Explore the Amabel Villa

The morning after Apastron, the smell of smoke from the guttering bonfires still lingered in the streets of Ripa Daneo, and the three Freelancers Dryali, Fine Branch, and Terrance sought out their leader, Damakaios, for work to do.

The lounge outside his office had been somewhat rearranged, and a small glass case was in the corner to the left of his door, containing a detailed model of the Cliffshadow Freelancers Tavern.  However the three did not linger to enjoy the delights of the lounge, for Damakaios' door was open.

They wondered, briefly, how the hanyou occupied himself in their absence, for Damakaios was sitting behind an entirely clear desk, surveying a room of empty chairs.  The chairs matched, but were of various sizes intended to accommodate the various peoples who would visit the Freelancer's leader in his well-appointed office.

Dryali, a short and wiry Dark elf in black leathers with grey sharkskin boots, draped himself unceremoniously over one of the chairs to the right of the room.  He was not one to deprive himself of the comfortable chair.  Fine Branch and Terrance looked at him briefly, and just sat in their chairs.

Damakaios unlocked a drawer, and pulled out three pieces of crisp paper.  "I have three missions to offer you," he started a bit formally.

• First:  Amabel villa, they did not do due diligence prior to purchasing.  We don't know what's on the inside, but the last people sent were chased away but a couple harpies.  250gp/each, please do not damage the building more than can be explained.

Dryali said wryly, "Perhaps we should just take this one, in the spirit of the holiday."

Damakaios said wearily, "Please just don't destroy the building."  At that, Fine Branch pulled out a notepad, and wrote something in it.  Dryali was convinced it had nothing to do with the conversation.  Anyhow, Damakaios continued.

• The next mission is the Vathia Estia Tunnel Authority.  They need Freelancers to come root out the constructs who have been attacking tunnel traffic.  They can provide directions, and so forth, as part of the mission.  Also 250gp each.

Dryali asked, "Why don't Freelancers escort a caravan?"  Fine Branch added, "A great way to find the attacks."

"Very expensive," Damakaios sniffed.  "The Freelancers are not common mercenaries.  If that's what they want, there's plenty of mercenaries to hire.  Freelancers are brought in special."

"What's so special?" Dryali asked, unkindly.  Damakaios replied as if it was obvious.  "Caravans are getting attacked."

Dryali stared at Damakaios in disbelief, and Damakaios returned the stare.

Fine Branch broke the tableau.  "Caravan guards solve the problem while going through.  Freelancers will solve the problem for everybody," he explained.  Then he added, "Minus some property damage."

Unruffled, Damakaios continued.

• The third mission.  The Mayor of Flaxton, Iamos Broadtongue, wants Freelancers to come and clear whatever is in the lake which is messing with the rice and flax growing.

There was a silence, then Fine Branch said, "I'm sick of hearing about the haunted house."  Terrance agreed, "I'm interested in anything with new flora & fauna."

Damakaios nodded, put the other papers away, and explained where the villa is, on the outskirts on southeastern Ripa Daneo, butted up to the temperate rainforest on the rainward side of the skylith.

Although Fine Branch still brought Nighthawk, the Freelancers walked to the villa, discussing what to do as they got there.

Fine Branch:  we should show up as archaeologists!
Dryali:  why?
Fine Branch:  it would be funny, and give us an edge.
Terrance:  would rather be a fervent naturalist, willing to break into the mansion to collect samples.

The neighbourhood was very nice, with villas surrounded by well-tended grounds with gates and walls.  But they got to the correct street, and saw a stone villa covered in thick vines.  They saw a number of windows on the outside, but vines were blocking vision into the building.

The villa was 2 or 3 storeys, and had a tiny door on the southeast.  Gazing at it, Dryali thought of the assassin vines at the Hadid Villa, and looked carefully to see if the vines were moving.  He didn't see them moving, but he was startled to see 4 harpies fly up and at the approaching Freelancers, who had been trying to be stealthy.  <narrator voice:  and Shari got a nat 20 on stealth!  Finally!  Except, Matt rolled a nat 1.>

The harpies were dirty and pungent, but each one's wings glistened with different colours:  purple, red, green, blue.  Oddly enough their skins tones did not seem to be related…

Anyhow, Fine Branch mounted Nighthawk, then cast spiritual weapon in the form of a tapestry, next to the harpy with the purple wings.  Her skin was somewhat human-skin toned, and his tapestry had a picture of a man with a whip, punching a mouse.  The spiritual weapon whapped the harpy with force.  Then, Fine Branch cast toll the dead, sounding like a bell in a monastic order, and necrosis spread across the harpy's flesh... not that one could really tell.

Nighthawk flew up, and critfailed to beak the harpy, but slashed her badly with his claws.

Terrance pulled out her short bow and shot the harpy with the blue wings, whose skin was somewhat toned like a Wind sagani.  The arrow struck something precious, for she was bleeding profusely and flapped her wings in an ungainly way.  Terrance hid in a nearby bush.

The harpies had opinions and let everyone know for a mile radius.  "Fuck Off!"  "This is our place!"  "Go away!"  Dryali pulled out his arcane firearm, and shot a firebolt at the blue-winged harpy.  Now she was singed as well as stuck with an arrow, but still staying aloft.

At that, the screeching harpies changed their tone, literally: the harpy with the purple wings started to sing.

• Terrance, from her bush, thought, Not melodious, not attractive.
• Fine Branch, on Nighthawk, thought, Not attractive, but melodious.
• Dryali was utterly charmed.

The other harpies also started to sing, and Terrance was fascinated by the song of the one with the red wings, whose skin sort of was toned like a Rock sagani.

Fine Branch was able to see which harpy had charmed which Freelancer, because their eyes locked on the singing harpy.  So he was unsurprised when the injured blue-winged harpy, who had failed to charm anyone, flew up to the villa roof and hopped over the edge.  The red-winged one moved closer to Terrance, and the purple-winged one moved closer to Dryali.

Nighthawk trisected the harpy.  Dryali, blinking, shook his head a little.  "That wasn't that great, why did I care about it so much?" he wondered aloud.

Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon tapestry to whap the the red-winged harpy, trying to break the charm.  He followed with toll the dead, but it did nothing.  Well, actually, it harmonized with her song a bit; Terrance emerged from her hiding place going "What a beautiful song," wandering towards the harpy, oblivious to her surroundings.

Alarmed, Dryali made a force ballista, and shot the red-winged harpy with it, but she was still singing, and flying up and over the roof like the blue-winged harpy had.  The green-winged harpy also had disengaged and was moving that way, but was no longer singing.

Fine Branch turned and cast dispel magic on Terrance, and it worked!  Dryali was relieved, as Terrance blinked, shook her head a little, then said, "That was a nice song, but why…"

Fine Branch chased the red-winged harpy (who was still singing) with the spiritual weapon tapestry, and the green-winged harpy with Nighthawk, who attacked her with his beak and claws.  The green-winged harpy had skin tone kind of like a Sea elf.

"Magpie take you, this is our hoard!" she swore at him.  "Vulture take your bones, this is ours!"  Fine Branch became incensed.  "The Cat will take it back!" he shouted back, and the harpy screeched at him incoherently.

Terrance, listening to their voices, became angry that she had been listening to any obviously inferior song they had produced.  She nocked an arrow, then looked for which harpy was singing, but lowered her aim as she looked up, and put the arrow through her foot.  <narrator voice:  Sarah rolled a nat 1, then a nat 20 to attack herself.>

The force ballista hit the screeching harpy, and then Dryali shot her with a firebolt.  Wings on fire, she crashed to the ground.  He picked up the force ballista and walked over to look at the corpse, and wrinkled his nose.  Surely she'd never once bathed.  At this point, the red-winged harpy's song cut off, as she disappeared over the roof.

Fine Branch flew up higher, to look where the harpies had gone, and saw that the roof of the villa was peaked the entire way around the atrium.  He flew up over the peaked roof, and did not see the harpies.  Puzzled, he circled.  They must have hidden?  There were windows into the atrium.

Fine Branch flew back and picked up Dryali, and Terrance, meanwhile, had gotten the arrow out of her foot, and mounted on her broom of flying.  Then all three of them flew over the atrium.

The inner court was very big; the east & west sported covered porticos into the villa itself.  The atrium itself was long overgrown and wild.  Dryali noticed that sticking out of the bushes were bones, and… stuff.  He wrinkled his nose again, causing the tips of his ears to droop.  The harpies were really dirty creatures.

Fine Branch saw shark teeth, and pointed it out.  Terrance was sad, thinking how hard it was to grow the trees, but Dryali and Fine Branch remembered that the numbering of years stemmed from a comet collision with Skyway.  One of the consequences of the fucked-up orbits that resulted was a thalassa colliding with Commerce, which meant in less-frequently inhabited areas, there were thalassa things.

Like shark teeth.

The garden had adapted itself over the centuries.  Plants native to Commerce had thrived, others not so much.  Perhaps the bones helped fertilize.

Dryali sent a firebolt into one of the piles of bones, which incinerated.  Ash and char floated up, as did the sound of a lot of squawking and coarse swearing.  Dryali thought it was maybe the two harpies, but Fine Branch and Terrance assured him, there were four at least.

They all made faces, and flew back to the Freelancers Tavern.

Back at Freelancers, they found Damakaios still in his office.  After all, they hadn't exactly been gone a long time.

Dryali:  that place was full of harpies.
Terrance:  they had really great music, but can't remember it really.

Damakaios got out some paper and a pen, and started taking notes, then, he unlocked a strongbox, and handed them each 225gp.

Dryali:  we killed 2 harpies
Damakaios:  thank you for bringing me no proof.  ...harpies are foul.
Fine Branch <obviously bothered>:  the atrium is really overgrown, like how could it get this bad.  It's not been cleaned out in 1000 years, because we saw evidence of a shark - we saw teeth - and there's no sharks on Commerce.
<Fine Branch leaned really close to Damakaios.>
Fine Branch:  right?
Damakaios:  not for 1000 years.  <thinks>  those teeth are pretty valuable, if they can be retrieved.
Fine Branch <sarcastically>:  we'll try not to burn any more of them up.

Damakaios suppressed a chuckle as Dryali frowned.  He hadn't burned any of the shark teeth.