Ning Truthlashes- Paladin of His Majesty's Tax Service
I've stopped in a hamlet just north of Lulledelders to gather information. I've come across some troublesome information.
This would be roughly 1/6th of the food stored in the small human dwelling I came across. Hawkblockades could have traded with anybody for most of his supplies, my only hope is that the merchant of Lulledelders who is his most likely contact for livestock and other harder to get items. Remembers him specifically.
They are more familiar with travelers here, it would seem that though attendance has dropped in recent years Lulledelders to the immediate south is a city as I was led to believe but the headquarters of some sort of cult. They apparently worship some type of dark spirit thing and do quite good business buying and selling to travelers at the monastery there. I'm becoming more and more troubled by this. This Hawkblockades deals with traders who don't keep shop records and religious groups profiting from trade in direct violation of the provisions that grant them tax exempt status.
Gods alive, the man himself is building a fortress in the midst of cartological gray area! I fear this may lead to some cabal of tax cheats, coin clippers or census dodgers. Hell, it could be a whole damned forgery ring. Perhaps the vampires bracelet will let me speak to these financial criminals without raising their suspicions.
I reached at the cult's monastery and began poking around their trade goods. It was worse than I ever imagined.
I tried to convince myself they had very productive soil and this was all grown on site within regulation.
I kept telling myself it was most likely a family heirloom and that classification would supersede it's status as an imported good in terms of trade.
Even then I deluded myself into believing some dwarf was among their ranks and had shown them how to grow underground crops and that these wares will still produced here and these were just simple monks.
There was no explanation except that someone in this monastery had been taking Gorlaks, sentient beings, and killing them , skinning them, tanning their hide, and crafting them it into hats. This was the straw that broke the camels back; tax exempt status or not this was a vile cult making or at least selling goods created from sentient beings without the proper legal classification or licensing. I suspect these are the lot that furnished the vampire with this shoddy and unlicensed bracelet. This type of wanton disregard for business law is precisely why the Mezbuth's Macabre Marketplace wasn't able to turn a profit and you can no longer buy quality mermaid bone jewelry north of the Gulf of Rays and my dear wife had to settle for a seal person bone engagement ring.
Steeling myself for what I might see I pushed onto the convent and met with the man they called Ac Sodues who seemed to lead the place. He informed me that he was the High Grave and explained that life was suicide, the small talk didn't last for long as what he said next chilled me to my very core.
This is a massive trading hub and not only that, my beloved Tribecloisters is their biggest customer. We'll have to shake down the caravans before they come and go from this blasted place. He also informed me that there was an army of fearsome warriors camped a half day away preparing to sack the convent. I informed him that I would happily lead him to safety and he leapt at the chance. We walked some distance at which point he complained about the snow and we stopped to make camp.
As we sat around the fire he explained that his order worshiped the ancient Forest Titan Udar Soakedrivers the Flaxen Jungles. The cult was apparently a burgeoning and influential order until the beast was killed in 103 and it's doomsday prophecy failed. He didn't say as much but I suspect that it was around this time they began resorting to financial dishonesty to supplement the income they lost when donations fell off.
It was at this point I showed him the bracelet and mentioned the vampire trader. He assumed I'd been sent by him on a rescue mission and I didn't disagree but mentioned we had to talk about the dwarf that purchased a sheep from them. He mentioned Koreg by name. My enthusiasm startled him and he quickly stopped talking. I was forced to ask again.
And again
And again.
He was more easily persuaded after this.
It seems that this High Grave knows Hawkblockades as a former follower. His father was stripped of his noble title in 103 after he sold his possessions in anticipation of the coming judgment and Hawkblockades ,then Kadol Palacetreaty, ran off and left the cult behind. The father Palacetreaty is dead and none of his contacts can be reached for questioning. He was surprised to see Koreg turn up again and initially suspected he was being had but he produced a silver artifact and preformed a certain rite demonstrating his ties with the group clearly. The High Grave had done a bit of work and discovered that after he broke with the group Koreg had been living south along the Gulf of Rays but said he had no more information and said this after being asked seven times. I prepared to leave but stopped to admire his amulet.
I asked him if he'd purchased it before Mezbuth's Macarbe Market closed down and he replied he made it himself
I collected the evidence and left him in the snow.
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Topic: Nevertaxed: Dwarven Village Bloodline (Overseers Needed!) (Read 55248 times)