Tale View

Six Freelancers filed into Arnari's office, in search of gainful occupation.  Peb, a big, unassuming Rock sagani, and Ka, a slim human in dark clothes sporting twin rapiers, had just returned from Mantzur the prior day, having been there to find a water elemental for Church of Ua.  The others had not been on mission for some time.

Arnari was at her desk, writing and playing her harp.  It looked like she was trying to compose a new piece to play.  She put the quill down and watched as the Freelancers arrayed themselves.

The half-elf bard Aranel took the wicker peacock chair against the back wall, removing the shamisen from her back and setting it by her feet as she did so.
The human druid Dominic, who normally studied the maps on Arnari's wall, instead started studying the various musical instruments on her shelves.
The human bard Damian sat in a chair as close as he could get to Arnari's desk, bouncing with excitement.
The laconic human Colt meandered to a chair in the back row and sat on it by swinging his leg over the back.
Ka also sat in the back, amused by everyone's antics.
Peb sat on the floor next to the head of the big bear skin rug.

Arnari leaned forward and twitched a couple of papers from under the others.

• 1st 2 – gryphon eggs and hippogryph eggs.  hippogryphs , as usual, are 100 eagles/egg with bonus for fancy eggs.  Gryphons are 150 eagles/egg, also with bonus.  You will need a lot of eggs, to get 2 mounts
• 3rd – go to Pirates Dream river.  100 eagles/person plus 1 uncommon potion each.
• 4th – go to Hindmarsh, into the marsh, beat up the bullywugs who are hassling House Ha'aheo herb gatherers.

Silence reigned.

Colt:  what is the reward for the bullywugs?
Arnari:  150 eagles/person.  Also will provide a guide if needed, through the marsh.
Dominic:  any of them… who is lacking a mount?
<Damian raised his hand, timidly.>
Peb:  agnostic, but happy to help Damian
Colt:  everyone should have their mount!
Dominic <to Damian>:  what do you want?
Damian:  hippogryph!  We only need 10 eggs!
Arnari:  previous missions went to Haven, and started looking from there.

Aranel went to change out of her nice dress and into travelling clothes.  Since she now had a hippogryph, Rainbow, she picked up extra sacks and blankets for the eggs, and rations for Rainbow.

With Damian riding Dominic's dire bat Robin, the Freelancers took the day to fly to Cliffgate, where they stayed at The Hippogryph's Wing inn.  On the way there they saw the halfway point, which had a bustling campsite for caravans and other foot traffic, was getting developed, with an inn roughly ⅓ complete and also vendors starting on surrounding buildings.

The following day the Freelancers started on their way to Haven, but had to camp at the halfway point.  Scattered showers developed in the late afternoon, but they found big, well-used campsites along the road for such travel.  Small groups of flyers were on their way between Cliffshadow and Haven, and also some larger groups from Stormhaven, with guards.  The entire affair lessened the chance of bandits, so the group got a good night's sleep despite the weather.

On the third day the Freelancers arrived in Haven, surrounded by orchards.  Mikumwesauk, humans, and various sagani were working in the pear and apple trees as they flew over.  The group got rooms at The Local Flavour inn, which not only had rooms a-plenty for travelers, but also was known for its excellent selection of ciders, some exclusive from local cidery.

The Freelancers got their rooms and mounts settled, and Aranel expressed a desire to sample the ciders.  The others joined her in the tavern.  Dominic looked around at the other patrons, both field hands and travellers, feeling oddly restless.  Finally he asked some of the field hands about the landowners for the orchards, and took off.

He arrived at the house of Bertana Plumblossom about 20 minutes later.  The older Mikumwes halfling owned & managed a large swatch of orchards on the southeast side of Haven.  At her polite enquiry as to Dominic's visit, he explained he was a druid passing through with Freelancers, and offered to enrich the land at a location of her choice in exchange for a year's supply of cider, for Freelancers visiting The Local Flavour.

Bertana's eyes widened and she said, "Certainly, I will make the necessary arrangements."  She had Dominic wait for her to grab a cloak, then said "Follow me!" and led him to a far corner of the orchards.  Various bushes separated them from the forest, and along with the stressed pear trees, were struggling with the rocky soil.  "There," she pointed, and Dominic merely nodded; "Come see me when you are done."

Back at The Local Flavour, the innkeeper Jocelyn was still discussing various flights of cider with Aranel and Ka, with Colt and Peb watching, when a small, tow-headed halfling arrived with a written message for Jocelyn.  He read it, did a doubletake, looked at all the Freelancers again, then smiled.

"Drinks on the house," he told them, "You have an open tab.  Your friend set this up!"

Colt didn't hesitate and got a pint of his best cider.  Peb asked for a drink for every fruit.  Jocelyn brought out some of his fancy glasses, and set up a pair of flights for Aranel and Ka.  These two tried it, and they were very good, but were both interested in circulating and conversing with other patrons, and perhaps finding out where they would seek hippogryph eggs on the morrow.

Peb, who'd never had an open tab before, went overboard with all the drinks, all thoughts of eggs gone from their mind.  Damian and Colt kept pace with them as well.  Jocelyn organized "a drink for every fruit" into flights, which were very good.

Ka didn't find out much from his conversations with other travellers; the most notable thing was a rumour that Freelancers were raising children, to fight and then eat, sort of like a gladiator-diner?  Ka looked closely at his drink.  What was in this?

Aranel talked to field hands, and learned that a couple sets of hippogryphs in the main Haven Hills come into the orchards from southeast.  The workers, many of whom were halflings, expressed unhappiness at how bold these creatures were.  At that, Aranel asked if the hippogryphs had attacked people, and they said no; then two hands described them catching and eating a pegasus.  That was a bit much, and Aranel returned to the other Freelancers.

Colt, who looked pretty pleased, was saying to Peb, "Yer lookin' a little green around the rocks, Peb."  Aranel looked at Peb; they were holding their own but clearly no longer able to walk a straight line.  She got a half-pint of pear cider and glanced at the much slighter Damian.  He had not drunk himself sick, but he was definitely drunk, and very maudlin as he freely shared stories with other patrons.

In fact, he was telling a group how Maghris had been slain by an ooze, which clearly had made a deep impression on the bard.  Aranel came up to him as he was finishing, and he turned to her and exclaimed with the drama only a drunk person can evoke, "Please do not die to an ooze while we seek out hippogryphs!!!"

Peb was not far away, and Damian's tale moved them to sobs.  "He redeemed himself against the goose hydra!" they exclaimed, and a pool of quiet grew around the little group, as the other patrons were disturbed by the concepts of an undead Freelancer and a goose hydra.

Colt:  how can he fight a goose hydra if he's dead?
Damian:  we brought him back, and there's some magic powder.  He was dead for a few days!

That was so disturbing that Jocelyn made sure the Freelancers' rooms were comfortable, and the tavern staff assisted Aranel and Ka in getting the others into their rooms to pass out.

The next morning, none of the Freelancers had a hangover, amazingly enough.  Dominic was there with them to break their fast, and they all toasted his health with their free breakfast ciders.  They looked out at the drizzly fog, discouraged.  Aranel explained to Dominic what she'd learned from the field hands.

They retrieved their mounts from the stables, and Dominic said shortly, "Follow me."  He took off to the southeast.  Robin, carrying Damian, of course followed no problem.

Colt flew up a bit high, above the fog, and could see for miles and miles… just not near by, including his compatriots.  Ka meanwhile had stashed extra cider in Ohenui's saddlebags, and had given the bear a bowl of it before they left.  Ohenui was simply following his nose going after Dominic and his gryphon.

Aranel could see nothing through all this rain and drizzle, certainly not hippogryphs.  She could barely see Ohenui, and was really puzzled why the winged bear was flying so funny.

Dominic and Peb could actually make out the hills through the fog.  They saw some hills where the face fell away, exposing caves, and headed in that direction.  As they approached, and the drizzle faded out to fog, they both saw that it was perfect for hippogryph nests.  Upon a closer approach, everyone saw it.

Aranel suggested Peb on Bettula, their owl gryphon, approach and sneak, since if it were to fail, then Bettula could run.  Peb was amenable:  "Ah can give it a try!"  Peb cast pass without trace, then Bettula slipped sideways in the fog and the two of them disappeared in front of everyone's eyes, even Dominic's.

Bettula silently flew past the cave, and around the top of the hill, as Peb peered to see what they could see:  a big nest, tall, wide, and deep, constructed of large saplings.  2 hippogryphs were on the nest, preening each other.  As they slipped around the hill, Peb also saw a couple other hippogryphs flying around, one white and one blue.

Peb returned to the others and relayed what they'd seen.  The others had seen the two hippogryphs flying in but that was it.

Aranel:  do we want to find another nest?
Peb:  they did say they was causin' trouble; but Ah'll defer to others
Damian:  I never did this before, but seems we have numbers advantage
Colt:  seems to me, too
Dominic:  maybe wait til one or more is hungry; maybe not fight 4 at the same time.
Colt:  patience is a virtue!

Since Peb had pass without trace up, the Freelancers, which were around 10 minutes' flight away, decided to move (stealthily) to maybe a mile away, and recruited their patience to watch and wait for 30 minutes.

Time passed, with everyone waiting on their mounts, shuffling impatiently.  Aranel got out her shamisen, but a sharp look from the others kept her from playing it.  She drummed her fingers silently.

20 minutes in, the two hippogryphs that had been playing around the hilltop–one caught the others' tail in its beak–spiralled down to the nest, and stood there, blowing.  The two preening hippogryphs took flight, heading upwards and then northward at a good clip towards the plains.  Given their obvious purpose the Freelancers thought these were going a-hunting.

Damian:  we're going to the nest, right?  Not after these others?
Aranel:  nm-nn
Colt <smiled>:  giddy-up!

The Freelancers split into 2 groups of 3 each:  Peb, Colt, and Aranel; Dominic, Ka, and Damian.  Dominic cast pass without trace, and the two groups flew in kind of like pincers on calipers, going for the element of surprise.

Except that message didn't get through to Aranel and Colt:  Aranel played the shamisen, not quite her best yet, and Colt cracked his whip in the air, yelling YEE-HAW!  Peb seeing their companions do that pulled up higher on Bettula, but forgot to drop their pass without trace, and the two hippogryphs took off from the nest after Aranel and Colt.  At least before that happened, Aranel's playing had bolstered everyone.

Dominic and his group looped around, and as Wilson flew over the nest the druid dropped some blankets and sacks for others to use.  Wilson attacked the blue hippogryph from behind, clawing and slashing at one of the gryphon's favourite prey.  Dominic then took a starry form of the archer, sending a stardrop at the white hippogryph to burn it with radiance.  Lastly, Dominic cast thorn whip on the white hippogryph, the thorns piercing it as the whip drew it back towards him.

• Both hippogryphs, faced with a bald eagle gryphon, attacked Wilson, slashing him with their claws.
• Peb tried to intimidate the hippogryphs, who didn't see them at all, then realized they were still hidden by pass without trace.  Irritated, they raged, drawing their shovel, but their shout of annoyance was muffled by the fog and covered by Aranel's shamisen-playing.
  • Bettula dove, attacking the white hippogryph, and it died to their slashing claws.  She snapped at the blue hippogryph and grazed it with their beak.
  • Peb swung their shovel at the blue hippogryph and the blade caught it in the neck, and it also died.

Peb watched with a mix of horror and admiration as the bleeding hippogryphs fell to the scree below the cliff.

Aranel stopped playing the shamisen as Damian landed on the edge of the nest.  "Sixteen eggs!" he called out to the others.  Aranel flew over to the nest and cast unseen servant to start packing eggs.  The servant began methodically packing the eggs in the sacks.

Peb landed near the hippogryphs, and started working to stabilize them, starting on the blue one.  Colt also landed to help, but was startled by Damian's horrified "Peri-Anne, NO!" as Colt's hungry hippogryph killed the white one so she could eat.  <Narrator voice:  Greg rolled a nat 1 on medicine.>  At this, Bettula got mad; the owl gryphon considered it their hippogryph, so Colt and Peb had their hands full of mount management.

Dominic stayed circling on Wilson, watching for the other hippogryphs to return.  Aranel felt bad and landed, starting to pack eggs herself.  Keeping in mind what they'd learned in Haven, the Freelancers packed all sixteen eggs.

Colt and Peb, having settled their mounts, trussed up the blue hippogryph, who turned out to be male; then had Wilson, Bettula, and Ohenui carry him as if in a sling, and they slowly headed back to Haven.  After a while the injured hippogryph woke up and was not the friendliest creature, but was considerably cowed between the gryphons and the winged bear.

The Freelancers arrived back at The Local Flavour pretty late in the evening.  The stablemaster wanted an extra 5 cats for the uncooperative hippogryph, which Peb paid, and then the group all headed into the taproom to enjoy their fill of well-deserved cider.

Dominic and Aranel were a bit off to the side, enjoying the flights of cider Jocelyn provided, but the others all drank far too much cider.

Peb tried to wild shape into a bear right there in the common room, but was drunk enough that they only managed a yearling.  Colt, also drunk wanted to wrassle the bear and soon enough space was cleared for everyone to enjoy the show.  Seeing the bear wrassling made Ka, who was smashed, go back to the stables and find Ohenui, where the two shared some cider before Ka passed out in the winged bear's stall.

Damian, off to the side, talked to everyone, his amazement at their adventure shining through.  "Adventuring is just like you see in the shows!" he told whoever would listen.  "You ever have that rad-ass music?  Easy-peasy, just get in and out again…"

Colt and bear Peb were rolling around clumsily on the floor, and amused, Aranel pulled out her shamisen to provide a soundtrack.  Dominic was having a post-cider cigar, and caught Jocelyn's eye.  The innkeeper was obviously trying to decide if he should intervene.  "Just leave them be," Dominic told him.

The next morning, Colt and Ka both awakened to pretty gnarly hangovers.  Fortunately Dominic was prepared with lesser restoration and cleared the hangovers on both.  They then headed back to Cliffshadow, with the increasingly healthy and feisty blue hippogryph still between the gryphons and the winged bear.

The Freelancers avoided any incidents, but did leave Cliffgate as early as possible, to get back to Cliffshadow early while the Apastron bonfires were still in full swing.  They headed straight for House Aldous, where they presented Odo, Head of the House, with 16 eggs and the blue hippogryph.

Odo checked the eggs, and they were healthy; he agreed to provide a hippogryph to Damian, and pay 100 eagles each for the remaining 6 eggs.  He then assessed the feisty blue hippogryph, who was also healthy, and paid 1500 eagles for him as well!

All but Damian headed back to Freelancers, as Odo had another member of the House take him to look at available hippogryphs to pick out his new mount.

• Colt → lvl3 Battlemaster!
• Damian → lvl3 Creation Bard!