Hope's Rest

[archolewa]

The group follows the barkeep's directions to a small tenement. A knock leads to a friendly "Come in!"

They enter to find a cramped little space. Well over two-thirds of the space is taken up by a wooden desk, stained with candewax in the front-center of the room, and a slender pallet thrust up against the backwall. Maps decorate the walls. The group sees various maps of the Empire from various stages in its expansion, they see one of the Northern kingdoms, there are several more detailed ones that look like they may be of the local region, including one of the coastlines of the Scar.

A slender, dark-haired woman who looks to be in her forties is leaning over a parchment, her tongue sticking out of her teeth as she very carefully makes marks on the parchment. The storm shutter is thrown open, bathing the map in golden sunlight. The parchment clearly holds a map of some sort of region, and she seems to be very carefully making tweaks, or adding some sort of detail to it.

"Good day," says the woman in a cheerful voice, though she doesn't look up from the map. "Hope you don't mind if I don't stop. Sun's angle is perfect for work right now. More I get done now, fewer candles I need to burn later. I assume you all know my name, since you're here. Who am I speaking to, and how can I help you?"

[rredmond]

Martin

"This is some amazing work," Martin says, looking at the walls close up and getting lost in the work, and forgetting her questions.

[archolewa]

"Why thank you!" says Carly, briefly looking up from her map to grin. "Admittedly, most of what you see are just copies I've done. Not really my maps. Most of my work is just copying to be honest. But that one..."

She briefly turns and points to one that shows a road running between a forest on the west and a jagged coastline on the east. Standing out to Martin is a label: Rappan Athuk in some hills between the road and the sea. "That's mine. Map of the wilderness to the north, the region around ol' Athuk."

[Rex]

Ingulfr

"Very nice, how much would that map cost?"

[archolewa]

"Oh, that one's not for sale. It's my display copy," says Carly. "Best one I've done yet, and I'm quite proud of it. But I got a couple of copies lying around for well-armed folk like you who've gotten tired of the whole 'living' thing. Just one moment..."

Carly reaches into a wooden crate holding several rolled up parchments and pulls it out, waving it. "Got one right here you can have. One of my better ones, though not quite as good as that one. Mostly because I forgot to put Zelkor's Ferry on it initially. I marked it a second time around, but it never looks quite as good, you know? Anyway, it's yours for two gold. Might want to buy a back-up though. Maps get wet, covered in mud, dropped in a panic as you flee flesh eating zombie giants. You know how it goes."

[Rex]

Ingulfr

"Do you mind if I look it over some?"

To the party, "I am a little short on coin, can someone else cover the map and I will make it up at some point."

[rredmond]

Martin

Snapping back to reality and the fact that they have goals to accomplish. You are correct, Carly, it is safer to have two, particularly if we head that way, Martin plunks four gold on the table, careful not to mess up anything she is working on, plus it really is impressive work.

[Ythgar]

Randall

Randall quietly takes everything in, watches where the gold is stored and looks for whatever security and locks there may be.

[archolewa]

Carly takes the gold with a grin. She pulls out a lockbox from under her table, and pops it open. Words are carved into the top of the safe, so that anyone standing in the front of the table can read them clearly:

Vengeful cartographers don't get violent. They sell slightly incorrect maps.

She passes along two copies of a map of the Wilderness around Rappan Athuk. "Unfortunately, we're a little bit short on details of the area around there. I've heard rumors about all sorts of things. Fairies singing a merry tune. Dragons. Dragon Turtles. A temple dedicated to some demon lord of flies or something. Trolls. But nothing with enough precision for me to feel comfortable putting it on the map. Now, you don't need to go all the way around the river to reach Zelkor's Ferry. They have a, you know, Ferry back and forth across both rivers. So head north a ways, then follow the third river straight west and you can get there."

Wilderness map: viewtopic.php?p=748040#p748040

[Rex]

Ingulfr

"Thank you Martin. And thank you Carly, a nice map indeed. I suspect it will be very useful to us. Do you by chance ever purchase information about things that could be added to your maps? We might be able to help with that in the future."

[Ythgar]

Randall

“Are any of those rumors close to being mappable, perhaps if one more group confirmed it?” asks Randall.

[archolewa]

"Oh, that would be wonderful," says Carly. "I'm not that wealthy, and I'm sure whatever I pay you will pale compared to the riches of Rappan Athuk. But I could probably afford hmm... maybe 16 gold for anything to be added to the map? So, 2 gold for each of you. Of course, if there is a dragon out there somewhere, I'd love to know where it's lairing. Give you 32 gold, or 4 gold each for that. Don't want merchants stumbling upon an angry dragon's lair after all! I've also heard about folks seeing a creepy cloister somewhere's in the Dragonmarsh Lowlands. Supposedly not too far off the road, but it wasn't clear where, or if it's still occupied or just a ruin. That might be the temple to the demond god of mosquitos or whatever. Get me some more details on that would be nice, maybe 3 gold each for that. Oh!"

Carly snaps her fingers. "And anything about the layout of ol' Athuk itself. I'll give you 80 gold, so 10 gold each for maps and solid descriptions of the levels of Rappan Athuk. Those will sell well. Plus, it'd be kind of fun to see if I can capture that place's creepy menace on something as mundane as parchment."

[Rex]

Ingulfr

"We will keep notes and try to draw our own maps as well as making notations on the maps we just purchased. Hopefully we will have something for you when we come back. Nice doing business with you Carly, but we must be off now."

[Edeldhur]

Hektor

Been stupid busy the last couple of days - catching up now!
I don't see Hope's Rest on the map - it should be to the South, right?
And I assume what Carly is saying is we should follow the river west via the southbank, and eventually we will find a ferry to get across to Zelkor's Ferry, instead of going around that sort of lake south of Zelkor's Ferry. Is that it?

[archolewa]

Hektor

Been stupid busy the last couple of days - catching up now!
I don't see Hope's Rest on the map - it should be to the South, right?

Yes, Hope's Rest is just off the southern border of the map. Follow the Coast Road north for a few hours, and you'll find yourself on the extreme south end of the map.

And I assume what Carly is saying is we should follow the river west via the southbank, and eventually we will find a ferry to get across to Zelkor's Ferry, instead of going around that sort of lake south of Zelkor's Ferry. Is that it?

I shall neither confirm nor deny.

[Edeldhur]

Hektor

Hehe fair enough.

Gang, should we grab extra rations? I've got 7days, but if we are traveling north 3 days, then turn west, if we get sidetracked we may find ourselves without food. Maybe also a mule or donkey for carrying it? Don't have a lot of gold but maybe...

Unless we can forage. @archolewa: is foraging a thing?

[archolewa]

Hektor

Hehe fair enough.

Gang, should we grab extra rations? I've got 7days, but if we are traveling north 3 days, then turn west, if we get sidetracked we may find ourselves without food. Maybe also a mule or donkey for carrying it? Don't have a lot of gold but maybe...

Unless we can forage. @archolewa: is foraging a thing?

I don't see any explicit rules for foraging in OSRIC, but that doesn't really matter, I can always use the foraging rules from DDX as inspiration. However, foraging is going to be slow and the Wilderness around Rappan Athuk is well known to be very dangerous. You guys are going to want to spend as little time in the Wilderness as possible.

[rredmond]

Gang, should we grab extra rations? I've got 7days, but if we are traveling north 3 days, then turn west, if we get sidetracked we may find ourselves without food. Maybe also a mule or donkey for carrying it? Don't have a lot of gold but maybe...

Both Martin and Iacchus have 7 days of rations, and Martin has some gold to kick in, I think the second characters aren't allowed to kick in, but Martin has more anyways if the party needs.

[archolewa]

Gang, should we grab extra rations? I've got 7days, but if we are traveling north 3 days, then turn west, if we get sidetracked we may find ourselves without food. Maybe also a mule or donkey for carrying it? Don't have a lot of gold but maybe...

Both Martin and Iacchus have 7 days of rations, and Martin has some gold to kick in, I think the second characters aren't allowed to kick in, but Martin has more anyways if the party needs.

Henchmen can pay for their own rations, and you guys can certainly try to convince your henchmen to contribute to partywide expenses (basically, I'd do a morale check to see if you can convince your henchman to contribute). It was only during character creation that was a hard no. Now that we're in play, things can be more flexible.

[rredmond]

Now that we're in play, things can be more flexible.

Ahhhh that makes a ton of sense!
Either way, Martin has more moolah