IC Story Thread: Ch.1,Ad.1 - A Sensitive Matter

Duinhir, Seonaid, Cirion, and Eothain hurry back to the docks of Easterly Rock as Onar sits in waiting at the spot within view of the ship.

A few scant minutes after the chests were hauled off, the gang-planks are drawn onto the deck of the Storm-tide, and the voices of Corsairs begin to holler out the status of the final checks before sail.

Just a couple minutes more and, as the heavy chain of an anchor grinds against an iron eyelet, Onar sees the approach of his comrades down the darkened streets, and at about that time the jib is pulled tight, and the boom of the aft gaff-sail swings outward, and the timbers of the Storm-tide groan and creak as the slight breeze brings the ship to life and it begins to maneuver away from the dock.

The streets of Easterly Rock are quiet at the moment, however there are lights burning yet inside the shuttered windows of a few random buildings and floors.

As the Storm-tide drifts out toward the greater bay, the Company re-unites in the shadow of buildings lining the Easterly Rock dock...

As the Company catches up with Onar, they can discuss quietly enough but with 5 of them there, it will be impossible to conceal their physical presence for long without deliberate measures to do so.

Some way off amongst the buildings - it can't be that far, despite the stillness of the night - you all hear a door creak open, followed by the clamour of a few sets of feet.

The voice of a woman can be heard speaking in Southron, but Onar can only make out a few words, "... poor dears... *muffled words*... keep them ...*muffled words* ... so long ..." ... and then a door slamming shut.

You all move toward the sounds you heard echoing through the streets, and find yourselves moving toward the center of the Easterly Rock neighborhood. It's not that large of a neighborhood so it doesn't take much time, and you soon find yourselves amongst sets of buildings that largely look the same - squat, square structures covered in stucco and lime, stacked upon each other, winding in a disorganized mass around you - like other domiciles and shops you've seen around the city.

But there is one building that stands out from the others here, where your ears have taken you, as this one building is much larger, and has more exposed timbers making up the bulk of it's height and girth.

It appears to be a single structure three stories tall, though it's hard to tell if the stories are separate with separate rooms, or if it's essentially one large enclosure.

There is a wide street that goes straight out to the docks, and there are well worn cart tracks that lead from there straight up to the large building. Looking at it, it could be some sort of manse, or it could be something like a warehouse.

There are no windows on the ground level, however there is a large double door, and there are several tall windows on the upper height of it.

This large building is nested amongst the other smaller, stacked structures, so it gives the visual impression of a large square brick protruding powerfully out of a pile of rubble.

There doesn't appear to be much for entry ways on the ground level (again, no windows, for example), other than the big double doors - unless the big square building could be accessed from inside one of the adjacent structures, which have their own doors.

And it's hard to see what all might be going on, on the upper levels, aside from the windows, from here on the streets. But there is a ladder that could be used to get up to the second level of the amalgam of buildings, where you could see better what is going on up there and if there are other access points on the upper levels.

You figure it must be nearing midnight by now.

There are still lights on, scattered across the interiors of the buildings in the area, but not many. And windows are mostly shuttered.

The streets here, amongst the contiguous buildings and winding ways, are a bit more shadowed from the stars and moon than the more open area out by the docks. So you don't feel quite as exposed as earlier.

But still anyone who looked would see that "someone" was out there.

The streets are fairly silent, aside from sporadic laughs and shouts echoing from some merry-making far away.

The ladder creaks and there is lots of wind blown grit that crunches beneath the feet of Duinhir on top of the lower tier of roofs. But he is so far undisturbed. And once up there, he can see there is a door on the roof of the second tier of buildings, that appears to enter into the blocky structure of the large manse/warehouse.