Foragers II: Rumors (Wermspittle/Corruption Trade)

Bottom Of The Heap

Foragers are the most common and least respected of the various scavenger trades, except for maybe looter-crews, even though they aren't technically a trade, but more rather a loose association of enthusiastic amateurs. Foragers are the lowest-paid of the various scavenger trades. They literally make their living by preying upon the victims of the White Powder and the traces that they leave behind. They serve the Corruption Trade which is built upon the transfigured suffering of people converted into Loathsome Masses by the  alchemically-induced Vile Transformation, and the economically-useful by-products that stem from this horrific process. 

Loathsome Masses were once human beings with hopes and dreams, before their descent into madness, despair and ruthless personal commodification stemming from the terrible transformation brought about by the White Powder. But the best, or at least the most successful, Foragers learn to look past that aspect of their incredibly sordid business. If they want to get anywhere within the industry or they wish to ever secure a better position as an apprentice to a distiller or something better, they have to first prove themselves as clever, resourceful and hard-working...and something of a survivor. 

Gossip, innuendo and rumor are tradable commodities among Foragers. They don't have much else.

Rumors Circulating Among the Foragers

1. There's a cellar in one of the run-down old shops over behind the Pissing Wyvern Tavern that is filled near to bursting with a Type IV Gobbling Grout that someone has been feeding some bizarre new extract derived from White Powder. Best to avoid the area for a few weeks. Until after things blow over or blow up, whichever.
2. You can buy rune-cut chunks of Purple Amber from Shroedinger & Cave, down along Plattner Street. Cheap. These things will attune themselves to Weak Points if you leave one there for long enough, but even better, if you know the trick and the right spell, they can be made into keys or tokens that'll let you re-tune a Weak Point to another destination. There are some scholars over at the Academy who'll pay nicely for this sort of thing...if you can get past the guards, monitors, and defenses...or catch one of them out and about some night.
3. New-spawned Molgs can be captured with a couple of small mirrors and a bucket lined with wet moss. A little Dim Ichor added to the moss will placate them nicely. The flesh is tender and worth a fair bit to a Butcher, but the central eye-bud is worth a whole lot more to an Optickalist or one of the Gonnesmiths over on Grimaldi Street. Why a Gonnesmith would want these things makes no sense, but who questions good coins in Spring or a handful of salt in Winter?
4. Loathsome Masses can't dissolve galvanized pails. There's something about the zinc that messes with their juices...the only downside is that the stuff will become explosive if you leave it in such a bucket for too long.
5. There's a cantrip in the blue book on the third shelf behind the stuffed Aligatrix in Montrose's Book Shop, just past the old apothecary cases. I think it's on the fortieth page or the forty-second. It makes gathering-up Sallow Stains a whole lot easier. You can fill your receptacles in a tenth the usual time. Just don't let the old man catch you stealing spells from him. He can get mean.
6. Street Wolves won't follow you if you sprinkle Achromic Powder on the soles of your boots.
7. Some kid found another Crystal Egg in the attic of a place out behind the Basement Bog behind the crappy little Shanty Camp along Plover Alley.
8. There are Scaly-men prowling the Burned Over District. They seem to be looking for someone.
9. There's this insect, it's not an Ungezeifer or anything like that, so don't worry. It's taken-over the third floor of the old Roswell building and it's hiring. Not sure what they want done, but they pay really well. Or so people are saying.
10. Did you hear about Knute and Tanulf? They stumbled into an attic where the walls were covered with weird egg-things. They were lucky to get out of there with a sample. Or maybe not so lucky. Something has been hunting after them ever since. They're hiding out down below, but they're willing to cut anyone in on a share in what they've found if you think you can drive off or kill whatever is chasing them. I think they're too sick, or maybe poisoned to do much more than hold their own. For now.