Bouncers at House Hadid Garden Party

The day after the Planting Holiday, Damakaios called Dryali, Fine Branch, Tahu, Tuala, and Terrance into his office.  As they filed in and sat down, he told them, easily, "Tonight, you will come with me, as a hired guard/my escort for House Hadid's garden party.  This will pay 300gp to each of you; of course, Freelancers will retain 10%."  As everyone's eyebrows shot up at his announcement, Damakaios leaned back behind his clear desk and steepled his fingers, giving them all a critical glance.

"A lot of people think they're rich and powerful," he told them, "Some actually are.  They show off by hiring guards and presence."  His gaze sharpened.  "Make sure you have fine clothing, and armour polished.  Freelancers are expected to be a little more charming and soothing, and subtle.

"This is a garden party, be prepared to be outside.  How this came to be an affectation is because it's not unheard-of for others to wreck the party, like an ice sculpture come to life."

Dryali reacted badly to this last.

Dryali:  do not have dispel magic.
Tahu:  don't worry, we have plenty of fire.
Damakaios:  oh; do not drink the punch.  Sometimes the way the party is wrecked is people spike it.
Tuala:  ...beyond just spiking it with booze?
Damakaios:  it's mostly booze, of course; we are worried about other things.
Dryali:  so, don't drink the punch.
Damakaios:  that would be rude, that's why we want at least 6 of us.
Dryali:  "us"?
Damakaios:  I like the Hadids, they are a fine textile family.  Sometimes they contract with Freelancers to obtain rare items from the outer reaches.
Tuala:  okay!  I am going clothes shopping.
Dryali <deadpan>:  so black is okay.

Damakaios, dressed mostly in black, just stared at Dryali in response.  The Freelancers got up and filed out, and he called after them, "I want you to check with me, if you are going shopping."

Fine Branch stopped by later, naked.  Their fur was perfectly sable black head to toe.  Damakaios was confused, so they winked, and their shield appeared.  "Disguise self at will," they told Damakaios.

Terrance also showed up, in a costume she'd acquired a while back.  She augmented it with her cloak of billowing.  Damakaios was horrified, and simply said "NO."  She bowed her head, and went shopping.

Tahu talked to Dryali about where he'd repaired his leathers after the prior mission, then visited Pameo of Pameo's Fine Leathers.  There he got measured and promised a fine, studded leather black tailcoat with silver embroidery.  He picked it up late in the day, and looked very dashing when he checked in with Damakaios.

Tuala acquired very nice clothes:  blue slacks, a white ruffled shirt, with a gold vest over it.  He eschewed boots however, "Becuase stereotype."  Fine Branch, who usually wore boots, frowned at him.

Terrance's shopping trip was quite the success.  She acquired a stunning "pants suit" which was actually studded leather dyed forest green, which went well with her cloak of billowing.

Dryali shed his backpack, hand crossbow and bolt case, and looked in the mirror.  He donned his black half-gloves with silver embroidery and a black & white shirt with puffy sleeves.  With his leather vambraces and sharkskin boots, he felt very fashionable.  Then he saw Terrance, so acquired his own cloak of billowing, but kept it a half-cloak to prevent too much interference with movement (no really, it wasn't at all because the Dark elf was only 4'11" and would have looked ridiculous).

As for Damakaios, he swapped out his nice studded leather for ornate studded leather.  At first glance, Freelancers' leader looked no different; but on closer look, his leathers were of very high quality, the studs and buttons were chased with gold, not bronze.

In between acquiring apparel appropriate for a fancy party, the group tried to satisfy some of their own curiosity, starting with their Freelancer compatriots.  Tuala asked, "What people are House Hadid?"  Damakaios told him, "Half-elves."

The other Freelancers in the Ripa Daneo tavern had a "just as well" attitude towards this turn of events.  Sensitive to their newish arrival, and forgetting entirely that Arnari had mentioned this kind of duty to them multiple times in Cliffshadow, the group tried to figure out this non-optional "mission."

• Is it a rite of passage?
• Is that they were "low on the totem pole"?
• Is it a "plum" assignment?
• Were they "discount" compared to the other Freelancers?

They found out it was a bit of a mix; the other Freelancers explained, it was "a nice chunk of change, but if you pissed someone off…" and everyone shook their heads.

They realized from this they had no idea what they were heading into, and started doing their own investigation, starting with trying to find out "did House Hadid piss someone off?"  With limited time between errands, the Freelancers discovered that the House designed and produced very fine clothing, much in demand by Commerce society.  Some garments were magical, e.g. mantle of spell resistance.  Their higher end items were made from  glamourweave or shiftweave.  Tuala began to realize the nice clothes he'd acquired might very well have been knockoffs, and he started to worry.

The time was soon upon them, and Damakaios rented a carriage to take them to House Hadid.  As it pulled up, Estarai smiled and told him, "Have fun tonight!"  Damakaios' eyes narrowed.  "Have you heard anything?" he asked her.  "Not at all," she assured him, and then they were off.

They arrived as the Daystar sank out of sight behind the buildings of Gata Nahaki, and Damakaios remarked "It's not considered a good party, unless it lasts until midnight."  Dryali pushed his goggles up off his eyes.

The House Hadid villa is similar in layout to the Ripa Daneo Freelancers Tavern, but much bigger, much better kept, and a much nicer view.   It had a big central garden, in which most of the party was happening.  The eastern side of the atrium had doors propped open, which led into a small ballroom area.  This area was about ⅓ the size of the atrium, but had food and drink set up for guests.  A string quartet was setting the ambience of the evening.

Damakaios upon their admittance, sought out the hosts and greeted them, pointing out the other Freelancers so they would be aware.

Dryali wandered to the ballroom, seeking port or ice wine.  He saw some of the former decanting at a table, but a wandering waiter had ice wine on a tray, and he availed himself of a glass.  He was also examining both the wine and the food for any sign it had been magicked.

Fine Branch accompanied Dryali, naked and jet black, and performed a ritual cast of detect poison and disease.  Instead of trying to be sly about it, they made it a performance, picking up four or five glasses of drink, one at a time, holding to the light, swirling it around, listening to it, making an odd face, listening with the other ear, making a different odd face.

Tahu wandered into the atrium, where punch stations were set up for the convenience of the guests, and tried to "spike" the punch with some plain water, as a test to see who was watching him.  It turned out Damakaois was watching him, and used message: "Not sure what you are trying to pretend to do, but no.  Do not want any appearance of causing trouble."  <Narrator voice:  Casey rolled a 1 performance>

Terrance sought out the retiring rooms, known to more common people as the privies, and lurked there for a while looking for suspicious people.  Nobody in particular stood out, but she was struck by how the rooms were like a nice living room, with white leather fainting couches.

Tuala felt very out of place, and stood off to the side initially.  A waiter with canapes caught his interest, and somehow he was drawn into a conversation with a half-orc scholar, Korag, discussing the applicability of equations to solving orbits of certain skyliths.  Absorbed by this discussion, he was lost to their purpose at the party for at least ten minutes.

About when he finished his ice wine, which was very good, Dryali concluded the food & drink were not magicked.  He helped himself to a glass of port and headed into the atrium, the port in his left hand.

Fine Branch, having finished their ritual, also headed to the atrium, the detect poison and disease active, doing a widdershins circuit.  They saw very nice ornamental generational trees, then noticed a plant in the corner was poisonous.  Maybe others?  They started looking more closely, and realized a fair number of the plants were poisonous, mostly from the berries.  On the western side of the atrium, opposite the doors to the ballroom, two of the plants had poison thorns under the leaves.

Just then Terrance came into the atrium, enjoying the trees and plants far better than white leather couches.  Fine Branch sidled up to her.  "Terrance, I got some plants for you to talk to," they said.  Terrance walked with them to the other side of the atrium, and Fine Branch caught Damakaios' attention from the other side of the room.

"What have you noticed?" Damakaios messaged them.  "Poisonous thorns underneath this plant… seems to be ambulatory.  Is that standard decor here?  Or sabotage?" Fine Branch replied.  Damakaios' face did not change, and he did not seem to miss a beat in the conversation he was having, but he messaged, "I'll be right over," to Fine Branch, and "Please head to Fine Branch, there could be poisonous plants," to Tahu, Dryali, and Tuala.

Tahu replied, "What if these plants are a distraction?"  Damakaios excused himself from his conversation, then messaged, "A good point.  Will you hang back a little bit, Tahu, and guard our backs?"

Damakaios and Dryali joined Fine Branch at the same time.  Damakaios looked at the plants, but avoided touching them.  Dryali looked and froze momentarily.  Assassin vines from Nadezhda!  Get too close, they will grab, poison, and squash you!!

Dryali sipped his port, and launched into a nostalgia story about the Nadezhda jungle and the assassin vines.  As he did so, he noticed a second one across the atrium, nodding at it as he slowly backed up towards Tahu while he talked.

Unhappy Damakaois messaged Fine Branch again, "Noticed more?"  Fine Branch noted, "Four punch bowls are spiked:  some poison, some hallucinogen, one confusion charm."  Damakaios shrugged.  Party punch, then.

Tahu, listening to Dryali, looked at the pots the plants were in.  They almost matched the rest of the decor.  He loosened his weapons.  Dryali finished his story.

"Dryali, what's the range on the assassin plant?" Fine Branch asked curiously, as one does when a fellow party goer finishes a story.  Dryali replied, "Actually –"

They were 15' away, and one of the plants moved.

"– twenty feet."  Dryali finished.

Tahu, eying the moving assassin vine, tapped a glass to get the attention of the attendees.  "The Freelancers are about to put on a show for your entertainment!" he announced loudly.  "Please stay on the east side of the atrium, and give us room for our Work."  The party stilled, then many glanced at Damakaios, who nodded.  They backed up, murmuring.

Tahu drew his magical shortsword, and stabbed one of the assassin vines, like a pirate!  With panache!  He sliced off several branches, and then struck it with his magical daggar.  With a flourish, he backed up from the plant.

• The vine tried to grab Tahu. and the guests gasped.  Tahu dodged out of the way.
• The other vine, towards the south part of the atrium, shuddered, and the leaves shivered.  The vine and leaves flattened on the ground, and little vines and grasses sprouted up around Fine Branch's and Damakaios' ankles.  Damakaios avoided getting entangled, but Fine Branch did not.
  • Dryali's eyes widened; he'd remembered this ability, but not how far away the effect was from the vine.
• Tuala disengaged and moved to the very south end of the atrium.  Then he used his sorcerous ability to quicken an uplevel'd magic missile to punch into the closest vine with force.  He did his best to add a flourish, but it was a bit awkward.
• Terrance, a bit lost with the notion of the plants attacking her friends, decided to try her Sylvan.  "Why are you here," she tried to ask, "and why are you hurting us?"  She was pretty confident the "Why are you here?" was right.
  • The tree next to her stepped out of the ground, creaking angrily at Terrance, who was so startled she drew her magical rapier and stuck it in the tree.
  • The guests gasped, and pulled further away.  Many sought more drinks, and some appeared on the balconies, but on the eastern side.
  • Terrance was going through a full blown crisis that a tree attacked her.  She disengaged and backed away.
• Dryali glanced at the watching crowd, and pulled his shield on dramatically.  Then he moved 20' south, away from the tree, which tried to whomp him.
  • He used his all-purpose tool to make a force ballista, which did its own whomp by hitting the vine near Tahu with force.  He made sure to give it legs.
• Damakaios' face was a study in control, but there was no hiding the Freelancer leader's displeasure at being in range of all three ambulatory, hostile plants.  He drew his own shortsword, which was obviously very nice, and moved towards the tree.
  • The vine near Tahu tried to attack Damakaios, but missed.
  • His shortsword took a great chunk out of the tree, which apparently wasn't expecting such a strike.
• Fine Branch cast spiritual weapon in the form of a cuckoo clock, near Tahu, which hit that assassin vine with force.
  • They said to Damakaios, "Yep; property damage time!"  Then they cast blink.
  • Damakaoios said almost reflexively, "Not too much" as the nekomata blinked out.
  • Dryali interjected, "If that other tree [next to the crowd] awakens, it really is."

Tahu ran past the vine attacking him, and in a show of acrobatics, climbed the wall, then flipped off, slashing with his magical shortsword, then stabbing with his daggar.

• The vine slashed at Tahu with its thorns, but he dodged in that uncanny way, avoiding much of it.  But it also grabbed him.
• The other assassin vine attacked Damakaios, causing the audience to gasp again, but missed.
• The tree attacked Damakaios!  A branch hit him, but he too dodged in that uncanny way; but then a root hit his legs, and grappled him.  Then the tree tried to hit Terrance as well!  The branch missed, but she was also grappled by a root.
• Tuala sent a firebolt at the vine grappling Tahu.  While it struck true, the assassin vine was not as burned as one would expect.  The nekomata frowned, then quickened another uplevel'd magic missile, sending the missiles into the vine one at a time.  When the fifth missile hit, the vine died, falling away from Tahu.
• Terrance was bludgeoned by the tree root, and was unhappy in the extreme.  She wiggled out of it, moved to a bush near the crowd of onlookers, and hid in the bush.  To everyone's consternation, the firbolg disappeared while in plain sight.
• The force ballista struck the remaining assassin vine with force, then walked next to Dryali, who had noticed Tuala's firebolt disappointment and was using his all-purpose tool to learn the chill touch cantrip.
• Damakaios was also bludgeoned by the tree root, and looked down in annoyance.  The  Pungarehu hanyou put up his sword, and used flame blade to summon a flaming scimitar.  The flame's slash did not do any extraordinary damage, however, and he had to invest effort in looking sanguine.
• Fine Branch reappeared, exactly one wink later, outside the area of grappling vines.  They moved the spiritual weapon to the tree, to whack it with force.  They cast dispel magic on the tree… and nothing happened.
  • Fine Branch used cat zoomies to move next to Dryali, then grinned at the crowd and blinked back out.  Their cat's grin was the last thing the crowd saw.

Tahu checked if Damakaios was okay, then dashed in a circle around the assassin vines, and struck with his short sword.  He bowed at the crowd, which had started to relax, assured it was an intentional entertainment, amazed at House Hadid.  A few young bravos in the north east part of the atrium had started to dare each other to join in.

• The assassin vine slashed at Tahu with its thorns, but he dodged in that uncanny way, avoiding much of it.  He also was grabbed again.
• The tree struck at Damakaios twice with its branches.  The first strike missed and whomped into the ground.  The second one hit and Damakaios dodged uncannily.
  • The tree moved towards Tahu, then struck with its root, which totally missed.
  • Apparently irritated by this, the tree… BIT Damakaios, hurting him badly.
  • The crowd screamed at this turn of events.
• Tuala shot a firebolt at the tree; it blew through the leaves, then he did something and it bent around and struck.  Then he used cat zoomies to go to the bush near the crowd of onlookers, and had to dodge Terrance in surprise, as he had not seen her hidden there.
• Terrance stealthed up to the tree, and struck it with her magical rapier!  But she did not want to stay next to this tree; she felt betrayed by the tree, and moved back to the bush.
  • The tree whomped Terrance with its branches as she retreated, but she dodged out of most of it.
• Dryali looked at Damakaios, stuck in a root and sporting a tree bite on his shoulder.  However, the tree was easily older than the Dark elf, a centerpiece in the atrium.  "Do we want to preserve the tree?" he asked.  Damakaios glanced at the tree and the onlookers, imagining the mayhem it would cause, and replied, "Destroy this."
  • Dryali brought his hands together, even with the shield, then raised them up dramatically, and the whine of shatter filled the atrium, centered just above the tree.  It didn't do much, a few leaves and twig fluttered to the ground.
  • He moved towards Terrance, the force ballista hitting at the assassin vine with force again.  Glancing at the crowd, he looked for quiet watchers, but saw none.  Some were more scared than letting on, though; fewer of the crowd were convinced this was an entertainment.
• Damakaios slashed the tree with his flaming scimitar, deepening the burned cut from the prior slash.  The tree shuddered and seemed to sigh, then became still, the leaves drooping, and the root letting go.
  • The Freelancer leader stepped to the assassin vine, drawing a dagger that had been hidden, and stabbed it.
• Fine Branch popped back into existence near where Dryali had been standing before he moved.  They moved the spiritual weapon next to the remaining assassin vine and it struck the vine with force.  Then, in keeping with the cuckoo clock, Fine Branch cast toll the dead on the assassin vine, the bonggg sounding like the clock rang the hour,  Necrosis spread along the vine, killing it.
  • The jet black nekomata did not wait to see this result, and blinked out.

Dryali clasped Terrance on the shoulder, which he could do because the much taller firbolg had been crouching behind the bush.  He cast cure wounds on her, which he could do becuase the stirring crowd was much more interested in the ambulatory plants.

Fine Branch appeared next to Tahu, one wink later, and also cast cure wounds on him.  They did not blink out.  Tahu pulled out his healer's kit, and attended to Damakaios.

Meanwhile, the bravos who had been daring each other to join in, finally mustered up the courage.  One fellow, a human who'd obviously consumed too much of the punch, sauntered up to the drooping tree and touched it.  He did not notice Fine Branch's use of thaumaturgy, and jumped back awkwardly and ran back to his compatriots when the tree groaned at him.  

Bella and Gigi, daughters of the House, had started to work the crowd, riffing off Tahu's announcement.  "Lovely entertainment, wouldn't you say?"  They carefully did not steal any glances at their tree.  That did not stop the entire group of bravos from making haste to exit the atrium, pushing past Anwar the Younger, of House Hadid, who came up to Damakaios.

"What the heck was that," he said, gesturing at the tree, as Damakaios tried in vain to straighten out his ruined leathers.  Dryali and Tuala joined them, Tuala's outfit only getting a brief glance from the Hadid.  Dryali checked the other tree; it seemed normal.  Tuala checked the now-dead tree.  "Wasn't awakened," he told them.  "Maybe a curse?  Definitely unnatural tree.  I've not encountered this before."

Dryali rejoined them. "Were these trees here before?" he asked.  Anwar looked at the tree sadly, and at the vines speculatively.  "I'm not sure about these vines; they were party decor.  The tree has been here for decades, I climbed it as a child."  He glanced at Damakaios again, this time in wonder, and added, "I'm glad it didn't bite me."

He left the Freelancers, and started circulating in the crowd, which had resumed enjoying the party.  The talk started wandering back into party talk, with topics wandering back to the fight, and the Hadids playing it down.  The savvy people knew better, but those who were less savvy seemed wowed and happy with the "entertainment".

Terrance, however, did not enjoy herself.  She had been attacked by a tree, and this occurrence struck at the very core of her self-image.  After the crowd thinned out, Tuala, having recently gone through his own identity crisis, tried to explain that it was a curse to her.  That just shifted Terrance's introspection to contemplating how to detect which trees were likely to betray her, in future.

The Freelancers were among the last to leave House Hadid, and Yolanda and Anwar the Elder pulled Damakaios aside.  "Who is messing with House Hadid?" they wanted to know.  Damakaios tilted his head ever so slightly, then said, "Let's discuss later."  And then the Freelancers piled into their rented carriage to return to their tavern in fine style.