WELCOME TO THE FREE CITIES!

[abraxasmods]

WELCOME TO THE FREE CITIES!

Welcome to The Free Cities! The portal exits outside the capital city of Cadens. The first impression of the city is its sheer size. It sprawls out across the landscape like a great hulking beast at rest. The wall that encircles it barely contains it, the buildings of Cadens practically bulging against its restraint.

The air here seems thicker somehow, tinged with a scent that’s acrid and smoky. Smog hangs high over the city, belched out by smokestacks that tower over the industrial district. The desert stretches out behind it, dotted with towers and dust clouds that disappear into the horizon. Multiple gates lead inside and each is staffed by soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms that wave a steady stream of people through without appearing to pay much attention. People are coming and going almost all of the time, to and from the outposts and areas of activity around the city proper. It’s difficult to tell just what’s out there beyond the impression of tall metal structures and a great deal of labor. Wagons carrying travelers to Libertas and Aquila roll out from the Travel Post outside the city wall.

Anyone who can sense magic will notice a much lower concentration here. No one will be stopped or questioned at the gate, even if the soldiers seem to take note of the fugitives from Thorne.

The activity and sheer number of citizens can be overwhelming. It’s crowded and loud and feels constantly in motion with everyone talking and yelling over each other. It’s easy to get swept up in the ever-moving throng or find oneself ducking into the mouth of a narrow alley just to breathe.

Anyone who’s willing to make their way to the northern part of the city and Portham Hall will find Prime Minister Marlo Reiner available to receive them.

Comments

iii.

[frontlinetitties]

[He's not the only one to feel the hard fingers of exhaustion clutching at his heart; all of this, it's a lot to take in all at once. Particularly when one has mostly spent one's days steeped in stony silence, down deep in the chill, dark halls of Drearburh. For the vast majority of her life her only company has been an ancient old military captain long discharged from service, the odd scurrying shadow of nuns and penitents eager to avoid her, and a woman with whom for the longest time there had only been hardness and violence between them. The shabby little tavern she's ducked into for a moment's reprieve from the strangeness outside contains more living souls than she'd known in all her eighteen years.

She picks her way through the press of the crowd toward the one vacant seat she can easily spot, and when the other guy already occupying the table offers her a drink out of nowhere, she looks at him in mild surprise.]

Really? Thanks, you're a pal.

[song_of_ice]

Why not? [He had shared a few rounds with some others, it seemed like a natural thing to do the same for a stranger. Being free of Thorne was at least something to celebrate. They had been held in a tight grip and now they were finally free from the mages. He could now breathe with relief, without worry about further imprisonments or executions.

So long as he didn't think about those that were left behind.] Are you one of the ones summoned to this world by the mages?

[frontlinetitties]

[His question is blunt and to the point, which both catches her off guard and sparks a light of mild suspicion in her. She appreciates it in a way, that bluntness. Even as she's stopping to wonder why he wants to know. She finds herself scanning his face, slowly. Sees nothing there that raises any immediate concerns; so far this place hasn't seemed particularly worried about her either way, but the slowly worsening events back in Thorne have her hackles raised, a touch on edge.

Her voice is edged with the mildest hint of caution when she responds, but she answers him honestly anyway.]

Yeah. Why, were you?

[She tries to place his face, thinks she might have seen him around the castle grounds. But she really can't be sure.]

[song_of_ice]

[It doesn't seem like a subject to tiptoe around. So many others here had been summoned by the mages. Given that there was such a large number, it didn't seem like a taboo subject. Especially now that there were so many others as well. It seemed they would continually draw more and more in until they were satisfied.

He took a drink, smiling softly.]

I was. It's why I'm glad to be away from the mages.

[frontlinetitties]

[Something in her visibly relaxes in the wake of both his response and his smile. She runs one hand back through her shock of ginger hair, slumps a little further into her seat.]

Yeah, fuck those dudes. What a bunch of shady bastards. Though who's to say whether this place is any better?

[Or any place, really. She's yet to reside anywhere that isn't consumed by an undercurrent of shadiness, and dirty secrets.]

[song_of_ice]

There isn't any way to know for sure, only the current evidence that they're not imprisoning any of us. [But he had to add:] Yet.

Did you have the chance to meet the Prime Minister?

[frontlinetitties]

[Yet he says, and she has to admit that it's something to bear in mind. Best if she and Harrow go to ground maybe, just for a little while. Just until they have a clearer idea about the culture and expectations of their new host city.

He's posing a quiestion though, and she shakes her head in response.]

Nah. I've never been a big fan of stuffy, political types. Did you?