New Travelogue - The Red Cities [Community Writing Project]

[Eldan]

I really liked the Far Reaches travellogue while it lasted, I thought we could perhaps do another one. Last time, we had a lot of wilderness and dark curses, so I'll go for distant civilization this time. At least as a start.

So, the rules are this. We are writing the diary of a traveller, one entry at a time. Each person writes an entry, then the next person writes another, continuing the story.
The traveller will be in a world with low-ish magic and ancient-ish technology. (Exceptions can be made where interesting.) Don't write too much and leave options open for those after you. Viewpoint characters can die, in which case another person finds the journal and continues writing. Not too often though, maybe.

Fifteenth Ardesh, 12th Year of Exarch Nadratai

Today, Serit woke me to tell me that we are slightly off course, that we met the river many miles further north of the city than he had hoped. We won't see Samial today, then. He was cursing about Risnit, his navigator, all through breakfast, saying that he should never have hired his lazy cousin.
I rose in the anticipation that, at least, this will be my last breakfast of roasted grain and peas, for a while. Water, at least, won't be rare.
At dawn, the river is even more magnificient than it was at dusk. It is hard, from the low bank, to even tell it is not a lake, save for the fact that the far bank is barely visible in the misty air and that it stretches to the far horizon in the north and south. The reeds are taller than a man and stretch for what must be half a mile before the muddy green water is too deep even for them.
The air is a cacophony of frogs and birds and buzzing insects. I have identified three kind of heron and what I'm pretty sure are ducks, but there must be dozens of kinds I have never seen. That much, at least, is a good omen.
Perhaps it is good that I get some time to rest before we reach the city. I have often been warned about the decadence of the Red Cities, and Samial worst of all. Another day of travel gives me more time to pray and meditate and prepare myself.

Tomorrow, then, the Gates of Samial.

[Lleban]

Sixteenth Ardesh, 12th Year of Exarch Nadratai

Despite, or perhaps because of Risnit's best efforts we made it to Samial not long after sun rise. As we walked pass the numerous orchards adjacent to the main road, the sun but the red clay of the city walls in sharp relief against the cloudless sky. The red walls of Saminal war covered in ornate murals and tapestry's laid over the solid red bricks of the 50 ft high structure. Made of an aquamarine stone brick and decorated with gold filaments resembling arranged into unknown characters, the Gate itself somehow managed to dwarf the opulence of the walls.

Even at early morning there was a crowd attempting to enter the city. 100's of travelers like us gathered in a line outside the gates. Many were ridding a wide variety of beasts, from horses to camels, and even a strange flightless bird. Serit seemed to be in awe of all of the of the gate, barely noticing a rather disturbing detail about this crowd. It seems that nearly everyone on foot was chained together and barely clothed. Many of the captives showed varying signs of neglect, clearly these slavers were going for quality over quantity.

[Eldan]

Sixteenth Ardesh, 12th Year of Exarch Nadratai

An exciting and tiring day. After we stabled our animals in the morning, Serit and his family made their way through the city on a series of visits to merchants they were familiar with from previous visits and I decided to come along.
I was, of course, familiar with the basic idea of these visits. After announcing ourselves at the door, we were immediately ushered into a cool garden and seated at a table with refreshments. The household servants were well-dressed, though I was only later told that the small iron bracelets they all wore showed that they were slaves.
What followed was a long parade of polite, if empty chatter. Family members were introduced and admired, tea was drunk, small and expensive gifts were exchanged and not a word of business or politics was mentioned. After one visit, which took well over two hours, I lost my stomach for the affair and decided to have a look at the city on my own, agreeing to meet back up at the stables before the evening meal.

Most of the houses here, murals and tapestries aside, are forbidding in aspect. No building has any windows on the ground floor, and those in the richer quarters take up entire city blocks, surrounding gardens that can't be seen from the outside.
The morals of the people here really are, as I have been told before, entirely loose. Beggars, ragmen, jugglers and hawkers of all kinds are allowed to openly practise their trade in the street and I was openly accosted multiple times by people shoving their wares at me. No one even seems to particularly care.
Likewise, I have not seen any militia or guard in evidence at all in the street, other than some discreetly armed men standing in the doorways of the richest houses. Truly, Samial is a lawless place, with no peacekeepers.

I spent the afternoon having a look at some of the famous old buildings of the city, which are said to have been built when the Empire still had a hold on the Red Cities and the River trade. These, at least, are still magnificient. The Great Temple, especially, with it's white and turquoise dome and twin spires that must be over ten times at tall as the next largest building in sight. Of the once famous library, only a handful of columns and shattered mosaic floors remain, sad reminder of the brutal revolts that occured when the Empire withdrew it's armies to the coast two hundred years ago.

Tired from the humid heat, the constant noise and the foreign speech which I still don't understand well, I made my way back to our lodgings, which proved more than adequate, at least. Tomorrow, my real business begins.

[Araduk]

Seventeeth Ardesh, 12th Year of Exarch Nadratai

I am writing this in the slowly fading light of the late afternoon, sitting on one of the piers reaching into the brown waters of the river like clawing fingers. An endless number of fishing boats and merchant barges is arriving in from the river, I watched them for a moment and it's a miracle they somehow manage to avoid constantly running into each other.

Master Serit has today made agreements to acquire 22 able-bodied slaves; mostly young men from Arkon Sultanate and Serpent Islands. The story was they were purchased for working in the fields and orchards of Border Counties where Master Serit has his mansion. Even though they nominally are part of the Empire and thus slavery there is illegal, Master Serit is known to many merchants here personally and no one really asked any difficult questions. Their real purpose we naturally kept secret, even from the slaves themselves. Next we need to find a ship large enough to hold all of us, but I learned today this might take a while. Tomorrow start the grand festivities of harvest that last several days, and during them it will be impossible to buy passage from any ship. Serit is really nervous about this development, as he fears for our cover story. I reckon he also is nervous about the expense of housing our new purchases...

The sun is already touching the distant far shore of the river and I need to make my way back to our lodgings before it sets. I have a dagger hidden on my belt but walking through the docks in the dark does not sound very appealing. I am quite certain Serit has made enemies as well as friends here in Samial, and I have no wish to end up being a part of someone's petty revenge.