The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 266

As the caravan moved forward, some hills and rocky hills gradually appeared in front of everyone's eyes, and the road began to become rough.On the horizon in the distance, you can even see a series of faint mountains, which are the Gray Wind Mountain Range, and the Ainuooke Desert is on the other side of the mountain range.

The Guangyao River, which has always been parallel to the road, began to fork here. Of course, it did not flow in two directions, but two rivers from different origins converged here, thus forming a Sancha estuary. Locke Town is located in Sancha At the upper end of the estuary, this small town is surrounded by water on three sides, only the side facing the Gray Wind Mountains has a tall city wall.The river is very fast, but fortunately the river is not too wide, and there is a simple wooden bridge that allows caravans to pass through it.Not far from the wooden bridge is the gate of Locke Town, but the caravan does not seem to have the intention of entering this town. The whole team marched slowly along the dirt road leading to the Gray Wind Mountain Range, and finally arrived at the town a few miles outside Locke Town. It stopped near a small rocky knoll.

A huge caravan did not enter the door, but the tax official who was on duty at the gate of Locke Town got angry and twisted his nose.For all the towns along the Black Road business road, trade taxation is definitely the most important guarantee for the prosperity of a town. Goods are traded in the town, food, lodging and supplies are provided for passing merchants, and road tax is collected.
Well, the taxation in Locke Town is a bit unreasonable, the character of the city guard is a bit bad, and the new city lord, Master Fitani Red Blade, is a bit greedy and stupid, which caused a large number of merchants to refuse to stay here, so that Taxes in the town of Yulok have dropped significantly, but none of this is an excuse for a tax collector to do nothing.

It's just that as a somewhat rational tax official in Rock Town, he can't just go outside the town to block the road to collect taxes, right? Wouldn't he become a robber blocking the road?This is outrageous.Fortunately, what happened next made the tax officer feel that his work was not in vain. After the caravan established a camp, although the animals and goods were left in the camp and arranged properly, not all people were willing to stay here overnight. Some of them (including merchants and mercenaries) chose to enter Locke Town. After all, there is not enough wine and women in the wild.

Perhaps to retaliate against these "thieves" who deliberately evaded the road tax, the tax officer imposed a constant rate of entry tax on everyone who entered the town, which made everyone who wanted to enter the town to have fun very dissatisfied. But except for a few guys who really cared about money, the others still paid money and entered the town while cursing.

The early Locke Town was a mining town similar to Mirabar City. Thousands of human and dwarf miners worked hard in the mines here, and its commercial location is more advantageous than Mirabar. The first human starting town in the Ainuooke Desert from the west of the Commercial Road Black Road.It’s just that as time goes by, for some reason, there are gradually fewer and fewer miners here. More and more Rockmen are hired by caravans from the East, and they use livestock and horse-drawn carts to transport the goods of the merchants to Noisy Water City, West Combe and beyond, Waterdeep and Luskan.Only a small number of dwarven miners are still active in the ancient mines that are almost exhausted. Of course, it does not mean that the Graywind Mountains are really short of resources, but that the dwarves do not have enough manpower to open new mines.

Up to now, Locke Town has lost its status as a mining city like Mirabar City, Fort Fairbar and other cities in the past, but thanks to the blessing of the Black Road, it has not lost its prosperity in the past, and even attracted more people. Lots of guests, thieves, thieves, vultures. No rogues or scoundrels, because a group of mercenaries from the east brought a deformed order to the dark side of the city, if not for the new ruler of the city is really stupid enough If so, I believe Locke Town will be much more prosperous than all the cities along the Guangyao River.

William and his family chose to stay in the camp. The newly bought luxury tent was supported and fixed under the envious and sneering eyes of everyone. In fact, this expensive tent is not suitable for adventure and long-distance travel, because it is too expensive. It is heavy and difficult to carry, and the support is too cumbersome, and it is extremely troublesome to retract and unfold. Once in danger, it is equivalent to losing a large amount of heart-wrenching wealth. It is far less cost-effective than ordinary adventure tents (buying a luxury tent The fortune spent is worth nearly a hundred ordinary adventure tents).

But these so-called troubles are not a problem for the William family. The process of setting up the tent is cumbersome, so let’s treat the tent as a daily entertainment game. The whole family of five and a troublesome cat will do it together; William has a space ring from his concubine, and the "carrying problem" is not a problem at all. Although he didn't put the tent into the ring for the past few days in order to hide his clumsiness, he spent some effort to let the Los beast carry it, but William is willing to let no one do it. Method.

The tent was set up, William set up the copper pot and prepared to cook, the giants and the little girls squatted on the side and watched helplessly, not far away the cats and insects were "bullying" Jess, of course you can also regard it as a snow field Hunting practice of a young lion.The cat, which is already half the size of a wolf dog, still looks like a cute cat, but its soft paws and small baby teeth tell everyone that it is not the kind of hopeless domestic cat.

The little thing threw the struggling halfling to the ground with a tiger pounce, and then arched its big furry head around Jace's body - it hadn't learned to use its teeth to bite its prey.Jess desperately pushed Mao Mao Chong's furry head away, and ran and shouted, "Damn it! Get out of here, you big toothless cat! William, come and save my little girl, Take good care of your pet." But after a few steps, the halfling was thrown to the ground again by the cat and bug, and then the halfling got up again, and was thrown down by the cat and bug again. This is really an interesting trick for little things Son.

The town gates of Locke Town will close before sunset, so anyone who wants to stay in the town or stay in the camp will decide where to go at this time.Seeing the sun fading in the sky, Selyse came to William who was preparing firewood, and said, "William, I have to leave for a while."

William watched Finia split a log, watched Misha and Miluna step forward to pick up the wood chips and stuff them under the copper cooking pot, and then raised their heads to look at Celis, but they didn't He didn't speak, but was waiting for her next explanation.

Celis continued with an inexplicable and solemn tone: "In fact, my real destination is Locke Town. There are some troubles waiting for me to solve here. William, I hope you can."

Selyse seemed to want to say something, but she couldn't say it after all. Instead, she changed into a happy smile and said with a smile: "It's a pleasure to walk with you and your family, Mr. William. But I I have a suggestion, you'd better leave here before sunrise tomorrow, otherwise you will have a lot of trouble!" Then the beautiful woman greeted the others a few times, then hurriedly left the camp and walked towards The town gate of Locke Town.

(End of this chapter)