Pollution PLant PoNY Pond

The day after the Tumultuous Holiday, most of the Freelancers were content to just hang out in the tavern, let the storms rule the outside, and enjoy the relative mellowness after the prior day.  Timmy, however, was restless; Tim, newly come into wizardry after having worked a ranch his whole life, wanted to do something beyond checking the storm doors; and the firbolg Carmen actually preferred the outdoors.  They persuaded Kairos to come along, despite his pounding head.

So after breakfast, they waited a couple minutes for Arnari to settle in her office, then followed her there as soon as they heard the harp music drifting down the stairs.

Timmy immediately went to the bear rug in front of her desk and sat on it cross-legged, as if to meditate.  The Djogeon halfling made the rug look even bigger.
Tim sat in the first chair nearest the door.
Kairos gingerly sat in the comfiest-looking chair, as if sudden movement was bad.
Carmen also sat gingerly, but simply because he wasn't sure the chair he picked could hold his bulk.

Arnari didn't even really stop playing the harp, although she was more idly strumming phrases and chords.  "I don't have much for you today," she said, and it was plain she meant, safe enough for Carmen and Tim.

"You can go into the Haven Hills, and find hippogryph eggs," she continued, "House Aldous will pay 100gp/egg, or if you find 10 eggs, they will give you a mount.  If you find better eggs, they might pay you more.

"Lakeview or environs, do pollution cleanup.  So, Gwidion's tower is up the river, so the environs are tainted."  Arnari fell quiet, except for the harp, and looked at them expectantly.

Timmy:  Gwidion was a wizard and was cast out.  He's been doing a lot of experiments and dumping the failures out the window into the river.
Arnari:  he's kind of a hermit and the pollution has spread, and affected the people.
Carmen <slowly>:  not very down with raiding creatures' eggs.
Kairos:  always down for pollution cleanup, but Timmy, is this a 'get back at him' or are you sick of it?
Timmy:  it's really to stick it to him.  Damned wizard.
Tim:  sounds like this is the best chance for combat!

The four Freelancers made sure they had some rations and took off.  Given the weather, they decided to take the roads to Lakeview, listen to local gossip, and look from there.  It took 2 days to Cliffgate, where they stayed at The Hippogryph's Wing for 8sp/night (well, Kairos had his pegasus Catherine, which was 5sp for stabling), and then they pushed through the 3rd day to arrive at Lakeview the following evening, and get rooms at The Biting Badger Inn, which has a fantastic view of Lake Mossey.

Once they had rooms, the Freelancers descended to the taproom for dinner, drinks, and gossip.  The dinner was herb-stuffed tilapia, which occupied the attention of Carmen, Kairos, and Timmy.  Tim, however, didn't care about the fish, and was listening to the various conversations around them.  He heard a lot of people talk about "weirdness," as in, "O yea, I dunno if I saw something weird" or "Stay away from Pirates River" and "the wizard is still doing something."

After dinner, Carmen tried to ask other people about the local birds, but most local folks in the tavern were fishermen, and nobody could talk about anything special about birds.

By then it was late, and given their long day travelling, the Freelancers withdrew to their rooms for sleeping purposes.

The next morning the Daystar shone down on Lakeview and the world appeared great for adventuring.  The Freelancers made ready to leave and decided to go follow the lakeshore up towards the Pirates River.  Before they left, Carmen thoughtfully bought a net.

Timmy led the way, being most familiar with the area, but Carmen helped avoid hazards, including getting stuck in the drying mud.  They got to Pirates Dream river by evening, and found a good place to camp not too close to the water and mud.  While the Freelancers did not really expect any mutated wild life this close to the lake, they still set a watch just in case.

Tim took first watch.  It seemed a very quiet night; he heard the river doing its thing.  Night birds were singing:  owls, nightingales.  Nothing was out of place.

Kairos took second watch.  He also did not hear anything out of the ordinary, other than small creatures startled by Helike, his drake, gamboling around.  Maybe, in the distance, and owl gryphon was hunting.

Carmen took third watch.  The night remained quiet, other than extra splashing near the river.

Timmy took dawn watch.  He didn't notice anything, because he had time to reflect on how unhappy he was that his former master Gwidion was still fucking up nature, and he'd become full of rage.

The day dawned, but none of the Freelancers saw it; clouds had come in during the later watches and it was overcast and grey.  They headed north up the west back of the river, but after a couple hours the clouds had started spitting rain.  Carmen, wearing newly-acquired ring mail, found himself a bit unhappy at the discomfort.  They kept going, and the rain increased, and the wind; by noon it was very dark, with lightning and thunder cracking overhead.

Kairos had been riding Catherine, and it took all his animal handling skill to keep her from spooking.  The others came across brambles, and looped around them, and they kept going through the deepening mud.  They soon realized they'd lost the river.

Staring through the downpour, lightning still crackling above, they saw they were near to a no-longer-so-small feeder stream to the river, with the ground near it marshy with the storm.  Perhaps it had a beaver dam to the right?  The Freelancers decided to go to it and follow it back to the river.

Avoiding being stuck in the mud was a challenge, but doable.  The muddy mess was over the top of Carmen's boots as the big firbolg sank into the muck.  Kairos had Catherine just fly 10' above the mess.

While it was hard to see, Kairos was able to watch in some kind of horror as he saw two aquatic-like, pony-sized horses lumbering out of the water, their coats slick with the wet, and fins for tail and mane.  One seemed to be more brown, and one more yellow.

Not yet convinced of their intentions, Kairos pulled out his longbow and nocked an arrow, ready to shoot if the creatures did anything hostile.

• Helike jumped into the water next to Carmen, ready to attack.
• The two ponies each gave a focussed look at the closest humanoid.  For the yellow pony, that was Carmen.  The brown pony looked at Kairos, who lowered his bow, feeling compelled to go to it.
• Tim frowned, seeing the ponies had tried something.  He cast toll the dead on the brown pony, to no effect, the bonnngggg falling flat with the rain and thunder.
• Carmen called on Āhua's blessings, and Āhua responded, granting bless to Kairos, Tim, and Timmy.
• Timmy bounced over to the yellow pony and struck it hard with his little fist.  The wet "skin" kind of gave under the strike, and Timmy realized it was more plant material than horseflesh.  That "give" absorbed some of the strike.
  • Appalled, Timmy disengaged and backed off from the plant-pony, moving to higher ground.

Kairos had Catherine fly over to the brown plant-pony, then shook off the compulsion.

• The yellow plant-pony suddenly opened up, looking more like a plant than a pony, and dropped into the pond water with a "glorp" sound loud enough to be heard over the thunder and rain.  It surfaced and resumed its pony shape right next to Helike and Timmy.
  • It struck at Timmy with what would be a front hoof if it was actually a pony and not a plant thing.
  • It struck at Helike with the other, but critfailed and the "appendage" came undone into a tangle of thorny vines, to the other Freelancers' horror.
  • Helike bit it.
• The brown plant-pony struck at Kairos and missed, but then struck Catherine, who was abraded by the thorny vines.
• Tim reached out, and the blue-edged lightning of witch bolt arc'd from his hand to the brown plant-pony, zapping it.  Maintaining the arc, Tim moved 10' closer to it.
• Carmen cast toll the dead on the yellow plant-pony, and necrosis spread across the thorny vines.  Unlike Tim's bonnngggg, Carmen's sounded like high-pitched wind chimes.
• Timmy cast poison spray at the yellow plant-pony, to no effect.  He disengaged and stepped back next to Carmen.

Kairos had Catherine disengage and fly up, lightning or no, and from there loosed an arrow into the brown plant-pony.  The plant bits seemed to give way to the arrow and be less hurt than he expected; but he applied a hunter's mark nonetheless.

• The yellow plant-pony was trying to regain its shape.
• The brown plant-pony moved to Carmen and Tim, striking each of them with its hooves-that-are-really-thorny-vines.
  • Carmen was distracted and lost the bless from Āhua.
• Tim maintained the witch bolt, and burned the plant-pony with more lightning.
• Carmen cast toll the dead on the brown plant-pony this time.  Some of the leaves making up the fins started to wither under the necrosis.
• Timmy drew his shortsword and slashed at the yellow plant- well, it was getting its horsey shape back.  The plant deformed around the slash, making it less effective.
  • Frustrated, Timmy followed up with a flurry of blows, which both hit, but were also less effective.

Kairos shot the brown plant-pony again, with the same result.

• Helike bit it, and applied lightning of his own; the plant bits were getting pretty charred.
• The brown plant-pony again attacked Carmen and Tim.  It missed Carmen, but hit Tim, who grimaced but nonetheless kept the witch bolt arc'ing.
• The yellow plant-pony struck Helike and Timmy with its thorny-vines hooves.
• Tim's witch bolt continued to fry the brown plant-pony.
• Carmen's toll the dead on the brown plant-pony did nothing.
• Timmy thrust his shortsword in the middle of the horse-shaped vines next to him, but piercing had the same effect.
  • Angry that Tim had been injured, Timmy followed up with another flurry of blows, but he was hitting a plant.

Kairos shot the brown plant-pony again, and watched his arrow do less than half the damage he normally expected.  Maybe it was using a bow in the rain?

• Helike struck again, but the thunder boomed and he estimated the distance wrong and he missed.
• The brown plant-pony struck out at Tim and Carmen again, but was also thrown off by the thunder and rain and missed.
• Same for the yellow plant-pony striking at Helike and Timmy.
• Tim's witch bolt finally killed the brown plant-pony, which disintegrated into a pile of dead vegetation, drifting apart on the surface of the pond.
• Carmen cast toll the dead on the yellow plant-pony, and the vines on its front "legs" withered a little from the necrosis.
• Timmy stabbed the yellow plant-pony with his shortsword, then punched it with his other hand.

Kairos moved his hunter's mark to the yellow plant-pony and shot it with the arrow.

• The yellow plant-pony struck both Timmy and Helike this time.
• Tim cast toll the dead on the plant-pony.  Although the bonnngggg still fell flat in the rain, necrosis spread along the various plant parts..
• Carmen also cast toll the dead, and the plant-pony withered into dead leaves and vines floating in the pond.

The Freelancers were left standing in the mud, drenched by the rain, with the thunder and lightning receding westward.

Tim, still astounded by them, wanted to investigate where the plant-ponies came from.  Carmen, more offended by them, wanted to check out the "bodies".  So the Freelancers did both, starting out with the remains, which they concluded were basically magical vines.

The group sort of glopped over to the beaver dam, and found a bunch of stuff hidden in the tree branches that comprised it.  There were assorted coins, which by the time they retrieved them all, added up with 165gp.  There were random objects:  a bone statue of a pegasus; a dented copper cup with filigree work, green with corrosion; a couple pieces of cloth which might have started out as handkerchiefs; a no-longer-nice mask; a tiny teapot silver vase that just needed polishing; a cloak in surprisingly good condition; and a mace with a leather-wrapped handle.

Frowning at the mace handle, Carmen popped detect magic.  The mace and the cloak were definitely magical.  The vines, however, were not.  Mindful of Tim wondering where the plant-ponies came from, Carmen checked the water, and it also had no magical ambience.  He relayed this to the others, and harvested the vines anyhow.

The Freelancers sought out shelter, then discussed the two magic items.  Timmy, who'd felt the lack of a magic weapon earlier, took the mace, and Carmen took the cloak, which was a cloak of elvenkind, and the Freelancers thought the big firbolg needed all the help he could get in that area.

The next day was less stormy, and the Freelancers decided that this encounter was sufficient to claim the mission award, and headed back to Lakeview.  From thence they retraced their steps on the far less muddy roads back to Freelancers Tavern.

Arnari, upon hearing of their encounter, paid each 90gp as the fee (minus Freelancer's Cut) and a potion:  Carmen got a philter of love, Kairos got a potion of fire breath, Tim got a potion of cold resistance, and Timmy got an oil of slipperiness.

It turned out the vines could be used in magical crafting, so Carmen sold them for 100gp and split that with the others as well.