Beneath the Evening Nip, FCG hatched the beginnings of their plot to oust Wyatt Fedar from power. Content with their decision, the party retired, readying themselves for a busy week of political action. Conan awoke in a cold sweat midway through the night. The troubled fighter headed out to the bar in search of a stiff drink to calm his nerves. Triple J joined him shortly, sensing his friend’s clear discontent. The two chatted and drank through the night, Triple J discretely disposing of the foul liquor provided while still comforting Conan. Dawn broke and the party rejoined over some cold gruel before setting off.
FCG’s first order of business was to hire on some staff for their soup kitchen project. They headed to the Leaky Tap where they successfully recruited Claudia, the barkeep, to come work for them as soon as the kitchen was open, promising three times her current wages. Pleased with some immediate success, the group enjoyed a nice hot breakfast before heading back out into the cold morning.
The next item on FCG’s itinerary was to procure a location for said soup kitchen. Exhausted from the night’s conversation, Triple J struggled to find a suitable location for many hours before the group finally came across some seemingly abandoned stables on the outskirts of the south western portion of the Outersteads. Skeptical, Conan approached the adjacent home and cautiously entered. Within, he heard the sounds of a few small animals rousing from their slumber. The first poked its tiny canine head around the corner, revealing itself and its siblings to be wolf pups. Hangover beginning to set it, Conan attempted to coax the smol puppy with a scrap of dried meat. The puppy inched its way a little closer before growing wary of the big scary Conan. It proceeded to yip and howl, triggering a chorus of puppy howls from its siblings.
In this moment, Triple J caught sight of two wolves and one much larger wolf approaching the stables. Hearing the wails of their distressed pups, the angered wolves set upon the party. The largest wolf, streaks of icy blue highlighting its grey coat, unleashed a torrent of freezing breath on Triple J and Soren. In response, Triple J and Endrin coordinated to cripple the largest wolf while Conan cleaved another in two. It was Soren, however, that dealt the final blow to the pack leader, slicing off its hind legs. The mournful howls of the pups could be heard from within.
Guilt ridden, the blood of the pups’ parents fresh on their hands, FCG tended to the new orphans. Each member finally managed to calm a pup, Conan falling on and almost killing the runt of the litter in the process. Triple J soothed a small grey female with a lullaby, while Endrin fended off some rambunctious nipping with an arcane shield and some gravity magic. Soren claimed the largest of litter acknowledging a mutual hint of shared destiny. With the stables’ denizens dealt with, FCG looked around a bit more and determined that the stables would be a serviceable location for the soup kitchen as well as another outpost for the Gentleman’s syndicate.
FCG’s next order of business was to acquire food and possibly more labor for their new establishment. However, along the way, another potential, more central, location caught Soren’s eye. Intrigued at the idea of a soup kitchen chain, the party decided to investigate. The two-story wooden structure looked clearly condemned from the outside, its windows all boarded up. Within, they discovered a potent red smoke and many individuals clearly incapacitated from substance abuse. They discovered the source to be a fine red powder known as Suude. Saddened, Soren cured a crazed woman’s ailments to learn what she could about this place. Endrin made arrangements to forcefully evict the addicts by means of floating disc while the other members of the party headed to the second floor.
Above, they encountered a few more patrons, a dwarf, a scrawny dead human, and a green dragonborn. Next to the dragonborn, however, was a sight most curious. A small child, its features half dragonborn, half human, sat playing with a smoking pipe. Cheery eyed, the child introduced himself as Hulvie when questioned by Triple J. Hulvie revealed that he had been left under the watch of his unkie (uncle) Kriv, the dragonborn addict, while his mother went to work at the Triumph Chime, the squattest of Zadash’s three spires. FCG took a mental note of Hulvie’s situation before disposing of the rest of the patrons within. Soren buried the deceased out back, while the party pondered the logistics of using a former drug house as a second soup kitchen. With much still to do and the New Dawn Festival only 10 days away, the party set off into the brisk afternoon to see to the next elements of their plan.
