The Mayor & The Underbelly

**Story Arcs**

###### **DUE RECOMPENSE**

Silent Peepo reminds the group that he's owed a hefty sum of coin from the mayor of Jaskir, and he would very much appreciate going there. The group comes along, Bogladin needing to come for his own reasons, to meet with the leader of this city.

Silent Peepo leads the group through the Upper Commons, through the Noble's District and eventually to the mayors home, Stowen Manor. As they head up towards the entrance they can hear music playing and the sound of festivities and cheer. They knock and a old woman asks for their business, Ashes and Peepo ask to speak with the mayor and she tells the group to wait; taking 5 minutes to return and unlock the door to allow them inside.

They are led through a fantastic foyer/dining room area that seems to be in use by some nobility at the moment. They keep being led through the estate, through a library, then through a reading room and finally to the mayors office.

The mayor greets them and tells them to take a seat, Silent Peepo sits in a chair very lax while she asks for them to explain their business. Bogladin explains his reasoning first and hands off the letter he has that was written by Master Zack Krafe addressed towards her. She finishes reading it and nods in agreement to herself, saying that she will assist Bogladin in reaching the Western Kingdoms whenever he wishes to go.

Silent Peepo coughs and waves, Lawretta Stowen apologizes and goes to her safe and pulls out 50 platinum coins which she puts in a small leather bag that she tosses over to him. She asks what happened and he retells the situation, and makes her aware that everyone in the room present (Leopold, Ashes, Bogladin and Peepo) are aware of what happened there, and that there wasn't any survivors as far as he knows.

The mayor seems upset at this great loss, and asks if they recovered anything important from the ruins; Ashes produces the book titled "The Gold Star" and before Silent Peepo leaves the room, he gives the small key he found in the locked desk. The masked blood hunter leaves the room to count his coin.

Lawretta uses the key to unlock the tome, which she says is written in draconic. She quickly skims over the text and closes it, saying thank you for producing this as she will need some time to uncover any information from it. She asks if there is any more business that needs to be addressed.

Ashes asks if she is aware of the molestation of his people's forest being done by her citizens, namely the "Jaskir Lumber Company". Lawretta looks shocked at this revelation, even more so when Ashes slams his hands down on the table, and knocks off some papers and the unlocked tome onto the floor.

She looks completely shocked and unaware of what he's speaking of, and tries to calm him down by stating that she's known the owner of the company for a long time and that they have an agreement with the Amertia Goliaths leader Daneul; pointing to the signed document on the wall behind her. She says she'll arrange a meeting with Cedric so that they can all clear this misunderstanding up, but she'll need some time.

##### 🔨**THE LEGENDARY BLACKSMITH - CHAPTER 3**

Sighing after collecting her things off the floor and sitting down, she asks if there's anything else that needs to be discussed. Ashes brings up the matter of Smitty Jaskir, and her worried and frightened face immediately scowls into a sour angry look. The instant she heard that name her expression shifted dramatically.

She asks why Ashes brought up that name, and he tells her that he's begging to be given back his citizenship after being exiled for so long. She asks if they know why he was banished, and they say that he accidentally killed someone while he was drunk.

She brings up the fact that he didn't specify who he killed, which she gives the revelation that it was actually her younger brother who was training to become a knight; working as a waiter at a bar to earn extra money for his family. He stepped in front of the confrontation between Smitty and another and acted like a shield, being pushed down a flight of stairs killing him once he reached the bottom.

Ashes tries to his best ability to convince her, Bogladin attempts as well but its to no avail, she tells the group to come back later when she's in a better mood to discuss this again. They all head out and make their way back to the Ramshackle Smith, their property.

##### 👥**MAIN GROUP - CHAPTER 10**

###### **HAMMERING OUT FRUSTRATIONS**

The group make their way to their newly acquired home and Ashes immediately gets the forge hot with what little is left of the coal and wood; trying to vent out some frustration in a crafting project. He spends roughly 3-4 hours and creates a very rough but functional butcher knife which lacks a handle.

While Ashes crafts, Bogladin heads out and tries to seek out a means to exterminate the rodent problem in the basement. Silent Peepo heads out and does his own shopping, and Leopold goes off somewhere too.

Bogladin encounters a woman named Rita who is leading two cows with her somewhere. Bogladin ends up earning her favor and is told to go to a pest control shop named Roscoe's Rod-Ends. The store is actually not very far away from the Ramshackle Smith, and Bogladin goes in and speaks with the owner, Roscoe.

Bogladin ends up buying a large jar of rat poison for 200 gold pieces, and since the monk name dropped Rita, the owner offered to have his help assist him with the problem, or at least give him a estimate. Bogladin waits 30 minutes and meets Rimmy, a estatic limping young man who follows him to the Basement of the Ramshackle Smith.

Being led down the stairs into the basement, Rimmy polymorphs himself into a rat and investigates the problem area. He takes around 10 minutes to come back which worries the patiently waiting Bogladin, but when he comes back and brushes himself off after changing back to his human form, Rimmy explains the depth of the rat issue; stating that there is at-least 60 or more rats to deal with in this burrow.

##### 🐀**JASKIR PEST CONTROL - CHAPTER 1**

###### **SMELLS LIKE RAT**

Ashes finishes crafting his blade and comes down to investigate the visitor. Silent Peepo comes back around this time with a hand pulled cart and some other things.

Rimmy offers to help deal with the rats if he is paid some amount, the Bogladin and the group deny his aid and he leaves the house. Bogladin starts to place the poison powder around the rat hole barricade, and places it around 8 5x5 square feet.

Ashes becomes impatient and just decides to go and push the barricade, and to look through. This disturbs the burrow and rats start to come through curiously. The group deal with the large rat and rat swarm with relatively little damage sustained to themselves.

Heading deeper the group see lots of rat activity in the shadows, lighting a torch and using some basic animal scare tactics the group manage to traverse deeper into this rat burrow, finding bleached skeletal remains of humanoids here. The trio move in deeper and find a sewer entrance

##### 🕳️**THE UNDERBELLY OF JASKIR - CHAPTER 1**

###### **PLUNGING INTO A SEWER**

The trio head into the opened sewer entrance, but Ashes accidentally sets off a explosive trap which detonates near him and Bogladin. They tough it out and the group see that heading further means plunging down into a dark pit. Bogladin drops a torch into the pit which instantly dies as it touches some body of water after a long fall.

Using a rope tied to where the trap mechanism was attached to, Bogladin makes his way down but steps on some sharp makeshift caltrops, which he manages to push aside to allow the others to come here without getting hurt.

The rest of the group make their way through, and Bogladin triggers but evades a snare trap. Staying more keen to traps, Bogladin spots another just a short distance further, and activates it with his staff. It triggers and he moves on ahead with the group.

The trio see sign of life down here with a mossy cast iron skillet, a beautifully crafted elven pearl dagger, soap and a sponge. Bogladin takes the knife and Peepo takes the skillet. Moving on the group see a small area with rays of sunlight peeking through the darkness, with plants growing around the area.

Peepo hears a monstrous noise and pulls back the two, telling them to stay quiet. Ashes' armor clanks and alerts the grick to their presence. which begins to attack them. Bogladin goes down during the fight, but is quickly brought back to his feet during combat, and the trio defeat the grick.

Bogladin finds various coins and potions inside its voracious body after cutting into it with his new dagger.

##### 🕳️**THE UNDERBELLY OF JASKIR - CHAPTER 2**

###### **FURTHER INTO JASKIR'S SEWERS**

The trio move further into the sewers, stepping past the gutted grick. Delving deeper, they encounter a ladder that leads towards the surface, and a dead end leading to a rubble locked sewer grate; with a keeled over giant frog and a large crab nibbling away at its decaying body. Ashes nearly decides to move on, but his thought is interrupted when Bogladin asks if he would like to consider the ladder first before pressing on further.

Ashes agrees and decides to turn around and head up the ladder, which ascends upwards for 60 feet until it reaches a large metal grate keeping the entrance closed from the surface, as well as a large wooden cart that had also made its way on top of the grate, adding more challenge in attempting to move it. Ashes succeeds but it takes him 15 minutes of struggled wedging to get the grate to move so they could all escape the stench of the sewers.

**Story Arcs**