A group of travelers, each for their own reasons, have individually left their homes throughout the Rainbowlands intending to travel across the Ultraviolet Grasslands, which lie to the west of the Circle Sea, to the Black City. They have travelled the Right Road for weeks, and the stained-glass walls and towers of the Violet City, the last outpost of humanity before the Grasslands is visible before them. But, they have encountered a problem.
The road has been running through fields of Cat Coffee plantations, but it is currently blocked by swarms of monkeys that are attacking the Bluelander farmers who are attempting to complete their harvest. It is chaos, and the many travelers on the road are blocked.
The half-ling bard Johann has been playing his electromonica as he travelled, and increases the volume and attempts to attract the monkey’s attention. This works, and he is soon surrounded by dozens of monkeys, listening to his playing with rapt attention. The Bluelander farmers quickly gather the sacks of Cat Coffee and place them on carts, which are then wheeled rapidly away.
When they are done, Johann stops playing and, after a few moments, almost all of the monkeys scatter; the coffee they were feasting on earlier forgotten. One monkey remains behind and stays close to Johann.
One of the farmers comes up to Johann, thanks him profusely, and gives him a half-sack of Cat Coffee in gratitude.
With Johann is the Elf Syrvelse. She is a Crystalgram influencer and has been posting views from her journey for her followers across the CrystalBallNet. She has been sending recordings of Johann’s music to her followers and, of course, captured the entire scene with the monkeys. She hurries off after Johann.
Also following Johann is the insane-looking Mountain Dwarf, Mortimer. Mortimer just likes the music.
Upon reaching the violet, stained-glass outer walls of the Violet City, the group is forced to again wait briefly as they are inspected before entering. There is an extremely tall and thin woman in a violet robe at the entrance, as well as several cats. The cats rub against the travelers’ legs, then nod to the woman who welcomes them to the Violet City.
Inside the walls, they find an open square lined with shops and stalls and containing benches and seats surrounding a fountain with a statue of a cat. Several roads radiate from the square. From one of them comes the sounds of shouting and cheering, and down another, they can see another gate with a pair of guards.
The square is full of a polyglot of races and beings. The travelers even get their first glimpse of a pair of Satraps and a group of Porcelain Princes, people of the Grasslands.
Johann finds an open bench, puts out some fliers he had made about his concert, and starts playing his keytar. He immediately starts attracting attention and soon has many listeners around him. Mortimer wanders off looking to buy “souvenirs” from one of the vendors.
Syrvelse has been watching Johann when a white, long-haired cat wearing a golden collar and a small crown, rubs against her legs. When she looks at it, the cat runs a few steps away then watches to see if she is following. She does, and it leads her down one of the roads.
She is led to a pair of city guards in violet-enameled scale mail standing over a dead body. One of them is happy to see her and said that they were not allowed to move the body until the Violet Goddess’s cleric had examined it. Syrvelse has no idea what is going on but examines the body.
It is a human, dead, of multiple knife wounds to the neck. The scars are semi-circular and on both sides of the neck. Almost as if they were killed by a bite from something with a large mouth full of knives.
She searches the body and finds nothing of note but a single pearl. Pearls are rare (the Circular Sea is freshwater and does not have pearl-bearing clams) and, as such, are relatively valuable. She keeps the pearl.
Asking the guards, she learns that there have been several deaths like this one over the last few weeks. In all cases, they have simply been asked to wait until a cleric of the Violet Goddess examines it before taking it away for burial. They have not investigated the crimes further.
Further questioning reveals that this part of the city is a crime-ridden slum, mostly consisting of people who came to the city looking for their fortune, lost everything, and have nowhere else to go. They do the minimum they need to here to keep things under control, but otherwise, ignore it.
A cart arrives, the body is placed on it, and the guards leave with it. Syrvelse returns to the main square with the cat following. She somehow realizes that the cat wishes to travel with her, and she accepts it. She names the cat “Sylvester.”
Meanwhile, two other travelers have arrived in the Torinn, the rogue decides to take advantage of the crowd and starts practicing his thievery. He gets some coins from one mark, and a syringe filled with a silvery, mercury-like liquid from another. Then, he pauses to listen to the bard who is playing.
Caesar, who realizes that they have just been robbed, looks around frantically to see who took their stash, but only sees Mortimer buying an energy drink from a vendor. They rush over and ask Mortimer for the drink, but with an irritated grunt, he simply walks away. They then look at the stall where Mortimer bought the drink and get one for themselves.
Everyone winds up near Johann as he finishes his set. Most of the crowd wanders off, except for a pair of young, gnome women, apparently twins, who introduce themselves as “Kel” and “Kel.” They want to go with Johann to the Black City.
Johann is a bit taken aback but agrees, as long as they pay their way. One of them nods, saying, “Graze, Haze, or Lays,” and agrees. They hurry off after aranging to meet before everyone leaves.
The group talks to each other and realize that they are all heading for the Black City and decide to travel together. They head off to a tavern to make plans.
They wind up at the “Clairmont Lodge.” A musician is playing on a melodic drumset, which is pulsing light around the room. There is a fairly-full dance floor in the middle of the room and caged compartments around the sides of the room with scantily clad dancers of various genders and species. The group finds a table.
Johann joins in on his electromonica with the performer, who doesn’t seem to mind the intrusion but doesn’t acknowledge him either. Many of the travelers visit the bar, and Torinn steals several coins from the tip jar.
They mention to their waiter that they are planning to travel to the Black City and ask about caravans. The waiter says there is someone in the Lodge who is trying to put one together and that he will call for him.
Meanwhile, word starts spreading through the bar that the travelers are planning on braving the Grasslands to visit the Black City. They get many looks of resignation, which one of them describes as “dead men walking.” But they get some looks of jealousy too.
Eventually, they are greeted by Woger de R.F.D, an impressively tall and mustachioed man wearing a sharply tailored and pressed traveller outfit. He is leading a caravan delivering Vampire Wine and Livingstone bricks to the Last Serai. He is looking for guards for the trip. He offers 100 coins per person on arrival.
The party negotiates and gets him to agree to provide them with 40 coins each in advance, plus he will allow them to keep some of the wagons after delivery at the Last Serai so that they can continue their journey. The party agrees and says they will meet him at the Western Gate the next morning.