Irene Hinterleitner turned back to look at her home for the last time. All she could see of it was the Kellerhause, the home of every Zwergin. Its flowing lines made every Zwergin building a work of art in and of itself. The Zwergin were famous for their architecture as well as their engineering. Sure many Zwergin could fight, in fact most could to some degree or other. But the majority were engineers of some kind. In fact the first thing that the Zwergin became famous for was their hydraulic engineering not their fighting. A good part of the Zwergin lands had been rescued from the swamps and water by hydraulic engineering which had lead to engineering in general. Even those who weren't engineers could do basic repairs to hold things until the experts arrived.
Behind her was where she had come from. In front of her was her future. A future that she would create for herself. It was common for a young Zwergin to go out into the world to seek their fortune. How else could they test their metal. It was the only way to make sure that you were the best that you could be. All of her life Irene had been leading up to this one thing. Leaving her home so that she could see how the rest of the world lived and hopefully learn things that she could bring back home to teach to others. One thing Irene knew was that she would miss her home no matter how excited she was for her future.
Irene was a fighter, most of her family were after all. Most of the Zwergin had basic weapons skills and were members of the local militia. But Irene, like most of her family, actually specialized in fighting. In fact the majority of Irene's family were guarding the various leaders of the Zwergin people. Which only made sense since her family ran one of the most prestigious fighting schools in the Grundhorn Empire. And Irene intended to join them, as soon as she had the experience. It was a matter of pride that every fighter in her family had been deemed good enough to guard the leaders of the Zwergin people. Irene had zero intention of being the first one in generations that didn't.
Irene was heading to Alkadharam in Kishnagar, mainly because that was where the head branch of the Adventurers Guild was located. And her parents told her that she was to go there to learn. If you were going to work with a group it was always best to start at the main office as it were. At least that was what her parents said. It was going to take months to travel from her home on the outskirts of Heldal, the capitol of the Grundhorn Empire, to Alkadharam, a long journey but well worth it.
Even with her mission in mind leaving her people was hard. Not impossible, but hard. According to her older siblings the first time you leave home is always the hardest. But even with the sorrow of leaving Irene was ecstatic to finally be on her way. It had taken what seemed to be forever for her to graduate from the Kriegakadamie. It hadn't helped that her family had run the school. Sometimes Irene felt that she was held to a higher standard than the rest of the students. But of course that couldn't be the case. Everyone who went to her families school was held to the highest standard.
Irene brushed non-existent dust motes from her armor as she remembered her last meeting with the Headmaster of the Kriegakadamie. Who, incidentally, happened to be her father. Under most circumstances this would was a formality but like most things involving her father there was more to it. Normally she would have been sent to a minor town or village to learn her craft and work her way up to guarding the most important people in the Empire. But no, it had been decided that she would go the the Adventurers guild to get her seasoning, as her father had called it. Like her career was a bowl of stew or something. Sometimes the older generation made zero sense to her. Shaking her head at her own foolishness Irene continued her journey to Alkadharam and her future.
Irene walked down the road to the docks of Heldal she was meeting the traders that would take her on her first leg of her journey. Those were Zwergin traders and only worked in country. The traders that she was meeting in Hauptenrocir were from out-country. They would take her on the first leg of her journey to Alkadharam and her future. Thinking about her journey actually made Irene excited. She was the first in her family to travel out-country for a very long time. She wasn't sure why the tradition had stopped or why it had been restarted but she was going to learn adventuring from some of the best. At least that was what her father said when he gave her this mission. Her mother had been on duty at the time at the Imperial Residence so Irene had no idea what she had thought about it. And their conversation after dinner had given no clues about the thoughts of either parent.
Thinking about that had brought to mind her last meeting with her best friend, Waltraut. The two of them had known each other forever. Their mothers had been best friends as well so neither of them could remember a time when they hadn't known each other. Both Waltraut's and Irene's mothers were fighters and had served together for longer than either Waltraut or herself had been alive. Unlike her mother Waltraut wasn't a fighter. She was an accomplished junior engineer. In fact Waltraut was Irene's only friend that wasn't a Fighter as well as her best friend. For some reason both of her parents had subtly discouraged Irene from having friends that weren't fighters. A fact that had taken Irene years to figure out. She'd only truly managed it when Waltraut had gently pointed the fact out.
Waltraut usually helped Irene to figure out things by asking her questions. Sometime Irene would get the point immediately. Others took days, weeks and in one case almost a year. This time Waltraut had commented on her long journey when most fighters started out helping older fighters guard the borders or work as aides helping keep peace in one of the cities. It had taken to this morning for Irene to realize that her being sent away was very odd. Generally speaking the Zwergin of the Grundhorn empire kept with tradition. And the tradition here was to stay in the Empire, if not at home, while she learned further skills. Maybe even work her way up to guarding the important people of the empire like her mother did.
Sure, once upon a time, fighters were sent away to learn their skills. But it hadn't been like that since before the two Zwergin kingdoms combined into the Grundhorn Empire. That had been before her mother was born. Now all of the Zwergin fighters were trained in the empire, not in other countries. But for some reason that hadn't been explained to her. She was being sent to the adventurers guild in Alkadharam to polish her skills. This had made Waltraut suspicious, something that Irene had been too caught up in her leave-taking to notice until right now. Irene could just hear Waltraut's voice telling her that she really needed to pay attention to what was going on around her. Not just the physical risks but the less obvious social stuff as well. Irene figured, yet again, that her friend was probably correct. She'd have to work on that.
This was a promise that Irene had made many times in the past and would probably make again in the future. If she lived that is. After all, as Waltraut had stated in the past. "That which we don't notice is what will kill us". Irene knew this for a fact. Not observing things around you was the main reason that fighters died. Waltraut however was talking about thing that Irene had been trained to ignore as irrelevant. How others thought wasn't usually important to a fighter. Unless of course they were thinking about attacking. These were uncomfortable thoughts for Irene. Ones that made her doubt her parents. Putting all of them in the back of her mind Irene continued to the docks to start her journey.
The Ship
Irene was sick. Not a little queezy but actually sick. She had woken up this morning to what she was convinced was a major storm. Only to find out that according to the sailors it had been a very minor squall. Irene really hoped that she would be able to get the stains and more importantly the smell of her being sick out of her clothes. The last three days had been awful, Irene just knew that the sailors around her were laughing at her. How could they not when she spent most of her time bent over the rail of the ship trying not to puke on herself.
Irene hadn't expected to be seasick. She'd been on boats before, admittedly they were all on rivers. But still it should be the same, right? Boy was she wrong. Apparently the difference was significant. Who knew that rivers and the ocean were so different, Irene sure hadn't. As a result, with-in her first hour on the ship Irene had gotten very, very sick. Which is why her travel clothes now smelled like someone had gotten sick on her. Because someone had, her. That had been one of her most embarrassing moments to date. It was even worse than when she had tripped on her way into the fighting ring during a tournament.
Once the massive storm, that the sailors laughingly called a squall, was well on its way. Irene was jarred out of her brooding on how sick she felt. For some reason the sailors were yelling and pointing towards the right side of the front of the ship. This was nothing like how the sailors had acted so far. It was very unusual, so much so that Irene completely forgot how she felt and walked over to one of the sailors to ask what was going on. The answer she got made Irene's jaw drop. She'd heard the phrase many times in her life but she'd never thought that it actually happened. Well, apparently it did. Who knew.
The guard told Irene that the ship was about to be attack by a swarzer. This was a name that meant nothing to Irene. From the blank look on her face clearly the guard figured that out before she could ask and just told her what a swarzer was. What the crewman described sounded like a mythical sea monster to her. A long black body, longer than the ship. A mouth full of teeth with tentacles around it to grab food with. Eyes larger than dinner plates that were as black as a starless night. The head with that mouth and tentacles was so large that its giant body seemed small and skinny in comparison. It didn't sound like anything that could actually exist.
What the crew seemed confused about wasn't that the creature would attack but that it was attacking now. From what Irene overheard them saying the swarzer almost never attacked in the daylight. It was doubly rare for it to do so during a squall. Heavy storms sure but a tiny and quick squall? never. All of which was confusing to Irene. Why had she never heard of such a creature. Surely someone would have mentioned it at some point? As Irene was about to ask for more info the question became moot. The creature breached right in front of her.
The startled scream that escaped Irene didn't embarrass her at all. Quite a few of the other sailors near by had had the exact same reaction. Later, after the fight, Irene would be glad of that fact. Right now she had a battle to fight and a ship to defend. Even if she had zero idea of how she was going to do that. All Irene knew was that she refused to go down without a fight even if it was doomed from the start. Irene however didn't think that it was. She had never lost a fight that she put her mind to winning after all. And she had no intention of starting now.
Irene stopped thinking at all and responded the way she was trained to. As soon as the creatures tentacle touched the railing of the ship Irene stabbed it with her sword. Thank the gods that her parents had drilled always be armed into her so much that putting on her sword was automatic. Otherwise she would never had the time to go get it before the damage to the ship was done. What ever it was that she expected when she stabbed the beast it sure wasn't to be lifted off the deck when she'd skewered the thing. Fortunately Irene hadn't been dropped into the ocean when her sword slid out of the creatures flesh.
Her action was enough to galvanize the rest of the crew to their defense. Evey member of the crew except the captain and the helmsman started to attack every part of the creature they could reach. Some of the weapons were more than a little inventive. Up to and including the cabin boy who repeatedly the thing with the business end of a mop. At least the rest of the crew were using more conventional weapons. After what had seemed like hours but was probably only minutes the sea monster was visibly bleeding. After a few more sword hits the fight left the beast and it disappeared under the waves.
Once the crew was sure that the swarzer had retreated they one and all started to cheer. The next thing that happened completely surprised Irene. They all gathered around her still cheering when suddenly a couple of the larger crewmen lifted her onto their shoulders and started to parade around the deck cheering her. Irene was gobsmacked never in her life had anyone cheered for her. For the first time since the ship had gotten underway Irene didn't feel sea sick. They continued to parade her around the deck for a few more minutes before the captain called a halt to the display.
"That's enough everyone. Let the poor fighter down. If she gets sick on any of you I will only laugh, at you not her," The captain yelled over the cheers of his crew.
The crew put her down with a lot of laughing and back slapping one her feet were back on the ground. Once her feet were back on the deck the crew reluctantly went back to their tasks. They seemed to really like her all of a sudden but Irene wasn't completely sure why. After all she had only done what anyone would do. Hadn't she? Maybe she had done something special. After all no one had attacked that ugly beast until she'd stuck her sword into it. But had that been because they were afraid? or was it because she had just moved faster than everyone else. Either way the crew was no longer making fun of her or her sea sickness. The best part of all was when the captain had taken her aside and informed her that most of them got sea sick too. There was a root that they chewed to keep it at bay and allow them to keep working. He even went so far as to give her some so she wouldn't be sick anymore as well.
Caravan
Two weeks after finally leaving the ship, Irene was with the caravan that would take her to Alkadharam. After the swarzer attack had been repulsed the rest of her journey had been uneventful. In fact it had been down right boring. It had taken just under a week to get across the bay. And the sailors were significantly more friendly after the attack on the ship. So much so that they no longer twigged her for getting sick. The Captain and sailors had told her about a root that kept sea sickness at bay. They'd even given her some of their own supply. Something that had made Irene feel very grateful.
Irene had hired on as a guard with the caravan she'd take to Alkadharam. Why pay good money to go with the caravan when you could get paid to do the same thing. After all it wasn't like she was going to sit on her hands if they were attacked even if she wasn't being paid. Besides there was nothing wrong with getting more spending money. Sure her parents had been generous with her traveling cash but they weren't exactly wealthy. At least she didn't think so. Her parent had never discussed family finances with her after all. It just wouldn't have been proper, she had never gone hungry after all which was the only clue she had.
While she'd been waiting for the caravan to leave Irene had gotten herself a mount. A nice sturdy erch. The ridding mount that was common to the Zwergin. Erch looked like a short and sturdy elk with impressive horns. She'd had one at home that she would have brought with her but the erch were notorious for not sailing well. Come to think of it neither did most Zwergin. But having a seasick mount was so much worse than being seasick yourself. How could you explain to the poor thing that the illness was temporary.
So instead of riding her own mount, Irene was riding a completely unknown one. Not that her family would have let her bring her own on this trip. somehow that thought actually made Irene feel worse. The rest of her older siblings had been able to take their erch. Why had her parents said that she couldn't. It wasn't just that she was taking a ship. She could have gone by land as well after-all. It wasn't like going by ship was the only way. It was just the fastest and not by much. What else had her parents been thinking of when they told her to leave her personal erch behind. It was yet another of many questions that Irene was starting to ask herself about this whole situation. What had her parents known that she didn't and why hadn't they told her.
Right now Irene was riding at the back of the caravan that was winding its way to Alkadharam. Irene wasn't one hundred percent certain that any of the other guards would qualify as the barest recruits in her parents Kriegakadamie. But since her parents didn't train caravan guards that was probably okay. And Irene looked forward to learning how guarding a caravan differed from how someone guarded an official. It was hard to tell how well they fought since the majority of the guards weren't Zwergin. Actually they were a very motley crew made up of almost every race found on Ardu. There was even an Oristani and as far as Irene knew they rarely left their plains. Although Irene was the only Zwergin that currently in the caravan. It had still come as a bit of a shock to see so many different races all working together.
Irene had already learned a lot from the the caravan's captain of the guard. This type of fighting was all new to her. Even though Irene was a good rider she had never spent much time learning how to fight mounted. The Zwergin just didn't do much mounted fighting. The majority of all Zwergin cities were underground, so not a lot of mounted fighting. Fighting in groups as well a singly was something that Zwergin in general and Irene especially excelled at. Hadn't she graduated from the best fighters school on Ardu? And at least Irene did know how to ride even if she'd never learned to fight while mounted.
So far the trip had been very boring but as her father had always said, "When you are a fighter, boring is good." Irene had never really understood that before. But after listening to the other guards around the nightly campfire she was beginning to. There had been an alarm last night that thankfully had turned out to be a false alarm. The caravan master had said that he'd rather have a hundred false alarms than not get warning of a real attack. As a result the caravan master had not only not been upset, he'd rewarded the guard that had called the alert. It might not be a false alarm next time after all.
The caravan was well into the foothills of the Bahuta mountains after a mostly trouble free day. Irene settled down at the cook fire to eat. The only problems today had been a draft animal that had picked up a stone in it's hoof and gone slightly lame and a loose wheel. Just the normal troubles that could plague any group traveling a long distance. Other than those very minor problems the day had been rather nice. It was technically early spring but so far this trip the the chilly wind had made it feel like winter. It had been drizzling most of the trip so far. But today the weather had cooperated and given them a rather nice day for a change. Even the wind was gentle and almost warm. Just about everyone else was sitting around the fire drinking, what Irene considered to be very weak beer. So she decided to follow her fathers advice of sleeping when you could and left for her sleeping roll.
Irene settled down to sleep in a better mood than she had since leaving her home. The weather seemed to have finally decided to be nice for the foreseeable future. If it did keep up like this than the rest of the trip would be pleasant. Much better than the nausea inducing ship had been at the very least. After one day on board that ship Irene had decided that she would take the land route when she went back home. Even if it was going to add over a month to her journey. Zwergin did NOT belong on ships. She was certain of that. Irene fell asleep being thankful that the ground didn't move at all.
Battle
Suddenly Irene was jerked out of a sound sleep by people shouting and various mounts bellowing their distress. It took next to no time for Irene to jump out of her bedroll and grab her weapons. She ran to where the majority of the sound was coming from and stopped dead. Irene had expected to see people attacking but what she saw confused her for a moment. It was wolves, why would wolves be attacking such a large caravan? Then she remembered something that one of the other students at her parents school had said. Unlike Irene, that students parents were hunters. Of both game and the various predators that competed with the Zwergin for game. The student had told everyone else that in a hard winter both wolf and coyote packs would combine into super packs to better compete with each other and the Zwergin. Some of the wolf packs got big enough to take out all of the animals on a farm as well as the people. This had to be what was happening. But this was spring not winter.
All of this flashed through Irene's mind as she charged into the combat. Then there was no time for thought at all as she attacked the first wolf in front of her. The only reason that Irene was so quick to respond was long habits driven into her brain to always have your weapons to hand even when sleeping. Irene did kick herself as she engaged that she hadn't been sleeping in her armor. But steel was deucedly uncomfortable to sleep in. The gambeson under-armor was much easier to sleep in and at least it afforded a little protection.
Irene's initial charge took her to the side of one of the other guards that was hard pressed by three wolves. She took out the one to the guards left while he was able to dispatch the one on his right. Just in time because two more wolves tried to get past them to the various draft and riding mounts behind them. That was when Irene realized that the pack hadn't attack the people in the caravan. They had attacked the animals. Not that it mattered they needed those animals. Without them the caravans wagons would be going nowhere and neither would many of the people. Irene joined everyone else in the caravan in protecting the animals. Even those that were generally considered noncombatants had picked up weapons to fight against the wolves.
After what had seemed to be hours the wolves had finally given up and fled or died. Irene realized that she was very sore and had somehow gotten a few bites that she hadn't even felt at the time. but boy did she feel them now. Irene was starting to wonder if maybe sleeping in her armor was a good idea no matter how uncomfortable it was. But since most of the bites were in places her armor only lightly covered if it covered it at all. Her armor probably wouldn't of helped all that much anyway and she did have more freedom of movement without it. Not much but against something like a wolf movement was more important than armor. The couple of guards that had been on duty and in armor had gotten just as wounded as she had.
As long as Irene lived she would never have more than vague memories of the battle with the wolves. It was her first actual battle, the one with the swarzer didn't really count. She would never forget how the caravan fighters had yelled when the wolves had taken them done. Thankfully only three of the other guards had been killed. Although none of the fighters had gotten away uninjured. The majority of the injured were minor only one fighter had been seriously hurt and the caravans healer said that he should survive and be able to fight in the future. It was going to be weeks before he was back on his feet. The rest of the fighters had only gotten minor injuries that wouldn't interfere with their duties. Although a couple of them would have some interesting scars to show off.
None of the beasts had been killed or even badly injured. In fact a couple of them had fought off the initial wolf charge. Keeping them at bay until the guards could get there to protect the rest of them. It was a good thing too. If those beasts hadn't stopped the initial charge than they could have easily lost enough of the animals to slow the caravan at best and completely stop it at worst. If the worst had happened the caravan would have had to walk back to the last town leaving the wagons behind. Irene was very glad that hadn't happened. If it had they would be hard pressed to bring the injured with them.
Now that all of the excitement was done Irene could feel all of her injuries, minor though they were. what was really starting to get to her though was just how tired she was. As soon as her wounds were treated she intended to fall into her bedroll and sleep for the next week. Unfortunately for her the Caravan master sent word that he wanted to speak to her as soon as she was done with the caravan healer. Groaning to herself Irene took herself to where he was overseeing the removal of the dead wolves.
"You wanted to speak to me?" Irene said as soon as he was finished with that task.
The caravan master turned to Irene. The look on his face was poorly concealed rage. It was obvious to Irene that only his years of experience kept him from bellowing at everyone. Nonetheless Irene had no wish to trigger the barely held rage so she kept her demeanor calm and collected. Just like she would if she was guarding one of the highest leaders back home. After all it wouldn't due to get on this mans bad side at anytime. Doing so right after an attack was the height of stupidity and Irene always tried to avoid being stupid if she could. The caravan master took several deep breaths, clearly trying to calm himself before he spoke.
"The captain of the guards has been laid up. He'll live," He continued seeing the look on Irene's face.
"He was one of the more injured fighters. Damn it all. All of my most experienced fighters are either dead or seriously injured. It was like the beasts knew exactly who to target for the best affect," The caravan master looked like the attack had been a personal insult. Then his face cleared and he looked more thoughtful.
"I know who trained you and the Zwergin have a good reputation as fighters. You are currently the best trained fighter that I have. I need you to take charge of the other fighters until my own people are healed up. Do you think you can do that?"
Irene could only look at the caravan master for a second. Had she actually heard him say what she thought he'd said? The fact that he was looking at her expectantly was the only thing that convinced her that he had.
"Of course sir. I will do anything I can to help." It was going to be a very long night.
Complications
Over the following couple of days the caravan slowly wound its way higher into the Bahuta mountains heading for the pass. Irene still felt more than a little nervous about being in charge of the caravan guards. But as the caravan master had said she was the only battle trained fighter in the group. Only the currently recovering guard captain and his lieutenants had as much training as she did. The only thing her training hadn't covered was mounted training but the Zwergin didn't fight mounted as a rule.
Unknown to Irene was the reason that she had gotten the temporary post of guard trainer. The actual guard captain had seen the first of her two daily practices just a couple of days after she joined the caravan. He'd seen the skill she had and had contemplated asking her to train his guards. But when he'd come to ask her Irene had begged to be taught mounted combat since that was something her own people didn't do very much of. So instead of having her do the training he ended up training her. And while he would have preferred to not be injured. When he did get laid up by the attacking wolves. He had zero problems with telling the caravan master that she was the best one to fill in for him.
So there she was every morning and evening trying to turn guards into an army. All of the caravan guards were good fighters. They wouldn't have lived long in their profession if they weren't. They weren't however trained to work as a unit. It didn't help that they had never fought that way before. Irene had no idea why the guard captain had wanted her to train the caravan guards as a unit but she would do her best. It wasn't however going as smoothly as she had thought it would. It didn't help that the guards weren't all one race, nor were the mercenary groups. In fact, caravan guards were technically part of the mercenary guild. And while the actual mercenary groups were trained to fight together. There were a few exceptions but not many. The mercs that worked the caravans were individual mercs and not trained in line or group warfare.
So Irene had her hands full with teaching this disparate group to fight as a unit. Not something any of them had ever really done. More than one of the guards had told her that if they'd wanted to fight in a group they would have joined one of the various merc units. The only thing that kept them at the training was the guard captains bellow that if any on them wanted to skip the training then they could find a new job at the next city. Then he'd pointed out that if they'd been able to fight as a unit they wouldn't have had any causalities and the injuries would have been lighter. Irene wasn't sure that the guard captain was right about that. But at least she'd gotten more cooperation after he'd said it. From that point on the little group of combatants practiced fighting as a group while the noncombatants either set up or broke down camp.
Three days later and everyone was sitting around the evenings campfire enjoying themselves. The night guards were in place for the first shift of the night. The caravan only had about half a day more of going uphill and then they would be through the pass. After that it would be all down hill which should go much faster. Everyone wanted to be out of the pass as soon as they could without over stressing their beasts. Everyone wanted to get as far from Gizba as quickly as they could. Even the Zwergin had heard about Gizba and what they did to travelers there. The best that could happen was becoming a slave. It went drastically down hill from there.
Everyone was getting ready to leave the evening campfire when the unmistakable sound of fighting came to everyone. Irene looked up just in time to see strangers charging towards the group at the fire. The bandits, they could be nothing else, were dressed in poorly fitted armor and dirty clothes. The group at the fire could hear more sound of battle all around the caravan. Clearly the bandits had hoped to take everyone by surprise but were only partially successful. In the time it took for Irene to realize all of this she had jumped to her feet and drawn her weapons. Around her the other guards were doing the same while the non-combatants dove for cover.
Irene was glad that the guards had gotten at least a basic understanding of fighting as a group as she dodged the first bandit to reach her. Unlike last time when the wolves attack, the group was no longer getting in each others way. She was actually proud of how well they were fighting together as she finished off the first bandit and started for the second. Sure they weren't fighting as a cohesive unit but they were much better than they'd been just a couple of days ago. Of course these were professional fighters already, it was just a matter of getting them to think as a group if not a unit. Irene was surprised when she saw one of the bandits who was close to the wagons suddenly start to hop around on one foot. The some of the traders and other non fighters in the caravan had started to use the tools of their various trades to create mayhem whenever one of them got to close to the wagons. She watched one enterprising cooks assistant use a cask iron pan to great effect on a bandits head. The sound of the attack would have made Irene laugh if she wasn't so busy fighting.
Before she realized it all of the bandits were down. A couple of them were still alive but for the most part the caravan had defended itself with lethal action. That was when they started to count the casualties, which were lighter than expected. One of the still living bandits happened to be one of the lieutenants of the bandit group. And what he had to say was interesting. Apparently this particular group had been working in the area for some time. The way they worked was the more interesting part though. This particular bandit could speak with animals, wolves in particular. So he would call a lot of wolves and set them to killing the draft beast and as many of the riding animals as possible. This method had been almost always successful.
The fact that none of the draft animals or riding animals had been truly injured was almost more than the bandits could deal with. There had been a lot of grumbling when the bandit chief had told them they were going to attack anyhow. Once the animals were driven away or killed the bandits would come in and capture the majority of the people in the caravan for slaves and take the caravans goods. The people would fetch a good price in Gizba and the goods the bandits would wither sell or use themselves depending on what it was. It was despicable and Irene was hard pressed to keep the prisoners alive. Only the fact that the bounty for bandits was higher if they were alive and kicking. At least until they got to Alkadharam. Thank the gods that they were almost to the end of their journey. No one was going to get a lot of sleep until they were in the city.
