Closed The Aftermath of the Cold Part II

[Crylon Stonecraft]

25 Summer 518 Crylon headed out the door of Tarsin's, on his way to another day of work. Work he felt quite fortunate to have, seeing as he had come to Ravok in part to learn of its unique architecture. Now he was literally being paid to do just that, admittedly while noting and listing his findings for later repairs. Still, he could not help but see his good fortune. And all it took was a powerful magical attack on the city, many deaths, destruction of property... Hopping in a Ravasola, Crylon showed the woman poling him along the first location he was to start at which had been written on a note delivered that morning by his employer. After a few chimes poling along and Crylon eyeing the architecture about him, he did his best to locate himself. His sense of direction was normal for an Isurian, but this innate sense of direction was far beyond anything a human would have. That being said, orientation was not his problem, lack of landmarks and knowledge of locations where. After spending the time he had spent examining buildings and areas though, he was starting to pick up on some things. Such as that to a degree one could tell where in the city they were, or which region so to speak, by the buildings in it. The Noble district for instance had finer, larger, and overall more expensive or fancy buildings. Many were rather old, or if not so old still lavish. The merchants ring was in general another layer further out in Ravok. It was not so fine the nobles area, but neither was it poor. Not that anything in Ravok was outright poor. It was a wilder mix of buildings sometimes edging close to the Nobles lesser buildings, and ranging down to almost the lower end of the city. But still in general and on average better than the docks, the outermost ring of the city and where Crylon lay his head at night. It was the newest and comparably poorest part of Ravok, smaller buildings, less fancy. Of course, any building had to be at least reasonably well made and therefore not poor, or else it would sink into the lake. This perhaps worked as a factor in keeping out outright slums and ramshackle buildings. It was with this in mind that Crylon began to slowly note their passage, changing from the poorer area of the docks into what he thought was likely the slightly nicer merchants area. Crylon was a bit surprised when they came to a stop with little ado. Looking about he was fairly certain they had properly left the docks and entered the merchants area, but he could not say for sure. Either way the building he had been let out at seemed to be a business of some sort. It had a sign out front with a quill crossed by a dagger. For the life of Crylon, he could not puzzle out what the place did, and the name from the paper which he had shown to the Ravasolaman did little to clear things up. Pulling out the book he used to write his notes along with some writing materials, Crylon began to pace about the outer side of the structure to examine it and take some initial notes. First glance, building seems intact, no obvious signs of damage. Reviewing structure. With that he began to set out circling the building in a single circuit to see what he could see. WC: 585

[Crylon Stonecraft]

As Crylon began to circle about the building, he focused his gaze in a sweeping motion upward. The base of the building was of course important, and the first sign of trouble. From there he would move upward along the walls, with a focus on the main structural features. Lastly would be the roof itself, the least structurally important he found, at least in general with most buildings, but still important. The platform itself seemed intact, Crylon choosing several spots to lean over the edge and look underneath. What he could see seemed intact, a few small boards warped from the cold in places but overall in working order. Thick logs made up the main base, connected by boards placed within notches in the logs and nailed into place. Taking out his writing tools Crylon quickly noted these facts down. Moving up from that in his circling, next was the walls directly placed upon the foundational platform. They seemed in working order as well, though they had received a bit more damage. Mainly to non-structural parts Crylon noted to himself before translating into common and writing down his findings. Walls intact. No apparent structural damage. Main support and cross beams intact. Windows broken, shutters ripped off. Mounts partially removed. Need replacement, not immediate structural issue. Walls good overall, The more he wrote, slowly but surely the more comfortable Crylon felt using common. He was still no where near fluent, especially speaking the language. However in writing it he was slowly getting better at using and remembering words, the first step he reasoned to better learning to use the language in speech as well. It was still a process, but a slowly improving one, and he felt his reports had improved slowly over the season. Or perhaps Crylon thought to himself, a seed of doubt fluttering into his mind, he had simply memorized the common building terms he needed to use and was no better off with other uses of the language of common. Crylon shook this thought off quickly enough, realizing it did not matter which was true as either way meant he was learning the language of the locals even If only part of it. Moving upward again Crylon focused on the part of the wall that met the roof, watching the arc of the curve and the overhang. From the perspective he had it was difficult to see the whole roof, and he could not back up to see it except on one side of the building or he would fall into a canal. And that one side only allowed him perspective of part of the roof, not the other side. With a bit of dissatisfaction Crylon realized he would need to climb up on top of the building to get a better view. Other buildings had allowed him to see the roof well enough either due to the lack of height on the structure or the way the building curved and arced steeply to leave it visible. This building however was somewhat squatter and flatter with a gentler slope, obscuring a good bit of the roof. What he needed, Crlon realized, was a ladder. Pulling out his, he had felt until a few moments ago, much improved common Crylon knocked on the front door. “Er... I... Roof, need to see roof. Look damage. You have ladder I use?” With an inward cringe Crylon accepted the fact that he had not quite mastered common, as the owner disappeared back inside and reappeared after a few chimes with a ladder. This once more confused Crylon, as it was quite a proper ladder that had a fancy joint at the top and middle so that it could fold flatter when stored... And he still had not figured out what the business was or did! Did it involve ladders? Crylon had no idea, and the sign above the door seemed to taunt him a moment as he took the ladder. WC: 659