Chapter Four: The Manifest of the Harikan Squall

The younger woman's eyes grow wide as she sees the folded cloth.

"What is that?" the old woman snaps. "What do you have there?"

Around the corner, Zangua sees an open doorway and a staircase on the outer wall, leading up to the second floor of the house. The walls are dirty and the house has a musty, sour smell, as though it hasn't been cleaned properly in a very long time. The pale light coming in through the small high windows and the nearby birdsong suggests it's very early in the morning. Zangua doesn't hear any guards or anything.

Mordred's statement, even without the reveal, seems to be sufficient to confirm whatever suspicions the two women had about the piece of fabric. "OH, NO! WHO DID YOU TAKE IT FROM!? WHO!?" the younger woman screams, as the old woman starts trying to beat Mordred about the head with the spear.

"Fiends! Despoilers!" she yells. "I knew it! I knew it!"

In perfect synchronicity, the two womens' eyes roll back in their heads and they let out sighing exhalations as magical sleep overtakes them and they slump to the floor.

"We should get out of here," Zora suggests.

The doorway ahead leads to a large room with a hearth, a small table, and two ornate carved chairs with disintegrating cushions. There are quite a lot of dirty plates, empty jugs and bowls, and even discarded bones and uneaten food piled up in the corners of this room, and the hearth is overflowing with ash. There are open doorways straight ahead and to the left.

Left from the hearth hall is a foyer from which a southward-facing set of large double doors would appear to be the obvious way out. There's quite a bit of mud and old leaves on the floor of this foyer, Garden and household tools lean against the wall and lie on the floor, and next to a small table that has fallen over are the shards of a painted vase and the dead flowers it contained. There are also exits to the north and east.

Zangua cracks the double doors and peers out. He sees a gated garden full of weeds, a broad avenue, and many other tall, expensive-looking townhouses. There are gardeners pruning a fruit tree in front of one home, and an armed doorman slumped by the porch columns of another. None of these people seem to be alert to anything going on at the house of the Zapanim.

Mordred surmises that these two women live alone, without even servants, and have maintained this reclusive lifestyle for quite some time.

Shamush pokes around for edibles. The freshest food seems to be what's still left on the table: half a goblet of vinegary-smelling wine, an apple with a single bite out of it, a heel of stale bread, and two bowls of porridge (one mostly finished, one apparently untouched).

You've all lost track of time somewhat, but you spent around five days in the Squalid Sett waiting for an audience with the Queen, and a little over a full day of travel from there to the crypts.

There is no time pressure that you know of except for the fact that the 6PC is still after Zora, although they've probably lost the trail now that The Implacable is out of commission. However, it's reasonable to assume that they anticipated her going to Hazard.

Zora looks out the door, nods, ducks back in. "Okay, I have a rough idea where we are. North of the river, east side. We're not far from where we need to go. The West Bload Trading Company headquarters is right by the Shoulder Bridge. She's got a couple houses uptown, but that's pretty much where she lives." You can hear the eyeroll in her voice. "Let's go before Auntie Spears wakes up."