February 13th

Fierneceal blinks and greets Z and Hanuel warmly and makes a very brief introduction before she turns her attention back to Baigen. "I'm in. I know what he can do. With or without everyone else, I'm with you every step. I hope, though, that we'll have the support of the others." She looks at everyone present with a hopeful expression, and states quietly, "We'll get Zeiss back. We will. And then, please, please support us on this. Gaerlan is dangerous at best, and at worst, well... he could unmake life as we know it. The Lady Aerfalle is ancient and wonderful, and she knows Gaerlan - as Gaerlan knows her. If we join with Baigen, with Lady Aerfalle, we could prevent the destruction of society as we have it now. Life as we know it. Please, my friends..." Fierneceal begins to tremor and cry quietly, as even though she considers the people around her friends already - even Rory whom she disagrees with so often - she doesn't know if they consider her the same, or if they're willing to put their lives on the line in such a dramatic manner.

Rory skulks near the corner. He shrugs and shakes his head. Maybe if they were to become allies, they could work their way up to a level of repute that would dispel their fugitive status, or to someone who could.

"I'm not one for giving up my freedom, but I pride myself in being dependable. If it means we get to keep traveling with Lady Fierneceal, I'm in."

Fierneceal turns to meet Rory's eye and bows her head in silent apology and thanks.

"You can call me Z. As far as allies... It's hard to call one an ally having just met them and knowing basically nothing about their cause. But if this group was created by the Lady Aerfalle, then I am certain the cause is important, and you need not count me among your enemies. You will understand my caution I am sure, seeing as how you seem to know who we are."

*Z gives a dignified bow and moves to the corner listening to the rest of the group.*

Rory pulls out his last bottle of pumpkin mead and turns away from the group. The sound of a bottle top twisting off echoes abruptly, followed by the telltale backward tip of Rory's head, bottle in the air as he takes a swig.

at the ThirdBoss

my name is Tabran of the House Vasmora*Tab bow's slightly* , and yes i an here to help the undermarket to stabilize, with the destruction of Stonehold the undermarket has taken a grievous wound and without outside help it will shrivel and die and we do not want that and while my lords can not help directly they have sent me and other to help.

Step one is to contact The Talons and make sure that the production line in Holtburg is still in place and that you are willing to carry on and work with us after that we will be contacting other cities to make sure that there infrastructure is still in place then step 3 we will arrange for the supply lines to be set back to order and if they have been destroyed set up new ones.

Tabran & Ashakel:
The Dwarf considers for a long, tense moment. "I suppose I should ask the obvious question. Why are the Dericost so interested in the underside of the world? They've withdrawn from the political realm, why seek to stretch their hand forth here?"

"things topside have become to hot for them to move more openly, for them some think the rest of the world unimportant but others still have hope in you, but without the Underside as you put it the 4 nations would crumble as surely as if they were to have all there main City's wiped from the earth and they have put much into making sure that that didnt happen."

Tabran & Ashakel:
The Dwarf stares at his hands for a minute. "Right now what we're lacking here in Holtburg is simple. We got carriers but only in city... we got some skilled crafters, Weavers, architects, designers, smiths... and we keep contact with 'em, but we don't have anyone to carry those goods to the nearby region, we don't have people to buy 'em, and we don't have anyone here to bring in new goods." He looks up at you. "So in case you didn't follow that, Dericost, we need transport, skilled buyers, and skilled sellers. I'm sure some are out there but the underside went all splintered when the big bosses upstairs stopped contacting everyone, so that's on you to figure all that out. And..." he pauses. "You'll of course have to convince the Boss of this." He glances at you and you can tell he's trying to tell you something.

Ashakel considers the boss' words. "Well... I'm gonna let my friend here answer you that, but if you'd excuse me, I'd have to ask you somehing while he considers, it's a bit of a smaller scale. A dwarf friend of mine gave some family heirlooms to one of your men apparently, Borin he said he was called, as collateral for a loan. Those would be wooden carved mugs, with the sigil of the Ironforge clan on them. We'd be interested in buying out the loan and retrieving the mugs. Did you happen to come across some things like that?"

Snarg ceases his worried scratching and speaks up: "Yeah, you can count on help. Maybe the Lady can help in getting our names cleared in return ... er, after preventing the destruction of all life," he clears his throat several times, "by the way, does anyone happen to have heard of a goblin by the name of Gavis? Heard him in the chambers speaking with the other council members just a few days ago; talking about Stonehold being 'removed from the playing field'.

A bit disturbing that the Tumeroks have taken to conquering again. I thought they'd be taking advantage of this war, but apparently not at all after the land I thought."

at Ash's words Tab waits to see the look on the Dwarfs face to see if this pause can be used to give him room to think?

Spoiler:

Ashakel & Tabran:
Oghren raises an eyebrow at the two of you. "I'd ask why you're so interested in this but we have a bit of a hands off policy concerning things like that." He leans back. "Normally I'd tell you I have no idea because, frankly, that sort of thing is entirely too small-scale for most people to really keep track of but, as it happens, I know Borin of Anvilmar. He was one of our go-betweens, not part of the Holtburg group per say but one of the roamers. And as you can probably already guess I'm about to say, he vanished on the 8th along with all the others. Now," he leans back forward, "Fortunately for your sake I imagine he just pawned the goods off at one of the antique shops in the District. Shouldn't be too hard to track down."

Snarg:
Baigen, as he takes everyone's responses in, looks at Snarg curiously. "Gavis? No I'm afraid that name isn't familiar to me. Strange, I wonder which group he represents..."

Ashakel made a slight bow to the dwarf. "I appreciate the information, Boss."
Then he turned to Tabran, nervously awaiting what was going to happen next.

Sethos:
As you are sitting in your room, reminiscing, there is a knock at the door.

Sethos looks up, surprised to be hearing from anyone, he looks through the window for a brief moment to quell his diminishing sense of paranoia before heading to the door and opening it.

Ashakel & Tabran:
Oghren leans back in his chair. "I'll be honest, you don't strike me as someone good enough at coordinating for what we need. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because we need a change, and soon, in my opinion." He gestures upwards with his thumb. "The Boss and his Second right now both are trying to push the Talons more towards thuggery. Protection rackets, robbery, that sort of thing." He stares at you. "I'm not the most morally-restrained of Dwarves, but not only does that not sit well with me, it's completely suicidal. The Undermarket always flourished by staying above-board, illegal but still existing to fill cracks in legality, not in being thugs and brutes. So," he leans back. "You take care of those two, and I'll be happy to step in as Boss and see what we can see."

Sethos:
As you open the door you see a tall Moarsman you recognize immediately as Feltig of Brackwater, an old friend of your father's. He blinks his large eyes at you. "Sethos, you are a most surprising person to find here I confess. I thought you had started your adventuring career in the west? But as soon as I saw you on the streets I recognized you, and just had to come visit. May I come in?"

"Feltig! It's nice to see you again". He gives the moarsman a hug, exitting with a pat on the back as he gestures for him to enter.

"I've been adventuring for a while, actually, we ran into a bit of... trouble out there, so we're spending some time in the city, lying low, you know how it is".
He picks Taku up off of the chair where he is still sleeping before placing him on the bed and offering the chair to Feltig.

"So what brings you here? Have you spoken to pa recently?"

"Hmmm, yeah. Who would even consider themselves an equal to the council and the High Queen? He spoke and carried himself as if could have been seated in her place at that very moment. He's obviously a leader, although I do not know of what. He seemed very interested in an economic plan for Aluvia ... one that other council members called 'vile and underhanded' and 'legalized crime'. That may narrow down the possibilities. There's a couple of groups that come to mind, but nothing concrete, and some more myth than actual organizations. Still, now's not the time to be dismissing anything. If the Undermarket wasn't in ruins, I would say it was them, but..." he cuts off, scratching his ear in thought.

Sethos:
"Yes, he's still as energetic as ever, currently trying desperately to convince people he knows how to be a gardener. You, uh, can probably guess how that's been going." He gives a wide-lipped grin. "I uh, actually do have something for you though. I've actually had it for a few weeks now, didn't really realize what it meant or the urgency until a couple days ago..." he scratches his head a bit and hands you a letter.

The letter is very simple. It is a request to draft you into a Reforms Committee which is gaining increasing support back in the Sho lands. Given the timing and statements, you have a feeling this is directly tied to the war, and a niggling suspicion your father is behind this to some extent or another.

Snarg:
Baigen considers thoughtfully. "I know a Goblin was running the Undermarket last I checked, a Ripton Moneybags, but he's in exile in Colier right now. I wonder if this has to do with our shadow organization..."

Snarg lets out a snort at the mention of the Goblin's name. "You got that right: Goblins were running all sorts of the Undermarket. There's not a whole lot of profitable situations where you'd purposely annihilate your headquarters though. 'Gavis' seemed like he was actually in on that - like it was part of his plan." He sighs and rubs his temples. "If he's part of some 'shadow organization' everyone keeps suspecting, we still don't know anything more about what's going on."

Sethos chuckles at the news of his father, in the back of his mind he still feels relieved, this whole time he'd worried if maybe there was truth in his spacial trial, and maybe his father had fallen sick, he breaths easy for a moment after the chuckle, closing his eyes, and silently thanking nobody in particular.

Sethos then examines the note after being handed it, examining it he looks back at Feltig, examining him closely for a minute as he stares back at him.

"So this note, came before the war I take it".

Sethos:
"Well, yes. I mean it hasn't even been a whole week since... since that started." He scratches his scaled ridges. "I'm pretty sure that has something to do with Glauren, of Boilreach. I dunno if you've heard much about him, but his 'free rights' movement has been gaining more and more support lately. And, well I've been here in Holtburg the last few weeks, but I imagine the... business with Stonehold hasn't helped matters any."

Sethos chcukles as he rubs his eyes "Yeah this whole thing has had me a little out of sorts lately". He sits back in his own chair "Time's getting a little... fuzzy".

He picks up the note again, reading the few words over and over, expecting something more to come out of them.

"I did hear about Glauren, I didn't think he'd get to this point so quickly". He hands the paper back to Ferlit before pulling out his pipe.

"I can't think why he'd ask me onto the committee though, I've never even met the guy" He lights and takes an inhale "I never even spent enough time in the central empire to go on a march".