Café de Nuit

Lord Skybolt wrote:While searching/casing the rooms Alain is mapping/noting of rooms/passages and access points for future night explorations/excursions .

Alain now has a rough map of the areas he's explored thus far.



[OOC, Map coming soon to the boards- if I can get my scanner to work.]

Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:
"And such learning! 'So many books,' Giorgi says, 'you could build houses from them!' Indeed, the holy texts that seem to be everywhere here, it is almost too much for me to comprehend."

''Oh yes'',

says Irena,

''The books! We have a very fine library. Lady Renier has been kind enough to support us in building our collection, as well as helping us with the school.''

Alain whispers to Norzak "Next room when the coast is clear will both check to be sure though just in case, and only one of us enter to check so were not both found out. Oh, and suggest this be are SOP from this time forward. "

"Aha, interesting. Very interesting indeed. The odd history of this city never leaves one seeking for interesting stories," the archivist smiles, hoping he hasn't started noticeably sweating as he casts about for new topics of conversation. "So, it would be of great help to me, Brother, if I could given the grand tour, as it were. I want to capture the majesty of this place in as complete a picture as I can, to greater convey it to readers in distant parts of the Core. If I can truly succeed, it may acquire some pilgrims, traveling many miles to come and see this place for themselves."

OOC Sorry a lot under the weather so I'm not up late these days.

Norzak agrees with Alain. Whispering back "Ye heard Book, key 'n' heavy, so we mebbe should look fer them."

Lady Renier, eh? Dorgio thinks to himself, Benn must have been right about them sharing a passion.

"Truly?" He asks Irena. "The library, is it here in the Cathedral? We are a bit..starved for knowledge in the Old Country."

Adam wrote:"Aha, interesting. Very interesting indeed. The odd history of this city never leaves one seeking for interesting stories," the archivist smiles, hoping he hasn't started noticeably sweating as he casts about for new topics of conversation. "So, it would be of great help to me, Brother, if I could given the grand tour, as it were. I want to capture the majesty of this place in as complete a picture as I can, to greater convey it to readers in distant parts of the Core. If I can truly succeed, it may acquire some pilgrims, traveling many miles to come and see this place for themselves."

''Certainly. Allow me to begin here with the altar. The table is of marble taken from a local ruin and worked into its final shape by the same team of artisans and workers who did much of the rest of the stonework in the cathedral.
The statue of Our Lady was carved by Salman Kranz of Teufeldorf. It's priceless, really, a one of a kind piece from one of the great masters.
This hall can seat seat a multitude of worshippers, as you can plainly see, and in fact it is often full on holy days. ''

Van Willen goes on like this for a little while, giving details about this or that feature. He seems knowledgeable, if a trifle pedantic.

The scribe asks Benn-


''Is this helpful? Would you care to see another area now? We could visit the the scriptorium where I work, our fine library, the gardens...there is a lot to see.''

Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:Lady Renier, eh? Dorgio thinks to himself, Benn must have been right about them sharing a passion.

"Truly?" He asks Irena. "The library, is it here in the Cathedral? We are a bit..starved for knowledge in the Old Country."

''Yes, it is downstairs in the cellars. The air below is cool and dry, which helps preserve the books against decay. If you like, I can take you down for a look.''

ewancummins wrote:

Adam wrote:"Aha, interesting. Very interesting indeed. The odd history of this city never leaves one seeking for interesting stories," the archivist smiles, hoping he hasn't started noticeably sweating as he casts about for new topics of conversation. "So, it would be of great help to me, Brother, if I could given the grand tour, as it were. I want to capture the majesty of this place in as complete a picture as I can, to greater convey it to readers in distant parts of the Core. If I can truly succeed, it may acquire some pilgrims, traveling many miles to come and see this place for themselves."

''Certainly. Allow me to begin here with the altar. The table is of marble taken from a local ruin and worked into its final shape by the same team of artisans and workers who did much of the rest of the stonework in the cathedral.
The statue of Our Lady was carved by Salman Kranz of Teufeldorf. It's priceless, really, a one of a kind piece from one of the great masters.
This hall can seat seat a multitude of worshippers, as you can plainly see, and in fact it is often full on holy days. ''

Van Willen goes on like this for a little while, giving details about this or that feature. He seems knowledgeable, if a trifle pedantic.

The scribe asks Benn-


''Is this helpful? Would you care to see another area now? We could visit the the scriptorium where I work, our fine library, the gardens...there is a lot to see.''

"Yes brother, this is very helpful. Perhaps a trip through the gardens, next? I could use some fresh air."

Alain will go first into the next room when him and Norzak think the coast is clear . Alain will gesture that he will go first this time Hide/Move Silently of coarse when entering . OOC Ewan give us the go head and Alain will open the door and enter.

Adam wrote:
"Yes brother, this is very helpful. Perhaps a trip through the gardens, next? I could use some fresh air."

Van Willen leads Benn out of the building by way of a narrow hallway behind the grand altar-room.

The garden lies behind the cathedral, bounded by a low stone wall. It is quite a large garden, perhaps a half acre of carefully laid out plots. Most of the ground is devoted to growing fruits and vegtables, with flowerbeds along the fringes. The air is fragrant with the smells of growing plants and freshly turned soil.

Van Willen waves his hands expansively and says,

''All this was a barren field until we arrived. Our workers cleared the rubble and laid out the plots. We brought in sapling fruit trees, seed, and everything else necessary. Now, this garden provides essentially all of our fruit and vegetables.

Ezra is pleased when men build useful things and provide for themselves, so that they are better able to serve others. I like to think the garden does her honor, in its own way. ''

Lord Skybolt wrote:Alain will go first into the next room when him and Norzak think the coast is clear . Alain will gesture that he will go first this time Hide/Move Silently of coarse when entering . OOC Ewan give us the go head and Alain will open the door and enter.

The next room is about the same size as the first cellar [ 60 feet square]. The walls are lined with shelves recessed into the stonework. Smaller wooden shelves fill up about half the floorspace of the room. All of these shelves contain books and scrolls, enough to fill perhaps seven eights of the available space. Four tables are clustered in an open space near the center. There are three doors, the one through which you have entered, one at the far side , and one to the left. Both the farside and lefthand doors are closed.

The soft light in this room comes from a silver candelabrum bolted to a stand in the midst of the four tables. Nine black candles burn there, providing surprisingly strong illumination for the room, equivalent to a wall of torches.

Norzak points to the books and scrolls and shrugs with a question to Alain. What they're looking for might be there. He mouths "Wanna look?"

Here, Dorgio has to stop himself from automatically agreeing to see the library. Though genuinely curious, the last thing Dorgio wants is to inadvertantly ruin Norzak and Alain's end of things. Instead, he replies, "Perhaps later, I am rather enjoying the weather at the moment." He cranes his head around the catherdral, noting the owls, still oddly fascinated with the size of it all.

"Such a large city, yet so few people here, so many homes with no familes. Why is that, Irena?"

Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:Here, Dorgio has to stop himself from automatically agreeing to see the library. Though genuinely curious, the last thing Dorgio wants is to inadvertantly ruin Norzak and Alain's end of things. Instead, he replies, "Perhaps later, I am rather enjoying the weather at the moment." He cranes his head around the catherdral, noting the owls, still oddly fascinated with the size of it all.

"Such a large city, yet so few people here, so many homes with no familes. Why is that, Irena?"

Still happily chattering away in her native Balok, Irena answers Dorgio's question-


''Oh, there aren't enough people to fill it, simply put. The original builders created large cities- not just this one, but the other big towns further downriver- but they vanished long ago. It's a great mystery. The people here profess that their forefathers came into an empty country. The cities were all abandoned. There weren't great mounds of skeletons, or anything like that, either. Whoever the Old Builders were, they must have been numerous, judging by the number of houses they built.

New people are trickling in, and sometimes we get a bunch at once. They settle in the 'ghost streets', as the locals call the empty parts of town. They are squatters, really. We endeavour to bring the light of Ezra and the blessings of proper civilization to these distressed people. Many of them are just illiterate peasants who've never seen the inside of a bathtub or a book, I'm afraid. You know, Gundarmen and gypsies, those sort of people.''