Underground
Dangerous
Squalid prices
The Sinking Ledger
the cutthroat waystation under the black tide
You push through a curtain of seaweed and cold air and step into a low-ceilinged vault carved from wet volcanic rock. Lanterns gutter in oil-slick sconces; the only light bobs from lanterns lashed to pilings and the dark river that cuts through the room, where battered barges tie up nose-to-tail. The smell is a brine of old fish, iron, and unwashed bodies. Conversation is spare and clipped — coin clinks, dice rattle on a board patched with leather, and the splash of oars keeps time with the murmured threats. Patrons keep their hands where they can be seen, and everyone watches anyone who looks like they might leave with something that isn't theirs.
A warped slab of iron hung from chains, stamped with a ledger tally and a dripping oar; rust streaks down the edges and a fresh smear of mud marks the lower corner.
Gregar Flint
human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Ledgerburn
5 spA harsh double-distilled spirit mixed with charred kelp; one swallow coats the lungs with warmth and makes you fearless for one minute (Advantage on Intimidation checks, disadvantage on Stealth for the minute as you cough).
Squalid (5e lifestyle: about 1 sp a day)
Ninrik · barmaid
A squat deep-browed tunnel gnome who moves like she has ten eyes; she brings bowls and news in equal measure.
Brek the Knot · bouncer
A scarred half-orc ex-ferryman who stands at the gangway and makes sure cargo lives to leave again — for a price.
Mossfinger Jemm
A reed-haired river rat who collects lost trinkets and claims to know the layout of the submerged ruins upstream; he wants someone to help him fetch a brass token stuck behind riverweeds.
Old Herta
A blind bargemaster who plays keelbones every night and whispers about a sealed vault beneath the Third Mooring; she's looking for a strong pair of arms to pry it open.
Sil the Ledgerless
A pale, watchful man who lost his name to a bad bet and is rumored to be hunting the ledger that lists the man who took it; he'll pay handsomely for information leading to Gregar's hidden list.
1
Marrek Ironhook, captain of the crooked barge Black Quill, paid Gregar to alter a manifest — the manifest hides the location of a sealed cargo locker with a carved stone idol.
2
A flooded side-passage beyond the Fourth Mooring hides a drowned shrine to the Tide-Seed; Mossfinger Jemm says a brass token there opens a chest of storm-iron.
3
Old Herta lost a keelbones game to a masked gambler called 'The Slate' who now holds a key stamped with the Sable Crest — the key is rumored to unlock a vault under the cavern wharf.
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