The sun was just splitting the horizon when Ano slipped down a drop line to Festering Street below. All the streets on this part of Hospice carried names related to disease mirroring the condition of the locals. Someone’s idea of a sick joke he guessed. Picking his way across the still waking streets Ano began his delicate dance of trying to look inconspicuous but not to be trifled with. He wasn’t a fearful gobber but he was bright enough to realize that he was much more vulnerable down here than hopping across the rigs above. Rigrunners make nice targets for those with nothing to loose, in other words, most of Five Fingers and pretty much all of Hospice. His delivery, some contracts from a loader’s union on Chasers, wasn’t anything sellable but thugs didn’t bother to check that type of thing out before bashing you in the head repeatedly and stealing your satchel.
As he neared the morning’s destination, the trollkin enclave of Kithgrav, the buildings changed shape. The multistoried, piecemealed hovels transformed almost at a line to sturdier squat structures using a suprising amount of stone. He wondered where the trolls got it from. His thoughts were interrupted by a quarrel just ahead. Two trollkin were in a heated argument over family honor and some theft. Smelling a job Ano’s ears perked up. After getting the jist of the trouble Ano begins to sell the services of the BellRow Troubleshooters to the trolls exagerating the guild’s expertise and experience, as well as their reasonable rates. Before midday the guild has a new contract and Apu, Fabrizio, Opifera, and Ano are on the job.
The subchieftain Feral Stoneborn explains to the Troubleshooters that a sacred tribal artifact had been stolen from an altar at the center of the enclave. The stolen token was the tooth of a giant, one of a set of five, each carved with different markings. Stoneborn suspects a lieutenant of Waernuks was involved. The lieutenant, there for collections, recently eyed the altar and made a passing, irreverant comment about the teeth. Stoneborn’s righthand, Uglor informs the Troubleshooters that his son of 13 summers, Utimo, has been missing since the night of the theft. He believes Utimo must have tried to prevent the theft and been killed in the process. His bristling tone prevents the group from offering any suggestion of the youth’s guilt. Only marginally cooperative, Stoneborn refuses to allow the group to handle the sacred teeth but does allow Apu to examine them and offers a rough translation of the glyphs. The stolen tooth carries an inscribed glyph symbolizing strength and the tribe believes it carries the full strength of the giant who once possessed it. With a little work Apu is able to recreate the missing glyph and using the other teeth he casts a powerful seeking spell to locate the missing totem. Apu gets a glimpse of a dark hole as well as an urge directing him westward across the island. Feral directs a young trollkin named Maug to follow the group until they find the tooth.
Whether it’s a reputation earned from their scuffle with one of Waernuk’s gangs on these streets a few weeks ago or only the bright afternoon sun to credit the Troubleshooters find no trouble crossing Hospice today.
Apu leads across the island uncomfortably near the Chatterstones. He stops the group outside a crumbling threestory standing alone between two long rows of apartments. The ancient building is dark at first glance but Fabrizio soon notices lights flickering within and creeps forward for a closer look. He doesn’t see much but he hears the sounds of clinking metal, possibly coins falling together in a heap. Determined not to be left out of the action this time, Opifera leads Fabrizio into the building followed by a more cautious Ano and lastly Apu who conjures a light with his magic. Convinced they’ve found the totem and reluctant to enter the building, Maug runs off to report to his kin. The large entry and immediately adjoining rooms are filled only with furniture, all badly decayed beyond recognition. A set of collapsed stairs lead up but beyond them lies a kitchen. The clinking sounds and whispered giggles come from that direction. Apu nods and the group moves into the kitchen. In the center of the next room lies a large iron potbellied stove, coated in dust, but seemingly in good condition. The stove is secured shut with a thick chain wrapped twice around the stove and padlocked. Around the room lie a half dozen human skeletons lodged in clamp-jaw beartraps, all long ago rusted to impotence. Small bits of cloth or pieces of rotted armor stick to a few of the skeletons. The air here is dry and choked with a dust kicked up with every step. The sounds have stopped and the only sounds are the cautious footsteps of the group. Apu leads on, and through a small doorway to the left.
Just beyond the kitchen Apu’s light shines into what must have been a small pantry at one time. The walls and floor are bare but central to the closet-like room is the mouth of a well. “The tooth is down there” Apu remarks and settles to the ground to catch a rest. Opifera and Fabrizio step forward for a closer look and in an instant ghostly hands materialize pushing Fabrizio down into the well. Opifera resists a similar push pulling herself back from the hole with a scowl.
Down below Fabrizio brushes himself off, and convinced he didn’t break anything, begins to look around. Apu cautiously leans his staff over the edge of the well throwing some light below. Opifera and Ano call down the well for Fabrizio, but he ignores their calls. The bottom of the well is dry and covered with a collection of broken and mostly decayed bodies. The stench is horrible. In the darkest corner of the hole a small figure is curled up and quivering. Fabrizio pulls his blade and pokes gently at it. Noticing him for the first time it croaks begging for water. He vigorously interogates the shaking young trollkin about the missing totem but the child continues to beg for water, his eyes rolled back in his head. Fabrizio pokes him hard with his blade and the troll cries out with pain. His eyes swim to focus and he throws the missing totem to the swordsman. Fabrizio grabs the tooth and after unsuccessfully trying to activate its supernatural powers he tucks it into his shirt. He then calls up to his worried friends above. While they discuss how to retrieve the two below Fabrizio renews his interogation and learns that this is indeed the young Utimo. The trollkin admits to borrowing the sacred totem. He planned to use it in a fight at the waterfront arena but he got trapped in this well when he slipped in the building to dodge a local gang. Someone he couldn’t see pushed him and he has been alone except for taunting voices for the last two days. He is starved and his voice croaks with lack of water. Satisfied, Fabrizio gives him a swig of wine.
About this time Grig and Utimo’s father Uglor come running into the house led by the trollkin youth Maug. Out of breath, they pick their way quickly through the house following the conversation in the well room. Grig darts behind feverishly whispering to himself and looking around nervously. With some rope and muscle Utimo and Fabrizio are hauled up the well and the totem is returned to the trollkin’s care. Uglor is incensed to learn of his son’s actions and drags him out of the building with a combination of barking beratement and savage blows of his fist. Maug follows the two eager to be away from the unsettling presences in the building.
Filling in Grig the curious Troubleshooters return to the kitchen and poke around the large potbelly stove. Ano takes a try at the heavy lock, rusty with age. Grig warns him “’they’ don’t want you to do that.” When Ano pauses, looking puzzled at him, Grig urges “open it, do it anyway!” in a rushed voice. Faces appear screaming and taunting and hands push and shove at the gobber but Ano manages to trick the huge lock apart with a snapping tick. Prying the large iron door of the oven open reveals a odd box hidden among the ashes. Ano takes it. The stirring of the spirits dies and tension fills the room. The sturdy wooden box is in good shape, reinforced with brass and a little larger than a cigar box. Inside the box is lined with a very thin sheet of dull metal scratched through to the wood in a delicate intersecting pattern. Inside the box lies a large chunk of polished amber.
With the box open the spirits erupt again in a cacaphony of screams and shouts, louder than ever. With lightening reflexes Grig snags the amber from the box in Ano’s hands and runs for the door. He bolts past Apu and ducks between the legs of the startled Opifera. Opifera looses no time in turning to give the gobber chase. Outside the building she calls at him but he mutters something incomprehensible about the guildhouse and is soon up in the rigs scampering spiderlike across the precarious lines. Exiting the building Apu and Ano shrug in confusion and decide to split up. Apu turns himself to air and rides the river winds back to the guildhouse on Dicers while Ano heads back across the island to Kithgrav to see about getting paid.
Opifera arrives at the guildhouse to find Grig leaning over the amber rubbing it with his grubby little hands. This gesture, combined with the look of greedy lust in his eyes, looks almost obscene. Seeing Opifera Grig’s grin deadens and he tells Opifera the amber is worth very little and suggests she let him sell it for the group. Suddenly, Grig convulses and his eyes narrow into a squint. Opifera eyes him suspiciously as he mutters and murmers arguing with someone only he can hear. After a minute or two Grig drops the amber onto the table and jerks back. He tells Opifera there is someone inside the amber. Her name is Ginny and she is rude. He doesn’t know how long she has been trapped but she knows at least some of the spirits that were in the building they found the box in and knows something about what it does. She wants desperately to be freed, in fact she demands it. It is about this time that Apu arrives and is filled in to the situation. He questions the gobber intently before falling silent considering the possibilities.
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