the "tower of three" in trolanport is translucent and beautiful and welcoming and misleading in its size
the rest of the city is built by gnomes and other eye-level folk who are just fine with low ceilings and cramped places which are uncomfortable for 2 of us and difficult for 3 of us and near impossible for bell to navigate
this is why the newcomers' bureau provides "periapts of scale" – charming little artifacts that allow one to change overall size as desired
the clerk warned that the periapts would only last for eight hours and "don't be inside when it runs out" – good advice that had me quietly giggling at the notion of a hallway suddenly blocked by a very surprised forged dragon
i feel that if these were in breland or aundair they would be produced in mass to look uniform and forgettable but everything in zilargo has a sense of craft and beauty so they're sculpted to look like a variety of animals
mine is a mouse!
they also provide the korranberg chronicle
outside zilargo it's like any other tabloid-size paper but here it's a single sheet infused with magic so it changes "pages" when one touches a section name or article title
it's like the morgrave university map done right
today's top stories mention "horrid beasts" in western "eldeen" which is a country north of breland
i wonder if they're anything like the terrible animals we fought in ringbriar right after i arrived
as a note
when i say "provide" and not "sell" it's because nothing has prices – they list cost of production and payment is recommended but not mandatory
back home there's a tradition at cafés and restaurants – folks will sometimes pay for a second meal "for a rainy day" so anyone having money trouble can say that it "looks like rain" and have a good meal on the house to help get them through without feeling like they're begging
that's how zilargo works in general!
the air is humid here and it reminds me of shaarat but saltier because it's directly on the coast
at one time i felt that the central district of viljatown – the old part from when it was "yarrowfield" – had the least comprehensible layout possible with its meandering paths but trolanport is so much worse
there are buildings stacked on other buildings with bridges to connect the ones above and it's all so bunched up like tangled yarn
but it's not all like that
a large part of the city isn't even fixed in place
the river that runs through the city teems with floating buildings and boats and small islands and even a large dinosaur called "fintail" carrying several restaurants on their back
unlike shaarat folks here are all about food from the sea
the others in the group were a bit surprised that medya and i were so eager to eat crawfish and lobster but sea bugs are extra tasty when served deep-fried with sweet-spicy sauce!
we also enjoyed some amazing brandied sorbet made by a group of kobolds that i've never met but seemed weirdly familiar?
lunch was really good not just for the food but the conversation – we had a very colorful gnome named "leandre" with us and we talked all about the work they do at their artificing shop called "flock of seven"
i'll cover all that in the next journal entry