Scale Code

Kundar is a vast city, certainly the largest so far encountered by the people of Daring Heights. Crime is therefore an almost inevitable feature of the society, especially for a city of small alleyways, multistorey buildings with bridges between them and all manner of options of movement for those wishing to travel secretly. There are a few more organised groups, but even those unaffiliated have come to know the secret cant of Kundar - Scale Code. Amongst organised crime, more sophisticated levels of language develop, specific to that organisation so that cracking one code wouldn't be the downfall of all of them.
The streets of Kundar are littered with scales - generally swept to the side of the street over the day to be cleaned up or washed away in the occasional fit of rain. The kobold and dragonborn population regularly shed a scale or two in the course of a day, the outer coating falling away to reveal the fresher layer beneath, like a human shedding hair. For the sharp eyed, keeping to the shadows, these fallen scales can be made into messages.
Three scales stacked together, pinned with a twig or similar, outside of a business indicates that it is well guarded and to approach with care. A scale folded into quarters and wedged into the bricks at the edge of an alley signals a swift getaway passage. Useful messages abound in Kundar for those who know where to look, and are lucky enough to have not had the relevant scales cleaned up by some passing sweeper. For the thieves and smugglers of the city, it's a method to keep each other safe - a way that they can all look out for each other with just a few seconds of their time to move a few pieces of debris.