The city of Gamulur

At a nod from the human with the clipboard the lead dwarf waves you in through the gates. As you enter you see the other human wave you in as well. Only how he does it you learned in your time "working" the city streets means you are being watched. The trouble is this indicates an faction you are not a member of has eyes on you. It can either mean the city watch or another gang.

As you pass through the thick stone gatehouse and into what you know to be the outer city you can tell by the 2 pairs of guards in sight that this area of town has a bit of respectability. The wide street is paved with neatly laid stonework and wide enough for 2 wagons with room to spare. The buildings are mostly clay on the first floor and look to be shops and businesses with a mix of wood and clay on the second and have the look of businesses and and occasional residence. Moving down the street you can tell this is a healthy city and doing good for itself. Some of the towns and villages you have seen since leaving your own were much worse off or just getting started.

Though the shattering has been over for over 50 years it has been a rather difficult time from what Athria has heard. Trouble with the gods and magic abounded not to mention entire regions being rearranged. But that was then and things are looking up now.

The path to the docks is easy to pick out and you soon make you way to the docks district. Knowing how dock hands operate and the fact that the expedition is a well known topic Athria does not think it will be hard to get details on it. Simply wandering while listening to the locals Athria picks up a smattering of info about the way things work. The dwarves run the city from their walled inner city but have allows the outer city districts a portion of autonomy. The docks are mostly run by humans with several larger businesses being owned and managed by dwarves. The commercial district is a mix of human, dwarf, and hin (halfling/hobit) with the local hin actually managing most public services in the way of bars, taverns, inns, diners, etc. The warehouse district is a mix of dwarven and human interests.
After a bit of research on the streets she stops to get a drink and a bit to eat as dusk settles over the town from places that are likely to have what she needs.
Roll a test to gather information about the local interests
This will be a standard test (2d6) Give any specific actions or other points you would like to learn about

Starting with general questions Athria narrows her focus after getting the feel of the situation and soon learns the Expedition started with the strictest secrecy. However it has been going for a couple of months now and the regular supply runs and influx, and departure, of adventurers has lead to a slow spread of information. The guards, artisans, basic laborers, and researches seem to have only increased and seem quite happy with the situation but the adventuring community is known to be more dynamic and volatile so the change in its personnel in the Expedition is not unusual.
Colwin took up recruiting about a month ago and has been much more lax in what he has let "slip" which has both increased interest and decreased efforts to compete. It seems the expedition has had several conflicts with other organized forces in the area and is only as stable as it is due to their well established defenses. A few river pirates and smuggles have made moves into the region but simply found it better to either infiltrate or rob the expedition than to try and create their own forays into the area. There seem to be other, larger and likely political, forcers watching but nothing has publicly come of it yet. Corwin has gotten a bit of a reputation as one who is familiar with the underbelly of society and suspected of using his position to influence who gets what position when they reach the expedition's base camp. He is mostly a local logistics coordinator but spends much of his time trying to get more adventurers willing to risk exploring for the Expedition.

Though roughly familiar with docks Arhria regrets not knowing more as she is reminded that the docks are a living and changing environment different from the city streets and alleys she is more familiar with. Still she picks a easy enough "disguise" of an interested out of towner to wander the docks and listen in to many conversations.

After getting bruskly told off a couple of times she moves out of the way to a dead zone she notices where handlers and cargo have little traffic but is still close enough to watch the docks. Mostly ignoring the bruisy dock hands, or at least ignoring their basic activities she watches for changes or odd occurrences. Most likely few of the actual pirates and smuglers pull in to dock here, especially at the same time. The city seems invested in the expedition so are likely trying to keep their end open to the increased business.

Still Athria finally finds a couple of guys who dont quite belong. Interesting enough the pair soon make their way to Corwin, who is recognized from the description she has collected, for a brief discussion. before wandering off. Other than the pair that stood out there are a few buildings and loading crews Athria things may have ties to the criminal element. Nor from anything she can pin point but only the buildings proximity to certain city features and the crews casual way that there always seems to be at least one of the crew in or nearby certain areas.

Do you want to follow the odd pair, approach Corwin, or look into the suspected criminal crew/buildings. If you try something risky give me a test check (2d6) or with advantage(3d6) for appropriate skills/trades

Athria manages t shadow the two who stalk off in an iritated manor into the warehouse district. She follows the pair to a smaller warehouse where they pause to look around, their first real precaution, before pulling out a key and unlocking a door then slipping inside the building.

Athria looks over the building and nots that the city block it is built on has several small buisness and suspects that not all the "independant" structures are truely seporate. She is has seen multile times the benefits of having adjacent properties conneted out of sight. Even to the oint that minor "removations" allowed the gangs to add secret passages between multiple connected structures before sellling or renting the building space between the pwo main points of interest. Looking over the city block she feels this may be one such area. But this does her no good, just something to remember.

Fortunate for her many fail to think about what others can do when establishing cecurity and only think "what would I do to break in here" Chuckling she sees a couple of options. She can simply walk over and pick the lock, as she sees no other external doors to the building the pair enterd. The buiding the two entered has a couple of windows on the 2nd floor and one is in an alley between the warehouse block and the next. The alley also offers possible acdess to the roof. Though the verticle walls may pose a problem to others Athria is confident in her claws alowing her to scalke the structure easily. The are also the sewers, but those may have other complications and she does not have the time to properly scout them now.

Let me know who you want to follow the pari
A Pick the lock, B Enter a window, C check out the roof, D other

Making more noise than she would have liked Athria reaches the window in teh alley and peering through a small crack sees a dark room. She could rend the cheap wooden shutters but a simple thin blade lookes like it could undo the latch. Ensureing her place on the wall is secure Athria slips a thin knife between the wooden slats and soon the window is open to her. She quickly slips into the room and closes the shutters but does not latch them, yet.

The room is dark and dusty but other than a few scraps of wood, old pieces of furniture perhaps, is empty. Athria does not hear any movement or talking at his time and hopes she was not too loud in her slailing the wall.

Athria moves silently across the room and eases the door open. Pausing to listen she hears muffled voices from down stairs. Looking along the corridor she can tell that several rooms are in use, but only those not on the outside of the building. To the far left is a set of stairs heading down. The hall has 3 rooms on the outside, Athria is in the end corner room, and 2 on the inside. Nothing can be heard upstairs, and the conversation downstairs sounds to be from another room as it is muffled and has at least 3 speakers.

Still moving silently Athria reaches the stairs and looking down sees some light spilling from a doorway with the door hanging loosely about 20 feet from the foot of the stairs. Descending the stairs she has to go on all fours as she feels the stairs shift and bow under her weight. As she creeps along she begins hearing snippets of the conversation, which seems more like a lecture now with only occasional mummers form two of the voices..

A: ... discuss .. important matter ... duty. ... demands souls ... vessels for his power .... Tell me ....prisoners for ....?

B: ... leader. We have ... prisoners, carefully ...... Their ... will be a fitting tribute.

C: The captives are bound within the holding chambers. Their energy is strong, pulsating with the essence our lord craves.

A:How many have you secured?. Have you determined the order in which they will be offered to our lord? The timing and sequence must be meticulously planned for maximum effect.

B: We have only been able to get 2. The city guard here is very thorough since our last gathering. Corwin insists he can only divert a few at a time without suspicion falling on him. And he insists the other chapter growing in the Expedition needs vessels as well.
However, one of the prisoner possesses upstairs has a unique resonance that will please our lord. We believe the ritual should commence with the weaker captive, to awaken our lord so he may fully enjoy the better offering of the second vessel.

A: Your lack of effort to please the lord fills me with despair of you ever being welcomed fully into our lords grace. Only by furthering our lords plans will we pave the way to our ascendance!

(in unison): Hail the grey lord! God of undeath! Hail the eternal darkness!

After their chorus the sounds of furniture and feat moving can be heard coming from the room.

Once the conversation became clear Athria no longer felt that getting closer was a good idea and stopped just at the base of the stairs.

The two rooms to the interior showed recent use by the disturbed dust on the floor. With only 2 they are easy to check. The higes of the first door start to squeek causing Athria to hiss in anoyance as she gets it just open enough to look inside and easily spots 2 bodies tied up with the rope binding their hands pullling them up to the tips of their toes as they hang there despontdnatly. At the sound of the door one looks away while the other glared at the doorway.

The resolute man lands on his feet but the other crumples to the floor, making a slight noise from the fall and he whimpers. The stalwart man glares and the other and snaps at him to stay quiet as he helps him to his feet before grabbing s few things from the floor on the other side of the room Lets go he says, grabbing the other man by the arm and looking to Athria to lead.

Athria has been listening at the door and has not heard anyone coming up the stairs and prays that the fools fall did not alert the cultists to their activities.