The terrain flashes below them, as Raude takes them through the sky.   Vision is blurred and indistinct, and the group realizes.. so are they.  They have literally merged with clouds and wind.  It goes on for a few hours, but it is hard to reckon time other than the change in the position of the sun.

When it is over, the group is standing in a field on the side of a river, near a cluttered, dense looking cluster of buildings.  On the far side of the river there is a high steep bluff, with a parapet wall on top.  They can see the large fortress as well, and the road snaking up the bluff.

And there are about a dozen people in worn, dirty looking clothing watching, mouths agape.

Well… not ordinary people.  They have very “rodent” looking features.  Big ears.  Beady eyes.  Whiskers.

”Well,” says Raude.  “We are here.  Lucimburic, if I have done this right.”

She looks at the strange inhabitants, and says to them.  “I am a High Priestess.  From Arras.  I can do this.  Do not be alarmed, please.”
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:56, Mon 08 Apr 2013.

If there had been a time in the past when Salen had slept as well as he had last night, then it must have been when he was a babe in arms, for he could not recall it. He was almost giddy with energy and excitement when he had arisen, and it felt like he could have flown to Lucimburic himself, merely by flapping his arms frenziedly. But he would avail the High Priestess of her Windwalk, which was eminently more plausible.

And so to the sky and the clouds - this was getting to be something of a habit, what with all the travelling he and Swift had done with the Fey, via the Fey and the Rainbow Portal. There were many times in the past he had soared through the skies on the back of his hippogriff steed, Veltar, and felt like a god - or a messenger of the gods at least. And although he knew he would enjoy that feeling again sometime, for now it seemed a little...mundane. When one knew that there were spellcasters who could cross vast distances in what amounted to mere moments, or hidden portals that were the same as opening a door to an adjoining room...one's perspectives were altered.

But here they were, in any case, now stood in a field outside Lucimburic itself, while a number of the local werecreatures looked at them in shock. Salen wondered if he recognised any, as he tried to recall the name of the scout that he had travelled with before, many moons ago...

Swift who is finally wearing clean clothing still has on her armor and weapons. She looks at the things and mutters quietly "Wererats" She looks at them to see if she knows any of them.

(ooc-she also looks around to see if she knows where they are.  Also, how do werefoxes and wererats get along?)

Salen has been here before, and although there is a slight sense of familiarity  he does not recognize any of them as the scout he met, Zernit Whiskersniff.

On the other hand, Swift is much more familiar with them.  Wererats are the opportunists of Lucimburic, cheerfully doing what others hesitate to do.  Everyone in town knows who these Wererats are:  They work for Roguld Scabbler, the Boss-Guy of the Lucimburic Brotherhood of Street Cleaners,  Scavengers, and Counter-Detritits.   They remove the trash all over Lucimburic, and they are entitled to keep anything they find.  On the one hand, they are occasionally suspected of finding things that have not technically been lost yet.  On the other hand, Lucimburic is a very clean city, and the citizens are very careful about where they put things.


Raude asks a few questions of them, and they reach a conclusion:

“You must be here for the festival then, that's across the bridge, and up the hill.  You'se way out of place, down here in the Grund.”

“You are not yourselves invited?” Raude asks, not wanting even the lowest of Lucimburic's citizens to be shunned.

“Everybody's invited,” the Wererat says.  “We been there,  and we'll go back.  It's been going on for days.  But we're the trash haulers.  Gotta work, earn our pay, sift through the trash for good stuff people might'a dropped.”

“Might there be shops?” Raude asks.

“Shops?”  A wererat asks back, sounding incredulous.  “Lady, there's more merchants here now den was ever in Lucimburic before.  There's a whole market fair going on, with merchants from all over.”

“That is splendid,” Raude says.  “Joy and love in your lives, then.”

"Shall we be off, then? There appears to be much happening inside the walls, and yet we are outside the walls. Let us join the festivities."

Salen will invite Raude to lead the way, or will offer to do so himself. He will ask of Swift and Ayren,

"Have either of you been here before? It is quite a town, I promise you!"

"Yes, lets go before any of our stuff is hualed away as trash." she keeps an eye on the wererats as they head for the gate. She knows they have their purpose but she really does find them disgusting.

They cross the bridge, passing a couple of sturdy looking Dwarves- a sight rarely seen in Lucimburic.  But then, these are unusual times.

They walk up the long road towards the "upper town".  Even from a distance, they can hear that there is a large crowd ahead.

At the top of the long ramp the road passes into upper Lucimburic through a stone gateway.  Not far away is the Palace, and next to it, the Clear Fountain Plaza.  The Plaza is like a giant terrace- on one side there is a parapet wall, the Corniche, that overlooks the river and lower town they just came from.

There is a crowd of people in the Plaza.  Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Centaurs... Centaurs?  Yes, and an odd little Centaur-like creature, with the lower body of a deer and a small elfin upper torso.

If the characters wish to see what the crowd is all about, it is in the last few messages of the Clear Fountain Plaza thread.  That is where Raude is going, hoping she is not too late for a wedding.

Walking towards the crowd in the Clear Fountain Plaza thread, Raude hears what it is going on.

It's a wedding!

They get closer... no, it doesn't look like Theoderic and Aelasuria.

But still...

"Well this is good timing," Raude says.  "I am the High Priestess of Venus, am I not?  This is my purview."

She picks up the pace, hurrying over to see what's going on.

"Well at least I got clean before we came here. Though I might have gotten a little dirty being so close to those wererats" she says with a little distain in her voice like she doesn't care about them. "This is sure better then running though swamp or attacking siege engines or fighting trolls."

"How very true, Swift, how very true indeed. I doubt any of us want to return to the swamp anytime soon. A wedding, or two in fact, is a much rosier proposition. Shall we have a closer look?"

He invites Swift and Ayren to join him in following Raude to have a closer look at proceedings.

"Oh yes, lets go see what we can. This is where I am from after all. Maybe I will see someone I know. There are not a lot of my kind in the city." she walks quickly, like she is anxious to get there.

When they arrive, the wedding of Tawna and Haakon is in progress, the werebear cleric reading from the Lore of Arduinna on a stage on side of the Plaza. There is a large crowd gathered.

As they finish up, the Duke, a massive looking Werebear in full ceremonial regalia takes the stage and announces that the next event of the day is the wedding of Aelasuria and Theoderic.

"We're not too late," Raude says.

She goes over to the Clear Fountain Plaza thread, dragging the others along. Somehow, people along the way seem to sense that she is important, and make way.

Swift watched the wedding. As it was finishing, she thinks she sees something and looks at the others. "I got to go check out something. I think I see another fox"

To Vulpinter Bakery -->