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Sea City

The Swamp Lizardfolk of the Poison Marshes traded with three Cities, one of which was on the Coast and called Sea City, so the party determined to visit them in the morning; some of the Swamp Lizardfolk who had accompanied them before agreed to do so again and the others Lizardfolk agreed to pick them up on the return journey overland, they didn't presume Theria would Portal them back. Theria planned to check in with the Army that was marching South soon, but first, to try to establish diplomatic ties with Sea City. After an early breakfast, the Swamp Lizardfolk Chieften decided to accompany them and Theria Portaled, the party to a mile away from Sea City near the main gate; as there were no Red Lizards around, they strolled up to the gate and were let through by the guards who seemed neither inquisitive about the party nor interested in the one human travelling among them which seemed to Theria to indicate the City had been at Peace for some time.

The group went to City Hall, and because of the presence of the Swamp Lizardfolk Chieftan, they received a rather quick audience with a city administrator, Yasmina. Who explained they Sea City only really did coastal travel by fishing row boats or by larger row barges for short travel along the coast in good weather and river travel by barges, but they were interested in some of their Lizardfolk experiencing intercontinental sea travel and the administrator indicated they would wish to trade with Ice Flow Bay. They offered two tamed giant behemoth red Lizards with Lizardfolk riders as a goodwill gesture to Theria, to help ferment good diplomatic relations.

The Administrator walked to the dockside and asked for volunteers; two dozen Lizardfolk volunteered for the experience, and half a dozen from the Swamp Lizardfolk. Theria and the other lizardfolk enjoyed the ambience of the new city. At the same time, the Lizardfolk who would be transported collected their things for the journey and said their goodbyes. Theria and the other Lizardfolk visited the market, seeing the exotic goods for sale. Theria saw three stalls selling magical items, and with one of the Lizardfolk translating, she went to the first and asked the double headed proprietor if they could recommend anything for her to buy; they recommended a luck ring. Still, Theria's ring of discernment was red, so she thanked the proprietor anyway and declined. She moved on to the second and asked the same question of the small lizardfolk shopkeeper, and they, too, offered Theria a ring; her ring of discernment was blue this time, so she asked what it was, and they said a ring of magical obfuscation that meant those who mean you harm can't see you, she haggled in gold and bought the ring, and saved putting it on till she needed it. The richly dressed and prominent-looking owner of the third stall was yellow on her ring of discernment, which read to her like a true merchant everything was available at a price. Theria asked through the interpreter what they would recommend for her, and the owner said these three things and produced an amulet of fire immunity, a ring of commanding elemental fire and a bracelet of wind affinity. The owner of the three said these artefacts complement together well; they are all expensive, but I think you can manage the gold, and Theria did manage the gold to acquire the items, equipping all three right there and then.

Theria opened a Portal to Iceflow Bay, and the ship assembly was visible, as was the Town formation. The Administrator got permission to visit as a learning opportunity along with the rest and to travel back by Ship. Joy Bera and Josephine Bera greeted Theria with formal bows and then warm smiles and Theria was pleased to see them doing so well. Iceflow Bay was glad to have this extra crew. They were keen to learn of events, and shortly another portal was opened to Grey Isle. Some of the experienced mariners of the Fecundity Navy, some of the Sea Elves and some of the Sea Orcs all agreed to help IceFlow Bay's Naval construction. The Dragonians had cleared the Bay of Ice even though the weather was cold, and the first two ships were taking shape in drydocks, a half-finished Carrock and an almost finished Caravel HMS Iceflow Bay; they were close to the shore, and the Dwarves had clearly helped make this with a lock to the main harbour and three jetties alongside it so this could become the main Northern port. With twenty Dragonians as Marines to help defrost the ice and beat their wings at the sales being assigned to each new ship. With half the crew experienced and in place and the extra workers and raw recruits available, the maiden voyage was brought forward and scheduled for tomorrow, with all the workmen working through the night to finish the first new build in three years. With a portal to Big Bear, the Female Kraken came through; she had finished laying more eggs in the reservoir and was happy to assist in defending Iceflow Bay and moving ships like the caravel over from drydock to the Bay, making the operation faster than filling and emptying the dry dock. A portal to Jade City to speed up the delivery of more wood and Sails for the start of the second caravel and stock for sales to Sea City and Ship Captain Grey, Captain Rosen, and Captain Purple, who were all in line for the next three Caravel's captaincy they came through to get to know the crew and wait ready to set sail. Captain Grey was taking the first Caravel out to Sea City with some Lizardmen crew and the Administrator helping the winter crossing. The Carrocks would be crewed with the former First Mates of the three Carrocks from Grey Isle who had already travelled through portals; all crews would have some sea orcs, sea elves and experienced mariners, mainly human but other races too, as well as all having half new recruits who would all be trained to sail.

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Theria made contact with Sideswipe and went to pick up a few Lizardfolk from Big Bear; while there, Theria had a message from the Fey Orc Shaman asking her to visit the Life Orc City regarding the Paladins. Theria portaled the Lizardfolk and Sideswipe to Sea City with lots of gold to see what new resources they could procure and have ready for when the HMS Iceflow Bay arrived that could be shipped back; this would make the journey more lucrative and ensure the best resources were secured on the return of its maiden voyage and gave Sideswipe time to build up connections in this new continent and gather needful intelligence on what was currently a lot of unknowns. Theria portaled to the Life Orc Free City and found the seven Paladins there waiting for her, and they had all been recalled to the Protectorate. Theria understood why the High Marshall might be against working with the Orcs. Theria offered the Paladins another option if they would like; she could transport them all to the Dead continent, where they could engage the Undead. Theria's ring of discernment was green, for all Seven Paladins accepted they did not want to be Theria's enemy, but they also wouldn't oppose their fellow Paladins; the Protectorate wouldn't take this well, but they hadn't taken anything Theria had done well.

Theria took the seven Paladins back to Little Bear to meet the folk there and asked the Mayor of Little Bear and Thomas via a Page to prepare settlers for a port village of Far Bear on the Dead Continent. Theria found a secluded cove on the Coast nearest to Iceflow Bay before the Baria Mountains, between where the Ironfists, Stiffbeards Dwarves lived and some distance from the Kobolds and on the other side of the far side of the Baria Mountains to the Goldenrift Dwarves. This would make a good site; she opened a portal, and some of the kobolds, a good number of Bearkin settlers, humans, a couple of Ironchest Dwarven families, 50 Kobold spearmen, 50 rangers and a Queen Ant egg and 30 giant worker Ants and 10 Giant soldier ants and a Giant Spider queen egg with some young Giant Spiders who would be defended alongside the Queen Ant Egg while they matured. Also, a very young Kraken who wanted to help defend the bay and the seven Paladins all went through along with a lot of supplies. Theria closed the Portal and returned to Iceflow Bay.

Theria finding that all was in order at Iceflow Bay took the time to enoble the two administrators, making Sir Joy Bera and Lady Jospehine Bera and asked Jospehine if she'd like a new challenge; she said yes, so Theria Poraled her to Far Bear and made her the new Mayor. Then Joy Bera was made Mayor of Iceflow Bay, which was currently ahead of all previous schedules in terms of shipbuilding; they had a design for a much larger and deeper merchantman ship, Theria agreed to commissioning these alongside the others and separating the Caravels and the Merchantmen into a Merchant Navy with the Carrocks as the Navy and asked them to develop plans for how they would develop regular trade routes, it was agreed to treble the size of the drydock for the Merchantman and for capacity for the next ship design which might be larger still, the Dwarves got to work on plans.

After all this Theria decided it was time to see how Findel and the rest of the Army were getting on. After a quick stop off to pick up the Warden and their forces and some scouting Portals later along the way South from Fecundity, Theria found the army. Theria, along with the two ridden red Behemoths, went through the Portal ahead of the Army along with the Warden and their forces and waited where the Scouts intended for them to camp; this had caused the Rangers quite some concern until they recognised the person coming out from the Portal as Theria, and more concern again when the Behemoths followed behind! Theria smiled as she explained these were allies and not problems; the Rangers thoughtfully went back to warn the Army what lay in wait for them at Camp, and Findel raced on ahead to be with Theria. The two hugged, although neither were particularly huggy types; Findel had been more worried than she would ever let on.