You pass through the portal from Barran, across from the Dead Walk Inn in Knoch'Len, ahead of the gather.
To the left, in easy distance, a group of people have set up camp - musicians are playing, storytellers tell of the defeat of Legion and the death of the Undying King in epic poems, assigning sobriquets to some of the better known adventurers who were there. Of course, there are merchants offering food and wares, and the sea breeze whipping over the high stone outer wall carries the crisp scent of the sea and mingling smells of cooking food. Some of your fellows break away toward the encampment as you take in the sights before you. Aside from the sounds of those who have set up their mobile mercantiles and the patrons milling about, the city inside the high inner wall is quiet.
A very large and very stuck wood and metal gate to the sea bars exit to the docks, if they remain - a few engineers and tinkerers pour each other coffee while sitting cross-legged on cushions by their expedition tent. Their tools and pots of alchemical solvent and lubricants are sitting within view while they take a break from trying to repair a long-corroded mechanism. In the distance, the most prominent light you see from within the city is in a high tower, steady and constant - more likely an eldritch light than a hearthfire. Some of the dilapidated thatch-roofed cottages at the edge of the city have lights on within and have seen recent repair.
You hear talk of taking up residence in a tavern around what they are calling the "first ring", but conversation lulls whenever another adventurer approaches, turning to offers of goods and services. When asked, they are free with the information that they've seen odd figures moving around inside, seems like a job for your ilk. Where you are - the "Outer Ring" - clearly used to be cultivated, though the land has taken on a more rustic and overgrown character in recent times. Decorative fruiting trees that used to bracket the road to the sea gate have grown their roots up under the paving stones. Notably, there aren't many saplings lying under them, the fruit presumably carried away by something or someone else and further out into the trees and bushes further afield. The people who have set up camp know of clear running streams, burrows, mounds and what may be crypt entrances.
With casual conversation, you are able to learn some of what lies beyond. Some fellow adventurers have already found abandoned homes and set up there, warding or trapping them against intrusion. Further toward the city center, there seem to be more threats to be handled, but that seems a problem for another day. That princess still hasn't come through yet, though it seems she doesn't have much of a land to rule anymore. The question lingers... what happened to everyone?
To the left, in easy distance, a group of people have set up camp - musicians are playing, storytellers tell of the defeat of Legion and the death of the Undying King in epic poems, assigning sobriquets to some of the better known adventurers who were there. Of course, there are merchants offering food and wares, and the sea breeze whipping over the high stone outer wall carries the crisp scent of the sea and mingling smells of cooking food. Some of your fellows break away toward the encampment as you take in the sights before you. Aside from the sounds of those who have set up their mobile mercantiles and the patrons milling about, the city inside the high inner wall is quiet.
A very large and very stuck wood and metal gate to the sea bars exit to the docks, if they remain - a few engineers and tinkerers pour each other coffee while sitting cross-legged on cushions by their expedition tent. Their tools and pots of alchemical solvent and lubricants are sitting within view while they take a break from trying to repair a long-corroded mechanism. In the distance, the most prominent light you see from within the city is in a high tower, steady and constant - more likely an eldritch light than a hearthfire. Some of the dilapidated thatch-roofed cottages at the edge of the city have lights on within and have seen recent repair.
You hear talk of taking up residence in a tavern around what they are calling the "first ring", but conversation lulls whenever another adventurer approaches, turning to offers of goods and services. When asked, they are free with the information that they've seen odd figures moving around inside, seems like a job for your ilk. Where you are - the "Outer Ring" - clearly used to be cultivated, though the land has taken on a more rustic and overgrown character in recent times. Decorative fruiting trees that used to bracket the road to the sea gate have grown their roots up under the paving stones. Notably, there aren't many saplings lying under them, the fruit presumably carried away by something or someone else and further out into the trees and bushes further afield. The people who have set up camp know of clear running streams, burrows, mounds and what may be crypt entrances.
With casual conversation, you are able to learn some of what lies beyond. Some fellow adventurers have already found abandoned homes and set up there, warding or trapping them against intrusion. Further toward the city center, there seem to be more threats to be handled, but that seems a problem for another day. That princess still hasn't come through yet, though it seems she doesn't have much of a land to rule anymore. The question lingers... what happened to everyone?