Thus we arrived into Ifin, the capital of Abasis, a large kingdom nearest to the free cities we had previously adventured in.
As we moored and stepped out unto the docks, we were approached by the city guard who demanded taxes to be paid. I made sure they were friendly to us with a quick spell, then bade them lead us to the harbormaster. I tried another charm spell, just to lower the costs; I instead got a knife put to my back, and the costs doubled. So that was a disaster, and also a personal failure for my sorceress, who firmly believed in using magic to solve every issue in life.
We then looked for lodging, while noticing several eyes watching our every movement. I was wary of attracting attention with another spell, so the guys decided on solving the issue manually: by provoking a good old fashion bar fight.
"Us girls" pulled back to a corner, and were immediately accosted by a drunkard. I tried to shoo him away with a command spell, but failed concentration as the drunk man just embraced Valeria directly. Barbarian to the rescue! Of course, just beating up the drunkard wasn't enough for Biznard; he used the opportunity to spark the bar fight.
I still did not want to attract attention with spells after the morning's failure, so I hid and watched the fight, feeling pretty useless.
Biznard dove into the thick of it, beating up drunks left and right, but failing to catch any of the guys doing surveillance.
Athosian got into a ranged fight with a man, throwing beer mugs at each other. She finally advanced into melee range, but had to be rescued by Cahir, as the drunk got ahold of her hair and started punching her in the face.
Shamil tried to catch and rob the barkeep, who had fled to call the guard. He missed him, and so dived behind the bar to loot some drinks. The angry barmaid beat him up with a rag.
By the time the guard got in, everyone was soundly beat up, and we were sitting at our table, having a nice quiet drink. With nothing to do, the guardsmen left, and the barkeep made enough money from whatever the drunks had in their pockets to cover the damage. We stayed for the night.
And so an hour or so of real time went by, at the end of which the DM was happy to have conducted a bar fight, and the guys were happy that they participated in one. No actual results other than 5 copper pieces looted, though. Also 3 coppers disappeared from Shamil's pockets, despite us having taken measures against intruders. An unsolved mistery...
The day after, we went shopping. Athosian secured her huge block of ice (to be melted while unlocking her artifact). Shamil and Biznard upgraded weapons using superior local metals. I bought myself 50 pounds of copper - by not needing smelting ingredients, I got away with only half of the unlock price! We also sold unnecessary equipment and alchemical ingredients from the griffon.
Guided by Valeria, Cahir discovered the abilities of the medal looted from the werebear: it enables him to communicate with animals.
Two more events of note happened before we finally decided to leave town.
The food brought to our ship was poisoned - thank the gods I habitually bless all food before consumption! A sailor managed to eat some, and promptly died. We pursued the delivery boy, who got away in the sewers. There we were faced with a disturbing fact: the city is using undead to clean the sewers and do other menial labor! Nothing to do, as of yet.
We were invited to a local noble house, the Dolsaki's, for tea. The matron of the house hired us to make sure her husband safely returns home for next month's court ball - incidentally, he headed out on a business trip towards the region we're heading next not long before a demented fisherman started spouting nonsense about the ocean swallowing entire cities there. Well, crap.
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