Backstory

Born in the squalor of Ironhold's lower city, Latif Coetzee never knew his parents—only that they were debts unpaid in the ledger of the city's brutal history. A natural climber and thief, he managed to scale the sheer walls separating the slums from the elite district of Dagger Hill, driven by hunger and a rumor that the rich threw away whole chickens. He was caught picking pockets in The Crown and Scepter by Madame V herself. Instead of turning him over to the guards, she saw utility in his small size and complete lack of fear.

Now, Latif works as a pot-boy and server in the tavern. He is the "eyes and ears" below waist height, scurrying between the legs of Dagger Hill's elite and the desperate bohemians who frequent the establishment. While he plays the part of the clumsy, obedient servant, he is dangerously observant. He has noticed that the "Silver Only" coins Madame V collects are never spent, but vanish into her private quarters. More disturbingly, he is the only one who tends to the massive hearth—the one containing the hidden "Crown" artifact. While the artifact makes patrons hedonistic and pliable, it seems to have a different effect on Latif: it fuels an insatiable, manic curiosity. He has begun hearing a low humming from beneath the cellar floorboards (the dormant Scepter/Gateway), a sound that calls to him more than any amount of gold.