TIME July 1st, midday LOCATION Paraisopolis, Chuza
BACKGROUND:
A taxidermy eye tied a drowned boy to a shop called Get Stuffed, the trade’s new monopoly in the Section since Life in Death and Snuff n Stuff fell behind. A Bumblebee buy with a dealer named Feydahr was already on the books for that evening. Get Stuffed came first.
WHAT HAPPENED
A beggar stopped them on the way through the market, asking for spare change – a self-described survivor of the wharf massacre, three fingers gone from one hand, taped up under grimy bandages. Vague about what he’d actually been doing on the wharf that night, he drifted off before anyone could press further.
Casing the building in Paraisopolis, Crowe recognised one of his own informants nearby – Johan, a gruff beggar sporting the marks of a recent fight. A meal from Raven and a little pressure on his bandaged fingers loosened his tongue.
“Saw a cart, dark blue armour, military-looking types. Didn’t get a good look at their faces – one might’ve been a woman, way she carried herself. Pulled up at the double doors, got let in. Carried a small figure inside, came back out with two of those stinking Reavers hauling a huge body between them. Heavy – you should’ve heard the cussing. Looked like a bear or something. And the noises, sometimes, when it’s quiet – screams. Distant, but screams. Always thought there was something off about people who want to stuff animals for a living. That’s twisted.”
Johan
Inside, Dr Griffiths greeted them himself – a cut on one cheek, ID checked without complaint – and confirmed the eye on sight.
‘Dead ravens are very popular for some reason,’ he offered, apropos of very little.
Raven pushed for a look at the workshop; Griffiths, so long as nobody was carrying silver, agreed to escort her upstairs personally while Crowe and Krusha checked the ground floor.
The storeroom windows were all covered in heavy cloth. The cold room went unchecked beyond a glance, though the barred, locked double doors beside it didn’t escape notice. A locked cabinet stayed locked. Raven clocked the absence of a single mirror anywhere in the building, and a bookcase stocked with material that looked more occult than veterinary – including what Krusha rather thought was a trapped spellbook. Griffiths, agitated, asked them to leave the cold room shut – the heat, he said, was already bad enough for his stock.
The warehouse beyond the double doors was guarded by a Nesterrook Reaver half-orc and two tethered dogs that made their opinion of visitors very clear. Griffiths offered to open his finished stock for inspection “just to look” – then abruptly withdrew the offer as though it were the final indignity, and left the Agents standing with his guards. A private cabin at the end of the warehouse was declined outright by the half-orc watching over it, and the Agents let it go rather than push.
Snuff n Stuff’s owner, Bertoli – tall, gaunt, hair defying gravity – confirmed the eye a third time and added a useful detail: silver reacts badly with some of the reagents used in the trade. He also confirmed Get Stuffed’s finished pieces were valuable enough to justify the guards Griffiths kept on hand.
Shift done, they asked Kowalski and Sanchez to keep watch on Get Stuffed and the orphanage’s sewer grate overnight, then changed into civvies for the Gauntlet Inn.
Feydahr – face, by reputation, like a punched lasagne – was easy enough to spot in an alcove with two women for company. Krusha opened the negotiation looking for something with more of a kick, and they came away with a deal for four doses of Bumblebee – Feydahr slightly suspicious of the quantity, but willing, on the condition Krusha came alone to the alley outside in five minutes.
Raven didn’t take alone literally. She slipped out through the kitchen instead, flashing her badge past a startled member of staff drowned out by the noise.
Krusha found Feydahr waiting in the dim alley with a bodyguard he clearly hadn’t mentioned. Money and Bumblebee were about to change hands, and Krusha was a breath from declaring himself, when the kitchen door slammed open and Raven stepped out into view.
“What is this – she’s not with us!”
Feydahr’s bodyguard
EXTRAS.
OPEN THREADS
- Get Stuffed – guarded, secretive, and confirmed as the source of the taxidermy eye.
- Silver reacts dangerously with taxidermy reagents – worth remembering before the next visit.