If you aren't on this mission, feel free to hang out in Port Hope.The following characters are on this mission:
Sonja Cadmilsious, an Eldanic woman subject to House Chan.
Skills: Smith I, Canny I, Melee I, Survival I.
Equipment: Claymore (2d8 damage, 2H),
Leather Armor (2AR, 0EN),
5 ducats
Status: 6/6HP.
To-Hit: 7 (soak 2 damage).
Lodgings: McGee's Flophouse (5d/Mission)
Job: Jobbing Smith (10d/Mission, 5d shop rent)
Talmyr Siriss, a Hatcuri female subject to House Chan.
Skills: Arcane II, Archer I, Woodworking I.
Magic: Force (No spells)
Equipment: Longbow (2d6+1 damage to long range, 2H) [23 arrows],
Leather Armor (2AR, 0EN)
Status: 6/6HP.
To-Hit: 7 (soak 2 damage).
Lodgings: McGee's Flophouse (5d/Mission)
Job: -
Egil, a Weylander man subject to House Ival.
Skills: Melee II, Parry I, Survival I.
Equipment: Battleaxe (2d6+2 damage),
Spear (1d6+2 damage, free attack vs charger, attack to short range),
Leather Armor (2AR, 0EN),
2 Shields (3/3hp),
Sling (1d6 damage to medium range) [25 bullets]
Status: 6/6HP.
To-Hit: 8 (soak 2 damage, up to 3 on shield).
Lodgings: McGee's Flophouse (5d/Mission)
Job: -
Sinimis Valentibus, a Hatcuri male subject to the CTC.
Skills: Arcane III.
Magic: Mentalism
Equipment: Robes (Clothing),
Writing Kit (charcoal and paper in satchel)
Status: 6/6HP.
To-Hit: 7.
Spell Aspects: Rage [Component: A Burning Orphanage (mental construct)]
Lodgings: McGee's Flophouse (5d/Mission)
Job: -
Tadisill Coerpus, a Korlanese man subject to House Ival.
Skills: Archer I, Stealth I, Survival I, Woodworking I.
Equipment: Longbow (2d6+1 damage to long range, 2H) [23 arrows],
Leather Armor (2AR, 0EN)
Status: 6/6HP.
To-Hit: 7 (soak 2 damage).
Lodgings: McGee's Flophouse (5d/Mission)
Job: Jobbing Carpenter (10d/Mission, 5d shop rent)
55 days' rations (for one person)
Tent
Following the map you were given, it takes the promised three days to reach the foothills leading to Teping Mine. As you leave the port you pass through wide flat expanses of snow separated by fences, which in warmer times serve as fields for the local cabbage growers. In one field you even see some hardy goats nibbling through the snow at what roots and provender they can find, a well-wrapped goatherd watching over them. As you pass he touches a heavy club at his belt, as if that would ward you off.
As you journey on, it becomes clear that apart from the more gentle slopes of the actual Iron Coast, most of this region consists of mountains and valleys, and your map and eyes indicate a morass of them. Conditions for travel are hardly ideal, either, but on the second day the skies are clear and you are able to see in the distant haze a single mountain rising above the rest of the peaks like a spire. During the travel you do not over-exert yourselves, so the party's injuries from their arrival on the Coast have time to heal.
Teping Mine, from your map, is located half-way up one of the treacherous valleys that comprise this land. You mostly stick to the cleared road through the lowlands, but as you get further and further from hope the road becomes a trail, and then starts snaking up through the mountainside. You wonder how anyone would get iron down to the port from this isolated location, but you witness something that you had not really realised from the map - a long, snaking and frozen river runs through some of the valleys, including that of Teping Mine. It runs an oblique route that would take about twice as long to travel as the path did, but it would be ideal for barging heavy cargo which did not have to be anywhere in a hurry.
As you cross along the cliff-like edge of the valley towards the distant speck of buildings that must comprise the mine, you encounter a blockage. A heavy drift of snow and loose rocks has completely covered the pass ahead, rendering it near impossible to traverse. You could potentially try and find another way around, but that would stretch out your journey considerably and the valley side is almost certainly too steep to climb down. What will you do?