The private table gives way to Elby’s crowded common room. Families, shopkeepers, and laborers fill the benches beneath the broad hearth, while the mayor stands beside a cleared trestle.
Elbee
One at a time, please. Give me your name, your concern, and what remedy you are asking Devia to provide.
Elby opens the complaint book and writes carefully as a shopkeeper reports broken lanterns, a widow asks about rent relief, and workers seek clear wages for guarded labor.
The Mayor
The work measure begins with silver wages, posted hours, and a guard assigned to every placement. No child will be sent anywhere unwatched.
The room settles into attentive murmurs. Elby records the promise, then turns to school construction, asking which empty buildings can be repaired and which teachers Devia can afford.
The Mayor
The council will publish the accounts. Rent relief, lantern repairs, school costs, and wages will each have a named office responsible for reporting progress.
More hands rise across the benches. Elby pauses over the open page, ready to take the next name, while the crowded room waits to learn whether Dagg will answer the public himself.
“{Dagg walks in calming people down.} We have a plan to fix up Devia, please be patient and we will see about helping everyone. As long as you do your duties for the city, work hard, and do not commit crimes, we will have your backs. Today we are starting a program to have the children of Devia work with guards to pay them a little something to help with each family.”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Dagg walks slowly among the benches, raising an open hand as anxious voices overlap. He pauses beside each family, letting the room see that no one will be ignored.
Dagg Nabbitt
We have a plan to fix up Devia. Be patient, and we will see about helping everyone. Do your duties, work hard, and commit no crimes, and we will have your backs. Today, children can work with guards and earn a little something to help each family.
The promise settles the room. Dagg asks Elbee to gather complaints by street and urgency, while the mayor assigns clerks to record families, guards, hours, and payments.
Elbee
I will keep the names and needs together, Magistrate. No child leaves with a guard until the work, pay, food, and return time are written down.
The Mayor
That is the order. Guarded work begins with clear duties and silver wages, while relief and schooling proceed beside it. No family will be asked to trust a promise alone.
A few parents begin speaking calmly, offering suitable tasks and naming urgent needs. Dagg remains at the table despite his wish to be elsewhere, directing each concern to Elbee or the mayor instead of taking every burden himself.
Citizens of Devia
We will bring our concerns forward. Let the work begin.
“Elby, can you tell me which families are in need of urgent help. As of now I am assigning these jobs to start this second. If you have children, please line up over here with the guards and each guard will be placed with a child to take. the guards already know what tasks to preform.”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Dagg Nabbitt
Elby, tell me which families need urgent help. I am assigning these jobs now. Children, line up here with the guards; each guard will take one to an assigned task.
Dagg points to the cleared space beside the trestle. Elby opens the complaint book, while the guards step forward and arrange themselves where each child can be watched from departure through return.
Elbee
The south quarter families on Lantern Row need rent relief first. Three children need food today, and two households can spare a child for guarded work if wages begin at once.
Elby reads the names and needs from the page, separating urgent hunger from ordinary arrears. The three young riders join the line, and a guard takes position beside each one.
The Mayor
The assignments begin under the written order. Each guard will carry the task, hours, wage, meal, and return time, and each family will receive the record.
Dagg directs the lists to Elby instead of carrying every case himself, assigning the mayor’s clerks to verify wages and meals. His wish to leave routine work behind yields to a precise, workable system.
Elbee
It is done, Magistrate. The urgent families are marked, the children have guards, and the first tasks can begin this morning with food and silver recorded before they leave.
“Then I, Dagg Nabbitt, herby publicly announce this into action. Go forth children, make your families proud and soon we will all share in the efforts of your work!”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Dagg Nabbitt
The reform begins now. Go forth, children, make your families proud, and soon we will all share in the efforts of your work!
Dagg’s declaration carries across the common room. Elby assigns each child’s written task, wage, meal, and return time, while the mayor’s clerks copy every order for the families.
The three young riders step forward beneath their guards’ watch. The first young rider receives a food delivery task, the second a supervised kitchen placement, and the third a guarded repair assignment.
Elbee
Your work, hours, silver, meal, and return are written here. Follow your guards, do the task honestly, and come back when the record says.
Three Devia Guards escort the children toward separate duties, each carrying a copy for the household. Dagg points Elby toward the next families instead of taking every assignment himself.
The Mayor
The first placements are lawful and funded. Clerks will verify the wages and meals, and guards will report each child’s safe return.
Applause rises as the children depart under supervision. Dagg’s reluctance to linger over routine civic labor gives way to delegated lists, leaving the program moving without placing every burden on him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hear the first families’ response to the placements
“I ask the waiting families how the first placements serve them.”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Dagg Nabbitt
How are the first placements serving your families? Tell me what is helping, and what still needs fixing.
Dagg remains among the benches, though the work of hearing every answer pulls against his wish to be elsewhere. He lets Elby gather each household’s account instead of taking every case himself, while Questions Witnesses keeps the replies orderly.
Elbee
Speak one at a time. Tell Magistrate Dagg whether the food, wages, hours, guard, and return time are working as written.
The waiting families answer in turn. They report that meals arrived, wages were clear, and the guards brought the children home safely; one household asks for earlier notice when duties change.
Citizens of Devia
The placements are helping. The food matters most, and the silver makes the work feel fair. Please keep the hours and guards clear.
Elby records the praise and the request under separate headings. Dagg’s delegation leaves him a usable report, and the families depart knowing their first concerns have been heard and entered for action.
Quest Complete
Hear the first families’ response to the placements