"It's mostly sailor's superstitions. The deep fog is unnatural, the reefs are full of monsters, the statue is ancient and magical, people have horrible nightmares and drown themselves, the drowned rise as sea monsters, smaller boats have supposedly vanished. The details change often. I've not been able to find anyone in Korvosa who has actually traveled the area."

"The fog, monsters, and statue descriptions all seem possibly true. Worth planning around, at least. I have nothing for fog personally, though Lhín can sense through it as well as she can darkness. I know the Thassilonians did something different for specialization than wizards today. Was Sorshen specialized in illusion or enchantment? If so, we may want a way to avoid nightmares in case they are in fact an intentional defense. You said your Sylvan Hideaway leads to an extradimensional space, it doesn't just create an actual physical area to sleep in? That might break anything distance-based, then, I believe it depends on the spell."

She pauses again, as if to think something through. "Sounds like we at least have a chance, and some reason to expect this will be easier for us than the average. I can work with that. How many more pairs of hands do you seek?" Just the two of them would be... risky. Less so with a good way to hide to recover spells, and she does have quite a lot every day, but it would be risky. More than four or five and the rewards start to be less obviously worth the risk, though. Of course, he should be expecting some failed recruitment, though with the sewers restless, Korvosa may be atypical right now. Possibly Magnimar is the right place to look, the Teleport price won't be a factor for anyone from there. 

"I was thinking a party of three. It's the most my raft can hold. I can recruit the others here or in Magnimar. Depends if I find anyone here who's willing to teleport up or not."

"I would be tentatively in for anywhere from three to five, and a raft size limit is a good reason for three. The principle sounds good to me. I'll promise secrecy until we go out or you otherwise abandon the idea and we can look over your sources together? It's possible I'll see something you haven't."

Yanor unfurls some of the scrolls on the table. They're translations of the information stored within the gems. There's a lot missing or untranslatable or possessing difficult to understand literal meanings. The density of information is high. What she can understand largely matches up with his claims. 

Lhín doesn't see everything he did, but she does have a different approach and an odd selection of knowledge. She can contribute! A few minor corrections there, a bit which is more likely given what she knows about Ancient Thassilon... She provides no groundbreaking new insights, but she definitely has useful ones!

Tencednil did not actually study Ancient Thassilon. At all. She knows a brief overview and not much else. She flicks a few ideas to Lhín, but they're mostly wrong. In practice, she spends her time translating Lhín's speech into something Yanor can understand.

Yanor will go over everything with her for some time. It doesn't take that long to exhaust the intersection of what they understand and what is likely to be useful.

He recommends she make preparations to leave soon. He'd like to teleport to Magnimar within the next couple of days, if that works for her.

It would! She has her wand, but she will need rations... How long does he expect them to be out? Carrying several days of provisions isn't trivial. Her Anytool should handle food preparation just as well as it can handle anything else, but she still needs the actual food, and a week of food plus some water is ten pounds. Less if he can Create Water, but it does add up.

Two days of travel by raft each way plus however long it takes them to explore the place. Yanor can enhance food with a first circle spell. It's called goodberry and it makes a few berries as nutritious as a normal meal for five days each casting. He also has some other spells at second and third that will do the trick. They should of course bring some rations anyway. The raft can easily enough weight for them.

She should be ready tomorrow, then. They can meet in the Bank, they would need to be there for the Teleport anyway.

The rest of the day is spent finding relevant objects. She has the money for a higher-quality backpack, which is good. She isn't the best at carrying things. Some rations, mostly wandermeal but with a bit of full food. A hammock, which she "buys" by Mother telling her it was accounted for in the amulet contract, don't worry about it. Waterskins. A bullseye lantern for Lhín to use, if it comes up. Various other useful objects, though not too many. (Alchemy seems neat but expensive, now that she's looking for it. She only buys a little.) She pays close attention to weight and ease of packing.

By the end of the day, she's reasonably well-equipped. Something will doubtless go wrong, but hopefully Yanor's experience and/or magic can handle that when it comes up.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
STARDAY, SARENITH 6th, 4708

CONSTRUCTION BOOMS IN OLD KORVOSA

There is some trouble from underground creatures and wild beasts. Rumors of surviving Urgathoans, other cults, and more terrible things are spread by unreliable sources. The Guard increases patrols and attempts to placate the public. The credible papers highlight local news, both positive and negative, and it's mostly normal. The weather is partially cloudy with lots of sun.

She informed Mother of her plans yesterday, and got much the same response as when she was going off to be a caravan guard — somewhat less skepticism, but only somewhat. (And Mother knows she suddenly picked up second circle, and has been conspicuously not asking why. Some of the skepticism has probably come and gone.) That means she doesn't need to wait for anything!

Teleports to Magnimar aren't jumping as far as most Teleport routes go, and the path is doable by ship. It's correspondingly less valuable, and thus fewer wizards run the trip. On the other hand, unlike most Teleport connections from Korvosa, this one has quite a bit of regular active trade along those very same ships, which means a Teleport can handle all the things which a ship fails to handle in time. Apparently there's some scheme where this makes all the shipping more efficient between the two, because anything which is too slow goes on a Teleport and therefore there's no need to wait as long as you buy transport services through the Bank of Abadar and don't need any specific promises about how exactly it will go? She didn't follow all of it, honestly, the Bank clerks were very enthusiastic and very certain it was a clever and valuable scheme and that was all she really needed to know.

The important part of all of this is that there's a Teleport every two or three days, despite how short a route it's covering. Three a week. Fortunately, there happened to be one scheduled for today, so they didn't have to choose between rushing to be ready yesterday or delaying an extra day on getting to Magnimar. She meets Yanor an hour or so in advance, at the Bank.

Yanor is there at the appointed time. He has a familiar large pack and his magic items and not much else.

She looks quite similar! The only interesting thing is what she has in her pack.

"You find yourself prepared?"

"Yes. I didn't need to do much, all things considered. I travel a lot."

"And this time I have Prestidigitation, which will no doubt make the trip a more pleasant and less stench-filled experience. Let us acquire our spaces, then."

Inside! Can she successfully purchase a spot on the Teleport and a draft for... call it one hundred sails... to use to open an account on the other side? And if so, will there also be space for Yanor? Not much point in her going alone. (Lhín will be staying behind and vanishing, of course. She can reappear tomorrow as usual.)

Tencednil can purchase teleport slots and acquire a banker's draft.

Oh good. She lets Yanor pay for his, and they wait. She can make some conversation while they are waiting, but they shouldn't talk about anything important in the middle of the bank. Getting to know Yanor better is still a good thing if she's going to be working closely with him for a while, though.

Yanor is happy to make conversation. He hasn't learned anything new since they last spoke, but that's to be expected.

Time passes. Soon enough, the teleport is ready. It seems to be using the same bag and shrink setup as the other route.

Makes sense! It's the same bank, after all. (She's lighter than average, and Lhín doesn't weigh very much — she might be able to take Lhín with her on one of these if she pushes for it? Not important here, though, they can do without Lhín for a day.)

Shrink, into bag, comfort people when needed, out of bag on the other side? Does anything work out differently this time?

There's no severe pressure change when she exits the bag. Other than that, everything is pretty much the same.

Out on the other side to deposit the draft. She never appreciated how her ears usually aren't trying to explode or cave in until she experienced it happening.

"Are there specific people to whom you expect this to be of interest, do you plan to seek at random, or do you have some more precise plan for finding others?" She can help with random seeking, but it will probably be slow.

"I know some who might be interested. If they aren't available, I expect recruiting will take a little longer."