A Puissant Heresy

The Ripa Daneo Freelancers felt a bit slow, to its newest transfers.  Terrance took off on some errand on her own, the other Freelancers all had their own deals.  Damakaios, their Pungarehu hanyou leader, felt a bit quiet after that party where a tree kicked his ass.

Dryali, Tuala, Fine Branch, and Tahu were a bit restless, so they went upstairs to Damakaios' office.  Again it struck them how nice a building the compound was, and they chatted about the old villa bought by new money that Damakaios had mentioned.  They got to the lounge and stopped, because his door was closed.  So they waited in the lounge, looking at the trophies, which weren't labelled.

After a few minutes Damakaios opened his door, and waved them in.  Nobody came out, and they wondered how he knew they were there.  Anyhow they filed into his office and all sat down, except Dryali, who just lounged on the chair.  Nobody said anything.  Still quiet.

Weapons decorated the walls, and for that matter, Damakaios, who unlocked a drawer and pulled out three crisp pieces of paper.

• The first mission is:  The Vathia Estia Tunnel Authority is having issues with constructs sporadically attacking caverns, they can direct you to the caverns.  This will pay 250gp each.
• The second mission is:  the Amabel Villa... it was sold to them as a 'delightful villa', 'bit of a fixer-upper', and they only checked the floor plan.  Freelancers will be paid 250gp/person to clear out undesirable or invasive flora or fauna.
• Also...

Damakaios paused, and re-read the paper, a look of consternation on his red face.  "Arnari said you would be explaining this mission to me, there's this

• Daystar cult, with some sort of lotion?  Getting sent to Waypoints?  Anyhow the mission is to check out Waypoint Puissant, and try to be somewhat discreet about it.

Damakaios' tone was a mix of dubiousness about "discreet", confusion at this assembly of words, and curiosity about the explanation the Freelancers were about to divulge to him.  Unlikely he was expecting what they were about to say.  Surely Arnari was laughing, imagining it.

Fine Branch:  they show their buttholes to the sun and have a lotion that makes them dumb!
Dryali:  there's a patron boon, or something, pushing to convince people to worship the Daystar
Damakaios:  the Daystar is not a god.
Tahu:  they seem to have some sort of divine magic, and their own elementals.
<Damakaios' eyebrows were almost all the way to his hairline.>
Tuala:  Church of Storms has been sponsoring missions to find the root of it.
Damakaios <pulled more papers out, clipped together>:  That explains the Church of Storms badge attached to this mission.
Dryali:  you do not want this on Commerce, here
Damakaios:  this also is 250gp/person, and your passage to the Waypoint Puissant is paid.

A brief silence, then Tuala and Dryali explained how they had dug up the list of these Waypoints after Cliffshadow Freelancers had discovered they were sending out shipments through the port.

Dryali:  is Waypoint Puissant known for alcohols?
Damakaios:  no <flipped through the papers> lightly forested hills, but maybe transship.
Fine Branch:  more to the point, since not on Commerce, we can do property damage.
Dryali <dryly>:  we did that last time; it was devastating.
Damakaios:  it's not "I don't want you to cause property damage," it's that we want the solutions to not be worse than the problems.
Tuala:  we don't set out to cause property damage.
Damakaios:  I think stuff happens.  I too go on missions, but try not to wreck everything.

The hanyou put the other papers away, and started, "Your Church of Storms contact on Commerce is Addis... your passage is paid for, but try to be discreet.  That said, if you must reveal yourselves, here is the badge" here, he passed it to Tahu, "now, while this conversation was enlightening, please brief me on the background, and what mission records to pull from archives."

The four Freelancers did so, explaining about the lotion and its effects, the multi-level marketing scheme, how they worshipped the Daystar, the apparent boons and magic they'd witnessed, and various dates of important events.  Learning the Ripa Daneo Freelancers Tavern had archives from other Freelancers was an interesting surprise.

They left to prepare; Fine Branch bought an herbalism kit.

Damakaios, not entirely convinced the whole affair wasn't an elaborate prank, talked to Estarai, then had Ahdeth pull the records.  He returned to his office, profoundly disturbed by the method of worship, and the magical properties of the lotion.  Julian was usually reliable for info, but this group felt too organized to have originated in Hindmarsh on Duquesne, and the liontaur's involvement on Waypoint Resource confirmed it.

The Freelancers swung by again.  Dryali and Fine Branch had not enjoyed their last such mission, and they wanted sending stones.  Damakaios felt this was reasonable and gave one to Tahu.

The next morning, the Freelancers headed to the Ripa Daneo airship docks, with Fine Branch soaring above on Nighthawk.  The airship they were to take was the Paquet, a relatively compact mechanical airship with green and brown warpaint, hailing from Stormview on Nadezhda.  The Paquet looked built to withstand storms and debris, with the observation deck a smaller proportion than they were used to; it was crewed by Dark elves and Nimerigar halflings.  The Freelancers were greeted by Captain Nerala, a Dark elf woman about 2" taller than Dryali, with bound hair below her shoulders, but wearing goggles similar to his, in the morning light of the Daystar.  The captain told them Waypoint Puissant would be 6 days' travel, then had one of the crew help settle Nighthawk and get the Freelancers into the assigned cabin as she turned her attention to the rest of the cargo: nutria, paper, and linen destined for the inner reaches.

Tahu had to duck a lot, belowdecks.  

About an hour later, a team of draft pegasi towed the Paquet straight north and out from the Ripa Daneo docks.  They were well above the crater, with Moana's Eye glittering below, when the pegasi dropped off and the engines fired up.  Commerce appeared to move eastward below them, chasing Pembroke which was eastward and outward.

They kept moving north and out, until they were clear of Commerce's trailing vortices; then the Paquet turned east, almost like it was chasing the skylith, which continued to pull away.  The airship was definitely going slow, and the captain consulted with her navigator a few times.

Scudding rain clouds and wind made the observation deck unpleasant, even for Tahu; everyone went below.  Captain Nerala, once satisfied with the airship's orbit and windspeed, explained to the Freelancers that Waypoint Puissant was "in a transfer orbit, past the bigass thalassa.  The bigass thalassa is why it's not always convenient to most of the middle reaches."

Of course that meant the Paquet had to get past Olyokoma to align with the waypoint, hence 6 days' travel.  The scudding clouds and wind persisted for the first couple days, and on the third day it was clear.  Tahu and Tuala in particular spent most of that time on the observation deck; Tahu was enjoying the wind, and asking questions about shiphandling, and Tuala was sighting the skyliths and thalassae, and taking notes.  Olyokoma was above them, in the distance.

On the fourth day, the Paquet ran through a storm, and the Freelancers got a lesson in Dark elf shipbuilding priorities.  The airship shook with the wind, and Tuala ended up horking like a cat with a hairball; between that and the low ceilings, Tahu had to open a porthole.  Dryali and Fine Branch were fine with the shaking, though.  

The shaking stopped the next day, and the 6th day was just a few clouds nearby.  Tuala felt much better, and Dryali caught up on the news from Stormview with Captain Nerala.  But that soon came to an end, as they were approaching Waypoint Puissant.

The small skylith they were approaching was oblong-ish; 7 miles long along the east-west axis, 10 miles deep, but perhaps 3 miles wide at most?  Maybe 2.  It was not a smooth oblong, the outward surface expressing that as rolling hills.  It got enough rain to be covered in light forest, including conifers, deciduous, and tall oak trees with large leaves.  The Freelancers had decided those trees would be their story; they were coming to check out hardwoods for resource exploitation.

The station looked to be a couple miles west of the leading edge, somewhat protected by hills.  The Paquet landed easily, and then there was a bustle to unload some of the cargo.  In particular the linen would be transshipped, destined for Sullimany.  Other items were getting loaded.

Tuala stretched, happy to be on solid ground.  Fine Branch helped unload Nighthawk, then stood there, watching the loading/unloading.  Everyone was very efficient; she noticed there were more warehouses for non-perishables.

Dryali offered to help unload, planning to pop detect magic if he got into the warehouse, trying to locate any Daystar lotion quickly.  This worked; he picked up the mix of abjuration and enchantment that matched the location.  Sadly, it was not in containers, but on two people, an unnaturally tan warehouse worker, and also a guard.  He detected nothing in the quartermaster's office, and also some random items on shelves, possibly matching alarm or arcane lock spells; unremarkable.

Fine Branch cast locate object for lead, then flew off on Nighthawk, presumably to stretch his wings after being cooped up for 6 days.  She noticed some lead in the station master's office, in the shape of a box.  Probably, a safe.

Nighthawk was very happy to fly.  Fine Branch got to scout out the edges of the town, the clearings.  She saw there were 3 warehouses, and a mechanical airship repair shop.  The town was surrounded by rolling hills and lots of trees; of the two nearest the station, one was forested at the crown, one was forested at the base.  <Narrator voice:  Matt rolled a nat 20>  On the opposite side of the hill with the forested crown, Fine Branch noticed a nice clearing with a small nearby cave and thick grass.  She saw it was well-used; the grass was pressed down, but not dying.

It was perhaps a mile from the station as the hippogryph flies.  Fine Branch circled, and saw a winding path that led to the clearing from the town.  She also saw a way to approach it from the opposite side.  

Tahu went to talk to the station master to secure lodging.  This person was a Holder dwarf named Harnid, who was entirely friendly.  "How many rooms do you need?  And for how long?  It will be 1gp/person/night"  Tahu told him absently, "4 or 5 days," but was looking for overly-tanned staff.  He saw two women, a Wind sagani and a Wild elf.  Another male Holder dwarf was not so tan.

The tavern sides kind of opened outwards, so when the weather was nice, everyone could see out, and when it was not, they closed like part of the wall.

Tuala finished stretching, and joined Tahu in the tavern.  He started talking to people, but did not notice the tanned staff.  All the staff were bustling in preparation for dinner.  It was mid-afternoon, so there weren't any customers beyond himself and Tahu; everyone was working on the ship or the stables.

Tuala decided to get a snack to settle his tummy after the flight.  He talked to the Holder dwarf, Edwyn, who brought him a nice dwarven stout, as well as bread & cheese.  "It's good for what ails you!" the dwarf assured Tuala.

"Sounds good," Tuala said, "We just arrived, anything going on that's interesting or going on?  Don't want to step on a touchy subject by accident."

Edwyn scratched his somewhat scruffy beard.  "Can't think of anything in particular.  It's a pretty nice climate; always something interesting to come through."  He paused, and Tuala enjoyed his bread & cheese.  "Like to walk in the forest, but not too far; there's wildlife."

Tuala took a swig of the stout.  "Any particular trails?"  Edwyn pointed at the hill which lacked trees on its crown, "there's a good trail to walk."  Then he bustled off.

Meanwhile, Fine Branch brough Nighthawk to the stables, and talked to Kocurek, the quinametzin stablemaster.  "Such a lovely hippogryph!" Kocurek exclaimed.  "What is this beautiful beast's name?"

Fine Branch told him, "This is Nighthawk."  Kocurek offered Nighthawk a piece of jerky, and scritched his ear.  "Where did you get one with these colours?" he asked.  Fine Branch said, "Actually, tamed him after he attacked an airship!"  Kocurek was impressed, and they continued with small talk as Nighthawk was led to his stall.

The stables had three wings, for pegasi, hippogryphs, and gryphons.  No gryphon was stabled, but two very good-looking, burly destrier pegasi were there.  "Nice," Fine Branch commented.  Kocurek beamed.  "These are mine; I just got the second one.  I hope to breed them… look how beautiful they are."

Night came swiftly, for the tavern filled up early for dinner; the entire crew of the Paquet was there, drinking, as they had to cast off about 4 hours after Daystar setting.  Dinner was a hearty stew in bread bowls, which went well with Dwarven stout.

Dryali, seeing the fullness of the tavern, said, "Should probably wait to poke around the warehouse."  Tahu looked up, surprised.  "Not before?"  Dryali shook his head.  "Nah, we have days."

Tahu was distracted by his delicious food, but the other Freelancers were sussing out anyone particularly tanned.  They noticed the Wind sagani and Wild elf servers, one of the warehouse workers, and one of the guards.  The latter two did not sit together, but with their respective compatriots.

After dinner was cleared, games of dice and darts started up.  The Freelancers watched for any patterns with who the servers talked to, but saw nothing.  What Dryali and Tahu did notice was a Mikumwesauk with oil on his hands, fleecing the Paquet crew at dice.  The halfling mechanic was swapping the die from time to time, and the losers did not notice.  Dryali looks for an opportunity to turn the tables, but saw no obvious opening.

Captain Nerala came into the tavern.  Her voice carried across the room.  "Time to cast off!  Everybody off!"  The airship crew all arose, and left, followed by some of the guards.  One of those who remained was the tanned guard.

The wait staff was cleaning up.  Morning would also come swiftly, so the Freelancers retired to their rooms, and got a night's rest on solid ground.

The next morning, they gathered in Tahu's room to figure out their day.  "Wait, what are we doing?" was the first question to dispatch:

• Find out disposition of the lotion
• Check for any lotion they already know about
• Determine destination of anything passed on

"Already know about" was a bit of an exercise.  Dryali closed his eyes, trying to remember his notes.  2 or 3 crates?  Tuala remembered more clearly, it was only 2 crates, and he remembered the dates.  Dryali suggested to the others that they not confront the tan people before checking the warehouse records.

They went downstairs to breakfast, and discovered that an airship had come in during the wee hours, and also the weather was drizzly.  "Good time to check the surrounding area," Tahu observed.  So after breakfast, they took Edwyn's advice and hiked to the hill with the clearing on its crown.  Well, Fine Branch flew on Nighthawk.  The hike was easy, the Freelancers feeling bouncy in the lighter gravity.

The hill had a nice view of the surrounding hills.  They saw the surrounding forest was a mixed age; some of the clearings had young trees.  Remembering what Edwyn had said, they looked for wolves.  Tuala didn't see any, being too distracted by the increasing levels of dampness on his fur.  Dryali wasn't sure about the lack of wolves, but did see lots of deer sign; Tahu and Fine Branch, however, were pretty sure there were a lot of deer, and no wolves.

For all it was drizzly, the clouds were thin.  Off to the west, the daylight glittered off Olyokoma, which was climbing the sky. [TBD]

Everything seemed ideal.  They continued down the other side of the hill, taking the back path to that clearing at the base of the other hill.  Fine Branch scouted ahead to check if the clearing really was empty.  It was, but she was not sure of the cave.  She started flying back to the group, then cast locate object on Daystar lotion.  She flew up behind the cave, then looped low over the clearing, then back to the hiking Freelancers.

Fine Branch saw nobody, but the low flight allowed her to see a flickering light in the cave, like a lamp?  And the locate object pinged on Daystar lotion in that cave.  It was not moving.

Armed with this news, the Freelancers thought back.  Before they left, had they made sure all the tan people were out and about the station?  Yes.  So, Fine Branch case pass without trace on everyone before they approached any closer.  Then Tuala cast invisibility on Tahu, who already had boots of elvenkind.  Then they snuck into the clearing.

<Narrator voice: Dryali had boots of elvenkind too, which gave him 16 on the stealth.>

Tahu was trying to detect traps, but found none, so proceeded into the cave.  15' in there was a corner left, so he peered in there.  It was a big chamber, with flickering lights, and 15' high ceilings.  There were 5 beings in the chamber.

The two that drew the most attention were two big, burly minotaurs wearing golden armour.  Tahu, peering at them, saw greataxes strapped to their backs, blades etched with sunbursts.  The other three were tanned waypoint station personnel:  the Holder dwarf guard, the Wind sagani warehouse worker, the Wild elf tavern staff… who was wearing a gaudy, yellow, knee-length, sequined vest.

The group was speaking in a pidgin of Trade and Primordial.  The two minotaurs were telling the Wild elf they smelled someone coming, maybe on a hippogryph.  

Tahu again checked for traps, which somehow dissolved the invisibility; he stealthed out of the cave as quickly as he could.  He told Dryali, "There are two minotaurs in there, the warehouse worker, the guard, and that Wild elf in a vest.  They all look to the Daystar.  They are on guard because detecting people."

Dryali couldn't believe it.  Pass without trace, boots of elvenkind, and still getting detected.  He withdrew further from the clearing.  The others joined him.

"There are a couple crates of Daystar lotion, and stuff for living in there," Tahu continued.  "Not sure we can't take the minotaurs."

Fine Branch retorted, "We definitely don't want to confront them now."

* * session break * *

Dryali took out his all-purpose tool, and used it to figure out the message cantrip.  Then it was time for the Freelancers to have a skull-session.

Tahu:  assume the minotaurs live in the cave.  Wait til they are by themselves.
Tuala:  alternatively, if they all come over, then greet them with a fireball.
Dryali:  maybe we should find out what they are doing there.  Are there more than 2?
Tahu:  just the two.
Dryali:  were they making any lotion?
Tahu:  no
Tuala:  were there more than 2 crates?
Tahu:  only two of those.
Dryali:  possibly don't do anything about these now?  Maybe we do?
Tuala:  we should wait for residents to go back to town, then deal with minotaurs.
Fine Branch:  also like that.
Dryali:  wait here?  Or at town for them to return.
Tahu:  wait outside of town, then get them before they return
Tuala:  it is a half-hour before town
Dryali:  I think minotaurs first.
Fine Branch:  tactically, the adding the three from town to the minotaurs are less of a big deal than the other way around.

They gamed out the scenarios.  There were 3 cultists in the cave, 1 in town, and 2 minotaurs in the cave.  Around 25 waypoint personnel, and maybe layovers – that airship had come in.  Laid out that way, Dryali proposed they go back to town, then return to the cave after dark, when the minotaurs would not be joined by any townspeople.

They successfully snuck away from the cave without alerting the minotaurs, and on the way back concocted some story about having been hired by a well-to-do family on Commerce to find a good source of hardwood for their cabinets.  And managed to get lost.

Half an hour later, Tahu, Dryali, and Tuala stumbled out of the woods, trying to appear as if they had been lost.  However Fine Branch was still circling above, obviously not lost, and Dryali was way too purposeful and angry to deceive anyone.

They had come out of the woods near the stables though.  Nobody was actually watching so there weren't really any people they failed to deceive.  Fine Branch stabled Nighthawk and then they scattered to keep an eye out for the cultists for the rest of the afternoon.

Fine Branch was watching the tavern.  She noticed the tan Wind sagani going about the afternoon cleanup and prep, but the Wild elf, whose name was Buttercup, did not return.

Tuala started pretending to observe skyliths & thalassae from an upper floor balcony.  But Olyokoma had moved to the eastern part of the sky, so he was actually observing how it moved, and he was so happy.

Tahu was watching the guard house.  He saw nobody coming in from the forest, and after a while, concluded they'd already returned.  After all, the Freelancers had taken the long way back.

Dryali settled on the inn porch to watch.  He ostentatiously started carving a piece of wood.  He saw the Wind sagani warehouse worker, and the Holder dwarf guard, but hadn't seen them come from the forest.

As evening approached, they gathered in Tahu's room again to compare observations, and discuss what to do, with the Wild elf obviously still in the cave.  Maybe this was a time to sleep?

Fine Branch suggested, "Let's bide the evening, and let the others react to us, because they smelled the hippogryph.  Everyone agreed, but Tuala said diffidently, "Should we ask the stablemaster to let us know if anyone comes asking...?"

Fine Branch went immediately to the stable to ask Kocurek, who told her, "There are a couple people on the skylith who prize flying mounts.  I don't let them fly the hippogryphs, but I let a couple of the guards take up the pegasi."

Kocurek also noted he had two stablehands, and would ask them not to blab.  Fine Branch looked around, struck by a thought, but neither of them were particularly tan.  But her attention was more on the guards.  "Oh?  Which guards?" she asked.  "All four of them," Kocurek said.

Later, when Fine Branch relayed this to the other Freelancers, Dryali cautioned her, "Make sure to check your tack."

The airship hadn't left, but the drizzle had.  Dinner came swiftly again, and the Freelancers found themselves in the tavern for dinner with all the Waypoint personnel and the airship crew.  They glanced around, trying to assess reactions.

The inn staff were perfectly natural, not acting any different.  However they were very busy, with all the airship personnel, and the four extra Freelancers.  Dryali and Fine Branch noticed the tanned Wind sagani warehouse worker and also the Holder dwarf guard giving them all a little bit of the hairy eyeball.

Dinner yielded to dice and darts, and the Mikumwesauk mechanic was cheating at dice again.  Dryali, struck by a thought, tried to move closer to find out if the halfling was trying to win more than just coin; perhaps dares or other materiel?  But no, he was just winning coin.

Tahu decided to try provoking a reaction, by "going to the privy" - out back - and staying outside 15-20m, trying to around suspicion.  Dryali keep ostensibly watching the dice game, and Tuala and Fine Branch stayed at their table, drinking Dwarven stout, because it was past meal time and had become beer time.

Nobody followed Tahu.  Fine Branch noticed the two tanned persons were still keeping an eye on the Freelancers.

Upon Tahu's return, the Freelancers consulted quickly in low voices.  "What are we going to do?"  The options were: stay in the tavern, or go towards the cave.  They concluded if they went towards the cave, and the two cultists didn't follow them, great; if they were followed, the Freelancers would deal with them.

The Freelancers left while it was still beer-o'clock.  The tavern remained full of waypoint personnel and airship crew.

While the others gathered their things, Fine Branch swung by the stables to get Nighthawk.  The stablehand, a Wind sagani named Nardis, was surprised and confused by Fine Branch's desire to go on a night flight.  Yawning, he helped her with Nighthawk's tack, then went back to sleep.  Fine Branch called after him, "it's not named Dayhawk," and saddled Nighthawk herself.

Then she flew above while the other three Freelancers took the trail to the cave.  With Olyokoma lighting up the night, they figured it would take 30 minutes to get there.  <Narrator voice:  both Shari and Casey rolling nat 1s means they figured wrong.>  After a half hour passed and there was no sign of the clearing, they hesitated.

Fine Branch had been checking for followers.  She was not totally sure, but she thought she saw movement in the woods, which ran off and hid when she circled lower.  She wasn't sure if there were one or three creatures following them.

Tuala messaged Fine Branch, and found this out.  He relayed to Dryali and Tahu, just as they came across a clearing that wasn't the one they were looking for.  Tahu suggested, "Just set up camp in this clearing."

Fine Branch landed, and the Freelancers set up a pretend camp, with a fire, bedrolls, and watch order.  Dryali took the 3rd watch, which would put him on watch during the dark part of the night, and also let him get a full rest first.

Fine Branch saw giant bats on her watch.  She also saw normal bats.  For all appearances she was keeping a sloppy watch.

Tahu heard a wolf howl in the distance, and a deer crashing through the trees, which was also not close.  He also appeared to be keeping a sloppy watch, but he was very on it.

Dryali watched the salt thalassa, Olyokoma, as it grew dim behind the central storm.  That got him thinking about Nadezhda, and its view of the storm, and he totally missed the cultists and minotaurs creeping up on the camp.

The first Dryali realized it was when a brown minotaur rose up in front of him, axe whistling over his head.  He shouted, and Tahu rolled out of the way as a white minotaur's axe hit the ground where he'd been laying.

The two nekomata were awake instantly, just in time for the Holder dwarf guard who'd been eyeing the Freelancers all evening in the taverns to bring his twin maces down on the prone Fine Branch.  Arrows flew across the Freelancers' "camp", hitting nobody, and the minotaurs' were speaking in some Primordial pidgin, saying "Defend the Daystar!"

A voice rang out northwest of Dryali, with a commanding tone, but whatever it was commanding did not materialize.  What did materialize was a spiritual weapon next to him, in the shape of a golden scimitar.  Dryali's purpled shield interfered with it and it missed.

Fine Branch said, "I wanna ride Nighthawk."  Dryali nodded without moving his gaze from this brown minotaur in his face.

Dryali made a protector eldritch cannon, right in the middle of the camp fire.  Then he backed off from the brown minotaur, who swung and missed.  The protector pulsed out a buffer.

• Fine Branch used cat zoomies to move to Nighthawk and mount.
  • The Holder dwarf was not expecting that, and his startled swing hit the brown minotaur instead.
  • Fine Branch set her own spiritual weapon, in the form of a soaking wet bra, next to the brown minotaur.  The bra tried to strangle the minotaur, hitting it with force.
  • Nighthawk took off, with Fine Branch chanting "cats cats cats cats cats!" to summon her spirit guardians.  Nighthawk maneuvered so the cats could reach both minotaurs.  Incidentally that also put the Holder dwarf in reach.
  • It was about then that Fine Branch realized the other part of the minotaurs' pidgin was Abyssal.
• The spirit guardian cats burned the Holder dwarf with holy radiance.  The guard, seeing Fine Branch out of reach, moved to Tahu and tried to beat him with his maces.  One hit, but the other missed.
• More arrows flew across the camp, from the east and west.  Dryali spotted the archers, both female Wind sagani.  The archer on the east shot Fine Branch twice.  The archer on the west missed twice.
• The spiritual weapon scimitar moved to Tuala and smacked him with force.  Then the elvish voice called out more clearly, "The Daystar commands you be still!" and Dryali felt all his muscles lock up.
• Tuala used sorcerous quicken to cast mage armour on himself, then used cat zoomies to move closer to the voice.  He saw her now - the Wild elf in the gaudy vest - and shot her with a firebolt.  That hurt, but did not disrupt her hold person on Dryali.
• The white minotaur, burned with holy radiance from the spirit guardian cats, sliced Tahu with its greataxe.  The axe glowed and burned with holy radiance as it sliced.  Tahu dodged it uncannily but was still pretty hurt.
• The brown minotaur - also burned with holy radiance from the spirit guardian cats - swung at Dryali, but again misjudged the Dark elf's height and missed.
• Tahu rolled to his feet, stretched languorously, and then ran the Holder dwarf through with his magical shortsword.  As the fellow slid off his blade, he stabbed the white minotaur with his daggar.

Dryali was locked in place by the hold person and was having flashbacks to the first time he'd encountered these Daystar cultists, in the Park in Cliffshadow.  The protector cannon stayed in the fire, getting a little burned, but still able to pulse out a buffer to the Freelancers within 10' of it.

• Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon bra smack the brown minotaur again with force.  Then, spotting the Wild elf north of Dryali, she cast toll the dead.  Wind chimes tinkled, out of tune, as necrosis spread across the elf from where Tuala's firebolt had burned her, and she crumpled, dead.
  • Dryali gasped as the hold person faded away.
  • Nighthawk flew to the eastern archer and attacked them, piercing them badly with his beak, but missing with his claws, then flew back closer to the minotaurs.
• The eastern archer shot at Tahu.  The first arrow missed but the second pierced him.  Then she hid.  The western archer did too, but both arrows flew well over Tahu's head, and she failed to hide as well as she thought.
• Tuala sent a firebolt at the brown minotaur, but it went wide.  Frowning, he used sorcerous quicken to cast an uplevel'd magic missile at it, the missiles impacting with force.
• The white minotaur avoided much of the holy radiance from the spirit guardian cats, and sliced Nighthawk with its greataxe.  The axe glowed, and the radiance plus the slice hurt Nighthawk badly.
• The brown minotaur was fully burned with holy radiance from the spirit guardian cats, and sliced Tahu with its greataxe.  Its axe also burned with holy radiance.  Tahu dodged it uncannily as well.
• Tahu pivoted and jumped up, using his magical short sword though the brown minotaur's forehead, killing it.  As he landed, he stabbed the white minotaur with his daggar.

Dryali had the protector cannon move towards Nighthawk, as he pulled out his arcane firearm.  The cannon pulsed out a protective buffer.  Dryali took aim at the nearby archer, who wasn't terribly hidden; she was the warehouse worker.  "Let's see your lotion protect against this," he said to the surprised cultist, as he sank a firebolt into her shoulder.

• Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon attack the white minotaur with force.
  • Nighthawk also attacked the white minotaur, but missed.  Then he flew 30' east.
  • The minotaur slashed Nighthawk with its glowing axe.  Good thing the protector cannon had been there.
  • Fine Branch cast guiding bolt on the minotaur, burning it with more radiant damage.
• The archer burned by Dryali's firebolt shot twice at Dryali and missed.
• The hidden archer to the east shot Fine Branch, but the second arrow missed.  She tried to hide again.
• Tuala gave up on precision and simply set off a fireball between the white minotaur and the nearby archer.  The roar echoed through the night.  The archer was entirely incinerated, but the minotaur, though burned, was still on its feet.  Tuala used sorcerous quicken on another magic missile to take care of that, killing the minotaur.
• Tahu dashed to the eastern archer and crit whilst bonking her on the head with his daggar pommel.  She went out like a light and Tahu dragged her back to the fire; she was one of the tavern servers.

Dryali cast about at the carnage, and checked the points of his hair.  He made sure to have the protector cannon pulse again.

Dryali:  do we want to stabilize those who are down?
Fine Branch:  minotaurs can die
Tahu:  do we care about the townspeople?
Fine Branch:  in the past…
Tahu:  they rehabilitate?
Fine Branch:  no, not really.

Dryali walked over to Buttercup, the Wild elf, and tried to check her gear, but he was really still too enraged about the hold person to see anything useful.  He dragged her back to the fire.  Fine Branch looked and realized… that gaudy vest she was wearing was nice.  As in, at least 100gp worth of topaz and sunstones.

Tahu checked the other two cultists.  The incinerated archer was ash and crumbled bones.  He stabilized the Holder dwarf guard.  Tahu started checking the greataxes, but they were interesting and everyone did so.  The minotaurs themselves were in gold-plated half-plate, but the axes had stopped glowing.  Everyone had seen the radiance; perhaps it was like a boon.  A gift, from the Daystar.

The Freelancers picked up the two living but unconscious cultists and carted them to the cave, which reeked of cow.  They started looking around the cave.

They swiftly found a stash of coin, but more oddly, that was in a shrine in the corner.  The shrine was of beaten gold, with a rising Daystar in front of it.  Next to the shrine was some nice studded leather armour on a stand, and on top of the shrine was a gaudy, bronze, Daystar crown.  Dryali checked the crown:  not magic.

The Freelancers looked at their unconscious captives, and thought about the two slain cultists.  They were all in leather armour…?  Fine Branch had a flash of insight.  "They didn't want to wear this armour, because it's too nice to fit in at the Waypoint," she said.

They checked the rest of the cave,  They found a big golden bracelet, and a gaudy silver necklace… actually, that was rather nice, with a sapphire pendant.  And, of course, two crates of Daystar lotion.  It looked like the crates the Freelancers were familiar with from Cliffshadow.  Both crates were popped open; one was half-used, the other was almost entirely used.

The crates still had the pamphlets, which appeared to be well-read.  The Freelancers found no other paperwork.  Scowling, they turned to the unconscious prisoners.

Dryali woke them up with his earring of āhua, and the Freelancers tried to be intimidating.  That was a bit of a challenge because Dryali was angry enough for it to be comical, but a full-blown cleric of The Cat added some weight to it.

The Holder dwarf's name was Mammut, and the Wind sagani's name was Pixie.  They didn't know about where the Daystar lotion was going, and explained that Buttercup could talk to someone.

Mammut:  we were spose to get another shipments in an eighth
Dryali:  did you get more shipments?
Pixie:  three or four in original crates.  Buttercup was first, and showed us the Way and it's too bad you
Mammut:  KILLED HER
Fine Branch:  she tried to kill us first, a lot.  This was straight-up self-defense?
Tahu:  what are minotaurs doing here and why do they care about the Daystar?
Mammut:  not sure about them, why they were here, but the Daystar sent them.
Tahu:  how long?  Where did they come from?
Mammut:  not sure; they didn't appear out of thin air, they were dropped off.
Tahu:  ...okay
Fine Branch:  lovely.
Tahu:  did Buttercup share any plans with you in the event of her untimely demise?  Like, plans?
<both the cultists appeared confused at Tahu's question.>
Fine Branch <bluntly>:  Buttercup is dead.  What do you do now?
Mammut:  keep worshipping the Daystar.  Hopefully they would send more lotion.  <pause>  I could be leader.
Pixie:  why would you be leader?  I would be leader!

At that, everyone but Dryali laughed bitterly.

Dawn was about 3 hours away, so they rested in the cave until that time.  Then they headed back to town, with the prisoners, 3 corpses, and almost all the stuff from the cave.  Nighthawk was laden enough that he had to walk.  With regards to "almost all", Fine Branch took one bottle of the lotion, and Dryali, being the last one out, cast shatter on the remainder in the crates.

Of course there was a great hullabaloo when the Freelancers showed up at the Waypoint station with two personnel prisoner, a third dead, two Minotaur corpses, and all this gold crap.

Harnid came out with Allard, the male Wild elf deputy station master, demanding an explanation.  Internally grimacing, the Freelancers admitted who they were, but keeping in mind Damakaios' admonition, told them "...working on behalf of a reputable client.  We were investigating but got attacked, and defended ourselves.

Harnid was not happy about minotaurs living half an hour's walk away.  Allard was not happy with dead Waypoint personnel and others bound as prisoners.  Fine Branch brought out the bottle of Daystar lotion and said sternly, "Avoid this."
 

At that point, Mammut and Pixie burst into loud objections, incriminating themselves pretty quickly and unambiguously.  Upon hearing how strongly they held onto the heresy, Harnid decided he wanted these two off the Waypoint with alacrity.

The Freelancers were allowed to investigate further, as the other Waypoint personnel wanted to make sure any remnants of Daystar cult activity was cleared out.  They investigated the four people's rooms, and the attics of the tavern and the guard barracks.  Nothing notable was found, other than a couple carvings of the Daystar logo.

Fine Branch and Tahu also checked with the quartermaster, a half-elf woman named Kisii, for inbound shipments.

Kisii:  Buttercup got some packages, doesn't go missing.
Fine Branch:  who sent them?
Kisii:  private packages, but from different origins.
Tahu:  she is expecting another package.  Can you note where it is from, and inform Freelancers on Commerce?

With this knowledge, Dryali and Tuala worked with her to get a list of ships and prior ports for those packages.

Later that day, Tahu used the sending stone to check in with Damakaios.

Cultists found and eliminated
Working with Minotaurs
Returning with two captives for Church of Storms

After a short delay, Damakaios replied.

Church of Storms will be waiting.  Good job, and safe travels!

The next day, Dryali prepared identify, and started to use it on the items from the cave.  It turned out the only item with any magic was the studded leather, which was Glamoured Studded Leather.  Tahu claimed that, as the only Freelancer in the group who wore leathers.

Fine Branch, meanwhile, prepared sending, and she sent to Damakaios, stiffly:

Fine Branch did not cause any property damage.

She did not get a worded reply, but instead a strong feeling of <face palm>.

What Fine Branch did not find out, was that Damakaios then sent to Arnari.

The next batch of Freelancers you sent me had better have a little more decorum.

Arnari's reply was full of merriment.

Why in all the world would you ever think that?

Three days later, the Paquet stopped at Waypoint Puissant on its way back outward to Commerce.  The Freelancers boarded it with two prisoners, a white minotaur head, and two barrels of home-brewed Dwarven stout they'd purchased for 50gp, on their way back to Commerce.  Captain Nerala raised her eyebrows, and Dryali explained that these two persons had been mind controlled into worshipping the Daystar as a god.

Nerala stared at him.  "Who worships the Daystar?" she asked.  Dryali shook his head.  "I know, right."

The travel back was without incident nor storms, and 6 days later they were docking in Ripa Daneo.  A squad of Storm Guards met them to take custody of the prisoners, and a look of understanding crossed the Captain's face.  The Freelancers also handed over the looted Daystar shrine to them.

But then the Freelancers debarked and headed back to their tavern, renting a hand cart to get the barrels of stout through the Ripa Daneo streets.

Damakaios was kind of pleased to have a minotaur head as a trophy.  He sent it out to the taxidermists almost immediately.  After recovering from Tahu the Church of Storms badge and his sending stone, Damakaios paid out the 225gp each (their fee minus the Freelancers' cut), and asked, "What alcohol did you bring for the tavern?"  They told him, "Home-brewed Dwarven stout from Puissant."  Damakaios was not terribly impressed but was philosophical; it wasn't as if they'd visited anywhere else in their travels.  And besides, the stout was pretty good, and appeared to help with upset tummies.

• Tuala → lvl 6!