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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cinerarium" data-source="post: 1011766" data-attributes="member: 9349">Hammer 22Early in the morning Fin waved his hand back at Toth and me in the other skiff.  “Harren lies ahead!” he called out.My spirit lifted, glad to be back in civilization after so long, craving a bath and clean clothes.  The nits in my hair had been driving me to distraction, and the cold damp of our river journey was giving me a cough.Soon enough we pulled up our skiffs to an empty berth and hopped ashore, Toth and Fineon carrying the bulk of our goods.  We moved to quickly get away from the docks and into the crowds before any trouble could spot us, but were too late to avoid a pair of dock wardens, hurrying towards us.  “Ho there!” the elder one called, his grimy mustache quivering under his red, bulbous nose.  “What have we here?  A strange troupe indeed!”  His lackey cohort grinned and nodded.  “Hello, my good dockward.  My thanks for welcoming us back to Harren.  I suppose we’ll be on our way now…”  I moved to pass on by.“Hold up a moment, son.  Let’s see what you’re bringing back into the Sevencity with ye.  You know the rules, there’s a tax on all that enters the city.”“We have little wealth, my good man, and my companions and I are in a great hurry.”  I lowered my voice conspiratorially.  “Can I simply give you ten crowns and call it even?”The old guard’s eyes widened a bit.  “If you can part with ten, you can surely part with twenty five.”I cursed myself for opening too high.  “Always open low when making an offer, young Pater,” Wynt the Pellman had told me when I used to frequent the docks with my father.  “You can always go higher, but it’s impossible to go back, and it’ll give your adversary too much of your inner mind.”“Fifteen’s the absolute highest I can afford,” I deadpanned, thinking of the tens of thousands of coins in wealth we carried.He looked us over.  “Well, fifteen’s a reasonable entry fee, and I’d hate to delay you.”  He took the proffered coins.  As I began to leave, he put a grimy hand on my chest.  “You wouldn’t be carrying any narcotics, now, would ye?”  A trickle of sweat began to build in my armpits, thinking of the Tears of Lys Fin had in his pack.  “What kind of smuggler do you take me for?  I’ve paid your graft, now leave me be!”  With a sneer, I passed him by.  The penalties for narcotics smuggling in Harren are quite high.Now inside the city, we decided it best to quickly bathe, eat, and proceed to Lord Macon’s with all haste.  Arriving again at his estate in the Coinsward, Miralda greeted us and showed us back into Lord Macon’s study.  What a change in surroundings a few days can bring!  Where recently I had been sleeping on cold stone amidst the corpses of orcs, now I sat at ease by a crackling fire in the comfortable study of a Lord!  I’ll spare you the details of the negotiations that took place, save to say that we disposed of a number of the late Durgeddin’s horde with Lord Macon, and reaped a nice bounty.  Several items we kept for ourselves though, and I believe all sides were pleased with the transaction.  I even managed to convince Lord Macon to agree to allow Deneirites to study the dwarven runes I had found in various places in Khundrakar, so long as they vowed to remove nothing.We left, lighter in items but significantly heavier in coin.  The skies were quickly growing dark and a cold wind blew through Harren, promising snow overnight.  I begged off from my companions, saying that I would meet them in the morning at the Temple.  Instead of proceeding directly there, I made haste to the guard tower, also in the Coinsward, to see if Sergeant Sheptin was in.  I wanted to see how the old Sergeant was doing, and buy him a drink if he was coming off duty.By the time I made the few blocks to the tower, I could see the guards changing for the night shift, a number coming and going.  I made eye contact with one who looked decent.  “Excuse me, but I’m looking for Sergeant Sheptin.  Do you know if he’s coming on duty now?”The guardsman looked me up and down.  I had changed into a new courtier’s outfit and cloak following my bath, but was bundled up well against the foul weather, my cough still plaguing me.  “The Sergeant’s not in the city now,” he said, and moved to walk on past.“I’m sorry to keep bothering you, but might you know when he’ll be back?”“He’s on city business; I wouldn’t know.  Good eve.”I remembered now that Sheptin said he took his family down to Cymeria every winter when he had time off.  I suppose that’s where he is.  I returned to the Temple, greeted the brothers at vigil, asked for a meeting with Omad in the morning, and went to the temple pantry.  I ran into Brother Ells Three Words there, and we decided to split a loaf of bread and some salted meat.  I helped myself to some cider and we settled in for a chat.  The old man is very likable, and I found myself listening to his yarns until quite late, when I was deep into my cups, and he had nodded off in the middle of a story.  I put a blanket over him and stumbled to my room, my head clear enough to write this tale.</blockquote>

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