Francis and Jig disembarked the The Concordant Express, arriving just a short ways from Ribcage, and made their way to the gates. The gates, however, were locked, disallowing all ingress into the city for unknown reasons.
Hawkers and solicitors trying to get the attention of the party made it very clear that everyone stunk and should head over to the Gymnasium of Steam in the meantime (first drink at the bar is free).
The duo enters the tavern portion of the bath house, having heard rumors that an information broker could be found inside.
They speak to the proprietor/bartender, Daisy (a very large woman appearing very similar to an orc). The duo redeemed their free drink vouchers (the drinks weren’t poison, beyond the usual toxicity of alcohol of course). Also at the bar, they meet with an orcish, self-proclaimed “information broker,” Conradthew Lucius Skullcracker III, whom they discover is working for the establishment to help keep the hot water flowing while the mechanic sorts out the broken plumbing.
Conrad is able to point out the real information broker, Demorial, a very large, horned rat-thing who was supposedly a former Duke of the Nine Hells. The rat continually twitches and shivers as it speaks.
The former Duke appears to be a legitimate information broker, but won’t reveal his secrets for free, requiring a barter first. They notice the rat continually eying a female halfling at the bar, and they strike a bargain to try and get him a date in exchange for the information they seek.
Conrad recognizes the female halfling as the establishment’s mechanic/plumber, named Modest Mina. They approach her at the bar — she’s dressed in loose-fitting overalls, a floppy hat, and not much else. A tiny pair of bat wings grow out of her back, and near her is a very large hammer (maul).
Striking up a conversation, they find out that she actually doesn’t know much about plumbing, and actually subcontracts to an associate named Reginald Pipefitter.
Reginald previously went down into the underworks of the establishment to try and troubleshoot the plumbing issue, but never came back. Mina is too afraid to go down below, because the underworks is usually staffed and maintained by the undead.
The party strikes another bargain to accompany MIna down into the underworks to find out what happened to her associate and possibly work out the problem with the plumbing (which will also let Conrad off the hook for an outstanding bill).
In the underworks, the party (mostly Francis, actually, using lockpicks improvised by Jig) picks multiple locks to various doors.
One led to a storage room, inside of which they found two Talking Corpse potions.\
In another room, they found where a number of long, metal, rectangular containers. Six of them, with wires leading to a switch on the wall near the door. Jig managed to get one of the containers open (using an improvised crowbar) without tripping the device, inside of which they find a skeleton with an onyx in its mouth.
The party (correctly) intuit this must be where the “staff” are kept until they’re needed, and that operating the switch will wake them up.
Being VERY careful, the party manages to wake up the “staff,” letting only one of them escape the room before then barricading it closed again. The skeleton that made it through is subdued and restrained with rope.
One of the potions is used to interrogate the skeleton. When asked about what happened to Reginald, it responds “Dead.” When asked about the necromancer that normally manages the undead, it responds “Break.” (I forget the other question, but it probably wasn’t too important)
After the scuffle, Francis feels/hears something move nearby them. Nothing could be found, the presence seemingly having left, but the party now suspects they’re being followed/watched. By something.
Having previously avoided a third option because they could hear the sounds of large entities moving down a long hallway before, the party realizes the sounds have stopped, and decide to finally investigate. They arrive in a large circular room with a pool of water at the center, the water reservoir.
Conrad dives down into the pool, having seen something in the water, and discovers a large valve, which the party holds onto.
The passage continues to a door, beyond which Francis can hear the heavy thudding of creatures again.
Eventually, the party heard the heavy footfalls of the creatures in the next room move away, and they summoned up their courage to enter a large boiler room, off to the sides of which branched off steam tunnels full of myriad pipes delivering water and steam to the rest of the establishment.
Also in the boiler room, the party finally discovers what became of Reginald Pipefitter, whose body had been beaten and crushed, probably by whatever the creatures were the party heard before.
And speak of the devil — the creatures returned! Three large, hulking zombie brutes, which the party led back to the larger water reservoir to do battle.
After successfully dispatching the brutes, the party went back to the boiler room and steam tunnels for closer investigation, within which they found numerous treasures.
They also located the broken machinery, which they fixed, bringing the bath house back into full operation, though they still needed to locate the necromancer.
They find another door to the break room at the back of the boiler room.
Inside the break room, they finally find the necromancer, sleeping in a chair, surrounded by sketches of naked people, likely patrons of the establishment. Taking the opportunity to investigate the room more closely, the party also discovered numerous potions. The party tries and fails to wake the necromancer.
Returning to Daisy, the party reports their findings, including about the hidden presence that Francis kept hearing.
Daisy calls out in a booming voice, “LILITO!” After which, an imp appears out of thin air.
The party finds out the dark of the situation — the necromancer, named Thadeus, was paying Lilito to use his innate invisibility powers to spy on patrons and draw naked pictures of them while they bathed.
Thadeus, however, failed to pay Lilito what he was owed, 120 gold. Lilito took his revenge on the necromancer by breaking machinery in the underworks to lure him down there, and then drugged him to put him into an endless sleep in the break room.
Daisy uses the onyxes the party found to pay off Lilito, and reimburses them the rest of what the onyxes were worth, also allowing them to keep the other potions and items they found in the underworks, as well as free room/board for a single night.
This satisfies the conditions of the deal the party struck up with Mina, who then agrees to go on a date with Demorial.
The next day, the party finds Demorial in the bar again, visibly upset about his date with Mina, though he refuses to go into details.
Still, a devil of his word, he agrees to provide as much information as he knows regarding the party’s inquiries.