They go to get more information

The Eel! Teysa shook her head as they left the church. Her only run-in with the drow gangster had been several months before, when she had helped Teysa infiltrate the Basilica. Even that brief contact had told Teysa everything she needed to know about the Eel. The woman was mad, vicious, and dangerous, and if she really was here and really did have Father Tuubel, their chances of a successful rescue were slim.

Still, she had to try. Teysa had spent much of her career turning a blind eye to petty and venal sins in order to serve the greater good-- but if a member of the clergy was in danger, she was honor-bound to do her best to save him. Even if he had gotten himself into trouble. She resolved, once Father Tuubel was safe, to have a long talk with him about the wisdom of fundraising from such questionable sources. First things first, though. She had to see if her suspicion was anything more than that.

Jez'ria and El'keth were easy enough to find. The two had set up shop on an unassuming square of carpet spread among the pavilions and tents of the market. Their spider bodies towered over the rest of the merchants, however, and served as a better advertisement than any signpost. They were doing a brisk trade. A pair of gnomes were examining a bolt of drider silk, and Jez'ria was locked in an intense huddle with two armored drow and a man with the head of a tiger. El'keth stood in the middle of the carpet, holding a steel lockbox in her hands and looking somewhat bored. She perked up when she saw Teysa, and waved energetically from across the way. Teysa waved back and jogged the rest of the way.

"How's business?" she asked. El'keth shook the lockbox in answer, producing a loud rattle.

"Quite good!" she said with a smile. "Jez'ria has showed me how to do trade. Or... make trade. We have sold most of our ambrosia and some of the silk." She leaned in close to Teysa and put a hand next to her mouth. "Jez'ria is negotiating a very important contract," she whispered. "Miles of silk, they said. They were quite excited."

A small voice cleared its throat from somewhere around Teysa's navel. She looked down to see the gnomes staring up at El'keth with their arms folded and solemn expressions on their faces. "The quality is as you said, milady," said the first. "We would be honored to share custom with you."

"Very well," said El'keth. She clasped her hands in front of her and recited, in a singsong voice as if learned by rote, "That will be eighty crowns per bolt, one hundred and fifty for two, two hundred twenty for--"

The gnome was already shaking his head. "Milady, truly your goods are of a quality beyond compare, and we are but humble seekers of profit. We would gladly do business with you but we cannot go above sixty crowns for a bolt, or a hundred for two."

El'keth looked suddenly uncertain. She twined her fingers around each other. "Well," she began, "I suppose I could..."

Aliara spoke up quickly. "Why don't you talk to Jez'ria?" she asked. "I'm sure she would be eager to reach an accommodation with you." The gnomes glared daggers at her, but she ignored them. El'keth, on the other hand, looked tremendously relieved.

"That's a wonderful idea!" she said. "Please be patient for just a little while longer, my friends. I promise that Jez'ria will see to you shortly." The gnomes sagged in the face of her wide-eyed and cheerful politeness. "But of course," one mumbled.

Jez'ria's little meeting was coming to its conclusion in any case. All parties bowed to one another, and Jez'ria interlocked and waggled her fingers in what looked like some kind of secret sign or handshake. As the tiger-headed man and his drow bodyguards turned to go, Aliara tugged at Jez'ria's elbow.

"I just need to borrow her for a moment," she said, smiling at El'keth and her customers. "Won't take long."

"Yez?" Jez'ria folded her arms beneath her breasts. They were still uncovered, and she was drawing her fair share of surprised looks, but there were stranger things than driders in a market this size. Something about Jez'ria's glare seemed to discourage impertinent questions. Maybe it's the way she goes around being seven feet tall and weighing five hundred pounds, Teysa thought.

"This... contact of yours," Aliara said. "Would she, by chance, be a young drow? Does she wear a wide-brimmed hat? How about piercings? She got any?"

"All drow look the same to me," Jez'ria complained. "Their facez are so delicate. Like dollz! But, yez, thiz one haz more piercingz than I've ever seen in one place. She wearz a fortune in jewelry, too."

"I knew it!" Teysa punched the air in triumph. "It is her!" The realization of what that meant sank in, and she grimaced. "While you were speaking to her, did you see anyone who... didn't belong? An old man maybe, human? In a priest's robe?"

Jez'ria shrugged. "Not that I saw. That place, I don't think they'd velcome a priest. Some of them vould probably eat him."

"Anything else you saw while you were there?" Aliara pressed. "Anything you can recall might help."

"If you're thinking of going to bargain with her, I'd advize against it," Jez'ria said. "She'z mad, you know. When I left she vas talking about organizing a pit fight. She likez making people fight to the ****."

"Yes, we know," Aliara said. "Thank you. You've been very helpful. Don't let those gnomes rip El'keth off, by the way, girl's hopeless as a haggler."

"I know," said Jez'ria with a roll of her eyes. "Go on, then, if you von't be dissuaded. The Eel's court is there." She extended one long finger, pointing at a stone facade much like all the others. Teysa inclined her head respectfully and backed off, leaving Jez'ria to descend on El'keth like a mother bird returning to her nest.

The facade she pointed Teysa and Aliara towards was unassuming, compared to some of the others. It lacked ornamentation, but a few long, low windows in the front wall revealed a dim firelit interior. Inside, it was uncomfortably warm and smelled of peat smoke. Five great hearths set against the back wall provided light and heat. Most of the smoke disappeared up through concealed flues, but Teysa's eyes still stung as she ducked into the room. The room was lit only by the fires, which cast a wild array of dancing shadows across every flat surface. In the sweltering gloom, strange shapes whirled and cavorted. The room was full of the low murmur of conversation and the high trill of pipes and flutes. From somewhere in the gloom, a drumbeat echoed: doom, doom, doom, a harsh counterpoint to the manic shriek of the pipes.

Teysa's eyes were starting to adjust. Not all of the smoke, she saw, came from the fireplaces: the room was full of low tables, and mounted atop each one was a bulbous hookah. Indistinct figures lounged in cushions around the hookahs, passing long-stemmed pipes from hand to hand and exhaling clouds of aromatic smoke. Between the tables, the twirling shapes writhed and undulated. They were mostly drow, Teysa could see, but also elves and humans of both sexes. All were lithe, young, wearing little more than scraps of gauze and strips of leather. They wore piercings, too, rings and studs and bars through ear and nose and nipple. In a long career, Teysa had seen dens of sin much more debauched and vile than this, but her hand strayed to her mace all the same.

There was a definite order underlying the madness. A spiraling path drew them onwards towards the center of the room. As they passed the tables, misshapen figures glanced up with languid, heavy-lidded eyes. Something that looked like the contents of a taxidermist's wastebin blew a thick cloud of smoke from a dozen holes at once and let out a wheezy, burbling laugh. An elegantly dressed man with a face full of writhing tentacles regarded the party as they marched by. By his side, a stick-thin woman with a half-dozen arms inhaled from the pipe, unbuttoned the top button of her blouse, counted coins and slid a hand down her companion's trousers, all at once.

Teysa shuddered. She had never been comfortable in these types of places. This type of infiltration and information-gathering had always been Aliara's province. Here, even the half-elf seemed discomfited. Her shoulders were hunched and her head jutted forward; she flinched away from every burst of laughter.

Eventually their winding path brought them before a dais near the back of the hall. A slab of veined white marble stood perhaps two feet proud of the floor. Behind it was a raised platform-- a stage of sorts-- that curled around on both sides. Youthful figures danced and cavorted, spinning and dangling from steel columns that ran to the ceiling. Atop the dais was what looked at first glance like a baroque piece of **** equipment. Bands of steel interlaced and interlocked to form a cup-shaped depression. Leather strips crisscrossed the cup, taut in some places, loose in others. The steel bands were ridged and knurled with irregular protrusions and jagged barbs, so that anyone trying to sit or lie down in the cup would be pricked and cut no matter how carefully they positioned themselves.

Someone was sitting there now. Lounging would perhaps be a better word; the figure sprawled, catlike, with her legs folded over each other and one arm dangling down nearly to the floor. She wore a gown that must, at one point, have been the height of fashion: even now, Teysa could see traces of delicate stitchwork and inlaid pearls and precious stones. The sharp-edged chair had torn it to tattered ribbons. The flesh Teysa could see was covered in cuts and scabs, some still streaked with blood. As they approached, the woman in the chair stirred. In her right hand she held a pipe connected to a long hose that disappeared around behind her "throne." She held the pipe to her mouth for a minute or so, then turned her head and exhaled a gargantuan cloud of smoke. It washed over Teysa and she fell to coughing. The smoke tasted of exotic spices and rotten fruit. Just a hint of it burned her nostrils, and she gagged.

"Well, well, well, well, well." The figure in the chair leaned forward through the swirling cloud of smoke. Her voice was thick and languorous but still youthful-sounding for all that. She looked quite young-- at least, that portion of her face that could be seen between the piercings that festooned nearly every available inch of skin. One nostril bore a large pearl stud, the other three golden rings. Her eyebrows each carried a half-dozen tiny golden barbels tipped with emeralds. One ear was criss-crossed with bars, the other gauged with discs of jade; both were covered in golden rings and silver studs carved to look like animal heads. Her lips, her cheeks... even the bridge of her nose was pierced. When she smiled, her teeth glittered with inlaid stones. She held out one hand, and every inch of every finger was covered in rings: silver, gold, some with diamonds or rubies or sapphires. The hand alone carried more wealth than Teysa had ever owned at once.

"Welcome, my friendth," the Eel said. "What a wonderful thurprithe to thee you again. Do you like my new digth? I've upgraded, ath you thee. The Thity wath tho... thtifling. Here I can really thpread my wingth." She held out her arms to demonstrate. Scraps of lace and silk hung from her elbows and wrists like tattered batwings.

"It's a... lovely place, milady," said Aliara. Teysa buttoned her lip and nodded agreement.

The Eel giggled. "Oh, you're too kind," she said. "Friendth, thith ith Teytha and... Alleria, yeth? Alaria? Thomething like that."

Aliara said nothing.

"I wath proud to do them a little thervithe in the Thity in exchange for a thmall conthiderathon. And now they've come back! Don't tell me you need another audienthe with a priethteth?" Her eyes narrowed. "You know, the latht time I took you to thee thomeone, not a week later thee popped up and thtarted changing thingth. Chathed me right out of buthinethth. Of courthe, I landed on my feet, but if I were a thuthpithiouth perthon I might point the finger at you." She did so now, extending one slim digit so bedecked with rings that the skin was invisible.

Aliara muttered something under her breath. The Eel cocked her head and cupped one hand around her ear. "What wath that, thweetling? I'm afraid it'th rather loud in here." She snapped her fingers, and two burly half-orcs detached themselves from her retinue and stalked off into the shadows. There was a brief pause, then a strangled cry, and the average noise level around the dais dropped perceptibly.

"I said, 'I didn't know eels had feet,' milady," Aliara repeated. Teysa gasped, as did half of the courtiers, and there was a single moment of heart-stopping tension. Then the Eel burst into gales of laughter. She beat her arm against the side of her throne, tearing open a half dozen shallow cuts. "Don't have-- that'th great! I love that! Oh, my dear, I did mithth you. Now," she said, folding her arms in her lap and sitting up primly. "What can I do for you? I'd love to sit and chat all day, but I have buthinethth to attend to."