The price is .05 pounds. Alexander has apparently found his own breakfast since when he comes trotting up to you with his tail wagging he has a bloody muzzle.
"Come Alexander, its time to pay a visit to that church. Maybe there will be someone who speaks Greek or Latin who might be able to help me. I would much rather they speak Greek, but anyone who can talk to me will do just fine." She looks at her faithful mutt and pets his head. He's a large dog, meant to help her walk when she was younger, and with her not being very tall, he still serves this job fairly well.
It the Eastern Orthadox church you can feel the overwhelming presence of the dominion aura pressing against your skull, but you do find a priest who speaks greek.
Aurelia looks the priest up and down and then gives a slight bow before leaning on her cane and scratching Alexander behind the ears. She gives the priest a smile before rather quickly letting the words out that had been threatening to burst forth. Finally, a chance to speak to someone in a familiar language, and to continue on with her task. "Hello! I am Aurelia, a cartographer and magi. It is a pleasure to speak with someone who understands me. I seem to be rather poorly equipped to speak with the locals of Zara, and I was wondering if you might have some time to speak with me?"
"What do you wish to speak about?"
Aurelia forges ahead without pause, "I am here to ask after a little bit of knowledge. I have come to create a map of the city and surrounding area, one that will display the boundaries of its magic and magical creatures. I wish to ask after any local traditions of import, yearly harvests, festivals, creatures that mean something to the area. Anything that might contain magic that I can mark down. The knowledge would help to keep me safe while I am here, and would help to complete my map."
The priest turns white and stammers "I cannot help you."
Aurelia raises an eyebrow. "Your holiness, I understand magic and the heavens are not always the closest friends, but a map like this could save lives. I would be entirely willing to create one and share it with the church. You could tell people where to avoid, and what to look for. If that is not enough, I can leave, I would only ask that you might point me in the direction of someone who speaks the local languages as well as this one so that I might start my map without having to resort to magic just yet."
Aurelia hopes she convinces them with one of the two options, but she still starts looking around for someone else to talk to. She scratches Alexander and scans the room just behind the priest.
"Just leave, I will not help anyone to get such a map."
Also, as an aside, you have not discussed with Luctatio sharing the map with anyone else. They might object to paying for something and then you giving copied away for free...
(I know I didn't discuss it with them. It wasn't a lie, she woulda mentioned it and talked about it after the fact and if they said no. She woulda thought about it then.)
Aurelia gives a small smile. "If that is how you feel, I will not fault you. It is just a shame. I feel the power of the heavens so strongly here, and I would have liked to work with instead of against. I give my word to cause no harm in the city, that I could have avoided, while I am making my map." She gives a little bow, takes a step back, and turns towards the door. "Well Alexander, it seems the church is more rigid than expected. It is a shame, but, let us move on. Towards the piers and docks of the city? The day is young and who knows what we will find!" She takes her leave slowly, though that isn't so much by choice as necessity.
She heads down to the docks and the crowds, one benefit to the social effects of the Gift is that she is rarely overcrowded, as most would prefer to give her a wide berth. The din of the crowd contains a mixture of words from different tongues, and she does hear Greek amongst them.
She moves towards the familiar sound of her first language, marking down any important locations and their potential sizes in her journal along the way.
She quickly finds a ship of Zaran traders where some of the crew is speaking in Greek.
Aurelia takes a moment to think about what she was going to say. Magic usually didn't make things easier for her, and saying she wanted to map it out had made the priest so unfriendly. It would be best to just lay low, but because of the gift that would require her to make physical contact with one of them fi... She didn't give her parma magica to the priest, that might just have been why he was so against my goals here.
Aurelia winces at that little realization and lets the crowd flow around her. She takes a moment to look around at the crewmembers and move so that one of the greek speaking ones cant see her approach, slow as it will be.
roll stealth+ dexterity
d10 + 0 + 0 = 1...
I rolled a one.
a one and a 3 is a six, which is still low...
You are sliding in behind one of the men who is distracted talking to someone else when you suddenly feel a hand gripping your arm and another sailor, the one who grabbed you says in Greek "Watch out now, she's after your purse!"
Aurelia turns calmly at the man who grabbed her arm and gives a smile. She raises her cane into the air a little before putting it back down with a grimace. "Hello! I see you seem to have made a little mistake, but I'm not a pickpocket. I am much too slow to actually pick a pocket," she looks down at her lame leg, "It might be a little hard to miss, but I am new to the city, and I don't seem to speak any of the languages common here in Zara." She pats Alexander's head to keep him calm, even as she squints at the arm holding onto her quite firmly.
"If you would be willing to talk to me, Id be willing to sit down somewhere, and just converse." Aurelia smiles and watches their face with her brilliant green eyes.
"Right, likely scam, someone fetch the watch."