2022/09/07

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms, the party continued interviewing potential high captains.

The party continued after their walking meeting with Matea, leaving only Nikolei the shipping magnate, Commander Elish Madigan of the Fingers Watch, and High Prelate Isabel Tieri of the Church of Morrow as their remaining people to interview. The party decided that Nikolei was the best to start with as they weren't that far from his place of business. Nikolei's office was at the main office for Kutzov Shipping an import export export company that moved to Five Fingers for tax benefits a couple years back. After talking to the receptionist, they were let in to have a meeting with Mr. Kutzov in his corner office. When the party told Nikolei that he was being considered for the role of high captain and what could he offer if promoted to the position he responded with a discounted rate for shipments bound for Five Fingers. Which would be rather helpful for the city state as most of their food needs to be imported as a result of their little agricultural land. The conversation also involved talking about the strategic and logistical importance of Five Fingers, as the city is situated at the mouth of the Dragon's Tongue River the city is an important port of resupply both for ships going to the cities further up the river, as well as for ships going north to south along the coast. This then transitioned into a discussion about Ord and their inevitable retribution. Nikolei stated that he would act as quartermaster in such a event, making sure supply lines remained viable and uncut. Lastly the party asked if he would be able to step away from his company in the event that he was made high captain. Mr. Kutzov replied that while owner and CEO of Kutzov Shipping there were many that he would feel confident delegating the day to day operations, and there were a few of them already dealt with some of that. Nikolei did have a question for the party and by extension the government, Five Fingers always has had a reputation of being a pirate port and that was unlikely to change, though Nikolei was wondering if the high captains were going to continue supporting piracy, and if so could he get a guarantee that his ships would be unhindered. The party answered as best as they could stating that none of the remaining high captains were affiliated with piracy and thus the sponsorship was unlikely to continue. Impressed by the potential, the party told Nikolei that they would be in touch if the city was moving forward with him as high captain and bid Mr. Kutzov a good day.

Next the party decided that they were going to visit the Church of Morrow to find High Prelate Tieri as they wanted just a little longer to let potential tensions settle between them and the Finger's Watch. Finding the church was not a difficult endeavor as the cathedral was a rather prominent building on Doleth Island. Heading inside at a time outside of worship, the party found Isabel tending to matters inside the cathedral. Isabel greeted the party and was surprised to learn that she was being considered for high captain, and questioned the motives of such a potential appointment. The party was frank and told Isabel that the hope was that by appointing an important member of the Church of Morrow that would add legitimacy to the new government with other nations that follow the church. Isabel was grateful for the honesty though had concerns about attaching her name, and the Church of Morrow to a new government that was recently born from revolution. Xavier did offer the rebuttal that how often are governments not born of violence. Isabel did accept that argument though stated that it remained yet to be seen whether this government was any better than the last one. The party made the final argument that if Isabel wanted the government to be different then her being a part of it would be a step in that direction. At that, Isabel left the party, stating that while not entirely opposed she would have to pray on the matter.

Finally the party had nobody else to visit than Commander Madigan, and with a little apprehension made their way to the Finger's Watch precinct. Once there they were greeted by the din of chaos and activity as there were many watchmen trying to deal with all the crime that goes on in Five Fingers. Eventually a watchman took note of the party and asked them what they were there for, when the party responded that they were there to talk to Commander Madigan on behalf of Atrixia Tideswell and the rest of the Five Fingers government they were told that Commander Madigan would be right out. A few minutes later they were greeted by the graying far too young face of Commander Madigan. The commander told the party that his office was a little too small for the all of them and if they wouldn't mind having their discussion in an interrogation room as it'd be a little quieter. The party agreed and was led to interrogation room 3 which was bare minus 4 chairs and a single bare arcantrik light hanging from the ceiling. The party then made their offer to Commander Madigan, who seemed rather receptive to the idea, seeing it as a way to get much needed funding to the Finger's Watch. The watch had always been chronically underfunded and understaffed with most of its support coming from Ord which in the wake of the revolution was now no longer coming. Commander Madigan lamented that funding was so bad that the watch wasn't able to outfit all of its watchmen with firearms, as the party experienced as on the eve of the revolution they fought with watchmen armed with crossbows instead of pistols. When asked as to if he could delegate his job to those below him Madigan replied that the role of Watch Commander has always been a more political role than not, and before the revolution much of his time was spend dealing with Ord and their nobles, and he supposed one way or another he was just going to be trading bosses. With that the party thanked Commander Madigan for his time and said that regardless of he he was given the nod for high captain they would look into increasing the budget for the Fingers Watch. As the door to the interrogation room was opened the noise of the watchmen bullpen returned and the party left to go reconvene with Atrixia and to pass along their initial impressions.