Rosa never really saw the need to explore Faqu before - when she had been this way, she remembered it as little more than a stop-off point.  Oftentimes, it was more than enough to pick up some supplies while sitting in the harbor.

Doghelm was different - a large city built around a bay, two large walls of stone framing the bay entrance. Between that 'gateway', and mountainous ridge surrounding the city, it gave the impression of a helm, a city staring out from the visor.  Doghelm got most of the visitors moving north and south along the inner part of the Belka Archipelago.  She's been there herself more than once - as far as 'sightseeing' goes, it would mostly be the dense city interior.

The tavern was made of weathered, old wood.  Wind rolled across a large tarp stretched out partly above a third-story balcony, set atop the jutting space of the second floor.  The three story building pressed up against a mound as if it had slid or tilted, coming to rest against the rocky earth.  The peak had a tiny one-room-like tower and chimney sticking out of it.  Each floor made a rough hexagonal shape, the upper floor making use of the lower to create a layered balcony.  The broad entrance had double doors and large slatted windows - no glass, but it cut the wind well enough.

Inside, Tylluan can see a cozy room kept warm with a central stone stove, seating more like couches with tables rather than chairs.  Near the fire, the tables are eschewed entirely for something akin to side-tables on the couch arms.

The stairs at the back are large, with a lot more light spilling free past a turn at the top-landing - probably a curtain covering the upper area.  From the layout, the bottom is warm and cozy, half-surrounded by stone and quite snug, slightly-dug into the mound.

Upstairs, then, probably basked in the climate of Faqu... sans wind - hot, warm weather and wind and sun.

The interior was spotty - an elderly couple were drinking by the fire, and a man with mottled skin was labouring in the back.
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:31, Fri 03 Feb 2023.

Tylluan pauses to tug his satchel from its place between his wings. He places it on the floor and uses his beak to rifle inside until he draws forth what he was seeking; an odd-shaped vessel, like a narrow, curved bowl carved of a dark, polished wood. After replacing his satchel on his back, he uses his beak to lift the curious vessel onto the bar. "Fill this. Wine. Something fruity, if you have it. You can tell me the cost, yes?"

Once it is filled, he picks it up in his beak, holding it by a curved protrusion at one end. He follows Rosa up the stairs to the next level.

Rosa watches with interest as Tylluan gets out his special cup and has it filled with wine. She gives him a nod then heads upstairs, pausing their conversation for now since Tylluan has his beak full. She leads him out onto one of the balconies and to one of the tables by the railings. She looks out at the view, spots the priest's ship, then settles down on one of the benches. "Yes, this will do."

She tops up her cup of rum from the bottle, then indicating the ship with the point of her nose (she's already picking up some bird gestures), she says, "Have you ever come across these priests before? I haven't. I wonder what got them so interested about that trinket they found?

Tylluan follows Rosa until she finds a seat. He places his drinking vessel on the table and stands next to it. I doubt the proprietor will like me scratching his furniture with my talons.

He dips his head and lowers his beak to the table, using the lower part to scoop the wine into his mouth. He tilts his head back, allowing the sweet liquid to flow over his tongue and down his throat. "Hmmm. Passable," Tylluan says, clicking his beak. He scoops up another drink and turns his attention to Rosa. "Ah, I see. You wish to observe those priests." He swivels his head toward the harbor and stares at their ship. "No, I've never seen them in Strilholm before. I have no idea what god they serve, or what their beliefs are." He fluffs out his feathers and shakes his head vigorously. "I don't know why they were interested in a bauble from such a back- , I mean, provincial town."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:29, Sat 18 Dec 2021.

Rosa laughs. "Oh, Faqu is a backwater town for sure, but interesting things pass through it; like you, like me," she adds with a grin. "I have no idea why they were interested either, but that makes me interested. Are you curious about it at all?"

As she looks out over the harbour, she uses the the table as cover as she surreptitiously slips the trinket out of her boot. She starts examining it. It's the first time she's had a good look at it.

Tylluan throws back his head with a trill of amusement. "Yes, there is no denying that I am interesting. In my own land I am something of a curiosity. But being a curiosity is not always a good thing." He dips his head for another drink of wine and shifts his wings in a restless gesture.

He looks at Rosa and blinks his eyes at her question about the trinket. "I do wonder why it caused such a stir among them, though it's really no concern of mine. The only reason I interfered in that unpleasantness was because I didn't want to be stranded in this place and your ship seems like the most agreeable way for me to continue on my journey."

Tylluan doesn't see a waiter or barista or something of that sort, not at first.  He does hear sounds upstairs... and as he brandishes his flask, the person organizing things in the back looks up to him and Rosa.  Pulling out a container, the man nods and takes the wooden bowl.  "Two bits for a full flask.  Two 'quarters for a cup.  You can cover down here when you come back."

Upstairs, there's an inner area with a bar, numerous little tables, and another balcony with an outer seating area.  The downstairs and upstairs are separated by a few layers of draperies to help contain the heat and block the wind, and above things are more open.  The 'slats on the openings have been left open, and it's warm from below and breezy from the ocean.

From above, it does look like the priests returned to their ship.  They are busy over there... but she's not sure what or why.

Tylluan expects the wine was probably a local thing - Strilhom had better!  Still, it would have to service for out here.  After choosing to avoid a seat, the duo have a fairly empty balcony to talk.  There's a young couple on the far side, eating some kind of fruit and fish food, but that's about it.

Rosa fishes out the trinket.

The trinket.  It's a silvery metal object loosely in the shape of a 3d 'diamond'.  The outer frame is two 'flat' metal daimond shapes on the exterior, the interior being two loops of metal criss-crossing each other diagonally.  The top of it has a metal loop with a thin metal chain coming off of it.  Inside the loops is a glass bead of some sort, holding something like a series of mirrors suspended in some kind of faintly blue liquid.  The mirrors glitter surprisingly brightly...

Rosa chuckles. "You definitely don't want to be stranded on Faqu, and my ship is probably the finest ship this port will see this month at least. To your health!" Rosa toast Tylluan and drinks the rum from her small cup it one go. She refills the cup from the bottle, but leaves it sitting on table.

At first Rosa pays more attention to the priests on the ship than the trinket that she's idly twirling around in her hand, but soon she becomes intrigued by it's shape and composition. She studies it and sees how intricate and finely made it is. She looks more closely at the blue glassy bauble at the heart of the trinket and scrutinises the series of mirrors embedded within it. She holds it up to sun, but as soon as it glints in the light she swiftly hides it away in one of her belt pouches. "Interesting...."

She takes out her telescope. It's a finely made brass contraption that starts off about the size of a mug that comfortably fits in her hand, but then with a series of clicks it telescopes out to the length of her arm, narrowing down as it goes until the end bit is the size of her eye. She peers through it at the priest's boat and spies on what they are doing.

---

Perception 13-
+1 overall skill
+6 range mods for sight perception.

Perception Roll 14-.
Roll: 10

Tylluan listens to Rosa extole the praises of her ship. When she raises her cup, he bobs his head. "And to yours,Captain." He takes another sip of his wine and sighs. "And to a pleasant voyage."

When Rosa examines the trinket, Tylluan stares at it with his gold eyes. "That is the bauble the priest had, yes? I suppose they dropped it during that unpleasantness." He blinks his eyes at the gleam of the crystal. "A strange design, yes? I have never seen anything quite like it. Could it have been responsible for the flash of light we experienced?"

He watches Rosa take out her telescope and train it on the priests' ship. His own curiosity does not extend to mustering the effort to stare at the vessel himself. I don't know why she is so curious about their doings. They seemed disorganized for an organized religion. Tylluan lets out a brief chirp of amusement at his own witticism, before taking another sip of wine.

Rosa is a little surprised. She glances over to the bird and gives him a grin."Yes, it might have caused the flash. That didn't occur to me. I'll have to study it more when I get back to my ship, but until then..." She raises her telescope and goes back to watching the priests. "It's lucky we're heading to Doghelm. There's somebody there who might know more about this little trinket."

The mirrors in the trinket seemed fixed, at least from a glance.  But a real magical analysis takes time... and expertise.

Rosa takes a higher perspective on the harbor.  With the brass telescope, she tries to assess the situation over there.  Right now, a number of them are busy, checking on the sails.  Others have begun dumping off empty boxes onto the shore, it looks like.  Others are not so empty... supplies of some kind?  Either for trade or to be abandoned.

There's someone on board who appears to be giving orders, making sure the maintenance is going quickly.  She can't tell if it was someone she saw earlier... the way they are all dressed basically so similar.

The ship is roughed up.  The mainmast sails are fine, but the mizzen sails are torn.  The rigging looks like a mess, and there's siding on the ship that's coming off...  that's strange in itself.  There's a layer of some kind of siding on the side of the ship, covering... what should be a gun deck.

That big ship is a cargo ship, but it's been done up more so - there's the guns you would expect for a cargo ship, but there's more than that.  A surprise for pirates?  But that would be the opposite of what someone would want - they would want to scare pirates away with fake guns, not hide real ones...

There's other things being pulled out, a set of three old chests.  They're brought up from belowdecks, and set out by the door to the captain's quarters.  Someone from inside begins pulling them in.

Tylluan drinks his wine while Rosa observes the priests' ship, taking in the view of the town and the surrounding area by swiveling his head back and forth, while his body stays still. "You have been to Doghelm before, yes? What is it like? I know your perspective will not be the same as mine, but sometimes it is nice to know a little something about where one is going."

Rosa gives her telescope a twist and collapses it back down to a compact size. She puts it back in her pouch. "Interesting. It seems their ship has a second bank of hidden canon. Are our priests pirates? They're pretty roughed up though. I don't think they're going anywhere for a day or two at least." Rosa pauses and ponders, "Hrm … I wonder where they wanted to go. It was somewhere nearby..."

Rosa describes Doghelm, telling Tylluan about it's fortified port, it's narrow streets, and it's busy marketplaces. It has some nice buildings and some impressive buildings, but rarely the two go together. Doghelm is on a north-south trade route, like Faqu is, but Doghelm sees much more shipping.

She asks Tylluan about where he came from. She's never been that far south, but one day she would like to travel down there. Not in winter though. She's heard tales of how it gets so cold that the sea freezes over.

"Really?" Tylluan swivels his head toward the priests' vessel and stares at it intently. "That is an odd thing for those of a religious persuasion, yes? Piracy, I mean."

He turns his attention back to Rosa, listening to her descriptions of Doghelm and finishing his wine. "It sounds like the sort of place I am yearning to see."

"What is Strilholm like?" he asks. "It's a chilly place, for those not used to it." He fluffs up his glistening black feathers and lets out a chirp of amusement. "Great forests where we sail between the trees on our wings. Gentle hills and high mountains in the interior." He blinks. "As for the people, well. We live in homes amid the trees, interconnected by bridges for those who wish to use them. They are scholars. Historians. Pursuits of the mind, since we are not suited to professions of artifice." He raises one foot, with it's clawed talons. "There are some who are skilled in the making of wine and mead, since the things that provide the base materials are plentiful in our lands." He shakes his feathers, dismissively. A few small ones drift to the floor. "I was happy to leave."

Rosa chuckles. "Well, Doghelm is worth seeing once, though I've never heard of anyone yearning to see it twice."

"Scholars and historians?" Her ears prick up in interest. "Do your scholars write things down, or are they like bards and memorise and sing about things instead?"

"Strilholm sounds like an interesting place. Wine and mead are good things to trade. Tell me, are there any imports that your people value above all else?"

"My people are blessed with unfailing memories, but knowledge written is easier to share than knowledge related, yes?" Tylluan answered. "There is always the chance that the listeners will not remember correctly, or misinterpret what was said."

"I suppose any place can seem interesting, if you have not grown up there," he says. "We import many things. Anything that must be made, certainly. Even common household items are needed. I could not give an exact list, since none of that concerned me, except in a peripheral way." Tylluan thinks for a moment. "Clothing is not something we worry about, since we are covered in soft, warm feathers. Some wear scarves or sashes as an accent, but that is as far as we go."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:43, Sun 26 Dec 2021.

The men on the deck below have been milling about.  A few have been going about repairs - none have been making a move towards the town.  Few even come onto the shore.

On deck, things were moving quickly.  They seemed to be good at working on the ship, and they had the extra supplies to fix the damage... or at least, were confident at getting it operational somehow.

They were in a hurry.  Everyone on board looked to be working... either they planned on finishing fast, or they were going to burn their people out.

Otherwise, the big craft is unfamiliar in make to Rosa.  It's big, given the sails and size it looks like it might be a vessel for hauling goods.  The extra cannons though, the way the sails are set, the markings on the sails and certain features she can't immediately identify, make her think of a military vessel...

But it's not right.  It's too big and laden in the water to be fast, the sails are only doing so much.  There's more going on belowdecks, and there are others checking the rudder-area.  One doesn't 'build a too-big military ship' and turn it into a shipping vessel.  If it was a shipping vessel... it could be outrun, if it was for piracy.

Some kind of big-haul shipping vessel.  With hidden cannons.  Possibly extra armor.  With religious-themed sails and crew.  And a handful of strange features on the ship she doesn't entirely recognize.

--

Tylluan scopes out the shore, ship, the town.  There's a couple of humans down on the far edge of the balcony, a young duo who are flirting and talking to one another quietly.  The rest of the town is spread out below - it's no tiny village, and at first look Faqu seems pretty large.  The foot traffic is thicker here, possibly part of the public square.  The far edges of the town look more unkempt, hints of overgrown plants and a crumbling building.  He had seen some of that during his flight in - the town was probably larger... once.

But what was entertaining to him, here?  A little town like this had fresh fish, and that was about it.  There was nothing like a theatrehouse, no unique sights or sounds.

Tylluan sighs as he looks around. I've been here less than half a day and I'm already bored. Even that unpleasantness in the square was no more than an annoyance. What a dreadful, dreadful place.

He contemplates his empty drinking bowl and clicks his beak once, in thought. I'm not even tempted to have another drink. Other than the possibility of fresh seafood, this place has nothing to recommend it. Tylluan looks at Rosa. "Is there anything further you need to do here? If not, I want to have a look at your ship, and my cabin, before I offer payment for passage."

Rosa was quite content to sit and watch the priests scurry about for a few hours at least, but obviously the bird doesn't have as much patience as she has. She drains her cup, corks the bottle, then stands up. "Right. Let's get you sorted. We might be leaving sooner than expected..." She eyes the priests' ship one more time before heading downstairs and out of the tavern.

The Darkmaiden's Dance is a well-made, fine-looking ship. The outer hull is made out of a sleek, black wood, while the inner timbers are from a polished warmer redwood, some of which has been subtly carved into geometric shapes or comically gruesome figures. The deck is scrubbed clean, the ropes are tightly coiled, and the white sails are neatly furled (the black sails are stored below).

Rosa leads Tylluan down a set of steep stairs to below deck, then through the fairly empty cargo hold to one of the two doors at the stern of the ship. She opens the door to the passenger cabin and lets Tylluan go in.  It's a pretty decent sized cabin, about 10 feet long and 8 feet at its widest. There are two hammocks set up, two chests with the keys in the lock,and some built-in cupboards and shelves. Rosa looks at Tylluan and then at the hammocks. "Ahh... I could get you a plank from the stores and maybe make you some kind of … perch?"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqgn...ens%20Dance.jpg?dl=0
This message was last edited by the player at 06:55, Wed 29 Dec 2021.

Tylluan gives the Captain's ship an approving look as they approach. Sleek and black, just as I am, he observes with satisfaction. A vessel worthy of bearing me where I wish to go. He stops at the bottom of the gangplank and looks the ship over, before strutting up onto the deck. "It looks to be a fine vessel, Captain. You must be very proud of it."

When they reach the cabin below, Tylluan stands inside and swivels his head around to take in the space. At Rosa's suggestion of a perch, he lets out a trill of amusement. "That will not be necessary, although I do appreciate your willingness to accommodate me. If the hammocks are removed, the resulting space will do quite nicely, thank you." Tylluan swivels his head around to face her. "You should know that my people are usually nocturnal. Once we have settled things, I will most likely wish to sleep."

Rosa nods "Aye, I'm proud of her, but a captain who isn't proud of her ship is a poor captain indeed." She rubs a specks of dust off the wall.

They haggle a price. It is on the expensive side, but the accommodation and food are both excellent. Rosa asks for half now and half upon arrival.

"If you need a hand, I'll get one of the lads to help you move your belongings here. Feel free to store things in the chests. They're the only keys." She gives him a glance and looks at his claws, then decides to open up one of the chests. Inside it is a red dress and a pair of boots. "Ahh, that's where they got to." Rosa scoops out the clothes and grabs the boots. "Right, I'll leave you to it then. We'll be leaving in the morning on the high tide."

Since they've agreed on a price, while a bit steep, Tylluan tucks his beak beneath his feathers and fishes out the required coinage from his concealed pouch. "There you are, Captain. That should suffice for now, yes?"

Tylluan tugs on the strap to his satchel and slides it from its place between his wings. "This holds my belongings. Since I don't wear clothing, I don't require much in the way of luggage." He sighs. "I do miss my instruments, but one cannot fly while carrying a shinwyrr, or tamran."

Once Rosa leaves, he lets out a weary sigh and settles himself for a well-deserved nap.