Mists over the Musarde [IC]

[ewancummins]

Evangeline remarks-

''Oh, that? Hannah just likes to sing those old airs while she works. It's a song for children, she used to sing it to me when I was little.''

[ewancummins]

Evangeline soon returns, wearing a sun hat and a green dress. With her are Sir Cirdan and a servant girl who carries a basket and coin purse.

''Shall we go out now? It is a lovely day for walking, bright and sunny. ''

While her mistress talks with Norzak, the servant girl regards Benn with a friendly smile. She's a bit taller than her mistress, with raven black hair, fair skin, and hazel eyes. She wears a dress of blue cotton, a nice piece of tailoring but not too fancy, that shows the lines of her petite, well formed figure. Around her neck dangles a rabbit's foot charm on a length of rawhide.

The girl leans over and whispers something to Evangeline.
Evangeline blushes faintly and supresses a giggle.

[Adam]

Bennedict politely excuses himself from the trip to the market, feeling a bit tired after spending most of the night transcribing the scroll into his journal. To say nothing of the exhaustion from listening to Evangeline drooling over Sir Cirdan, he thinks. However, he makes a gesture to Norzak, handing him what the dwarf had previously identified as a piece of uncut onyx.

"I am not completely aware of who would be best to go to for this, and perhaps you know better than I. I think this must have been Lady Evangeline's abductor's payment, so considering that both they and their employer are unlikely to bother us or her again, perhaps it would be best to pawn these and divide the proceeds amongst the three of us?"

He picks up his cup of warm tea, taking a short sip to avoid burning his mouth. He sighed, pleased as the smoky-acrid liquid went down his throat. Too many places in Pont-a-Museau tried to pass off watery dishwater as tea, and Bennedict was pleased to see that Master Sancerre's tastes ran parallel to his own. He pauses, however, at the sound of the servant's song coming from the next room. His face unwittingly took on the same slightly curious expression as Cirdan, though he did not vocalize his concerns. Now that's entirely too coincidental. Benn thinks, recalling the discussions of the evening prior. Perhaps I'm being paranoid. All this talk of ratmen in the sewers and pestilence demons is making me jumpy.

As the others stand and depart, Bennedict walks towards the servant girl, flashing the what he thought passed as a winning smile, "You have a lovely singing voice. Might I be so forward as to ask you where you learned that song, fraulien? The tune sounds somewhat familiar."

[ewancummins]

[To clarify: there is a old servant woman in the next room and a younger servant girl with Evangeline- two different people. The old lady was the one singing]

The old woman [ the one whom Evangeline called Hannah] is just about finished cleaning the study and is getting ready to begin the sun room when Benn addresses her.

''Oh , hello there. You like my song,eh? I learned it of my father. He used to sing it to me when I was just a li'l moppet. Old tune, old as the cobblestones, they say.''

[ewancummins]

While Benn is busy talking with the old woman, he notices that one of Evangeline's party has hung back- the pretty young servant girl with the raven black hair. She peeks at him from around the corner, smiling in a rather flirtacious manner.

Evangeline's voice calls from outside,

''Charlotte! Come now, we must hurry. I don't want to keep poor Norzak waiting- he's ever so anxious to see the bakery.''

Charlotte vanishes around the corner. Benn can hear her run to join the others.

[ewancummins]

[for Norzak and Cirdan]

Evangline leads the way. Just behind her walks her servant girl, Charlotte.

The weather is quite pleasant, not too hot but sunny and breezy. The city is busy, with many people out in the streets- buying and selling or just strolling the avenues.

The Clothiers Street , at the end of which is the Sancerre's home, is the first leg of your trip. Evangeline does a little window shopping, but doesn't buy anything.

''I like to look, but of course I've had my gown made already.''

The next stop is a shop on Bakers Row, a short walk from the Street of Clothiers. The bakery is a squat single storey building, solidly constructed of stone and heavy timber. It looks [to Norzak, anyway] like it might be dwarf-built. Local materials, perhaps, but the syle is unusual for the city. A smell of freshly baked bread wafts out from inside. The windows and the front door are wide open, letting in sunlight, fresh air, and customers.

Evangeline enters the shop. She exhanges some pleasantries with the owner, a rather plump dwarf.

[steveflam]

Dwarvish:
"Heavens begorrah! Who might you be, mack?" Norzak asks in his ususal brusque fasion. "I be Norzak. Norzak Darkender of Darkon. Out ta see these lands 'n' report back ta me clan." Norzak puts out his hand for a handshake. "I was very impressed by ye fruitcake. It's just like me mum used ta make."

[ewancummins]

The baker replies in Dwarvish:

''Name's Brom Barrelhouse, from Tempe Falls, originally. Nice ta meet 'nother 'un from the old country. Who's the elf?''

Brom shakes Norzak's hand with a firm grip- leaving some flour on his fellow dwarf.

[steveflam]

Norzak replies in Dwarvish:

"I dunno I met him in town two nights ago. Seems like most elves Ive heard of. The missus seems to fancy him fer some god awful reason as yet is incomprehensible to me. 'N' she ain't got a beard. Where's the attraction without a beard, Brom?" Norzak guffaws.

[ewancummins]

[in Dwarvish, of course]-

''I like mine cleanshaven, actually. Course, I'm eccentric. ''

[ewancummins]

''Glad you liked the fruitcake- it's me specialty. I cannot get the humans who work for me ta do it right, so I always make that meself. ''

[Adam]

"Old as the stones, hmm," Bennedict recalls Norzak's tale of the subteranean rat-menace, "Perhaps even older." He smiles once again to the cleaning lady and raises his tea glass before turning back to the breakfast table.

The unexpected attention from Charlotte the serving girl distracts Benn's musings for a moment, but her absence brings him back to the present. To recap, we have no less than three unexplained magic items, rat people in the sewers, a portal to...somewhere else, and a pestilence god. To say nothing of the odd figure in the street the night we murdered Evangeline's kidnapper...accidentally.Questions were starting to pile upon questions, and Bennedict was beginning to lose patience.

Which means it's time to go to the library.

[ewancummins]

Leaving the bakery after Norzak's coversation with Brom, Evangeline leads her small party to the Dockside Market.

The River Market turns out to be noisy and vibrant. The waterfront is lined with crates, barrels and chests. Stevedores are unloading more from the numerous rafts and boats tied up along the wharf. Hawkers and small vendors line the inland side of the street, all busily attempting to sell passers-by something or another. In the few vacant lots along the street, open-air auctions are being conducted- the goods are simply piled in stacks on the ground. The variety of goods is very great- bundles of cotton and tobacco from Arkandale, casks of Invidian wine, Elvish crystal-work form distant Sithicus,etc.

[ewancummins]

As you walk down the waterfront, you approach a cafe. Outside the door is hung a very large wooden board, roughly square, and quite weathered and nail-scarred. To this board are tacked scraps of parchment, posters,and broadsides of various sorts. Now and then, someone will stop at the board and read one of the notes, then hurry along his way.

[steveflam]

Norzak will lean into Evangeline and ask in a low voice "I got these here stones I'd like ta change ta gold, miss" and he removes the stones and shows her quickly before putting them back "Kinna ya find me an honest jeweler or they don't exist here?" Once she answers him he approaches the board and reads the notices at the café.