Caelynn is quick to follow Aimon out of the room, if only to make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid. She's sure the others can handle any other negotiations regarding the slaves. She gives him his distance, only approaching once she sees the others coming out too.

After a pause and a sigh, she simply says, "Let's just hope we find him, then."

Captain Blackskull takes the paper and looks it over before saying, "I'll see what I can do. Lieutenant, see them out." She gestures at the guard who brought you in. He snaps a sharp salute before leading the party out of the dungeon. As he leads you, he reaches into a pouch and hands Caelynn several badges carved from black stone that depicts a dwarven skull. He says, "Those badges should grant you access to most of the city. Don't go flaunting them about with no reason." 

 He takes you back outside to the hazy and industrious city. The guard vanishes once again as he departs.

Y'all have a few hours of downtime before you're scheduled to meet with the giants. What do you do?

Caelynn flips one of the badges over in her hand, inspecting it for a moment, before discretely passing one out to each of them.

"Should we head to the market again and try to sell the diadem and painting? While we're there, we can look for this 'mysterious' corruption," she suggests.

Aimon looks at the badge before slipping it into his pouch. Then he puts his mask on to block out the smoke.

"These should be our ticket out of this place. Wave them at the guards and out the gates we go." Aimon says.

He nods at Caelynn.

"Sure, sounds good. Wouldn't mind asking around about this Drokki guy too. The captain was big on saying he's bad without really giving any details on what he's actually done," Aimon says. "Would be nice to know if we're actually looking for a nasty piece of work or we're just being used as secret police to shut someone up."

((They weren't able to find a mask for Trill the other day, how debilitating is the air? She'd like to see what can be done if it's too bad.))

As the party returns to the market, the reach the guards who once again request a 2 gold per person entry fee. After you make it past them, you can investigate the market. The painting and diadem will sell for a total of 820 gold. If you want to look for Drokki or corruption, you can make a perception check while you run any errands you want.

Stifling a cough, Trill looks around for a shop that looks like they might sell masks.

9

Aimon keeps his eyes open for any sign of Drokki, not expecting to see him just show up, but also keeping his ears open for any mention of a rebellious faction. 

Perception: 27 

After Trill stiffened at Oak’s line of questioning, and the way Aimon and Caelynn seemed to want to get out of the Captain’s chambers as quickly as possible, he decided not to push things too hard with the Captain in the end.

When they were back outside and well enough away, Oak says to Trill, “I’m sorry, these are your people, this is your fight. I hope I didn’t jeopardise anything for you in there. Sometimes I’m not good at being... subtle... Sorry!... And I hope the Captain can do something about your two friends...”.

Then he asks Caelynn and Aimon, “I get the impression you don’t think the Captain is one we should trust to keep her word. When the time comes do you think we should avoid going back in there at all? Once she has what she wants do you think she will even honour her side? Or let us live?”.

Like the others, Oak is much calmer now he’s back out in the city. He will try to look for signs of corruption while they go about their chores here...

Perception check: 22 

Trill you manage to find a mask vendor. She doesn't have any that fits around your beak, but she takes some measurements and says she can have one ready for you tomorrow morning for 5 gold.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary for the first hour or so of combing through the market. The party is walking along when suddenly two people launch into a fist fight shouting obscenities to each other, an orc woman and a human man. The odd part was that they were casually chatting a few moments before. A few Druergar citizens step in and pull them apart. As soon as they do, the pair stop fighting and blink their eyes as they look around in confusion. A guard patrol arrives and takes them into custody, and they both say in confusion to the guards that they don't remember fighting as they hauled off.

About twenty minutes after the scuffle, Aimon is surprised when he sees Drokki about 60 feet away with his back pressed against a pillar hiding in the shadows. You see he looks at a paper in his hands, peers around the edge of the  building, and then looks back at the paper. He looks up and scans his surroundings before jotting something down on his paper.

"I think we have to do what she wants and trust she'll keep her end of the bargain, otherwise she seems to be implying that we're prisoners in her city," Caelynn responds to Oak. She isn't happy about the situation, but it doesn't look like they have much choice.

As they walk through the marketplace, she keeps an eye out for anything strange or any sign of Drokki, though she doubts they'll encounter him in this district. The fight catches her eye, and she suggests to Trill that they keep a written log of anything like it that they see.

Perception: 10

Before Aimon can point him out, Drokki snaps his gaze up at him. He narrows his eyes before flipping Aimon a double bird and then scrambles off into the shadows.

The party wanders a few more hours and finds nothing more out of the ordinary. When the time comes, you call off your search and make your way to the nearest gate that leads deeper into the city. The gate is a massive, solid slab of gold engraved with dwarven runes and an image of a dragon's head breathing fire that probably weighs nearly 10 tons. You have seen them open before. Some sort of pulley system rigged above the gates lift them up into the air to allow people to travel underneath them.

As you approach the Gold Gate, a druegar guard dressed in adamantine plate armor with a shield and glaive stationed near the gate says gruffly, "Visitors aren't allowed to pass. Turn back."

((Trill places the mask on order.))

In a low voice so as not to be overheard, Caelynn tells the guard, "We have special permission." She takes her badge out and shows it to him, keeping it close to her body and turning away from any passersby.

Aimon keeps looking over his shoulder for Drokki.

"Why would Drokki have run from us? He doesn't know we're looking for him," Aimon says to the others. "Unless someone has already tipped him off."

When they get to the gate, he listens to Caelynn and the guard.

"We're also supposed to meet a rather large giant who said he has someone who wants to talk to us," he adds after Caelynn flashes the badge.

Oak tries to shield Caelynn and the guards from view of the casual observer, with his hulking form, when she shows them the token.

He also mutters to Aimon (when he asks about Drokki) that maybe he saw them coming out of the Captain’s offices or from the direction of the keep. Or maybe that their group just stands out a little here.

The guard's eyes widen as he sees the token. "Special permission indeed," he breathes. He looks at the wall and shouts a few commands in Dwarvish. You faintly hear a few Dwarvish shouts repeating on the other side before the gate begins to rise in the air with a powerful grating sound that shakes the ground. You move under the monolithic slab of gold and are ushered into Greater Gracklestugh. Here, you can see towering over the buildings are several grand palaces in the distance carved from s the earth. The streets are much more narrow than before. The buildings you see are heavily reinforced and there is no space between adjacent buildings. The buildings all share their side walls. You appear to be in a mostly residential district, but that doesn't stop you from seeing forges. You see forges and refineries everywhere your eyes meet, and these forges rival anything you have seen on the surface. They are huge factories that pump out refined ores reaped from the stone around and belch toxic clouds of ash into the air.

You see the entrance to these industrial-grade forges are ridiculously large, and you're not sure why until you see a colossal figure emerge and descend from the sulfuric clouds above. With a flap of its leathery wings, a dragon with gleaming red scales lands in the entry way and sinuously makes it way through. The flickering firelight around you accentuates its powerful, hulking muscles that bulge and relax gracefully as it slinks inside. It easily reaches nearly 80 feet from its snout down to its serpentine tail. You see all the Druergar bow as the apex predator stalks to an unlit forge just inside the door. It brings its massive reptilian maw close to the forge, and after a great inhalation of air, a blast of blinding white fire erupts from its gaping maw that outshines the sun for a moment. A blast of incredible heat and sound blasts through the air that you can feel even at your distance. You are forced to close your eyes for a moment as it overwhelms you, but as soon as it started, it's over. You open your eyes to see that the forge is now blazing with fire. It turns gracefully despite its great size and exits. You see it reach up with its front legs and climb up the colossal forge before stretching out and stepping across a street and onto the buildings beyond. It then walks across the buildings as it disappears into the smog. The Druergar stand up straight and continue as if nothing happened.

You hear someone clear their voice behind you and say, "If you're done gawking, I can lead the way." You turn and see the young giant from before waiting patiently behind you with his hands crossed in front of him. Behind him near the wall, you can see collared ogres chained to a large wheel set into the ground that has a complicated system of chains leading up to the gate. These ogres must be the ones  responsible for opening and closing the huge gateway.

He leads you through the city and through the bustling Druergar of the city. You also see an occasional Derro, but they are residing in the shadows. After about 15 minutes of walking, you come to a huge chasm that splits the city into two. Stone bridges link both sides of the city. As you make your way across, stenches of smoke and poverty want up from below. Peering over the side, you can see buildings and holes carved into the sides of the gorge. Small bridges and walkways bridge both sides with each other intersect and cross below. You can see dirty and filthy Derro residing in the gorge below your feet. The giant says with a hint of sadness in his voice, "That is where the Derro of the city reside."

 He leads you across the bridge and into the section of Gracklestugh where the lords reside. You see more great forges intermingled with grand and imposing palaces hidden behind grim walls and battlements. He takes you to the edge of the great cavern that hosts Gracklestugh to a large cave burrowed into the stone. Just outside the cave stands an ancient and powerful looking stone giant. He is easily twenty feet tall. His face so stern and patriarchal. His muscular arms are folded across his chest. As you approach, he says in resonant and powerful voice, "I am the Stonespeaker. What name have you chosen to represent yourselves?"

 ((That was a LOT of typing))

As they enter this inner city, a new waft of fumes washed over Oak and the party. He readjusts his mask and squints a little at the sting in his eyes. He says to Trill, “Do you have a rag or a cloth you can hold over your nostrils? This stuff is harsh!...”. There’s all the fumes they had gotten used to but something else he’d not smelled before. 

Then he sees it... the source of the sulphurous smell... the dragon! He’d never seen anything like it. He thought he was lithe for a big guy, but this thing was another level entirely. It moved and turned like a flowing silk scarf, but it was bigger than anything he had ever seen before! And the fire, the unimaginable heat! For a long time he can only stare, then he asks Caelynn and Aimon, “Do you know of dragons? Do we just avoid it? Can it be talked to? Reasoned with?...”. He’s in awe... He asks their guide, “Does it have a name??”.

Then he asks Trill, “You see these on the sea?”.

Aimon takes in as much of what they're seeing as possible,  but he's distracted as much by the dragon as Oak is and immediately full of questions. How much treasure must they be giving that dragon to get it to work with them?

"I'm sure it can be talked to," he says to Oak, "but I think keeping our heads down and not drawing attention to ourselves would be out best bet."

As they pass the Derro settlement, he looks for routes that would lead down to it.

"Living in squalor down there could breed quite the insurgent movement," Aimon says to the others as they pass over.

He looks up at the full 20' of the Stonespeaker, marveling at his power.

He sweeps his arms out in and bows.

"I am Aimon Silvertongue of Myls Dorthore." 

Oak adds his usual introduction, with a smart salute, “Captain Retired, Oak Oxenfield, formally of the 14th battalion land army”, although this time he stresses the ‘retired’ bit, to perhaps emphasise that he’s maybe now unaffiliated or a mercenary.