Going Missing
After gaining some respect and trust with the locals, we delve more thoroughly in to the everyday life of the shanty town, allowing us to investigate various areas that we have been briefed are the likely places where sedition against the city is being instigated. After the traumatic trials of the baby rescue, Tal seems a little distant. It is almost as if he is not entirely with us, and being controlled not by his own actions but pulled along by the concensus of what the rest of the party decides. Yes, his player wasn't able to turn up to this session, and that's rarely good news for the character.
The shanty town is open to us and free to be explored. We are warned that we are in the roughest part of the city, that beggars and brutes lurk around every corner waiting to make opportunistic gains with no fear of reprisal from the law, and that strangers are more likely to be singled out as victims. As we start to head off on our way, the last bit of advice is given: 'You'll be okay, just don't get separated.'
'... Hey, where's Tal gone?'