Recheck Grblin Cave

Maghris Bloomfield the Eighteenth was coming along with his artificery.  He sat at the corner of a table, tinkering with a pile of metal.  Finally he exclaimed, "A Ha!" and it formed into a homunculus the size of a sportsball, which rose from the table and zipped around.  "Mr Zircon is BACK!"

Once in her office, Lorcan sat near the front center, attentively watching Arnari.  Magris sat in a backless chair to give his fluffy tails the most freedom, Mr Zircon floating nearby.  But Manu discovered that a wicker contraption in the back of the office, which everyone had chalked up to knickknacks, was actually a chair, and he sat in it, like a wicker hanyou throne.  Manu smiled.

Arnari's normal glance at Freelancers looking for work was a slight double-take on Manu, but she started smoothly.

• As always, there's pollution cleanup; I'm not terribly worried about it for the three of you
• There's also hippogryph egg hunting
• Also, 2 missions, more "scouty".
  • Got to Hindmarsh <Arnari checked her papers> for House Ha'aheo.  They are starting to have issues with herb gathering groups.  <For Maghris' benefit>  you can get interesting medicinal herbs, they go in from the northwest.  The gatherers are having bullywug issues; the main mission is to locate the camp.  Stretch is, attack it, but you might need more people.

Maghris asked, "What is least likely to kill me?"  Arnari said sternly, "There's a fourth mission."  As Maghris said "Oh," Arnari continued.

• Go to Marshfork, and carefully – very carefully – recheck the grblin cave.  Freelancers previously cleared it, but then the next recheck required a rescue mission.

A brief discussion ensued.

Lorcan:  why is there a reason to believe it needs to be rechecked?
Arnari:  well, partially carefulness; but a couple of far-ranging hunters spotted grblin tracks.
Manu:  were they good hunters?  Maybe they found their own tracks!
<Maghris was pensive.>
Manu:  I recently went to pollution.  If there is still pollution, maybe we should scout the source!
Arnari:  the pollution is from the wizard Gwidion who has supposedly stopped polluting; but a bigger group will need to investigate that.
<Manu nodded as Arnari said that.>
Maghris:  grblins, I could take grblins
Manu:  grblins fun, but a long time
Maghris:  I could do grblins, might be in the back of the party.
Lorcan:  sure.

Lorcan had Bandit, a pony courser pegasus, but Manu had Nāhōkū, a full-sized courser pegasus, who could carry Maghris as well; so they took the mission to Marshfork, and headed out.

The pegasi didn't enjoy the spitting rain and the wind any more than the Freelancers did, but they made good time to Cliffgate despite the weather.  Mr Zircon couldn't keep up with the coursers, so rode on Maghris' shoulder.  Lightning strikes were visible in the mountains to their north.  They stayed at The Sleepy Dog inn for 8sp each, and 5sp for the mounts.  Manu preferred The Sleepy Dog because they actually had an old dog in evidence, sleeping in the stableyard.

The next day dawned bright and beautiful, and the Freelancers decided to push their mounts.  Clouds scudded across the sky, so the coursers did not overheat, but they did get to The Mule's Rest inn at Three Rivers right at the end of twilight.

The three Freelancers relaxed in the tavern that evening, and the music was great, as various students from the nearby Bardic Conservatory took turns performing in ensembles.

Manu:  like beauty salon music!
Lorcan <laughing>:  what does Manu know of beauty salon!
Manu <rubbed his bald head and horns>:  everything has to be waxed!! Horns!! Head!!
Maghris <wide-eyed>:  not a fan!

The music changed, and the next ensemble was not nearly as good.  After a couple pieces, they were tossed off stage.  Manu objected, "No no no!  I liked that!  Avant garde!"  Others in the bar gave Manu a side-eye.  "That instrument," Manu exclaimed, "I never heard it make such a sound!"  Well, nobody else had, either.

The rain returned the next day, and Marshfork was far away.  The pegasi flew along the road, and the Freelancers did not push them at all.  The rain often slacked off, but always stayed at least a drizzle.  Maghris, riding pillion on Nāhōkū, was very unhappy as his fluffy fur got soaked and tangled.  Manu, observing this, finally ventured, "Mind if I try… ?"  Maghris was ready to try anything, and replied, "Let's try it."  So Manu used prestidigitation to dry and warm Maghris' fur.  Maghris was less miserable, but also extremely fluffy.

Towards the end of the day, Manu looked for campsites, with Lorcan helping.  There were various sheltered campsites along the roadside, and they found one sheltered enough to get a full rest.

The next day was much a repeat of the prior, but at the end of the day they arrived in Marshfork, and took rooms at The Cantankerous Goose.  Manu said, alarmed, "I hope this time, there is no goose!"  The Freelancers hit the tavern to discover a Goose-themed drink:  very hoppy beer, with a shot of random schnapps.

As they ate dinner and avoided hoppy beer, the Freelancers looked around for Mayor, Casimir Lightforger, but he was not in evidence.  Once they were finally warm and dry, they took to their rooms for a pleasant rest.

The next morning, as they prepared to leave, Manu assured the others he knew where the cave was.  They discussed whether to check in with the Mayor before heading towards the grblin cave.

Manu:  we should check in after, with the Mayor.
Lorcan:  he might know more.
Maghris:  yeah, we should check in.
Manu:  what will the Mayor know?  We should hang out at the bar; people there will know.  They will talk about, 'Remember we got pickpocketed and turned to see little green person?' Ah!  Grblin!  We know where they are now.
Lorcan:  we can breakfast at the tavern first, and listen then.

So they headed to the tavern, which was serving up breakfast suitable for travellers and hunters.  Manu ordered the big breakfast.  "Free regret," he told the others cheerfully.  They listened to the talk and rumours and random discussions:

• People excited about The Cat holiday
• People displeased about herbs because of events in the marsh
• A few travellers eastward to the Bardic Conservatory for The Cat
• Lorcan heard some hunters in the corner talking about northeast, not as much game lately
• Rumours of new ships being commissioned & launched from Hindmarsh
• A new smaller ship, the Clorinde, launched with thorough equipment

"Manu, where is this cave?" Lorcan asked, "Those hunters are talking about game," he nodded at the corner.  "It is not fully in the mountains," Manu replied, "but north; northwest."

Manu scowled at Lorcan, who was still eating, then told Maghris, "I want to start a rumour.  Just react."  Maghris raised an eyebrow and started trying to fix his poofed-up fur, as Manu watched for others listening to conversations too.  Then he said, in a voice that wasn't loud but would carry, "I don't know if it's right, taking orphans and training them, into a military mindset."

Maghris kept working on his fur, but glanced up and said, "Sure, but the end justify the means."  Lorcan finished eating, but said nothing.

Two nearby carters heading towards Hindmarsh overheard.  They looked at the Freelancers with a surprised side-eye, then frowned a little, obviously believing the ruse.  But then it was time to leave, and the Freelancers headed north towards the grblin cave.

Manu did indeed know exactly where to find the cave, marked by a tree and a ravine, and led the Freelancers directly there.  <Narrator voice:  Matt rolled a nat 20 on survival>  While precipitation had merely been a light drizzle, the wind picked up as they got there.  The Freelancers circled on their mounts, looking for any signs of inhabitants, but saw none.

Manu flew over the ravine, and there was a very rickety bridge, about 30-40 feet below the edge, running across.  He pointed out the opening across from the tree would be where grblins were.  But, still no sign of anything.  The Freelancers landed in front of the tree.  Maghris had Mr Zircon pick up a rock and cast light on it.

Maghris:  I'm less caring about stealth
Lorcan:  what if we go in the opening from the bridge?
Manu:  first, I do chaos!

Manu got out a full bag of a thousand ball bearings, loosened the strings, and tossed it into the opening under the tree.  Even with the wind they heard it thump, and the tinging noises as ball bearings spilled out and went down the descending tunnel under the tree.  Lorcan, alarmed, cast a minor illusion of a grblin abashed at dropping the ball bearings.  But it didn't seem to have an audience at all.

They flew to the opening at the other end of the bridge and looked at it.  Lorcan and Manu saw the disrepair of the bridge, but could not tell if it was intentional or neglect.  They looked around more.

Lorcan looked at the ravine, and saw there were perhaps handholds to the cave from above, but not maintained.
Manu looked at the bridge to see if it could support only a grblin, or was trapped, and realized it could be both.
Maghris looked at his fur.  The drizzle and the wind was enough to soak it through.  

They looked into the cave to see debris, quite a bit of bat guano, leaves, and whatnot.

Lorcan:  maybe there is another place for grblins
Manu:  let's do it.  Maghris, we need to trade places.  Or can you climb?
Maghris <startled>:  no climbing.

Nāhōkū is the most patient pegasus in the world, and neither complained nor dropped Maghris and Manu as they traded so Manu was pillion.  Lorcan watched, entirely astounded, mulling on riding Frostclaw with that paladin face down.  However, having never done such a thing before, they two Freelancers were a bit goofy.  "That's my crotch!"  "Don't pull my hair!"  "That's my horns!"  Mr Zircon flew around them, staying out of the way.

Finally, Manu was pillion, and he promptly hopped on the ledge.  Lorcan was circling on Bandit just over the bridge, blowgun ready.  Maghris flew up above the ravine, circling, but slow enough for Mr Zircon to keep pace.

Manu faced the cave opening and cast thaumaturgy, to make his voice boom.  "YES HELLO THIS IS ZORCAN, MIGHTY WIZARD!  GOBLIN GIRLFRIEND DUMPED ME, I'M JUST PICKING UP MY SHIT HERE."

So, the Freelancers had forgotten that all that bat guano had to come from somewhere.  A lot of fluttering followed Manu's booming voice, as several swarms of fleeing bats flew out the cave opening into and past Manu's face.  The last ones bit him.

The bat swarm on Manu bit him again.  A bat swarm flew up to Maghris, critfailed when trying to bite him, and bit Nāhōkū instead.  Two separate swarms flew up to Lorcan and failed to do anything else.

• Dismayed, Maghris exclaimed, "Nāhōkū, attack these!"  The pegasus, unhappy with the bats, kicked a few of them out of the swarm with his hooves.
  • Maghris shot at the bats with his light crossbow, but the bolt went right through the swarm.
  • Mr Zircon tried to do something, but all it managed to do was drop the rock with light on it, which whizzed past Lorcan.
• Lorcan, who could talk with small animals, asked the bats, "Why are you attacking me?"  They only screeched in reply.
  • Lorcan cast infestation on one of the swarms, and it moved away from him as little insects bit the bats.
  • Bandit did not like all the bats either, the pony pegasus screamed and kicked the swarm that was still there, knocking a few out of the swarm.
• Manu backed away from the swarm that attacked him; about 5' because more would put him on the bridge.  It bit him again, and he cast hellish rebuke, burning the bats with fire.
  • Seeing another swarm attacking Nāhōkū, he pulled out his wand, feywild shard affixed to the end, and used his sorcery to cast sleep on the swarm silently.
  • Manu's sleep wasn't a very strong cast, so instead of affecting the swarm, he put Mr Zircon to sleep.  Maghris tried to grab it, but the homunculus fell past a surprised Bandit to dash to pieces on the side of the ravine.  "O no, wake up, what happened?" the nekomata cried.
  • The wild magic manifested on Manu, who became invisible, and immediately dropped prone in an attempt to trick the bats.

The bats on Maghris tried to attack him but failed.  The bats Lorcan had infested moved back to him but also failed.  The bats already on Lorcan failed too.  But the bats on Manu used their echolocation to find him and bite him.

• Nāhōkū kicked a few more bats, and Maghris pulled out his quarterstaff and whacked at the swarm one-handed, knocking more of them out.
• Lorcan cast infestation again, but the bats just ate all the bugs.  Bandit kicked more bats out of the swarm.
• Manu used his sorcery to twin cast mind whip on the bats on himself as well as on Nāhōkū.  
  • The wild magic manifested on the bats Lorcan had infested, imbuing them with a 60' flying speed.
  • Manu, who was visible again, stood back up and moved 5' back into the cave.

The bats at the cave moved back into Manu's face, and everywhere else.  The bats Lorcan had infested tried to bite him but he avoided it.  The bats Bandit had kicked bit Lorcan, who told them "Get off me!"  The bats on Maghris missed.

• Nāhōkū kicked out again, but missed.  Maghris swung his quarterstaff again, knocking out more bats; there were only three left, fluttering about his head.
  • Maghris called down to Manu, "Hey, you doing alright in there?"  Manu was nigh incoherent:  "Little bats! Shit! Fuck everything, ok?  One is in my pants!"
• Lorcan again cast infestation on the same swarm as before, and it moved away.  Bandit kicked the other swarm, then pivoted around it, away from the first swarm.
• Manu upcast magic missile, sending two darts at the bats on Nāhōkū and two at the swarm on himself.  The darts looked like little glowing feywild shards, taking a crazy spiraling path on their way to the target.  The swarm on Nāhōkū was no more.  The swarm on Manu was mostly gone…
  • The wild magic came from Manu this time, not the feywild shard, and a fog cloud sprang forth centered on him.
  • Happy, Manu cried out, "The feywild is so cool you guys!"

The infested bats, with the 60' flying speed, easily caught up with Lorcan again, but failed to bite him.  The bats Bandit kept kicking did bite him though.  Manu got a surprise when the bat still caught in his pants bit him, which the others only knew by swearwords floating out of the fog cloud.

• Maghris flew Nāhōkū down to Lorcan and the pegasus joined Bandit in kicking bats.  Maghris' swing went wide though.
• Lorcan kept casting infestation, which hit the bat swarm but did not move them away.  Bandit kicked more bats out of the other swarm, screaming again.
• Manu exclaimed, "I am tired of this swarm!"  He cast chill touch on the bat in his pants.  The skeletal hand grabbed the bat, crunched it, and pulled it out of his pants.
  • Lorcan heard the crunch and called into the fog, "Are you faring well, Manu?"
  • Manu was not sure if there were other bats left and was batting blindly at the air around him.  "Get off me!  Bats!  Stupid bats!"

The bats Bandit had been kicking tried to bite Lorcan and missed.  The bats Lorcan had been infesting zoomed away, through the fog, and hid in the tree.

• Maghris still saw the swarm on Lorcan, and tried to hit it, but missed, and Nāhōkū kicked it, and missed.
  • Maghris moved Nāhōkū so his wing strokes would help clear the fog cloud.
• Bandit kicked at the swarm again, and missed.  Lorcan cast infestation on these bats now, and they moved away from the bitey insects, so Bandit flew away to the edge of the ravine, out of the dissipating fog.

Manu stepped to the ledge and cast magic missile again, knocking out the rest of the remaining swarm before it decided to attack Nāhōkū.

Manu felt pretty bad.  "Sorry bats, did not mean to wake you up and then kill you all!"  Maghris said, "Need a more efficient way of killing bats."

Manu looked at him sharply.  "I really do feel bad," he reiterated, "First the grblins kick them out, then we kill the grblins, then they come back, and we scream at them and kill them.  We should make a bat house next time, so they can live undisturbed.

"I still want to look for wizard's shit," he continued, "That was a lie, but feels real to me."

Maghris had better things to do than pretend Manu's lie was real.  He flew down into the ravine, looking for the remains of Mr Zircon.  The parts were all over the place; he found the heart, which was the most important.  He also found a slightly rusted key, with a question mark at the top.  A mystery key!  He pocketed it.

Bandit landed on the ledge, and Lorcan hopped off to look in the cave.  Manu pointed out the places to look, but really all Lorcan found was bat guano.  Lots of bat guano, smelled horrible, no evidence of grblins.

Lorcan:  this is frustrating, what is hunting all those animals?
<Maghris landed on the ledge as Lorcan was talking.>
Maghris:  maybe another cave.
Manu:  still, if grblins were away, they might have returned, so good to confirm they did not.  We know there's another cave; let's check by flying past, so we can report back.
Maghris:  agree

The fog cloud had cleared, and it was Daystar zenith, so they flew to the other location, which took most of the afternoon, and checked from above for signs of use.  Neither Lorcan nor Maghris saw a lot, but Manu noticed some signs of use.  At that the Freelancers decided to fly away from a bit, and camp away from both locations.

After some looking, they found a nice sheltered place that had a windbreak and also some grazing, which made Bandit and Nāhōkū happy.  They took long watches, although to be honest Manu wasn't really watching for anything.

As they broke camp, they discussed what they saw.

Maghris:  I saw something far away… maybe it's a breeze.
Lorcan:  I saw a giant bat.
Manu:  I don't think a bat house.
Lorcan:  the grblins will have that taken care of.
Manu:  but giant bats!  The little bats tried to eat us, so big bats might go for game!
Maghris:  they were mad at you
Manu:  they attacked you
Maghris:  they rightly concluded we were with you
Manu:  even so the giant bats would eat the game!  <pause>  then again, the grblins could be riding
Lorcan:  that's what I think
Manu:  but if they do that, they would firebomb the villages!  Should we warn them?  Is that irresponsible?

Before the Freelancers packed up to return to Marshfork, Maghris took the heart of the homunculus, and revived Mr Zircon.

Once in Marshfork, they reported their findings to the Mayor, who was happy with the news about the closer cave, but not happy at all to hear about signs of use in the farther cave.  That said, he realized the Freelancers had done extra, and paid 150gp each instead of 100gp each.  

The Freelancers were too far away from Cliffshadow to get back in time for the Holiday of The Cat, but spent the holiday in Cliffgate, joining other travellers in revelry at The Sleepy Dog Inn.

• Maghris → lvl 3 alchemist!