Chapter 2: Kayana

== Chapter 2 ==

28/10/1836

Jorma managed to smuggle me aboard a ship bound for the Finnish coast.
The sea is relatively calm, though now, at the end of October, the cold has become much harder to ignore. Fog hangs over the water and the damp seems to find its way through every layer of clothing. I do not remember ever feeling humidity quite like this.

From here I only need to reach Ekenäs. The difficult part will come afterwards.
Kajana looks terribly far away on the maps, though I have no real sense of what that distance means yet.
For now, I will try to sleep.

30/10/1836

Ekenäs is far more rural than I imagined. There are no railway lines here, and travelling by carriage appears to be something reserved for people with considerably more money than I possess.

There is something deeply ironic about owning a castle and still being poorer than a rat.
I will see whether someone is willing to offer me a reasonable price.

> Hire a carriage
d: Resources 2d6 = 5,2 => F

I cannot afford the carriage.
It seems I will have to walk.

By the time I reach Kajana, there may no longer be a mystery left to solve.

31/10/1836

One day on the road and I have not even reached the first proper settlement.

At this rate I may starve before I ever reach Kajana. I do not even know whether anyone intends to pay me. For all I know, the letter could have been some elaborate joke written by a bored child.
Whatever the truth may be, I need another way to travel.

? Is there another visible means of travelling north
-> Yes (8♥)

I spoke with several vagrants who move through this region. According to them, much of the local economy depends upon a kind of pine tar called terva. I believe this must be what the letter was referring to.

They told me that some men travel without paying by hiding aboard the vessels that carry timber and tar inland.
Apparently there is no great secret to it beyond not being caught.

I suppose I will try my luck.

> Sneak aboard the ship
d: Stealth 2 + Precision 2 = 4d6 = 4,4,2,6 => S

Good. I am aboard.

I got rather wet climbing in and I suspect I may regret that before long, but at least I should reach Kajana before dying of hunger.
There are still some provisions left in my pack. If I am careful, I think they will last just long enough.

02/11/1836

Kajana is unquestionably at the end of the world.

And yet the place is surprisingly active. Nearly everything here seems tied in some way to the terva trade. Barrels, timber, carts and men covered in soot and resin seem to occupy every corner.

The people distrust me.
I cannot blame them. Judging by the way they stare, one might think nobody new has entered this town in a hundred years.

I will try to find this Johan.
The inn seems the most sensible place to begin.

tbl: Direction of the Mystery — 9♥
=> Roll on the Clues table

tbl: Clues d66 = 65
=> Bloodstains on a rock

Before entering the inn, I noticed strange bloodstains across a rock near the road.

Nobody seemed particularly interested in them. In fact, I had the distinct impression that some people were deliberately avoiding looking in that direction.

Jorma has told me more than once that these mysteries do not always end with something supernatural. Sometimes the cause is simply human.

I hope that is not the case here.

To have crossed all these miles only to discover that some lunatic has been pretending to be a troll would be almost insulting.

Perhaps I am the lunatic.
Perhaps all of this is simply another way of feeding my own delusions.

But I know what I saw.
I know what I saw.

I am sitting in the inn now.
Almost everyone in the room keeps looking at me.

03/11/1836

tbl: Misdeed d66 = 66
=> Inexplicable weather phenomenon

tbl: Interesting Locations d66 = 42
=> Farm

gen: Behaviour — K♦ + J♠
=> Helpful / Taciturn

[N:Johan|helpful|taciturn]

I have finally met Johan. He explained the nature of the problem to me.

I am writing down everything I can remember from our conversation. I have travelled too far to lose an important clue simply because I trusted my memory.

—Greetings, Thursday's Child —he said quietly.

—Hello.

I must have looked confused. I certainly felt it. I had not expected him to know the term.

Johan Koskinen was relatively young, perhaps close to my own age. There was something immediately agreeable about him, though his face looked terribly tired, as though someone had taken hold of both cheeks and dragged them towards the floor like soft clay.

Otherwise, he was rather handsome. Sleepy looking perhaps, but not stern.

—You are surprised that I know what you are called —he said—. Allow me to introduce myself properly. Johan Koskinen. I represent Count Kohronen, proprietor of the Tarvious Company. His lordship employed me to investigate the matter of the trees.

He paused for a moment before continuing.

—You see, I am a man of science. Recently the forests have suffered a series of unusual weather events, and the consequences for production have been severe. To call this a recent problem would be inaccurate. It has continued for years. I have considered disease, animals, soil, climate and every reasonable explanation available to me. None explains what is happening.

He stopped and took a long drink from his beer. For the first time since sitting down, some life seemed to return to his face.

—As I said, I am a man of science. But science should not close its eyes merely because an answer is uncomfortable. That is why you are here. This is one final attempt to determine whether these events are the work of something science cannot presently explain.

He placed a small key on the table between us.

—Room three. It has already been paid for. And do not concern yourself with the looks people are giving you. Everyone knows who you are and why you have come. That is precisely why they are staring.

He rose from his chair.

—I imagine you will want to rest. Do so. But please begin as soon as possible. There is a farm outside town. I suggest you start there. Perhaps then you will understand what I mean.

And with that, he left.

I barely had time to answer him, much less ask a question of my own.

I suppose he did not need a conversation.
He only needed to tell me what he required of me.

I never thought I would be so grateful to see a bed again.

A comfortable one, too.

Tomorrow I will visit the farm.

The money would certainly be useful, but I must remember why I came all this way in the first place.

Answers.

03/11/1836

tbl: Direction of the Mystery — 9♠
=> Unpleasant NPC

tbl: Encounters d66 = 14
=> Unemployed vagrant
=> Former stevedore

[N:Elias|vagrant|stevedore|Physique 4|Precision 2|Logic 3|Empathy 2|Physical Resistance 3|Mental Resistance 2|Force 4|Close Combat 3]

The farm offered no obvious sign of the inexplicable weather Johan described.

He had given me little else to work with, though perhaps that was deliberate. Perhaps he expects me to discover the truth in my own way.

There were no great stands of pine here. It was little more than an isolated livestock farm, surrounded by fields and woodland.

That was where I encountered a particularly unpleasant vagrant.

He stood some distance away, staring at me with open hostility while I examined the trees. At first I ignored him. He continued staring.

Eventually I had enough.

—Is there something you want?

The old man looked stronger than his ragged clothes suggested. His eyes, however, seemed to be fixed upon something far beyond me.

—These forests were never ours —he said—. But we found a balance. A small one. Enough to survive.

He looked directly at me then.

—Now, because of people like you, that balance is broken. And someone like you can only make it worse.

He spat heavily onto the ground beside my boots.

—Damned foreigner.

Then he walked away.

I found nothing useful at the farm itself.

But perhaps this vagrant knows something.