…run!
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Sister Bomia’s Adventure Diary #25
We Come To A Town
Wolfsday 2, Sun God Month, Year 25 of the Golden Emperor
Dear Diary,
Olivia finished her ritual about three hours before sunrise, then went to sleep for a couple of hours. She woke up in time for breakfast just before sunrise. We could see no visible evidence that the ritual had succeeded, so she said a word in some ancient arcane language and a shimmering portal appeared. It showed a stretch of trail not far from the base of the waterfall.
“This is how the people who used the Road got down from here?” Amella sounded a bit skeptical.
Olivia took a drink of tea and replied that yes, they did, although their portal was much larger and opened and shut by wizards at either end. Her ritual opened the portal just enough for us to ride through single file. It would close in an hour.
We got packed up and ready to go. Halana volunteered to go through first, followed by Amella, myself and Grettin. Olivia would go through last. That all decided, we headed out.
Diary, I’d like to tell you about the strange sensation of being teleported that distance, but the fact is, it was no more strange than passing through a city gate. Less strange than some city gates, really. We just rode through right onto the trail, easy as pie.
Aside from an initial dampening by the mists from the falls, our ride went smoothly. The change in terrain and everything else was readily noticeable. We were now heading downhill at a very gentle slope. The air was warmer and more humid that up above. The forests were almost entirely deciduous trees, most of which looked very old. Other plants ranged from the familiar to the totally unknown.
Most of the animals we saw were birds, none of them looked very familiar. The most familiar insects we encountered were mosquitoes, but a quick application of Reguno’s Excellent Repellant kept them away. As for mammals, we saw squirrels that, aside from being black & white, looked like squirrels back home. We also saw otters on the riverbank and a few deer.
Just around noon, we started to see houses along the river and in areas cleared for farms. The people were all uniformly pale of complexion, like myself and Amella. The black, brown, and gray skins of Halana, Olivia, and Grettin got a lot of attention, but no hostility. We spoke with a few folks who spoke with a thick accent, but nonetheless spoke a language similar to the inhabitants of Urenzia, in the Blue Mountains far to the southwest of this place. The Urenzians have always said their ancestors came from “the land under the escarpment”, and now we know what they meant. They also told us that a town was not far downriver. We were assured that Arjoon, the town, was a very cosmopolitan trading area, and we would not be so unique there.
Two hours later, we arrived in Arjoon, a town without walls. It was a good sized town, bustling with people involved in everything from loading & unloading riverboats to just doing the daily shopping. True to the farmer’s words, we saw people with all sorts of skin colors, some of whom looked very much like the Forest Folk of Quan Quada, and others who resembled Elves with bad sunburns. The black skinned folk we saw were all short and rather portly, more like the Plinish back home than the northern warriors like Halana.
After asking around, we made our way to the Wild Duck Inn, a large establishment with an attached stable. We got three rooms ordered a meal and some ale, both of which were very good. We chatted with many people, both locals and traders from other lands, and learned quite a lot.
But now, Diary, I am going to call it a day and enjoy sleeping in a big soft bed. I’ll write more tomorrow.
Sister Bomia Evarain
The Dociverse Blog 