What I thought were simply mountains that there were some cottages along turned out to be heavily developed. Terraces line many of the foothills and even portions of some of the mountains themselves. Stone brick roads crisscross fields with no end in sight. I could even spot some of the telltale tunnels that the dwarves dig into mountainsides to get to the resources inside. It must have taken centuries or millennia to construct everything. Occasional houses dot the fields, constructed from stone bricks, while houses built along the terraced hills are partially embedded into the hillside itself.
However, as we started traveling towards and then through the pass, it became clear that not everywhere was like that. Some areas are simply more developed than others, but there does seem to at least be roads connecting the areas together. Even the less developed regions have homes along the main road with fields growing dwarven crops.
The pass itself stood out quite impressively. It wasn't particularly narrow, and we traveled close enough to the dwarven coast to keep sight of land. The narrowest section was about 10 miles wide, marked on both sides by steep cliffs rising up to foothills. In fact, maneuvering through the pass was filled with a few dangerous portions where small, rocky outcroppings would rise out of the water. If you count the outcroppings, then perhaps the narrowest point is only a few miles wide instead, but that's difficult to say.
What I can say is that the pass itself is quite incredible. Many tall cliffs line it, some with observation posts rising up. More than one eagle seemed interested in our ship, but none tried approaching us. I'm certain that we were spotted by multiple observers who are probably panicking. The terrain is fairly unsuitable along most of the pass for any sort of lifestyle, especially given that the winds are whipping through here with gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour. It's honestly incredible that any wind powered ship is capable of maneuvering out through this, though I suppose with enough patience and a skillful hand it'd be possible.
Shasta informed me that the pass itself has much less violent winds in winter, which probably was a contributing factor to why winter was the time of year that the dwarves were actually able to reach us. The winds seemed to drive a lot of evaporation through the breaking waves of the water, and the ambient mana in the atmosphere was about 20% higher than normal there.
After a solid couple of hours of travel encompassing about 60 miles of distance, the pass widened out and started to spread in two different directions, opening up to a sea in front of us, and functional coastline on one side. The other side also had coast according to Shasta, but the distance to it was too far for us to see now. The port we planned to stop at had also come into view. The coast, while functional, was still quite rough in this section, but a fjord about a half-mile wide cut inward, and about two miles up the fjord the water spread out into a lake.
There was a lot of apprehension as we approached the fjord. On either side of the opening, stone encampments were built that looked a lot like the encampments at Kao's island, which meant they probably were also using the artillery we'd designed previously. We were actively flying a flag with our insignia on it. While I had missed any opportunities to send messages to the mainland through Elora and any of the messenger birds that had come to our island, she had supposedly told them of the strange ship that we'd be bringing supplies with. That didn't make it any less stressful to pass through the guarded pass, however.
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As we made it up through the fjord and reached the lake, a city spread into view, and into the lake, a handful of docks reached inward. The lake itself was fed by two smaller rivers that cut out through their own valleys in the rugged terrain. The lake sat nested inside a circular valley with only a few ways in and out naturally, though we could see clear tunnels cut into the hillsides that likely facilitated travel. Along the ridges of the valley, periodic stone towers climbed above the treeline, the rivers had their own defensive encampments, and the one land valley had a large wall bridging from one side to the other. Overall, it was a very well defended city. I shouldn't have been surprised when I was informed that the city's name was Ostark, given the dwarven conventions for taking names, and the fact this is Kao Ostark's territory.
The city itself made me realize that our capitol wasn't really a city by size or population. My initial guess was about 50,000 people lived here, and Shasta said the normal number would be closer to 70,000. Depending on refugees and military excursions, it could be higher or lower right now. We did, however, get the city's attention. The docks, and just about anywhere with a view of the lake, were lined with dwarves and humans, clearly shocked to see such a massive, metal ship.
We actually ended up waiting in the middle of the lake for about thirty minutes before we sent Shasta and the other dwarves off on a rowboat to head to land. There were only 2 potential docks we could use, and both were currently occupied. I figured it'd end up taking a while for either of the occupied docks to get cleared for us to properly dock given the commotion our ship was causing, so at the very least we could send the dwarves back to their people.
Shasta worked pretty fast once she made it to land, and within 7 hours we were fully docked, the sun was already setting behind the mountains surrounding us at that point. Once we got closer to dock, the crowds started to panic. They'd seen Shasta and the dwarves arrive on the rowboat, and without telescopes or binoculars, it'd be hard to tell that the rest of us on the ship were demons, especially since the majority of the crew are goblins and hobgoblins. Once we were close enough, however, it was clear that we were demons. I shouldn't be that surprised. Even though we seemingly sent some dwarves back to their homeland, the majority of the population is probably only aware that demons are decimating their homeland, and most probably aren't even aware of our little island nation.
The guards had tried to clear the crowds out prior to us actually making it to the shoreline, but they most the managed was clearing a few of the docks. Despite the majority of the crowd panicking and fleeing from us, which quite possibly caused some amount of injuries, there were some who stayed to continue watching. Perhaps it was just a sense of morbid curiosity, or maybe an understanding that if we really were here to do harm, surely the military in the city wouldn't be assisting us in docking. In any case, I was surprised to see Kao himself making his way up the dock, along with what looked like a handful of other important people.
That put me in a bit of a pinch. There are two very important facts that came to my mind in that moment. First, leaders and important people tend to be individually very powerful. Second, the ship's real strength is staying at a distance from enemies where that individual power can't be utilized. I know Kao well enough to know that a rash decision like trying to kill us to take the ship would be more of a liability than it would an asset, but it isn't just dwarves in the entourage. Since the remnants of Rathland are the ones he's having to work with militarily right now, things would easily get messy if handled poorly.
Level: 71
HP: 5789/5789
MP: 2570/2570
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance, Partial Sleep
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands, Pulverize, Thermal Regulation
While I'm probably the strongest individual on the ship, I'd been neglecting leveling the last few years to fully focus on increasing our technological level. It's only in the moment that I was starting to think I should have maybe taken that extra time to do so. None-the-less it was a good reminder that just because I'm not seeing the threats around me all the time doesn't mean I shouldn't be prepared for them. Or, as Teddy Roosevelt said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Being strong prevents others from strong arming you in the moment, and we're opening ourselves up to getting temporarily strong armed by parking here.