Raid Grblin Warcamp

The day after Periastron, a group had returned from Marshfork, having confirmed a cave to the north of it had grblins.  Dominic had acquired a dire wolf of his own from a pair of them which had pursued the group too zealously.  It had been a long travel with all the extra effort to manage the dire wolf and they are all tired.

Except for Maghris.  The fluffy nekomata had been an animal trainer in his past life, and he'd found the trip back energizing.  The next morning at breakfast he managed to persuade a different handful of Freelancers to seek more adventure with him, and thus Manu, Mia, Murai, Ka, and Lorcan found themselves in Arnari's office staring at all the knickknacks and instruments on her shelves, and the piles of papers on her desk, and wondering if she even know how to find anything in her own office.

Arnari's chairs were a collection of whatever she could find at a discount, clearly.

Mia grabbed the chair with the nicest pillow.
Manu sat in the peacock chair in the back, the hanyou smiling in pleasure at how the chair framed his horns.
Maghris picked the chair that could accommodate his fluffy nekomata tails.
Lorcan was front and center, the Pastoral gnome clearly giving Arnari his full and polite attention.
Murai sat in the light from the window, and idly started playing with the reflections from their ridiculously bejeweled holy symbol.
Ka sat in the front row of chairs, on a chair that was very spare.

Arnari looked the group over, then started pulling papers from various stacks on her desk.  Manu, watching her, started using prestidigitation as a fidget-toy.

Murai was actually using the reflections to draw little magpies on the wall behind Arnari, but only Lorcan and Maghris noticed.  Maghris' tails started lashing at the reflections moving across the wall.  Lorcan cast a side-eye at the paladin, but they were intent on what they were doing.  Lorcan cast a minor illusion of the Magpie itself, concealing his action via sleight of hand.  Taken aback, Murai scrabbled in their belt pouch for gems and held them out in supplication.

The gems were cheap, maybe worth 5gp each.  Lorcan dismissed the illusion and Murai reacted with alarm; but they stopped playing with the pendant.

By this time Arnari had her papers.  She started with the most dog-eared.

• Pollution – check out the Pirate's Dream river or the lake, see what's up.  I don't know if Gwidion restarted pollution or if the land is permanently tainted; both ideas worry me.
• Next 2 – eggs.  Hippogryph to south, possibly below your pay grade, but if someone needs a mount… Gryphon eggs in the mountains, north of Three Rivers.  Oh, I forgot pay.  Hippogryph is 100gp/egg, or a trained gelding if you have 10 eggs  Gryphons are 150gp/egg, or a trained mount if you have 12 eggs.
• 4th mission – go back to that cave and make it… not occupied.  Freelancers have been to that cave.  This will pay 200gp/person because the Mayor of Marshfork does not know how numerous the grblins are.
• 5th mission – track down Klepperish' boss, a guy named Siddi.  Wymar's buddy Amar disappeared and when Freelancers tracked down, they found a press gang who had sold to Hindmarsh.  When Wymar interrogated, he found out about this guy's boss, and now wants more info.

Arnari stopped, and looked at them all expectantly.  She never knew which mission they would pick.

Maghris:  most interested in grblins, because I was part of the start.
Mia:  most interested in grblins, more investigation is not my forte
Manu:  is there anything in that cave we don't want to kill?
Arnari:  we don't know of anyone captured from Marshfork, but there were giant bats spotted, you might want to capture it.
Manu:  you know we might want to do due diligence, but fire is going to take care of cave.
Mia <sagely>:  fire solves all problems.  Or, shatter.
Manu:  shatter in cave is also good.
Murai:  more interested in press gang, because pirating is a storied profession that should be taken up voluntarily.  <abruptly stopped>  not that I know.
Arnari:  Lorcan and Ka.
Ka:  I'm partial to Pirates Dream river because of Ohenui, but I'm game to murder some goblins.
Lorcan <hesitated>:  this is the first I've heard of this Klepperish fellow.  I'm game for not-eggs; the Hindmarsh connection has my interest.
Arnari <spoke over Manu>:  I lost track.
Lorcan:  Manu just commented.
Manu:  grblins

So, grblins it would be; the group filed out of Arnari's office to the barracks, to prep for travel and be on their way.

Travel westward was uneventful, if a bit uncomfortable as the occasional squall blew through.  The Freelancers stayed in The Hippogryph's Wing in Cliffgate and The Ragged Dragon in Three Rivers.  Once in Marshfork they took rooms at The Cantankerous Goose, and then headed to the tavern.

Maghris <nudged Manu>:  this is where we started that rumour
Manu:  oh, yeah.  Has it changed, then?
Maghris:  not really?
<Mia stepped between them and hooked an arm around each.>
Mia:  what the fuck are you two talking about?
Maghris:  he started it!
Mia:  throw him over the chariot.
Manu:  I been trying to see how rumours spread?
Mia:  you want rumours that are salacious.
Manu:  want to see if we still get the good quests!
Mia:  won't that get us fewer quests?
Manu:  I was an orphan!
Mia <shook her head>:  you two are going to be fun, drunk

The Freelancers stayed in the tavern relatively late, the bard's playing was pretty good.  But, neither Manu nor Lorcan drank; they managed to deceive the others into thinking they did.  Murai sipped a beer + polinka, but Maghris, Ka, and Mia were pretty toasted by the end of the evening, especially Maghris.  

The rumour had changed; it had forked.  The first fork was that Freelancers were genuinely kidnapping children.  The second one was the Freelancers had established a real orphanage for wayward children.

More amused than alarmed, the Freelancers took to their rooms to get a good night's sleep.  The next morning, Maghris was nursing a hangover as the group paid a visit to the Mayor, Casimir Lightforger.

Mia:  hearing rumours of kids
Casimir:  no kids; nobody's missing.  Did see giant bats!
Lorcan:  but, has anyone been attacked?
Casimir:  no, just spotted.
Manu:  just giant bats?  Not with saddle and rider, right?
Casimir:  hard to tell; been spotted at dusk.
Maghris:  last time, we did not see grblins on bats.
Murai:  how far?  [time wise]
<someone said 3 days' north.>
Maghris:  we need a plan of attack.
Lorcan <reasonably>:  we don't know what's there.
Murai:  is anyone sneaky?
<pause>
Lorcan:  I'm somewhat sneaky.
Mia:  no
Murai:  I'm not.
Maghris:  I'm sneaky, if there's no brambles.
<Lorcan, who's seen Maghris caterwauling at being stuck in brambles, gave him a side-eye.>

The Freelancers took their leave of the Mayor, and picked up enough supplies (rations, feed for mounts, etc) and headed north.  Lorcan bought a pair of alchemist's fire, anticipating these would be needed, if they were to use fire to take care of the cave.

The Freelancers were moving off-road, but mounted; Maghris rode pillion behind Murai on Dudley, their dire corgi.  Mia led the way; despite her sophisticated dress and experience with Sullimany nobility, she was surprisingly good in the woods.  She found a good place to camp for the first night, and the Freelancers paired up on watch.

Maghris & Murai took the first watch.  They noticed an owl eating a rodent.

Lorcan & Ka took the second watch.  It was the most peaceful watch ever, and Lorcan busied himself with herbs and chemicals for part of it.

Mia & Manu took the last watch.  Manu heard lapping in the nearby river, and another owl catching something.  Mia heard a howl in the far distance, and thought about Dominic's dire wolf.  She told Manu.

Manu:  oh!  Dire wolf!  Well?  If we have doggie treats, that will be helpful!
<Murai woke up at this exclamation.>
Mia:  we have the bears.
Manu:  bear food might be a good proxy!
Murai:  I have actual dog food.
Manu:  I dunno, <gestured deprecatingly> corgi, that might be pretentious.

The next day, Mia again took point, and Maghris rode pillion on Ursula, her winged bear, unhappy at all the dog fur that had gotten mixed up with his own the prior day.  The Freelancers took care to be less obvious, which was good because Lorcan and Mia spotted 5 giant elk wandering together through the trees.  They made Murai and Dudley turn aside, and gave the giant elk a wide berth.

Their camping spot was less ideal than the prior night, but they kept with their watch schedules.

Maghris & Murai took first watch.  Maghris paid more attention to combing the dog fur out of his tails than anything else, but Murai heard bats.  They weren't sure if they heard big, far-away bats, or small & close, so they lit a bullseye lantern.  The bats took off, and Murai concluded:  small & close.  They mentioned this to Lorcan & Ka.

Lorcan & Ka were sure there were big bats far away; they could see the bats.

Mia & Manu tok last watch, but didn't see much; the two were getting to know each other better.  Manu had some visceral grasp of his abilities; as a street urchin he'd often fight for bread, and then magic would explode out of him.  The niceties of polite society were alien to him, and Mia, who hailed from polite society, also found the "bullshit polite culture of nobles" to be nonsensical.

The next morning the Freelancers tried to make some sort of plan for their arrival at the cave.  Lorcan suggested that since there were giant bats, set fire to the bat guano, then ambush the grblins exiting the cave.

Murai:  yes; scout first
Mia:  yes
Manu:  Manu seal of approval! <looked at hand>  Remind me to buy a signet ring!
Murai:  need to check if any prisoners there first
Manu:  we can use invisibility.  But not on me
Lorcan:  I can do it; but bats have echolocation, and wolves can smell.
Mia:  I would be more comfortable if we ascertain there are no innocents.

At this the Freelancers headed north, still discussing what to do.  They didn't, actually, know there were bats in there, nor exactly where to go, other than Maghris.  But speaking of Maghris, they were about halfway there when they realized his homunculus, Mr Zircon, could set the fire, if there was kindling already emplaced, which Lorcan could do whilst invisible.  At this, Lorcan gave Maghris an alchemist's fire to use.  After all, Maghris was an alchemist.

It took until early afternoon to arrive at the cave.  The Freelancers did their best to be stealthy, but the only two who succeeded were Lorcan, on whom Manu had cast invisibility, and Manu, who was 40' up on Nāhōkū.  The others arrayed themselves in too-obvious a way flanking the cave entrance, Ka in Ohenui a little above the ground.

WIth this tableau set, invisible Lorcan, laden with a faggot of relatively damp sticks that would smoke when lit, snuck into the cave.  He saw to his left, giant bats in the ceiling, which appeared to be asleep.  There were big piles of disgusting bat guano under them.  Beyond them, he saw 3 grblins, and a lit campfire.  They were chattering.

Lorcan moved, quietly, 15' along the right-hand wall, and saw two dire wolves; one was awake, the other chasing rabbits as it slept.  He moved another 5', and determined there were no other wolves, and a grblin was petting the awake dire wolf.

Lorcan quietly, sent message to Manu.  "Saw 4 grblins, 2 dire wolves, 2 giant bats, and a lot of batshit."  Manu asked, "did you see any prisoners?"  Lorcan messaged back, "No, but did not see it all."

There was a pause, as Manu relayed this to the others, and Maghris asked, "What about the back corner?"  Manu relayed this and Lorcan replied, "Not possible."

"Gonna set it up," Manu messaged Lorcan, and the invisible rogue snuck over to the sleeping bats and put the sticks, that would light up and smoke.  He then snuck, out, stayed sneaking, and mounted Bandit.

Maghris sent in Mr Zircon, with the alchemist's fire, with orders to "go set that thing on fire" where that thing was a mental image of a big pile of bat guano.  The waiting Freelancers all watched as Mr Zircon floated into the cave, full of bravery and purpose.  Then they heard clanging noises, abruptly ending in a thump, a large, leathery sound, then whoosh!  <Narrator voice:  Justin rolled a nat 1 for Mr Zircon.>

Lorcan, still invisible on Bandit's back, flew up about 25' next to the entrance, and carefully applied a potent poison to three blowgun needles.  Loading one up, he waited for the first thing to emerge from the cave entrance.

• Mia and Ursula mirrored Lorcan's move, so they were flanking the entrance.  She loosened a javelin, ready to throw it.
• Ka and Ohenui moved next to and under Mia, drawing his black rapier, ready to pierce anyone who exited.
• Maghris moved behind Dudley, who was standing back from the entrance a ways.  He loaded a bolt on his light crossbow, and waited.
• Manu and Nāhōkū swooped into the cave at top speed, the hanyou looking wildly for any alchemist fire burning on the ground.  Seeing nothing, he used prestidigitation to set alight the brush Lorcan had put, then fled back out the entrance.
• Murai, to Lorcan's horror, boldly rode Dudley right into the cave entrance, boat hook to hand.

In the cave, the dire wolves were both awake and had riders.

• The grblin on the white wolf shot two arrows with a short bow at Murai, hitting them with one.
• The brown wolf's rider also shot two arrows, both of which missed.
• Two other grblins were near the fire in the back, and they each shot an arrow at Murai and missed.
• Lorcan, seeing the arrows flying out of the cave, and his planned satisfying ambush rapidly getting ruined, hissed at Murai, "Get out of the door!"
• Two large snakes dropped from the ceiling onto Murai and Dudley, and immediately attacked.  The snake attacking Murai missed, but the snake attacking Dudley wrapped around the dire corgi, restraining him and wounding him badly.
  • At the sight of a snake on Dudley, some Freelancers attacked.  Mia hit the snake with her javelin; Maghris with a crossbow bolt, and Murai, of course, with their boat hook.

Lorcan, aghast that a sign from The Snake had appeared to show the god's displeasure with the fucked up ambush, did not attack the snakes.  Instead he cast mage hand, which itself was invisible although he himself became visible, and used it to feed the dire corgi a healing potion.

• Mia flew into a rage, and the nearby air shimmered with the presence of her ancestors.  She had Ursula fly down to the entrance of the cave, and struck the snake on Dudley with her longsword.  The air shimmered again with her ancestors' approval.
  • Ursula also did not like the snake; she bit it and slashed it with her claws.
• Ka flew in on Ohenui and stabbed at the snake with his black rapier, but it did nothing but scratch off some scales.  He drew a normal rapier with his offhand, piercing it.
  • Ohenui bit the snake, shaking it, and it died; Ohenui shook it right off Dudley.  Then the bear pivoted to slash the other snake with his claws.
• Maghris, caterwauling about having Mr Zircon destroyed again, shot the remaining snake with another bolt from his light crossbow.
• Manu yelled, "Get the hell out of the entrance, you guys!  They are supposed to come OUT!"  He cast mind whip on the snake, which suddenly had a headache.
• Murai told Dudley to bite the other snake, so Dudley pivoted, bit the snake, and flipped it on its back.  Then they struck it with their boat hook.  They made no move to get out of the entrance.

In the cave, Manu's fire was spreading, and so was the uniquely horrible smell of burning bat guano.

• A grblin on a giant bat flew out the entrance over Murai's head and beelined for Manu, slicing the hanyou with her scimitar.  Manu responded with hellish rebuke, which incinerated the grblin from the inside out, leaving a charred corpse tied into the giant bat's saddle. 

• A second grblin on a giant bat flew out and beelined for Lorcan, who was not ready for that.  He slashed Lorcan with his scimitar, then tried again and missed.
• The grblin on the brown dire wolf shot at Ka twice, missing the first time and hitting the second.
  • The brown dire wolf jumped over the snake and tried to bite Mia, but couldn't manage it.
• The grblin on the white dire wolf shot Ka twice.
  • The white dire wolf almost fell trying to jump over the snake
• The other two grblins dashed to the side of the cave without the fire.

Lorcan, unpleased to be in melee with an opponent, cast infestation on the giant bat facing him.  The stinging insects distracted the bat, who moved away and down, and Bandit flew to the other side of Ursula.

• The bat with a charred corpse on it flew east, aimlessly
• Mia and Ursula just jumped/flew over the brown dire wolf and the human slashed the snake with her longsword.
  • Ursula bit the snake right behind its head, killing it.  Still chewing, Ursula pivoted and crit the brown dire wolf with her claws.
• Ka struck the grblin on the white dire wolf, piercing him.
  • Ohenui reared up, biting and slashing, killing the grblin.  The flying bear roared, and the white dire wolf ruffled a little in fear.
• Maghris shot at the grblin flying on the giant bat, but the crossbow bolt went wide.  The nekomata backed away some.
• Manu used his sorcerous ability to twin cast mind whip at both the grblin on the brown dire wolf and the grblin on the giant bat, both of which had headaches, but the grblin on the brown dire wolf was much worse off.
  • The wild magic rebounded on Manu, casting confusion centered on himself, ensnaring both himself and Nāhōkū.
  • Realizing what could happen, Manu cried out "oh shit!  Oh shit!  Oh Shit!!!" and flew off, away from the fighting.  He just rolled off the pegasus flat onto the ground.
• Murai told Dudley to bite the grblin, but the grblin avoided it, already used to dire wolves and their bitey ways.  Perhaps surprised by his moves, Murai also missed with their boat hook.

There were still two unhappy grblins in the back of the cave.

• One ran up to the white dire wolf, removed their late compatriot quickly but gently, and mounted in his place.
• The other grblin backed up another 10', then shot Ka with an arrow from her short bow.
• The grblin on the brown dire wolf was still reeling from Manu's mind whip; but realizing the entrance was clear, had the dire wolf disengage and flee northwest.
• The grblin on the giant bat fled on his bat up and over the hill to the northwest.

Lorcan, unsure if they were going for reinforcements or back to a bigger concentration of grblins, chased the grblin on the giant bat on Bandit, who was much faster.  As he passed over the grblin on the brown dire wolf, he shot the grblin with a blowgun needle, but didn't stick around to see if he hit.

• The giant bat with the charred rider, confused and hurt, headed towards the cave.
• Mia chased after the grblin on the brown dire wolf and caught up to it.
  • Ursula bit the dire wolf and slashed the grblin with her claws, killing them and knocking them out of the saddle.
  • …but Mia whiffed the dire wolf with her longsword.
• Ka attacked the grblin newly mounted on the white dire wolf with his rapiers.  The black rapier sure misses a lot.  He pierced them with the offhand rapier.
  • Ohenui crit as the winged bear bit the grblin in the head, and it died.
  • Ohenui clawed at the white dire wolf, but it snarled and cowered under the swipe.
• Maghris pulled out a net and used it on the giant bat, which fell and hurt itself more.  He called up his animal training skills as he pulled out some food for it, making soothing noises.
• Off where nobody could see, Nāhōkū nuzzled Manu, wondering what was wrong.  Manu, completely confused, attacked Nāhōkū with his bare hands, which had no effect other than hurting the pegasus' feelings.
• Murai rode Dudley over to the remaining grblin, who had the short bow.  Dudley bit her hard, but did not knock her down.  Them Murai dispatched her with their boat hook.

The grblin on the giant bat continued to flee; he shot a couple of arrows back at Lorcan, one of which stuck in the Pastoral gnome.  Lorcan had Bandit back off, but continued to follow it.

Both dire wolves disengaged.  The brown one skulled off into the woods, and the white one retreated further into the cave.  Mia let the brown one go and returned to Murai and Ka.

Lorcan had taken off northwest, Manu and Nāhōkū were in a clearing to the north and slightly east completely confused, and Maghris was preoccupied with his netted giant bat.  The cave smelled like overcooked batshit, so of course Mia & Murai decided it was time to search it for anything interesting or shiny.  Maghris called out to them to look for the heart-shaped agate that was Mr Zircon's heart, but they possibly did not hear him.

Manu, in the clearing, was still on the ground, and scooted away from Nāhōkū to avoid hurting him more, wondering if the uncontrollable magic will emerge again to hurt the pegasus.  Confused Nāhōkū was rooted to the ground in terror, but looking over at him, Manu's distorted perception just saw a terrifying looming presence.  Manu started swiping at him from afar, until the same terror Nāhōkū was experiencing rooted him to the ground as well.

Then, just as quickly as it struck, the confusion drained away from both of them.  Manu went over to Nāhōkū and they leaned on each other a few moments, while out of sight of the others, then he mounted to return to the battle, and was pleasantly surprised nothing was left but cleanup.  He checked the grblin corpses briefly then headed into the cave.

Maghris cast cure wounds on the giant bat, which also looked burned from the inside.  He realized the bat had tried to eat Mr Zircon and instead ate the alchemist fire.  He gently freed the bat from the net, keeping hold of the halter, and gingerly removed the charred corpse from the saddle.  The giant bat, having the fluffy nekomata treat it gently, soothe the fire, and feed it something that didn't burn, was pretty pleased at this turn of events.

Ka had heard Maghris ask about Mr Zircon's heart.  He dismounted Ohenui and started checking the grblin corpses for valuables and anything else of interest.  Then, grimacing, he went into the cave where the fire of batshit and smoky kindling was finally burning out, and found a very sooty, heart-shaped agate, in the center of a burned-out circle of guano.

Lorcan kept chasing the grblin fleeing on the giant bat at (what was for Bandit) a leisurely pace.  He dropped to the treetops to be less obvious, but the grblin was beelining northwest and showed no sign of deviating or slowing down.  Keeping an eye on the time, Lorcan peeled off in time to make it back before dark.

In the cave, the Freelancers were figuring out that guano wasn't the only shit kicking around; grblins were apparently not terribly sanitary.  Murai and Mia quickly located a stash held by the grblins, with assorted coins and shiny gems which made Murai happy.  One gem in particular was an excessively large ruby, etched with runes.

Ka gathered the various arms and armour from the expired grblins, which was 5 scimitars and 5 shortbows grblin-sized, but in fairly good shape; 80 arrows in various quivers; 2 sets of leather armour in very bad shape, and 3 chain shirts.  Manu found a blowgun in excellent condition, enough to think it was magical; and Mia found a javelin in similarly good condition.  Some of the grblin's gear had a skull with a scimitar below it.

As they considered these discoveries, Murai spotted an amulet that glittered, and the Wind sagani was drawn to the shiny and had to pick it up.  It seemed to be in the shape of… it shimmered, in their hand, and obviously had always been a glittery magpie.  Their eyes widened as they realized they held an amulet of the devout.

The Freelancers gathered the found coin, gems, and other items, and withdrew from the noisome cave to the clearing where Manu and Nāhōkū had been.  They'd just finished setting up camp for the night when Lorcan returned.

The Freelancers kept watch overnight, but no grblins returned; the watch had no sounds of dire wolves or giant bats, beyond the one Maghris had netted.  The next morning, they examined the coin and gems in the light of day, and had 240gp in assorted coins, and 6 50gp gems: 2 Citrine, 1 Jasper, 1 Chrysoprase, 2 Star rose quartz.  After that, they headed toward Marshfork, and Maghris promised to identify the magic items, but on the way there the nekomata had his hands full with the giant bat, which he dubbed "Blaze".

The Mayor was pleased to learn the cave had been cleared, and even more pleased to find out there had been no captives, and paid the Freelancers 200gp each.  He was less pleased to find out the grblins had access to giant bats as mounts, and that one had fled.

Time passed as the Freelancers returned to Cliffshadow.  Maghris did identify the items, and Mia claimed the Lightning Javelin; nobody disputed that, having seen how she always seemed to fare well with javelins but poorly with the longsword she stubbornly insisted on using.  Ka already had a ruby of the war mage, and Manu was tempted by it, but with the confusion fresh in his mind, he thought having a melee weapon could result in his hurting Nāhōkū, so declined to take it.

The blowgun of warning sparked some discussion; Manu was definitely interested in having a weapon that warned, thinking of his experience growing up on the Cliffshadow streets.  However Lorcan was interested in having a magical blowgun, and Manu had been thinking of just blowing ball bearings out of it.  So in the end Lorcan took the item.

• Ka → lvl 4, cavalier fighter!