"Them as asks no questions don't get told no lies"
This was one of the fishermens mantras along with its corollary of "loose lips sink ships" something their less fortunate merchant brethren might well have profited
from, given their tendency towards boasting of their accomplishments in the Citadels harbour taverns.
Success had come quite suddenly to Brythans exchequer following a number of changes from the traditional way of cautious tight lipped trading using coastal vessels.
A new type of craft, the carraque, broad and deeper draughted than before, could carry much greater loads and possessed raised fore and aft superstructures that gave an advantage to archers when engaged in battle. These were rich prizes worth the risk of attacking despite the latter advantage which most merchant captains were too tight fisted to take advantage of. After all who wanted to pay for a dozen or more seas sick landsmen who like as not would prove useless when needed anyway?
So Timothy had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and arranged his journey with a fishing vessel that unlike most took its catch to another place than its home port. This was part of a profitable arrangement in which various goods were exchanged at sea with their continental counterparts who saw no reason why essential services should pay taxes and for whom fresh fish was worth more than the commonplace wines they swapped for some of the fish.
Thus his clandestine conveyance eventually landed him as far as the northernmost small port of Brythan from which he bought a stocky but strong little pony fitted with saddlebags to hold his plans and various necessities that should suffice for the last step of his journey towards the Barrier crossing he had once discovered by fortunate accident whilst fleeing adversaries he thought sent by a guild envious of his clock making skills.
At least this time he was prepared for the strange encounter with a non corporeal presence that seemed to enter his thoughts and pass judgement as to whether or not he should pass beyond the crumbling ruins it seemed to inhabit. Yet the Barrier did not exist to the everyday folk that inhabited the northern area of Brythan although it was sparsely inhabited at best mainly because of its inhospitable terrain and atrocious weather patterns.
The Barrier had been erected in the distant past to provide sanctuary for the elder races such as elves, dwarves, brownies, goblins and other such little folk who had fled to Brythan after coming close to being exterminated by the ancestors of mankind as they conquered the lands of the eastern continent.
Although but a small island barely seven leagues distant at its closest point to the continent; Brythan was isolated and protected by its savage unpredictable waves and weather patterns, fierce currents and numerous sandbars and hidden reefs often adjacent to the few natural harbours or river estuaries.
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