After a short time the caravan was under way again, each wagon rolled down the trade way in turn with few issues. Yet Alexander was poised at the entrance of the carriage, his eyes raked over the burnt out ruins. The miserable corpses staked out along the route an eerie escort. Many of the green horn guards wanted to chop the grisly decorations down but the obstinate fellow in charge denied them. The sooner they were through the better in his mind, disease and plague was only the beginning of the hassles. Let the Lord Magus send out troops to deal with the clean up, it wasn't part of their mission.
Despite the obviousness of a trap they'd divert to the closest known oasis, if the raiders were there they'd cut a deal if required. The supplies needed to reach the southern outpost on time and these delays were already threatening the merchants desire to be on time. All else was secondary to achieving his contract. Many of the green ranks were looking to Melissa's trio for guidance, after the initial sell out by the greedy pig none of the guards were really expecting this bastard to care about their lives, hell most sneered and joked that they were surprised the bastard had not ordered them all skinned to pave the road and make it easier for the caravans passing!
Alexander leaned against the wall of the wagon as the procession wound their way through the gutted hamlet, he did not have to see any more of the destruction. The mutterings and whispers were informative enough to lay out that the group that did this were little better than beasts on two legs. Even Melissa had to abandon the opening, her dark skin noticeably paler as she tried to steady herself. When Watson had peeked the younger man had been violently ill. Laytalya then had gotten curious and was quick to recoil. To the two who hadn't looked she had merely stated they were passing the remains of an orphanage, it was enough to guess why the others were so unsettled.
It would seem the power that had laid claim to the border area were truly thorough. Alexander really couldn't judge them though, after all, he himself had rounded up the people of his hometown and consigned the lot from men to women and elderly to children to a fate no less dark. He was in no position to judge another group for their heavy handed purge of these people. Thus he sat back listening, of more concern was the attitude of the merchants and guards. The former was constantly trying to down play the issue of the lost village while the guards were worried about handling whatever had torn through here, because even for bandits this carnage seemed excessive. It was glaringly so when they identified the women and children amongst the dead, for the desert nomads these were often prime targets for slavery or trophies... yet they were not spared the same fate as the warriors.
This disturbing fact had the adventurers on high alert, this sort of massacre was more the result of monstrous humanoids than men, though from time to time the latter did seem to delve into that dark pit. It was just in this case there did not seem to be any rhyme or reason for the bandits to slaughter the populace. While Alexander might have killed one, even if the brute was the son of a sheikh at most it would have been the caravan to be visited by death so complete. To attack this hamlet was just too distant. Or perhaps whoever had taken over the area was simply making a statement.
While the caravan did scout the ruins and did their best to clear the main road of corpses they were not a group equipped to deal with this sort of situation. One of the guards, who was giving thanks to whatever God of luck had seen her picked, was chosen to ride back the way they had come. She would alert Colter and from there the High Magus would delegate forces to reclaim the border stop. Until then, the caravan would continue its trek south, though the merchant could not be dissuaded from altering course to the likely trapped oasis, to be honest with Winston becoming a bottomless pit, they did need to refill soon. While the trip might have been made regardless the water would have to be strictly rationed... and with bandit trouble also looming having the guards dehydrated was not a good thing.
Such it was decided to press for the nearest oasis. This would tack an extra day or day and a half to the trip but there was no helping that. All just prayed whatever trouble the oasis brought could be easily managed.
As the passenger wagon rolled through the street Alexander finally took another look outside himself. A slight frown swept across his face as his eyes drifted over the dead hamlet. His narrowed eyes swept the scene for anything the green rank adventurers might have missed. While he too was green rank, he had resources beyond them, yet the only new information he received was that it had indeed not been humans that did this. Maybe it was his time amongst the monsters of his dungeon or perhaps some other skill his path gave him but as he studied one of the staked victims he could make out that something very strong had ended up breaking bones while placing the person upon the shared stake, and these broken limbs were more obviously accidents than intentional torture.
Shaking his head, Alexander retreated into the wagon giving Laytalya a pointed look, it was a safe bet now that even if the oasis wasn't in the bandit hands, there was a new faction in play. He just lacked information. Turning to look at Melissa he waved the two women over crowding around the low table, "Priestess, are you more familiar about this southern desert?"
Melissa nodded lightly, "For our mission out here I did do a fair bit of research, what is it you need to know about? The oasis we're heading towards?"
Alexander shook his head, glancing towards the exit, "I'm more concerned with the monstrous beings that occupy the sands. Less about the animals and insects and more about if there's any orcs and goblins out here?"
Melissa frowned and shook her head, her brow creased in thought as she recalled what she had dug up. "No, no goblins... and what are orcs?"
Alexander blinked, well that had been rather a surprise. Goblins she knew about but she didn't know what an orc was? Frowning in thought he looked over, "Think a human sized goblin, little more bright very violent."
Melissa stared at him curiously tilting her head, "Oh did you mean hobgoblins? Those tend to be more mountain dwelling so no, definitely won't see any hobs this far south. To be honest, there's really no inhuman presence this far south of Colter. Goblinkin tend to stick to the forests and mountains, there's tales of beast folk past the Skycap mountain range to the east. The elves of the western reaches are pretty harmless, they tend to keep to their deep forests. Other than the beasts down here south there's really no presence thats been discovered."
Alexander sighed leaning on the table as his mind played over the priestess' words. Lifting his head he looked at Melissa strangely, "Been discovered?"
Melissa nodded, "Colter for all its impressiveness only has been around for the last six hundred years. It started off as a colonization project from the Star Empire, a large domain on a different continent a ways to the north across the Isfaluc Sea. The High Magus has done alot during his tenure to expand Colter presence in these lands but much of it is still wild and uncharted. These bandits are the remains of other colonization attempts, occasionally we've seen other villages like the border crossing back there. Wether its beasts or goblinkin we've often found the place razed and the bandits become repopulated by the lucky few to be away from their homes."
Alexander listened intently his mind twisting as he digested this news. Colter was not a true capital as such, it was an outpost for a greater country. The more important information though was the fact that other than catalog some of the natives of this continent the ruler of Colter had very little information on those that had ruled these lands first. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say the knowledge was likely known but was kept confidential to not scare the piss out of the populace. Rubbing his temples he looked at Melissa, "And further south?"
Melissa shrugged helplessly and shook her head, "Sadly nobody knows. Whenever we try going past a certain point deadly sandstorms crop up. Most exploration parties get turned around or disappear altogether. Thus the outpost this caravan is headed to is pretty much the last stop. This relates to what I wanted to bring you in on..."
Alexander's headache was multiplying the more Melissa elaborated, Colter was an invasion force on this continent. For all its large development and grandiose nature... it was a military station for the Star Empire. Such explained the numerous basic layout forts, they were early warning stations that were destroyed by whatever power wanted to keep Colter blind. Sure the High Magnus had developed a scouting system that induced less loss of life for their people but it was a stop gap measure. Whatever held dominion here WAS pushing back, and it seemed this caravan was going to be swept up in the latest effort by the indigenous.
Sighing he looked at Melissa waving for her to continue, "Recently the sandstorms have eased in one section of the desert uncovering some ruins. The initial scouts have discovered a dungeon and we were sent to harvest it. Thing is it seems its an brown rank undead type. The early explorers reported that it is rather over full with corporeal undead types. Normally skeletons and zombies would at best be green rank missions but reports stated that there's also a powerful roaming type, a mummy. While somewhat slow it is said to be extremely tough."
Alexander nodded along with her words, dealing with a mummy was certainly to be different than skeletons and zombies especially if the roamer wasn't alone and if it WAS a tomb the chances of additional mummies was not unheard of. More pressing though was the fact this dungeon had just appeared on the edge of their southern outpost... that seemed a little too convenient. Couple it with the destroyed hamlet and the bandits bravely moving northward... it could be said that whatever power was in the south was making a move and pushing north. The dungeon, much like the oasis stunk of an all too obvious trap. For prime example, why was a single mummy roaming around and how did the explorers escape it? From movies in his original life mummies tended to fall into one if two sorts. The older black and white mummies that snuck up and dragged you off one by one. Then there was that mummy that moved like it was an Olympic gymnast doing flips and practically teleporting around. This second kind was more akin to what Melissa claimed but that begged the question as to why it would allow any survivors?
Grumbling under his breath, Alexander looked towards the exit of the wagon. Several hours from now they'd hopefully reach the oasis and some of these questions would be answered, he just worried in what way they would. Whatever was coming was rather obviously disinterested in humans, the fact the hamlet population had been put to the sword completely meant that attacking force neither cared about prisoners nor food. Humans were just an obstacle that needed to be removed. Death had claimed meeting monsters out in the wilds would be a boon not a bane for a dungeon lord, but this unknown foe made him question that belief.
* * * * * * *
A pair of large yellow eyes peered out from under the cover of a shifting sand dune. Those large yellow orbs had a single blade lije slit running from top to bottom, staring as the caravan slowly marched out of the hamlet. Unblinking the watcher observed the caravan winding off south through the sands. As minutes bled by slowly the watcher observed until the final wagon rolled on by. Those large yellow inhuman eyes slowly closed and the dune of sand was once again naught but a mound of shifting silt...