npc inbox: sa-hareth + stairs of sighs

[groundrules]

NPC INBOX: SA-HARETH

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

CURRENTLY WITH THE PARTY

	THE MERCHANT username: raven master The patron saint of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few.
	KARSA username: lady of the willow tree Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.
	MAZYAR Charlatan, crook or wise man, Mazyar has worn all the names. Once an exceptionally skilled smuggler, now an equally apt tradesman and caravan master, allied with the Merchant. Less cryptic than his 'associate,' if more prone to riddles and keen on items with value.
	GHOST ARMY OF ARHA A maudlin, marauding and eerily fixated army led by the young lord Arha through the Stairs of Sighs. They seek to rescue Arha's oracle lover Hatisse from Taravast.
	OUHRSSON Guys, it's a bear.

SA-HARETH

	"HALTHAM" | ANURR username: Haltham | illiterate The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.
	THE (NOT-SO) GOOD PEOPLE From distressed locals to busy-bee merchants, guards, enchanters, tradesmen, politicians and looser-tongued courtesans — never underestimate the value of indiscretion in a citadel built on commerce, rumour and stubbornly choosing to ignore the expanding rule of the undead. Not every piece of gossip or legend's worth your time, but beggars can't be choosers.

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Comments

[groundrules]

Sweet boy, clever boy, his hands and his tongue then, and how he works them. Tamaiu knows the trickery of men, she worked the pleasure quarters before she rose to rank. She remembers. No flattery under the sun is new, and yet he peppers his with the right persuasions.

He would like to leave in glory. And she, having already spoken her share, might yet at least reap some benefit.

"Beautiful boy, Tamaiu's boy, I ask two lesser things of you. If you agree to them both, you will have your name."

The first is coin, inevitably: soon, the ports will open again, and all the vessels stranded outside will bring in droves of frustrated, ill-appeased merchants. She must welcome them as her precious boy says, in glory — the glory of a communal, en masse tryst, enhanced by the finest wines and opiates. Of course, Mingyu should attend the orgy.

And secondly: when he leaves, he must take with her a girl of sixteen, fresh-faced, destined for better, and drop her off at the first citadel that knows prosperity and peace. He must look after her and provide for her, and watch for her health and her honour. She is Tamaiu's niece.

[descendency]

Mingyu braces himself, inwardly, for the price to be paid. He is startled to find it less steep than he imagined, even more startled to realize how deep and genuine his fondness for his mistress runs. A fickle and dangerous thing to have, a beating heart. It was better when his was broken.

But he smiles, he nods, he promises her it all. He will attend to the merchants, to their every need, will make her house's hospitality renowned the world over. And her niece will be safe, protected like his own blood, with his own blood. He will send word, and proof, back as often as able. These are things he is glad to do for her regardless of favor. Still, he begs the name.

[groundrules]

She is grateful, far too grateful — to excess. Witches, she knows, swear their oaths in blood, and merchants write their contracts. She is only a woman and cannot ask a man to swear himself, not when she has made her trade of pretending she is unfettered and carefree.

And later, she will bring her niece, and she will pass her into her boy's custody. It will break her heart, but it must be done, before the girl grows to see the only profession a girl can aspire to in Sa-Hareth without exposure to the clashes is the one of her aunt's house.

For now, Tamaiu takes Mingyu's hand, and she honours her word, "You call him Haltham, but I know, though he does not name himself, he was Arne once."