Session 37 Aftermath 1/10/97 - sailing downriver

You chat a little - Lana Greenvale tells you her family are Norseman traders, originally from far to the north, but they've lived and worked in the South many years now - mostly in the Dunfalcon lands around Lake Neme, where you know it's quite normal for women to go about half-naked in hot weather. She's had her own barge for a year. She thanks Garrick and Sweetrede again for dealing with Sir Gregor Caskeham:

"I can handle most men - I've broken more than one nose in the tavern..."
She smiles, rubbing her fist at the memory. "...But that one... *brrr*"

Eventually you settle down for the night, with Garrick, Shade, Sweetrede and Lana Greenvale sleeping in bedrolls atop deck, each keeping a two-hour alternating watch. The night is chill, and Lana snuggles her bedroll in close to Sweetrede - the most harmless-looking, most protective, and highest-CHA of the three of you - though with two layers of blankets between you Sweetrede is safe from any molestation... (OOC: I get the impression Sweetrede is not too concerned with the Fertility aspect of Nature? For a thirty year old CHA 15 Nature priest, he seems to have a prematurely 'wise old man' type character, like an ancient soul reincarnated in a young body? Or is it more monk-like celibacy & chastity? retconning it that Sweetrede is 45)

You rise rather late the next morning (GM: 1 hit point back for rest, Sweetrede can regain spells; let me know any you cast). There are a few boats on the mighty Nemo, visible some way off, and in daylight you're only partly concealed by the rushes, so Edward only allows a couple knights up on deck at a time, to empty the nightsoil buckets over the side and stretch their legs. Then the four of you, Edward and a couple extra knights get to work poling the barge out from its reed bed and back onto the river. The morning sun beats down; It's hot sweaty work and the workers are soon sweating, stripped to the waist - Lana makes sure the brute Sir Gregor is safely below decks before she strips off her own jerkin again, to politely appreciative looks from the other two knights, who you don't know - but it looks that Sir Edward made sure to choose two nice young men of impeccable manners and chivalry to assist you, this time. Sir Edward also regards Lana with manly interest as she works, from his looks and the few words he exchanges with her you can tell he likes her, and she seems similarly impressed by the handsome nobleman, but he is of course impeccably courteous also. Sir Edward's wife Catherine is heavily pregnant with his second child, and it's unlikely he's enjoyed conjugal relations for some time, so it's only natural that a good-looking woman like Lana would divert him... But of course he is Sir Edward Kallent, a man of breeding and self-control.

Eventually you are out again on the river, and Edward heads below decks, leaving Lana in charge. The wind is not so favourable today, being westerly, so Lana decides to leave the mainsail furled; once you're out in the mid-current the boat heads along at a clipping pace, anyway. You quickly pass the village of Reeve on your right, it looks peaceful. Off to your left in the distance two miles off you can see Castlerock, a strong hold, high atop its hill - a major Herdley castle on the Dunfalcon Pike, and their primary northern defense should the Kallent ever attack from the north.



You sail on, passing the village of Riverdell to your right, and pleasant meadows and woodland give way to windswept heath. You are now only a few miles from the Abbey of the Black Monks, in the centre of Odric's dark power, and there are no other boats on the water, now. You pass on swiftly; that afternoon you pass the village of Gibbet's Corner and reach the mouth of the Arleigh Stream, a small river but navigable to a skilled boatman.

 Lana turns to her crew, Sir Garrick, Sweetrede and Shade: "We need to enter the Arleigh Stream and pass upriver. This westerly wind favours us, but it'll be slow going upstream. The plan is to sail under the bridge at Earlshurst - we'll need to drop the mast there, and use the bargepoles - then I'll bring us to land just north of Castle Herdley tonight. The bridge is the most dangerous bit - I don't know who holds Earlshurst now, and even if it's still the Herdley, they may stop us in case we're Odric's men..."