The raven flew off shortly before the attack began last night, and as far as we know it hasn’t returned since. This is fine by me. It implies that news of the failed ambush won’t travel much faster than we\u00a0do. They, whoever they are, won’t know something is wrong until the Aril’s Hammer fails to put into port.<\/p>\n
We are spending the night in Ullerskad, just a day and a half east of Kalsgard. It is a significant trading city\u00a0for its size, and apparently the home to numerous wealthy merchants both still\u00a0in business and retired. Mom and dad would feel at home here if it weren’t so gods-be-damned cold in the winter. Perhaps this is why our only trip to the Kingdoms,\u00a0which happened when I was about 8 years old, was our only trip to the Kingdoms.<\/p>\n
Arodus 9 (Noon, Ullerskad)<\/h4>\n
O<\/span>ne of the notable landmarks in Ullerskad is the temple to Gorum. I have virtually nothing in common with the\u00a0Lord in Iron, god of battle, but there is no denying the strength and ferocity his followers show on the battlefield, and there are times when these qualities are needed. And, it is said that Shelyn is on good terms with all of the major deities (except, perhaps, her brother, though that relationship is complicated) so it seemed appropriate to at least visit, even if only briefly.<\/p>\n I was not sure what to expect, of course, but I am sure I was not expecting what I saw. The temple itself—a large, gold-adorned building—stood next to a grove of trees, and from these trees hung the corpses of both animals and men. I asked an acolyte about their significance. He said, “The animals are sacrifices to Gorum. The men are enemies of Ullerskad who fell to our warriors in battle.”<\/p>\n At the center of the grove was a massive yew tree, the largest I have ever seen, it’s expansive branches covered in lush, green leaves. The acolyte added, “These leaves stay green all year long, even through the harshest winters. It is a very sacred place.”<\/p>\n I couldn’t argue with that.<\/p>\n Shalelu seemed less impressed. When asked for her opinion, she replied, “I have seen this kind of thing before.”<\/p>\n I couldn’t argue with that, either.<\/p>\n Sandru and I spent some time researching the Crown of the World. The real experts are in Kalsgard, but there are enough knowledgeable people here to give us a picture of what we are facing, and\u00a0that picture is sobering<\/em>. The trip is some 3,000 miles, with nearly half of that over what is called the High Ice. While no part of the journey across the Crown is for the faint of heart, it is the ice that is the most treacherous: 1,500 miles of frozen desert. One thousand, five hundred miles!<\/p>\n Caravans measure cargo capacity using an amalgamation of weight and girth, approximated and simplified to a standard measurement known as the cargo unit, or just unit for short. At our most efficient, we travel just shy of 50 miles in a day and consume six units of stores in every five. But that is with scouts working alongside us, supplementing our\u00a0provisions with hunted game and food foraged off the land. We don’t know how realistic that will be on the high ice, and so I have to assume our consumption will increase by half. It simply can’t be done. The math doesn’t lie: we need more provisions than we have room to carry!<\/p>\n Even more troubling is the weather. It is called the High Ice because it is an arctic plateau. At that altitude, the temperatures rarely rise above dangerously cold in the\u00a0summer<\/em> and are much worse in winter. We have been advised to wait until next year to start our journey: the season for crossing the Crown begins in early\u00a0spring and lasts only a few weeks. Leave during that window, and you are on the ice now<\/em> while the conditions are at their best. We are simply three months too late (or nine months too early) to set out.<\/p>\n At least we will have plenty of time to find a solution to our looming food problem.<\/p>\n W<\/span>e arrived in Kalsgard just as the sun was setting. The city is the largest in the Linnorm Kingdoms, and also its oldest. Its shipyards are well known throughout Avistan and have a reputation for producing some of the finest longships money can buy, almost certainly including the one sitting at the bottom of the river under the Skalsbridge. The city itself is divided into nine Quarters—a Quarter in this context meaning a district of a city\u00a0and not a mathematical one-fourth of something—separated by walls that are more permeable than they appear. In contrast to the rest of the Thanelands, and pretty much all of the Linnorm Kingdoms save for the Grungir Forest, it’s also strikingly cosmopolitan with a richly diverse population. Though it’s been nearly 15 years since I was last here, it is the latter (and the shipyards) that I remember.<\/p>\n Kelda pointed us towards the Bone Quarter. It is the poorest district in the city but it also has the most open space, and that combination makes it\u00a0an attractive place to put things that no one wants to see or deal with. Caravans, especially those from Varisia, very much fall into that category. That level of anonymity and disregard is fine with us. We are staying the night\u00a0here tonight, but tomorrow some of us will find lodging in a nicer Quarter so that we can come and go without drawing unwanted attention to\u00a0the\u00a0caravan.<\/p>\n Speaking of Kelda, she has chosen to return home in the morning and won’t be continuing on with us. I am not surprised; she signed up originally to share the spoils from looting an abandoned colony, not to be an heir to a kingdom she has no connection to (not that we signed up for that, either, but we all have ties to Ameiko in some fashion). And after what has happened in just the past couple of weeks? I can’t say that I blame her.<\/p>\n I’ll miss having her with us, of course, but I won’t miss Etayne’s antics. So there is that to look forward to.<\/p>\n T<\/span>he day is\u00a0barely half over and already it has been a huge mess. We are being followed, we are seeing flocks of crows everywhere we go, people are asking questions about us, and we are being harassed by street urchins paid in copper. It is unsettling\u00a0and grows more so with each hour.<\/p>\n We secured rooms at an inn in the Amber Quarter and made arrangements to be able to call upon Kelda (and her upon us) if needed, and then split up to cover as much ground as we could. Only Ana and Etayne stayed behind, choosing to keep a close eye on the caravan in case anyone came nosing about.<\/p>\n Qatana and Shalelu went seeking information about the armbands. Koya wanted to explore Kalsgard and do some shopping for fabrics and other sundries,\u00a0and since this represented an opportunity to look for the merchant Fynn Snaevald, Ivan and Spivey joined her both for protection and to make those inquiries. Radella and Sparna opted for the undercity, or whatever it is they called it, which was apparently accessible via tunnels along the docks. Sandru and I also set off to try and find Fynn, but coming at the problem from the other direction: the merchant guilds that may have traded with him. And, finally, Ameiko wished to learn what she could about her homeland and chose a visit the Jade Quarter, with Olmas serving as her escort. According to Kelda, the Jade Quarter is home to a rather large Tian population.<\/p>\n It was the latter that presented something of a problem. Ameiko does not always think things through. “Are you sure it’s wise to just wander around the city with people watching for us?” I asked her before she set out.<\/p>\n She chuckled. “What are you worried about? No one here knows who I am.”<\/p>\n “Someone arranged that ambush, and we’ve been followed by a giant raven for days. They may know quite a bit about us.”<\/p>\n “Well, what do you suggest?” she asked, clearly a little irritated with me. She was eager to explore the city, especially after having missed out on the action in Brinewall. There would be no talking her out of the idea, and to be honest, I wasn’t going to try and stop her, either.\u00a0What she proposed actually made a great deal of sense. It’s just that we needed to be cautious about it.<\/p>\n “Why not borrow Radella’s ring? Then you won’t have to look like you.” With that she could alter her appearance essentially at will.<\/p>\n I occasionally have good ideas.<\/p>\n That little success was soon overshadowed by my attempt to get information from the Seven Lands Guild in the Ivory Quarter. Sandru was not<\/em> happy with me. He’d never say it, of course—he’s too much of a gentleman—but I could tell. Though I looked my part\u00a0and certainly knew enough about the business, I was not at all prepared for the game of pretending to be something I am not. Afterward, he gave me a quick summary of what I had done wrong.<\/p>\n “It’s not enough to\u00a0know\u00a0how to be a merchant. You have to know the part you are playing. They aren’t going to quiz you on your knowledge; they are going to ask questions about you, your business, and what you want from them. You need to anticipate those questions and have answers, and you need to engage with them confidently.<\/p>\n “Think about who you are, where you are from, what it is you need, why you need to speak to them, and what they can do for you. Also, try and relate that to what you really<\/em> want to find out from them: in this case, how did you know Fynn, and why did it make sense for you to ask about him?<\/p>\n “Also, next time, don’t use your real name.”<\/p>\n So, just those issues, then.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the people in the Guild did not seem to be directly related to whoever\u00a0has been keeping tabs on us, and being the exotic foreigner woman was sufficient distraction from my clumsiness. In the end, we got an offer to have some of their guards escort us to Fynn’s house. Of course, an escort is not what we needed (nor did we have a desire to meet with Fynn by ourselves), so instead we asked the guards for directions and left it at that.<\/p>\n On the way\u00a0back to the inn, we noticed the crows. They were all over the city, of course, but while they were just scenery before, now they were flocking near us in numbers that seemed unusual. As the others straggled in over the next hour or two, they had similar observations: crows appearing in increasing numbers, lining up on rooftops to follow their progress across the city. I brought Nihali in and asked for her opinion.<\/p>\n “They are just crows,” she said. This was obviously not helpful.<\/p>\n “Are they being controlled, somehow? Is there anything unnatural about them?”<\/p>\n Her reply was immediate. “No. They are a normal flock of crows. The only thing that is unusual is that they are following you and your friends.” I asked her what she meant by a “flock”, and she elaborated, “Like any flock of birds. They are a social group. Nothing more.”<\/p>\n “Do they pay attention to you? Or make you nervous?”<\/p>\n “No. They ignore me.”<\/p>\n The crows were just the beginning. Radella and Sparna were on their way back to the inn when they happened to spot Koya in one of the markets (Koya dresses in colors so vivid she stands out even in Varisia), only she was being watched and followed by a young Tian boy. They managed to discreetly get\u00a0word to Ivan and together they arranged a clever ambush to confront him. When cornered and questioned, he confessed\u00a0that he had been paid to tail us, gather information about our activities, and leave his notes at a drop elsewhere in the city. He had descriptions of everyone<\/em>, including Ameiko (though undisguised, so the ring would at least keep her identity safe). They followed him discreetly with hopes of catching his handler, but he or she had been alerted somehow and they came back empty-handed.<\/p>\n Qatana and Shalelu, meanwhile, had learned that our armbands belong to one “Asvig Longthews”,\u00a0but only after spreading a lot of gold around. Why? Because almost no one wanted to talk about arm bands, lions, or Asvig himself, even after we had learned his name.\u00a0They practically backed away from her.<\/p>\n At the caravan, Etayne learned from\u00a0another<\/em> Tian boy that people had been asking questions about\u00a0us<\/em>, and knew we had been making inquiries and dropping coins around the city to get answers. So, our attempts to gather information we’ren’t just attracting attention, they were actively alerting the people who were watching for us.<\/p>\n All these eyes on us, the constant spying, the mind games…it is unnerving. As a precaution, we have sent word to Kelda that we need to see her so that we can warn her. After all, they have her description, too.<\/p>\nArodus 10 (Night, Kalsgard)<\/h4>\n
Arodus 11 (Mid-day, Kalsgard)<\/h4>\n
![\"Origami](\"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSC_5698.jpg\")
<\/a>The house is surrounded by a ring of wooden posts, each one bearing a stylized lion’s head that has been etched into it. The engravings match those on the armbands, though\u00a0being much larger it’s now obvious that the artist had probably never actually seen<\/em> a lion before, which I suppose is hardly surprising given where we are. More interesting is the magic aura that each one radiates: a conjuration spell, almost certainly a form of summoning. Our suspicion is that whoever breaches the perimeter will find themselves face to face with one or more angry cats.<\/p>\n