City Of Brass Story 3

 

Once upon a time...

After a series of raids on merchants and shops, the local authorities were chastised into taking their jobs seriously. Crimes no longer came easy and, in fact, could land a thief at the gallows if they made a mistake that got them caught. Marss decided they needed a hideout. There were secret ways in and out of the city and districts. One of them was very old with partially collapsed and flooded sections. Being creatures raised underground, Marss and his gang felt right at home here. They found the traps and took great care to "fix" them back into working order and made this passage their hideout. Under a pile of stones, they found the corpse of some mage whose only surviving thing of any value was a pouch. Inside it were 6 strange warm blocks that the nisslings decided were good for warming up their blankets before going to sleep.   Once things calmed down and the authorities returned to their more lazy and uncaring routines, the nisslings returned to raiding. Marss, wiser now, has decided to be take greater care in what, or who, they target. He has even taken to leaving false clues that point to other gangs as well as getting better at hiding the bodies of any victims. One such body was of an apprentice who was searching for the fabled escape route of Graymane, an infamous wizard at his academy that is rumored to have disappeared decades ago. Unfortunately, he found the hideout and was killed for his troubles. On his body is his journal which holds the details of his research and explorations and mentions a place down deep he intended to go.   Unfortunately for the nisslings, they did not realize he wore a tattoo that the academy used to keep track of its students. When he failed to appear for classes three days in a row, a search was made and his body found buried in a garden. Now, his family/mentor/classmates want to know what happened to him and if he had made a great discovery they could enshrine in his honor.