The Pass to Moskoria

The city of Urma guards the mountain pass from Gwondel Leigu to the Moskorian plains. When we approached the city gate, I nearly turned tail and fled, for guarding it was two warriors of no less than 8 feet tall.These were not trolls, as I thought, but humans, of the Tolguldi race, which I had read about in the Maravelda Academy. When I, still shaking, explained my mistake to the guards, who were very fair to behold, they started searching through our packs with gusto, no doubt looking for mind altering drugs. They did find Baldyr's small mirrors, trinkets he used to sell to women for...various reasons, and immediately impounded them, as any such reflective goods are seen as contraband, banned by the Shar Kishati'n of the Holy Kishate. I later learned that the Tolguldi are fearsome warriors, who have guarded this pass for as long as anyone can remember, but they are also scared of confined spaces and fires, apparently.

Urma itself is rich, from craftsmanship in wood, iron and stone. Some wood elves from Gwondel Leigu appear here from time to time, but rarely stay for long, as half-peoples are frowned upon in all the domains of the Kishate. Dwarves are even less welcome.

We learned that Shamashi love for edicts is without limits. This is a sample from a placard in a tavern:

* For food-stuff, only non-tender meat from aged oxen is allowed, because, as SHAMASH says: "Leathery meat provideth the mouth with work, and less yapping amongst those who eat".

* When spice is added to food, an equal measure of gall is to be added as well, for so sayeth SHAMASH: "Food should be watered of the eye's tears, for in the innards of humans, it shall rot, and its taste is but an illusion, and trickery upon the tongues of the people".

In the city, the only available lodging consists of halls with twenty beds each, on wooden or stamped earth floor, with a blanket of no more than two seeds' thickness. This is because Shamashi disciples believe that dreams are illusions sent to lead humans astray, and seek to avoid having them.

Needless to say, we left this joyless city first light.