The ursa introduced himself to be Hamish(Hay-mish), and brought them through the gates.
Layla gazed at the walls as they passed through them with her eyes wide. "Whoah... these walls are think enough to be hollow and have people live inside them like apartments!"
Hamish laughed. "Well magic helps reinforce them, but quantity can never hurt to help defend against the chaos' attacks."
Kai shared a worried look with everyone of the party except for Layla. What kind of things needed magically reinforced walls THAT thick?
Layla meanwhile just silently mouthed "wow" and kept looking around curiously.
Pedro narrowed his eyes as they came past the gate to a wide open space with stairs leading upwards further forward, and streets going down the sides of this first layer to the city along the front.
People walked by of mostly beaskin races, mostly birds at that, with a few genasi of water and air, but no tieflings or fae, aasimar or automatons. Most of the birdkin of races like eagle or hawk had skin that was a brown-red, while races with more colorful feathers generally had a more latino color to them.
The people had mostly browns, grays, and red-browns to their clothes, leather and wool, while a group of 11 people walked towards a shop while all in different degrees of armor, all at least in hardened leather, while one had full on chain mail armor with steel plates over top as a chest plate and gauntlets, with armor on their shins and thighs as well, but not their knees.
The shop they went to had a symbol carved into the white-yellow birchwood hung above it, a flask, with a slight burn to the wood to create hazy fumes coming out of said flask.
A lot of motion happening all over made everyone feel dizzy as all the people talking and moving was dizzying.
When people saw them they'd point excitedly and whisper or talk to one another, but keep doing their own things. They had things to do after all, and no matter who you are, busy people won't stop and stare unless they want something from you.
Hamish turned to them. "Most of the places of business you adventurers require can be found in this entry plaza, with the adventurers association to the left there-" He pointed. "-and many store fronts to the left, while up the stairs a second plaza on the second ring of the fortress holds the other stores and the living spaces, and the third ring has the church and the fortress' castle where lady Elim lives."
They stared at him with some confusion, and he smiled apologetically. "Just a primer, don't worry I'll show you the stores and which are which. We will get you assigned to the Adventurers Association after a brief tour of what is where exactly, then we can get you temporary lodging and explain how you can accept 'Quests' through the system interface set up at the Association."
Kai and the others stared blankly. "System interface? Quests? What?" They withheld their questions as it seemed likely they would get their answers by the end of this "tour" the natives of Motika had set up for the otherworlders.
The ursa took a few steps to guide them away from the large building that was 3 stories high and stretched a ways down towards the left along the street between the walls and buildings, and towards the many "houses" that all shared walls and linked together into a single building stretching to the right, with store fronts all over its face towards the entry plaza.
"Mr Hamish, why is the entryway to the city for adventurers? All the places an adventurer needs to see is very close to the entry gate..." Pedro's point was clear.
Why wasn't the entry plaza more directed towards the city's own inhabitants? We're adventurers that important?
Hamish laughed, a deep and throaty chuckle that shook bones with its bass tones. "Hahahaha! Yes, but most fortress inhabitants own boats and would come to and from Thunderclaw Fortress by the lake, while the ones using the entry gate by land are usually only travelers, adventurers, or enemies."
"Oh... that explains it."
'So only the adventurers and guests to the city use it, so things like potions, weaponry, and other such things are positioned towards that entrance, while facilities for the residents are probably towards the rear, or on the docks extending from the back of the city into the water... in fact the natives might view the gate we used as the "rear" of this city!' Kai nodded subtly, his ears flattening slightly against his head as he looked about cautiously.
Something itched at him, something he was missing, and it was driving Kai nuts!
Everytime he came close to capturing what it was, it just barely squeezed out between his fingers.
'The city has a flat wall towards the mountain, then a right angle on the left and a slightly less than 90° angle on the right... then both of those walls begin to have corners that slowly bend them until both sides meet like a triangle at the end into the lake area... there was a dock of sorts on the left side...'
"Hamish?"
"Yes"? The ursa looked at Kai.
"Why is the city so... small?"
Hamish frowned. "Because... this isn't a city?"
The others gave him a weird look now. "A town is this fortified?"
"This isn't a town either. Haven't you been listening? This is Thunderclaw Fortress! Fortress. Understand?"
They stared blankly at Hamish. Pedro finally muttered in the awkward silence of the group, "I know I've heard that word but I feel I don't quite get the meaning."
It was Hamish's turn to gape with his mouth hanging open. "You... you don't have fortresses in your world? But then how do you defend against the chaos? Are you so capable that you can afford to build full cities on the chaotic border?!"
"I mean... I think we used to?" Kai said, a strange expression on his face. "I can't remember anything, but if we know the word but not very well... it probably isn't used very often at least, or it no longer exists?"
Hamish looked troubled but explained absentmindedly, as though he had been so trained to answer questions by his job that he did so without thinking. "A fortress is a stronghold, essentially a town that is heavily fortified and ruled by a military force to hold against the chaos and serve as a base for the adventurers to raid and explore the chaotic border."
He went quiet in thought, and Kai nervously cast for a topic to reboot the apparently crashed CPU on their guide.
"What is past the adventurers Association on the first level?!" Kai pointed to the left, down the street between the wall and the Adventurer's Association. There were stairs built into the walls to get to the battlements on top of the walls, but past those were other large buildings with few people, and a large gate that was shut could be seen at the end, a side gate in the walls bigger than the entry gate towards the crossroads before the mountain.
"Oh!" Hamish looked up, and Kai almost swore he heard a strange jingle his mind labeled the "Windows Startup Noise" when the bearkin started going once again.
"Those are warehouses, store rooms, places for provisions and supplies to the fortress. The Adventurer's Association is placed next to them as a protective measure." He shrugged, turning from what he clearly considered unimportant to the rest of the tour. "Now lets be off, got some ground to cover before we can get you some food... that young lady there seems hungry."
Everyone looked at Layla, who was almost drooling as she stared at someone walking by with steaming meat of some kind on a skewer. "Grgrhggrgh." Her stomach rumbles as if on cue, and she turned to them. "Eh? Did someone say something?"
She blinked in confusion at the struggling expressions on their faces as they tried not to laugh, before blushing suddenly as her brain finally processed what had been said. "Ah! I... I'm not that hungry-!"
"Grgrhlurgh."
Now she was positively red as Helena couldn't suppress herself and leg out a tiny "cheep!" Noise as a strangled laugh.
And that noise was the nail in the coffin for everyone else's self control but Xandra as they burst out laughing!
"Hahahahaha! Oh my god, ahahahaha! What the heck Helena?" Kai screwed his eyes shut as he doubled over, trying to get it all out and breath again.
Xandra patter Layla's shoulder while keeping a controlled expression, but the curve at the corners of her eyes made it clear to any observant party that she was also very amused. "It's okay little one, you gotta thicken you're skin a bit."
Layla gasped as she almost GLOWED red. "Y-y-you-!"
She pouted as she exclaimed! "You're all bullies!"
"Sorry, sorry, it's just, hahah, the timing was too good!" Kai was laughing less as he pulled himself back together, and turned to Hamish. "Yes, lets keep going. I'm actually quite hungry too."
The others had stopped laughing and Pedro raised his wing. "Me too."
Michael lifted a hand. "I can't eat."
That bit another burst of laughter as even Xandra felt her lips twitch into a half-smile at that.
~ ~ ~
"Okay, so the shops for an adventurer's needs are generally a blacksmith, elixir maker, leatherworker, and the adventurer's Association has a small shop for long lasting foods which is almost always attached to every building they have in every settlement." Hamish explained as they walked.
"Down past the shops on the right are a few homes and more obscure shop fronts, some specific to certain classes... you'll only need to know about those if you have a class related to one of them, and the Association will let you know when you register if you have that kind of class. Otherwise, best not to ask too much." He shrugged with a slight shiver, turning away to go up the stairs to the second level of the city, as it got higher the further out along the outcropping it was built.
Kai nodded. 'Right, if I'm "given" a Spirit Summoner class(not really but guided to choosing at least), it makes sense the "Admin" would at least set up ways for me to find spirits easily at first to start off, or at least get info on how to get them beyond the vague class and skill descriptions.'
'And since our classes were the "most suitable, many of them are probably the kind that are rare, unique, or had stringent requirements, so we were probably all summoned at Thunderclaw Mountain because our class requirements could be helped along at first if we're were smart enough to look... right?'
The went up the stairs on the right, as two sets circled on either side of a fountain with a statue of a lady clad in a robe with angelic wings and a halo on her head, the water pouring out from the halo in a perfect ring to then fall down the statues body.
Pedro looked to the left, at the statue. "How the hell does the water pour out from the halo from all sides with no source? It makes no sense-
"Magic." Everyone else said at the exact same time, making Pedro stop, speechless. 'Fine then. I'll just have to accept that random impossible things will be seen because magic exists in this world.'
Pedro froze, and everyone kept going, yet his mind blanked.
'Wait... magic... exists in this world? In other words... it didn't in ours?' Pedro felt like he'd hit upon something very strange, almost dangerous in his mind. If their word had no magic, how come they understood things like skills and classes? And why could the people of this world reach out to them in theirs if magic didn't exist in theirs? Could magic reach where magic doesn't exist?
It was something he could never answer, especially without his memories.
'I'll bring it up with the others when we're alone... we don't know how much the natives know... or how much they're keeping secret.' Pedro had the illusion that suddenly every man, woman, and child on the street was secretly an enemy, all watching with cunning eyes...
'God! Stop being paranoid Pedro!' He shook his head, and the illusion passed as just that, an illusion. The people weren't watching, they didn't even notice he was there, they had their own lives and business.
They definitely weren't malevolent... but that didn't mean they weren't keeping secrets.
Pedro jogged to quickly catch up to the others, as all this happened in his head so fast that they hadn't even noticed he had fallen behind yet.
Pedro would be the party's watchful eyes on every possible threat or person... he was the Aerial Ranger after all.
It was his job to have a bird's eye view.