By the time Kaldalis got to the pier, he was already too far in his own head. He had been pretty pissed about the worst aspects of Zara reaching out and touching the island that he interpreted as his home, but the confrontation with The Contender was the last straw.

Sure, he was aggravated that he wasn’t going to be able to delve into the wilderness and run the new dungeon. But being called out ahead of his own antics was a step too far. He hadn’t even realized that he intended to push the limits of the exploration ban and then claim ignorance until the Contender had thwarted the nascent plan.

Courbois, Reno, and Ess were waiting on the pier when he arrived. They tried to make polite small talk while they waited for the others, but Kaldalis was too obviously irked to discuss the weather. Fortunately, his friends were happy to let him stew in his aggravation.

Balrim and Myrin were along shortly, having apparently run a few last-minute errands of their own. Once they arrived, they were able to load onto a longboat and head to the new region. It was a lot easier to fit six people on board than Kaldalis remembered on trips between Cotnaaku and Panbu, and he quickly realized it was because the boat wasn’t loaded down with cargo. The Talsar sailor guiding the boat was able to set an impressive speed, thanks to the reduced load.

Kaldalis was able to relax a little on the trip. Courbois had already gone into tour-guide mode, and was pointing out landmarks along the trip.

Huajia was the last of the three regions on this particular island, on the opposite end from Nos Meles, where Panbu had been built. Huajia was the smallest of the three regions, but was less densely forested, and offered more immediate access to the rest of the archipelago. As they rounded the farthest eastern edge of the island, she pointed across the sea to where there were bumps on the horizon.

“The largest island of the archipelago is right there,” she explained. “Most of the explorers before us landed there, and faced Infernal Horde that were more traditional foes. Not the humanoid monstrosities we’ve seen, but literal elementals. Bipedal monsters of wind, fire… all that kind of thing.”

“Why didn’t we go there, then?” Myrin asked. “That sounds easier than the bullshit we’ve been dealing with.”

“I asked Ikzoz the same thing and he laughed,” Courbois said with a smirk. “If it was easier to set up over there, someone would have done it by now. Apparently the Elementals are strictly weaker in combat than the… What did he call them? Conceptuals. The ones we’ve been fighting. But the Elementals are more numerous by an order of magnitude, and while they’re a lot easier to fight, they’re much more adapted to raw destruction. We can kick their asses all day, but they’ll burn down our walls and our tents faster than we can build them.”

“Might still be worth a trip,” Balrim said, tapping his chin with a clawed finger. “Infernal Cores are still a valuable resource.”

Kaldalis let them talk and scheme. He desperately needed to calm down, and being on a boat made apparent the most natural way to do that. Casting his line out and letting it drag behind the boat let him catch a handful of fish on the short trip around the coast to the new town.

As usual, fishing soothed his nerves. He wasn’t able to completely forget about the Contender, but he was able to take a few deep breaths and compose himself.

When the town came into view, he was able to look at it without his mind being colored by his aggravation.

Kayore seemed to have been much better-planned than Panbu and Cotanaku. It was built directly on the coast, and it looked like they’d started with the harbor area and worked from there. In Cotanaku and Panbu, the walls had been erected a few dozen yards inland, where here the walls went right down onto the beach and into the water. Kaldalis wondered how they’d erected stone walls on sand, but decided that it simply must have been a huge expenditure of effort that he was glad to have not needed to be a part of.

A pair of stone towers were at either end, visibly manned with not just archers, but a pair of what looked like catapults - though Courbois clarified that they were called onagers. Balrim said something about trebuchets, but Courbois was quick to add that they weren’t for throwing stones, but for throwing clay jugs filled with incendiary solutions. These weren’t for sieging walls, after all, but for defense against naval attacks by wooden ships.

The town actually had the beginnings of a proper harbor, too, with a boardwalk and three piers. This was clearly being built to be a major hub. Especially since the walls enclosing and protecting the harbor meant that even during a siege or attack, boats could still safely come and go.

The rest of the town’s resources were more like Cotanaku than Panbu. The town had a clock tower, a sizable barracks, and a larger crafting district, including a large building near the docks that Courbois identified as the alchemy workshop - where the incendiary rounds for the onagers were created.

The region beyond the town’s walls was startlingly beautiful.

Where Nos Meles and Mallia were mostly jungle with some uneven terrain, Huajia seemed to be primarily mountainous, with the jungle struggling to keep a firm grip on the region. There were clusters of jungle that looked almost artificial because the plants simply could not grow on the rockier parts of the terrain. Kaldalis’s first thought was that this looked like a fake videogame zone, but he grimaced as he reminded himself that this world was - or at least could be - real.

“I don’t have a lot to say about the harbor that I didn’t say already,” Courbois said as the longboat pulled up to the nearest pier, allowing them to disembark. “But the next project is a customs house, so I assume the Zarans plan to use this place as a big trading hub.”

As they walked down the pier and into the town, Kaldalis was struck by how busy the place was. Oddly enough, it felt like being back in Baimer. It seemed like everyone in the region was doing their quests here, and he saw a lot of familiar faces from his previous adventures. Obviously he didn’t see anyone Courbois had warned him about - like Dalgaard, Yosini, or Voker - but he recognized a few others, like Deytambos, Droto, and Teebu. People he didn’t know well enough to exchange pleasantries with, but their faces were familiar enough to match with names.

“The crafting area is right here,” Courbois continued, “though the new council here had us build a giant warehouse before we had much in the way of facilities.”

The crafting area was indeed somewhat sparse, dominated by a giant two-story warehouse. Two town guards were stationed at the entrance, with a third patrolling the perimeter. Zara was clearly very serious about this place as an outpost.

It made Kaldalis nervous about Cotanaku’s future.

“So there’s a new council?” Kaldalis asked. “Where did they come from? Do we know them?”

“Things kinda went tits-up when Cerh’s big threatening ship arrived, which was supposedly full of soldiers,” Courbois said. “It was just a few days after you guys left. Apparently it wasn’t full of soldiers. About half of the people aboard were migrants, and some of those were qualified Zaran officials. Some of them filled out the Panbu council, but Jetmorpan was promoted and sent out, and is the head honcho here, with his own cabinet.”

Kaldalis grimaced. Jetmorpan had been the most vitriolic council member when it came to the PCs. Even Captain Kensah had come around when she saw how much he’d bent over backwards for them, but Jetmorpan had been frothing at the mouth calling for his blood. If that man was in charge of this town, and was poised to turn it into a major naval hub, that spelled trouble of the highest order for Garyung’s little town.

“That does make sense, though,” Kaldalis said, thinking aloud. “Baimer was looking for Cerh to go down, so it’s not surprising that they’d throw a bunch more bureaucrats at him and build a bigger town right next door and put someone else in charge.”

“They want Cerh to go down?” Courbois asked, shocked.

Kaldalis grimaced and looked around. Despite the relatively crowded streets of the town, nobody seemed to be listening in.

“I don’t really want to get into it right now,” Kaldalis said, “but basically, he really overstepped his authority. Saying Zara wanted to take Cotanaku was either a fabrication, or a stance the country has walked back since. Either way, he’s taking the fall for that. I assume calling in the military immediately before real trouble arrived wasn’t a good look for him, either.”

“What’s going to happen to him?” Ess asked.

“Probably nothing immediately,” Kaldalis said, “but this does come from the Zaran council in Baimer. The one that sent Onirioago out here in the first place. I don’t know what that means in the long term, but…”

“It doesn’t sound good,” Balrim said with a smirk. “Which is honestly enough for me. That guy was kinda an asshole.”

Kaldalis agreed, but he was hoping that his loose lips wouldn’t sink any ships.

Not that Cotanaku had any ships to sink.

The rest of Courbois’s tour was pretty standard. She showed them where the adventurers’ personal quarters were, including where she built up her own home. Nearby, the dining situation was still something more like a company cafeteria, but there were construction workers actively expanding it as they walked by.

The town had a dedicated job board area, which was a nice touch. Instead of dealing with NPCs to get their quests - and thus slowing down their work - the jobs were posted on a long bulletin board, organized by level requirement, though the last half of the board was blank. They were able to pick up a bunch of quests from the 10-15 level range quickly and easily without having to fuss with anything.

Courbois wanted to finish the tour, showing off the other facilities, but Balrim, Myrin, Reno, and Ess were very insistent on getting out there and grabbing a hold of some of those sweet, sweet experience points, so she was outvoted.

With the tour put on hold, the group formed a formal party and ventured out through the gate and into the narrow band of wilderness they were allowed to explore.