On the rest of the morning after they defeated Maria the Martial Artist and her monsters, they made excellent progress across the Fardan plains.

The air grew even colder, the wind that whistled over the plains taking on a vicious bite, as they pressed ever more North. They would need Egea to procure them some cold-weather gear at the next town, Horatio judged.

Remarkably, they encountered no monsters for the whole of their remaining two days’ march to the North coast. This was especially peculiar as up until now it had seemed that the land had grown thicker with monsters than ever before. Primus remarked that something was afoot, and Horatio was inclined to agree with him. Perhaps the Braxians Glen and Maria had drawn all of the nearby monsters in the area to themselves when they had pursued the party. But there must be more of them in this area. They must stay vigilant, and they continued to keep a watch at night–now with Ouzo taking the last watch of the night so that he had plenty of time to get his sleep before it was his turn at duty.

Horatio had no idea how they knew where they were going, other than the fact that from the path of the sun they were still heading vaguely North, but Ouzo, Helen and Olivia all agreed that they were heading in the right direction. Ouzo and Helen knew the route because they had each travelled this way before, and Olivia said she could discern the path with her ‘augury powers’.

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However they knew, they were vindicated when by noon on their second day of travel since they had found Olivia, they finally arrived at the Bay of Vishay.

As the party approached it, the grassy plains of Farda began to give way and blend with brown-and-golden sand which became dunes. Even though the air was growing colder, as they neared the North Sea the land was turning into a sandy coastline. Once they were in amongst the dunes, it wasn’t long before they glimpsed, in the distance, a shimmering blue ribbon sat underneath the sky, that must be the sea.

A few more hurried footsteps peppered with enthusiastic observations and little gasps of excitement, and they saw that in one place on the horizon the sea got closer, while to either side of it the sandy shore continued to stretch away. The coastline was curving in towards them. This must be the Bay of Vishay.

A welcome party of monsters was waiting to great them in among the dunes.

Battle 1