14 Monpel - Nexrin's day in the Castle District

### Writeup

Nexrin arrives at the edge of Castle hill, perhaps a bit trepidatiously. He's dressed in his finest clothes, but immediately feels underdressed. He is surrounded by a swirl of lavish carriages, finely adorned beuracrats, and beautiful arches of marble and gold. He could not feel further from a fishing boat in the gleaming waters around Tidelight. Luckily, he carries enough coin to score passage into a fine restaurant. He enjoys a fine meal of roasted duck in a confit, a glass of wine older than his clan, and a pudding in a glass so delicate that he worries he'll shatter it. Though he is surrounded by other diners, this is no Dragonfall lodge, and to Nexrin's surprise, noone in the space comes to greet him during his meal, or welcomes any intrusion from him into theirs.

Next, he brings himself to a fine opera, which offers to tell the story of the Gold Dragon of Ancient Vidhar and his relations with three mortals of three different genders. He expected it to be raunchy and fun, but the whole thing was sung in interminal elven, and the "Gold Dragon" was an elf in glittery makeup. At the first intermission, he gets a stiff drink. At the second intermission, a very apologetic attendant asks him to go to the back of the room, since he's "scaring other patrons", but he manages to convince the guests that he means no harm with a few compelling arguments. He gets halfway to the thrid intermission before he leaves.

Walking about in nine-tenths dress at nine past ten, Nexrin finds the Castle district to be a ghost town. Chilly carriages rush back to their stables, eerie guardsmen stand at doors and streetcorners, and the gleaming arches form a filligreed maze. Eventually our hero strikes upon the plan to seek out sound, and like a camel finding water in the desert, he eventually finds an avenue that leads to a thoruoughfare that leads to an alley, and like the breaking of a mirage, Nexrin finds himself in a busy bright street, filled with carriageless bodies and filligreeless buildings. Laughter spills out of dense taverns, stacked high with rooms above, candle and oil lighting streets that one weathers rather than walks.

Nexrin finds his way to the loudest inn he can find, the name of which escaped him in the morning. Insider, he found dozens of servant folk, fresh off their evenings work in the castle district, drinking off their earnings and getting much needed slices of joy, comraderie, and chicken pie before they turn in for the evening. Though he stands out from the group in height, nearly bumping his head on the sealing, and accent, struggling at times to understand the flurry of Northern accents, he quickly makes friends with a half dozen of the denizens of the place. He plays a round at darts, a round at drinking, and a round of armwrestling, and wins the triple crown for them, impressing half the crowd and souring the other half (who were on the losing side of bets against the stranger). But any soured folk were well sweetened again when he bought another round of ale for everyone still upright in the room.

The party like this continued until early in the morning, and then later still, and Nexrin made close friends with several of the citys servants and clerks. In the morning, he wakes up in an innroom with some hastily scrawled names and street numbers clutched in one hand. Well, that and a pretty substantial hangover.

### Mechanics

At the end of the day, Nexrin has spent 7 silver, 3 of which counts towards desire expenditures.

He gains a positive renown roll in capitol.

He gains two temporary d6 hit dice,

He gains 1 wild connection in Servant's Row (redeemable to say "I've met them!" about any common character within the district.

He gains the following connections:

1. Adrien Carrowbern - human man - 25. An attendant at the Grand Capitolan Opera House, who is very sorry about the way the other attendants treated you, and is mightily impressed by your dart skills.
2. Zinca Stormhammer - dwarven woman -46. A clerk in the city hall of records on water matters. She works to keep the cities sewage situation under control, and is currently working towards a promotion to head of waterways management in Greenmarket.
3. Frederick Baldeen - human man - 31. A librarian at the First Capitolan Conservatory. He was very interested to hear Nexrin's stories from the South and East.