Even with fewer channeling customers and more expensive meals Blai is comfortable. He doesn't really know what he's supposed to do with all the money, actually, it's not like the banks are sophisticated enough to tell him that he should invest it in thus and such a way. He starts looking into the state of the art in charity.

It's not much of a thing. Humans do it a bit up north, but Drakes are strong individualists and Gnolls either follow suit or support each other in communities. There are people who give to beggars, and some businesses give out leftovers at the end of the day, there's the concept of charitable activities, but no systematic money-in-Good-out machines. The closest are pop-up funds for victims of disasters, there was one that spun up after the undead attack a few months ago, but nothing's going on right now, especially with everyone busy preparing for the spring floods.

Someone suggests that he could write to Pallass' immigration office to ask if there's a fund for victims of that Goblin Lord business.

Can they remind him what Goblin Lord business?

"Oh, you weren't here when the news came, were you? There's a new Goblin Lord, supposedly, just south across the Blood Fields. Hasn't come north enough to bother us yet, but they killed a whole Gnoll tribe and took out a village... more than one by now, I wager. Pallass has a coalition going trying to take it out, last I heard. Nasty business."

"Where is the immigration office?"

"I meant the immigration office of Pallass in Pallass. Don't think they have one here, unless you count the embassy and I don't know if they'd know anything... if nothing else they'd know the right address, which I don't." He can get directions to the embassy.

"How long a trip is it to Pallass? Is it traversible this time of year?"

"Depends on how you get there, doesn't it? The floodplains are already filling, so you'll have to pay an arm and leg for a boat that'll get you to the south shore in one piece, and if you fancy a five-hundred mile walk in the height of spring that's going to be two weeks, at least, maybe three. I was thinking you'd just send them a letter, to be honest."

That's probably a more reasonable initial step. He will write to them asking if they have a fund for victims and how it is managed and disbursed.

The government isn't operating a fund, but here are contact details for a refugee mutual support group that has been soliciting donations?

He will write them a letter too!

They would be happy to take his money! They don't have... like, expense reports, they're just a bunch of people that fled their towns as they got sacked and joined up in Pallass. There's 112 of them? Donations are split between households by headcount and nominally go towards rent and food, but nobody's auditing what people do with their share.

......well, he's not going to dump all his money on them but he will send them a chunk of change that should feed a bunch of them for a while.

yay :)

He gets a thank you letter.

In the meantime, the weather isn't getting better, and the markets have slowed to a crawl. The city gates are closed. Some of the traders and adventurers who decided to stick in town despite the dungeon moratorium are bemoaning the rains, but the locals take it in stride.

A Gnoll shows up one day, asking if he can get an appointment. He has the llkk of one of the out-of-towners, sopping wet where he's not covered up properly and disgruntled about it. Smells like wet dog.

Sure, Blai will take an appointment in his office.

He does his best, though not very successfully, to unwet himself before going in and sitting down.

"I'm Ferris. From Manus. Can I ask for confidentiality, on the contents of this conversation?"

"...that's not a habit I've historically been in, which is not a no, but I would need to think about it or know more about at least the general topic."

"Very broadly speaking, we're in possession of information relevant to each other, and I would like to discuss this without leaking to anyone else the possession, or the relevance, of involved information."

"Will this exchange of information put me at any particular risk of violent extraction attempts, make me complicit in criminal activity, directly endanger anyone...?"

"It will not make you complicit in criminal activity. I don't think it'd directly endanger anyone, so long as you're not sharing it about. Nor am I aware of any specific risk of violent extraction attempts, but given your history you might know better than me what the risk factors are."

"Are you willing to make the promise of confidentiality limited in scope at all or do you require an indefinite one of maximum strength?"

"Would you agree to one of eight months?"

"More easily, at least."

"Are there more assurances or limitations that would help...?"