Three Rivers Town

At Falls Junction the Maestro had hired a local man called Jentro to act as our guide and translator to the next settlement of any importance upstream and inland....a place called Three Rivers Town....we arrived around noon in this village, after four nights on the fairly well-kept road which followed the river, we ever climbing gently upwards from the coastal plains now well behind us.....of course Hangar the Hungry and his fellow men-at-arms swiftly located a likely looking inn where we might obtain some victuals of better grade than what we had been consuming on the trail.......this was our hope, at any rate.....the smiling innkeeper sat us all at a long table with benches, much like at a country inn back home.....his daughters and nieces quickly passed around bowls of ale to our company, while Jentro began the negotiations with our host.....after a few moments of conversation in the harsh-sounding local tongue, our guide spoke to us in plain language, telling us that we were being offered fried ham-steaks, bread-and-butter, and "spice-jar salad".....and more ale, or "a strong purple wine", should we prefer.....the Maestro inquired into the nature of "spice-jar salad", and Jentro explained that beans, beets, nuts, carrots, "hard root", and what all were placed in a large clay jar with vinegar and spices and flavorings from the local forest and allowed to steep until a certain perfection of flavor was obtained.....he spoke highly of this concoction.....we saw that other patrons were swallowing all this with good relish, so the Maestro agreed to this menu, after Jentro had established the tariff in the jagged little silver bits which were the coin in this part of the wilderness.....