Another Attempt at Pollution Cleanup

Manu was wanting a mission, and Dryali and Fine Branch had just picked up their silvered equipment from Oskar Torevir, so the three of them went to Arnari to find out what was available.

Arnari raised her eyebrow at Manu, and cited

• More pollution / river cleanup upstream from Mossey Lake; 50gp and an uncommon potion
• Go to Stormhaven, and find the halfling man, who hired the "blue bandanna" gang and also, freed Jamie.

"Do we know the halfling is still in Stormhaven?" Dryali asked curiously.  "No reason to think he's not there," Arnari replied.  Dryali frowned slightly.  "Not in Hindmarsh?"

• That's the third mission:  Go to Hindmarsh, find Jamie.  Apprehend him, if you think you can.
• Lastly, find Ethan… find him, but not necessarily capture him.

Fine Branch wanted to take on more pollution cleanup, curious what else was still there.  Manu was okay with that.  After hearing about the prior mission, Dryali was concerned that the supposedly cleared Pirates Dream river, isn't anymore.

The four of them examined the map on Arnari's wall.  Manu suggested they go to the Lake and re-check it.  Dryali replied, "In theory, downriver of the fork is cleared, by Cathance and them."  He waved his hands vaguely.

Fine Branch wanted to go directly to Gwydion's tower; after all, pollution flows downstream.  Arnari asked reasonably, "How will you get there without going upriver?"  Manu pointed at the map.  "Go north, from Lakeview," he said.  Dryali nodded, "That could work."

Despite all this, they decided to take the treeline to the east shore of the lake.

Dryali and Manu were walking along the treeline, with Fine Branch on his hippogryph Nighthawk circling above, keeping an eye out for danger, and, later in the day, an appropriate place to camp.  They made decent time, and Fine Branch scouted out a good campsite, or so he thought, until Dryali and Manu walked into the clearing to find it occupied by two giant elk.

The two giant elk charged Manu and Dryali, but misjudged and did not hit the two Freelancers at all.

• Dryali used an uplevel'd thunderwave to push the giant elk back, and ran behind a bush.
• Manu sent magic missile at the giant elk, two darts hitting the elk with pale antlers, and one dart hitting the other one.  He backed up in the opposite direction.
• Fine Branch swooped down on Nighthawk, who attacked the flank of the giant elk with pale antlers.  Nighthawk's bite resulted in a beakful of fur, but his claws slashed the elk viciously.
• Fine Branch cast toll the dead on the same elk, and necrotic damage spread from the slashed flank.  He then manifested a spiritual weapon in the form of a fez, which tried to strangle one of the giant elks with its tassle, and critfailed.

The injured giant elk with the pale horns kicked at Nighthawk, but the hippogryph avoided the blow.  The other giant elk charged Manu, knocking him down, and he cast hellish rebuke on it, burning it.

• Dryali cast a firebolt at it, but the bolt shot through the giant elk's antlers and didn't hurt it at all.
• Manu stood back up, and cast sleep under the giant elk, which promptly passed out.
• Nighthawk didn't like almost getting kicked, and was hungry too.  He bit the elk with the pale antlers, killing it.  He moved over to the sleeping elk, and slashed it with his claws, killing that one too.

Fine Branch dismounted from Nighthawk, and sauntered over to the spiritual weapon.  He put it on, a glowing fez on his head for the next minute.

"That look becomes you, cat," Dryali said.  He turned, "Manu, you need any healing?"  Fine Branch returned to practicality.  "Oh!"  And cast cure wounds on Manu.

They set their watch order to be Fine Branch, Dryali, Manu, and had an uneventful night, after butchering as much meat as they could from the giant elk.  Certainly Nighthawk was happier with fresh meat instead of rations.

The next day they made good time and got to the eastern shore of Mossey Lake just as the Daystar was setting in the west.  They found a good campsite and started setting up for the night.

As the light started to fade, Manu decided it would be fun to skip stones on the lake.  Perhaps he also was thinking he'd rather find out if something was there before they were sleeping than after, but he became absorbed with the challenge of skipping the stones.  He was getting pretty good at it, with the stones making 4 skips, when both Fine Branch and Dryali noticed… not all the ripples were coming from the stones.

The ripples were actually coming towards Manu.

Fine Branch hopped back on Nighthawk, and flew up, and Dryali created a force ballista eldritch cannon.  Fine Branch flew down to Manu, and he and Nighthawk moved the surprised hanyou back from the water's edge.

• Dryali climbed on top of the nearby rocks, which were about 4' tall.  From there, examining the ripples, he tried to cast faerie fire on whatever was making the ripples.  But he misjudged and it did nothing.  He had the force ballista fire there too.  Nothing.
• Four giant toads emerged from the lake!  Two of them attacked Dryali, but missed.  The other two moved towards Fine Branch.
• Two giant frogs emerged too!
• Manu cast chill touch on the giant toad closest to him.  The skeletal hand grasped the creature, but didn't really do a lot.

Fine Branch cast spirit guardians on himself.  Cats spiraled around him, fading in and out of sight, sometimes only their cat smiles remaining visible.  It was quite the sight.  He then cast spiritual weapon in the form of a fork next to the two giant toads that had moved towards Manu, but it critfailed to hit.  Nighthawk then attacked the giant toad furthest from Dryali, biting and slashing it with his claws.

• Dryali had the force ballista shoot the same giant toad Nighthawk attacked, and it struck, pushing the creature 5' away.  He shot a firebolt at it too, but missed, distracted by the two giant toads right in front of him.
• The giant toad pushed away and the one still next to Nighthawk were attacked by the cats surrounding Fine Branch, which burned them with radiant damage.  One hopped towards Manu, but the one initially injured attacked Fine Branch, and missed.  The two giant toads on the rocks with Dryali attacked him, but he popped shield.
• One of the giant frogs also jumped up on the rocks to be rebuffed by Dryali's shield.  The other attacked Fine Branch, and missed, getting burned by the spirit cat guardians for its effort.
• Manu cast magic missile at the giant toad that had gotten in his face.

Nighthawk bit the giant toad nearest to him, killing it.  Then he slashed the giant frog that had attacked Fine Branch, and killed it too.  Fine Branch moved Nighthawk over to where Dryali was, and also the spiritual weapon, which forked the giant frog with force.  He cast toll the dead on the giant frog, but it had no effect.

• Dryali jumped back, to get a good angle, just to have the giant frog bite him.  Then he cast thunderwave on the two giant toads and the giant frog, killing the latter and pushing the giant toads closer to Fine Branch.  For good measure, he had the force ballista shoot and kill the giant toad attacking Manu.
• Fine Branch's cats attacked the two giant toads, again burning them with radiant damage, although one not so much.  The one that took more hurt bit Fine Branch and got its mouth wrapped around him.
• Manu moved towards the lake's edge, but away from Dryali, and cast an upleveled magic missile at the two giant toads, hitting the one grappling Fine Branch with one dart, and the other giant toad with 3 darts.

Fine Branch spoke a word of radiance, which killed the giant toad grappling him.  The spiritual weapon forked the remaining giant toad with force.  Nighthawk didn't manage to bite the giant toad, but he did slash it with his claws.

• Dryali's force ballista killed the last giant toad.
• That didn't stop Fine Branch's guardian cats from attacking both giant toads.

Fine Branch dismounted and moved towards the giant frogs, and thanked the spirit cats for their help, and said they could eat the giant frogs as a reward, which they did.  Manu and Dryali were slightly disappointed at not having froglegs, but not too much; they still had a plethora of giant elk meat.

Nobody ate any of the toads.  As they sat in front of the campfire, Manu used prestidigitation to create origami frogs… and drop them into the fire.

The night was uneventful.  After all, the Freelancers had cleared out the giant toads that might have attacked them!

The next day, the Freelancers arose and started northward on the lakeshore, and then continued upriver, looking for anything untoward.  They figured they would get to the fork where Pirates River and the River of Dreams came together, and then start the hard work of clearing creatures mutated by the magical pollution.

It was a beautiful day, and they made good time for a while, moving up the east side of the riverbank.  Then, the river curved away, and they somehow managed to keep going, getting farther and farther away from the bank.  By the time they realized it, around noon, Dryali and Manu were bickering, then Fine Branch landed with Nighthawk and all the three of them started in on each other.

Which of course is why they were utterly surprised by the two owlbears that emerged from the nearby woods and attacked Nighthawk and Dryali with beak and claw.  Dryali managed to avoid the attack, but Nighthawk dropped, mortally wounded.

Fine Branch hadn't dismounted, and found himself prone and trapped under his bleeding hippogryph.  Of course his first order of business was to cure wounds on Nighthawk, and his second order of business was to cast spiritual weapon in the form of a monocle.  It attacked the owlbear that had struck Nighthawk, appearing to burn it with the Daystar, but really it was force damage.  

• Nighthawk stood back up, and gave as good as he got, using beak and claw on the owlbear that had down'd him.
• Dryali cast web, trapping the owlbear that has attacked him, and then he moved away, sustaining a vicious swipe from the owlbear.
• Stuck in the web, the owlbear hoot-roared angrily, and finally wrested free.  The other owlbear swiped at Nighthawk, or maybe Fine Branch, but missed.
• Manu tried to cast chill touch, but somehow the skeletal hand went awry and missed.  He ran to the opposite side of the owlbear attacking Nighthawk, and was rewarded with his own vicious swipe.  He responded with hellish rebuke, burning the owlbear.

Fine Branch brought down the bane of The Cat on the two owlbears.

• Nighthawk again used beak and claw on his attacker to good effect.
• The monocle spiritual weapon crit on the same owlbear, killing it.  Then it moved up next to Dryali, who looked a bit bemused.
• Dryali moved in front of the remaining owlbear, but not too close, and cast thunderwave, trying to blow it back into the web.  The boom caused nearby birds to startle, but didn't blow the owlbear back into the web.  Dryali ran next to Manu.
• The owlbear ran up to Dryali and Manu, and bit Manu with its beak, mortally wounding him, o noes!  It clawed at Dryali, and he popped shield.
• Manu was bleeding out.

The spiritual weapon moved next to the owlbear and monocle'd it for more force damage.

• Nighthawk bit this new owlbear, but his followup slash missed.
• Fine Branch cast an uplevel'd aid, restoring health to everyone, but especially Manu.
• Dryali created a protector eldritch cannon, putting a buffer on top of Fine Branch's aid.
• The owlbear tried to bite Nighthawk, but missed.  It decided to claw Fine Branch, but critfailed and fell on its face, ass in the air.
• Manu shot 4 darts from an uplevel'd magic missile into the owlbear's butt.

Nighthawk bit and claw'd at the undignified owlbear, wounding it greatly.

• The spiritual weapon monocle'd it again for force damage.

Finally, Fine Branch cast toll the dead, and the owlbear expired to a sonorous bell, having never recovered from its fall.

Well, owlbears were not what they were expecting to encounter.  Manu sat down, holding his head.  Dryali cast about, this was not the first owlbear encountered by Freelancers.  Were they breeding around here?!  He could not tell.

The Freelancers were a bit over this adventure.  They hadn't found any mutants, and instead had messed with forest and lake denizens.  Dejected, they returned to Cliffshadow the fastest way.

Once back in Cliffshadow, they reported their failure to Arnari, who contradicted them.  She reminded them that the entire affair was begun by Lakeview hiring Freelancers to take care of giant frogs, and told them no, owlbears are not a normal creature to encounter in the woods north of Mossey Lake.  She paid each of them 45 gp and thanked them, then pulled out the uncommon potions.  Manu got a potion of greater healing, Fine Branch got a philter of love, and Dryali got a potion of hill giant strength.

• Dryali → lvl6!