Argentum Road

The road to Argentum is deceptively named. It is much more. While it meets its eastern terminal point at the Viktel Aria, traveled west it can deliver a man to the very shores of Thassa. Before reaching Argentum, travelers west might be diverted a number of ways. The lure of the Mighty Vosk or even the Black Sardar can be reached along the Pilgrim Road. That very same road, taken south, puts travelers on the Silk Road, which runs to Torcadino and for those of sturdier sandals, the desert metropolis of Tor and the Tahari Desert. Should a man be determined to continue west, however, the famed Plains of Eteocles and Fields of Hesius will be on his itinerary. The lore of these places has been forgotten to all but the most devout of military scholars and Scribes, but the Issus and Lake Ias are noteworthy as their water is diverted south to Torcadino on their marvelous aqueducts. I have traveled this road and even visited the city of Argentum, famous for its silver mines like its sister city Corcyrus and the more infamous Tharna to the north. Further west along this road lies Brundisium, well known for her sympathies to the Isle of Cos I cannot say my visit there was pleasant. Difficult as it is to believe, the smooth tones and pitch-perfect enunciation of the men of Ar is not welcome in every corner of the world. I found myself speaking very little or, when able, not at all.

From the Port City of Brundisium, I found an appreciation for Thassa. Nothing like the appreciation a rogue of Port Kar or a Cloth Worker of Tabor might have of course. Just a profound recognition of her might and her beauty. I traveled south along the Genesian Coast with the waves at my right and the mountainous forests of the Ta Thassa at my left. I owned a girl then; a pretty peasant thing that was uncharacteristically frail but possessing every ounce of pride and attitude expected of a girl from the villages. I miss her now and again. She was good at tending the seaside fires and keeping the cool breezes at bay. She had a mouth on her, but that is nothing that cannot be backhanded away or, if necessary, beaten out of a woman.

There is much more to this trip, both left out and left to come, but it is a tale for another time. When I come to a crossroads, as we have tonight at the Viktel Aria and Argentum Roads, it is merely pleasant to recall the paths one's life has already traveled.