A
Warm Welcome
21/15/10,121 - Bilsinx
Several uneventful days later the snow covered dirt trail gives way to a wide & well-maintained cobbled road with fences depicting managed fields below the snow. As the double walls of the hill city come into view, a score or so of hastily erected tents & covered wagons have been sited off to one side of the guarded archway. Drawing level with settlement the travellers are besieged by refugees from Samadum & elsewhere begging that they be admitted to the city.
Under the watchful eye of the immaculate & well-armed guardians the pleas of the unfortunates are ignored but Kilite does distribute some of the liberated provisions.
The party are questioned extensively & their goods searched until the sergeant is completely satisfied that they can at the very least pay their way, they are issued with a forty eight hour pass. He then proceeds to lecture the companions on the do's & don'ts of Bilsinx, where they are allowed to go/not go & even a list of approved hostelries. They refuse however to give entry to Gunter unless he is hobbled or caged. Molin point blank refuses to allow this to be done to his friend & decides to sit out the delights of the city. The guards simply shrug at Molin's admonishment & suggest he may take his complaint to higher authority if he wishes.
Grumpily Molin resigns himself to another night under canvas & sets about setting camp, the other refugees are wary of the lone warrior & the bear he rides thus allowing Molin some freedom to their carping for aid.
As the others are escorted through the walls & onto an approved lodging house Tharla questions one of their escorts as to why the inhabitants of Samadum & elsewhere have not been allowed into the city, the guard advises that it is simply a matter of who can provide for himself & who would be a burden upon the people of Bilsinx. The priest, knowing the city well, bids the group farewell & departs for the house of Jirre, Kilite, promising to join the others later accompanies the priest.
The hotelier, a miserable sot, having noted the considerable merchandise carried by the group informs the party that he will notify one of the councils approved buyers to call by their lodgings in order that a sale may be arranged if so desired. A fellow traveller however, also staying at the hostel, arranges, for a small charge, the sale of goods through a private entrepreneur who guarantees a sale price above that of the councils official.
After an uneventful but comfortable night Tharla accompanies Kilite to the chapel of Jirre to collect the wagon loaned to the priest as well as the remainder of their goods, which it carries.
Back at the hostel the council approved merchant is mollified by the sale of a few mundane items, allowing him to complete his official bill of purchase from the council, officialdom so satisfied, sale dockets are handed to Illyra with the instruction that these may be exchanged for goods or cash at the council bureau of exchange. Reading the dockets after the council buyer has departed Illyra can see why the city's system is so unpopular; the docket refers to the deduction of taxes etc that will be automatically collected from the sale price. Arranging for the collection of these goods later the buyer departs so allowing Illyra to proceed with the unofficial sale of goods via their acquaintance of the night before.
Taking their ease the friends their afternoon is disturbed by the return of the buyer, he is belligerent making reference to unofficial sales on the black market & people wasting his valuable time, Illyra, attempting to mollify the bureaucrat persuades him to accept a drink by, she slips however a dose, a large dose, of her self made sedative into his cup. As he slips into incoherence & then unconsciousness the suspicious hotelier is thrown a line about people not being able to hold the liquor. Unsure what to do next the recumbent figure is sat in front of the fire & left to sleep it off.
Next morning, 23/15/10,121, they are reminded by the proprietor that their pass will not entitle them to remain at the hostel this night & therefore could they please depart or arrange a council approved extension. The council buyer, asleep in the ashes of the fire, is forcibly woken by one of the maids as she attempts to clean around him, he is violently sick &, white faced, staggers from the hostel with no thought to the purchased items.
Quickly arrangements are made for the removal of the black market items & their departure from Bilsinx.