Agatdoel

“Did you know that I was once the mayor of this town? No? Well it isn’t surprising if you look at me. Do I even look remotely like a mayor to you?”

“No, of course not. I look like any other old fool you find in a place like this. Rumpled and sad and red nosed, yes?”

“Well three years ago you wouldn’t find me in a place like this. No ma’am. Only the finest restaurants. The finest company on my arm, particularly considering that I am a man of my age.”

“What?!?!? No sir. I am no where near that age. I am 53 sir. A respectable age for a respectable gentleman.”

“Well, yes that is my point. I am down on my luck. Out of sorts you might say, and it is all the secretary for the Minster of Streets and Sewers fault.”

“I see that look my good woman, and I stand by my statement. If it wasn’t for that wretched little weasel of a man I would still be mayor and this town wouldn’t be crumbling down around our ears.”

“What? Oh, how? Ah, yes, well you see that is the difficult part. You see, on its surface, it doesn’t appear like a man of that position would be such a powerful force in the politics of our fair town, now would it? No of course not. I can see from your face you agree it to be odd.”

“I thought so too until I began to tie the strings together. You see, four years ago, our town is prosperous, I am the mayor, but I foresee the current change in the trade climate. The insurrection next door, the cooling of the weather, the shift in production from our salt mine. All these things I saw coming towards us, and so wanted to make sure our finances could weather the storm, as it where.”

“So I asked my secretary to bring me our finances and I proceeded to notice a curious fact. An inordinate amount of money was flowing into the Streets and Sewers ministry. Important though that ministry is, this amount of money is unheard of. I began to make inquiries, looked at documentation, the usual sort of investigation, as it where.”

“And what did I find, this secretary, a Finkul by name, was the only member of the ministry to be in his position the entire time the records showed the influx of funds. No other member of that ministry, save those who work on the actual streets and sewers of course, but him.”

“So of course I made some inquiries about him in particular.”

“And that. That is when things started to go sideways for me.”

“First there was several op-eds in the papers accusing me of mismanaging our finances. The usual noise, but with suspect timing.”

“Then there was that nonsense about me and the girls at the brothel when I was a young magistrate. I mean seriously, who doesn’t visit a brothel at that age? Suddenly people care? Ridiculous!”

“I see you are finally realizing who I am. Hah! You see! I told you I was the mayor once. You did not believe me. Oh and don’t look so horrified. I did none of the things they accused me of at the end. The inquest after I was impeached proved it all to be falsehoods or innuendo. But I digress. Where was I?”

“Ah yes. You see, after the brothel thing didn’t bring me down, suddenly there became a shift in the seasons, as it where, in the town hall. People whispering behind my back. Not attending my meetings, of if they were, trying to leave them as quickly as possible. No one would meet my eye. Months of this, and the government ground to a halt.”

“It was then the salt shortage started of course. Then I was cooked. The scandal about the children broke. I was impeached and that idiot from the Porter’s Union was elected in my place. And guess who his secretary is, hmm?”

~ From Taubha’s Lesser Book of Names

Agatdoel is a lesser member of the House of Linekegh, but is highly effective in his primary arena, local politics. Scholars suspect that he was a minor political functionary when the Madness struck him, transforming him into the perfect local operative. He is notorious for establishing himself as a minor functionary, able to sow chaos within a city or town, isolating those who would stop him, and creating a web of red tape to protect his schemes.

Adventurers that run across him might find that no one wants to take their hard earned coin, or if they do they charge a steep markup. The economics of their home base might be teetering on disaster. Wise friends might become isolated pariahs suffering from scandal or give into political corruption for a small taste of power. It makes him an insidious villain, difficult to find and uproot, like a most tenacious weed.