Bluster in Billowbluff

Political event

Myska's Menagerie begin to establish relationships in Billowbluff to work towards their deeper goals. Some of the relationships are stellar... others aren't.

The airship of Myska's Menagerie made their approach to the tiny town of Billowbluff. Following a ravine road into the mesas as they wrapped around the Shrieking Flats, the town was a few miles into the rocks. Despite being in the mesas, Billowbluff was not a hardy stone built town like Tomb Mesa. The town was a ramshackle, new if not sturdy pop-up-village like all of the other modern and desolate company towns. A main strip ran down the town but additional buildings bungled their way out to the south east where there was more space to spread. A majority of the buildings were small and clustered together. Contrasting this, there were a few larger ones. A saloon and a depot dominated in size and were followed up by dorm house for migrant workers, a stable barn, a jail, and the mayor's house.
  The party's arrival over Billowbluff had a crowd gathering in the streets and applause from below. The party parked the airship down atop a mesa ridge immediately north of the main strip of buildings. A long slop clockwise to the east and south would allow for the hike into town.
  The core party made their entrance into town to have the eager cheers wane quickly and grow with suspicion. It was not difficult for the Menagerie to realize the glares were predominantly pointed at Crush. The bulk of the worker's here had dwarven blood though many of them had the telltale signs in height or girth of mixed bloodlines. There was a host of full-blooded dwarves in the town but the demographics definitely slanted away from the dwarven dominance of New Derth's general populace. Waves of foreshadowing now collided as Virtuosa's claims of the guilds using the paupers and disenfranchised in New Derth hit the propaganda of the guilds against Virtuosa's eclectic organization.
  Looking over the “welcoming party”, it was also easy to tell that the supplies that had been so delayed in arriving to Fowler's Mill and then blockaded there were desperately needed. The cheer's had been in expectation that the party were delivering the order. Crush, seeking peace and good will, conjured up a host of goodberries to offer out. A crotchety, old dwarf with crossbow took charge of the crowds emotions against the magic. Despite that, one voice broke through the crowd.
  Rushing forward from the group was a young boy edging up on adulthood. The lad stood taller than Millie but still far below Astrid. His complexion should a rosy color and his hair was a more opaque pink. Millie recognized the lad as having gnomish blood from just a generation or two back. The lad was ecstatic, running forward blabbering about how cool Crush's spell was and how he had heard about this from his grandmother. Back where she grew up they had a place that could do that for the whole town and now he finally got to see it and this was just the best day ever.
  The party would later learn this lad's name was Merrygild and he lived in Billowbluff with his Grandmother who ran Filib's Fill-up (the saloon right next to them at present). Merrygild was the first to try a goodberry and under his excitement got the other nine berries distributed as well. Crush would then make another set with the crotchety old stableman Rustler Woodward eventually taking one with heaps of racial prejudice and suspicion.
  Merrygild was just as excited to see Millie as he he was the goodberries, that is after he noticed the gnome amid the situation. The pinkish man stumbled through his introduction of himself normally first before trying again giving his name followed by “future starmapper”. Through some minor Q&A, Millie learned that Merrygild spent his time trying to identify the weirder things the mining company found but really was only here because of his grandmother. He was one of the few people here for a reason beyond “work”. Millie saw in the boy a passion to try to connect with his ancestry but not quite sure how. Chupta misunderstood the situation thinking the boy studied astronomy or something.
  Chupta then took a forward role amid the party to begin establishing further acclaim in the town by sharing a bit of their adventures. In addition to Chupta's soapbox, Merrygild buffed the hype with questions and exclamations. As the general stories led through their almost-felling from the sky from a burrowing worm attack, he finished the altered history with, “We did the zig here, and the zag there, and we got away dammit”
  Astrid picked up where Chupta left off, mentioning that the worm spat debris damaging the balloon of the airship. She inquired if there was anyone in town that might be able to fix it. While their didn't have anyone specialized in it, they had a chunk of individuals willing to give it a try. “Aint done a balloon before but we've done plenty of covered wagons. How different can it be?” If they purely needed a patch job, they could try to help out. They didn't know pricing or anything, but they would take a look to see if they could do anything and if so what.
  After one of the crowd asked if they had any extra water rations on the ship, Millie sparked an idea. The village had a bunch of dingy wells but no good clean water. While the Menagerie hadn't brought the supplies, they also had infinite supplies to an extent. The gnome ran back up to the airship, foraged through his own cart to get something out, and then asked Mr. Tengral to come down to the town as well.
  When Mr. Tengral was informed that the town needed water, he moved like a man on a mission. Barely getting pointed to the saloon when he asked where the water containers were, he bulldozed beyond the counter and into the back room. A small gnomish woman, Filib, hooted and hollered at what he thought he was doing... until he began to conjure water from the air to fill up all of her barrels. The crowds were cheering, everyone was excited, Filib saw the promise of her ledgers rising before those damns were burst as Mr. Tengral told everyone to drink up. Filib tried to argue, tried to hiss, tried to- but no. Mr. Tengral boldly stated “People don't need to pay to live.” In that moment, had the gnome put up any more of a fight, she would have caused a riot. The citizens were stoked.
  While all of this was going on, Millie found a dark area in an alley between the saloon and the adjacent building. Outside of where the sun shown and the wind would blow vapor away. Magically, he dug into the earth and stone to craft a solid reserviour. Once made, he asked Mr. Tengral to fill that one up as well to edge the town out even just a little bit longer. Mr. Tengral gladly did so.
  As the general crowd present was now in the saloon for that sweet sweet water, Myska's Menagerie gathered up once more. Millie had a small parcel on him and tried to keep and eye out for Merrygild but could not immediately find him. Before he could go off to do so, another city occupant approached the group party.
  Another of the fully dwarven individuals, this man walked with a strong gait. He approached the party now that the hullabaloo was over. He had a stonebow over one shoulder but it was not prepared for use. His pace to the party was slow but deliberate showing his intentionality to speak without charging on them. When the dark haired dwarf arrived, he introduced himself as Sheriff Batolim Nightmaker.
  The sheriff was swinging by to check in with the newcomers. He just wanted to make sure some boundaries were set, see if they needed anything, and to inquire on their purpose here. Astrid introduced herself and Myska's Menagerie as a whole along with naming the vessel overhead the Kate Shammy. If they were in the region doing general adventuring work, he could hire them for a few jobs. While he would love to have them for full time protection of the tow, he could also pay them for bandit scalps in reference to the members the Scales of Justice that prevented caravans from getting through with supplies.
  The party acknowledged the bandit work but made no promises. They were interested in knowing if he and the town could pay for the bounty on burrowing worms though. While he couldn't do that, he could confirm the kill and give them paperwork to take back to New Derth so they wouldn't have to haul the corpse.
  Chupta made some general references of setting up business in town which Nightmaker shot down. Because this was a company town, he would need paper work from the owners back in New Derth if they wanted to establish a business beyond the work they were hired to do by the leaders of Billowbluff. Everyone else here worked with or for the Fractured Hill Mining Co. towards it's end goals.
  As the conversation with the sheriff died down, he pointed the party in the direction of the depot if they wanted an safer job to more immediately help the town. There should be a shipment of supplies at Fowler's Mill for Billowbluff. They just couldn't get it because of the blockade. If the party wanted to take a quick jaunt on their airship, the town would have more time.
  The party took the direction kindly and would indeed head over to the depot after the sheriff made his departure. However, they would not go with the intention of following up on this action. Instead, they went to the depot to see how short on supplies the town truly was in their rationed state.
  Entering the large building, the found it full of empty shelves with just a few bundles of ropes, bucket, sieves, canteens, and other tools. Essentially, the work supplies that weren't needing replaced any time soon because the work flow was decreased from low nourishment.
  Sitting upon a large central table was an elderly, wiry dwarf. Gilios by name, he welcomed the party in though was unsure of what all he could supply them. Astrid spoke with him of the state of the town. The austere old dwarf took the woman's hand in care and assured her that all would be fine. Even if the supplies ran out, everything was being monitored and rationed with a firm line in the books when the town would be abandoned, deemed a failure, and everyone would return to New Derth to begin planning the next venture.
  It seemed that Gilios' confidence came from experience in this matter. This was far from his first town. He had already operated the depots in the Fractured Hill Mining Company's previous towns of Longglen, Wolf's River, Cattleford, and Redalley. Almost everyone here had a future in the company except maybe the mayor. If the town did not last long enough to make a significant profit, it would be his fault and no one else's. He would be replaced and the next venture would be under new management.   With that assurance though, Astrid adapted the goodwill that Sheriff Nightmaker had sent the party to Gilios to stir up trouble. Astrid admitted that they had dropped those supplies off at Fowler's Mill as they had been hired to do. The party learned that the town hadn't gotten a delivery in 2.5 months and the supplies stuck in Fowler's Mill were for for a month but could be stretched out to 1.5 or 2 months if immediately rationed. Despite that, they took no initiative in wanting to help. After all, considering the Menageries true alliance with the Scales of Justice, of course they wouldn't want to make things easier to that extent. Astrid tauntingly “hoped” that the town was able to survive. Gilios metaphorically spat in the face of that idea considering the party with an airship had every availability to help and when directly asked refused.
  After Astrid stirred up all of that mud, Chupta then continued interacting with Gilios as if none of that had even happened. Chupta wanted to buy something to help the town out and have a momento. When he and Crush exited the building to join Astrid and Millie, the desert man was very pleased with himself. Chupta has a “genuine sieve from the Heartsieve”.
  From the depot, the party decided to head to the Mayor's house. After their interactions with the sheriff and now the depot manager, they might as well see what this fellow was like as they performed their mission reconnaissance. There was the plan of playing superiors against each other so having all the possible pieces would be nice.
  Approaching the front of the sturdiest non-essential building in town, they knocked on the door and waited. It took a while for the door to be answered considering the size of the place. They heard some wooded shuffling and scuffing as if furniture might be being moved. When the door eventually opened, it revealed a fairly heavyset pure dwarf with both a peg leg and a cane. Despite having nicer clothes than the workers, they were equally stained and sweat soaked. His inner eyes were blackened with strain and exhaustion. There was a tenseness to him.
  The mayor was much gruffer with the adventurers from the get-go than the sheriff or the depot manager could be. Equally so, Astrid started things off looking to push buttons. She affiliated the group with their airship, made notice of the strain on the town, and happily took credit for providing supplies to the town, to his town, to his people. That is where things went absolutely crazy.
  Mayor Ironbasher began a tirade of knowing exactly who the party was and why they were here. In Billowbluff's dire time, they were here flaunting their wealth and resources to the laborers. Food and water as bribes and the luxury of an airship to whisk workers away instead of bring supplies in. About having the grandeur and splendor of Astrid and Chupta to woo them and a spy laborer (gesturing to Millie) to up-sell the other site. He shouted about it being illegal to skim workers like this and how he wouldn't let it happen. Mayor Ironbasher's intuition locked on to the fact that Myska's menagerie was here on false pretenses but had followed that insight into the completely wrong direction. He demanded that the adventurers get out of his town and slammed the door.
  Outside, Millie would quickly incant his invisible arcane eye to get it into the house and witnessed the Mayor stop on his wooden pegs over to a chest. Pulling a key from his belt, he unlocked the chest. Pulling out a sending stone, the mayor reported the incident directly to his superiors before falling into a chair at his desk. He began to scrawl and write everything he knew of the group, the incident, and as detailed of descriptions as he could manage. Loosely, Astrid was recorded as a false hero, Millie as a worker spy to up-talk the laborers, Chupta and the airship transport of luxury, and Crush's druidic cafeteria.
  Moving away from the Mayor's house, the companions began discussing altered plans based on using his conspiracy against him. The best person to learn the true workings of the town would probably be gruffest of them; the crotchety old Woodward despite being openly racist would also be the most honest and every-man of those of influence. Maybe they would even do some sendings to new Derth themselves as “reliable sources” to the news to report on the collapse of Billowbluff's government and downfall?
  Those shifts in the plan were quite feasible but Myska's Menagerie still needed more information on the town before they could implement anything. Above that, they needed to ensure that they could use the town before they ruined it or their relations to it.
  The party split to their own tasks and entertainment. Three notable occurrences should be mentioned. First, Astrid went to speak with the wagon folk to get an estimate on the airship repairs. Working around personal time and shifts, it would take them five days and cost 450 gp. Astrid inquired about anything faster but that work could be rushed and at the end of long shifts in the fields. At the very least, she set up with the smithy to spend some of the repairs time making rivets on her own to aid in the project.
  Next, Millie and Chupta went back to Filib's Fill-Up to find the young Merrygild. There, Millie gave the man one of the pots he had found in Silverfield to act as a solid sample with a confirmed date to be able to compare other partial finds to. Merrygild was ecstatic at the gift an extremely thankful for Millie giving up one of his own, unrecorded finds act as his “starter”.
  The pink man told the pair that he and his grandmother would do anything they could to help them should the party need anything. Filib called from the back counter to kick them out (she was still grouchy from the Free-Water situation). Merrygild assured the pair that his grandmother would come around. With this, Chupta asked Merrygild to Sign his book and the young man was enthused to do so.
  Millie and Astrid would then meetup to head on down to the stables to find “Rustler” Woodward, the crotchety old man with the crossbow from their first introduction to the town. They wanted an honest source on the town and an old, outspoken man with social authority seemed to be it. Getting down to the stables, they found the man ordering work to be done rather than doing any of it himself. Upon their arrival, Woodward made a joke of needing to clear a stall for their Big Lug tonight (Crush) but the duo deflated the joke rather quickly.
  Despite his acerbic nature, Woodward was as informative as the party had hoped. The party asked about the workforce's opinions on their labor, the amount of money they make versus the company and guilds above them, and general morale. Woodward explained that however they might be feeling about their individual work, everyone knew what they signed up for. The workers work scheduled shifts for set wages at the foreman's designated areas. They are also permitted to work on personal time and anything they find then is personal property. If a worker strikes a large deposit on their own time, they have that day to collect as much as they can for themselves before they are required to disclose the location. From there, the foreman usually shifts company work over to that area to clear it out.
  Astrid inquired about buying out a shift for the people working on the airship's balloon. Woodward pointed her to Foreman Henson as the man in charge of that sort of thing. Among other conversations, the topic of joining the defense contract full time was brought up. Woodward disclosed that if they signed up, they would immediately be put on a caravan detail to get wagons past the bandit embargo on the trek back to Fowler's Mill for supplies.
  With the sun getting low, the party gathered back at the airship to plan out the next few days. They wanted to make sure the airship got repair before they sprung anything. They also wanted to garner more favor with the people in the mean time. With no more of a lead than that, Chupta decided that he would throw a party at Filib's Fill-Up this very night to ensure it would happen.
  Despite not having mastered any particular magic for such a thing, he called upon a great power of Myska to solve the problem for him. Opening the ring, Sand began to pour out all around him, miring him down through the floor and swallowing him up in it. After sinking completely in, he shot back up out of it with an unearthly smile and overwhelming charisma. (Legend Lore: This was Chupta's first use of Limited Wish for Skill Empowerment
  With Millie setting up a telepathic link, Chupta, Astrid, and Crush rushed down to the saloon to rocket into an evening of frivolity. They would use the momentum of Chupta's desire to get the ball rolling and keep it moving for a natural die-out.
  The first tactic used was Chupta ordering a round of drinks for the bar before working up the crowd until someone was willing to play him in a game of darts for that very bill. It was a extremely tight game but Chupta won out in the end with a daring triple dart throw from twice the distance. Crush took up the opportunity to begin the a betting circuit and came out 50 gold richer.
  From there, Astrid got a drinking game going that would serve more of a function than any fun. The dehydrated and ration community ended up using watered down stale ale and Astrid used her Tankard of Sobriety. So the drinks were awful and the woman got no alcohol out of it at all. Crush would get another 31 gold from the second round of betting though.
  Crush himself got some poker games going but would actually lose a small clutch of coins to it. Despite that, he was still heavily in the lead having gathered much of the collective coin that was loose enough to be bet this night.
  During the evening, Sheriff Nightmaker did make his way into the saloon and get Astrid's attention for a private conversation to the side. He informed her that the stir they had caused in the town was not looked well upon by the upper management. While the Fractured Hill Mining Co. was not forcing them out before repairs were done, Myska's Menagerie were being politely asked to not come back town after they left this evening. The Sheriff had no hubris in him to believe that this request was one that he could enforce outside of taking action if he was forced to defend the workers of the camp.
  Astrid tried to play into favoring the Sheriff over the crazed Mayor but Nightmaker defended the man. He had the most difficult job of anyone here as he took all of the flack from below and above. All of the workers would be able to join other ventures if this one failed. If Billowbluff failed too soon, it would all be on the mayor. Astrid did manage to negotiate her ability to still come down and work in the smithy if she kept her head down and made no notice of herself. The woman told the Sheriff that should something arise, the Menagerie was available if called upon to do so with proper compensation. This left a stale moment between the two but seemingly and understanding.
  The night continued on with everyone knowing that they should enjoy themselves but that their retreat at the end would likely be lasting. When they did leave, Crush boisterously thanked everyone for their hospitality and flung a rain of 50 gold back to them that unintentionally came with chunks of his fungus.
  While the trio had descended to the town for their partying, Millie remained on the vessel for his own project. After sunset, Millie and Barry (his bodyguard skeleton) took one of the preserved aarakocra bodies to his room. Therein he dispeled the preservation magic and began the ritual to raise it into a greater from of undead. He prepared the body by cutting off the wings with his filet knife (using a hammer at one point to break the joint) and the produced one of the clay pots filled with grave soil to empower the spell/. Once the corpse was raised as a ghoul, he forced his will upon the creature to command the undead.
  When Millie went up to get the second corpse, he checked in with Mr. Tengral to see how he was feeling. Crush's stories of the tortle didn't match how he acted himself and something nagged at the gnome. What if they had not fully purged the elder tortle? What if Scizzord or the Caged Morbidity still had a hold in there? Mr. Tengral said he was fine and left the opportunity open for Millie to do another curse removal on him in the morning.
  Before Millie left Mr. Tengral, the tortle inquired about his son. He wanted to make sure he was alright. Millie admitted that he had only known him for a short amount of time but he seemed steady. When Millie tried to ask what this was about, Mr. Tengral shot him down. According to him, “we don't talk about incidents... things happen and then you move on”. Millie said he would not interfere in family business but did press that just because something has been done a certain way doesn't mean it has to. Tradition is just opinions of the dead and Millie clearly didn't hold it in too high of regard considering the conversation ended with Millie and Barry carrying the second corpse off to his room.
      The companions would all return to ship that evening to rest. That night, Astrid had another one of her surreal dreams. It started with her staring up at the brightest moon she had ever seen. From behind her, she hear that same voice again. “We have checked everywhere and still nothing. We have little to show for our expedition already. We must turn back if we are to appease-”
“No” Astrid interrupted.
“What do you mean no?”
  “We shall not appease. Not with what we have. We have stayed to long. We must return, yes. But not with nothing.” Astrid continued.
  “There is nothing here, mother. Nothing among the rock, nothing among the dust.”
  “There is something-”
“-that our eyes cannot see. Even if you are right, we have not the time. We would need others to find what we cannot.”
Astrid found herself pausing in contemplation. “Not others. One other. I have seen her.”
“If we are to gamble everything on her, how do we find her?”
“She...serves the people... I think. We go to the town among the rocks that the scouts found. Either they will tell us where to find her or she will come to their aid when they do not”. Her view changed as she looked away from the moon to the crisp, powdery rocks of the mesa. The pallid elven form from before was there. The younger elf was stern and judging the decision but eventually acquiescing. Turning back to the moon, one final statement broke her lips. “We will not appease, but we will not go back with nothing”
Blinking the moon away, Astrid fell back into sleep. However much she wanted, she had to wait until morning to awaken. When she finally did awake, she rushed to the deck. She had to see the moon. It was faded in the dawn but the same shape.