Mark and Brian got to the inn at the scheduled time to leave. David and a crew of others were there with the horses. David came over to Mark and Brian and gave them the rundown on how to care for their mount, making sure it got food and water, and then assigned them each a mount to ride.
Brian looked at Mark. “So how do we get on a horse?” David's crew just giggled and watched the two. Brian finally went over and figured out how to get his one foot in the stirrup and then tried to pull himself up and failed entirely.
Mark walked over to his horse and said, “Let me show you how it's done.” He then put his foot in the stirrup, threw his other leg up and over, and landed on the saddle. He was about to say something when he lost his balance and fell off the other side, which made the other crew go from giggles to full-on laughing.
When the other guys finally stopped laughing, they came over and taught Mark and Brian the proper way to get on and off a horse. Then they showed them the basic commands to guide the horse, and Mark finally managed to get on and stay on after falling off two more times. Brian, on the other hand, was able to get on right away once he was shown the trick.
The first stop was Fisher’s Point, which was a relatively short walk from Beaver Crossing, and on horseback it should have been only a ten-minute ride down the roads. But with Brian and Mark making complete fools of themselves, it took almost an hour to get there. When Mark finally got off his horse and tied it up, he started to complain about the pain on his bottom end from riding the horse. Brian, on the other hand, completed two of the contribution missions he had taken, which caused him to level up to 4 and gain an animal handling skill, which significantly made things easier for him.
Mark had to take ten minutes and walk around to get the stiffness out of his legs. He then went and found Martha and asked to speak with her. He explained to her about the new instance and harbor in the zone west of them and the possible reward that it was offering, which went in line with fishing and skills that she and her fellow fishermen had. She let Mark know that she would send a team of five up to learn what they could about the non-fighting instances and keep him and the village council in the loop on their findings.
Mark finally asked if anyone had gone west since his last visit.
Martha said, "Oh, I thought you knew. They founded an outpost there named Netwater. It's not big yet, just five or six people there, but they plan to grow it. But they have big problems.”
This made Mark start to stress. “Are they getting attacked by something? Do we need to send some people down to defend the outpost?”
Martha laughed. “Not that kind of problem. They are having big fish, big problems. I have not been there, but they say the fish are the size of large dogs and have levels. Not high, but they are strong and tough. Small injuries mostly but all their nets have been broken and every time they hook one with a rod, either the line or the rod breaks, and they get away. But they have big fish in their eyes and won't give up on them.”
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Mark finally calmed down. He set up a few more trade agreements between Fisher’s Point and various other outposts and villages they had not yet got agreements with and then decided it was time to go find Netwater. He was directed to a path that was not really a trail but enough that they could follow to the new outpost.
Before he left, Mark set up a few more settlement tasks for Brian, and then he regretfully saddled up, and the large group headed west. Just before they left the range of voice, Mark reminded Martha to request and set up some settlement tasks to build a real road between them and Netwater. The ride there was not bad and not long enough to irritate Mark again when the outpost came into sight. It was bigger than Martha had made it sound.
The place had drying racks, a half-finished dock, and a stack of broken nets. And the place was well kept. He only saw six older fishermen sitting around a fire. They hollered to Mark when they saw their group approach and invited them over. Mark got off his mount and handed the reins to David and went over to talk to the fishermen. One of the men stepped forward. “Hello, Mark, my name is Simon. I am not sure if you remember me, but you met me when Martha set up the fishing village.”
Mark said, “Martha said you're having some big fish problems.”
Simon said, “You can say that again; check this out.” He then cut up a piece of bait he had and tossed it as far out in the water as he could. When it hit the water, the biggest fish Mark had ever seen leaped out of the water, grabbing the bait and diving back under the water. It was so fast Mark did not have a chance to identify it.
Simon said, “See the issue? They are just, well, a little bigger than anything we are prepared to catch. I and the guys have been sitting here the last couple of days trying to decide if we should give up and head back to Fisher’s Point or stick this out and find a solution.”
Mark said, “I might have just the solution for you.” Mark then explained the harbor. Its fishing knowledge far surpassed anything they currently knew, even if much of it was locked behind the ruined facilities and the new activity instances.
Simon said, "Oh, I love the cave. Actually, the boys and I got a fishing adventure a few weeks back. Had to catch the biggest fish in a fishing contest, and Mike over there won it. The funny thing is the fish he caught was just tiny compared to the ones we found here.”
Mark said, "Well, I would suggest you guys keep the outpost here but spend a day or two or a week at the shipyard running one of the instances and gaining harbor contribution.” He then shared with them the list he had seen. They all got excited over the list of fishing-related items that were for sale and talked about how they could help get it unlocked as they wanted the fishing trawler design.
With his mission to find fishermen to help with the harbor complete, he reluctantly mounted his horse with the help of David, and the group headed north. Mark almost laughed when they passed the southern lighthouse, which was as destroyed as the northern one, and got a message about a skill for beginner horseback riding that he had received.
With the harbor in view, the group picked up their pace as they decided they wanted to stay the night at Harbor Watch before they headed north again.
When they finally got into camp, they saw the whole group they had left along with Garrick and multiple work crews as well as runners and trail builders all sitting around the fire talking. When they sat down, they were told that there were five hours on the current timer, which would make it ready by about 4 a.m., and they reserved the timeslot for Mark, Garrick, Brian, and a couple of the road crew to run. They told him to get to bed, and they would explain everything in the morning to him too.
Just as he climbed into his tent to go to sleep, one guy said, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you there is a brand new street sign, and one of the docks got back a few planks.”