Travel in the Northern Province

It’s easy to buy horses, two weeks rations and 50’ of rope, hell, you can even splurge for some crazy chain barding, however, there is a gulf of knowledge and experience between that and travelling safely and swiftly through wilderness for three days, because it’s all wilderness, no matter what curvy ink lines show as a road on your map. Try binding 4 warrior Kords for travel to the slave markets of Brighton. Do you think Rope Use will teach you that?

There are many people who depend on the ignorance of young princes and adventurers. Some horses are sold twice a week. Great money for the stable and the bandits by the yellow road who happen to be run by the stable owner’s brother in law. To survive you must be prepared to accept that there is a line of people whose bread and butter depend upon you making the mistake you are going to make, because you are brash, inexperienced, cocky, willful and wrongly confident of untested abilities.

There are many “locals” willing to Guide newcomers for the right price. There are also many “locals” who are willing to walk a group of newcomers into a trap for everything they own, including their lives. Reputation is everything in the Northern Province; protect yours.

The Guard are probably the first place you should look for local guides and litter Guards while you are in town. You can also try the Freeblades guild but know that the only loyalty a Freebladesmen has is to another Freebladesman. You can hire a hunter from a farm, a Broken One from the yellow wood, a theif, a servant of a local lord, you can hook up with a caravan, fall in with adventurers, or strike out on your own.

Guards may or may not be available for the work or may not have the knowledge of the area. They will often direct you to the people best suited to guide you. It is always a good idea to meet with the different gourd houses when you arrive in town and pay respects as well as check in and see who is available to be a city guide. You should know that there is no Law to speak of in the Northern Province as there are no Kings men here in that capacity and no Sage Guild to direct enforcement. If approached through the Guards, you will likely get a man in livery, which is more valuable, as many won’t cross the Guard. It is not unlikely for you to be charged a kings piece a day. Hiring a guard without going through the Guard will result in a lower price but many Guards can only wear their livery while they are on watch. The Guard will supply his reputation only and if he has little or none, you might have just employed a thug to greater effect.

Guards may guide you to places outside town and sometimes to neighboring hamlets, but not often. The Bar and Cross are an example of a Guard that has a large territory to the north of Brighton, even unto the Yidari Duor. Many of the Guard make the ride to Bricking and know all of the farms and settlements in the north and north west of Brighton, as well as the towers and keeps of the local lords.

There are those of the warrior caste amongst the Freeblades that will sell their services as guide to adventurers and the like for good money and will be worth that money but few fledgling heroes can drop 500 Kingspiece for a three day ride to the Sunken Temple, or the Blue Shrine. However, if you want to get there and back with no problem, that is probably the best way.

The problem with hiring a farmer or Hunter is that while they may know trails and paths and shortcuts, and can read animal signs and avoid some danger, they are farmers and hunters, not guides per say and there is more to leading ten people and gear with no wilderness experience than just playing follow the leader and camping. The upside is that a farmer can be convinced to do almost anything for a hand full of Steel Pieces, or a Lords Piece, as long as it is not planting time or harvesting time, or calving time, or market time, or hunting time, or harrowing time, or any of the Old Sun days, or if Kords have been seen in the area, or if his son is sick, or wife is pregnant, or if he has a dispute with a neighbor; I think you get the idea.

The Broken ones are great trackers but will be killed like elves in the street or on the road if seen. They can and will eat people. They are as much animal as they are human. They will find trails and cut scent but take pay in medicine, game or trophy. They do not speak as humans do and so you will need someone who can communicate with them, typically, Kords. They can be rounded up, captured and forced to track then killed when you reach your destination, a fairly common practice. They can also be cultivated. It is rumored the Bar and Cross has some Dogmen trackers. Oh yeah, and horses would rather throw you then get near them, kind of like wolves.

Thieves are great guides and scouts, if you can find a way to negotiate from a position of strength. Leverage replaces trust when dealing with underworld types. Find some, keep it, use it only when you have to, don’t use it if it can be turned. Not all leverage is a threat, and thieves don’t buy blue sky. The problem with thieves is you are always paying at least ten times what something is worth. This is not because they are adroit at delivering results, it’s just that coin is so easy for them to get, anything less than a lot of easy money is just not worth it to most thieves.

Lords will not hire out their men. You must serve a Lord or be affiliated with one through marriage or through pact. Even then you cannot just show up in force of arms at a Lords door and ask to hire a guide; that’s another way people disappear in the Northern Province. The truth is, you will probably be challenged before you are able to enter a Lords lands and if you don’t meet well, you might not get the opportunity to even turn back. Know your Lords and Landholders. You should never respond to a challenge with “Who’s lands are these?”

Lords are also not keen on adventurers getting drunk and killing farmers in their Taverns, or waking unspeakable evil on their lands or shifting power among the Tribal Kords on their lands by wiping a hunting party or routing a clan. They don’t want adventurers looting their ancestral crypts or driving away their game, or mistaking their henchmen for “bandits”.

Serving a Lord can be easy and difficult. It does not benefit a Lord to sanction a cadre of mercenaries so that they can loot some tombs and leave. It does suit a Lord’s interests to sanction a Cadre and then have them move on an adversary or bolster a military action against a regional threat, or even stay on as Man at Arms. Trust is built slowly with a Lord as most of a Lords men are come with him to these lands after years of war in the south, or they are his son’s nephews, nieces, or the children of his servants or Loyalists.

Expect to be taxed if you deploy an expedition on a Lords lands without permission, although it is more likely you will just be killed. When you begin to think about taking on a Lord, remember that a Lord of the South is probably 15^th level, as well as all of his or her companions. Every warrior or henchmen that serves a Lord with their name is at least 9^th level. All 9^th level followers of a lord have their own retinue. That is not counting the Men at arms, mercenaries, standard henchmen and landed militia and all of their blood and affiliations. The chance of you sitting at a table with a Lord and being able to actually enter initiative with a lord is so remote as to be irrelevant in terms of being a factor in your reasoning.

Caravans are an effective way to move around and while some groups follow caravans, they are not allowed to follow closely. Some caravans will not let people who are not Company , accompany them. Others will take all the swords that want to ride along, however, keep in mind, Adventurers are known for buying passage with a caravan and then robbing it themselves after killing everyone on the caravan, if the goods were worth the effort, like food stuffs for their camp and the animals and wagons. Most caravans are full of vegetables, wheat, and other foodstuffs, some caravans haul lumber or run livestock. With the exception of the wheat and lunber, it makes them attractive targets. This is why most caravans have guards from the Freeblades guild as most caravan owners or trade captains are Freebladesmen, will keep a sell sword in food drink and sex for their company. Its hard to beat the price and its impossible to outdo the talent.

Adventurers will not escort anyone. They will however “party up” and if the people you are partying up with are capable, well, you just have to hope they are willing to give you some of what you all find and it should be successful. Not all adventurers are Freebladesmen. Many will lose the membership because they kill other members outside the area. Some are honest but hard luck has forced them to give up dues which are expensive for Any adventurer at 500 kings piece per moon. It is almost impossible for an untalented warrior to even find the funds to join for anymore time than 1 month. There are instances where delivering a legendary Magic Item has given a Freebladesmen lifetime membership, but it doesn’t happen often. While the guild speaks to the best in men, the houseless and the guiltless warrior is a dangerous being, in fact, anyone who claims a Great Nature dragon is the toughest foe you can face, has never found themselves at odds with a group of adventurers. This is where reputation and friendship come in, and though there are friends among adventurers, they will still kill each other. This brings up the idea of the unsuccessful adventurer, meaning, all adventurers, as successful adventurers are never met, as they have moved on to the great cities of the North, Tarsus, Petra or Hardwall. All the adventurers that are met in the NP are hungry, need money and are waiting for the next sucker with a good map or a new route to an old tomb, or larger numbers or better gear, or simply more coin to provision. Adventurers are drawn to the NP from across the continent to plunder tombs or bring down Akua or Ride the Stichel road or find the barrows of the Simulacra, or break the Lock, or open a new room in the Quarry, or pierce a vault of the Ascendants or even of the lost Leahdic temples. There is success too, and some find it.

Striking out on your own is probably the least advisable way, though after reading this it may sound like the best idea. Before you do, keep in mind, there is only one road in the Northern Province, and it is the old dwarven road and it runs from the old sea fort, straight inland and into the brake towards Elvin lands. In King Johns time in the NP, some 200 years ago, the road was only visible ever visible three times, and the king had Fouge to guide him on it. Most roads are just passable areas. You may encounter wagon and cart tracks but many live in these lands and there is no guarantee a road will lead to a home or a hamlet. Imagine these directions; “Follow the arable lands north till the woods thicken then cut east towards the sea. Climb the ridges of the break until you see the White Spire of Olinus the Old. Keep this tower no on your right as you make your way north to the peaks. There you will find an old road, little more than a path that will take you to a plateau half way up the mountain. From there look west and take the way between the Dragons Teeth. A cave will open in a damp ravine, this is the first door of the Underoad and will lead to the high roads and then to the passes.” Now imagine this is spoken over dinner, not written down, who knows how to read and wright? Now keep in mind that these directions were given carefully, thoughtfully and willingly by someone with something to lose if you do not find your way. Ok then, off you go. Now imagine getting your directions using subterfuge or torture, or buying them from an avaricious youth, or overhearing a conversation or interpreting them from the written elvish.

Travel on foot is perilous, takes almost ten times as long as travel by horse though it is quicker then travel by wagon or cart if those traveling are unencumbered. The more people, the slower the going. One man could probably take more risks, cross obstacles swiftly and travel light. Make that two and the party is only as fast as the slowest person.

All that aside, travel by foot is how almost everyone travels in the Northern Province. Only the wealthy and powerful travel by horse. If you are carrying a sword and food for a week, you will NOT be running or covering good distance, now, your wounded, or evading Kords.. You can see how the most dangerous part of an adventure tends to be the getting there and back again.

Adventurers tend to travel the best, as do couriers or scouts. The latter are light, quick and stop for nothing. The former travel in large capable groups, take their time and are provisioned well and are well informed.

The robbing and murdering of travelers is a thriving business, and we are only talking about people and the occasional Kord, which is to say nothing about dark forces, dragons, the undead, the servants of the Veil, and the agents of ancient powers. It may be said that the Northern province devours more souls than does the war in the south, which would be a lie, but not by that much.