A Step Along the Path of Lore | Notes About the Setting

  The young acolyte stands just before the southern gate of Old Breta. He has spent much of the past week seated inside an automaton-driven carriage, along with a number of wealthier, returning travellers, with his passage earned by a recommendation from the local repair chapel of his hometown as a substitute for his meagre funds. Over the coming days, he will make efforts to seek out a mentor whose tutelage can guide him higher into the circles of techno-occultism, but for this moment his fate lies in the hands of the gatekeepers.
  As is routine, they have taken the electro-mechanical device he carried with him - a personal creation which is both proof of his study and his most valuable possession - to confirm its safety and ownership before issuing the appropriate license as proof for the city authority. Although the newcomer maintains a reluctant optimism that the guards will take care with their examination, he cannot help but fidget nervously until it is returned undamaged.
  Now securely on the other side of the gate, he carefully follows the road signs along the back roads. He eventually reaches the quiet, rustic inn mentioned by an elderly acquaintance, who had once travelled to the capital alongside the town's lord during their employment as an attendant. There, he pays for a small room which has been squeezed between the staircase and the wall (though quite reasonable by his standards) for his stay.

  During his first day in the city, he manages to pay visits to three different temples, picking them out from the rest of the unfamiliar skyline by their mismatched designs and the various alterations that have been grafted to the structures over time. At the first, he is told they have no capacity to take on additional, unexperienced students at the current time. The second and third have no interest in his field of study, and turn him away with a single glance at the device he tries to present to them. He returns to the inn that evening unsuccessful, but ready to try again the next day.