Chapter 27 - The Front Door

Day 56

With the arrival of dawn, the party found themselves upon the lake, with some distance between them and the previous night's disasterous events. They set about preparing for their second attempt at infiltrating Tarminastir, alongside their newfound gnomish allies. This did not sit well with Aldur, who found himself butting heads with Nesmir. The gnoms obviously had some disturbing views on elves, and was not afraid to make them known, at least in the safety of the boat, surrounded by his crewmates.

As preparations continued, Nesmir produced soem gnomish-designed equipment that he felt his newfound allies could make use of. The first was a waterskin that was fitted around the wearer's neck, with a small tube that could be fitted to rest in front of the wearer's mouth. He explained that these could be used to swiftly imbibe a potion in the midst of battle, and he provided each of them with a healing potion to fill their waterskin. The second piece of equipment was a backpack that had been enchanted to hold the energies of a powerful fireball. When worn, the backpack attuned itself to the wearer's lifeforce, draining a small portion to charge its energies. Once activated with a word of power unique to each pack, it would detonate if the wearer died or if removed and thrown. Nesmir was particularly enthusiastic in encouraging everyone to wear one.

A bank of fog hugged the shoreline next to the swamp and Patroclus kept the boat under its cover, making a slow and cautious approach to Tarminastir. He warned the party that he expected to be turned away from the port, as he had been when he last visited a few days before. He would approach the port openly under cover of darkness, but would drop off the party in their small boats before making his final approach to the harbour. If turned away, he would drop anchor a short distance to the east and await their return. If they had not returned by dawn, he would continue on his way, considering them lost.

Throughout the day, the glowing blue tree loomed larger and larger on the horizon, clearly giving off more light than during their previous approach through the swamp. As the other trees of the city came into view, the lake was quiet, empty of other boat traffic. The only other boat they saw on the open water was a long, sleek, tall-masted boat, gleaming white and gold as it pulled out of the fog-shrouded harbor and raced north across the lake, its sails filling with a powerful wind that didn't seem to touch the rest of the lake.

Dusk fell as the boat approached the city and Patroclus slowed the boat to ensure that darkness arrived before he did. Under the cover of darkness, the party and their gnomish allies slipped down ladders and into small inflatable boats on the lake side of the boat. Tied together in a line, they rowed their boats for shore, aiming for the centre of the tree. They were soon enshrouded in the rolling banks of fog, but navigated by the sight of the canopy of branches that arched overhead.

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