In Pursuit of Bright Thunder

Nemostag, 1st prime post-Harvest 1055

It was late afternoon, and the Daystar was westering but still high in the sky, when Glesni came out of her trance.  Ondar, Osric, Kaelani, Nix, and Kaikoa were still sleeping, a thing she still found strange in non-elf peoples, even after all these years.  She considered the events of the morning and, troubled, went to the base of the Path of Rohe, north of the docks.

Glesni walked along it, trying to regain her mental balance, gazing over the docks below.  She checked in at the shrine, who had not been troubled by these Daystar heretics, and on a hunch, bought a holy symbol.  By the time she returned to Freelancers Tavern, the others were awake and packing.

A stop at the Freelancers quartermaster was in order.  Since the airship travel could be long, and arrows unretrievable, she refilled the quiver, and picked up enough raw wood to keep her hands busy.  She also bought a plain buckler.  Kaelani and Kaikoa both bought bandoliers of darts.  As the others all bought rope – Ondar also bought grappling hooks – Glesni made sure her flask was topped off with ice wine.

And then the Freelancers were packed and heading to the docks, with Ondar carrying quite a few coils of rope.

A couple hours later, the Freelancers had boarded the Aakshi, a fire elemental airship captained by Dedroza, a human woman, to travel to Waypoint Whim.  Frostclaw, Mordant, and Snowbolt were installed within, when the team of draft pegasus hooked to the airship and started towing it away from the docks.  The Daystar had just disappeared behind Duquesne, and the sky ahead was a cerulean blue as the atmospheric depth increased with its orbit.  Pembroke gleamed in the distance, its entire side lit up.

The pilot landed, instructing her peregrine gryphon "Guard me."  Glesni cocked her head a little: was there a danger?  But it seemed not, the pilot wanted her gryphon occupied, and was simply a little paranoid.  The pegasi dropped off, and the fire elemental started pushing the airship faster.  It rose up, the Daystar reappearing astern for a while, and seemed to be going backwards, as Duquesne started to "catch up" below.

After a while, the Daystar was behind the big skylith again, and the sky even darker, and the Freelancers other than Kaikoa went to their cabin belowdecks.  Ondar and Nix split one cabin, and Glesni split the other with Osric and Kaelani.  Kaikoa, happy to be on an airship, intended to sleep on the deck.  Everyone had managed to fall asleep when the Aakshi broke through the Duquesne boundary.  The transition was not smooth, and the airship shuddered and shook, then was calm.

Sieratag, 1st prime post-Harvest 1055

The next morning was mostly clear weather.  With such nice weather all the Freelancers were on the observation deck.  Duquesne was now ahead and below the Aakshi, and Pembroke further.  Two thalassae were visible, rainbows trailing.

As the airship continued on its orbit, Nix noticed a bird that seemed to be flying right out of the Daystar.  Ondar, Glesni, and Kaelani saw it too.  It seemed to be getting close.  They all frowned… its apparent size wasn't noticeably changing as it approached.

It looked like a really big eagle, but it was still far away.

Captain Dedroza followed the Freelancers' gaze, and also looked, then sprang into action.  "Get everything tied down!  Get ready for evasive maneuvers!"  she ordered.  "Ready ballistae!"

Osric and Kaikoa looked up, surprised, at the approaching roc.  Glesni went to the cabin and got out her longbow.  Ondar went belowdecks and got out Frostclaw, Nix had also retrieved Snowbolt, and Mercury, having never seen a bird that big, seemed permanently ready to dodge.

The airship crew fired two ballistae bolts at the giant bird.  One hit its mark, but the roc was unphased.

• Ondar, mounted on Frostclaw, again carrying all that rope, moved past the bow of the airship, and also prepared to dodge.
• The roc was 160' away now which wasn't that much larger than its wingspan.
• Nix, on Snowbolt, flew near Ondar, but not too near, maybe 40' away, closer to the Aakshi.
• Kaikoa tried to assess the roc, and decided it was coming straight for the ship.  He pulled one of the darts off his bandolier, ready to throw one when the roc was close enough.
• Kaelani moved to the closest manned ballistae, which had 3 crew each, and in an attempt to help, started into an inspiring speech of how everyone was competent.
• Osric cast earth bind on the roc.  A stone hand appeared, around one of its wings.  This hand had no effect; the roc ignored it and the hand did not slow it down.
• Glesni saw this roc coming, in the same posture as a hawk grabbing a rabbit, except this bird's "rabbit" was the airship.  She eschewed using her bow, and instead flew up on her Winged Boots.  The Cloud elf pulled out her Immovable Rod, placed it in the roc's path, activated it, and went into a fugue about her life choices.

The Aakshi's port ballistae fired another two bolts at the roc.  It seemed one of the ballista crew had better aim than the other, as again that one hit.

• Ondar became large, making things awkward for Frostclaw.  He prepared to hit the roc with a grappling hook when it struck the Immovable Rod.
• Glesni had misestimated the roc's path.  The diving roc struck the Immovable Rod with one of its wings, so was injured but not significantly handicapped by the event.
  • Large Ondar sank a grappling hook on the roc's neck.
  • Glesni was also hit by the roc's wing, and since she was not immovable, got kind of pummeled.  However the Cloud elf was able to draw her rapier and strike the roc as it moved past.
  • Kaikoa threw a dart, but Kaikoa can't even hit the ground with a grblin.  The dart tumbled harmlessly past everything.
  • The roc thumped onto the airship, mantling and screeching, just 10' below Glesni, who was still too caught up in her fugue to be frightened.
• Nix cast mind sliver on the roc, who suddenly had an immense, distracting headache.  Snowbolt flew a little downward.
• Kaikoa drew his scimitar and slashed the roc twice with it, screaming like a bird, as if he was another roc himself, and thus he emplaced unwavering mark on the giant raptor.
• Kaelani drew out his magical rainstick and cast thunderous smite, then brought it down on the roc's nearby claw with divine smite for good measure.  The boom echoed beyond the confines of the Aakshi, and the roc was also seared with holy radiance.  Then he smacked the roc again, for good measure.
• Osric summoned a hawk spirit totem, to increase the effectiveness of everyone's attacks, and then a hawk bestial spirit, which attacked the roc very effectively.
• Glesni snapped out of her fugue, and, riding on a surge of adrenaline, sank 4 arrows into the roc's head, 10' away from her.

The roc was on the deck of the Aakshi, and the crew was frantically trying to reorient the airship's ballistae to be useful.

• Large Ondar had Frostclaw fly over the roc, then, still holding onto the rope with the grappling hook, leapt from Frostclaw's back onto the roc's back, between its wings.  It looked amazing, because as he flew in the air, he drank a potion of growth, becoming Huge Ondar with a weight of 171 stone.
  • The potion of growth wasn't the drink Ondar had been hunting for, any more than anything else seemed to be.
  • Having a 171-stone person land feet-first on its back did cause some injury to the roc.
  • The Aakshi dropped a little, from the effective shift in ballast.
  • Huge Ondar tried to grapple the roc around the neck or head but anyhow it avoided his grasp.
• The roc flapped angrily and screamed, which left Glesni's ears ringing.  It dug its talons into the airship and hull, damaging the Aakshi, to the dismay of Captain Dedroza.  But it was very unhappy at this turn of events, and dived off the side of the airship, taking Huge Ondar with it.
  • Kaelani smote it with his magical rainstick, burning it with holy radiance.
  • Osric swung with his quarterstaff and missed.
  • Kaikoa struck its leg with his scimitar.
  • Huge Ondar invoked his stone rune, to no avail; he was riding an airborne roc.
• Nix cast an uplevel'd chromatic orb at the flying roc, which settled on cold before it struck the large bird in the head.  Frozen in the head, the roc went limp, going into freefall, Huge Ondar still on its back.
  • Nix immediately cast feather fall on both the roc and Huge Ondar.

Kaikoa looked over the edge of the observation deck as the roc, with Huge Ondar on it, was at an increasing distance and angle from the Aakshi.  The Wind sagani laughed and waved.

• Kaelani looked around for injuries, and seeing none, offered to help the crew manning one of the ballistae.
• Osric panicked about Huge Ondar, or perhaps about all the potentially harvestable bits of a roc falling away.  He ran to the other ballista, shouting about harpoons, or towing cables.  He cast enhance ability: cat's grace on the crew to facilitate their setting it up.  He also sent the hawk spirit after the falling roc.
• Glesni retrieved her Immovable Rod, and returned to the observation deck.  Looking at the roc and Huge Ondar, she said to no one in particular, "Well, that was something."

Osric's plan worked:  the airship crew sent a harpoon with a towing cable through the falling roc.  The cable made a whirring sound as it played out, catching the captain's attention.

• Huge Ondar looked up in annoyance, he did not want the roc injured further.  But he did not dwell on it as he was quickly using a silken rope to fashion a sort of bridle and get it around the roc's head.
  • Frostclaw was keeping pace with them.
• Huge Ondar might be 171 stone, but the roc was 571 stone.  The towing cable played out, and even with feather fall, the momentum of 742 stone caused the Aakshi to list a bit portward.  The airship dropped another 20'.
  • The harpoon tore a little on the unconscious roc.
  • Captain Dedroza launched into a tirade worthy of an airship captain.  Kaelani looked back at her and tore off his helm.  "What!  You think we can stop Ondar?!"
• From her vantage on Snowbolt, Nix examined the listing airship, considering force and aerodynamics.  Maybe the roc could be attached to the ship.  She flew a bit towards Huge Ondar.  "You want a rope?" she called out.  "Ondar might," was the reply.
  • Nix used mage hand to get one end of the rope to Huge Ondar, then flew back to the Aakshi's starboard.  On the way there, she used her hat of disguise to look slightly darker and scarier.
  • She handed the other end of the rope to a crew member.  "You'll help me in my mission, if you want to make it to your port alive," she warned.
  • The crew member tied off the rope on a cleat.
• Kaikoa shouted in a voice meant to carry across the winds.  "Ondar, you idiot!  Let the roc go and climb up the damned rope!"  He moved to the harpoon cable, ready to slice it if Huge Ondar persisted in his apparent idiocy.
• Kaelani, trippin' that Huge Ondar was clearly considering trying to capture a roc, moved up the listing airship deck to the tied off rope, to help pull if Huge Ondar climbed up.
• "If you can't hit the bird, at least hit the guy!" Osric urged the ballista crew, who were loading another cabled harpoon.
• Glesni also had a battle voice.  "Ondar!  You coming up?"  Huge Ondar ignored her; he was focussed on something else, and she frowned slightly.  "Osric, what do you think?"  Osric was clearly conflicted, and said slowly, "We should save Ondar, but I want that roc."
  • Glesni was more of a mind that the roc wanted the Aakshi, and she nocked an arrow, ready to shoot it if it revived.

At Osric's urging, the ballista crew shot Huge Ondar with a harpoon, the cable whirring as it played out.  Huge Ondar looked briefly like he was actually stone, then it faded.  The captain started berating Osric, who looked mulish.

Huge Ondar was not happy at getting harpooned.  But the other Freelancers had guessed correctly: he wanted the roc as a mount.  Anyhow, having a harpoon through his leg was a clarifying moment, and he thought about training a roc.  Grimly, the oversized quinametzin tested shifting his weight to the rope depending from the airship's starboard.  The Aakshi leveled a little, but not much; the roc was still depending from the port side and arcing downward.  It would be impossible for the skip to maneuver like this.

As the airship leveled, Osric asked the captain, "Can the airship maneuver under it?"  Captain Dedroza pressed her lips together, and shook her head.

Kaikoa concluded Huge Ondar was persisting in his idiocy, and brought his scimitar down on the towing cable attached to the roc.  The cable was sturdier than a single scimitar slash, but started to fray under the roc's weight.  Seeing this, Huge Ondar cut the roc loose, and started climbing the rope, calling Frostclaw to fly under him.

Below, the roc died, its corpse tumbling away in the sky below.

Huge Ondar climbed up to the deck of the Aakshi, which was now only slightly listing starboard, and had resumed its course.  Towering over the others, he detached the towing cable and, grimacing, pulled the harpoon through his leg.  Then he handed it to Osric and said, "You dropped this."

Osric did not reply, other than to cast healing word to close up the wound.  Huge Ondar was too big to do anything but take up space.  He sat in the middle of the observation deck, while Nix returned with Snowbolt, and put both Snowbolt and Frostclaw back in the stables hold.  

Dedroza was having the crew assess the damage, occasionally punctuating it with very salty language.

Once Nix came back on deck, the Freelancers looked around to see if anything could be redeemed from the situation.  Only Nix and Glesni found anything:  white and blue chest feathers from the roc, each about 6" long.  Glesni handed hers to Osric, who was surprised.

"What!  They're yours!" the Holder dwarf exclaimed.  Glesni countered, "You wanted to harvest it!"  Osric held up a hand, palm out.  "One day, maybe I will buy from you," he told her, but it seemed as he said it, he'd gotten an idea.  Glesni just nodded, and looked at the feathers.  The blue matched her hair.

Ondar was now merely large, as his giant's might battle ability had worn off.  He was still 171 stone from the potion of growth, however, which lasted a while.  Kaikoa came up to the quinametzin.

Kaikoa:  sorry, lad, you lost yer bird
Ondar:  there will be others.
Kaikoa:  was too big fer the ship
Ondar:  Ondar is too big for the ship!
Kaikoa:  hold out yer fist, Ondar.

Large Ondar held out his fist, and Kaikoa touched his amulet of the drunkard to it, and offered the quinametzin a swig from his flask.  Large Ondar drank it, and was healed as if from a potion, and nodded in appreciation.  Kaikoa did not notice how he hid distaste at the low-quality rum.

The captain, done with assessing the damage, came back up to Nix and Glesni.

Dedroza:  crazy fucking Freelancers!  Just KILL the roc!  That dude got big, then bigger!  I'm gonna get so.many.drinks, telling this story!
Glesni <alarmed>:  maybe, at the waypoint, don't say we're Freelancers.
Dedroza:  what
Glesni:  just at the waypoint
Dedroza:  I require drinks.
<Glesni offered her a swig of ice wine.>
Dedroza:  I'm flying the ship, now!  At the waypoint!  Drinks there!  LOTS of drinks!

After a couple hours, Ondar was his normal size again, and his normal temperament, and so grabbed his smith's tools and offered to help with ship repair, which the captain gratefully accepted.

* * session break * *

Petraag, 1st prime post-Harvest

The next day was brisk and breezy, although with the airship boundary that must have meant fierce winds in the sky.  Clouds scudded above and below.  Mindful of the arrows she'd lost, Glesni occupied a small corner of the observation deck and worked on woodcarving.  She tried a couple arrows, but then, dissatisfied, she tried carving the roc's head.  She got the beak right, but that was it.

Around Daystar zenith, the Aakshi started evasive maneuvers, and Captain Dedroza had the crew man the ballistae.  A tiny skylith passed by, about twice the size of the airship.  It seemed stable, with some grass, scraggly bushes, and a stunted tree that almost looked like a bonzai.  The tiny skylith passed by too fast to tell whether or not there was evidence of a person living on it.

Fysitag, 1st prime post-Harvest

The next morning, the Aakshi was travelling right below a line of clouds.  After breakfast, 

Glesni took up her spot again, trying to get the eyes right on her wooden roc, but it just looked like a caricature.
Kaelani settled near her and worked on polishing his armour, one piece at a time, still wearing the rest.
Ondar was also sharpening his weapons.
Osric stayed belowdecks and fed the breakfast scraps to the mounts.
Kaikoa had better ideas, and started gambling with the offduty crew, and losing.
Nix used shape water to fashion a dragonchess set, and played with Mercury.

Ondar finished sharpening his weapons, and challenged the crew to a contest of balance:  walking on the railing of the observation deck.  A crewman took him up on that, and they tied a rope around their waist before they began.  Glesni watched with interest to see how Lord Rohe would treat such impertinence, and was rewarded for her attention as they both fell overboard.  <Narrator voice:  Both Matt and the GM rolled natural 1s.>

Captain Dedroza shook her head as one fell, then facepalmed at the other.  "Maybe don't do that again?" she asked, sharply, and the laughing crew hauled them back up.  Glesni also shook her head, and said to Ondar, "You really want to just be dangling by that rope, don't you?"  Ondar shrugged, and untied the rope from his waist, but left it tied off on the belaying pin.

Time passed; Osric came to the observation deck, and Kaikoa stopped gambling before he lost all his gold.  He brought out Mordant for some fresh air.  The Daystar was mostly behind the clouds above, so nothing was going to dive out of it at them; but Glesni, Nix, and Ondar were still watching.  A small flock of birds seemed to be dodging in and out of the clouds above, and it seemed to the watching Freelancers that they were actually trying to stay hidden from the airship.

Maybe they weren't birds; the flying creatures were pretty big.  "Look over there," Ondar called to the others, pointing.  Osric looked, eyes narrowing, and replied, "Ondar, are they smaller than the bird we saw a couple days ago?"  Ondar looked down at the Holder dwarf, and said, "it's not a flock of roc."

Nix pulled out her spyglass, and took a good look as the flying creatures darted among the clouds above.  She saw a tail, and broad feather wings, golden bodies… four legs, lion butts, and eagle heads.  Gryphons!  One had a much darker brown head, with a white speckled chest.

Nix relayed these observations to the crew and the other Freelancers, without shouting or pointing.  Kaelani re-donned his armour, and Osric just waited to see what would happen.  Captain Dedroza ordered the crew to ready the ballistae.

"Maybe Mordant should go belowdecks," Glesni suggested, and Kaikoa said, "Yeah…" then changed his mind.  "No, I'll continue to ride Mordant."  Ondar and Nix went belowdecks and retrieved their own mounts.

The gryphons kept trying to close, but couldn't while staying in the cloud cover.  Finally, they just folded their wings and dropped in a ballistic trajectory, snapping their wings out to soar right over the Aakshi's deck.  There were six of them:  The martial gryphon and 3 golden eagle gryphons were over the starboard side, and 2 golden eagle gryphons were over the port side, close to the stern.

Ondar became large, then used his longbow to shoot the closest gryphon.  Then he dropped his longbow, strapped on his shield, and drew his Nightside Scimitar.

• Glesni sank two arrows into the same gryphon Large Ondar had shot.  Feeling exposed from where she was in the stern, she used her Winged Boots to vault into midships, closer to Large Ondar, and duck under some cover.
• Osric, from the portside bow, cast call lightning on the two gryphons on that side of the Aakshi.  It looked like the clouds above just reached down to form a circular cloud centered above the Holder dwarf, and from it, lightning struck the two gryphons.

The 4 gryphons towards the stern landed on the edge of the observation deck, near Kaikoa towards port and Large Ondar towards starboard.  The other two attacked Nix and Osric from the air.

• The gryphon attacking Nix tried to beak Snowbolt and missed, but slashed Nix badly with its claws.
• The martial gryphon attacked Osric and missed, then landed portward of Osric.
• The gryphon stuck with arrows tried to beak Large Ondar and missed, but slashed him with its claws.
• The other gryphon also tried to beak Large Ondar and missed, so it tried to slash Glesni with its claws, but missed her as well.
• One golden eagle gryphon beaked Mordant, even as Kaikoa interposed his shield.  It slashed at Kaikoa and missed.
• The other gryphon tried to beak Mordant and missed, so it too slashed at Kaikoa, and missed.

Ballistae useless, those airship crew members with scimitars went after the gryphons, but they missed.

• Kaelani pivoted to attack the martial gryphon with his magical rainstick.  The paladin of Ua missed with his first swing, but struck with a divine smite on the second, the blue, rain-like glow burning the gryphon with holy radiance.
• Nix cast a chromatic orb at the gryphon stuck with arrows, and it settled on cold before it struck the creature in the head.
• Mercury, on Snowbolt with Nix, prepared to dodge any and all.
• Kaikoa called cheerfully, "C'mon Mordant, let's go and make friends!"  The two of them pivoted to the gryphon which had beaked Mordant, and Kaikoa slashed it with his scimitar, placing unwavering mark on it.  Then he crit, doing his best to subdue the creature.
  • Mordant also attacked it with beak and claw, but missed.
• Frostclaw bit and slashed at the gryphon with the arrows in it, but it easily avoided the bear's attacks.  Large Ondar followed up with a scimitar attack intended to knock the creature out, and he succeeded:  the golden eagle gryphon collapsed to the deck.  The quinametzin pivoted to the gryphon that had slashed at Glesni, slashing it with his Nightside Scimitar.
• Glesni made use of her Winged Boots to jump on the back of the same gryphon, piercing it with her rapier, and holding on to it.
• Osric again used the call lightning to hit the same two gryphons from the swirling cloud.

By now all the gryphons were on the observation deck of the Aakshi, engaged with Freelancers and/or their mounts, and not particularly intimidated by anything.

• The gryphon engaged with Nix beaked Snowbolt in the haunch, then swiped at Nix but missed.
• The martial gryphon attacked Kaelani but missed entirely.
• The gryphon with Glesni broke free of her grapple.
• The golden eagle gryphon between Kaikoa and Kaelani beaked Mordant, but Kaikoa interposed his shield, blocking it.  It swiped at the Wind sagani with its claws, and missed.
• The other golden eagle gryphon crit Mordant with its beak, and Mordant went down.  Kaikoa leapt off and landed on his feet; it also swiped at him with his claws, and missed.

Alarmed at seeing the hippogryph dropped, two of the Aakshi's crew slashed at this gryphon with their scimitars; it only avoided one.  Two other crew members slashed at the gryphon attacking Snowbolt; one missed.

• Kaelani crit the martial gryphon with another divine smite; the light blue glow appeared to almost freeze before his magical rainstick struck.  The gryphon reeled, punch-drunk, and the Rock sagani's second strike knocked it out.
• Nix had Snowbolt disengage, and the pegasus flew over Large Ondar.  She prepared cure wounds to cast through Mercury, on the next friendly target he touched.
• Mercury flew to Mordant!  He landed on the bleeding, unconscious hippogryph and Nix's cure wounds restored her to health.
• Becuase of unwavering mark, Kaikoa served an extra blow with his magical scimitar to the gryphon who'd attacked Mordant instead of him.
  • Mordant stood up, shaking herself off, and Kaikoa mounted her, then she attacked the same gryphon, but missed.
  • Kaikoa slashed it twice more with his magical scimitar, taking care to knock it out instead of slay, and it sank to the deck, unconscious.
  • Then, adrenaline surging, he tried to do the same to the other gryphon who'd down'd Mordant.  One slash landed, but the gryphon avoided the other one.
• Frostclaw turned his attention to the gryphon that had just shaken Glesni off:  he bit it then slashed it with his claws, roaring.  Large Ondar wielded his Nightside Scimitar, the first swing going wide, but the second swing slashing the gryphon badly.
  • Large Ondar rode his own surge of adrenaline to knock the gryphon out, and it sank to the deck, unconscious.
  • Frostclaw moved to the gryphon that had beaked Snowbolt, and Large Ondar slashed it as well.  The quinametzin invoked his fire rune, and fire chains appeared to restrain the gryphon.  The gryphon avoided the restraints, but was burned by the chains.
• Glesni tried to jump onto the gryphon that had down'd Mordant, but it adroitly avoided her attempts.
• Osric moved to the gryphon Large Ondar was attacking, and again called lightning from the swirling cloud.  It avoided most of the lightning strike.

Struck by lightning, the gryphon dove off the edge of the observation deck, wings folded.  Osric cast thorn whip to pull it back, but while it struck the gryphon, the whip only slowed it down a smidge.  Frostclaw swiped at it and missed; Large Ondar slashed it, but then it was gone, diving.

• The remaining gryphon, annoyed at the Cloud elf who'd tried to jump on its back, attacked Glesni with beak and claw.  Despite Kaikoa hurriedly interposing his shield, Glesni was wounded badly.

One of the crew members slashed the gryphon with a scimitar.

• Kaelani clanked up to the aft part of the observation deck and struck the gryphon on each side of the head with his magical rainstick, knocking it out.

Snowbolt landed, and the Freelancers surveyed the observation deck with satisfaction, with 5 knocked-out gryphons.  Kaikoa rubbed his hands together.

Kaikoa:  we are gonna make our money back!
Glesni:  you forgot Four-Eldritch-Blast 
Dedroza <arms crossed in front>:  and, what is Aakshi getting, for transporting these?
Osric:  they do take up a lot of space.
Dedroza:  I'll grant passage for these gryphons in exchange for one of them, or, the cost of one.

The Freelancers looked at each other, everyone running calculations.  By their mercenary nature, Freelancers are very good at this and quickly realized Dedroza was asking for 2500gp, which was the value of the wild golden eagle gryphons.  While considering it, Glesni, still bleeding, turned her attention inward, and started her wounds closing with second wind.

Kaikoa:  let's just give her a gryphon.
Glesni <slowly>:  yeah
Nix <in instructor mode>:  try to negotiate
Dedroza:  well, I'll take two gryphons, then
Ondar <hotly>:  your actions cost me a ROC!
<Dedroza laughed herself into tears.>
Dedroza <after wiping the tears>:  I might be persuaded to buy one or two.
Kaikoa:  well, we have plenty of time!
Ondar:  what rates do Freelancers charge for opportunistic defense?
Glesni:  my understanding has been, Freelancers are not ordinary guards.

Glesni's mild comment reminded Ondar that their airship passage was cheaper because the Freelancers were supposed to help defend the Aakshi.  At that, with Osric's urging, everyone turned their attention to getting the gryphons into the mount stalls in the airship's hold.

* * session break * *

Reminder:  only Duquesne and Commerce have 24 hour days, but Skyway dates are sidereal.

Rochtag, 1st prime post-Harvest

By the morning of the last day in flight to Waypoint Whim, the Freelancers had learned that the Aakshi's plan was to layover for an orbit and a half – roughly 33 hours – and then return to Cliffshadow on Duquesne.  They'd discussed whether or not to keep or sell the gryphons, and were inclined to sell them to the Waypoint Whim stablemaster.  Glesni was sad, thinking maybe one could be tamed and trained, but when their mission called for speed and subterfuge, it seemed unwise to try to haul around captured wild gryphons.

That said, the wild gryphons were ostentatious and the Freelancers were hunting Daystar cultists.  

Kaikoa:  are we being honest or are we trying subterfuge?
Glesni:  we could pretend to be gryphon wranglers
Nix:  last time we tried subterfuge I nearly died, so sure
Ondar:  Ondar lost a lot of shit
Kaikoa:  we could say "Freelancers hunting dangerous criminals," I'm not one for truth, but it works
Glesni:  gryphon wranglers to work too, we got them
Kaelani:  yeah

Nix used her hat of disguise to alter her appearance to look like a gentleman from skylith Matilda.  She started practicing the proper voice and accent.  Osric wild shaped a baby gryphon and followed Nix around, but not for long; he decided as a dwarf, he could wrangle the wild gryphons better that way.

When the Freelancers discussed their decision with Captain Dedroza, she decided to buy a golden eagle gryphon for 2500 gp.  As she paid out strings of 40 plat each, and then counted out the other 100 gp, she also agreed to support their ruse.  She was also a bit distracted as they were almost at their destination.  The weather had become a bit more overcast and humid, but their discussion concluded as the Aakshi had spotted the waypoint and had to prepare for landing.

They saw a small skylith, with somewhat of a bulbous inward side, but the top was split into a couple lobes that made for steep hillsides.  The grey of the rock was clearly visible, and a smaller lobe seemed to end in a sheer wall.  Most of the outward side that was not too steep for it appeared covered in various types of laurel and podocarpus with some other trees mixed in.  As the Aakshi approached, a flat area cleared of trees became evident above the edge, and they seemed to be catching up to it from below.  Grooves were cut in the edge of the skylith at regular intervals; Glesni, Ondar, and Nix recognized these from their visit to Waypoint Alarm, they were used to get momentum on the departing airships.

The Captain guided the airship to the top of one of the grooves and landed.  The Freelancers barely had time to register the buildings and people they saw before the airship crew was working with the waypoint personnel to get the Aakshi unloaded.  Dedroza did take the time to remind the Freelancers they would have conditional passage back on the Aakshi if they needed it; just let her know.  Then she turned her attention to the unloading.

The Freelancers looked at the waypoint personnel helping unload.  A human woman was directing people to the nearby warehouses.  Humans, Rocklit dwarves, and various dragonborn were all helping with the unloading.  Quite a few guards were in evidence, albeit with a casual demeanor:  a mix of Dark elves, Fire sagani of dwarf extraction, and a coblygnome or two.

Observing the number of guards caused the Freelancers to look around further.  The waypoint had many cradles for airships, plus launch grooves, but most were empty; there were 4 other airships docked.  Nix, Glesni, and Kaikoa noticed another air elemental airship, unfortunately not Grigor'ev, but Lacks.  The Lacks looked very different from either Grigor'ev or Aakshi – it was more stubby, perhaps sturdier, and crewed by a combination of Rocklit and Holder dwarves.

There weren't a lot of tan persons, let alone excessively tan.  Perhaps with the overcast and the tilted orbit it was generally too cold to lay out in the Daystar's rays.

Kaikoa:  alright, where we headed?
Nix:  stables?  First order of business is unload gryphons.
Kaikoa:  talk to dockworkers first!
Glesni:  no?  Too small?
Kaikoa:  shady people are everywhere.
Nix:  true
<The Freelancers looked again at waypoint personnel, counting maybe 30.>
Kaikoa:  okay, let's talk to the stables.

They all headed to the stables, bringing Snowbolt, Frostclaw, and Mordant, to find it staffed by a couple of dwarves, and a couple of humans.  The stable had the standard "3 wings" to house pegasi, hippogryphs, and gryphons, and a female Rocklit dwarf saw the Freelancers coming, and set aside her pitchfork.

Dwarf:  how can we help you?   …what is your business here at Waypoint Whim Stables?
<Nix, still in disguise, thumbflicked a silver at the dwarf.>
Nix:  gday!  We got these gryphons we're lookin' to unload, wouldya by interestid?
Dwarf:  I'd have to see them first; but I can meanwhile sell you stabling for them!
Nix:  sure, we'll take stabling for the gryphons, but also we have these other mounts.  This pegasus, plus a flyin' bear, plus this nice hippogryph.
<The dwarf looked over the mounts briefly, unphased by Frostclaw.>
Dwarf:  it's 1 gold a night per mount.
Osric:  Skyway robbery!
Dwarf:  waypoint, my friend.  <pause as she waved over stablehands to take the Freelancers' mounts.>  we might want the gryphons.  The waypoint is always looking for extra mounts.  But untrained might be a challenge.
Ondar:  what would be the cost of stabling a roc?
<The dwarf burst into laughter.>
Dwarf <still laughing>:  a roc!  You'd have to - I'm a dwarf!  It would need a giant to ride the roc!  Stabling it would take a giant!  It's - bigger than this town!  A ROC

They headed towards the Aakshi, and Nix told the still-laughing dwarf a tale of adventurers crossing from Mathilda, and how the gryphons were expertly captured.  Nix also noted Kaikoa was salty and had so many tales.

Kaikoa, sparing a raised eyebrow at Nix, offered the dwarf his flask, and said, "Ondar was only partly joking," and told the story of fighting the roc, embellishing as he went.  The dwarf, laughing, introduced herself as Leofwen, and told the Freelancers she was the stablemaster.

Kaikoa:  our master trainer Osric has been working with these wild gryphons
Osric:  they're nice!  They still bite.
Nix:  don't listen, this is Osric, he will have them trained in a week.
Kaikoa:  if only we could stay that long.  <offered Leofwen another sip of his flask> any other 'ships in of note?
Leofwen <put hand up to turn down flask>:  (am still working) oh we get a lot of 'ships through here.  Because of orbit change, they use us as a ladder.

At this point, they were back at the Aakshi, and the Freelancers escorted Leofwen to the holds where the gryphons were.  She started looking the creatures over, easily avoiding their tempers, and exclaimed, "They look fine!  I believe you they are freshly-caught.  I'll pay, ¾ of the standard cost minus the cost of training."  <Narrator voice:  that's 2500gp each for the golden eagle gryphons, and 3250gp for the martial gryphon.>

Nix cast a meaningful glance at the others, all of whom nodded.

Nix:  sure, we'll take that
Leofwen:  I need 20 minutes to get the stables ready.  Bring them to the end of the gryphon stables.
Osric:  coin?
Leofwen:  I'll give you money when they are safely in the stables and haven't flown off!

At that, Leofwen took her leave of Aakshi, and headed back to the stables.  The Freelancers talked to the remaining crew to make sure they would be out of the way, then prepared the gryphons, and waited.  Once the time passed, they started heading to the stables with the gryphons.  Osric was used to it, from his time with the young gryphons in the Freelancers stable, and Nix was generally good with the mounts; but Kaikoa was used to hippogryphs, and Mordant.  He almost got slashed, but Nix saved him from it.

At the stables, they found Leofwen waiting, with a human woman and a male Holder dwarf.  The three of them took charge of the three gryphons and efficiently transferred them into secure stalls, although the martial gryphon was very vocal about it.  Satisfied, Leofwen brought the Freelancers into an unnoticed office, and counted out the agreed-upon payment:  780 platinum, and 450 gold pieces, on strings.

Ondar:  Ondar understands there's a variety of beverages here.
Kaikoa <smiling>:  Ondar is on the right track!
Leofwen:  feel free to visit the tavern built into the inn.

The "inn" for Waypoint Whim was a sprawling, two-story building to the left of the stables when viewed from the docked airships.  The Freelancers went over to the inn to find the busy tavern occupied the majority of the ground floor.  It felt like most of the airship crews were there, eating and drinking.  The far right corner tables had a lot of dwarves.

The Freelancers were met by a Faasaunoa hanyou who greeted them saying, "Welcome to Waypoint Whim!  I am Isett, the stationmaster."  He gestured at the busy area; there were still some empty tables.  "Have a seat; we will bring out the special of the day, and a variety of beverages.  Where would you like to sit?"  Kaikoa and Glesni immediately spotted an appropriate-sized table against the wall to the right, between two large windows, and they all sat there, looking around.

A halfling man came to the table, easily balancing two trays with stews in bread bowls.  As he started setting them up in front of the Freelancers, he said, "We got a good selection of drinks; order at the bar, or tell me what you want and I'll bring it."  He finished and said, "I'll be back!"

Kaikoa looked at the others, then got up and went to the bar, which was being tended by a male Pungarehu hanyou named Zorek.

Zorek:  what can I get you?
Kaikoa:  howdy Zorek!  Whatcha got that's weird.
Zorek:  weird?  Well.  non-weird:  ales, wine, hard liquors.  Weird:  <pause>  a couple cordials from Sheerness; a bunch of different flavours.
Kaikoa:  stronger than cordials.
Zorek:  these pack a punch.
Kaikoa <gestured at Ondar who is eating his bread-bowl>:  anything described as "cordial" is not going to get that tattooed weirdo where he wants to be.  He's on a quest for weird drinks.
<Zorek regarded Ondar, clearly dubious about the wisdom of getting such a large person drunk.>
Kaikoa:  we're not gonna trash your bar.
<Zorek, after a few more moments, reaches under the bar, and pulls out a dusty bottle, and blows it off.>
Zorek:  Sambuca.  10 gold, you can have the whole bottle.
Kaikoa:  8 gold, you got a deal.
Zorek:  done.  <got out glasses to drink it with.>
Kaikoa:  you got a local salutation?
Zorek <shaking head>:  we're just a waypoint; toast the Skyguard.
Kaikoa <also shaking head>:  unh-uh.

Kaikoa headed back to the table with the others, and set the bottle out with the glasses.  "Okay, Ondar, let's see if this floats your boat."  Then Kaikoa belatedly started in on his bread bowl.  Ondar picked up the bottle and examined it, then opened it and poured himself a glass of blue liquid so dark that it was almost black.  Sampling it, he liked it; but it was not the drink he was looking for.

The other Freelancers had started to look around the tavern for any sign of very tan people.  Seeing none, and also seeing Ondar liked the sambuca, they also tried it, and found it yucky.  Osric found himself turning an alarming shade of green after a few minutes, and he went up to the bar.  "Give me any kind of berry cordial you have!" he asked Zorek, who peered at him closely.

"Give me 3 gold," Zorek told him, and then put a glass of water.  He then brought out 3 almost V-shaped short glasses, and poured a vibrant blue, teal, and glowy orange liquid in them.  Nix looked up, and recognized the drinks.  She went to the bar, and exclaimed, "Is that a Maiden's Tear?  Give me one of those!"  Zorek looked a Nix oddly, and she remembered she was in disguise.  "I used to date a girl on Sheerness," she said by way of explanation.

Osric, meanwhile, started gargling the water.  Once done, he knocked back the cordials like they were whiskies, to the surprise of both Zorek and Nix, and then headed back to the table.  Nix stayed where she was, listening to the conversations around her.  Like Kaikoa was, she was trying to pick up gossip about recent 'ship departures.

Someone was talking about an airship that had left for Waypoint Fame.

Kaelani had been a village priest of Ua, before he'd been called as a paladin and yet somehow in Freelancers.  As such, he alone of the Freelancers had not heard of Waypoint Fame, which is so called for having a large number of bards.  The waypoint has rolling hills, with copses of trees separating natural amphitheatres.  It is one of the few places where one is guaranteed to find Carnivale; aspiring bards go there when unable to go to a Conservatory.  The waypoint has several taverns and inns as well, since apart from the bards it sports some tourism to watch the performances.

Kaikoa was hearing a different group talk about how several people were excited about heading to Waypoint Fame.  It seemed to him like first-hand info; the off-shift guards the next table over were discussing it.  At this point Nix returned to the table, having finished her cordial.

Kaikoa:  Nix – go find out if that's the assholes we're looking for
Nix <slowly>:  okay…
Kaikoa:  guards like blondes.  Go <shoved Nix>

Nix only slightly altered her appearance, but paused to regain some dignity before going to the next table.

Nix:  could help overhearin' about this outfit headed for Fame.  I know this girl, she glowed like the Daystar – maybe she actually worshipped the Daystar – and I'm tryin' to track her down to propose to her.
Guards:  like, what did she look like?
Nix:  oh, about 5'8", tanned skin, blonde hair past her shoulders, startling green eyes, thin with just enough curves, looks wicked in leather.

The guards looked at each other, one said, "This woman was pretty tan," and they described Gillian to Nix, who said almost to herself, "Huh, did they go, then?"  Glesni, still sitting at the table with Kaikoa, tried to assess their reaction, but they seemed honest, and after all had no reason to lie.  The guards continued, "She was maybe into spoken word?  She was really excited, but there was only one of the two men with her that had an instrument."

At this, Glesni looked around the tavern more closely, trying to spot the man with the glaive, since after all he was the Freelancers' target.  Ondar started checking patrons for any disguises or illusions.  Glesni saw nothing, but Ondar did spot two people with illusions up:  one was a half-orc, or maybe full orc, disguised as a Green dragonborn; the other was a dwarf, who was disguised as a dwarf with different eyes/hair/shape of face.  Ondar saw nobody trying to hide a deep tan.  Ondar nudged Kaikoa, and nodded at the two in disguise.

Nix:  that's just fantastic, this is the happiest day!  Kaikoa, come share a drink with us at the good news!  They told me how to find my bonnie lass!
Guards:  sure!  Free alcohol!
<Kaikoa poured them all some black sambuca.>
Guard1:  what is this?!
<all peered at the shots.>  
Guard2:  Did Zorek trick you into paying for this…?
Kaikoa <defensively>:  will get the job done!
Guard3:  Zarkowsk!  <waved the halfling man over.>  Zorek tricked him!  We need ale!
<Zarkowsk hastily produced a full round of ale tankards, which Kaikoa paid for.>
Kaikoa:  didja happen to know the name of the 'ship my friend's bonny lass was on?
Guard1:  Traversa
Guard2:  no it was Dondelia
Guard3:  it's a mechanical ship with nekomatas
Kaikoa:  any other ships leaving for there?
Guard1:  not recently, but I think the Lacks is headed that way
Guard2:  Dondelia came in from Morris.

The guards started sketching out the orbits in condensation on the table.  Finally they all agreed.  "Yeah, the Lacks."  They nodded at a table across the tavern… where all the dwarves were, and which had been getting increasingly louder.

Kaikoa looked over there to see one of the disguised persons Ondar had pointed out earlier.

Kaelani had not caught the nuance of the conversation at all, being unfamiliar with Waypoint Fame.  Osric, however, had other reasons for being quietly inattentive:  a glass of black sambuca plus knocking back three cordials from Sheerness, all in the space of 5 minutes, was a bit much even for a Holder dwarf, and he was spectacularly drunk.

Thus it was the two of them were entirely surprised when Kaikoa grabbed them both and hauled them over to where the airship Lacks' crew was sitting, to go make friends.

The dwarves had pushed two tables together to accommodate their party, and Kaikoa had Zarkowsk bring a round of ales, so the ales and Kaikoa arrived at the same time.  Kaikoa shoved his way through and walked over, not around the tables, to sit between two dwarfs, and clasped one on the shoulder in a friendly way.  Drunk Osric, seeing this, also climbed on the table, and slurred, "Hey all, wanna shee shomething cool?"  and promptly wild-shaped into a baby owl gryphon.  Kaelani did not climb on the table, but ale in hand, seated himself across from Kaikoa, shaking his head and saying, "These guys.  Am I right?"

Glesni glanced at Ondar, walked to the bar, got a couple of cordials – the teal and glowy orange ones – and brought them back to the table.  She nursed them slowly, as she and Ondar watched their compatriots.  The teal cordial tastes somewhat like flowers, she decided.  The orange one was tart, but not too… pucker-y.

Kaikoa had just happened to clasp the shoulder of the dwarf Ondar had pointed out as under disguise.  He couldn't tell if the illusion was whole-body or just the fellow's face.  The dwarves looked askance at the Wind sagani, but also here were pitchers of ale, and Osric walking unsteadily around the table as a baby owl gryphon.

Dwarves:  good trick
Dwarf1 <to Kaelani>:  what brings you to the waypoint?
Kaelani:  I'm here with a group of gryphon wranglers.  We just sold a few to the stables here.
Dwarf1:  what type?
Dwarf2:  what'd you catch?
Kaelani:  golden eagle gryphons, and a martial gryphon
<Kaelani launched into the tale of the roc encounter, the believability augmented by drunk baby owl gryphon Osric.>
<The dwarves all clapped, appreciating the story.>
Dwarves:  good job!  You sound useful to have around!
<Osric knocked some bread out of the basket, and batted it around the table.  It lands on the floor, but baby owl gryphon was still cute and adorable.>
Kaelani:  where's your last stop?  Where you goin'?
Dwarves:  couple stops at waypoints.  Last one was actually Pembroke, where we're hailing from.  Next is Fame; after, Coldstream.
Kaelani:  what are you carrying?
<Slight pause, and the dwarves glanced at a slightly better dressed female Rocklit dwarf.>
Female dwarf <cagily>:  oh, yeah, the usual.  Supplies.  Got a couple bardic hopefuls on board.
Disguised dwarf:  they need practice
Dwarf1:  they're probably going for Carnivale.  Juggling plus music; it's good, when it works.

Kaelani considered the pause, and realized the dwarves were worried about divulging their cargo to random strangers who walked up to them in a bar, because of piracy; and also the female dwarf was probably the captain.  He didn't get a chance to say anything else, though, because then drunk Osric wild shaped back into a Holder dwarf, sitting there on top of the table.

Osric <too loudly, like he was about to cry>:  you know what would be really cool guys?  Ishif we could ride with you, and SHEE THE ANIMALSH.  I bet Carnivale haz a buncha cool animalsh!  I shpose we could pay, but I wanna see th' animalsh.
<The table suddenly became quiet.>
Female dwarf <dubiously>:  if it's just the 3 of you, I guess we have space
Kaikoa <quietly>:  there's 6 of us, and mounts.
Disguised dwarf:  this is Ferolie, our Captain.
Kaikoa:  it's okay, it's okay.  We're lousy gamblers.
Ferolie <frowning>:  what type of mounts.
Kaikoa <waving his tankard>:  I'm sure it will be fine.  They don't eat much
Ferolie:  it's not eating, it's space.
Kaikoa:  it may be fine, Fame is not that far out
Ferolie:  it's 5 days away!
<Ondar hadn't missed the turn in conversation, and wandered over, towering over all.>
Ondar:  all the more to have more muscle.
Ferolie <mulishly>:  need to know.
Ondar:  bear.
Ferolie:  alright, can go in with gryphons
Kaikoa:  hippogryph
Ferolie:  okay, anything else?
Osric:  there'sh a pegashus
<Ferolie turned to another dwarf, and consulted in hushed tones, occasionally looking at Kaikoa and Ondar.>
Ferolie:  alright, will cost a li'l extra to get all three onboard, but I think we can do it.  How does 500gp for the lot sound?
Kaikoa:  too high!
Ferolie:  we have to rearrange everything!
Ondar:  agree, but if you are attacked then we can negotiate whatever discount you think is fair.
Ferolie:  I'm not tryin' to rip you off, here; I have to move stuff around!
Ondar:  Ondar would be happy to guard ship for free.  Usually Ondar charges.
<Ferolie obviously believed Ondar.>
Ferolie:  how about this.  I'll give you 470gp, and foods included.
<Kaikoa waved Glesni over, and the tall Cloud elf came and stood next to Ondar.>
Glesni:  what's going on?
Kaikoa:  470 for passage to Fame!
Osric:  470 to shee shome animalsh *hic*
<Glesni shrugged.  She'd never had to pay for airship passage in her life.>
Kaikoa:  how about 450.
Ondar:  Ondar would be happy to help move things around.
<Ferolie and the other dwarf exchanged a look.>
Ferolie:  defend the airship, you got a deal.

They all agreed, and Ferolie cautioned them that the Lacks was leaving at local midnight.  "Be onboard in time," she cautioned them.

Glesni:  did you say there were other passengers?
Kaelani:  several bards who were aspiring
Glesni:  where did these get picked up?
Ferolie:  couple from Pembroke, a couple at other waypoints along the way.

The Freelancers took their leave, and discussed this change in plans.  Kaelani would notify Captain Dedroza that they were not returning on the Aakshi, and Nix would drop the disguise, since the Lacks' crew had not seen it.

 * * session break * * 

The Freelancers had determined Grigor'ev arrived at Waypoint Whim 12 hours prior to the Aakshi, and they established that Gillian, Ethan, and Petersen had headed to Waypoint Fame, but they hadn't figured out where the other two Daystar cultists went, which was important since the human man was the person they thought had Bright Thunder.  Based on speculation they also headed to Waypoint Fame, the Freelancers had booked their passage on the Lacks, but really, they weren't sure this was a good idea.

Kaikoa and Glesni walked down the line of ships in the cradles, after she used her wand of magic detection.  She saw the elementals in Aakshi and Lacks had a lot of magic, and the engines in the mechanical airships had a lot of artificery and continual flame.  She noticed some abjuration and evocation magics, nothing unusual for airships.  She did not see anything corresponding to Bright Thunder, a magic glaive + a bag of holding, or Daystar lotion.

They continued past all the buildings, circling the guarded, bustling warehouse, but again, no hits on anything they were looking for.  They went back to the stables and Kaikoa got out Mordant, and flew around a bit.  They located a nearby clearing, past the end of the cradles where the inn was, and Glesni got a hit; they checked and it was an empty bottle of Daystar lotion.  The wand ran out of charges and they returned to the bar, where the others were, including no-longer-as-drunk Osric.  He swapped with Glesni and cast locate object on the man's bag of holding, as Kaikoa flew him around on Mordant, but located nothing.

The Freelancers were even less sure now.  They all went outside, and Nix cast augury, proposing that they cancel their trip to Waypoint Fame.  The answer was universal woe.  Okay then.  Glesni, Osric, and Kaikoa went back into the tavern, Kaelani went off to inform the Aakshi, leaving Nix and Ondar to their own devices.

Nix went out and checked out the waypoint station herself.  She saw it was bustling, people carrying boxes to and from the airship.  Nothing was particularly out of the ordinary, and nothing indicated Daystar worshippers.

Ondar located a cask of rice whiskey from Commerce, which he bought from one of the stablehands.

Time passed slowly, as the Lacks' departure came up.  The Freelancers got their mounts loaded, and told the captain they were gryphon wranglers.  They were given two cabins, which had sleeping hammocks.  Kaikoa opted to sleep near Mordant.  Ondar had to duck the low ceilings belowdecks.  But as soon as the Lacks departed, they all rested from the long day.

Okeanostag, 1st prime post-Harvest

Everyone woke up to the Lacks hitting turbulence; they'd entered a storm and there was massive wind and rain.  They got out of the uncomfortably swinging hammocks and looked.  Not much was visible through the porthole, until there were some kind of wet thumps, and hippogryph feathers drifted by sort of stuck to the glass by rain and wind.

At that, Kaikoa wanted to go up on the deck, to be stopped by a dwarf in the airship crew.

Dwarf:  no, no, it's too dangerous
Kaikoa:  just because you are sink like a stone.  I'm a Thunder sagani!
Dwarf:  captain would be unhappy, if I let you you out there to DIE
<Kaikoa did his best to persuade, and Narrator voice:  Vasily rolled a 6>
Dwarf:  no.
Kaikoa:  it's part of our passage!
Dwarf:  it's fine, will not persist
Ondar:  is anyone up there?
Dwarf:  no.  <pause>  this is why we run an air elemental ship, we don't have to go up there.

The dwarf did not relent, and everyone spent the time belowdecks until they were through the other side of the storm, which was roughly midmorning the next day.

After the crew was sure they were past the storm, they let everyone out on the observation deck to appreciate the fresh air.  The Freelancers of course took stock of their surroundings, Kaikoa and Ondar in particular looking out for those hippogryphs.

Up and to starboard, they caught a flash of some sort of light, a metallic reflection.  They peered more closely, and Osric and Nix saw it too.

It appeared to be a tiny silver dragon.  Maybe the size of a gryphon, so… a baby?  It was wobbly and obviously tired, and heading straight for the airship.

Oriotag, 1st prime post-Harvest

As the baby dragon caught up with the Lacks, its exhaustion was evident.  Ondar got a net, to catch it if it missed, with Kaikoa assisting.  Osric summoned a bear totem to grant the dragon strength.  Glesni nocked an arrow, looking to see if any enemies were chasing the youngling.

Nix got on her broom of flying, and caught up to it.  "Hey, little one, we will help you," she said gently and persuasively, in Draconic, "My friends are trying to set up nets to cushion your landing."  The dragon looked at Nix, then looked at the Lacks, where Kaelani was frantically trying to signal it.  

"I'm so tired," the dragon replied to Nix, who saw it was 20-25 years old, not a hatchling at all.  "I've been flying so long."

Nets prepared, Ondar checked if the relatively harmless appearance was an illusion; it was not.  Osric checked for injuries, there were none.  Osric kept the bear totem in range of the little dragon, which brought it close enough to help Ondar and Kaikoa as the dragon gracelessly landed on the nets and thus the deck without injury.  The entire affair had the full attention of Captain Ferolie and crew on deck.

The small silver dragon spread its wings out, panting heavily, clearly exhausted.  "I'm so tired," it declared, "I need a meal, and a nap.  And maybe another meal, and another nap."  It sighed, as Captain Ferolie sent two crew members belowdecks to bring up a haunch of ham and a large bowl of porridge.  

Glesni <in Draconic>:  do you need any water?
Dragon:  yes, please
Glesni:  water, right.  <unlimbers waterskin>
Kaikoa <in Trade>:  does it want rum?
Dragon <in Trade>:  what's rum?  Does it taste good?
Kaikoa <beaming>:  FAR superior to water!

As they offered the dragon the drinks, they observed it was actually rather bruised, dark circles under its eyes, the silver scales duller in places and pushed in.

Kaikoa:  what do we call you?
Dragon:  my name is Hiripa.
<Hiripa, having drank, and regaining its breath, flipped its wings back into slightly more dignified position.>
Hiripa:  thank you very much for your hospitality.  I was blown off course by the storm, and now if you don't mind getting me something to eat, I will curl up and take a nap.

Fortunately, the crew members had returned with the porridge and haunch of ham, and Captain Ferolie now stepped up to present the meal.

Ferolie:  welcome to my ship!  I heard your name, v– <pause>  I don't know honorifics – Hiripa.  You are welcome to stay upon the airship Lacks <gestured expansively> as long as you need.
Hiripa:  would be happy to share honorifics, if I had 'em

Without any more ado, the dragon started devouring the food as only a hungry young dragon can do.  As it ate, a bard with pale skin, freckles, and strawberry blonde hair, named Rose, stepped up.

Rose:  o great dragon, please – when you are awake – can I hear your story and set it to song?
Kaikoa <muttering>:  fucking bards
Hiripa <finished every molecule of food>:  yeah, sure yeah, after nap.

Hiripa curled up and went to sleep right there, almost immediately falling into the cute kind of snores only a young animal can make.  Every snore exhalation was a tiny snow-flurrie.  Another bard, a young male human, edges close, then sticks his hand to touch the snow-flurrie.  His hand seized up from the cold, and after a few winks, the bard started to freak out that it was permanent.  "What if I can't play an instrument now?"  After some time, however, it wore off, and he calmed down.

Nix, Kaikoa, and Osric watched the sleeping dragon, each for their own reasons; but Glesni, Kaelani and Ondar were more concerned with anything in pursuit of it, or attacking the Lacks while the Hiripa was passed out.  They looked carefully, but the only thing Ondar and Glesni saw were some hippogryphs flying in the distance.

Four hours later, Hiripa woke up, and scarfed down another haunch of ham.  Captain Ferolie was also watching the sky, and decided to convince the young dragon to move into the stables-hold belowdecks.  She said respectfully, "It's beneath your dignity, but we do not wish you to be exposed to the elements.  Bad weather is coming!"

Ondar had not noticed bad weather coming, and looked carefully at the captain, but she seemed sincere.  Hiripa assented to being moved, but did not enjoy being put with the mounts.  However it understood the need for shelter, especially given the recent experiences.

As the dragon curled up asleep again, Osric suggested to the other Freelancers, "Let's guard the dragon from overexcited bards."  Kaikoa was especially excited by this idea, exclaiming, "oh!  Oh!  Me!  Me!  Mordant is trained to peck bards!"  Glesni said merely, "We should definitely guard the dragon."

So, Kaikoa took the first dragon-guard shift in the stable-hold.  As he sat there, a feckless-looking halfling bard tried to sneak in.  However he wasn't that good at sneaking, and was literally muttering "Sneak, sneak, sneak!" to himself as he entered the hold.

Kaikoa grabbed the little fellow and hauled him over to Mordant's stall.  He held the halfling at his hippogryph's rear end and told Mordant to relieve herself.  The halfling squirmed and flipped out of Kaikoa's grasp just in time.

Halfling:  hey!  I'm gonna pet the dragon!  Hey!
Kaikoa:  get out of here, you stringfucker!
Halfling:  I have never been so insulted in my entire life!  What is your name, I will make a song about you!
<Kaikoa entirely ignored that.>
Halfling:  you're so rude!

The halfling stormed off, but when Kaikoa turned back to Hiripa, he realized a second bard had used the altercation as a distraction to get close to the silver dragon.  This bard was a fluffy calico nekomata, who had curled up next to Hiripa's head, in that way only a cat could do.  Kaikoa contemplated the tableau for a moment, and decided to leave her there.

Ondar showed up at midnight (as the Lacks was in the darkest shadow of the Skyway central storm), to take over.  Kaikoa crawled into Mordant's stall and went to sleep in a corner of it.  The nekomata was still curled up to Hiripa, and as the two sleeping being shifted, it was clear they were keeping each other warm.  The nekomata purred a little in her sleep.

No other bards showed up for Ondar, although a few mount owners suddenly found an urgent need to give their mounts some treats and pets.

Kenostag, 1st prime post-Harvest

Glesni took over from Ondar, for the wee-hours shift til dawn <Narrator voice:  is it really dawn when you are on an airship?  It's just Daystar-straight-east>.  The nekomata was still there, looking very comfy, and Glesni studied her without disturbing them during her uneventful watch.  The bard's clothes were reasonably nice, and she had a harp case in easy reach.

 * * session break * * 

The following day was nice weather for travelling; clouds scudded by as the Lacks felt like it was ascending.  Hiripa continued its extended rest, but awakened around midday demanding food.  Captain Ferolie made sure to feed it as much as it needed, and then the silver dragon passed back out.

The Freelancers occupied themselves as they had before on the Aakshi, although without Ondar challenging anyone to contests of balance.  They found out the nekomata bard was named Nimble Claws On Strings.  

That afternoon, the Lacks had to take evasive action; a group of three tiny skyliths, perhaps 20' across, passed by, whirling around each other in a complicated dance.

Remitag, 2nd prime post-Harvest

The weather held for the next day, their fourth system orbit enroute to Waypoint Fame.  The Freelancers were starting to relax a bit, although there was nowhere on the stubby airship to escape the practicing bards.  Some of them were taking some pains to avoid each other, however.  Others would practice their songs and music without regard for who or what was in earshot.  As a result the crew and Freelancers were all subjected to some annoying earworms when something was particularly catchy… or not.

Glesni was occupied with the woodcarving, and the other martial Freelancers with tending to gear, when Nix and Osric noticed the airship had been stalked.  Before they could warn the others, however, a wyvern came over the side of the Lacks!  They all looked up in surprise, and instantly concluded this was an opportunity.

Nix moved between Osric and the airship starboard and sent a chromatic orb at the wyvern.  It settled on cold before striking the creature's shoulder.  Mercury flew up to Nix' shoulder, ready to dodge.

• The wyvern flew to Nix, whipping the stinger on its tail around to pierce her, dripping poison.  She threw up a hand and a purply-silver force field sprang into place, blocking it.
  • The wyvern screeched angrily and swiped at Osric with its claws, slashing the Holder dwarf.
• Osric pulled out an acorn, and summoned a hawk bestial spirit behind the wyvern.
  • The spirit hawk attacked the wyvern, piercing the creature with its claws.

Ondar became large, then moved up to the wyvern, slashing it twice with his Nightside Scimitar.  He smiled and winked at it, but the creature hissed at him.

• Nix cast mind sliver on the wyvern, which suddenly developed a headache.
• Glesni saw how injured the wyvern already was, and hesitated, unwilling to kill it.
• Kaelani walked up to the wyvern and said, "Why don't you stay a while?"  He channeled Ua's divinity into Nature's Wrath.  Spectral tendrils of the greenery comprising the Lacks' deck grew up and grasped the wyvern, holding it in place.
• The wyvern tried to bite Nix, but critfailed.  It tried to sting Large Ondar, but failed miserably.
  • Large Ondar invoked his stone rune, incapacitating the wyvern.
• Kaikoa brought a coil of rope over and started tying it up, similar to the way he'd originally bound Mordant when he captured her.  He was able to get the wings bound so it couldn't get away, but was wary of the tail, and backed away.
• Nix handed Osric rope, and the druid bound the tail, gently, and finished tying it up, so it could walk, but hobbled, but not run or claw anyone.

Large Ondar wanted to knock it out, not just have it stoned, so he punched the wyvern twice.  The first punch was rebuffed by the rope but the second one landed.

• Nix cracked her whip at the wyvern, not wanting to get any closer to the tail.
• Glesni saw the injured wyvern bound by 100' of rope, surrounded by the other, and just shook her head.  No time for an archer's talents, here.
• Kaelani knocked the wyvern out with his magical rainstick.

So… that happened very fast, and Captain Ferolie came up and regarded the situation.

Ferolie:  15% cut, and will let you keep it, away from the dragon.
Glesni:  which 15% of the wyvern do you want to cut off for the captain?
Kaelani:  tail stinger.
Ferolie:  no, no, when you sell it

As they were talking, Kaikoa tried to harvest the poison from the wyvern's stinger, but he failed to do so.  At least he didn't get poisoned by it.  He turned to Osric and they started talking about taming and training; of course it involves food.  The others started calculating the value of a wyvern.

Somehow the Freelancers and airship crew got the wyvern ensconced in a stall before it woke up, unhappy about the ropes.  It kept trying to break out, or mantle, and failed.  Kaikoa started feeding it meat, and trying to train it.

After a while Kaikoa gave up and started gambling with the friendlier bards, winning 33gp.  He gossiped with them and found out Waypoint Fame has 3 naturally occurring amphiteatres, which is how it became a bard place, and that Carnivale operated the southernmost one.

Chaostag, 2nd prime post-Harvest

Early the next morning, the captain and the airship crew were frantically running around and shouting.  "Tie anything down, especially anything sharp!"  They warned everyone a terrible storm was coming.

The Freelancers helped secure their mounts and the wyvern from hitting the ceiling; Ondar mounted Frostclaw right in the stall, but the others had interesting use of nets to catch the mount in case of turbulence.  The airship crew warned Hiripa of the danger, and fastened a net to the floor for the silver dragon to hold onto.

And then the Lacks entered the storm.  Even with the help of the air elemental, the airship was tossed like a leaf on the mighty winds; people crashed into the ceilings, the walls or hung onto bunks or poles for dear life.  The storm was huge, and felt like it lasted forever, and it might have; it was after dinner time before the airship broke free into calmer winds.

Osric and Kaikoa were bruised, battered, and exhausted; the other Freelancers were okay, although nobody had enjoyed the experience.  The captain checked on the silver dragon, who was also okay, but still tired; upon hearing the storm was over, it went back to sleep.  Ferolie then told the Freelancers, "Don't untie the wyvern yet, but it's okay to start undoing the other tiedowns."  The mounts, including Frostclaw, were all okay.

Vrontag, 2nd prime post-Harvest

The next morning, which was well into Vrontag, they came up on Waypoint Fame!  The skylith was 10 miles across, relatively large for a waypoint, and had a gently curved top with hills and greenery.  The east had light forests, the west actually had airship docks, and buildings a ways beyond; multiple inns, a mechanical airship repair shop, warehouses to the north, stables a bit southward.  As they got closer they saw that the forest and greenery was well-cared for, and a mile back from the buildings were natural amphitheatres.  Further south was one with a brightly coloured tent, pennants snapping in the breeze.

The Lacks was soon secured in a dock near the stables, and discharged its passengers, which were the bulk of the Lacks' "cargo".  Some supplies were getting exchanged (such as food for the waypoint (although thanks to the dragon and the wyvern, less than Captain Ferolie had planned to deliver); but it was clear the Lacks was not using this waypoint for transshipping.

Kaikoa drew the other Freelancers close.  "Should we look for the 'ship?" he asked quietly, his voice gravelly from the morning.  Glesni shook her head, thinking of the delay in leaving Waypoint Whim.  "Look for people," she advised.

As they glanced around, another airship was docking, a sailing airship decorated with bright colours proclaiming it to be part of Carnivale.  Like many others witnessing it, the Freelancers stared at this relatively rare sight.  Another airship was docking to the north of the Carnivale 'ship, tourists crowding the observation deck to peer at the festive view.  The Carnivale airship was secured extremely efficiently, and then the entire group moved to debark in what appeared to be an impromptu parade.  Glesni and Osric watched, fascinated.

The other Freelancers looked at all the people, trying to pick out their targets, or even the gaudy yellow vests.  Between the parade and the tourists and the bards on their 'ship, there was a large press of people, and they did not see yellow vests or any of their Daystar cultist targets.  Kaikoa was also trying to spot the Dondelia, which he knew was a mechanical airship with nekomata crew.  He saw some nekomata, but nobody who looked like crew. 

Captain Ferolie rolled up to the Freelancers.  "Before you disembark," she said firmly, "I want that wyvern payment."  The Freelancers looked at each other, but Ondar said, "Ondar's got this," and paid the captain 1500gp (possibly, in platinum).

Then the Freelancers went belowdecks to wake up the silver dragon, and inform it they were at Waypoint Fame, and offer to serve as its entourage.

Hiripa:  what's an "entourage"?
<Nix explained to the silver dragon what that meant.>
Glesni:  ...our mission
Nix <without missing a beat>:  and also, your company will help in our hunt for dangerous persons.
Hiripa:  ???
Kaikoa:  not just anyone; people worshipping the Daystar
Hiripa:  what?!  <held up a claw>  can we do some fun stuff?  – who worships the Daystar? – sooner or later, my parent will come collect me (I presume my parent is looking) – I don't feel like flying back.
Kaikoa:  do we need to be worried about that?  If we have fun and drink and music et cetera, will your parent… will we have a problem with your parent and the waypoint?
<Hiripa was silent.>
Kaikoa:  is your parent gonna show up and turn this waypoint into an ice cube?
Hiripa:  if anyone hurts me, they would
Kaikoa:  so
Hiripa:  so, they'll likely show up in a day or so.
Kaikoa:  so, we got 12 hours of debauchery
Hiripa:  I'm able to supp defend myself
Osric & Kaikoa:  good enough for me

The next order of business was getting the wyvern to the waypoint stables.  Osric and Kaikoa would deal with wyvern handling, and the others would do crowd control, which was needed as the Carnival parade had caused quite a crowd.  Nix disguised herself as Ondar's younger brother, and they took off.  Glesni used her usual style of persuading the crowd to move, which worked like a charm in Cloudworks where they knew to defer to a noble, and not at all at Waypoint Fame where she was just a Cloud elf with a bow.  Kaelani was too short for anyone to pay attention to his attempts to be intimidating.  However Ondar and Ondar-younger-brother Nix were impressively tall, especially on their mounts, and the crowd cleared to let the party through.

The wyvern was fractious, unhappy at being still tied up, unused to and displeased with such a large crowd of humanoids.  But with appropriate jerks and tugs on the ropes, the Freelancers managed to get it to the stables without anyone being hurt.

The little procession, including Hiripa, was noticed by the stablehands, who fetched the stablemaster so he could meet the Freelancers outside.  A seasoned handler of whatever the Waypoint's visitors threw at him, the stablemaster could tell that the wyvern was recently captured.

Stablemaster:  does it have any training at all?
Ondar:  nope!
Kaikoa:  it stings; we're all good.
Osric:  got a good bite.
Stablemaster:  we'll stable it, but 2gp/day for safety costs
Ondar:  done.

The Freelancers helped with putting the wyvern in a stall, and noticed there were manticores stabled here.

Kaikoa:  is there a bulk discount for number of beasts?
Stablemaster:  pegasus is 5sp/day… is that a bear?!
Kaelani:  a bear with wings
Stablemaster:  1gp/day.  Is the bear trained?  Will it eat the mounts?
Ondar:  bear is trained.
Kaikoa:  Ondar is not trained.
Stablemaster <frowning>:  for the 4 of them, flat 4gp/day.
Glesni:  alright!  Let's go kill Petersen
<The stablemaster cast a side-eye at the silver dragon.>
Kaikoa:  you got a problem with our friend here?
Stablemaster:  not unless it has a problem with me!
Hiripa <startled>:  should I?
Stablemaster:  no, no!

The Freelancers left, Kaikoa and Glesni shaking their heads.

They started walking north, towards the rather fancy buildings that were presumably inns.  The crowd in the area had started to disperse, since the Carnivale folks had moved more towards their encampment.

Glesni suggested, "We should get rooms and also try to find names of guests in guest book."

The Freelancers found themselves in an area that seemed half park, half spaced-out buildings.  All the greenery looked intentional and maintained.  They saw three inns:  Song's Rest, The Howl, and Patterned Wing, which had subtle butterfly designs.  Noticing that made the Freelancers look again at the other buildings.  The Howl had a sign with a coyote howling, and Song's Rest had a bird on a branch in silhouette.  Even from where they stood, they could tell The Howl was raucous.

Kaikoa:  where first?
Glesni:  where do we want to get rooms?
Kaikoa:  we should check them all out!

Song's Rest was closest, so the group went there first.  It was clean, and nice-looking.  The taproom was a bar and eating area, but the doors were too narrow to fit Hiripa's bulk.  The small silver dragon went around the building to peer into a window, only slightly startling the nearby patrons.

Behind the bar, the drinks on display were a wide variety of mead, perhaps 4 out of 5 bottles.  The various patrons appeared to be slightly more dedicated to their bardic craft, and the bard performing in the corner was only performing instrumental music.  The patrons were well dressed; many displayed the badges of their Bardic Conservatory.  <Narrator voice:  the GM at this point insisted mead, the honey-based alcoholic beverage, was soothing to the throat and hence the Inn's name and theme here.  The narrator looked this up and thinks the GM misread the myoelastic-aerodynamic (MEAD) mode of sound production, which is how humans talk and sing, and elephants trumpet.  Or, maybe, gasp, the GM was making an elaborate pun.>

The human proprietor, Kermit, asked if he could help the Freelancers.

Kaikoa:  clean and pretty!  I hate it.
Kaelani:  nice and quiet, I love it!
Hiripa <from the window>:  why all these bottles?  Why the fancy dress?

Osric felt bad about Hiripa being left out, so bought a 15 gp bottle of mead so the little dragon could understand why all the bottles.

 * * session break * *

The other Freelancers went outside Song's Rest to join Hiripa and Osric, and decide which inn to visit next:  Howl, or Patterned Wing?  The two establishments were equally far away, and from their vantage, the Freelancers noticed neither of them had doors large enough to accommodate the small silver dragon.  They headed towards the Patterned Wing.

As they approached the Patterned Wing, the Freelancers became aware it was a pretty upscale place.  While not ostentatious, there was a butterfly motif.  They went into the tavern, and it was quiet; a few very finely-dressed people were sitting at tables, talking quietly and sipping fine wines.  The bartender was a half-elf.

Taken aback, the Freelancers milled near the entrance, discouraged about bringing the dragon, or themselves, into this place.  They'd noticed people with a variety of tents heading into the waypoint's hills, and remembered the bards on the Lacks had been talking about camping.  <Narrator voice:  the actual conversation was, 'do we have to stay at an inn?' and 'can't we camp out like Burning Man?'>  They looked around more, and noticed all the drinks were in tiny glasses.  Glesni was keenly aware of her torn studded leather armour, and became a bit self-conscious.

Kaikoa muttered about rich people and their tiny glasses.

Glesni <dubiously>:  maybe camp, because of the dragon.
Osric:  camping with the dragon sounds fun!  I think the Daystar people would be more likely to camp, because if there's a clearing, they could… do their thing.
Kaikoa:  this place blows, let's check out the other one!
<Osric walked to the window and opened it, and the bartender raised an eyebrow.>
<Hiripa stuck his head in, and the bartender raised another eyebrow.>
Hiripa:  nice, but…
Osric:  …stuffy, and small.  We're probably going to go somewhere else.
<Osric pointed the art out to the young dragon, entirely ignoring the offended bartender.>
Hiripa:  not for me

The Freelancers left, and started heading to Howl.

On the way to Howl, they saw a notice board!  With a schedule of shows for this and the following day.  Various people were gazing upon it, but all seemed well-disposed to make way for a silver dragon.  After staring at the schedule, they saw that the Carnivale tents had shows in the afternoon and evening; the other amphitheatres each had shows at the other times.  Unsurprisingly, given all the parade fuss earlier when the airship docked, today's afternoon Carnivale show was almost over.

• Tomorrow's Performances:
  • Sassas, Wind sagani [pteroti] - morning in circular
    • Pteroti music
  • Maddox Rhys, halfling - morning in semi-circlular
    • Humorous songs
  • Francia, Cloud elf - Daystar zenith in circular
    • Line dancing
  • Tory, half-elf - Daystar zenith in semi-circular
    • Energetic freeform dancing
  • Rose, human - early evening in circular
    • Love songs, both sad and happy (slow dance music)
  • Nimble & Silvaar, nekomata & dragonborn - early evening in semi-circular
    • Ballads & adventure songs (party music)
• Carnivale shows in early afternoon and evening!
  • Music! Feats of acrobatics & athletics!

Maddox was the halfling Kaikoa had caught trying to sneak into the sleeping Hiripa.  Nimble was the nekomata who had cuddled up to Hiripa, and Rose had also been on the Lacks.  Osric pointed these out to Hiripa.

Hiripa, however, was getting nervous its father was coming too soon, and wanted to see Carnivale.  The Freelancers also wanted to see Carnivale, so decided to eschew visiting Howl until after the evening show.  Glesni wanted to check out the various camps around the waypoint, so they decided it would be fun to escort Hiripa in a flyover, with it in the center of a V of flying mounts.

They flew south to the Carnivale tents, pennants snapping in the light breeze; and did a couple loops to check them out.  There was a big tent, two outlying smaller tents, and a long, low barnlike building.  Some of the animals were spooked by the dragon flying overhead, so they curved over the nearby hills towards the two amphitheatres.

The trees were spread out, and somewhat manicured, with camping spaces scattered throughout.  The Freelancers peered for any sign of Daystar cultists.  As they passed over an empty camp, Nix saw someone who looked suspicious; perhaps a thief, with thin, wiry hair.  She made a note of them for later.  Meanwhile, no sign of Daystar people.

The Daystar itself was westering as they swooped over the amphitheatres.  The stages were about a mile or so apart, and the shows were wrapping up.  Content with their scouting, the group headed back to the stables to leave their mounts, then headed for Carnivale.

Carnivale was delighted to allow Hiripa view their show, and even to grant them all front-row seats, as long as they could point out the honored attendee to the audience; but not delighted enough to allow free admission.  Everyone had to pay 1gp to get in, even Hiripa; so Ondar covered it for the silver dragon.

The first act was a set of giant puppets, suspended from cranes and operated by multiple people.  The puppets were about twice the size of a quinametzin, and moved so realistically the audience was wowed.

The second act was a group of acrobats on wires, costumed as garuda and pteroti.  Their costumes were excessively sparkly, with "wings" made of thin pieces of wood trailing colourful ribbons.  The "battle" was dramatic and daring and had no clear winner in the end.

As the stage was cleared from the faux battle, a quinametizin as large as Ondar, but considerably chubbier, came out on stage dressed as a baby, with a giant ball, going through comedic routines to distract and entertain the audience between the acts.

The third act was an animal performance.  Many wild and exotic animals performed tricks, and after each round, the audience was asked to guess which of the performing animals were druids.  The pot was sweetened by offering to allow the winner to go back stage.  They somehow never chose Osric or Hiripa to answer, and every time a druid was revealed, the druid would craft a bouquet and hand it out.  In the end a small child and their family was chosen the winner, and the Freelancers understood it to be normal.  Nonetheless both Hiripa and Osric were bitter about this.

As the quinametzin "baby" did random comedic things on stage with their giant ball, the next segment involved audience participation as parachute fabric was used for the audience to portray the wings of a giant flying mount, while a story was otherwise mimed on wires.

The final act was a bullfight, except instead of a bull it was a minotaur, and red satin cloth represented the blood to be shed.  The minotaur was initially very menacing, frightening some of the audience as the toreador posed and the minotaur loomed behind him.  Then the "bullfight" was on, with the two busting out the pro wrestling moves, getting more and more energetic as it progressed.  In the end, they were both on the floor, exhausted; so they settled it with ro-sham-bo, and the minotaur won.

At the end of the show, as the audience was streaming out, discussing what they saw delightendly, Hiripa tried to convince the Carnivale folks to allow itself and the Freelancers backstage anyhow.  The silver dragon had pushed forward to the stage, and clambered up, when they heard someone clear their throat behind them.  The Freelancers turned to behold a Cloud elf, of average height and severe dignity; but instead of normal colouration, with silver hair, and silver eyes.

Nix also noticed his skin had silver iridescence.  She dropped to one knee, eyes downcast.

Nix <profoundly moved>:  it's an honor, my lord
Dragon:  no, no, I'm trying to be incognito here
<Hiripa sighed, and its wings drooped.>
Hiripa:  did not mean to get blown away by the storm
Kaikoa:  Nix, who's the elf?
Nix <rose to her feet>:  I would venture to guess, this is Hiripa's father.
Dragon:  pardon my manners.  While in this form, I go by Caleb.  You may know me as Heleceleb.
Kaikoa:  Caleb!  Want a swig?  <offered flask of rum.>
Caleb:  thank you for your offer, but Hiripa and I have a distance to go tonight.
Glesni:  do you need a tale of what happened?
Caleb:  I've already thanked the Lacks, but I feel I owe you a favour.
Ondar <murmured>:  I wonder if we should ask, if you know of any sentient weapons.
Caleb:  I recently heard of a young green dragon having gone missing, and would hate to have that happen to Hiripa.
<The Freelancers all looked at each other, and Ondar tried to assess Caleb's investment in the green dragon.>
Ondar:  this … particular green dragon, was impersonating The Snake, and got a price put on his head.
Caleb <raised eyebrows>:  this green dragon's parent should have impressed proper behavior better.  <turned to Hiripa>  NEVER impersonate a GOD.  <back to Freelancers>  One of you asked about a weapon.  My skills do not bend in that direction.
Kaikoa:  can you tell us about how to better protect against the magic of our enemies?  The ones that we hunt have considerable magic at their disposal.
Caleb:  I always rely on inner will, and teach my offspring thus.  <pause>  I always lay waste when facing an overpowered enemy; unfortunately, collateral damage is also out of control.
Kaikoa:  understand completely.
Ondar:  is the Daystar a god?
Caleb <taken aback>:  no?  Who worships the Daystar?
Kaelani:  there's a whole cult
Ondar:  just checking
Caleb:  if you pursue them, good luck
Kaikoa:  how they worship – poo-chutes up in the air
Caleb <more taken aback>:  that's too … delicate, for humans
Kaelani:  and that's what we're still pursuing them
Caleb:  best of luck
Ondar:  do you know of any entity, pretending to be the Daystar?
Caleb:  why don't we walk.

The group, Freelancers and silver dragons, exited the Carnivale tents and headed northeast on the little skylith.  No doubt someone from Carnivale shadowed them, but never mind that.  Hiripa was surly and sighing dramatically, which would have covered any noises anyhow.

Glesni told him, "We are Freelancers.  We are in pursuit of a group that has stolen the sentient weapon from the Church of Storms."  Caleb's eyes widened in understanding, and he replied, "Oh, let's go more secluded.  If that is the case, then maybe I can help."

They found a secluded clearing, and then, taking care to shield the Freelancers from his normally frightful presence, the Cloud elf transformed into his full size:  an Ancient Silver dragon, possessing a wisdom unknowable by humanoids.  Heleceleb folded his wings, and settled like a sphinx, then dragged Hiripa to him.  "You stay here, while I concentrate," the dragon rumbled.

Five minutes passed, then it occurred to the Freelancers they should be looking for the curious people.  Kaikoa and Nix were still just staring at the dragon, but the others were watching out.  The watchers concluded that Heleceleb's frightful presence was only selectively turned off, as any people who came close were inexplicably terrified and ran away.

More time passed, and the dragon opened his eyes and looked down at the Freelancers.  "Something will happen at Daystar zenith tomorrow," Heleceleb intoned.  "If you do not stop it, will be bad.  I cannot pinpoint beyond this waypoint.  I'd like to help you stop it, but I need my child away."

Kaikoa:  take your child, we got this.
Heleceleb:  still owe you a favour.
Nix:  how may we be able to find you, in future?
Heleceleb:  a sending spell will reach me. …if you have no more questions for me…
Kaikoa:  is this a magical bad thing?
Ondar:  or is it line dancing.
Heleceleb:  related to the magical item.
Glesni:  thank you Honoured Dragon.  If you need the assistance of our poor selves to escort Hiripa, then let us know.

Heleceleb gave Nix an extra significant look, then extended his mighty wings, and flew off with Hiripa.  The wind from the dragon's wings blew Glesni's long blue hair, like she was in a L'Oréal commercial in an entirely other universe.

The Freelancers looked at each other; the night was young, so they headed back towards the inns, to check out Howl.  When they got back to the area with the inns, they heard music from all the taverns.  Song's Rest appeared to have standard tavern fare; Patterned Wing had intricate harp music; and Howl had a strong beat, the music carrying over the loud chatter of the patrons.

The sign out front had no words, just a silhouette of a coyote howling.  Kaikoa smiled, "Sounds like my kind of place!"

As they entered the tavern, they saw a big band was set up, with bards swapping in and out, and it was even louder than they thought.  Multiple barkeeps and help were keeping mead, wine, and ale flowing; but it still managed to be pretty clean.

Surrounded by all these people, Glesni made use of her wand of magic detection.  She noted abjuration magic on various people in the bar, and some protective magic + abjuration.  After a bit of thought she concluded it was anti-fire charms on bardic instruments, not the Daystar lotion signature.  She also checked for any bag of holding – a couple people had them – and whole-body illusions, but all she saw was some eyes of the charming.

Osric wanted to cast locate object.  But on what, the Freelancers weren't sure.  None of them actually believed the two who had broken the others out were on the waypoint; they were hoping to apprehend Gillian and find out where to go.  Or maybe they were here, and should look for that fancy glaive, since Bright Thunder itself was in a bag of holding.  Osric silenced all this discussion:  he wanted to look for a Daystar "holy" symbol.

Putting words in action, Osric got no hits on the item from inside Howl.

Osric:  I'm gonna go for a joy ride
<By which he meant, wild shape a horse.>
Glesni:  take someone, for safety
Osric:  I can take a passenger
Ondar:  ONDAR!

Osric and Ondar left Howl.  Osric wild shaped a sturdy horse, and took off fast, with Ondar on his back.  Ondar, used to being strapped into the saddle, had to use his considerable agility to stay on.  Osric got to the Carnivale tents, and slowed to a canter, circling.  No hits, so he took off for the semicircular amphitheatre.  He got there just as the locate object wore off, but still no hits there, or anywhere in between.

Osric took off for the circular amphitheatre, cantering; Ondar, relaxed was having fun.  When they got there, Ondar dismounted and Osric became a Holder dwarf again.  There were people just hanging out in near the stage, playing music.  Some had clambered on the stage, to practice, or just get a feel for what it was like.  Osric cast locate object again, looking for the Daystar "holy" symbol.  No hits again.  He wild shaped back into the horse again, and they headed back to where the inns were.

Left back at Howl, the other Freelancers started drinking.

Nix was just beyond herself at having met a silver dragon, and remaining in his good graces.  She started drinking to celebrate, and kept at it, until she was blissed-out drunk.  Mercury could not deal, and made himself scarce.

Kaikoa ate some food, and drank more rum, until he was the far side of pleasantly buzzed.  Surrounded by the partying bards, he decided it was a good idea to punch one.  A nearby nekomata bard was holding forth with terrible jokes, and after a particularly bad joke, Kaikoa just smashed the bard's head with his tankard, and then grappled his head so the side of his face was pressed into the bar.  Then he took another swig of rum.

Initially people were "What are you doing?!"  but others reacted with "Thank you, terrible jokes."  Kaikoa stayed at the bar drinking, but magnanimously poured some of his drink on the bard's mouth from time to time, laughing and saying "Take the milk, kitty!"

Glesni and Kaelani were drinking a bit more cautiously, and eating an overdue meal.  They were listening to the chatter:  Glesni just to hear people's plans, Kaelani trying to spot anything unusual.  The loud music was both a help, because people were talking louder, and an impediment, because the chatter they picked up was still fragmentary.

Two people: "Carnivale was awesome" "yea, going tomorrow!"
Three people discussing their upcoming performances, giddy with anticipation
Couple people talking about morning songs from Maddox: "I hear he has new material from his airship ride!"
Multiple conversations about dancing, at Daystar zenith:  line dancing, in the larger amphitheatre (here, the Freelancers suppressed a shudder of horror); and free-form, in the other, which was a thing that happened from time to time, but infrequently enough to engender excitement.

Ondar and Osric had returned at some point, and were relaying their findings to the others, and getting drinks of their own.  Ondar thought, with the lack of hits, that Osric should locate object on lead cases.  Osric siad, "Sure, but just around town here."  He cast locate object on lead cases, filtering out badge cases and possible jewelry boxes, and wandered around for 10 minutes outside, but got no hits.

Glesni stirred.  "Are we getting rooms, or a campsite?"  The weather was overcast, but likely to burn off in the morning.

Kaikoa:  I dunno what you guys are gonna do, but I'm gonna get 3 shots for the road and find a campsite.
Kaelani:  sounds good
Osric:  good
Ondar:  no split party!

Kaikoa handed the barkeep 2gp and asked for "as many shots as you can," and got a line of shots for his trouble.  He finally let the nekomata bard up from having his head pushed into the bar, and gave him one of the shots.  The nekomata downed the shot and threw the glass at Kaikoa's head, but Kaikoa didn't even notice.

The Freelancers left Howl mostly happy, despite Caleb's dire warning of the morrow.  However, where to camp was still an open question.

Glesni:  between the two amphitheatres.  It is where Osric didn't check.
Nix <slurred a little>:  don't wanna camp near ground zhero?
Kaikoa:  wherever!

The Freelancers headed between the amphitheatres, and found a good spot.  Nix cast detect magic, and saw nothing in particular.  She walked around a bit, and noticed one or two magical instruments, and some charms.

* * session break * *

While Nix was walking around, Kaikoa and Osric settled down to sleep; but Ondar, Glesni, and Kaelani got into an increasingly heated argument about what to do on the morrow.  Ondar wanted to quarter the skylith, to figure out where Heleceleb's predicted "bad thing" would happen, and Glesni thought this was dumb, and said so.  Kaelani was more focussed on who than where.

Nix returned right as the three of them were arguing over whether Heleceleb was predicting a mass casualty event or not; surprised, she told them she could cast augury before sleeping, to provide some confidence.  That just renewed the argument.

Glesni:  ask about the party splitting up, because the skylith is too small
Ondar:  thinking what these cultists will want to do, with the holy symbol of another god!
Kaelani:  what if it's something about this skylith?
<The argument paused, as everyone tried to recollect what they knew about Waypoint Fame.>
Glesni:  there have been amazing concerts here; Arnari and Julian, in the tavern, sometimes talked about performing at Fame, and how it depended on instrument acoustics.
Kaelani:  I'm still thinking about what Ondar said.  What to do with Bright Thunder; it's a symbol of the Church of Storms; it's sentient!

They fell into arguing again.  Were the cultists going to destroy Bright Thunder?  Maybe have Bright Thunder attack people, and have the Daystar cultists save them ostentatiously?

Nix brought the argument to a halt by getting out the wyvern knucklebones she'd made into the instruments of augury.  She looked at the others expectantly, as Kaikoa started snoring.  But the group knew Heleceleb had said the bad thing was at Daystar zenith, and was likely at one of the two shows; and if these 4 Freelancers agreed on anything, it was that the most bad thing they could think of was line dancing.

Nix carefully setup up the bones in a construct of ice, then let them fall where they may, casting augury about the Advisability for party to attend line dancing while preparing to protect themselves and others from bad shit.  The bones betrayed nothing, and they decided to try again in the morning and ask about the other show.

Nix and Kaelani went to sleep, and Glesni dropped into a trance, as Ondar took the first watch.

Nemostag, 2nd prime post-Harvest

The argument was sort of settled, but Waypoint Fame was not; and Ondar was on hyper alert.  He heard the sounds of partying bards and tourists carrying through the damp air, diminishing slightly over time.  Halfway through his watch, he saw someone skulking through the bushes, perhaps assessing the snoring campers were an easy mark.  The skulker froze upon seeing Ondar, who didn't even bother to rise.  The quinametzin picked up a nearby rock, and scraped it slowly along his Nightside Rapier, sending blue sparks out; the rapier glowed in the dim light.  Without a word, the intruder faded into the bushes and made himself scarce.

Osric and Nix took the second watch together.  Osric mostly tuned out the diminishing party noises, as he listened to the small creatures of the night; birds and crickets and such.  Nix was keenly aware of the growing quiet, and plainly heard a pair of bards stumbling down the path with two others, inebriated and looking for a suitable place to fuck.  Nix looked at the snoring Kaikoa, and just-passed-out Ondar, and was bitterly amused.

Glesni, refreshed from her trance, took the third watch, but at this point Ondar, Kaelani, and Osric were also snoring, although not as loud as Kaikoa.  It drove her to distraction and made her more aware than usual of how nice the night was.

Kaelani took the last watch, and made use of his Driftglobe to make sure he could see anything approaching.  The nice night continued, but the waypoint was moving out of the shadow of the central storm, so the sky was brighter and the few clouds visible were touched by the light of the Daystar.  Everything was quiet, as the partying had given way to rest, and even the sleeping Freelancers had rolled over and stopped snoring.

The next morning, Nix prepared to cast augury again.

Glesni:  what if there's supposed to be something at the docks?
Ondar:  we know about the shows at Daystar zenith.
Nix <severely>:  I'm rolling the bones about the other dancing.

Again Nix carefully setup up the bones in a construct of ice, then again let them fall where they may, casting augury about the Advisability for party to attend "energetic freeform" dancing while preparing to protect themselves and others from bad shit.  This time, however, the bones indicated an outcome of weal; whatever god or energy Nix's knucklebones were tapping into seemed to think doing so was a good idea.

The Freelancers packed up their camp and went back to the notice board, in order to get clarity on what exactly was happening.  Per the notice, the half-elf, Tory, would be playing music for the attendees to participate in the dancing.

Upon seeing this, Ondar wanted to find Tory; he suspected they would be subbed out by the Daystar cultists.  Osric suggested talking to the amphitheatre staff/manager.  Glesni suggested that they ask around at Howl, which reminded everyone that they had yet to break their fast.  "Breakfast beer!" Kaikoa exclaimed in happy anticipation.

Howl was clean and relatively quiet in the morning, although still fairly busy; the proprietor, Ginsburg, was greeting people personally.  The Freelancers secured a table for 6 at 5sp each, and as he was showing them to their seats, Glesni asked, trying to sound like she was excited about it, "Is that guy, Tory, for the dancing show at Daystar zenith, here?!"  Nix also tried to look excited about it.

Ginsburg told them, "Noone by that name here!  But, unless they have an insane amount of money, all the bards camp out."  Glesni did not have to pretend to be surprised, and thanked him for that information.

As they ordered and ate their food, the Freelancers tried to listen to the breakfast chatter to find out what was exciting people.  Apparently, a lot of things!

• Carnivale
• Pteroti music
• Humorous songs
• Line dancing (the Freelancers all exchanged quasi-horrified looks)
• Energetic dancing

Ondar watched some of the exchanges about the latter, trying to figure out if anyone was trying to influence people to attend the energetic dancing, but it didn't seem like it.  Glesni peered closely at the other patrons, trying to determine if anyone was under any illusion, but as far as she could tell, nobody was.

Kaikoa mingled, and asked around, "any of you ever been to one of these dance-circles before?"  He got very earnest replies from people, who told him they hadn't heard of this performer before, but "it's fun to just move!"  <Narrator voice:  Vasily rolled a nat 20 on persuasion.>

Back at the Freelancers' table, Ondar noted that the breakfast beer was also not the drink he was looking for, but Glesni turned the conversation back to where it had been at the notice board.

Glesni:  the sign update person would have heard, if anyone was subbing out.
<Ondar flagged down Ginsburg.>
Ondar:  how would Ondar get something on the sign, just put it?
Ginsburg:  you gotta talk to the amphitheatre manager.  <frowned>  you don't look like a bard.
Ondar:  Ondar is the promote-man.  He <pointed at Osric> performing various feats of juggling.
<Ginsburg raised an eyebrow.>
Ondar:  he's pretty good.
<Osric looked a little nervous.>
Ginsburg:  you probably don't want to bug him now; wait for performance to end.  You want a half-orc named Coban, at amphitheatre.

Ondar nodded, and Ginsburg turned his attention away.  The Freelancers finished up and headed towards the semi-circular amphitheatre.

As the Freelancers strolled to the amphitheatre, Glesni thought about the melee in the Church of Storms dungeon, and asked, "If the people we are looking for are there, won't they recognize Ondar and Kaelani?"

Ondar replied, "If the people we are looking for are there, then we can have this fight without innocent bystanders."  However, the crowd of people also walking to the semi-circular amphitheatre belied Ondar's words.  It was almost time for the morning show:  Maddox, the halfling bard that had been on the Lacks, was going to sing songs.  When Kaikoa realized that was the next event, he stopped at a vendor on the way and bought some apples.

The Freelancers joined the crowd and took seats scattered throughout the audience.  It was clear Maddox was popular and people were looking forward to the performance.  The halfling came out on stage, opening with humorous songs that had a call/response element from the audience.  Soon everyone was engaged and various people were creative with their responses.

Maddox pivoted to a crowd favorite, The Little Gryphon That Could, and then started on his new material, which drew a lot of laughs:  The Hippogryph That Shat on Everything, and of course The Grumpy Wind Sagani, which was obviously about Kaikoa.

For his part, Kaikoa pushed to the front of the crowd and stood in the aisle, in plain sight from stage, and slowly ate an apple, doing his best to look intimidating.  Maddox, who was busy making eye contact with various parts of the audience, only noticed Kaikoa halfway through his song.  He faltered slightly but kept on singing, mocking Kaikoa.

Kaikoa, without any rush, pulled out the second apple, and started slicing it with a handaxe.  Maddox added a verse about a handaxe.  Kaikoa shrugged and did not do anything else, and Maddox finished the song, and set, and went backstage.

Most of the audience cleared out after that, but the Freelancers stayed where they were; as did some bards.  When the audience had left, the bards went to the stage, or backstage, looking to talk to either Maddox or Coban.

Nix started a ritual cast of detect magic, as Kaelani followed the bards, so he could talk to the amphitheatre manager about security.  Behind the fence to stage left, Kaelani discovered Coban, a burly half-orc with purple-tinged green skin, surrounded by lots of bards, all of whom appeared far more desperate than Kaelani, so the Rock sagani waited.

Ondar and Glesni joined Kaelani, with the other Freelancers coming a few minutes later, as Kaelani finally explained to Coban that he was concerned about security and perhaps they could help.  Coban was at first dismissive, "Don't worry, we have security handled," and gestured to a couple of people off to the side.  "We've got a pretty decent staff."

Kaelani asked him if he was sure, and Coban noticed the others and how they were arrayed around the area behind the fence, so that all lines of sight were covered.  His eyes narrowed as he said, "You look pretty professional," then he did a double take.  "I'm not sure I can afford Freelancer rates."   Glesni raised an eyebrow, and it was Ondar's turn to check for illusions, but he found none.  Kaelani looked at Coban, and the staff he'd indicated, trying to see if they were unnaturally tan.

The Freelancers all shifted uncomfortably, and everyone but Osric checked out the staff, including Mercury, perched up top of the fence.  (Osric, convinced that Ondar would suddenly want him to juggle for the amphitheatre manager, was a little off to the side working on juggling.)  Glesni and Mercury did notice one of the human security people was tanned, but they had the tan lines of a working stiff that was outdoors much of the time.  They looked back at Coban.

Glesni:  we're here for a reason; we have a reason to be concerned.
Coban:  about dancing?  We've not had this performer before, but this kind of dancing is not new
Kaelani:  could you describe this Tory person, what they look like?
Coban:  auburn hair, light brown skin
Glesni:  what instrument does he play?
Coban:  Tory has a cittern.
<That's what Petersen played, but not what Petersen looked like.>
Ondar:  do you have ear plugs?  Are you prepared for charm spells?
Coban:  I'm used to them being used on conservatory scouts.  They can take care of themselves.
Ondar:  a lot of stages have trap doors for special effects, etc.  Does this have that?
Coban:  this stage is solid.  Bards have to do their effects with performance or magic.
Ondar:  is your property insurance up to date.
Coban:  please don't destroy the stage, whatever you're planning
Glesni:  we're not planning anything
Ondar:  the more help you have, the better we'll be at, when whatever happens.
<Coban went to a nearby desk and got out 6 tokens, handing them to the Freelancers.>
Coban:  this will give you access to anywhere but backstage; don't mess with the performers.
Ondar:  is Tory here now?
Coban:  no, I don't see him.
Ondar:  having backstage access… we won't mess with anyone unless it needs it, but being back here will let us short-circuit this whole thing.
<Narrator voice:  Matt rolled 3 on persuasion.>
Coban:  I've heard good things about the Freelancers.  If anything does happen, I'm confident in your ability to handle it.

Daystar zenith wasn't for a couple more hours; the Freelancers took leave of Coban, to sort out what to do.

The Freelancers strolled westward towards the inns and such.

Kaikoa:  Ondar had a good point earlier; let's get ear wax.
Ondar:  let's steal candles.
Glesni:  or, buy beeswax?
Kaelani:  or, buy candles.

It turned out that candles were readily available from vendors, because oddly, they were an item would-be campers often forgot to pack.  Kaikoa bought enough candles for all the Freelancers.  But then the group split up.  Ondar went to the stables to get Frostclaw.  The others went back to the semi-circular amphitheatre.  Glesni wanted to be just out of casting range for the stage, and started looking for a place in the trees behind the wall backing the seats.  She found a good spot up in a tree, near the center, and Nix joined her there.

Kaikoa prowled the amphitheatre, looking for staff.  He found a likely-looking janitor.

Kaikoa:  you seen this person, about to perform?
Janitor:  came by yesterday, and got themselves a spot!
Kaikoa:  wasn't there someone before?
Janitor:  no; it's gen'rly done the day before.
Kaikoa:  anyone with tans, right?
Janitor:  what??  No?
Kaikoa:  seen anyone with a sparky javelin?
Janitor:  no, security would have stepped in
Kaikoa:  okay.  If I wanted to have a drink and keep an eye on the stage, where should I go?
Janitor <eyes wide>:  you'll drink it!  I don't want you to drink my stash
Kaikoa:  I know you janitors!  <offered janitor a swig of his rum.>
Janitor:  don't drink it <explains where Kaikoa can sit to stage right>

By this time Ondar had flown back on Frostclaw, and also hunted for a place to position himself.  He found a good place to the house right of Glesni and Nix, about a quarter of the way around the semicircle.

Osric and Kaelani waited.  Kaelani planned to sit in the crowd not too far from stage, to stage left, and Osric would just join the dancers in the front and center.

Glesni, in the tree, turned to Nix.  "Can Mercury watch for this half-elf to show up?  Then we can know if it's Petersen or not."  Nix said "Sure!" and dispatched Mercury to station himself where he could see backstage.  For her part, Glesni took hold of her Silver Raven figurine, and invoked the raven, to help coordinate.

* * session break * *

After a while, people started filing into the amphitheatre.  Some took seats, and others went to the area in front of the stage.  Separately, from their respective hiding places, Ondar and Glesni checked for any illusions as people filed past.  Quite a few had them; some looked prettier, more elegant, or more burly; some tried to hide their origins, like a half-orc disguised to look more human.

Nix cast detect magic.  She saw people light up with a variety of abjuration or evocation; and of course the illusions Ondar and Glesni were observing.  She also noticed the ticket-takers had some nice weapons.

As the audience density grew, Ondar, Kaikoa, and Kaelani used wax from the candles to plug their ears.  Kaelani paused, seeing a couple people in long cloaks and hoods go backstage.  Mercury also saw a person in a long hooded cloak go into the buildings.  Nix told Glesni, who cast animal messenger and sent the raven down to Kaelani.

Hey, Mercury saw someone in a long hooded cloak.

Kaelani cast animal messenger and sent the raven back.

I'll keep an eye out, but not sure I'll see anything.

Coban came out on stage, looking around.  Apparently satisfied, he went backstage, and someone in a hooded cloak came out onstage.  They flung off their cloak, and boomed, "I am TORY, here to wow you with some amazing music for dancing!!!"  The cloak fluttered to the side as he pulled a cittern around from his back, and started playing it skillfully, producing a solid beat for dancing.

All the Freelancers peered at the bard, eyes narrowed.  The half-elf bard was wearing fancy studded leather, with brass studs much like Glesni's, but lacking any telltale Daystar motifs.  Nix, Kaelani, and Ondar all realized he had an illusion up, to lighten his skin tone.  Kaelani, close to the stage but not in with the dancing like Osric was, also noticed Tory's hair had dark roots.  The Rock sagani's eyes narrowed; yeah, that's Petersen.

Petersen finished his first song, changed the beat slightly, as he launched into his second one, this time also singing.  The music was catchy and a lot of people were dancing.  The lyrics were about Nature… actually, as they listened, Osric and Nix realized he was singing that Nature was great because of the Daystar.

Osric realized that many (all?) of his compatriots had earplugs, and he could not really do anything to warn them.  So he summoned his hawk spirit totem and put it on the stage, the spectral hawk circling above.  He hoped the others would make the connection, seeing Osric use an ability he'd only ever used in a combat.

The Freelancers hidden behind the wall noticed, alright.  "Should I shoot him?" Glesni asked Nix quietly, nocking an arrow, but not yet drawing.  "Not quite yet," Nix advised, eyes narrowing.  To their right, Ondar got out his crossbow.

Kaikoa also saw it, and had just about finished his bottle of rum.  He hefted it, smiling, then stood up and chucked it at Petersen.  "Go pick a flower, you poncy bard!" he yelled, sounding a little odd between the effects of the earplugs and the rum.

The hawk spirit totem did something, and the bottle shattered on Petersen's shoulder, but he shrugged it off and danced away from the glass.  He switched his lyrics a little bit, making a joke out of it.  Don't let the assholes get you down, he sang.  The audience kept dancing.

Ondar had seen enough.  He carefully aimed at the cittern, and sent a crossbow bolt very clearly past everything and anything on stage that could have possibly been hurt.

Two people in long black coats immediately flew up from behind the fence flanking the stage, courser pegasi winging towards where Ondar was hidden.  Ondar also flew up on Frostclaw.  When they approached, he said, voice distorted by the ear plugs, "Am looking for whoever shot the crossbow too."

One didn't believe him.  "You didn't see it?" he asked, but Ondar didn't hear him.  Glesni, from her spot watching the stage, glanced at the interchange.  The two humans on the palomino pegasi appeared unarmed, so she looked back at the stage.  Ondar, much closer, saw they were attired as amphitheatre security, although the buttoned-up coats on such a nice day was odd.

Ondar flew over to the bouncer who had spoken.  "Do not see who shot crossbow," he declared, "but the artist on stage is not Tory, but a wanted criminal."  Both bouncers reacted to that dubiously, but Ondar's earplugs prevented him from understanding.  He pulled out an earplug, and asked them "Please repeat.  He's known to charm audiences."  Ondar got out more wax and handed it to the disbelieving bouncer.

The bouncer said, "Bards 'sposed to charm audiences!"  Ondar replied shortly, "Different kind of charmed.  The mind control kind."  The bouncer nodded, a bit concerned, and looked over his shoulder at the stage where Petersen was still singing, to the delight of the dancing audience.  He tapped his compatriot, and they pivoted their mounts to face the stage, the dubious bouncer still next to Ondar.  Ondar nodded, and put the earplug back in his ear.

Below, Osric, surrounded by the dancing people, tried to blend in, but we all already know how bad the Holder dwarf is at such things.  He summoned a bestial spirit eagle, which appeared circling above.

Osric gave up blending in.  The spirit eagle divebombed Petersen, who danced out of the way, but did not play it off this time.  He scowled, and Kaelani stood up from where he'd been seated to stage left.

Kaelani walked to the stage, which was 5' off the ground.  The short Rock sagani climbed up awkwardly, and the nearby dancing audience stared at him in surprise.  "YOU'RE NOT TORY!  J'ACCUSE!" his voice boomed out, perhaps explaining how a cittern was able to provide a strong beat.  Petersen smiled and kept playing.

• Osric also made his way towards the stage, but had a different idea, and cast thorn whip in an attempt to yank Petersen off the stage.  Petersen danced out of the way; he went into his next song, a much janutier tune.
  • The spirit eagle divebombed the half-elf bard again, completely missing, almost a critfail.
  • Suddenly, Glesni's shoulder tingled, as did Ondar's neck, and Kaikoa's ass cheek.  The Goose tattoos!!!  The Goose of Sabotage was paying attention!!!
• Kaikoa, much taller than Kaelani, easily hopped on stage.  From there he peered over the fence to stage right to see if anything was going on.  Then he turned and tossed a pair of darts at Petersen.  One missed, but one struck Petersen and stuck in his shoulder.  The bard's smile became a little strained, but he kept at it.

Nix and Glesni both scowled, and turned to assess the two bouncers near Ondar.  The tightly buttoned-up coats were odd enough to be suspicious.  They were obviously pissed at Ondar, and unhappy about Petersen getting attacked.  Glesni looked back at the stage.  Nobody but Freelancers had attacked anyone.

• Nix made a decision, and used her sorcerous abilities to twin cast chromatic orb at the bouncers near Ondar.  They settled on cold before they struck, powerful enough to give them frostbite.  She then used her broom to fly over to house left; as she did so she replenished her sorcery with a spell.
• Glesni stayed where she was, comforted by the wall, holding her shot until she saw if the bard attacked any Freelancers, or the spirit eagle.
• Petersen moved, preparing to cast some sort of broadcast stun, and Glesni recognized it.
  • Glesni sent two arrows into Petersen's shoulders.  The second one crit.
  • Petersen was undeterred, and a bright sparkly flash fanned out from him in all directions.  Most of the dancers were stunned, as were Kaikoa, Kaelani, and Mercury.
• Mercury shook off the stun.
• Ondar had Frostclaw attack the pegasus nearest to him, ridden by the dubious bouncer.  Frostclaw, surprised, swiped and missed, and then critfailed.
  • The Goose tattoos tingled again!!!  And Frostclaw was suddenly 2" bigger.
  • Ondar became Large, which was slightly less awkward for Frostclaw now, and slashed at the pegasus with his Nightside Scimitar.  The pegasus collapsed and fell, injuring the rider.
  • Large Ondar, relentless, had Frostclaw just dive on the fallen bouncer.  The other bouncer tried to punch Large Ondar and missed, but both Frostclaw and the fallen bouncer were hurt.
• The fallen bouncer wriggled out from under Frostclaw, stood up, and unbuttoned his coat.  The inner lining was very reflective gold, and the light of the Daystar reelected from it, blinding both Large Ondar and Frostclaw.  He stepped back.
  • Large Ondar swung blindly at the retreating bouncer, but crit failed.
  • The Goose tattoos tingled!!!  But there was no visible effect.  Later, Ondar would realize that all the silver on his person had transformed into gold.

Ondar was totally confused at why The Goose tattoo was tingling; he was too focussed on the altercation.  Glesni and Kaikoa, however, made the connection:  for some reason, and in its own sabotage-y way, The Goose of Sabotage had chosen to act and be involved with this battle.

• The other bouncer flew to where Nix was on her broom; he had not enjoyed being struck with a small orb of frost.  From his perch on the pegasus, he tried to punch her multiple times, but only one landed, and he failed to knock her off the broom.
• The back door to the stage opened, admitting a hooded and cloaked person who revealed herself to be Gillian when she dramatically flung off her cloak.  She put a hand on Petersen's shoulder, and said "Daystar bless you; feel better."  Petersen was healed.
  • Finding themselves face to face with Gillian, both Kaikoa and Kaelani's faces went flat.
• Behind Gillian, Ethan emerged, wearing some long, drapey, gaudy, sequined, garish yellow bullshit vest.  He was carrying Bright Thunder, and all the Freelancers' faces went flat.
  • Ethan walked to the edge of the stage in front of Osric, and jumped down.  Osric had time to notice a tinge of gold at one end of the encased lightning bolt before Ethan stabbed him twice with Bright Thunder.
  • Ethan murmured "Daystar's Blessing!" and burst into glorious Daystar flames.
• Those in the audience who were not stunned screamed, and those near Osric and Ethan where badly burned by Ethan's radiance.  Someone collapsed, others flinched away or fled, many were screaming.  And yet still Petersen played.

Kaelani felt like his brain was encased in yellow light.  Anyhow he appeared to the others to be stunned.

• Osric found himself also burned by the light coming from Ethan.  Unhappy at the injured bystanders, he swung his quarterstaff at Ethan, but missed.
  • The spirit eagle flew by Ethan, piercing him with its beak.  Despite avoiding attacks and dodging most of the radiance, the spirit eagle was still badly burned by Ethan.
• Kaikoa also felt like his brain was encased in yellow light, and although his tattoo of The Goose tingled and tingled, he also stayed stunned.
• It was not lost on Nix that Gillian had healed the bard.  She broomed away from the bouncer on the pegasus, who punched her and crit.  She stayed on the broom and again twin cast chromatic orb, this time on the bouncer near her and also on Gillian.  The orbs settled on cold before they struck, and the one striking the bouncer crit.
• Glesni wanted to free up Large Ondar and Nix from the distractions of the bouncers.  Without leaving her spot, she sent two arrows into the bouncer near Ondar, killing him.  Heart pounding, she then shot the bouncer near Nix, who toppled, his frostbit corpse still bound in the saddle of the confused palomino pegasus.  Glesni smoothly retargeted and sank another arrow into Petersen, trying to free people up from the stun.
  • Then Glesni reconsidered, remembering Ethan could cast eldritch blast.  She retreated further into the tree, more staying aloft with the Winged Boots than awkwardly balancing on branches.
• Petersen changed his song to praising the Daystar, granting bardic inspiration to Ethan.  Then he cast heat metal on Kaelani's plate mail, and the paladin started to cook, his blueish plate visibly shimmering.
• Mercury dashed towards Nix, but not directly there, as he wanted to stay away from badness.
• Large Ondar and Frostclaw were both still seeing spots from that bouncer's cloak lining.  The quinametzin pulled the wax out of his ears, trying to improve his threat assessment.
  • Glesni called out, "I got him, Ondar!"  So Large Ondar had Frostclaw dash to the stage.  The two of them were confused, and The Goose tattoos tingled.
  • Still seeing spots, Large Ondar slashed at Petersen with his Nightside Scimitar.  Except he didn't actually; he slashed Gillian instead.  He still invoked his fire rune, and chains of fire wrapped Gillian and burned her.
    • Gillian collapsed on the ground, wrapped in the fire chains.
  • Large Ondar slashed again, at Petersen for real this time, and critfailed.  His tattoo of The Goose tingled, distinctly with amusement and joy.  Osric and the eagle spirit saw a pseudodragon shimmer into existence next to the eagle spirit.
• Ethan, still glowing, attacked Osric twice with Bright Thunder again, but missed both times.  He looked back up onstage, and said to Petersen (without even a flicker of empathy for Gillian), "Time to go."  Petersen nodded, but kept playing.
  • Ethan didn't even notice that Large Ondar had invoked his stone rune on him.
• More of the audience near Ethan expired from his bright aura, and many audience shook off the stun.  Screams echoed through the amphitheatre as some fled, and some tried to help their friends.

The yellow light drained away from Kaelani's head, and he discovered he was extremely hot.  Not wishing to become a Lava sagani, the paladin prayed, loudly, for the cooling rains of Ua.

• Osric managed to avoid more of the burning light from Ethan this time, but was still injured enough that he twice-upcast a cure wounds on himself.
  • The spirit eagle attacked Petersen, taking advantage of nearby Large Ondar.  It struck the bard, who stopped neither playing nor keeping heat metal on Kaelani.
• Kaikoa struggled with the yellow light, which seemed to be burning the alcohol out of his brain.  He was vaguely aware of various tingling.
• Nix twice-update a chromatic orb, right at Petersen's face.  The orb struck the half-elf with cold, which disrupted his singing, but not the heat metal spell.
• Glesni shot Petersen twice with her arrows, and the second one interrupted his heat metal spell.  She used her Winged Boots to move forward out of her hiding spot, to set up a piercing shot later.
• Petersen, who was starting to look like a porcupine with Glesni's arrows, stepped up to Ethan.  However Frostclaw was enraged, and swiped the bard across the face with his claws.  Frostclaw crit and the half-elf dropped at the edge of the stage, bleeding across the face.
• Mercury stayed where he was, ready to dodge if Ethan noticed him.
• Large Ondar had Frostclaw put all four paws carefully on the down'd Petersen; he did not want Frostclaw cutting his paws on the bits of the broken bottle.  Then Frostclaw leapt at Ethan, attacking him.  Frostclaw bit the glowing human and then again crit with his claws.  Finally, Large Ondar brought his Nightside Scimitar down on him, cutting through Ethan's collarbone and … continuing.

Ethan stopped glowing, and fell.  Large Ondar dropped his Nightside Scimitar to catch Bright Thunder before anyone could find out if the glass javelin would break if it landed on the edge of the stage.

Kaikoa, and the rest of the attendees, broke out of the stun.  Now the immediate danger was perceived to be past, the screaming started in earnest.  A gate to stage left opened, and Coban came out with his other security folks; from the look of them, they had also been stunned.  Glesni, Ondar, and Nix noted they were dressed the same as the two slain bouncers, but their coats were neither buttoned up nor lined with gold.

Above the screaming audience, a confused palomino pegasus circled, her rider an inanimate corpse bowed across her withers.

 * * session break * * 

Kaikoa looked at the Daystar cultists in front of him, and at Ondar holding Bright Thunder.  "Guys, what did I miss?!" he called out.

Coban and his security were moving into crowd control mode.  Assuring himself they had things well in hand, Coban turned to head to the stage where there were three down'd people, Kaelani, and Kaikoa.  At that point, three Daystar elementals burst out of the now burned and desiccated bodies of Petersen, Ethan, and Gillian.  <Narrator voice:  I will continue to call them these names, for clarity.>  Screams broke out anew from the remaining audience, and some of the security.

Kaelani, burned by their radiance, immediately cast thunderous smite and struck elemental Petersen with his magical rainstick, but the paladin was burned a bit.  The elemental, being somewhat insubstantial, was pushed by the smite entirely through Frostclaw and Large Ondar, ending up on the other side of the winged bear.  Kaelani then smacked elemental Ethan with his magical rainstick, but again got burned a bit.

• Osric, also burned by the elementals' radiance, disengaged and moved to the other side of Large Ondar. 
  • The spirit eagle flew by elemental Petersen to strike with its beak.  It was burned by its radiance before it struck.  The beak damage was reduced by the elemental's lack of substance, and the contact burned the spirit eagle a lot.
• The three Daystar elementals darkened, and then all three burst out with light radiating in all directions.
  • Kaelani, Large Ondar, Frostclaw, and Kaikoa were close enough to be burned by the light from all three, and Kaelani crumpled on the stage.
  • Osric was just close enough to Petersen and Ethan elementals, but was also badly burned.
  • The spirit eagle evaporated and was no more.
  • The circling pegasus had one wing burned by elemental Petersen, and screamed in pain.
  • Coban was burned by elemental Ethan, but did not scream in pain.
  • The audience hadn't all fled, but now more were down.
• Kaikoa, burned even more by elemental Petersen in front of him, took a swing at it with his defaced Daystar scimitar and missed, then swung again and critfailed.
  • His tattoo of the Goose tingled with glee, as did Large Ondar's and Glesni's; and a quadrone phased in above and behind Kaikoa's left shoulder, armed with a short bow.
  • Kaikoa took a huge swig of rum from his flask, invoking his amulet of the drunkard to heal his burns, and then surged to slash elemental Petersen twice with his Daystar scimitar, its magic causing the elemental to tatter and tear.
  • The contact burned Kaikoa again, but not as much.
  • Not wanting to be caught by that burst of light again, Kaikoa backed off by 30', the elemental's slash missing him.
• The quadrone, having assessed its new situation, flew up and then shot 4 arrows at the Petersen elemental.  Three missed, but one of them pierced it.
• Nix took a good look at these elementals, trying to deduce if they were immune or vulnerable to anything in particular, and concluded they would not be damaged by radiance or poisons.  Then she used her sorcerous ability to twin cast chromatic orb at elemental Petersen and Ethan.  The orbs settled on cold before striking, damaging both elementals.
  • Nix also noticed they were floating about the ground, but wasn't sure if they could fly.  She flew up next to where Glesni was floating on her Winged Boots near the back.
• Glesni sank two arrows into elemental Petersen, and moved 30' to house right, considering how best to line the elementals up for piercing arrow.

• Mercury flew 40' straight up, away from all that burning light.
• Large Ondar and Frostclaw were burned by the nearby elementals, and this was the last straw.  Large Ondar dismounted, and had Frostclaw disengage and fly towards Glesni.
  • He hefted Bright Thunder warily, a sentiment echoed back to him from the weapon.  "Okay Bright Thunder," he said, "Ondar doesn't entirely trust you, and Ondar knows you don't trust Ondar, but let's get this done."
  • Large Ondar turned and stabbed elemental Petersen with Bright Thunder, the javelin piercing the elemental magically.
  • The elemental looked tattered and dim, so Large Ondar did it again, and elemental Petersen exploded into a cloud of glitter and ash.
  • Adrenaline surging, Large Ondar fed Kaelani a healing potion.

Kaelani lay there blinking and thinking, with nearby elemental Ethan burning off most of the efficacy of the healing potion.  He clapped his hands on his own shoulder, applying all his lay on hands heals to himself.  Then he stood up, pivoted around elemental Ethan, and cast misty step to move 30' away.

• Osric, unhappy at being so burned, twice-upcast healing word on Large Ondar.  Then he cast an uplevel'd cure wounds on himself, and moved to house left, away from any burning light-bursting-from-an-elemental.
• The pegasus, burned by the Daystar elementals' radiance, flew off.
• Elemental Gillian darkened, then again burst out with light radiating in all directions.
  • Everyone was out of the burnination range but Large Ondar and Kaikoa's quadrone, and they were both only burned a little.
  • Large Ondar invoked his stone rune on elemental Gillian, stunning it.
• Elemental Ethan bashed Large Ondar twice, burning him with its radiance.  The second time, Large Ondar used stone's endurance to shrug most of it off.
• Kaikoa moved slightly towards elemental Ethan and threw a couple darts at it.  The darts pierced the creature somehow.
• The quadrone flew towards Osric, and shot 4 arrows at elemental Ethan.  2 missed, one hit, and the last one crit.
• Nix prepared to cast an uplevel'd cure wounds on Osric through Mercury, the next time the winged cat could touch him.
• Glesni sank two arrows into elemental Ethan, and moved 30' forward and to house right, determined to line the elementals up for piercing arrow.
• Mercury flew down to Osric, and booped the Holder dwarf nose-to-nose.  Nix's cure wounds took effect, to Osric's happy surprise.  Then Mercury flew back up to where he'd been.
• Large Ondar was burned by elemental Ethan, and attacked it twice with Bright Thunder.  He fumbled a little each time, but called on his luck to convert the fumble into piercing the elemental with the sparkling glass javelin.

Kaelani, feeling a bit more together, clanked over to elemental Ethan, and was again burned by its brightness, for all that it was tattered around the edges.  Calling upon Ua, he struck it with his magical rainstick, and swaths of light tattered and drifted away in trails of glitter.  The Rock sagani struck again, and the rainstick noise was loud as the Daystar elemental dissipated in a mass of glitter.

• Osric, inspired by Mercury, walked up to Large Ondar and cast an uplevel'd cure wounds, healing the big quinametzin.
• Coban and the security guards, overcoming shock and fear, started moving through the people who were burned by the elemental bursts, applying CPR and healer's kits.
• Elemental Gillian threw off the effects of the stone rune, obviously trying to assess what had happened much like Kaikoa had when he threw off his stun.
• Kaikoa exclaimed, "Gillian!  You were a bitch in real life and now I'm gonna kill your stupid spirit!"  He walked up to the elemental and was burned by its radiance.
  • Kaikoa slashed twice at elemental Gillian, missing it entirely.
  • However the exchange was invigorating and Kaikoa got his second wind.
• The quadrone shot 4 arrows at elemental Gillian, three of which struck.
• Nix cast a twice-uplevel'd chromatic orb at elemental Gillian.  It settled on cold, but was pure ice and larger than usual when it crit the elemental and snuffed out half its light.
• Glesni remembered that giant beam in the The Church of Storms courtyard, and looked up to see if they were doomed.  All she saw was a nice day.
  • She sent a seeking arrow at elemental Gillian, but it avoided the worst of the damage.
  • Then she followed up with a normal arrow.
• Mercury started following the loose pegasus; it was injured so the winged cat didn't fall too far behind.
• Large Ondar was burned by elemental Gillian, and struck it twice with Bright Thunder.  The elemental exploded into glitter dust and a flash of light.

A hush fell over the auditorium as glitter dust rained down on Kaikoa and Kaelani.

Some murmuring started up, and some people were moaning, as the panicked pegasus still circled overhead.  Nix, on her broom, flew up after the poor thing.  With Mercury's help, she was able to grab the reins and bring the trembling creature down, soothing her and helping with the burned wing.

Kaikoa looked at the corpses on stage.  They were toasted to crumbly ash, kind of covered with glitter.  He concluded the Daystar elementals really did dissipate.  Scowling slightly, he grabbed abandoned cups of beer, and poured it on the corpses to desecrate them.  As he did so, he found some items:

• A Daystar holy symbol on Gillian
• The remains of a daggar and a burned cittern on Petersen
• A sunstone orb on Ethan, and also a Daystar scimitar like his own, except without the "FUCK THE" scrawled on the etched blade.
• Also a nice tooled leather bag with a nice strap.

Glesni came to the stage, and Kaikoa handed her the bag.  It was obviously a bag of holding, but Glesni wasn't fully sure if it was the one they'd seen on the glaive-bearer at the Church of Storms.  She glanced at Kaikoa, then set down her bow and  turned the bag inside out onto the stage.  Its contents were not terribly remarkable:

• Another Daystar scimitar
• 2 Daystar holy symbols
• Some food
• Odds & ends
• 81 gp

Glesni shrugged at Kaikoa, then, remembering the quadrone, picked up her bow again and nocked an arrow.  The quadrone "beeped" at them.  Kaikoa looked up, and "beeped" back at it.  Kaelani looked up, and "booped" at it.  The Goose tattoos gently pulsed as the quadrone faded out, and Ondar shrank to normal size.

The Goose tattoos seemed to be telling Ondar, Kaikoa, and Glesni "good job".  Kaelani suddenly had the sensation of cooling rains, as Ua communicated approval.  Kaikoa's holy symbol of Whatitiri was buzzing with an approving tingle.  Glesni felt, briefly, an approving wall around her emplaced by Rohe, centered on her holy symbol.

The four Freelancers looked at each other in complete surprise.  Nix and Osric, who did not look to any of the gods in particular, did not get any of these sensations.  Kaelani frowned, picked up a Daystar holy symbol, and examined it closely.  It was just an object; nothing special.  Glesni, thoughtful, turned back to looking at the bag of holding and its contents.

Kaikoa walked up to Ondar, and tapped the glass javelin.  "Hello!" he said to it, wondering if a sentient weapon could talk.  Ondar felt from the weapon a yearning and an excitement, so he handed Bright Thunder to Kaikoa.

Everyone but Glesni saw Kaikoa's holy symbol flash, and a susurration of thunder.  The lightning within the glass cleared the yellow discolouration.  Kaikoa was made aware that Bright Thunder was happy.  The Daystar was smote, the enemies of Church of Storms were slain.  We should do more, it told him, and the Wind sagani's eyes widened.

Kaikoa:  this thing is cool!!!
Coban <walked up shamefacedly>:  what the shit just happened
Ondar <harshly>:  where should we send the bill?
<Coban was taken aback.>
Kaelani:  so, they worshipped the Daystar; we've been tracking them a while.  It makes no sense they do this, it makes less sense why they get powers.
Glesni <packed up the bag of holding>:  we did try to warn you

Kaikoa took the Daystar holy symbol off Gillian, and held it up for Coban to see.  Then he tossed it up into the air and crit it with Bright Thunder.  Tiny bits of the item scattered in glitter in all directions.

Kaikoa:  we should get out of here.
Ondar:  was not kidding about the bill.
Coban:  probably the same place I will send the bill!  <looked over at Nix> …these others [the two security guards with the gold-lined cloaks] were just hired.  I suspect they were with these Daystar ... worshippers.

He gestured, and the other security guards grabbed the body of the fellow who'd been on the pegasus.  "Take the pegasus, please," he told the Freelancers, "we want nothing to do with it."  This decision brought all discussion of a bill to an end; a trained pegasus is worth a lot of coin.

Wordlessly, Glesni retrieved the two other Daystar holy symbols from the bag of holding, and handed them both to Kaikoa.  He tossed them in the air and stabbed them with Bright Thunder, the weapon almost vibrating with glee.

But while they didn't discuss it further, their world was shaken.  …why do the gods care about the Daystar?

* * end of last session * *

While others arrived to help Coban with the injured people, the Freelancers returned Frostclaw and the wounded pegasus to the stables, where they found out her name was Ikarus.  Even while there, they were starting to field questions about what had happened, which increased as they visited the dockmaster to book passage back to Duquesne.

They secured passage for 350gp on the sail airship Tone, whose captain/owner was Choquette, a half-elf bard.  Tone was already in the docks; Choquette scheduled for a performance the next morning in the circular amphitheatre.  The airship's lines vaguely suggested music floating on the air.

The Freelancers returned to Howl to eat and found themselves surrounded by folks asking what had happened.  Kaikoa's unfriendliness to bards was not enough to deter questions about the glass javelin, so he took the bag of holding and, apologetically, put Bright Thunder within.

Two bards were more calm, and joined them for lunch: Nimble Claws On Strings, who had slept next to the exhausted Hiripa on the Lacks, and her partner Silvaar, a Silver dragonborn.  They had a more quiet conversation about what happened (well, as quiet as Howl allowed), and other bards withdrew but listened.  Some peeled off and pelted to the semicircular amphitheatre to talk to Coban or anyone else still there.

The Freelancers rested that afternoon then attended Nimble and Silvaar's performance in the evening.  After all, they still had the tokens from Coban.

The next day, the quality of the bards asking questions had gone up, as Waypoint Fame's visitors rolled over and the focus of people shifted with the wind.  The Freelancers explored the skylith, attended Choquette's performance, and watched another Carnivale show, which had more animals, to Osric's delight.

Tone's departure from Waypoint Fame was interesting; most of  the Freelancers hadn't actually seen a sail airship launch from a waypoint.  The mate, a cleric of Hau, stood in the stern, and the airship deployed its sails on all three masts.  Then the mate cast gust of wind to push the airship clear of the waypoint and its boundary.

Kaikoa loved it.

Once they were clear of Waypoint Fame, he pulled the glass javelin out of the bag of holding again.  The mate hadn't been there when they booked the travel, and his eyes widened at the sight of Bright Thunder.  Kaikoa smiled, hefted it, and repeated, "This thing is so cool!"  But his eyes were focussed elsewhere, as he told the weapon it was going home.

Nine days later, after a voyage notable only for how quiet the airship itself was and the Freelancers sorting out division of their acquired wealth, the Tone docked at Cliffshadow docks.  The Freelancers debarked with their mounts and captured wyvern, and ran interference through one of the big tunnels and the Cliffshadow streets to get it back to Freelancers Tavern.

Once there, Tahia and Sovelai examined the wyvern (as did almost all the other Freelancers not out on a mission).  They discussed how to stable it with Tomtom, who was delighted and disappointed, knowing it would not be there very long.  Kaikoa showed Arnari Bright Thunder, and it was clearly odd to her to see the weapon in the hands of anyone but Waiola Vaina.  As they talked, every once in a while a tiny spark moved through Kaikoa's hair.

After dropping off the mounts, the Freelancers walked to Church of Storms with Arnari.  Activity stopped as they entered, and Bright Thunder's encased lightning brightened.  An acolyte sprinted for Waiola as Adrian Bryant showed them into the central, circular area.  The walls were decorated with mosaics of storms in semi-precious stones, and the roof was open to the sky in a way that the air within was never still, and one would always feel the wind.

Kaikoa really liked the windy feeling.  Bright Thunder was ecstatic, and little lightning played around Kaikoa's fingers.

Waiola entered, and Kaikoa felt a yearning feeling from Bright Thunder.  The Wind sagani's hair had been trimmed to be a bit more even; where it had burned off had maybe ⅜-inch grown in, jet black, and she had the rest pulled to the side stylishly.  Lightning crackled in her hair, not as much as before.  She looked at Arnari, but her eyes were drawn to the weapon in Kaikoa's hands, and narrowed slightly as she realized Kaikoa had attuned to it.

Kaikoa, partially prompted by the glass javelin, presented it to her.  "Here is your cool weapon!" he said, his voice echoing oddly in the wind chamber.  "Those fucking cultists tried to corrupt it, but we took care of  that, and them!"  Waiola accepted it, and the lightning crackling through her hair grew brighter when Bright Thunder was in her hands. 

Waiola:  thank all of you.  I look forward to hearing how this mission went.  Adrian, please pay them the promised 750gp.
<Adrian left the wind chamber.>
Kaelani:  we killed the three cultists who had broken out, and they turned into Daystar elementals.
Ondar:  we destroyed those as well.
Kaikoa:  this thing <gestured at Bright Thunder> was ecstatic when I used it to destroy the Daystar holy symbols.
<Waiola and Arnari both raised their eyebrows.>
Kaelani:  when the elementals were destroyed, I could feel Ua's approval radiating from my holy symbol.
Kaikoa:  also the Thunder god, from my holy symbol.
Glesni:  Lord Rohe made it obvious that he approved.
<Ondar just nodded.  Arnari looked very surprised.>
Kaelani:  what do you know/have not told us about this cult, anyhow?
Waiola:  I would interpret all that as Bright Thunder – and these gods – are not liking the Daystar Cult.
Ondar:  where do these cultists get their power, if not from a god?
Waiola:  I honestly don't know.

Waiola did look genuinely concerned, but at that moment Adrian returned and handed Arnari a string of 45 platinum, then the others a string of 67 platinum and 5 gold each.

Waiola smiled, and said, "Let's exit here and go somewhere else to hear the tale.  I am sure Freelancers Recordkeeper will need to know for posterity."  They turned to leave, but the cleric walked to the middle of the wind chamber, and raised Bright Thunder over her head.  Lightning shot up into the sky from the javelin's tip, echoing against the walls; then they left, chatting, to have a drink and tell tales.

* * fin * *

• Glesni → lvl6!
• Osric → lvl6!