2022/08/31

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms, the politicking began.

The afternoon after the fight with Kilbride, the party met back up at Undertow as Atrixia requested. The bar was mostly empty as Atrixia greeted the party at the counter of the bar and explained that while the party had been extremely useful at removing the problematic elements within Five Fingers's previous government, the time had come for rebuilding. And the first thing to that end was appointing new High Captains to replace those who were removed or killed. Atrixia and Riordan had come to the agreement that 5 High Captain positions was fitting, and going in accordance with that Riordan and Atrixia had two of those positions, and the party had promised another to Captain D'Lamsyn for his assistance in dealing with Waernuk. Which leaves two open positions to be filled. Atrixia respects the party and as she had promised Charlotte she was not going to treat them as mere pawns and thus she asked them to talk to the potential replacements and to give their opinion on the options. In true Five Fingers fashion the open positions were to be used to curry favor and influence with some of the factions within the city.

The party agreed to talk to the potentials and Atrixia began to lay out what she knew about the potential new High Captains. First was High Prelate Isabel Tieri, the head of the Church of Morrow in Five Fingers. While the Church of Morrow never held as much influence in Five Fingers it does in other places, the Church as a whole was still as fairly powerful entity, especially on the international stage. Next was Commander Eilish Madigan, the commander of the Fingers Watch, Five Fingers's limited police force. The watch suffered losses during the revolution and potentially raising the commander of the watch to High Captain would smooth over tensions within the city. The subsequent file was thinner than the previous two and was on Nikolei Kutzov, a Khadoran shipping magnate who had come to Five Fingers a couple years back and now ran his company from the city. Kutzov had money and connections and if appointed would likely grow the economy of the city greatly. Steward Matea Rubeu, the head of the Steam and Iron Workers Union was the next potential, the union held considerable power in the industrial sections of the city and her support would mean the support of many of those under her. Finally Atrixia commented that the last potential High Captain was a bit of a outlier compared to the rest of the options. And that even with her connections, Atrixia wasn't able to determine very much about the candidate. What Atrixia did know that the rumors that the cult known as the Convergence of Cyriss did have a temple hidden somewhere in Five Fingers, and that someone was still within that temple. The Convergence of Cyriss was known to have great technological prowess before their shattering during the Claiming and thus any assistance that its remnants could give Five Fingers would be greatly appreciated. The cult was a secretive entity, and whatever was left of it continued that secrecy as all Atrixia could give the party was some rumors and a name, a Laryana Agnesi.

With the options laid out before them, the party decided to first focus on the outlier, Laryana. Not exactly having much to go on beyond some rumors of such a person occasionally showing up in the markets to purchase technological goods, Xavier, Shakes and Charlotte went down to one of the major markets to try and find anything tying back to the mysterious person. The party used the jack cortexes that they had picked up in their struggles as a conversation starter, in the hopes that if they put out some feelers for Laryana to meet them back at Undertow it would bear fruit. While out the three former soldiers did find a confidant of Laryana, a steel merchant by the name of Frank who eventually admitted to having a way to contact Laryana, mainly if high quality steel came through his doors. Frank agreed to pass a message along to Laryana asking her to meet at Undertow if that was to her liking or to provide a different location if it wasn't. Back at Undertow, Abe and Gazza were holding down the fort while the dinner rush raged, and shortly after the others returned with what little news they found, a metal sphere floated up to the bar counter and dispensed a message to Abe, before floating back out the door. Upon reading the message the party learned that Laryana had agreed to meet them that night down by the docks. Not wanting to be rude the party excused themselves from Undertow, leaving Avross to cover the bar with Atrixia and went to meet with the mysterious Cyriss worshipper.

At the docks, the party saw a figure in a form concealing cloak which matched the descriptions from the various rumors that put them on Laryana's trail. The figure identified herself as Laryana and when asked if there was someplace for everyone to sit down away from the damp and cold was able to provide a storage unit not too far where they wouldn't be bothered. On the way over to the storage unit, Shakes noticed that Laryana's movements were almost inhumanly precise, though he was unable to identify a reason for such precision. Once inside, Laryana did remove her hood to reveal that she wasn't truly human anymore, her soul had been placed in the clockwork body that she now resides in. Laryana introduced herself as the Fluxion of the Five Fingers temple and was surprised to learn that the government had interest in her being a High Captain. Laryana did acknowledge that there was little the Convergence could give Five Fingers on account of the Convergence being a shattered remnant of what it was, with her being the only member of the Five Fingers temple remaining. The discussion turned to the work that was being done at the temple before the destruction of the cult, which Laryana shared that the purpose of the temple was to experiment with hydroelectric power to supplement the geomantic nexi that the cult usually drew power from. The generator was barely in the prototype stage when the claiming happened and with the death or departure of the other inhabitants further progress was impeded. During the conversation, the party realized that Laryana wasn't entirely there, and that the death and abandonment of everyone she knew in the cult had left its scars upon the clockwork woman. The party thanked Laryana for her time and was given a servitor like the one that came to Undertow earlier if they needed to get in contact with Laryana again.

The next day the party decided to meet with Steward Matea Rubeu, doing so was much easier than tracking down Laryana as Matea had an office. The party did have to wait to be seen, though eventually was able to speak to the head of the Union. Matea apologized to the party that she was a busy woman and did have somewhere else to be, so if it wasn't too much of an inconvenience could they have this conversation while on the road. The party agreed and while walking through many foundries and factories talked with Matea. Matea wasn't surprised by the offer of High Captain though acknowledged that if the party had come looking for favors she and the Steam and Iron Workers Union could only offer so much. Matea's big concern was to keep industry running in the city so that the workers could continue putting food on the table, and was pleased to learn that the fighting should be over for the most part. When asked what she would do if named High Captain, Matea stated that she would try and push for regulations on the most dangerous factories in the city. Though she would not force workers to join her union. Eventually the conversation was cut short as the party reached wherever Matea had business with and the steward apologized to the party and said if they had any more questions they were free to stop by her office again and while there was no promise she would be in, someone there would know where she was.