As it turns out, she would fancy it very much.

* * * * *

It's a pleasant walk across the gentle downslope to the city walls. At the direction of your hosts, you head north first to the water and follow it on the well packed trail at the side of the River Remo. The impressive, broad river is the greatest you have seen; twice on your walk, a riverboat heading downstream overtakes you and precedes you to the river; the sailors on board almost slothful in the ease of the straight and easy charter.

Huge stone walls present themselves when you come to the city's gates; twenty men could not stand upon each other's shoulders and reach the crenelations, let alone the towers that sprout every eight feet or so along the ring. To your right, the wall becomes a great bridge high enough for even masted warships to go beneath comfortably, or perhaps be barred by some mechanism hidden in the walls. A number of ferry terminals along the river here provide a crossing that does not involve paying the tolls into the city itself; but that is much your destination. The guards are dressed in bronze cuirasses and scaled armor, with tall spears. Bella seems to recognize them at once, and seizes your arm excitedly as you crawl forward in the queue one person at a time.

"They are Ricco's Republican Guard - one of the most famous mercenary companies in Tilea! They played the heroes' role in the overthrow of Prince Mondo and the establishment of the Republic - the only other Republic in Tilea, along with Verezzo. But shortly after, they ran into trouble with the new Republican Council and Ricco was imprisoned in their prison Tower - then his troops rescued him, despite being outnumber ten to one, they say! They have companies that go across the world under 'Ragged Ricco'."

Spoiler: OOC:
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Mark off two scellini for passage into the city. Bella will pay her own two scellini!


Still, these brazen mercenaries and the great walls are not radically different from Verezzo. It's only within the city where the differences become pronounced.

Immediately, you can see so much more of the city because the streets are not narrow affairs choked with the stacked houses of Verezzo, but a much wider sprawl streets, shops, and domiciles mostly only one story high. You can see most of the city from inside the gate - or aleast, as much as can be witnessed up to the interior walls of the city which fence off the harbor to the west and the older parts of the city to the east. Still, even with these impositions, you can see Remas is greater than Verezzo - perhaps, full of a fourth again as many souls as that grand place.

"Oh, Taalia - I can't believe we are in this place! Can you imagine it? Two thousand years ago, this city was here - the Reman Empire in its prime, built upon the ruins of an ancient elven colony abandoned when their kingdoms left the world. Myrmidia herself was born into the world here, and united peoples from Estalia to Luccini. Buying the goods for repair should be easy - we ought to do so in the afternoon, so we are not carrying the goods around all day. But we can see a fair portion of the city, if we move with purpose. I insist we see the great Harbour - there is a market there we can buy what we need, so we can do so later in the day. But what would you see while we are here, Taalia?"

Having apparently walked these streets in her imagination already, Bella is able to give you some options of how to spend your time in Great Remas.

Spoiler: OOC: Options!
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You can squeeze in three of these great sights and experiences, with a visit to the Harbour at the end.

The Great Temple of Myrmidia: "Technically the high priestess still calls the Magrittan temple the heart of the faith, but the Great Temple is where Myrmidia was born when she walked the world as a mortal woman. They say they have the a relic, there - a great, stone egg from which she crawled as an infant. Doesn't it sound fantastical? But perhaps we could see it..."

The Temple of Solkan: "Solkan is a strange God - the Remans have upheld faith in him as the lawbringer and enemy of the forced of darkness for a thousand years, but I'm told he is falling out of favor now - but the temple! Look at it, you can see it from here, even over the walls - it reaches nearly two hundred feet in the air at the points of its spires, looking over the ocean. They spent three hundred years building it. Taalia, can you imagine? Three hundred years! How many generations of masons and carpenters went by in families solely devoted to that one building, who were born and died with the project incomplete, content in knowing they were part of something so magnificent?"

The Temple of Shallya: "Shallya's temple, too, is wonderful here, I am told. The heart of her faith is in Couronne, but the masterful Da Venzio painted wonderful frescoes in the temple which are still marvelled at as a wonder of the world three hundred years hence. There are worse divines from whom to curry favor that Myrmidia's sweet and gentle sister."

The Bridge: "The bridge at the mouth of the harbor is two miles long and over six hundred feet wide - the city's most wealthy merchants and political factors live there. I doubt they'd invite us in for tea - but it would still be very grant. And they have leaning towers that bend off the sides of the bridge like magic!"

The Great Coliseum: "You can't see it past that wall, but the Coliseum is over there! Build by ancients in the old Reman empire whose mastery of stone and construction we even now don't understand. Only Leonardo di Miragliano was able to oversee its reconstruction. And it is still used - we could catch a show! They have ogre gladiators, and all kinds of beasts - Oh! That reminds me..."

The House of Roars: "I never got around to visiting the zoo at Verezzo, but Remas has the greatest collection of exotic beast from all over the world; some for fights in the coliseum, others just for study and keeping. Signorina Vanvitelli oversees the house, and leads many of the expeditions herself. Even some tyrant lizards from Lustria - they feed them in events in the coliseum, setting it up like a jungle and letting them hunt bulls before the audience. I feel bad for the bulls - but nature is not kind... though it may be glorious."