Check Storm Doors

Cathance looked up from the dragonchess problem to see a Wild elf she hadn't seen before at the bar in Freelancers Tavern. The elf was nursing a cider and fiddling with a deck of cards.  "You look like you're here for a reason," she observed.

The elf's name was Quelenna and she was there for a reason; but anyhow she and Cathance went to Arnari's office to seek occupation.

Arnari suggested that it'd been a quarter of the year and the head of the dockworkers was looking to hire a few people to inspect the storm doors.  She sighed, "The dockworkers don't want to."

Cathance, sitting in the chair kicking her feet, asked, "Isn't it a bit late to check the storm doors?  Shouldn't that have been planned before?"

Arnari explained, "Wymar Adelard has his own plans.  Maybe this is when he has repair crews, like, available."

Quelenna asked, "Why is this particularly suited for us?"  Arnari's answer was blunt.  "Everything else will kill you."

Cathance, ever strategizing, asked, "Is there anything in particular we should be planning for?"  Arnari told her, "Nothing that I know of."  Cathance kicked her feet.  "Alright."

Arnari shooed them out of her office.  "Go.  Check each tunnel.  Either check in with Wymar, or back here with me."

As they left Arnari's office, Cathance suggested, "Let's start with the North."  Quelenna agreed.  "Sounds reasonable."

Cathance then asked, "Why do you have those cards in your hand?"  Quelenna told her, "I don't like having idle hands, when people are watching."

They headed north.

They started at the cityside doors of the north tunnel, which was wide enough for 2 wagons to pass in opposite directions.  The doors and hinges were fine.  A discussion ensued:  do all the cityside, then dockside doors?  Or zigzag through?  They decided, zigzag.

At the dockside doors, Cathance cast guidance on Quelenna, and on inspection they found the doors were fine, but hinges were dirty and needed greasing.

As they walked south, they looked towards the docks, and saw two very ornate windsail airships, with the design peculiar to the Children of Āhua.  They also saw the pilots riding their peregrine gryphons from ship to ship.

Cathance pointed out the gryphons.  "We recently used a fine strategy to prevent them from getting harassed."

The Wild elf was surprised.  "Who would harass these fine animals?"  Cathance's answer was unhelpful.  "Ne'er-do-wells."  But she'd piqued Quelenna's curiosity.  "What was the strategy?"

Cathance's smile was beatific.  "Dump gryphon poo."

They reached the dockside doors of the second tunnel, which were also in good shape, and entered the tunnel, looking for problems.  As they rounded the storm dogleg, Quelenna saw a giant rat!  Cathance sent the deathly hand of chill touch at it, hurting it.  Quelenna drew a daggar and tried to stab it, but stumbled and missed; Cathance was impressed she didn't fall down.  <narrator voice: Wendy rolled a 1.>  Cathance's chill touch killed the rat.

The cityside doors were acceptable so they walked south to the first main tunnel.  Cathance noticed the space between the doors and the frame was filled with rocks, which would block closure.  Quelenna wondered if it was deliberate; investigating, they couldn't tell.  But they were poorly placed to pry the door open.

Walking down the tunnel, which is bigger than the other two, they checked the central doors, which were in good repair, but coated with grime from the tunnel traffic.  Continuing around the dogleg, they encountered a drunk male Rain sagani against the wall, and stopped.  His greenish skin had a somewhat sallow overlaid pallor, indicative of too much alcohol.

"Give me money, for beer!" he called out to the two temporary inspectors.  "I lost my job!  I was a dockworker, but it's so hard."

Cathance scowled.  The seated drunk was about eye level with her.  "What are you doing, here?"  The drunk's eyes widened, as if it was the most obvious thing in the skylith.  "Drinkin' beer, tryin' to get money!"  Cathance hesitated, and as she did so the drunk called out to a passing carter, who waved and flipped him a coin as he passed.

Quelenna had started flipping the cards in her hand again, and gave the drunk a speculative look.  "What are good bars, in this town?"  The drunk replied, "I don't get to stay in bars long, but… at the end of tunnel road, southward…"  He gestured vaguely.

Cathance gave him a silver piece.  "Oh! I can buy wine!" he exclaimed.  Her reply was severely earnest.  "Cider is better!  Is also good for you," she almost scolded. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Amar!" he told her.  But the two Freelancers had already started to move on.

The dockside doors had bits of debris caught, which clearly made them grind.  They walked past the busy docks to the next main tunnel, which had even more traffic, carters shuttling freight goods to and from the waiting airships.  The dockside hinges were rusted as if the weatherproofing had failed… actually all the exposed steel was rusty.

They started westward through the tunnel, the carts passing them by.  As they passed an opening in the tunnel wall, they were attacked by a swarm of normal-sized rats!  Cathance sent a chromatic orb at them, almost flubbing the spell, but recovering at the last minute.  <narrator voice: Shari rolled a 1, but halfling luck.>  Most of the swarm was wiped out; Quelenna nailed the remainder with a deftly thrown daggar.

Like the other main tunnel, the central doors were in good repair, but grungy.  They continued westward, with carts going the opposite way, full of agricultural products.  They started looking at the cityside doors, but guards were posted, distracting them.  They walked south to the next tunnel.

This tunnel was smaller, like the first two.  Quelenna, curious, asked, "Are these tunnels newer?"  Cathance explained that the middle two were the oldest.

There was blue paint on the cityside doors.  SKYGUARD SUX!  It proclaimed, with dicks painted that were bigger than Cathance.  Checking how long they had been there, the Freelancers concluded since slightly after Tumultuous Holiday.  They continued eastward down the tunnel.  It had less traffic than the main tunnels.

Quelenna saw a green pseudodragon, and exclaimed in delight.  "So pretty!"  Cathance looked, but did not see it.  It took off pretty fast towards Cliffshadow proper.  Quelenna speculated how to get one.

The dockside doors had a hinge that was clearly damaged by a cart.  They were unsure if the doors were able to be shut.

Walking southward to the last tunnel, there wasn't much of note to see.  The doors were dirty, but not as much as others.  Pebbles were kicked into the edges of the door, and should be cleared.  They continued westward, to the dogleg, and stopped.

One of the corners was full of human poo, and was recently used.  The tunnel was nigh full of the reek.  The area was not small, with the fresher poo at the edges.

"This is untidy," Cathance declared.  "It is not a good use of our time to clean this up," replied an alarmed Quelenna.  "But it's also smelly!" Cathance complained.  Quelenna was emphatic.  "Do not want to be here all day."

Cathance relented, and they both held their noses as they walked past the poo.

The cityside doors needed debris cleared from the hinges.  They decided to head back to Freelancers with the report.

Cathance and Quelenna returned to Arnari with the report on their tunnel findings, and Arnari thanked them and paid them 45g each.  Cathance noted the dick graffiti, and Quelenna also mentioned seeing the pretty pseudodragon.

Arnari speculated, "I wonder if this is the work of the mysterious Jamie," causing Cathance to perk up a little, as he was responsible for the gryphon harassment.  Quelenna asked, "Jamie?" and Arnari told them both about the graffiti aligning with the vandalism at the Skyguard outpost and how other Freelancers had been attacked by the pseudodragon.

Cathance → lvl 2, Quelenna → lvl 1