<table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">NSFW images</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://i.imgur.com/K2hobXZ.jpg)<br/>City streets<br/><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/GoozGWi.jpg)<br/>Yara - head slave<br/><em>(Click any image above to enlarge)</em></div></div></td><td>   </td><td><br/>The crew of the Dawnchaser, men and women both, bid the sisters a fond fairwell and it seemed that more than a few of the crew kept their eyes on the departing women until they had merged with the hustle and bustle of the busy docks.  While the docks back in the port town they'd left in the Faded Lands had been busy, it was no where near as cosmopolitan as the docks here in Laelith.<br/><br/>Just beyond the docks was a large stone marketplace ringed with buildings of new and ancient construction.  As haphazard as the construction was, so too were the people about.  Humans, elves, teiflings, shifters, gnomes, halflings, warforged, dwarves, Eladrin, even an occasional drow beneath a veil or sun parasol were all busy doing buisness in the open air marketplace.  A hundred different scents assailed the sister's noses, spices, fish, and fruit, as well as oiled leather armors and moldy tomes being hawked as 'ancient artifacts' by less than reputable looking vendors.  But over all the overwhelming scent of life, of people.  Sweat and flesh, fragrances and oils, everywhere the press of people created an exotic odor that grew stronger the further they traveled from the salty sea air of the docks.<br/><br/>But if the smells were layered and complex, the sounds were a cacophony.  In every direction languages were spoken in hushed tones, hurried negotiations, shouted disagreements, and racous laughter.  The common trade tongue overwhelmingly used, though there were snippits of dwarvish conversation, elvish singing, halflings shrewd haggling, goblin whining in a high pitched tone, Shifter's typical bassy growls, and many more.<br/><br/>One of the first things that surprised the sisters was the style of dress of many of the people here.  It was as varied as the people.  Despite the sweltering heat, there were dragonborne guards wearing near full plate, and seeming to be no less comfortable than the slave girl who wore nothing but a collar and a diaphanous wrap that could only be called a 'skirt' in the loosest of terms.  Dawn detected magic on the armor, but even Stephanie's untrained eye picked out magical sigils on the shiny metal breastplates that must somehow make such heavy armor tolerable.  The style of dress ranged everywhere in between as well.  High necked dresses with full sleeves worn by obviously noble women carrying parasols, shifters wearing little more than leather kilts and feathers in their hair, goblin merchants with a toga like style of dress that bared much of their upper toros, and an outfit that seemed to wrap the body in loose white sheets exposing only the wearer's hands and eyes, an outfit so loose and flowing that made it impossible to even discern the wearer's gender.  But for those that seemed to be local, and not transient, the style of dressed seemed to put the Shoni worshiping sisters at ease.  Loose flowing garments and exposed flesh was the order of the day, with comfort being favored over modesty.  When the heat could break a hundred degrees every day after noon, it made sense.  The male and female slaves especially seemed to wear little more than belts, loincloths, kilts, skirts, and often sandals in addition to the collars that marked them as such.<br/><br/>Yet for the obvious displays of slavery, none seemed terribly unhappy.  In fact most slaves were unattended and unfettered.  Most only bore their collar as a sign of their servitude, and it was rare as the sisters walked to see a slave shackled in any way.  Admittedly there was no where to go, outside of the walls of the city there was a few farms, but beyond those, nothing but wild untapped and unclaimed jungle.  Beyond the lack of chains however was another sign of the rather light attitude towards slavery in the town.  Their attitude was far more independent than the more rare slave seen back in the Faded Lands.  A slave laborer could be seen laughing and joking with his foreman, the two even sharing a good hearted slap on the back over something that was said.  A slave girl, one breast bared in her toga like tunic, snatched a lavishly dressed noble child as he ran from his mother and scolded the child.  But received not a beating for laying hands on a child of higher station, but an actual thanks from the mother, and a copper coin pressed into her palm.<br/><br/>Dawn agains sensed heavy and powerful magic from every fountain they passed.  So strong were the magical emenations that she could sense them without even casting a spell.  Stephanie on the other hand, while not able to sense them, was drawn to the crystal cool and pristine water that flowed from them.   Only the fact that public fountains were so common and so large kept them from being overwhelmed by the multitudes of people who used them.  One fountain even had a large muscular man, stripped nude, standing under the spray and letting the water sluice sweat from his skin.  None of the locals seemed to look askance at the possible breach in hygine, but the mystery was solved when the sisters overheard a conversation between someone else who must have been new to the city and a local slave.<br/><br/><strong>“How are these fountains all kept so clean, should that man be doing that?”</strong>  The overweight and already sweating merchant asked a gangly teenage boy that had been hired as his guide.<br/><br/>The teenager took one look and nodded,<strong> “Part of the ancient magic.  Water fresh and clean comes in from permanent portals to the plane of water.  Then constantly runs down into the sewers.”</strong>  The boy paused and added, <strong>“Though it's bad form to bathe this time of day when others might want the fountain, a lot of people do late in the day or early in the morning.”</strong><br/><br/>The fat merchant and his guide took a crowded side street shortly after, leaving the sisters alone again to wander the streets.  As they climbed up the sloping streets, heading westwards and upwards further into the city, they could look back to the east and see the ocean behind them as they rose from between stone buildings and towers.<br/><br/>The streets beneath their feet were strange as well.  For long stretches, far longer than could seem possible, the streets seemed to be made of one long chunk of solid granite.  It was only when they came across a vein of different colored stone running through the streets that they figured it out.*  The entire slope that the city was built on must be a massive protrusion of igneous rock.  The city itself was carved into the side of the massive protrusion.  Despite the hard material of the streets, the city was ancient and there were obvious signs of erosion that must have happened in the thousand years since the cataclysm known as the fading, as well as any time before that.<br/> <div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">*ooc</div><div class="spoiler_body">knowledge nature check 10.  Dawn automatically passes, Stephanie only needs a roll of 3 to pass, so i didn't bother to roll.</div></div> <br/><br/>Finally as the women had made their way up the slope, it was Stephanie's keen eyes that spotted what looked like an excellent inn, one that showed promise in terms of cleanliness and professional demeanor.  The sign out front and hanging over the door proclaimed the inn as “D'nai's Rest “ but also the smell of some sort of spicy dish frying wafting through the front door also drew their attention.  The sign standing on the street also proclaimed that the inn had vacancies and that there were suites with private bathing rooms available.<br/><br/>Since both women had already worked up a sweat, it seemed like a good time for a rest, so they entered the inn.  At first they were nearly blind in the dark interior, though it was only because the only source of light came from a magical glow stone in the center of the room, and the second floor windows which were shuttered against the day's heat.<br/><br/>The temperature difference was immediate and rejuvinating as well.  While the day had cooled off outside, it was easily in the low ninteties outside, more when in direct sunlight.  But it had to be at least fifteen to twenty degrees cooler inside the building.  While the air was a bit stuffy and smelled heavily of whatever spiced food was being prepared, it was blessedly cool, causing the sweat on their skin to chill and turn their exposed flesh rough with goosebumps.<br/><br/>There were a few patrons about, including a man sleeping on the table as two others chatted next to him, one clenching an unlit pipe and gesturing as he quietly conversed with his companion.  A small bar sat near the back of the common room, near stairs that led upwards, and a door that appeared to lead back outside.  Though the twins guessed it was to some courtyard, and if the smell was any guess, where the cooking was done.<br/><br/>They were approached by a raven haired woman with dark eyes.  Her outfit was one of a brightly dyed linen tunic that draped down to her knees and was cinched about her waist with a leather belt.  From which hung a small pouch on one side and a ring with keys on it on the other.  Her collar, marking her as a slave was of a less common style.  Metal and obviously impossible to remove without tools, it was loose about her neck, and unjoined in the front.  The meaning of that collar was not obvious, but the woman bowed to the sisters and spoke in a pleasant and submissive tone, <strong> “Greetings and welcome to D'nai's rest.  My name is Yara, I am the head slave of the tavern and would be happy to serve you two gentlewomen.  We have a spiced and roasted fowl if you're hungry and some fine dwarven ale that is cellar cooled if you're hungry.  Or maybe you seek lodgings?”</strong><br/><br/><br/><br/></td><td>   </td><td><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">NSFW Images</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://i.imgur.com/6GLVWTq.jpg)<br/>Slave girl<br/><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/8a431PI.jpg)<br/>D'nai's Rest<br/><em>(Click any image above to enlarge)</em></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">ooc</div><div class="spoiler_body">Just so you know, my posts will get MUCH shorter in time.  It's just that we're setting the scene for the game and there's a lot for them to experience right now.  I don't want you to worry that you have to post multi page epics each post.  One or two paragraphs is all I ask as a minimum.  :)  <br/><br/>Also if they are going to get lodgings here, give me an appraise and a diplomacy roll if the sisters plan on negotiating the prices at all.</div></div>