Fergus' performance elicits some cheers also, but more for his mighty effort and large failure than from any kind of true feat of strength. A few silver pieces are bet on Fergus and a kobold near-sighted kobold woman with a pink hat has the honor of having Fergus join her for the banquet.
Taking a cue from Fergus and Hardnose, Gunzuul decides to give one last try in entertaining the crowd. He animates a woman's hat and causes it to dance on the stage in beat with the music. The crowd goes wild. Women begin to bid highly for the honor to have Gunzuul sit with him. At the end of the hectic bidding, he is finally won by a better-dressed goblin woman with a truly lavish hat (nearly half her size) for ten gold pieces. Her name is Miss Copperworth, aka Coppie.
Gunzuul's performance closes out the charity bidding, but sets the cheerful tone of the rest of the night. He receives plenty of smiles and nods as the party takes it easy throughout the next stage of dinner, which is mostly tasty soups, hard bread and cheap wine. For the closing part of the night, Mr. Sabatini gets on stage and speaks while the creature hidden underneath some cloth and on a cart is wheeled out. "What an excellent night we have had in such wonderful company. Ladies, thank you all for coming out here. We are going to end the night with my presentation. I give you the future of our community!" So saying the cloth is removed from the cart, which reveals a giant rat inside a metal and glass cage. The nasty creature tries to gnaw and claw itself out. Gasps are heard amongst the crowd.
"My men have found several of these mutant creatures in the sewers recently. We have no idea where they came from, but we are worried that if they breed out of control they may become a threat to the District in which we live. But, I believe we can make this threat turn to our advantage. One of the more difficult facts for us to face in our community is a lack of access to food. We live in cramped conditions, have no access to farmland, and cannot sell the few food products we can make without business licensing requirements that many of us cannot afford. I intend to get around this system by having my men go into the Sewers and round up every one of these giant rats that they can find and start giant rat breeding farms here in our community. This will provide a decent working job for our young directionless youth. It will also provide a cheap source of food for our neighborhoods, a business that I admit I will run for a slight profit. You know me and can trust me. All I ask is a small donation tonight so I can outfit my men properly to start this dangerous work. Once begun, I believe we can have a safe, beneficial and profitable business for our community set-up in under a month. I do ask that you try to keep this hush-hush during that time. There are certain interests in this city that would object to our venture and would like to make it their own and outside our community's control. The food is not only safe, but quite tasty. If you have noticed a few bits of meat in your soup it's from a giant rat that we just cooked up fresh this morning."
Mr. Sabatini's charity does quite well because of both the positive mood of the crowd and because of his reasoning. At the end of the night he declares he has enough money to start his venture. After the night ends (and the three of you promise to meet your elderly ladies in the morning for some yard and house work), Mr. Sabatini approaches you and gives each of you a vigorous shaking of your hand, giving a longer smile to Gunzuul. "Lads, those other boys were disappointments but you really gave it your all and came through for me today. I want to pay you back. Please ask any boon of me and I'll give it if it's in my power to do so."
