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Post by Diocles on Feb 27, 2021 12:59:13 GMT
I send a courier with a message for Sir Danal.
"Sir Danal, at your earliest convenience, I would like to take you up on your offer for an evening at the Ilak Baths. Anak-Sa'ir and I would be delighted to experience the amenities of such a place. Please send for us at an hour seasonable for night-owl actors such as ourselves! I remain
Ever yours, Caoimhghin"
I tell Anak-Sa'ir of the letter so he'll know I'm getting in touch with Danal about this excursion.
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Nobody
Alexios Group
Posts: 1,409
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Post by Nobody on Feb 28, 2021 1:30:50 GMT
I will arrive at the appointed hour, most likely with Caoimhghin as is our wont.
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Post by Sir Roland Desprez on Feb 28, 2021 2:56:26 GMT
"Dear friends,
Please meet myself and Magister Judal Akar at the Ilak baths in the evening of 28 of eighth month. Looking forward to the engagement.
Sir Servius Edor Danal"
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Post by Sir Roland Desprez on Feb 28, 2021 3:13:03 GMT
All is set and Danal and Jax wait outside the Ilak baths on the evening of the 28 of Eighth month for the others to arrive.
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Post by Storyteller on Feb 28, 2021 3:16:40 GMT
The evening of the 28th of the Eighth Month finds Caoimhghin and Anak-Sa'ir, arm in arm, strolling up to the Ilak Baths. Sir Danal is present, with Jax, and precisely at the appointed hour, Magister Judal, along with a sturdy, tattooed Tuhlen bodyslave, arrives.
You are all swept into the baths, and there you are faced with the plethora of choices offered by a Skenje bath, though the Ilak Baths also offer Sundel gardens and even a room filled with sea water, to represent an Elunian cove.
"What is the masters' pleasure?" asks a bath slave. He is perhaps forty-five, solidly built, and mostly Skenje, despite his dark eyes.
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Post by Sir Roland Desprez on Feb 28, 2021 3:20:58 GMT
"Magister Judal, if I may. I would defer to our foreign guests for the choice. Caoimhghin and Anak Sa'ir, what would you prefer?"
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Post by Storyteller on Feb 28, 2021 3:32:05 GMT
The Magister nods courteously and awaits the replies.
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Post by Diocles on Feb 28, 2021 6:36:50 GMT
I shake my head in wonderment. "What a marvelous place, and this but one room? Judging by the height and length of the outer walls, I can assume there are many other rooms? And they have different functions? What all can one do here?"
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Post by Storyteller on Feb 28, 2021 8:56:00 GMT
It is Magister Judal who answers. "There are steam baths, salt-water baths, cold baths, oil baths, which are not places to dip oneself into oil but rather places where one is oiled down and properly scraped. At the Ilak Baths, of course, there are also the gardens designed to simulate woodland dells and sea-coves, and there is also a restaurant in it. There are masseurs, too. Some are Zenji, using the Zenji techniques of massage, but most are Skenje, using the same styles used upon our gladiators. There is, too, a proper cleansing area, using Faror soaps and oils. At the Quinlan baths, they use only Skenje soaps and scrapers, but here they expand and use other sorts."
He pauses, glancing to Danal, for so far as he is aware, Danal is the host of this gathering.
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Post by Diocles on Feb 28, 2021 8:59:09 GMT
"We Elunians just jump into the nearest spring to bathe or wash our faces and necks in cold streams," I say, "so I am willing to be lead in the proper order of bathing events here."
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Post by Sir Roland Desprez on Feb 28, 2021 16:32:30 GMT
"Then let us take our time and proceed in traditional Skenje fashion. Doing so will give you a standard of comparison for any future visits."
I'm sure I would know the order of events for a leisurely social bath in the Skenje fashion. Where would we start? Steam baths?
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Nobody
Alexios Group
Posts: 1,409
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Post by Nobody on Feb 28, 2021 22:24:14 GMT
"Our people also have our ways of bathing. But tonight I am curious and content to learn other manners of bathing."
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Post by Storyteller on Feb 28, 2021 22:52:43 GMT
(The traditional Skenje method does not include the salt-water baths at all, nor does it include the food at the end. It begins with oils and scraping, then proceeds either to massage or to soaping, then a steam bath, then a rinse in the coldest water.)
"So the young masters would like oils and scraping first," says an attendant, approaching swiftly. "But shall I prepare massage afterward? Or soaping?"
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Nobody
Alexios Group
Posts: 1,409
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Post by Nobody on Feb 28, 2021 23:12:27 GMT
"I care not. Let it be whatever our worthy host deems most fit."
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Post by Diocles on Feb 28, 2021 23:22:04 GMT
"I want to be clean before the massage, so let's do oil and scraping, then soaping. Massage to follow, then steam baths, and then the final rinse."
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