The one raven we'd left conscious and intact was a nervous fellow named Jimmy. With a bit of encouragement, and a cup of liquid courage, he opened up to us, but didn't seem to to know much, poor lad. He'd apparently joined the ravens the day before he got out of the clink, a few years ago. He just worked at this dock, and didn't know what they're shipping, or to where, nor who was calling the shots, but he did reveal that the boxes are heavy, and clink like glass, and get shipped out in little dinghies to somewhere in the aetherdocks. He did however, know where the shipments come from, a tenement building a few blocks north. We also learned of his direct supervisor, a beefy dwarf named Curly Joe.
Once he told us all he knew, he politely requested that we knock him out. I think he was just too stressed out, and needed the nap. Plus he seemed quite scared of what might happen if his gang member buddies thought (correctly) that he was a snarker.
We looked around the grotto, and in the back, found a couple of crates full of bottles of aether, which, naturally, Ali decided to confiscate. We decided to take the loot evidence back to the apartment, and reconvene in the afternoon to investigate the tenement, hoping to gather evidence when the ravens were likely to be drinking back at Dockside. Before we left, however, I inscribed upon the wall "Don't mess with the Minotaur Mafia" using some of the juices from the very most dead ravens, in hopes of covering our trail and stirring up trouble between the two criminal syndicates in one swell foop.
Egvein parted ways with us, promising to return to the apartment later, while Ali and I hypothesized about the nature of this contraband aether. Aether is not an illegal substance, so why ship it through such clandestine means? Several competing hypotheses presented themselves to me. It could be modified in some manner to use as a drug, or it could be contaminated in some fashion. Alternatively, it could be perfectly normal, but stolen, or they're looking to avoid raised eyebrows at transporting so much of the stuff. Regardless of why, it was suspicious, and we certainly weren't going to load it into Ali's fuel cells without some investigation.
So we broke out our finest glassware set to analyzing the substance, but it seemed to be perfectly normal aether, if a little roughly refined. It would be fit for further refinement into a number of other materials, though it is fairly weak, as far as fuel goes. Nonetheless, we retrieved a couple of crates of the stuff, and it should set up my mechanical companion for some time.
Meanwhile, Amrita enjoyed a relative island of quiet in our hectic schedule, that is, until Egvein showed up on the rooftops and dashed in through our open window. It seems the little fellow stole a cheese bag from some old lady, then was chased by an angry mob across the burrows, until he managed to give them the slip and take shelter in our abode. Seems like a pretty normal day for him.
Once we had reconvened, we set out to investigate this tenemant. Egvein went dumpster diving, Amrita went door to door inside to see what she could learn, Ali took up a post on a nearby roof to watch the entrances, and I did a quick walk around of the building looking for any clues I could find. Partway round, I happened upon some orcs throwing dice in the alley. I was up about 20 silver, when Egvein showed up. He is dreadful at dice, but as he kept feeding more cash to the orcs, their lips got looser and looser. They told us a fair bit about the Ravens. Said they moved in about six months ago, took over a number of apartments, and moved the former residents up into Highspire and set them up real comfy like. They kicked out the old gang that ran the building, and started moving out truckloads of stuff from the building on the regular.
After a while, and with Egveins coinpurse much the lighter, we went back to meet up with Amrita and Ali. Amrita had noted that one apartment seemed to be occupied by Ravens, who stood out with their distinctive fine uniforms. She also noted the annoyance of a building of this size having a broken elevator. Naturally, we had to go inside.
As we entered the building, the elevator dinged, and a half a dozen Ravens exited, which was, naturally, suspicious, since we knew the elevator had just been out of order. Our crew deftly slipped inside behind the gangsters, and Ali was able to hotwire the elevator to bring us downstairs. It brought us down, down, down. Far deeper than one might've thought it should have. We must've been ten stories below street level before we touched down and the doors slid open.
We found ourself in a large room full of boxes, with a couple of those eldritch pallet-jacks lying about. This must've been one of the waystations for their moonshine aether. We ventured through a door, and down a hall, and found a full on aether mine, right below the burrows.
We were spotted by a couple of workers, to all apearances, strong professional miners, and not slaves as I'd first feared we might find. They accosted us and accused us of not belonging there, but some quick thinking from Ali and myself convinced them that I was there to deliver a new automaton worker (Ali). They bought it, hook, line, and sinker.
That got us farther into the mines, where we saw a fellow that met the distinctive description of "Curly Joe". He was less keen to buy our cover story, and claimed he hadn't ordered any automaton. In between mountains of foul language, he demanded proof of our delivery, and while I distracted him, Ali went around back and got her spike to his back. At that point he proved to be quite the agreeable fellow, and more knowledgable than jimmy was by far, but still just a middle manager. He also seemed to be made of far sterner stuff, but he was clearly more afraid of what his employers would do to him and his family if he talked, than he was of Ali's threat of mere personal violence if he didn't. We seemed to be at an impasse where Ali may have needed to follow through on her threats, but luckily, Egvein came through with a bit of arcane assistance.
Casting a spell of magical bravery on Curly Joe, allowed him to speak, despite his fears for his family. He mentioned that his boss is a red, or maybe silver, dragonborn named Korges. (ed: we probably learned other stuff, but i was tired and drunk and didn't take enough notes)
Once we got all the information it seemed we were gonna get, and he seemed more than willing to face death. Ali released him. She's a principled sort, and would much have a straight fight than to stab a man in the back.