Mattiverse Next - Session 20

RACE NIGHT!

• The first race of the month is packed.
• Bethenalay is there, which flushes Four red-hot when he bumps into her for a chat. He asks her out for a beer and she says, "maybe tea instead, when work gets less crazy", a solid success by any measure.
  • Also, they learn Hot Rod is her cousin.
• It's 50 gp to enter ("You sure don't belong in the dirt tier no more") and they also put down a 100gp bet at 3:2 odds.
• Beldon maintains a solid lead the whole race, but a rider in red who's been gaining in second collides with him and manages to topple them both.
• Bobwhite and Four, from the stands, think Red's collision was intentional, and instantly rush in to clobber the guy. Beldon and Banner didn't see it but Beldon's fired up and Banner's support is automatic, they join in without hesitation.
• A giant brawl breaks out. They tussle with Red for a bit before Banner just swoops in with a flying kick to lay him out flat.
  • The Ag-Hicks, always up for a fight, judge the Rindherder's in the right and join their side. The Boys' performance pushes them very high in the Hicks' estimation.
• The race officials eventually get the anti-magic off and can bullhorn the fight into dispersing. The Boys are brought into the track master's office for a chewing out.
  • There's only so much of a fuss they can put up, since he can hold their future participation hostage. He lets them off with a stern warning and tells them to fuck off for a few days.
  • On the way out, Bobwhite picks a purse off the bookie to claw back a small percentage of what they sank in, mostly just for the catharsis.
• The bloodlust subsided, Four is very worried about what Bethenalay will think about how that went down.
• Four, Banner and Beldon go off to get plastered with the Ag Hicks, Bobwhite retreats in a huff to try to crack Edi's code.

Job Prospects

• The next morning, they're joined at breakfast by a portly halfling with a thick beard.
  • He introduces himself as Grynn, and says they have a meeting after breakfast.
  • Grynn leads them to a "modest" two-story Stonehauser manor situated between the Halfling Church and the racetrack.
  • They're met by a butler who leads them in without any chitchat. They're deposited in a study without fanfare, where they're made to wait twenty minutes.
  • Everything is expensive.
  • There are lots of paintings, but one portrait in particular dominates the room: A halfling in antique warrior garb, one side of his face is mangled. He wears an eyepatch on which is Alexandrias' Star, and the nameplate says MAGGR REDHAND
• Finally, a chunky halfling with bad posture strolls in. He introduces himself as Gragg Goldenhand.
  • He mentions the stir the Boys caused the night before, and says he figured it was a good time to introduce himself, in his capacity as the "unofficial Mayor of Wydmoor's Halflings".
  • He talks about appreciating how Halflings tend to the hot-blooded, but mentions that it's a pretty tense time right now and he really doesn't need another headache.
  • Gripes a bit about how "hard" it is to be a Stonehauser, from his extremely plush chair behind a magnificent desk covered in expensive knickknacks on the first floor of a two-story house with real floors.
  • Mentions how the Concord of the Highways keeps any Halfling claim to real property precarious, and also prevents them from having official political representation, a situation that makes it valuable to have someone keeping an eye on what longshanks are up to.
    • Particularly, the new Hadriarch bringing the church back to a more status quo arrangement than Edi got up to is creating a lot of tension.
    • Also, the Old Bitch (not said derogatorily) is on her last legs, and a disagreement between her children might mean the balance of power tipping back to the Old Families who are still pursuing their claims to land they never "officially" ceded after the sacking of Wydmoor ~100 years ago.
    • Mentions that if they can behave, he'll make sure their race privileges aren't in any danger.
  • Bobwhite catches on to the implications fast: Lots of land outside the Pilgrim's Gate is part of those claims, and having an easy excuse via the Concord to strip Halflings of power makes them an easy scapegoat if they don't navigate the longshanks' power struggles carefully.
    • With all that background, he reiterates his desire that the boys not "upset any applecarts with their doggin' around".
    • As a "completely unrelated" subject, he brings up that all the mess above opens up some opportunities that might be able to keep "certain people" profitably busy, in a hypothetical world where halflings could endorse those sorts of activities.
    • He digresses on the history of Iros Forge and Yalmrinth, the former as a source for Red Iron and the latter as an old conduit for it to Wydmoor that was demolished in the Odessan/Wydmoor conflict, and was later haunted by undead.
    • Bobwhite offhandedly mentions how securing that as a route for Red Iron again might give whoever secured it some leverage, and Grynn notes that he "hadn't thought of it before, but that's an astounding observation".
  • They spend some words agreeing how terrible Humans are for a bit, then the meeting concludes.
• The Boys waste no time saddling up for a trip.