Belfry Hooks

Roma families and names
Each important family is referred to as "Roma X" - those descended from one Dark Elf of note. Other Roma aren't as fortunate and don't have a famous surname. They tend to adopt a job title.

Gabor
Roma Gabor is descended from two former Drow slave-caste members, Hedda and Lazslo, who were influential in overthrowing the priestess caste and then stabilising the Belfry into a proper social order. A monumental statue of Hedda and Lazslo features prominently in the Belfry's upper chamber, carved out of a massive pillar in the limestone. Somewhat socially conservative, Clan Gabor are not huge fans of religious expression and their men appear quiet and modestly dressed. Roma Gabor is likely to impose bureaucratic sanctions on any other clans looking to profit from the Ladinh delegation.

Cristina Gabor is the current matriarch of the Roma Gabor. Despite not comng from Drow nobility, she sure does her best to look queen'y, dressing severely and wearing an unadorned steel diadem. Tihomir and Casimir are Cristina's browbeaten husbands; they both wear their hair in long braids with wreaths of dried flowers, and have matching tunics on. Bela Gabor is the clan elder, one of a very few Roma who remember the Old Country. He's surprsingly nostalgic for the old ways for a presumed former slave. Cristina and her family try to hustle him out of the way - his elderly ramblings rather undermine the family's revolutionary history and current noble-like status.

Kontos
A clan of artists and artisans descended from court concubines. Elek's brethren escaped execution because they were skilled stoneworkers and architects, and they were needed to build and beautify inside the Belfry. Ther menfolk are peacock-like, garrulous and prone to scufflng over artistic differences of opinion. Roma Kontos tend to breed illegitimate cildren but remain low on numbers, as many of them either marry out or go exploring, never to return.

Elek's distant relative Ionut (pronounced like "Jonas") is a celebrated sculptor, incredibly flamboyant and charismatic. He's reported to have no less than three love interests: Doina Mason (F), a clanless Roma, Yang Jian-Jian (M), an impressively muscled human from Q'in, and Semyon (M), a Gopnik who has somehow found his way out of northern Vestfal and ended up in the Belfry. Mergez Kontos is another family member - he's a hunter and guide, one of a few rangers who know their way around the slowly-draining caverns under the Belfry - and who knows the dangers within. Apparently there's one other Kontos of note, Marina, but she's "off adventuring".

Dzugi
A former priestly family, now fallen on hard times. It appears they survived only because they are skilled at nurturing the large mushrooms the sourround the Belfry. They're somewhat persecuted by other Roma because of their former status as evil priests.

Karol Dzugi has joined the men's rights movement and is actively campaigning for equal suffrage and marriage between males. He is painfully earnest and has Elek-like moments of charming awkwardness. Karol has a secret boyfriend called Pavel Fletcher. Maritsa Dzugi is one of the few original Roma who lived through the migration of 200 years ago. She lives quetly as a healer and doesn't call attention to herself. Elek might well recognise her as a sadistic priestess of Llolth: she still has some rather sinister spider tattoos and a shock of bright white hair under her healer's robes. Maritsa also appears quite well preserved given her age.

Badjo
Cobblers and traders, now very keen to establish themselves as the main players in any relationship with Ladinh. Roma Badjo has so far done a few deals with Q'in and Ereb (the human states to the East and Northeast of the Belfry) and they'll be trying to ingratiate themselves with Yiuri and Adenor. This might bring their clan into conflict with Roma Gabor.

Andreija and Dariush Badjo do a brisk trade in dried mushrooms, pelts, monster parts and alchemical supplies. Anastasia Badjo is another very old Roma, though she's begun to feel her age lately and is weighing up whether to go to ground or try a sky burial. Anastasia was a secret worshipper of Dajbog like Elek, long ago - she can shape hobnails and mend metal items with just her bare fingers.

Goral
A clan descended from Roma scouts, and already pretty well acquainted with life above ground before the cataclysmic events of 200 years ago. Roma Goral are all massive stoners. They don't really care about sex and gender differences - if you can hold your drink, shoot a bow and toke a catmint spliff without choking - you're worthy of their clan. They also tend to adopt nameless Roma and even the odd non-elf into their clan without really giving a shit what the more conservative clans believe.

Raisa (F), Radu (M) and Raresh (Two) are scouty types who the Ladinh delegation are likely to meet before they enter the Belfry. Basile (M) is a human scout who got lost mountain climbing, ended up in the Belfry and shacked up with Raisa. Basile is now a happy homemaker who enjoys weaving, floral arraging and tending his catmint farm. They have a couple of adorable half-elven toddlers runnng round, called Alok and Myrtille.

City life!
Here are some shops, buildings and points of interest in the Belfry.

The Ramp
Just what it says - the entry to the Belfry slopes upward, from a causeway above the outer moat which starts half a storey above ground level, to about a storey and a half higher. When the Roma first settled here, the outer moat was a good bit deeper, so the bridge looks a bit higher than logical. Either side of the Ramp where it meets the outer buttresses of the Belfry, two statues depictng Hedda and Lazslo Gabor, revolutionary slave heroes, are carved straight out of the limestone. It's all very impressive but quite blocky work - doesn't seem like the frilly elf decor the party's used to in Piedamonte. The Ramp features a small toll booth for collecting blat, and it's lit at about shoulder height with widely spaced, workmanlike dwarven runes and some niches that sprout glowing fungi. There are a few 'murder holes' and arrow slits cunningly set into the cliffside that the Ramp is cut into.

Top Deck
The airy upper regions of the Belfry. There's a lot of natural light and green vegetation here, though it is exposed in places. This floor is criss-crossed with swing bridges and narrow catwalks.

The Aviary - a place to send and receive messenger birds. Paying blat will help ensure the party's communications aren't censored and birds come back more efficiently. There are all sorts of interesting creatures here! It appears the Roma like to send bats as well as corvids. A phoenix from the Q'in protectorate and a couple of irritable looking ibis from Ereb are also hanging out here. Cili (F), a young blind Roma, runs the Aviary with impressive efficiency and the help of some skinny, bleary-eyed young assistants.

The Guest Suites. Visitors tend to prefer a bit more natural light, so the Roma created some chambers for them up nice and high. The Guest Suites are smallish, rounded rooms with wide bay windows that look out onto open shafts in the top of the Belfy's wide cave system. It's a nice view of small waterfalls and cascading moss. The western side is damper and set up with pools so that Ningalu can rest here. Dedalera will also be able to put her roots down and rest in an earth-filled basin. Karol does room service and cooking, Kosmin does the cleaning and shows guests around.

Gliders: there's a platform for launching hang-gliders up here as well. The gliders can alight back on the platform or lower down. The elevator is wide enough to accommodate a folding glider back up top.

The Wheelhouse - various pulleys and mechanisms at the top of a large, slow but solid elevator that connects the various parts of the Belfry. A couple of Roma Badjo and a stray Gopnik do most of the day to day maintenance. The elevator itself is engraved with neat little glowing runes in a conservative Y'd style.

West Shelf
Get off the elevator about halfway up the cavern and take a narrow, fenced path West and you'll get to West Shelf. This is an atelier for various artists and artisans, and a bit of an unofficial party spot. The limestone's natural irregularity forms the base for the Shelf, which is now cantilevered out to accommodate a narrow street and a cluster of workshops and other attractions. West Shelf has a bit of a wild cavy infestation, so there are lots of little pest traps and also a few mangy cats wandering around. The black cats are considered good luck.

Ionut Kontos's polycule lives here in a narrow three-storey dwelling with a red roof that hugs the rock face and has an external spiral staircase connecting all the floors. Their domestic drama is on show for half the cavern to see, but Ionut and his lovers don't really seem to care.

"The Sculptor's Muse": a delightful cosy pub. The artwork on the sign features a cute Roma boy wearing only a toolbelt and a coating of limestone dust. It's lit inside with paper lanterns, has tables covered in old revolutionary pamphlets sealed in place with a coating of clear sealant, and serves excellent beer and spicy liqueurs.

"Te Ao Theatre": a comically tiny theatre that also does comedy and burlesque, It's a semicircle, with backstage carved deep into the Belfry walls (inlcuding a secret narrow passage leading to the outer wall) and the audience area bulges out precariously over the drop above the cavern. It has a canopy to protect it from the occasional dribble of rain and mist: the underside is painted with glowing paint to resemble a starry night sky. The main curtain has a big sun motif painted on it and the stage is dark red to disguise stains left by fake blood during the more... enthusiastic tragic performances. Te Ao Theatre is currently showing an erotic pastiche of the Belfry's history. Cristina Gabor does not approve of the gratuitous nudity or the caricature of Elder Bela.

Main Cavern
The Moot: on the Western face of the Cavern, just a big civic building in somewhat of a Frank Lloyd Wright style, with one big, sloping slab for a roof and a lot of open, blocky dimensons to it. There's a nice waterfall behind it, which passes underneath the Moot and down further into the cavern. The exterior has a small public garden in front, with some more monumental sculptures featuring Roma slaves breaking their shackles, and a lot of blue and white lighting. The overall effect is quite austere, nothing like a temple to Llolth but still somehow quite temple-ish. Cute red raccoons scuttle around inside the Moot, trained to carry scrolls and other small items in little harnesses. They'll stand upright on command to welcome guests. Apparently they were a gift from Q'in. Local civil servants: Doina Badjo, Anca Gabor, Yekaterina Kontos. Most of the senior administrators are middle aged women, who wear long wool coats, spider-silk cravats and each of them has a little secretary in a navy blue sailor suit to carry their paperwork and make their tea.

Gabor Mews: Roma Gabor has made a point of erecting a villa right next to the Moot, a Brutalist block of plain stonework whose upper storey is just ever so slightly taller than the roof of the Moot.

The Plaza: a big market with 2-3 storey buildings all stacked in ramshackle ways and connected with catwalks and balconies. It's very reminiscent of Piedamonte's Old Town, only with even less sunlight. It's very noisy here and smells of mushroom spores, animal piss, leather, spices, tea and sweat. Little Roma girls run around hawking newspapers, Roma boys sell dried flowers and mushrooms, rent boys solicit shoppers from upper balconies, fortune tellers and con artists ply their trade and pretty much anyone is happy to show the party around... for a small bribe. If offered some blat, however, people will be honourable and not try to fleece the strangers further. (Note: only Old Gyorgy, located down a quiet back street, has any actual skill as a fortune teller.)

Goral's Nook: Clan Goral spend much of their time living outside the Belfry, but in an emergency, there is a place for them here. Goral's Nook is a three storey platform made of wood and plaster, painted with lively glowing frescoes in psychedelic themes. It's hung with lots of bright paper lanterns and "road signs" pointing to areas in the Plaza. The top floor has a jazz band (Ezter's Ragtime Renegades) playing musiche nuove to the surrounding area. The effect is slightly dizzying. The middle floor is sometimes used for card games but at the moment, people are playing a tactical game with black and white stones - apparently for high stakes, as there is an audience and a lot of female shouting. The lowest floor has a small shrine to Tyche, the god/dess of luck, and a feeding station for the local cats, poguanas and red raccoons.

Sunny Side Supplies: the shop is not actually sunlit. It is, however, painted bright orange and yellow and has a solar wheel symbol over the front door, which Elek will recognise as the holy symbol of Dajbog the Forgefire god. Andreija and Dariush Badjo run the shop here - Andreija can use some of Elek's smithing tricks.

Golden Lotus: it's both a catmint "tea shop" and a place to get delicious, unhealthy munchies. Gammy Ma, a bored looking, wizened Q'in woman runs the place, and a couple of skinny boys from Roma Goral work front of house. There's a gaudy statue of the god Nesh/Ganesh in the main dining hall, draped with necklaces of hard candy and surrounded by offerings of sweet treats (which the local poguana promptly steal). The food smells amazing and is very fatty and spicy. Try the giant cave hoppers on a stick or the grilled cavy with ground-nut satay.

La Chatte Noire: a seedy brothel that specialises in retro exploitation and dominatrix lady elves. The signage and flyers depict a slinky black cat wearing thigh high boots. The business rides a fine line between fetishistic parody and nostalgia. The neighbours refer to the regular johns as "Spiderfuckers".

Boney's Boarding House: round to the North of the Main Cavern, in a slightly damp section where nobody wanted to build a fancy house. The sign out front depicts a friendly skeleton with a pumpkin head, wearing a wide brimmed hat, with a knapsack over his shoulder (Jack the Lantern, a popular minor deity). The rooms are cheap but dry, and the top floor has a bit of extra lighting to cater to non Roma visitors. Endre and Farkas Thatcher, two older Roma men wearing conservative long tunics and headscarves, run the place as a couple and seem to enjoy being away from the bustle of the Plaza. The goblin workers who excavate the Undercroft by day, come here at night to rest, play jacks, play drums and have a quiet drink. There's also a shrine and discreet sacrificial altar to Mama Minuit, just by the base of a small waterfall/wet cavern wall alongside the boarding house.

Undercroft
The Undercroft can be reached via a large cleft in the Northern section of the Main Cavern. There's a rough ramp going down with a cable funicular for bringing goods in and out, and a set of steps carved to one side for pedestrian traffic. The entrance looks steep, new and slightly hazardous. Quite a bit of rainwater flows down here. The water from the Moot cascades down a long shaft to the West and on further into the cavern. The whole area has traces of deep-water life: tubeworm casings, fish bones, areas where pondweed might have clung to the rocks once. A few freshwater pools still have little glowing fish in them.

The Slums: what it sounds like. Near a warehouse at the Undercroft entrance, an assortment of shanties and lean-tos. It's quite moist underfoot, and the area is very dark, lit by a few glowing mushrooms. A few goblin workers can be spotted in the warehouse: apparently they are helping to excavate and reinforce the caverns to make them fully habitable. They traipse back to the Main Cavern each night to sleep.

The Retreat: Roma Dzugi's home base, the one decent spot in this part of the Belfry really. There's a nice underground garden with a water feature, lots of glowing fungi and delicate lichens, and a path lit with stone lanterns and lined with little shards of the now familiar white magic stone. The Retreat is a single floor bungalow with sliding walls - like Japanese paper walls but featuring lichen membranes that won't rot in the moist cavern air. Its modular style makes Elek think of the ancient Roma and their migratory lifestyle. Parts of this dwelling could be flat packed onto a cart if need be - and it was probably brought down here in sections and assembled. Maritsa Dzugi uses bowls of special salts to help wick moisture out of the interior rooms and make the place smell clean.

Last Call: both a place for adventurers to get a few last minute supplies, and a place to have a quick nip of strong drink before heading further down into the dungeon levels. Parson and Packet run the store: clearly neither person's actual name. Parson is a heavily scarred Q'in male in his forties, with a short ponytail and receing hairline. He wears a lot of sombre grey and is surprisingly light on his feet for such a bulky man. Packet is an adorable little gobin woman with frizzy grey hair and a thick Cachou accent (very southern belle) - she will be very fond of Thierry the Tavern. There's also a small elevator with a large hamster-wheel like winch apparatus - a person can step inside and operate the elevator to make it ascend or descend. As usual, bribes will help ensure that someone is around to get you out of the dungeon when you are ready.

Fungal forest
At the bottom of Last Call elevator. This area's been well explored, there are signs of several old campfires and heavy bootprints, along with the trash left behind by several groups of adventurers. Small pale-eyed cave frogs, white-furred shrews and bioluminescent dragonflies live among the fungi here. The space smells pleasantly of mulch and is quite warm. Passages lead from here in three directions, the walls strung with glow-worm slime and encrusted with tube-worm casings and old fish-bones.

If the party tries to get back out this way they'll find the elevator severed from its rope, and a bucket in the bottom of the elevator with a few extra supplies and a note of apology from Packet.

The Leviathan Chamber
A distinctive underground landmark: the party finds itself navigating through the fossilised belly of an enormous aquatic creature, with its vast ribcage forming the roof of the chamber. The way forward is towards the tail of the creature. Brolga (if in the party) will know it is neither a shark nor a whale. This space is unlit by fungi: the party can find the charred remains of a goblin along with a few bits of blackened adventuring gear, and note that the walls of the chamber appear faintly soot-scarred along their length. The soot isn't particulary recent and there aren't any signs of monster corpses. There are a few nasty little bats here with barbed tails, but they won't bother anyone who menaces them with a torch or bright light.

Roper's Canyon
A narrow but deep and very dim passage where the draining water must have flowed away at speed - there are traces of kelp roots and barnacles in the stone. Higher up, the party may spot what appears to be the base of a stalactite, but hollowed out in the centre. If they are knowledgeable enough they might recognise this as a roper nest. Expect a little roper surprise attack if the party makes enough noise to let them sneak up. The roper's nature is to lurk in camouflage, grab from the shadows and try to pull prey upwards for eating later.

Jelly passage >Affreux's Lair
There's a warmer light here - almost a soothing light after the blueish glow of the phosphorescent fungi and the thin pallor of glow worms. The party will meet about a dozen very serene little disc-shaped jellyfish creatures, with a couple of cute little eyestalks and the ability to float. The jellies don't have a spoken language but they appear to be empathetic and can share emotional impressions (conveyed with a colour, a smell or invoking a character's childhood memory). They seem happy to meet the players, and after some communication, can give the impression that they a) like generous empathetic minds, b) are distressed by evil or violent intentions and c) would really, really like the players to find and deal with something malevolent further insde the dungeon. A side entrance, glowing with warm yellow goop, seems to be their home base.

Concretion cairn (with hidden side door of extruded stone) >cubicle chamber
A shambolic pile of smallish concretion-like boulders, in a corridor that is rounded a bit like a bullette tunnel, but appears to have been a waterway, based on the limescale buildup here. It's drained quite dry now though. The fungus on the walls here has been scraped or rubbed off but still glows where it's fallen on the floor. A few lizard-like critters with frilled necks and glowing tail-tips are having a fungus snack. Yiuri's stone sense may give him some insight into an odd section of the corridor wall. It's flat, brittle and has some of the qualities of mortar - but it feels as though it has been extruded or woven. The brittle wall gives way under not much force and invites the party to delve further.

Bubo's lair >goblin garbage chute
Bubo is based on the Mind-witness template: he presents as an awkward cross between a Beholder and a Mind Flayer: lots of eyes on stalks up top, lots of tentacles and a beak underneath, one big, white, blind eye in the middle. Above his central eye he has been imprinted with two faintly-glowing white runes: the left hand one looks a bit like a cat's eye (a circle with a narrow shape inside it) and the other one is two circles side by side, with a chevron connecting them. Bubo himself seems very tranquil despite his startling appearance. Elek's burning gaze will show that far from being hostile or evil, he's enjoying a meditative experience with his friends the jellies. He enjoys sapient company very much and laments having to hide from most of the adventurers who've come down here. His lair is also the bottom of a goblin midden - their trash goes down a large chute all the way from the Undercroft. Bubo appears to be sustaining himself off their psychic energy. He has lived for a very, very long time. While he, too, cannot communicate in words, he is able to imprint scattered and cryptic images onto the party. If Sha the Teller could paint, perhaps this would be the impression. He used to serve something powerful, immortal and malevolent. He is happy to serve his jelly friends now. Bubo just wants to be useful. He's a Good Boy, just very impressionable.

Cubicle chamber/ Maritsa's altar/ Large Concretion stack
Past the stone entrance, a smooth round passageway curves downward in an even spiral. Its sides are smooth, as though the sedmentary rock has been melted and set back in place. A patch of brownish fungus on one section of wall is busy slowly digesting a few giant snails and a hapless frilled lizard. Touching it will give a character a nasty caustic burn.

The party finds a rectangular, bare room in a Brutalist style that makes them think of Roma Gabor's mansion. The room is lit with three pale discs of the familiar magic stone, set neatly into the ceiling. There are metal cubby holes in here, on a large rack which looks like part of the original construction, and a few small woorden bins and containers as well which look to have been brought in later. Like most parts of the dungeon, the air here's a bit moist and sickly, but the metal shelves don't appear to have rusted at all. One cubby holds several pairs of shoes, another has various shirts, there's a neat pile of empty backpacks stacked next to the rack. A container holds trousers, another has socks and gloves, another has a small stack of head-torches, another holds coils of rope. Everything is relatively clean and sorted precisely. Two doorways lead on from here.

Behind the first door is a large-ish octagonal room in the same flat, unadorned style. There is no light in here when the party enters. It smells of medicine and butchery. Around the far three walls there are windows looking out onto nothing - just the bare mortar behind them. There are no doors beyond: the ceiling and floor form a geodesic dome, and thrust out into the middle of this gemsotne-like chamber is a single cantilevered dais, where the party can stand. At the end of the dais is a strange, three-part altar with a flat section and a sloping section, in the same flat metal as the cubicle chamber. On the right altar section are a pair of unlit candlesticks in the ancent Drow style. Elek knows wher the tallow is likely to have come from. A dark purple altar cloth hangs over the left altar section, embroidered in silver thread with the image of a spider. The central section is smeared with old blood - the stains drain down into a shallow, congealed pool at the base of the chamber. However, the room appears sterile: no maggots; in fact there is a fresh tang in the air, something salty with a hint of Marguerite's medicinal tea.

Behind the second door is a little square room with what looks like a few empty door frames sitting in the middle, and a row of small hooks hanging on one wall. Stacked up along one wall are even more concretions. These ones, however, are far larger and the encasing stone is somewhat more brittle. Based on the shape, the party can work out that the large concretions contain the remains of kin, and the body parts of kin. They'll find the dessicated bodies of a couple of goblins and a human, plus a pair of miscellaneous legs. The far side of this room looks like a bare wall but examining it shows that there's more of the woven-stone stuff covering a narrow doorway, with steps down.

Exiting either of these side rooms back into the cubicle chamber triggers the lights in the chamber to flicker out and a group of driders to attack the party. Driders will be keen to bite and dismember goblins and humans, ensnare and preserve elves and lash at dwarves with legs or trap them at a distance - they don't like the taste of dwarf. The drider pack comes in two kinds: Drider Goral and Drider Kontos. They won't be symmetrically assembled like Elek remembers - these are haphazard chimaeras, with spider and elf traits struggling to exist in the same being. Most of the drider sob or moan softly out of their elven throats and gurgle or chitter with their spider parts. The largest and most spidery drider of the pack used to be Marina Kontos. Only the top of her head remains - a shock of hair, a pair of ears and two weeping eyes the same colour as Elek's. Where her nose and chin should be, a cluster of bulging eyes and two huge slavering pincers thrust out.

Unearthly staircase/Sea's End >service elevator
The large concretion stackroom has this staircase extending down into absolute darkness, with an intense brackish watery smell coming from below. Exploring down here will bring the party to Sea's End. They'll be in a truly vast subterranean cavern, which extends easily to the width of the entire Belfry - perhaps even a little bit further.

This appears to be a drainage point for the primordial inland sea that once filled the Belfry's entire basin. Its northeastern side is fed by trickles of fresh water, permeating down from the moat far above. The ceiling is inhabited by a small colony of deep bats (who look a bit like manta rays but aren't trying to bother the party) and the walls have some rather lovely cave geckos scuttling round between thin fronds of feathery glowing lichen. The brackish water is full of softly-glowing, eel-like fish with bulbous pale eyes. It's not exactly clear how this body of water drains - but the water level has clearly been descending. Flat, dank mats of cave bacteria and rotten tubeworms are gradually drying out and dying as the water creeps lower and lower. Yiuri's examination of the water may cause him a great feeling of unease - as he sees, far below the surface but just distinguishable like a continental shelf - a perfectly right-angled slab of something, sloped like the roof of the moot but on a scale that makes the Moot look like a dollhouse, receding down into blackness. If Brolga's here she will be visibly disturbed and anxious to get out of this place.

Accounting for grievances
The party has connected Maritsa Dzugi to the desecration of Roma and attempts to create driders in the dungeons below the Undercroft. A fiery and then watery encounter with Maritsa at the Retreat has left her repentant and half dead, and the Dzugi home base somewhat scorched (especially the parlour, which took the brunt of Elek's uncontrolled ifrit-channeling). Maritsa seems willing to face the consequences of her necromancy, and is convinced that the Moot will not let her live. She has implored the party to protect her son Karol Dzugi, who she says is totally innocent and "a sweet boy". If Maritsa is condemned to death, it is likely that the mushroom Guardians she grew to protect the Belfry from Kingdom Plantae will eventually wither and leave the valley at risk.

Roma Kontos and Roma Goral are the victims here - it is their family members who have been disfigured.

Preparing for the trial
Maritsa can be held in custody while the civic guard descend to analyse and recover the drider bodies, and administrators make various preparations. A trial of such a grand matriarch involves quite a bit of ceremony. The party will have opportunities to rest, find allies, send letters home and make quick plans.

The party has done the Belfry a service (and the three Administrators are a bit embarrassed to find their own dirty secret has been in the basement all this time!). So Yiuri and friends are free to use the Aviary and roam the Belfry without supervision. The goblin retinue has also been through various de-lousing and hygiene procedures - AGAIN - and they're finally able to leave their comfortable seclusion in the Guest Quarters. They'll be able to say hi to the local construction workers - they're culturally distinct but have lots in common.

Yiuri's "Gopnik Embassy" bath house has become a bit of a hot destination - people of all races and creeds are visiting for a bath and a party. Semyon and Ionut Kontos are embracing the pageantry and are conducting highly unorthodox drunken "baptisms" to cleanse the "pilgrims".

Dedalera's hanging around - quite literally, she doesn't really "agree" with the local soil - and available for a very awkward convo about tipping off the Moot. She's very worried about her daughter, and with good reason (Yiuri and Elek found out that 'Bebe', Leu Septime Rivet, has been poisoned!) She's torn between the pull of Kingdom Plantae to the north, and her desire to stay independent and reconnect with her elven side.

DomNa Adenor Vilaverde has been making good progress on a trade deal while the party stayed out of trouble in the dungeon. They're grateful to have had some breathing room to go into seclusion with the Administrators.

Moot points
Yekaterina Kontos can represent their clain. She will be interested in Elek's opinions on this case, since she is keen to establish him as the new clan Elder. Examining the drider bodies, the clan will be able to identify Marina Kontos, one of their most beloved adventurers, who went exploring several weeks ago and had been missing. If questioned, Maritsa will inform them that she discovered Marina "through the mycelium", already in quite a decayed state, near the foothills of le Grand Cro. Her elven remains can be relocated to the site in the earth where Maritsa found her.

Anca Gabor is, predictably, out for blood: she's always found Clan Dzugi to be an embarrassment. Her own clan elder, Bela Gabor, will be far more supportive of Maritsa, and he'll come out of hiding to see her in court. He was around to witness her support for his clan, and he's a nostalgic old man. (the party's never actually met him before - he's quite corpulent and likes his finery, but has the large, scarred hands of a manual labourer). In a bout of lucidity, he might even melt a few hearts with his doddery grandpa ways.

Doina Badjo can be accompanied by Andreija and Darisuh Badjo, to represent their clan (they don't have a surviving Elder, but Andreija has the business acumen to fill the role). Andreija will be quite well disposed towards Elek because they both worship Dajbog, but naturally wary of Maritsa because of her ties to Lolth and the whole necromancy thing. Doina Badjo will ultimately be looking at the financial bottom line here: she has a singular focus on profit, and she's anxious to protect whatever tenuous trade arrangement she's brokered with DomNa Adenor.

Raisa Goral and her human husband Basile have been chosen by Roma Goral to address their cause and seek reparations. Basile will insist on bringing Alok and Myrtille, their adorable half-elven children, into the Moot - which is likely to cause a bit of uproar and distraction. Roma Goral are genuinely horrified to find that their "missing" scouts weren't repatriated properly and have been put to gruesome use. They're also more aware than most Belfry residents of the need to keep the border Guardians growing.

It is established and consensual practice for Roma clans to bury their corpses with mycelium to grow the Guardian fungi, which sprout above the surface in monstrously large, red towers above the burial site. Maritsa was able to find the missing people by detecting strange behaviour in the mycelium around the Belfry. The fact that Maritsa has been stealing bodies and body parts for her experiments is possibly more grave because they could have been used to protect the Belfry.

Roma Goral would be interested in learning Maritsa's magic, so that they can take a more active part in maintaining the Belfry's border defenses. Once Maritsa has finished imparting her knowledge and done her penance for the clan, they promise to inter her with full honours "to become the tallest of all the guardian towers".

Karol Dzugi has the choice to rebuild his clan as the new leader, starting over in the Undercroft, or to marry into Roma Goral and give up his surname. Karol will be interested in the party's thoughts about whether he should retain his family name or start over. He has a gay lover, Pavel, so whatever he does, the prospect of either marrying into Goral or bearing his own clan's descendants will be burdensome for him.