Big City Sources

Political event

Myska's Menagerie do some research at the Hall of Memory, get some jobs to do on the road, speak with the press, and meet Astrid's father.

After the interesting first impression of the city and the revelations of what had occurred in their wake, the companions began their decent into the city proper. Chupta showed a great deal of discomfort in the prospect of eventually being entirely inside the mountain with no direct exits and this grew as Astrid took the party to one of the Long Hauls to get through the layers efficiently. Astrid showed off the highlights of Tilbin's Flight and the Adjunction before turning to business. A majority of the day was dotting through the borrows of the city on a Job board tour attempting to find any additional jobs and funding they could find for their journey out to the Heartsieve Wastes.
The first major job they found from the Martial Company relevant to their work was payment for a Burrowing Worm Carcass. It paid extremely well but was more of a happenstance job than anything to directly seek out during their expedition. They could attempt to lure one out but the long standing extermination job was really more of a hazard control problem than anything. The Martial Company also had a job to may out some upper underdark topography for a recent mine-breakthrough but it wasn't related to their coming tasks. Moving on to Borcont, they also found some jobs related to the Heartsieve with one being a cargo delivery to Fowler's Mill and they other being a standing job as guards at a new mining location called Billowbluff. Millie also checked in with the local office of the Wealth Reclamation Society to see if there were any local jobs
  After exploring their options, the companions realized most of their day had been wasted on a city tour. They still wanted to head up to the Hall of Memory to get a little research in so they all dog piled on a single task to complete it. The task in question was to go back to all of the documents Astrid had studied in the past and now look into them again with a new eye that understood what was a tangent and what was significant. Knowledge breeds knowledge and they had a few break throughs. Foremost, there was the revitalized idea that the companions had heard of the Temperance Shards given to Dul Kag but had not yet found them. They had been taken in the Exodus to New Derth. They identified that the priest of Moradin that had taken them was called Sidmeabo Belloword. Notably, the Belloword clan remained as prominent members of the Acquisitions & Mercantile Uberguild to this day. The other found research pointed the companions towards an as of yet unknown location for Temperance Shards: The Forgotten Coast. Referred to by Myska as the shards sent to“bring calm and dark to give solace and reprieve to the outcast” , the Forgotten Coast was home to a population of “Skourged Ones” (i.e. tieflings) before they were entirely cut off from the world after the Fields of Ichor.
  After the companions were ushered out of the Hall of Memory for the night, Astrid led her companions back to Solidarity Bridge before excusing herself. Knowing that her companions could make their way back up to the Skyport on their own now, she instead turned back to head deep into the Cauldron Bank to visit home. On the way, she removed her Heritage Belt from the Hardguts (Belt of Dwarvenkind) to let her true colors show.
  Astrid's Evening and Next Morning
The reunion mixed a gruffness that quickly softened into care. In time, Astrid pushed for what she had learned of her fathers past which he attempted to dismiss though he did begrudge how well he had taught her to research. Astrid's stories of her adventures also brought concern for what trouble she might be coming back to stir up before Torbjorn fell into complete paternal mode. Knowing that she was probably off to kick a hundred hornets nests, he demanded to have an itinerary to be at the ready to come to the rescue the moment something went wrong.
  That evening, Astrid dreamt a dream similar to her fainting spell in Bactran. She looked out on a broken, rocky crag and desert landscape. The dawn stung her eyes and the particles on the breeze hurt her face. A voice behind drew her attention back into the cave she was standing in. A slate skinned elven woman was asking her something:
“We have found no traces. Should we remain in this locale or pack up for the next sector”
“Are you sure? There is nothing?” Astrid replied.
“Not that our diviner's have found anything”
Astrid, or at least her point of view, did not believe the statement. “No, there is something... No, there is something.”
The shadowed elf acquiesced. “Would you have us stay”
With one last look, Astrid denied. They, whoever they were, would move on to the next section. It would be adjacent to this one but they would move on.
  Astrid awoke from this dream confused. Going to her mirror, she compared her face to that of the person she saw. The steely bridge of the brow and nose was the same, but there was a distraught weariness to the eyes. A hardness, a closed off guard. Astrid recognized it as the look of those who grew up in the Ashbed wanting and beleaguered The face in her dream could have been much closer to her face had her father not fought so hard to raise her in the Cauldron Bank.
  That morning, Astrid confronted her father about her mother. Torbjorn redirected but would not deny. Astrid asked of a possible sister but the dwarf new nothing. When Astrid spoke of her visions and her beliefs that her mother was looking for her, Torbjorn only stated that while “they” were always looking for something, it wasn't her. The unease conversation broke for the sake of the reunion and the pair fetched breakfast before heading up to see her companions.
  Everyone Else's Evening and Next Morning
  Now, the remaining trio could have had a pleasant night. Could have, if Crush had not decided that he wanted to sell their information to the local news sources. While the others pressed to maybe wait for Astrid in the morning, one thing deliberately said too loud brought a small gig worker running. Tactics meant to strong arm the price eventually broke on the dwarven lad with little authority in the New Derth Inquirer but another call out of information for sale more deliberately had a handful of paparazzi running with offer. One offer of 2,000 gp for exclusive info was available this night if only the interview were done at the office with a truth compulsion. The companions hammered their gavel with Millie sending Astrid an update on what was happening outside of his power.
The trio made their way to the Continental Times where a contract was written up for personal protection before Crush became so liberal with his information that the 2,000 gp price was actually double and then tripled all the way up to 6,000 gp. Crush avoiding giving out some details of what happened at Mount Fohkala but gave an exceeding amount of true information. Despite that, it was still wrongly interpreted in the moment by the interviewer that the Ta Xha Fan themselves were lashing out after the vast amount of resource extraction that had been done to their islands. In addition to confirming first hand experience with Hrathlnax, the Molten Tide, the companions also contextualized their adventures as Myska's Menagerie seeking out Crush's uncle and Gilgamesh's (Chupta's) father.
By the time the interview was over, the Continental Times had the story of a lifetime with the core nature of what was actually going on entirely missing despite the fact that Crush was under a truth enchantment the entire time.
  The next morning, the whole party would find this article on the front page: Continental Times Article: Molten Tide from the Orchids 
  Rejoining on the 9th
Late the next morning, Astrid and Torbjorn arrived at the airship to the still groggy companions from their late night. Introductions were made right before Astrid's excuses to get her father on his way to work. Mr. Tengral pleasantly queried if the party was just gathering all of the parents and asked Millie where his were. Despite Torbjorn's desire to come to the protection of his daughter, he refused the idea to Astrid's ultimate relief. Soon, the party was back to work on their preparations for the day.
  Heading back into the city, the delivery job was accepted and the cargo was delivered up to the ship. The party swung by the Magic Maginarium that served as a overstock depot for Meldcrafters of Runecolj. Astrid bought a pair of Surefoot boots while Chupta grabbed a Seeker Dart. The city's market's were used primarily by Millie to resupply on weapons, armor, and arcane resources. Chupta picked up a bunch of heavy chains and crossed bars to rig up a Burrowing Worm fishing apparatus. After all of that, they finished out their day in the Hall of Memory to prepare for their voyage.
  The bulk of the intended research looked into Burrowing Worms of the region. They had spoken to Mr. Tengral how had old-man-druid spoken about them from stories, hearsay, and wilderness wisdom but they wanted more sure answers. Most of what they had learned from Mr. Tengral was true. They were ambush predators like sharks and were large enough to attack entire caravans. They rarely stayed above ground, 30 seconds maximum before retreating again. Their hit-and-run tactics combined with their bulk made them difficult to kill. While they had no specific damage defenses, they generally had a thick, rough hided that was hard to break through and a bulk of mass behind it. They navigate with a tremorsense in the ground without eyes. One of the biggest things that Mr. Tengral got wrong is that they are entirely blind outside of the earth. They do have a means of limitedly seeing/sensing immediately around them. It might be a small detail, but thinking it can't see you when it can is functionally a huge discrepancy.
  While Astrid and Chupta looked into the above, Millie found a bunch of maps of the Heartsieve Waste to learn about it. He learned of the route to the region, landmarks, the largest of the abandoned towns, the Shrieking Flats (an important No-Fly-Zone for them). More importantly, he found an old map of the region and discovered that the dry wastelands have been retreating. Fowler's Mill acted as the last-stop-hub for caravans entering into the Heartsieve. They used it as a junction and turned off towards wherever the current mining town was. Fowler's Mill used to be at the very edge of the wastes. Now it and other borders of the region are eight or more miles away from the waste's edge. Collectively, the party thought this was surely a sign of Temperance Shard activity. Collectively, the companions used their skills to make a copy of the map before timing out their stay at the Hall of Memory.