The Merchant Convoy

5 Wagons

* Three carrying a mix of weaponry and some metal ingots – so heavily laden
* One carrying a couple of spare wheels, some timber, plus tarps and some supplies
* One, carrying more supplies

## People in the convoy

### Talaris

(Human Male), Merchant – mid 50’s, slightly overweight, but obviously experienced in this sort of venture;

### Timbough

(Human Female), his wife – mid 50’s, very quiet and unassuming, competent wagon driver;

### Kendrick

(Human Male), Wagon driver – young, but good with the animals

### Walantha

(Female Ariel), Wagon driver – chatty and obviously somewhat excitable

### Delenn

(Human Male), Wagon driver – middle aged, quite brawny, is apparently a decent wheelwright/carpenter

### Halberten Toenic

(Halfling Male) – Lead guard, generally uncommunicative

### Saylmae

(Human Female) – Guard, possibly a ranger type since is often scouting

### Leneriat

(Giant Male) – Guard, carries a large, powerful looking arbalest

### Erasmous

(Human Male) – Guard, Cleric of Universal

### Sigver

(Male Ariel) – Guard, another scouting type

## Guards

The guards have obviously been hired as a unit and certainly Halberten and Leneriat look competent. It is very obvious that apart from possibly Walantha, all have travelled this route a number of times, and know when to prepare for hills or descents with the heavy wagons for instance.

## Journey Days 46-48

About 30 minutes out of Jevenne you encounter another convoy heading South, Talaris obviously knows the merchant as there is a friendly exchange of gossip and news. From what the party hears, nothing of any excitement appears to have occurred on the route. The track is just about wide enough to enable the two convoys to pass with care (and careful manoeuvring off track in places).

The next few days are quiet, almost boring in many ways, the route is well maintained and so there is little trouble with the wagons. The countryside is rough open moorland, not much fodder to be had close to the road, but you would guess that if you detoured off a way, you could actually keep the mules fed although Quercius would recommend some form of grain supplements for their diet. Every 10 miles or slightly less, there are obvious campsites, normally near a small stream, these see frequent use but are well maintained. If you were doing this journey again, you might think about bringing some firewood with you, as it is your campfires have to be small and used for cooking – it is difficult to gather enough wood as it is.

On the second day the wagons are overtaken by a small military patrol, 6 horsemen wearing the colours of Northlake. They stop briefly to confer with Talaris and then ride on past, soon disappearing into the distance.

By the end of the third day, you would estimate that you have travelled about 25 miles, possibly a little more. Apart from the first days wagon train and the military patrol, you have met up with a couple of small parties travelling South and been overtaken by a tinker and his wife heading North to Valoneon. What looks like another wagon train heading south is about a day to the north, but apart from that scouting both on foot and in the air has not indicated any other traffic. You have passed through or near a few hamlets or isolated farmsteads

From chatting with the guards, this escort duty is basically their full time job, once the get to Far Haven, they will stay there only for as long as it takes to secure their next convoy escort back South to Northlake. In terms of staying at Far Haven, they would pretty much unanimously recommend “The Flagon”, another establishment in the Southmarket. Not luxurious, but the innkeeper is honest, the wine is unwatered and the evening meal is filling – unless it is full, you should be able to get a room there with evening meal for 3 silver per person per night, based on two people sharing a room. The Desert Star and the Wanderer are both good, but are well known and this reflects in the price, at least according to the guards anyhow.

In terms of the journey ahead, it would seem that you are likely to meet Centaurs at any point North of the Larkstone turn off, they fully expect Talaris to offload quite a bit of stock to Centaur clans before he even gets to Far Haven. The guards are all followers of Universal and so don’t really have much knowledge of any Barosan presence in Far Haven although Leneriat does seem to recall that there was a Maratasen priest of Barosa in the city a while back.

Joshua takes every opportunity to look for trade with passing folk, but after an initial chat with Talaris realises that he had better not haggle with him or else Joshua might end up with the deeds to the Imperial Palace. He does make a find when chatting with tinker, a small spoon with a wooden handle, the handle is not original but the shaft of the spoon has some of the runic script on it. The tinker is happy to take 5cp for the item, he was half thinking of simply melting it down anyhow. On investigation, the handle of the spoon has obviously snapped a long time in the past and a wooden handle attached. The script fragment reads “May your food be who…..”.