Tale View

Pembroke was doing a slow circuit around Duquesne.  The back tavern in Freelancers Tavern was less quiet than the previous day, with 6 new recruits having that first buzz from getting overpaid for a mission.  But the other Freelancers still had an undercurrent of banked anger, and Valan wasn't around, apparently having run some errands to Academy of Magic.  Aranel was also not to be seen, and Peb was in a corner talking to Manu.

The tension put Minji and Carmen on edge, and Dominic and Ricardo joined them to go ask Arnari for a mission.  They went into the bard's office to find her writing at her desk.  She finished as they all picked a comfortable spot in her office.

Carmen, a large firbolg in splinted mail, sat on the chair he deemed most likely to hold his weight.
Minji, a grey nekomata, sat on the bearskin rug.  She was not wearing the green dress everyone was accustomed to, but instead had acquired (at some expense) studded leathers fashioned stylishly like a dress, almost Elvish.
Ricardo, a human with shoulder-length golden tresses and a black cloth wrapped around one eye, walked up to a chair with no arms, spun it around, and sat in it backwards.  <Narrator voice:  this chair is the same one Maghris always rushes to.>
Dominic, a human with grey hair and a mustache, walked over the maps and studied them.  Arnari had stuck pins in various places, and some of these had annotations.

Arnari finished blowing dry the paper she'd been writing on, and started folding it distinctively.  "I have a mission for you," she started, "there are more, but I trust you to get this done well."

She finished sealing the paper she folded, and put it in a large courier bag that had been leaning against the leg of her desk.  "I need you to do a courier run to Pembroke," she continued, "Go to Gemhallow, drop this off with Einkil.  Wait a day, return with his response."

Ricardo perked up at this idea, as did Minji, who asked about Gemhallow, having never been there before.

Arnari:  you know about Duquesne.  Pembroke appears like a couple oversized, uprooted pair of mountains, as you see in the sky.  Gemhallow is in the base, underground, it's lit by the quartz, so has the opposite day/night cycle.  You get to it via heavily fortified tunnels.
Minji <eyes wide>:  I've never seen anything like that!
Arnari:  what about Carmen and Dominic?
Dominic:  oh, fine
Carmen <smiled>:  would love to be on an airship again!
Arnari:  also there are dire corgis, which are easier mounts in tunnels.
Carmen <stopped smiling>:  oh, a dwarf place, with tunnels.  Will I fit?
Arnari:  …mostly?
<Arnari hefted the courier bag, and Ricardo reached for it.>
Minji:  can we look at the contents?
Arnari <set bag down on desk>:  you can look in the bag if you want, please don't open the items in the bag.

Arnari opened the bag and showed them sealed packets with destinations: Gemhallow, Bizarre, Sequoia, etc.  Minji stood up to see, and Arnari put the items back in the back and handed it across her desk.  Both Minji and Ricardo reached for it, but Minji had just stood up, and Ricardo grabbed it.

Arnari closed her eyes for a short time, then opened them, looked at the 4 Freelancers, then announced, "Captain Letitia Herohouse of the air elemental airship Tugendhat is waiting for you."

Dominic and Minji went to the stables to prepare their gryphons, which fully astounded both Carmen and Ricardo.  "Airships are safe," the latter two said, also musing on the gryphon in tunnels underground.  Minji also bought 2 healing potions.  After a brief reflection, Carmen and Ricardo also each bought a healing potion.

The Freelancers headed to the docks, and found the Tugendhat docked at the southern end.  The captain, a human woman, welcomed them aboard and explained it would be a fairly short voyage, about 12 hours.  "You are welcome to lounge about, or stay up on deck," she explained, gesturing to the observation deck.

The two gryphons were led to stabling below the passenger cabins, and the Freelancers were assigned a single cabin with two bunks.  They stashed their travelling gear, but each Freelancer wanted to be on the deck for their own reasons.  Carmen missed being airship crew; Minji had never been on an air elemental airship; Ricardo was looking for inspiration; Dominic wanted the view of Duquesne for his maps.

More people came on board, many of whom went straight into the cabins and sacked out, well aware of the time change from Cliffshadow to Gemhallow.  As the last passengers arrived, the crew busied themselves hitching a team of draft pegasi, as the air elemental muttered about needing to go, go, go in Primordial.  A Wind sagani man on a peregrine gryphon landed on the observation deck, and then the Tugendhat was off as the pegasus team towed it away from the port.

The pegasi dropped away and pilot had the helm as the airship rose, faster and faster, leaving Cliffshadow below and to astern.  Pembroke was also below.  After some time, they reached the Duquesne boundary, and the Tugendhat shuddered and rocked as the pilot guided it through the turbulent transition.  Then they were out in the free air of Skyway, the only thing between them and the high winds being the airship's boundary.

Captain Letitia thanked the pilot, who bowed, then hopped on his gryphon and flew off towards system south, the wind knocking her temporarily until the gryphon was soaring away.  The Tugendhat continued to climb, and it appeared they were going backwards now, as Duquesne was now again under them, shrinking as the distance opened up.

The Freelancers relaxed (well, except Minji who was asking questions), with both Dominic and Ricardo taking notes.  Carmen chatted with the airship crew easily.  Hours passed, and the airship's angle to the Daystar changed; it was more astern now.  Pembroke appeared to be rising to their side, almost racing the airship to an invisible point in the sky.  Every once in a while a sharp reflection shone from the lower part of it, as the light of the Daystar caught a quartz vein at the right angle.

The Daystar was only about 15 degrees above directly astern, and Pembroke was now above the Tugendhat.  In a corner of the observation deck, Ricardo was clearly crafting a new tall tale, concentrating on his quill and parchment..  However the other Freelancers and quite a few of the airship crew saw, caroming down the side of Pembroke, 4 crested pteranodons (two a bit on the small side), moving very fast.  They saw the airship and altered course for it.

The crested pteranodons were fleeing… what looked like a quetzalcoatlus.  But distances were deceiving, and as it got closer, it became apparent the larger creature was something else, much bigger.  Ricardo, concerned, stopped writing and stood up.  Minji was guessing wildly at what kind of creature it was, and Dominic had heard of quetzalcoatls and thought it matched the description.

"I know this from growing up on Waypoint Lark," Carmen said, "it's not a quetzalcoatlus, but a h– Ha– …something that starts with an H," he finished lamely.

The crested pteranodons got closer, but their pursuer caught the hindmost one in its jaws (beak? there were teeth) and shook it apart, before swallowing what remained whole, all without slowing down.  

Dominic moved up next to Ricardo, who said, "We don't need to defeat them, just, like, run away faster than they're flying."  But, he thought of a vicious mockery to throw at them, if they came in range.  Minji, watching them approach, readied herself to cast eldritch blast.

Seconds passed as they came closer, oddly quiet as the airship crew herded the other passengers belowdecks.  Then Carmen intoned, in his deep voice, "Since Āhua's creatures are endangering us, Āhua's blessing upon you," bestowing bless upon his fellow Freelancers.

The crested pteranodons had gone into a dive, screaming fast, and the front two dove under and around the other side of the Tugendhat.  The third was behind about 20' to starboard of where Carmen was standing on the observation deck.  Ricardo, behind Carmen, gestured dramatically with his feather quill, saying "There's one with a saddle?  You need to get a better backpack!" and his vicious mockery took hold on that crested pteranodon.

• Ricardo noticed the crested pteranodons were not attacking the ship, so he cast faerie fire upon them.  Radioactive green sparkles glowed, settled on the crested pteranodons, then slid right off and faded away.
  • "Alas," said Ricardo, somewhat insincerely.
• The pursuing creature was also diving, and as it closed with the laggard crested pteranodon, everyone thought "H is for Huge!!!"  <Narrator voice:  actually, "H" was for "hatzegopteryx" but nobody rolled high enough on Nature for the characters to know, and the GM's pronouncement was parsed as "Hats Egg Optometrist" so that was unhelpful as well.>
  • It pulled out of the dive, and speared the crested pteranodon with its beak, then flipped it into the air above its head.  It then caught the smaller creature in its beak and swallowed it whole.
• Minji watched the huge predator carefully, and saw the 2 crested pteranodons had successfully used the Tugendhat to hide from it.  It was clearly evaluating the people on the airship's observation deck.  She used eldritch blast to send two beams of leafy-green at it.  The first shot past it as she was not used to battling from an airship,  The second struck it with force, and it shook its large head, displeased.
• Carmen did not want to hurt the creature really, so tried to cast blindness on it.  The spell did not take, and the cleric was unhappy.
  • Carmen followed up by emplacing a spiritual weapon in the form of a butterfly net near its head, and smacked it with force.

Dominic, not wishing to be dinner, transformed into a starry form with the archer pattern.  A mote of starlight shot out and hit the huge pterosaur in the chest, burning it with radiance.  He then cast call lightning, and a cloud materialized 60' up from the airship.  Lightning struck the pterosaur, and it really did not like that at all.

• The 2 crested pteranodons landed on the port railing then dropped upside-down off the side, hanging like ship's fenders, doing their best to hide from the huge pterosaur.
• Ricardo used his quill to scribe a glyph in the air, and pushed it towards the pterosaur.  The glyph held dissonant whispers, and when it reached the creature, the latter was set to ignore it…
  • …but then Ricardo cast silvery barbs; and struck by a sudden headache, the pterosaur thought better of its plans and flew away.
  • Ricardo said, "I'm not sure how persuasive that was, hopefully it will get the message," and redirected the energy from silvery barbs to Minji.
  • "Suggest you aim between the wings and body," Ricardo told Dominic, "it works for birds, and this is a big bird," he finished, giving Dominic bardic inspiration.
  • Carmen, hearing Ricardo's words, suddenly looked thoughtful.
• The huge pterosaur continued to fly away, angling downwards without diving.
• Minji glanced at the hiding crested pteranodons, hoping they would be peaceful enough for her to study; but in case they weren't she readied eldritch blast.
• Carmen pulled the spiritual weapon butterfly net back to the starboard side of the observation deck, then he walked over to the port side and looked down at their living fenders.  Thinking about Ricardo's words, he cast animal friendship on the uninjured one.

Dominic cast animal friendship on the other crested pteranodon, and then Dominic and Carmen both cast speak with animals so they could talk with their new friends.

<Narrator voice:  notes for this section are sketchy, but for some reason I didn't need them for a complete description of what happened.>

Captain Letitia thanked the Freelancers profusely for preventing any harm coming to the Tugendhat or any people thereon, and instead of any compensation, the Freelancers got hold space and food for the two crested pteranodons.

The airship came up on Pembroke from the west, below the following tornadoes, and crossed the boundary.  A short while later, a dwarf pilot on a peregrine gryphon landed on the observation deck, with Pembroke looming ever larger, lit by the Daystar astern.  She guided the Tugendhat towards what appeared to be a small hole in the side of the skylith, decelerating as they approached.

Once the airship was much closer, Pembroke's true size could be experienced, and the Freelancers were amazed.  The "small hole" was revealed as an enormous cavern entrance, 1000 feet tall and 2000 feet wide, big enough to accommodate airships moving in both directions.  The Tugendhat slowed again upon entering, despite the air elemental's muttering, and the outer edges of its wings lit with a red and green glow.  The cavern walls were marked with veins of quartz, alternating flame coloured and white, from light sources unseen, allowing pilots to avoid hazards.  Other veins of quartz occasionally lit up from light below, as Pembroke's inward-facing side faced the Daystar.  Minji stared at the lights in fascination.  Once one's eyes adjusted, their light was plenty enough to see.

The tunnels forked, switched back, and did so again.  The Freelancers realized they were climbing.  At various points, enormous doors could be seen, ready to repel storms or invaders, and there, lamps lit with continual flame provided extra light.  Finally, the Tugendhat emerged northward into an absolutely enormous cavern, and slowed again.   A team of owl gryphons arrived, and once hitched towed the airship all the way to the docks.  Once the airship was settled on a docking shelf, the owl gryphon team detached and flew a bit southward.  The dwarf told the captain, "Good seein' ya," and she took off for an airship just pulling out of a dock.

The passengers and mounts started debarking, and the captain, understanding these Freelancers had never been to Gemhallow, directed them to the Freelancers Tavern, almost in the center of the city's Trade Section, "Up the curvy road and to the right; if you get to Central Market, you've gone too far."

As the Freelancers walked their mounts and pterosaur friends from the docks, the city was bestirring itself; they realized it was early morning for Gemhallow.  The sidewalks glowed from below, the light getting stronger as the inward side of Pembroke became more directly lit by the Daystar.  Almost all buildings were single story.

They had no trouble finding Freelancers Tavern, and were greeted happily by the (mostly dwarven) Freelancers therein, who directed them to the stable.  The stablemaster was less happy to have to house two untrained crested pteranodons, and was confused by the animals' friendliness, but "I'll take it," he told them.

The four Freelancers then headed into the tavern, to see that it was reversed what they were used to:  the "ground floor" was actually the top floor, as the barracks and offices were below, hewn into the rock.  They were ushered downstairs to the office of Einkil Logehr, a Rocklit dwarf who was leader of the Gemhallow Freelancers.  His office had animal heads as trophies on the wall, and he sported a very nice crossbow on his back.  Einkil was happy to receive this pouch of documents from Arnari, and paid them 100 eagles each immediately.

Einkil:  100 eagles to return a packet to Arnari, if you stay until tomorrow.
Ricardo:  will our ride home wait?
Einkil:  tomorrow morning you can go back on the fire elemental airship, it can carry you, and … your mounts?
<Dominic explains the crested pteranodons, and Einkil smiled a little.>
Carmen:  can the airship accommodate that?
Einkil:  I can arrange that, I will send a runner.
Carmen:  what is there to do between now and then?
Einkil:  I will set up bunks, but there is plenty of things to do!  You should start with the fairly big central market, it has a lot of things there.

Well, that sounded interesting, and Einkil's reply made it clear there were no missions that could fit in the time frame provided, so the Cliffshadow Freelancers headed to the Central Market.  Tired, they fell into shopping mode, perhaps forgetting that the conjunction meant a lot of people from the Duquesne port cities would also be visiting.

Ricardo looked for a cloak of billowing, and found a couple vendors claiming to sell one, but sadly, these cloaks were not magic.
Dominic looked for a saddle of the cavalier.  He found nothing of the sort, but did find a vendor willing to sell dire corgi mounts.
Carmen had heard of purple mournlode, and was looking around for a vendor with it.  He found a vendor who had some ore, just enough for a shield, but bargained poorly and had to part with 30 stars to obtain it.
Minji found the entire experience novel– glowing side walks?  day/night reversed?  an entire city in a cave with underground docks? –she just looked for the weirdest thing she could find, and of course that was the food.  The food vendors had weird mushrooms, and noodles made from glowworms.  She found a rainbow "pasta" noodle cups with pastel glowy noodles and bought it.

The noodles were not bad, and Minji talked to the vendor about the food origins, were these glow worms a pest, or what?  The vendor explained they were farmed.

Of course markets are markets, and to see more of the city, the Freelancers farmed out from the Central Market.  They saw there was some theatre in the Royal Section, and throughout the city were parks with zen gardens.  Ricardo started recording ideas in his journal.  But they didn't get much farther exploring because they were pretty damned tired.

They made their way back to Freelancers Tavern, found their bunks, and passed out.  They woke up for the evening meal, and both Carmen & Dominic renewed the animal friendship spells on the crested pteranodons.  But after swapping stories in the tavern, they went back to sleep until morning.

At breakfast, Einkil handed the Cliffshadow Freelancers a messenger bag, and Ricardo took charge of it.  He told them he'd arranged passage back on the fire elemental airship Pandion, captained by Nolan Mountainbeard.

As soon as the airship got past the Pembroke boundary, there wasn't much to see; a lot of the trip was in darkness with the Daystar "below" the Pandion when it wasn't also blocked by the central storm or Duquesne itself.   By the time they arrived in Cliffshadow, it was morning again, and everyone's inner clocks were so confused at the fast turnaround.

Arnari, on receipt of the pouch, paid each of them 100 eagles, on their badges.

The advent of the crested pteranodons created a stir; when Tomtom found out, he left Bucky behind, but wanted to pet them.  However when Arnari learned one was to become a mount for Dominic, she mentioned to Dominic that Freelancers wasn't there to become his personal zoo.

• Ricardo → lvl 3 eloquence bard!