i haven't spent all my time at the library
but the "trolanport civic archives" have basically every research paper ever published in khorvaire so i spent a couple days trying not to make excited noises while collecting schematics to study while we travel
... but i still need the whitehearth manuals to make progress on harmonization
anyhow when not coordinating with flock of 7 on the hardbacks we've been enjoying the abundance of food and arts and culture around here
some highlights:
"ransva's redoubt" is a tavern with mediocre food – why spend the time to make galettes if you're just going to underseason the filling? – but great beer and wine that medya likes a lot and they have a very skilled house bard! so we came back here a couple times
"the brass witch" is much the opposite in that they have a skilled kitchen but no music and spotty service and they might have one of the city's best bartenders but that's not really our scene
"gold of the grain" has an interesting approach – they completely avoid ingredients that come from animals including eggs and milk and even honey! – yet their ginger orange carrot cake is absolutely stunning
"tanrac art museum" has a beautiful exhibit on the development of calligraphy around the world which got me thinking of my friend "woodburn" because he loves calligraphy – he created the simplified leaf-like ponyscript that i use on the trim of some of my plates
the "trolanport aquarium" tour took us underneath the city's waterways to learn about their history and the rituals used to control their flow – it's a little surreal to see such a variety of sea life while standing next to and even under it!
we also enjoyed a highly recommended local winter tradition – sipping banana wine while watching a narrated ballet called "the haunting of oskilor" that's performed with complex string-puppets that take a half-dozen puppeteers each
"a little taste of shaarat" is a set of hilarious and very relatable anecdotes told by a gnome who has spent much time living "among the talls" as he puts it
at first i was a little startled by "stéanda & yolvee" – bards who "duel" by playing music while casting illusions of comedic violence toward each other – but medya had such a good time that i stayed through it and once it became clear that they weren't actually angry at each other i was able to enjoy the act also!
ploughshare suggested the dramatic play "company of fools" having heard it involved a well-written forged character
it's about a group of wounded soldiers separated from the rest of their unit and all of them are grown except for their physic
all but one of the grown have a horrible "forged are equipment" attitude
none of them know how to help when their physic is mortally wounded and the implication is that none of them survive as a result
so bleak but so powerful
medya heard that the instrumentals – her favorite music group – were in town so we went to "lahar gallery" where they were expected to perform but they'd had to cancel becase of a mishap with one of the gallery's art pieces
a large sound-making metal sculpture called "tin echo" collapsed and the sculptor "kzéla banzéla" claimed sabotage but it turned out to be the result of incomplete (impatient) welding which rattled apart under its own sound – quickly fixed by bell!
and then there's "lámatyávë" – an ærani word meaning something like "sound-taste" – which is a combination of narration sprinkled among music set to illusions of it being played by self-animated instruments that don't actually exist
we'd never seen anything like it before and while medya and i disagree on what its best aspects are we very much agree that it's amazing!
there is so much to enjoy here ... and 3 more days of it before we travel on!