OK, one should be enough. He turns to Luna.
This should help your scouting. Wear the Ghillie, and head out and we will follow an hour behind. Find anything of interest, stay hidden and send your raven back to inform us.
We'll evaluate and then coordinate with you through your familiar. I believe this will be the safest course of action while heading through this open terrain.
Luna scouts ahead, staying off but near the road in the tall grasses. She will hide if she sees or hears anyone on the road.
Luna warns the group when riders are approaching from the direction of travel, but the small trio of men are passed several times by people going from the fishing village along the coast. They don't recognize them from the village, so they must be travelers.
The people who pass them are friendly enough. The first group is a trio of riders, wearing armor and weapons who give a nod as they pass in a trot, the horses are not wearing armor.
The second group that passes the trio is an old man on a wagon with two young (mid to late teens) kids riding on the back, a boy and girl. The boy sticks his tongue out at the trio, while the girl rolls her eyes and elbows him in the ribs painfully.
Luna warns them off the road for a small band of church warriors who are marching off. The group looks bored, six soldiers all wearing chain mail and blue and silver surcoats. All look like the ones from Demonreach.
Luna also warns them off the road for a single rider that is riding hell-bent for leather later in the day. A woman wearing a green uniform and carrying oversized saddlebags on her horse. She goes past at a gallop on a horse that's moving like a race-car, far faster than any horse Luna's seen in this world so far.
Toward evening, the country side goes from open grassland to farmland, and Luna's ability to hide in the ghilli suit is gone. She'd actually stick out more than just walking along normally.
"Road seems harmless enough. I don't think they would be on the lookout for us here away from the wall. "
Luna will rejoin the others when the need and usefulness of stealth is no longer an issue. If the ghillie suit is removable with care she'll do so and store it for later. Otherwise she'll just cover it up so as not to look too suspicious.
"I am concerned about the obvious messenger ... I hope she wasn't carrying news abvout us. "
"Road seems harmless enough. I don't think they would be on the lookout for us here away from the wall. "
Maybe not, but we have our a$$es hanging too far out not to be extra careful. Better to err on the side of caution.
"I am concerned about the obvious message ... I hope she wasn't carrying news about us. "
It wouldn't change anything for us at this moment.
Sterling looks around. I'd say we avoid the farmland, and follow the beach line in. It will definitely provide a better opportunity to meet someone willing to part with a small boat...
When Sterling waves for the wagon to stop, the old man hauls back on the reins, and the sister elbows her brother again, muttering something about how he was going to get it now. The boy looks scared, until Sterling asks about selling some items.
"Well now, not sure as how I know rightly what to do with cyrstal, but ye can show me what ya got, and I'll see if I can find a few coins." He says, nodding. He keeps a cudgel near him as he waits for the goods to be provided, but seems friendly enough.
Sterling pulls some jade from his pocket. (around 200 gp worth, 1 lbs) It's high quality. What do you think?
The man takes out a monocle, and looks the jade over. "Well, you could likely get a lot more for it in the city. All I could give you for it is about 150 gold."
Sterling furrows his brow, he backs up and circles the wagon. How about 100 gold and the wagon? We could use one.
The old man laughs. "If I sold you my wagon, what would I use to haul my goods, sirrah?" He waves a hand at the kids. "My grandchildren certainly couldn't haul the load themselves."
Sterling laughs with him. Ah, but they seem like strapping youngsters. And you can keep your mount. Sterling shrugs. we have a mount feeding on grass over the knoll.
The light pony comes over the knoll as if called. Sterling turns back to the old man. Don't let a little pack burden stand in the way of profit. Give me a counter offer...I may be amenable
"Hah, sorry, no. I'll give you 180 gold, but that's really all I can offer, my friend. Your pony probably wouldn't have the strength to pull the wagon if you loaded it anyway, friend. You need a big brute like Buttercup here." He pats the draft horse on the flank, which elicits no response at all.
Very well. Sterling smiles. It's a fair trade
Agreed
ok
Moving to the road, the group stashes the remains of the ghillie suit (removing it destroys it), and head down the road through the farmland, watching the sugar cane sway in the breeze.
As they go, they begin to see people working in the fields, children, adults, gathering up sugar can, slicing it off, stacking it on wooden barrows, pushing them along.
The road meanders it's way into a small town or large village, hard to tell which. The buildings are made of stone with thatched roofs. The smell of woodsmoke permeates the air. There's a large dock extending out into the ocean. A large ship is docked at the dock, and bales of sugar cane are being loaded on by hand, like ants moving along.
Central to the town is a large stone building with the church symbol on it.
The smells remind Sterling of Kauai. He had an estate there as part of his old life. The sight of so many people, stirred apprehension in his stomach. History had taught him that it all could get ugly very quickly.
Look over there. I only see one ship. Sterling shakes his head. I hope there are others, or we may need to become passengers and turn into pirates
Sterling heads to the docks
"Well let's at least find out where it's going and what passage might cost us, if they will even take on passengers." Luna heads to the docks along with Sterling.
Moving through town is oddly pleasant. The small town seems to have friendly people, like the village did. About half-way to the docks, a man in armor with a polearm gives a wave by the expedience of waving the head of the pike. "Afternoon. Welcome to Condultun." "Anything I can help you folks with?"
We hear that we may be able to buy a boat here. We were going to the docks to ask around.
The man laughs. Oh, not likely here. We're just a farm town. You want the big city, another day up the coast from here. Only ships here are the cargo ships for the cane."
Sterling frowns a bit Where is that cargo ship going?
Since the man doesn't seem to know the cargo's destination, Sterling thanks him, and heads to the dock
The man looks over at the boat, and nods. "Oh, it's going to Verdant Shoals, that's the city I was talking about, about a day up the coast. Not a long run for the ship, but they can get a quarter of the harvest in one load, and it doesn't tear up the roads hauling it all on wagons and horses."
Sterling nods in return. Shipping it is definitely more efficient. Sterling turns to others and says. Let's talk to the captain and see if we can buy passage.
Sterling smiles broadly at the constable. Thank you sir. Have a blessed day
The man nods. "May the gods watch over you."
The group feels a mild shiver as that occurs.
"Could use a break from the walking. A nice relaxing voyage sounds good, the we could look into renting or buying a boat."
The group heads down to the dock, dodging out of the way of burly men carrying huge bundles of sugar on their backs. Eventually they manage to get close enough to call out to a man on the railing. He grimaces, but waves in return. "Whatcha need? We're trying to load here! Ye're in the way!"
Word is you are headed to Verdant Shoals. Sterling yells to the man. We look to buy passage.
"Yeah, day after tomorrow, when we're all finished loading up. You can get there faster walking, but not as comfortably." The man laughs. "It's 5 gold a passenger if you don't mind riding in the hold, 15 if you want a cabin, and 10 if you want to ride on the deck."
Rather than going to an Inn, Can we rent cabins from now until we reach Verdant Shoals? I assume board is included.
The man blinks. "You want to rent cabins for 2 days and then pay to ride?" He looks at the group as if they'd grown an extra head each. "Yeah, you can have ship board food if you want. You'd have to stay out of everyone's way." He looks the four over. "If you can all get along well enough to share a single cabin, I can let you have a cabin for now till Verdant Shoals. Say..." He looks thoughtful, as if calculating how much he can ask for, given the minimum 60 gold the group is already talking about for the ride in the cabin. "Make it an even 100 gold and you can have the cabin as soon as I can kick crew out of it."
Perfect. Sterling counts out 100 coin
Luna smiles as the transaction is completed... "Well done, Sterling... I could use a couple of days being rocked gently at the dock before we sail. It will be relaxing."
"Sounds good to me. Nice and safe. " only out of earshot of the sailor.
The man looks slightly regretful, as if he feels he should have asked for more, but shrugs and calls out to someone named 'Mavin' to 'get his junk out of the number 2 cabin' and at the next break in cargo loading, the four are allowed aboard.
The cabin is 20 by 20 ft, so plenty of room for all four. Bedding is provided by hammocks strung up between corners, one per corner (the door is in the center of the wall). There's a table, and eventually four chairs. A small window allows the occupants to look out. A chamber pot with a lockable lid is inside a small cabinet.
Luna hangs a blanket over her corner so she has a little privacy when she has to change and such... and for sleeping... She gives the guys a little smile... not that she's had much privacy on the road, but whatever she can get.
If only we had a deck of cards
Luna slips out off the boat during the next few hours being careful to stay out of the way of the sailors/crew loading the boat. She heads off into town trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.
(ok... so maybe she gets noticed a bit, sigh)
She tries to buy a deck of cards, or something that could conceivably be used to play some kind of game they all know or can make up (similar to checkers? chess? or cards, or dice?)