Derailed Skeleton Map Investigation

Lorcan and Sabah had gotten back from the Pirates River the evening before, and this morning over breakfast, they were comparing experiences with Hanno and Murai, who had tried the "standing mission" a couple eighths before.  The latter two hadn't taken a mission since, but coming to Freelancers had done them some good.  Hanno's hair was growing out; and Murai's clothing had transformed into chain mail, and the Wind sagani was sporting a shield and a wicked-looking sawed off boat hook at their side.

The four of them decided to ask Arnari for another mission, so they went upstairs to her morning office hours.  Hanno sat in a chair to accommodate his frame, but Murai eschewed sitting down and leaned against the wall.  Both Sabah and Lorcan sat on the floor in front of the chairs.

Arnari blinked at Sabah and Lorcan, glanced at Murai again, and shuffled her papers.  "I have three separate missions," she started.

• Pollution cleanup… Sabah and Lorcan just came back.  I am considering sending a party to Gwidion's tower; the creatures are getting increasingly weird.  But, for now:  cleanup.
• It's a good time of year to look for hippogryph eggs!  Aldous is looking, will pay 100gp/egg or a hippogryph gelding for 10 eggs.  You might get lucky, get a hippogryph for two of you!
• Do a bit of investigation into where's exactly this map.  I am still disappointed, it was actual undead, and not teenagers.

Lorcan stood up, then sat in an appropriate chair.

Lorcan:  do you have the map?
Arnari:  you were there!
Hanno:  undead are never fun.
Murai:  idiots.
Sabah:  you repeat yourselves.
Hanno:  I'm inclined to this map mission.
Arnari:  it's 150gp each.
<Narrator voice:  The GM has no map, and says fuckoff; it's vague.>
Arnari:  Kaiea and I, and previous Freelancers, looked at it, and we're pretty sure it's not in Cliffshadow.
Lorcan:  have you checked with Academy of Magic?
Arnari:  we have not.
Hanno:  might be a good starting point.
Arnari:  it might not even be on Duquesne!
Sabah <to Hanno>:  seems like it will work.
Murai:  yeah.
Hanno:  gotta start somewhere.
Lorcan:  did we not learn the person of interest was at Academy of Magic?

Lorcan was just floored that everyone who had had the map had not bothered to follow up on the investigation he and others had done.  Arnari quashed any reaction by recapping that instructors Colanette and Darag, who had a specialty in necromancy, would be a good place to start, and Lorcan had spoken to them previously.  Not that Lorcan would have had any reaction beyond what he already said.

Arnari:  Roberto Wendehals, the last person interred in the mausoleum, got some necromantic tutoring for some crackpot hauling idea.
Hanno:  is he actually dead?  Is he not dead?
Lorcan:  we don't know.
Arnari:  it seems he may have faked his death.  <flipped through more papers.>  About two years ago he hung out with an "elegant lady."  She disappeared soon after his death for unknown causes.  <flipped to another paper.>  Also, shortly after Roberto died, the "mansion" was sold off.  The people there are perfectly reasonable, but the details of the sale seem shrouded in mystery.
Murai:  that's another place to check.
Hanno:  is there a place we can look up the map?  Like, a cartographer's guild?  Seems like a good place to compare the maps.
Lorcan:  I too am interested in cartographer's guild.  I'd think Duquesne would have one.

Of course Cliffshadow has a cartographer's guild.  The Gnomonic Guild is in a building on the Guildstrom side of Sangria Boulevard, right before it exits Cliffshadow proper.

As the Freelancers entered the Gnomonic Guild building, they found themselves in a small waiting room with a main desk which had a not particularly important human behind it.  Upon explaining their purpose, they were directed to a fancy reading room.  There was a desk in the center with some small sandbags; the walls were covered in shelves with cubbyholes, filled with common maps.

The others shifted uncomfortably, hands behind their back, but Lorcan was delighted.  He located a map of the Pembroke surface and spread it out on the desk, peering at the detail.

After about five minutes, a tall but hunched human man entered.  His sleeves were tight around his wrists, and his hands were ink-stained.  He introduced himself as Lityerses, and said, "Welcome to the Gnomonic Guild!  How can I help?"

Hanno explained their visit.  "We're trying to find more about the location of this map and figured this here would be a good start," he said, the Marshfork accent coming through.  "It's missing the landmark aspect," he added.

Sabah added, "Or the guidance aspect."

Lorcan produced the map, creased and dog-eared, and handed it to Lityerses.  The latter carefully spread it out on the desk, on top of the map of Pembroke, and weighed it down with the sandbags.  Then he moved it, and peered at the Pembroke map.  After a few minutes, he put the Pembroke map away, and pulled out another map.  Then he started swapping maps out, clearly intrigued.  They were all towns on Duquesne.

The Freelancers watched, fascinated, and time passed.  After about 2 hours… Lityerses finally spoke, almost as if there hadn't been a 2 hour break in the conversation.  "I think it's on Duquesne?  Maybe?  Within 2 days' travel of some other place."

He sighed, and started pointing at the map in question.  "There's a graphic here, is probably a town.  Here this other?  Third symbols is where, relative to town."

Lorcan asked, "Any idea how large the town is?"  Lityerses replied, "It's probably a Trading Peoples habitation; it's not like 'some mountain, and go from there'."

"That narrows it a bit!" Hanno exclaimed, pleased.  "Thank you for your time!"

Lorcan bowed and said, "Yes, thank you, please accept this token of our appreciation for your effort," and handed him 10 gp.

Lityerses' face lit up with happiness, and he pocketed the coin.  "A pleasure to help you; if you find anything else the Gnomonic Guild can help you with, please let us know."

The Freelancers then took their leave, Lorcan taking great care with retrieving and stowing the map, and headed towards Academy of Magic.

After peering at maps with straight lines for hours, taking the main streets to the Academy of Magic felt so out of the way.  Murai and Sabah suggested, "Let's take a short cut, through the alleys," and suited actions to words, confidently walking through the alleys.

Hanno:  are you sure this is the way we wanna go?
Sabah:  see that star up there?
Lorcan:  ...it's day time.
Sabah:  exactly!

At this point, they reached a juncture and paused.  A low thrum seemed to emanate from the surrounding walls, and from a nearby roof, an actual cassowary jumped down in front of the surprised Freelancers.  The tall … bird?  dinosaur? ... thrummed again, the deep sound echoing off the walls of the alley, and cast a malevolent eye at the four of them.

Murai had never seen a cassowary and did not know what it was.  Optimistic that the creature would run away, they still drew shield and boat hook, ready to attack.

• Hanno, the only Freelancer taller than the cassowary, approached it and said in a soothing voice, "Calm the fuck down, sir," and produced some food from his pocket and offered it, which was ignored.
  • Hanno and Lorcan realized at the same time that the creature's leg appeared… to be… cloth?  They both froze.
  • Hanno cast bane on it, then pointed at its legs.  "That don't look normal," he said to the others.
• Sabah walked up to the cassowary and grabbed it by the neck with one hand.
• Lorcan pulled out his blowgun and sent a needle in the cassowary's general direction, then hid around a corner.
• The cassowary kicked Sabah, its clawed foot slashing them open to bleed.  It also tried to kick Murai, but that was unsuccessful.
  • Murai swung their boat hook back, but missed.

Murai did not like this creature at all, and swung the boat hook far more deliberately.  The end pierced the cassowary, which started to bleed thick black blood, startling all the Freelancers.

• Hanno pulled out his spear and stabbed the cassowary.
• Sabah pulled the cassowary prone. <FWIW, the notes say pushed, but the cassowary is taller than Sabah, who had it by the neck.> From that position, it was obvious that some of the creature's feathers were more like child-doll rags.
• Lorcan, assessing the unnatural black blood, changed his mind about applying poison to blowgun needles, and sank a blowgun needed into the prone cassowary, who was thrumming angrily.
  • Lorcan hid again, or so he thought, but really he was starting at the bleeding cassowary in fascination and wasn't hidden at all.
• The cassowary's noises were very angry, and it tried to beak its way out of Sabah's grasp, but just flailed ineffectually.

Murai struck the creature with their boat hook again.

• Hanno speared the cassowary again.
• Sabah punched the prone bird, then, adrenaline surging, kicked the cassowary in the head so hard it was decapitated.

The cassowary went limp.  Here and there, it seemed to be made of patches of rag-doll cloth.

Hanno was grim as he examined the corpse of the creature, and its weird black blood.

Hanno:  guess good thing we're headin' to the magic academy
Sabah:  Lorcan, did you know about the rag-doll thing?
Lorcan:  no?!
Sabah:  wasn't there an investigation?
Lorcan:  ...no?
Hanno:  there was talk in the tavern… about some murders tied to cassowary rag-dolls, and tracking down the lady responsible.

Hanno leaned over and lifted up the headless corpse, settling it on his shoulders.  Sabah, undeterred, said, "We should tell the mayor!"

Lorcan, after a glance at Murai and Sabah, led the group to the Academy of Magic, which he had been to before and they had not.  Once the Freelancers were out of the alley and walking down normal streets in Guildstrom, they got some weird looks & double-takes from passerby because of the cassowary bouncing on Hanno's shoulders.

Once at the Academy, the wizard on door duty looked askance at the Freelancers and the dripping corpse on Hanno's shoulders.  Lorcan explained, "We were one our way over to discuss with Darag about Reoberto Wendehals" Murai interjected "but encountered this," gesturing at Hanno, who said "and I was hoping someone…"

"Would find this of more immediate concern," Lorcan finished politely.

The wizard clearly sent a message to someone.  That someone became instantly evident as a human woman, Sidama Gerbicho, bustled up from a nearby door and introduced herself as the assistant to Dean Nimblefingers.  "Follow me," she told the Freelancers.

The cassowary dripped.

Sidama prestidigitated, and Hanno said, "Sorry, it's a hazard."

Sidama led them to Dean Nimblefingers' office, with only occasional prestidigitation, and told Hanno, "Do NOT sit on furniture with that… thing."

Dean Nimblefingers, a Djogeon halfling man who was usually cheerful in the presence of Freelancers, was deeply unhappy at the sight of the cassowary with part rag-doll cloth and dripping black blood.

Hanno, shifting under the weight, told him, "This was also jumped us as we were about the city, and Freelancers have rumours of cassowary rag-dolls, but nothing like this."

The dean eyed it, and asked, "You sure it's dead?"  He was clearing space on the floor.  Hanno put it down, rolled his shoulders, and used eyes of the grave.  "It's not undead," he answered the dean.

Sabah pointed out, "Head is separated from body."  Murai produced the head, startling everyone.

The dean investigated the body, especially the cloth bits.  He cast detect magic, plucked some of the feathers and cloth, putting these samples in a jar which he carefully labelled.  He straightened up and faced the Freelancers.

"I'm not really sure what is up with this," here the dean indicated the cassowary, "it seems like some sort of divine magic stuff.  I suggest you bring it to Church of Ua."  He paused slightly, then continued, "Drop a cloak or blanket to avoid disturbing people.  I know about a worshipper of the Cassowary that Freelancers took down, and Church of Ua helped to clean that up.  Take it there, because you do not want to leave it around."

Hanno assented, "We can; but we were already on the way here."  He pulled out a cloak, and wrapped the body, then hefted it back onto his shoulders.

The Dean said, "Ah yes, Darag.  I'll escort you there so you can take care of that and get out of here quickly."

A few minutes later, Darag looked up in surprise as the Dean dropped the Freelancers off to ask him some questions.  The Dean left them to it, and went back up to his office.

The first question was did Darag remember Roberto's possible destinations for his undead oxen carting scheme.  Darag told them, "Roberto had this idea of a long route, all the way to Hindmarsh."

Lorcan pulled out the map and showed Darag.  "Does this look familiar at all?"  Darag looked at it, and shook his head.  "I recognize, this is Roberto's hand."

He thought a little.  "I do remember Roberto had at least one loyal family servant; it might be interesting to look into that."

Lorcan put the map away again.  "Thanks," he said.  Hanno added, "We have a corpse to drop off."

Darag looked startled, then his eyes narrowed, looking at Hanno's burden.  The other Freelancers looked at Hanno, who shrugged, and adjusted his shoulders.  They all then took their leave of Darag.

Fortunately, there was no temptation to take a short cut to Church of Ua, they just had to go south on Bellini Boulevard and turn right.  Upon arrival, they asked a couple acolytes about who was involved with the cassowary rag-dolls, and one fetched the cleric Jeanah who came immediately.

They indicated Hanno had one of the cassowarys on his shoulders, and Jeanah became less calm.  "That's MUCH bigger, o dear!"  Her exclamation echoed oddly off the water.

Hanno asked, "the others weren't this large?"  Jeanah told him, "The others were children's dolls!"  She escorted them away from the pool, and sent an acolyte running.  They went into a side room, and Hanno put the cassowary down.  Jeanah looked at it in shock.

The door opened, and a Rain sagani woman entered the room, an acolyte standing by outside.  Anuhea, a Downpour of Ua, examined the corpse briefly, then turned to the Freelancers.  "Thank you for bringing this!"

She turned and examined it more closely as Hanno said, "We'll notify people."  Anuhea told them, "I will consult with Mayor Kaiea, and then prepare to send a mission to Arnari."  She went to the door and talked to the acolyte, then returned and paid the Freelancers 50gp each as a reward for bringing this to the Church's attention.  "This is not subject to their 'cut'," she told them.

Back at Freelancers Tavern, Arnari was deeply unhappy to hear about the cassowary.

She was also disappointed that the four of them had not solved the map.  "I cannot pay full price for this investigation," she told them.  "However your discoveries are useful, that's it's within two days travel of a settlement on Duquesne and in Roberto's hand," she mused. "I can pay you 100gp of it."

Lorcan returned the map to Arnari, as Hanno said, "Not getting the full pay is fully understandable."

• Hanno → lvl 2!
• Murai → lvl 2!
• Sabah → lvl 3 Eldritch Knight!