Waylaid by Winter Wolves

Ondar's retelling of the fight between Freelancers and froggoths and some horrible eagle thing with hooks instead of wings was masterful.  Cathance, Hikawera, and Kaelani were fascinated by the effects of the froggoths and how large the eagle thing was.

Perhaps inspired by that, or perhaps stir crazy, they went with Ondar up to Arnari's office to get a mission assignment.  They entered the room, and Arnari watched them curiously as they all hesitated, until Cathance climbed into the biggest chair in the room and looked at the 7'8" Ondar impudently.  Ondar sat in the other big chair, but was Ondar-spreading and still managed to crowd Cathance.

Kaelani just took an appropriately-sized chair.  Hikawera's eyes narrowed, then he started sitting in chair after chair until he found the one that had the magic mouth on it.  "Good morning, sunshine!" Dryali's voice washed over the room.  Hikawera sat in it two more times, and Arnari rubbed her temples.

Then she launched into the list of available missions.

• Gryphon eggs, if you are feeling brave, for House Liona.
• Pollution again; froggoths mean reasonably sure causing more drama.
• Find where the kobolds hassling Orderly Stones monastery are coming from.  If you find it, don't try to take it on, just scout it a little bit.
• You might be too … overpowered for this, but there's been some strange noises from the graveyard to the north of Parkside.

Arnari paused, considering this last mission.  "I hope you are overpowered; or else it's a big problem," she mused, then added,  "Rich people are complaining to Kaiea."  As if Freelancers aren't rich.

Hikawera:  scouting is more interesting.
Kaelani:  graveyard.  As A Paladin, I'm Interested In Unquiet Undead.
Cathance <scornfully>:  or unquiet teenagers!
Kaelani <shrugged>:  then fear of Ondar.
Ondar:  that would be rational, and teenagers are not.  <to Arnari>  scouting.
Cathance:  scouting – how will Ondar fit through the door?
Arnari:  really, don't go in.
Kaelani:  Cathance's point is, Ondar can't fit.
Cathance:  exactly.
Arnari:  if you try, you have to commit.
Cathance:  can't make a strategy unless you know what you're up against!
Arnari:  if you take this, it's 200 gp/person, from Fuifui and Taleisin of Orderly Stones.
Cathance:  are they coming with us?
Arnari:  no; and you should be grateful.

Arnari rose, and went to the wall where the big map of Duquesne was, contemplating it.  She started pointing at various places around the northeast corner, and the others also gathered round it to discuss.

Arnari:  here's where the predator dens were, but I have no idea where they [the kobolds] are.
Cathance:  what is the order, on these predators?
Arnari:  why?
Cathance:  the oldest will be most convenient, because otherwise kobolds will have to walk through big predators [to get to the others]
Kaelani:  I feel we already know, from air scouting.
Arnari:  no, that found spiders before they were able to attack anyone.
Cathance:  what if we go to that gap in the map.  We could maybe find kobolds training then, and they would lead us to the others.
Hikawera:  that sounds like a good idea.
Kaelani:  at the very least, we can stop them from training.

The door opened, and in came Ka, dressed dramatically in black and still sporting eyeliner, bearing beverages for all from the tavern below.  Arnari took hers gratefully, and explained about the scouting mission to find, but not engage, the kobolds.

They contemplated the map more, sipping their morning beverages rather companionably.  Then they headed out.  Cathance picked up 15 rations before going to the stables to retrieve Jigsaw.

Ondar, Kaelani, and Ka were walking, with Hikawera above on Allegro and Cathance on Jigsaw; so it took them the better part of two days' travel to get to Orderly Stones.  Fuifui and Taleisin welcomed the Freelancers, as a pair of monks led the mounts to the stables.

Fuifui never ceased to get excited about visits from the Freelancers.  "Oh!  Are you here to find the kobolds?  They haven't attacked us recently, but-"

As he paused, Hikawera injected, "I hope to find them before they train."  Ondar added, "Ondar is very interested in how they train the monsters."

Taleisin looked at Ondar darkly and shuddered a little.  He'd taken the news of trained giant spiders very poorly.  But then he led the Freelancers inside, where they partook of a filling but uninspired dinner.

The next morning was overcast, with a light breeze.  After breakfast, Taleisin brought out a map, and they looked again at the semicircle around the monastery and considered the gaps.  There was one to the east, closer to the leading edge of the skylith, and one to the northwest, which was obviously where they should go.

Ka:  should go east.
Hikawera:  works for me.
Ondar:  Ondar wants to go to closest.
Hikawera <looking at map>:  don't want to fall.
Kaelani:  that's what Rock sagani are for!

Hikawera and Cathance went to get their mounts, the latter shaking her head.  Then the Freelancers headed east and a bit north, towards the edge of Duquesne.

Ondar, Ka, and Kaelani advanced, in that order; the big quinametzin in front, and the dwarvish Fire sagani bringing up the rear.  They were not following any kind of established path; Hikawera and Cathance flew overhead, calling down to Ondar to guide them through the least difficult outcome, or avoiding dead ends and wrong turns.

Cathance's voice, calling down "Guys!! Watch out!" rang through the trees, but that was partially because Hikawera swiftly took to mimicking it when calling down his own information.

Thus arrayed, by the late afternoon the Freelancers had approached the leading edge of the cliff.  They'd been climbing for a while, and while Ondar didn't notice, Ka and Kaelani were surprised to discover they were walking through… snow.  On Duquesne.

Cathance was also circling, puzzling over snow, which she'd only ever heard of.  Jigsaw, however, saw something else and tensed.  When Cathance looked more closely, she realized that laying in the snow was an absolutely enormous white wolf.  She peered more closely.  Maybe two?  Ondar was heading right for them.

Calling down was a bad idea.  Cathance cast dancing lights right in front of Ondar, who stopped in surprise.  Hikawera had circled behind the party, and called down in Cathance's voice, "Guys!  I think Cathance saw something!"  Cathance glared at Hikawera.

Allegro caught up with Jigsaw, and Cathance pointed out the wolves below.  "Those are big enough to eat me."  Hikawera used message to tell Ondar, who replied, "Ondar wants to know if the wolves have wings."  Hikawera used message again, "I don't think so."

Hikawera looked more closely.  These wolves had no wings, but were the size of Allegro.  One of them was chewing on a giant elk leg, and another one was just chillin' on the snow.  He looked at Cathance, and they took off in opposite directions, circling the clearing, looking for any kobolds or signs of a shrine to the Snake.  As they did so, Hikawera used message to the others:  "You three see if you can find kobold tracks, and don't fucking piss off the wolves."  

Ka, Kaelani, and Ondar looked for tracks, and found a number of tracks for amazingly large wolves, but no kobold tracks.  Meanwhile Hikawera and Cathance spotted three very large wolves, and no kobolds.  There was, however, a small tree stump hollowed out, with a glint.

Hikawera shattered the tree stump.

Two wolves ran into the forest in opposite directions, north & south.  The third growled, and looked directly at Hikawera.  Then he stared southwest, and loped off in that direction.  All three wolves missed the Freelancers on the ground.

From higher up than Hikawera, Cathance followed this wolf.  After a brief while, she lost sight of it, so she looped south then back up to Hikawera, who had himself headed south, towards the others but not directly above them.

Ka, Kaelani, and Ondar had only heard the shatter, and had no idea what was going on until Hikawera used message again.  "Busted possible shrine, wolves scattered.  Let's check the other location."

Ondar became stubborn.  "Ondar wants to check shrine first," he replied.  Hikawera lacked patience for this and snapped in another message, "Ondar can be wolf dinner, then!"  Ondar replied, "Wolf will be Ondar dinner!"  Exasperated, Hikawera flew off.  Ondar relayed this decision to Ka and Kaelani and headed towards the clearing.  Kaelani froze in alarm; he wanted no part of that.  Ka tagged along with Ondar.

Right about then Cathance caught up with Hikawera, and relayed what happened with the third wolf.  "Shall we go?" she asked (meaning to the other location).  "Ondar really wants to check the shrine that was smashed," Hikawera said, his voice withering in that way only a bard can accomplish.  "So, one of us should stick with Kaelani, and the other shadow them."

Cathance nodded, and headed back to where the clearing was.  Hikawera returned to where he had been, where Kaelani was waiting somewhat warily for Ondar and Ka to return.

Ondar and Ka took a little over a quarter-hour to get to the clearing in the snow and trees.  They saw, on the northeast edge of the clearing, an annihilated tree stump.  Scattered about where antlers and various bits of a giant elk that had been mostly eaten.  The snow had a couple nestled hollows that looked like the wolves had made themselves comfy.

As they looked, the wolves that Cathance had seen flee north and south returned.

Ondar became large, and moved into the clearing, drawing his vicious scimitar.  He slashed at the wolf who had returned from the south, opening a great wound.  Then he invoked his fire shackles, and the large wolf was thus restrained.  Large Ondar stepped back, and the wolf snapped at him and missed.

• Ka moved to the wolf's rear.  Fondling his bracelet awkwardly, he mumbled something the others could not hear, but which hexed the wolf's strength.  Drawing his matte-black rapier, he pierced the wolf's haunch, and the wound immediately festered with signs of necrosis.  Ka rode his own adrenaline surge and pierced the wolf again, with even more necrosis.
• The wolf, burning from the fire shackles, did not enjoy any of these circumstances.  It broke out of the fire shackles, and spun to face Ka, and breathed on him with icy cold.  Crystals formed in Ka's eyebrows and hair as he took that full in the face.
• The other wolf, untouched by the Freelancers, loped up to Large Ondar and also breathed icy cold on him.  But Large Ondar was used to icy cold.  It only stung a little.
  • Large Ondar smiled and said, "Nice doggie!"  Charmed, the wolf stood loosely, in some sort of stupor.
• Cathance, circling above, saw the wolf break out of the fire shackles.  She cast chill touch, and more necrosis spread across the wolf from where the skeletal hand grasped the wolf's coat.

Meanwhile, Hikawera caught up to Kaelani just as the third large wolf broke out of the forest along the path and spotted the short Rock sagani paladin.  Hikawera cast bane on the wolf, then moved a good ways away.

• The wolf, spotting Kaelani, lost no time; it charged up to him and also breathed icy cold dog breath on him.  Kaelani was chilled, but managed to avoid much of the breath.
• Kaelani brought his rainstick to bear and struck the wolf with thunderous smite.  The boom echoed throughout the forest as the wolf was not only smacked by a stick, and hurt by the booms, but burned by holy radiance.  It was knocked back from the paladin as Kaelani said "Bad dog!!! Sit!"

Large Ondar heard the distant boom but was otherwise occupied.  He moved back up to the wolf that had broken out of the fire shackles, and with a mighty swing, decapitated it with his vicious scimitar as it was pivoting towards him from Ka.  Full of adrenaline, Large Ondar pivoted to the other wolf and slashed at it too, laying open a large gash.  This wound did not break the wolf out of its stupor.

• Ka stepped up to Large Ondar and the stupefied wolf, and raised his hand,  Dark energy flowed from his hand to the wolf:  a hexblade's curse!  Then he pierced the wolf in its chest with his matte-black rapier, and stepped away, back and to the right.
• The wolf continued in its stupor!
• Cathance was content to circle above and cast chill touch again.  Necrosis spread across the wolf where the skeletal hand grasped it, but not as bad as on the other wolf.

Meanwhile, Hikawera was still above Kaelani on Allegro, and mocked the wolf that had been smote by the paladin, giving it a headache.  He called down to Kaelani, "You're learning!  Keep it up!" and somehow that was supposed to provide bardic inspiration.

• The wolf simply breathed icy cold on Kaelani again, with the same result.
• Kaelani brought his rainstick to bear again, and entirely whiffed.
  • Hikawera called down, "Oh for fucks' sake, I gave you inspiration!"

Large Ondar slashed the stupefied wolf with his vicious scimitar again.  The severe wounds did not seem to rouse it.

• Ka drew his daggar with his offhand and stepped forward.  He missed the thrust with his matte-black rapier, but crit with the daggar, piercing the wolf between the ribs.
• The wolf was still out of it, but on its feet.
• Cathance wasn't sure how long the stupor would last, so she simply cast chill touch again.  The wolf was looking pretty bad with all the necrosis.

Hikawera, still peeved, cast produce flame and threw it down onto the wolf in front of Kaelani.

• The wolf closed up to Kaelani and tried to bite him, but failed.
• Kaelani beat it with his rainstick.

Large Ondar slashed with his vicious scimitar and missed.  Perhaps he was getting cocky.

• Ka followed up with a heart-thrust with his rapier, slaying the wolf.  However he had not been expecting that, and still tried to followup with his daggar.  The wolf pulled him off balance and his graceful attack just looked clumsy.
• Cathance, seeing that Ondar and Ka did not need her help, and realizing there were only two wolves in the clearing, turned Jigsaw and headed full speed back towards Kaelani.

Hikawera concluded that defeating this large wolf required more drastic measures, so uplevel'd shatter on it, carefully avoiding Kaelani.  The spell had far less effect than Hikawera expected, although it probably blew out the wolf's eardrums.

• The wolf tried to breathe on Kaelani again.  Well, it actually did breathe, but it was just dog breath, not particularly cold or anything.  Realizing that, it air snapped.
• Kaelani smacked it with his rainstick again.  That's some rainstick, beating up a big wolf.

Hikawera cast produce flame and crit the wolf with it, lighting its head on fire.  That was enough to make it succumb to its beatings, and it went down.  He looked up to see Cathance and Jigsaw approaching at full speed.

"Hikawera!  Two of the wolves came back and attacked Ondar!" Cathance cried.  Hikawera gave Cathance a look, then merely pointed downwards towards Kaelani and the wolf.  Then he and Allegro landed to try to skin it.  With the wolf so burned, he didn't get much more than scraps; still, probably worth 100gp, because the pelts were immune to cold.  The three of them started heading towards the others.

Back in the clearing, Ondar had also started skinning a wolf.  Ka looked around, surveying the field, but there wasn't a whole lot to find.  Half-eaten elk.  He turned to the other wolf, and started to skin it; it's not good to wait, wolf pelts spoil quickly.

By the time the others had arrived, Ondar had skinned his wolf and was investigating the shrine.

Cathance looked around, and saw the big wolf carcasses, and the half-eaten giant elk parts, and the snow.  She shivered.  "Guys, it's really cold here!" she exclaimed.  Hikawera was using produce flame to stay warm.  "I don't know what you are talking about," he replied.

Without a word, Ondar strode back to the wolf pelts, and threw one of them over Cathance.  It covered the little halfling entirely, and she couldn't, initially, get out from under it.  Then Ondar and Ka checked out the shrine again.  They found eight small gemstones, and 161gp worth of assorted coins, all covered in some sort of liquid.

Kaelani was suspicious, thinking about all the other items (good and bad) they'd found at the other shrines, and checked more carefully.  But he basically confirmed it: 2 azurite, 1 banded agate, 1 blue quartz, 2 hematite, 1 malachite, 1 tiger eye, each worth about 10gp.  The liquid was kind of sticky.

By this time Cathance had wriggled out from the wolf pelt, which was fresh and icky, although it wasn't lost on her she had stopped being cold.  She used prestidigitation to clean the gore off her gear.

"Maybe some of these were powerful potions," Kaelani mused.  Cathance came over and looked.  There were broken shards of glass too.  "The potions were powerful," she said.  "Maybe they were used in training?

Anyhow, the Freelancers lifted the coin and the small gems, and gathered the pelts and wolf heads, and headed back to Orderly Stones monastery.  It was too late to head straight back, so they got far enough out of the cold to camp, making sure the pelts didn't spoil.

They got back to Orderly Stones the next day, and Taleisin was happy about the removal of such a large threat, so he paid the Freelancers 200gp per head.  But he reminded them he still wants the kobolds' location, which is why they were there.  They told him a different Freelancer group would have to handle it.