Sunrise: 0245Sunset: 2120
- 1179 Cust's Birthday
Crossing the Opicm [5 May 1211]
After Dreune leaves the conclave he heads over to Nyra and tells her that Tar would like her and Korkyn to explore the river to the West and look for fordable places. She nods and heads over to Korkyn. Dreune follows him and tells Korkyn to watch out for astral guards. Nyra looks peeved, but doesn’t say anything to him. Nyra and Korkyn sit down and close their eyes in concentration. Dreune watches them start and then heads off to his tent to make the guard schedule. With that done, he heads back to his two charges and waits impatiently. Its about thrity minutes before they open their eyes. Nyra looks up at Dreune and tells him that they searched North and South of the town and found no fordable areas. What makes matters worse, neither she nor Korkyn saw any river vessels other than small rowboats. There is a ferry stand, but the ferry was no where to be found.
Dreune has some questions for Nyra and Korkyn. He doesn’t expect them to know the answers, because he didn’t ask the question in the first place.
- Where is the most fordable place in the river? (area with smallest depth and width)
- Dreune needs to know distance and direction from the company
- He also asks if a person can stand in that area (working under the assumption that the smaller the area the faster the river)
- Have there been any recent signs of activity (troops, patrols…anything?)
Nyra looks peeved at Dreune’s follow-up questions and re-iterates that there are no fordable places near here. If he’d like he can look for himself. The river is anywhere from 4 to 6 meters deep in the area. She petulantly explains that the wagons are, at best, 3 meters high and therefore would be submerged everywhere within a several days journey both North and South. This was why she told him that there is no fordable areas around. If he likes they can spend a few more hours finding out that if they were to head North or South by a week or more they can find one. And no, they didn’t look for troops patrolling and she’s not certain how they’d see signs of activity in a quick fly over of the area anyway. However, there are no large contingents of people waiting to ambush the group when they are in the river or near the river.
Dreune ignores Nyra’s attitude and asks how wide the river is. To which she responds that they weren’t checking that out in great detail—they were paying more attention to the depth of the river. Korkyn offers that there was a spot that he saw South of the town that was probably around 30 meters wide, if he estimates correctly. Nyra tells the men that his spot is far smaller than any she saw. Most of the river was between 100 and 120 meters wide, give or take. She mentions that the river must be flowing fairly quickly there and that the town and the ferry itself is at the widest part of the river; where the river is the slowest.
Dreune talks with Nyra and Korkyn a little longer and then heads to Tar and Firena and tells them that they’ll need to divert South by a day’s ride. They can then make a bridge across the river there. Tar nods and Firena thanks him. The two leaders talk about things and decide that they’ll have an early lunch and then hit the road, as it were, again. The 5th ends with the Company camping on the Eastern side of the Opicm with the narrows not yet in sight.
May 6, 1211
It only takes two hours before the Company finds the narrows that Korkryn described. Firena orders the Company to set camp, while Dreune and Morven starts to unpack their magical paraphernalia. In thirty minutes, they are both sitting crosslegged—absent looks on their faces. Five hours later, the Company can hear the rumblings of the earth moving. They all stop what they are doing and watch as the river starts to boil. The river continues to roil and foam under a dark shape starts to form under the water. It takes about ten minutes when the bridge starts to break the waters of the Opicm. After another minute the bridge stops rising and the two sorcerers open their eyes to observe their work. Tar looks at Firena, who heads over to Drathon and tells him to set a guard on the bridge in addition to the normal shift. They’ll camp for the night and head over in the morning.
