20: The Trade Floor

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## Summary

### It’s Not a Hotel, You Know

Peeks reenters his modest living room with a tray of tea and a healthy curiosity for whatever it is Cat is reading. Recognizing the text to be in Sylvan, he asks if Cat minds if he takes a look, and to the surprise of no one, Cat minds. Peeks and Cat engage in a brief battle over the tome while the rest of the gang sips their tea.

When Cat finally relents, Peeks skims through some pages and seems quite surprised by what he finds. Connecting some dots himself, he asks the party if they’ve ever been to one of the temples scattered around the city. He then tells them about the Coalition, a rebel group opposing the nobility, who leveled the temples and received death sentences for their trouble. While the citizens are hush-hush about it in the wake of the High Council’s act of retribution, Peeks mentions they can find out more in the library’s old news archives.

The party faces its next problem in short order: whether to meet up with Bevin and Bevan and settle their score, or whether to risk running into them elsewhere. They hatch a plan to polymorph Luca into the golden monkey they set free and auction him off, hoping to make a deal with the pair of smugglers they scorned. But before they make for the Fishhead Tavern, Peeks gives them two tips: schmooze and booze them, and whatever they do, don’t mention Pombo.

### The Fishhead Tavern

Peeks leads the gang to the Fishhead, and as soon as they enter, they feel eyes on them around the room. Evidently, the Fishhead is a favorite hangout of Smuggler’s Guild members, who all seem to be expecting them. Before Luca can even buy them a pair of drinks, the two gnomish smugglers are hurling insults at the party, with Peeks caught in the crossfire. After a tense exchange and much deliberation on Bevin and Bevan’s parts, the party convince them of their plan to auction off Luca. To seal the deal, as is apparently customary for guildmembers, they play a round of Liar’s Dice. Bran shocks the whole table, and Tira quietly wins several sets before Bevin and Bevin take the final round.

### Ah Shit, Here We Go Again

Plan in place, Peeks takes the gang to check out the trade floor now that the real fun has begun. They see a maze of tents, and among the crowd, a familiar face: Crow, the “antiques dealer” from Lhoam, this time sans son. Mujie and Cat search for silvered weapons to help against any potential wererats, and noticing their surprise at the frankly ridiculous prices, Peeks advises them that the vendors are more likely to be flexible as the days progress. Elsewhere, Luca, already somewhat hungover from downing all three of the drinks intended for himself and the Bevxns, buys himself some smuggled Meranhi coffee and liquor.

Next, the auctions begin, and the party bag themselves a bag of holding to the tune of 175 gold. Finally, the hour approaches to pull off their monkey stunt, and they find themselves deadlocked with a sunglasses-wearing buyer of unknown origin. With the help of a little magic and a lot of posturing, Mujie goads the buyer into dropping some serious coin for what will only end up being Luca anyway, and thanks to their deal with the Bevxns, the party walk away 250 gold richer.

## Quotes

### *I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN ELVISH:*

> “Yeah, I can read the Old Tongue. Took it back in school. Everyone said it’d be useless, and I mean, it kinda is, but, y’know. If you’re into, like, ancient poetry and plays, and shit, well.”
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*—Peeks*

### *YOU DIDN'T HEAR THIS FROM ME:*

> “Hey, you know—talking about this kinda stuff can get you in real trouble around here. Like, the dragged-through-the-streets-behind-a-horse kind.
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> "But, there was this rebel group in the city, years ago. Looked out for the little guys, tired of the nobility, you know the type. But one year, a while back, they destroyed the old temples, and all the shrines around the city. Couldn’t tell you why. They were only ruins, really, even before the coalition burned them down, but the High Council really, uh. Made a real example out of them. I don’t think any of them lived.”
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> “I only came to K’nafay after it all happened, but you can read about it in the old news archives at the library. Careful who you ask about it, though, ‘cause the Council has eyes and ears everywhere.”
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*—Peeks*

### *LOW BLOW, BEVIN:*

> PEEKS: “Bullshit, that monkey was 3 grand, tops, and you know it.”
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> BEVAN: “Hey stay outta this I thought this wasn't your beef!”
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> BEVIN: “Yeah can it Peeks don't you have a divorce to cry over?!”
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