Mish Mash receives message from Uncle Temero

You are ambling painfully down the hallway, holding your side: the bandage wrapping your ribs is pinching, making it feel like the bones are rubbing together. You love adventure, crave it even, but you don’t ever want to be hit by a maul again (not that you were enthused about the idea before yesterday). Down the corridor, just at the corner, you see Millie dusting a marble bust of some Torren ancestor, and you pause to admire her crisp maids’ uniform. 

It is at this moment, as your hand unconsciously smooths your robes, that you realize there is something in your pocket, something that wasn’t there before. You reach in and pull out a tiny rolled piece of parchment. Wound very tightly and sealed with wax at both ends, it feels almost like a tiny thumb length stick. 

Digging a fingernail into the wax ends you flick them off and hurriedly unroll it. Precise, crabbed lettering written in a faded brown ink fills the miniscule curl of paper. 

“MM, 

My agent at the docks reports observing a half-orc named Rakuk (also known as the Eastside Hammer), a known Red Knives associate. He apparently hired the Sea Dragon, a ship captained by Nicolo Farabutto. Farabutto is a known smuggler and someone I have long suspected of selling goods for the Nelanther pirates. From what my agent gathered, Rakuk booked all of the passenger space and the entire cargo hold. Loading and boarding are to begin at the 20th hour tomorrow evening on the Cheapside Docks. 

T 

p.s.--I just received another report from one of my agents at the Floating Market. At about the same time Rakuk was spotted at the docks, another associate of the Red Knives, a Kenku by the name of Clink, was seen buying certain supplies. He completely bought up the entire stock of burnt othur from the alchemy stalls, as well as sulfur and saltpeter. He also purchased these spell components: a forked, metal rod attuned to Nerebdian Vast (the 48th layer of the abyss), ink infused with the blood of an erinyes (a greater devil), and chalk infused with crushed rubies. I do not know what spell these could possibly be for. Perhaps you would know?” 

Even as you are finishing reading the missive you notice the ink fading away. By the time you finish it has completely vanished. 

(BTW--the Floating Market is the name of the black market in Caer Torren. Despite its name it is not located on the water, rather it is called floating because its location changes every few days.)