The Nightmares are an excellent choice for moving through the desert. Their flame-covered hooves don't seem to sink into the sand at all, smoothly stepping in to of the soft surface even when the carriage wheels have fallen in. This carriage has been modified for desert travel, about a hand width above the ground, skis are mounted at each corner, keeping the whole thing from sinking to the axles while traveling on soft sand.
"Now, this is the way to travel. Walking directly between houses in different cities just doesn't have that same feeling, you know? This is like we're on a real adventure." Mythryll, back in her small blonde Elven form, declares out of the blue.
Misha thinks a while, staring out the window with a pensive look. "She's right. We're crossing the desert on the ground, like normal people. It's weird now that she mentioned it."
It's certainly a first for Cain. Dragons, Dark Phoenix, transport portals, he's done everything but crosses the desert on the ground. He made it partway once, to the ruins of Muzz, while riding on a Primordial Shaman, if that counts.
"We've completely gotten used to being the broken characters if even just traveling places can seem mundane and beneath us." Cain laughs at the girl's assessment of what is expected and normal.
They're not expecting trouble during broad daylight so close to a big city where guards regularly patrol the trade route, so the group sets up camp just as it's getting dark. The Puppets don't need to sleep, but they string ropes between scraggly desert trees with a large canvas cloth over them to form simple tents before lighting a campfire. To anyone passing by, it will look like half the guards are sleeping, along with the residents of the carriage, while the coachman sleeps on the roof, standard practice if he's also a carriage guard.
Everything is quiet that first night, and they quickly pack up camp in the morning and get on their way. They've decided to cheat a little on meals while on this mission; Mythryll was craving waffles, so she asked the girls in Sunnybrook to make her some, which turned into them agreeing to put fresh meals in the Guild Bank, so there would always be a supply of food available to Guild members who are away from the houses.
Vala and Nemu made quite the racket in Cain's head when they heard that, going on and on about how he can't cook even on dry land until he finally tuned them out entirely. At this point, he was almost convinced they were quieter when out on the open. Inside his head, with only him and each other to bother, the Companions seem to feel no inhibitions about cheerfully narrating their entire existence.
They didn't make it far the second day when Cain's sense of smell, enhanced by the Beastkin transformation, picked up multiple unwashed bodies. The wind had suddenly shifted, and the distant scent was carried to him. They're behind the group, so Cain couldn't be sure if they were bandits or merchants, but after catching another whiff of them, closer and more apparent this time, he was sure they were gaining on the carriage.
A typical merchant caravan wouldn't be doing that; they use steady camels but are not often driven to a high speed. The Nightmares being used to pull their carriage are traveling at twice the rate most merchants would.
"There's a group gaining on us. Get ready in case they're hostile." Cain whispers down to Misha and Mythryll, hoping they're awake.
Only a few minutes after Cain caught the scent of pursuers, the scrub and stunted trees of the coastal desert give way to open sand, making the route both more accessible to bandits and harder to follow. It's regularly traveled and reasonably well marked, but the blowing sand often wipes out all traces of those who have come before you when a group has passed between dunes. That's where they are when they meet the first ambush of the journey, in a hollow between two dunes of this deserts slightly reddish tinged golden sand, following the markers that indicate solid ground.
Fifty men come out from behind a ridgeline in the sand, well-armed and mostly around level one hundred. The leader says nothing for a half minute, letting Cain stop the carriage and order the Puppets to encircle the wagon as if they were preparing to fight. That's long enough that the group behind them can now be heard, the second group of bandits that had been tailing them all day.
"Good timing, boss. You caught up just as they reached us." The greasy haired group leader in front of them shouts back at the second group.
"You didn't think I'd let you have a Noble carriage and all those pretty Elves to yourself did you? I set out the moment our spies informed me that a high-value target had left the city."
His tone is full of mockery either for his subordinate or for Cain and the carriage, but it's the content of his monologue that interests the Darklight Host members. The bandits have spies reporting targets to attack as they leave Assah. They should probably let Red and Arial know about that once they've cleaned up the bandit problem.
"We will take the back, you take the front." Misha whispers just loud enough to carry to Cain's sensitive ears, and he taps the carriage twice to acknowledge he's heard her. He's not sure what's the best course of action, if they've got spies, they're organized, and it might blow their cover if he goes all out and they recognize him.
Instead, he opts for a more subtle sort of response, Summoning a group of Rattlesnake patterned Epic Naga-type Golems just out of sight behind the dune on their right and a pair of Primordial Shamans on the left. They all blend into the desert reasonably well and should give the impression that the bandits have themselves been ambushed.
Lightning arcs across the sand from Cain's left as a wave of fangs and steel flies in from the other direction, two dozen snake-bodied monsters striking from concealment to take out a large number of bandits in a surprise attack. Most don't die instantly, but the poison applied by both blade and fang weakens and slows them, leaving them open to deadly follow-up attacks.
Cain raises the alarm, shouting about Desert Naga attacking before jumping down from the carriage with Scimitar and Spear in hand. The bandits can see he doesn't intend to help them, only defend the horses from attack, so the group that has been following them circles around the Darklight Host position, avoiding the carriage and guards to rescue their allies.
After a brutal counter charge and a number of single use magical items being deployed, over half the Rattlesnake patterned Naga are dead, but so are most of the front group, with their reinforcements locked in a vicious struggle. None of them are in good shape when the Primordial Shamans step into view.
Cain pretends to panic, turning the carriage away from the battle and out of sight while also Summoning another dozen Naga warriors to replace those who have fallen.
"Damn you, coward. You'd better run because if I live through this, I'll kill you." The bandit leader screams as they leave, desperately fighting against the Legendary Summons.
He knows it's a lost cause, they're faster than anyone in his group, plus higher level and with their hidden tricks used up the bandit group is far from comparable to a well-geared raiding group that could challenge Legendary bosses. There is no escape.
The bandits were also short on healers, having only one among the fifty stationed here and one with the leader and his group. There's too much poison for them to have a hope of survival.
Not long after fleeing to let his summons do the work, Cain gets settled into a shady spot with the Carriage turned back down the trail in the direction they wanted to go. Only a few minutes of waiting in that sandy but comfortable hiding spot pass before the Summons rejoin the group, giving him a thumbs up that means no survivors.
Being a proper gentleman, Cain returns to the battle scene, looting the bandits before having the Primordial Shamans use their magic to dig a large grave and bury the bodies away from the road. Whoever passes by in the next few days will know there was a fight here, but for the most part, they've cleaned up their mess, and they're ready to move on.
Cain keeps the summons active, refreshing the Naga to full strength and tripling the beastkin looking but Demonic Primordial Shamans. Each group of three takes half the Naga warriors and goes hunting along the path in front of them, with directions to report any bandits they find both to the other group of summons and Cain while being careful not to get spotted by anybody else.
He doesn't know what strength they might meet out here in the desert, but he doesn't want to spook the merchants that are still brave enough to risk the route by leaving behind tales of Legendary monsters roaming the area, so stealth is critical.
With the patrols silently sent out, the rest of their day is quite relaxing. Hot, but relaxing. As the sun sets, they have already set up camp near the oasis marked as an overnight spot, their increased speed bringing them to the oasis ahead of schedule. It's also noted as a frequent attack location on the map included in the quest, so none of them fully relax right away.
The Puppets all come to attention, and the Nightmares begin stamping their feet when they're alerted by the sounds of a merchant caravan headed north over an hour after what Cain would have called full dark, silencing the group's conversation in favor of getting a better idea of what is coming.
"Hail to the camp." Comes a confident male voice, calling from the dark over the rhythmic footsteps of camels and the squeak of carts.
"Hail and well met. Come join us by the fire; we've got fresh roasted chicken." Mythryll calls back, and the camel-drawn wagons slowly pull into the radius of the firelight before the beasts of burden are unhitched and led to drink from the oasis.
"You've arrived later than most would travel," Cain notes, wondering what drove them to travel in the dark instead of stopping in the desert.
"The camels got spooked. They do a particular thing when there are monsters around, so we keep moving. Better to move slow in the dark than risk a monster attack.." The merchant responds, coming over with a jug of what smells like a fruity Elven wine.
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