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NEXT DAY
Get to mansion of Rorin, greeted by penguin (Oswald Cobblepot). Follow pengy boi into mansion. Lavish and dwarvish in size, tight for us large folk. Wayne Manor inspired. No one goes in the East Wing. No one goes in the East Wing. Melfina relates having seen at least four shadowy figures that moved as one in the night. They fled upon being noticed.
 
About noon. We go to check out the area in the morning, at least four identified by foot size differences. One of the points of interest heads into the Babblebrook Inn, in the NW sector of the city. Greeted by half-elf Bridgette. Ask about anyone coming in around midnight last night, they left around 2am. Human, male, very slim, athletic-ish, dark hair, basic scruff, largely nondescript. A number of individuals sitting alone are taking too much interest in our conversation. Two of these get up to leave. Melfina and Madra follow. They pursue the one that left first after the perps split in the crowd. They get away, but pursued was a human ginger male, green eyes, farmer boi-chic. Other was elven female. One that didn't leave was a blonde human male. He has now left by the time they return. Ginger boy is named Caleb, no name on the elf girl, and the blonde boy is named Oliver and works at the docks.
 
1 in the afternoon Head to the docks, asking around after Oliver. Talk to the dockmaster, he knows Oliver, try to get where he lives (outskirts of the residential district). He will be back to work on the 4th if we don't find him before then. Oliver is taking care of his family after his parents' passing. Approach boy on the docks to "return Oliver's wallet." Meanwhile, Melfina notices dockmaster is friendly genuinely. Also, that people are generally watching us, but not in specific for any odd reason. Druss offers to track anyone that shows undue attention to our group. Jasper is a dock boi that is willing to speak with us. Same info that Oliver will be back around the beginning of the following week. Ask Jasper for Oliver's address too. Don't get anything concrete here.
 
3 in the afternoon Melfina, Madra, and Druss go to Elon Tusk's shop to get info about more missing "shipments." Get to Tusk, some halfling girl went missing just outside of the market district, just a few blocks from Elon's shop. Gives her name and file to add to our stuff. Give him our info about shadow bois and Oliver.
 
Ronin and I in the residential district. Get into poor part, smells worse. Approach the worst looking building, talk to stoop kid and get his apartment number. Oliver isn't home. Check for other entrance, there are some hallway-accessible windows that could serve as other points of entry. Go into the building, but main door is locked. We go in the other way and break into the apartment, with me on lookout. Simple, small apartment. 3 total sleeping mats, follows with the sibling angle. Pretty empty, just poor or cleared out? Effects all point to teenage sorts for all 3. Find a coin with a foreign mark, one gateway and one skull/crossbones. I don't recognize the symbols on sight. Return to the mansion. Carbonara for dinner. Noice. Melfina knows what the coin is, used to be the calling card of the thieves' guild known as The Undertow. Used to take hold of cargo ships, branched into the city. Has been defunct for a while, at least 100 years ago, supposedly. Melfina and Marda go to Ronin's library to look for the info, find an old tale about a band of sea pirates from the Dark Ages, considered eradicated. The band worked in any good they could steal, even people. The specifically wanted magical items.
 
Head back to the Cerulean Sanctum. Check their library for info on The Undertow. Advised to check 3 books, on their collapse and aftermath, on organization/leadership, and on the general history. Collapse book is a puff piece bit of propaganda. There are some small nuggets of useful info too. Lead by a silver dragon disguised as a human, who was later caught and killed. Unsure how good dragon was with criminals. General history book didn't pan out with much. Leadership book is follow-up to collapse book, of propaganda and such. Lots of contradictory info in the leadership book, as to who comprised the group. Maybe there were different branches over the ages, leading to the confusion. Disliked due to their familiarity with casters and their employ. Research Complete
 
Nighttime Go to the Babblebrook Inn in smaller groups. Been there a few hours now. The painting isn't for sale, it's a family painting of the bar. Ronin goes to steal the painting off the wall. He takes it off of the wall and moves towards the door. The left side of the frame was on hinges and behind it there is an alcove to store items, currently closed. Melfina checks it out but can't open it without notice. She rips it open, containing regular small safe things, and gets caught. All but her leave the bar, and she gets locked in with Bridgette, to try to explain her way out of this. Bridgette used to be apart of The Undertow, and would smuggle arcana-type folk out of the city. She has the gateway symbol on her wrist under a bracelet. She's agreed to reach out to her associates to see if they're back up and running. I use mending to fix everything, finish around midnight.
 
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