Re: (TFT) TFT town --> Hiquet --> part 3

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

	(C) 2004 by Richard W. Smith

	The middle class:
	-----------------
	There are not many whom have kept any degree
of independence from Ossateem and the LaForque
family.  Those who have have particular skills which
make them hard to replace.

	Jarre Master Mage
ST 11 +4fST ss, DX 14, IQ 15, MA 10
12 point ST battery which recharges 1 point per week
on its own.
Self powering Stone Flesh, Blur (1 fST / 3 turns) ring.
Self powering Spell Shield ring.
Has several exploding gems hidden in nooks in his home.
(He could get to them quickly no matter where in the 
house he is but invaders likely would not find them 
quickly.)
Staff has a +4 damage w/ae on it.

Has the exploding gem and w/ae & repair spells.
Has a variety of martial spells including Fireball, 
and tough summoning spells, also Illusion and Image.  He
has a couple of memory slots open, but has not got 
around to filling them with new spells.

	Jarre is a somewhat lazy young man who has
inherited his home and wizard's library from his father.
His father was a brilliant man, who could do lesser
magic item creation and built the business up from 
nothing.  Jarre is not able to do better than weapon /
armor enchantment. 
	He has gone to some trouble to make the city
leadership think he has more powers than he has.  
Ossateem is fooled, Maqut is slightly fooled.
	He has rights to use a water fountain which
runs for 5 minutes a day in a secure building some 
distance north of his shop.  He hires a couple of strong
men as body guards and water carriers.
	He has a contract to put +2 damage on all the
cities guard's swords, and generally works two out of 
every 3 weeks on this project.  (The odd week is a 
holiday to allow him to rest up from his labors. He
much prefers to chase after girls and given his relative 
wealth enjoys fair success in this hobby.
	His father bespelled the Earth Elemental that
prevents others from digging deep enough to reach the
aquifer.  Maqut has asked Jarre for more such 
elementals and Jarre has studied up on the subject &
found that what is going on is NOT a normal summon 
elemental spell.  He has no idea how to reproduce the
effect that his brilliant father created and does his
best to avoid Maqut and deal with others in the city
leadership.
	Jarre occasionally trades with outsiders when
they come into his shop.  He has a handful of valuable
items left from his father's day (which he wants top
dollar for).  He also has a few w/ae for sale and will
work on special projects (putting on hold his guard
contract until the more profitable work is over).  His
shop is one of the ways more money comes into the town.
	Jarre, dislikes the cruel rule of his masters
but profits sexually from the poverty it creates and
so does nothing to upset the current balance of power.
	The Patient Man once sent 3 killers to deal
with Jarre.  Jarre was lucky to be awake when they 
broke into his home and blew the attackers into pieces 
with a Fireball and rain of exploding gems.  The Patient 
Man has decided Jarre is too tough a nut to deal with for
now.  Jarre thought the killers where random thieves and
placed no special significance on the attack.


	Ston - Merchant
ST 13, DX 15 (12), IQ 18 MA 12 (10) (running fine chain)
Uses a +5 damage Morningstar with an enchantment that 
allows him to pay 5 fST to cause it to blaze with light
(A Dazzle Spell).  This spell can be used only twice a
day.
Fine Chainmail with -4 w/ae and StoneFlesh (1 fST / turn).
Ring that stops the first 2 arrows fired at him / turn.

	Ston is the most wealthy merchant in the city.
He moves food and water from the town to a number of 
dwarven mines in the mountains in the area, then resells
their goods at a profit.  He has occasionally sold 
w/ae for Jarre in other markets or found him profitable
contracts (taking a nice slice of the profit).
	Ston hates Ossateem, but has hopes that Maqut 
will be more humane when the old man dies.  When the
LaForque family has leaned on him he has politely 
grovelled, and let subtly it be know he could just as 
easily live somewhere else.  The families attempts at 
trade are less profitable than the taxes that they get 
from Ston, so Ston has been left alone and given a 
somewhat more modest tax rate than other merchants.
	About 80% of the foreign trade goes thru him
and his 2 sons.
	His family are the only people who are not 
related to the LaForque's who have a plumed house.
	He has quite courageously spoken up against
Ossateem's worse excesses and the Patient Man has
not marked Ston as a target.
	Ossateem used to be fond of Ston, but has cooled
and would give more trade to other merchants if some
could be convinced to come to Hiquet.  (Most of Ston's
competition have fled the high taxes.)
	Ston and Sliver have gradually grown into good
friends.  They get together socially about once a month
and play poker with a few other people.  Ston is one
of the few people who gives Sliver a run for his money
and the two respect each other.  Ston does not know 
about Sliver's 'night job' of torturer, and Sliver, 
feeling that Ston would not be impressed, has kept that
side of his personality hidden from his friend.
	Ston likes both of Sliver's wives and would go
to some trouble to help if they or Sliver's children 
were threatened or harmed.


	
	Reetantai
	This woman is a cruel Madam who has found
a steady stream of young women for Ossateem.  She 
considers the resulting 'breakage' (as she puts it)
as just part of doing business.
	She has been well rewarded for her efficiency
and she loves nothing more to flaunt her wealth to 
her inferiors. 
	She uses the a controlled fountain not far
from Jarre's home which runs 12 hours a day. (Jerre
would like to get permission to use this fountain,
but until he coughs up another elemental this is
unlikely to happen.)
	She hires a fair number of people, gets them
used to relative wealth and cheep water, then fires
them and hires others to lord over.
	She is hugely hated.
	The Patient Man does not want her to die,
she is a visible representative of Oosteem's 
oppression and does much to stir up resentments 
which he profits from.
	Klimcate hates her.  One young women that she
caught and served up to Ossateem was a cousin.  He 
was not close to the girl, but the principle of the
thing rankles.  He would like to do something to 
badly hurt her (that could not be traced back to him) 
but so far no opportunity to do so has come up.



	Sookie 
	This is a young woman who was touched by a
god.  Clearly mad, she has a number of servants /
keepers who tend her.  She has a magical talent to
carve salt.  As she works it, the crystal takes on
colors and becomes harder and changes into a plastic
like substance.  This material acts as a ward 
verses undead, only very powerful undead can come 
anywhere near the stuff.
	Her work is usually twisted curves and is 
disturbing to study for some reason.  It is said that
if you study her work carefully you will become as
mad as she is.  (There is some truth to this.)
	Sookie is a cousin of the LaForque family and
lives in a small plumed manor.  
	Maqut takes all of her art and provides her
with blocks of raw salt crystal.  He sells almost all
of her work thru agents, in the remote city of XXXXX,
for a handsome profit.  Which he pockets.
	He has kept a couple of her less disturbing 
works for himself.
	Quemm is the most important of her relatives.  
He is somewhat ashamed that a mad woman is in his 
branch of the family and does not mention the 
relationship, but should she be harmed he would do 
his ineffective best to revenge her.
	The Patient Man has her high on his list of 
people to kill.  Given that she is fairly poorly
protected she is likely to be his next victim.



	Hogan and Sotai Quett
	This childless family are cousins of Quemm
and the LaForques.  They hate the cruel power that 
Ossateem and Maqut wield and have been feeding 
intelligence to the Patient Man for the last year.
	Sotai is the most active agent for the 
Patient Man, and has taken some risks to help him.
He has promised to 'remove the curse' which has 
caused her sterility, if his revolution succeeds.
(This is a lie, in fact it is Hogan who is sterile.)
	Airquet has gotten hints that they are a
leak of information.  They are now being watched by
his best agents and are in deadly danger.  However
most of Airquet's men are watching Hogan.  Hogan 
has many friends and visits many people, which 
multiplies the difficulties of the spies watching 
him.
	They have been shuffled out of one of the
plumed manors a couple of years ago and now share
the same fountain as Reetantai.  Sotai hates the
woman, and took this demotion as a personal insult.
	Hogan has a good way with people and has
hired a number of craftsmen who produce enough 
wealth to support his family.  He treats his people
well and is generous with their water allotment &
they are fiercely loyal to him.
	Some of the leather work produced is fine
enough to be sold out of town.  Ston handles these
transactions.
	To distract attention from the family the
Patient Man has twice staged assassinations of 
them.  In the first a couple of craftsmen were 
hurt.  In the second, a craftsman (who was a spy
of Airquet) was killed.



	Marque LaForque
	This stupid young man is a great supporter
of the LaForque family.  He thinks that Maqut is a
close friend whose many duties prevent them from
visiting more often.  Maqut has nothing but contempt
for the glad fly.  Tho no brain trust he is friendly
and enjoys talking to people.
	A bit of luck has assured him his place in
the cities' hierarchy.  When visiting with a 
traveler, (a wizard) the wizard was politely 
boasting of the many uses of elementals.  Marque 
asked for an example of how they could make money.
	The wizard gave the example of using a fire
elemental to make charcoal.
	Marque paid the man to create for him a
small elemental and then hurried to Jarre's shop to
buy a control elemental ring.
	With this slave elemental, Marque buys the 
stalky waste products from the food production,
then forces the elemental to make charcoal bricks
in a low oxygen room.
	These are sold at an immense profit to the
dwarves.
	Maqut befriended the young man and now gets
half the profits in exchange for moving Marque into
a plumed manor which he shares with another family.
	With his fortune assured, the young man
wastes his time and has fun.  He considers himself
a shrewed business man and has lost a fair sum of
money on poor ideas or out right scams.
	Marque patronizes Reetantai brothel and 
considers her a sophisticated, exemplary woman.
	He considers the cruel rule of the LaForque
family to 'the way things are' and it does not 
trouble him.  He would support the family in any
way he could.
	He has a band of young thugs that he has
recruited from the poor part of town.  On occasion
he "gets disguised" and runs around with his band
in the poorest section of the town, vandalizing,
beating people up and occasionally raping a girl
if they can catch one.

	One of Maqut's band is a huge man with a dented
skull called 'Fist'.  Two of Fist's brothers work for 
the Patient Man, and if questioned, Fist would have 
important information that would be of immense 
value to Airquet.  Fist has boasted a bit of the vast 
secrets he knows, but Maqut has never thought to pass 
this information on to Airquet.
	Klimcate knows of Fist and suspects that he 
has useful information, how ever Fist is hard to find.  
Klimcate is now cultivating a friendship with Maqut 
in hopes of using the stupid young man to give him a 
hint as to where Fist can be caught.
	Klimcate has asked Quemm about Fist and tried 
to get help searching for the thug.  Quemm has got 
the mistaken impression that Fist is a major player, 
perhaps the Patient Man himself and also is looking 
for him, using a few of his more capable guards.

	The Patient Man has barely noticed Maqut.
=====
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