Social Life

The talk of the town, the Long Tale, rumours, busking bards, who keeps the city's streets, and the henchmen who help newcomers.

Aurin rewards company. The liveliest inn in the realm pays its talkers, the innkeepers trade gossip, a story grows a line at a time by the hearth, and the city itself changes with whoever walks its streets.

The Talk of the Town#

Any inn, tavern or lounge open to the public can become the hot spot, the talk of the town. The one where the most different people have spoken in the last fifteen minutes holds the title, and keeps it until another room is busier still. It takes at least two people talking, and everyone in a room hears when it becomes the hot spot. hotspot tells you where it is.

Conversation there is rewarded. A line counts when you say it or write it as a free emote (emote, pmote, premote or tmote), it has four words or more, it is not a repeat, and somebody else in the room has spoken in the last three minutes. A line that answers someone also counts for the person it answers, so whoever gets a conversation going shares in it. Lines that are plainly about the world outside the game count for nothing, and so do channels, tells and ready-made emotes such as smile.

All of one player's characters count as one person, so talking among your own characters earns nothing.

Each ten minutes of conversation (counted a minute at a time) earns a reward, up to eight a day:

hotspot also shows which guilds, clans and faiths have talked the most this week, and last week.

Busking#

A bard's perform counts as conversation at the hot spot. Performed in any public inn or lounge while somebody else is listening, it is also paid: the crowd tips the bard, more for a bigger audience, at most once every ten minutes and six times a day, and the bard's guild thinks a little better of them. Everyone who heard it, the bard included, has Lifted Spirits for half an hour and recovers 5% faster.

The Long Tale#

A booklet lies in the Radiant Hearth Inn and in the Explorer's Guild Lounge, and both show the same story. read booklet shows the tale so far and the last one finished; write <a sentence> adds a line of your own. Nobody signs a line, and nobody can write two lines running: somebody else must carry the tale on first. After twenty-four lines the tale is finished and shelved, and a fresh page waits for the next one.

Rumours#

Innkeepers hear everything. rumour, or ask an innkeeper about rumours, and they will tell you what has happened in the realm these last few days, whispers that have come over the bar, or a place worth the trouble of a visit. Serin at the Radiant Hearth Inn, Sabel at the Tiderest Inn on the docks and Tully at the Brightkettle Tavern all trade gossip.

For a hundred copper an innkeeper will pass on a whisper of your own: rumour spread <words>. It goes round every inn for two days and nobody is told who paid for it. A whisper is five to forty words, and you may start one a day.

Who Walks the Streets#

The city feels who walks it. The time adventurers spend in Aurin, its docks, the cemetery and the guild halls beneath the city is counted by guild over the last day, and each guild brings the city something while it keeps the streets. city streets shows the shares and what they bring, and the city overview names the leaders.

A guild brings its full share once it holds 30% of the city's time, and a part of it below that. Nothing shows until two hours of adventurers' time have been spent in the city, the streets add 5% at most to any one bonus, and every citizen gains them, wherever they are. Explorers have no guild yet and are not counted, and a single stay counts for half an hour at most, so standing still in the city earns your guild nothing more.

Out in the streets you will hear how the city is getting on with whoever keeps it, for better and for worse.

The Grenmarch Bequest#

Marshal Ivo Grenmarch left his house and grounds to the free citizens of Aurin, and they are open to everyone: leave the city by the Southern Gate and turn east off Silverwood Road. There are gardens, a kite meadow, a river and a lily pond to fish, a bandstand whose band plays every few minutes and lifts the spirits of everyone listening on the bandstand and the picnic lawn, and the Marshal's house with its ballroom for masquerades. Winnie Pollard's tea house sells tea and cake, silk kites to fly in the meadow (fly kite), and masquerade masks. The terrace, the ballroom, the tea house and the bandstand can all become the talk of the town.

Help for Newcomers#

Two henchmen look after adventurers still finding their feet, and each takes only a tenth of your kill experience instead of the usual fifth.

A new healer is sent Fenwick instead of Hester. Your guild's helper stays until you pass level 20, through every logout, and then takes their leave. After that, help is hired at the Tidewarden Hall in Aurin (see Companions).

Both have plenty of advice, most of it about finding other players to adventure with.