Krackor moves to ask the servers about whom to speak with for a large room. Once he is so informed, the priest finds the person he was directed to and enquires about accommodation. He then asks after a local history buff, an old wisen person and tales of old from the local area, maybe a bard.

Harun headed off to see to a hot bath. Enough days on the road had him smelling like a goblin in a midden heap. After that, he deposited his belongings in his room (either one he acquires or one procured by Krackor).  Once he was unencumbered and less malodorous, he joined the company at their table.  He nodded to Keya and Lorsan with a smile.  It was good to see that they willing to share a meal with his company.

"How long are we planning on resting here?" he asked Corym. "I'm not hurrying you, mind.  Beds, baths, and hot meals are always a welcome thing."

"Long enough to rest and resupply.  Perhaps to find some word of what lies ahead of us on the road.  There's little enough lore in this place.  No one is 'from' The Way Inn per se.  It's a place that people pass through.  The best way to find news of what we're looking for here would be to consult the guides of various caravans.  Taeghen used to perform that function for us, having guided many a wagon train through the North himself.

"Many guides may know of paths and trails 'best avoided' or 'good camps' that are, in reality the foundations of fallen fortresses and palaces.  Our very first expedition was to such a site.  It was dangerous, profitable, and much was learned.

"Lexanna needs to develop her understanding of The North, and so should probably speak to them as well.  Harun, it seems that you have an easy way about you and easily fall in with all sorts of company.  Perhaps you and Lexi and Krackor can approach a few of these fellows tomorrow?  I am working on a visual dossier that might help identify the sites from the hearsay and practical experience of the caravaners.

"We'll stay tonight and tomorrow--leaving the next day if we fail to find anything of use."

"A grudge would make it more interesting?" Lexanna asked incredulously.

In reply to Corym Ildroun (msg # 73):

I found that there is a certain way to speak with Caravan Masters and Guides, I found it most interesting when finding out what exciting things had been encountered by being enthused about the route and goods.  More so, the antics that the crew got up to.

I shall see if there is a priest here a bouts too, they tend to aid those wishing to offer aid to others.

"I'll gladly accompany Krackor," Harun said.  He clapped the dwarf on the shoulder. "I've not much experience speaking with caravan masters.  I shall be happy to learn from my betters."

Harun looked around the room. "It's a busy place. Is it always like this?"

First time I've been here but when end of seasons are almost upon the caravan routes, my understanding is that yes, like this and more so, to get the final load of goods across then back in time to miss the bad weather.

Krackor and Harun

Inquiring at the bar, you're pointed in the direction of one of the central tables where two dozen men and women, mostly humans, are busy eating. Closest toward you is a whip-thin man with a scraggly beard, his face bronzed and weathered from a life on the road. The bartender tells you that his name is Halazar, and he looks up as you approach. "Aye? Can I help you? Or are you here to buy us a round?"

"Sure!" Kora says brightly. "Like those spices we'd get from Calimshan. Burns but tastes so good."

She winks at you. "Remember Alessa?" The name is instantly familiar; a scion of one of Hill's Edge's other major merchant families. Your age, moved in the same social circles, and had made it her job to make both of you miserable since the age of six.

Corym

You've been working on your series of sketches for the past tenday, pulling out pencil and paper whenever the group stops for a rest and around the campfire. By now you've got it as close to complete as you're able.

The problem is that you haven't actually seen examples of many of the styles in person. You're familiar with Evereskan architectural styles for seven thousand years, but Evereska has remained isolated from both the world in general and architectural innovation in particular. In a lot of ways a modern Evereskan building is much like post-Crown Wars "silver age" Evereskan building.

And while you did some tromping through ruins of both Eaerlanni and Siluvanaeden ruins, those realms are about as far north as you can get, and had their own peculiarities.

For most of your exemplars you're forced to either rely on illustrations you saw in Evereska's libraries (and whose accuracy you're unsure of), or extrapolate from near scratch. You're pretty confident in your Illefarn-era (they traded with Evereska) work, somewhat less for Ardeep. For Delimbyran, Hunnabar, and the rest of non-elven Phalorm, well, it might be accurate. Or it might just be some very pretty pictures.

Either way, the book is ready.

"I'm up for a round or two."  Obar slaps some money on the table.

"What?!? I can understand wanting to pull her hair, but not--"  a look of realization dawns on Lexanna "--oh. OH!"  Lexanna's young eyes get reflective.  "Have you ever pondered how my family made a living from flouting laws and upholding strict social conventions while yours seems to have been somewhat the opposite? Father wanted me to wed Sememnon, the Lord of Darkhold.  He was convinced that he was just 'sowing wild oats' with his 'elven tart.'"  A look of horror dawns on Lexanna's face.  "You don't think that's why... It doesn't matter. It happened and its not my fault."  She banishes those thoughts.  "That's why I never had a coming out party.  Suitors weren't going to be accepted.  I was being 'reserved' like one of Krackor's casques of ale."  She looks at herself in hunting leathers, axes, falcons, boots and laughs bitterly.  She tries to punctuate the laugh with something wry, but chokes on it, and laughs a little more authentically.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Fri 10 Aug 2018.

Since the company is parting ways to see about their respective tasks, Corym first tries his portfolio on Keya and Lorsan.  "I don't know if you ever made it to any real ruins, but if you did, or if you've passed some, I'd like you to see if you can identify any similarities herein.  Such knowledge may prove useful.  Are you up for it?"

Walking up to the bar, Krackor puts on his best impression of a Caravan Master and Trader (it isn't very good but ...)
Good man, I'm sure you can help us and I shall indeed buy you a drink Halazar, and your friends too.  I hear you are the group to talk with regarding any ruins here about, we have a member of our party that finds them and their architecture fascinating.  If I have arrived at the wrong place, I will gladly leave you be..once the drinking has finished that is!

Krackor and Harun

Halazar raises his mug to Obar in appreciation as two bar lads refill mugs and pitchers. "Adventurers, are you? Looking to find some un-looted tomb? Well, it feeds the monsters and keeps them away from the Trade Way, so I'm all for it. Sure, I can share some clack with you."

He leans back in his chair and takes a thoughtful pull of his beer. "Well, there's the Company of the Gray Unicorn. They set out to explore the ruins of Tavaray, in the Lizard Marsh, when the snows melted. They only expected to be gone a moon, but when we came through Daggerford there wasn't any word of them. So they must have found something interesting."

"There was them rumors of drow in the Misty Forest, don't forget," a man halfway down the table put in.

Halazar shook his head. "That was just a logging coster wanting adventurers to kill elves for them so they'll stop putting arrows into the loggers. There's ruins in those woods, I know, but I wouldn't want to tangle with green elves on their own turf." He takes another sip. "But a few years ago I did hear word that someone scouting the approaches to Dragonspear stumbled onto the entrance to a dwarven ruin. They got chased out of it quickly by something that went unmentioned."

He grins at you. "Anything sound interesting?"

Corym

Lorsan leans forward, taking the book and thumbing through it. "You have a good eye for detail," he says, almost grudgingly. He taps a few pages of Delimbiyran buildings. "But you haven't seen an exemplar of this, have you? It doesn't have the layers of the elven pieces earlier."

He shakes his head. "You really are interested in this for the art of it, aren't you? I suppose as an Azuthan I should do what I can to encourage it." He turns the book to Keya and points to one of the illustrations. "What do you think, sister?"

Keya takes the book and looks. Slowly, she nods. "That looks familiar. A little. There was a ruined tower out in the moor. Leaning, poor condition. Some trolls were using it as a lair. Aduin wasn't interested in it, so we didn't explore. Not really much there, though."

"I'm so sorry," Kora says immediately, moving from the horse she was grooming to stand with you. "We all... I mean, I heard my uncle and father saying they thought your father was fishing for something big, but I never thought he'd be thinking... that." She shuddered. "Better on the road with us, don't you think? Even with the occasional ambush."

"What are the ruins of Tavaray?" Harun asked. He grinned at Halazar. "I'm not overly familiar with the local places of legend. And who're the Company of the Gray Unicorn? Were they notable adventurers?  Should their disappearance give us pause?"

Harun looked at Krackor sheepishly, "Sorry. Supposed to be letting you talk not running off at the mouth."

Halazar shrugs. "Tavaray was a city in the plains. Now it's a ruin in a swamp. You want to know more, find a sage, not a merchant. The Grey Unicorn had made a bit of a name for themselves, aye. Enough that I've heard of them." He chuckles. "They weren't the Crazed Venturers, but they weren't swordlings, either. They wouldn't have fallen to a couple of goblins."

In reply to Harun As-Saif (msg # 87):

Listening, Krackor waited for the others to finish before he spoke again, just in case.

I'm sure your knowledge is as good as any sage for the now, they just fill in the histories. Now a Bard if you know one!

We are members of the Dreams of the Ancients Exploration Company, looking more for bringing things back into the time from the past, images, knowledge of glory days and if treasures be found, to take to where they should be, reconnecting kin to kin and protecting those who we encounter.

A worthy course and with the prospect of protecting caravans we travel with and making merchants more profit with what we sell them.

What's at Daggerford? Someone there may be able to update us more.

Raising his tankard To Health, Wealth and an Interesting Life

"Daggerford's a town, biggest place between here and Waterdeep," Halazar says. "There're a few villages with terrible food and barely a crossroad to their name along the road, but they're not worth much. Daggerford has proper facilities, the prettiest festhalls south of Waterdeep, and plenty of grazing. It also has a duke, but you can't have everything. It's a good place to do research if you're one for books rather than walking and seeing for yourselves."

In reply to DM (msg # 90):

Thank you, most helpful. Lets drink to new friends

Halazar laughs. "I can always drink to that!" He wave at the bar, and soon the two bartenders are back with more pitchers of beer.

((ooc: Anything else that anyone wants to do in the taproom? You can get rooms for the night easily, and the food is good.))

"Indeed I have not, a deficiency I hope will soon be rectified."



"Less for the art and more for the craft.  There are many things that were well known to the ancients that are lost now to us.  While our minds--you and I--my first go to the consideration of Art, my training as engineer, stone mason, and architect broadens my perspective somewhat.  The secrets of such craftsmen are seldom written down, but passed orally from master to apprentice.  But the works wrought by their hands may yet tell us much, and if the lessons are adequately learned, then the people of the present will be the beneficiaries."



"When you say not much, what do you mean?"


What style is she pointing at?

"I just think that I haven't had time to dream yet.  I still remember my old dreams, you see. But now my feet are on a different path.  What am I to become?  I still feel as if I am becoming--not yet what I should be. If life is a ledger, what will my balance be? What do you want to be?"  Lexi asks with deep interest.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:30, Sun 26 Aug 2018.

Keya shrugs. "I mean it was a leaning tower, a few pieces of fortified wall, and some lumpy areas in the moor that could have been buildings. Or maybe they were just mounds of earth. Like I said, we didn't stay long."

((ooc: She's pointing at the human section of the book. Delimbiyran/Phalorm.))
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:48, Tue 28 Aug 2018.