Needleday, Tailormoon, 1313

General Summary

The Irregular Pattern
Directions: 3rd right, 2nd left, 2nd staircase down, 2nd right
Cactus Cats – One of the Northtown Buildings has a maintenance area for plumbing. Was once a tower, part has become overgrown. Contained exotic seeds, weird sentient plants. Cactus plants that seem to detach into ambulatory plant creatures. They sing and the sap is extremely alcoholic. Whitecape and another Vanaran (slight family resemblance to Drew with young sober Whitecape) in similar monk robes – they are in a room that is simple and monastic. Older Vanaran is leaning on gardening hoe and is showing Whitecape a cat-shaped cactus plant. “Huh, it’s like a cat!”
Brambleson – Mentioned occasionally in lectures and discussions. Not very much of it. Mentioned as a god that was formerly worshipped. Enclave of rabbit people too far down to see the sky. Not all of the iconography is correct, but Qumin does better than most (accurate but incomplete).
Damasque Laureat seen at Threadmas parade giving a Tengu (not Krona - Nighthawk) a small pouch – Divination Aura, Very Powerful - Angel Dust.

Hugo’s Nat20 Study of the Noble Peerage (while sick)

Cobbler Bakerstreet's wife conspicuously missing.
Underhands have siblings listed but no parents.
Court settled into its current (human-led) formation about 25-30 years ago.

• Masons (31 years ago): Were married before joining.
• Underhands (30 years ago): Were married before joining.
• Carterholds (29 years ago): Got married when Djann was nominated.
• Bakerstreets (28 years ago): Were (probably) married before joining.
• Stargazers (27 years ago): Were married the day of joining.
• Dargents (26 years ago): Were married before but same year as Richard was nominated.
• Laureats (25 years ago): Got married when Absalom was nominated.
• Ironsides (24 years ago): Got married when Kat turned 16 (two months after she fell pregnant with Britomart).

Neither Shajara has parents listed – Vizier and Viziera Aldebaran (Cassilda's grandparents) and Haita Shajara (Hali’s grandfather) both recorded dying about 300 years ago.
Hali became Vizier about 50 years ago (a youngish teenager by elf standards), indicating his parents disappeared suddenly.
Aegis Brasseyes' mother exiled after humans came – still alive.
Kronk’s parents are listed, but not Cassie’s father.
Saif Jackalslicer's mother not listed (Jackalslicer)
Exiled Darktusks (Jafar's generation is oddly sparse so maybe also banishments)
Sheikh Darktusk has a cousin (Rifi Darktusk) with no listed parents.
Stargazers – exiled younger sister Virgonia – same day as Aegis’s mother Goldday, Sailormoon. Andromeda called Whisper Vote through Leopold Stargazer.
Balthazar Ironside – younger brother named Melchior.
Djann Carterhold – eldest of 3, younger sister named Mazda and even younger brother named Thessian.
Haruspex Underhand – older sister Glaive and younger brother Sonata, both of whom have children and partners.
Scamp Ratrider has exiled younger brother – Whirl.
Cobbler Bakerstreet called most recent whisper vote.
None of the other families (other than Dargent) don’t have extended family at court.
Records of Whisper votes – did occur before humans showed up) one previous Nightkeeper vizier and one previous Ratrider vizier) but few and far between.
Then humans showed up and they keep happening.
Records of other kinds of trial before Whisper Votes were made the norm by humans.
Proper non-kangaroo trials (going back a long time)
In the more recent past, Trial by Combat was popular (particularly with the Orc families). Saladin Greenskin, the First won 3 trials by combat and his son Saladin Greenskin, the Second won one. This was the last trial by combat to happen, and it was against Jafar Darktusk (who yielded and withdrew his accusation).
Bakerstreets and Stargazers often call whisper votes.
Richard only recorded as calling a single whisper vote (and that was on his own parents). Hugo notices that, while subtle enough to not really be noticeable, people who talk to Guinevera Dargent tend to be the wives of those who call whisper votes.
Jackalslicers – only 1 whisper vote called – Saif called vote on Hali Shajara who was forgiven.
Only one whisper vote ever called on a human by a non-human (Fang Ratrider, previous vizier called one on Glaive Underhand, who was unanimously forgiven, and Fang was murdered the following Eclipseday).
Underhands have never called a Whisper Vote (they don’t need to), and nor have the Brasseyes, Greenskins, Shajaras and the Lord Captain Emissary has also never called one.

Wiggin Questions Connie

Captain Hudson – big ranger human woman with an eyepatch (investigator?)
She has a pet bloodhound.

Krona's Apartment

Vishkanya woman and baby on Krona's private incident board
Connie explodes a Church of the Poor Man – it was a distraction to save Lindie.
“Aw, seed!” Krona’s curse word (or possibly minced oath, given his frequent proximity to stray orphans).

Jorma Casefile

“Jorma” case opened on Woundsday, Sailormoon, 1313 (when Lindie was 5)
"Jorma", pronounced with a Y indicates that it’s a Vishkanyan word.
Case contains:

• Old sepia photo (Victorian copperplate) of the wreckage of Lindie’s mother’s Apothecary shop
• Police sketch style portraits of people of interest
• Sepia photo of Jormungandr Asklepa holding baby “Basilisk Asklepa”.
• Sketch of 5-year-old Lindie “Lyndwyrm Asklepa”
• Police sketch of Jaq Mason (Vizier), [pre-wheelchair] He was supposedly the last person to see Jormungandr alive, but Lindie corrects Krona that he wouldn’t have seen her mother because she wasn’t there.
• Vishkanya man “Adder “Hogg” Nithhogg” (apparently spoke to Jormungandr the day before she died. She met him outside the shop at a divebar called the “Black Cockatrice Tavern” (no longer exists, was repurposed in the interim period). Hogg’s band (Diamondback) was playing there, and she had been doing business in the area and dropped in.
• Handwritten notes from Krona: “Noble with Golden Eyes?” includes a list of Golden-Eyed nobles. Krungus Ratrider, Farsi Darktusk (who is not in book, older – Jafar’s generation) Saif’s mother not listed (indicating that if she did have gold eyes, she was killed or banished in the Whisper Vote prior to the Apothecary attack.
• Attempts to ascertain if the Golden Eyed Nobles have alibis. Krona was able to pin down that Richard Dargent was in a financial meeting at the time of the attack ("very convenient", as Wiggin might say).
• Both Shajaras had retreated from public life around this time. Although they are known to do this sometimes, this was a conspicuous “peak withdrawal”, where contemporary talk speculated on their unusual absence and there were some theories that they might even be dad. Significantly, neither had any alibis.
• Hogg has an alibi, since he was in the bar playing Scrapbanjo with his band mates for the full night.
• There’s an inventory of recoverable merchandise cross-compared with the Apothecary’s usual stock. There is nothing there that shouldn’t be, but missing items indicate that the Golden Eyed noble might have covered up the purchase, since the missing items are incriminating.
• Notes of occult lore and half-known rituals and summoning spells
• Lists the noble’s purchased items: incense, a kind of alchemical planar-tuned paint among other things.
  • The Apothecary didn’t sell illegal goods (it was sometimes frequented by the nobles) but some of the items sold had a niche use and the purchase of all of the things together point to illegal activity.
  • Krona has come to the conclusion that it involved contacting Divs. The fragments indicate most of the stuff is for summoning and/or binding to a contract, some kind of pact or agreement with some kind of powerful Div.
• Woodcut of a creepy demon vampire, that the painting in Yvette’s basement seems to have been referencing. Attached note: “These are the things that dreadful warlocks of the forbidden arts summon, who grant pleasure, pain and knowledge. They bring plague and ruin upon their foes or fulfil secret and forbidden wants.”
• The Arts Macabre – a fairly esoteric scholarly grimoire from before the study of magic had been formalised, when it was more hearsay.
  • Written around 300 years ago before the Honourable Company existed in Palimpsest.
  • Unfocused – some guy’s “Paracelsis Darktusk" (Elder or Younger?) collection of stuff he’d found summoning, pacts, vague stuff about spirits. Forbidden and no longer in print, the book is older than North Town University, but not older than Elderton. It is older than any of the faculty known to Hugo, Lindie & Connie, but it is possible that the university has some older elves who would have been around concurrently.
  • The book used to be stocked in Elderton University Library but is from a time before the Elderton University Press existed. It has no specific publisher and seems to have been created with lead plates on parchment. Elderton University Press republishes some contemporary books, but not this one (it is both illegal and rambling). This means there are very few copies in existence.
  • This book was salvaged from the Understacks by a scavenger. Krona bargained only for this 1 relevant (?) page: the main book belongs Mudskip.

Candleman Cartel Casefile

Thick casefile just on everything the Undergazette knows about the Candleman – the Candleman’s activities stretch back about 20 years.

• General info: controls most of the Underworld (Undercity) and is the only crime boss who could rival Mudskip. Rather than hiring goons, he creates wax works, each of which last a single day (this would be prohibitively expensive).
• He has a portal network (possibly a source of wealth further down). He either has a cost-free way to create wax goons, or he has a better set of bases further down that are even more lucrative than his known activity.
• Police artist sketch of the Candleman’s parlay room (where Hugo and Connie were taken on Takesday, Thiefmoon, 1312). No-one knows where this is located, and it seems to be only accessible via portal.
• Files indicate he doesn’t have access to Extraplanar goods directly, he has to steal them from the Honourable Company.
• More magic is needed to open portals to other planes the further from the stars you get.
• One other Angel Dust shipment is known to have been stolen (a decade or 2 ago) AD31, and there were failed attempts on a few others.
The Lord Captain Emissary was the first LCE, and the company itself is about 50 or 60 years old.
• It is a common saying that the brightest minds from North Town University go on to work for the Company (North Town was actually established by the Company).
• It seems that the Angel Dust shipments are coming in faster, so perhaps the “brightest minds” are being put to good use? It is known that the LCE is working on something big.
• Notes contain an alchemical analysis of the Candleman's Wax (mostly animal fats with tallows and binding solvents), with animation alchemy of the sort used by the nobles to animate Golems. However, there is less animation alchemy than would be expected, and it seems to have been replaced with Necromancy!
• Animal fat from undead animals? Is the Candleman harvesting ghouls? It was wax golems who collected the ghouls that had gotten into the city that first Eclipseday.

Connie contacts the Poor Man, in an unorthodox use of her Prophetic Visionary Augury. She doesn’t ask a question; she just sends the message “sorry” (for blowing up one of his churches). She didn’t expect any kind of response but received one in the form of a feeling of disapproving weariness.

Ears of the City

Round 1, 2 & 3

Dargent Agitation: Yvette the Courtesan was part of the Plan, someone else has taken over. Things were communicated and they are now hiring mercenaries to go after Fake-Yvette, the Handmaidens and possibly others.

Round 4 & 5

Court Rumours: Amira’s Hand has been arranging for an expedition downwards to explore the undercity. She seems more concerned with the ghoul sightings than the Mongrelfolk terrorism. Although the nobles are funding it, there is an arrangement with the Elderton Historical Society.
The painting that Yvette painted of her and Hugo (Silver Linings) now features in the Hugo rumours.
News of the collapse of the Church of the Poor Man has reached the nobles. No deaths but a few injuries. Although it has been mentioned that it could have been linked to the Mongrelfolk terrorism, this isn’t the official read, since it happened on a lower level than the Noble District. No-one else has gotten sick.

Round 6

Richard Dargent’s nobility score with the Bakerstreets is -10 (as of Needleday, Tailormoon).