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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dichotomy" data-source="post: 3484146" data-attributes="member: 12941">Day 17[sblock=OOC]I'm gonna take the liberty of moving this forward.  If you guys want to keep talking, please do so.[/sblock]Unfortunately, Bazrim cannot confirm anything more than he's already stated about mine owner, and even what he has heard is only rumor.Between the food and drink, the group is able to make a good night, even in the somewhat nasty surroundings of the Feral Dog.  While it seems like there is the potential for fights at random, nothing untoward breaks out.  After getting some drinks in, Bazrim is able to direct the newcomers to any of the establishments for a place to sleep, depending upon the quality of place you each desire.You meet up in the morning, refreshed.  Upon seeing Diamond Lake in the morning light, the newcomers realize it is, in fact, even worse a place than they likely thought at first.  You also learn that others have taken note of your presence.The group, once it has gathered someplace suitable, is approached by a very nondescript man around 30 years old.  "Morning to you folk," he says with a nod for the group.  "I'm called Gregor and I work for one of the mine managers in town, Balabar Smenk.  He has a proposition for you, if you'll come to his home and hear him out.  No commitment asked.  Just a moment to hear what he has to say."  He waits for you to discuss anything you have among yourself, and then leads you on.[sblock=OOC]Again, I'm taking some liberty here.[/sblock]You find yourselves approaching a sodden old mansion that looks several decades past its prime.  It is a testament that even the most affluent in Diamond Lake are not truly well off.  Three thugs linger near the mansion wielding lead pipes and stern glances, but they back off after a nod from Gregor.  Despite this, the doors are wide open.  "Oh yeah," Gregor snickers, "Smenk made a promise that he'd always be available to his miners.  Ha!"  Inside, three great bestial apes prowl the outer corridors, chained to a rail running through the whole floor.  They come close and sniff loudly, but stay back. You are brought up what once was a grand staircase to an office on the second floor.  Inside, flanked by two more thugs, a fat, pompous-looking man sits bellied up to a desk as he picks from a plate full of meat and cheese.  There are no chairs present, save the one in which the man sits, his lovehandles rolling over the arms on the side.  So you are forced to stand, like poor petitioners, while he finishes first the food in his mouth and then a second mouthful that he quickly shoves in.  After swallowing, the man takes a swig from a pint near him and finally looks up at the group. "Balabar Smenk," Gregor intones as an introduction. "I have a grave problem," Smenk begins, "and I've been told that you may be the only people in this place that can help me.  I'm being extorted.  Ragnolin Dourstone, that dwarf mine manager, has made the bowels of his mine a haven for some fanatic cultists, the Ebon Triad.  Problem is that Dourstone needed to be able to get them some supplies, food and the like.  Naturally, he came to me, knowing that I'd never have the heart to turn from people in need.  I didn't know then who these people were.  But then I started hearing rumors about them.  I sent my right hand man to ask Dourstone about the rumors.  I'd not want to be helping the likes of such cultists.  The next morning, I awoke to find my man's severed head in my bed."  The gluttonous man quivers a moment and takes a long pull from his pint. "I didn't know what to do, but I feared the worst.  I called upon some close associates, people I knew I could trust, to get into the mine and confirm or deny my fears.  This is all that remains of them."  He pulls from his vest two holy symbols, one of Heironeous and one of Pelor, both covered in dried blood.  "I don't know what your personal feelings are about those two gods, but if you know what they stand for, you know that it would take the utmost villiany to kill those that would wear these." The fat man shakes his head.  "I'm in a bind.  If I stop sending them supplies, I'll end up dead.  But if I keep sending them supplies, I'm complicit, helping those fanatics.  Only the gods know what they must be doing, but it cannot be good.  I managed to get someone inside to sneak back this," Smenk places a stone key, with the holy symbol of Erythnul on it, on the corner of the desk near you.  "In Dourstone's mine, there's an elevator to a temple below.  I think part of the cult was taken care of by my poor dead friends, but the Erythnul worshipers are still there.  Can you root them out and save us from the fanatics?"</blockquote>

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