124

The city is choked with people: mercenaries from the north and west, weapon merchants from the east, and ragged refugees from the war-torn south. The captain orders his men to sleep aboard the Kazonara this night, forbidding them to go ashore, for Prince Balonn of Rioma and his mercenary knights are encamped inside the city wall. A bitter and long-standing rivalry exists between the two companies, and the captain wisely wishes to avoid any confrontation.

Rumour has it that a number of the Stornlands’ most powerful princes are gathered in Rhem to plot the defeat of the Slovians. However, the captain believes it is more likely that the robber-barons are conspiring against each other to steal the riches of Tekaro for themselves.

You set sail at first light, bidding farewell to the slender twin-towers of the Rhem citadel, which overshadows the city quay. The Storn flows southwards through steep-sided fields of vines, arranged in endless straight rows like the waves of a green sea. The weather is warm, and you spend the day on deck watching the traffic of refugees heading north along a highway and the strange gigantic toads, the sloats, at work, pulling riverboats and barges upstream.

It is late afternoon when you sight the town of Eula in the distance. You saddle your horse and shoulder your equipment as the Kazonara berths at the town’s wooden pier.

If you purchased a Riverboat Ticket for the riverboat at Soren, turn to 59.

If you do not have a Riverboat Ticket, turn to 290.