Freelancer Follies: Domestic Decorating

Mercury may or may not be very smart, Cathance couldn't tell; but the winged cat was very clever, and he'd been playing dragonchess with Nix for a long time.  He'd handily beaten the Mikumwesauk halfling at it, and she'd pouted while he preened.

The next morning, the little sorcerer convinced Tai and Terrance – both of whom were more than twice as tall as she – to ask Damakaios for another mission.  They were all feeling vaguely restless and uprooted, and thought a mission would address the feeling.

Cathance sat in the second chair forward from the back right, and Terrance leaned against one of the windows.  Tai took a sturdy chair in the middle of the room, which still managed to creak.

As Damakaios looked over the three of them, Cathance got up from her chair and hid behind Tai, just because she could.  Damakaios was not fooled, and he started with, "A number of missions."

One is, check out the next room in Amabel Villa.

Two missions from House Hadid.  One is troll blood.  One is phase spider venom&silk… wait, silk?  <Damakaios consulted the papers for the first time.>  silk.

At this point, Cathance, who did not want to deal with giant phasing spiders, tried again to hide behind Tai.

Fourth mission, try to track down where clockwork owlbears came from.  Two of you were there; go to the hold in the skylith, find out where this comes from.  250gp/person.

Last, High Abbot of Most Serene Boundary Monastery at Tranquil Crossing wants Freelancers to track down what has been killing a few of his monks.  There was not any wounds, they just… died.  Bodies are preserved in a cellar.

That was gruesome and the Freelancers all made a face, even Cathance hiding behind Tai.  Damakaios, noting the enthusiasm level in the room, leaned back and regarded them speculatively.  He then suggested, "If the three of you are interested, a Freelancer-only mission.  Dryali and Fine Branch, while investigating for House Grayaere, found an abandoned apartment in the 2nd layer down in The Below.  Just 2 rooms, broken down.

"I've acquired the deed to it, will pay 250gp each to go secure it / clean it / kick out squatters / refurbish."

Cathance piped up.  "If we do this refurbishing–" she stopped, then stuck her head out around Tai so she could talk to Damakaios properly.

Cathance:  if we do this refurbishing, make it obviously Freelancers, or not obviously Freelancers?
Damakaios:  not Freelancers.  If people want Freelancers, they can come here.  Make this secure, clean, not unpleasant for anyone who has to stay there.
<A moment of silence.>
Cathance:  I'm down for any of these but the spiders.
Terrance:  most interested in the owlbears, and the furnishing mission.
Tai:  same.
Cathance:  are we supposed to make it look lived-in?
Damakaios:  hopefully, you put curtains in the windows
Cathance:  there's windows?!
Terrance:  if it's underground, what do windows look at?
Damakaios:  anyhow, I will fund whatever you need.

Upon saying this, Damakaios stood up and opened one of the locked cabinets behind him.  He brought out a strong box, pulled out several strings of gold pieces, and started distributing them.  "I'll front you the mission fee now, so you have the coin available to buy furnishings / pay for any artisans to fix things."

Upon getting the directions to the place, Cathance retrieved a knotted string to take measurements, and they were off to visit The Below.

Cathance had never been belowground at Ripa Daneo, so it was up to Terrance and Tai to show her where to descend and how to navigate.  The first level was okay, similar to her experience of Stormhaven, except the tunnels and "streets" were a bit more orderly and level, illuminated by lanterns with continual flame.  The second level was less well-kept, and the passerby were clearly not as well off.  While the main thoroughfares still sported the lanterns, some of the side tunnels and alleys were much darker.

Terrance was a bit edgy; she did not like being this far below ground, with no flora to speak off.  Some bioluminescent lichens and moss were here and there.  As they turned onto a side street, Cathance lit an oil lamp.  The place was on an alley, so they tried to be quiet as they came to the door.

There was no need; the door was … ⅗ gone and not really an impediment to entry.  Tai and Cathance peered around the doorway into an empty 25'x30' room, full of crap and trash, much of which was moldy.  Tai, who saw pretty well in the dark, saw that the center of the room was mostly clear, and was reasonably sure at least one pile of trash was a mouse-house, or a rat's nest; he saw a doorway to the left into another room.  Terrance could not see past them.

Cathance did not see well in the dark.  "Is it safe?"  Tai replied, "I don't see anything that clearly suggests otherwise.  It stinks," he added unhelpfully.

Cathance handed Tai the lamp and pulled out the knotted string.  She measured the door across, then tried to measure the height.  "Wait, I can't reach," she complained.  Terrance smiled.  "I can help," and she took the knotted string.  The door was standard door-height.  Cathance then checked if there was a place where a would-be door would latch.  The ⅖ door was still on hinges, and she saw there was a latch with a place in the door frame to hold it.  Then she announced her plan.

Cathance:  if we can fix the door, we have all the time in the world for everything.
Tai:  need to clear around the door, to put it in.
Terrance:  I've moved a bit.  It will give us more time to clean it up, but a door will be annoying.  Right now, we can just chuck stuff out.

Tai stepped into the room, walking to the middle so the lamp he was holding lit up the corners.  There really was crap in the room.  Cathance checked where she and Terrance were standing, ready to prestidigitate if they were standing in crap, but there wasn't any near the door.

Meanwhile, the two rats' nests suddenly illuminated by the unwelcome light of the lamp discharged their denizens, squeaking angrily at Tai.

Tai was unpleased at rodents in his Safe House, and placed the lamp in the middle of the floor.  Then he raged, which somehow converted his magical greataxe into force damage.  He swung at the swarm of rats to his right, smashing into them with force.  Then he swung again and slipped, falling on his ass in some slimy trash.

• The rats swarmed on Tai, biting him, but it was negligible.
• The other rats swarmed on Tai from behind, biting so fiercely they crit, piercing his scales.
  • Cathance:  what are we gonna do, about rats on Tai?
    Tai:  get it off me!!!
• Terrance drew her weapons.  She used her magical rapier to try to pierce the rats without hitting Tai.  She skewered some of the rats, but did not do as well as she wanted.
  • The firbolg tried to use her magical scimitar to scrape the rats off Tai, but that worked even more poorly.  Well, she got one of them.
• Cathance did not want to go near rats, which were a significant percentage of her size.  She cast ray of frost on the initial swarm of them, figuring Tai would not mind a little cold.  The swarm died, but they did not fall off the Silver dragonborn; they froze to his pants.
• Spiders swarmed on Cathance, who screamed.  They were unable to bite her.
• Spiders also swarmed on Terrance, but they also failed to bite her.

Cathance was still screaming, and Terrance had started wiggle-dancing, but Tai was on the floor with rats on him.  He carefully used his magical greataxe to dispose of the rats without hitting himself, and he did.

• Tai stood up, and called out to Terrance in a commanding voice, "Hold still!" as he hefted his greataxe.  Terrance froze in terror as Tai swung the axe, and carefull knocked about half the spiders off her with force.
• Terrance started wiggling again, so very unhappy at spiders.  Then she stopped, dropped, and rolled.  Dramatically going back and forth with a 360 degree rotation, she suddenly stopped again, saying, "Maybe I shouldn't kick that," that being the oil lamp.
  • Terrance got all the spiders off her, then jumped up and shouting "Yech!  Back!" put the oil lamp between her and the spiders.
• Cathance saw this and stopped screaming long enough to cast misty step so she was next to Terrance and the spiders were not.
  • The little sorcerer then resumed screaming and cast a chromatic orb at the spiders she'd left behind, which settled on fire before it struck and crispified many of them.
• The spiders that has been on Terrance all jumped on Tai, and got in his pants.
  • "DO NOT WANT!" Tai yelled in horror.
• The remaining spiders jumped back on Cathance, who shrieked again.

Tai's shrieking shifted into Draconic, and he batted at his own pants with the head of his greataxe, the force bludgeoning the spiders to death, in his pants, gross.

• Tai then strode over to Cathance, but the halfling's shrieks reminded him to be gentle.  The big Silver dragonborn gingerly moved the head of his greataxe to get the spiders off her, and they died to the magical force.

And at that, no more swarms of horrible bitey pests materialized.

Cathance, now spider-free, calmed down enough to take steps, and looked around the ceiling corners.  Now she noticed the 3'-4' wide spiderwebs, she started to use prestidigitation to clear them out in a methodical manner.  Terrance and Tai, bemused, just watched her do it.  After all, they were both tall enough to walk into that stuff.

She picked up the lamp again.  "Let's measure the other door!"  She moved to the doorway and they all looked in.  It was smaller, and had more junk in it, but was less dirty.  Also had spiderwebs.

Cathance put the lamp down again.  "Hey Tai, can you tell if there's anything magic in here?"  Tai said sure, and did his pulse of detect magic.  There was a hit in the big room, so he and Terrance went to look, as Cathance resumed her prestidigitation in the upper corners.

Tai and Terrance tossed the entire place.  The magical thing turned out to be a Dust of disappearance, Tai kept that.  They also found a carnelian, 3 star rose quartz, 2 citrines, and a white quartz, worth about 50 gp each; and lastly, various coins totalling 45gp, 7sp, 3cp.

The Freelancers threw everything else out in the street.

Well, the place was much nicer now, but still unfurnished.

Terrance:  where do we go?
Cathance:  maybe go down to the dwarves?
Terrance:  I don't think we want to commission custom furniture
Cathance:  doors, though
Tai:  good, solid doors.
Terrance <thinking>:  bed, trunk, rug – 2 rugs – a nice table
Cathance:  curtains, and something glowing behind them
Terrance:  cabinet, so we can secure supplies

First things first:  the Freelancers decided to go to dwarven artisans to get new doors.  That would be the next level down in the city.  Before they left, Terrance sorted through all the junk to find any materials the dwarves could reuse, especially wood, in lieu of some or all coin.  She found some wood scraps and chair legs; and also the ⅖ of a door.

Tai carried the partial door as they went to the artisans.  The Freelancers did convince the dwarves they could use these materials, but the doors themselves would take a couple days to craft and then get installed.  As they left, the Freelancers decided they would stay in the place while they waited for the doors:  Tai was worried about squatters, and Terrance was excited because she was not used to having her own house.

Furniture would come from other artisans, but as they sought these out, Cathance bought a pair of pretty lamps.  The plan was to get another Freelancer, who had the continual flame spell, to light these.  But then it was time to shop for furniture.

The three of them argued over tables – after all, a Tai-sized table was much bigger than a Cathance-sized one – and in the end decided to get one table and get chairs that would work for small people to sit at it too.  They also decided to get a shelf cabinet and bunk beds, along with the trunk Terrance had mentioned.

It was getting late, so the three of them went back to Freelancers and got their bedrolls.  They updated Damakaios on their progress, and the hanyou noted to them he wanted food stocked too.  They also got Eirdrimme to cast continual flame on the two pretty lamps.

They kept watch the first night, but nothing happened beyond people looting what they'd chucked in the street.  It was uncomfortable, so the next day they decided a hammock should also go in the sleeping quarters, and they went shopping for nice rugs.  It felt weird to have always-on lamps, so they decided to put curtains across a nook, and have a timed lamp behind it to mimic the diurnal cycle.

They returned in time to meet the dwarves bringing the new doors.  They installed the doors, put locks, gave them 4 keys, and fixed the bar on the door.  So the second night they stayed was more comfortable; they did not need a watch, the thick red rugs and hammock were comfy.

The next day they went back to Freelancers, and brought the keys.  They gave a key each to Damakaios and Naranjos, and convinced Alvyn he wanted to make the timed light.  He thought that would be a cool project, and told them he'd be down later.  He asked for any metal they'd found in the junk.  They stopped by the quartermaster and got some rations, a couple of healing potions, and a couple vials of antitoxin as well, then headed back to the safe house to wait for Ikea furniture delivery.

By this time the place was light and cheery.  The furniture arrived at various points in the day and they set it up, the bunk beds, the trunk, the table, the shelf-cabinet.  The Freelancers put the items from the quartermaster in it, and Alvyn showed up on Arth, his mechanical bear.  Cathance got another continual flame lamp, Tai got some curtains, and Terrance bought some dishes.

The third night was far more comfortable, although Alvyn was not done with the lamp.  Cathance slept in the top bunk, and Terrance in the hammock.  The next day he showed up with Eirdrimme, and they finished the lamp, put arcane lock on the place, and hid one of the keys nearby.  The Freelancers dubbed the place "Harbor House," and the arcane lock password was "Arth is the best bear."

On return to Freelancers Tavern they gave the last key to the quartermaster, and expensed all their purchases.