* The Place
Northern Entry to Buhr Mahrling
A well used wooden dock extends out into the flow of the river with
many punts and river craft moored to its pylons. The whole dock creaks and
groans as it shifts slightly in the current. Closer inspection will reveal that
the dock is not terribly safe.
Barrels and crates lie haphazzardly around the dock, and the large
warehouse backs onto it. Looming above the warehouse in the distance is the
large form of the water wheel that Buhr Mahrling is famed for.
Dock workers scurry back and forth, and the jetty is a hive of activity
as people haul goods to-and-fro.
* The Time
Middle-earth time is:
Daytime on Sunday, Day 11 of October.
* The Characters
Brican
The fellow before you stands no more than 4 and a half feet tall. He
looks to be quite well bulked, though he does not look to be at all fat. Just
mainly made of muscle. His long white beard, streaked with black throughout,
extends all the way down to his belly. His eyes are deep blue, set well into
his face. His long jet black hair hangs down his back and his ears tend to
stick out just a bit.
He wears a crimson tunic of fine spun wool, a white axe and hammer
patch sewn onto the left shoulder. A heavier black woolen cloak hangs over his
shoulders, draping down his back. Black leggings and heavy leather boots adorn
his legs and feet, completing his attire with a functional and yet stylish
look.
Gumbart
(the same description as allways)
Bolindar
(forgot to log his description)
* The Log
Gumbart stretches and looks about. The sun is up, but Gumbart must have had a
rough night, he looks even more wrinkled than usual. He glances around the
empty stands and scans the people on the docks.
From the Dwarven camp, a lone dwarf makes his way to the dock, he seems to be
unhappy about something as he looks about the deserted dock, he sees Gumbart
arrive from the south and walks in his direction, as he closes he nods towards
the other dwarf and with a slight lisp to his voice he asks, "You look to be
terrible today lad, perhaps too much to drink?"
Gumbart nods, "Aye, some strong Dunland wine I got offered by an Easterling
merchant, yesterday. And since this is a Sunday and nobody seems to work, I
slept longer than usual. And what have you been doing that early on our day
off?"
Brican says gruffly towards the other merchant, "I was thinking of perhaps
leaving the camp for a while, I have not personally been to this city of thiefs
and liers and I am wanting to see what it is like."
Gumbart grins, "Ha! What better than explore Buhr Marhling on a sunday. Let's
go!"
Brican nods towards Gumbart for a moment, "Keep that small blade of yours close
to your body and on hand."
Gumbart chuckles and nods. The blade continues hidden in his boot.
You say, "Shall we go? What's this street called..."
Brican looks over towards the street sign up above the nearest building and
quietly looks it over, "Oak Battle Avenue."
Gumbart nods, "Let's go. No need to notify anybody in the camp, is there?"
Brican shakes his head back towards Gumbart for a moment, "I don't think anyone
would dare to venture outside the camp anyway, with such beggars and thieves as
there are in the city of Buhr Marhling, I myself a more adventuresome Khazad
would braze it but some of our kin are probably more wise then I.."
Brican starts to walk south with Gumbart in the lead.
Oak Barrel Avenue
This part of the town appears to be in a slightly better state than the
rest of the town. Many of the houses look more opulent and some have coloured
banners that hang from their walls. The avenue is clearly dominated by two
large structures, the warehouse which backs onto the docks of Buhr Mahring, and
the Merchants Guild that commands a good position that overlooks both the
warehouse/docks and the market place to the south. The Merchants Guild also
houses the office of the Trade Commissioner, the official representative of the
merchants of the Dale-Lands. Close to the warehouse, but on the opposite side
of the avenue from the Merchants Guild is a smallish Guard House.
Few commoners are found on Oak Barrel Avenue. Merchants bustle to and
fro around the Merchant's Guild and strapping men haul huge barrels and crates
into the Warehouse. Even during the day, a guard keeps a wary eye on all of te
happenings of Oak Barrel Avenue.
The streets are bustling with activity, as beggars cry for money, thieves sneak
about, families take a sunday walk, nobles on horses ride bye, and missinaries
prophesy the coming of the Dark Lord.
As the young merchant apprentice makes his way down the bustling street, he
looks delighted at all the activity around him, a merchant such as himself bump
into him without so much as a apology for doing so before running off and doing
his business. Several barrels come Brican's way which he has to quickly dodge
or otherwise get a nasty bruise on his body.
Gumbart laughs joyfully, "Haha! Watch out, dear cousin, them Easterlings are
trying to get you! This is fun, let's see what this town has to offer -- on to
Millers Market, agreed?"
Brican nods back towards Gumbart with a look of glee in his eye, "Yes Cousin,
lets have a look that way perhaps."
Millers Market
The center of Buhr Mahrling opens out into a large, open-air market. No
matter what time of day it is, the smell of grains and fruit dominate the
senses. A rim of wooden shops arc around the western edge of the market, the
eastern side dominated by the flow of the river, and a massive water wheel,
that dominates the town.
Farmers and growers abound with their goods strapped to the back of
carts, or strewn out on the ground where merchants can make an easy selection.
There is always the constant murmur of merchants haggling with each other, or
bargains being yelled out.
Above all this, the water wheel keeps turning, grinding grain into
flour, that is then sold in the market place.
As he moves along the bussling open air market, Brican takes a apple from the
nearby stand and takes a bite from it before tossing a few coins to the
confused and angry apple dealer. He looks over towards the massive water wheel,
that dominates the view and with a confused look on his face he asks, "I have
not seen a structure such as that, perhaps cousin, you can tell me what it is."
Gumbart is fascinated, "Amazing construction, isn't it? I've heard that they
use the power of flowing water just like the orcs seem to do it in their cursed
lairs, some sort of strange machinery is driven by this wheel, I heard." After
a moment, Gumbart adds, "Hm, perhaps this could be used for other purposes? I
wonder what they would say if we built such a water wheel right in the main
entrance to Mt. Erebor?"
Brican smiles for a moment towards Gumbart, "They would say it was the work of
the nameless one I would suspect, and call anyone who built such a thing a dark
wizard or Sorceror, it is quite ugly in design."
Gumbart nods, "Aye, they would. I've heard of wind-mills being used for the
grain production, but never this sort of thing. A river-mill or whatever you
would want to call it."
As the two dwarves stand there, admiring the construction, sneaky figures seem
to gather in their vicinity. All of them seem to have a perfect excuse for
being here, and none seem to actually look at the dwarves. Other people,
however, are moving aside and no merchant tried to overrun the dwarves for
quite some time.
Bolindar strolls casually down the millers market. Looking to and fro at the
different shops, he hums a small melody. Soon he notes the two dwarves and a
smile on his face he walks towards them.
Brican smiles towards Gumbart as he looks at the strange stucture in the center
of the market, he says back towards Gumbart, "Well, I don't know if even this
windmill would be very practical, it looks awcard and is too large for any
Khazad to ever use it." He looks about to see several other people approaching
him, looking to be about there business, he nods towards them.
Gazing now himself at the huge windmill, Bolindar bows shortly to the two,
"Good afternoon cousins. I see you standing here in awe of that mill. Indeed an
huge building, astonishing..." Shading his eyes he gazes at the windmill again.
Brican turns his attention towards his closing cousin, "Aye, it is quite a
large building, I do not see us Khazad using such a thing, it looks to be more
like a product of the nameless one then of any decent hard working Khazad."
Gumbart bows, "Well met, cousin, on this beautifull sunday! Gumbart, at your
service."
As the dwarves continue talking about the windmill, a human starts to approach
them from behind, playing with an apple in his right hand and carrying a a
short stick in his left hand.
Brican continues to gaze in awe at the mill and looks across towards Bolindar,
"Perhaps cousin you can tell me, have you seen such a structure before, it
looks awfully large to capture the power of the wind, it would seem easier just
to grind the grain by hand then waste such a lot of stone."
Bolindar looks to Brican, "Yes I've seen this before, but only because I
visited this town before. I didn't investigate more about its mechanism though,
but I suppose those weak-built humans can't handle the work of grinding the
grain by sheer strength, so they have to rely on that strange mills."
As the human comes close to Gumbart, he throws the apple at Bolindars face, and
rips Gumbarts purse from his belt. Gumbart, shocked, turns and shouts, "STOP!
THIEF!". The thief then uses the innocent-looking stick in his left hand to hit
Gumbart across the face. Gumbart stumbles back, hands covering his his right
eye, as the thief turns around and starts to run off towards Mauler Street.
Bolindar gets caught totally at unaware as the apple hits his face, yet soon he
rcovers and in a swift motion wields his huge battle axe. Scanning the vast
millers market quickly he looks at Gumbart, as if awaiting his reaction,
getting ready to follow the thief.
Bolindar puts forth his weapon and twists it in his hands.
Brican in a daze at such quick actions from the human, he stands there
paralized for a moment more of shock then anything else before turning his
attention back towards the wounded Gumbart, "ARe you alright dear cousin" he
spits out with all his effort.
Gumbart shouts, "AAAARRRRGGHHH! GET HIM! Get him! My purse, my money, my eye!!"
and jumps up. "There he goes!!", he cries, and starts after the thief, still
pressing his eye.
Taking a glance at the other gathered humans, suspecting any accomplices,
Bolindar soon starts off and hurries behind Gumbart, his axe ready in hand.
Gumbart's cry rises quite a commotion. As Gumbart tries to follow the thief, he
stumbles across a kid that gets pushed in his way by one of the other humans
that had watched the dwarves before. "Damn you, wretched worm! Get out of my
way!!" he cries, shoving the kid aside. More humans turn their attention to the
dwarf and his companions.
Brican looks towards the other humans gathered as they start to get vexed over
the mistreatment of the young, with instructments otherwise used for peace they
start to move towards the only remaining member of the party standing, not
wanting to guess the use of how these instructments can be used for ill he
starts running off with the others.
Mauler Street
The Southern entrance to the village fort of Buhr Mahrling would look
the copy of the Northern entrance were it not for the influence of the darker
skinned people who predominate this section..
The visible side effects of the people living in this area are clear,
the buildings are more in disrepair than to the north, the streets less clean,
the people harsher looking, and more crowded on the street.
Southwards the large wooden gates to the village stand open. To the
east on the street sits the large stone building that is the "offical" haven
for the Easterlings in the village. To the west sit a few smaller buildings, a
bar noted for its roughness, a shop or two catering mostly to Easterling
needs..The street opens up much wider to the north where the Main Courtyard for
the village is located.
Bolindar hastens behind Gumbart always close at his heels. Entering the long
street, he stops a moment trying to make out the thief in the small crowd. Soon
he gives up and continues to run along the road. Motioning to the two others to
follow the road, he soon turns aside searching another street.
Gumbart shouts, "Stop, it's no use!"
Gumbart says, "Let's return to camp before this gets out of hand!"
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