Zoom 2021-07-22 21:00

The party agrees to accept the ‘tasks’ that Kahu has offered them – our plan is to lay the groundwork for the two investigations (anti-Rasten rumours and SARN temple), then go off to look for White Nightshade in the estuary.

We check with Kahu what the ‘rules of engagement’ are – and she stresses that ***within the city*** we must not draw weapons against any Elf of Dark Elf – should we find any Elves involved with the anti-Rasten plotting (or even SARN) we should ‘call for “help” ’ rather than fight.

F. has strong misgivings about this enterprise thinking that we are being hung out to dry – and the fact that Kahu was ‘too busy’ to chat to us further shows just how little support we are likely to get.

Q. offers the White Nightshade cuttings from the Diamond Fort to Kahu, and a herbalist helps Q plant them within the Nature Shrine.

The party goes off to find lodgings for a couple of nights in the Home Farm District – on the grounds that that is the best place to pick up rumours aimed at the (currently) free humans. We find a place charging 3sp/pp/pn – Joshua starts bargaining and is offered 5 nights for the price of 4 which he thinks is a bad deal as we only want 2 or 3 nights – but the rest of the party think this is a good idea and so the offer is accepted. Meals will be 1sp/pp/pn extra – to be ‘ordered’ on the day.

**For the rest of the day:**

F. and J. go round the markets finding out general gossip etc, and F. is keen to talk to any ‘reformed’ ex-slavers. There are just standard goods at the market – as the city’s main commerce used to be slaves, there is no other specialisation or ‘USP’ to the commercial sector. Then J. goes to the Trade Shrine for personal reasons – and G. also goes there as a Perceval worshipper.

Caradoc tries to find and engage some street urchins for information gathering – but there are hardly any around. So he then goes on to the Hall of Rogues.

The Hall of Rogues is a pretty free and easy place – there are Elves and Dark Elves happily training with humans and other races (except dwarves!). It is very much a place of ‘dirty deeds done dirt cheap’ and provides training for thieves and assassins as well as the nefarious subclasses of fighter, ranger and monk. There is a ‘membership’ fee of 10gp that allows members access to a ‘shop’ (supplies superior lock picks, trapping equipment, poisons and antidotes etc.)

Quercuis, accompanied by Wun and Brokev, go to the farming areas (ie outside the city walls) to do general ‘good deeds’ with first-aid, cure disease, CLWs etc and get the farmers’ gossip.

D&H sit on a park bench and watch the world go by.

U. goes looking for a Berserker trainer. With a few gold in his pocket to pay for drinks, he goes on a pub crawl. He returns to the lodgings at about 9:00ish pretty shit-faced – so Wun slaps a slow-poison on him to find out what he has been up to. With the main effects of the alcohol (temporarily) muted, he explains that he didn’t have much luck (though plenty to drink) at the first 3 or 4 pubs that he tried, but about the 5th one he got drinking with some people (a giant and two humans) and got quite friendly with them, and later a couple more humans joined them. One of his drinking buddies said that he had a contact who knows a Barbarian trainer (apparently he is a retired fighter who is currently working the land). This buddy (who did **not** have an old slave brand on his cheek) told Umar to come back on the day after tomorrow – and on the way out, slipped Umar a small pamphlet (which Umar bunged in his pocket.) When the party asked Umar to show it to them, the by-now wrinkled and soiled pamphlet proved to be a piece of paper with a somewhat crude depiction of an Elf, with a red cross drawn over it. Umar thinks that he would be able to re-trace his route back to this pub.

**The next day:**

The party decided that it is probably worth getting both Caradoc and Joshua to become ‘members’ of the Hall of Rogues (with the idea that Joshua will do the trading there.) Beforehand, Garaf takes the Solaran assassin’s poison-application dagger-sheath, and the poison, to the Trade shrine for valuation: For a fee of 2gp the sheath is valued at 25-35gp. For 1sp we are told that the poison is a well recognised one from the West, and the Hall of Rogues will probably have some to sell – it is worth about 5-10sp.

Joshua and Caradoc become members of the Hall of Rogues (Caradoc is only charged 8gp as they are interested in his Mageblade specialisation) – and the dagger sheath is sold for 33gp. [Darrell to provide a list of ‘goods’ now available to us.]

Joshua also has a further appointment at the Trade Shrine.

Other characters continue with their various information-gathering.

**There will be no Zoom session on the 29th July**

F's principal targets are well-to-do humans He wants to talk to them about how the elves are treating them, and how they expect to be treated in the future, and whether they might be willing to help set up a scheme to ransom slaves. As a do-gooder, his cover is ransoming slaves.

He will be interested in anyone who quotes the propaganda, and asking who suggested this to them. They might also have ideas where orcs might be hiding within the city.

His secondary aim is to find a freedman, with a repentant slave (ex-trader) to pump about how slaver operations worked within the city. and outside. Where orcs might hide in the city, and where operations were conducted with Ghoulagabba.