The Weatherlight crew regroups and makes contact with the rulers of Mercadia City. Mercadians are an evasive, aloof people: the nobles are hedonistic, apathetic, and lazy, while the commoners are selfish, grasping, and paranoid. Mercadian goblins are much larger and smarter than any the crew has encountered before, and they actually seem to be running the city despite their servile attitudes. Furthermore, a guild of professional assassins and thieves called Caterans roams the back alleys of the marketplace, ready to terrorize or murder anyone for the right price.

The Mercadian magistrate unexpectedly offers Gerrard an unusual deal. A platoon of soldiers and Cateran mercenaries will be placed under his command to recover the Weatherlight. If the mission is successful, Gerrard may petition for both the return of his ship and safe passage out of Mercadia for himself and his crew. Suspicious of the magistrate's motives, Gerrard accepts the bargain anyway and marches for Cho-Arrim territory.



NEXT PAGE