Chapter 4
In reply to Titus Blackwell (msg # 2):
In reply to Titus Blackwell (msg # 2):
The guards tense reflexively as you approach, but as soon as Titus speaks they relax.
"'elcome" one of them mutters with a curt nod.
"All's there is ta eat an the audience you'll have soon 'nuff," the other rasps in a terribly unmelodic voice. "Folk herein' plannig 'fer the nuptual feast an all. Get in an you'll see."
They allow you to pass through the gatehouse, which seems to be much bigger and stouter than it has any right to be.
Given how far you are from "civilization", EastWatch is surprisingly cosmopolitan.
Once inside you can see the extent of the walls that wrap around the town to the South, West and North. The East is rock and cultivated steppe. The ruins of a massive gatehouse are mixed in with piles of boulders the size of houses, indeed blocking the gap in the mountains you can see.
The main road runs straight through the town and exits via another gatehouse to the north. The western wall has no gatehouse.
From this main street, numerous alleys branch off at random between rows of wattle and daub houses, some two stories tall, most only one. They are rectangular in shape with pitched roofs, mimicking the style of the larger cities of the Kingdom.
Just north of the collapsed eastern gate is a pair of large tower homes connected at the top by a long hanging bridge. Based on the banners you see flying, you presume this to be the keep or residence of the Lord of Eastwatch.
The town is busy enough with the normal goings on you'd expect, smiths, farmers, merchants, a cobbler, a few taverns, and a large number of people hauling grapes, barrels or materials for making barrels.
On top of all the usual business, there is an additional layer of activity. Streams of people are making their way to the pair of tower homes, carrying mostly food, flowers what appear to be yet more banners and cloth.
You notice too many shops have yellow streamer awnings blowing gently in the wind above their doors and fresh flowers in their windows.
One of the larger buildings, set just off to one side of the southern gate you passed through, has the universal symbol of welcome hanging above its door: the tankard.