The Minotaur tribes reminded Karl a lot of the Orcs, in a way. He was using [Brutality] to increase his size and keeping his face covered with a bandana, which was mostly to keep the dust down.
Between that and the hood of the coat that Rae had made him, it was good enough that he didn’t need to wear a mask while travelling, and he wouldn’t risk being identified.
He wasn’t all that worried about being called a human, he had realized that was unlikely to be an issue with the group that they had. But being personally identified was still an issue, if there was someone looking into the dungeon opening.
The increased size actually seemed to set the monsters more at ease than his normal, human size had. It was as if by being visibly inhuman in some way, he was more like them.
Now, if he took the mask off, and they mistook him for a Giant or an Ogre, there might be issues, as the Giant Clans did not get along well with the rest of the monsters. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a disguise spell that could help him with that.
[If I had more materials, we could dye you a new colour too. I don’t think that an ash black like Thor would work. I am pretty sure that both humans and giants come in that colour. But if we could make you blue or green, that would work.
The Trolls and Orcs are both good people, and it wouldn’t be bad to look like them.] Remi suggested.
[Well, if you happen to come across the rest of the ingredients, I will consider it. For now, I will just keep the bandana up.]
Remi had made him a half dozen mask prototypes so far, but she wasn’t happy with any of them, so they had all been scrapped, and now she was trying to get inspiration for another, while she looked for the ingredients to make a different coloured version of the Shadowbranch paste.
Evening still hadn’t taken them to Oakhamping, but it did take them to another small farming village full of Trolls and Minotaur.
[Do you think that you can milk a Minotaur? How far down are they bull? Do you think that you can polish their horns like Troll tusks and make them shiny? I have so many questions.] Cara was rambling in Karl’s mind as they settled in for the evening.
[I don’t know any of those questions, and I don’t want to know most of them. But I’m pretty sure that you could polish the horns to be shiny. See that one on the left of the gate? There is a bit of damage on the horn where it hit something, and it’s slightly shiny. So if you polish them, they should buff up.]
That was enough to sate her curiosity as the clerics got ready for the evening’s public relations work.
They had made an entire bulk bag full of rice and beans, and now it was up to Karl to find out if anyone wanted to join them.
He parked Thor between the few other merchant wagons and the village’s low stone wall. The guards watched him, but didn’t really care, as his group wasn’t doing anything threatening. It was only when he approached that they were on alert.
“Gates are closed for the night.” The guard informed him brusquely.
“That’s alright. I have a Dragon Cleric with me who is making an evening stew, and it is their custom to invite anyone who is hungry to join them. So if there are other guards or someone else in town who could use a meal, let me know.
I will leave you to it and go talk to the other merchants now.” Karl replied with a shrug.
He made a loop, quietly informing them that the Dragon Priestess would have dinner if they wanted some.
The merchants had all eaten already, as Karl stopped later in the day than most, but they came over to socialize anyhow. It was good to hear the stories of the road from fellow merchants, and these were actual merchants, far from home, not farmers called in to supply the city.
“The road has been rough these last few days. All the big bosses are off to do something important, and the stupid ones are trying to test their luck while the Overlords are away.” One of the Minotaur merchants began as his assistant poured a potent smelling cream liquor into a mug.
A few of the others nodded. “The entire town council in Oakhamping is gone. They used the portal array in the city to go somewhere, but they didn’t tell anyone where. They just grabbed a bunch of city guards and left right in the middle of market day.”
“Are you all headed south?” Karl asked.
“Yeah. You came from that way, is it the same at Halsearing?”
Karl shook his head. “It’s much stranger. They’ve called for every farmer they can get in contact with to stock the city with food. But there was also a huge battle west of the highway, and talk of a possible dungeon.
I don’t know how much of the rumours are true, but there is definitely a big fight going on, we saw that much ourselves, and there are at least two Orc Tribes, plus every combat capable Troll from Halsearing.”
“That doesn’t sound good at all. It might be all over before we get there, but if they’ve called so many people to the city, how are we going to make a profit? We’ve had some of these goods too long already.
It might not be food, but we can’t just lug them around the country all spring without a plan.” The Minotaur with the strange liquor sighed.
Tessa smiled as she looked at the city walls and saw a number of small faces hiding behind the stones.
She added more of the mix to her largest pot and topped it off with hot water, preparing for guests.
The merchants chuckled. “Every village is filled with urchins, the dregs who have lost their families in battle, or to the wild. I suppose having a Dragon Cleric around might actually make things safer.”
Karl smiled as he realized what they meant. The street kids would steal food or coins if you weren’t careful, but Tessa was going to feed them tonight, so they would be a bit less desperate and hungry.
They might still try, but they wouldn’t be driven by that life or death instinct when their belly was full.
They just had to sneak past the guards, whose job it was to keep them from wandering out and causing trouble.
That was easy enough, there were only two on guard at the gate, and they were pretending that they didn’t see anything. So, when the food was ready a half hour later, nearly a dozen kids and two off-duty guards came out to join the circle of merchants around the campfire.
They had all brought bowls and spoons with them, understanding the process. This pot wasn’t as huge as the one that the last night’s stop had brought out, but for their travel group, it was already hugely oversized.
There were a few servings left when the last of the bowls were filled, and Tessa smiled in satisfaction as she moved the pot off the heat.
“Have there been many attacks north of here? We’re near the edge of Minotaur territory here, and I haven’t been this way recently.” Karl asked.
The Minotaur looked startled when Karl said that, but he just shrugged.
“Nothing too close, but once you get past Oakhamping, things are never all that good.
The towns are getting smaller every year, with the people all moving to the city unless they’re farming. But I hear that there have been strange appearances away from the highway. Monsters that don’t belong, ones that attack anyone they see.” The Minotaur explained, taking on a storytelling tone.
One of the others scoffed. “It’s not just a tale. We ran into a group of Hill Giants. Damned Hill Giants, two thousand kilometres from their territory, just two weeks ago northwest of here. Something strange is going on.
They didn’t even answer when we tried to talk to them, they just attacked.”
That sounded familiar to Karl and the others, but apparently it wasn’t a thing that normally happened here.
