The lady practically had a plan to commit a coup on a city, and Cathy found herself impressed that said coup included an entire cultural upheaval as a byproduct. It was a logical conclusion from her perspective, and from the perspective of the lady, but apparently no one in this dimension had seen this coming. Turn the entire city into one dependent on the things so hated by the rest of the world, combined with the dimensional merge, and Esstrey has practically separated the humans of Malencia from Faerune permanently, calling them human, elf or dwarf no longer seems fitting. They won''t be treated or acknowledged as such anyway once Faerune finds out what kind of things Malencia is consorting with in the name of survival. They won''t find mercy anywhere else, and soon enough there will only be ''the Malencian''.
For now however, Cathy has been asked to handle the difficult task of keeping the crafters working on guns specifically calm, Esstrey said that she didn''t care much for the others, and that they would fall in line eventually, but the people working on making parts for guns are vital. No interruptions would be permitted in the production of guns, and that''s exactly what will happen if Cathy wouldn''t step in. The shoggoth elected to take Sofia with her for this cause, the metallic slime has become quite the object of drooling for every dwarf, which amounts to 81.429% of all smiths. Sofia has also been instrumental in the creation of the most difficult parts of guns, and Cathy has a feeling that if Esstrey wasn''t able to acquire a worker''s base, she would have simply relied on the slime to mold the guns for her.
Cathy enters the bazaar-like structure that is now being used to house the various branches of the workers. A large building that was bought up for cheap by Esstrey when trade died, the various crafters can still work on things that aren''t guns, but were told that every gun of acceptable quality would be bought up by the administration, and blueprints for the weapons were freely handed out after being reverse-engineered. Cathy quickly receives some odd stares, as a shoggoth is an odd sight for anyone not familiar with what the locals call The Beyond, but Sofia''s presence turns all looks of suspicion into that of happiness. Dwarves with some spare time already start to gather around the slime, partially in awe of her being made from pure adamantine, and partially in awe of the fact she''s sentient. There''s also not a single smith not aware of Sofia''s natural ability to make complicated parts with ease, and the rudest things they have done so far is attempt to buy her off Esstrey in an organized effort, to which she simply responded to by asking for their entire families as slaves instead as equivalent exchange. None have attempted to buy Sofia after that, but after receiving a shipment of booze ''in exchange for treating her nicely'' all parties involved treated that incident as water under the bridge.
"Ma''am, I presume yer with the Bean an Locha? What can the forge do for ya?" An elder dwarf approached Cathy, correctly presuming that someone lacking in the legs department while looking more like something from outside the walls would be an associate of Esstrey.
"This one was [sent/deployed/put in action] to maintain the operation of this place while Esstrey returns order to the city, have there been any issues?" Only a few eyes look at the elder dwarf while Cathy speaks, none of which are on her head, the other eyes scan the former bazaar for signs of inefficiencies.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Nuffin'' major ma''am, there have been some supplies stolen meant for the forges, but it''s less of a problem than the food markets nearby shutting down over fear of getting raided." The dwarf takes a piece of cloth to remove the sweat from his brow, it isn''t sweat from the forges, but fear at what the Bean an Locha plans to do to anyone who would interrupt production.
"Nothing major? That''s bullshit!" A human interrupts the dwarf, the tools hanging off his belt indicating skills in the carpentry department.
"Shipments of timber have completely halted, and once people find out we are still getting food shipments they will lynch our families! The riots will soon overrun the entire middle-district, and then even the nobles won''t be safe anymore! What will our ''oh so titanic'' benefactor do about this!?" The dwarf gestures at the carpenter to calm down, but Cathy simply stares at him with the eyes on her face.
"Your worries have been noted, this one has also noted the [supply/goods/fuel] theft. Such a matter may seem [trivial/minor/non-issue], but this is a weapon factory, nothing is safe." Cathy''s calm demeanor forces the carpenter to back down, especially considering his rage causing Sofia to get a bit too close to the one he ranted at.
Mentally, Cathy makes a note of how the volatile behavior seems to be common with humans lately, and will recommend Esstrey to launch an investigation into it. Katerina might be able to get some clues to their behavior if she eats a few brains, she''s their best specialist when it comes to that. Cathy goes around getting more acquintances with all the workers, most of the enchanters appear to be elves, who didn''t have too much energy with her interactions with them, but their situation also appears to be nominal. Then the screaming and yelling starts.
"There... there be undead outside!" A dwarf loudly yells through the factory, alerting everyone currently working. The dwarf quickly gets swarmed by his kin, while less familial crafters wonder what the ruckus is all about, right up until a few open up the curtains they closed to keep the dreary and desperate people away from their sights. A few of the elves even notice demons flying through the sky and... things traveling over rooftops.
"What''s the meaning of this? Why in the blazes are monsters overruning the city?" A few of the more observant crafters note that the monsters did not come from outside, but from the direction of the keep instead. Said crafters quickly rally their fellows to the representative of the duchy that just so happenend to visit. Sofia stands next to Cathy, and grows some sharp spikes to dissuade any lynching attempts.
"The duchy has decided to supplement its forces with additional troops, it has also found a viable solution to the food [problem/issue/conundrum]. Please remain calm, this one can only answer one [question/query/inquest] at a time. [Failure/declining/lacking] compliance will result in punitive action." At first Cathy goes ignored, but another small show of force by Sofia when the spikes she formed become more weapon-shaped cause some of the dwarves and elves to back off, which cascades into the crafters losing the will to lynch their local government official as some back out. Slowly Cathy starts answering questions, while reassuring everyone present that no, their families themselves are not the solution to the food problem, and yes, all those creatures are with Malencia. The protestors outside have no such luck when it comes to explanations, undead don''t talk, Beyonders are incomprehensible, and demons dislike talking. On the bright side, no lethal actions are taken against the protestors, and roughly ten minutes after the monsters roll through an area it is followed by kobolds and the guard who are stuck in between being nervous about walking outside with so many ''civilized beings'' around and their newfound allies respectively.