Gwidion's Tower

Kenostag, last prime post-Apastron 1056

Since returning from Waypoint Resource, Lorcan, Dominic, and Minji had each been unusually quiet, partially because some of the others, in particular Peb, had been less so.  Ricardo's pegasus had died to the sting of an altered giant scorpion, and Peb was determined to ensure the beast's tale was known.  After a couple days of this Ricardo bestirred himself to help Peb with word choice in telling the tale.

The next morning, Arnari calmly asked the three of them to step up to her office.  As they rose to do so they saw her circulating and talking to others:  Murai, the Wind sagani paladin of the Magpie who had found the resources to bling out their shield; Manu, the hanyou sorcerer who was using prestidigitation to change the flavour of his breakfast between bites; and Mia, who had just returned from being held in the Parkside guards' station overnight for excessive brawling.  Her knuckles were still a bit bloody.

The 6 Freelancers got to Arnari's office before she did, and mostly seated themselves.  Lorcan was last, of course, because the Pastoral gnome didn't walk as fast as the others, and Arnari entered right on his heels.

Manu sat on the bearskin rug in front of Arnari's desk, enjoying how it felt.
Mia found the fanciest chair in rows facing her desk, then turned the chair next to it and sat on that, with her feet on the fanciest chair.
Minji, a Maneki nekomata, still getting used to her studded leathers, sat on the bearskin rug, also enjoying how it felt.  Perhaps too much; Manu had to move over.
Murai walked up to the fanciest chair, moved Mia's feet, and sat in the chair.  Then they just put Mia's feet back on their lap.
Dominic, a moustachioed human, walked over to the maps, considering them.
Lorcan sat in the center of the front row of chairs, watching Arnari expectantly.  Occasionally, he glanced at his newish bracers, which were purple.
Arnari sat at her desk.  Usually the half-elf's blue and gold duster was nearby, but today she was wearing it.

By this time, Manu was almost entirely off the bearskin, a bit dismayed by Minji, but at a loss how to correct this situation.  Arnari glanced at them, then picked up a stack of papers on her desk and straightened them, then put them down in front of her.  The top paper on the stack was fresh; the one under it was dog-eared.

"Mayor Kaiea and I have been conferring…" she started, then not-quite to herself.  "...been doing so for a while, but the last cohort got sent elsewhere."  She picked up the dog-eared paper and gestured at them with it; they recognized the standing mission from the wizard Gwidion to clean up wildlife altered by his potion pollution.  "You are ready," Arnari announced, "to investigate that tower.  I'm not sure what I want you to find:  either he's polluting, and that's not great, or he's not, and it's weird monsters forever.

"Maybe it will be anyhow.  But go to the tower, figure out if he's polluting, and stop it if so.  This will pay 250 eagles each."

Minji:  250 eagles seems a bit low
Arnari:  don't you want to find out what's there?
Minji:  well, yes, but–
Lorcan:  what are the parameters with regard to the wizard?
Arnari:  you are, of course, to defend yourselves.  I (and Mayor Kaiea) value you more than this wizard.  If he's intentionally doing this, use whatever force you need to stop him.
<Arnari stopped suddenly, looking at the pair on the bearskin rug.>
Arnari:  you might want to consider:  blowing up the tower could cause more pollution.
Minji:  I don't blow things up first!
Manu:  I never blow things up intentionally!
Lorcan:  does this tower have windows?  Defenestration is better than blowing things up.
Arnari:  I would think so!

A discussion ensued about logistics.  Fly directly there?  Or travel by road?  Should Murai bring Dudley?  Dominic offered to have them fly Robin, his dire bat.

Dominic:  suggest we go check the water.  detect magic
Murai:  it will not prove he's not
Manu:  the pollution might have some accumulation downstream
Murai:  we can start with source and work our way down stream

With this plan sketched out, they left Arnari's office to gather supplies for an extended trek away.  Lorcan bought mats for his potent poison, and also 5 extra vials; he also got enough rations and feed to last 8 days instead of 4.

The Freelancers were packed and ready, checking the straps on their mounts.  Arnari came out to the courtyard and reiterated how to get to the tower to Dominic and Mia.  And then they were off, with Murai on Robin, flying towards Lake Mossey along the treeline.

It was a nice day, and everyone knew where they were going; they got about halfway to the lake before making camp.  With Mia's help Dominic had no problem finding a comfortable, defensible place.  The Freelancers decided to keep a watch, and had two per 4-hour watch, to make sure those with darkvision were paired with someone who did not.

Mia & Manu had 1st watch, and ended up discussing the Battle Royale at length, and its aftermath.
Murai & Minji had 2nd watch.  Murai realized that Robin heard better than them and paid attention to the bat's reactions, which is how they heard a far-off owl gryphon.  Minji did not hear it.
Dominic & Lorcan had 3rd watch, and watched it get light.  The wilds were pretty, but they saw the weather was overcast.

Contemplation of Calm 1056

The next morning, the Freelancers decided that travelling on mission in the wilds was close enough to taking a nature walk to contemplate Serenity, and took off again with alacrity.  Dominic had them angle a bit north of the treeline, since they weren't actually going to Lake Mossey, but to the rivers feeding it.

With Mia's help Dominic had no problem leading them to the rivers right around Daystar zenith, not that it was in evidence behind the overcast, and slowed down to follow the rivers up to the wizard's tower.  Lorcan and Murai were flying low enough over the river to look for hydroose or buzzsawards or whatever other mutants; Manu and Minji flew above to get a broader view.

Lorcan and Murai spotted a place where the river widened slightly, and some debris fetched up near the bank.  As they swooped lower for a closer look, Bandit and Robin wobbled, unsure, and showed the whites of their eyes.  Lorcan watched the ground twist and fade out, and Murai saw a large number of frogs coalescing on the debris.

Well, they wished it was actually frogs.  The creatures were definitely right there, below and between the two Freelancers.

Enough froggoths had come together to form a proper swarm, and by now all the Freelancers had noticed.

• Dominic wheeled around on Wilson, and immediately cast spike growth centered on the froggoths.  He flew back towards the swarm, and started glowing like a starmap, where the stars were in the shape of an archer.
  • Wilson had gotten maybe 30' before a wave of confusion washed over them both, surprising Dominic, who shook it off, but causing Wilson to wobble and slow as his world went mad.
  • Dominic urged Wilson forward, and as they closed a mote of starlight bright enough to hurt the eyes shot out from the druid into the midst of the swarm, burning some of the froggoths.
• Manu was watching from above, and was dismayed at Wilson.  Assessing where everyone was, the hanyou landed Iolana on the riverbank at the edge of his range, then cast fireball such that the froggoths were within, and Bandit and Robin were not.  ⅓ of the froggoths dropped, burned to a crisp, and Manu flew back up, well away.
• Poor Lorcan was just super confused.  He was aware the effect came from froggoths, but could not see them at all.  He tried to cast colour spray on them, guessing at their location from the trajectories of the starlight mote and the fireball's initial mote of fire.
  • Realizing even if that had worked, he would not know, he had Bandit fly up as fast as he could.  But Bandit was also afflicted so only got up about 65', and the two of them circled slowly, still confused.
• Minji swooped in on Chin-gu and both nekomata and gryphon were entirely unbothered by any confusion.  She hit the froggoths twice with eldritch blast, thinning their numbers even more.
  • Minji <loudly>:  I have good news and bad news.  Bad news:  they are not all dead.  Good news:  about ½ are.
    Mia:  yay
    Dominic:  <missing from notes>
    Manu:  that hurt me
• Murai had Robin move next to the swarm, then applied their boathook with enthusiasm.   The first swing took out more froggoths, and the second swing left an arc of sparkly glitter as they used a divine smite to burn the froggoths with holy radiance.
  • Robin disengaged and backed off, but the entire experience was confusing for the bat, who could not see the froggoths still.  Even so, the sparkly glitter cheered him up.
• Mia also wheeled Ursula around, but the winged bear did not have the speed of the gryphons, and was slowed down even more by the wave of psychadelia.
  • Mia was not confused, and hucked a javelin at the swarm, but it neatly pegged an already-dead froggoth.  She hucked another, to the same effect.

The froggoths hopped towards Murai and Robin, and then the entire swarm died, caught by Dominic's spike growth.  Lorcan's world was restored, as was Bandit's, Robin's, Wilson's, and Ursula's.  Lorcan spiraled down to land as Dominic dropped the spike growth.  So did Mia and Minji.

Lorcan wondered how these creatures generated the effect, and checked if the purple splotches on their skin was actually poison.  It was not, so he lost interest and mounted back up.  Mia gathered a bunch of the froggoths in a sack, intending to dump them on the wizard's feet if Gwidion tried to deny the effects of his effluent.  Minji wanted to investigate the creatures, and grabbed a couple for later.

Since it was still early afternoon, the Freelancers continued up the river.  They saw nothing of note until the Pirates Dream fork, and continued up the Pirates River.  The afternoon was uneventful, and Dominic found a reasonable and pretty camping spot.

Mia & Manu had 1st watch, and were far more attentive than the prior evening.  They heard weird noises which were initially unclear if they were beast or monstrosity.  The noises were pretty far away… Manu finally recognized it was a pair of hydroose mating, and any semblance of Serenity fled.
Murai & Minji had 2nd watch.  Manu told them about hydroose mating, and did his best to mimic the noises he'd heard, which did not work very well, as the hanyou had a high, thin, voice, and a hydroose has multiple, deep, brassy voices.  Anyhow Murai was sufficiently disturbed to be fully obsessed with that.  <Narrator voice:  the notes also say the two watchers heard "hydroose afterglow" and I'm not sure how to describe that unless the goose heads were trying to reproduce the Taylor Swift song.>
Dominic & Lorcan had 3rd watch, and watched it get light.  They were poignantly aware of all the usual night sounds; it was like everything had been quiet for the first part of the night, and finally felt like it was safe to come out.

Remitag, 1st prime post-Calm 1056

The next morning dawned calm and overcast, and Dominic resumed leading the Freelancers up the river system he'd mapped.  They saw nothing untoward and easily found their way to the feeder stream, and up the stream until they spotted a squat, 4-storey tower in the distance.  <Narrator voice:  Matt B rolled a nat 20 on survival.>

The tower was close to a creek, and the Freelancers saw a small stream diverting from the creek to the tower and back, and the tower had a mill section with a water wheel.

While still at distance, the Freelancers landed for a quick consult and division of labour.

Dominic dismounted, pulled out his quarterstaff, and began a ritual cast of detect magic, drawing sigils in the ground.  <Narrator voice:  like Uncle Iroh, but not as fat.>
Mia stood guard over Dominic to prevent the ritual getting interrupted.
Lorcan & Murai took off for a high overflight of the tower.
Manu scouted the stream, looking for effects of magical pollution.
Minji scouted the ground area, looking for new things.

So, while Dominic was performing his ritual, Mia saw nothing particularly threatening, and Minji didn't see a lot that was new to her.  Down at the stream, Manu was disappointed not to find any of the oil-slick colours like Cathance had shown him in her vial, but he did notice the insects were larger than normal.

Dominic finished his cast, and "saw" the magic items Minji, Manu, and Mia carried light up.  He walked towards the stream, then headed along it towards the creek.  The detect magic there was odd, with a weird hint of all schools of magic, but not… really, anymore?  Diluted, but still there.  The druid looked at the water; it was clear.

The druid frowned, thinking.  The initial mutations were often oozes.  But lately, the mutations were higher-order?  Maybe this is responsible?  He told the other 3 what he was seeing.

Manu:  is it homogeneous?  …the magic, or… stranded?
Dominic:  it's pretty thoroughly mixed.

Meanwhile, Murai and Lorcan circled, high above the tower, and observed.  The tower was squat, with small windows, built of undifferentiated stone, with a conical peaked roof and no balcony.  <Narrator voice:  it was also ugly, with no design sense, but Lorcan and Murai wouldn't actually perceive that as notable.>  The mill section with a water wheel had water flowing in one side and out the other.  The effluent did not appear to have colours.  Lorcan checked for any illusions there; all he could discern was something muffling the sound of the water wheel.

Around the tower was a small stable as an outbuilding, which appeared to have pegasi.  Beaten paths led from the tower doors to the stable, and also to the upstream side of the stream.  The land was mostly cleared, grass dotted with bushes.  The bushes looked normal, and none of the area showed signs of recent digging.

The two Freelancers wheeled around and returned to their compatriots.

* * session break * *

Upon their return, the Freelancers exchanged news of their discoveries, then fell silent contemplating their options.  Lorcan quasi-sarcastically suggested knocking on the door and then letting loose a fireball upon the residents answering the door.

Dominic:  not cool
Mia:  agree with that sentiment
Manu:  but look what happens to the polluted water!
Lorcan:  the roof is slate; it will be controlled.
Manu:  but!  some creatures in there should not be on fire, for example, "fire hydroose"!
<Everyone contemplated a fire hydroose.>
Manu:  what are we worried about with being straightforward, apart from him running?
Mia:  him persuading us out of it, trouble.
Lorcan:  since when has anyone talked you out of trouble, Mia?
Mia:  well, true
Manu:  now, if he starts attacking us, that's easy:  we kill him

So the Freelancers decided they would approach the tower, which led to the next big debate:  everyone at once, or some stay behind?  Bring the mounts?  Lorcan wanted to go, but hide; Dominic also wanted to hide; Mia wanted to bring Ursula, as a reminder of the pollution consequences.

In the middle of the debate, Dominic realized (perhaps since at one point he had worked for a mage House on Commerce) that the discussion was not necessarily private.  He cast detect magic to look for any sign of scrying or other spell that could be used by a possibly hostile wizard to listen in on their conversation.  But his fears were laid to rest, there was nothing of the sort.

At about this time the Freelancers got tired of standing around arguing and decided Fuck it, and they all just rolled up to the door, mounts and all.  Dominic's detect magic hadn't even had time to run out.  Oddly enough, even though they knew it was a wizard's tower, nothing lit up through the wooden door.

Mia knocked, of course, and a human man with sandy hair opened the door, wearing a protective leather smock.  One hand was gloved in thick leather gloves, and held the other glove; his bare hand was on the door.

Man:  may we help you?
<Minji craned her neck, trying to see past him and find out who is "we".>
Mia:  heya hon, Freelancers sent us to take a look at some stuff.
<Through the open door, Dominic saw alchemical stuff light up the detect magic with abjuration, evocation, transformation, conjuration…>
Man:  what, didn't we deliver the latest potions? <scowled> wait, I don't want you breaking things, I'll send Gwidion out.

He slammed the door in Mia's face.  Dominic, Lorcan, and Mia all narrowed their eyes, assessing the situation in the split-second and drawing wildly different conclusions:  Lorcan had suspected that was Gwidion, but realized he was an overworked assistant; Mia decided that this dude seemed tired; Dominic had an upwelling of sympathy for the overworked schlub.  <Narrator voice:  Matt H rolled a nat 1 on insight.>  But it really was only a split-second as Manu, impatient with such rudeness, immediately cast thaumaturgy and the door slammed right open again, providing the Freelancers a pretty clear view of the laboratory beyond.

The man spun around, angry.  "Hey!  I said I'd get the wizard!"  Everyone else also looked towards the door, and the 6 Freelancers peering in.  There were two other human men, as well as a Fire sagani woman and dwarf man dressed similarly to the person who answered the door.  They'd been carefully pouring some liquid into a flask when the door slammed open.

It appeared the entire bottom of the tower was a single large room, and that room was an alchemical lab.  They saw the axle to the water wheel from the inside, and many benches with bunsen burners.  A large sink was on the wall to the far left, next to a metal apparatus that appeared to be fed from the water source outside.  Pipes connected the device to the faucet.  The center of the room held a large, round artificery apparatus (which looked a bit steampunk), and below the water wheel axle was a smaller, more boxy artificery apparatus, which had various coloured lights and some buttons.  Both items had various levers.  The floor had divots which held pipes: one led from the sink to the boxy apparatus, and the other led from the apparatus in the center to the boxy apparatus.  Finally, there was a pipe leading from the boxy apparatus through the wall to the right of the water wheel.  Lorcan and Murai recognized this exit as where they'd seen the effluent an hour prior.

The Freelancers noticed that one of the human men was wearing super fancy brass goggles, with swappable lenses on hinges.  The other human man was berobed, under protective leather gear, and picked up a quarterstaff as he turned towards the door:  this must be Gwidion.

Mia <to Manu>:  bud, influence control.
Manu:  I just didn't want Minji to get upset!
Minji <eyes wide>:  there's so much to learn in here, I promise I wouldn't be evil…
<A moment's silence to enjoy this tableau, then Lorcan poked Mia in the back of her thigh.>
Lorcan <hissing>:  you wanted to say something <poked Ursula>
Mia <spun in reaction>:  yeah, due diligence. <turned to the room> we are here to look at the pollution situation.  Is there still something to be fixed?  Is this just what the landscape will be like from now on?
Gwidion <warily>:  I was under the impression the river was getting better.  I hired Mr. Blackrind <gestured at the man with the goggles> to craft this purification device <gestured at the boxy apparatus> in return for working together on some of my alchemical recipes.

As he spoke, the wizard strolled to the door to hold a conversation that didn't involve projecting one's voice halfway across the base of a 40' tower ground floor.  As he moved, they noticed the colours of his robe shifted and moved in the light, although there were spots that were pure white, bleached out by acid spatters.

As Gwidion got to the door, the Freelancers saw he was fairly tall.  He had dark brown eyes that were just a wee bit too close together, and was cleanshaven.  Instead of the normal wizard hat, he had a leather cap on top of blond hair, which was short but appeared to have split ends where it stuck out from under the cap.

Gwidion <quietly>:  is the river not getting better?
Mia:  we did fight a whole swarm of froggoths on the way here – that was charming – and heard a pair of hydroose mating on the way up

At this declaration, Gwidion looked worried.  He started to point at the boxy apparatus, but as he turned he noticed Ursula, and his eyes widened as "worried" gave way to "oh shit" as he took in the bear's purple, feathered wings.

Dominic:  okay, so if "Mr Blackrind" has developed a way to purify the pollution, it would also stand to reason he has tools to measure the effectiveness of it.  Is this not correct?
Gwidion:  the machine <stops and points> every so often we have to fix it, when the light turns orange
Dominic:  I would be perfectly happy to get my answers from Mr Blackrind, if you aren't fully versed in the operation of the machine itself.
Gwidion:  you can come in, but please leave the mounts outside and don't touch anything.  You can use the stable?
Manu:  while we are talking to Mr Blackrind – I am wondering – I assume there was some sort of contract, can you get this for us?
Gwidion <taken aback>:  contracts?!  Who has time for contracts?  I spend my time writing magical formulae, not contracts
Lorcan <astounded>:  don't you have a factor?
Gwidion:  no?

The Freelancers told the wizard they would be back shortly, and led their mounts to the stable, which turned out to be sizable enough to hold them all.  Mia took the most care with stabling, as she was concerned Ursula would misbehave.  But in short order the Freelancers returned to the tower, without their mounts, and the sandy-haired apprentice let them back in, then closed the door behind.

The inside of the tower (including the door) was lined with potion-spattered lead, explaining why Dominic's detect magic had seen nothing when the Freelancers had first approached.  They looked around, taking in the alchemical workroom.

"Please don't touch anything," Gwidion said mildly, "It could boil over, or explode, or you'd mess up an experiment and I'd have to be mad."  It was plain the wizard was most concerned with that last.  He led the Freelancers to the purifier machine, with its lights and buttons and levers, and pulled over Mr Blackrind to join their conversation.  The artificer had olive skin and thick black hair, with a waxed pencil mustache and a chinstrap goatee.  He reminded Lorcan of Siddiqui, the pressgang boss, except with the mustache straight instead of curled.

Gwidion introduced them, "Here are Freelancers; here is the machine.  Mr Blackrind, please explain to them how this machine works."  Mr Blackrind changed the lenses in his goggles, then launched into an unnecessarily complex, jargon-laden explanation.  He clearly thought the Freelancers present were idiots; Lorcan, knowing herbalism, poisons, and a smattering of alchemy, caught some of the explanation.

Despite the varying levels of knowledge, the Freelancers fully understood he thought they were stupid, and also that he was trying to bamboozle all with the unnecessarily complex explanation.  It was also obvious that the jargon was to bore Gwidion so he'd tune out.

Dominic <interrupted>:  so you have a device that you think is cleaning the pollutants coming out of the tower, correct?
Blackrind:  yes that is correct!
Dominic:  how have you tested it?
Blackrind:  <started again on jargon, then stopped and sighed>  I used a lot of detect magic
Gwidion:  that's it?!
Blackrind <defensively>:  there's a lot of steps before THAT!  I have to do those first?

Dominic launched into his own explanation, which Lorcan and Minji divined eventually was proposing an overly complicated double-blind test.  Gwidion followed this explanation, but Blackrind resisted.  Again he tried to reassure the Freelancers.  Minji responded that they were not doubting intention but execution.

Mr Blackrind explained he initially made the machine to be self-testing, but that often went awry, and Gwidion explained that now when the light turned orange, they would change filters.

Dominic:  what happens with the filters that are changed?
Gwidion:  prestidigitation

It became increasingly clear to Gwidion that the Freelancers were unconvinced the machine did anything, and despite his dislike of contracts Gwidion was well-aware there could be consequences if such a report got back to Kaiea, especially if persons unaware of how it worked tore the machine apart to prove that it did not.

Gwidion:  I don't want the proof I have been cleaning to be wrecked.  I've been working on something extremely interesting that would help resolve this dilemma; I have a potion of extreme shrinking.  You could take this and check out the machine yourself.
Manu:   we frankly don't care if this is your best?  We care if it's actually purified.  <to Mr Blackrind> would you actually drink this?  If we filled a glass with it, would you drink it right now?
Blackrind <blustered>:  I'm not afraid, I know it works, I'll drink it right now!  It will not taste good, but I'll drink it
Manu:  but, is it not water?
Blackrind:  it's water!
Minji <cocked head>:  why would it taste bad, if it's pure water?
Blackrind:  you know, it's pipes
Minji:  then it's not pure water
Blackrind:  you know the stream clean water has a nice taste…
Lorcan:  yes!  the streams downstream are not pure nobody wants to drink them
Manu:  what are you doing with the used filters?
Blackrind:  clean and reuse, and it's easier to neutralize <alchemical bable> small focussed amount of things
Manu:  ok ok why does the water have to go right back into the stream maybe just put it in a pool out back and you can find out if it's bad or if a giant goose hydra emerges, is your volume that large to make it unfeasible?
Gwidion:  I guess we could make an extra pool, and have the water wheel divert. 

Gwidion moved to one of the clearer benches, producing some parchment, upon which he started sketching plans to make a pool.  After the first quick sketch, he gestured for the Freelancers to join him, leaving Mr Blackrind in a fugue, staring at the purifier.

The Freelancers moved slowly to the wizard, contemplating the other part of his statement, about the potion of extreme shrinking.

Minji <quietly>:   I do not trust this shrinking
Mia:  magic isn't my forte, but I have questions
Murai:   I've always wanted 8 heads, more room for necklaces!

As they got to the wizard, he spoke to them, keeping his voice low, stealing an occasional glance at Mr Blackrind.

Gwidion:  I'm not sure of his motivations.  I'm not entirely sure if that machine is working perfectly, and would like to check it from the inside.
Lorcan:  if we are very small, it takes very little of those substances to affect us.
Gwidion:  that's not how the magic works.  You will be perfectly safe™ in terms of dosage.  I can also put a boundary and a couple of failsafes on the shrinkage.  You will have a token, such that if you snap it you and those within 5' of you will regrow.  Also, I can put a boundary so that you won't get large again until you get out.
Lorcan:  what about our own stuff?
<Minji's tails started lashing, reflecting an internal conflict.>
Mia:  what the hell are we looking for in there, and what's to stop you from turning on the machine when we are in there?
Gwidion <simply>:  that's what the token is for
Dominic:  that requires consciousness and 2 working hands
Lorcan:  meanwhile, what are we looking for when we go inside?
Gwidion:  check that it's fully hooked up; that there are not leaks; that it's not broken.
Murai:  I think we are risking going in there and not thinking anything is wrong
Lorcan:  what you said has nothing to do with Blackrind's motivations
Gwidion <hesitated>:  I… am not entirely sure he's not intentionally still polluting
Dominic:  the test I described earlier would tell us…
<Dominic explained what the Freelancers had found earlier, the detect magic findings upstream and downstream of the tower.>
Gwidion:  that's what is unclear if intentional
Dominic:  but, we do not care.  the simplest way is to shut down the lab
Minji:  unless the machine can be improved
Murai:  that's the point
Lorcan <to Gwidion>:  so, what's it worth to you for us to do this?
Dominic:  that's where I was going with this
<Lorcan gave Dominic a side-eye that probably only Dominic noticed.>
Gwidion:  I will give you 200 eagles each, if you check the inside of this alchemist machine that I am not sure of, whether it's intentionally letting it through.  if it is intentional, I can get another artificer; if it is not, I will have to pack up the lab and move it
Murai:  I don't mind extra motivation
Manu:  the shrinking potion, if that works out alright you have more of those for us as well?
Gwidion <shook his head>:  it's really tricky to set up the boundaries of the potion of extreme shrinking
<Manu applied his most persuasive aspect.>
Gwidion:  I will give you 300 eagles instead of 200, because i do not want to set up shrinking potion boundary for a different location

This sounded like a great way to acquire some extra coin… except not to Dominic, who was extremely skeptical at going into a potentially malfunctioning machine that had the pollution-causing effluent concentrated within, at the behest of the person responsible for generating the effluent.  The other Freelancers looked at Dominic in astonishment, who became positively mulish in his objections to taking on a mission outside the purview of the Freelancers.

Dominic:   I'm only okay with this if we take collateral
Murai:  well, we should bring the artificer.  do not phrase it as "collateral", though.  Tell him we do not understand the machine, why doesn't he come with us?
Dominic:  that only takes care of part of it!
<The other Freelancers were not agreeable to this idea, having taken Mr Blackrind in dislike.>
Murai <exasperated>:  Gwidion is not going to kill us, if he does that the Freelancers will come down on him like a ton of bricks.
Dominic:  that is why we are here!

<Narrator voice:  at this point everyone, most notably the GM, decided that the Freelancers have a sending stone.  On Dominic because he's the highest wisdom, and Arnari has the other half.>

Gwidion was willing to give Mr Blackrind a potion and shrink him to go with the Freelancers, but Dominic was still unwilling to agree to Gwidion's request, and then, as if the potion was a poison, proposed that Gwidion to drink the potion first.  Lorcan raised an eyebrow at that, and Gwidion explained no, becuase of maintaining that boundary he'd mentioned, he had to be outside.  Lorcan declared he'd be happy to drink the potion, he would do so right there.

Everyone else said no.  Perhaps they thought Lorcan was expressing bravado there.

Dominic, frustrated, pulled out the sending stone, and sent to Arnari:
At tower, inspecting internals of cleaning apparatus. If no contact in four days, assume Guidion is hostile and Freelancer team lost.

While he was doing that, an argument ensued about how the token they could snap worked.  Mia assumed when Gwidion had said "within 5 feet" is was not to the shrunken scale, but literal, and it turned out the 5' was at the shrunken scale, requiring the person with the token have the others in a close circle around him or her.  At this news, Lorcan became the extremely unhappy person, since the situation effectively neutered his blowgun.  This topic was the one that finally caused the group to raise their voices.

Surprised at this turn of events (and also that he hadn't foreseen the 5' requirement as an issue), Gwidion tried to calm everyone down.  <Narrator voice:  even in an RPG, we get an example of why we write designs and subject them to review.>

Gwidion:  I could adjust it, but it would take a day of work, and a hair from everyone to add to the token, so that when it's snapped it pulls everyone out.  Otherwise, you are right, you cannot be even 10' apart, in the scale you have shrunk to.
Manu:  I don't really have hair…
Gwidion:  nail clipping is fine.

Murai was happy to have an extra day, and declared they will check the environs surrounding the tower.

At this point, Arnari responded to Dominic:​
Understood, we will be ready. Please report regularly.

Dominic told the others Arnari wanted regular checkins.

Lorcan:  are we incommunicado while we are in this thing?
Gwidion:  it will be hard to hear you directly, because you are Tiny; but magic items will function the same

Murai, assured that there were failsafes, Arnari knew about it, and they were getting extra coin, was excited now to go on this adventure in tinyness.  Dominic, however, was still not.  He reiterated that he wanted the artificer to accompany the Freelancers, and then he moved the goalposts and said he wanted whatever indispensable reagents were used in the lab.

Minji and Mia tried to add to Dominic's persuasiveness, but Lorcan had perked up a bit too obviously at this idea and was utterly unable to hide the fact that he fully intended to keep whatever of such reagents as he could get away with.

Gwidion <frowned>:  I am already sending Mr Blackrind with you, and I will pay in advance, so I do not think you need any further guarantees.
Dominic:  you already distrust the artificer
Murai <to Dominic>:  we already have a good deal here
Minji:  the more we argue, the more curious I get
Murai:  we should go do a little exploring while we wait.
Minji:  we should see for ourselves if the purification escaped
Dominic <scowled>:  fine
Manu:  I support this caution
Mia <reasonably>:  it's bad for him to harm the Freelancers

A pause ensued, and it seemed that would be the end of it, and the Freelancers were set to shrink extremely on the morrow and explore Mr Blackrind's apparatus from the inside.  Then, as if it just occurred to him, Dominic asked if they could take Gwidion's spellbook as collateral.

Dominic kept his tone polite, but there's no way to ask a wizard for such a thing and consider the request actually polite; people have died for less.  Lorcan, expecting hostilities to break out immediately as a result, shifted, preparing 3 of his blowgun needles with potent poison, cleverly concealing the action from others' notice.

Gwidion <frowned>:  I appreciate that you want to feel safe, but I am not the enemy, and… I don't think you will necessarily avoid intentionally or unintentionally dropping the spellbook
Dominic <unmoved>:  I really must insist
Gwidion:  no, and I am not telling you where it is
Manu:  we have nothing of yours that you are not willing to destroy.  That gives us no leverage.  There's nothing stopping you from making this problem go away.  It will inconvenience you, perhaps, if the Freelancers wage war on your tower (and they will if you fuck with us), but – I don't even know if you can just move the tower with your mind.
Gwidion <taken aback>:  I am not trying to make you "go away", but I'm not going to give you my spellbook; and I'll stop the experiments while you do this, but I'd rather move the tower than give you my spellbook.
Dominic:  exactly, that's what we're trying to do.
Lorcan <to Dominic>:  you
Mia <to Dominic>: except, I believe him

Dominic pressed his lips together, and stared at the wizard, trying to divine his true intentions.  But for some reason he couldn't tell one way or the other.

The Freelancers took their leave, as Gwidion now had significant magical work to do.  Manu, although not as adamant as Dominic, was also dissatisfied with this outcome, and brought an urban perspective to the interaction.

Manu:  this is what escrow is for
Mia:  he doesn't understand contracts

After retrieving their mounts from the stable, the Freelancers went exploring in the tower's vicinity, mostly hunting for the various aberrations they'd encountered downstream.  It took a bit for them to notice what was abnormal, as it appeared the environment had already rebalanced to the changes.  For example, they saw some very large flowers in a forest clearing, scattered amongst the knee-high grass.  Minji frowned but said nothing.

As they flew over, they caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a purple bear.  Later, as they headed back to the tower, they heard a hydroose in the far distance.

* * session break * *

<Narrator voice:  some of the info in the early part of this section was actually from prior>

That evening, Gwidion was gracious and invited the Freelancers to sup with them in the tower.  Dominic tensed, but Mia and Murai were all for it, so the entire group ate together on the second floor of the tower.  The wizard told them he'd succeeded in altering the extreme shrinking potion, so it would be ready for them the next day.  They found out that Mr Blackrind's name was Futsu, and he was about as enthused about the plans for the morrow as Dominic was; he was begrudging the lost time from his alchemical work.

The tower did not have the extra sleeping space to accommodate the Freelancers, and they would probably not have availed themselves of it anyhow; they slept in the stables with their mounts, and kept an uneasy watch.

Mia & Manu had 1st watch, and couldn't really pay attention to much; the pegasi in the stables were unhappy with their new neighbors, and restive at the presence of the gryphons and the bear.
Murai & Minji had 2nd watch.  By this time, the pegasi were too tired to stay restive, and also took a cue from Bandit's unconcern with the other mounts.  So the watch was very quiet.
Dominic & Lorcan had 3rd watch, and watched it get light.  Dominic heard a weird noise like a feline right outside the edge of the stable, but Lorcan heard nothing.

Dominic:  hear that?
Lorcan:  hear what?
<Dominic quickly checked if Lorcan was real and not an illusion.>
Dominic <listened harder>:  I guess I'm too wound up.

Lorcan shook his head, and made another set of potent poison after it got light enough to see.

Chaostag, 1st prime post-Calm 1056

After ensuring the mounts were taken care of, the Freelancers headed to Gwidion's Tower.  They found Gwidion and Futsu Blackrind within, the former with the potions, and the latter dressed for adventuring.

When he realized the proposed entry was going to be via the drain in the sink, Lorcan asked for underwater breathing potions.  Gwidion went upstairs and returned with a case of them, dispensing 2 to each Freelancer and also to Mr Blackrind.  The Freelancers promised to return any that remained unused.

Gwidion asked if they were ready, and Dominic took that time to use the sending stone.
Start the clock, we are going into purification apparatus.  If you need to track down Gwidion, he has a mole behind his left ear.

Arnari responded.
Acknowledged, good luck.  Don't forget to report regularly.

Gwidion gave the signal token to Dominic… and then everyone was in the bottom of the sink, staring at the drain, and realizing that their first challenge was getting past the P-trap under the sink.  Lorcan proposed just lowering a rope and having people swing past it, showing that Lorcan didn't know much about plumbing.

Everyone peered down there, and even though Mia and Murai didn't see much, it just appeared they were looking down a well.  Lorcan was dismayed at the water in the bottom.

Murai:  so, just take a potion of water breathing
Lorcan <crossly>:  why don't you go tell us?
Murai:  o!  yeah, I don't need to breathe; I can!

Without hesitation, Murai took a swan dive down the pipe.  Of course the pipe was not quite wide enough to properly swan dive, and they were smacked a bit as they hit the water in the bend.  They shook their head to clear it.  Lorcan, impatient, messaged them, "well, what's down there?"

Murai assessed their surroundings in the dim light from above.  They had no effect of poison or acid; nothing seemed particularly nasty or gross… but the water was not good.  "It's not burning or anything," they replied to Lorcan, "but it's not very clean."  Then they swam through the P-trap in the dark, feeling around to climb out of the dank water.  The pipe was not smoothe, and despite wearing plate the paladin did all this easily, then they lit a bullseye lantern to have a look around.

Lorcan relayed Murai's observations to the others, but saw the water go still, and started messaging Murai again.

Lorcan:  whatchyoo doin'?
Murai:  I swam around the bend.  Seems fine
Lorcan:  do we need to drink the potions?
Murai:  might be a good idea.

Lorcan relayed this but at "seems fine" Mia also took a swan dive.  It was amazingly graceful, and she parted the water as she hit it, then continued forward and emerged on the other side of the P-trap, in the light of Murai's lantern.  The remaining adventurers looked at each other, and when they failed to see Mia's head surface, Manu started messaging the rude barbarian.

Manu:  hello down there, how did it go?
Mia:  it's fine!  water sucks, blech
<Manu threw a rope down the pipe.>
Manu:  can you drag that down through the U-bend?
Mia:  good idea!

Mia swam back to the rope, then pulled it through.  Manu, still at the top of the sink, started stripping off his clothes.  The hanyou never had done that in front of other Freelancers before, and they stared at him in surprise.  He sported no tattoos, unsurprising as his naturally pale skin clearly showed his veins with black blood.  Also, he was covered with many scars, some were nasty remnants of abuse and street fighting.

Lorcan:  I have no intention of stripping.
Manu:  I haven't had nice clothes for very long.  They will be gross, but better than yucky.

Lorcan, feeling he'd later regret his decision, drank a potion of water breathing in prep for what he thought would be a diving disaster.  Manu, once he'd stripped, got out another length of rope, and carefully looped it around the cross piece in the drain.  Then he climbed down with no problems at all.  <Narrator voice:  Matt B rolled a nat 20 on athletics>  Once in the water, he followed the rope Mia had set up to go through the trapped water.  The folks up top did not see it, but Manu barely made it, and Mia and Murai pounded him on the back as the hanyou sputtered and coughed.

Lorcan, Futsu, and Minji were encouraged by Manu's seeming success, although Minji's tails were lashing at the thought of having to go into the water.  Lorcan followed Manu down the rope, grateful he didn't have to try to dive, only to slip, slide down the rope and end up in the water over his head.  He found the rope Mia had set up through the trap and followed it, trying to hold his breath against the bad water; but he failed and ended up inhaling it.  At least the potion prevented him from taking any harm from inhaling water.

Futsu looked at Dominic and Minji, then shrugged and climbed down the rope just as nimbly as Manu, and swam through the U-bend without any problems.  The alchemist emerged into the lantern light just as Murai's stomach started to rumble audibly.

Minji decided the walls were rough enough to climb down without making use of the unreliable rope.  Dominic watched from above as the nekomata hit a slick patch and slid uncontrollably down the sides of the drain pipe.  Her tails hit the water and she started caterwauling with dismay as the rest of her feline self hit the water.  While she tried to follow the rope, she had gotten a good mouthful of bad water in her wide-open, caterwauling mouth, and she could not make it through the U-bend.  She surfaced on the drain side of the water, coughing and sputtering.  "This is all horrible," she cried, "You are wet and this water is vile."  <Narrator voice:  Wendy rolled a nat 1 on athletics.>

At this point, Manu's stomach was rumbling along with Murai's.

Dominic took in the situation, and shaped a crocodile.  Biting the rope, crocodile-Dominic jumped down the drain.  Now, crocodiles are not aerodynamic in the slightest (despite the fond hopes of a Freelancer on Commerce), and crocodile-Dominic was no different, smacking into the water painfully.  But he avoided the scrabbling, wet, caterwauling nekomata, who did not appreciate his care, since she still got splashed.

He shoved at Minji with the rope in his snout, and Minji grasped it, then dove through the P-trap.  At no point did Minji cease caterwauling, and as soon as they were past the bend the nekomata exited the water loudly and with alacrity, sputtering and incoherent.  Mia and Manu patted her on the back, and Manu used prestidigitation to clear some of the water from the unhappy Minji.  After recovering from her vocal displeasure she also started using prestidigitation.

Crocodile-Dominic floated up slowly, as he was not wanting to experience a boathook to the head (nor to any other part of his scaly self), and climbed out of the water onto the top of the pipe where they all had stationed themselves.  He resumed his normal human shape to find he also wasn't feeling all that great in the tummy.

Manu had prestidigitated his own clothes, too, and was putting them on, while complaining about feeling not so great.  Since it boded ill to start with half the Freelancers effectively poisoned, Murai started to lay on hands to clear it up.  They first addressed their own tummy, then Manu's; they checked on the others.  Minji, Mia, and Lorcan were fine; Murai cleared Dominic; then looked askance at Futsu, who had been trying to hide how poorly he felt.  Futsu shook his head, swallowed heavily, then assured Murai he would be fine.

The Freelancers looked at what lay beyond, and it appeared that they were facing a 50' (relative to them) drop to a flat part.  Anything past that lay in darkness or was around a corner.

Manu, once dressed, peered at it closely.

Manu:  this is very slick, and I have an idea, but I don't have the equipment for it.  Does anyone have a shield?
Futsu:  it's vertical.
Manu:  o, well, if only we had a rope of climbing
Murai:  oh, hey, I have a rope of climbing.  <looked around>  what could we anchor it to?
Lorcan:  Mia.
Mia:  well, I was gonna volunteer, but if you joke about it–
Lorcan:  I wasn't joking!

A rope of climbing is 60', and can be made shorter by adding knots to it for easy handholds; Murai had it do so, then the Freelancers all climbed down.  Once again Manu made it look easy <Narrator voice:  once again Matt B rolled a nat 20 for athletics>, and this time Lorcan, Futsu, and Dominic were decidedly ungraceful about it; but there were no mishaps.

Murai pointed their bullseye lantern down the pipe.  It appeared to descend on a distinct but gentle slope, without any turns, and it was damp: perhaps slippery, perhaps not.

Minji <to Futsu>:  when was the last time water ran through it?
Futsu:  you saw them run the water this morning
Minji:  fresh water?  or effluent?
Futsu:  fresh water.

Manu suggested Mia go first, and Lorcan suggested he also be next to her, since he had darkvision.  She lit a torch and they led the way, followed by Manu, Futsu, Minji, and Murai, with Dominic bringing up the rear.

The group hadn't gone all that far when Lorcan and Mia spotted at the edge of the light what looked like a dam, with a pool accumulated on their side of it.  Lorcan visibly tensed, and Mia wondered what had triggered him, but they advanced to it and stopped right before the pool.

Manu used prestidigitation on the dam to no effect.  Mia poked the green water with a javelin, and the metal point pitted.  Upon seeing that, Futsu produced a vial, and sampled the substance.  "Wow," he declared, "This is almost pure acid!"

Lorcan asked, "Will it get big when we get big?"  Disappointed, Futsu replied, "You are right, no point in taking samples," and poured it back into the pool.  Lorcan was also disappointed.

They walked very carefully around the pool, but Dominic and Lorcan lost their footing, and only caught their balance by getting a hand burned in the acid.  Futsu, distracted by why the pool was even here, tripped and fell in, but managed not to splash everyone.

But they were past and continued walking, avoiding the trickle of green down the center of the pipe.  It did not take long to come across another such dam, with a pool behind it.  This time the water wasn't green, but sported soap bubbles along the edges.  Glancing at Futsu, Lorcan produced a vial, and used mage hand to take a sample.  Close examination revealed it to be soapy water.

Mia, astounded, asked, "Why are they different?  if there isn't different stuff coming down…?"  Futsu took out a notebook and started scribbling notes, as Mia poked the pool with her javelin again.  It came out soapy.

The group walked carefully around this pool too, but soapy water makes for slipperiness, and everyone but Lorcan, Minji, and Dominic fell in and became slippery themselves.  Once past it, Mia kicked at the dam, to no avail.

Dominic:  is this… calcium?
Minji:  Futsu, how are these forming?
Futsu:  mineral buildup between streams.

Continuing, the group now walked alongside a wider trickle of liquid.  They were not surprised to see another dam, but they saw it from much further away.  The pool was very sparkly, although the dam itself was mostly brown, where the water hadn't coated it with sparkles.  Murai got very excited as they approached.

Lorcan again sampled it in a vial, then held it in front of Futsu.  "Blackrind, what do you think?" he asked.  The alchemist peered closely at it through his lenses.  "It's just glitter," he announced, then started writing even more notes.

Murai could not contain themself any longer and jumped into the pool, submerging themself in some sort of spontaneous baptism ritual to the Magpie of Shinies and Sparkliness.  They emerged from the pool, kind of like Garion of Riva did, in another world, right before his coronation <Narrator voice:  admit it, you have read the book Castle of Wizardry>, except also entirely covered in sparkles.

The Freelancers, except for Mia and Murai, yet again carefully skirted the pool.  Manu paused, and dipped his hands in, then carefully coated his horns in glitter.  Futsu's feet went out from under him, and he ended up coated in glitter as well; perhaps the Raven was also fond of sparkles.

Mia was again muttering about how the uniqueness of these pools made no sense.  She waded into the pool to check the dam.  She found nothing interesting, but her arms and legs got coated in glitter.  Frustrated, she raged, and tried to break the dam with the pommel of her longsword.  A crack appeared in the brown deposits, and the pool started to drain slowly, running down the center of the pipe below.

Lorcan tried putting the vial of soapy water into the glitter water, but it did not mix.  He turned to Manu.  "Manu, can you prestidigitate this vial?" he requested, and the hanyou did so.  "Thank you," the rogue said politely.

The Freelancers continued on, the glitter water outpacing them and running ahead.

That was not the end of the dams.  The next one had a black, oily fluid behind it, all the way to the top; the glitter water simply ran over it and the dam.

Mia stopped, perhaps 10' away, staring at it, torch held high.

Lorcan:  you gonna stick a javelin?
Mia:  uh.  what about a ball bearing?

Lorcan shrugged, then flicked a ball bearing into the top of the pool.  The metal sank it slowly, as if it was a pool of tar.  Manu used mage hand to fish it out, and a pseudopod slapped at the hand.  The sides of the pool pulled in and they realized it was an animated creature, a black ooze.

Minji found herself backing away from it up the pipe, her normal curiosity overcome by a strong feeling of euwww.  She sent two beams of leafy-green blast in quick succession at the ooze.  They both slammed it with force and black goo bubbled ominously where they struck.

• Lorcan also backed away, pulling out his blowgun and a bamboo dart, ready to shoot the black ooze if it got into melee range of Mia.
• Manu fell into Infernal, yelling "Suck it!" at the black ooze as he cast mind whip on it, hindering its ability to act.
  • Four jellyfish-like creatures with eyestalks materialized around Manu, floating roughly the height of his head above the ground.  Upon seeing him, they let out wails of dismay and fled from him.
  • Much like Minji, Manu also backed up from the black ooze.
• Mia pulled out her longsword, stepped up to the ooze swinging.  The sword neatly parted it, splashing her with some acid and also having its edge etched enough to reduce its ability to slash.
  • Lorcan shot his blowgun dart, neatly piercing the ooze just as it was parting.
  • Mia looked at the etched edge of her sword, hesitated, then attacked again, neatly parting one of the smaller black oozes.  Again she was splashed with acid and her blade was etched even worse.
  • Exclaiming "WTF!" repeatedly in dismay, she backed up from the multiplied enemies, examining her damaged sword.
• Murai moved up, then crit the smallest ooze with their boathook.  The ooze deanimated, acid splashing the paladin and eating away at the point of the hook.
  • They swung at the other small ooze, which also deanimated, but splashed even more acid on the paladin and eating the hook more.
  • Murai backed off grimly.
• The remaining ooze glorped up to Murai, but that was all it could do.
• Dominic cast guiding bolt on the black ooze, the beam of starlight burning it with holy radiance.
• Futsu pulled out a wand, and shot the black ooze with a firebolt, burning it with fire.
• Minji cast toll the dead, and the ooze deanimated as the necrosis destroyed whatever was holding it together.

Manu looked around at the fleeing jellyfish creatures.  "Why are all the little things running away from me?" the sorcerer asked plaintively.

* * session break * *

The glitter water was piling up behind the dam, now that it no longer had the black ooze to shunt it over.  The deanimated remnants of the black ooze were slowly flowing down towards the dam.  These two liquids continued not to mix. 

Futsu walked up to Mia, and offered to mend her damaged sword.  Surprised, she handed him the blade, and he spent about ten minutes applying the mending cantrip up and down the blade.  Then he turned to Murai and offered to do the same to their weapon.  A sawed-off boathook, however, was intrinsically damaged from its original purpose, so mending the damaged point didn't take quite as long.

Murai, watching him, realized Futsu was still in some pain from the acid burns, and offered to heal him.  He demurred, advising the paladin to "Save it."

The group resumed their march down the pipe, and it wasn't long before a trickle of glitter water caught up and ran alongside them again.  A minute or so later, they reached another dam, with a pool of milky white liquid accumulated behind it.  Manu poked the liquid with mage hand; it was extremely viscous but did not animate.  Like the black ooze, the glitter water was running over it without mixing.

Mia skirted it to go past the dam, and Lorcan started to follow.

Dominic:  walk on water?
Lorcan:  no, we don't know it will work.
Mia:  oh!  <walked back to the group.>  it's insurance.

Lorcan stopped.  Dominic pulled out his quarterstaff, and started tracing runes in the damp scum of the pipe as he ritual cast walk on water.  Ten minutes later, the group resumed its trek, although both Dominic and Murai slipped onto the milky white pool, which reacted kind of like an unpoppable bubble.

More trekking down the pipe, and the group came to a pool that was a familiar sight to Manu, Lorcan, and Futsu:  a liquefied rainbow, in which the vibrant colours swirled around each other, refusing to mix.  This pool was the effluent, the pollution itself, which Manu and Lorcan had seen in a vial Cathance carried, and which Futsu had been hired to purify before it went into the environment.

Murai walked up to it, fascinated, and dipped a finger into the swirly colours.  Their finger was covered with the sheen.  Lorcan flashed Murai a side-eye, and got out a potion bottle from his alchemy supplies, then used mage hand to fill it as full as he could.  Murai stood there, contemplating their finger.

Suddenly, Murai dropped and rolled around in the pool.  Their efforts easily overcame the magical effect of the walk on water spell.  Everyone watched, and saw that the glitter on Murai's armour did not wash off, but appeared augmented by the rainbowy colours.  Murai rose to their feet… to find they were 3" taller.  Their eyes widened, and face flushed.  The Magpie thinks, "Good Job!" they thought, but said nothing.

Minji reminded everyone, "the sooner we get through this, the sooner we get to be normal."  Perhaps she was disturbed at the notion of someone deliberately rolling around in the water so much.  "Who you calling normal?" Lorcan retorted, but the Freelancers and Futsu resumed their march.

They walked another ten minutes without encountering any dams, and got to a T-junction.  Mia and Lorcan peered around the corners.  Downstream, the pipe opened up to a wider area.  Upstream, it went into an area that might have some sort of screen or gate.

Futsu:  that joins the ingredient concentrator.  We can go to that, or go to the purifier.
Mia:  what do you think?
Futsu:  we want to go downstream.  The upstream has a backwash filter/valve.
Manu:  should we check it?  What if it's clogged?
Futsu:  it's to keep it from going into the central machine.
Lorcan:  what does that central machine do?
Futsu:  it's an ingredient concentrator, used for pre- or post-processing of the common ingredients of potions.
Dominic:  is that the only source of pollutants?
Futsu:  no, no; it only does common ingredients.  The rest of the potion are ingredients developed at the lab benches, and comes down the sink.
Lorcan:  is it possible that rainbow stuff was from a backup?
Futsu:  this is a good question!

They decided to check if the valve was working properly, and walked up the pipe to the ingredient concentrator, which wasn't nearly as far away as the drawing earlier might indicate.  The group reached the 1-way valve and started poking around.

Dominic, Mia, and Murai couldn't get past the "we're in a pipe, it looks like a pipe" and everything interesting they noticed turned out to be a glitter reflection.  Lorcan, Manu, and Minji checked out the valve and it didn't seem anything was wrong.  They looked around the pipe and saw that when both the sink and concentrator were contributing flows, it could back up as the downstream didn't quite have the capacity.

They headed downstream, with Mia lighting another torch.  Watching her do it, Lorcan considered the value of obtaining a driftglobe.

The group went past the junction, and the pipe widened, then widened more, and then opened up into a big area with metal columns, and puddles and terraces downward.  They had finally reached the purifier.

The entire area was extremely still, and the group spent some minutes peering out.  The only movement was heads and eyes tracking back and forth, and the snap of the flame on Mia's torch.

Futsu:  since the machine is off, there's not much happening.
Mia:  isn't the magic still on?
Futsu:  no.  it's not particularly safe, but nothing is going.
Lorcan:  now we're here… what are we trying to discover?
Dominic:  we suspect the machine isn't filtering properly, but we don't really know.
Lorcan:  if it were on, what would we expect to see?
Futsu:  the columns would lift these–terraces–into the air, and some others would squish it.  Some bits vacuum the liquid up.  <paused, considering>  The best place to check is, go towards the drain and see if the problem is there.  Then, work backwards from there if it isn't.
Mia:  sounds reasonable!
Manu:  we should check for buildup, &c.

Without moving, the Freelancers peered more closely at the vista in front of them, looking for indications of buildup.  They all noticed the terrace edges were all curved, concave away.  Lorcan, Mia, and Murai saw grungy and bubbling pools in various places, and patches of haze in front of them.  Dominic, Manu, and Minji could tell the machine had been used, from the visible buildup and wear; but the buildup did not seem unnatural or problematic.

Lorcan:  we should proceed, but keep an eye on that torch
Manu:  if torch goes out, or funky colours, we should pay attention
Mia:  should we pick an edge?
Manu:  down to the drain?
Mia:  I want to step in the least goo.
Murai:  walk on water is still up
Futsu:  there's a set of concentric circles, except slid to one side; you want to be across, on the other side.

Futsu pointed across, right about through the midpoint of the concave terraces.  Manu looked up; the ceiling, at their scale, was roughly 40' above.

Manu:  rope of climbing
Murai:  I keep forgetting about that!

They didn't really see a way to take an edge without stomping on pools, but it did appear a meandering path could take them to where Futsu had indicated, so the group set off across this bizarre landscape of pools and terraces and metal columns, with Mia in front, holding the torch.

Keeping roughly the same order as through the pipe, the group started to descend and meander past the pools.  The Freelancers were cautious, and watching where they stepped, except for Futsu and Dominic.  Futsu had more confidence in where he was going, and was watching for other hazards.  Dominic, of course, was trying to memorize the entire layout in order to reproduce it on a map once they paused.

Dominic misstepped and fell, cursing.  <Narrator voice:  Matt H rolled a nat 1 on stealth.  Moreover, when the GM asked for stealth rolls, everyone was surprised, and the entirety of everyone rolled for shit.>  Futsu saw two of the surrounding pools of dirty yellow move, not like liquid disturbed by the vibrations of a fall, but more like how that black ooze had moved in the pipe earlier.  "Oh!" he exclaimed in dismay, "uh–this–oh, no."

In short order, six of the nearby pools rose up into dirty yellow oozes, effectively surrounding the entire group.  Four were in an arc on the left, with the other two directly right and behind.  <Narrator voice:  of course there are no distinguishing marks.  I will refer to these as ooze 1-6, numbered from the left rear going clockwise around the Freelancers.>

Seeing this situation, but no convenient place to hide nearby, Lorcan moved next to Mia, making sure his own person was not between her and any of these oozes.  He pulled out his blowgun of warning, and was ready to shoot a needle into the first one that moved up to striking distance of the barbarian.

• Futsu was still talking, "This is not okay, I don't want to be here, I should not be here!"  He sank a firebolt into ooze5 on the right.  A thought occurred to him, and he checked if any more oozes arose; but they had not.
• Manu backed up between Murai and Dominic, and was about to use his sorcerous abilities to cast haste on Mia and Murai simultaneously.
  • Dominic:  Manu…?
    Manu:  …yes?
    Dominic:  never mind
  • Anyhow Manu cast haste on Murai and Dominic, since Mia was too far away.
• Murai called down the blessing of the Magpie on themself, Minji, Dominic, and Manu.
  • Thanks to haste, they then moved rightward to ooze5 and struck it mightily with their boathook, piercing it.  Neither Murai nor the boathook suffered harm from this activity.
• Dominic cast flameblade, and a fiery scimitar appeared in his hand, illuminating the area around the druid.  He also strode over to ooze5 and struck it, burning most of the ooze away.
  • "I'll leave this one for you Mia," he announced, and moved back to ooze6, striking it with the fiery scimitar and burning some of it away as well.
  • ooze5 tried to strike the druid as he moved away but failed.
• Mia cast about herself, displeased that the torch prevented her from equipping her shield, then burst into a rage.  She threw a javelin at the nearest ooze3, which was ahead and to her right.  It struck, and the air shimmered with her surprised ancestors, who surrounded the ooze and no doubt wondered why the fuck they had to be so tiny.
  • Moving towards ooze5, she drew her javelin of lightning, sure that the magic weapon would withstand any possible ooze-etching.  Her strike caused the ooze to glorp into goo, dead.
• ooze6 was right on Dominic, but its pseudopod missed.
• ooze4, to the right of the ooze3 Mia had pierced with a javelin, moved up to Mia, resembling a roly-poly banana slug in how it moved.  It struck at Mia with a pseudopod, but missed.
  • Lorcan's blowgun needle struck it from an unexpected direction, the magical strike piercing it badly.
• ooze3 moved as fast as it could to Mia, and waved pseudopods at her, but it couldn't do much else.
• ooze1 and ooze2 moved as fast as they could to Lorcan, flanking him, but they also couldn't do much else.
• Minji cast toll the dead on ooze4.  A lazy, sleepy bell tone rang out, and a good half of the ooze withered and sloughed off.

Lorcan misliked being flanked, so he disengaged from the oozes and moved between Murai and Minji.  He shot ooze3 with a blowgun needle, and the magical strike from an unexpected direction hurt it badly.

• Futsu realized the Freelancer movements had left him in the vanguard.  He shot a firebolt at ooze3, burning it, and ran next to Lorcan.
  • Futsu:  I like making potions, coming up with new machines.  I don't like goo that moves!
    Lorcan:  how'd'ya think we like fighting these things in the forest?!
    Futsu:  wasn't intentional!!
• Manu used his sorcerous abilities to twin cast chill touch on ooze4 and ooze6.  Parts of them withered and sloughed off as the skeletal hands grasped them.
  • The wild magic struck, and Manu was imbued with see invisibility!  He quickly looked around to see if anything appeared to change, but same as it ever was.
• Murai rolled up to ooze1 and, hastened, started whaling on it with their boat hook.  Once, twice, and thrice with an added divine smite, which manifested as the rainbow sheen on their plate fluorescing, which then flowed down into their boathook and caused the ooze to burst into thousands of sparkles.
• Dominic, also hastened, struck ooze6 twice with his fiery scimitar, and the second strike crit, causing the ooze to boil away.
  • The druid transformed into a starry archer, and a mote of starlight shot out from his hand to strike ooze3, burning it with holy radiance, and causing the ooze to fade out.
  • Starry-Dominic moved to flank ooze4 opposite Mia.
• Mia struck ooze4 with her javelin of lightning, and her ancestors again caused the air to shimmer around this ooze as it was pierced by the magical javelin.
  • She left ooze4 to the ancestors and moved to ooze2, piercing it as well.
• ooze4 tried to attack Dominic, but Mia's ancestors stopped that from happening.
• ooze2 attacked Mia, but she easily avoided its pseudopods.
• Minji cast toll the dead on ooze2.  A lazy, sleepy bell tone rang out, and another portion of this ooze withered and sloughed off.

Lorcan shot a blowgun needle at ooze2, which was (as much as an ooze can be) focussed on Mia, so it again took a magical strike from an unexpected direction.

• Futsu had finally stopped complaining, and shot ooze4 with another firebolt, burning it away.
• Manu cast chill touch on ooze2, and the skeletal hand reached up from the ground and basically popped the ooze, leaving the remains to fall into silently spreading goo.

The oozes were all dead, and it seemed to the Freelancers that where they were was relatively safe, so Manu dropped the haste, and Dominic and Murai discovered just how tired they were.  Dominic suggested they pause and rest for an hour, perhaps eat, perhaps regain their equilibrium, and that was what the group did.  <Narrator voice: at this point Dominic, Futsu, Mia, and Murai spent some hit dice, and the GM was pleased.>

* * session break * *

After their short rest, the Freelancers (and Futsu Blackrind) felt refreshed, and they resumed heading towards the drain from the device.  Futsu tried to point the way, but of course the perspective was throwing him off.  The Freelancers did their best to keep their eyes out, but Murai was really just looking for more pools with glittery water, and Mia, who was unreasonably irritated with the guck in her hair, was giving Futsu nonstop shit for continuing to get turned around.

Futsu was unmoved by Mia's scolding.  Peering around at the pools surrounding them, he replied mildly, "Whatever, I'm used to being on the outside."

It felt like they were descending down steppes.  Around them were the pools as well as various pillars; also they saw fog clouds drifting, which did not look healthy.  The other Freelancers took personal stock, and concluded they were not being harmed by the fog clouds.  Lorcan, intrigued by the pillars, asked Futsu what they were all about.  Of course the artificer fell back on an overly complicated explanation, but it boiled down to filtering + embedded prestidigitation, along with triggered dispel magic.

While Lorcan and Futsu were talking, Manu, Dominic, and Minji saw a path weaving forward that was not quite as sodden as the rest.  So the group meandered across the steppes along that path, always descending.

After about half an hour, it felt like they were at the bottom.  The pools appeared deeper, and were a murky, opaque, unhealthy colour.  On the other hand, the air circulation felt different; perhaps some outside air was getting in.

Lorcan looked at Mia, then at Manu; he pulled out his blowgun and shot a bamboo needle in a pool that was a ways away from where they were standing.  The needle went in, floated to the top, and seemed to dissolve slowly.

Manu cast mage hand, then dipped it into a closer pool, scooping the sludge off the bottom.  He held the mage hand at the top of the pool, looking at what it had scooped.  The mess resembled shredded herbs soaked in acid.  After it stopped dripping, the hanyou brought the mage hand over to Futsu.

"Does this seem normal to you?" he asked the artificer, "Should this be at the bottom, you think?"

Futsu pulled a glass stirring rod out of his alchemical tools, and used it to carefully separate out the sludge, murmuring "Yep, yup, y– wait, that's weird."  He teased out a scale.  "I don't remember using any scales."

The pool, meanwhile, had started bubbling; clearly the mage hand had disturbed something within.  Suddenly, bursting out of the murky liquid, was a creature very large compared to the shrinky-dinked adventurers.  It had shiny, iridescent scales, and in addition to its main head & toothy mouth, it had toothy arms and a tail with teeth.

Lorcan looked at Futsu.  "Poison, or acidic?"  Futsu replied, "Acidic."  Lorcan pulled out a leather binder with vials, selected one, and coated three blowgun needles with its contents (potent poison), then flipped it back together.  He glanced at Murai, who was closest to the many-mouthed creature, then backed up next to Mia, readying to shoot if it approached Murai.

• Murai rolled up next to Mia, between Lorcan and the creature, rubbing their hands together.  Some of the glitter loosened, then with a mighty sneeze they cast blessing of the Magpie on Lorcan, Mia, and Minji.
• The surrounding pools had also started bubbling, and from them, 6 separate small clouds of acid rose, and drifted towards the Freelancers at a deliberate pace.  <Narrator voice:  to avoid awkwardness I am just numbering these 1-6.>
  • Cloud5 attacked Minji, who was burned by its acid.
• Futsu, with acid Cloud6 right next to him, reached out and touched it with shocking grasp.  The lightning dissipated Cloud6, spraying acid on himself and Manu.  They avoided most of it, but still picked up some acid burns.
• The many-mouthed creature made a sound that was part squeak, part roar (after all it wasn't actually that large), and lumbered over to Mia and Murai.
  • Lorcan shot it with the poisoned blowgun needle.  The needle went into a tender spot, but the creature avoided harm from the poison.
  • The creature tried to chomp Murai, but critfailed, instead chomping Mia.  Not only did its teeth pierce, its saliva was acidic, burning the barbarian.
  • It tried to chomp Murai with its toothy arms, but missed entirely.
• Minji cast toll the dead on Cloud5 and the cloud exploded as the sleepy tones rang out, spraying more acid on the annoyed warlock.  She avoided most of it, but still picked up more acid burns.
• Mia drew her javelin of lightning and stepped up to Cloud4, then critfailed spectacularly.  The lightning looped back into the javelin, making it even more deadlier!
  • She swung again at Cloud4, and it went poof, spraying her with acid.  Mia also avoided most of it, but managed to pick up some acid burns.
  • "Of course pests inside the machine also mutated," she complained.
• Dominic was all the way in the back, and had been observing what was happening with interest.  He now cast wind wall, shaped into something 1' thick, 15' tall, and 50' long, threading it to be between the group and the 3 remaining acid clouds, and blowing up the creature's ass.
  • The acid clouds could not withstand the wind, and all dissipated, spraying the toothy-creature with acid, but the many-mouthed creature couldn't care less about acid.
• Manu cast mind sliver on the many-mouthed creature, to no effect.

Lorcan felt he was too close to the creature and stepped back next to Manu, only to learn he was right as it took the opportunity to crit Lorcan with one of its toothy arms.  Lorcan immediately quaffed a healing potion, then shot it with another poisoned blowgun needle.  Again, the creature avoided harm from the poison.

• The many-mouthed creature's mouthy tail struck at Murai, but missed!
• Murai attacked the creature with their boathook.  The first attack missed, but the second attack connected and Murai turned it into a glittery inspiring smite.  In addition to the weapon's damage, the creature was burned with holy radiance, and Minji, Mia, and Lorcan were bolstered by it.
• The many-mouthed creature's mouthy tail struck at Mia, and crit!  The mouth tried to hang on to the barbarian, but partially aided by the Magpie's blessing, Mia got out of its grip.
• 6 more acid clouds emerged from the bubbling pools! <Narrator voice:  to avoid awkwardness I am  again just numbering these 1-6.> They moved towards the group.  Three were rebuffed by the wind wall.  Cloud5 moved up to Dominic, Cloud2 moved to Futsu, and Cloud4 was just far away.
• Lorcan's injuries were obvious to Futsu, who pulled a couple vials from his own belt, mixing them up.  He moved up to the Pastoral gnome.
  • Cloud2 tried to do something to Futsu but failed.
  • "Hold still, this will help," Futsu said to Lorcan, then poured a potion down Lorcan's throat, healing him somewhat.
• The many-mouthed creature bit Mia, again piercing her with its teeth and burning her with acidic saliva.
  • It tried to chomp Murai with its toothy arms, but critfailed.
• Minji cast toll the dead on Cloud5.  The sleepy bell dissipated some of it, but it mostly still held together.
• The many-mouthed creature's mouthy tail crit Murai, but Murai easily got out of its grip, and continued maintaining the blessing of the Magpie on the others.
• Mia pierced the creature twice with her javelin of lightning.
• The many-mouthed creature's mouthy tail tried to bite Mia, but critfailed and instead bit its own toothy arms, shaking back and forth like a cat.
• Dominic transformed into a starry archer, and backed away from Cloud5.
  • Cloud5 tried to do something to the druid but failed.
  • A mote of starlight shot out from Dominic'd hand to strike Cloud5 with holy radiance, and the acid cloud exploded, spraying acid on Minji.  She avoided most of it, but managed to pick up more acid burns.
  • Dominic cast thorn whip on Cloud2, and the magical whip dragged the acid cloud away from everyone else before it exploded harmlessly.
• Manu cast chill touch on the many-mouthed creature.  The skeletal hand scratched the creature, leaving necrosis in its wake, interfering with any healing.  Then the hanyou moved next to Futsu.

Lorcan shot the creature with another poisoned blowgun needle, and it sank to the ground, dead.  The bubbles from the other pools started dying down.  He moved between Mia and Murai.  "Thanks for the blessing," he said to Murai, somewhat awkwardly.

• Murai pulled out their longbow and shot Cloud4 twice, and the second arrow crit, dissipating the acid cloud harmlessly.
• The remaining acid clouds bonked against the wind wall, somewhat like confused flies.
• Futsu used his wand to shoot a firebolt… out the wrong end, as he critfailed and burned himself with the fire.  The artificer yelped, and was obviously deeply unhappy.
• Minji cast eldritch blast.  The first blast struck Cloud3 with force, dissipating it on the other side of the wind wall.  The second blast went wild as the warlock critfailed.
• Mia stepped forward into the wind wall, and stabbed Cloud1 with her javelin of lightning.  The acid cloud exploded, and though the wind blew most of it away, she still got a bit of acid burn.  She stepped back out of the wind.
• Dominic send a mote of starlight at Cloud6, which hit, the radiance causing it to explode harmlessly.

No more enemies appeared, and the Freelancers relaxed, as well as a group of acid-burned people could relax.  <Narrator voice:  at this, the GM announced "you are out of combat."  What a weird combat, with 2 nat 20s and 6 nat 1s, not counting bad saving throws>

The dead creature's scales clearly matched the scales in the sludge that Manu pulled out.  Dominic strode up to it, curious, and Lorcan and Minji also looked with curiosity.  Futsu poked at it despite himself, and Manu helped Futsu.

Futsu kept shaking his head, keenly aware they were all shrinky-dinked and unable to think past that limitation.  "It's so tiny, I can't tell what's up.  It can't get big with us; maybe it's a bug.  I wonder what it was chewing."

Lorcan, Dominic, and Minji thought the creature's scales reminded them of a salamander, or a chameleon.  They concluded it was not an insect but a mutated salamander.

Dominic:  leery about finding more of these
Minji:  right

Dominic started looking at the other ponds.  He found the drain 60' south of where they were.  Going back and forth, he speculated the big pond was backed up from the drain, possibly becuase of the sludge.  

Dominic:  maybe the creature built itself a house.
Minji:  the way it is piled up, things might be overspilling into the river.
Lorcan:  maybe it's not working at full efficiency because of the house of the monster.
Dominic:  can you help with this, Blackrind?
Futsu:  I can

They examined the entire affair more closely, and then fell to work, with Futsu directing.

Lorcan used mage hand to prevent overspilling, and then that wasn't needed, to hold a light source wherever needed.
Manu cast prestidigitation on whatever was needed
Mia, already covered in muck & acid, contributed physical labour
Minji didn't actually help, but asked enough questions that nobody noticed
Murai got out their rope of climbing to use as a drain-snake
Dominic cast guidance on whoever needed it, and shape water to stop spillovers

After about 2 hours of what all of them considered the hardest work of their lives, they got the drain clear of the creature's house while still preventing overspill.

* * session break * *

Murai:  have we looked at all the important bits?
Futsu:  this was probably the most important section, and from what I've seen of the other stuff, it's okay.
Lorcan:  overspilling wouldn't matter, if the machine was filtering properly.
Futsu:  overspilling means the liquid is getting out before the filtering is finishes.  It will work once it's turned on.
Manu:  so, it seems it was broken on the inside, and we fixed it.  What's to stop it from getting broke again?
Futsu:  there is a part, and it's clear a creature came in; I think adding a filter to prevent that.  I can check this section more often; also, I can convince Gwidion not to release it directly into the creek, and use a settling pond like Dominic suggested.
Murai <sagely>:  all these sound like good ideas.
<Narrator voice:  Murai did not, actually, know whether they were good ideas or not.>
Manu:  maybe we should check out the other pipe
Lorcan:  would be keen not to overnight in the machine, if we don't have to.
Murai:  oh, yeah, I thought the stickie thing
Dominic:  let's go check out the other pipe

The group set out to retrace their steps back to the junction they'd visited earlier.

After another half an hour, the 7 of them had made their way back to the wall of the device, because they were following Mia and Murai.  Mia was just done with being in this place, and Murai was confidently leading the group to where they thought they'd spotted another rainbowy pool.  Dominic, Lorcan, and Manu objected but got ignored.

Anyhow once they got to the wall it took another half an hour to get to the junction, and track back to the ingredient concentrator.  Instead of just looking at the valve, they tried to see if they could get past it.  But immediately beyond it was a filter, that looked like it stretched (at their scale) a couple dozen feet.  Peering at it, Murai, Minji, and Futsu shook their heads; getting through it would be difficult ant dangerous, especially since its very purpose was to stop backflow.

Everyone else just thought it looked like a mesh of reflective, tiny knives.

Futsu:  happy to investigate this when I'm big, and it can't cut me in half.  …also, with protective gloves.
Mia:  seems sensible!
Futsu:  strongly advise that we not try to go through this.  I'm not.
Manu:  how far is "through this"?
Futsu:  um, twice the length of the width of this pipe.
<At the shrinky-dink scale, the pipe appeared to be about a dozen feet wide.>
Dominic:  taking care of this when we are bigger sounds like a better idea.
Manu:  I can support that, when we have gloves and things.
Futsu:  since it's all shut down anyhow, would be a good time to check.
Manu: it's not the worst pain, if it's not fixed
Murai <looked at Manu in surprise>:  well that's not a threat, at all
Manu:  hydroose!

But everyone concluded there was nothing more they could do in the device.  Dominic brought out the token and snapped it; and as Gwidion promised, they all emerged from the machine into the base of the tower, about equidistant from the concentrator, sink, and purifier.

It was neardark, and nobody else was in the base of the tower.  The group was gently wafting fumes from the inside of the machine.  Murai looked at their armour.  It was no longer massively glittery; however tiny, multicoloured sparkles reflected the light from the continual flame lamps.  Murai themself, appeared to be healthier than ever, wading in those pools had actually been beneficial.

Futsu Blackrind looked around, then yelled, "Gwidion!!!"  In short order, Gwidion came down the stairs, clearly surprised they had returned so soon.

Gwidion:  is everything okay?  Is it all working?  What did you find?
Murai:  well, it's all fine now
Futsu:  <explained what they found>  I want to check the filter from the ingredient concentrator.  We definitely want a filter like that at the bottom of the sink, so creatures don't get in.  We need to clean the purifier out more, and I'd strongly argue in favour of a settling pool
Gwidion:  sure, sure

As the alchemist explained what they found, only slightly falling back into his overly technical snowball rhetoric.  Dominic watched grimly, arms crossed in front of himself.  Manu watched Gwidion, expecting the wizard to zone out, and the wizard did so, nodding and "uh-huh"ing at appropriate places.  But, he was agreeing to cleaning things out and establishing a settling pond.  He obviously didn't care beyond preventing more interruptions to his potion research and creation.

Manu <quietly, to Dominic>:  we should draft an agreement, with the word "shall" in it, and if there's problems, we come back with signatures and swords
Dominic:  okay
Manu:  the pond, and so forth
Lorcan:  the pond has to be protected from wildlife
<At this point, Gwidion had said "sure, sure">
Dominic:  testing the efficacy has to be on there, at his expense
Futsu:  the pond will help with that
Manu:  maybe, have Freelancers return regularly to confirm, and they are paid for that.

Parchment and ink was brought out, and the agreement was drafted.  Lorcan wrote it, with inputs from Dominic and Mia, both of whom were familiar with such things, and opinions from the other Freelancers, who were just opinionated.  Gwidion was bored by this portion of the effort, apparently if it didn't involve writing spells or alchemical formulae he wasn't intrigued by it.  Futsu, however, read it carefully, and corrections had to be made.

In the end Gwidion signed it, and also paid the Freelancers 300 eagles each for trying out his extreme shrinking potion, and going into the machine to fix the problem.  The wizard was actually really happy that this outcome involved neither his potion operation getting shut down nor a large adversity with Freelancers Confederation.

It was late, so Gwidion again put the Freelancers up for the night, intimating he would have nice potions for them in the morning.  They all went upstairs and ate together, then the Freelancers exited the tower to sleep in the stables near the mounts.

Manu wanted the watches to do rounds, and for some reason Gwidion agreed, so they did that.

Mia & Manu had 1st watch, but Mia was bored and thought it was a waste of time, complaining about when could they be heading back.  Manu didn't see anything out of the ordinary, other than Futsu had laid out the tools he needed to check the ingredient concentrator on the morrow.
Murai & Minji had 2nd watch. Murai was distracted and mournful by the loss of their excessively glittery armour, and also puzzling over how much hardier they felt.  Minji could tell the pegasus normally housed in the stable was still nervous by the Freelancers' carnivorous mounts, but didn't see anything else outside the tower of particular notice.  Inside, she was looking at the device they'd been in earlier and was marvelling at the entire thing.
Dominic & Lorcan had 3rd watch.  The pegasi in the stables were still restive, even though Bandit was unconcerned.  In the tower, some of the alembics on one of the tables had started to bubble, and Lorcan watched it curiously.  Dominic checked the tables carefully.  He concluded nothing nefarious was happening, and was at last satisfied that no-one here was deliberately trying to create the mutant wildlife.

Vrontag, 1st prime post-Calm 1056

In the morning, the Freelancers prepared to leave, and came to the tower to bid farewell, and Gwidion did indeed have potions for them.  He distributed two each, rather randomly.  There was one elixir of health, which Lorcan got, and the rest were potions:  Lorcan, stone giant's strength; Dominic, heroism & mind reading; Murai, divination & mind reading; Minji, stone giant's strength & superior healing; Manu, clairvoyance & superior healing; Mia, divination & superior healing.

Gwidion <happily>:  good-bye!  I hope I never see Freelancers again!
Futsu <elbowed Gwidion in ribs, hissing>:  in an eighth!
Gwidion <without missing a beat>:  good-bye!  I hope to see you soon!

And on that note, the group was off, winging their way back to Cliffshadow.  As they flew off, Dominic used the sending stone to tell Arnari they were on their way home, with a contract.

Petraag, 1st prime post-Calm 1056

Three days later, tired and wanting baths, the Freelancers were in Arnari's office, reporting on the events and interactions to her.  She paid them 225 eagles each, and did not ask for a cut of the 300 eagles Gwidion paid her.  They gave her the contract, and she told them she needed to take some time to read it.  They used this time to re-settle themselves, get themselves and clothing clean, and perhaps get a bite to eat.

When they returned to Arnari, she was very satisfied with the contract.  She paid them another 50 eagles each as a finder's fee for appropriate Freelancer missions, and then she sat back.

"Your wisdom and thinking in solving this mission with diplomacy and contracts demonstrates that you are ready to take on the more intricate and challenging missions offered in Ripa Daneo on skylith Commerce.  Damakaios, the leader of the Freelancers there, could use a full house, and although some adversaries there might be a challenge for you, I am sure you will grow into the role.  If you are amenable, I will arrange passage for you and…" she trailed off, looking at Dominic.

"Damakaios is unlikely to tolerate your menagerie, Dominic," she said finally, then finished, "if you are amenable, I will arrange passage in a couple days, to give you a chance to settle your affairs."

They were all amenable, and so transfer to Commerce was the plan, but how it worked out is another story.

* * fin * *