once everyone in our group was rested up we sorted through the remaining contents of the crate we found transom in
aside from some coins and some shed feathers that medya identified as cazha's much of it turned out to be personal effects of folks who'd disappeared in the sewers
many of these had inscriptions with obvious special meaning to those who held them and the loved ones who'd gifted them
it seems cazha is a collector
we took the obvious personal items to the sharn watch so they could return them to ... next of kin
everything without identifiable ownership became ours to keep if we wanted
this included a hammer that summons a magical flame so bell asked if she could use it to replace the one built into her arm and we all agreed that would be extremely nifty
but first we wanted a pleasant diversion from grim topics
so we set up a community spa day at the heart and hammer
bell dug out a pit to make a heated oil bath and i worked up some fancy polishing compounds while ploughshare got the word out amongst the forged
soon we had quite the party going with folks chatting and listening to medya's music and relaxing and getting shiny
overheard: "why are we here getting our steel polished? because it won't polish itself!"
gears showed up with a bunch of dust to share which was enjoyed by all for whom such stuff is safe
medya and i dipped into our stash of genuine everglow glitterreed and someone named "pike" mentioned having caught the scent of the stuff once before
they told us of a long forced march through nasty terrain called the "shadow marches" which ended at a town called "zarash'ak" in the far northwest where they first smelled it
evidence of the elusive "hellebore"?
a topic of shared interest among forged is "nolan toranak" who represents the cogs on sharn's head council
why is a dwarf speaking for a district of mostly forged if they don't like him?
because he panders to the foundry and factory owners (who are also grown) and in sharn money speaks louder than labor
any way you slice it that's some rotten cabbage and it makes me angry
i loathe politics but if i can help the forged get proper representation i will
anyhow medya and i sacked out well before the party ended because we both still need sleep once in a while
at some point bell passed around a hat to collect donations toward covering the day's expenses and it came back with plenty
the spa day was very well received and we're making it a regular community-building event
and that was exactly the good news we needed as a breather ... before heading back into the sewers to find lem
can't wait