"Yeah." Nik stood up on the cart, and proudly lifted his chin, striking a pose. "Me n Nack are kinda a big deal there." "We know people," Nack chimed in.

"So special cultural things, just follow our-...my lead, and don't embarrass us. Far as illegal, the usual. Killing folk, stealing stuff, burning down buildings...all if you get caught o'course." "An' whatever big head don't like."

"Right, Nack. Emperor Big-head. Pays large sums for turning in political rivals. Its really anyone he sees a threat to him or his position, he charges them for being threats against tha Kingdom. Makes it hard to trust people. But don't worry, everyone you'll deal with will either hate him or wanna kill you, so should be good."

‘’How very reassuring.’’, blurts out Anearis. As they continue walking toward the city, he asks ‘’Can we confidently say that he will not support whatever the Berossus are attempting then?’’

Austin listens in as she rides close by, but remains silent.

After he sat back down, Nik pulled the cart to the side of the road, to rest for the night before that final half day stretch to Wutai that next day.

"Depends. Can the Berossus's provide a murderous tyrant with means to enslave his people?"

Awaking from the final night on the road, before arriving in Wutai, Current shyly approached the other members once she woke. "I thank you all for the kindness you've shown in letting me journey with you, but I'm afraid my path is elsewhere." She looked away from Wutai, instead down the western road that disappears into the unknown wilds. She then proceeded to explain to the group how upon lighting the candle from Dah'Deey Yahn'Keey, she had a vision sort of dream. In the dream she was guided by the voice of her adopted mother, guided to a seashore that Current had never before seen, but on the sand's edge was the shadowy shape of a man. Even without any features, she knew this figure to be her father; the very person she had been searching for for years. 

Although she had never been to that beach, nor did she know where it was, when she awoke, she heard the sound of her mother's voice still, it was floating on the wind, coming from the west.

"I wish you all the best in your fight, and if there were anything I could do, I would. But I am no fighter, and for now, my priorities take me there. I hope to cross paths with you again."

Anearis listens to Current explanation. 
"I understand. Though it saddens me to see a friend go, I know that you must follow your destiny. I wish there was something we could do to help you." He extends a hand forward to shake, and once they do he will bow in respect. "Safe travels, Current. I hope our paths cross again."

"Safe travels." Austin says, laying a hand on Current's shoulder briefly. "I too hope our paths cross again."

Uthal gives a silent nod before adding. "May the gods go with you and guide you on your path."

Current hesitated for a second before shaking Anearis's hand. It was a custom she was not used to, having grown up in isolation in the ocean deep; however, during her port and harbor travels she atleast had seen it enough to know the general sense of the gesture.

She bowed in kind to Anearis and the rest of the party before mounting the horse. She stopped before she took off toward her way, "Uh, is it alright if I take the horse? I imagine it's a long journey." 

Nik spoke up, "You're fine, girlie. Take 'em and safe travels." The dwarf slapped the horse on the rear, and it turned as Current nodded in thanks towards the entire group. Nik turned towards the group as well, "If we end up needin another one, we kin get it in Wutai." Reassuring the party that giving the horse would not be an additional loss to the party.

Nik and Nack went about packing up the remainder of their kit and strapping the casks to the remaining horses. As Current disappeared down the road, Nack asked, "Where's she going?" Looking around almost in disbelief himself of the other dwarfs density, "She went to get breakfast Nack. Didn't you give her your order?" Nik smiled to himself and climbed up on the wagon cart. Nack huffed, though the reason unknown, whether it was because of realizing he missed Current's real reason of departure, or missed her taking food orders.

In the daylight now, as the party faced down the road toward Wutai, the location of the lights, from the night before, was given shape and detail. A large sleek looking garrison of a city. The only other large city any of the four adventurers had seen previously on Theviranne (aside from Midgar, which itself was a hodgepodge of architecture and random city planning) was Cathaan.The most fitting word to describe the comparison between the two was 'primitive'. 

Cathaan, in all of its glory, was simple shapes and block bricks stacked on top of each other. The construction likely occurred within a fraction of the time, and even less imagination used to plan it. Even the tallest buildings only stood a few stories high. 

The city of Wutai that laid before them was a collection of smooth carved stone structures. White towers upwards of hundreds of feet tall reaching into the sky. Even the dream vision Austin had the night before didn't due the true thing justice, though she could tell, it was the same. And somewhere beyond this city, to the south, in the vast forest, was the tree in which she saw Viggo.

"I suppose we need to check into the city first, before heading to that tree in the forest to the South." Austin says, glancing at the city ahead. She has to admit, to herself anyway, that being back in a city is something she is looking forward to. She glances to the dwarfs. "Where do we go to deliver the barrels?"

Uthal sits and looks unimpressed with the grand city. "Seems like a place that breeds more of the things I've already come to hate about cities. Maybe this one will at least not have imbeciles in charge of defense."

Anearis looked at the city on the horizon with a modicum of awe. He felt out of place in the city, but Wutai seemed to impress him nonetheless. As they walked toward Wutai, Anearis engaged with the dwarves.

''Before we reach the city, is there some place you would recommend for us to rest? Somewhere inconspicuous?''

"You might be disappointed ifa you meet Emperor Big Head. Huge embicile!" Nik commented to Uthal as the group began off towards the city. 

"Once we get there, you'll hafta hang low fora few hours. Doubt the old man'll be awake til early evenin'. Dont worry tho, ya can all hide in tha market dis'rict. Just don' go wanderin off. Ya might get lost."

As the morning went on, the party spent hours riding closer and closer to a city that increasingly became more massive with each passing step. Even when still a few miles out, passing fields and farms outside the city walls, they already had to crane their necks back in order to look upward at the city. When they finally reached the outer city wall, it sat atop a rock bed approximately twenty or thirty feet higher than the farm lands. The road had sloped upward to a single massive gate. "Stay to the right, when we go through." Nik said, ascending towards the gate.

Once inside, Nik practically scrapped the wagon against the inside of the wall, as he pressed forward. While the group had seen a few figures working the fields outside the city, it was nothing compared to the bustling metropolis within. The streets were crowded with hundred of people, animals, and vehicles all going this way and that. Nearly all the building were of the same tall and narrow speak design of carved stone. Nik regularly looked back, as the party inched away towards less packed side streets, having to move almost into a single file behind the dwarfs cart.

It took the party nearly an hour to move what seemed like almost no distance at all, but eventually the dwarfs stopped on a dark side street, still bustling with pedestrians, but shrouded from the sunlight due to the building's towering on either side. 

Nik hopped down, while Nack seemed to practically fall out of the wagon, landing with a thud as his butt met the stone street. Nack was a simple individual, that was for sure, but he seemed even more so clumsy and out of sorts, during this particular trip.

"We'll meet back here in a few hours. Just give the reigns to tha kid." Nik remarked and pointed towards a plainly dressed young elf standing outside the door to what seemed to be some sort of tavern.

"Works for me." Austin said, more than happy to hand her horse off to someone else. "We suppose to stay put in the tavern or in this alley?" She asks the dwarfs before they can scoot away.

"Feel like I'm talking to Nack now," Nik said in reply. "Whatever you do when you get to a new place. I don' know. If you kin keep from committing a crime or getting killed, go where ya want. Just don't do anythin' stupid." He seemed somewhat annoyed, though not necessarily because of Austin's question.

The dwarf's gaze shifted to his stumbling brother, and Nik rolled his eyes. He propped Nack up by one of his arms, and turned back to Austin and the group. "If ya need supplies, there's shops round. You can prolly get directions to what ya need, inside." He nodded his head toward the tavern.

Uthal begins to look around for an out of the way inn, preferably one that looks like it serves a more racially diverse clientele.

Perception: 21

Wutai was impressive, to say the least, but Ura kept her head down and her eyes to the ground, doing her best to memorize the streets and side-paths as they picked their way into the large city.  She'd always been trained to keep a way out open, and you couldn't plan a way out if you didn't know the streets.

"Need to find a map or a mapmaker and get a lay of the place," she muttered, mostly to herself, as they were led through the streets.  Everything she'd heard about Wutai from the two dwarves had set her teeth on edge.  "If I had any money, I'd bet we'd find the Berossuses cozying right up to the Emperor in this town.  He'd probably rejoice at finding a way to use that black juice to turn everyone who looked at him funny into walking puppets.  I bet the tentacle appendage requirement wouldn't even slow someone like that down in the slightest."  Shelving her misgivings, she returned to memorizing the streets, eyes darting left and right the further in they went.

As the two dwarves disembarked in the alleyway, Ura noticed Nack's unusually clumsiness.  "Hey," she said, crossing her arms and making herself known (after many days of very, very successfully practicing her stealth).  "What's wrong with Nack?  I mean, that's a loaded question, but he seems out of sorts, even for him.  Does your brother need help?  I'm being serious here."

Stepping down from the horse, Anearis grabbed the reigns making his way through the bustle of this new city. Apart from the unusual clumsiness of the dwarf, he follows the group and tries to keep an eye out for people that could be following the group or eyeing them suspiciously.

Perception: 18

The buildings on this side street, as well as what little of the rest of the city they saw did not seem to have much in the way of individual ornamentation. In Midgar especially, shops and inns had custom signs in a variety of flourishments to identify themselves and standout. 

The towering monolithicbuildings of Wutai, while Impressive architectural feats in themselves, were plain and nearly identical. The own singular marks on any were building numbers, and simple wooden plaques above each individual door. The plaques were all the same shape, size, and make. A single piece of wood, shaped like a shield, with a thin border; and in the center, a carved picture that was obviously indicating the type of business inside.

The tavern that Nik had pointed out had one such sign with a tankard on the plaque. Immediately to the left of this door were two other doors, with narrowly a foot or two between any of them. Above the center door was a plaque with an ink well and a stamp, and above that of the furthest door a plaque with a bed, which Uthal could recognize easily enough as likely indicating an inn. All three doors went into a tall four or so story building with the number 47 on it.

There was one other building with an inn sign, but from where the party stood, there was no worthwhile difference between the two. Uthal did notice a large individual enter the one on building 47. The person was covered with a heavy hooded cloak, and much of their features were obscured, but Uthal could tell for certain that the individual was not an elf, for one because of the size, but two also because of the shape of the hood, where horns were noticably sitting beneath.

Other plaques in this particular area include several more tankards, one with stacks of coins, two with tunics, one with a vial next to a granular mound, and then at the far end, a lone door whose plaque had both a smoking pipe and a gem off centered from each other. This lone plaque was also the only to have the unusual marking below it, but from the party's distance the features appeared as just a scratch on the wood.

Nik leaned back, while still moving in the dwarf's intended direction. He shouted to ensure Ura could hear, "Just answered it wit the question. Nack's loaded. Been so tha whole trip." At this he let out a single laugh before leaving the party where they were.

Ura squints at the plaque with the pipe and the gem on it.  "Hey.  I want to check out the shop down there," she says, indicating the sign.  "Looks... interesting.  Also like as good a place as any to ask where they sell maps of this place.  Does anyone want to come with me?"