Asking one of the watch for directions to a nearby inn, the party finds a place away from most of the bustle of the the district.
The accommodations are fairly quiet and clean. Baths and breakfast are provided in the morning.
Rested and refreshed, the party gathers themselves together and heads to Underbridge to check out the warehouse.
The perpetual shadow of the Irespan high above provide a fitting gloom to the patry's mood. As they wind their way through slums and disheveled businesses crowded against each other, the party does its best to stay out of most of the mud.
The rats darting to and fro seem to be the most good-natured of the district's residents. From doorways and alleys, hard stares and greedy looks follow the party, though nobody steps forward to challenge them.
Following the directions, the district gets dirtier and smellier by the minute. In a filthy stretch of shoreline, where garbage gets pushed ashore by the currents stands a decrepit, partially collapsed former warehouse. Hanging askew, a sliding door provides only a passing suggestion at security.
Not trusting the door, the party decides rather to step through a large hole in the wall next to it and looks around.
Inside, beside rubble, the inside of the warehouse contains a makeshift hovel mode from several rowboats and timbers leaning up against the frame of the warehouse with a moldering sail hanging over the doorway.
Next to the hovel is an old sea chest with a broken lid. A sign leans against the front of the chest reading "LEEV A GIFT AND WATE OUTSID." A dented tin platter sits on the ground next to it.
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Paëral takes a look around...
"A large number of folk stayed here...'bout a week ago...
Noticing the sign, he recalls a rumor he heard earlier. "There's a man around here, Fenster if I recall correctly. He'll do anything if the price is right...you leave a 'gift' on the platter and wait outside...if he likes it, he'll let you know. Do we want to try and procure his services? The Tower Girls may have turned to him for help..."
Barkot nods. "Yeah, dat's da mope dat Kasadei said moved inta da place." He looks at the tin plate and shrugs, then pulls a five silver coins out of his pouch. "Easy come, easy go. Looks like dis is da way ta get his attention, anyways.". He tosses the coin onto the platter so that they clang loudly.
"Squatters, or this Fenster fellow? Actually it doesn't matter, he may have something useful to tell us and I'm getting the feeling that speed is important."
The party drops a few coins into the plate and steps back to wait.
After a minute, the rotting sail is drawn back and a head emerges. After a quick look around, a body emerges.
Some of you have spent time in Underbridge and areas of squallor. You have seen street dwellers. This person makes them all seem like freshly bathed merchants.
He may be human, but you don't really want to get close enough to tell for sure.
His clothes are caked in filth and the odor is nearly overpowering. The clothing hangs on a body that is mostly skin and bones. What skin you see seems to be grey and clammy.
His long, matted, greasy hair hangs limply from his head. One eye is white and cloudy, while the other darts around from person to person, wary, but with a cunning intensity.
As he approaches, you can hear his breathing rasping and gurgling with an occasional hacking cough.
He looks down to the platter for a second, then looks back to the party with a nasty sneer before turning and heading back towards the shelter without a word.
Hearing the extra coins, Fenster turns back around.
With a smile you really wish you hadn't seen, he pockets the coins, then takes a seat on top of the chest and speaks, the scent of spoiled meat washing over you as he does.
"What yew want Fenster ta' do?"
Paëral sighs...and digs 7 more gold out of his pouch and plops it in the platter...
Barkot quirks an eyebrow at Paëral when he tosses his first three gold coins onto the platter after Barkot had dropped a few silvers. Does he t'ink dis guy can tell da difference from inside just from da sound? An' anybody lives like dis, dey ain't gonna complain about gettin' paid in silver.
When Fenster turns to go back into his hovel - after taking their money - Barkot starts to reach out to grab him. Before he can even make the attempt, he hears the clatter as the elf drops another handful of gold coins onto the tin plate. He grunts in surprise, and then again when Fenster turns back.
I seen guys in better shape den dis mope knife each udder over just one piece o' gold. No tellin' what dis guy's gonna do fer ten. An' five silver.
"Take it easy, buddy. We jus' wanna talk."
Fenster looks disappointed for a moment "T'were lookin' fer a bita workout, bet talk be ezzy"
He cracks each and every one of his knuckles. The disturbing crackle of damaged cartilage and the easy manner of the movement tells you that he has had plenty of experience putting those fists to work.
"Talkin' ain'ta best use a Fenster's tongue, bet yews tha ones payin'" With that, Fenster gives Reillana a leer that would be disturbing on a normal man. On him, the effect set the hairs on the back of your neck standing.
"What yews wanna talk 'bout?"
Flexing the fingers of the hand that usually wields her knife, Reillana sneers at Fenster behind her mask.
"No one has let you touch them in years, pig. Just answer the question and we can both be on our ways."
Fenster passes right over Reillana's tone as thought it were normal.
"The Tower Girls? They's livin' here. Paid Fenster ta use his warehouse."
He then gets a shrewd look in his one good eye.
"Oh, I remembers that Natalya. She were a looker, that one." The tip of his tongue touches his top lip.
Fenster chuckles mysteriously. "Nuthin' in th' Shadow gits by me good peeper!"
He then takes on a pained expression, trying to appear offended. "Fenster canna be bought. No!
He'd neveh sell out his tenants."
He smiles greedily. "Oh, but that Natalya, she's livin' somewheres else now, ain't she? Too good ta keep rentin' from Fenster.
Fenster might share what he knows wit' a friend. A friend who brings a nice gift, eh? Might be them Blades'll be by ta ask, bet yews are here first, eh?"
Seeing that the party is maybe less experienced in Underbridge transactions, he continues.
"Yer coins is ok, bet they jingles awfully in tha pocket, and gets lost too easy. Shopkeeps den't like Fenster comin' round, neither. Show Fenster somethin' nice fer hiz collection, mebbe somethin' he can use, mebbe somethin' unusual?"
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"We've got the other amethyst still, right? Maybe he'd like that." Squint says guilelessly to Paëral.
The halfling squirms slightly under the non-plussed gazes of his compatriots.
"I mean, he obviously KNOWS things. Even I can tell you that." Squint laughs mirthlessly as if to dispel his lack of savvy.
Barkot covers his face with his hands and mumbles, "Yeah, Squint. Sure. Leastways, he says he does."
With a sigh, he puts down his hands and jabs a finger in Fenster's direction. "Look, bub, we ain't here ta get jerked aroun'. Mebbe ya got de idea from some o' dese guys dat we ain't from aroun' here, I've lived in da Shadow as far back as I c'n remember. Ya got info, da real deal, fine, we pays ya and we pays ya good, an' we pays ya in somet'in' dat don' make so much noise in ya pockets or wherever ya keep it. Ya give us crap, and ziur nago hiriaren beraren kontra altxatuko dela." Barkot switches to Varisian for his last few words, then bares his yellowed teeth at Fenster in an unpleasant grin.
Paëral smirks at Fenster. "What do you have in mind?"
Fenster rolls his eye, figuring he knows a guileless rube when he sees one.
He lifts up and reaches into the sea chest and pulls out a beautiful hand crossbow. The environment, and Fenster's general decrepitude set off just how nice of a weapon it is.
"Well, yer Tower Girls paid their rent wit dis fancy number. Shoots true with hardly any pressure."
He looks at it for a moment, then slips it back into the chest, giving the party a suspicious look. "Fenster gets all kinds 'o gifts from them as wants a job done. Some got 'istry, some shiny, some sharp." His tone shows he is losing patience. "Now, what you got? Er are we movin' on ta otha topics?"
"ziur nago hiriaren beraren kontra altxatuko dela."
Fenster laughs loudly, slapping his leg and sending fleas hopping away in distress. The laughs degrade into a long series of hacking coughs. When Fenster recovers he spits loudly to the side, then wipes his hand on his shirt.
Continuing on to itch at his armpits, he smiles and speaks. "Fenster likes yew, boy. But Fenster has what yew want. Yew don't deal, someun else will. Fenster's not goin' anywhere."
He focuses his eye on Barkot.
Barkot starts to respond, then snaps his mouth closed as he realizes why Fenster has gotten under his skin so easily.
Admit it, dummy - what bugs ya 'bout dis guy ain't dat he's disgusting, low-life scum. Or at least it ain't only dat.
It's dat you ain't dat different from him yerself.
The half-orc snarls, crosses his arms, and waits to see how Fenster responds to Paëral and Squint's move.
"That's a pretty bauble, but won't pay fer this information. I'll need another un."
Fenster lips twitch in a grimace that you think might be a smile, albeit a predatory one.
He pushes his plate forward with his boot and waits for the gems to be set out, then begins talking.
After the gems are set on the plate, Fenster rubs his hands together and starts telling his story.
"Natalya! Hee Hee! Thinks herself smart, she does. Not so smart as Fenster!
She came wit' ta rest 'o 'em, but didna like it here. Always holdin' her nose up, wouldn't give ol' Fenster the time 'o day! Hee Hee.
Well, she's always out lookin' fer a new hideout, she says, as if any place were better than Fenster's!
One day, she come back 'n' talks ta the others real excited like 'n' takes the higher ups outside somewheres. Them other girls take off the next day.
Well, coupla days later, I sees 'talya sneakin' round by herself. Hee hee! Nuthin' in th' Shadow gits by me good peeper!"
He taps under his good eye and pauses for dramatic effect.
"Fenster sneaks better 'n' that one! Followed her ta an abandoned building not far from here.
Real dump, that place! Just a matter 'o time afore theys all back in Fenster's place! They always come back ta ol' Fenster! Mebbe this time I asks fer better rent."
Fenster starts laughing and pounding his knee again before breaking out in another coughing fit.
At the group's urging, he gives them directions to the building where he saw Natalya.
"Now, what else kin Fenster tell ya 'bout?"
"The disappearances," Reillana interjects. "What does you 'good peeper' see about the people who vanish, only to turn up with their memories gone?"
Fenster looks at Reillana and smiles again, then sticks out his chest and beams. "Heared 'bout that, did ye? Dat's Fenster's work, don't you doubt it.
He'll disappear the lot 'o yew iffin ye don't watch yerselves."
Fenster's puffed-up pose can only be held for so long, and he collapses into a fit of horrible coughing. He spits loudly again then wipes some pinkish froth from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Why?!? Why?!? They thought they was better'n Fenster, that's why! Didn't show respect. Are you questioning me?"
Fenster shakes his fist in Paeral's direction.
The longer the conversation dragged on the more Reillana's scowl deepened. [i]This charlatan has shaken us down and given us very nearly nothing![/ooc]
"You're note a man to be trifled with, for certain," the elf offers, pretending to be impressed. "But surely you don't mean you really harmed all those people yourself? You've a reputation as a man who knows everything Fenster, and we've paid you well. Please, share with us what you know..."
Barkot growls and his left hand starts to move jerkily. As he is about to call on the mysterious power that has infused him, he realizes what Reillana is doing and decides to see what happens.
Fenster pouts, crossing his arms.
"Fine, you got me. Fenster ain't tha one disappearin' folks. Tis a great idea though.
Fenster seen the blue dwarfies what done it, though. Seen 'em skulkin' about Underbridge actin' like they owns the place. One 'o em saw Fenster too, but kept right on goin'. Knew not ta mess wit Fenster.
Ain't seen em in a coupla days, and I never tried ta follow 'em"
Exasperated, Fenster throws up his hands.
"Fine! Fenster did follow, but they got away! From Fenster!! Like they just disappeared.
Now, are ye done embarassing me, or have yew got more questions?"
"Tweren't just the one time 'n' they's been all over too. Lost their trail in diffrnt places. Been some time since tha last time ah tried. Tain't seen em in days, neither"
Reillana gives Squint a sideways glance, then looks over at Ulyi and tilts her head questioningly.