Third Adventure 01: The City of Al-Ferin

*kez calls out to Rory.*

If your going hunting bring me back some herbs, please.

*as she sits eating her boar, she watches the soldier preparing the meat hastily scratching down notes in her journal. He might not have a recipe, but damned if she would not after today!*

Kezrinthka (Xahn) wrote:*kez calls out to Rory.*

If your going hunting bring me back some herbs, please.

"I'm not the gathering type," he calls back, "but I'll see what I can do." With that, he slings his bow over his shoulder with his knife in his pocket and takes off west to hunt and gather herbs.

"ill come with you Rory ied like to get some of them Herbs"

Tabran Cole wrote:"I'll come with you Rory I'd like to get some of them Herbs"

"If you're going west, as well, I'd appreciate it if you kept your distance," he replied. "I need to be in the zone, and I don't want to risk my game getting scared off."

Rory and Tabran spend some time gathering game and herbs respectively.
Rory has fairly poor luck overall but does manage to bring down a large boar without maiming it badly, allowing you to do with the beast as you wish. Thanks to Tabran casting sleep upon another boar, he actually manages to take two intact.
Tabran you find several stalks of Basil, Tarragon, Mint, and Sage. Enough to season several meals worth easily.

Edit: Adding Tabran's Sleep spell.

Satisfied with his bounty, Rory bags his game and runs back camp. Upon returning, he offers the boar pelts, bones, and inedible organs in a bag or on the underside of the pelts themselves to the members of the rest stop.

"I don't really have much use for these," he informs them openly. "Seeing as this is your permanent setup, they're yours if you want them. Otherwise, I'd sell them to the next merchant."

The 30th of January: The party continues traveling southward. The journey is boring, but traffic has eased up so the party makes fairly good time. The group passes the last rest Camp prior to Al-Ferin at about 4 PM in the afternoon, and can choose to stop here for the evening or book it towards the city for the remainder of their journey. If they hurry they might make it before dawn.

"i say sleep hear tonight if there is trouble in town then we will need to face it fresh"

"Let's sleep. As Tabran said, we will need to be fully rested. And I'm tired anyway."

"I wouldn't mind stopping here. Even if we were to get to town and have the bill unfulfilled we'd just end up sleeping in an inn anyway."

"I'd certainly enjoy a night of good sleep and some fine food in the morning. Who knows when we'll be able to afford that again if we run into trouble."

This time the fee is 7 gold per person, but you manage to get to your designated spot. This camp site is much more crowded than the last one, filled with caravans and convoys carrying large quantities of food and water bound for Al-Ferin. The night is spent on watch without issue, and the following morning there is a much more meager meal being presented and by the time the party awakes there is already a line there. It is somewhat unlikely that anyone will be able to get any of the food this time around, which from the scent of it is some kind of fruit based salad with nuts. The sun starts its way over the horizon right around 4 AM, January 31st.

"Another day... we should go."

Snarg wakes up in the morning shortly after dawn. Upon seeing the line, he grunts, pulls some rations out of his pack, and shoves them in his mouth.

Caladirus who never sleeps, except while in combat, gets up and does something useful.

The city of Al-Ferin is much smaller than you would expect. The buildings are heavily crammed together and built upwards, the average height being at least 3 stories tall. Nestled in something of a valley, the whole area is fairly well protected from the usual desert winds and so they don't need to bother with such architecture. Too, since they don't have their own methods of water or food distribution other than purchasing from the market, no need to spread houses out.
The Gold Road directly bisects the city, reaching a massive relatively empty square in the middle which has hundreds of temporary stalls set up. As you walk in you notice to your amusement that within a matter of minutes most of the caravans and convoys near you unload and sell their water and food, and almost immediately turn around and begin heading back out with fresh gold and trade goods to acquire more. You get the feeling this process is near-constant for the city.
There are signs up to indicate where things of note are within the city. There is of course an Adventurer's Guild post in the east sector. The Order maintains an outpost here as well in the east sector, northeast part specifically, almost on the outskirts of the city. There are, to your lack of surprise, no real restaurants nor inns of note except for the Waythrough Inn near the center of the city which caters to people passing through, but only sells food and drink at fairly high prices. The Naverre Miner's Guild has an outpost in the southwest sector. And finally the local Mayor, Toloth of Thunderlord, an Orc, has his own section of the city to himself and the military which maintains a constant presence due to the value of the plentiful mines nearby.
All but one of the mines are outside of the city proper, one of the older abandoned mines resides within the city borders now, having been converted into a storage facility. You learn that the former mine the Order had purchased and re-purposed is a few hours walk east of the city, digging into a nearby crag.

"I'm get goin' and get some points to what we're goin' to clean out, yep. Get one of ya with me and rest of ya get some stayin' place." Snarg says, motioning towards the group.

Spoiler:

"I'm coming with you."

He wanted to know what happened to these adventurers who also took this Bill.

Snarg:
You learn that two other parties, one coming from Al-Erat and one from a town further south, have both come here interested in what they believed would be a fairly well paying Bill. The first group has not returned from the Manufactory since leaving for it nearly a week prior. The second group, which only arrived 2 days ago, learned of this news and has since decided to decline the Bill out of fear, and has already left the city.

"Well, that's good news, kinda."

Hanuel heads to the inn, trying to find rooms for the party.

"Bloody cowards," Rory shrugged. "Still, maybe they weren't cut out for the job. Let's go see a representative, tell 'em we'll look into it."

Caladius looks for the Only Adventures Guild in the city and walks in.
[Awareness check]

"Oh, that's not bein' good." Snarg murmurs upon hearing the news. "What ya be thinkin' is goin' on there?" he asks the guild.

Spoiler: