Retrieve Ore for the Academy of Magic

It was breakfast time in the Freelancers Tavern, and Osric, Tuala, Cathance, and Terrance were at a table, when they were joined by Fine Branch.  Terrance was looking much better than she had been a few days earlier, in standard-issue Freelancers' leathers, a short bow on her back, a rapier at her side.

Tahu and Dryali came in from the outside, dropped off 3 casks of something with the bartender and went in the back for a while.

That was really all it took, the 5 of them finished their breakfast, and went up to see if Arnari had any interesting or lucrative work.

Arnari was reading a set of documents when they entered her office, and sat down in her not entirely comfortable chairs.  "Ah," she said without preamble, "I have a few things in mind for you."

• Lakeview still needs someone to take care of their spider problem.
• House Aldous still wants hippogryph eggs
• We still need to track down Jamie
• We're still in Pembroke conjunction…

Arnari looked around her desk, and picked up a paper from one of the corners.  The ink looked fancy, like it perhaps had silver dust in it.  "The Dean of the Cliffshadow Academy of Magic, Garth Nimblefingers," she scanned it again, "Needs some things recovered from Pembroke, near Gemhallow."

Terrance was like, "What… does conjunction… ?"  Tuala immediately launched into an explanation of the relative orbits of the skyliths and how Pembroke and Duquesne were convenient to each other every 90 days.   Terrance looked pained.  "That's ok, really."

Fine Branch wanted to go after Jamie.  Cathance, kicking her feet, thought about half-elves and started, realizing Arnari was a half-elf.  "Maybe Arnari and Jamie hook up," she murmured.

Arnari glanced at her sharply.  "I have better taste."  Cathance bit her lower lip and kicked her feet.  So, Arnari actually knows Jamie.

Terrance said slowly, "Maybe interested in Jamie."

Arnari had not finished!  "Professor Nimblefingers," she waved the paper, and put it back down on her desk, "Did not reveal what he needs retrieved."

Terrance asked, curiously, "Does he own…? Or, are we… looting it, on his behalf?"

Arnari told her, "I'm under the impression that it's gathered in the wild."  She sat back and folded her hands together.  "The three wizardic schools don't get along."

Cathance, interest piqued, asked, "What's in Gemhallow?"  Arnari said, "University of Magery.  He wants … ore, or some animal, or something… he doesn't want to reveal it."

Osric asked, shrewdly, "Pranks?"

Arnari closed her eyes, either to recruit her patience or keep a straight face.  "Two conjunctions ago, a haywagon was assembled on the roof [of the Academy].  I'm not sure about any more recent pranks."  She ruminated a moment, and added, "I'm not entirely sure this isn't a prank."  Her subtext was clear, there would be retribution if so.

Fine Branch declared she really liked this as a mission to take!  But then the conversation devolved into discussing Jamie.  Perhaps with two Freelancers unknown to him and his pseudodragon, he could be caught?

But the curiosity about the Academy of Magic overcame this chatter, even as Cathance expressed reservations about taking an open ended mission that could not be planned.  They decided to take the mission to Pembroke.

The Academy of Magic is not far from Freelancers Tavern on Sparrowhawk Street, so everyone walked east a few blocks to visit the Dean and discover what he really wanted retrieved.  As they crossed Sangria Boulevard, Cathance noticed the side of one of the shops painted with dick graffiti.  "SKYGUARD SUX!" was under it.

Fine Branch took note of the art style for later.  But the paint was dry, so any perpetrators were long gone.

Upon arrival at the Academy of Magic, they were shown in to see Dean Garth Nimblefingers, a 3'2" male Djogeon halfling, who apparently did not do anything physically that could not instead be done by magic.  The door opened on its own to let them in, and as they spoke a quill on his desk was writing on its own.

There were plenty of comfy chairs in his office, even some large enough to fit Terrance.  Cathance sat in one of the appropriately-sized chairs, and stretched her legs out in front of her.

Dean Nimblefingers thanked them profusely for coming.  He was very serious.  "The University of Magery is not cooperating; I don't know why not…" he carried on at great length about it, without once stating what it was that he wanted.

Fine Branch, bored, got up and started poking around all the fascinating magical items in the office.  The dean's head whipped around.  "No, stop!  Don't touch!"  He raised his hands, palms out.  Fine Branch put her hands behind her back, and asked politely, "What do you want us to get?"

Garth exclaimed, "Oh, I didn't tell Arnari!  It's about 3 hours from Gemhallow; a special purple ore."  He paused, as if to wait for the Freelancers to confirm the dawning of understanding.

"What's it called?" asked Cathance.  "Purple mournlode," the dean replied.  Tuala watched him intently.  "I need it for a couple classes… some undead… magical reflection…"

Tuala cut him off with a practiced respectfulness.  "What's it used for, specifically?"  Garth misunderstood the question:  "Not sure; it's in weapons… or, could be used for anti-lycanthropy."

It wasn't obvious if the dean's misunderstanding was deliberate; Tuala clarified.  "What are you using it for?"  Garth said, "Oh!  A class on magical reflection."

Fine Branch said, "I'd love to take that class!"  The dean immediately launched into a convoluted explanation of how to qualify for the wait list for the class and what the prerequisites were and various fees.

Everyone but Tuala looked bored.  Tuala stayed practical: "What is the pay?"  Garth said, "I'll pay 500gp for a 10 lb. bag!   I'll arrange passage to & from Gemhallow, of course."  He snapped his fingers, and something disappeared from his desk.

Cathance asked him, "Do we need to be clandestine?"  The dean said, "Not really.  Maybe not mention in Gemhallow you are there working for the Academy of Magic."

500gp for a 10 lb. bag made the Freelancers wonder if there would be problems with tariffs and such, but Garth didn't think so since it was so small and the other uses so specific.

A paper appeared in his hand.  "You want the mechanical airship Shukshin," he told the Freelancers.  "The captain is a gnome, Robert Bluehelm.  They are at the docks!  Go, go."  The door swung open, and the Freelancers took their leave.

The Shukshin wasn't just captained by a Maker gnome, it was mostly crewed by Maker gnomes as well.  Oddly enough, the crew also had quinametzin.  Cathance wondered about that, and realized it meant there would be cabins sized to accommodate their party.

A peregrine gryphon was tethered just aft of midships, and the Wind sagani pilot was discussing the weather and winds with Captain Bluehelm.  Osric was fascinated, and asked the pilot if he could pet the gryphon.  The pilot turned to him and said, "Only while we're docked!  I can't watch you and the gryphon while piloting!"

Osric pet the gryphon.  The pilot continued, "I would have said no before, but the gryphon is getting enough rest, now!"

Cathance smiled.  Fine Branch declared, "Glad to see some good came of it!"  The pilot looked at the two of them.  "Was that you?!  Thank you!!!"  He stroked the back of the gryphon's head.

Then a team of pegasi arrived, and the Freelancers withdrew so the pilot could attend to his responsibilities.

Cathance and Terrance had never been on an airship before, so they watched, curious, as the brackets were detached and the airship pulled away from the dock, towed by the pegasus team.  They were surrounded by airships, but the pilot and the teamster knew exactly where they were going.

Once clear of the airport traffic, the engines on the Shukshin sputtered to life, the blades whuff-whuf-whuffing as they took over maneuvering and propulsion control, and the tug team dropped off.  The airship picked up speed as it headed up and around in a spiral towards the top boundary of Duquesne.  Pembroke was almost directly overhead, and the trip was going to need a bit of a spiral to align with the Gemhallow tunnels.

After a short time - less than half an hour - a warning bell sounded, and the Shukshin broke through the top boundary of Duquesne nearspace.  They felt the airship lurch towards Duquesne west as it came through, then it seemed to steady as it rode an updraft.  It hardly felt like it was moving at all.  The pilot emerged from the control room, waved cheerily at the Freelancers, and took off on his gryphon.

Time passed, with Pembroke looming ever larger above them.  The Freelancers watched it, fascinated.  The base of the skylith was mostly in shadow.  As they looked back down, it seemed like three weird-looking birds, flying in a V, were approaching the airship.

They got closer, and it became obvious that these were no birds, but hippogryphs, and obviously thought all these little people were going to be tasty bites to eat.  The crew became very busy in preparation for an attack.

Cathance, who was still in the bow of the airship, immediately reached out with the necrotic hand of chill touch to grab the wing of the rightmost one (facing her).  Terrance, who didn't really want to hurt them, pulled out a short bow and somewhat plaintively called out a warning, "If you come any closer, we're going to have to kill you."  She shot an arrow and missed; then moved aft and hid.

Osric cast produce flame, and held it in his hand, at the ready.  Fine Branch suddenly had a doppelganger, and she hid.  Tuala sent a firebolt at the same hippogryph Cathance had injured, singeing it.  The hippogryph was unhappy with this state of affairs and attacked Cathance.  Osric threw his flame at it, but the hippogryph clawed her, slicing through the studded leather and tearing her shoulder.

The other two hippogryphs came at the midships near the rings.  One attacked the doppelganger.  The other clawed Osric and hurt him even worse than Cathance had gotten hurt.

Cathance, with a hippogryph in her face, abandoned any pretence of casting fancy spells.  She pulled out her warhammer and swung it overhead as best she could with the injured shoulder, and put booming blade on the weapon for good measure.  She hit the hippogryph at the base of its beak, crushing it and killing the hippogryph.

Terrance threw a dagger at the hippogryph that had attacked Osric, wounding it badly.  Osric pulled out a quarterstaff, sang out, "Time to go to sleep!" and knocked the hippogryph out.

Fine Branch prepared toll the dead on her doppelganger, which then moved aft from the remaining hippogryph.  The hippogryph slashed at it, and did not figure things out when the claws passed right through it.  Tuala hit the hippogryph with magic missile, which triggered the toll the dead, hurting it.

The hippogryph attacked the doppelganger again, and still failed to figure out it was an illusion.  Cathance reached out and attacked it with chill touch, and then Terrance leapt forward onto its back!  Before the hippogryph could react, she slit its throat, and leapt off as it fell to the airship deck.

The crew and Freelancers looked at each other.  Two dead and one knocked-out hippogryphs were on the deck.  "What do we…"

Osric checked; the knocked-out hippogryph was a male.  The crew cleared the corpses of the dead hippogryphs while the Freelancers tied up the unconscious one.

They'd been awake a long time, and Pembroke was still more than an hour away.  The Freelancers withdrew belowdecks to rest.

The Shukshin docked in Gemhallow in the morning, and Captain Bluehelm told the Freelancers he would be there a full day, but for the safety of his crew, the wild hippogryph could not stay on the airship.  Thus, with the application of rations and Osric's superior abilities with animals, they brought the hippogryph to Freelancers Tavern in Gemhallow, where the hippogryph stablemaster somewhat resignedly agreed to take care of him while they were on their mission.  When the Cliffshadow Freelancers told him they were trying to locate an ore, he recommended they ask around in the Trade District.

Purple mornlode was apparently more common than they'd thought from Dean Nimblefingers' description, because they soon had the exact directions to where to find this ore:  Go north, go east, then up the corkscrew, then west.  Cathance bought a sack.

Wondering about the precisely vague directions, they took the indicated path, and after about half an hour following it found the described cavern.  Terrance, having never been in an environment so lacking living plants, was visibly uncomfortable.  The ore was exposed on the walls, and could easily be gathered and stuffed in the sack, which is good as none of them had thought to buy a mining pick.  The chamber was fairly large, dimly lit with some bioluminescent lichen, and a large column of rock joined the floor and roof.

Terrance and Tuala, who had been in front, entered, then paused.  A snuffling sound could be heard in the far end of the cave.  The Freelancers could not see what was making the sound, but it sounded like some sort of bear whuffling around behind the central pillar.

Fine Branch moved into the cavern to the left, and then paused, clearly ready to cast something if a bear or other dangerous creature appeared.  Tuala readied a firebolt, and then a large cave bear charged around the rock column and attacked Tuala and Terrance!  The bear swiped at Tuala and missed, then bit Terrance.  Terrance tried to reason with the bear.

Cathance, from the entrance, sent chill touch on the cave bear, hurting it, and Fine Branch cast toll the dead, compounding the damage.  Terrance, still flustered, tried to attack the bear with her rapier, but missed; she disengaged and backed off.  From behind Cathance, Osric cast produce flame, and tried to throw it at the bear, but he missed.  Osric ran away.

Fine Branch cast toll the dead again, but the cave bear did not succumb, so she ran away too.  Tuala then cast sleep on the bear.

Everyone looked at the bear.  It was so cute, sleeping there, they felt bad they'd hurt it.  Then Tuala reminded the others, "It will wake up if we are too loud, or in a minute."  Osric, Cathance, and Terrance came up to the bear.  Grimacing, Osric tried to knock it out with his quarterstaff.  All he managed to do was wake it back up, and it roared at him.  Cathance bonked it with her warhammer.  That knocked it out.

Satisfied the bear was merely (but fully) knocked out, the Freelancers gathered about 10 lbs of the purple mornlode and put it in Cathance's sack.  Then Fine Branch suggested they get extra.  If Garth Nimblefingers thought it was so precious, maybe there would be profit in taking more!  However, the sack was full.

Osric, it turned out, had been carting around a sack of vegetables, apparently because he thought they were healthier than rations?   He decided to leave the vegetables with the bear to eat.  So the Freelancers gathered another 10 lbs of the ore and put it in Osric's sack, then retraced their route back to Gemhallow.

Presumably the bear woke up a bit later with a headache, and got a healthy meal of vegetables.

The way back to Gemhallow was straightforward, and they arrived around noontime.  Fine Branch wanted to find a bar, but the others wandered back to Freelancers Tavern for lunch.  Once Fine Branch caught up with them, they checked in with Einkil Logehr, the leader of the Gemhallow Freelancers.

Einkil was a little surprised to see them, but greeted them heartily.  "How's Cliffshadow?  How's Arnari?"  They exchanged news, and then Einkil told them he'd been thinking, and "I might be interested in buying some cider… maybe pear cider?  From Haven on Duquesne."  Cathance brightened up, and the Cliffshadow Freelancers promised they'd see what they can do.

After spending the night in the barracks, the Freelancers retrieved their captured hippogryph from the stables and returned to the Shukshin for the trip back.  The veins of crystal in the tunnels on the way out brightened with the morning as they passed through.

The trip back to Duquesne was uneventful but pretty, as the outward surface of Duquesne was nightward and in shadow, albeit still lit from the Pembroke reflections.  The Daystar lit up the leading side of the skylith as the Shukshin docked in Cliffshadow, and they debarked with the hippogryph, who was still adjusting to these changes in his circumstances.

The Freelancers brought the hippogryph to their stables, and Sovelai took charge of him, and definitely did not mutter something about how Tahia had it easy with adventurers bringing eggs, instead of whole ass wild adults to tame and care for.

After a quick breakfast in the Tavern, Tuala, Cathance, Fine Branch, Terrance, and Osric visited Dean Nimblefingers at the Academy of Magic.  He brightened considerably when they presented him with a sack of ore, and immediately started sorting through it.

The Freelancers watched him.

After a while he looked up, and said "Oh! You want to get paid!"  He produced 10 plat each, admonishing them to give one each to Arnari for Freelancers.  He started talking about the classes he was organizing, and mentioned that Mayor Kaiea would be teaching in the next eighth.

Fine Branch asked, curiously, "Any chance you'll need more?" indicating the ore.  "No," Garth replied shortly, turning his attention back to the ore.  "Very well then," said FIne Branch, and the Freelancers took their leave.

Back at Freelancers Tavern, they spoke to the in-house smiths, Hanna & Barren Emberforge, who told them use the ore was beyond their skill and advised the group to go to Oskar Torevir, a Rocklit dwarf blacksmith who originally hailed from Pembroke.

They sought out Oskar's shop, and while talking to him, found out the ore's magical reflective properties manifested in interesting ways when weapons or shields were silvered with the refined metal.  A weapon silvered with this metal would ignore added armor from shield spell and mage armor, and also ignores damage resistance of lycanthropes.  A shield would give spell resistance <narrator voice: imposes disadvantage on spell attack rolls against the shieldbearer>. Looking at their sack of ore, Oskar said he'd be able to refine and apply it to 3 weapons, or 1 shield and 1 weapon, for <I think half the cost of normal silvering>.  Osric and Terrance opted to get that done to their weapons, but it didn't make sense for any of the others.

• Osric → lvl2
• Terrance → lvl2