CAMPAIGN: Queen Arkwyn's Crown (D&D5e)

[Newbie Newtype]

Hyne locks the deadbolt once he is inside, then uses the hook intended for a candle to hang his newer jacket.

He looks around briefly. Decrepit place, this is. He checks to make sure there the walls can't be seen through easily through age and the cracks.

Perception: 1D20+3+3 => (7 + 3 + 3) = 13

He then moves to hide the box just like he did the other day, using the pillow sheet. He moves around the book shelf to stay out of line of sight from the window.

Throwing the pillow back onto the bed he looks out of the window to survey the harbor. He'll probably be getting on one of those ships if at all possible.

He then goes to bed.

[Bob the Hamster]

Although the room is bare and the building decrepit, the holes and cracks that Hyne finds in the wall seem to be stuffed with wool insulation. The room seems secure from prying eyes, no noises are audible from the nearby rooms.

The harbor is very large. It looks like the harbor district is more than a quarter of the city, with the largest ships docked at the west end by a row of buildings that look like temples. The medium and small ships are docked in a veritable floating maze of small docks and slips filling the center and east parts of the harbor.

A weathered old stone breakwater protects most of the harbor from the big waves outside. The tide is low right now, and the lower parts of the breakwater are encrusted in barnacles and corrals. There are two tall lighthouses on the breakwater, one marking each edge of the gap where ships can sail in and out. The sea is spotted with a handful of sails, but most ships are in the harbor. What might be storm clouds are brooding far out on the horizon.

Some kind of large market square on the south end of the harbor is half-obscured behind the profile of one of the nearby rooftops.

[Newbie Newtype]

Knowing that the market place is a short trip nearby, Hyne opts to head to bed for the night, using the same strategy to draw attention towards his larger bag without the crown that seemed to work previously as he sleeps.

[Bob the Hamster]

The night passes uneventfully, and Hyne is not disturbed in his rest.

In the morning around sunrise, Hyne can hear distant drums and trumpet music start up. It sounds like the same tune that the soldiers were playing off and on through the funeral procession, just more and louder.

It seems to be coming from the direction of the harbor.

[Newbie Newtype]

Not wanting to go near the funeral anytime soon, Hyne instead opts to leave behind some extra weight that would draw attention and put on clothing that would adequately hide his leather armor and allow him to appear more casual until he can alter his appearance. He only brings a knife, his money, the satchel with the crown, and his hempen rope. He keeps the knife under a jacket pocket and the rope looped around the satchel's strap.

When he returns to the counter, he says, "I plan on returning to collect my belongings later. It shouldn't be more than the time I paid for." Then he heads out to find the clothing store.

[Bob the Hamster]

Before Hyne even gets near the market, he finds a whole street full of clothiers and tailors. There is an enormous variety of clothing here, and he should be able to find almost any costume he can imagine, as long as he doesn't plan on dressing like a poor person, because all of this, even the stuff that obviously looks like it is marketed to sailors, is pretty posh.

Not everybody in the city is dressed so nicely, so presumably there are other places to buy clothes if Hyne chooses to keep searching.

[Newbie Newtype]

Due to the selection and variety, it should be easy to piece together an affordable set of clothes. He picks up an eye patch first and foremost and a suit jacket made of blue fabric with belt fittings.

[Bob the Hamster]

After spending 4 gold (spread over 6 different shops) Hyne is able to assemble an outfit that makes him fit in perfectly, looking like a gentleman-about-town in a pirate-filled city.

Shopkeepers and other shoppers are gossiping about the latest news.

Hyne overhears people talking about the funeral ceremony that is supposed to take place in the High Temple of Lockean, followed by a procession to the Royal Castle for the new Queen's coronation.

The general public will be allowed onto the castle grounds for the event, according to some ladies rushing to find suitable new dresses for the occasion.

A fellow with a foppish moustache and a tri-corner hat explains to some other shoppers that no, in fact, the funeral has been moved from Lockean's temple to Pelor's temple at the last minute. "What does it matter which sanctuary they use?" scoffs back his friend, "Just go to Temple-Row, and follow the crowd!"

There is also some talk about a rumor that Duke Borgan defeated a major Jenn invasion at Bovo Township last night. One merchant in a leather-goods shop denounces the sailor telling him the rumor; "You salty liar! How could the Jenn get all the way to Bovo without fighting all the way through Gnur province first?" he protests incredulously.

[Newbie Newtype]

Hyne spends a moment attempting to transform himself, just enough to be overlooked more easily in the city. He listens in on the gossip from through the door, trying to get a fix on their accents so that he can imitate how they sound in future conversation.

While carving away excess bits of hair, he considers different outcomes that would lead to a bypassing of a stronghold. Despite their air force, the Jenns have been using foot units, so the most likely reasoning could be politics. Given the threat of the crown, it stands to reason the Jenns' attack would be just in the eyes of most nations.. no, that's not true. Why would the Gnur want the Jenns to have the crown? It would not be a mutual benefit. They must have developed a different agreement as an excuse, or the Jenns really did bypass them in some way.

He puts on the eye patch, then tightly wraps a bandanna under his hair. After concealing his new knife, he re-enters the warmth of Pelor's gaze, and soon paying the clothier for their services.

Now that he may blend in with the natural citizens of the city, Hyne now heads to the part of the city to seek out maps and other geological information he'll need for his departure.

[Bob the Hamster]

Two possible places to get maps are easy enough to find.

"Maps? Try the Guild Library on Temple Row" suggests one shop-keeper.

"Naw, you'll want Meleander's booth at the market-square." says a young fisher-woman. "They are the best cartographer in all of Srappa."

[Newbie Newtype]

Hyne does his best to make his voice much more hoarse, and alters his vocabulary somewhat, "Thank ya, I'll be tryin' the market first." They might update their charts more often than a library.

[Bob the Hamster]

The market-square is a large open space right on the edge of the harbor. It is very busy and full of life. Blending in here is even easier than in the rest of the city.

To the west are a lot of tall grand buildings that must be temple row. There is a lot of activity and music over there, obviously the lead-up to the funeral in a few hours.

To the east are many large buildings that might be the residences of the nobles, and far off behind them up against the mountainside, the top parts of the royal castle are visible

To the north is the harbor, with tall sails and vessels flying flags both familiar and foreign. The sea fills the whole horizon in this direction-- or at least what little of the horizon that can be seen between all the many ships. The twin lighthouses on the breakwater are visible, and the storm clouds are mounting in the distance. It might be a sunny morning, but it will probably not be a sunny afternoon.

The market is a jumble of stalls, almost like a street-fair. The smell of fish is dominant, but the stalls seem to be selling everything under the sun, not just fresh fish.

Some of the stalls seem to be selling services you might not expect to see sold in a market Alongside fishmongers, farmers, craftsmen, merchants, traders, entertainers, con-artists, and junk peddlers Hyne also spots stalls like

"Siege Weapons Built To Order -- Deck Mountable"
"Ransom & Bail Bonds"
"Custom Decorative Barnacling"
"Curses for Your Enemies"
"Weather Scrying"
"CARTOGRAPHY"

This last one is subtitled "Meleander, Proprietor" with a smaller sign affixed to the larger one reading: "The Cartographer is IN"

[Newbie Newtype]

Hyne gives a brief headshake at the offered variety of services, mosty hardly useful. He heads to the cartographer's market as immediately as he can. He takes a glance into the store from outside, then decides to open the door to enter the shop.

[Bob the Hamster]

The cartography shop is more sturdily built than most of the other booths at the market, and it looks like it could weather a wind that might cause the other merchants pack up and go home.

The outside surface is covered in heavy canvas, and decorated with stylized renditions of coastlines and archipelagos.

Inside the booth is flooded with bright diffuse light. All around are racks of rolled up maps, and shelves full of books and folded maps. Only a handful of maps are actually on display.

In the center of the room is an enormous table spread with paper, pens, brushes, compasses, rulers, and other drafting tools.

Behind the table sits a rather large, rather strange looking person. Nobody else is in the shop.

This person's face and hands seem to be made of metal and porcelain. Their neck and jaw are all swivel joints and exposed ball-bearings, while their large, let delecate hands seem to be bundles of push-wires and hinges rather than muscle and bone

This is a warforged, I don't know if Hyne knows about them or not

They have a neat powdered wig like a magistrate's on their head, and they are wearing an embroidered jacket of a deep salmon color, and a sky blue silk shirt. The shirt is partially unbuttoned, showing more metal and ceramics underneath.

In spite of the materials this person is made from, they do have a very human look to them, and the bear a mixture of robust and delicate features that suggest at both masculinity and femininity.

They look up smoothly from their work, fixing Hyne with the gaze of a pair of gemstone-like eyes.

"Welcome, guest! Welcome to Meleander's Cartography, It is I, Meleander! Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

Meleander's voice is evenly paced, and rather nasal. There are faint undertones of a stringed musical instrument twanging in-between some of the words.

[Newbie Newtype]

Hyne looks around unassumingly, taking in the environment as a shop with an owner away and a life size child's toy nearby. The maps that are set to be on display immediately take his interest- it'll allow him to give a survey of the geological area and where he can go overseas. Even just finding names will allow him to do further research about the areas.

But before he can draw close to an open map to look at it, he is startled by a sudden voice amidst the shop feeling empty other than the faint scent of the pulp fabrics used for the map scrawls.

The toy had moved. The way its artificial features articulate and move in such a precise manner gives an unnerving feeling, and the way the voice is articulated with a mechanical buzz only adds to the discomfort.

Hyne doesn't understand the technology. Is this some kind of quirky gimmick, to put on a puppet show for visitors of the shop? He looks upward, his head and gaze tilted above the angle where eye contact would normally be made so that he can look for strings controlling the puppet. With the assumption that the actual shopkeeper is in the roof somewhere, he calls out using his faked voice, "I am.. Thulsa Stormeel. I came to browse the charts."