The River's Port

**The River's Port** is the fifty sixth episode of *Another Bad Side Quest*. The party leave the monastery and journey to *Shu'Hish*, a river port town as they make their way to the *Sra'jess Hot Springs*.

## The River's Port

### **Synopsis**

**Pre-Show Shenanigans**

* Darrin isn't made of money and won't be giving the cast a pizza party
* Don't forget - Mak is leading Ian, Haelley and Zach through an all new adventure in *Mist Connections*. Using the *City of Mist RPG* rule set, enter a world where myths and legends come to life!
* Reminder, new episodes of the *Well Versed* premieres every Friday!
* No stream September 27th, as everyone returns from *New Jersey Web Fest!* And Darrin moves the ABSQ headquarters into his new house!
	+ ABSQ will be live the first two weeks of October but after that we will go pre-recorded on Youtube (and possibly "premiering" on Twitch) starting with another mini-series, *The Edensong Chronicles,* because Darrin doesn't know how to take a break

### Summary

After Sterling cast *Glyph of Warding* on the *Ki Locked* door, the party left the *Nihjazurrean Monastery* and spent the next two days making their way to *Su’Hish,* down the mountain and into the wetlands below, while dealing with the muggy and cold weather from the season of the lich as the mountains blocked any coastal breezes. Sterling complained about the weather and his feet, but continued determined to put one foot in front of the other to hopefully find a nicer place to sleep that night. Quincy talked quietly with Kaz about their ability to make magic bullets and the possibility of using some of her spells to do so, drawing Sterling into the conversation to keep him occupied. Yashani and Alaerith stuck to the back and while Alaerith watched his steps and thought of the recent events Yashani thought back to the first time she had left the monastery and headed this direction. Meanwhile RX continued to lead the party in eagerness to get to the *Sra'jess Hot Springs*.

As they travelled the day grew gently warmer as they followed alongside a river, that spilled down from the waterfalls, near the monastery, slowly connecting to other rivers along the way and saw the river grew much wider and opened out to connect freshwater to the saltwater of the ocean, wide enough to host small galleons as they tied off to docks at the edge of a small town. They saw as the river grew wider the ground beneath their feet became wetter before they eventually climbed up onto floating docks that connected together and bob gently, with the swamplands of *Su’Hish* no match for intelligent ingenuity as the buildings and homes of the town were built on floating and anchored docks. Quincy wondered what the party might need to get done while they are there, admitting it was hard to think of anything as normal as visiting a new city with everything that had happened and RX suggested improving their equipment. Sterling noted they needed gold for that and Quincy reminded them they had money from Esmeria and what was left from Bo. Quincy also added they left behind two paying jobs when they entered the mirror and they were good at starting jobs without completing them and Sterling retorted they finished them, but just never cashed in on them.

As they entered the city proper Sterling suggested they a place they might find lodging and Yashani added they should see what had been happening in the world while they were away. Sterling confirmed they still had a week and a half of travel on foot, from there to *Kra’Kash*, then west into the *Principality of Pathu* to get to the *Sra'jess Hot Springs*. Quincy suggested they secure rooms at the inn and start by either getting RX new gear, as he had lost many of his items in recent weeks, or perhaps they could talk to some of the sailors at port to get information on the world as they had visited the area in the past with *The Misty Moon.* Sterling tried to suggest picking up another job to complete in town for money, but RX reminded them they were on a strict time limit to get RX fixed, according to his conversation with Twynn, and would be better to make it to the *Sra'jess Hot Springs* with time to spare. Sterling agreed as much and re-surmised they should perhaps simply bed down for the night and find a faster means of travel for the morning was time better spent.

The party headed for what appeared to be the town’s only inn, a four story building that seemed to lean with each ascending level appearing to have been later additions to make more rooms, called the *Murky Masters*. They went inside and found an Elven woman, with short hair and several piercings in her pointed ears, sitting behind a reception desk that doubled as a bar. RX asked how many beds were in a room, ordered six when he learned there was one in each and while Sterling suggested three rooms, Quincy instead paid *three gold* for six and received six keys in return. Quincy also asked where they might get a warm meal and she suggested *Castle’s Everything Emporium* or to visit Gio at the temple to the Wild Sisters as he made meals for travellers, though Sterling made it clear they had money. Sterling then asked if the church needed any work done so they could make some coin, as well as if there was a stable where they might buy horses. The Elven woman said Gio would be the one to talk to about work, noting not to bother him until the early evening as he mostly worked at the docks as a medic and supervisor, while for horses there was a shop that opened a Travel stand, a company from *Gilesha*, that give horses and the like. After the receptionist introduced herself as Po the party agreed to visit their rooms, then head to the docks so Quincy could talk to other sailors. Quincy asked Yashani if this was where Yashani did her healing work when she left and Yashani explained it was a smaller town not far from here and that she hoped they were doing well. Sterling said they could maybe ask someone in the docks about it and after the group agreed on the docks headed to their rooms, dropped their things and headed to the dock.

Quincy scanned the faces on the docks for anyone familiar and spotted a man, pushing his late-fifties, with hair in a dark ponytail that had begun to gray out, wearing dirty overalls, that most people seemed to in this area and carrying a clipboard that they recognized as one of Kylan’s old friends, Lazarus. After explaining who the man was and asking them not to be weird, which was deemed impossible, Quincy greeted the man who, introducing themself as “Kylan’s kid”, started with some small talk and when Lazarus noted life was slow, but better than living in *Rillasehje* and the “hoity toity nobles” firmly agreed with him. Quincy explained they hadn’t been shore-side in a while, asked what the world was like and if anything odd had been happening and Lazarus said things were always happening before asking her to define odd. Quincy noted that *The Misty Moon* barely made it out of the burning of *Kra’Kash* and had been a little on edge and Lazarus agreed it had been “touchy”, but hadn't affected *Su’Hish* much yet. He did note the new Merchant King hadn’t even been to visit the area, though he should be around soon as he made his rounds with Merchant King Wish. Quincy said it was a shame that their group was only staying the night and Lazarus complained he hadn’t even met the one who was supposed to be signing his checks, explaining that the *Skorian Empire* technically paid him, but there had been another change in leadership and the new person in charge of this portion specifically was called Marcus Ilvwinter.

Quincy said they heard the Ilvwinter’s lived in *Rillasehje* and Lazarus confirmed they did before Marcus’ father died in *Qahrizoq* when he was nine and was adopted into the Yolin family. He added that since then he worked under the Merchant Kings and was recently promoted and Quincy played off their surprise and concern with a hand wave and admitted they had never been particularly interested in the machinations of the elite and called it all boring. Lazarus agreed and noted the chatty merchants who stopped into port seemed to talk about it. After a lull Quincy asked about the new Merchant King, in particular the seat he left vacant when he moved up the ladder, making someone a new head of international trade and Lazarus recalled his son, Enoch, was doing well and apparently made his first trip to *Gilesha,* returned with a treaty which was a first and the merchants liked to talk about it. Quincy said they hoped it was the sign of a bright career ahead of him and Lazarus said he didn't know anything about the treaty before pointing them to Castle if they were interested in gossip. Quincy added that they heard good food was available there before they minded their manners and introduced the party.

Sterling mentioned that they should be going, citing they needed to find Gio for work later in the day and Lazarus asked why they needed to see him and explained his full name was Giovanni Lazarus, but everyone called him Lazarus or Gio. Quincy apologized, noted they didn’t mean to interrupt him at work as they heard he was busy then and offered to come back later and when Sterling, seeing he had a little time at least at the moment, offered offer their services Gio cut him off, said to find him in two hours after his shift was over and walked away.

The party headed to *Castle’s Everything Emporium* and as they walked Sterling admitted it had been a year since he had learned about the *Skorian Empire’s* politics, wondering how long the Ilvwinters, presumably the son of their enemy, had been controlling the Merchant Kings, but Quincy quickly explained the Merchant Kings were their own entities and that Marcus was in a separate organization. Sterling pressed that the name Vaultanis was mentioned in relation to the Merchant Kings a few times and wondered what they were getting themselves into, but Quincy cut in to say they were getting into nothing because they did not need to get involved with the Merchant Kings. Sterling gave up on the line of questioning and headed to *Castle’s Everything Emporium* with the promise of a warm meal.

As they moved, Quincy dropped back to hold Kaz’s hand, a recent gesture but as Quincy processed the recent information they reached out for comfort. Kaz asked if Quincy was alright, noting they hadn’t looked well since leaving the monastery particularly and Quincy admitted they weren't sure, but felt they were just tired. Quincy explained they tried to make a bullet with Sterling the night before and that her magic felt “looser” somehow, but wrote it off as an effect of all the walking. Kaz, who had noticed over the last few days that more of their hair snapped off at the points of magma in it, reached out to stroke it a bit and questioned if they really were just tired, but Quincy waved it off saying they didn't know how to take care of magma considering it was hard enough to learn how to keep the lightning hair from getting frizzy all the time. Kaz says she noticed Quincy had kept secrets, that they could talk about it if they would like to and Quincy agreed they would tell Kaz a new story, maybe that night.

The party headed in the direction they were pointed to, past the floating docks, to the marshy land and soon spotted a small castle the size of a moderate house, with its construction resembling a castle with parapets and small towers, with a sign out front announcing *Castle’s Everything Emporium*. The party went through the rotating door, which Quincy and Sterling became briefly stuck in, and entered a large open design shop, filled with rows upon rows of shelves of fruit and food, a number of weapons hanging from the ceiling and racks of clothing and a thin green Lizardfolk woman manning the counter. As they looked around and Sterling wondered if there were free samples of food, they heard a clattering and looked up to see a Lizardfolk man, in a purple and maroon suit descend a set of stairs, welcomed them to his store and introduced himself as Castle. Castle asked how he could help and when Sterling asks if he named himself Castle or built the castle because of his name explained his full name was Benric Castle and that he built the castle because of his name.

Sterling asked if they had free samples and Benric said he could do so before he called out for his wife Martha. Quincy asked if he had free oil and Benric paused for a long moment in silence before he darted off, returned with a small jar of oil and offered it to RX who found it was spicy. RX offered Sterling to try, who refused at first, but when Benric said he should try it and had some himself, tried some out of curiosity and found it overpoweringly spicy. He asked for milk, drank it as soon as it came even noticing there was a slight green tinge, but noted his bowels would hate him for it as he was lactose intolerant. Benric asked again what they might want to buy, that he had everything, even the supplies to make an outhouse when RX wondered for Sterling's sake. Quincy asked if they sold bookmarks, particularly unique to the area, and after another very long pause Benric ran off. Sterling wondered if he should ask for spell components and show their guild paperwork and Quincy suggested they make a list so he only had to make one long pause before running off to find everything. Benric returned with a multi-colored feather pressed between thin sheets of glass, which he said was apparently a phoenix, which Quincy happily bought for *two gold* even as Sterling said wasn't what they looked like.

Sterling asked if the party could order food and eat while Benric collected the rest of what they are looking for, including spell components. Benric said he could cover most things, but noting if they needed anything involving clothes above basic, potion supplies or, after confirming they were guild members, spell usage needed to see Pollen and Powder who were further on land. He added that Pollen wasn't too happy about the Modipious Travel station being put in nearby and when Quincy asked why said he didn't have much of an idea other than it was next to her home and didn't like the people around. Sterling activated *Ob’s Charm* to tell everyone, if necessary, the gems they had acquired in their earlier travels were worth a decent amount of money, noting the *two* *fairly intact diamonds* were 300 gold each and the *flawed sapphire* was 800 gold, and suggested Quincy should try to sell them to Pollen and Powder who could resell them as spell components. They party decided to ask Benric for studded leather armor for Kaz, as well as a pocket watch for RX who wished to study the mechanics of it, before they headed upstairs to where they were told Martha was and could make them some food.

The party seated themselves at a table and Martha, the Lizardfolk woman from behind the counter, greeted them and apologized for her husband’s inherent nature and odd stops, but noted he was a nice man. The party assured her they found him fascinating and Martha explained Benric kept an itemized account of everything they have in stock in his mind and ran through the list to retrieve what ever was requested. The party requested requesting some food that was customary to the area, with Quincy noting it was nice to try something new. RX says he would agree and when Quincy wondered if he had developed the need to eat yet questioned the use of “yet”. Quincy pointed out that he didn’t need to sleep before and now did and Martha decided the conversation was awkward before she headed off to make something. Quincy continued that it didn't feel like a stretch to wonder if he might one day need to eat and both Sterling and RX explained how it was not entirely similar as RX would also need to develop the means to consume and digest food, regardless of his being an elder tempest, noting he might feed off of sunlight or possibly cool breezes. They briefly discussed other automoatons that might be powered by steam, as *Gilesha* had large steam powered boats, but Sterling noted nothing as refined or adept as RX would be. Sterling noted he did travel a little when he left home, that his mother was the one who saw *Gilesha* and said RX could ask her before he went quiet. Yashani pointed out he would be able to ask her himself soon before commenting that he been on edge since they left the *Dusterburyan* *Lighthouse* and reminded him he was not abandoning her and the party had not forgotten and Sterling thanked her.

Martha returned with bowls of soup, made with oxen bone broth, with uniquely green grain noodles, slices of pheasant meat and a gooey pheasant egg on top and explained it was something her mother made for her making it local to the area. The party dug in and Quincy wondered if Yashani could make this again in the future with a recipe and Yashani agreed, noting it might take trial and error and may not be possible on the road, and tentatively offered perhaps it could be done when this is all over. Quincy agrees that kind of experimentation was something she was happy to be part of. Martha, who had been quietly observing, noted it looked they all had had a rough day and was politely corrected it had been a rough month before they thanked her for the food. Martha said it was nice to see people appreciate the food as most people just came in for supplies and Yashani said that is what happens when you are on the road for so long as you learn to appreciate a good meal. Martha confirmed they were a part of the guild before offering the meals for free, citing she and her husband were guild members once, along with Pollen, though Powder wasn’t around at that point. Quincy invited Martha to sit and join them, wondering if she had any good stories and Martha sat down, told them Benric used to get into trouble, that Pollen had a temper and that she was the one who got them out of trouble. Sterling asked what she did and Martha said she was the cook, but was also skilled in hand to hand combat, slightly disturbing some of the group with her graphic description. Martha went on to say she didn't have the same fight in her anymore, noting at some point the fire died out. Sterling noted he had heard stories of great fighters who one day didn't have it in them anymore and Martha said for her one day it wasn't the same, that after travelling 10 years, getting into troubles and wars and woke one day not wanting to do it anymore. Sterling wondered if it was weird to start a journey feeling that way and Martha told him he might want to get that checked out. Quincy said Sterling was mostly caught in the group’s tide and Martha said that was how they got Giovanni, having picked him up the past two to three years after he quit the navy. Yashani wondered why they all settled down in the same place and Martha explained Benric was from there, that everyone else just followed them here when they quit the guild as Gio didn’t have a family to go back to and Pollen didn’t want to go back to *Vayilcor* as it was too industrious when she was younger. Sterling noted that would be all the more reason to go visit Pollen and Powder after their meal. Benric soon returned to the party, put down the desired set of studded leather armor, which Kaz paid *45 gold* for, and a pocket watch RX paid *five* *gold* for.

The party decided to go to Gio, noting he had likely gotten off of work by now, headed in the direction of the temple and found a nicely kept wooden building, with a domed top covered in vines, an entryway depicting each of the Wild Sisters and the interior washed in bright colors as the light of the two suns shined through the stained glass. The party found Gio near the back of the temple, changed from his dock worker’s overalls and boots and now in a bright blue shirt and black pants with a mace on his side. Quincy quickly confirmed whether to call him Lazarus or Gio and Gio promptly said he didn't really care this point of his life. Sterling offered that the party might be looking for work and was happy to provide after hearing from Castle that they all used to be a part of the guild and Gio said he was mostly a glorified janitor around these parts. He added that there wasn’t much that needed doing before asking if they had any experience with dead bodies that don’t stay dead, along with any knowledge on plant life and, after most of group noted they painfully did know about undead, Sterling offered he took a class on botany and wondered why Gio asks. Gio noted he had dealt with undead in his adventures before explaining a few younger people went out beyond the town, ran into some dead things that had moss and other things growing out of them, that he checked it out himself and saw it was more then he could reasonably handle at his age on his own. Gio added that he, Benric and Martha were past their prime, even if he could call lightning from the sky still. Sterling offered that if the party took care of the problem then perhaps as payment they could take a few magical items off Gio’s hands from his time as a guild member and Gio said if they dealt with it he would consider it. Gio told them that he saw them, up the river and out of town, and requested they deal with the numbers if they were high or to determine the source of the problem and fix it however they could and Sterling said they would see what Pollen and Powder might have on hand and what they could possibly do. Yashani asked if he had heard of anything like this happening elsewhere and Gio said nothing like the current issue, but noted there was something strange happening in *Ki’Kasesh*. Yashani pushed for more information and Gio explained people were getting abducted. Quincy noted this was what they meant when they asked about anything strange happening and Gio shrugged and said he didn’t know they were guild members before. Yashani noted when most of the party first met there were abductions happening as well in *A’jigisha* and Gio said he heard about that, but hadn’t heard much recently since then. The party agreed to check it out, but decided to head for Pollen and Powder’s now and after Gio directed them were to go left the temple.

As they left Quincy activated *Ob's Charm* to point out the last time they investigated missing people and the undead it was the Reaper at the docks in *Krapjess* and wondered if it might be safe to assume he was also taking people in *The* *Underbelly*. RX said it could be where he was getting his thralls and Yashani also thought it may be safe to assume. She added that, knowing what they knew now, it wasn't surprising if Robert was bouncing around the continent collecting an army and Sterling said five devils couldn't expect to overthrow a continent and needed an army. Yashani noted it was likely not organized if they were just terrorizing children and RX suggested they make it even less organized.

They approached what they assume was the shop, far from the docks and built on mostly solid land, Sterling suggested Quincy take the lead and when Quincy wondered if they planned to sell the gems there the party agreed it might be a good idea depending on what they find for purchase. Quincy took a moment to adjust their cloak and fix their hair before heading inside and noticed Sterling mirrored them nearly exactly. They entered inside and picked up the smells of herbs and incense and all manner of spell components all lined up neatly on tables and shelves around the room, along with a few racks of well made clothing. Sterling wrote a list of spell components he would need in the future as a six foot tall Satyr woman stepped out from the back to greet them and introduced herself as Pollen. Quincy attempted to lead with introductions, but Sterling excitedly cut in to introduce himself and Pollen fully introduced herself as Pollen Merika. Quincy explained they were guild members looking for magic adjacent items to help them on their journeys and Sterling excitedly added the need for spellbooks or scrolls, specifically for *Blight* if possible. Pollen replied that they had spell components and some smaller things, but nothing too fantastic, other than Powder. Quincy tried to explain Sterling was excitable after being away from magic items for a time before confirming that she said she had common items and Pollen noted they had basic potions. Yashani asked if they referred to healing potions while Sterling asked again if they had spell scrolls. Pollen warned that even as a guild member, if the Empire found out she was selling spell scrolls they would have her hooves, but might have some hidden away in storage. Sterling said that was fair and didn't know as he wasn't originally from there and Pollen noted she wasn't either and that she was from *Vayilcor* as Martha mentioned.

As they talked, Sterling noticed a tugging at his side and noticed a goat chewing at his shoulder bag. Pollen introduced the goat as Powder and when Sterling asked if Powder was magic Pollen called out to him to Powder who rapidly transformed into a large Satyr man. Sterling smiled as he he chewed on a sentient being and hoped Tollanessa was ok Powder nonchalantly said it was a joke before he cast *Mending* to repair it. Quincy called that he was a being and Powder retorted that most people weren't aware of that. Yashani asked if he prepared being a goat or was undercover and Powder explained he didn't like people and would rather be a goat some days before he transformed again, which Yashani and Alaerith agreed with the sentiment and Sterling added being a chicken was nice. Kaz said she should introduce Boris to him and when Quincy agreed but noted she should warn about the smell most of the party agreed while Alaerith confusedly asked what they meant.

RX asked Pollen what they did have, with Yashani confirming if they did have healing potions and Pollen said they had spell components, basic healing potions, a bottle of alchemist fire, grease in a jar and an invisibility potion. Pollen also asked Powder to check if they had scrolls, with Sterling asking if *Blight* was one of them and Powder went upstairs to check so. RX asked about magical trinkets that weren't potions or temporary and Pollen directed him to a display case with magical knick-knacks using a metal dog that did backflips as an example. While Sterling looked at the knick-knacks Yashani looked at the potions and found a range of assorted potions from love to mass invisibility, which she could tell weren't legit by the prices, but also found the grease one for *10 gold*, alchemist fire for *20 gold* and four healing potions for 40 gold each, with another for *100 gold* above it. Yashani took the four regular potions, citing that with the fight with the forest creatures she wouldn't have been able to save any of them and Alaerith, very guiltily offered most of his share of the party's gold, *80 gold*, to purchase two of them and Yashani also paid *80 gold* for the remaining two. Quincy pulled out one of the diamonds, pointed out Pollen seemed like the person to want something like this as it could be a valuable spell component. Pollen agreed and, after looking it over, offered *300 gold*, but when Quincy countered that they were making purchases now, were very likely to come back for more and requested the money and a discount on the healing potions Pollen agreed and *40 gold* was refunded from the purchased potions.

Powder returned in goat form, with a piece of parchment in his mouth, offered the scroll to Sterling who excitedly revealed it was a scroll of *Cloud of Daggers*. Sterling quickly borrowed *20 gold* from Quincy before he purchased spell scribing materials worth *100 gold* in total. Sterling wasted no time before he summoned Tollanessa, as well as activating his *Wizardly Quill* and copied down the spell in four minutes. Sterling attempted to hand the spell scroll back to them Pollen and Powder, who had changed back from a goat during his copying process, and when Quincy asked Sterling if he asked to do that sheepishly thought the paying for the scribing materials was enough. Quincy attempted to smooth things, overwilling to pay whatever the scroll was worth, but Pollen noted that members of the guild only got so much leeway and requested they put whatever Tollanessa was away to and to be on their way before they got in trouble. Pollen added that the scroll of of *Cloud of Daggers* would be another *50 gold*, which Quincy happily paid for, and restated they could away with some stuff, but not that and that they were lucky to have done that in their store before he changed back into a goat again. Pollen noted that could get the two of them in trouble and Sterling quickly unsummoned Tollanessa. Quincy thanked them for their time and Pollen thanked them as well before reminding them they were in the *Skorian Empire*. Sterling apologized for it, explaining he didn’t grow up having to hide what he did and Pollen called it a shame and a luxury. Pollen requested they be careful next time, told them they were lucky their shop didn't have windows before she saw them all out of her shop.