Astvanor Session 145 (6/21)

[cinaed]

Session 145: Day 18 and 19 of Saedan (6/21)

This is one of the largest Magnificent Mango the party has seen, connected to a hotel portion. On the table there are small cups of water. There’s a spotty young elf woman that approaches them still popping her gum as she rattles off the menu including mango chili ice cream and mango sticky rice on special.

Audacity asks what ceviche is, and the girl describes it as a bunch of stuff before saying she’ll have to ask her manager. Hava frustratedly exclaims that it’s raw fish. Hava and Yolov ask for the mango salad and Galowen asks about the alcohol.

The girl says she can get them a round of mango-ritas. She leaves without saying anything else. They get their food suspiciously quickly. There’s a central stage that has a team of modrons playing fake instruments wearing little mango hats.

Yolov’s eyes are narrowed while Galowen is vaguely offended at the lack of actual bards.

There is a sale on copper mango-ritas, which means they can drink a lot. However, the magaritas are extremely weak drinks, and despite Hava and Galowen’s best attempts, they can tell these are mostly mango juice and not alcohol.

Hava says this sucks and wants to go to an actual bar.

She tells Az to take them to his favorite dive. He knows that there are a few different bars here and there that he’s gone to with Mixie and his siblings. There’s a little dive bar he remembers that wasn’t dangerous, just a place to go drink and play cards there. A lot of merchants could go to the Hingeless after closing up their stalls. There’s also the Night Market that sells drinks and food and some slightly less legal items.

Yolov unhappily reminds them that they need to rent some rooms for the night and they rent three rooms at the Mango before they head to the bar. The rooms are orange with mango-shaped beds and linens.

To leave the Magnificent Mango they have to go through the gift shop. Galowen looks at the keychains and glumly buys the last Glitterspitz before getting a mango plushie.

Az leads the party down a series of very well maintained streets and trolley tracks. There’s a little gnome racing after one of the trolleys before he throws himself at the back. There is a hustle and bustle even at this time of night, with a towering spire of a building in the center of the city.

This is the Senate Hall where the senators of Striog meet. It’s a very tall spire adorned with a heavily artificed exterior with clocks showing the times throughout Astvanor and other planes. It’s a complex series of beautiful intricate artificer work. While the exterior is very busy, Az knows that the inside is relatively classic and there are well-polished tile floors and tall ceilings and columns.

The first floor has a law library for law students and town hall. The second floor has the senate offices, which Az has visited countless times. The third floor is a hollowed out section that is held up by four posts that have four different tram lines that meet as a major connection point.

Looking up, he can see tiny figures getting onto the trams. It’s a connection point for the whole city. To him it’s a familiar sight, the skyline of a city he grew up in. The public transit is free and the trams are twenty-four hours. It’s a deal with the artificers’ guild.

Az leads them to the nearest station where there is a hapless tourist being assisted by some people before the tram arrives. A lot of people are standing despite the many seats, and despite bracing for a bumpy ride, it’s incredibly smooth. It takes only a few minutes to get to the market stop.

The Night Market is up and running, awash in light. It’s like the desert sky has descended on the city. There are people talking, a couple sitting by a lamp post sharing bread. There are wide-eyed tourists.

Az guides them through and down a much less well lit alley to a little bar with a creaking, hanging sign that says The Hingeless. There’s the gentle sound of music and conversation. When he opens the door, he sees it’s a comfortably busy night. There’s a card game at the back table, a couple of people having a rowdy conversation with the tabaxi bartender who is sliding drinks to another group of people as her tail whisks away some tips.

The party approaches the bar. The tabaxi has the coloration of a cheetah but with light-colored fur. She’s wearing light breezy clothing with pierced ears and ornate artificer armor or jewelry under her clothes. She introduces herself as Sprints Over Sands.

When Az explains they came here after the Mango, she looks sympathetic and offers them a free first round as long as they promise to buy a second one. Audacity asks for something as strong as dwarven ale but not sour, while Hava asks for something sweet. Galowen has a Strand Iced Tea. Yolov orders a sherry, thinking of Asa, and is called a fancy guy.

Hava’s is sweet and layered heavier and brown at the bottom and blue at the top with a gummy shark like the ocean. Audacity’s drink is spicy and sweet and extremely strong, enough that he can feel a headrush. He blinks and tells her that he could breathe fire with it.

Sprints tells him that it won’t harm him but it is a little poisoned and offers him another one. The drinks are all very good and very strong. She’s good at her job, chatting idly with them. Az tells her that he’s visiting family and introducing his friends to his father.

Sprints gives him a look and says it would be hard for him not to run into family. She swears that every time she turns around there’s another Turen. Az says that there aren’t that many of them before Az rattles off a list of names of all his siblings.

Audacity asks what it’s like to have that many people related to him. Az says the family reunions were always big, but most of his siblings had moved out of the house by the time he was born. He points out that Audacity must have grown up with other kids besides his sister, but Audacity tells him that they were eight before other kids came to the monastery.

The bard takes a break from the stage to get a few drinks as another bard replaces him, playing a few upbeat tunes.

After a few rounds, Yolov is slightly tipsy, Hava is drunk, and the rest of the party is feeling geat. Sprints eyes Audacity and says she enjoys a challenge. She tries to figure out how to get him drunk, and Audacity assures her he’s feeling fine. Sprints says she wants everyone to be comfortable.

Yolov notices the door opening behind them, merchants making their way inside and complaining about the rowdier than usual crowds due to the unseasonably warm weather. Even when the crowd moves deeper into the bar, the door is open a little bit longer after the crowd disperses.

There’s a person dressed very well with a collection of clocks and steampunk wear strapped over their chests and down one arm is a bunch of tools from shoulder to elbow over leather wristguards. They’re wearing little glasses with their hair mussed. They don’t seem to be here with anyone, but they’re clearly looking for someone.

Audacity and Hava sees that when the others glance over to the door, Sprints almost drops a bottle and quickly retreats to the back of the bar, obviously uncomfortable at the sight of this person entering the bar.

The newcomer slides up to the bar and glances from side to side before remarking on the lack of the bartender. Az says that she just ducked into the back for a second, she’ll be back soon, and the newcomer asks will she.

Az tries to place him. He recognizes him as Arlin Hale-Stone. Az hasn’t met Arlin a lot personally, but when he last spoke to his father in a conversation that revolved around Master Cogsworth, he’d mentioned the smaller artificers’ guild.

There are two major guilds in the city. The first is the Heart Gear Artificers guild, which is the main artificer guild that runs the trolley and trams system. They have gotten a lot of money and won basically every single government contract.

There is a second smaller one called the Sons of Kane Artificer Guild. The Sons of Kane considers artificer work a private commodity and should be expensive. They make most of their money selling extremely expensive artificer goods. They sell a lot of prosthetics, high quality and high technology.

Az’s dad mentioned Arlin Hale-Stone as the second in command of the Sons of Kane and said that Togsworth called him a pretentious sack of shit. Audacity sees that he feels entitled to this place, the way he takes a bottle from the bar and says he’ll wait for her.

Audacity asks him where the toilet is. Arlin leans around and points down the back of the bar and tells him to the left. As Audacity goes to see if he can sneak around to the back to find Sprints, Hava tries to distract Arlin by touching one of the tools and asking him about it and if he’s a clockmaker.

He flicks his eyes up and down her before he tells her he’s not a clockmaker, he’s the right hand of the Sons of Kane. Az interjects and catches Arlin’s interest by introducing himself as a Turen.

Arlin tells him that his father does great work for the city. Arlin says that he likes to mingle with the townsfolk and learn the difference between craft and commodity. Az can tell he’s clearly schmoozing.

Elsewhere, Audacity sidles outside and sneaks in through the back in search of Sprints. There’s no kitchen, but some crates of nuts for the bar and stacks of bottles. He glances around and sees a dirty window. He takes a few steps towards it before he feels something very thin and sharp poke into the small of his back.

From behind him, Sprints says that she doesn’t know what he’s doing back here but if he’s with Arlin then he should leave. As soon as Audacity says his friends are distracting Arlin for her, she tucks the knife away and apologizes.

Audacity asks if she needs help.

Sprints dryly asks if they have access to three thousand gold.

Audacity pauses. He asks what Arlin did.

Springs says Arlin didn’t do anything. She gestures at herself. He sees that the artificer plate that starts at her neck and goes around her back and down to her thighs that moves fluidly like vertebrae. This cost about five thousand gold and she’s paid off some of it but not the rest and Arlin is getting testy.

She says that if she can’t pay it back, he’s going to take it back. It’s clearly bolted into muscle and bone. It would kill her to remove, he realizes. Audacity asks if she would mind if he took this information to Az who could take it to his father.

Sprints tells him absolutely not. She agrees that the Heart Gear runs everything big in the city, the clocks and the trams, but the Sons of Kane are the ones that keep the rest of them going, whether it means they’re on their leash.

Audacity says this is different from a leash. Sprints says that maybe if she had been a little kinder to the debt collector the last time and not left him with flesh carved out of his neck, Arlin wouldn’t be here. It’s the reason her monthly payments were suspended.

Audacity asks what the collector did to get bitten and Sprints says she didn’t bite anyone, she only does that after a date if they ask nicely. She clawed him after he was trying to convince one of her customers to buy something at an exorbitant price.

Audacity says that he’s not sure if they can help but he’ll try. Sprints says that it’s okay if they can’t. She says that the Sons of Kane has gotten pushier in the last few months, so something’s changed.

Audacity promises to tell her when Arlin has given up before he goes outside, making it look like he’s been sick, before he returns to the bar. Arlin wrinkles his nose and says that it is that time of night. He finishes his drink, looks at Az and asks if he’s staying with his family.

Az says they’re at the Mango for the night. Arlin looks vaguely horrified by this before he tells him the Sons of Kane has permanent hotel rooms throughout the city. Anything Az wants can be his. He doesn’t even have to name a price. Az declines but asks where he can find him if he wants to talk to him.

Arlin chuckles and says that he stays at the Little Cogwheel, a little bar on the other side of town. Az recognizes the name. It’s an overly expensive bar, with uncomfortable stools too tall for the tables. Arlin pats him on the shoulder and asks if he should be waiting for his call.

Az says maybe later tonight. Arlin says he’ll be waiting up.

There’s a visible exhale from the other patrons as Arlin leaves. Yolov says that he didn’t pay for the bottle. It’s a few more minutes before Sprints returns to the bar and claims that she was busy with inventory. She refuses Az’s offer to pay for the bottle Arlin took.

Az tells her that he heard Arlin was arrogant and self-important. She says he’s not wrong.

Audacity says that there’s been a change in the last few months and things have gotten worse. The Sons of Kane make replacement limbs and fingers and other things for people that the Heart Gear folk don’t and have always been expensive, but not like this.

The leader of Sons of Kane is Calvan Richardson, a human, but that’s all Az knows.

Yolov asks if the Heart Gear people could create less expensive prosthetics and Sprints says that they’re busy with the big picture items, the trams and the clocks. Audacity asks if there was a way to make things more affordable, and Sprints says she’s just a bartender, she doesn’t know.

Az knows that prosthetic fingers shouldn’t cost more than 50 gold, but that’s all he knows. When he offers to tell Togsworth, Sprints tells him not to. If he decides to crack down on the Sons of Kane, then the people who need prosthetics would lose everything.

Az says he can be discreet. His father would probably be interested in learning about this. Sprints says that a bunch of his father’s people are probably on the Sons of Kane’s leash, with logging being a dangerous business. She tells them that she can’t stop them from doing anything, but she’s going to close up the Hingeless and reopen at four in the afternoon.

Yolov asks if a favor could be offered in exchange for the debt while Audacity asks who else they should speak with if not Togsworth. Sprints says they’d have to talk to Arlin and she has no idea who else other than the new boss of the Sons of Kane.

They learn that Richardson died in an ‘accident’ in which he was clearly murdered and a woman named Tally Fitscog replaced him. Sprints doesn’t know anything about her and Az doesn’t recognize the name.

She whistles and the crowd begins to make their way out. She tells the group she opens at four and welcomes them back then. Audacity says that it was lovely to meet her.

Hava finishes her drink and tipsily tells her she’s incredible. Sprints says that she’s very pretty and very drunk. She puts a big paw on Hava’s face and tells her to drink some water before she shoos them all out of the door.

They return to the Mango. Az writes a note to Arlin offering his apologies and promising to see him at some point during his stay. He also writes some letters to rogue elements he knew via Mixie asking about Arlin and Tally. He gets two responses, one from a tiefling named Levity and an orc named Reynasha who is Mixie’s ex-girlfriend.

Az remembers that Levity and Reynasha were dating when he left town. He also knows they go to a bar where he felt distinctly unsafe, a bar called The Hollow Dagger. Every single time he has been there, someone has been stabbed in his presence or recovering from a stab wound. He also gets a note back from Arlin that says he’s disappointed but looking forward to talking to him. There’s a PS that adds if Az would like better drinks, he knows a place.

Hava passes out face-first into bed after taking a bath with mango-scented soap.

Before bed, Audacity asks Yolov why he hates the Mango so much. Yolov says that there’s no care for the place, the people clearly don’t enjoy working here and everything is sticky and badly kept. The style is the same in every Magnificent Mango. Audacity is puzzled by this.

In the morning, Az suggests they break into The Hollow Dagger. Yolov suggests he should send a letter to his father about visiting in the afternoon, since word will probably reach him that Az is in town.

As Az writes the note, Audacity takes Galowen aside and asks him about his love for the Magnificent Mango. Galowen says it’s nice to have a restaurant where he knows exactly what he’ll get every time. It’s also where he learned about the middle finger. Audacity is even more puzzled.

They hit the road, heading out into the early morning shadows under the spire. Az is wearing his least nice outfit, but Audacity, Hava, and Yolov still have to scare off pickpockets. They see washing lines crossing between buildings, trash and refuse underfoot in the alley, as they get into a more dangerous part of the city.

There is no sign for the bar between two residential buildings, just a dagger stabbed into the front door. There’s also an entrance to what looks to be a cellar.

Az ignores the door and goes for the cellar. It’s locked, though the lock seems like it has been picked many times before. He works on it with the picks he got from Genesis. It gives with a quiet click. He squints at it, not seeing any sign of traps, before he goes to open it.

There is no trap, instead just a stench of stale beer and a series of rickety stairs. As the party descends down, it opens up into a bar that is slightly nicer than the one above them that Az remembers. He’s uncertain if this is an entirely separate bar.

They are also not technically alone. This bar has six to eight unconscious people, all drunk. Three of them are piled together snoring together in a booth. One is passed out on the floor with a poorly bandaged stab wound.

And slumped down against the bar are two women that Az recognizes as Levity and Reynasha. Reynasha is a large half-orc woman with long black hair. The lithe golden-haired tiefling sprawled out in her lap is Levity.

Levity raises one delicate hand and says she doesn’t know what’s going on but they’re closed and it’s too bright. Reynasha agrees, peeling one eye open. She recognizes Az and immediately bolts upright, knocking Levity to the floor.

Levity looks up from where she’s sprawled and brightens and says Donnie.

Meanwhile Reynasha sighs and asks if Mixie wants something. Az says doesn’t and tells Reynasha she’s on another continent. Reynasha says she’s glad, she doesn’t need a fourth stab wound.

Levity says it’s great to see him and giggles when he compliments her. She asks if he’s here with the money Mixie owes her. When Az says not if it’s her tab, she pouts. Reynasha tells her that she’s never getting that money back before she offers them all a drink.

When they tell her it’s nine o’clock, she offers coffee instead. She kicks the stabbed guy awake and sends him upstairs to make them coffee.

Then she points at a scarred table and says that he’s not here for pleasure. They should talk. When she leans forward, Az sees that three fingers on her hand have been replaced with prosthetics.