Raid on Press Gang Cellar

Yawning, Maghris, Dominic, and Aranel came down to the back tavern in Freelancers Tavern to get some breakfast and contemplate their day.  They ended up sitting at the long table, in the middle.  At one end, Minji was eating porridge with extra milk and honey, and poring over her book.  At the other end, Colt and Damian were having rashers.  The former looked restless and the latter, at peace.

The tavern was otherwise less full than normal.  The Tumultuous Holiday was the next day and most people were out and about.  Tobiah and Moulari, the newest Freelancers, were not in evidence.  Neither were Evie, Aleki, and Laki; they were out watching the press gang hideout.

At this point, Arnari swept into the tavern, her blue and yellow duster swirling around her.  She looked around at the mostly empty tavern, and came to the long table, speaking without preamble.  "So, we're looking to save these folks we couldn't quite save yesterday," she announced, "Come with me to my office."  She pivoted and exited the tavern, going through the front up the stairs to her office.

Damian and Colt looked at each other as the other four rose and started heading to the stairs.  They rose and followed.

People weren't yet seated when Arnari waved them around the Cliffshadow map, and pointed at a pin in it not far from Freelancers Tavern, a bit to the northeast.  "150gp/person from Wymar," she informed them, "Go rescue these people, try to capture the bard.  If you don't capture him or kill him, then 100gp/person."

Minji:  does this bard have a name?
Arnari:  probably, but I don't know it.  He's a half-elf with black hair, soul patch, and a hot ass.
<Minji's ears flattened a little.>
Minji:  humans have strange attraction to asses.
Maghris:  yeah.  Very weird.
Aranel:  maybe we want manacles.

The group went to the quartermaster and everyone picked up a pair of manacles, except Minji who got two pair.  Aranel went back upstairs to change into the traveler's clothes she'd acquired the day before, and put her shamisen away.  While she did that, Dominic grabbed Grgnak from the stables.

Then they left to go to the press gang hideout where Arnari had indicated on the map.  As they headed there, Damian shook his head.  "She just… came downstairs and asked us to go rescue people," he said, almost in awe.

The Freelancers took about 20 minutes to walk there, partially because once close they stayed out of sight.  They met up with Evvie, Laki, and Aleki, who had positioned themselves to watch – unobtrusively, as least for Laki.

Maghris:  did you see anyone leave or come in?
Aleki:  no one left, but 2 more showed up
Maghris:  what did they look like?
Aranel:  voluntarily?
Aleki:  yes, voluntarily
Laki:  battered leather armour; not remarkable
Damian:  do we know how they are held inside?
Evvie:  nope, don't seem to be any windows.  Or, if so, no light.

They all looked across the street at the leatherworking shop.  It was open, selling mount tack and leather armour.  The front opened up to the street and it had an open floor plan; they could see tables, and a workshop in the back.  It clearly had no stairs down to the basement.

The workshop intrigued the artificers, and Maghris made as if to go talk to the shopkeeper.

Damian:  no!  It might be dangerous!
Maghris:  what if we ask about making holes?
Colt:  that's a good idea!  But, how long would it take to get through th' floor?
Aranel:  they probably pay rent to him.

An argument broke out, where Maghris was insistent that the shopkeeper would love to have a means installed to go to the basement from the shop, and Colt mostly agreeing, and the others very dubious.  Maghris started talking about putting stairs and everything.  Finally, Maghris was convinced No.

<Narrator voice:  during this conversation a parallel-universe-shift happened.  Aleki, Evvie, and Laki vamoosed back to Freelancers Tavern, apparently eschewing a lucrative mission; and Colt's, Minji's, and Maghris' flying mounts showed up, a situation everyone regretted later.>

Aranel:  what if Minji knocked on door and then blast them, then cat zoomies to her mount?  They'll chase her.
Minji:  could do that
Damian:  we could try to sell them leather
Colt:  what do they want?
Aranel:  they're kidnapping people.
Damian:  manacle someone.
Dominic:  I don't hate that.
Colt:  I'll do it!
Aranel:  Damian is better, he can act.
Dominic:  wonder if we can have Damian message

More arguing ensued, where this time Dominic suggested he wild shape a spider and go in with Damian.  The Freelancers finally came up with four options:

• Fake prisoner
• Cast snare, then knock on door and run away
• Cast unseen servant inside the door
• Have Mr Zircon float around emitting a loud siren sound

Fake prisoner got ruled out, and Minji, bored, said, "I dunno, I vote for chaos," and the others all said "Yeah!"  Maghris told them, "I'll have Mr Zircon carry a rock with a siren sound on it, so he can throw it."

So the new plan was:  cast unseen servant inside the door, and unlock the door.  Mr Zircon with a screaming rock, and throw the rock away from prisoners.

Colt:  how is this gonna do anythin'?  Screamin' rock is givin' away an advantage
Dominic:  have Dominic go in
Colt:  yeah
Maghris:  how about Dominic go in, if there are people then chaos, otherwise, keep sneaking?
Damian:  2 good plans!
Colt:  we don't know if anyone's in there.
Aranel:  we know there are two people that need rescue
Minji:  if we keep talking, I may just start chaos.

Aranel pulled out her shakuhachi, and started playing it.  The plaintive notes echoed between the buildings, the echoes making it almost impossible for one not seeing her to locate the source of the sound.  The melody sounded like it was calling to something unseen.

As she did that, the Freelancers with mounts took care to position them.  Colt had Peri-Anne, his hippogryph, position herself on a roof; Maghris had his giant bat Blaze fly up; Dominic mounted Grgnak; Minji had Chin-gu, her martial gryphon, fly up.

Aranel finished her melody, and the Freelancers, bemused, waited as she put the shakuhachi away.  Then the unseen servant she had summoned opened the door to the basement.  It swung open anticlimactically, and nothing else happened.

"Looks like stealth plan is on!" Maghris exclaimed.  Dominic dismounted again, and walked towards the doors, shrinking into a spider.  Aranel, meanwhile, commanded her unseen servant to go open all the doors it could find.

spider-Dominic discovered a very wide stairwell, and went down them to find what looked like a converted brewery.  Barrel racks on the other side of the wide floor looked like they'd been repurposed to serve as cells with barred doors.  In the center of the room, to the right of the foot of the stairs, he saw four people seated around a central table.  He decided to crawl on an upper corner near the ceiling, doing his best to be stealthy in the well-lit room.

Right about then, Aranel's unseen servant found the first cell door, and mindless obeying the instruction, tried to open it.  The barred door started clanging loudly.  One of the captors stood up and strolled to the door, and saw the prisoners within the cell were nowhere near it.

"What the fuck!  Who is rattling the door!" he exclaimed, and the prisoners shrugged despondently.

From his new vantage point, spider-Dominic realized there was a door across the room from the cells, on the other side of the table.  He started moving towards that.  Another captor went to the clanging door, confused, and a third one went to the door spider-Dominic had seen.  "Wake up!  We got weird stuff," he called in, then pulled it shut.  The fourth captor stayed at the table.

Outside, the other Freelancers were restless.  The clanging from the unseen servant was audible, so Aranel commanded it to hold still, hunker down.  The clanging stopped, and Aranel pointed at the nekomata ears, then down at the door.  Maghris listened, but heard nothing.  They waited.

The captor moved away from the door in back and spider-Dominic got to it.  It was a good fit, but he thought he could squeeze under it.  He found himself in a room with 4 people chilling and eating, and recognized them as the group which captured the airship crew from The Gull.  They rose and headed towards the door, and spider-Dominic had to hustle to get out of the way.

There was another door out of this room so spider-Dominic squeezed under it to find someone waking up.  He got out of bed and had a hot ass, and also matched the rest of the description.  spider-Dominic hid under the bedside table and waited.  The hot ass took 30 seconds to get dressed and went out the door, which creaked as he left.

Outside, the Freelancers were even more impatient.

Colt <to Aranel>:  cast message?
Aranel:  no point
Colt <surprised>:  why not?
Aranel:  cannot answer
Colt:  why not?
Aranel:  you have to talk to answer
Colt <surprised again>:  it's not in your head?
<Aranel cast message at Colt.>
Aranel:  like this

Maghris and Minji, hearing this exchange, start looking towards the door.  Colt and Damian followed suit, and they started edging towards it.

Meanwhile Dominic, alone in the room, was a human again and rifling through all the stuff.  Long minutes passed, and even Aranel got impatient, and started casting message, wondering if he was captured or what.

Aranel:  you okay?!
Dominic:  it's about damned time
Aranel:  what the fuck
Dominic:  8 thugs, 1 hot-ass bard are waiting in the room at the bottom of the stairs; I can flank them
<Aranel relayed this to the other Freelancers, then cast message again.>
Aranel:  how can you flank them?
Dominic:  bearly.
Aranel:  what about fog cloud?
Dominic:  can do that too.

Aranel relayed to the other Freelancers that Dominic was going to wild shape a bear to split the others up, and joined them near the door.  They all nodded at each other, and Aranel told the unseen servant to open the door on the other end of the room.  After a moment, the clanging resumed.

Damian assured Minji, "I'm sure everything will be fine," granting her bardic inspiration.  He crept down the wide stairway, freeing up his light crossbow and ready to shoot anyone who came around the corner he didn't recognize.

• Minji strolled down the stairs quietly, standing next to Damian, ready to dodge.
• Dominic listened at the creaky door, and concluded nobody was on the other side of it.  He opened and managed to keep the creaking to a minimum, to find the next room was empty.  He moved to the closed door to the big room and listened, and heard the clanging from the unseen servant.
• Maghris crept up behind Damian on the stairs, with his own crossbow ready.  He sent Mr Zircon to go around the corner, with an order to come right back if he saw anyone.  Mr Zircon stayed where he was.
• Colt went down the stairs past the others, and (trying to stay behind cover) peered around the corner.  He saw 2 people with longbows, 5 people with loaded crossbows, and a slightly-built human man with a mace right in front of him, all in a line.
  • All of the blood drained from Colt's face.
  • Everyone fired; but let's be honest they weren't really expecting anyone to come down the stairs when something mysterious was rattling a barred door across the room.  Crossbow bolts and arrows flew past Colt's head to ping on the wall behind him.
  • The man with the mace swung, but Colt's position of being mostly around the corner made it awkward and he also missed.
• The bard was there too, and called Colt a coward, no doubt in an attempt at vicious mockery.  Colt replied, "No shit, Ah'm scared'er than a cat in a room full o' rockin' chairs!"
• Aranel moved up – or rather, arrived, with panache – her appearance so inspiring that Colt, Damian, Maghris, and Minji were bolstered and freed up to move and back off.  Strangely enough, none of them moved.

Damian, mindful of the upcoming holiday, got out his drum and started drumming, which oddly harmonized with the clanging of the cell door.  The resulting thunderwave smashed into three of the lined up thugs as well as the bard, shoving the latter and one of the former away from Colt.  He kept drumming, and gave Maghris bardic inspiration: "They know we're here!  Time to make chaos!"

• The two human thugs, one slightly-built, one burly and bald with a scar on his face, moved to the bottom of the stairs to attack Colt, while the other four shot crossbow bolts at him again.
  • Two bolts missed, but two hit Colt.
  • The thugs in Colt's face hit him with their maces until he blacked out; then the half-elf smashed Mr Zircon for good measure.
  • Maghris started screaming.  "Mr Zircon!"
• Minji cast toll the dead on the bald human thug who'd struck Mr Zircon, the bonnnnggg echoing throughout the room.  He looked a bit sickly from the resulting necrosis.
• Dominic, still in the room, heard the clanging, the battle sounds, and the bonnnnggg, so opened the door under the cover of the noise.  Upon seeing all the thugs lined up, he eschewed any thought of wild shaping a bear or casting fog cloud to interfere with aim, and instead cast flaming sphere among the thugs Damian had not smashed with thunderwave.  The druid rammed it into a Wind sagani, burning him.
  • Dominic then ran to the pillar next to the table to take cover, noting with interest the keys were on the table.  He did not tell anyone this interesting observation, despite the unseen servant still rattling the cell doors.
• Maghris moved in front of Damian and stopped screaming for just long enough to cast healing word on Colt.
  • Colt woke up coughing blood.  Crossbow bolts will do that to ya.
  • Maghris then used his light crossbow to crit the bald human thug who'd struck his beloved Mr Zircon.
  • Mr Zircon dodged.
• The two with longbows stepped back somewhat, and saw Dominic behind the pillar.  They loosed two arrows each at the disappointed druid.
  • One nailed him, and to his even larger disappointment, the flaming sphere dissipated as a result.
  • They moved back to where they were, because the cover from the pillar worked both ways.
• The bard also backed up, shaking his head.  "Tsk, tsk, can't even keep your concentration," he said to Dominic in another attempt at vicious mockery.  Dominic made a face, but was unphased by the bard's comments.
• Colt took a shuddering breath, gained his second wind, then leapt to his feet and attacked the bald human thug.  Still a bit off-center, he missed.
• Aranel whispered, How can you not fear us, come to bring chaos upon you at the scrawny human attacking Colt.  He was affected by her dissonant whisper <Narrator voice: but for some reason failing the save was not enough to make him flee across the room because WTF>
  • Far more melodiously, she said soothingly, "Colt, don't let 'em get you down," granting him bardic inspiration.

Damian put up his drum, so the only ambient sound behind the fighting was the clanging from the unseen servant trying to open the cell door.  He then shot his own crossbow bolt at the bald human thug who'd struck Mr Zircon. The bolt went way over the fellow's head.  He moved down the the bottom of the stairs next to Colt.

• The bald human smashed Mr Zircon to the floor, then stepped over the former homunculus to swing at Maghris and miss.
• The two Wind sagani thugs attacked Damian with their maces.  One hit him, and the other would have, but Damian cast silvery barbs on him, forcing him to miss and giving Minji an advantage.  Both thugs swung at Damian a second time and missed.
• The other three thugs shot Damian with crossbow bolts.  Damian cast silvery barbs again <Narrator voice:  because Damian overreacts to things and thus has two reactions to burn? WTF> and it gave Colt an advantage, but did not save the human bard from getting pierced by three crossbow bolts.
• Minji cast toll the dead again on the bald human thug, but it did nothing other than echo out a bonnnnggg.
• Dominic, disappointed by the loss of his flaming sphere, transformed into a starry form, the star pattern appearing like a dragon constellation.
  • The druid cast spike growth in the area at the foot of the stairs, thorny vines writhing up from the stone floor.
  • He also whistled for Grgnak, who started coming down the wide stairs.
• Maghris smacked the balf human, who was in his face, with his quarterstaff.
  • He cast healing word on Damian.
  • The alchemist also called for Blaze to fly in.
• The two with longbows stepped back and each shot Dominic twice, each missing once and hitting once.
• The bard backed up towards the cells, and cast sleep under the Freelancers on the stairs.  However the only people who fell asleep were Damian and the bald human thug.
• Colt pierced the nearest thug, one of the Wind sagani, with his shortsword, then followed up with his whip.
• Aranel woke up Damian.  Then she again looked amazing; inspiring and bolstering those near her…
  • Especially Colt and Damian, who ran back up the stairs.
  • For herself, Aranel moved up near Grgnak.

Damian shot the Wind sagani – the one Colt had just attacked – with a crossbow bolt, then ran back up the stairs to make room for Grgnak and Blaze to come in.

• Both Wind sagani thugs tried to move out of the spike growth.  The one Damian had shot just dropped dead from the spikes.  The other one stepped up to Maghris, then bent over and woke up his sleeping companion.
• The other three thugs, seeing their compatriot literally drop dead from trying to move, blamed Maghris for this and tried to shoot him with their crossbows.  All the bolts flew wide of the fluffy nekomata.
• Minji, displeased that the human at her feet had awakened, crit with an eldritch blast, and he succumbed to the force of her blast.
  • She called for Chin-gu to come help.
  • Damian, seeing the mounts coming, observed "Calling in the cavalry, I see"
• Dominic, stuck with two arrows, was shocked to still be alive, and quaffed a healing potion.
  • Since Grgnak was coming, Dominic ran and jumped over the spike growth to meet him.
  • Grgnak was crowding the others on the stairs, and happy to see Dominic.  He wagged his big fluffy wolf tail, which was roughly at the level of the two nekomata's faces.  Their ears flattened as they got tail-whipped; Maghris pressed his lips together, resigned, and Minji murmured "Ugh."
• Despite getting whooshed by Grgnak's tail, Maghris crit the Wind sagani in his face with his quarterstaff, as Blaze tried to squeeze into the stairway.
  • Getting past Aranel and Colt was a challenge, and although Colt was fine, Aranel stumbled back.
  • Blaze attacked the Wind sagani  in front of Maghris, but off-balance from squeezing through, the giant bat critfailed and bit Maghris instead, and critfailed at that, getting his fangs caught on the alchemist's armour.
• The two people with the longbows looked at Grgnak, then at each other.  "A fucking dire wolf?!" "Are you kidding me?!"  Grgnak was partially hidden from them with his butt out of sight and his tail still whacking the nekomata, but they both still shot two arrows at the large canine.
  • All but one missed, although two of them went through Grgnak's ruff.
  • Grgnak stopped wagging his tail.
• The bard cast sleep again, and Dominic sank to the ground, asleep.  The spike growth faded out of the basement floor.  The Wind sagani attacking Maghris also fell asleep.
• Colt called out for Peri-Anne, and flattened himself against the right-hand wall of the stairwell to give Blaze more room.  He decided to catch his breath, but was ready with the whip to lash anyone who came up around the corner.
• Aranel woke up Dominic, and administered a healing potion to him.  She told the unseen servant to try opening the cell door right behind the longbows.  Maybe the clanging would be distracting to their aim.

Damian went back down the stairs, and saw the sleeping Wind sagani.  He readied his crossbow to shoot the fellow if he woke up.

• The half-orc and half-elf thugs ran up to Grgnak and attacked him with their maces.  The half-orc missed but the half-elf hit Grgnak twice.  The slightly-built human shot at Grgnak with his crossbow, but the bolt went wide.
• Minji stepped forward and cast eldritch blast at the half-orc.  The leafy green beam slammed into him with force.
• Dominic did not bother standing up, but cast healing word on Grgnak, and faerie fire at the bard in a way to catch the two folks with the longbows.  The bard and one of the longbows were lit up with green sparkles <Narrator voice:  but somehow the unseen servant, who was right there, completely avoided even having to roll a save, WTF>
  • Of course Grgnak attacked the thug who'd hit him with the mace.  The angry dire wolf bit the half-elf and threw him to the ground.
• Maghris shot the half-orc with his light crossbow.
  • Blaze got untangled from Maghris' gear, flew up over Grgnak, and bit half-orc.
• Upon seeing the bat, one of the longbow people said, "Helias, this is not a great plan." The bard replied, "Yeah, let's get out of here."
  • The three of them dashed through the door to the inner room and shut it.
• Colt moved down the stairs, saw the half-elf Grgnak had knocked prone, and attacked him with shortsword and whip.
• Aranel looked at the human thug still using a light crossbow and said in a voice dripping with contempt, "What are you gonna do now, without all your little friends to help you?" in an attempt to cast vicious mockery.  It didn't work, probably because that was exactly what he was thinking anyhow.

Damian moved next to Minji and fired his own crossbow bolt at the thug Maghris had shot.

• The human pulled out his mace, moved to Grgnak, missed, swore, swung at Blaze and missed again.
• The half-orc whacked Blaze with his mace, then whacked Colt.
• The prone half-elf stood up, whacked Dominic with his mace, then whacked Grgnak.
• Minji cast toll the dead on the half-elf, and he succumbed to his injuries.
  • She sent Chin-gu to look for people escaping.
• Dominic had Grgnak attack the half-orc.  Grgnak, still angry, grabbed him and shook him like a ragdoll until he died.
  • Dominic leapt up and mounted Grgnak, who ran across the floor to the closed door.
  • Dominic tried to listen for anything on the other side of the door, but heard nothing.
  • He cast healing word on Grgnak again.
• Maghris took another shot at the thug with his light crossbow, but critfailed and hit Blaze.
  • Blaze tried to bite the scrawny human, but just critfailed.
• Now, Dominic heard a crash as if furniture moved, then a door slammed.
• Colt again struck the remaining thug with shortsword and whip.
• Aranel, shaking her head, said in the same contemptuous tone, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," and this time the vicious mockery took root, sowing seeds of doubt in the human's mind.
  • At this point, Aranel noticed the keys on the table.  Frowning a little, she instructed the unseen servant to retrieve them and unlock the cell doors.

Damian drew his rapier and pierced the scrawny human, who exclaimed, "Fucking Helias ran away!  Please don't kill me!" and threw his weapons across the room.

Minji manacled the injured thug, while Dominic opened the door to find the next door shut.  Colt sat down on the stairs in pain as Peri-Anne came down to him and nuzzled him.  Aranel, Maghris, and Damian moved around the room and stabilized the thugs who were bleeding out, although not much could be done for the one Grgnak had slain.  The prisoners getting unlocked by the unseen servant were a bit dazed wrt their change of fortune.

Dominic found the next door blocked, and came out and told the others.  It took a while to push through, and a lot of effort on Colt's part with Maghris helping, but they finally opened the door, despite all the blocking furniture, to find a secret tunnel in the back of the room stretching more than a block.  Unfortunately Chin-gu had not seen anything the martial gryphon would recognize as a problem.

The Freelancers searched the room to find cryptic documents, full of false names, talking about "cargo to Hindmarsh" – selling the "super strong" to the gladiator pits, and others to airship crews – there was a contact in Hindmarsh in the papers, but no name.

The Freelancers sent all the freed prisoners to talk to Wymar Adelard, to see about getting reconnected with their airships and/or a new berth, and brought all the gathered papers to Arnari.  Disappointed, Arnari only paid them 90gp each (holding back the 10% Freelancers Cut), quickly went through the papers, then bundled them together and left herself.  The mess, including 6 injured and/or manacled thugs in the basement, would require discussion with the leatherworking shop owner, as well as Wymar.

• Maghris → lvl 4!
• Dominic → lvl 4!
• Colt → lvl 2!
• Damian → lvl 2!