Silver Insanity

While the guard outside obviously appreciates the fire, it does little to speed up the process of getting you in the city.

Eventually (perhaps ten minutes later), George finds a reasonable stopping point in whatever dice game he was playing, and admits that he might, perhaps, be able to find the time to fit someone into his busy schedule.

The interior of the guard house is lit by a roaring fire, and four guards sit around a table. Three of them are still playing dice - and, from the looks of the table, it seems George was just waiting to use your group as an excuse to pull out of a losing round.

Stewart walks inside, wiping at the water in his fur. As he does so, the fire fades and finally loses the battle with the rain.

He addresses the guard not playing dice. "Greetings. My associates and I wish to enter the city. I don't believe we will be staying particularly long, but I understand there is a customs fee."

The guard blinks. "Um. Customs? Er, yes, entry fee is customary? Let's see, three adventurer's passes, that'll be... Wait. Is that a gnoll?"

"Is he? I hadn't noticed..." Aurora comments wryly.

The guard stares at Aurora for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out if she's being sarcastic or not. Then he shrugs, and waddles over to a cabinet.

"I'll need you to sign a few forms, then. Possession of or responsibility for a dangerous beast, release of liability for the city guards... Total entry fee will come to 25 gold."

The forms are produced with what George probably considers reasonable alacrity, though you could have found them almost as quickly on your own...

"Is a gnoll really such a problem? An occasional annoyance, but hardly dangerous." Stewart makes a dismissive gesture. "Whichever. Twenty-five gold it is." He reaches into his pouch, pulls out three platinum pieces, and places them down while he fills out the forms.

After much effort and grumbling, the guards manage to come up with a pile of copper and silver that's worth your five gold in change - though it's clear that the sudden lack of spare coins around spells a (temporary) end to their gambling.

Nothing further impedes your entrance to Greenspring - and the guard stuck outside is even in a good enough mood (that fire was nice while it lasted) to give you directions to the Wizard's Academy.

The Academy is a massive edifice of black stone draped in green ivy, and set with clocks. Except that none of these clocks track mere conventional time; one seems to track the paths of the three moons; another oscillates wildly amongst arcane symbols; a third simply points off into the city. Still, the combined readings do indicate that it is currently the Hour of Exploding Runes.

Stewart eyes the clocks suspiciously, muttering "that seems to be a bit more complicated than needed." He sighs and enters the front door. Assuming there is someone to greet people, or who appears to fill that role, Stewart walks up to them and says "I need some information. First, I have a group that is rather odd for your town, and we need a place to stay. Second, I am searching for an intellegent magical beast that may be in the area." He smiles pleasantly, attempting to make this a request and not a demand, despite his current mild irritation.

"Well, we do have some on-site housing for visitors; you'd want to talk to the chief of tavern operations for that, though. For the second... Let's see... Perhaps the department of oddities would be able to assist?"

"Perhaps it's complicated because it needed to be complicated," Aurora comments in a rather cryptic tone of voice as they walk up to the front door.