The group follows Saul in the direction the ring points him. After following that for a while, with taking some detours where buildings are in the direct path, they end up in front of a partially collapsed tavern. From below you hear the same bickering, out of what once part of the building’s root cellar.
A small opening allows to look into their lair which is a large hollow below the corner of the building.
Fhingle waits his turn to look in the hole.
"What are we looking for?" Fhingle whispers
Salonius examines the entry trying to see if they would be able to dash in to surprise the fey and looking for any other exits the creatures might be able to use to escape.
He whispers to Peeko sending the thrush to fly around the ruined building looking for possible escape routes.
Fingle could crawl in with ease, everyone else would have to squeeze through. Inside the hole it is dark and painful. Before Fhingle can see anything he can feel metal in his face and then the sharp pain of a tooth being ripped out.
Cursing Salonius uncovers his light spell and hurls a splintered spear at the creature assaulting Fhingle, but his shock does little for his aim and the wood shatters against the tumbled down tavern nowhere near hitting its target.
As Fhingle comes out of the hole again the fairy that follows gets stabbed at. The first try misses, but the second ends the evil creature. Which makes it explode in a cloud of stinking sparkling fairy dust.
The second tooth fairy manages to evade Sauls attempts to end it, as it leaves the lair, pincers in hand.
Fhingle falls back, clutching at his mouth and missing tooth, his demeanor changing and his speech becoming something else.
Jhen stabs at the second tooth fairy and kills it. It explodes in another cloud of fairy dust.
An investigation of the tooth fairies’ den reveals a chamber slowly being decorated with teeth of all sorts; in time, the tooth fairies hoped to wallpaper the entire area with teeth, but for now only a few disturbing patterns decorate the walls. In the center of one of these is a gold tooth.
A more interesting find than the gold tooth lies in the far side of the area, where the broken, toothless body of a young tiefling child has been set in a place of reverence in a niche in the wall. The child’s body has been tightly wrapped with thick preserved sinews, its wrists and ankles shattered and bound with cold iron chains. All but one of its teeth have been knocked from its jaws. An examination of the grisly find reveals dozens of phrases have been inscribed very fine writing along the sinews.
Salonius stares at the scene wide eyed for a minute, then he hurries out gulps in air clutches his knees and vomits.
"Uggggh, why do we never meet nice fey?"
Returning pale faced, Salonius prestidigitates his mouth, spits, and says, "I believe these things originate from the teeth of "willful" child’s tooth, or, in this case, a whole child buried in a place with strong connections to the mysterious realm of the fey. I suspect these chain constitute such a fey connection. It looks like someone did this deliberately, and given the timing I would say that someone is deeply connected to our new Thrunian overlord."
Fhingle cries at the sight of the dead child, "So we take this child back up and find out who the parents were?" Fhingle moves to the body and lays a hand upon it, almost looking like he is guarding it.
"Yes, but I doubt we will find a happy home these creatures seem to come form painful backgrounds. The least we can do is unbind the poor child and give him a decent burial, if we can find his parents then of course we should return him. I need to figure out what that script on the chains says, but that will have to wait for tomorrow I think." Salonius says sorrowfully.
Fhingle takes the baby and together you return to Zea's home. Zea is shocked by the sight and the story you tell.
Once she recovered from the shock she offers "If you like you can stay here, 'til the morning. Then I could invite some of the other tieflings to see if someone knows this baby or has seen something at that house you told about."
"Many thanks Zea, heading back now while curfew is in place would be a risky endeavour indeed, and I should like to discover what caused this tragedy," Salonius says wearily, glancing around for a chair or comfortable looking spot he might doze in.
Fhingle lays the child down gently, backing away so those of her kind can look after her.
Fhingle backs up to Saul, "So what are we doing now?"
The offered quarters are rather uncomfortable. A wooden bench or the floor. There is no luxury such as guest rooms or feather beds. Lea has some blankets but they only help a little against the hard floor. The next morning everyone who is used to beds feels stiff.
The day begins early as no one wants to sleep in under these conditions. Lea excuses herself, but she is not prepared - neither from her storage nor her purse - to provide that much people with breakfast.
She leaves the group for now, to visit some of the 'village elders' and ask them to come over.
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Before Zea and the elders comes back, Saul says to the group: "Gameplan? This is my thought. We lay the blame squarely on the Thrunes, allowing devils to roam free on the streets. Yeah, sure, these were crazy fairies, but not much of a difference. Let's see if they will be willing to support an underground resistance. We don't have to say we are the leaders."
Wild haired and irritable Salonius prestidigitates himself back to cleanliness before saying, "I do not think deceit is the way to go, and I do believe that the Thrunes are responsible for this. I already know they employ a murderous torturing none human, my supposition was that it was some form of devil, but it could equally be a fey, or he could have more such monstrous allies. Given the timing I can see no other obvious culprit. I think we tell them the truth, that we are trying to form a resistance and that we will try to protect them and other citizens of Kintargo as best we can, and hope they will consider joining or aiding us."
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"Sounds like the biggest risk we will have taken so far. Putting ourselves as the leaders opens us up to retaliation if even one of them betrays us. Could we just say that we are followers of the mysterious.... what was his name...Jackdaw. You know, that old story of the one who helped defend Kintargo during the Chelish Civil War. Many believe he, or she, still lives on today in the city’s shadows. If we start spreading rumors of this Jackdaw... and word gets out, the Thrunes will be looking for him instead of us."
"I don't think that achieves anything, they might spot the fact that we are lying and they are going to know our faces and not some fictitious leaders, so if there are informers they can only inform on us. All it does is provide an additional risk factor, and likely cost any trust our efforts might have engendered."
"But its a lie... We don't have anything to do with Jackdaw, I wish we did. Wold you want someone recruiting you to a potentially life threatening cause to lie to you, or would you want to actually know what you were getting into? And can you guarantee me some savvy tiefling elder is not going to see through you in a heartbeat? Decisions should be based upon a reasonable debate, a system where you get to make the decision because your last one did not make sense is just crazy. Explain why your idea is better and if we do not agree the group can simply vote. I think your suggestion both morally and practically wrong."
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"For as smart as you are, you can be so dense, S! You are ready to come clean and tell a bunch of strangers that we are trying to lead a revolt against the government. Strangers!"
"It makes sense that we start spreading rumors that someone ELSE is behind the revolt. That way, when things start getting aggressive, as you know they must, the Thrunes will start looking for this mythological hero, and not a wizard botanist, a black private eye, and a crazy halfling. Also-- Jackdaw will give people hope. Rumors of Jackdaw will inspire the people!"
"Is it a risk to lie to these tieflings? Probably. But isn't telling them the truth a risk? Isn't everything we are doing a risk? Yes! We decided to takes risks when we decided to take this course of action, S!"
"Not pointless risks. In either scenario they know who we are, if they go to the Dottari will it make a difference if they say Salonius Barridan, is working for the Jackdaw to rebel, or if they say Salonius Barridan is rebelling? I am pretty sure they will try to murder us either way. So lying gains us absolutely nothing, and the Jackdaw is still a potential ally who we have not told lies about. Generally I am not fond of people lying about me, but perhaps he loves it. I leave it to you, my opinion should be clear, I only hope you lie well." Salonius snaps irritably, sitting down with a scowls and making a hand washing gesture.
Fhingle listens to the back and forth of the long legs, eventually he leaves them alone because the fighting is a bit to much for him to take. Going outside for some fresh air Fhingle meets with some of the Tieflings looking for Zea.
"Zea can you tell me more about your elders?" Fhingle asks with curiosity
"These are some of those who were stepping up for the rights of tieflings. Until two weeks ago, I would have brought Strea Vestori. Our head of the cloven hoof society. But she disappeared in the night of ashes. Like so many have." Zea explains to Fhingle.
Zea leads the other tieflings inside to see the corpse of the infant and hear the story how it was found. And about the connection to the nightly murders.
Once inside she introduces everyone and leaves it to the heros to tell the tale.
The tielflings listen intently. They are shocked by the evil that was done to the infant and their people. But they are also relieved that the nightly killings will come to an end now.
None of them knows the child, but in this poor district there are a number of orphans that live on the streets and that no one would miss immediately. None of them have heard of a missing child, so far.
They are grateful for the aid and ask if they could give the child a proper funeral now.
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Having told the tale, Saul says, "Yes, the child deserves a funeral. Absolutely. But first, you may wonder why we are here, why we cared to help you. It is the Thrunes. We believe that they are trying to rule this city through fear, and they do not care who gets hurt. We think they set the tooth fairies loose here in the Devil's Nursery. They have set devils loose in other parts of the City. We aren't taking it anymore. We are organizing to stop them. You may remember, back years ago, the name of Jackdaw. That legendary freedom fighter who helped the common man. Well, he is back now, leading the fight to stop the Thrunes, and we are with him. The question is, will the tiefling community step up and help as well?"
(edit: Saul also hands over the gold tooth, and asks if that means anything to them.)
"I truly believe that all of Kintargo is going to suffer greatly under the Thrunian yoke. Resisting is potentially dangerous and hard, but if we do not all of our lives are going to get worse, every day until he has crushed our spirit and those who do not fit into his plan are eliminated, please consider joining with us to take a stand." Salonius adds, pleased Saul has not overtly lied, we are with him, even if we have not met him. If he is a him.
Fhingle stays by the child as people come to see if the know who she is.
"We have to stop these devils, I am a former slave and know the power these devils have and what they can do. Jackdaw as Saul said should help us out."
The tieflings look at each other. Zea breaks the silence and tells "It is time that someone stands up to Thrune."
"Who is this Jackdaw?" she asks though.
Jackdaw, the most mysterious member of the Silver Ravens was also the group’s leader.
But the audience is rather ignorant when it comes to history. Study of old times is for people who have time after a nourishing meal. Not these poor people. Nonetheless they like to hear a good story about heroics.
"Where can we find you?" Zea asks, as it becomes clear that the group won't stay forever.
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Alarm bells go of in Saul's head. Of course they need a way to find us, but telling them of the Longroad or my office would be fool-hardy, until we know them much better.
"Graffiti. If you need us, paint a raven on prominent walls around the City. Your color code is red. Paint a red raven, and we will come back to you."
With a dramatic turn, Saul swishes his leather duster around him as he turns on his heel and leaves the room. Not a bad exit, but would have been much better with a cape and mask. I'll have to think about that.
Salonius nods solemnly to the tieflings and asks, "Could you please keep the chains for me once you have laid the poor little fellow to rest? I wish to find out exactly who did this, and hopefully prevent them doing so again. Deciphering that script might give us more clues. If that is okay I will return tomorrow if that would be acceptable?"
"Is there something special about the chains you think Salonius?'
"You can take them off now and take them with you if you want." Zea replies, as she wants to get rid of that grisly stuff rather now than later.
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As they leave, Saul nods to everyone and says, "I better get back to the office. I still should keep my business in operation, even if it pays less in a month than the cost of a single Chelish Citizen Group amulet. It's hard to be an honest businessman in this City.
The Devil's Nursery is not far from Old Kintargo. Saul gets to his office after a short walk and settles down in his most comfortable chair. I'm too old to sleep on the floor. I'm definitely staying home tonight.
Fhingle leaves with saul, heading back to the Coffee house
"what are we doing tomorrow?" Fhingle asks
Fhingle looks around rubbing his eyes a bit, "Sorry I didn't sleep well, Laria will be wondering where I am. I will see you later." Fhingle runs off back to the coffee shop