The Faction Extraction

[*S.I.G.I.S.]

HARMONIUM:

She was hairy, she was large, and she was determined to sell me whatever in the Lady's name she was holding. No, thank you, I repeated for probably the hundredth time before finally slipping away into an alley. I almost felt guilty for letting her wrath spew out across the thousands of innocents in the Great Bazaar, but I just knew I wasn't in a mood to be martyred at the time.

That being said, I went on about my business as if nothing had happened. Two weeks later, amidst a discussion with several colleagues of mine, I caught wind of a strange chant. It seemed that several Harmonium Measures were screaming at the Barracks to send more men into the Hive to stop the Bleakers.

When I asked around as to what these Hardheads were rattling about, I found a little bit of dark. How much is just screed? Well, that's for you, the Cagers, to figure out. It seems that the Factol Lhar and a few of his factors have been seeing an increase in the number of somewhat disillusioned and depressed individuals in the Hive. If you've ever been there, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Anyway, Lhar has allegedly started a campaign to lighten the load of many of these would-be barmies. The half orc's methods are what the Measures are questioning. Apparently, they've heard rumors that the Bleakers are in fact selling strange, exotic fruits in the various market districts in all wards, though primarily the Hive. They are coated in a type of venom that alters the emotional state of most that eat it. Now, it may take a varying amount of time depending upon how much a body weighs and how healthy he is, of course, but it seems to have a positive emotional effect upon most humanoid races in the Cage.

The Harmonium officers are furious. They say the fruits are a deliberate movement by the Bleak Cabal to convert more people to their ideologies, exactly the opposite of the information I've gathered. Now, as hard as it is to stomach the idea that the Bleakers could start a movement of any kind, the entire situation has Harmonium highups scratching their brain-boxes. That's the chant. Take it how you see it, cutter. As long as you stop and think about what you're doing the next time you're confronted by an unidentifiable woman selling a barmy-looking fruit, well, I've done my job.


-Seamus Keller