A Matter of Faith

"Right then. Follow me, and watch your step."

Karl leads you through a narrow side door toward the back of the tavern, down a short flight of stairs into his cellar. Its a low ceilinged room with rough stone walls, with rows and rows of wooden casks and barrels stacked on top of each other. Some are marked with chalk, and most have faded Thyatian trade stamps. The floor itself is cheap wood planks, but you can see the packed dirt between the gaps in the boards. There is but a single iron lantern hanging overhead to provide some light.

"Here it is. Please, please, please; don’t knock anything over, don’t break anything. I can't afford to close the place down, not even for a few days" he considered whether he should stay and watch, but eventually decided against it. There would be more and more patrons arriving as lunch approaches, and he wants to make sure everything is ready for their arrival. "Don't make too big of mess" he finally says, before heading back up the stairs.

After a few grueling hours of effort moving barrels around, pulling up the old floorboards, and digging into the packed earth, the spirit is finally vindicated when your shovel's scrape against stone. Each of these stone slabs could easily weight several hundreds of pounds, and Will could just barely lift them out of the way, one after the other, to uncover a crude stone staircase leading downward into the darkness.

It is in that exact moment that the serving maid Will spotted the night before appears on the cellar's steps, carefully balancing a tray with a pitcher of water and some jugs. She pauses, and looks wide-eyed at the sight of the unearthed floor, and more so at the sweating Will, before she manages a small smile:
"Hi. I thought you might want something to drink"

"Since the end of winter. So around six, seven, months" the young woman looks between Will and the hole in the ground "What exactly are you looking for?"

While most Thyatians tend to have lighter hair and eyes, the Empire has conquered and absorbed so many peoples over the centuries that you can never be entirely certain just by looking. But the young woman does admits to keeping to the old Faith, so there's that:

"Um… I try to follow the Three. As much as anyone can, I suppose" she looks cautiously at Boudica "Why should it matter?"

"You're welcome. Let me know if you need...anything else" Dragana could take a hint. She nodded gently at Will, then Boudica, before excusing herself, climbing up the stairs and closing the door behind her.