46. City of Lace

Kinch’s crew enters Grevitsa, a grim island city on the Spine River whose elegant lace and amber contrast with streets patrolled by branded, owner-marked pigs and the chained borders of a Goblin Quarter where biters legally trade. The group secures an inn and heads to the tavern Barana Morzhaxh, its ironwork, skulls, and long-axe warning that all transgressors are punished.

They meet the contact, Chedadra—an expatriate Spanth who lives among goblins—who speaks rapid Ispanthian. After Galva pays silver and offers a prized amber piece, Chedadra delivers a detailed map of Hrava including the sewer network, vital for moving beneath a giant-occupied city. She also provides a lead: Ürmehen, the Upright Man, a non-Guild thief who may aid them in Hrava if he still lives.

As Kinch studies Goblintown’s dark, irregular skyline and reflects on the dangers of dealing with biters, he notes the scarred barman with a blackened hand—signs of service among the Horde—underscoring Grevitsa’s ruthless balance of profit and peril.

Chedadra then offers a magic ring. After confirming it likely channels a single deadly lightning strike—its sky-iron inlay and Wolthan runes prickling with power—Norrigal buys it cheaply, learning Chedadra sells under duress from debt to a goblin priest. The ring fits Norrigal’s thumb.

The company leaves the tavern satisfied yet vigilant: Galva watchful, Yorbez smoking, Malk swaggering in bored readiness, and Kinch quietly admiring Norrigal. Their new map and lightning ring raise their odds for Hrava, even as the city’s menace suggests trouble will soon answer their unspoken dare.