Scuttlebutt of Suderham

It was the afternoon of the 21st of Goodmonth and the weather was fine as the small band of heroes made its way through the streets of hidden Suderham, reputed headquarters of the Slavelords. The streets were busy and it was impossible not to notice that many of the people out and about wore collars as a sign of their servitude. Gil noted that they generally avoided direct eye contact, but he also noted that many of the locals who were not obviously slaves avoided the gaze as well.
Kendrick made his way, with the directions of a street urchin, to the moneychanger to get some of the local currency. The man, seated behind his barred window charged a steep 15%. "Taxes and fees," he said. Kendrick kept his costs low by only changing 100 gold coins.
Meanwhile, Gil, Tesrae, and Bob Arby went to the White Knight Inn. Gil put on the bluff about representing Markessa again, but the bartender/innkeeper and the help weren't terribly impressed at first as they did not know who Markessa was supposed to be. A little bullying by Tesrae and a lot of further pressure from Gil and the maids finally bustled about to make one of the 3 rented rooms presentable for a powerful real lady like Markessa. Gil then watched out the window for Kendrick to catch up.
As the monk passed through the crowd to the inn, he noticed a half orc, powerfully built and in studded leather, staring a little harder at him than he should have. As he entered the inn, Kendrick also noticed that the half-orc seemed to be following him. But, his tail didn't come into the establishment right away and so Kendrick and the others sat down in the common room (after negotiating a deal with the bartender) for dinner.
A short while later, the half-orc also came in. Rumor has it, the half-orc does jobs like bodyguarding for visiting merchants. To Tesrae's trained eye, it did appear that he was a reasonably tough and seasoned character... but looks can be deceiving. As the night wore on, it appeared that the half-orc was trying to be subtle but his gaze did linger on the heroes more often than anywhere else. In fact, after a bit, the half-orc seemed to focus his attentions on Tesrae, only to have his furrowed brow turn to a look of mild surprise.
As Kendrick bought a round or two for the bar, the adventurers learned what information is on the local grapevine.
- There were tremors out near Drachen Keep a couple of weeks ago. It caught local Earth Dragon priests by surprise. They are expected to be preparing a major sacrifice sometime in the next couple of weeks.
- A body of stragglers came in from an outlying fort. Reportedly, there is humanoid unrest in the hinterlands and some tribes have even had the audacity to attack slavelord caravans and burn one of their forts.
- Eanwulf the corsair is in town with news and slaves. He says there's war north of the Nyr Dyv and the Horned Society has driven the Shield Land garrisons out of the border castles.
- Another plague is ravaging the slum, but the local priests (the Earth Dragon cult) won't do anything about it.
- The guard broke up a riot of wizard's guild members near a place called "The Missile". The wizards' guildmaster, Ajakstu, is reportly beside himself with anger.
- A Hextorite evangelist has been seen around Suderham. He speaks until he gets wind of guards coming and then he disappears into the crowd.
- An old building was pulled down in the Trades Quarter and when it went down it revealed an infestation of giant spiders. Most were killed but a few are still turning up.

While Kendrick was schmoozing out all this information from the locals, Tesrae was told by one of the inn's patrons that her armor would probably draw undesired attention from the guards, that is, unless she was a member of the warriors' guild. They get permission to wear armor heavier than studded leather and carry larger weapons.