Raven (and whoever comes along) makes her way to The Drums of Gruumsh, which seems pretty much unchanged...on the outside. 

You enter to see a young elf girl energetically scrubbing the counter, and her eyes light up when she sees you "The heroes of the Red Sails Warehouse!  My saviors! And in addition to everything you've done, you actually appreciate Orc battle drum music! May I interest you in a rhythm cadence?" She touches one of the thousands of knotted rawhide strings hanging from the ceiling. "How about 'The Bronkron Clan Call to Bash Heads'" She reaches for another. "Or 'Chief Gullonk's Threat of Disembowelment.'" She looks even more excited, reaching for a long, long loop of rawhide. "I know!  'The Epic Reenactment of the Karkaroth Tribe Skulls Being Smashed by the Hurggh Clan!' Let me play you a sample!"

She takes down the rawhide thong, skips to the counter and strings the rawhide through a strange device.  The knotted hide passes through some tightly fixed leather straps, and is hooked to a wheel.  As the girl turns the handle, the string is wound up and is pulled through the leather straps. Every time a knot passes through the tight gap, the straps make a faint thumping noise, the volume depending on the size of the knot.

You hear: THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thumpa thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa thumpa thump thumpa thump THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump humpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thumpa thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa thumpa thump thumpa thump THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump humpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thumpa thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa thumpa thump thumpa thump THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump humpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thumpa thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thumpa thumpa thump thumpa thump THUMP thumpa THUMP THUMP THUMP thump THUMP thump THUMP thump thump humpa THUMP thumpa THUMP thump thump THUMP thump...

Eventually, Tagec comes out of a door in the back. "Ah, it's you," he says. "Kid, go take a lunch break."

"But it's morning! We just opened!" she protests.

Tagec face-palms. "Fine, look around the shops and see if you can find anyone who can sell us a can of elbow grease. High test."

"All right," the girl says reluctantly.  "But...my commission..."

"You'll get it, you'll get it." Tagec shoos the girl out of the store, locking the door behind her. "That one," he growls,"does NOT understand my business model at all. So, did you bring it?"

(Nope.....I'm just dumb and forgot that was the name of the school)

"Of course we did, would we be here otherwise?" Raven says with a cocked eyebrow. She pulls the pouch from her pack.

I think Del is the only one following Raven. He defers to her talking to Tagrec, but does appreciate the orc drumming. He has eclectic taste, and is interested in a strap for Outnumbered or Not, we are Taking no Crap from Our Scabby Enemies. Not to hear, but the cool method of transcription makes a interesting art object. I get your business model, but these are da bomb he laughs as he pays. 

Tagec accepts Del's one gold piece for the orc music, and reaches out to take the bundle from Raven.  He weighs it in his hand speculatively, then hides it under the counter. "Okay, seems good. What information did you want from me in exchange? I think that a lot of the things you asked me before have changed by now."

Raven glances to Del, as he is more of a thinker than she is. She would defer to him on new questions to ask the goblin.

Well, you are right, Brother Tagrec Del says, acknowledging Raven's glance Things have arranged themselves differently than we expected. I thought we'd need subtle advantages to secretly take down Red Sails and pirates. Then the dragon blew everything up. Almost anticlimactic. But we did get a lot of what we were going to get out of the caper anyway - so were are on to the next one. Del fills Tagrec in on what was going on - the victims headed for the Crystal Maze and that it has something to do with the Archwitch. So you can see they had a business model that is not really aligned to the profit motive either. I'm wondering whether that kind of thing leaves some evidence. Would you know of any other suspicious businesses of the scale of several thousand crystalized people? Or a business that is a little more profitable - dealing in dragon scales? That is another part - we rescued some of the hatchlings of old Anabraxes the Shining, may she rest in peace. Sibling of Terrabraxerazz, the one who blew everything up. There is supposed to be another headed to someplace called Brinehold.

Where is Brinehold? Where else might the hags be doing business? Who deals in dragon scales? Where might there be businesses that might be a cover for those things if you do not know specifically? That'll be a good start

Del also tells Tagrec what he knows about the players in SC politics In case you can make value out of that info; you can put it on the credit side of our ledger. Just don't help anyone put down the common folk, or we'll know. Oh, another datum of potential interest - Sister Raven finished off that Greyelf goober you had warned us about - I had softened him up, of course. So there ought to be interesting activity in the assassin trade.

Tagec listens with interest to all your news. "Seems like I got more information in return this time than I have for you," he says. "Let's say I owe you one."

"Brinehold is the undersea castle of the Sea Witch, a very powerful sea hag sorceress.  She is reported to have armies of sahuagin and shark-riders.  They raid the small merfolk and sea elf communities off the western coast, and often sink passing ships.  The castle is in a trench, about a hundred miles west of Harpy Point. I should think it likely that the Sea Witch, if not actually in league, at least supports the Hag Sisterhood. She was certainly a follower of the Archwitch."

"I don't know of anywhere else in the Westwoods the hags may have relocated their work. Slate City and Yonpinagel are the biggest actual cities.  Wood elves tend to avoid urban clusters and spread out in smaller communities in general. I think the stories of your hag-fighting has raised awareness in the courts, and everybody is on their guard, now. You've pretty much wrecked the hag effort in the Westwoods, at least for now.  There may be a few small operations still going on in the scattered courts, but it seems like the hags will need to do some serious reorganization before they can step up operations again."

"You can usually find dragon scales in upscale magic shops, where they sell pricey components for spells. I heard there was a big demand for bronze dragon scales a few months ago, but the market has normalized since Anabraxes was killed. Guess the hags got as much as they needed, at least for the time being."

"Hmmm, Greyelf dead?" Tagec taps a finger on the counter thoughtfully. "That could be....VERY interesting."

"What about the Feywild and Shadowfell then?" Mindartis asks. "Why do you need tree roots?"

"They weave wood from the roots," the hag tells Mindartis.  "They make teleport hoops that you can step through to another place. But they need wood from at least two different planes of existence, and one has to be from the plane you are traveling to, and one has to be the plane you are traveling from, and they have to be from the most magical tree they can find. Or something like that. I know there's another team operating in the Feywild, but they have some sort of business agreement with somebody in the Shadowfell for our wood from there. I haven't been to either place, so I can't tell you anything about what's going on there."

"So basically you know nothing useful," Mindartis sighs.

Raven feels a bit of concern at the details of the Sea Witch's stronghold. She wonders if her brother is going to be able to handle that on his own or not. It is not something she can do anything about, as it seems her group is headed in a different direction, so she puts it aside for now.

"Why is the assassin's death so interesting?" She asks instead.

"It's an opportunity," says Tagec with a grim, sharklike smile. "For the right price, someone can be brought back....and he seemed to have a useful skill set."

I believe our Honorable Ambassador may have caused some postmortem damage to the late Mr Raininon Nevermiss. In the best of all purposes, of course, she struck some terror, thereby bringing things to a peaceful conclusion more quickly than otherwise might have been. That adds to the difficulty and cost, I am lead to understand. But I am sure some large pieces could be found if one sifts the gravel near the warehouse. I would hate to have vengeance built into a new model. Better, really if there some kind of safeguard for us. Del muses a bit I wonder if, you know, just in general, you might think about our return, Del waves a finger indicating the whole crew The Blessed Whoever forbid it comes to that, might be interesting. 

"Thanks for the information," says Tagec. "Chances are the crawdads and rats are feasting on what's left. But parts might not be necessary. Any other business today? I have an eager, motivated new employee, and I have to make her apathetic, disillusioned and disgruntled as quickly as possible."

---------

The sea hag scowlS at Mindartis. "I answered all your questions, as well as I can. Free me now, and you will never see me again."

"See you wherever we end up next." Raven says to Tagec as she moves towards the door. She is planning to head out to find her brother now.

Raven makes her way to the river bank, where she can see the large figure of the dragon sunning himself on the rocks.  Sparky and Quelindrittar rush toward each other with squeals of happiness, and start wrestling and pushing each other into the water. Thami stands to greet you as you approach. He looks impatient, as if he's eager to get going.

Mindartis raises and eyebrow but conceeds, "Very well. Get going. But if I find you galavanting around with more of the hags causing all this, I wont be so nice next time." He warns.

Mindartis opens the door a,nd the hag, not having to be asked twice, rushes out of the tapestry and out of the tavern toward the river, terrified townspeople shrieking and running away as she passes.

Mindartis sighs, and goes about trying to set up an area for baby dragons, though he isnt quite sure what that entails. He'll also go to find Skizzix to explain everything if he hasnt been told already.