LOST TRAILS 6: Northern Routes

[ewancummins]

Having consulted the House of Blue Flame without revealing where they obtained the tip about the Orb of Savras, the party members learn:
Savras is said to have trapped a spirit in the crystal ball. He compelled this entity to use its special powers to delve the secrets of chaotic dimensions far from Toril.
It may be that the Orb could show the party a way home. No guarantees.

While Raen asks questions of the magi and priests at the House of Blue Flames, the others have time to investigate ways to get to Phlan, should the party decide to head that way.
They do not find a ship bound for ports close to the Moonsea that also has open cabins for passengers and will be leaving soon. Passage to Harrowdale is available in a galley carrying whale oil—in the cargo hold.

They could simply set out on the road north to Hillsfar or to Zhentil Keep, and journey to Phlan by land or sea from one of those cities. It’s a few hundred miles to shores of the Moonsea. If they mean to go overland, the adventurers may wish to obtain horses and set out before bad weather hits.

[alhoon]

While the prospect of traveling in the cargo hold of a whaling ship isn't Raen's best idea of comfortable travel, he prefers it from hundreds of miles of uncomfortable horse riding.

[ewancummins]

PASSAGE BY WATER


Seven days and seven nights at sea...

The darkened hold reeks of blubber and oil (No fire lights allowed down here!).
The odor permeates your clothing and clings to your hair.
Even the water you drink and the rations you eat taste oily--only the knight's jug of wine and the ship's grog keep a clean flavor.

Rain falls three out of seven days' sailing.
The hold stays dry.
And you can go up on deck when the weather's clear and the sailors are not too busy up there--a good thing, as some of your party get sea-sick.


Early on the morning of the eighth day, you waken to cries from the sailors.
''Harrowdale ho!''

Rubbing sleep from your eyes and then going up the narrow stairs, single file, you find sailors clustered at the bow.

A man at the rails says,
''That's queer, see...''

Looking out over the sunlit blue-green waters of the little bay at the clean, well-built port-town, you don't see anything alarming. Boats bob at the piers, sails furled and oars stowed.
No monsters, no pirates, no fire.

No people...

As the ships draws closer to the deserted waterfront, you see something shake and spread in air as the wind shifts direction--a yellow sheet hanging from the tallest mooring post ahead and to starboard.

Black cloth covers most of the windows and doors in sight. Nailed boards block others.

Beside the sounds of wind and water, and the distant cries of gulls, Harrowdale-port is very quiet.

[kintire]

Katrin comes up on deck with considerable eagerness, but as the situation becomes clear she looks increasingly alarmed. She tries to find a sailor she can talk to, the captain if possible.

"what's going on here? Does that yellow flag mean something?"

[ewancummins]

Katrin comes up on deck with considerable eagerness, but as the situation becomes clear she looks increasingly alarmed. She tries to find a sailor she can talk to, the captain if possible.

"what's going on here? Does that yellow flag mean something?"

Katrin spots Shipmaster Barthus among the sailors--he sticks out, being well over six feet in height and wearing a red toque.

The Shipmaster turns to regard her.
''We'll find out what it means.''
He orders the men back to work. ''Sound the depth and make ready with the anchor!''
Then, to Katrin, quietly, as the sailors disperse,
''You paid for passage to Harrowdale. Here you are. I can put you ashore with the landing party I'm about to send out, but if you prefer to remain aboard-ship until I figure out what's going on in town, feel free to do that."

[Adam]

"We will go," Bennedict says, before stopping himself. "Well, I will go at least. The others can decide for themselves."

He points."Perhaps there was some kind of disaster here. The people may simply have evacuated." He thinks some more, and his eyes widen. "This wouldn't be an indication of plague, would it?"

[ewancummins]

"We will go," Bennedict says, before stopping himself. "Well, I will go at least. The others can decide for themselves."

He points."Perhaps there was some kind of disaster here. The people may simply have evacuated." He thinks some more, and his eyes widen. "This wouldn't be an indication of plague, would it?"

The Shipmaster frowns.
''Hmmm...now that you mention it...hmmm...I think I recall hearing that on the Sword Coast, ports hang out some sort of a 'jaundiced cloth' to warn of plague.Or was that a 'jacinth cloth'?"
He shrugs.
"We're a long, long way from the Sword Coast, of course, but there are foreigners living in Harrowdale. Or there were. Doesn't seem too lively a city just now..."

[ewancummins]

KLOKULF

SPYGLASS

VIEW CONTENT:

Through his glass, Klokulf sees a row tree stumps along the main street. No intact trees. Wood chips and leaves scattered, but not much.

Looking about more, he notes several busted flower pots and shattered window boxes, and what look like excavated front gardens.
No flowers or weeds in sight.


Not a lot of serious damage is evident to buildings--some busted planks, a few broken-in doors that have been boarded up, bright shards of glass here and there on the pavement or in the dirt below black-swathed windows.

While not as clean and neat as it appeared without the spyglass's magnification, the city-scape does not look like the immediate aftermath of a battle.

No bodies, for one thing...

[Adam]

Bennedict pulls out a handkerchief, tying it around his face before pulling on a pair of gloves. "I suggest whoever goes ashore does the same until we know what we're dealing with."

[alhoon]

Katrin comes up on deck with considerable eagerness, but as the situation becomes clear she looks increasingly alarmed. She tries to find a sailor she can talk to, the captain if possible.

"what's going on here? Does that yellow flag mean something?"

The Shipmaster turns to regard her.
''We'll find out what it means.''

"I really hope it's not sign of plague cause that's the main reason I would think for a town to be abandoned." Raen said.

As the others are similarly suspicious he counters Benn's offer. "I think we should land a mile or two away from the city, even if it means wading through water for a bit, and then look for another nearby settlement inland so that we would learn what we got ourselves into"

[ewancummins]

Katrin comes up on deck with considerable eagerness, but as the situation becomes clear she looks increasingly alarmed. She tries to find a sailor she can talk to, the captain if possible.

"what's going on here? Does that yellow flag mean something?"

The Shipmaster turns to regard her.
''We'll find out what it means.''

"I really hope it's not sign of plague cause that's the main reason I would think for a town to be abandoned." Raen said.

As the others are similarly suspicious he counters Benn's offer. "I think we should land a mile or two away from the city, even if it means wading through water for a bit, and then look for another nearby settlement inland so that we would learn what we got ourselves into"

Shipmaster Barthus says,

"Good idea. I can land your party a mile south of the town. There are farms and woodlots south, west, and north of the city and some little hamlets up the road that runs inland and northwest. You might be able to get news from a farmer or woodcutter in one of those places.
I see that one of you has a spyglass, so..."
He takes off his toque and scratches his head.
"I need to know what's going on and I need my men to be kept safe. I tell you what... If your party investigates Harrowdale-town and finds out what's wrong, and finds about the merchant with whom I'm contracted to deposit all this stinking whale oil, I'll return half your fare."

[ewancummins]

Barthus offers the party an old map of Harrowdale-town

''Not all the details will be right, I'm sure, but it should help.''

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/95/78/e9 ... 86ac08.jpg

He also offers the party a torn overland map, which might be useful to them in their further travels. He'll give it to them if they agree to help him:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/14/66/a5 ... aa0f79.jpg

[Adam]

"Your council is wise, as always," Bennedict says to Raen. "Let's check some homes away from the city and see what there is to see. But be cautious all the same. Plague does not recognize city limits."

He graciously accepts the maps and waits for the trip to shore.

[ewancummins]

GOING ASHORE


After being rowed to the beach about one mile south of the town...


The party clambers out of the two longboats sent from the ship.
Nothing moving on the beach but a few sandpipers that take wing as the boat approaches, and some crabs that scuttle away along the receding waterline.

The sailors help the adventurers unload their kit.

The coxswain says, “Good luck, friends. If you need us to pick you up, come to the water’s edge in sight of our ship and signal. There’ll be a man on lookout.”

The party gears up as the sailors shove off, rowing out into the bay and then north toward their vessel.

Looking about the beach the party sees wet sand underfoot and dunes topped with brown grass rising a bit further inland.

Mounting a dune and looking west, they can see a mile-deep meadow-land covered in hardy sea-grass and patches of brush, and inland beyond that a patchwork landscape of coppiced woodlots and stubbled fields.

To the south, the vegetation thins out and the land takes on a bleak look.

North, between the town and their position, the adventurers count three nearby farm buildings. Sunlight glints off a half-concealed, snaking green-blue stream that runs through the farm.
A cow wanders the fields.

Klokulf’s spyglass reveals no signs of people moving about in outskirts of the town, in the fields or the doorways and windows of the farmhouse, or the tree line.

[alhoon]

"I see that farm is where we should head to" Raen says.