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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1033147" data-attributes="member: 1210">Earlier in the Day...Let’s back up momentarily and talk about a few events that happened earlier in the day.Fonzi and Sonti, of course, are not entirely as they appear.  They’re Forinthian spymasters, using their positions on Cicero’s staff to gather information on Tirchondian politics.  Unfortunately, things have gotten weird for Forinthia lately.The Forinthian Empire has been the most powerful single political entity in the world for centuries.  Unfortunately, Emperor Prayzose vanished about six years ago and has not been seen since (at least, as far as anyone knows).  Nobody’s certain whether he’s alive or dead, but the Imperial administration has kept going faithfully.  He has no child; there’s no obvious heir for power to transfer to.  But now, over the last couple of years, things have started to break apart.  Forinthia itself is a large island.  It once consisted of three Kingdoms- the West, South and North Forinthian Kingdoms.  After a long period of war, the three were unified under one Emperor.  But now that the leadership of the Empire has been thrown into doubt, ancient disputes have been reviving themselves.  There are new self-declared Kings of all three Kingdoms, each trying to claim the Empire for himself.  Civil war hold the island in a firm grip.  Things are getting ugly in ways that Forinthia hasn’t seen in almost four hundred years.Worse yet, many of the Army’s generals and the Navy’s admirals are acting on their own, disregarding orders from those that they consider to have no authority over them, following their own interests or consciences.  The great Fleet of Law was perhaps the last time that the entire military apparatus of the Empire will work together- unless someone or something can pull it back together.  Since things have begun falling apart, Fonzi and Sonti haven’t been receiving orders.  They’ve lost their contacts.  The Church of Galador has been outlawed in the Shining City, so they have few allies to turn to.  There aren’t even that many humans in the city- hell, on the whole isle of Tirchond, for that matter!  But they do have one man to turn to, one advisor who seems to be both moral and ethical, one true friend in a nest of enemies.  Fredric is his name.  He doesn’t have much to offer them either, however.  Just this morning he told them that he was very limited in his resources; but something about him tells them he might know more and have more connections than they do.  So they’ve stayed close to him, keeping him informed of everything that’s going on that they know of.  It’s hard to evade Cicero’s suspicions, and in fact the twins haven’t; but at least they see more of what’s going on politically than most of Tirchond’s humans.  They know, for instance, that there’s a Forinthian ambassador due to be received in the evening by the Foreign Relations Commission (which Cicero sits on).  Fredric has explained to them the state of Forinthian politics.  “This may be a chance for you to make an important choice,” he told them.  “Things are falling apart at the moment; if order’s to be restored to the Empire, it will require a strong man at the helm, so to speak.  Maybe you can help find out what’s going on?  Things are... unclear, to say the least, from here.”A little later in the morning, though long before he reached the tavern where our heroes will all meet, Clambake had purchased some maps.  He’s ascertained that the Egg of Na’Rat is somewhere below the sewers of the Shining City, so he’s got maps of the sewers themselves.  And after pouring over them for hours he’s found something very interesting indeed.Clambake’s maps are on multiple different scales.  There are large overview maps as well as small-scale ones that show every connecting tunnel and grate.  Many of the small-scale maps connect to each other at various points, but the interesting thing is a connection labeled “See pipe 17b, map 23.”  Looking very carefully on map 23, Clambake softly exclaims, “Arr.”  The passage connects to nothing at all.  There’s no pipe 17b.  Nor is there an area 17b, a chamber 17b, or any other 17b at all.Captain Clambake looks again, then a third time to be sure.  Nope, no 17b.He smiles to himself.  That’s got to be it! he thinks hopefully.  But he’s got experience with sewer adventuring- indeed, several years ago he went down below the town of Poppin and fought meazles and a weird priest of Juiblex.  He knows that sewers are often quite dangerous, and he knows better than to go in alone.  So now- several hours after finding the mysterious connection to a nonexistent 17b on the map- he waits in a tavern near the best possible entrance (according to his maps) and watches for any likely adventurer types or obvious sewer delvers to come by.  Sheva, of course, had spent some of the day with Glaxo.  But then she’d left him behind for a quick trip to see the Grey Brothers- the assassins of Cydra.  They are not to be trifled with, and as a member of their evil order, neither is she.  She was looking for a way to multitask; if there’s a job she can perform while ‘acquiring’ the item for the thieves’ guild, she figures she might as well.  And she does indeed find one.  Though there are no hits out on any of the Councilors- not even Zeebo, for once, she notes- she does take a job involving scaring one Horly the Rabble-Rouser, one of the Silver College student representatives.  Apparently he’s been talking a bit too much about things that make certain of the Grey Brothers acutely uncomfortable.  “Loose lips sink ships” and all that- if Horly doesn’t shut up, certain crimes may be traced back to the Brotherhood.  The last thing the Grey Brothers want is for the Rabble-Rouser to be assassinated; that will only lend credence to his story.  No, what’s called for is a little intimidation.  So Sheva and Glaxo got back together.  She’s been informed by the thieves that the meeting of the Extraplanar Affairs Commission is to take place in a highly unusual location below the city’s sewers, so they went to a tavern to have a drink and mull over their options.  And that pretty well brings everyone up to date- to the point at which they’ll all meet in the bar.Next Time: Clambake declares himself to be an expert sewer delver!  Our heroes’ interests seem to coincide to some extent!  Stinky time!!</blockquote>

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