Re: In the Land of Zu
Although Ioelenna had a good view from the roof, it wasn't until she was actually down among the boats that she realized how daunting a task it was that Tealon had asked of her. There were literally hundreds of boats.
Of course, now that she's near the boats, she also realizes that not all of them are fishing boats. Off to her left, for instance, there are maybe 30 boats tied together to form a small boat village. While those boats, at least those on the perimeter, could be cut loose and sent out, scuttling all the boats is the harder effort, and nastier. She has no way of knowing if all these people are 'evil', or just a few of the powerful and important people that seized the missing ship.
Some of the boats have nets folded up on them, but other nets are either laid out on the sand or hung up on racks. The folded up nets she can simply dump overboard. The floats on them will keep them from sinking, but it will take some effort to get them back aboard.
Then it occurs to her to take several of them, tangle them up, and push them out in front of the boats. The nets will then have to be retrieved and untangled before any of the boats can leave.
Unless she has magic that will help her, it will take about three hours to do all that.
Tealon continues his aerial reconnaissance over the area. It seems as if there are always people up and about even in the dead of night. He spots a few lurkers in alleyways, a couple of drunks that stagger down the street a ways before collapsing in a heap to sleep it off, and three others that are acting quite suspicious. There is a lone individual that suddenly appeared on a rooftop, and begins running across the roofs in order to jump the intervening street gaps between buildings.
The other two he spots are attempting to climb up to a third story window.
Danyka and Jheridan and Nicollo have examined the first room, and found nothing of significance, though the books and scrolls could be of interest.
Checking the doors on either side wall shows that they just go to a closet, but there's a connecting door presumably to the next room. Opening those doors confirms that.
The closets contain an assortment of odds and ends: brooms, buckets, mops, crates, a shelf that wraps around most of the closet on which are an assortment of bric-a-brac--some vases, statues, figurines, pots. Underneath the shelf are hooks for hanging coats and scarves on, as there is one light coat hanging on one such hook, and a thin fringed scarf on another.
You now know that all the rooms interconnect by way of the closets. You still find it odd that there are no locks on the doors.
Mentally numbering that room as #1, you find similar appearances in Rooms #2, #3, and #4. Only rooms #5 and #6 are different. Both of these rooms are corner rooms at opposite ends of the floor.
#5 does not have as much clutter. There aren't even as many shelves. One wall is completely shelf-free, and has a painting hanging on it--very vibrant colors on black velvet. It's a painting of a man in fancy regalia. Back home, this would probably be a picture of the king.
The desk is of better quality: larger, more opulent wood, detailed carvings, several drawers. An inkpot and quill sit on desk, there is a small open wooden box on the left and the right. The left has blank parchment sheets in it. The right one has parchments with writing on them. There are half a dozen parchments sitting in front of that box. You can clearly see that the ones in the box have a signature at the bottom, while those not in the box do not have a signature.
Room #6 is a mystery. It would appear to be the same size as the other rooms, and even though there is no lock on the door, the door does not open when you try it. Instead, a rune on the center of the door suddenly springs to light!