Flying Bears

The day after that murderous Cassowary lady had been captured, 4 of the Freelancers involved, along with Ka Kekoa, went to Arnari's office for hopefully a more wholesome mission.  Arnari told them she had two or three missions available.

• As always, the hippogryph egg mission is available.
• There is scouting north/northwest of Orderly Stones monster to find kobold locations.
• The Academy of Magic –

Arnari never really got to finish.

Mia:  what about the gryphons?
Arnari:  you might want to be careful with that; but look outside where the kobolds are, because they will steal the easy eggs.
Glesni:  what about the pollution?
Arnari:  not available right now.
Ondar:  Ondar wonders about drinks, at the Academy of Magic.
Kaelani:  am interested in kobolds, but could do Academy of Magic.
Glesni:  so, Academy of Magic is still going?
Arnari:  yes.
Glesni:  well, it wasn't clear we didn't solve it/same thing.
Arnari:  nobody has been murdered there; just damage, such as spell books getting chewed on, components going missing.
Mia:  Ka, what is your opinion?
Ka:  I'm just here for a good time!
<Arnari shuffled through the mass of papers on her desk.>
Arnari:  actually, the pollution mission is available.
Kaelani:  definitely interested in that.
Glesni:  that would be the more responsible one to take.
Arnari:  100gp/person plus 1 uncommon potion each.

Ondar perked up.  A mission with something to drink as the reward!  Ka also became excited.  Mia was okay about it, so Pollution it was to be.  They all rose and looked at the map of Duquesne on Arnari's wall.

Arnari hesitated, then said, "I'm not sure where you will find anything."  She shook her head slowly, and suggested, "Just backtrack up the river."

The Freelancers discussed whether it was better to take the road to Lakeview or follow the treeline from north of Cliffshadow, and decided to take the tree line, which would require 3 days' travel to get to the river.  "There's a clear boundary to follow," Glesni pointed out.

They prepped for leaving, and got going.  Given the cross-country hike, Glesni picked up 6 days' rations before they left.

The first day out of Cliffshadow they made good time; Ondar and Mia led the way, and Glesni brought up the rear.  By the end of the day they were far enough beyond Cliffshadow's environs that Ondar was actively avoiding signs of giant elk.  Mia, however, did not notice; she was marvelling at how she'd never noticed Ka before, and found him quite the distraction.

They continued to make good time on the second day; all heard howls in the distance, and altered their path to avoid whatever canine creature it was.

On the third day, Ondar had become distracted; they were no longer following the treeline, which veered west, and were cutting up towards the river.  Ondar was confident in the way to go, and Mia pointed out he had gotten turned around; but he ignored her and kept going.  Finally she grabbed his arm, right before he blundered into a clearing in which two giant elks were busy in that most natural of activities.

Twilight had arrived when they reached Pirates Dream river, about halfway between Mossey Lake and the river fork. They made camp and had an undisturbed night.

The morning dawned a little overcast, with a comfortable breeze; no storms or rain showers appeared to be forthcoming.  The Freelancers packed up, and Mia looked around; these woods looked like woods, to her.  "Where do we start?" she asked.

Ondar dipped his finger in the river and tasted it, trying to decide if something tasted off.  But then Ondar remembered it was a river, and the fish in the river also get busy in that most natural of activities, and couldn't think of anything else.

Kaelani told Mia with a shrug, "is about what we did the last time."  Glesni pointed out to him, "You're the only one been done this before." 

Mia said, "Start searching?"  Glesni suggested, "we should go up towards the tower," and the Freelancers did this, crossing to the far riverbank and looking for tracks.

They saw all kinds of tracks:  bear, elk, wolf.   Glesni, Ka, and Kaelani say the bear tracks were weird and hard to follow.  They'd dig in really hard, then no tracks for a while.  Finally Ka said, "We have a … flying bear?"  Ondar shook his head.  "Maybe it has 30 feet."

The tracks seemed to follow the river; bear catches fish, eats, wanders into the woods.  Glesni was not much of a tracker, and was trying to figure out how big the bear was; the tracks seemed big.  She and Ka thought it was just one bear.  Mia and Kaelani thought it was two bears, and Ondar was still trying to convince everyone it was a bear with too many legs, but his grin of amusement gave it away.

The Freelancers followed the river for some miles; Daystar zenith came and went.  About an hour past the fork (so they were now following Pirates River), the bears crossed the river and headed into the hills.  Moving into the dryer forest, they slowed down to be somewhat stealthy, although Mia and Ondar were so focussed on the tracks that the others had to stop them from blundering face first into the clearing which had bears.

There were four bears:  a very large cave bear, which was obviously the mama, with three smaller bears, one dark tan, one brown, one golden, all of which had wings, the undersides flashing pink and purple.

Ondar, Mia, and Ka shared a look.  "Okay, we don't need to get gryphon eggs," Mia said quietly.

The Freelancers looked around more closely.  They were well-hidden, peering into the clearing which abutted a hill, and spoke in hushed voices.

Ondar:  perhaps violence isn't the best solution here.
Mia:  what do you mean?
Ondar:  if we want to ride them out of here, we don't want to beat them up.
Mia:  okay, makes sense.
Ondar:  Ondar wonders if they like giant elk.
Glesni:  giant elk tracks are a way back.  We know where these <gestured at bears> are.

At that, the Freelancers backed off, and backtracked to the river, looking for giant elk tracks.

Once at the river, it did not take long to find giant elk tracks.  It wouldn't have taken as long as it did, except Ka tripped and fell into the mud, and Ondar was too busy thinking "Ondar could be on flying bear now" instead of focussing on the task at hand.  Regardless, they crossed the river again and tracked the giant elk to the southwest.  Once they caught up with it they remembered it was very large.

Kaelani in his shiny blue plate caught the giant elk's eye, and it charged him.  "Bite my shiny metal ass!" the Rock sagani exclaimed.  Somehow that worked, and the giant elk missed Kaelani.

• The giant elk was next to Glesni, who did not like this at all, so she moved behind a nearby bush so she could shoot.  The giant elk kicked her and she was in so much pain the arrow went wide.
• Kaelani smacked the giant elk with his rainstick.
• Ondar became large, more than twice Glesni's height.  He tried to hamstring the giant elk with his vicious scimitar, and used a rune to trap the giant elk in fire shackles.  He took a deep breath, as if he'd been holding it.
• Ka flanked the giant elk and pierced it with his rapier.  He attacked with his daggar as well, but whiffed.
• Mia raged, and a heat-shimmer of figures appeared around her.  She swung her shield & sword, but missed. 

The giant elk, burned by the shackles, tried to kick Ondar, but missed.  It strained against the shackles, and broke out.

• Glesni shot it in the throat with an arrow, and surprised, the giant elf sank to its knees, dead.

Ondar moved to butcher the giant elk while Glesni did what she could to recover herself from that giant elk kick.  The Freelancers divided the meat among themselves to carry, but Ka smiled sweetly and asked Ondar if he'd carry his.  They finally figured out to use the antlers and skin as devices to carry all the meat, and started heading back to the clearing with the bears.

On the way, Kaelani and Ka discussed what to do.  Ka was very good with animals; Kaelani less so, but Kaelani could cast speak with animals.  So the plan was via Ka's coaching, Kaelani would try to persuade the mama bear to accompany the group and bring the "teenagers."

If Kaelani failed to persuade, they would try to subdue the bears.  Glesni was unwilling to get into melee with the bears, so she would focus her aim on the mama bear so as not to kill one of the flying ones unintentionally.

The Freelancers took their positions.  Glesni ducked behind a tree stump, far back from the clearing.  Ondar and Mia hid in the rocks at the edge of the clearing, to Glesni's right as she faced the cave.  Ka hid behind a tree to Glesni's left, also at the edge of the clearing.

Ka had last-minute advice for Kaelani.  "We're really good at finding meat.  Let's form an alliance."  Kaelani nodded, then walked into the clearing, and put a bunch of raw giant-elk steaks on the ground in front of him.  He cast speak with animals, and stepped back.

Kaelani called out, "Hey!  Got some tasty elk meat, here!"  The bears all looked at the stout Rock sagani, and he swallowed.  "Lot's more, where that came from...."  <Narrator voice:  at this, David rolled a 7 on animal handling.>  The bears with the wings jumped in the air, dubious and suspicious; all the watching Freelancers understood the tracks they had seen. The tan bear had yellow tips on its wings.

"Why are you bringing us meat?!" the mama bear growled.  "What do you want, why shouldn't we eat you?"

Kaelani said, "I'm covered in metal; that's a lot of work."  He gestured at the ground in front of him, and added, "Here is perfectly good meat."

The other Freelancers nigh held their breath, watching this exchange.  Ka, Mia, and Ondar might as well have been leaves on the forest floor.  Glesni, though, forgot her height again; her bow stuck up over the tree stump.  Fortunately the bears' attention was riveted on Kaelani.

"You may be covered in metal," the mama bear growled again, "but tell me why my cubs shouldn't use you as a toy!"

Kaelani was at a loss for words, and spared a despairing glance at Ka, who whispered, "We're better as trackers."

"There's more where this meat came from!" Kaelani said confidently, "We can find more!"

The mama bear lost her patience.  "We can sniff it out ourselves!"  To her cubs aloft, she growled, "Get him!"

While unable to decipher the growls and such, Glesni saw the demeanor of Kaelani and the bears change.  She nocked an arrow, ready to shoot the mama bear if she charged Kaelani.  The bear could end up on the other side of a bush, out of Glesni's line of sight, and the Cloud elf spared a thought of regret before focussing on the task at hand.

• Ka climbed the tree in front of him at once, and also nocked an arrow, ready to shoot the first bear that attacked.
• The mama bear charged Kaelani.
  • Glesni and Ka both sank arrows into the angry bear.
  • The bear swiped at Kaelani and tried to bite him twice, but missed with all three attacks, once kind of spectacularly .  Perhaps the arrows were distracting.
• The tan flying bear saw Ka and flew over to where he was in the tree.  It swiped at Ka and missed, then bit Ka badly.
• The other two flying bears dropped down to attack Kaelani, but he was not kidding about being covered in metal, and they were unable to land an attack.
• Ondar grew large, looming over all.  The quinametzin moved towards Kaelani and attacked the golden bear with his vicious scimitar, trying to subdue, not kill.
• Mia raged, the air shimmering around her with the spirits of her ancestors.  She also moved to the golden bear, pulled out her sword, and somehow attacked it recklessly and with enough care to try to subdue.
• Kaelani, with three bears attacking him, just did his best to dodge.

The mama bear really had moved out of Glesni's line of sight.  She moved left and forward until she had a clear shot, then took it, sinking another arrow into the bear.  She backed up behind the stump again.

• Despite having a tan bear with purple wings roaring gently in his face, Ka yelled, "Don't kill the mama!"
  • Glesni frowned.
  • Ka wrapped his legs around the tree, then attacked the bear with both silvered rapier and daggar.  He also was trying to subdue, as much as one can when attacking a flying creature up in the air with piercing weapons.
• The mama bear bit Kaelani in the shoulder, then swiped at him and missed.  She swiped again and completely ignored his dodging , slashing him very badly.  Kaelani kept his feet though.
  • Large Ondar said soothingly, "Mama bear's gonna take a nap," and somehow the mama bear's attention was … elsewhere.
• The dark brown and golden bears tried to bite and claw Kaelani, but he was even more motivated to dodge, so they both missed.
• The tan flying bear had not enjoyed being poked with daggar and rapier, and tried to bite and claw Ka, but Ka avoided the attacks.
• Large Ondar again attacked the golden bear with his vicious scimitar, trying to subdue, not kill.  The golden bear was looking pretty rough, so Ondar rode the surge of adrenaline and knocked the creature unconscious.
• Mia moved to be next to Large Ondar, and swung at the dark brown bear, but whiffed.
• Kaelani used lay on hands, right there in front of everybody, and felt much better afterwards.

Glesni had nothing to do, if she was supposed to attack the mama bear, but not attack the mama bear, and besides the mama bear was apparently dazed & confused.  She tried shooting the dark brown bear in the butt, but missed.

• Ka tried to poke the tan flying bear with rapier and daggar again, but only managed to barely poke it with his silvered rapier.  The bear growled at him.
• Then the tan bear tried to swipe at Ka again, and missed again, and then bit him again.
• The mama bear shook herself, throwing off whatever Ondar had done.
• The dark brown bear swiped at Kaelani again, and missed.  Frustrated, it turned and bit Mia, which she did not enjoy.
• Large Ondar attacked the dark brown bear with his vicious scimitar, again trying to subdue, not kill.  He glanced at Mia and Kaelani, and took a step back.
  • The dark brown bear swiped at Ondar, missing.
• Mia backed up while the bear was swiping at Ondar, and threw it recklessly at mama bear.  The spirits of her ancestors stepped up, to prevent the bear from attacking others.
• Since Kaelani still had two bears attacking him, he again did his best to dodge.

Glesni, embarrassed about missing earlier, sank an arrow into the dark brown bear's butt.

• Ka crit the tan flying bear with his silvered rapier, so he rode the surge of adrenaline and thrust again, trying to subdue.  The tan bear was knocked unconscious… then fell to the ground, and would need help to avoid bleeding out.
• The mama bear clearly decided Kaelani was the source of all these troubles and quickly tried to swipe him, then bite, then bite again.  But the paladin avoided all her attacks.
• The dark brown bear swiped at Large Ondar, laying open the quinametzin's leg with its brutal claws.  It failed to followup with a bite.
• Large Ondar missed with his vicious scimitar, and then took another step back, trying to draw its attack.
  • The dark brown bear swiped and missed.
• Mia threw another javelin at mama bear, with the same results.
• Kaelani struck the dark brown bear with his magical rainstick, trying to subdue it.

Glesni could see the mama bear again, and shot her with another arrow.  Then riding her own surge of adrenaline, she shot again.  The second arrow was just enough to put the mama bear out.

• Ka cast minor illusion, of Ondar naked next to the dark brown bear, in the Daystar worshipping position.
  • Kaelani recoiled in involuntary horror.
  • <Narrator voice:  Let the record show this illusion did not have an asshole as hairy as the quinametzin on Waypoint Resource.>
• The dark brown bear sniffed the illusion, then attacked Large Ondar.  Both bite and swipe missed; perhaps the illusion was enough of a distraction.
• Large Ondar attacked with his vicious scimitar, knocking the dark brown bear out.

The Freelancers paused, catching their breath.  Ka climbed down from his tree, stabilizing the tan bear.  Its wings were not broken.  Glesni also hurried into the clearing.  They tied all the bears up, and then relaxed a little.

Then it was time to figure out what next.  Ondar, Ka, Kaelani, and Mia fell into whether or not they would bring the mama bear back with them.  Ka felt strongly that doing so would be necessary for the "teenagers" to cooperate.  Ondar tested out the bears, and figured the mama was ~800 lbs, the juniors much lighter, maybe 500 lbs.

Every time Ondar looked at Ka, he felt warm.

As they argued, Glesni checked out the bears' cave.  She found some uncut gems worth 150gp, and a dull crystal ball in a corner under some stuff.  Cleaning it off, she realized it was a driftglobe, but the command words were unknown.  She brought this stuff out to the others.

Still arguing, they made camp for the evening.  The Freelancers kept the bears tied up, but fed them when they woke up.

The next morning, they started heading back to Cliffshadow.  It was a long trek, with unwilling, hungry bears, but they finally got back to Freelancers Tavern on the sixth day.  At least they didn't have to live off rations.

Having Freelancers show up with four wild bears to stable dismayed Tahia.  She started shifting the gryphons around to accommodate as the group headed up to talk to Arnari, who hadn't quite started worrying yet.

"What did you find?" she asked lightly.  Ondar failed at not looking smug when he said, "Nothing unusual, but we needed stable space."

Arnari's face changed.  "What not-usual did you find?" she asked.  "Well," Mia said.

A roar echoed up from the gryphon stables, and Kaelani explained about the bears.  "WHY," Arnari asked, "is you bring the mama bear into Cliffshadow?!"  Mia said pragmatically, "We did not want the cubs to hate us!"

Kaelani added, "Or be coming back with mama pursuing."  Ka added, "We wanted mama to persuade."

Arnari facepalmed.  Perhaps she was starting to miss the crew she sent to Commerce.  But, she got up, and they all went down to the gryphon stable and Tahia to see the bears, with their colourful purple wings.  Face to face with creations of the "pollution" she'd been sending Freelancers after for almost a year, Arnari was disturbed.

Mia said, "Look.  Something good came out of the pollution, or at least, something awesome."  Arnari did not reply, but messaged Tomtom, who arrived in the stable in record time.

Tomtom obviously loved the bears.  He started advising the Freelancers on training & taming; after all his manticore Oskar was in a nearby stall.  Give treats, be nice, don't show fear, he explained; and also told them about a winged harness, which was a magical saddle that would sprout wings on command, so the mama bear could also be a mount too.

That changed the attitude of the Freelancers towards bear disposition, but they needn't have worried.  Glesni was not interested in a mount as slow as a bear; with her longbow she needed a fast, stable mount.  Kaelani also was not interested; his gryphon yearling was also in a nearby stall.  Mia, realizing Glesni was getting neither mount nor compensation, offered 300gp, which Glesni took, but not without trepidation.  She hoped she wasn't obligating her family to Mia's.

The Freelancers headed back up to Arnari's office, to collect the mission pay, as if getting free stabling for 4 wild bears in the stables wasn't enough pay.  Arnari dutifully counted out the 90gp for the mission pay, then pulled out the case of potions and handed them out randomly to the others, like she always did.

• Ondar - philter of love
• Mia - potion of hill giant strength
• Kaelani - oil of slipperiness
• Ka - potion of thunder resistance
• Glesni - potion of fire breath

Ondar, amazed that Arnari really had handed him a drink, sniffed it, opened it, and drank it immediately.  Arnari watched in growing horror as the expression changed on Ondar's face.

"That drink was not what I was expecting," Ondar murmured, almost to himself, then raised his voice, addressing Arnari, "but Ondar would like to have another drink, with you."

The other Freelancers, unseen by Ondar, looked at each other in a mix of delight and trepidation.  How would Arnari react?  

Arnari said gently, "I would love to, but let me finish these papers first."  Ondar immediately headed down to the tavern to wait.  Arnari shooed the others out of her office and shut the door.

Arnari messaged Nohea, "Ondar drank philter of love.  Unfortunately, I was the first person he saw.  We will be in the Freelancer's bar."  Nohea asked, "How long does this last for?"  Arnari messaged back, "Only an hour."

Arnari arranged her papers, and put them in a drawer, then messaged Julian, "Funny story, Ondar drank a philter of love and saw me first.  We'll be in the Freelancer's bar."  Julian's reply was a mental laughter of delight, followed by "I'll stay out of the way!"

Arnari locked up her papers and headed down to the unusually crowded tavern, for genteel and public conversation and drinks with Ondar.

• Ka → lvl3!  Warlock 1
• Glesni → lvl4!