William's regiment leaves town on large carts, trundling out of the city slowly towards the meetup point.
[1] Oh, what's this? You want to use this nobleman's road? Too bad, access denied. Take the long way round. What's that, that road is poorly maintained and plagued by bandits? Aww, that sucks. We can understand how annoying self-righteous murderthieves can be.
(The agressive noblemen block access to their lands, forcing you to take a circuitous route over unfavourable terrain)
[5] Fortunately, you encounter no problems on the side roads. Heck, the scenery is pretty, and the weather is fine. So it takes you a few extra days to get to the meeting place? What could go wrong from that?
[3] Well, the captain William hired could start to wonder how long they have to hang around here in the middle of nowhere. The man's running a business, he wants to get you where you want to go ASAP, then get back to honest smuggling.
(Er, I assume you had the boat hang around. If not, disregard this.)
[
6] Hugo speeds through the embassies paperwork easily. Heck, it isn't so bad. It's almost like an artform, really. A strange, repetitive artform, involving
maths, but given a few tries he can usually make a decent guess as to what the numbers should be. Give or take a little.
Strange that he can calculate the weight of three stories of varied masonry and subsequently the requisite material and thickness required for supporting beams in an instant, whilst abstract sums leave him floundering. Lo Shalt The Blind Be Mine Pilot, And Guide Me Through The Darkest Storm. Looking back, those church fellows really knew what they were talking about.
Now then. About that university. With a whistle to Kraai to follow, he heads off to investigate the watchtower.
...
Nice place, bit old-fashioned and militaristic, but that can't be helped. He looks around a bit at the basic structure, taps a few of the wooden beams (with a long stick and extreme caution- but they aren't rotting, so no worries), clambers over the rafters above the fifth floor, and admires the view from the roof. It also occurs that as Avitus mentioned this being something to do with the Crow's past, it might be worth taking a closer look around.
[
4] Eh... nothing. Obviously this place had some connection to the fellow, but there isn't anything interesting. Of course, Avitus would have picked out anything particularly noteworthy and taken it.
Right. Time to get to work, then. Measuring implements in hand, brain whirring, sketchpad ready,
Hugo makes blueprints and an estimated cost for the conversion of the tower into a decent university.