City of Eastport: Phyre
Apr 17, 2016 15:31:50 GMT -7
Post by Solus on Apr 17, 2016 15:31:50 GMT -7
City of Eastport: Phyre
For hours you could see it in the distance, the portside of a grand place: Eastport, the city you had been looking for. Standing on the deck of this rickety ship in the distance you could see the city walls rise above about thirty meters from you, twelve meters high they would dwarf the steady stream of ships coming and going below. Black flags with a gold and crimson chevron flew from the ramparts, showing that you were at the correct place. Armoured guards seemed to patrol the walls and stand watch on the tower. Climbing unseen over the city would be difficult. A single cog, square rigged and slightly cumbersome but clearly loaded with goods would sail out of the city’s port passing your ship at a distance of five meters, the flag of a distant city in Kaminari no Kuni in its mast. You could see the port it had emerged from. Between two towers on either side of the entrance to the port you could see a chain run. Currently it was lowered but at a moment’s notice this could of course be raised, closing off the port in the distance. The entrance was narrow for a port, only about twenty meters across but it seemed to enter some natural lagoon beyond. You could not clearly see as the towers slightly blocked your sight. Notably, the tower on the right also seemed to double as a lighthouse. Currently it was of course not lit since it was still five in the afternoon during summer, but you could see the light glimmer on the lens in the top of the tower.
Tacking into the wind the wind would catch in the sail, heavily slowing the ship down before the sailors started to fold the sails and drop the anchor. This would bring your ride to a halt behind three other trading ships that were waiting in line. One was unfurling its sails, making ready to sail into the harbour. The other two were moored against agile ships, clearly small warships of the city, denoted by their sleek hulls and black flags in their masts with the clear red and gold chevrons. One of the xebecs, that had been processing the ship that was just now sailing into the harbour, unfurled its three lateen rigged sails, aiming its sleek hull at your ship, approaching fast. Either they were going to drop a pilot on your ship or inspect it, maybe even both.
On the ship fifteen meters in front of you you could see this in progress. People had organized in a line on the deck and were slowly progressing first past guards. They were doing something to everyone trying to enter the city, waving a stick past the sailors and passengers trying to come in. Then everyone was guided past a few men clad in thick brown hooded robes that seemed to inspect everyone meticulously. Then everyone who had been expected was being grouped on the other end of the deck so they did not accidentally inspect the same person twice. A tussle occurred on the other ship, one of the robed people for some reason seemed not to approve of one of the passengers and the guards had bore down on the man who seemed to have wanted to form handseals frantically before being pressed to the wood and manacles were clapped around his wrists on his back. These people were not kidding around, considering they just took down someone intent on using chakra with nothing but team effort.
Bells started to toil in the city and you could see dark smoke rise from somewhere near what seemed to be a religious building in the centre of the city, denoted by its tall tower. Nobody seemed spooked though so this seemed to be business as usual. Whatever the case these people were not kind to people they did not welcome in their city for some reason. From either tower flanking the port entrance a gibbet hung, both containing a decaying body, trying to determine what kind of people these had been would however be nigh impossible from this distance. All clearly dead and in decay for a few weeks. At least these people knew how to decorate. Would you care though? All you knew was what you came here to do. You had to find and acquire an item called ‘the Litany of the Blessed’ that was apparently important to your village and bring it back. Nothing too difficult right? Just another simple boring mission.