Chapter 20: Chapter 18- The Docks

Green Oasis is the lynchpin of cross-desert trade, travel, and cultural exchange that allows people to go from Sugal in the east to Grika in the north to the Affex Isle in the southwest without needing to sail or skirt the edge of the desert. Oddly enough, the now-massive city was created by a gang of pirates. The Green Blood Gang found the titular oasis and named it Green Oasis. After decades of a burgeoning city growing on the oasis, the gang dropped their pirate ways and became the guardians of the city. 

Nowadays, they have such a fierce hatred of pirates that most don’t dare to raid around the city.

-Excerpt from ‘Traveling the World,’ By Gelnak

 

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Their skiff slowed to a crawl as they reached the gates of the city. Two soldier-manned skiffs rushed from beyond the gate and had them surrounded. The guards wore masks of determination up until they caught a glimpse of the uncleaned scene of slaughter on the Kharon’s deck. Most, if not all, of them began to chuckle, breaking into a full blown laugh. “Haha! Hey, you two mind letting us aboard?”

Mori raised a bony thumb, making some of the orcs yelp in surprise. After a moment, they warily began the process of boarding the boat, their earlier laughter gone. Fara gave Mori a glare, “You can understand that?” she asked, baffled.

She giggled, “Of course. He didn’t have an accent, after all.”

“He didn’t- oh gods dammit,” Fara groaned, “It’s your language Trait filtering out their near-incomprehensible accent out. You lucked out then; I had to learn orcish common from scratch,” she sighed.

After a few moments, a board of clocksteel clattered onto the Kharon and a host of soldiers followed, wielding rifles. They briefly glanced around, not sparing a glance to the pile of dead bodies, and quickly caught sight of Mori and Fara, “Good day to you,” the leading orc said, nodding in greeting, “I have to ask… you two do not happen to be Sand Scale pirates, are you?” he asked cautiously.

“No, no,” Mori laughed, “They attacked us and we killed them. Admiral —what was his name— Ah, Yutrad Iulia! That was it! Admiral Yutrad Iulia found us right afterwards and let us go. Is there anything else you need, officer?”

The orc looked into her calm, gently swaying flame-eyes and pulled out a clipboard and sheet of paper, “Alright, I’ll check with the scholars later. For now, though, we have to ask you a few questions; suspicious folk get them, alright?” Mori and Fara nodded, “Good then. Firstly… well I can guess who used to own the ship, but I have to ask anyway. Who owns this ship and what’s her name?”

Fara stepped forward, “We both do. Her name’s The Kharon.”

The guard nodded, “Alright then. The Kharon though? Odd name,” he commented.

Mori wanted to smirk, but lacked the face to do it, “I named her. It’s a name from my homeland— of a man who brought the souls of the dead to the god of death.”

“God of death? Odd way of calling the Great God of the Death Tides but whatever,” he replied with a shrug, “Anyway, second question: Why are you two visiting Green Oasis?”

“Reward money, supplies, ship redesign, shopping, a lot of stuff,” Mori said offhandedly, “All that.”

He nodded once more, “Okay, one more: Is there anywhere specific you wanted to visit within the city?” he asked, “This one’s not an official question, but it’s a tradition for us guards— one that makes folk a bit nicer in the city walls, believe it or not.”

Fara shared a glance with Mori, “Well, the docks for one,” she stated, earning a chuckled from the orcs, “After that, somewhere we can sell trade goods, buy clocksteel, rune ink, and a place where I can fix this mechanical trash heap.”

“And the Green Blood Hall. We were told to go there to get our reward,” Mori added.

The orc smiled, “Alright then. The docks’ll be obvious when you get past the city gates; you really can’t miss it. Selling your erm… rightfully obtained property is just as easy. Merchants and peddlers crowd the docks to buy the goods before they hit the bazaar. For clocksteel and rune paint, go to the quartermaster of the docks. He handles that sort of thing for much less than other merchants… What was the last thing?”

“A skiff modification dock,” Fara repeated.

“That, yeah. Ask the quartermaster for that as well. It’s actually a bit cheaper than privately owned docks, but the ones we have are just as good,” he stated confidently, “Besides, you should be able to afford it either way with the bounty of the Sand Scales.”

Mori tilted her head ever so slightly, “How much was that rapist bastard’s head worth?”

He chuckled at her venomous words, “About 80,000 chips, last I heard.”

Fara’s eyes widened, “80,000!? How!? I’ve heard of ships over double this one’s size going for only a hundred thousand, so why are these guys worth so much!?” she asked in astonishment.

“Notoriety, obviously. That, and they pissed off the wrong types around Nolus. With their death, those folk’ll pay you handsomely. Don’t worry about that, though, ‘cause Green Oasis pays any far-off bounties personally, so you don’t have to go all the way there to collect,” he explained.

“Oh,” Mori said, “Well, that’s all we have. You?”

He shook his head, “Nothing of note, really. Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you where the Green Blood Hall is. It’s in the center of the city, next to the Shrine. You can’t miss it. Anyway, you two have a good day.” He and his men boarded their patrol skiff and re-entered the city, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. 

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“Well, then,” Mori said, “He was a good guy, wasn’t he?”

Fara chuckled, “Of course he was. Don’t trust everyone here, though. Most orcs just want a good fight, but some are much more… subtle with what they want. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, tell the lich to be careful. Got it, boss. Anyway, let’s get going, captain!” she shouted. Fara smiled and drove the Kharon slowly into the gates of Green Oasis.

Just beyond the gates, a stretch of sand followed a wall, shorter than the outer wall and connected to it by many tall, sandstone bridges with wide enough gaps to allow a large skiff to pass. Other walls jutted out into the sand like the docks of a port. “That’s pretty much just a port made from a high wall… Weird,” Mori said.

“What did you expect?” Fara asked, “It’s a skiff dock. That wall right there actually runs around the entire rest of the city. I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be a second line of defense once the gates are blocked and the bridges are exploded. If we were still on my little skiff, we would be going through that gate over there,” she said while pointing to a smaller gate, “Honestly though, most come here through the docks; no one would be stupid enough to travel long distance on foot.”

Mori absentmindedly nodded as she examined the skiffs sitting in the docks. Most of them were made from either steel or clocksteel, with a few made of wood. A large convoy of skiffs near the far side of the dock were made of wood, showing their status, and were heavily armed, with a whole host of crewmates and cannons. 

They eventually found a place to dock close to the front gate and, after Mori ordered her zombies to carry the bodies in the hold of the ship, they disembarked. The dock was bustling with people, mostly orcs with almost disgustingly large muscles or other oddly natural features but other types such as humans, chimerics, or even the occasional elf appeared, filled with shouting and business. Mori pulled her hood up to not cause a scene and followed Fara as she walked up to the nearest merchant. The orcish woman sitting on a stack of crates, a pair of winding horns coming out of her head and wearing a standard white shirt and pair of pants, caught sight of them quickly and gave a nearly burningly scrutinizing eye. Fara walked up to her and held out a hand, “Fara Notchings.”

“Axus Venui,” the woman replied. 

They shook hands for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes, and Fara spoke, “We have a cargo hold of goods we don’t want. You want to take a look around?”

The woman’s face brightened and she leapt off her pile of boxes, “Of course I would,” she said, “Vius! Make sure no one takes any of the cargo!” she shouted over the pile. A single, pitch black hand poked over the boxes with a thumbs up and Axus laughed, “Funny guy,” she said, “Anyway, what kind of loot are we talkin’ about here? Spice? Gold? Perhaps some illegal stuff?” she guessed with a fervor Mori had only seen in Fara when she was talking about her mechanical inventions.

Fara shrugged, “We haven’t had an opportunity to take a deep dive,” she admitted, making the woman somehow more excited, “By the way, are you afraid of undead?” 

The woman shot them a short, questioning look, but shook her head, “No, but I would suggest you keep that little tidbit to yourself,” she cautioned.

Mori tilted her head and spoke in her usual, slightly husky feminine voice, “Why?”

“Because the blue robes’ll hound you if they see you with undead. You know how they are, right?” she asked with a glance at the robed figure next to her.

Mori shrugged, followed by Fara, “I don’t know what you’re talking about; I thought necromancers were normal?”

The woman sighed as they began to walk up the clocksteel plank up to the ship, “They are, but in the last decade, they’ve been all ‘we need to steal power from the Demon of the Clock’ and ‘Only those chosen by the Creators may wield their gifts.’ It’s all politics. I hope,” she said with disdain.

They reached the top of the plank soon enough, cresting the edge of the skiff and standing on the deck. The woman stopped as she noticed the lizardmen zombies carrying the corpses of the other pirates into the hold of the ship through the stairway in the cabin, “Welcome to the Kharon,” Mori introduced, beckoning her along with a gloved hand. 

The woman took a moment and looked up at the flag flying on the mast of the ship, the tiniest smile touching her lips, “You two took all this from the Sand Scales then… I’m impressed,” she said, “But you should probably take some time to clean up before you invite guests.” She and Fara followed Mori into the hull, winding around the zombies who had begun to store the dead in a side room just large enough for them to fit, and made their way through the other layers. Both Fara and Axus grumbled about the propulsion of the ship, something Mori paid no mind to as she descended into the final level of the ship. 

Boxes labeled as ‘spices,’ ‘wheat,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘spare parts’ were spread around the hold with the disgusting cage in the center. Mori suppressed the urge to tear the cage in half and gestured to the boxes, seventy in all, “Here’s what we have. What do you want and how much are you willing to pay for it?” she asked. Axus said nothing, simply opening one of the spice boxes and looking through it delicately. She soon closed the box and moved on to the next one, labeled ‘spare parts,’ finding the contents of little interest. She closed the box and moved on to the box of iron. She picked up a small chunk of raw iron and placed it back, looking at a few before closing the box. She did the same with the box of wheat, finding nothing wrong with it and putting it back. 

She turned to the two, “I want all of it,” she declared, “Fifty thousand chips. Take it or leave it.”

Mori gave the woman a critical look from beneath her hood while Fara was almost overflowing with excitement, “Why fifty thousand?” she asked, tone sharp.

Axus worked her jaw for a moment, “Normally I would give you forty thousand, but the Sand Scales were a pain in the ass of literally any trader around here. I’m giving you this as a thank you for taking care of them, alright? Besides, you’ve probably saved me more money than I spent here by taking a band of pirates out. So, what do you say?” she asked, holding out her hand.

Mori held out her right hand, shaking the woman’s outstretched hand, “You have a deal,” she replied, “Do you have someone to take all of this out?”

Nodding, she began to walk out, “Of course I do. I was just waiting for my crew to get here. Once they get here, I’ll take the goods and pay you then.” Just as they reached the upper deck, she pointed at a large, warship-sized skiff sailing in from the outer gate, “That’s them. We’ll be done in a few minutes at most.” In the next ten minutes, Axus and her crew took every box she had bought from them and handed them a box full of coins, “Alright then. Pleasure doing business with ya!” she shouted as she walked off with her last box.

Mori watched as they loaded the cargo onto their own ship and tugged on Fara’s sleeve, “Now that I think about it, how much does a ship cost? We’ll have… 137 thousand after we get our reward, so I was wondering how much we could do with this.”

Fara snapped out of her reverent examination of the chest of chips and whipped her head around to face Mori, “Oh, well, normally, a skiff like this one costs about 100 thousand with all the bells and whistles. This is… not that. A skiff like the one Admiral Yutrad was commanding would be about 300 thousand minimum. 500 thousand maximum. Beyond that… I would rather we try our hand at making a skiff-fortress,” she laughed. 

Mori shrugged, “Fair enough. So, what now?”

“Umm… do you want to wait for Unio to finish his Trait selection?” Fara asked.

“Of course,” Mori said, “I want to be there for his first moments of higher intelligence.”

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