Beyond the Sky - Session 23

-9th of Autumn's Third-
After crossing the Ellid river, the party have finally arrived at the capital of Ashdale, Kyaro, after several long days.
The Council house, and many other buildings, rest on a cliff face that overshadows a lot of the sprawling city, part of the Ellid running through it.
Crossing the bridge, and stabling their horses, the party make their way to the main street, a large inn standing out, with the name "Rusty Anchor Inn".
Valaire: "This city is not at all as I expected. So... different."
Adrian: "I can't say I'm fond of the place so far."
Arkune: "It kind of reminds me of Mist Harbour."
Night Eyes: "It must be interesting to see how this city first grew."
Valaire sighs, shaking her head.
Valaire: "Just makes me want to return to dear Verseris all the sooner."
Arkune: "At least it seems sunnier than where I'm from."
Adrian: "You mean, did it start on top of the cliff or beneath it?"
Arkune: "Maybe the rich got the upper houses?"
"And the sailors the coast."
Night Eyes: "Indeed, Adrian."
Valaire: "Ah, an all-too-physical metaphor for the royalty looking down on commoners."
Adrian: "Not to mention the decreased danger of flooding."
Arkune: "To be fair, with no trade, the rich lose their riches."
"The portfolk have the true power in places like this."
Valaire: "Nobles are dependent on the hard workers beneath them, but so few remember it."
"Goring seemed all too intent to exploit those who held him up."
Night Eyes: "It is against nobles' best interests to remind them."
Adrian: "The common folk have most of the power everywhere, were they to unite enough to use it."
"Which is why only a fool would give them reason to do so."
Arkune: "So... where does our destination lie?"
Adrian: "Make arrangements for our stay here, then I suppose we'll have quite the climb before we can schedule a meeting with their council."
Night Eyes: "I suppose we will. It should be interesting to see their government."
Valaire: "Leave it to me, my liege. Will 'Natalia' be sharing a room with me again, or shall I set up private accommodations for her?"
Adrian: "I don't think there's any need for you two to share a room now. You haven't had any more of those night terrors for a while, right, Natalia?"
Arkune: "Ah! Right."
"Spending time with 'sis' helped greatly."
"And helped me get over those 'dreams'."
Valaire: "Shall I seek a double bed room for us two, then?"
Arkune: "Ah! No, I think I'll be fine, sister."
Valaire: "Singles it is. Do let me know if you feel uncomfortable again, though. Let Valaire cradle you in her arms and tell you everything's going to be okay."
Inside, the Inn is filled with a fair few people, but as the party has arrived in the morning, most are working. There's a light background chatter as the heroes enter. The bar matron is at the bar, red haired and wearing clothes commonly befitting that of a courtesan, as she serves drinks to various people before going to polish glasses.
Valaire heads immediately to the reception desk, seeking to arrange rooms for the five of them and board for the horses.
Arkune looks around the place, pondering the woman's... 'unusual' attire.
Night Eyes sticks close to the group, taking in the sights and noting the mannerisms.
Arkune: "I've heard a little of this city, it's the first time I've ever seen it in person though... do you think all innkeepers dress like her here?"
"It's nice to see more gnomes and dwarves again... do you think they're why folk like Twilalux are able to hide so well in my homeland?"
Adrian looks around the inn with a slightly disapproving expression, trying to listen for snippets of conversation.
Night Eyes: "Twilalux would stand out anywhere."
Adrian: "Folk like Twilalux could blend in there? That sounds unlikely, if not worrying."
Arkune: "Well, some gnomes do too... maybe everyone just mistakes whatever he is for a... really drunk and strange gnome. With some kind of disease."
Adrian: "That I can believe."
Valaire returns to the group of her awestruck allies, jingling a few keyrings around her clawed finger.
Valaire: "Our rooms are secured~"
Night Eyes: "Excellent."
Valaire: "They're a bit out of the way, at the end of the hall, but still relatively near each other."
Valaire distributes the keyrings indiscriminately.
Adrian: "Good. Thank you, Valaire."
Arkune: "Thank you... hopefully we'll have less nighttime interruptions than the last place."
Valaire: "We can always see if one of the rooms lacks windows. That should minimize unwanted guests."
Night Eyes: "In the meantime, perhaps we should catch up on current affairs?"
Valaire: "Indeed. It is still far too early to be retiring for the night."
Adrian: "Agreed."
Valaire: "So now we have to manage the appeal for peace and make sure it works?"
Night Eyes: "Indeed. We should probably go in with a better understanding of what things are like here, if we want to succeed."
Arkune: "Makes sense. Until we know how the people feel, it'll be harder to build an argument in our favor."
Adrian: "There's quite a lot that could be useful to know. Simply looking around the city may be the best place to start."
Arkune: "(Hey? Want me to try asking around how the folks here view Zeltria and Ashdale?)"
"(I'm less obviously a Zeltrian than you lot. No offense meant.)"
Night Eyes: "(I'm not remotely Zeltrian, but I'm also not a good speaker.)"
Adrian: "(Coax the information out a little less blatantly, if you can.)"
Valaire: "(I might be somewhat less... impartial on the matter. Leaving it to the country mouse may actually be ideal here.)"
Arkune: "(No problem. I could say I'm visiting from the Lunar Isle and curious about the situation?)"
"(I mean, if something were to break out, it would affect travelers.)"
Adrian: "(If you ask people who won't connect it to you arriving here with us.)"
Arkune: "(Maybe... down by the port? Where people come and go all the time.)"
Valaire: "(Considering these are Lunar Isles... that seems more than wise.)"
Night Eyes: "(Agreed.)"
Adrian: "(I think I'd like to find my way to the the lower city. ...Rather, the equivalent here. Someplace a few coins might go a little farther.)"
Arkune: "(Should we meet up back here afterward?)"
Adrian: "(That may be most efficient. And less conspicuous, rather than traveling in a large group.)"
Valaire: "(I'll help myself to how the nobles think. It should be simple to integrate myself as a native and poll their opinions on the matter.)"
Night Eyes: "(That would be most valuable.)"
Adrian: "(Perfect. That, I admit, sounds rather difficult for me to make much progress with myself.)"
The party split up to look for information on their own, agreeing to meet up back at the Inn at the end of the day.

Arkune goes around the main street, gathering information about the city from merchants and sailors alike.

Meanwhile, Adrian heads into the backstreets of Kyaro, Night Eyes at his side, around the ports, where the houses are more hastily built and ramshackle, and kids run around freely.
Night Eyes follows Adrian, her clothing shifted to form a cloak around her face.
Adrian walks around the neighborhood with a calm, oblivious demeanor, looking at each of the streets.
Adrian: "I'm sure the market is this way, it was just a wrong turn or two. This looks like the right road, don't you think?"
Night Eyes: "This is an alley, sir."
Adrian: "It goes to the right road. We turned left the last two times, this one's it."
Night Eyes: "Well, one more left after that and you will be able to find where you were again."
Adrian: "Exactly! I knew this was the right road."
Night Eyes sighs.
Night Eyes: "Come on then, let's do it your way."
Seemingly from behind them, a young boy seems to be running around, and bumps into Adrian.
Street Urchin: "Hey, quit it, Miles!"
Adrian: "Watch where you're going! Look what you just did!"
Street Urchin: "Ah, sorry, Mister!"
"I'll uh... be on my way, I gotta find where my friend went!"
Adrian reaches out and grabs the youngster by the arm, as he turns to run. [Grapple: 14]
Street Urchin: "Ah!"
Adrian: "Nice try, lad. Why don't you come with me and settle whatever it is you just took, hm?" [Intimidate: 26]
Street Urchin: "I...I... aww..."
"Please don't beat me, sir..."
Adrian: "I don't plan to beat you, lad. Dhaltra, come along. Before more of the little rats bother us."
Night Eyes: "Of course. Why, when I was a child..."
Adrian drags the boy by the arm toward the alley, looking for a place out of the way to sit down relatively comfortably.
Night Eyes trails off in thought, before shaking her head and following Adrian.
Street Urchin is pulled along by Adrian, shaking.
Street Urchin holds out his hand, a small pouch in it, closing his eyes and bracing himself.
Adrian sits down against a wall, gently pulling the child down to sit next to him, taking the pouch with his other hand and estimating the remaining contents.
Adrian: "I don't want to hurt you. But I want to know why you took this."
Street Urchin: "Um... well..."
Street Urchin shrinks where he sits.
Street Urchin: "Papa's a port worker and I never get an allowance... and you...u-um... looked like you wouldn't miss a little bit."
"(Mama won't tell me where she gets money from, but Papa says she needs to work at night...)"
Night Eyes looks at Adrian, shrugging slightly.
Adrian smiles at the boy, speaking more gently.
Adrian: "Perhaps. Have you stolen from other people?"
Street Urchin: "Only another guy who was in gold robes. He was mean, he kicked my friend!"
Adrian: "Well, that wasn't very nice of him! Why don't you tell me about this guy in gold robes?" [Diplomacy: 34]
Street Urchin: "W-well, I don't know his name, he just came through here and acted like he owned our houses..."
"They're not much, but a lot of us came from across the sea and we had to make stuff ourselves..."
Night Eyes: "Sounds like we should check the shanty town out. Your family built your own houses?"
Street Urchin: "Y-yeah. Hard work and sweat, and ship wood, they said""
Adrian: "I can imagine that would be hard work. Your parents are busy a lot, aren't they?"
Street Urchin: "Yeah, Papa only comes back n'the evenings, and we're on school holiday for a while..."
"So I'm just stuck by myself all day. I need coins to do stuff."
Adrian: "You think you could do some hard work, like your papa, so you could get your own coins, to spend on anything you wanted?"
Adrian smiles down at the boy, taking out an enchanted gold piece hidden in his sleeve and handing it to the child.
Street Urchin: "Y-yeah. You're... really not gonna hurt me right? The last guy did..."
Night Eyes: "My friend doesn't harm good children."
Adrian: "I really won't hurt you. I think I rather like you, in fact, you remind me of my little girl."
Street Urchin: "O-okay. S'long as it's not too dangerous, I can try my best."
Adrian: "I need a clever little boy like you, someone who can tell me about the city. As you can see, I don't know my way around. But you need to keep it a secret for me, or I won't be able to give you any more coins, alright?"
Street Urchin: "Oh, you wanna know about the city? I know all about the city."
"I overhear lots of things."
Adrian remains silent in concentration while the child is distracted, giving him a small mental prod. [Hypnotic Stare, Conceal Spell - Sow Thought, DC 17 - "this person seems rich and friendly, I should help him"]
[Street Urchin : Will Save: 11]
Street Urchin: "Yeah, I can help you!"
Adrian: "Thank you. I'm very glad to hear it. Now, I'll need to talk to you other days too... how about I meet you here at the same time? I'll pay you more gold each day I find you here and you run a few errands for me. So you won't have to worry about asking your papa for an allowance."
Street Urchin: "Okay!"
Adrian: "For today, can you show us where you found the man in the gold robes?"
Street Urchin: "Yeah, I even know where he went!"
"I tailed him after he beat me..."
Adrian: "Wonderful. That was smart of you. I'd very much like to see this."
Street Urchin: "He's on a boat down at the port."
Night Eyes smiles.
Street Urchin: "It's called... Seapork, I think? Seahawk?"
"I haven't done much reading yet..."
Adrian: "Hm. What's your name, lad?"
Street Urchin: "I'm Kaz Julianos."
"...it's a weird name..."
Adrian: "I don't think it's a weird name at all. Hello, Kaz. My name is Kelton."
Night Eyes: "Dhaltra."
Street Urchin: "Hi, Kelton, Dhaltra!"
"Your name sounds like you're not from here, too, miss."
Night Eyes: "That's right. I travelled with some merchants from the south. Then I met Kelton here."
Street Urchin: "Oooh, nice. I heard there's a bad man in the south. People are unhappy that his friend is in the Parkiment thingie."
Night Eyes: "Hopefully, you won't have to worry about that here."
Adrian: "Oh? His friend?"
Street Urchin: "Yeah, he had a really weird name and a mask on, I saw him go through the main street!"
Street Urchin: "Annnaz.. azzanz..."
"Azzanadra!"
Night Eyes takes a deep breath.
Night Eyes: "That is very welcome information. Thank you."
Night Eyes clenches her hand over her scabbard briefly for comfort.
Street Urchin: "Can I go now, miss and mister?"
"I promise I'll see you tomorrow."
Adrian: "Yes, I think you can. Thank you very much, Kaz. I'll see you tomorrow."
Street Urchin runs off, holding his gold piece gleefully as he speeds along to the Market.
Adrian glances at Night Eyes, setting a hand on her shoulder gently.
Adrian: "Familiar with the name?"
Night Eyes stiffens and tenses up momentarily, before realising it is Adrian and relaxes.
Night Eyes: "Familiar? I spit on it."
"This one might be too important to trouble."
Adrian: "I'll defer to your judgment on this."
Night Eyes: "I will be clear on this. This man is a personal aide of Silske, and another deepborn to boot."
"I am not sure how much a splash we can make without drawing unwanted attention."
Adrian: "I see... given what Kincaid told me, that's very concerning."
Night Eyes: "You will have to share with me what he disclosed."
Adrian: "It means we can't give any sign of connecting Eribe to the current situation, at the absolute least. And that we shouldn't push for any kind of true alliance that he might consider a serious threat..."
"Telepathy. He mentioned that Silske was capable of seemingly unlimited telepathy with his more trusted spies."
Night Eyes: "That... is a very serious concern."