Raven walks up to the closest worker who looks of importance.

"We are looking for Huark." She says with a smile of greeting. She pushes some of her raven hair behind her ear as she glances around.  "We've heard he has gone missing and wondered if you had seen him lately, or if he had a desk, locker, or some work space here that we could look at for clues to his whereabouts..."

Persuasion:  12

Helmet and vest in hand, Elwin will watch his companions to see if they put them on.

 "The ogre?" shouts the orange-helmeted foreman over the sound of the workers singing. "Haven't seen him for days, now.  Left in in the middle of his shift, too--said something about a bad fight, and that he was sad because he lost his cup. That was the most words I ever heard him string together...I don't think he knew more than fifty of them. He wasn't exactly desk job material, you know?  He was a cog-turner." He gestures toward where the workers keep the lift engine cranking. "An ogre leaves kind of a power shortage when he walks out. We had some pretty slow lifts that day, lots of complaints."

Del dons the safety gear In the quarries, only the important people got hard hats. He'll go along with Raven to provide some Help, and suggest that after the first supervisor we can ask about talking after shift, maybe buy some of Huark's mates a beer (the other d20 for Raven's check: 11 )

 "Heh, hard hats grow on trees here," grins the safety officer at Del's remark.

"Anyone we could talk to who might know more about where the ogre went?"  Raven asks.

Elwin followed Del's lead in putting on the strange vest and hat, content that it was simply a customary request, and that there was no real downside here to how outlandish it looked.

Raven would have done so as well, as soon as they were handed to her.

"I don't think he really spoke to anyone much," says the foreman. "Ask him if he wanted to go drinking or bowling after work, he'd say, 'No, got half a broken cup at home.' Ask him anything--if he had any hobbies, what he spent his pay on, if he had any family, why he decided to work here, same answer. 'Got half a broken cup at home.'  I think he wasn't quite right in the head. But he worked for us for about two months, never missed a day till he left, never caused any trouble, and did the work of three for the pay of one, so no complaints. If you find him, tell him we'd like him back. Maybe with a little raise, if that's what it takes."

Maybe it was "cub", not "cup? He had adopted a young tabaxi. Not sure what "half a broken" was - if his speech wasn't perfect it could have been hard to know what he was saying, even for those used to the noises here

"Hmmm?  That's a thought. But it sounded like 'cup' to me. Tabaxi have some pretty strange names, though.  I knew one once called Smooth Rock under the Hedge."

"Well... 'Half a Broken Cup' sounds like it could be the kid's name," said Elwin. It seemed to make sense; the "lost cup" was probably the tabaxi kid. But if he never hung out or talked with anyone, that didn't give them many leads. Perhaps it was time to head to the 'Pitchpines'... where, apparently, the street kids tended to reside. But it seemed as if the others still had questions; Elwin decided to wait and see if they dug anything up.

"Where to next?"  Raven asks the others.  "I can probably check with some of my contacts around town, but what do you all think?"  Her eyes scan the area as she speaks, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Perception: 21

Raven looks around and sees nothing unusual.  The workers seem like they must be reasonably well paid: none of them is ragged.  The song they are singing is an Elvish rowing song, which seems to help them work in sync as well as ease the tedium of the job.  The elf upstairs seems to be doing paperwork.  There are notices on the wall saying 'No horseplay will be tolerated!' And 'ALWAYS wear your helmet and feather vest! Your life may depend on it!' and 'Keep hands and feet clear of the chains at all times!' and other such safety warnings.

How about the upper platform, the guy at the desk - see if there are any records. Another idea - the kid's school - seems he was bullied there, but the teachers might know something anyway. And Pitchpine - but that is a pretty vague idea, just a place where the lowest are found. Unless Sister Raven's contacts can narrow it down. Is there an ogre community, a tabaxi community, or an adoption agency that little Cup might have come from?

Del will go up the platform and ask at the desk if there are any records or other information Persuasion 21 Insight 19 ((assuming I get an assist))

Del will find himself singing along, memorizing the tune and cadence and how it fits with the work. Just because

Raven would give the help

“I’m going to assume that the child was not reported missing since there was no tabaxi on the list when we first got into town. All of the options seem like good ones. Perhaps we split up? Cover both places and then meet back up at the tavern.” Quentin suggests 

The elf at the desk looks up as Del approaches.  "Applying for a job? We don't need anyone in engineering or repair at the moment. We're a little short on cog turners, but...frankly, you don't look like you'd be able to cut it." Once you've assured the manager that you are not looking to be a cogman, he tells you he doesn't have any information except an address, which you already know.

"People from Locust aren't usually looking for permanent work," the manager says. "Usually, they just show up till they have enough money to pay off their gambling debts, or their rent, or their bookie, or enough to get good and drunk, and then they stop coming. I asked the ogre why he wanted a job, and he said something about having a broken cup. I figured he'd work just long enough to buy a new set of dishes and he'd be gone. If he'd been an elf, I'd have told him to look elsewhere, but he was six times my size, I wasn't going to tell him no.To be honest, I was surprised he stuck around as long as he did."

You get the sense that the manager is not concerned, or particularly interested.

Del will tell the guy, just to spread a certain level of concern We think "Broken Cup" refers to Huark's tabaxi child - gone missing, like so many other kids. Do you have kids? But thank you for the time, and good fortune to you.

Then returning to make the next plan I'm not much into splitting up. Maybe just talking to the school and orphanage at the same time, if we knew where either were. But when we head to Pitchpine we should all be together. 

I agree Huark wouldn't have reported little Cup missing, since he ran off so sudden, but do we know if those posters we saw were just for Willow or the whole city? - WAIT - how did Huark know to run off in the middle of shift? He must have gotten a message?

((It's getting a little late in the day for school visits.))

When Del asks the foreman about whether Huark got a message, he says, "Nah.  He was slow and droopy all that morning, and I think he just left when he made up his mind to go."