Many adventurers come to Sharn solely to get someplace else, using the city as a launching point for an expedition to the ancient ruins and trackless jungles of Xen'drik. Morgrave University and the Wayfinder Foundation both send teams to Xen'drik on a regular basis, and Sharn hosts a thriving antiquities market that provides demand for items recovered from Xen'drik by both official and amateur expeditions.
The Cliffside ward is a good place to find ship captains experienced in the passage to Xen'drik, who have contacts with the sahuagin of Shargon's Teeth and can secure safe passage through those straits. The journey from Sharn to Stormreach is about 1,500 miles and takes a little over a month by sailing ship. The usual cost of passage is about 300 gp. It is sometimes possible to hire an elemental galleon for the journey, which takes only three or four days but costs 3,000 gp. A House Lyrandar sailing ship (without elemental power) can make the trip in 11 days and costs about 1,500 gp. Airships do not normally make the trip from Sharn to Xen'drik.
Stormreach, a rough-and-tumble frontier community where giants often trade in the marketplace, is an essential stopover for most expeditions before proceeding farther into the wilds of Xen'drik.
Expedition Arrangements
If a group of adventurers manages to secure employment on an expedition to Xen'drik, they can expect the following terms:
The organizer of the expedition secures letters of marque for the characters.
The organizer usually arranges for transportation to Xen'drik, though this is not always true.
The organizer provides rations and mundane equipment, usually consisting of anything in the "Adventuring Gear" category of goods from Table 7-8 in the Player's Handbook.
The organizer has the right to claim any treasures that the adventurers recover on their expedition, presumably for research purposes or for display in the Dezina Museum. The adventurers may keep or sell any items the organizer does not claim, and the organizer typically offers a guarantee of a minimum amount of gold.
Sometimes an expedition organizer accompanies the characters on the expedition, while other organizers prefer to remain in the relative safety of Sharn. When the organizer accompanies the expedition, it is assumed that the adventurers give highest priority to protecting the organizer's life.
Guides
As the gateway to Xen'drik, Sharn has a number of residents who sell their services to adventurers and prospectors planning expeditions to that mysterious continent. As with investigators, House Tharashk dominates this field, making use of their magical dragonmark abilities (know direction and find the path) as well as their extensive, if more mundane, skills and experiences. The House's grand hall in Dragon Towers is its most prominent public face, but better deals and sometimes better guides can be found in their enclave in Clifftop (in Upper Dura).
Sometimes visitors to Sharn need guides within the city itself. City guides are easy to find: they usually cluster around arriving Orien lightning rail coaches, airships, and river vessels, hoping to solicit business from newly arrived visitors. These guides — often very young individuals — are inexpensive and tend to highlight the great tourist attractions of the city, which is sufficient for many visitors' purposes.
City guides of a different caliber can be found in Ambassador Towers. Most of the escort services in this district emphasize companions who are knowledgeable about the city and its attractions as well as being enjoyable company in other ways.