Crafter Lott, Albino Seamstress of Golgonath

[Charlotte]

The little albino girl called Lott was an orphan child who never knew her mother or father. At a very young age she was taken in by a beggar woman on the streets of Golgonath who would teach her that way of life. She became quite adept at both begging and stealing as a child, and found the accumulation of coin and goods to be a fine distraction from the misery that was life. She was never one of those poor opportunists caught picking pockets in the Executioner's Square during one of the many hangings that always attracted large crowds, but she never missed on either. As a teen she learned an even older profession. She found herself becoming more and more well-off and bored with everyday life on the streets. Accumulating wealth was now her passion. Using her feminine charms and wit, she seduced an aging Crafter by the name of Kargoth into taking her under his wing and moving her into a small hovel he'd previously used to house slaves awaiting auction in. Soon Kargoth had her assisting him in several different business ventures and realizing now her true potential, he pulled strings to have her initiated into his guild and enrolled her in an apprenticeship of the tailoring trade. Knowing that her past life was now over, Lott gave up her street urchin associates and immersed herself in the life of the Crafter she was to become. Finding use of a needle and thread as much like second nature to her as filching goods from a market stall, picking coins from a drunkard serf's pockets, or manipulating lonely, old, wealthy men, Lott used what coin she could get to buy up bales of wool and cotton bobbins at the centers of trade and began making garment after garment. It took practice, but eventually she no longer had to throw away what she made, and several ragpickers found themselves looking for other opportunities to make a living. Still, Lott had no venue from which to ply her trade and sell her wares, so she began scheming.

[Charlotte]

The Lost Child Arrives

It was a darker day than usual in Golgonath. The volcanoes had been erupting and though it was midday one could hardly tell. The skies were choked with falling ash, and a thick blanket of it covered the ground as far as the eye could see. The streets were desolate, everyone with an indoors to go to remained there. The beggars sought the relative shelter between two large buildings on Valtor Alley.
Dirty Jabez, Karina, Trevar the Alleymaster, and Magor the Mute huddled near the entryway to the alley, keeping an eye on the streets and the skies as they passed around a bottle of moonshine. None of them said so, but they all hoped for some wind to clear the air and bring back the foot traffic. Dirty Jabez scratched the fleas in his scraggly beard and said with a toothless grin to Karina, "Har, we shuh go to 'Lysium, where folk give coin freely. 'Scape the ash storm and get fat fer a change." Karina rolled her eyes and responded, "More likely they'd catch one whiff of you and put us all out of our miseries in the name of their god's compassion." She took a swig from the bottle and handed it over to Trevar, who made a show of wiping off the bottle's lip on the inside of his tattered coat before drinking from it. Trevar, being the highest ranking beggar in the city, exercised his privilege of holding the bottle as long as he liked, and drinking from it twice before passing it to anyone else. He was still holding onto it moments later when Magor the Mute's hand tapped his shoulder. "Hang on ye dumb turd of a man! 'Tis my right ye know." Trevar grumbled, but Magor dismissed the unoffered bottle with a wave and pointed again, over Trevar's shoulder to the street beyond. Trevar turned around and squinted a moment, and sitting the bottle down in the ash, exclaimed "Lord Rezaktal's shed skin, what 'ave we now!" Sitting the bottle down got every beggar in the alley's attention, none of them would be allowed to pick it up or drink from it until Trevar picked it back up and passed it to one of them. Several of them began shuffling closer to the front of the alley to see what was going on.
A tiny forlorn figure slowly approached from the direction of the Victory Square, clutching something in one of it's hands. "Yerp, I knowed wha' that be. That's a hobber! 'Zarkan done summon't one and it' 'scaped!" said Jabez before Karina smacked him one. "Shhhh, listen!" she said. Trevar spat on the ground and everyone was silent, especially Magor who always was anyway since the day he'd survived a hanging for picking the pokets of a commoner. As the figure drew nearer, it's sobs became more audible. Soon all the beggars could clearly see the human child, a little girl as filthy they, she was crying and the ash on her face was streaking as her tears fell. In her tiny hand she clutched a ragged doll in a torn green dress. "What a find, what a find!" Trevar said as he went over and grabbed the girl by one arm and yanked her into the alleyway. Struggling futilely, she dropped her doll to the ground and bit his dirty arm while kicking at his shins, her sobs now becoming a high pitched wail. Trevar only grinned and tightened his grip, ever numb from the moonshine he drank daily.
"Looks like we are ALL having meat tonight! Someone sharpen a stick and ready a fire!" he yelled over the little girls struggle. "Trevar, just a moment, I must parley with you!" Karina said, as it was custom among the beggars never to openly argue with the Alleymaster. Trevar scowled, but motioned for Magor to take hold of the girl, who did. Karina and Trevar stepped away from the group and spoke quietly. "Not so hasty." Karina whispered to him. "She's hardly big enough for everyone to get a bite of. And besides, she is just what we need. People will give more coin if they see a starving child, which we won't have if we eat her. Let me take her, she will be fed enough to keep her alive from my own share. I promise you she is just the thing we've been looking for. Plus, a female. She will be far more valuable in only a few years..." Trevar stroked his chin then looked at Karina. "Hmm, you may be right, but it is too late for that plan. I've promised them meat. No traffic day, there'll be no other opportunites, and I doubt now I could stop them from doing it anyway. Unless you know of anything else we can feed them." Karina smiled grimly and said, "I was thinking about doing this anyway to increase the sympathy factor, looks like today is the day." She propped one leg up on an old thrown out chair with a busted seat. (more to come)