did not get a word in until she had fully ranted about how she was arguing with the City Guard, "who are NOT interested in taking any action."

Dryali looked amused, but Tuala was sort of offended at the situation on her behalf.  Dryali mused on how different Tuala's viewpoint was, from a typical nekomata, but said nothing.  Tuala told Bryseis, "We found Jamie's last name, it's Mais-Quand."

This statement had a grounding effect on her, and Bryseis immediately shifted her tone.  "Don't spook him, it was so much trouble to track him down," she almost pleaded.  "Please don't make us have to do it again."

The Freelancers assured her they had no intention of doing so, and took their leave.

Horsefeather Street definitely had a mix of businesses and residences, and a reasonable amount of foot traffic.  Dryali had blackened his hair, and it looked terrible, but an onlooker would just conclude edgy from his looks.  They found the park, which had a couple of very tall trees, and a statue of a cloud.  Dryali sat down at a picnic table, and pulled out his tools; 10 minutes later, he had detect magic set up.

They strolled south on the east side of the street, ostensibly window shopping; and back up north on the west side.   Just south of the park, there was minor magic detected, some sort of crafting; it was a tailor shop.  Across the street from the park and slightly north was a blacksmith, with more minor magics.  And then there was Jamie's house.

Dryali easily detected the wand of web that Jamie had used on Terrance a couple nights before; but also he got pings from 3 other items: evocation, enchantment, and abjuration magic.  

The business that kept changing hands was two doors up from the park, and was a restaurant named The Adorable Pear.  It was serving Mikumwes Haven/Cliffshadow fusion cuisine, and seemed to have a reasonable level of custom.

Dryali wanted to check out the blacksmith, especially while the detect magic was still up.  The shop was run by two Fire sagani, and along with tools and cutlery, had some well-crafted weapons & armour.  The adornments tended to have fire themes, unsurprisingly.  They had a nice set of tinker's tools for sale, and Dryali bought them for 50gp.  Then he and Tuala headed back to the park.

Tuala climbed the tallest tree in the park, wrapped himself in his cloak of Elvenkind, and pulled out his spyglass.  An excellent view of both Jamie's house, and the various skyliths and thalassae in the sky.  He settled down and pulled out a journal to take notes.

Dryali took a stroll down the alleyways, trying to stealth past Jamie's yard and check it out.  Unfortunately with a 5' tall stone wall, Dryali would have to jump to get any kind of look, which wouldn't exactly be stealthy.  There was a tall wooden gate in the wall, but the slats were close enough together that a casual passerby could not see in.

Dryali returned to the park, pulled out a branch and started carving it.  It was early afternoon.

Jamie emerged from his house, and walked over to The Adorable Pear.  He got takeout, enough for one person, and returned to his house.  Neither Dryali nor Tuala saw the pseudodragon.

After that excitement, they settled back down, and Dryali started to consider if he could apply magical tinkering to part of the gryphon's tack, and whether it would make it easier to track where Jamie went.  After a while, Dryali walked around the block again.

Tuala messsaged him.  "What are we doing?"  Dryali told him the gryphon was in the stable.  "Well, if the gryphon is in the stable, he's probably not bolted," Tuala messaged again.  "They have darkvision," Dryali replied dubiously.

More time passed – Dryali made an engraved wand, but it didn't feel quite right – and the Daystar sank into the skylith behind them.  Perhaps a small flappy creature flew past the comfortably hidden nekomata in the tree, but the undersides of the skyliths to the east were lit up, and Tuala messaged Dryali again.  "Will keep watching."  Dryali replied, "Aren't you hungry?"

Tuala climbed down.  They decided to try The Adorable Pear.  It remained reasonably busy, but had no line.  The food cost 5sp and took 20 minutes; it was good and interesting.  The Freelancers ate in the back patio, then went back into the park and Dryali cast detect magic again.

Foot traffic had diminished but wasn't entirely absent, so they stealthed around the block again.  Dryali firmly reminded himself about circumspection, resulting in guidance, and it was fine.  Jamie had obviously gone upstairs, and the gryphon was still in the stable.  Keeping in mind Terrance and Osric's misadventures, they opted not to mess with the gryphon's tack.

Concerned about spooking him, they wandered back to Freelancers Tavern while there remained people on the streets.

Cocky and uncaring, Tuala and Dryali cut through an alley, shortening the walk back to Freelancers by a good ¾ of block.  They almost didn't notice the alley had another occupant.  Tuala jumped as he realized his belt pouch had been relieved of coin.

"Hey!  What are y'doin!" Dryali called out at the halfling, ready to cast grease under his feet if he ran.

The halfling ran.  He was a halfling and had no problem moving through the suddenly slick alleyway and dashing down the street.  Tuala gave chase, also ignoring the grease.  Dryali died a little inside.  Grease, snare, what use were these spells?

Tuala cast sleep under the halfling, but somehow instead caught a random passerby.  Dryali dashed after them both, but slipped on the grease and fell on his ass.  He got back up and kept dashin'.  A thought struck him and he glanced around for Jamie's pseudodragon, but naught to be seen.  He caught up to the halfling.

The halfling increased his speed, but Dryali smacked him with his rapier.  He kept going and dashed left around the corner.  Tuala ran past Dryali and cast another sleep, and the halfling konked out.

Tuala rummaged through his pockets, and retrieved his coins, which the halfling had not had a chance to tie in.  Then he moved the prone halfling to prop him in a sitting position against the nearest wall.  Crouching down, he got out an inkwell and brush, and quickly drew a mustache and extra eyebrows on the halfling's face.

Dryali tied the halfling's bootlaces together, and then, casting a sardonic eye at Tuala – it was late twilight, so he no longer had his goggles on – he fetched out the thief's tools.  He closed his eyes a moment, held his hand over them, and imbued them with just enough magic to say "boots&cats&boots&cats" whenever they were touched.  Then he replaced them.

At that, Tuala and Dryali returned to Freelancers Tavern for the evening.

They immediately went to the gryphon stable and checked in with Tahia.  She pointed at one of the eggs, rocking.  "They are going to hatch this evening," she told them, eyes twinkling.   Osric was busying himself preparing to feed the newly hatched.  Dryali ran back to the barracks to leave armour and shield behind, and Tuala fetched Kalleth and Tahu out of the tavern.  Quite a few more Freelancers came too, including Arnari and Sovelai; but Tahia did not want too many people in the stable, and shooed most of them back into the tavern.

After some time, the first egg hatched, the tiny gryphon having tapped its way out.  It lay there a moment, white and fuzzy, clearly exhausted by its efforts.  Then it started to cry, eyes screwed shut.  Osric fed it.  Sovelai stopped Arnari from trying to pick it up.

Dryali and Tahu looked at each other.  Pure white?  Is it ok?  They'd not seen any this young in Gemhallow.  Tahia explained to the Freelancers that the hatchlings would lose the white in about a prime, about the same time its eyes opened.  The front half, the owl half, would then turn grey, and grey leopard spots would appear.

Another egg started to rock...

By midnight, all the eggs had hatched, and the hatchlings fed.  Most of the Freelancers had wandered off, but Dryali was still there, watching them sleep.  Finally, he returned to the barracks, and dropped into a trance.

Tuala and Dryali rose early and discussed their day as they broke their fast.  Their primary topic was whether they should swing by the Skyguard and check in with Bryseis, or not.  They decided if they did, it would make it more likely for Jamie or a compatriot to see them, and more likely to spook him.  After they finished eating, they headed back to Guildstrom District, to resume their observations.

Once back on Horsefeather Street, Tuala climbed back into the tree again.  Dryali went next door, to the tailor as they opened for business.  The clothes were serviceable, but in various rather mundane colours, and mostly practical clothes for professions.  Dryali talked to them a bit and then withdrew, disappointed.

Dryali then went back to the picnic table in the park and pulled out his tools to cast detect magic again.  With that active, he stealthed around the block as before.  Jamie was in the stable!  Just as Dryali entered the alley, Jamie took off on the gryphon!

Tuala had also seen it and tracked where Jamie was going in his spyglass.  North over the city, on his golden eagle gryphon.

Dryali wasn't sure what was happening.  Was Jamie spooked and leaving for good?  Was he exercising his gryphon?  Was this that 5-day trip to wherever else?   Was it an illusion?!

He circled the block again, and the detect magic did not tell him there was any alarm or arcane lock on the stable.  He jumped up a little so he could peer over the wall into the stable window, but it was empty.  He saw no saddlebags, which may or may not mean anything.

Frustrated, Dryali returned to the little park.  Tuala was still in the tree, scanning with his spyglass.

An hour passed.

Jamie flew back in sight, the gryphon looping lazily, they were clearly enjoying themselves.  Tuala sent Dryali a message when he spotted them.  "Do they have saddlebags?" Dryali asked Tuala.  "No saddlebags," Tuala confirmed.

Jamie disappeared behind his house.  Dryali waited a little, then went around the block again.  The gryphon was back in the stable.  He went back to the park.

When the Daystar was straight overhead, Jamie emerged again, and went a couple other streets over, Dryali totally not obviously following him at all.  But Jamie was just getting takeout from another nearby restaurant, and went back to his house after.

The rest of the day was not notable.

Back at Freelancers, Dryali and Tuala checked in with Arnari.  She scowled at them.  "There was more graffiti last night, on the Skyguard outpost," she informed them.  "Was there pseudodragon movement?"

Dryali told her, "Saw nothing with pseudodragon."  Tuala told them both, "There was something flappy past me in the tree yestereve."

Dryali scowled.  "Are we supposed to track the pseudodragon?"  He thought about it.  "Well, he [Jamie] is definitely not spooked, then."  Tuala agreed, "Yah. he's pullin' a job!"

Arnari also agreed.  "That's definitely his house, and he's not spooked, and you know his schedule.  I'll tell Bryseis."  She paid them 90gp, and they ran out to look at their owl gryphon hatchlings.