“Leave it to dwarves to turn a mountain into a grandiose city like none has ever seen before. I don’t mean that they’d build a grand city on the mountain, mind you. They’d build it on, in, and under the damn place, until what was once a mountain ends up a hollowed out shell playing house to thousands of them living all over and inside of it.” - Avrionel Viealei, Elven adventurer.
It was early autumn and the leaves on the trees were starting to turn yellow in shade by the time Aideen’s group reached Knallgant. The Grand Citadel remained as grand a sight as the last time she visited, arguably even grander, as the dwarves had clearly added some more wings to the place since then. It was a work in progress that kept growing larger as time went by.
Even from afar, Knallgant made for an imposing sight. The city that sprawled on and by the mountain range’s foot was impressive enough, but it was the fortified castle complex built at and around the peak of the tallest mountain, easily visible from afar, that claimed the main share of people’s attention. The castle complex made for a glorious sight, especially when silhouetted against the setting sun as it was that evening.
Aideen allowed the youths – Celia had seen the place before – to marvel at the sight while she and Celia split up dealt with things in the village since it was already late and they wouldn’t reach Knallgant proper in time before the gates closed. Celia went to arrange for some rooms at the local inn, while Aideen went to look for some food and beverages for their dinner.
Both were easy to do, the village was situated close to Knallgant proper, and it was common for travelers traveling to the royal capital to stop there to rest if they couldn’t reach the city in time. As such, there were several bustling inns in the village, as well as many eateries, all of which made their living off such travelers. Aideen’s group naturally took advantage of the amenities the locals already prepared as well.
Celia got the group some nice rooms at the largest inn in the village, one that catered to more well-to-do travelers, while Aideen got some additional snacks and other finger foods to munch on. Like most inns, the Bearded Sow also offered food and beverages to its guests. In fact, Aideen was informed that the place served the best ale in town.
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That reputation proved to be quite well-deserved as the golden ale served by the establishment proved to be crisp and pleasant on the tongue, with a mild sweetness that did little to hide its strong kick. Fortunately for those who couldn’t handle their alcohol well like Rhys, the inn also had a healthy stock of various teas and juices, as they were accustomed to catering to non-dwarven guests as well.
They also snacked on some finger foods along with the dishes served by the Inn. Aideen bought some local snacks like slices of salty, sour pickled cucumbers slathered with creamy soft cheese, and a local sweet made from stringing up nuts with thread, hanging them, then dousing them repeatedly with a viscous liquid made by boiling fruit juices until they thickened.
The viscous juice would stick to the nuts, dry, and harden after a while, then it would be doused with more juice. The process was repeated several more times until a finger-thick layer of dried juice stuck to each nut and the end product would be eaten as it was. It was also used as a way to preserve fruit since the finished snack would stay edible for months after it was made.
Despite how it was mostly sugar, the dried layers that covered the nuts were not too sweet, as they had more of a sweet-sour flavor to them. The local dwarves typically used a mix of fruits for the process, with local citrus fruits being a large part of it since they provided copious amounts of juice per fruit. It made for a snack that was highly nutritious and also stood up well to strong ales and liquor.
Traces of that same local citrus could be found in the ale itself, which was made with juice from the fruit as well. Unlike other examples of its kind Aideen’s group had seen in other places, the local citrus fruits were unpleasant to eat as it was, and didn’t give out much juice from each fruit. Yet at the same time, the juice once could squeeze out of them, once free from the rather fibrous flesh, was extremely tasty in flavor, even if it took like half a dozen fruits just to get a cup full of juice.
As for the inn itself, it lived up to its name and the cook in the kitchen definitely knew their way with pork. Pigs were commonly reared in most every village, as they were easy to raise, given how they eat most everything. In some ways, the pigs helped clean up a village’s trash and provided meat as well, which made them quite cost-effective to raise.
The group ordered a good quarter of the pig roasting whole over the cooking fire and enjoyed the succulent, fatty meat enriched by a mixture of herbs and spices that was stuffed inside it. The flavorings inside seeped through the meat while it cooked and imparted plenty of flavor to the pork, while the skin had been roasted to a perfect crisp.
After an evening of feasting, the group retired to their rooms – the inn’s best rooms were intended for families and could house three to four adults comfortably – and slept through the night. Aideen roomed with Celia and Kino, while the siblings shared the other room. In their rooms, they also found another reason the dwarves were so keen to raise ducks over chicken and other fowl.
As it turned out, the down shed by ducklings as they grew made for some of the fluffiest and softest pillow fillings imaginable. While the dwarves themselves preferred harder beds and pillows, down pillows were a hit amongst travelers and merchants and was a sought after luxury product Knallzog exported to other nations.