"Oooooh! Tourists! I will gladly show you around!"
A blue and green, crystal covered faerie dragon comes in for a landing and hops a few times before he comes to a stand still. Obviously he came in a little too quick
"Greetings!Welcomewelcome.IamGethraxxis.Apleasuretomeetyou.Yourfriendheresa ysyouneedaguideofsomesort?" his wording comes out in a flood of excitement as he looks from one to the other
"Oh!" Terex exclaims in a moment of surprise. "Umm, yes, that would be helpful."
The walking suit of antique fluted armour clanked softly as Kincaid turned to see the exotic new arrival bounce off the floor. A chuckle like boulders rolling down a hill escaped the exquisitely carved helmet. "Well met, ImSorryIDidntCatchYourName, I'm Kincaid. We just got here and were hoping someone would be kind enough to show us around."
He looks from Terex to the suit of armour then back at Terex expectantly. After about 2 seconds he decides its taking to long and he continues
"Gethraxxis. Geth-raxx-is. Gathraxxis"
Having a conversation where Terex was translating telepathically was a strange experience. Kincaid wasn't sure he'd ever entirely get used to it. He replied, "That's your name is it? I shall try, but probably fail, to pronounce it properly. Lets see Gethrixisss no, Garetraxxxis, Gethrixxis. Oh dear. Maybe we should call you Geth for short? Or perhaps Rax?"
"My friends have trouble with Draconic," Terex explains, after translating what Kincaid is saying.
The little dragon first gave a small snarl, then quickly relaxed as he shook his head violently
"Repeat after me... Geth- (wait) raxx- (wait) is" he gave a bit of a chuckle "Easy!"
Rokas elbow Kincaid in his side as he smiles at the heavy armored Tiefling. "Gethraxxis!" He pronounces the name in Draconic with just a slight accent. "See, it's not that hard. If you want, I can teach you." Turning to their new guide, he presents himself in Draconic so that Terex wouldn't need to translate. "I'm Rokas Nepavyk. It's a pleasure to meet you. Now, I have a bit of a weird question for you. We currently are not sure what currency this town is using. Could you teach us how the market works here?"
He tilts his head a bit then gives them a great big smile
"I can help. yes indeed i can. We have four different monetary values in town. yes we do. Platinum. VERY shiny. Then gold, also shiny, then silver. Less shiny and copper. Not shiny at all. So, if you have one platinum, its as much as ten gold, or hundred silver, or a thousand copper. But needs to be okay size, they no like slivers of shiny things." he walks and quickly scampers up Rokas, rather surprisingly. Then lean in close to his ear
"Don't tell the chemist or the herbalist i sent you. They don't like me very much. I thought their plants could use some water, so i watered it for them. Not my fault they were too close"
"Hmm, so the shinier something is the more valuable it is? Well that sounds odd to me, but then again I suppose the chits we're used to might seem odd to everyone else." rumbled Kincaid.
When Terex next tries to talk telepathically to Kincaid, he asks, 'Do you think we should ask him where we can study a map?'
It wouldn't hurt to ask, Terex thinks back to Kincaid.
Out loud, he asks Gethraxxis, "Is there somewhere here we could maybe trade for a map? Since we don't know much about the area it would be nice to know what's around to know which direction we'd like to go."
He nods as he makes a few circles in the air before he lands again
"This way!" he chirps excitedly
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Gethraxxis leads them through the city to a small shop filled with books. When the door opens, the group sees a book shop full of books and wooden shelves. An older dragonoid stands behind the counter, and a half-dragon Fasthtali stands by the counter, speaking with the owner.
When the door opens, the dragonoid turns it's head and hisses. "GETHRAXXIS! I will burn your scales off if you enter my store again! You worthless creature! Now get out, and take the pseudodragon with you!"
Terex stops himself from responding with a hot retort, instead turning and flying back into the street.
Rokas, you speak Draconic, right? Terex's mental tone indicates the question is rhetorical. It sounds like maybe you should do the talking here.
Gethraxxis flies out screeching and whistling in delight as he's chased out
"I forgot about him!"
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Hylar looks very confused, what with all the draconic being tossed about. He wishes he was fluent, or even had a conversational ability with it as it would aid him mightily in his interactions here.
Once the exchange had been translated for the benefit of those unable to follow along, Kincaid asked (rhetorically) "I wonder what else he's forgotten..."
Rokas hesitate for a moment, he is usually not the one to take the lead is discussed. "Sorry sir. Gethraxxis was just guiding us to your shop. And the pseudodragon, his name is Terexaltherin, and he is part of our group. We are new to this city, and we don't know much of the region. We ask Gethraxxis if there was a good map maker so that we don't wander aimlessly when we head back out." Hoping that Terex is still in range he pushes some thought out. I could use some back up here.
The older dragon is wearing robes and a cloak. . "That little... thing... I caught drawing mustaches on all the illustrated visages in an original copy Lords and Ladies of The Neirvan Peerage, 1400 to 1499. I had to pay a wizard to repair the damage." The dragon huffs. "Since then, I have a strict no miniature dragon policy, pseudo, fairy, or otherwise. Now, what do you want, Hobgoblin?" The dragon speaks in Goblin, in a fairly passable version of it. "A map of what?"
Kincaid almost flinched when the half-dragon started yammering something at Rokas, 'By Sithana!' he thought, 'Yet another language I don't know...'
Gethraxxis could still be heard laughing outside. He then speaks to Terex
"Those faces were really dull. I figured id make them more enjoyable to look at. These old dragon types dont appreciate art one bit"
Terex glares at Gethraxxis. That's not an acceptable reason to mess with someone else's things! he shoots back.
"Your's is the best place to come looking for older books, we had some disappear from the library lately and I hope you would keep and eye out for these.." Nate says but jumps a bit as the owner suddenly burst when the fairy dragon enters, turning to look he sees the strangers coming in. He gets a little confused as the owner starts speaking a language he doesn't understand to answer the guy who came in here speaking draconic.
"Say I'm no mapmaker, but I do know a thing or two about the land around here I've studied nature and geography quite a bit in the lonely days at the library, but where are my manners, I'm Nate a half dragon." he says smiling.
Nate is a white half dragon with a few black spots here and there wearing a nice explorer's outfit and holds a hat in his hands while he is talking.
Gethraxxis keeps chuckling
"You are no fun at all." he huffs a bit.
"And he did get to fix it in the end."
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Hylar remains confused by the bevy of langauges as well, thankful at least that Kincaid was in the same boat. He pondered how these creatures would feel if he began speaking in Drow, or perhaps in Sylvan. He's also very disconcerted by the size of the dragons in this region still.
There are better things in the world than fun, Terex proudly responds to Gethraxxis, But I can have fun sometimes, too! I just don't do it by messing up other people's stuff.
Gethraxxis gasps as if Terexaltherin said some sort of blasphemy.
"Nope nope.Not talking to you any more. The nerve!"
Terex shakes his head and turns his attention from Gethraxxis to his squad, making sure everything is going well with them.
The shopkeeper huffs. "Stop cutting into my sales, Dragonail." He says in gruff draconic.
Kincaid feels kind of lost as conversations in several foreign languages go on at once. At some point Terex telepathically translates Nate's words. He thinks beck, "Terex could you please introduce us? Tell him it's a pleasure to meet him, and ask if he would be kind enough to tell us what's interesting in town and the wider area? You know touristy things, what to see and what to avoid like the plague."
Nate bows to the shopkeeper "Of course my meager knowledge can't compare to your wears. They would need your maps, but also one who understands the land you maps show, so they don't get into trouble with the wrong people." he responds with a smile
The older dragon is wearing robes and a cloak. . "That little... thing... I caught drawing mustaches on all the illustrated visages in an original copy Lords and Ladies of The Neirvan Peerage, 1400 to 1499. I had to pay a wizard to repair the damage." The dragon huffs. "Since then, I have a strict no miniature dragon policy, pseudo, fairy, or otherwise. Now, what do you want, Hobgoblin?" The dragon speaks in Goblin, in a fairly passable version of it. "A map of what?"
Switching to goblin, Rokas continue the conversation with the shop owner. "I'm impressed. I wouldn't have thought that someone of such noble descent would take the time to learn the goblin tongue. For the benefit of my colleague, would you know the common tongue? It would speed up the conversation." Rokas tries to translate what he can as the conversation evolves so that the rest of the group knows what's going on. "As for the map, We could use whatever you have on the region. We are not from around here and we wouldn't want to enter the wrong city. We heard of a city of demons and of enslaving Minotaurs. So if you have any information or rumors, that would help too."
The old dragon rubs his chin. "I got some everyday maps, shows the local area. I got some older maps, show a bigger area, but can't promise they have accurate information. Got a few copies of old Imperial maps, but they're just what you call, informational and historical, as they don't have any relation to what's actually there now." The dragon looks the group over, perhaps guaging how much money they have and how stupid they are.
"Hmm, ok, so, local maps are a gold apiece. The older maps are 50 to 500 gold apiece, depending on which one you want. The old historical copies are 5 gold apiece."
Nate listens in as the hobgoblin translate what the dragon says to his group. "I can help you acquire one of the lesser expensive maps. But on the condition you let me travel with you outside of town, recently I've had a yearning to get out and see the world some more. It's all fine to sit in the library to read about it, but to actually get a chance to go out and see it with people who like me are learning about the lands aroudn he would be a once in a lifetime experience." Nate suggests to the group. He pauses for a moment and adds "You can sorta say I buy my way into your expedition."
Terex, listening from outside, perks up at this.
I think it's a good idea, though we should ask permission before we take him too close to Kotelia, he says to the rest of the party. Having a native see that we're *not* some kind of crazy assassin cult or whatever they believe about Kotelia out here can only help us.
Kincaid considers this somewhat unusual request, and thinks back "Hmm you're right he'll need permission to approach but I suspect that will be months away. We need to find out the nature of this Demon City - lets hope that's not our home. In addition some of the more expensive maps would no doubt be welcomed."