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[Twinwolf]

"You got the letters too, right? My mentor got one, but he was crippled in a bandit attack recently, so he asked me to come here instead."

[sjm9876]

"Just needs a bit of blue," Kas murmured.

"But yeah, got a letter. Looking for old contacts for a helping hand, right?"

[Dwarmin]

"I was wondering how you got a letter. Well, I suppose if he trusted you enough to come in his place, you must be good enough for the job...you seem a bit of a freshet, but you'll do fine..." Eleen said, almost to herself.

"Just needs a bit of blue," Kas murmured.

"But yeah, got a letter. Looking for old contacts for a helping hand, right?"

"In my case, I sent her a letter. The Church sent me to investigate these killings, and this is my first stop...some of my people don't believe a person like Miss Tannerson can be trusted, but I'll take any help I can get. I'm not a stickler for company, in any case."

[Twinwolf]

Oriana frowned at the... slang? Foreign word? "'Freshet'?"

[GiglameshDespair]

Action: I decided to investigate some of the Kraken Parts. My father had been a Kraken hunter, so I was told...
[Self]: What do I really know about Krakens, btw? Not stuff I just made up!

Looking at the Kraken parts, through your own knowledge (and the tiny script on the labels), you recall quite a bit about the huge beasts that roam the seas.

Krakens range in size, and the largest can be bigger than even the greatest of whales. They normally have around fourteen tentacles, each tipped with what is called a beak, though it's closer to a claw. Two of the "teeth" on the mantle are actually bone spurs, which can be found running along the tentacles. These are mainly used when kraken hunt whales, thought really kraken eat anything they can catch. They don't normally attack ships, unless they've been hungry recently, since they don't see enough reward in cracking the hull compared to the amount of sailors inside. Still, sometimes the kraken-ships go out and don't come back...

Krakens have a lot of meat, and it's often the cheapest meat available in the docks by terms of sheer quantity. Still, not everyone's exactly fond of the sharp ammonia taste that accompanies everything kraken. Their oil burns well, too, if you don't mind the scent. Every part of a kraken can be used, but what makes kraken really unique is the strange properties they have. A type of pellet made from congealed kraken blood is said to have a strengthening effect on the body, and their various organs are used in all sorts of remedies. A lot of sailors carry kraken-tooth knives, made from the teeth of a kraken they hunted. They take remarkable offence to those who carry knives they didn't "buy" themselves.

An old sailor's tale is that every kraken is a squid that's lived to reach a century old, though who knows? The giants of the deep are still a mystery.

Meanwhile, he takes the paper from the table, scanning for news of monsters, Oshain, or Pirate Lords in equal measure.

Spoiler: Sleangate Daily Crier (click to show/hide)

VILE MONSTERS SEEN IN DOCKS
YET AGAIN, THE VILE MONSTERS PLAGUING OUR CITY were seen again in the Docks, where they are reported to have dragged away a Sailor in front of a Horrified Audience. Said John Frescoe, a Sailor in the Kraken-Ship Merciful Annibel, "It was a horrible sight. A Monster to be sure. It siezed him and dragged him down a Dark Alleyway. We gave chase, and though we shot at it with Muskets, it was undeterred, and fled across the rooftops with him."

That makes the thirty-fourth monster attack this month to the knowledge of this paper. The Ducal palace has refrained from answering this paper's questions, referring to the Monsters as "fairy tales of Drunken Sailors."...

It goes on to talk more about the monsters, and it doesn't tell you much more than you've already heard. Like a man turned into a beast. It seems the greatest majority of the monster attacks have been in the Docks and poorer areas of the city, with very few occurring in the Island Wards.

A small note mentions "More turmoil in Oshain", but refrains from going into detail. Similiarly, nothing is mentioned of lords, pirates or otherwise.

[Dwarmin]

Oriana frowned at the... slang? Foreign word? "'Freshet'?"

Eleen flashed a momentary bright smile, before covering it with her hand, embarrassed and a wee bit ashamed to be amused at someone else's expense. "...A Freshet. It's a bit of clean water that flows down the mountains during summer, and out-into the bracks and the deckers. It's slang for an outsider, a bit fresh, a stranger, maybe even a bit...I suppose the best word is uncorrupted...by life here in Sleangate. The fresh water comes down, and it gets all mixed up in the salt, and the mud, and the oil...well, it's just a saying.

Forgive me for a bit of local color, marmi. I'm from the Docks District originally-mariner slang, it's common as...pretty common, I mean." She said, stifling her original thought. This was proper company. Eleen had been quite mouthy in her previous career...

[Twinwolf]

"I won't mind the slang as long as you don't mind me not getting it."

[Dwarmin]

"Fair is fair, but if you're going to survive down here you'll need to learn the words we use. A five hundred-ton tango, as we call it-something very hard, but worth the effort."

[Twinwolf]

"I'll try ta pick some stuff up, when I can."

[Dwarmin]

"That's the spirit." Eleen said, distracted by the strange bones she had seen...

Action: I was interested in those strange skulls, and I went to examine them next.

[GiglameshDespair]

"That's the spirit." Eleen said, distracted by the strange bones she had seen...

Action: I was interested in those strange skulls, and I went to examine them next.

The skulls are strange indeed.

One of them is large and thickset. The teeth are more pointed than yours - a mouth full of canines, like a dog. Despite that, it seems this isn't the skull of a beast - the note states this is the skull of a Jormundanghr, the large, violent tribes who reside in a ice-locked country, far to the north. You see them in Sleangate, occasionally - they stend to stand head-and-shoulders above most in a crowd, but most never leave their glacial homeland. You remember seeing one working as a gang enforcer once - he'd wrung a man's neck like a chicken without much difficulty. Perhaps the only larger people (if you use the term loosely) are the Church giants.

A second looks almost as if it were covered in melted wax, if that wax had then calcified. The jaw is forced to the side and locked rigid with growths of bone, and one of the nostril-holes has bubbled shut. The note tells you it belonged to a woman with a most peculiar disease, who grew bone wherever she was injured. The cause of such a affliction was unknown, and no cure could be found before the woman expired.

The third is the skull of some kind of animal. The heavy skull is unlike that of any creature you've seen, like that of a giant lizard, perhaps. There is a hole in the centre of the skull's brow, and you wonder if it's a third eye that once sat there. The note only states it had been dug up in a basement, and the species it belonged to is unknown. No local animal, at any rate.

---

The manservant pops his head in through the door.
"Excuse me, Sir and Madams, but Miss Tannerson will be down shortly. Would any of you care to take some tea?"

[Twinwolf]

Oriana hesitates for a moment, then responds. "If it ain't any trouble, I'd like some."

[GiglameshDespair]

"Of course, madam. Milk and sugar?"

[Twinwolf]

"Yes, please."

[Dwarmin]

"I'll have a bit and more, Senior. A cup of Hiji* with a moit of honey and a titch of lemon juice, if you please." Eleen said, settling back into her armchair.

*A strong green tea best drunk fresh, and steaming-it's good for warming up on chilly nights. A local favorite, imported in recent years by Far Eastern traders.