1.3: Arriving in New Sarnath

Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)

Besides stopping briefly to throw the dead disguised soldiers into the river ("It would be disrespectful to just leave them here and I'm not going to carry them back or dig a hole." - Jake), Thanus and Jake travel back toward the waiting caravan.

They find Vilius pacing and still cursing the gods and when he sees them he is quite upset. Gone too long, don't you know we have a schedule to keep, and is that a deer? You stopped to go hunting instead of getting your asses back here? And so on and on goes the tirade.

Jake eventually gets a word in edge wise and explains that they found the bridge intact but had to take care of some bandits. Vilius doesn't care about the details, but the fact that the party was securing safe passage for the caravan shuts him up.

Not long after Braggor returns from his southern scouting mission and reports that he also found a usable bridge and it is decided that since he didn't have to kill bandits that his way was obviously safer and so the caravan heads south.

Inside a wagon Jake gets the deer ready for consumption (Braggor is pleased by the gesture) and tells tales of the party's adventure to the other members of the caravan, all of whom are interested in details unlike the caravan master. Jake talks himself and Thanus up, but there is no mention of the dead soldiers.

The next week passes uneventfully and soon the old roads come to an end the king's road is the oly way forward. The last stage of the journey has begun. Other travelers again become a common sight, as do patrols and actual inns.

Finally after cresting a hill the party gets its first glimpse of their destination, the new crown jewel of the kingdom and a place of dark repute from the days of old. Once doomed, but now reborn, the city of New Sarnath awaits.

The king's road and its less traveled and maintained tributaries pass through woods and recently reclaimed farmlands heading north. The coast lays to the east and to the north; the city nestles that northeastern corner of the continent, occupying both a large plain and a hillside leading up to sheer seaside cliffs, and once, the massive Abyssal Pillar jutting out of the sea beyond.

The portions of great stone walls stand around the perimeter of the plain, but are now mostly broken and ruined, a victim of the Doom that Came to the city some 150 years ago. Beyond the walls lies two distinct cities: One of the living and one of the dead.

The most of the plain, about 80 percent of it starting from the western, in land edge, is covered by ruined, desolate building, stone and wooden structures in various forms of collapse. There is no sign of habitation in any, no sign of life, at least from this distance. Here the city may be called New, but the Doom still holds sway over all.

The most eastern 20 percent, the seaside of the plain, is the exact opposite. It is the growing city of New Sarnath and it contains the Bay of Sarnath, a newly revived trade hub for the region and it is bustling along with the land around it. At the base of the hill is the entrance to the fabled mines of Sarnath, recently reopened, supposedly some of the richest in the world for a variety of rare metals.

A similar divide of living and dead city can be seen on the city's massive hill. Clearly even after a decade the reclamation of Sarnath still has a long way to go. With so much devastation remaining it is hard to imagine it being finished in one lifetime, let alone several, but the king commands it and his subjects obey.

The caravan approaches the city and the road winds through some of the lower city's devastation before approaching a well manned wooden barricade separating the reclaimed from the ruined. The area is heavily patrolled and here and there are the wretched poor who can't afford to live within the safe zone.

It is the borderlands between the new city and the old, land where the dangers have mostly been purged, yet has not been officially opened for redevelopment.

The caravan approaches the wooden gates and sees men marked with the bloody eagle sigil of House Amathy, clearly acting in some sort of city guard capacity. The sellswords demand a toll to enter (i.e. a bribe) from the caravan leader, but Braggor intercedes on his behalf, putting the soldier at ease, and lets him get away with a much smaller bribe.

Inside the barricade is a place not unlike the poorer and dock areas of any other city. The caravan heads towards a warehouse near the docks and at this point Vilius explains to the party that their contract is officially complete. So yeah, bye.

The party is not sad to see him go and Braggor, Jake, and Thanus contemplate their next move as they are all now officially homeless and unemployed in a city they have never set foot in before today.

Day 1 in New Sarnath

They do the reasonable thing and head to the nearest dockside tavern, the Healthy Page. It is a rather ramshackle place, but it seems clean enough and the sounds of music and laughter come from within.

Once inside Jake immediately goes to the musician, a man playing a fiddle and tells him to play something dramatic and suspenseful, and being a go with the flow kinda guy, the musician does. And so Jake begins the epic tale of how his lord almost singlehandedly destroyed an army of brigands on the road to New Sarnath.

He rolls quite well on his perform and Braggor confirms the truth of Jake's words and strikes poses at the appropriate moments.

While most of the tavern watches the riveting drama unfolding for their entertainment, Thanus makes the acquaintance of the bored looking bartender and owner, a slender approach middle aged half-orc named Lucky.

Lucky is not a fan of entertainers and makes his opinion known and Thanus sympathizes as he had to put up with Jake far longer than Lucky. That earns Thanus a drink on the house, and so a friendship tentatively begins.

From Lucky Thanus learns there is money to be made in New Sarnath if you have the stomach and the skill for it. The Free Companies are always looking for independent groups to subcontract certain jobs to and nobles around here always need more muscle. Then there's the scavenging.

Most of the city remains unclaimed and crews can get scavenging licenses to dig through the ruins for treasure: 1,000 gold for the lower city where the lower class worked and lived and 10,000 for the hill, the domain of Doomed Sarnath's moderately rich and up and coming.

Of course, says Lucky, scavengers have already been through a lot of the surface buildings. Not to say you can't get lucky and get a good haul from them, but most of the untapped potential is under the ground, the famous and infamous Undercity of Doomed Sarnath. Dangerous though.

On the surface you might deal with some wild animals, outlaws, smugglers, crazies, or other crews, but down there... Lucky has heard strange stories about down there (not saying he believes even 10 percent of them as the scavengers tend to be braggarts like Thanus's entertainer friend), but still he suggests Thanus would live longer staying away.

If you do go down though, adds Lucky, remember that undercity is undercity regardless of if you enter if from the lower city or the hill. Might be you could start lower, go down, and find yourself in some rich man's basement on the hill. Just don't get caught there without a permit.

Thanus thanks Lucky for the information and as their conversation finishes, so does Jake's performance. From there the party decides to take some time apart and handle their own individual business for the time being.

To be continued...