Getting there — Written Down West

Before you go

Requirements

• There is no level requirement. A brand-new character can do the access quest and sail east.
• You need one short quest, Written Down West, done entirely in Venore. It has no fighting, needs no items and costs nothing. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Every town on the Old Shore has a boat to Venore. If your character lives somewhere else, take the normal boat to Venore first.

Money

• Your first crossing east is free.
• After that, every trip Venore → Oradin costs 180 gold. Gold in your bank account also counts, so you can pay with no coins in your backpack.
• The trip Oradin → Venore is always free. You can never get stuck in the east without gold.
• Bring some spare gold anyway. Oradin will not be your home town for a long time (see the warning below), so if you die in the east you will usually need another 180 gp to sail back.

Important: death and your home town. Oradin does not take in strangers. Fall in the east and you wake on the Old Shore, where you were written down - until the day the city writes your name (only after you finish The Hollow Crown; see The Hollow Crown, chapters 3-4). Until then, if you die in the Kher Reach, you wake up in the temple of your Old Shore home town. From there you take a boat to Venore and pay Captain Sallow 180 gp to cross again. Keep your supplies in the Oradin depot and some gold in the bank.

What to bring

• Your usual hunting supplies. Oradin sells potions, runes, ammunition, wands and rods (see Oradin), so you don't need to carry much over.
• A rope and a shovel are always useful. Kit Mallory in Oradin sells both.
• Some empty space in your backpack. The Kher Reach has its own creature products, and they sell well.

Level advice (details in Hunting grounds)

West of Oradin (the Lampfields, the Longmead, Millbridge and the Greyfold Hills) nothing hostile lives yet. It is safe to explore. If you arrive below level 50, Captain Sallow will tell you to "see the Stair, buy bread, go home". Take that as advice; nothing stops you from staying.

Written Down West — getting to the continent

Captain Sallow runs the only ship that still sails east, and he follows one rule: "I don't take a soul east that isn't written down west." Before he takes you, three things have to happen. Your name goes into his manifest, said out loud by you. Someone on the Old Shore promises to say your name if the east doesn't give it back. And you say "Oradin" three times with him.

The three NPCs (all in Venore)

Step by step

Step 1 — Ask Captain Sallow, and get refused

1. Talk to Captain Sallow: hi
2. Ask to go east: passage (sail, travel, east or oradin also work). He refuses: nobody on this shore has you written down.
3. Optional, for the story: why (or rule, written).
4. Say manifest (or crane). He describes the harbour clerk and asks: "Well then - shall I count you as coming?"
5. Answer yes. - You see "Quest log updated: Written Down West."

Step 2 — Get written down (Wilmot Crane)

1. Go to Wilmot Crane in the hall south of the pier and say hi. He asks you to say your name: "Your own, the whole of it, out loud."
2. Type your character's full name, exactly as it is spelled. Capital letters don't matter and a full stop at the end is fine. If your name has spaces, type all of it in one message. - Anything else gets "That is not the name your face is wearing." You can try again as often as you need. - When it works, a message says "Your name is written in the Eastbound Manifest." Crane tells you to find a witness at the tavern.

Step 3 — Find out the captain's name, then get a witness (Amos Tull) Amos Tull will only sign for you if you can tell him the captain's real first name, and nobody uses it.

1. Go back to Captain Sallow and ask: name. He answers: "Ormund. Don't wear it out; I've only got the one." - You can ask him this at any point in the quest, even before Step 1.
2. Go to Amos Tull upstairs in Boozer's tavern and say hi. He asks you for the captain's name.
3. Say Ormund (or Ormund Sallow). It must be the whole message. - "Sallow" or "Captain" do not count. He will tell you to go and ask the captain. - When it works, a message says "Amos Tull has put his mark next to your name."

Step 4 — Close the manifest (Wilmot Crane)

1. Go back to Wilmot Crane and say hi. Saying hi is enough: he sees Tull's mark and closes your entry. "The manifest is in order. Go and tell the captain he can count you."

Step 5 — Say it three times (Captain Sallow)

1. Talk to Captain Sallow: hi. He greets you with "...Say it with me. Oradin."
2. Say Oradin, three times, as three separate messages, in the same conversation: - 1st: "Oradin." - 2nd: "Oradin. Again. Humour an old man; the third one's the one that counts." - 3rd: "Oradin. There. Now the place knows you're coming, and this shore knows you went..." - Other questions in between don't reset the count. Leaving the conversation does, so stay with him.
3. On the third "Oradin": - "Quest log updated: Written Down West." The quest is complete. - Achievement Written Down West. - You receive a manifest stub, a paper keepsake: "A corner torn from a ship's manifest. Your name is on it, in ink, with a thumbprint in beer beside it." It has no game use, and you only get it once.

Step 6 — Your first crossing (free)

1. Still with Sallow, say passage (or sail, travel, east). He offers: "...your first one is already paid for - it's on the manifest. Shall we?"
2. Say yes. "Cast off! Hold on to something." You are rowed out to his ship, the Second Thought, and you arrive at the Greywater quay in Oradin.

You cannot board while you have a protection-zone lock (the "blood stains" message). Wait for it to wear off.

Quest Log entries — "Written Down West" (one mission of the same name)

1. "Captain Sallow will not take anyone east who is not 'written down west'. I am to get my name into his manifest with Wilmot Crane, the harbour clerk."
2. "Crane has written my name in ink. The manifest wants a witness - someone on the Old Shore who will say my name if the east doesn't give it back. He suggested Amos Tull, at the tavern."
3. "Amos Tull has put his mark next to my name. I should tell Crane the manifest is in order."
4. "The manifest is in order. Captain Sallow can count me. He will want me to say something first."
5. "I am written down west. Captain Sallow will take me east to Oradin. The first crossing is on the manifest."

Travelling afterwards

• In Venore, saying just oradin after the quest makes Sallow talk about the city. To actually leave, use passage, or include it in a sentence: "travel to oradin" works.
• Without the gold he says "Passage is not charity. Come back with coin."
• Other things worth asking Sallow: ship / second thought, folly, venore, desert. Ask Amos Tull folly and east for the long version.