Episode Three: The hunt for Terk 's Haksred
Akane politely adds: "And also, if you could tell us the name of Great Mountain's wife?"
The merchant looks at the party and bursts into laughter: "Names, they ask me! You folks ain't too observant, are you? You don't want my hints, I'm drunk as a barrel."
Akane looks at the sun, still rising in the sky, and at the merchant.
The woman bares her fangs in what is probably a smile, and adds in a low voice: "Spent ten years in the Duke's mines, before the Count found me. You think I could be nice to all of these snotty humanfolk if I weren't drunk off my head the entire day? Almost tore out the Count's throat when he bought me, would have too if he weren't-"
She shakes her head and growls: "Grog must be wearing off, I'm talking too much. Go talk to Goldie there if you want information. I need a drink, and you need to get going."
With that, she pulls out a wineskin, and unstoppers it, pointedly looking at Akane, then at "Goldie", and then taking a swig.
Unwilling to start a fight, Akane follow the hint and leads the party to "Goldie"s stand, which appears to sell mechanical devices of some sort.
The woman's eyes, light brown with specks of gold, turn to look at her new potential customers. "WELCOME! To my humble shop. LOOK! ADMIRE the gnomish craft, OBSERVE these AMAZING mechanical tools. You've NEVER seen the equal!"
Akane is taken slightly aback by the girl's enthusiasm (and sheer volume): "Ah... Yes, good day to you. These certainly look... Very interesting. Did you make them?"
The merchant nods vigorously: "But OF COURSE! I'm a TINKER! That's what I do." With a a grandiose swiping gesture at her mershandise, she exclaims: "I TINK!"
Unable to stop herself, Akane quips: "...therefore you ham?"
The merchant smiles, and proceeds to show her wares to the party, toning down the act a little. A number of the mechanisms are toys, or simple mechanical improvements on normal tools. A couple look like they seamlessly mate magic and engineering in nature, however, and the merchant confirms that she did indeed add some magic to the mechanisms.
While discussing the various items on sale, Akane gathers some information.
- The "cloud district" is not actually called thusly (the term is not exactly derogatory, but it's not entirely polite either), its official name is "Gnome District", and it's actually very easy to reach, as its entrance is at the other end of the main road.
- Unlike in most cities in Cheliash, the city guard isn't a pack of wolves hunting for slaves under the guise of punishing blasphemy. Non-humans are generally safe in the city, as long as they don't start trouble.
- Great Mountain is kind of a local hero to many non-humans, he and his wife, Rainbow of the Red Harring, managed to convince the Count to put most of the slaves under a Beholden (essentially indentured servitude) contract instead. The main difference, beside some minor rights, is that a Beholden's children are born as free men, rather than slaves.
At this point Akane inquires about this "Red Harring" gnome lady, since to the best of her knowledge House Red Harring had gone extinct, but Goldie - whose actual name is Goldshine: apparently her parent were only creative in matters of technology - only shrugs.
Still, Great Mountain and Red Harring? By the end of the conversation, Akane is ready to eat her hat if those people don't have at least some information about Terk 's Haksred.
OOC: Goldie has Masterwork tools or any normal craft available for purchase, and a weird 1000 gp technomantic multitool hat grants a +2 Circumstance bonus to most interactions with mechanical items, and a +1 Competence bonus to any Disable Device task. They include a variant Mending enchantment that prevents any normal wear and tear, and extends some of its effects to what the user works on, allowing repairs on machines to proceed five to ten times faster (one week's worth of repairs in a single day, one day in 2d3 hours, one hour in 10 minutes, 10 minutes in 1 minute, and 1 minute in 1 round). If materials are normally required, they must still be provided.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:29, Sun 23 Sept 2018.