A Search On Griffin Back
"You're strapped in," Savra Belabranta, the griffon rider in front of Kuhl, called back. "But you might want to grab that pommel and definitely hold tight to your device."
The warning was delivered in a cadence of short phrases necessitated by the need to shout over the wind, then Savra yanked on the reins and emitted a series of sharp clicks with her tongue. Kuhl's stomach lurched as the griffon under him dove into a barreling roll.
After several passes over the city he'd gotten more comfortable with flying - even started relaxing enough to enjoy the experience - the whip of wind through his hair, the reassuring regular rhythmic beat of the griffon's wings, and the view of the city of Waterdeep from the air.
But this was something different.
The half-elf's whole world tilted and flipped as the griffon under him somersaulted and twisted through the air. For a brief instant that seemed to last far too long he found himself upside down and falling, heart seemingly lodged in his throat, and staring at the upturned faces of curious onlookers staring back up at him from the streets and alleys below. Then he was right side up again, heart feeling like it was now slammed into his stomach. The griffon's great wings unfurled and beat down on the air to regain the altitude they lost during their aerial tumble.
A streak flew past through the space they'd just occupied. Kuhl caught a glimpse of a giant raptor beak, golden feathers and outstretched talons followed by a tawny furred backside and a trailing tufted lion's tail. He also saw the mounted griffon rider in golden plate armor, the same style of armor as Savra wore, and the happily waving tabaxi saddled behind him.
"Looks like your friend convinced Rhen to do some combat maneuvers," Savra yelled back. "Bonesnapper could use the training."
"We're supposed to be…" the half-elf was forced to hold that thought as they arrowed after the other griffon.
He tensed up and held his breath, desperately wishing for a return to normal flying, until the two griffons disengaged from feinting at each other and leveled off again.
"Flying the city in a pattern," Kuhl yelled, finishing his thought.
"Relax," Savra said. "We're back at it. Keep an eye on your device - and leave the flying to me. Also, I said grab the pommel, not my shoulder. You're interfering with my rein work."
The half-elf certainly didn't want to do anything that would interfere with her handling of their mount. He shifted his inadvertent white knuckle grip off the woman's pauldron to the pommel in front of him and looked at the nimblewright detecting device in his other hand. The little umbrella at the top was collapsed to keep it from being torn off by the wind up here. It wasn't spinning, indicating no nimblewrights nearby.
With only one nimblewright detector they only needed one griffon and one of them up here to accompany the rider, but a certain tabaxi insisted they tell the Open Lord to requisition four, which meant that same tabaxi was now on a separate mount and free to beg to be shown some mock aerial combat. He had no idea where Aleina and Jhelnae were.
"Getting aerial tours," Dawnbringer answered in his mind. "By two very handsome griffon cavalry officers."
Kuhl sighed, he had noticed the two young men looked rather impressive in their golden plate and also noticed their easy confident smiles as they introduced the aasimar and half-drow to the griffons. He saw them now, flying in a lazy circle over the City of the Dead around the towering monument holding the statue of Ahghairon.
"The Great Drunkard is coming up again on our left," Savra announced.
They'd finished the sweep of the Sea Ward, part of the North Ward and were almost done with the Castle Ward. The Great Drunkard was one of the Colossal Walking Statues of Waterdeep. Supposedly the Black Staff of the city could animate these great statues when the city was in peril. This statue was of a seated bearded man, posture hunched and chin down like, as the name implied, a passed out drunk. Someone, during its last century of dormancy, decided it would be a good idea to build a tavern in the statue's lap. Construction also partially covered the immense stone ax laying beside it. The half-elf hoped that, if this particular walking statue was ever needed, the Blackstaff would first evacuate the buildings atop it and its ax. He'd seen the statue from street level of course, but an aerial view gave a new perspective of how much it appeared ready to rise up and wreak havoc on Waterdhavian threats.
"So, this is your every day?" Kuhl asked as they swept past the Great Drunkard and on over the buildings at the eastern edge of the massive maze of merchant stalls and tents of the open air Market of Waterdeep.
Wafting scents from below included the spice wares and the cook fires from the eatery stands. The haggling merchants and customers barely gave a glance upward at the griffon overhead.
"This," Savra said. "Is my every day. Quite a view, right?"
"Quite a view," the half-elf agreed.
"Of course it isn't always like this," the griffon rider said. "There are rainy days. Snowy days. Hot days. Being up here then is not so pleasant. And if a flight of dragons ever attacks the city, Bonesnapper and I will be sent out to lance them. Probably get burned to cinders."
"People always assume red dragons and fire," Dawnbringer mentally observed. "Could also get frozen into falling icicles by whites, lighting blasted out of the sky by blues, sprayed by a spewing stream of acid by blacks…"
"So, it isn't all," Savra continued, unaware of the sentient sword's telepathic ramble. "Getting orders from the Open Lord to fly about people with a strange device."
The half-elf pursed his lips. The griffon rider, not for the first time on this flight, fished for information, but what the companions sought and why wasn't his information to share. They worked as agents of Laeral Silverhand directly, not for Waterdeep, no matter the badges they bore or what resources of the city she gave them access to. Kuhl was uncomfortable with this, it felt like deception, a blurring of her duties as Open Lord and the woman herself. But then again this woman was the Chosen and daughter of the goddess Mystra and had over seven centuries of life experience compared to his less than three decades.
"How did you become an officer in the Griffon Cavalry?" he asked, yelling over the wind and changing the subject.
"Born into it," she yelled back. "We Belabrantas have been raising and riding griffons for the city for generations."
"So, her children will likely be griffon riders as well," Dawnbringer reasoned.
"Don't even think it," Kuhl said telepathically.
But it was too late.
"That presents possibilities," the sentient sword thought. "You are male, she is female, compatible ages. I know you tried to envision her figure under her plate armor when you met her, so she caught your interest and I saw the considering look she gave you."
"What!" the half-elf mentally protested, "I did no such thing."
"Imagine it, my next bearer descended from a noble line of griffon riders..."
Apparently his blade of radiance did just that, because she went silent into her own musings.
In the time Savra had given a bit of family history and Dawnbringer conjured a blissful fantasy of her next bearer, Bonesnapper had carried them beyond the Market and they now flew over the row houses and upscale shops and businesses of the North Ward. Here most of the residents did look up, especially the children, pointing and tugging at the dresses of their nannies excitedly. The nimblewright detector in the half-elf's hand remained still, not even spinning a little.
"For her first time flying," Savra called back. "Your friend is fearless!"
She pointed and Kuhl saw the griffon carrying Sky in the middle of a twirling steep dive that became a swoop skyward.
"She is a tabaxi," the half-elf said by way of explanation.
"They're all so fearless?" the griffon rider asked.
"She's actually the only one I've ever met," Kuhl yelled, surprised to realize this was true as he now considered tabaxis as something familiar. "But you must have been fearless your first time as well? Griffon riding runs in your blood."
Savra barked a laugh.
"One of my earliest memories is being terrified of heights," she yelled. "I don't know how old I was or even if it was my first flight. Got braver once I had this."
She held up her leather clad left hand and waggled her fingers.
"Under my glove is a Ring of Feather Fall," Savra explained. "All the griffon cavalry are issued one."
"What about passengers?" Kuhl asked, knowing full well he had not been given a magic ring that would slow his fall from a great height.
"Hopefully their griffon rider," the woman said, her raised tone light. "Would try and save them. Maybe grab hold before activating their ring."
"Try?" the half-elf asked.
"Best I can promise," Savra yelled with a shrug of plate armored shoulders.
"Fair enough," Kuhl said with a chuckle.
"Well," the griffon rider called back. "That is the east part of the North Ward done."
On their right the High Road, the main north-south thoroughfare bisecting Waterdeep, ran through the inner North Gate. All manner of traffic - pedestrians, oxcarts, horse carriages and riders - congested even with the portcullis drawn up and the heavy timber gate doors open. Guards in polished steel breastplates atop the towers on either side of the gate straightened from leaning on their pole arms, lifted helmeted heads, and sketched salutes at Bonesnapper's approach.
On the other side of the inner wall, bordered by the outer wall to the north, lay the Field Ward - the slums of Waterdeep. The residents of the North Ward, Kuhl included, tended to conveniently forget what was just outside their upscale district. This despite the fact that most businesses and households of the North Ward employed those who called the poorer area home.
But from up in the air, on the back of a griffon, the presence of the Field Ward could not be ignored. It was a ramshackle mish mash of haphazardly constructed buildings with hard packed dirt roads and alleys threaded throughout. It wasn't part of the city proper and, as the half-elf understood it, was formerly a caravan and troop mustering field between the inner and outer wall. But Waterdeep had collected refugees during crises over the centuries and, generations later, their descendants remained.
Savra pulled on the reins to turn Bonesnapper to fly along the inner wall and the half-elf got an extended bird's eye view of how the wall, meant to protect against invaders, had become the representation of a division between affluence and poverty.
"Your drow friend," the griffon rider called back. "She lives there?"
The woman pointed at the Dancing Haven they flew over, the mostly roofless, burnt out former villa whose grove filled interior now served as a shrine of Eilistraee. Kuhl had trained there, sparring with the moon dancer, Trelasarra Zuind, and then having a cup of kaeth and a bouqthi pastry with her while hearing stories about the drow grandmother he'd never met. That seemed so long ago, but was actually only a few months prior. Trelasarra had wanted Jhelnae to join their Eilistraeen enclave, probably still wanted her to, and had even received the enthusiastic approval of this from Jhelnae's mother via sending spell. Only the moondancer and her fellow priestesses leaving the city for an unknown mission for the Open Lord had kept the issue from coming to a head.
The half-elf shook his head then realized Savra couldn't see that.
"She lives with us," he yelled. "We own a tavern. The Trollskull."
He wasn't able to keep a possessive emphasis out of the word 'us' after remembering Trelasarra's plan to enlist Jhelnae in the Eilistraeen effort to restore their lost Promenade of the Dark Maiden near Skullport.
"Too bad," the griffon rider said. "I wanted to ask where do they stay when it rains or snows? They have no roof."
That Kuhl could answer because Trelasarra had given him a tour.
"There are basement levels," he said. "That they have expanded to a subterranean complex."
"Subterranean levels," Savra said with a nod of her helmeted head. "Makes sense. You own a tavern?"
"The Trollskull," he repeated, pointing. "Not far from here. A few blocks south. Near the corner of Saerdoun and Windborne."
His statement of it being 'a few blocks south' was less and less true with every flap of the griffon's wings. Savra guided Bonesnapper to follow the inner wall which curved to take strategic advantage of the cliff top location of Waterdeep and by the time the griffon rider yelled her reply they flew south rather than east and the Trollskull was actually to the west. Their flight path prompted the guards on the watchtowers they flew by to look up and mark their passing. On the other side of the wall the plateau fell away and the slums of Field Ward was replaced by a sheer cliff down to the fields and forest to the west of Waterdeep. From his aerial vantage Kuhl saw the buildings of the Snobeedle Meadery, the orchards associated with it, other farms, and beyond that the Vanderwood Forest. This brought memories and regret of the oni-slain Dryad of Vanderwood.
"If a Waterdhavian Calvary member," the griffon rider said, pulling the half-elf from his thoughts. "Who kindly flew you around the city, was to show up at your tavern, would you buy her a drink?"
"She wants you to buy her a drink!" Dawnbringer proclaimed, mental voice excited. "A common preliminary mating ritual. Since you seem less versed in such rituals than my previous bearers let me recommend an affirmative response."
Kuhl was glad the wind of their flight and the beat of wings against the air kept the sigh he breathed inaudible.
"Even more than one," he answered, inadvertently following his sentient sword's advice.
"Would your drink generosity extend a little further?" Savra asked. "To my companion? The one flying your tabaxi friend? A lady should bring along her betrothed, I suppose."
"All four of you who flew us are welcome," the half-elf said, cringing a bit at misjudging her intentions. "Of course."
"Misjudging her intentions?" Dawnbringer mentally scoffed. "She went from a coy 'would you buy me a drink' to 'by the way I'm betrothed and would you buy him one too?' She intentionally misled you."
"I'm glad you included the other two without me prompting by pressing further," the griffon rider said, slyness in her voice. "You're going to help me maintain morale and remind them they have a good commander, one clever enough to get them a round of free drinks when she learns she is escorting a tavern owner."
She tapped the side of her helmet with a gloved hand.
Kuhl chuckled. She'd tricked him, but in a fashion that very much reminded him of the days of soldier camaraderie from when he'd served in the Tomb Guard of Evereska. But this threatened to bring sad memories, images of bodies strewn on the desert sand, to the forefront of his mind and he pushed the thought aside.
"More than a round," he said. "Come on by and we'll make a night of it. Least we can do for an impromptu aerial tour of the city."
"I'll hold you to that," Savra said, tone light and bantering. "And you're right."
The wall they had been flying over ended with a tower and the broad cobble walkway and the park-like area known as Cliffwatch began. Here the cliff was considered so high, sheer, and unscalable that no wall was needed. Below, Waterdhavian residents took in the afternoon view to the west from the walkway or sat or laid out on blankets in the grassy areas. The griffon flying relatively low overhead once again garnered curious looks. Kuhl had been keeping an eye on the nimblewright detector. It still had not stirred.
"You should ask if she has a griffon riding sister or female cousin," the sentient sword said in Kuhl's mind, not giving up on her fantasy of her next bearer yet. "One preferably not betrothed. Much younger is fine as you're a half-elf, longer lived than humans, so you can wait and let her grow up a bit."
By the time Dawnbringer accepted Kuhl would not be asking that question, they had flown the length of Cliffwatch. The outer wall began again at the walls of the City of the Dead. This afternoon, and probably most others on spring and summer days, it seemed more a place of the living than of the dead. Few of the many visitors stood solemnly in front of tombstones or mausoleums, instead chatting and laughing amiably as they ambled along the paths or taking their leisure on picnic blankets amidst the lush greenery while children at play raced around or climbed upon nearby marble and stone monuments and sculptures.
But under Savra's direction Bonesnapper wheeled just before entering the graveyard and they winged their way northward to continue their sweep of the North Ward before starting on other districts.
"The Swordmaiden," Savra announced. "Well, her head anyway."
Ahead, in a small stand of trees, stood a giant stone head of a helmeted woman. This was, or had been, another of the colossal walking statues. Kuhl had walked past her many times as she was near the Trollskull. Her body had been destroyed long ago - so the story went - but her head was at some point hollowed out and now converted to a shop run by a wizened wizard and crammed full of all sorts of oddments found by the proprietor on his adventures or purchased by him from other adventurers. As if all this wasn't strange enough, nothing was for sale, only for brief rental, and the owner seemed primarily interested in acquiring more. During Kuhl's sole curiosity driven visit to the shop the wizard had hobbled after him, cane thunking, and repeatedly asked if the half-elf wanted to part with the sword hilt at his belt and how it would 'fetch a good price'.
A slight vibration in the hand carrying the nimblewright detector brought Kuhl out from the memory of practically running out of the shop and into the present. A glance showed the closed umbrella head turning, something even the buffeting winds during flight had failed to do so far. It spun slowly at first, but gained speed as they progressed northward. The half-elf eyed it in surprise as it spun faster and faster until it started slowing.
"What is below us?" he yelled, looking for himself. "Circle back!"
A look over the lion hind quarters of the griffon gave him a glimpse of a villa - an elegant masonry building surrounded by a high wall which also enclosed a garden courtyard and stables. He got a better look at it as Savra brought Bonesnapper into an arcing turn. It wasn't far from the Trollskull, only a few blocks to the east, and the nimblewright detector spun faster the closer they got to the villa. Kuhl suddenly felt foolish. They'd been convinced they needed to search the entire city, but all they really needed to do was start at the last place they knew their quarry had been, where it threw the fireball, and expand out from there.
Nim at the House of Inspired Hands and the fireball-nimblewright seem to favor rooftops. So, the half-elf's gaze searched the slate tiles of this villa's roof and the wood shingles of the stable building, but found no mechanical man. While plenty of pedestrian and carriage traffic plied the cobbles of the surrounding streets, the garden courtyard of the villa was quiet and empty.
"Who lives there?" he yelled pointing.
Savra shrugged her armored soldiers.
"A noble family or wealthy merchant, obviously," she said. "Not familiar with this particular one."
"Can you bring us down?" Kuhl asked.
"We have cause?" the griffon rider asked. "Reason to suspect wrongdoing? Something suspicious?"
"Maybe," the half-elf said, looking at the spinning nimblewright detector.
But that alone wasn't proof it was the nimblewright they sought. It could be another, one purchased by a wealthy owner to serve as a servant and its proximity to the Trollskull mere coincidence.
Savra shook her helmeted head.
"We don't land in courtyards of wealthy powerful people on maybes," she yelled. "Or drop a griffon down in the middle of a busy street and cause a stir without reason. The rules of where we land and when, believe it or not, are quite strict."
Kuhl believed it. Fear of abuse in the use of the Griffon Cavalry likely accompanied its inception. It made sense for restrictions to be in place.
"How close can you get me?" he asked.
"Farwatch Tower is large enough for us to land," she said. "Not far to the north."
"That will work," the half- elf said.
"Gather your friends?" the griffon rider asked.
"Yes," he said.
He no more than spoke the word and Savra pulled on the reins and clicked with her tongue. Bonesnapper beat his wings hard and they climbed into the air at a steep enough angle to make Kuhl queasy. Up and up they ascended, the half-elf clinging to the saddle pommel with a death grip until they attained a great height. Then Bonesnapper emitted a piercing shriek that made Kuhl wince before the flying mount dropped into a steep dive.
"Had to get high enough not to disturb residents," Savra yelled conversationally over the rushing air. "So he could be loud enough for the other griffons to hear."
The half-elf - teeth gritted, face scrunched, eyes mostly closed, and heart pounding - didn't answer. He was forced to tense up and push hard with his palm against the saddle pommel to keep his head from slamming into the griffon rider's armored back when Bonesnapper unfurled his wings and slowed them. With a couple of guiding flaps the griffon alighted atop the tower in front of them, landing quite gently, clawed hind legs and taloned forelegs clicking on the tower roof as guards scrambled back to make space.
"My companion is getting off," Savra called out. "Get him unharnessed and help him dismount."
It seemed a landing griffon was not a completely uncommon occurrence because a guard went to either side of Kuhl and started working on the buckles.
"You want us covert or overt?" the griffon rider asked, turning in the saddle to look at the half elf.
"Covert or overt?" he asked.
"People tend to notice a squadron of griffons circling overhead," Savra explained. "Covert we vacate the area. Let you handle it. Don't draw attention. Overt we circle, show aerial support, it serve as an awing presence ready to act."
This might all be nothing. Just a noble family with a nimblewright servant that had nothing to do with the fireball in front of the Trollskull. Also, Kuhl and his companions worked for Laeral Silverhand directly, not for Waterdeep.
"Covert," he said. "This could be a false lead."
"False lead on what?" the griffon rider asked, still fishing for information.
"Maybe I'll be able to tell you about it," the half-elf said, as the guards helped him dismount. "If I can. When you and your men come by the Trollskull for drinks."
"Well, until then," she said, favoring him with a wink and a smile.
She waved, flicked the reins and clicked with her tongue as Kuhl was guided away. Under her, Bonesnapper crouched then leapt up and spread his wings. For a brief instant the half-elf just admired the tableau of the giant part eagle part lion with a rider in golden plate armor on its back against the afternoon skyline, then he and all the guards raised their arms to shield their eyes from the buffeting air as the griffon flapped away.
"And that image is why I dream of a future griffon riding bearer," Dawnbringer said in Kuhl's mind. "Can you picture the same scene with the rider also holding aloft a blazing radiant sword?"
He could, and had to admit it would be very impressive.
"Griffon incoming!" a guard yelled.
The half-elf glanced up and saw the griffon carrying Sky descending. They too landed and Sky was assisted out of her harness by the tower guards.
"That was fun!" the tabaxi said, voice practically purring with contentment as she joined Kuhl. "But too short! Unless you found something? You must have!"
Her golden eyes narrowed with curiosity as she glanced at the nimblewright detector in his hand.
Kuhl told her of how the device started spinning above the villa located so close to the Trollskull that they needn't have bothered with the griffons or flying about the city. Walking with the nimblewright detector in a widening pattern from their tavern, the place of the fireball, would have accomplished the same thing and in far less time.
"Then it worked out for the best," Sky said, shrugging and tail lashing. "Now if only you'd been smart enough to not tell them you might have found something until after we got more flying in. But what's done is done. Here come Aleina and Jhelnae. Once they land, let's go take a look at this villa."
So in preparation for this chapter I read the griffon riding side bar of the module. It said you had to pass an animal handling check and seemed to indicate the character just rode the griffon around if it passed. Then I reread my AO3 friend's chapter with griffon riding (Pariah's Descent into Avernus) and he didn't have his party being escorted by griffon riders. I didn't double check, but I'm guessing he followed what Descent into Avernus said. Now for Avernus it makes some sense. The griffons are flying people someplace and they could be trained the route (or have the destination telepathically given to them). But the systematic search of a city? It just didn't work for me. Also... its a GRIFFON. Its like the fantasy equivalent of, "Here are the keys to the F-35, please bring it back in one piece..."
So I switched it up.
This was a TOUGH one for me to write for some reason. That and a crushing amount of work was the reason for the long delay. No, I am NOT playing Baldur's Gate 3, I do wish I was. It sounds very good!