Artemis rolled his pack onto his shoulders, and groaned at it's weight. He shrugged it into place, and drew the waist strap tight. He took a few experimental steps and found it not too heavy. Soot of course had the heaviest backpack of them all, it was he who carried the heaviest armor, and his hammer was almost too heavy for Artemis to lift, but he donned the pack smoothly and with ease. Artemis pondered at the mechanics of Soot's leg brace, and wondered if Soot would craft him a similar machine.
Lizbeth was wearing a chainmail dress, which had a hood of strange links sewn on, which she had said was her supplement for a helmet. She wore it against the advice of Soot, who was carrying his armor, forged from the hard chitin that was the local beetle's exoskeleton.
The tall halfling didn't carry a pack, just a belt pouch, much to the surprise of the others. He still wore his red coat, and when Artemis had seen three knives hidden in the lining of it, he gulped, if the red halfling's knife fighting skill was anywhere near the level of his lockpicking competence.......
Dex wore a small pack that couldn't have contained all the things that Artemis had, but when he asked Dex about it Soot had gruffly cut in and said that he carried some of Dex's things, on account of him not being able to carry them all. Artemis had realized that Soot had never stopped viewing Dex as his baby brother, and Dex had never stopped looking up at his big brother, almost a father to the smaller man.
Artemis looked around him, and winced. They hadn't decided on a better form of transport than walking, and Soot set a hard pace once Artemis had told him their target location. The damp grass was still burdened with dew, a mist that hung between this world and the next resided between Artemis' knees and nose, and he looked enviously upon the tall halfling who strode through the cloud without a second thought.
They had been walking for four hours at least, the start time of the venture moved forward on account of everyone arriving early. The break they had just had was ending with a silent groan from Artemis, for while he was a master assassin, he was hardly a fit one. His usual method of getting his job done including either excess invisibility or extensive teleportation. He remembered one time when he had teleported into a room full of goblins, stabbed the leader, then teleported out again. He chuckled at the memory.
'Something funny, Artemis?' said Soot.
'The river Oostle is not far. We should reach it soon. I organized a boatmen .... acquaintance of mine to pick us up from there.' Artemis said, not quite ready to share the stories of his younger days. Maybe he should retire from assassination, and just rule his city? Artemis looked down at his stomach, which had once been a flat, hard knot of muscle, and grumbled at the swelling hillock there.
Artemis had been right, the had reached the river at roughly noon that day, rolling the packs of and stretching out the kinks and cramps slowly.
The ferry stop was no more than a log platform that ramped down into the water. There were four-foot tall reeds banking the river, and on the land-ward side of these was flat, soggy grass stretching out for at least a kilometer. The platform was the only break in the reeds along the south-western bank and the group could see no such facility, or even a break in the reeds on the opposite side. The river was wide enough to be treacherous for an incompetent swimmer, but the river was sluggish, though Artemis know further down it would get faster. Artemis silently commandeered half of one of the large benches, his three foot frame allowing him to lie flat on the bench, and only take up a bisection of the seat. Soot sat next to him, his hips and shoulders almost taking up the same width as Artemis' length. Lizbeth and Dex sat on the other, Dex constantly shifting his weight, suggesting to Artemis that he was uncomfortable with his proximity with the pulchritudinous priest.
