G01 — Session 8

1626

Season, Week, Day

Events

On arriving in Crabtown, the crew were met by a Troll trader and his two hulking Great Troll guards. The trollish merchant was expensively dressed and seemed beamingly happy to see human traders.Jeepol explained they were looking to restore his old trade route and introduced Finarvi, and the caravan was escorted into Crabtown. Some of the Great Trolls that had turned out to greet the caravan were Humakti, and these saluted Arim.

The troll trader introduced himself as Garzack and guested them in a large mushroom house with windows and a door. Getting into the spirit of introductions, Jorrim recited his lineage back to Grandfather Mortal while refreshments were offered by a trollkin.

Garzack explained the inhabitants of Crabtown were mainly fishermen, not friends of the Lunars but not their enemies either, though he lamented the impact the conflict was having on trade. The Skyfall Lake fishery was rich and they traded fish with the rest of the troll lands, but the amount they could produce was hampered by a lack of a ready supply of salt, since trolls had to fight Praxians to mine it, and drying the fish in caves was not ideal. Garzack showed off the finest goods Crabtown had to offer, dried mushroom, caviar, a very bitey wine, a way of making things cold, and shimmering spidersilk cloth. In return Finarvi and Jeepol talked salt, herbs and woods to flavour smoked and dried cuts. Jeepol mentioned peat bogs near Ironspike that could supply fuel to smoke food for export, and Jorrim gave Garzack a sip of each of his inks and made a note of the ones he liked. Jorrim also talked about smoking herbs for flavour.

Garzack hinted that they might get eaten if they wandered around town.

They are given beds for the night. Jeepol warned them that trolls may be listening, so they discussed only their plans for trade. Jeepol believed Garzack had the monopoly on human traders, having eaten the competition. Jeepol had wanted to trade Troll goods south to Nochet, but the Lunars invaded before he could develop the contacts. With Finarvi’s contacts in Nochet, he could handle the Northern trade and Finarvi the South. These goods (bitey-wine, spidersilk) would sell well in Nochet. Ivalla suggested apples and cider from her clan, new tastes for the trolls.

At night, the town came alive with fishing and business, the odd dark troll or great troll and hundreds of trollkin slaves. There were also lots of different kinds of beetles, some big enough for trolls to ride. Next day, Jorrim and Jeepol kept Garzack occupied with a tour so the rest of the gang could find White-eye.

Slipping away with a map that Jeepol had sketched, they made it past a Zorak Zoran march to the address Herengvot gave, which turned out to be a modest shack. A small, elderly trollkin sat on the porch, watching them cautiously. Finding he spoke good Trade talk, Finarvi and Serala got him chatting and learned he used to travel with White-eye in human lands and lived near Apple Lane. White-eye was now very old and spent most of the time asleep, but they used to have many adventures. The Trollkin, who gave his name as Trollkin One, took them into the shack and showed them White-eye’s souvenirs: old swords and spear points, broken shields, and a wand of black glass hanging on the wall. Asking about it, and keeping their voices down because it sounded like White-Eye was asleep in the shack’s only other room, they asked One about it. One called it a useless trinket that made things, and took them into the stone garden at the back to show them what it made.

The garden behind the shack had a few statues of green glass: two (former) trollkin and a large beetle (deceased). The garden was fenced in glass, and the shack’s roof was glass.

They asked if White-eye might want to trade the useless trinket for something that would be more useful to him, and when One said that White-eye didn’t like humans, they suggested trading with One instead. The trollkin thought about it, and agreed to trade it for a bushel of apples. Returning to Garzack’s place, they scrounged together a big bag of dried apples and an entire mustard ham to trade to One for the wand.