Tales of Galeport

[Blink]

Tales of Galeport

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The sun breaks the horizon over the Verdant Ocean, spreading golden rays of brilliant light across the water like a thousand glittering diamonds. The gulls call as they begin to circle high above, on the hunt for fish feeding in the morning waves. The gentle lap of waves against the wharf and the creaking of timber from the ships anchored in the bay accompany the bustling sounds of the Galeport market as it comes to life. Already the shops that line the plaza have swung open their doors, welcoming the morning shoppers looking to due business before the heat of the day drives them inside. The stalls of fish and salted meats are already hawking their wares to passers by, and long boats have begun to arrive along the piers carrying fresh fruit and vegetables. All throughout the market things are happened. There is always something to look at, someone to talk to and something to do.

A bard in a bright yellow tunic and a hat festooned with feathers stands on a corner telling a tale of ancient wonders to a group of enraptured children. He speaks of the lost regalia of Durdemont Lubrith, a lord of The Drowned City, who it was said could control the tides and winds and bring favorable weather or brew terrible storms. His regalia, the bard tells, now rests somewhere in The Drowned City, along with Durdemonts hoard of treasure.

Along the edge of the market plaza, a local ale house called the Broken Anchor, has set up a tble and keg outside it’s door, and a swarthy looking dwarf with a great black beard is handing out samples of a brew he calls Monsoon Cider. A great many of the people who try it head into the ale house to buy more, and rave that it’s delicious and the price is amazingly cheap for its quality.

Down on the piers a large boat has docked and seems to be selling rare and exotic pets and various animals. A wide variety of macaw, parrots, small monkeys and reptiles are on offer. The wood elf woman who owns the boat also seems to have several cages with larger animals like wolves, a panther, a baboon and a thirteen foot python.

Just inside an alley between a tailor shop and cobbler, a group of halflings, men and dwarves are gathered around an upturned half barrel. They shout and slap down stacks of gold and silver as they take turns tossing four dice onto the barrel. Each time the dice come to a stop there is a chorus of cheers and groans as some men gather winnings and others leave in defeat. One halfling woman with an embroidered eye patch and emerald sash seems to be having a remarkable streak of luck as she gathers in another stack of gold.

At the center of the market, an official looking man in spectacles with a bushy mustache is busy nailing sheets of parchment to a fat, round wooden pillar that is already covered in older sheets. These include bounty notices, job requests and official notices from the city guild masters about changes in cabbage prices and new tariff and tax policies.

[Hypersmith]

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Ozahal (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1894411)
Lvl 3 Knowledge Cleric | HP 24/24 | AC 18


It's been a long journey for Ozahal, and setting foot in a new land is never comforting. With the sight of the drinks nearby, his mind veers immediately towards seeking the relief he finds in the bottle, and with a noticeable effort of will he tears his gaze away, considering his other options as he squints in the sun. Galeport held to it's reputation, that is for sure.
The not young cleric is wearing well traveled robes, his armor and mace both having seen better days, but still good solid steel. He stands above average height, though his shoulders are slumped and tired, and his eyes sunken into the bags that hallmark sleepless nights.
Finding gambling and trading unappealing, and looking to experience at least a little before the duty of making money is upon him, he caves quickly. A single brew can't hurt. Slightly apprehensive, he approaches the dwarf, speaking quietly.
"I'd like to try the monsoon cider. Just a taste."

[Glitchy]

Rhea stands at the end of a run down, disused pier on the far side of the market, watching as the sun rises over the ocean and wishing she could feel the sea breeze as it blows through her long red hair. She sighed, a purely instinctual movement brought on from years of habit since he no longer needed to breath, and she adjusted the fit of her long pirate coat on her bony shoulders. Clothes just never seemed to sit right now that she didn’t have skin or muscle to fill them out, but the coat was one of the few relics of her past that she kept. Along with the long scarf wrapped around her face, it helped to conceal her true nature from the people of Galeport.

As the sounds of the market coming to life reached her, Rhea turned from the radiant vista and walked silently back along the pier to the market plaza, letting her gaze drift back and forth over the early morning happenings. She ignored the elf peddling exotic pets. She already had a pet of her own, and she turned her thoughts to him, “Where are you my pet?” she projected her thoughts through the familiar bond to the black, fiendish frigate bird and got an immediate reply, “Watching. Always watching mistress.” his response made her smile. Such a good familiar to keep an eye on her back.

Rhea walked past the ale house that was giving out free samples and gave the drink a wistful glance. There was a time she would have stopped there and drank her fill. If it were as good as people were claiming, she might have wasted the day away getting drunk. But drink no longer held any pleasure for her, and drinking was a hollow reminder of everything she had lost. Likewise she passed by the bard spinning his tales of lost treasure. There were hundreds of such tales about the Drowned City, and she doubted his was anything more than an entertaining yarn.

The gamblers caught her eyes for a moment, and she watched the coins changing hands rapidly as the game was played. Her hand strayed to her belt pouch, feeling the weight of the coin dear Lainani had given her when she departed on this journey. It was the memory of that sweet woman’s face that quelled Rhea’s urge to join the game. Gambling would not lead to her redemption, nor would it produce a cure for her curse.

Rhea moved on to the notice board and scanned the parchments that covered it’s surface. She scoffed at the proclamations of tax changes and tariffs, “Typical guild lords. Always looking to squeeze a few more coins out of the merchants,” she muttered and instead focused on the bounty notices. There was a time when it was her face that would have been nailed up here, with promises of reward for her capture. It felt somehow just that she should try and bring some of these criminals to justice. It would serve as a good step in balancing the scales.

[esorscher]

My, how these surface dwellers live, the Triton thinks as he walks through the town, a gray hooded robe drawn up over his head to hide his unusual features. No need to attract unnecessary notice. So chaotic, a far cry from the people I left-- and he cuts himself off, the memory of his departure too painful to think of at the moment. Instead, he focuses on the sights and sounds around him. He passes the animals in their cages and looks at them with wonder, but then is struck by a strange thought, that some might think him worthy of such treatment, and he moves along. The promise of what these surface folk call alcoholic beverage is not so appealing to him, but he has yet to develop a taste that matches theirs. While he considers looking at the bounties available to see if there was some wrong he could help right, he hears the voice of the bard describing the "Drowned City," and, curiosity piqued, heads over to listen to his tale. At a pause, Daerys asks, "Where is this Drowned City?"

[Kyace]

Down the gangplank of a tramp ship, the Cerulean Centaur, ambles a young half-octopus-woman in a simple dress and apron. She looks slightly grubby around her head of black hair and her peach-colored tentacles but her hands and clothes look to be scrubbed clean. Her gem-blue eyes seem to gleam with interest as she eyes the crowd. Finally, I can breath something that isn't spilled whale oil, Groggy thinks. The latest cargo had contained hundreds of barrels of whale oil for a merchant who had apparently skimped on the cooperage. A storm half way to port had jolted and shook the hold until about a tenth of the barrels had either burst or had sprung a major leak. Luckily the merchant would be paying for the lost barrels and not the ship's quartermaster so it wasn't a direct tragedy for the crew but the smell had gotten everywhere.

Groggy walks up the wharf until she gets to solid land and stops to stretch. Her tentacles lift her up slightly. Her torso seems to grow an inch or two as she squeezes her hydrostatic skeleton, making her briefly thinner and taller. With this slight perch, she looks around with interest. She smiles at the sight bard entertaining the children but her eye is drawn to the dwarf with the samples. She relaxes back to her normal height, then licks her lips thirstily and sets out to get in line for a sample behind the human.

[atlastrembles]

The door to Tethy's ramshackle hut at the edge, and under, the docks leading to Galeport's poorest quarter closes for the last time. Making a few complicated motions with her hands, she kicks up the wind and the lapping water, directing it to dig a trench around her home. A few moments later and the hut collapses into the guided surf. Without a last look at her former home, the half-elf shoulders the pack and satchel she carries and sets off into Galeport proper, certain that she would never return here. The sea calls me, and so I answer she thinks as she strides confidently away from her past and into her unknown future.

---

A few hours later, Tethys finds herself in the bustling docks at the edge of the market district. Ignoring the gamblers and the innkeep, she stops for a moment to listen to the bard telling stories of the Drowned City. She catches a robed and hooded man's eye briefly and winks, seeing his interest in the tale. She watches for a minute more, catching the bard's response and then drifts off to a ship at dock where a number of creatures were for sale. She squeezes by a caecelia in the process and apologizes, hoping she didn't step on one of her tentacles. She passes by a frightfully thin woman in the process and nearly faints, the aura of magic roiling off of her strong enough to cause noses to bleed. But then she is past and amidst the cages and squawks of the animal seller. Marvelling at the exotic animals, she finds the trader and barrages him with questions, Where are you hailing from? What do you call this creature? Do they swim?

[Blink]

The dwarf outside the Broken Anchor gives Ozahal a big grin from beneath his bushy beard as he approaches and asks for a drink, “Of course, of course!” he hands the man a half pint of the brew, which is a translucent green color with a healthy head of foam and smells of sweet fern, “If you like it we are running a special today. Two copper for a pint,” the dwarf informs him. The brew tastes smooth and sweet, with a mixture of hops and herbs that tingle on the tongue and coat the throat as it goes down. The dwarf chuckles, and greets Groggy with the same speech when the cecaelian approaches.

The flamboyantly dressed bard stops his tale as Daerys approaches and asks about the Drowned City, a small look of confusion playing across the man’s face for an instant, “You must be very new to the archipelago my friend,” the bard grins and the children he had been telling the story to laugh, “Everyone for a thousand leagues knows of the Drowned City. The ancient ruins that house treasure, wonder and dangers beneath the waves. Why, I myself have been there no less than four times!” he boasts, his manner grandiose as he tells his story.

On the small trade ship filled with cages, the wood elf woman gives Tethy’s a patient smile and answers her questions about some of the animals that are for sale. She then gives the sorceress an appraising look and leans in conspiratorially, “You seem to be a discerning customer. Might I interest you in a rare find I procured just yesterday in a hidden cove?” her eyes sparkle as she makes the offer.

The notices posted on the pillar range from menial job requests to full, guild sanctioned bounties. The bounties are for all types. Some are just petty cut urses with small bounties of a few gold pieces, while some are for con men and offer up to twenty gold. The largest bounty on the board is for a man called Houndeye and offers a bounty of three hundred gold. His crimes include piracy, theft and murder. The sketch included on the posting is of a round faced man with a stubble beard, wild curly hair and a patch over his left eye.

[esorscher]

Daerys listens politely to the man's tale, thinking critically about the events presented in order to glean the maximum amount of information that lies beneath the poetry and prose. When the bard has finished, Daerys says, "Four times, you say? What brought you below the waters, then, and why have you now returned above?"

[atlastrembles]

On the small trade ship filled with cages, the wood elf woman gives Tethy’s a patient smile and answers her questions about some of the animals that are for sale. She then gives the sorceress an appraising look and leans in conspiratorially, “You seem to be a discerning customer. Might I interest you in a rare find I procured just yesterday in a hidden cove?” her eyes sparkle as she makes the offer.

Tethys' eyes respond with an insatiable curiousity as she hesitates for less than half a second before eagerly responding to the wood elf. Lead the way! What did the tides bring you?

[Hypersmith]

Ozahal takes a polite sip as the dwarf explains, smiling politely. As the dwarf begins explaining to the cecaelian the same, he quaffs down the rests of the half pint, hungrily looking down at the empty mug. "Just two copper? I can spare some coin for that. How is it so cheap?"

[Kyace]

Groggy leans in to look at the offered mug and drinks it down in a single contented swallow. "Aaaah, that's some good stuff. Did you brew it yourself?" She moves in to join the conversation that Ozahal is having with the dwarf, deciding that since we've drank together we must be friends. "I'm Groggy, by the way."

[Glitchy]

Rhea reaches out and tears down the poster for the three hundred gold bounty, smirking beneath her scarf, "Houndeye huh? Cute name," the pirate once known as Lady Crimson mutters and turns back to the rest of the market. Now it was just a matter of collecting information and tracking this criminal down. She glances again at the bard telling stories to the kids and notices a triton now listening as well. She shakes her head, wondering at how stories of ancient ruins and lost treasure always seemed to attract people like moths to a flame. She had been like that once too, but she had had her fair share of treasure, and there was little chance of redemption in the musty ruins of a fallen city.

Instead she headed for the tavern giving out free drinks. There was no better place in the world to gather information than a dockside tavern in a city built on trade. Passing the two people talking with the dwarf, she eyes the brew and considers having a mug herself. It certainly looked like an unusual concoction. Unable to help herself, she steps over and asks, "Why is it green?"