The team sets about winding down and preparing for bed. They agree on watches but they are as planned fairly discreet about it. And then it's morning. Do the staff seem inclined to make breakfast?

Breakfast? In this century?

They do set out a pot of herbal tea when the team gets up, though.

The team will eat some granola and plan to eat heavier at lunch. The tea is nice, is it caffeinated?

That is the local custom, yes. The tea is not, caffeinated tea or coffee are luxuries imported at great distance from Grand Cathay or Araby.

Then Rodney will mutter imprecations and swallow a small caffeine pill.

And the morning will be uneventful until Teodor shows up.

"Good morning. Anything amiss overnight?"

"No problems at all. The beds were nice too."

"Then I have no reason to wait before heading out."

"Before we go, Rodney has a scanning device, it's not magical but I'm also not sure if there's any etiquette about using such things."

"...Depends if it looks like a weapon or some kind of enchanted trinket or something else. Give me a look?"

Rodney opens his somewhat lighter backpack and pulls out a device.

It definitely doesn't resemble a weapon.

"More like a small book than anything, though the glowing surface is a little uncanny." And he doesn't see more than faint traces of Winds in it, though the Azyr is a surprise and it's more overall than a book or weapon would normally have.

"Be careful about pointing the narrow side at anyone, but I think it should be fine."

"I'll just be careful how I hold it then." He taps a few times at the device and then a few more. "You might be interested to know that there's several exotic sorts of radiation at levels I've never seen before here. Either that means there's something weird neither of us were expecting or it means that my device can detect these kinds of yours."

"I suppose that's optimistic for you being able to study it." And a little suspicious, but only a little. "Can you see the difference between the two of you and me?" 

Rodney plays with the device a bit more. "Yes, you seem to have a higher concentration of whatever I'm detecting than we do. Is that what you meant by us having, ah, fainter souls is I think the words you used?"

"It is. It makes sense coming from a world that isn't saturated in magic, I suppose, that you'd have less. I'm somewhat curious if you'll accumulate more from spending time here, but I have no idea how long that would take."

"I guess we'll have to find out. I'll keep an eye on that."

"I suppose we can head out, then?"

"I can't think of anything else we need to cover so yes."

"Right. Then let's go."

One other guard comes with, but neither guard is acting on edge. Maybe curiously, they're both wearing brown coats instead of black today, and not projecting 'intimidating'.

They head out west and north - "Our destinations are about due north from here, but the river's at its widest point so there aren't direct bridges and I'm choosing the route further from the elves." - through a district that wouldn't be called a slum but clearly is poor.

The people are mostly a slightly different ethnicity. Darker skin, darker, bushier hair, eyes slightly narrower. Shorter, if that's not just malnutrition. Some of the guards at the townhouse were from that race but most of them were the 'whiter' type, as are Teodor and the other one with them.

"Makes sense."

The skin tone thing is a slightly uncomfortable parallel but it's none of his business. Apparently they're acting as the equivalent of plainclothes officers.

Rodney discretely checks his scanner a couple times as they walk.

Not much on the scanner; people have souls, the balance of energies changes frequently in space and time. If it's tracking population statistics about the people he might notice something eventually.

As they get closer to the mouth of the river and slowly veer north, the distant sound of metal on metal and faint smell of fire and gunpowder will creep in. From further west. Also they'll see a narrow island to the north and a larger one to the northeast.

"Is this some sort of industrial district?"