Arrival
Just before sunset, you swing around Cambre through a channel that leads to the open ocean from the inner sea and then into a bay. For some this means coming full circle though most of you joined the quest for Allois later. As the little fleet of the Rumpled Bedsheet, Radiant Sun and Crestdancer enter the harbor at Cambre City you are assaulted by a variety of sights and smells, not all of them pleasant. Fishing and shrimping boats ply their trade. Big freighters and numerous small boats move about. Rows of residential barges line up out into the harbor. You pass close to an old hulk that now serves as a tavern. An open fire pit of bricks on the forecastle is loaded with a shallow cast iron pot perhaps 8' across yet only about 4" deep. The yellow saffron and pepper broth bubbles with rice, chicken, a variety of seafood and vegetables. A small band plays an upbeat tune on steel drums and strings at the aft castle and a mix of sailors and dockside workers seems to pack the boat to the gunnels as they scramble for a large mug of beer topped with a little plate of food or heaping wooden bowls of the dish being cooked on the foredeck. Several Piers jut out into the water. Captain Marin stands next to the helm of the Rumpled Bedsheet barking orders like a man half his age. He guides the ships toward Pier Seven where the Marin and son berths can easily accomdate all three ships. To the left of the main channel a row of colorfully painted expensive yachts and personal sailboats are protected by a double chain and a watchtower. A few boats painted in the blue of the Wheelander Authority dart about maintaining some sort of order in all this chaos.
As you get closer in, the buildings of Cambre’s largest port come into view. A large customs house dominates rows of warehouses. The Crews and trading houses here seem to be in some sort of competition for the gaudiest warehouse. They are painted in a riot of colors and hung with numerous flags and pennants. Higher up the slope a marble government building gleams in the noon sun. One building in particular catches your eye. It is not the largest or most ornate building on the Cambre skyline, but it is distinctive. It sprawls upward in a crescent shape that follows the flow of the land. It is made of a white stone and has numerous balconies overlooking the harbor. You would guess it is dwarven work from the First Empire, but despite its antiquity it looks as if it could stand another thousand years. Stevedores are loading and unloading cargo from all over the Empire. Eventually, all three ships bump the docks and secure lines. Captain Swabby barks orders to his crew of three guiding the Crest Dancer in smoothly with a style not unlike Captain Marin's while Geoffery's people on the Radiant Sun operate in teams with minimal direction from the officers, they too arrive smoothly if somewhat less noisily than the first two ships.
Captain Marin offers to put everyone up at the Inn of the White Wake until you sail on to the Border Isles. His nurse arrives along with a couple of old sailors. He, Marienna, Allois move off to the inn quickly with Marin already giving directives to the sailors. Terry Lockspar stays around to take care of the Rumpled Bedsheet and arrange for the Radiant Sun and the Crest Dancer to stay at the Marin and Son docks.