3-1: Beneath the Streets

Elowin asks: "The Lord Mayor's Men? Who are they?"
"You haven't heard of the Lord Mayor?" Lookout says incredulously. They all mutter. Histrik starts to say something about "Must be nice, livin' outside..." but then doubles over, coughing again. A couple of the others make signs to ward off evil, and Manul spits. Tandua explains in his little, squeaky voice. "We're not the only ones that live down here. There's a madman who lives in the ruins just a few tunnels away from here, who thinks he's the rightful heir of the throne or something. He calls himself 'The Lord Mayor,' and he's surrounded himself with a gang of cutthroats, robbers, and snitches. Our tunnel here isn't quite close enough to be on their routes, but the Lord Mayor is constantly sending them on various quests to destabilize Grayhaven, or, failing that, just kill and steal from the wealthy."Morik offers them some food: "You want some goodberries? Jeffery likes them!" This improves the mood quite a bit, and soon the dwarven druid is surrounded by interested tieflings. The whole group is clearly malnourished, but Lookout, Foca, and Tandua spend just as much time cooing over little Jeffery.

They're even more delighted as Eozindra's offer of entertainment. "By all means," Clutch says, "We'd be delighted to have you join us, though our home be ever so humble. Please, stay as long as you like. Even just news of the outside world would be welcome." Digger clears off a box and bows low: "Milady can sit in my favorite spot!" He looks up at her with lovesick eyes. "If there's anything I can to do help Milady in any way, just ask."

From these interactions, you have somewhat befriended these tieflings. You get the sense that they could guide you through the area, and possibly to the Abbey of the map.

The party settles down to rest, starting with a meal that is shared with the tieflings. As the tieflings chatter with the heroes, Adran pulls out the family meditation chair, sits down, and begins his trance. The descendants of demons are fascinated by the appearance of Adran and Mara, though they keep their distance from the sharp-looking construct, particularly as it seems dormant while Adran is meditating. Instead of stroking the shining metal dog, they content themselves with talking in long meandering conversations about many topics, including the "Lord Mayor" and his "men."

The leader of the den of thieves is a criminal mastermind whose heists are legendary for being inventive, unpredictable, and sometimes even baffling. The ringleader has come and talked to the tieflings in their camp a couple of times, appearing out of nowhere to rant about how he will "reclaim my rightful place as the city's savior!" and rave about the latest haul. "All the gold is secondary - of most importance is all the milk that we stole from the Haversham Manor!" He is a man of intelligence and breeding who has, as he says, "temporarily fallen on hard times" which has required him to take "drastic measures" to keep his "court nobles" entertained in the manner to which they "have been accustomed since birth. That's why I have been selected as Lord Mayor!" Despite his talk of a court, the Lord Mayor's gang consists of ten or twelve murderous ruffians who are happy to do his bidding as long as he keeps them rolling in coin and getting revenge on imagined slights. The tieflings try to stay away from the gang members, as they are far more likely to slit a throat than to reminisce about costumed balls. Thankfully, the Lord Mayor keeps them busy, and at any one time, up to half of the robbers are off preparing for or executing another burglary. Needless to say, the tieflings have set up their refuge in a place that is mostly far enough away from the sewers that the air isn't quite so toxic, but also out of the way enough that they don't get in the way of the Lord Mayor's avaricious killers. After the meal, Morik and the half-elves settle down to sleep, leaving Ishi and Elowin awake with the tieflings to keep watch. Three hours later, Adran emerges from his meditation and rises from the family meditation chair, Mara clicking into motion at his side. With the artificer and his construct available to keep guard, Elowin and Ishi are assured and assume postures of contemplation to begin their trances. Elowin folds gracefully into her family meditation chair, and Ishi is left wondering for a moment: ::am I supposed to have a chair when I meditate? Is that just a tradition of the Galanodel family, or is it just something between these two?:: He begins to get upset with so many questions, and realizes that his meditation will help him to process the conundrum. He sits in a meditative posture and begins.

Three more hours pass. At the start of the eighth hour, Morik, Elysia, and Eozindra awake and begin to gather their belongings and get ready to continue on with Adran and Mara. By the end of the hour, everyone is ready. The cleric's eyes refocus, she smiles from remembered communion with Lunea, and Elowin rises to join the others in saying farewell to their host tieflings.

Eozindra and Elysia, having spent the most time in Grayhaven, search their memories for tales of disgraced or otherwise fallen nobility. There have been various rumors of wealthy merchants and nobles being robbed in mysterious and nonsensical ways, but no fallen nobles that either of them can think of other than Comte Farthingo Elvin Burlingvy Mertrand Camembri d'Regalport IV. Technically it was his great-grandfather, Comte Camembri d'Regalport I, who fell when he abandoned his city of Regalport and fled to Grayhaven to start a new life. It's a fairly well-known story in Grayhaven: milking the tales of his "trials," Comte Camembri d'Regalport I obtained the sympathy of the nobility of Grayhaven and wooed the young Pristina, the only daughter of the royal shipwright, who was himself a commoner but tremendously favored at court and quite wealthy. The Comte married Pristina, somehow genteely avoiding the topic of his first Comtessa, Ynalaria d'Regalport, who may or may not have still been alive. When her shipwright father died, the Comtessa Pristina d'Regalport inherited a great deal of money, and the d'Regalport family has been living like lavishly off of various investments ever since. Though no member of the family has made an attempt to return to Regalport, they've retained the title, living as though they had some authority despite never visiting the lands they are responsible to govern. Generally everyone belittles d'Regalport IV as a useless boil on the neck of Grayhaven.

The idea that the past-his-prime, unmarried, and generally useless Comte Farthingo Elvin Burlingvy Mertrand Camembri d'Regalport IV might have a secret identity as a criminal mastermind had never occurred to anybody before now. Could it be that he is actually the "Lord Mayor" they've just learned about? It couldn't be...could it?

Morik recalls a conversation he had with kar'Javon, in which the knight spoke of strange things that had happened in Grayhaven. In particular, he talked about weird, unsolved crimes, like the robbery of Vaughana Gatherford's mansion, where the thieves didn't take any of the potions they had on hand and left the money alone, but just a few pieces of jewelry and the sourdough starter. "The jewels were heirloom pieces, and their loss was sorely felt, but they say that everyone there lamented the loss of the sourdough, too: apparently the Gatherford family had been making bread from the same batch for generations. They wailed about it like they'd lost a member of their family." The knight had smiled and shaken his head. "I just don't get it. Jewels you can fence pretty easily, but a sourdough starter? You're not going to find a buyer for that. I don't see why it was taken."

At this point, the conversations are continuing in the Rest Interludes thread and the action is transitioning to the Forgotten Abbey thread.