Loose Tongues and Quiet Shadows
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In the weeks following Icedawn's apparent awakening and the city’s plunge into fractured uncertainty, new and disquieting sightings have emerged from the outskirts and forgotten veins of Arabel’s underbelly. Groups of masked individuals--silent, organized, and wholly unaffiliated with either the Black Wheel Company or the Justiciars--have been observed descending into the city’s sewer systems, crumbling underpasses, and long-abandoned smuggling routes with increasing frequency.
Clad in plain garb and marked only by featureless masks, these figures have become a subject of heated speculation. They carry tools--shovels, pickaxes, surveyor’s equipment--items more suited for excavation than battle. Stranger still, they are often accompanied by uncanny automatons: brass-and-iron constructs filled with exposed cogs and strange tubing, moving with unsettling precision and purpose.
What exactly they are seeking remains a matter of odd conjecture. Are they digging for an escape route, carving a path away from the collapsing order above? Or are they searching for something hidden--yet another fragment of history best left forgotten? Some wonder if these masked figures serve a master yet unknown, moving unseen while the city's attention remains divided. Others fear darker purposes: sabotage, ancient powers, or silent preparations for a new conflict yet to erupt. Whispers suggest that someone, somewhere, knows more than they are willing to admit--and in a city on the brink, such secrets may prove more dangerous than any storm.
