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Whilst waiting for food to be prepared and water to heat, the group sit around a low table in comfortable chairs close to one of the large fireplaces in the common room.

"Well, its good to be back in some sort of civilisation for a while at least" says Blondung after a while. "But we should make some better plans to complete the next part of our journey. I'm not even sure how we get to Daggerdale from here... The whole of Anaroch is in between us!" he complains. "Either way, it is a long journey!"

He looks around the group carefully. "I don't know about you lot, but I really don't fancy walking that far. I'm seriously considering purchasing a horse if I can..." He looks sour. "I just wish Alustriel hadn't assumed that teleport was a bad combination with these sigils" he grumbles. "She could have made this journey really short for us!"

"I, too, vote for horses," put in Cleo. "Walking all day is tiring and inhibits my fighting ability, and riding in a wagon leaves me sore all over, also is not good if I had to fight. I have ridden horses before and they are not as tiring to ride."

Later when the subject of their journey continuing was broached the skinny mage nodded, "I do not fancy walking across hundreds of miles of hostile territory on foot either. We need to make an all out effort to get everyone decent mounts."

Merrell smiled at Blondung's comment about "civilization". The ex-zhent really didn't seem to like the out of doors much, and had very little tolerence for being uncomfortable. "Don't get too comfortable here. We need to keep our guard, there are forces at work here in this place that would see us at the end of a rope or worse." he answered softly in reply.

The crusty mage delves into his bag and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smooths out onto the low table between the comfy chairs. It contains a map - albeit a hand-drawn one, of both the North and the Heartlands.

Blondung starts to point at various large features marked on the map. "This is where you lot started" he says, referring to the survivors of those who had set out from Neverwinter several months earlier. He taps an area to the left of the map on the coast. "Came around the south side of Neverwinter Woods" he continues, tracing an invisible line around the lower edge of the blob next to Neverwinter, "paused in Triboar, then north to Loudwater and east to Nesme, travelling on the north side of the Evermoors or Trollmoors as they are known." He paused to look sour. "I wish we'd simply travelled the Everlund road and holed up there, awaiting the end of the 'wizard weather' that was blocking the Everlund pass. Would have been safer" he grumbles.

"Anyway, having taken a disastrous boat trip up river from Nesme, fought off trolls on the Trollmoors, stumbled across an ancient lost dwarven stronghold, we finally arrived in Silverymoon." He traces the route with his finger, stabbing it at the point where he had written Silverymoon with venom. "And that was where is all went really wrong" he mutters, looking at and rubbing the back of his wrist for a moment, where the second of the sigils, that of Gwath, could be seen writhing on his skin.

"Driven by these things, we headed north, got lost in the Moonwood for a bit, then met Ssessibil Istahvar, the owner of the first sigil, which then simply disappeared" he recapped before shrugging. "Why, I have no idea" he says before continuing. "And now we've come down past the Rauvin mountains, stopping fatally at Citadel Felbarr, to here, Sundarbar" he concludes.

He scowls. "We have been told that Gwath was last heard of, 'somewhere' in Daggerdale. Which is roughly here." He stabs his finger down at an area to the right of the Anauroch, the Great Desert (OOC: Marked with a red X on the map below). "I've been to Daggerdale once before, several years ago" he continues. "It's a fairly, um, independent place, ruled by someone called Randle Morn if I remember correctly."

He sighs. "Just how the hell we're going to find this Gwath when we get there - I have no idea. Ask around I suppose." He leans back, looking at the map, frowning. "And it's going to take months to get there - even riding a horse."

Vaslin turned as Blondung began to speak. At first it was only with half and ear, but his continued flow of words from the normally extremely taciturn member of their group cause her to pay closer attention. She continued to listen then finally made her way over to look at the crumpled map as Blondung continue to speak--more words than he had spoken in nearly half a month or more.

Vaslin's eyes followed the path traced by Blondung's words and finger on the map. She tried to figure out what Blondung was showing them and more importantly why, but she couldn't find the reason for his unusual monologue.

"Help me out. What point are you trying to make, Blondung? Why are you bringing this up?"

Blondung shrugs. "We haven't really talked much about where we are going before... or how we are going to get there..." He glances around the group, scowling in particular at the three women and their respective bed partners. "Some of us think it more important to take the time to talk about what is important, rather than constantly thinking about, other things" he adds bitterly.

Still scowling, he looks again at the map, proceeding to talk more to the paper than to the group. "We are in a city - however unfriendly the local authorities may be reputed to be - and we should make use of our time here to discover as much about the journey ahead of us as possible."

He looks up again. "We need to figure out a route. Having more detailed maps of the areas we must travel would be a start. Or perhaps we could find a guide." He shrugs again.

Luc peek at the map over Vaslins shoulder and says "whoa, that does seem a long way off... considering all that we've been through in getting to where we are now, I can't imagine what will befall us till we get there..."

"Well, I spotted a large map on a wall in a room off the entrance corridor" pipes up Yvandel. "Perhaps we could have a look at that?" he suggests.

Luc slides next to Merrel and gently elbows him and after getting his attention nods towards Milo. He raises en eyebrow and flicks out his hand, palm upward to gesture "what now"...

Milo spots Luc's gesture, and simply shakes his head. "After dinner" is all he says. After a few seconds, he leans into Ceely and nuzzles her neck and whispers in her ear before getting up and moving over to the concierge.

Blondung frowns, glancing between Milo, Merrell and Lucretia. "What after dinner?" he is about to ask, but Milo nuzzles Ceely and then stands and moves off instead. "Great! Another one more interested in sex" mutters Blondung, shaking his head and scowling at the departing Milo. As the priest exits the common room, Blondung turns back to Ceely. "Gone to find extra padding for your headboard too has he?!" he says sarcastically. Without waiting for an answer, he snorts and bends over the map again.

Still waiting for their food to be prepared, the group (bar Milo who had disappeared a few minutes earlier) get up in search of the map that Yvandel had mentioned. Entering the entrance hall, they spot the concierge walking up the corridor towards them. Upon enquiring, he happily shows them to the Map room. The room is actually very impressive, with lots of maps detailing different areas of the realms, all painted carefully onto the walls.

Looking over the map Luc traces a finger along a river... and says, "There seems to be a a gap right here..." he points to a place on the map marked Turstone Pass.

Pointing to the tip of a river marked Ascathorn, he traces a route southward as he says, "since these are mountains here the water should be flowing this way..."

He continues, "if we can find a boat, we should be able to downstream till here or here!" he says as he taps his finger on Orlbar and Loudwater, "I'm sure Ceely would know the right kind of boat to find!"

From the other side of the room, Blondung looks at a larger more detailed map of the local area, glancing over his shoulder to see where Lucretia was pointing. "The terrain looks pretty rough there, and on this map it's called Turnstone Pass" he replies. "Hmmm. Not sure if the upper reaches would be navigable. When it becomes the Delimbyr lower down perhaps" he muses.

"We need to find guides who know the area and can tell us about these places" he adds. "Last thing I want to do is repeat our mistake going around the Evermoors. Trying to go around the north side of the Trollmoors was a disaster. And navigating an unknown river was part of it - remember the gnomes damn mechanical boat?"

He then says, "we can find mounts there perhaps and then move on southeast around the desert, of we can just cut accross the desert if everyone's up for it!"

Looking away from the map he says to Merrel, "if all you magic users worked together, is there no way you could make, say a wagon fly, so that we all get there faster?"

Blondung merely snorts, dismissing the idea.

Ceely looked at the river that was to the east of high forest. "Anyone familiar with this river?" She said pointing to it. "We could take it south to almost the end of the high Forest. Will make a travel faster....then move due East. It's better to go around the desert then through it if you don't know where there are water supplies" She said, then looked at the others around her.

Yvandel stands at her side looking at the map. "That part doesn't look very boat friendly" he says, pointing at where the Delimbyr goes over the Shining Falls.

"I like Ceely's idea of making our way by water and purchasing horses at wherever we get off as it would save us a lot on transportation costs for them" said Vaslin.

"All assuming the Delimbyr River is navigable" interjects Blondung.

"We can always ask..." Luc interjects, Blondungs interjection...

The mage allows a rare smile to cross his lips as he looks at Lucretia, and he inclines his head slightly like a teacher showing respect to a student who had finally reached the conclusion he was being guided to. "One of the priority tasks on the list for tomorrow I suspect" he replies.

Luc also inclines his head towards Blondung... perhaps the man was not so bad at all. At least he botherred to listen to what Luc was saying...

"I believe we have other things on the agenda for tomorrow. I think we should go about selling of the stuff we found, so that we can finance the trip. Then we should go about and see what we can find to better equip ourselves. You know the rules of the road... one thing can lead to another and we can find ourselves in the desert before you know it!" Luc says.

"I think we can gathering information and if necessary find a guide, depending on the route we decide to take. I think it was a wise course to decide to stay here." Vaslin trying to summarize what had been discussed so far.

"The fact that there are retired adventures here will give us a good resource for information, and perhaps even a guide, someone who is not yet ready to put his feet up forever yet."

"Anybody have anything else to add tonight." Vaslin asks her tone light, encouraging responses. "Oh, there is also the need to sell of some of the things we acquired."

"Definitely a good idea" Blondung agrees. "And probably one that we'll do better at in the morning."

Vaslin hung back a moment before moving to the table with the other. Blondung's change in demeanour had surprised her tonight. For so long his taciturn nature and his usual less than social manners.

"Just a moment, Blondung," Vaslin says and waits for the others to move towards the common room for dinner. "I would like to say that despite a rough beginning to tonight's impromptu meeting you smoothed out and we were able to agree on a course of actions, able to come together. Well done." the Luckpriestess felt positive change in Blondung's usual attitude needed, to her mind, to be expressed. Praise should be given when deserved.

"Come on lets go eat." Vaslin hoped he would realize that was what she was trying to do..

The crusty mage simply raises an eyebrow. "Someone needed to take charge" he mutters, though his heart isn't in it and he even half smiles in response to Vaslin's backhanded compliment.