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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cristian Andreu" data-source="post: 6240013" data-attributes="member: 23822">Part IX: The STC Is Your FriendLet's move about a month forward in time. The salt operation is still generating cash (though some undersizing had to be done in order to reduce costs, as it was clear salt would be running out soon), and the deal with the Hags has already generated two batches of gems, most of which were sold at the Magnificent Pavilion for handsome amounts of cash. About 20 prisoners are being sent per week from Khandassar to Saltspit, and so far no one seems to be suspecting. There was some digging a while ago by a few merchants with big noses, but they were shut off when the STC agreed to buy their entire supply -they were food merchants-, which in turn was used to open an STC-run restaurant in Katapesh.During week four, a message from Prince Osman -the party had finally managed to get a couple of Crystal Balls installed for quick communications with the noble- arrives saying that the prison's Overseer is requesting a meeting. Apparently, there were some issues with the last group of prisoners.The party meets with the Overseer and the Prince at the latter's palace. The issue relates to the fact that six of the prisoners sent last week were actually not convicted for life (they were only sending those who were never going to get out of jail), and their families had somehow managed to convince a magistrate to investigate the case. The Overseer explained that they were running out of jailed-for-life prisoners, and had retorted to sending those they thought no one would miss, but failed to check properly.Jack accidentally gave them a possible solution while improv-singing "Prisons get empty when booze ain't aplenty".The tune gave Hassan an idea: "Overseer, how many people got sent to jail during last year's Carnival of the Setting Sun?" (he made the carnival up, but I liked where he was going, so I went along with it), to which the Overseer said "A lot. Why?"Hassan then planned it out: They would organize a festival and get as many people as drunk as possible in order to have them committing all sorts of disorderly conducts -and, hopefully, crimes-. By using Prince Osman's contacts with the judges, they would push to have as many of those convicted for life (bribing the guards and making up some witnesses would help), sent to Khandassar and ultimately to Saltspit.They had the means, and so the Festival of Wonders was organized. They hired acrobats from distant Tian Xia, sword eaters from Qadira, taldoran wrestlers, spinning gypsies from Varisia, and exotic animals of all sorts. They rented several alehouses and taverns to give out ludicrous amounts of piss-poor alcohol (very cheap and really strong. Taste doesn't really matter once people get drunk enough). While the operation proved to be quite expensive, at the end of the celebration the courts were overflowing and Khandassar was getting filled up again.With the Grand Prison hauling fresh loads of prisoners once per week again, things began normalizing in terms of worker/nightmare pot supply. After the Festival of Wonders, the party bought three taverns in bad neighbourhoods of Katapesh in order to keep a regular supply of not-so-good people being turned criminals due to everything from drunken manslaughter to "profoundly insulting public urination", and then laid out the chart for the influx of prisoners. During the first month, Khandassar would send 10 prisoners per week –about 180 people were jailed for life after the Festival. While the bribed judges did their best, truth is that katapeshi law is extremely lax, and it’s hard to get a life sentence on someone. Most cases were a stretch, anyway, so the party kept having to bribe more people to avoid issues-, and then decrease the rate to 5, with the approximate rate of life sentences being nailed on people from the Crime Makers –term used to refer to the taverns they bought. They were really shifty establishments, you know- at 1d4 per week, plus another 1d4 from the standard rate of life sentences being dispensed by regular justice.That way, they could get a reliable source of materials that should last until the next Festival (the global estimates indicated that with the current supply and rate of imprisonment, they should have enough people for the next five months, so they decided to announce the Festival of Wonders would be happening twice per year. This allowed them to strike some pretty convenient deals with the performers, by asking lower prices in exchange for secure future hiring).Although the new rate of prisoners was lower than initially expected, they talked it out with the Hags. Their designated negotiator, Twice-Cursed Irisna, explained that they could have a mean to retain the same level of income, if the party managed to improve the quality of each nightmare (they never really explained what exactly they were doing with the nightmares, but at one point the party had reasons to suspect they were being sold to yugoloths who were using them to further their investigations on the true nature of evil. Even this party was weary of having anything to do with yugoloths, but as Hassan pointed out “We are just providing a service, which helps people satisfy needs otherwise hard to come by. If the bad guys also get them, well, it is a worthy price to pay for equal-opportunity access. We really are doing a good service”, to which my response was “Yes, how selfless of you. Move your alignment chart one box to the left. At this point, all you have to do is step on a flower to turn Evil, and it doesn't even have to be a pretty one”, and his answer “Okay. But I still get the money, right?”. Bastard).</blockquote>

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