Securing the Lower End of the Tunnels

Tuala, the nekomata, looked even more tired than usual.  Not only had he been making use of the unusually clear nights to observe the trojans that ran ahead of Skyway, he'd been spending spare cycles grilling the Freelancers who'd just arrived from Cliffshadow about what they'd seen on their holiday jaunt to the southern sky, and whether they'd taken notes.

He'd been talking to Nix about it, when Naranjos, the halfling deputy leader of the Freelancers, joined their breakfast table.  He started fielding questions from Nix about Ripa Daneo and Commerce in between bites of a rather large meal.  Nix still had some, and Naranjos' take on what was interesting took a more practical bent.  He'd noticed the wyvern.

"Once a prime," he told her and the others at the table, "on Petraag, there's a mount market not far from the mercenary pavilions."  That was news to all the Freelancers who'd transferred from Cliffshadow, and some of them were displeased to be hearing it the day after it happened.

Anyhow, another one of Nix's questions was the nature of missions that Freelancers would get at Ripa Daneo.  Nobody wanted to tell her "party bouncers for the well-heeled," of course, and the right answer was "why don't we just ask Damakaios what's available?"  Dryali, Hikawera, and Ana were nearby; and after exchanging a look, they followed the pair up to Damakaios' office.

In front of Damakaios' office was a trophy room, with a rather long fireplace.  Various items, captured, slain, or acquired, were on display; incongruously, in a corner next to Damakaios' open door, was a scale model of Cliffshadow Freelancers Tavern.  Nix paused and frowned slightly, as she realized what it was.

The others went into his office ahead of her, so she got to see them all take seats.  Nix noticed the chairs matched in style with each other and the desk.  Damakaios, a Pungarehu hanyou in impeccable black leathers, was at the desk watching the group closely.

Hikawera, the rotund Fire sagani bard of dwarvish extraction, sat in a comfy chair to the left of the door.
Tuala, the nekomata, sat dead center in an appropriate-sized chair.
Ana, the Maker gnome in nice clothes and sporting a monocle, also sat in an appropriate-sized chair.  Mindful of Nix watching, she strove for dignity in order to impress.
Dryali, the Dark elf not much taller than a dwarf, sprawled across a chair in the darkest part of the room, wishing he had a glass of port.

Nix, impressed with their confidence, the matching chairs, and Ana's dignity, just sat next to Ana, not sure what to expect, as this was certainly a bit more formal than anything with Arnari in Cliffshadow.

Damakaios opened a rather thin document drawer in the desk and then reached deep within to pull out 5 neat sheaves of paper, and set them in the middle of the desk in front of him in two stacks.  He took the first stack and separated the papers.

"House Hadid," he informed Nix, "is involved in textiles, and magic item creation.  They want two magic reactants:  phase spider venom and silk, and troll blood and teeth."

"These are giant spiders," Dryali said, "with a nasty bite, which phase in and out, so not like the kittens" the cheshire kits remained in the stables "but phase in and out of places."

Damakaios continued, "The reward is based on how much you bring back."  He set the papers aside and took up the other stack.

Third mission – part FIVE of the Amabel Villa.  Ana, Cathance, and Quelenna went to check out the balcony; they found nice magic items, but also spectres.

Fourth mission – House Teontra, renowned animal trainers, have one stable not usable, and they are not happy about it.  None of the animals will go anywhere near it.  There is a faint sound of laughter… 250gp/person.  Go to the stable, destroy what is the problem, not the stable itself.

Dryali mused, "This seems like an ideal thing to get Nix cheaper wyvern training."  Damakaios raised an eyebrow and retorted, "if you are foregoing the mission pay!"

Dryali shrugged.  "Who knows?  People like favours."

Damakaios let that comment go, and continued.

Last mission – <to Nix> so there's a tunnel to go from south of the cities to get to the crater.  <to everyone>  At the base of the Tunnel, there's travelers getting attacked.

Hikawera:  again?!
Damakaios:  these are not the caravans, but people wandering away
Ana <polished monocle, then put back in eye>:  prefer spooky or tunnels
Dryali:  which spooky?  Amabel, or mysterious laughter?
Tuala:  trolls are interesting.  Spooky, not so much.  Would also be fine with tunnels.
Dryali:  tunnels or barn
Hikawera:  also thinking tunnels or barn
Nix <politely>:  I'm too new here to have a preference
Hikawera:  sounds like tunnels

Damakaios put all but one of the papers away, then flipped through those.

Damakaios:  you should probably approach from the crater
Hikawera:  seems like a solid idea to me
Dryali:  how we getting there?
Hikawera:  we can ride double those who do not have trained mounts.

Before the Freelancers left his office, Damakaios handed them a paper with Stathou Ragovir's seal on it, asserting they were operating under the orders of the Vathia Estia Tunnel Authority.

The Freelancers went to the pegasus wing of the stables.  Ana's pegasus, Pelorus, was pony-sized, so nobody was double-riding there.  So Dryali rode behind Hikawera on Allegro, and Tuala rode behind Nix on Snowbolt.  Mercury curled up on Tuala's legs, happy.

The courser pegasi were fast, and unburdened by goods or cartage, they flew north over the rim then west and down to the crater floor, and arrived at the tunnel base in early afternoon.  There wasn't really a town there, so much as a travel hub for caravans:  a feed store for beasts of burden, and no less than five inns to offer what would appear as luxury to someone emerging from days carting goods in the dark underground.  

• Traveler's Rest seemed like a normal inn, except mixed in with the Trading peoples were some Commonweal folks, mostly komodos.
• Worst Bestern was very bare bones, and seemed to be frequented by rougher types.
• The Fluffy Flaxseed's innkeeper was a charming little old halfling lady.  Most rooms were sized for smaller clientele:  halflings & gnomes, and kobolds.  Dinner there was often pies:  shepherd's pie, etc.
• The Smith's Hammer also had a supply shop, and offered rooms and baths that could be for a portion of the day, if need be.  The food was barely better than rations.
• Provocative Pond did, indeed, have a pond nearby on its grounds, and seemed more for Commonweal peoples, except a few Trading folks were mixed in, mostly humans.  Around the pond the rocks were subtly shaped like reptilian dicks, but mammalian people didn't generally notice that.

Hikawera, Dryali, and Nix took rooms at Traveler's Rest.  Ana took a room at The Fluffy Flaxseed; Tuala did also, after getting assurances from the innkeeper he would fit.  The nekomata felt squeezed by the room and bed; but the pie was worth it.  The room & board was 8sp/night, and mount stabling was 5sp/night.

Once the rooms were sorted, the Freelancers hit the taverns.  In Traveler's Rest, Dryali and Hikawera were delighted to discover they served wine from Hasapis vineyards, and Dryali told the bard about the mission there where Tuala had died and had to be revivified.  Nix kept an ear bent to other conversations, and overheard rumours about people wandering east in the tunnel and not returning.

In The Fluffy Flaxseed, Tuala and Ana enjoyed their pie and were surrounded by far more talkative travelers.  There were problems with a certain set of caves to the right as one would head in, half a day's travel in.  Some "weird creature in the shadow" was the problem.  They tried to talk to people about it but it was very hard to get information.  The best they could understand was things in the dark would grab you and hurt you.

Tuala asked if these things would then recoil from light, but others said it was hard to tell.

The next morning, the Freelancers paid the innkeepers to keep the pegasi stabled, and headed towards the tunnel entrances.

The tunnel entrances appeared to be chaos, with people and caravans fanning out for a good quarter-mile.  Dvergar guards, squinting in the light of the Daystar, were taking payment and letting them in, so by the time anyone entered the tunnel they were organized into a moving line.

When the Freelancers made it up to the guards, Hikawera showed the paper with Stathu Ragovir's seal.  "Yeah, yeah, Freelancers, make it dead," they said and waved the group through.  Before long, the group was plunged into darkness, walking between two caravans.  Dryali took off his eyes of the eagle, and rubbed his eyes.  Some of his edginess diminished.

The tunnel route was marked by a series of lanterns on the wall lit by continual flame.  The lights did not overlap as their purpose was more for navigation.  The carters in the caravans had lanterns affixed to the end of long poles in the carts, the shadows dancing as the lanterns swayed.

Nix hung a lantern on the end of her broom of flying, and cast light on the tip of her pointed hat.  Ana cast light on her wineskin, and used mage hand to keep it aloft, its diffuse glow reducing the sharpness of the shadows.

About half a day in, they were near the caves Tuala and Ana had heard about.  Dryali took the dark lenses out of his eyes of the eagle and put the goggles back on, and the Freelancers wandered off the marked path, without making any attempt to be quiet about it.

Nix was on her broom of flying up near the ceiling, and Hikawera, who was in front, was heads down trying to discern a path, when the Freelancers entered a large-ish cavern, cluttered with rock formations, stalactites, stalagmites.  Mercury warned Nix something was there, and Dryali and Ana, who were behind Tuala, warned the others.

Small misshapen … humans?  Children?  Halflings?  Emerged from behind some of the stalagmites, along with two adult-sized humanoids.  The adult-sized humanoids were not right; watching them move, it appeared their limbs had extra joints.  One was black and one was red.  <Narrator voice:  the little creatures are grue, the larger ones shinobi; the Freelancers do not know that yet, but I really need nouns and not descriptions for what's next.>

The Freelancers had been somewhat cocky on their jaunt, but the black shinobi put an end to that.  It walked up to Hikawera and slashed the Fire sagani 5 times with its oddly-jointed arms.  Each slash applied pressure to a suddenly intolerable headache as well.  Hikawera used cutting words to reduce the efficacy of one of these strikes, but in the end he crumpled unconscious to the cavern floor.  The shinobi then moved to (unsuccessfully) hide behind a stalagmite.

• The red shinobi walked between Tuala and Ana.  For a split second it hesitated, then it slashed Tuala 3 times.  Its slashes were more vicious and Tuala crumbled.  It backed into the darkness and hid.
• Two grues approached Dryali, and he felt tingly, as if he was drunk.  They attacked him and he blocked it with his shield.
• Two other grues approached Ana, and she also felt tingly.  They attacked her and she cast shield, not wishing to experience the nature of their attacks.
• Another grue moved under Nix, but could not reach.
• Dryali cast an uplevel'd thunderwave, the boom echoing throughout the cavern and the thunder pushing the badly-injured grue (as well as the red shinobi behind them) away from him.  Then he moved up next to the prone Hikawera.
• Ana cast a twice-uplevel'd thunderwave, sculpting it not to catch the unconscious Tuala, and it blew apart the grue that had attacked her as well as the one under Nix.  The boom built on the one already echoing as Ana moved away towards another cavern entrance.
• Nix landed next to Tuala and cast an uplevel'd cure wounds on the unconscious nekomata, healing the headache and some of the slashes, and waking him up.

The red shinobi ran to Nix, slashing twice with its strange arms.  A silvery dragonwing blocked the first slash, but the second one got through.  Then it withdrew, hiding in the dark of the cavern.

• The black shinobi emerged from its hiding place and slashed 3 times at Dryali, who cast shield.  Its final attack got through, slashing the Dark elf.  Then it too hid.

• Tuala was awake, prone on the floor.  He shook off whatever was on him, and suddenly little skyliths and thalassae danced around above him; then a fireball formed behind the remaining grue, which were fried to a crisp.  The whoosh-roar of the fireball combined with the dismayed screech of a hidden shinobi caught within.
  • Tuala leapt to his feet, no doubt more gracefully in his head than in reality, and scurried towards Ana and away from the screech.
• Dryali contemplated the unconscious Hikawera, and the three injured Freelancers.  He created a protector eldritch cannon, placing it to bolster himself, Nix, Tuala, and Mercury.
• Ana couldn't see either shinobi.  She moved closer to Tuala, ready to cast firebolt when one appeared.
• Nix moved next to Dryali, and readied a cast of cure wounds through Mercury the next time the winged cat touched someone. 
• Mercury hopped over to Hikawera and booped the prone bard on the nose.  Hikawera's eyes flew open to see a black cat in his face.  "I live!" he exclaimed.

The red shinobi emerged from its hiding place next to Tuala and slashed him.  Ana shot it with a firebolt, and Tuala popped shield to block its followup slash.  It did not try to hide, but stood there flexing its claws at the nekomata, who flexed his own claws back.

• The black shinobi popped out of hiding next to Dryali and Nix, and slashed at the Dark elf with its many-jointed arms.  Dryali's hastily-raised targe blocked both slashes.
  • Dryali drew his rapier and stabbed it.
  • Nix used her whip and slashed it!  She was pleased the lessons were paying off.
  • The black shinobi tried to hide, but Hikawera, still prone, used cutting words to distract it; so Dryali and Nix still saw the creature.
• Tuala, still flexing his claws at the red shinobi, cast another fireball behind it, and it screeched in pain and dismay as it was burned.
  • Tuala wasn't done, and used his sorcerous powers to quicken an uplevel'd magic missile at the creature.  The force darts hit sequentially and on the fourth strike, the red shinobi died, collapsing kind of inward, into an oddly-shaped pile of limbs.
  • Then he fled to the entrance he'd been heading to in the first place, to the right of where the Freelancers had come in.
• Meanwhile, Dryali had noticed Hikawera using cutting words.  He looked at the prone Fire sagani and told him, "Get up, lazybones."  Hikawera grimace and with a "Yeah, yeah," stood up.
  • Hikawera cast bane on the black shinobi, to no avail.
  • His vociferous swearing at this result granted Dryali bardic inspiration.
• Dryali's protector cannon bolstered himself, Mercury, Nix, and Hikawera this time.
  • Then Dryali cast shatter, centered above the black shinobi so that stalactites and ceiling rocks would come down on it.  The creature adroitly avoided most of the damage.
• Ana cast a twice uplevel'd chromatic orb, which settled on thunder before it sailed over the black shinobi's head to strike the wall behind it with a muffled boom.  The creature ignored it to stare at Nix, whetting its claws.
• Nix also cast a twice uplevel'd chromatic orb, which settled on cold as she critfailed and it slammed into the same place on the wall, ice crystals tinkling down.  Watching this, Hikawera's swearing intensified.

The black shinobi promptly attacked Nix, its claws slashing way too many times to see.  Nix popped shield and even then one of the slashes made it through.  The creature withdrew to hide, but Hikawera used cutting words again:  "Dryali, look at that thing try to hide," and Nix and Dryali both saw its claws sticking out on either side of a stalagmite.

• Tuala could see it too, and cast another fireball.  For a third time, the whoosh-roar of the fireball combined with the dismayed screech of a shinobi caught within it.
  • Again the nekomata used his sorcerous powers to quicken an uplevel'd magic missile at the creature, but while its screeched indicated it was hurt, it did not collapse like the red shinobi did.
• It was Hikawera's turn to cast shatter, centered above the black shinobi so that stalactites and ceiling rocks would come down on it. 
  • The Fire sagani backed up to the other side of Tuala, then cast healing word on the frail sorcerer:  "Don't fucking die."
• Dryali's protector cannon bolstered himself, Mercury, and Nix; then Dryali sent a firebolt at the black shinobi.  Despite the bardic inspiration, he missed.
• Ana cast an uplevel'd shatter on the black shinobi.  That was too much, and it crumpled into a second oddly-shaped pile of limbs.

The creatures dispatched, the Freelancers decided they should check around this cavern and the surrounding ones for either more creatures, or some sign of the missing people.  Since there was no rush, they spent a couple hours climbing around the caverns.

The results were grim; while no remains were found, the Freelancers found crap from the slain creatures that had obviously been people who were eaten.  The creatures apparently didn't care about clothing or pockets, and the crap had 195gp in coins mixed in with it.

They also found objects of various interest and worth:

• Statuette made of bone
• Dented silver ewer
• Copper plate with nice detailing
• Small mirror, set in a painted wooden frame
• Brown velvet mask with gold and copper stitching
• ring of water walking
• adamantine chain mail
• slippers of spider climbing

Satisfied they'd eliminated the creatures killing travelers, the Freelancers then returned to the south tunnel entrance.  They emerged after dark, but were still able to get rooms at the same inns (which is when the magic items were actually identified).

The next day they returned to Freelancers Tavern.  Tuala wanted the ring of water walking, but none of them could really use the chain mail or the slippers of spider climbing.  So they talked to Damakaios and Naranjos about selling them to Freelancers to have them on hand for someone to use.  To their surprise Freelancers were willing to pay 800 plat for them, and advised Tuala the ring was worth 1500gp.  So he paid everyone else out of his share and still came out with 40 plat.

• Hikawera → lvl 6!