You meet Connie at her office after breakfast. She takes you to the eight bedroom estate located in Sandas. It is located outside of the city wall, in a fashionable neighbourhood on the southwest side of the city. It appears to have been well maintained, and is constructed of brick and wood. It has two floors, a servants wing, stables and separate workshop. There is a large library and two dining rooms, plus two studies. The grounds are nicely kept. While adequate for your needs, not everyone would have their own bedroom, and the dwarf thinks that he has seen better construction. The place seems to be a bit ostentious, and you get the impression that the current owner (who had this house built about a decade ago) perhaps came into his money fairly recently and used this house as a way to show off his new wealth. However, the house is in good, well-maintained condition, and is fully staffed.
In the afternoon you head out of town with Connie and into the country, down the Old Dwarvish Road west of the city. After travelling for about an hour, she turns off down a small, winding lane, lined with trees and hedgerows. Another hour passes, and you come to an open meadow. In the middle of it is the estate, surrounded by a 6' high, 2' thick brick wall. Riding through the ornate gates, which are open, you enter the grounds. The house before you is much more substantially built than the city estate, but it has not been maintained. The grounds are overgrown, several of the windows are broken, and there does not appear to be anyone about. Like the other home, it has a detached stable, plus a smithy shop and a barn. The house itself is three storeys tall. Inside, the place is a mess. Obviously it has been broken into and vandalised fairly recently. Muddy footprints around one of the broken windows allow Kadlian to identify the culprits as being orcs.
"I'LL HAVE TO REPORT THIS!" says Connie in dismay.
You draw your weapons and search the place, but the orcs are not to be found. The tracks look to be several weeks old.
Apart from the piles of smashed furnishings everywhere and some superficial damage to the house itself, the place is in good condition. Hlarn thinks the stone and brickwork here is of a better quality (though still not up to dwarven standards), and even in its current state of disarray the place has an air of understated elegance that the other place fails to achieve. It is also larger, with several kitchens, dining rooms, sitting rooms, libraries and studies.
You return to Sandas early in the evening, to ponder your options.
"We should make sure that Furgh, Agulhas, Kal and Equinox know that they should be back here for the Midwinter Feast. And that as soon as Sian and Zanax are back, we leave for the south by whatever method we devise."
Kadlian shrugs. "If you want, I could start on my way back home and then head south. The rest of you can catch up with me from there. Other than trying to arrange for our house, I have nothing else planned except to see if Beth is in town."
"If I can be made invisible or borrow a ring, I can make good time. And when it comes time for the Midwinter feast, Rage can teleport to me, memorize the area, and bring us back here. When it is time for everyone to leave, we can go back to where I was and start our journey from there."