Bouncers for Opening of the Kowiri Music/Tavern

It was the last day before the Planting Holiday, and most of the Freelancers were in the tavern, relaxing and having a leisurely lunch.  A young female Holder dwarf came downstairs and entered a bit hesitantly, unsure of her welcome; she was clearly new to Freelancers.  Perhaps Tomtom had grilled her too closely.

But Osric waved her over the table where he was seated with Dryali, Terrance, and Kaikoa.   Fine Branch and Tuala were on the other end from them.  Her name was Dranila.  They ate, and talked about the owl gryphons hatchlings, which  were fascinating to all.  Dryali and Tuala had visited the stables more than either would likely admit, since they hatched.   But so had everyone else!  Osric had been helping Tahia with the care and feeding of the new beasties, and he'd acquired a new party trick from it.  Once the meal plates were cleared, Osric hopped up on the table and wild shaped himself into a baby owl gryphon.

Just then, Arnari and Tomtom came downstairs into the tavern, talking.  Arnari got a glass of ice wine from the bartender, and saw them all gathered around the transformed Osric.  "Perfect!" she exclaimed in delight.

She stopped by the table.  "Come up to my office, all of you, and we'll sit and talk," she directed them all.  "It's the day the Kowiri music tavern is opening, and you are gonna represent Freelancers!"  Tomtom walked up with a glass of Quinametzin whiskey, and they both headed back up to her office.

A small silence ensued.  Osric resumed his normal Holder-dwarf shape, and without a word, they all rose and headed to Arnari's office.

There were just enough chairs for everyone in the office, and once everyone was seated, exhibiting varying levels of skepticism, Arnari told them for this mission, "You will be keeping order — in the tavern!"  Dryali and Fine Branch exchanged a look, which was not lost on Arnari.  She turned to Tomtom.  "See, what I have to work with," she said to him.

Kaikoa leaned back and crossed his arms.  "You need to deal with the line," Arnari resumed, "and, no killing people in the bar."

"So, we need to remove before killing," Fine Branch restated the instruction.  "That's what alleys are for," Kaikoa declared.  "A few of us have experience throwing people out of windows!" Terrance chimed in.

Tuala looked at Kaikoa.  "He managed to land where we wanted."  Tuala had heard of the Gillian capture in tavern talk.  Dryali added dryly, "He's missed in the past."  Tuala rejoined dismissively, "That's grblins!"

Arnari cut off this fascinating topic.  "Martin will pay you 100gp each," she said.  Osric asked, "Will we be collecting the cover?"  Arnari said, "No."

"What's cover?"  Terrance asked, confused.  Everyone weighed in about how that was admission to the tavern, and basically the reason there'd be a line.  "No," Arnari said again, emphatically.

Kaikoa, as usual, got down to the nuts & bolts.  "Are you expecting any particular problems?"  Arnari glanced at her papers.  "No particular enemies, in cursory research on Martin," she replied.  "He's from Bandolier, on Pembroke," she added.

Dryali asked, "Are we s'posed to be armed to the teeth?"  Arnari, surprised, asked in return, "yes; how else will you prevent fights?"  Dryali asked the flip side of the question.  "Are patrons s'pose to be disarmed?"  Arnari shrugged.  "Not particularly."
 

"What kind of music is it, again?"  Terrance asked.  Arnari spared her a sympathetic look, and explained Untz music a little bit.  Terrance, used to the music of tree-speech, wasn't sure what to make of it.

After leaving Arnari's office, the Freelancers tried to work out how best to split up the work they had been handed.  With the club sight unseen, they figured Kaikoa could be outside, watching from the top of the building on Mordant, and the two nekomata would keep order in the line.  Osric, Dranila, Terrance, and Dryali would work the inside.

Dranila was concerned about the possibilities of fights and the state of her gear, so Terrance took her to the quartermaster, and they got her outfitted with some leather armour.  Terrance felt she'd be out of place at the tavern, and bought a new pair of pants.

Dryali always looked more at home in a nightclub than anywhere else, but was no stranger to Untz clubs.  He picked up a bag of ball bearings for 1gp.

Thus prepared, everyone thought it would be a good idea to check out the building before it opened as a club with lots of noise and lots of people, so they headed to the eastern edge of Guildstrom to learn the layout.

The building appeared to be a warehouse converted to a music tavern purpose.  A lot of constructs were busy at work; a stage was being setup with various artificer devices by two male humans and a female Rocklit dwarf.  An upper level that overlooked the lower level had a bar, with a human bartender and nimblewrights assisting.  A keg robot was wandering around.

Martin hurried to greet them, wiping his hands.  He was a male human, 5'10", young, with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing studded leather armour and with a short sword on his hip.  The studs looked like little brass cogs.  Dryali's eyes widened a little, behind his goggles.

Terrance looked around at all the activity and asked, "Where are the trees?"  Martin took a look at the firbolg and gently explained, the music would come from the constructs and devices getting set up on the stage.  He introduced them to the players, who were bardificers; Durante and Simon were the humans, and the Rocklit dwarf was Lynette, from Gemhallow.  They explained how the devices worked with magical tinkering, and the constructs, and demonstrated a beat.

Kaikoa was not there for this demonstration.  He had gone outside, and was checking out the ceiling and roof of the building to make sure his intention could be fulfilled.  The roof had a slight peak, and some skylights, so Mordant could land and he could watch from there.

Fine Branch, looking around, became concerned that with everyone scattered about, and loud music, they would not have comms.  Martin pointed out the downstairs bar, and the bartenders had sending stones.  Tuala noted he had message, as well.

Time passed as the Freelancers familiarized themselves with the place.  Martin's office was here, the storage room opening was here, the privies were here, the stairs to the upper level were here.  They marked the squeeze points, and started to relax.

The Daystar was sinking over the far end of Duquesne as a line started to form in front of the Kowiri Music & Tavern.  The Freelancers took their places as planned, with Kaikoa and Mordant on the roof looking for trouble.  The keg robot was stomping around the first floor, and Durante was up on the stage.  As people filed in, he started generating a beat.

Dryali couldn't help it, he was fascinated by this… bardificery, and watched Durante.

Outside, the line to get in wasn't moving fast enough for some people's satisfaction, and they started pushing.  Kaikoa flew down on Mordant, startling them, and wagged a finger.  They stopped pushing but were clearly not mollified.  Kaikoa flew back off and Fine Branch meandered up next to them, eyes glowing bright red.  Neither Freelancer said anything to the pushy people, who were very disturbed by Fine Branch's mein.

By now, enough people were inside to need watching, but Dryali was still watching Durante.  Terrance, Dranila, and Osric saw people scuffling at the privies, so Terrance and Dranila moved to the flanking corners.  Seeing the two Freelancers, they settled down.

The line was beginning to shorten, as the tavern filled up.  Towards the end of the line, two of the people seemed pretty shady, and they were as heavily armed as the Freelancers.  Tuala sent Dryali a message, rousing him from watching Durante.  Dryali looked around the crowd on the first floor.  "Can't see them," he responded shortly.

The line was gone, so Tuala, Fine Branch, and Kaikoa came inside.  Mordant stayed on the roof, peering in the various skylights.

Tuala joined Dryali, who asked him, "Did you get any bribes?"  Tuala shook his head sadly.  "Would you believe, nobody tried?"  Dryali looked around the patrons.  "Yah, actually."  Tuala nodded towards the bar in the back.  "Those," Tuala indicated the people he'd messaged about.  Dryali ack'd it.  The people didn't seem to be doing anything untoward.

With such a large crowd, Dryali, Kaikoa, and Terrance thought to check for Daystar worshippers.  But none of them saw people with that signature tan or blond hair.  Nobody was moving like they were sunburned in inappropriate places, either.

Dranila and Terrance had decided their locations were ideal for spotting any trouble, and there was indeed trouble, Dranila noticed.  Three people had started posturing over some disagreement.  Dranila put on what she considered a decent fake "bad swagger" and strolled up to them.  "Is there a problem here folks?"  One of them turned and pointedly looked down at the Holder dwarf.  "No problem," he said, and turned his back to her and resumed his threatening argument with the other two.

Dranila, irritated, pulled out her mace, and he turned back to her as the others fell silent.  "You call that a weapon?" he sneered, and drew his longsword.  This action did not escape the notice of the other Freelancers.

Terrance walked over, backing up Dranila.  She drew up to her full height, hand on rapier.  "Is everything okay?" she echoed Dranila, "Why aren't you listening to the music?"

The fellow with the longsword looked up at the firbolg, and sheathed his longsword.  "No problem!" he exclaimed.  "Not when there's two of you here," he added sullenly.  The other two dispersed, meanwhile.

The music changed; Durante was done, and Lynette started her set, which had a more driving beat.  The population of the tavern shifted, and Osric decided to go upstairs.  He saw someone trying to break into Martin's office.  He headed towards them.

Watching the shift, Dryali and Dranila could also see this from their lower floor vantage points, and moved through the crowd towards the upstairs.

Osric informed the people at Martin's door, "If you're looking for Martin, he's down on the dance floor."  One of them was obviously trying to pick the lock.  One of the others said, "He told us to wait in his office," as if that was to be believed <narrator voice: and it wasn't; Casey rolled a nat 20 on insight>.  Osric replied pleasantly, "We can also show you the door," and gestured towards the front.

Two of them told Osric, "No, no, everything is okay!" and moved to block him from the person picking the lock.  But Dryali and Dranila had gained the upstairs, and Dryali saw this situation.  He used mage hand to interfere with the person picking the lock.

Osric shouldered past the two blocking him, and grabbed the person who was picking the lock.  Dryali pulled out a copper, and used magical tinkering to have it repeat "Pssst, troubles!" and dropped it on Terrance's head, where she was standing below him.

The rest of the Freelancers in the downstairs were ostensibly working the dance floor.  That means Kaikoa was happily downing the unattended drinks, and Tuala was as fascinated by Lynette's bardificery as Dryali had been with Durante's.

Fine Branch, though, saw three male humans messing with the keg robot.  Messing with the keg robot?!  That would not do.  Fine Branch's doppelgänger appeared next to them and flashed a cat smile.  "Hi guys, what you doin'?"  Two faced the doppelgänger and said, "None of yer business, go away cat."  The third continued to mess with the keg robot.

Kaikoa noticed this exchange, and Kaikoa was well-versed in what to do with the person who messes with the supply of beer in a tavern.  Kaikoa took a swing at him, and missed.  Fine Branch's doppelgänger also tried to hit him with a staff, and missed.  Perhaps these actions were hasty; all three of them drew their swords.

Upstairs, the three thieves who had been trying to get into Martin's office pulled out their maces.  Seeing them do so, Dryali drew his rapier, overbalanced, and fell prone at the corner of the office, as if he couldn't handle his liquor  <narrator voice: or, as if Shari rolled a 1>.  Dranila pulled out her mace and swung it wildly, hitting nothing in her overexcitement.  One each hit Osric, Dranila, and the still prone Dryali respectively.

Dryali assembled a protector eldritch cannon, which immediately went to work, adding a layer of protection to Dryali, Dranila, and Terrance, who was climbing straight up the balcony.  Dryali stood up as Terrance finished her climb, whereupon she drew her rapier, pierced the thief attacking Dryali, then disengaged from him and stepped back, out of sight of the office door.

While these events were happening, the keg robot saboteurs drew their swords and attacked Kaikoa, and Fine Branch's doppelgänger.  The two who had been watching did not fare well; the saboteur who'd drawn a short sword slipped and fell <narrator voice: because the GM rolled a 1>; the one who'd drawn a longsword sliced the doppelgänger twice, only to realize it was not real.  The saboteur who'd actually been messing with the keg robot sliced Kaikoa with his longsword.

That got Tuala's attention, and the nekomata sank some magic missiles into him.  Kaikoa swung his own longsword at the saboteur, and missed; so grimly he cast levitate, to move him out of the way.  The fellow managed to fight the spell.

Fine Branch's doppelgänger disappeared, as they called down the bane of The Cat on the saboteurs. 

Back upstairs, Dranila swung her mace wildly again, missing whichever thief she had been trying to hit.  Osric summoned a spirit hawk, and then used his quarterstaff to smack the thief Dranila had missed.

This thief moved around the corner towards Terrance, so Osric bopped him again with his quarterstaff.  Then he attacked both Terrance and Dranila, wounding them both.  The thief who had been picking the lock hit Osric with his mace, and the thief in front of Dryali swung and missed.  Perhaps he was crowded by his compatriot in the narrow walkway.

The protector cannon pulsed again, and Dryali backed up next to Terrance; the thief clocked him with his mace, but the blow was absorbed by the cannon's protective buffer.   Then Dryali cast grease under the two thieves, and they both slipped and fell.

Terrance, a thief prone at her feet, stuck her rapier in him. "Ahhhhhh!" he cried unhappily.  Dranila caved in the skull of the other thief, at her feet.

Downstairs at the keg robot, all three saboteurs came at Kaikoa, but their fighting prowess was inferior to his own; moreover they were handicapped by The Cat's bane.  Only one attack got through Kaikoa's guard.

Seeing that, Tuala sank more magic missiles into the apparent leader, and melted back another 10' into the crowd.  Kaikoa smacked him with the flat of his longsword, a solid hit.  It wasn't really clear what, if anything, Fine Branch did.

The three attacked Kaikoa again, this time two of them got through his guard.

Back at Martin's office, Osric smacked the thief that had been trying to pick the lock with his quarterstaff, and he hit Osric in return with his mace.  His compatriot, staring at their friend with the broken skull, stood up and ran towards the door.  Danila hit him as he fled.  The remaining thief yelled after him, "Hey!  Come back, you fucking coward!  Don't leave me here, you bastard!"

Dryali glanced at the fleeing assailant and decided he'd best assist Osric.  So he stepped over the thief with the crushed skull and of course fell on his ass in the grease.  Undeterred, he stood back up, drew his rapier, and thrust at Osric's opponent in one smooth move, missing entirely, as one does when trying to recover from an embarrassing fall.

Terrance glanced at the fleeing assailant, and decided she'd best not let him go.  She gave chase and did her best to hamstring him before he ran down the stairs.

Speaking of downstairs, Tuala sent another magic missile barrage at the lead saboteur at the keg robot.  Each barrage was more harmful, and yet this fellow withstood it all, apparently.  Kaikoa, seeing all the pain from magic missile, knocked him senseless.  As their leader dropped to the ground, Fine Branch used thaumaturgy to demand loudly of the others, "Stand the hell down!"

They ran away.  Kaikoa grappled the one with the shortsword, but the other saboteur ran out the door.

At the door to Martin's office, Dranila missed the thief with her mace.  Standing next to her, Dryali realized the Holder dwarf was taller than he.  Osric, noticing the thief Dranila had downed earlier, gave her a reproachful look, and walked over to him to stabilize him.  He sent the spirit hawk over to Terrance to help.

The thief at the door decided this was his own opportunity to get away.  He pushed past Osric and managed to dodge Dryali's and Dranila's attacks.  Then he stepped in the grease and fell on his ass.  He also managed to avoid Dryali attacking him while prone.

Terrance grabbed the hamstrung thief and pressed him up against the window in the back, "If you don't leave, I'ma throw you out the window!"  Never mind "leaving" was what she'd stopped him from doing.

"I'm sorry!" he told her.  "It wasn't my idea!"

"Whose idea," she growled at him.

"His!" the thief indicated his buddy, prone in the grease.

Dranila tried to go around the stabilized thief, but the grease was too much for her, too, and she fell prone next to the two thieves.  Never mind that.  She pressed her mace to his throat.  "Are you going to stop now, or be like your friend?!"  The prone thief was terrified, <narrator voice: Joyce rolled a nat 20 on intimidation>.

Osric tensed up, ready to cast thorn whip; but the fight had drained out of the thieves.

Tuala walked over to the keg robot, trying to deduce what the saboteurs had done to it.  Kaikoa had a different methodology.  "Tell me what you are doing, or you're hippogryph food!"  Right as he said that, Mordant peered into the tavern from the skylight overhead.

"It was just a joke for the Goose!" the saboteur replied.

Fine Branch, meanwhile, tied up the unconscious leader, and searched him to find some unknown liquid.  It seemed psychoactive.  Kaikoa, Fine Branch, and Tuala administered the liquid to the two Goose followers and left them outside in a nearby alley.

The thieves upstairs, it turned out, were crew on the mechanical airship Jeans, captained by Korinn, a Green dragonborn.  They got into Martin's office afterall, until the sets were done and the tavern started to wind down.  Then 4 of the Freelancers escorted them back to their captain, who was less than impressed with their behaviour.

Martin was super happy with the Freelancers, and paid them the agreed-upon fee of 100gp each for bouncering, and since he wasn't expecting to need Office Defense, and the take was so high for the evening, an extra 50gp each as well!

• Dranila → lvl 1!
• Osric → lvl 3!