More Hippogryph Eggs for House Aldous

Dryali finished his breakfast in preparation for yet another hanggliding lesson.  The hanggliding, he found, was meditative, and he'd had a lot to think about after what had happened in that "Demonstration of Prowess" the Freelancers had put on, more than a prime previous.  He was no closer to deciding what to do.

His way out went by the tall table with the Wind sagani ex-pirate and her tall Bronze dragonborn friend.  They were a standoffish pair, but as he passed them, the dragonborn's eyes narrowed and he said to Dryali suddenly, "I think I recognize you!  Or, wait, do you have a twin?"  Dryali stopped in surprise, eyes narrowed.  The dragonborn continued, "In the arena!  Several times!"

He was clearly sincere, and the Wind sagani cringed.  Dryali stopped trying to think things through – after all, planning was not his strong suit – and decided the best way to repair the damage was to start doing missions again, and start with these two.  The Wind sagani was Khalid, and the Bronze dragonborn, Torinn.

In Arnari's office, she waved everyone to chairs.  While they didn't seem more comfortable than before, it was obvious she'd adjusted them for Freelancer height expectations.  Perhaps Nohea had complained, but even Torinn fit in one of the chairs.  He swung his leg over the back and sat in it that way, as Arnari's eyes narrowed, sizing them up as a team.

"I have four or five missions of interest…" she started, then hesitated.  "Well, only four."  She glanced at Dryali.  "These have been around…"

• Go to Mossey Lake and do cleanup of mutated magical creatures.  This will pay 50gp/person and 1 uncommon potion each.
• Some time ago, Cathance, Terrance, and Osric headed into the Haven Hills, found hippogryph eggs, and brought them back to Odo of House Aldous.  Some were destrier hippogryphs, which he found exciting.  So he wants more, and will pay 100gp/egg or, if 10 eggs are found, a trained gelding.  Moreover, if you find destrier hippogryph eggs, he'll pay 120gp/egg.
• So for the Daystar worshippers…

Torinn and Khalid had the most amazing look on their face at that.  Arnari had to back up and explain how this was a cult to the participants and in reality, they thought it was a multi-level marketing scheme from the proponents.  "Dryali can tell you," she said, "It's unfortunate to see how they worship."  Dryali just shook his head, and remained silent.

• Anyhow, find Ethan, so we can capture him alive.  The Church of Storms and the Church of Ua want to know how the leaders got their powers.
• Lastly, there are some farming troubles, at a hamlet between Cliffgate and Three Rivers.  Solving it will pay 100gp/each.  Go to the farming town and talk to Sinéad Willowsteal.  I suspect an earth elemental.

Torinn and Khalid Looked at each other in delight.  Torinn liked the idea of tromping about in the wild, and Khalid liked the idea of having her own hippogryph.  No question, they wanted to go egg hunting.

They had no idea how to do this, but Dryali noted when they'd brought back gryphon eggs from a grblin raid, they needed to keep them warm, so he'll bring extra sacks and blankets.  Arnari noted that when Cathance, Terrance, and Osric had done it, they'd put a mule cart to good use on the way back, but for other supplies, go visit the quartermaster.

As they left her office, Arnari was shaking her head as she reached for a stack of reports to read through.

Dryali picked up half-a-dozen blankets and sacks from the quartermaster, and grabbed his climber's kit from hit footlocker.  Torinn picked up 5 different sizes of basket, which fit inside each other.  He also bought a block-and-tackle, and on their way to the carter who rented out mule carts, he insisted on stopping at a musical instrument shop and picking out a drum.  Dryali looked at Khalid as if to say "whyyyy" and she just shrugged.

And then they were in the cart, on their way to Haven.  It took them two days to get to Cliffgate, and once there, they stayed at The Hippogryph's Wing, more for luck than any other reason.  It was 8sp/each, plus 5sp to stable the mule, which Dryali paid for.

Haven was another two days down the road.  Nothing untoward happened, but when they crossed the Haven River, they saw 2 giant elk heading their way.  Dryali stayed at the ready in case they would attack, but they just kept going westward on the road and the giant elk contented themselves with pacing them as they progressed.  After a while the giant elk turned away.

In Haven, they stopped at The Local Flavour, an inn run by a 3' tall Mikumwes halfling, Jocelyn.  Fortunately, Jocelyn had rooms with large enough ceilings, doors, and beds to fit Torinn, so they arranged to stable the mule there and got a room with 3 beds and a fireplace.  Jocelyn was not surprised at this request but did charge them 8sp/person/night even though it was one room.

Torinn asked if they did get eggs, would Jocelyn be willing to make sure the fire was tended and the eggs turned.  Jocelyn laughed and said yes, but even if the Freelancers were not there, the room would be full price.  Khalid was overcome with horror at the idea the eggs would hatch in their absence, but Jocelyn laughed harder and said, "Then you will be paying extra for meat!

"Come down to the taproom once you're settled!" he continued. "Enjoy our local cider – fresh pressed!"  At that, he left the Freelancers to sort themselves out.

The Freelancers decided the taproom was a double-win:  fresh-pressed cider and also local gossip about wild hippogryph sightings.  They headed down for food, drink, and companionable conversations.

Perhaps it was Dryali's weird eyes, but he had no luck striking up conversations with anyone that evening.  Torinn and Khalid, however, not only found out wild hippogryphs had been seen to the southwest, he found out there were quite a few recently, and also got to discussing tracking sign of them with an experienced hunter.

The next morning, the Freelancers struck to the southwest of Haven.  Torinn took point, and had donned a chain shirt for the occasion, with a maul strapped to his back within easy reach.  Dryali, concerned about Khalid, took the rear.  Khalid, stuck in the middle, was offended, but not enough to persuade the other two to change.

After about three hours, Torinn slowed, and started noticing the hippogryph sign:  scoring on treebark, hippogryph poo (which is pretty nasty).  After searching around, Torinn announced he thought it was another hour's walk.  They moved forward with a bit more caution.

After the better part of an hour, they approached some low hills, one of which had a cliff face.  The trees ended at the foot of this, which was surrounded by scree.  Torinn and Dryali stopped, back in the trees, but Khalid snuck forward to have a closer look.  She saw in the cliff face, about 35' up, a nest, with one hippogryph on it.  She withdrew and reported this to the others.

Dryali didn't believe there was only one.  He suggested they use dancing lights, to draw out the hippogryphs, to count how many were actually there.  He's also picked up that Khalid had a soft spot for all animals, so he also said, "...and if there is just one, maybe knock it out."  He explained the lights should not be on a straight line between them and the nest.

Torinn suggested a modification:  he wait near the dancing lights with a net.  That sounded even better, so they put this plan into action.

Once Torinn was in place, Dryali drew on his Dark elf heritage to cast dancing lights.  With an angry scream, the hippogryph flew off the nest to attack!

Khalid got out her climber's kit, and started up the cliff face towards the nest, but only made it about halfway.

• The hippogryph screamed and slashed at the dancing lights.
• Dryali hid, and moved the dancing lights near Torinn.
• Torinn prepared the net, and waited.

Khalid made it to the nest's edge, and there were no other hippogryphs.  She counted maybe 10 eggs.  She got out the sacks and blankets, and started packing the eggs.

• The hippogryph flew at the dancing lights again, and was rewarded with Torinn's net.  Screaming, it tried to bite Torinn, but couldn't; it did slash him badly with its claws.
• An answering scream came from above, as the hippogryph's mate returned to the nest!  It tried to bite Khalid, but also missed; its swipe with claws did not.
• Dryali pulled out his arcane firearm and sent a firebolt at the hippogryph in the nest, burning it.
• Torinn smacked the hippogryph in the net with his maul, upside the head.

Eggs set aside for now, Khalid drew her short sword.  She didn't want to kill the hippogryph, and tried to bonk it on the head with the pommel.  However she pulled the blow too much, and the incensed hippogryph easily avoided it.

• The netted hippogryph again failed to bite Torinn, but slashed him badly with its claws.
• The hippogryph in the nest missed Khalid with its snapping beak, and then, trying to slash her without breaking the eggs, critfailed, and thus overbalanced and fell.
• Dryali sent another firebolt at the hippogryph in the nest, and it dropped, overcome by its burns.  He moved towards Torinn.
• Torinn bonked the netted hippogryph with the maul again, knocking it out.

At that, Khalid, worried about the burned hippogryph, worked to stabilize it so it would not die.  Dryali cast cure wounds on Torinn, since those slashes were pretty deep.  Then they climbed up and helped Khalid pack the rest of the eggs.  Khalid was worried about hatching time, and Dryali said these were close, but still had about a prime & a half.  He used the earring of Āhua to heal Khalid a little.

It was early afternoon, and they decided with all these eggs, they could probably make it back to The Local Flavour in time for dinner, and so they did.

Jocelyn greeted the Freelancers as they returned, and when he saw how many eggs they had, he asked, "Are you going to leave for more?"  They told him it would depend!  Once the eggs were organized in the room, they headed to the taproom for dinner, more excellent cider, and any more information they could get.

Perhaps it was his remarkable height in a taproom full of halflings, but this time it was Torinn who struck out with any conversations.  Dryali and Khalid, however, heard some orchard workers telling tales of "mean charging hippogryphs to the south east."  They looked at each other.  Destriers!

The next morning, the Freelancers decided to head out in search of these mean hippogryphs, and talked to Jocelyn before then left, fussing at him about turning the 10 eggs they had in the room.  "Yes, yes, will turn them," said the busy innkeeper.  "With all your fuss, think you would be hippogryphs!"

The day was overcast, and it did not take long for the group to get turned around; they walked directly east for a long time, then Torinn realized the error and they turned south.  After a short time, they started to see more hippogryph sign, fallen feathers in particular.  There were cliff faces ahead, so they headed in that direction.

Given how close they were, the Freelancers took care to be stealthy; or such was their intention.  Torinn and Dryali, however, found the woods of southern Duquesne very different than the woods where they each were from, and critfailed on stealth.  As such, they were completely surprised by the three hippogryphs that attacked them.

The one on Torinn bit him, piercing him with its beak, but missed with its slash.  The one on Khalid failed to bite her, but slashed her with its claws, knocking her prone; then it slashed her again.  The hippogryph attacking Dryali entirely missed.

Dryali, seeing Khalid prone on the ground, immediately made a protector cannon, and it pulsed out its protection on all three Freelancers.

• Torinn raged, swinging his maul ferociously, clobbering the hippogryph that had slashed him.  He moved around it so that it was between him and Khalid.
• The hippogryph bit and clawed at Torinn, but he shrugged off most of the injuries with his rage.
• The hippogryph on the prone Khalid bit and slashed her again, leaving the Wind sagani bleeding out on the ground.

Dryali moved the protector to keep Torinn in its range, then reached down and cast cure wounds on the dying Khalid.  The worst of them closed up, and Khalid lay there, blinking, as the cannon pulsed out another protective buffer.

• Torinn opened his mouth and spat out lightning breath, dropping the hippogryph that had been attacking him and zapping the one that had brought Khalid down as well.  He moved next to Khalid.
• The hippogryph on Dryali failed to bite him, but did slash him with its claws.  The attack failed to use up the protector's buffer, though.
• The hippogryph that had savaged Khalid turned on Torinn and bit and clawed him, but Torinn again shrugged off most of the injuries with rage.
• Khalid stood up and slashed at the hippogryph, but swung wide.  She disengaged and backed up out of its melee range.

Dryali shot a firebolt at the hippogryph on Torinn, but with a hippogryph in his own face, he missed.  The protector did pulse again, providing a buffer.

• Torinn critfailed with his maul, the momentum of the heavy weapon pulling him to his knees.  He stood up and waved it at the hippogryph, menacingly.
• The hippogryph tried to bite and claw Torinn in return, but totally missed.
• The hippogryph on Dryali again failed to bite him, but crit him with its claws, ouch!
• Khalid moved back in and attacked the hippogryph that had savaged her, but missed.

With Khalid next to Torinn, Dryali has space to thunderwave, the boom echoing off the cliff faces.  It didn't seem to do much to the hippogryphs though.  The protector pulsed out a slightly bigger buffer this time.

• Torinn's maul connected this time, smacking the hippogryph upside the head and dropping it to the ground unconscious.  He moved next to Dryali.
• The remaining hippogryph bit Dryali hard, and then slashed at Torinn, who was starting to look pretty, well, slashed up.
• Khalid swung at the hippogryph with her shortsword, and missed.  She moved closer and sank her daggar into it with her offhand.

Dryali sank a firebolt into the hippogryph and it sank to the ground, overcome.  He had the protector cannon pulse out again, but it appeared that was all of them.  After a few more moments to be sure, the Freelancers worked to stabilize the downed hippogryphs.  One was younger than the other two, perhaps only 2-3 years old.  Then they started looking for the nest.

The nest had 11 eggs, which were 3 primes away from hatching!  The three of them took all the eggs, and headed back to Haven.  They got back to The Local Flavour well after dark, to find that Jocelyn had, indeed, faithfully turned all the eggs they had.

The next day, the Freelancers loaded the eggs into the mule cart, with all the padding, and bade good-bye to Jocelyn.  They headed back to Cliffshadow, driving the cart as gently as they could.  It took them 5 days to get there.

Upon their arrival at House Aldous, Odo inspected the eggs, and his happiness was evident to all.  He told the Freelancers it was their choice, 100gp each for the eggs, or 2 hippogryph geldings plus the remainder of the gold.  Odo said if they did the latter, he'd pay the Freelancers' Cut.

Torinn and Khalid were very excited to get flying mounts, but they looked to Dryali to see how he'd react.  Dryali thought of his young owl gryphon Alanya, and told them they should take the hippogryphs.  Odo sized them up, and had his stablehands bring out a larger than usual hippogryph to hold Torinn's tall self.  Then, because of the destrier eggs, he paid an extra 320gp, and reminded them he'd pay the Freelancer's Cut for that as well.

The gold was split 60gp each to Torinn and Khalid, so they could buy the proper saddle for a hippogryph, and 200gp to Dryali, who was bemused by the whole affair, and totally not admitting to anyone he was too enamored of his little owl gryphon to think about getting another mount.