Tale View

The day after the Planting Holiday, Freelancers Kaikoa and Ana were quiet and withdrawn; that is to say, they slept most of the day.  Damakaios went to the House Hadid garden party, taking Eirdrimme and Auala with him; nothing untoward happened there.  That we know of, anyhow.

The next day, Fine Branch was restless, and Ana, Glesni, and Kaikoa went with them to visit Damakaios and find out available missions.  Then went to the hanyou's office, to find the door open and a relatively cheerful Damakaios within.  The office looked much the same, with its small-arms displays, neat rows of chairs, mahogany desk with a blotter, pen, inkwell–and a wooden tankard on the edge of the desk, to Damakaios' right.

Glesni, a Cloud elf archer in nice leathers, sat in the back row of chairs, on the right hand end.
Fine Branch, still restless, paced along the left side of the room.  They kept stealing glances at the tankard.
Kaikoa walked in like he owned the whole office.  The Wind sagani picked a likely chair and swung his leg over the back as he sat in it.
Ana, a Maker gnome wizard in nice but practical clothes, flounced in last, still pleased with herself for her choice of activities during the Planting Holiday.  Without thinking about it she tried to sit in the chair next to Kaikoa, using the same leg over the back of the chair.  Her attempt failed unceremoniously.

Fine Branch finally decided there was a drink in the wooden tankard.  They decided better safe than sorry in this situation, and stole a glance at Damakaios, who had sat back, stroking his beard, as he watched all of these antics.  They pushed the drink back from the edge of the desk in order to reduce the temptation.

The tankard didn't move.

Fine Branch's ears went flat, and they sat down in exasperation.  Damakaios hid his smirk by focussing on the mission papers he pulled out of his desk drawer, which he then started to read out without preamble.

• Amabel villa.
• House Hadid now wants Death Butterflies.
• Alvyn Rickernackle has repaired one of the hawk constructs, and reprogrammed him to return home.  I've persuaded Manaja of the Sugar Glider Hang Gliding school to pay for Freelancers to track him home.
• Follow-on to the investigation in The Below:  they discovered several people died, one missing and travelled to the east, but sent a letter about a commune, mentioning Te Mārie.  So, find the commune.
• Continue investigation of bad poetry wedding.  Naranjos thinks you should check recent weddings.

Kaikoa <interrupted>:  I don't have context for that one.
Damakaios:  two dragonborn houses had a wedding, and Freelancers stopped sabotages.  Then later, [they also stopped] bad poetry lady and a demon.  These houses are unhappy, and want the lady tracked down.  Freelancers checked rival houses and found nothing.  <paused>  Hasapis vineyard is having–
Kaikoa <interrupted again>:  you had me at "vineyard"!
Damakaios:  –weird issues.  Freelancers have been there before, they seem to have problems originating from underground.  <glanced at paper>  New problems in the vineyards themselves.
Kaikoa:  fun drinking dragonborn, or stodgy dragonborn?
Fine Branch:  stodgy.
Kaikoa:  haunted house always seems fun, or finding the construct thing.
Glesni:  interested in finding that commune.
Kaikoa:  I wasn't there for this.
Ana and Fine Branch:  yes you were; the hobgoblins.

Damakaios recap'd the events leading up to the commune:  mysterious deaths at the Tranquil Crossing, Freelancers finding it was caused by shadows, then learning mysterious deaths from a wasting disease were plaguing the hobgoblin ranchers to the south east, and now learning there were also some in The Below.

Fine Branch:  Silver Scion.  <Narrator voice:  The Cat had referred to the antagonist for the above as such when Fine Branch cast divination on a previous mission.>
Ana:  that's  <unreadable>, Glesni seems excited
Glesni:  I am just avoiding uninteresting ones like "Death Butterfly" or going around The Below asking about poetry.
Ana:  haunted house is always exciting
Fine Branch:  was that lady an apparition?
Ana:  I don't think so
Glesni <musing>:  winery okay, constructs could be dangerous
Kaikoa:  sounds like you want commune
Fine Branch <shrugged>:  it gets us out of city investigating
Fine Branch:  Silver Scion, you mean.
Ana:  I'm opposed to Nature, but that disease is nasty.

Somehow Ana's simple statement was what convinced the others to go look for the commune.

As the Freelancers left their leader's office discussing what to do, Fine Branch proposed that the group visit the potion seller who had the letter Damakaios had mentioned.  Everyone agreed, so they found themselves visiting The Below for investigations despite Glesni's earlier efforts to avoid it.  At least they weren't asking about bad poetry.

Kaikoa:  isn't Te Mārie supposed to be happy~fun~nice?  Am I misremembering?
Ana:  I dunno, that's that I thought too.
<The others frowned in thought, and Glesni shrugged.  She paid more attention to Rohe.>
Kaikoa:  Serenity is not about murdering people.
Fine Branch:  Serenity is a small word for a big concept.  Maybe it's not always good.  You can be calm, and not get mad, and so forth.  You could also make it so not being serene is bad, and stillness is a form of Serenity.
Glesni:  the stillness of death, for example.

They kept walking, contemplating this, until they got to Arteaga's herbalism and potion shop.  The half-elf recognized Fine Branch, so they opened the conversation.

Fine Branch:  we are going to look for where your sister went, and it would be easier if you had a clipping of hair or a physical keepsake.
Ana <earnestly>:  we really do want to see if we can find your sister; it's important to us.

Arteaga looked at the four of them:  nekomata, tall Cloud elf, Maker gnome, grizzled Wind sagani.  She did not bother to hide the dubiousness she felt from these words.

Glesni:  we're Freelancers.
Arteaga:  she didn't live here.  I have the letter but don't want to part with it.
Fine Branch:  that's perfectly fine; can do this here.
<Arteaga went in the back, and a couple minutes later, brings the letter.>
Arteaga:  don't run off with it!
Fine Branch:  no worries
Ana:  won't destroy the letter, will it?
Fine Branch:  no.  will take 10 minutes.
<Fine Branch pulled out an ornate silver mirror and proceeded to cast scrying, which is interesting for the caster, but not so much for everyone else.>
Glesni:  does your sister look like you?
Arteaga:  not really

Glesni and Kaikoa decided while they were there, they should peruse the potions.   There was a superior healing potion, for 1500 eagles; some greater healing potions, for 150 eagles; and an assortment of resistance potions, also for 150 eagles.  Ana bought a greater healing potion.  Two of the resistance potions were against necrosis; Glesni and Kaikoa each bought one.

Fine Branch, meanwhile, finished their cast, and the scrying was successful:  their inner vision opened up and they started relaying what they were observing for the others.  Everyone looked in the mirror curiously, to see that it was not reflecting anything, but instead displaying pastel colours swirling, kind of like this.

Fine Branch, however, saw a half-elf, obviously Parella, in very nice studded leathers, her hair braided back severely.  She was inside, but bore a spear and a shield blazoned with the holy symbol of Te Mārie.  A long bow was strapped to her back.  She was talking to a tall Silver dragonborn about Te Mārie, and how they were superior to all other gods.  The pair of them walked outside, and Fine Branch saw the Silver dragonborn looked similar to Tai.

Fine Branch did a mental doubletake.  He didn't just look similar to Tai.  This person was … the very image Tai had been putting up posters for:  his missing son, Turoa.  So, that's what The Cat meant.  He was equipped similarly to Parella.

The nekomata visibly started, then fell silent, to the frustration of the others.  They looked around for landmarks, weather and celestial markers, and resumed describing the area, but did not relay that the Silver dragonborn was Turoa or the conversation topics.  Parella and Turoa had started to plan; they were talking about Placidity, not Serenity; they had more Shadows of Placidity and had determined a new target on which to use them.  Fine Branch didn't want Arteaga to hear that part.

When the spell completed, Fine Branch returned the letter to Arteaga and thanked her, then the Freelancers returned to their villa.

Fine Branch kept the information to themself until they were back in Damakaios' office.  Then they did a full debrief from the scrying.  Damakaios became visibly worried, and of course Ana freaked out. 

Ana:  Omigods we have to tell Tai, omigods we can’t tell Tai, omgd Tai’s son is a MURDERER but he’s such a GOOD DAD what do we DO
Damakaios:  this will be messy, at best.  Suggest you locate the place, then come back and recruit Tai.
Kaikoa:  but, how often does that work?  You can't just go up and say, 'Stop with the murder issues'
Damakaios:  do you want to be the one to tell Tai you killed his son?
Kaikoa:  we can take care of this.
Ana:  NO!  We can't Kaikoa!
Kaikoa:  just sayin'
Ana:  we just can't
Damakaios:  for now, just find where they are.
Kaikoa:  Fine Branch, can your mirror tell us how to get there turn by turn?
Fine Branch:  not until we're close
Ana:  we can go to where Hawkie lost
Fine Branch:  we can look at a map and triangulate
Glesni:  we should ask at the Temple of Serenity if they know of a commune, or anything else about it.
<Narrator voice:  and thus was Ripa Daneo graced with a hastily created Temple of Serenity.>
Fine Branch:  let's do that first
Ana:  walk, or fly?
Glesni:  where to, after this?
Ana:  the monastery
Glesni:  fly
Kaikoa:  walking is for chumps

Since it was midday, the Freelancers had lunch before departing, not wishing to visit the Temple of Serenity hangry.

They got their winged mounts and flew north from Freelancer Villa to The Rim.  Notably, Kaikoa left Mordant in the stable, instead riding Greedy, his golden eagle gryphon.  Ripa Daneo's Temple of Serenity was sort of set back in the crater wall, opening out to a nice, calming view of the lands on the crater floor.  It had a place to the side for people with flying mounts to land without disturbing the peaceful view.

The Freelancers dismounted and went into the cliffside, where they were greeted by a relatively stocky Cloud elf woman.

Isadella:  welcome to Temple of Serenity, may your stay be calm.  I am Isadella, how can I help you?
Ana <obviously not calm>:  we were hoping to ask about other worshippers of Te Mārie.  Everything is FINE.
Isadella:  you have come to the right place, seeking Serenity.  Some need it more than others.  <Started leading the Freelancers deeper inside.>  There's Serene Boundary to the south, they are a worthy place to visit.

Ana was too flustered to reply, and looked at Fine Branch for a sign of how to proceed.  Fine Branch cocked their head, assessing Isadella:  would this person be okay with the actions of Tai's son?  They concluded the Cloud elf was sincere in her wishes of Serenity for others, and were worried about how obviously overwrought Ana was.  The nekomata decided to disturb her Serenity by explaining, "We're looking for perhaps a more extreme offshoot of faith, that emphasizes Placidity over Tranquility; and not to put too fine a point on it, they've been killing people, and we'd like them to stop."

Isadella's face became far less serene at the mention of "Placidity", and the Cloud elf became distinctly unhappy at the "killing people".  Her tone of voice became more businesslike.  "Please come with me," she directed, "This is extremely unfortunate news."  She led the Freelancers down a different corridor, deeper into the cliff, until they arrived at a small, plain office.  It held a small desk, a rack on one wall with scrolls and books, and a rather large half-orc behind the desk.  She addressed the half-orc respectfully.

Isadella:  Badak, these people are talking about Placidity and people being placid with murders.
Badak:  that's very bad.  Thank you for bringing this problem to my attention.
<Isadella bowed out, no doubt needing much meditation.>
Badak:  tell me what you have heard about Placidity; this is a perversion of Te Mārie's teachings.

The Freelancers told him:  about the deaths at Tranquil Crossing, the wasting disease and shadows at the village of Krowa, how High Abbott Gregorio had asked for an investigation, to find the wasting disease in The Below, and now the result of Fine Branch's scrying.

Badak looked troubled; he told them he'd heard things were not going well at Tranquil Crossing, but thought it had been cleared up.  He would follow up with the High Abbott, but to be clear, he did not know of any other orgs to do with Te Mārie on the skylith.  Certainly none of this Placid bullshit.

Ana described Tai's son, but Badak was well acquainted with Tai and the story of his son.  Personally, he did not know of any Silver dragonborn who resembled Tai.

Ana:  please don't tell Tai yet
Badak:  lying is not the way of Serenity
Glesni:  telling Tai would disturb his Serenity
Badak:  will not volunteer it
Fine Branch:  causing people pain is also
Badak:  I hope these can be rehabilitated
Ana:  we don't know how many are there, but who would be good to rehabilitate?  Are you equipped for it?
Badak:  I would normally say the monastery, but if they were murdering followers of Rohe in the name of Placidity, then putting them there is not the best plan.  <pressed his lips together>  we will be preparing places.

At this the Freelancers took their leave, and retrieved their mounts for the long flight to Tranquil Crossing, in the south.

The Daystar was westering as the Freelancers arrived at Tranquil Crossing.  The monastery was a rather large complex with multiple multistory buildings, and room within and without for the monks to train, meditate, and support themselves.

The Freelancers were greeted by Gaidaros, a half-elf who recognized them and greeted them warmly,  "How are Freelancers?  Do you need to talk to High Abbott Gregorio?"

Ana replied grimly, "We are following up on things."  Gaidaros nodded and did not question it, but brought them to the High Abbott's office.  Gregorio, a pterotus who normally presented as unflappable, was aware of their mission, so cut straight to the point.

Gregorio:  what have you found, what can I do?
Glesni:  we are come here from the Temple of Serenity.
Fine Branch:  okay, following up on this.  We need to know roughly where this other monastery is <here, they described what they saw whilst scrying>.  The persons I saw there were discussing Placidity.
<Gregorio was as unhappy at this news as Isadella had been.>
Gregorio:  Placidity is heretical, it's bad.  I am not surprised they are associated with murders.  Sounds like Commerce mountains, but could be anywhere.  Probably look northeast of Krowa.
Fine Branch <disappointed>:  fair enough
Kaikoa:  alright Fine Branch, time to work your magic

Fine Branch produced a map, and drew a circle.  Then they cast commune, calling upon The Cat directly for assistance to narrow down the area.  The others were bemused by their effort.  By the end of commune they had narrowed it down to a 4 ½ mile circle, and Fine Branch started trying to game how quickly to cover the area.

Glesni <to Gregorio>:  I believe, they were talking about striking again
Gregorio:  how soon?
Fine Branch:  they mentioned they had more shadows
Gregorio:  …and we are going back to 3 people on patrol!!!
Fine Branch:  we'll stay here tonight and be on watch
Ana:  yep

The nekomata reconsidered what they said, then also cast augury, using 5 large shark teeth.  Checking on the proposal for Freelancers to sleep at the monastery without setting a watch, they got a sense of weal.  So the Freelancers backed off from this proposal, but they were still welcome to stay.

The High Abbott stuck to his words, though, causing many of the monks to grumble at the tripled patrol.  But the Freelancers had a good night's sleep in some of the monk cells.

The next morning brought a storm with it, passing westward; the Freelancers remained in Tranquil Crossing until late morning, when it finally cleared.  Then they took off eastward to hunt for this commune.  They opted to overshoot the area and search from east to west, because of the weather.  Then the search was on in earnest.

The mountainous area was a challenge to search, slowing them down.  They found no sign of settlements, but Fine Branch and Ana (with Hawkie's help) saw many forest elk, wolves, and cheshires prowling around.  Kaikoa was busy adjusting to riding a gryphon instead of a hippogryph, and Glesni was not paying much attention, wondering if she should pull out her bow in case they found the complex, and if that happened, how to fight Tai's son.\

The Freelancers cleared one area and moved on to the next, with much the same results, but somehow Kaikoa and Glesni became even more occupied by their individual distractions.  They all still were taking care, watching the ground, watching to the south; but they were not watching upwards.

After another hour of patrolling, Ana and Fine Branch spotted a dressed cave opening up onto a meadow, protected by a palisade.  They pointed it out and the Freelancers swooped in a curve:  they saw a small stable housing a gryphon, an outdoor area laid out for Te Mārie, archery targets.  It faced north.  Fine Branch marked where they were on their map.

Relieved to have avoided engaging, the Freelancers turned north, flying into the mountains… and the three wild manticores that had been shadowing them from above.

The manticores dive bombed, but not fast enough.  Hawkie disapparated, and Glesni, who was in the Freelancers' van, was able to get a piercing arrow through two of them (they avoided it mostly) and shot the rear manticore with another arrow.

• The uninjured manticore was going after Pelorus, who looked so tasty it was drooling.  It used its claws in an attempt to sweep Ana off the pegasus' back, then bit at Pelorus.  Somehow it misjudged distances and failed these attacks.  Perhaps it thought Pelorus was full-size.
• The other two went after Fine Branch and Nighthawk.  The one Glesni shot entirely missed, but the third one's claws scraped off Fine Branch's shoulder armour, and bit Nighthawk in his haunch.
• Pelorus disengaged and fled.  Ana yelled, "I do not like nature…!" and cast a twice-uplevel'd chromatic orb at the manticore left behind.  It settled on lightning before it struck the creature full in the chest, and the manticore yeowled in pain and sadness.
• Nighthawk disengaged but Fine Branch had him fly past Kaikoa, where the cleric cast holy weapon on Kaikoa's lance.  They cast guiding bolt on the manticore that had bit Nighthawk as the hippogryph put more distance between it and the manticores.
• Kaikoa put his prior distractions to good use as he had Greedy slide into a slick pivot-and-return to face this manticore at lance range.  He struck the manticore twice with his lance, causing it to bleed profusely as well as suffering from the burns of guiding bolt.
  • Kaikoa, totally in the flow, rode his surge of adrenaline to attack again, knocking the manticore out.  It crashed into the trees below.
  • Pivoting again, Kaikoa used his lance to strike the other manticore that had attacked Nighthawk.

Glesni also pivoted but had Ikarus move to line up the two manticores in the air to send another piercing arrow through them.  One avoided most of the shot, but the yeowling manticore bore the full brunt of it.  Glesni followed up by shooting the yeowling manticore with another arrow.  Riding her own surge of adrenaline, Glesni shot each manticore again with an arrow.

• The manticore in the trees rose to its feet and shook itself off, dazed.
• The manticore Kaikoa had attacked came after Ikarus, who looked tastier than Greedy.  Kaikoa smacked it with his lance and knocked it out.
• The yeowling manticore was just unhappy.
• Ana's yells had gotten more shrill.  This attack, on top of the stress of learning where Tai's son was and keeping it from Tai, was all too much.  Yelling "go Away!" she sent a magic missile into each manticore.  The yeowling suddenly stopped as the manticore died and fell from the sky.

Fine Branch and Kaikoa circled down and landed, moving quickly to stabilize the other two manticores.  

Fine Branch:  Kaikoa, how'd that weapon work out?
Kaikoa <happily>:  SWEET

Ana and Glesni landed, gazing thoughtfully at the unconscious manticores from atop their pegasi.  Then Glesni dismounted, getting out rope and nets.  Manticores were prized mounts; Kaikoa and she had been through this drill several times when pursuing the Daystar cultists who'd stolen Bright Thunder.

The problem was, getting them back to Ripa Daneo.  While the city was only 20 miles to the west, it was mountainous terrain and the Freelancers were not exactly flying burly mounts, other than Greedy.  There was no question of going back to Tranquil Crossing with these.

They figured it out with an assortment of ropes, net, and food; but it was very slow going.  They had plenty of time to consider the disposition of the mounts.  For starters, trained manticores went for a thousand stars <Narrator voice:  stars aka platinum, or: 10,000 gold>, and were prized by House Lykaion.  Perhaps it was worth upgrading, especially for Ana and Glesni?

Thing is, Ana and Glesni didn't particularly ever want to close with any enemies in the air.  The Freelancers calculated the coin from selling the manticores, and decided they could probably get 1700 stars.  Both Ana and Glesni liked that as their take from the split would give them enough to buy peregrine gryphons, which could also fight if close, but more importantly, were much faster than these pegasi (or these manticores).  So they decided to do that.

They arrived very late at Freelancers Villa, and the wild manticores caused quite a stir.  Fine Branch gave Damakaios the map with the location marked, and he handed out the mission fee of 225 eagles each; but the returned Freelancers immediately went to bed, as it had been a long day.

The next day was full of manticore selling, so they were too busy to talk to Tai about it at all.