Mydnight’s Hero

321

Once you have decided the places where each of you will search for the whereabouts of Prince Karvas, you follow Acraban to the rear deck and enter the skyship’s boarding cage. Swiftly it is winched down to the market square where you are met unexpectedly by a pressing crowd of grimy-faced street urchins. They have been gathering here since dawn to stare in wonderment at the Starstrider hovering motionless in the cloudless sky above. Acraban scatters a handful of copper coins across the cobblestones and the children scramble to retrieve them. This creates enough room to allow Zinair to open the cage door and the three of you to step out. After agreeing to return here to the skyship no later than sunset, you split up and go in search of your chosen destinations.

Unlike the urchins, the adult population of Mydnight appears less than fascinated by the imposing sight of the Starstrider hovering above their city. Few pay it a second glance, yet this seeming lack of interest does not surprise you. For centuries this port has been a refuge for exiles from the many nations of Magnamund who, for their own individual reasons, have chosen to forsake their native lands. They are, by nature, a secretive community. Any overt interest in the affairs of another is most often viewed with suspicion and distrust.

You retrace the route you took last night and soon find yourself at the harbour. The Azaktana is still moored at the quayside and you give the crew a friendly wave as you stride across the quayside and enter a wide avenue that leads to the Hall of the Judicars.

By the lowly standards of the city, this hall could almost be considered grand in comparison to the neighbouring hovels. You pass beneath its façade of crumbling marble and walk through a stone archway that leads to a gloomy, torchlit interior. Here you discover over a hundred men and women standing patiently in two separate queues. One line ends at an open window where a clerk is busily exchanging gold and silver coins for linen Torqs, the woven currency that is used here on Sheasu. The other queue ends at a marble-topped desk where a man in the uniform of a reeve-sergeant is listening with bored indifference to a citizen who is reporting the theft of a goat.

If you wish to join the queue for the reeve-sergeant, turn to 127.

If you choose to stand in line for the Clerk of the Hall, turn to 334.

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