Getting Around

Sharn is an enormous city and traveling from one side to the other can be quite an ordeal. As a rough guideline…

• It takes up to 30 minutes to move around within a particular ward.
• If you’re traveling between wards, add 30 minutes for each ward you pass through.
• Dura and Tavick’s Landing are especially large; double the time to move through one of these quarters.

So traveling from Lower Menthis to Upper Central involves passing through three wards (Lower Menthis to Lower Central, then ascending two levels) and can take up to 90 minutes. If you want to add a little color to your travels, you can roll on the Street Encounters tables when you pass through a district. The Central quarter is only connected to Northedge and Menthis, and there’s no bridges between Dura and Northedge.

Traveling from district to district involves lots of bridges and ramps, along with magic lifts — vast floating disks that slowly ascend and descend along threads of mystical energy. Lifts are designed to move cargo and can be up to 30 feet in diameter. Most lifts have rails but aren’t fully enclosed; when fighting on a lift, pushing someone off the edge is always a possibility. Should this happen to you, the section on falling later in this chapter may prove useful!

There are many ways to speed up travel in Sharn. House Orien manages a system of coaches; taking an Orien coach cuts travel time in half and costs 2 CP per ward travelled. Flight is the prefered way to get through Sharn, cutting travel down to a sixth of the usual time (5 minutes per ward). It’s also more expensive: 2 SP per ward involved. The most common form of flight is the skycoach, but many flying mounts can also be encountered in Sharn: hippogriffs, griffons, glidewings (a small Talentan pteranodon), and giant owls can all be found around the city.

SKYCOACHES

Skycoaches are small flying vessels. They come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. A typical air taxi might resemble a rowboat, while a touring vessel could be the size of a longship and have an enclosed cabin for guests.

Unlike airships, skycoaches don’t make use of bound elementals. Sharn is located in a manifest zone that enhances magics tied to flight and levitation, and this is what makes both skycoaches and the towers themselves possible. If a skycoach is taken more than a mile away from Sharn, its enchantments will fail and it will crash.

House Lyrandar maintains and licenses most of the skycoaches in Sharn, but you don’t have to have the Mark of Storms to pilot an skycoach. It does require specialized training — a tool proficiency with air vehicles — so if you’re planning to steal an airship you’ll need to make sure you’ve got someone who can pilot it.

While religion is a wide thing within Sharn, Duras isn't very temple-orientated. A short trip to Lower Menthis Plateau (30 minute walk or 2sp and a 5 minute sky coach ride), the sign of The Sovereign Host can be seen outside the entrance to part of a tower.

Temple to The Sovereign Host - Lower Menthis Plateau

The temple itself is fairly bare bones, as are many places within Lower Sharn. There are people sitting and praying to the Nine Gods of their faith for various different things. Looking around, it doesn't seem that any people here are wearing black robes. Those colours are usually linked to The Dark Six.

You head out to grab a Sky Coach to head to Morgrave University. The ride will take 20 minutes (Lower Dura -> Lower Methis -> Middle Methis -> Upper Methis) and cost 8 SP total.

Morgrave University

In the upper Echelons of the city of Sharn, Boo steps out onto the sky touching network of pathways leading to the university. While not the most reputable of academic places of studies, it has a diverse range of subjects, including being one of the leading researchers and funders of expeditions to Xen'Drik. As a prior member of the university, he has access to the base research locations within the university, should he wish to use Investigation to see how quickly it takes to locate any useful information.

You progress up to Middle Duras, either by foot for half an hour, or catching a Sky Coach for 2sp and 5 minutes.

Middle Duras - Lightning Rail

The Lightning rail is effectively its own street that runs along the sides of the fantastical towers that make up Sharn. This long pathway is a gradually bending road that follows along the middle of the city 's towers. Along the path, there are large triangular devices which are known to harness Dragonshards to activate, effectively using lightning to levitate and propel the lightning rail along the track at up to intense speeds unrivalled by any other mode of transport.

Checking around the area for a while, Caspian notes a couple of locations a couple of stories above that give a good vantage point to see the railway for a decent amount of time. It would make a perfect lookout spot for giving a heads up for when the vehicle itself is getting close, maybe giving a 1-2 minute forewarning judging from the distance he can see from. Beyond that, there appears to be a blind spot just across the way where it could easily stow a couple of sky coaches ready for the extraction point, meaning the lookout can signal across the way to them.

Eldin & Gremmur make their way out to find some shady cab drivers. Fortunately, they are in Lower Duras, where plenty of off-the-books deals are done. It would not take long to try and find a couple of cab drivers, probably in a seedy coast-side tavern, and chat with them about being hired for the following evening. They can tell that this is for something off the books as soon as the conversation starts, and are willing to work on the job for 28 gold each to be available for the whole evening (9 pm until midnight), plus another 16 gold each to ensure definitely no questions asked.

Atlan Desmond runs an artificing store a few streets away, so it will only take a couple of minutes to walk around to where he is.

Desmond's Artifices

The quaint shop is fairly barebones for an artificer, with scraps neatly in piles to the far side of the room and an open floor for people to enter in. Behind the counter where Atlan is seated at are a few pieces of work he has currently worked on, some goggles and a pair of sturdy metallic boots, laid out on another table. The human looks up from his current work, his dragonshard lenses being pulled up to show his brown piercing eyes looking back at Ith. He double checks nobody else is within the shop before addressing the changeling personally. "Well, I hadn't expected you to be around until tomorrow. You're not backing out, are you?"

Majin heads out to enquire about purchasing Feather Tokens for that just-in-case scenario. There are vendors that can usually be found in the Middle and Upper tier of Sharn that can sell such tokens. Looking around, he can find a vendor in Middle Duras (either a half hour walk away, or 2sp and a 5 minute sky coach ride) selling them for 133gp a token, and have 12 tokens for sale.

Feather Token

Wondrous Item, common

This small metal disk is inscribed with the image of a feather. While the token is in your possession, you can cast feather fall as a bonus action. A feather token only holds sufficient charge for a single use, after which it loses its power. While it’s an expensive form of insurance, frequent airship travelers and citizens of Sharn often appreciate the security it provides.

Weal & Woe

You know that there are vendors of various magical items along Lower Dura, so finding someone who can sell such an item is just a matter of time. After a couple of hours of searching, a backstreet vendor says he can procure a hat of disguise for the low cost of 414 gold. If he wants it by sundown, an additional 44 express delivery fee will be required.

(You may try and haggle this price if you wish, using persuasion)

Eleven makes a show of counting the contents of his purse. "425." He looks up at the vendor. "I have 425. I need the hat, and I need it tomorrow morning." The dragonborn lifts a finger to stave off any negative comments by the vendor. "I'll pay you 425, and," he says, spitting a little acid onto the street and then flexing his shoulders and upper arms, "I will be pleased with your generosity and not at all angry."

Intimidation: 6

Caspian sends his familiar to check through the window above where he is looking. Apparently it is a home of some sort. It looks like a bedroom for a couple of children by the looks of the beds and the toys on the floor.

The dealer seems to be used to threats, but Eleven's seems to still be effective. He offer to take it for 425, but Eleven gets the idea he'll be less wiling to conduct business with him again.

Chatting to the vendor, you get him to lower it to 110 per token, but he doesn't seem to go any lower than that.

(If you still dissatisfied with his offer, you could try to find another vendor or head to another district)

Note: The Boo has the Background Sage Feature: Researcher (--if that should come into play or factor into time, as well as being a student there so not unfamiliar with how the library organizes things, etc., I just stuck with a straight roll, no advantage with her standard bonus--) When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a library, scriptorium, university, or a sage or other learned person or creature. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place, or that it simply cannot be found. Unearthing the deepest secrets of the multiverse can require an adventure or even a whole campaign.

Eleven nods at the vendor's reluctant agreement. "I'll come back around noon tomorrow to pick up the hat. Thanks for your help." The dragonborn turns away, but then returns. "Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding," he says with a slight smirk, "but I get the idea you won't be enchanting the item yourself. If your merchandise is sometimes procured by ... shady means, do you secure the items yourself or do you sometimes use consultants? I ask because I'm a member — the leader, really — of a very talented group who might be of use in the future, if you ever need a little help. Just something to think about. If you like, we can talk more about it when I return tomorrow."

If the vendor has nothing more to say to him, Eleven will return to the hideout for more free booze and maybe some cards or a boxing match.

Ith arches an eyebrow and stares at Desmond. 

"When have I ever backed down from a job for the House " it s almost a challenge. 

Taking a breath to control himself and taking care to show it he smiles. 

"No. Just came to see if you had any more info and if you knew anything about our competiton."

I understand you have the Sage background, hence why you have direct access to the University's facilities without payment or hassle ;-)

Boo begins to trawl through the extensive archives of Morgrave University, narrow searching his fields to Dragonshards. While there is plenty of text on the general use for such devices and various schematics on equipment that is enhanced by shards, one thing does stick out that may be useful for this heist. Dragonshards of the different dragons, Khyber, Siberys, and Eberron, are usually transported separately due to the belief that if unprocessed shards of different dragons were struck against each other there could be serious repercussions. Based on this, there could be three different crates; one for each type of dragonshard if they are transporting a mixture.

Beyond that, it is known that dragonshards are transported via Lightning Rail sometimes. To have them unmarked probably means that these are most likely unprocessed and definitely either stolen or taken from an unmarked vein of shards.

It looks like no one is home at the moment.

"You'll get your hat." The vendor tells Eleven with a scowl. "If you want future business, I suggest you don't push your luck further."

Atlan Desmond nods. "You can definitely expect at least one of the sixty to probably have been tipped off. There'll probably be others looking to get their fingers on this haul." He gestures to the side. "I have a care package to help you with the initial bit. I've also managed to find someone to help with the 'heavy lifting' as it were." He says.

You can easily find those items at a workshop for standard cost, so nice and simple purchase at normal cost.