Fifth Adventure 02: The Long Day

The rooms are simple and modestly furnished, but the bed is a comfortable plush mattress with multiple soft foam pillows and the rooms themselves are larger than you would think for a single, no doubt to accomodate long-term guests. There are several dressers and drawers and the like.

Hanuel:
Dara returns after some time, having not seen anything at all but feeling incredibly uneasy. The sensation you get off of it is that it felt trapped, even outside the city.

Dawn breaks on the 10th of February as you hear the bustle of feet outside, and realize what you are hearing is a strange echoing effect from the cliffside walls and staircases as dozens of people make their way down to the ground floor to head to the mines for a hard day's work.

After an uneasy sleep, Hanuel wakes, and waits for a handful of minutes for the noise to quiet down and people to leave, before sneaking off to the showers.

Hanuel manages to make it to the showers and get one in quickly before others notice.

Snarg whips the door open as he exists the room and cringes as it slams against the wall. Nervously looking around, he carefully closes the door and quickly heads outside, giving the attended a toothy smile as he passes the front.

He pauses outside and glances around, pointing in various directions. As he stands still, his ears twitch in an uncharacteristically spastic manner as he looks all around himself before he snorts and bounds off.

Spoiler:

Zeiss wakes up, looking refreshed. He writes in his journal then goes to check on his colleagues if they are alright. After that, he plans to get a shower and a quick breakfast. They would go see the Mayor once it was done.

The Hotel has a very simple yet hearty breakfast already being served in the commons room; bacon, baked beans with freshly ground black pepper, and mashed red potatoes. They offer milk, orange juice, cranberry juice, and chilled green tea.

Hanuel grabs a plate of bacon and potatoes, and a glass of orange juice, before sitting with whoever else came down for breakfast.

*For some reason, he always feels better about simple servings than extravagant ones. He eats his fill and prepares to head out and have a talk with the kid.*

Rory loads his plate with generous servings of bacon, beans and potatoes, and sits down with a bottle of caramel mead. He experiments with the cranberry juice by mixing in caramel mead, lessening the amount of mead or juice after each sip to strike the perfect balance.

After a filling breakfast, he takes a shower, during which he idly sings.

Snarg:
You learn quite quickly that the son in question, a Troll named Forith of Seaspear, is usually found in the local Miner's Guild outpost, heading up operations and seeing what petitioners might come.

When Zeiss comes down for breakfast, Hanuel motions him over, and waits for him to sit before speaking just barely over their breath. "Someone's definitely out there. Even though they could have gone anywhere, Dara felt trapped the whole time they were waiting."

The door to the hotel opens carefully and Snarg shifts in, closing the door behind him with much care. He does a double-take at the scraps remaining and shoves whatever he can in his mouth.

Meeting anyone returning from the showers or still eating, he attempts to speak through his full mouth: "Kidths in tah Miner'thz Guiwld: nameths," he swallows hard to clea his mouth, "name's bein' Forth o' Seaspear. Thats where ya findin' 'em."

"I know Hanuel."

He eats some bacon. He gets a papyrus and writes on it.

The Lieutenant will help us catch the person who was observing us on the road. Or them. Just be discreet. Pass on this message so that people don't hear what we say.

Spoiler:

*Hits up the local Bazaar, trying to get a feel for the people's opinion on the mayor. Also keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, like being watched or followed.*

Spoiler:

"All this? I think the market might be a little small for these supplies. I'll see what I can do though." Hanuel fold the sheet, and slips it into a pocket, playing it off as a shopping list, and finishes eating, before heading to the market to pick up some travel rations and gather some information..

Spoiler:

*Kezrin eats breakfast having slept with the wagon and horses. She rises feeling refreshed and joins the others after finishing off the last of her dried fruit. Its obvious she is completely unaware of any danger the group may be in.*

Zeiss:
You do not spot anyone watching you but that feeling of unease hasn't abated.
From what you gather in the Miner's Guild, the reason for Forith's unpopularity is both recent as of the last few months, and while the Troll himself has always been both open, helpful, and kind he has been raising taxes on every aspect of life rather steadily, and it's starting to hurt trade and upset the people.

After having several mouthfuls, Snarg carefully leaves the hotel and then bounds off again. "Bein' 'round town!" he calls over his shoulder.

Spoiler:

Zeiss goes back to the hotel, waiting for the others to come back. When they do, he shares what he learned with them.

When people begin heading off by themselvs, Rory invites Tabran to come with him to gather information at the taverns to determine the following:

Get the overall public opinion on the mayor(including whether he'll pull through in the end, suspicions, whether he's competent, etc.);

Find out whether or not he is aware of the unrest and the hit trade is taking;

And finally, if there are any people the citizens are considering for candidacy and of whom are the most popular.

Higaide:
After perusing the market for an hour you learn that the Mayor isn't very well liked as of late.

Hanuel:
You find that the Miner's Guild has recently unearthed several promising new veins of Aluminum, Pyreal, and Platinum in the region which is sure to keep the miner's well off and happy for some time. You also find that word of the War has, unsurprisingly, spread to here. There is considerable concern that the military might nationalize the Miner's Guild and start requiring the materials gathered from across the Confederacy. Recently the Mayor has begun raising taxes, making him rather unpopular, especially since he's doing it to every aspect of the town's life; residential, commercial, industrial, imports, and exports. There is a great deal of concern that this, too, is the start of a new wave of policies during wartime and no one is happy about it.

Rory & Tabran:
The overall opinion of the Mayor right now is disgruntled concern, and worry for the future. He's been Mayor for several years now though so people are willing to give him a chance.
It is likely he is aware of the unrest but he does not like speaking about it in public. The impression people are getting is he is deeply troubled.
There are no other candidates for leader, neither those who seek it nor those in public favor right now.

Sethos sits at the breakfast table of the inn, only half aware of the movement of people around him, he stares into his beans, lightly poking at their red edges with his fork as he concocts what some may call a plan, and what he calls a question. In his mind, it's all that matters right now. I he could tackle the rest, he surely would, but he knows it would just beat him down and kill him with the fall, no, this is it for now.

"This is all I can handle" He whispers, before dropping his fork and rubbing his tired eyes as he lifts his head and breathes a heavy sigh.

*kezrin follows Rory and Tabran. She has a few questions she'd like answered herself.*

Spoiler:

*After learning basically nothing he didn't already know, he buys himself a good enough bedroll, lest his time have been totally wasted. Then returns to the hotel.*