Day 42-45 – Leaving Northlake

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(Date: End March)
The party make preparations for leaving Northlake and heading off to Far Haven, the streets of Northlake continue to be awash with rumours about the Elven visit, and it is noticeable that the City Watch as doing double shifts, making their presence felt. Down at the dockside, there are also increased militia patrols although there have been no more incidents since the flurry last week.
Other general gossip (excluding all of the Elven speculation):
* The Solaran/Lizardmen	disagreements are flaring up, indications are that it could be war.
* Fishermen are asking for	additional military patrols on the lake, to protect them from the	strange dwellers that have been seen recently.
* An Elven diplomatic mission has	arrived in Sarantaplo, apparently to discuss alliance or at least	mutual support.
PARTY TREASURY: -1 Gold, 15 Silver (PLUS individual spends below)
PLUS: 5 Gold per attempt to learn Comprehend Languages
PLUS: Costs for Mules etc. (work them out yourselves!!)
Hooded Lanterns:	3 Gold, freely available to buy
Bullseye Lantern:	5 Gold, freely available to buy
Oil flask:		10 Silver, freely available to buy
Dougal
Dougal completes his protective case for the familiar, purchases some waxed scroll cases for keeping important papers safe from water damage, and makes a final visit to the Barosan shrine.
TOTAL EXPENSES: 1 Gold, 2 Silves, 9 Copper
Joshua
Packs up the market stall, putting the collection of purchased trinkets into a large bag, picks up a large waterskin. The researchers and runners are released from contract with a couple of bottles of wine/beer for a celebratory and thank you party.
Unfortunately, the spearhead cannot be restored to a usable condition.
JOSHUA SPEND: 8 Silver 16 Copper (excluding research)
Bazin
Pays respect at the Temple of Shanah and with Umar offers to buy Apana some lunch, which she happily agrees to.
TOTAL SPEND: 7 Silver, 6 Copper
Hamish
Assists where required.
TOTAL SPEND: 17 Copper
Wun
Finishes at the hospital, you obviously made a good impression as the staff have clubbed together to buy you a silver holy symbol of Universal.
TOTAL EARNINGS: 6 Silver, 3 Copper (some expenses paid out)
Twoo
Finds someone to teach him Comprehend Languages spell – or learns off Garaf
TOTAL SPEND: 10 Copper
Quercuis
Has a busy few days sourcing the mules and supplies for the party, Jurrage obviously knows his animals since you find all of the recommended dealers have decent stock.
It is soon fairly obvious that Dougal Joshua is totally outclassed at negotiation by the horse traders, in the end the savings made are minimal whilst the time it takes to make the trades are extended dramatically. Still, practice might make perfect!
Unfortunately Golderod is not around, so you leave her a message thanking her for the advice. Kinogel and Kvasir have apparently already left.
TOTAL SPEND: 7 Coppers
Caradoc
Asking around, you soon find out that there is a weapons and metals shipment heading North in a few days, and unsurprisingly this will be well escorted. There is room on the barges for the party and so you quickly snap some of the places available.
Looking over the barges, they are reasonably easy to defend from a seaborne invasion, certainly one by swimming creatures since there is a 4’ freeboard, plus an additional 2’ of railing. Talking to barge workers and sailors over lunch, most confess to having seen the Sahuagin, and most seem to regard them as good luck totems.
When you ask about the weather for the crossing, you get strange looks, it turns out that there are at least 4 shipments going out that day and so the weather is being ‘managed’ for the crossings. The old hands will explain that for the big caravans, they always group the sailings together so that there is both a minimal cost for weather control, plus by keeping the control window small they minimise knock on effects.
As your final activity before leaving you buy Jurrage a decent bottle of wine and pass over the written information to be sent to Gohde and Cagrun, stressing that it needs to be shipped in this form. Jurrage promises to see that the document is delivered, although admits that it might be a couple of weeks. If not more.
TOTAL SPEND: 2 Silver 13 Copper
Garaf
Finds someone to teach him Comprehend Languages spell – or learns off Twoo
TOTAL SPEND: 5 Copper
Umar
Goes with Bazin to the Shanah temple, and meets up with Apana.
TOTAL SPEND: 4 Copper
Francis
Helps with preparations for leaving, and breaking in your restored armor. The Sprawl is pretty much like the rest of the city, lots of street rumours about the upcoming Elven delegation. Spring planting always brings with it a demand for farm labour, and so the streets are relatively quiet as most of the able bodied are off working, or trying to find work. Of course this does bring with it an increased level of drunkenness in the evening as people have copper to spend. Gods, you will be glad to be out of this shithole.
TOTAL SPEND: 7 Copper
A Conversation with Apana
Apana is mid 60’s but still obviously reasonably fit, she has a large disfiguring scar on the left side of her face and is missing one ear, plus you notice that she is missing two fingers on her left hand. She has obviously been expecting someone to contact her and so takes up Bazin and Umar's offer of lunch immediately. Thankfully, she does not have such expensive tastes as Olg, although even then Umar and Bazin cannot help but notice just how much drink she is able to put away over what is quite a brief lunch.
Apana: “So Gohde did get word to me that you were in town, I was kinda wondering when y’all would be in touch. He mentioned that ya may be needing assistance in getting up North, altho’ now that the convoys are runnin’ again there is no real problem with that.”
Umar: “We were wondering if you could give us some advice about Far Haven, and possibly letters of introduction into the Temple?”
Apana: “Letter of introduction are no problem; I will get something together this afternoon. Far Haven itself, well it’s more’n 10 years since I was up there last so I supec’ things will have changed somewhat. It’s a lot rougher than here, that’s for cert’n, you’ve gotten the Giants – all proud of their city like but really wanting to be out’n’about – their history is nomadic you know? Then th’humans up there, all stuck up and full of themselves as bein’ the ancestors of all humanity on the island – least ways that’s what they claim – kinda surprised that the Gemihadist hasn’t got a foothold there. Add in small enclaves of nearly evry other race you c’n think of and the nomadic tribes just outside and well….. lets just say there is a lot of energy shall we?”
Even with their resistance to alcohol, Umar and Bazin find themselves getting somewhat under the affluence of incohol as the lunch progresses, and conversation meanders around quite a bit. Apana is full of anecdotes from the old days, plus snippets of information that may be useful….
Apana: “Gohde eh! Well he always showed a lot of potential, and I suspect will – if he doesn’ cock things up – end up in command of the Pathfinders. Although he did sometimes have a bit too much imagination fr’ my liking -wuz right ‘bout the Elves tho’”
Apana: “First Swords…… well obviously it is a great honour to take up that post, Shanah himself determines how the winner will be determin’d. You’ve got Bez Drock hims’, the only Sword I can remember to step down of his own accord before his term was up – really nice guy but far too intense – I heard rumour he is out West of Far Haven. Then Beldame took the post up for a couple of terms, personally never really liked her – too sneaky for my taste. Warskull took over from her…. I remember that well, its how I got these souvenirs – indicates her missing fingers and facial damage – thought I had a decent chance; Anyhow Warskull lost his arm, ‘bout 10-12 years back I think and Beldame took the post up again…. Who knows where the bitch is now.”
Apana: “Warskull is as straight as a lance, if’n you play fair with him he will play fair with you. I get the feeling that he is not really comfortable in post up there, what with the Wyldwood affair’n’all but he does his duty.”
Apana: “The Wyldwood affair y’say, well I guess’n its common knowledge that for some reas’n or other Bez decided to trash their temple in Far Haven. He always was efficient, cleared it out and killed everyone there….. then a week later announces he is standing down as First Sword because he had failed in his mission. Kinda curious I guess, but’n I never have got to the bottom of what he meant by that.”
Apana: “You heading North in the next day or so I gather, probly a good thing actually. City authorities are going to be mighty sensitive over the next few weeks, an’I suspect that there will be a move to make sure no troublemakers are around – real or imaginary – if you get my meaning. Adamas is a really good ruler, but he is also a realist – an’ this Elven visit is gonna be tricky.”
The Boat Trip
The trip to Jevenne passes remarkably smoothly, the dockside crew are extremely efficient and everything is loaded within a few hours. Along with yourselves there is a merchant caravan taking weapons and iron ingots up to Far Haven and a small group of humans with what look like high quality horses.
The journey takes just over a day, with the party making landfall at Jevenne about mid-afternoon. During the journey, Sahuagin are spotted a number of times, they generally shadow to convoy for about an hour and then disappear beneath the waters. None of the seamen, nor the guards seem overly concerned by their appearance, and certainly there were no hostile actions.
Jevenne itself is a fairly large township, obviously built around the docks, and taking its cut from the trade that flows out of Northlake. The township has a central keep and is enclosed within a wooden palisade of reasonable quality.
The small group of humans head out immediately, moving at some pace. Similarly the merchant caravan, once it has formed up – heads North out of town. Although you can see some trading go on at the dockside, looks like people remembering things that they meant to bring – woollen cloaks, spare boots and the like.
So, what next??
PARTY EXPERIENCE: 550xp per character (DM note: Out of 1,000xp available)
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