Well, there's that. With a great sigh, Armon raises a hand to rub his forehead with. After what they had seen so far, he should not have expected anything else. Still, he could not help but to feel sorry for the tengu.
"It cannot be helped," he finally concurs, shaking his head. Victor was right, in any case. "We will have to let Laria know about this. As for yourselves... what do you plan on doing now? There is nothing keeping you here, anymore."
Korva and her sister look at the more active speakers, but tend to eye Victor and Tobias more often. "Should tell her, losing friends or family..." the Tengu shrugs a little, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Don't know. Just want to leave, mostly. The only thing we know is that we're in Cheliax... and that Cheliax isn't a very good place to be. No offense." she adds, shooting a look to shorty and baldy.
"We have a friend up top that can help get you out if you'll follow us to the surface, unless any of you have anything else to do?"
The Tengu woman looks from Juniper to the others, and seems to think about things for a moment, then nods and clicks her beak four times, in two pairs. You hear movement off to your right again, but not hurried. Another pair of Tengu come into the light, weapons at their waist but hands dangling down below the weapons, clearly nonthreatening.
"If you've got something other than running some more, we'd be happy to go that way."
Since things have come to a quiet end, Scath stands up, no longer trying to be stealthy, and lightly leaps over the tengu heads to the other stacked crates, making himself the center of attention.
Whereupon he turns his back to the Tengu and begins to groom his right rear foot, to get some of the dust off...
The tengu glare at the cat for a moment; they were fairly certain there was something out there, but there hadn't been much that they could do, given the situation, their hands reach for their weapons, but then stop as the cat appears to immediately grow bored.
The Tengu head towards the surface, visibly more relaxed, given the situation's slow shifts. There's still a bit of an edge to them, though they seem mostly complacent. Once they reach the secret passage, they pause at the doorway to allow for the others to take the lead the way into the building and grease the proverbial wheels of their new Landlady.
Juniper would be the first back on the surface to talk to Laria about helping the Tengu. "We found your contact but he was killed by a creature that had found it's way into the passage but we did find some others that are in need of your help."
More than a dozen confections are laid out in trays in ready view of the public, while entire trays of the same sit in small boxes behind the counter. Her assistant sits behind the bar, with two covered dishes. The room smells vaguely of meat and eggs in addition to the normal smells of pastries.
Laria is on the opposite end of the room, just turning the sign (at waist height of humans), to allow for the early morning foot traffic to come in. She finishes turning it over, as she hears someone coming in from the opposite room. She turns with a smile, which slowly fades. It doesn't completely go away, though. She nods slowly, "I'd expected it. I hadn't expected for it to be a creature, though. I'm guessing in addition to his 'textiles' he picked up more intelligent cargo?" she asks, somewhat discreetly. The Tengu still haven't come into the room, waiting for the other foot to fall. They seem tense, once more, though not agitated.
"Indeed. They are of the... feathery variety. It seems that they paid your friend to arrange for transport out of the city, but he passed away before he could fulfill his end of the bargain," Armon says, deciding to leave out the details of Nan's apparent debauchery.
Laria just huffs. "I can't blame the long-legged todger for doing his job, too well. It's going to be even harder to help people, now. That's..." she sighs. "Most of my contacts gone. Maybe to ground. Maybe to something else. Anyway, breakfast is ready. Are your feathered friends going to be staying or going? I can try to help them along on their way, if they've somewhere to go."
As Laria asked the question, one of the Tengu, Korva, moves to the doorway. She looks to Laria, then to the eggs, then to Laria and back to the eggs, giving a slightly dubious look that was missing grimace and frown, due to beak. She opened her mouth, then closed it, and moved out of the way of the door, to sit at a table.
Juniper lowered her voice slightly so that the Tengu wouldn't be able to hear. "I Don't think they have anywhere or anyone to go to, if we can't move them maybe they could stay here until we find a place for them?"
Laria nods in response to Juniper's suggestion. "They're welcome to stay here, for now." she says, before looking back towards the storage room. "I suppose we'll have some work to do, trying to get more contacts, if we're going to get things moving. Speaking of... we should head into the back room to talk about those things."
"I have a feeling they'll be happy to get out of your hair if they have the chance. Perhaps we should take the time to look into your missing friends if we have some time. They might need someone to give them a hand." He shakes his head. "But that's something to discuss in private. Shall we?"
As the night passes by, and the group sets out to do their own things over the course of the next week.
Scath moves back into Redroof, and more specifically, to the Fair Fortune Livery. The urchins have been hard at work getting everything set up and cleaned up to their (and Scath's) preferences. They make good headway, but one of the children falls sick after the first day of working. She'd been working to clear out whatever was blocking the drain in the devil-water-pit. She'd managed to get the basin to drain out, though. The next day she was running a fever and felt weak and shaky.
The children manage to clean out the pit, and eradicate any pests that might be inside to ruin anything they bring back to their new home, all while searching through the building, and claiming the bounty on the dog. They find quite a lot of mundane things as well as a hidden compartment with a key to the metal gates, some alcohol, and some coins.
Scath's itchies go away on their own a little over a day after he first gets them, becoming steadily less annoying until they're entirely gone.
Juniper sets to work decoding the documents the very next day, and puts quite a lot of work into them. She, along with Rexus, is able to uncover several details strewn throughout. Juniper is able to discover several of the names of the previous leaders; Jackdaw is mentioned several times, but there's little mention beyond her significant importance to the rebellion and the city of Kintargo as a whole. Ba is found on the deed to the Fair Fortune Livery as the apparent owner of the building. You're able to determine through connecting various parts beneath the codes, that Ba was exceptionally charming, and a significant boon to the rebellion. The next most common mention is Kyda, the architect of some sort of song that had aided in the defense of the cities, empowered by another major player - Amyreid, a cleric of Milani. Finally, there are some mentions of a man named Brakisi, who was an emotional livewire. He caused as many problems as he solved, but he kept the group going.
Rexus, follows up on the information you provide, and discovers that Jackdaw had been in Kintargo since well before the founding of the Silver Ravens. She'd made a name for herself by standing up for those who couldn't stand on their own, it was under her banner that the city of Kintargo rallied when Aroden ceased to empower his clerics.
Armon is greeted by some degree of suspicion from his family. They knew that clearly he had done something, but without the knowledge of just what that something was, it was best to let him repent now, and ask forgiveness later. Besides, the family couldn't possibly cook up a worse punishment for the young man than bureaucracy.
Armon is stuck with one 'Amelia Tanessen', a woman nearing his age. Not unattractive by any means, though her mannerisms and posture state that she'd much rather have nothing to do with people, much less the Jarvis boy. But there is much to discuss regarding Thrune's requests and the Jarvis's future endeavors.
You discover rather quickly (if you didn't know before), that the Tanessen family has grown rich from war, and the idea of turning Kintargo into a fortress seems to be their ideal scenario. Unfortunately, while they have several manufactories nearby that help to keep Thrune and the Chelish Military supplied with weapons and armor, what they don't have is a claim to the land that Kintargo resides upon... and they would like nothing more than for your family to make it easier for them to maneuver their weapons into positions to be easily accessible by Thrune's Dottari.
You leave without having agreed on much at all, but with the knowledge that house Tanessen has already chosen to side with Thrune in the coming months.
Tobias slips away, in search of those people who had gone missing from within his own chapter amongst the Hellknights... and promptly vanishes.
Scath shakes 150 gp in gems out of his hidey hole, and gives it to Sanita to take the child to a temple for a Remove Disease casting. Those are generally available all the time. He scratches out that she's to dress up in the best clothes she has, and the child as well, so that it's not so suspicious. Her story is her employer sent her down with the child of the headwoman as she didn't want any diseased kids in her house.
Armon is all too "happy" to entertain Amelia at first, but any expectations he did have of the noblewoman and her family quickly go south. A shame that she is not more personable, he had thought to himself, as she droned on about her family's history. Still, it was rather clear that the Tanessen family might very well be a thorn in their side.
Regardless, he is as pleasant as possible, though the nature of his true opinions requires a bit of glibness on his part. He comes away from the encounter feeling mentally exhausted, with just a few scraps of intelligence to show for it.
Juniper toils away at the papers trying to translate as much as she can and copy over the important parts to her own book in common so the others could easily read it if they wanted the information themselves.
The next time they met Juniper looks exhausted and keeps rubbing her right hand but doesn't openly complain.
Tobias and Victor manage to get in touch with several of the displaced guards, while everyone else knows at least a few people who would be willing to join the rebellion (feel free to flesh things out a bit!)
Over the course of the week, the space below is searched through more thoroughly, and several things of interest are found. The alligator (which is carved up and carted off to Joe's Good Eats) had eaten the other half of a pair of Daredevil Boots (I'm using the +1 to hit version, as it's the most current iteration).
In addition to this, within Nan's belongings are a diary regarding what had happened over the last few weeks, including a wending, probably drunken account regarding the loss of many friends that he'd never get back, one hundred and eighty gold, one hundred and twenty silver and thirty seven copper pieces found in various hidey holes, and a beautiful oversized alabaster key, etched with the silhouettes of several buildings. The shipping crates he had brought into town also have over four hundred gold worth of Varisian finery, including beautiful embroidery work in almost every piece, in a variety of colors and styles.
In a secret drawer within the strange elven statue, a masterwork whip is found. The whip is threaded with lines of silver and contains a compartment in the handle that seems capable of storing a vial of some kind within easy access. Several water-damaged scrolls lie within the space, along with a single scroll case and a braided golden ring that passes through the hilt of three tiny daggers, each with a wasp etched into the blades. Within the scroll case are three scrolls - A Magic Circle against Law, a Cure Moderate Wounds, and an Unnatural Lust.
A steady stream of people begin to head down into the bowels of the Longroads Coffee House - which Laria has dubbed the Hornet's Nest, many of which are people that Laria would never have shared this information with before... but most of them have very little problem siding at least a little with Calistria, given their unlawful displacement by Thrune. The group maintains a friendly relationship with Korva and her sisters, who decide not to leave town, at least for now.
Ultimately, it is from the citizens who are allied with the Ravens, if tentatively, that the group learns of one of two more obvious opportunities to take advantage of: Several buildings had burned down during the Night of Ashes. Three of particular interest, and a few beyond that, are brought up. A few homes were burned, of course, but in addition to that, the Victocora estate was burned to the ground, the Thrashing Badger is still a nearby eyesore, just a blackened marble building, emptied of everything that made it interesting... and finally, the Silver Star across the river. Investigating these areas would likely provide the group with more information as to what exactly happened, and might result in valuable resources as well.
In addition to the first, there are a lot of complaints coming in about those at Sallix Salt Works being laid off... and replaced with people who have been arrested for many of Thrune's more petulant laws - virtually enslaved for life to work in incredibly harsh conditions...
As they start to discover more items and rebuild the ravens with the new Coffee house base Juniper wouldn't request any of the new items personally but would strongly suggest they start saving things in the closest thing they could get to a treasury with what they had.
Scath listens to the two-legs, and by night, sniffs out various places that they mention, the salt works, the burned out estate, etc. Being naturally cautious, he starts out from a distance, then moves in closer and closer each night...