Gryphon Egg Raid

Dominic, Kairos, and Lorcan had just returned the day before from the Pirates Dream river, whereupon they, with Manu and Timmy had encountered & slain a grell which for some reason had yielded a Feywild Shard.  Manu was delighted, but while they did not begrudge the hanyou this find, somehow Dominic, Kairos, and Lorcan felt less satisfied with this outcome than normal.  Also, Glesni, Kaelani, Kaikoa, Nix, Ondar, and Osric were gone, shipped out the evening before to augment the Commerce Freelancers in Ripa Daneo.  Apparently the whole tavern was abuzz about the wyvern they'd captured, and were talking about the events on Waypoint Fame.

So it was not hard to persuade Minji and Ka to talk to Arnari about taking another mission.

The five Freelancers filed into Arnari's office to talk to the half-elf bard, as she played what sounded like some experimental chord combinations on her harp, humming to herself.

Dominic went over to look at the maps on the wall again.  He could swear something had changed.

Ka slouched into the most comfortably-appointed chair, discovering to his disappointment that it wasn't that comfortable.

Minji settled on the bearskin rug, and immediately pulled out the tome she'd been carrying lately, studying its contents.

Kairos sat in an appropriately-sized chair with a cushion, then frowned slightly.

Lorcan sat front and center in the semicircle, then assumed a pose of polite attention, fingers steepled under his chin.

Arnari set the harp aside, made a notation, then shuffled through the other papers, gathering them quickly.

• First, House Aldous, of course, has hippogryph eggs.
• But I also think the 5 of you might be able – if you are careful – go into the mountains north of Three Rivers for gryphon eggs.  House Liona will pay 150gp/egg.
• (House Aldous will pay 100gp/egg, if you go for hippogryph eggs.)
• Also, as always, there is pollution…

Ka interrupted.  "We still haven't figured out who's doing it."

Arnari answered, "We know who is doing it, and promised to stop; he is paying for these missions.  But I'm really suspecting he hasn't stopped.  I am going to get a group to check.  As usual, the pay is 100gp each plus an uncommon potion."

Everyone in the room looked at Arnari, even Dominic stopped looking at the maps.  This tableau prompted her to say, "I had been intending to send the group who just left for Ripa Daneo, but that Daystar cultist breakout was more urgent."  She paused.  "The other two missions…"

• Go recheck the grblin cave to the north of Marshfork.

Minji interrupted, looking up from her book.  "What."  Arnari repeated herself.  Minji said, "I didn't know about a first check."  One of her tails started waving lazily.

Arnari explained, "This is the second recheck.  A year and a half ago, Freelancers cleared the cave of grblin raiders that had been attacking traffic on the roads into Marshfork.  Then earlier this year, Evvie, Laki, and Aleki rechecked it, got captured, and had to be rescued.  So if you take this one, beware of grblins!  Keep watch at night!"

Arnari drew her breath, and checked her papers.  "Final mission."

• Travel all the way to Hindmarsh.  Bullywugs are attacking the herb gatherers in the marsh.  House Ha'aheo wants, minimally, to find any bullywug encampment; if too well-fortified, retreat and report for a stronger group.

Lorcan raised an eyebrow; he had his own reasons for wanting to visit Hindmarsh.

Lorcan:  and, if not?
Arnari:  up to you
Kairos:  bully some wugs
Arnari:  this pays 150gp/person, grblins 100gp/person
Lorcan <fingers still steepled>:  most interested in pollution, or bullywugs.
Ka:  just here to party
Kairos:  bullywugs first choice, pollution, or grblin cave
Minji:  I have no mount, am willing to work for that.  Also am interested in goblins, that sounds kind of cool.
Ka <looked at Minji>:  let's do gryphon eggs!  Let's be pioneers.
Kairos:  sure.
<Everyone nodded agreement.>
Lorcan:  what does this pay again?
Arnari:  150gp/egg or 12 eggs for one singular gryphon.  Kairos, you seem to prefer at range, so that's good.
Minji <delighted>:  alright!  Gryphons!
Arnari:  150gp/egg is also just for regular gryphons.

As they headed downstairs, Lorcan encouraged the others to buy sacks for the eggs, and blankets to keep them warm.  He headed to the Freelancers quartermaster, a female Maker gnome named Waywocket, and bought a dozen sacks and 3 blankets himself (as well as rations for the travel).

Three of the five Freelancers did have mounts.  Lorcan had Bandit, a pony courser pegasus who could easily carry the Pastoral gnome, but no additional passengers.  But Kairos had Catherine, a full-sized pegasus who would be able to take an additional rider; and of course Ka had his beloved Ohenui, the winged bear.

Thus arrayed, the Freelancers flew through nice weather to Cliffgate by evening, and stayed at The Sleepy Dog Inn, which charged 8sp/person and 5sp/mount for the night.  However the weather turned overnight, and they flew in relatively nasty wind & rain towards Three Rivers.  Soaking wet, they ended up in the farming hamlet Ophelia, begging on the good graces of the farmers there for a place to stay out of the rain.

The Freelancers left Ophelia the next day, the only trace of the prior days' weather being a gentle breeze.  They arrived at Three Rivers that evening, and secured rooms at The Mule's Rest inn.   Once they were settled in, they hit the tavern downstairs.  Because of the nearby Bardic Conservatory, the tavern had quite a few good bards providing the entertainment, as well as students.  Sometimes the students weren't as good as they thought they were.

Lorcan got some mead, and tried to listen to the conversations around him for anyone discussing hazards to the north.  However it had been some time since Lorcan could sip mead and casually listen to the parade of bards here – not since right after encountering Raquelle – and he was very distracted by the music.

Dominic noticed a couple people talking about following the Samset River all the way north.  They had been attacked to the west by gryphons.

Minji was enjoying the music, and talking to various people, learning about the area.  The other times she had visited Three Rivers was on the way to deal with that necromancer's lair to the south.

Kairos, when Dominic mentioned overhearing the two people talking, just slid over to talk to them.  "Sorry, couldn't help overhearing; my compatriots and I are looking to go gryphon hunting."  The other two were fur trappers, and regarded the bald Holder dwarf with a longbow suspiciously; they gave a very general description of where to go west of the river.

Ka was unflappable.  He got a whiskey on the rocks, and enjoyed the drink and the music.

The Freelancers rose the next morning to find it was overcast and rainy, but they did not want to delay for nicer weather, so they took off following the river north.  Dominic rode with Ka on Ohenui, and Minji rode with Kairos on Catherine.  They got to the main fork in the river by the end of the day, and Dominic spotted a good campsite a little way back from the river.  It was close enough to water the mounts (and the people), but not close enough to get washed out if the rain got intense.

They kept a watch that evening, but there were no evidence of gryphons.  The rain let up, and owls hooted, but the watchers couldn't tell if they were close by owls, or less-close-by owl gryphons.

The next day was clear, and the Freelancers were sure they could fly to where the fur trappers had been attacked.  They started heading there, but discussed their approach as they travelled.  They didn't want to fly in "dumb" and simply get attacked for their pains.

By Daystar zenith the trees started getting denser, and Kairos pointed out, "we can't see them from the ground; we should be in the air."  Still, the group stuck near the treetops, keeping an eye out as they went.  Well, except Ka, who was trying to engage Dominic in conversation.

As the afternoon passed, the Freelancers got close to the spur of a mountain.  Dominic and Kairos spotted two nests on a ledge with an overhang above.  They saw no gryphons, but the nests were really big.  They pointed these out to the others, but from their angle at the treetops, it was impossible to tell if the nests had any eggs.  The Freelancers angled upwards with their mounts, and saw to their delight the nests were filled with eggs!  Lorcan saw they were kind of pointy with dark speckles, and called out to the others he was 99% sure they were martial gryphon eggs.

Dominic and Kairos glanced around.  No gryphons were nearby, but they noticed one flying aways north.

Ka had Ohenui land on the nest that was further north, which had 11 eggs!  He and Dominic climbed down into the nest and started loading the eggs into sacks, while Dominic kept an eye on that gryphon, which was definitely flying towards them.  Kairos had Catherine land on the other nest; she was shaky and almost kicked an egg.  It too had 11 eggs, and he started loading eggs, with an eye out for pissed-off parents.

Lorcan circled on Bandit, crying out, "Who needs sacks?"  Kairos stuck his head up, "Gonna need some over here!"  Lorcan landed Bandit on the nest, and handed Kairos sacks, and also distributed the extra blankets he bought to Kairos and Minji, who was helping Kairos.

The Freelancers kept loading eggs, quickly but not too quickly.  Dominic called out, "That gryphon is coming pretty fast, and might get here in 3 winks!" <Narrator voice:  a wink is 6 seconds, as dictated by The Cat Nebula's pulsar.>  Lorcan quickly dismounted and also loaded an egg.

Ka and Dominic loaded another egg, then the latter called out "It will be here in 2 winks!"  Lorcan replied, "so, we can get one more egg."  Kairos and Minji loaded another egg and mounted on Catherine.  Lorcan loaded another egg but stayed in the nest, holding up a hand at Kairos.  Ka and Dominic loaded another egg and mounted up.

Lorcan handed Kairos and egg, loaded another one, then dashed like a rogue to mount Bandit.  Bandit and Catherine dashed away from the nest, and so did Ohenui.

The Freelancers had lifted 18 eggs.  The martial gryphon, seeing them, screamed.

Ka and Kairos flew their mounts; Dominic and Minji focussed on trying to be still and not throw off the flyers' balance.  Lorcan, who knew Bandit was faster than the others, threw up a minor illusion of a brightly-coloured pony pegasus behind them, hoping to distract the angry gryphon.  The gryphon screeched and flapped as it chased them, but they had a good lead on it.

Ka started to do some fancy flying, and Dominic cast guidance to help him; Lorcan dropped to the treetops, zigzagging a little and keeping up the minor illusion.

On Catherine, it was a different story.

Minji:  have we decided to fight, or not?
Kairos:  I dunno.
Minji:  should I fire a warning shot?
Kairos:  I was going to do that, next
Minji:  I think we should give it an idea we are not to be messed with!

Minji turned and cast eldritch blast at the chasing gryphon.  The blast looked like blue-green lightning, and petered out before reaching the creature, but it slowed slightly, cautious.  It perhaps was just trying to chase the intruders off; it had not yet seen the raided nest.

Ka continued Ohenui's fancy flying, with more guidance from Dominic.  Kairos sent a warning shot back at the martial gryphon, which ruffled its feathers, startling it.  Lorcan increased Bandit's zig-zagging but wasn't really looking where he was going, and hit the treetops somewhat.

Minji:  it's still out of range.  Kairos, you think we need another deterrent?
Kairos:  I think I just did that!
Minji:  hm, okay, I will ready eldritch blast.

The gryphon was slowing, and putting some energy into dominance displays instead of chasing the Freelancers further.  The Freelancers kept heading southward, and it turned back to the nests.

Catherine slowed to a normal pace, and Kairos and Minji were chattering nervously.  "Wow, big gryphon."

Lorcan, Ka, and Dominic kept looking around.  They were sure nothing else was chasing them.  Pretty sure.

"Should the mounts rest?" Minji called out, and Ka replied, "We should change course and go a little while, before camping."  So they followed the river to the large bend, then headed east into the forest.  Dominic easily located a camp that had shelter from wind, rain… and gryphons; a bit of a half-cave nestled into the root of the mountain.

They settled down into a camp, and Lorcan took the first watch, but nobody got much sleep, because he was far more wound up than he was willing to admit.  After it got dark, every time an owl hooted, Lorcan cried "Owl gryphons coming for eggs!" waking up the others, and sending blowgun needles into the bushes.

Finally, grumbling, Minji took over the watch, and everything was fine, and continued to be fine as the night passed, until Dominic took over for the dawn watch.  As Kairos dropped back asleep, Dominic thought back to what he'd observed as they got chased, and decided he was sure the martial gryphon had been studying the ground, and had kept track of where they'd gone, and was heading towards them through the bushes.  Thus did Dominic wind himself up, and every time the leaves rustled, he jumped up and grabbed his quarterstaff, casting shillelagh.

Anyhow, the night and morning passed without much incident, although the Freelancer had a longer and yet less restful rest than they wanted.  Because of this, one of the eggs had started to get cold, and they were further delayed by Minji and Ka using prestidigitation, very carefully, to warm it.

They arrived back in Three Rivers with their prizes after dark, and did not spend any time in the tavern at all beyond what was needed to eat, lest the eggs get cold.

Three days later, on Chaostag of the last prime of the year, the five Freelancers arrived at House Liona, west of the Park in Parkside.  Upon learning they were here with eggs to claim the bounty, the doorman immediately directed them to the back of the house to talk to their head of House.

Kailani, a tall, wiry Wind sagani woman, whose shoulder-length hair was an ageless blue-silver, checked the eggs carefully.  The Freelancers noticed some scars on her hands and arms, from handling young gryphons.

Kailani:  these are all martial gryphon eggs!  Although we promised 150gp per egg, I will give you 10% over.
Lorcan:  we took from two nests, but it looks like they were related.
Ka:  that's 495gp each!
Dominic:  do we want a gryphon, for 12 of the eggs?
Lorcan:  is it 12 eggs, or 12x 150gp?
Kailani <smiled>:  will still pay the premium, if you want a gryphon.

By their mercenary nature, Freelancers are very good at doing these calculations, and immediately determined that it would be 292gp5sp each for the four Freelancers who did not get a gryphon, so everyone agreed.  But, who would get the gryphon?  Ka certainly didn't need one, and Lorcan and Kairos were fine with their pegasi.

That left Minji and Dominic, who eyed each other and then agreed to dice for who'd get it.  Minji rolled the highest possible, and so received Chin-gu, a bald eagle gryphon gelding.

• Kairos → lvl3 Drakewarden!