They stopped at a decently built stone shop near the gates, and the Noble called out a group of servants to collect his purchases. It was only one load for the burly troll, and the well-dressed man vanished inside with one last polite nod towards Karl.
He seemed to be in a hurry to be out of sight, but that might have been because he was overdressed for this part of town, and he wasn’t wearing armour.
As strange and run down as this city was, they did need some sort of trade goods to take along the road with them. They could keep just doing donations to the needy, but that was more of a church mission, and it would seem odd for a powerful merchant to go along with it.
The options in the city weren’t great, and most of the vendors goods made the ramshackle stalls look like they were decent quality.
But as Karl led Thor through the street, they were encountering more of the original stone buildings, which were far too large for the Trolls. It might have been Minotaurs, but Karl suspected that this was actually a Giant built city.
The doorways were close to seven metres in most of the buildings, and the Trolls rarely got over four metres. The Minotaurs weren’t any taller, if you didn’t count their horns, but they seemed to have much more of a fondness for grandeur.
That might explain the state that the city was in. If the trolls had recently taken it over, they might have never had the building skills to maintain it, and the majority of the city might have been destroyed during the battle.
It was a long way from the borders that the Giant nations held, but the stone of the surviving buildings held signs of long forgotten battles and showed centuries of wear, to the point that the walls had a line worn in them from pedestrians shoulders rubbing against them.
Once the city was looking more civilized, Karl led Thor towards one of the market areas. With some luck, they would be able to buy enough goods to keep up pretenses as merchants.
None of them were eager to stay any longer than they had to in the city, so they were all keeping their eyes open for anything promising.
However, there was nothing worth buying, even if the price was low.
[Why don’t we leave, and you can sell what me and Remi make instead?] Rae suggested.
[Remi? What is Remi making?] Karl asked, checking her space, where the Naga Queen was mixing plant products into various clay containers that Hawk was drying with his fire for her.
[She was trying to make new disguise pastes for you, but they’re not working out right. She’s got a number of moisturizing lotions, some makeup, an anti aging cream of questionable ability, and a painkiller.] Rae joked.
[I’m close to getting another colour right. We’re just short on plants, because we picked them based on what was pretty or tasty, not on what had the best compatibility to make stuff.] Remi complained.
Karl turned to talk to the ladies in the wagon.
“How about we get out of here? Rae has agreed to help us with some trade goods for our next stop. I don’t think that there will be much here that will be worth buying.” He whispered.
Ophelia and Dana both nodded as they watched the crowd out of opposite ends of the wagon.
Karl thought about the flow of traffic in the city and turned Thor north down a main street. That should take them to the north gates, assuming there were north gates. Leaving empty wasn’t optimal, but they could claim that they had an arrangement to pick something up a few days down the road.
It would also give them more room to sleep in the wagon.
The trolls were busy at work, ignoring Karl and his team, except to move out of the way of the massive Cerro as Thor pushed through the crowds.
The north gates were only partially open, just a man door, not large enough for Thor or the wagon.
“Pardon, can we get the gate opened? I need to head north.” Karl asked the guards.
The pair of Rock Trolls turned to stare at him.
“Taxes are due on exports.” The grey skinned creature insisted.
“We didn’t buy anything today, Just sold our tool shipment.”
The troll stared into the wagon, then smiled. “We will take one of the women instead.”
Karl shifted so they could see his trusted merchant token, in case it made a difference.
They didn’t seem to care, and Karl took a glance at the wooden gates, which had no visible enchantments on them.
“That’s not going to happen. Now, are you opening the door, or is this going to get messy?”
They were starting to gather a crowd, and Dana prepared for an attack from behind. They hadn’t been warned by any of the other Merchants about this city, but perhaps everyone had assumed they knew the process.
Perhaps they just needed to bribe the guards, but going by the angry looks on their faces, that wasn’t going to be an option anymore.
“You’re not even a Troll, but you think that you get to leave here for free?” The guard laughed.
Karl ignored the taunting and turned to the overdressed Troll closest to the steps of his wagon.
“How mad would you be if I broke the door on my way out?” He asked.
The Troll Noble laughed. “If you think that you can get past them, nobody will mind about the door.”
“Low-key, remember?” Ophelia whispered as Karl stood up on the front of the wagon.
Karl hopped forward to walk down Thor’s back before stepping to the ground in front of him and looking up at the guards.
They were just smirking at him, confident that he would give up one of his passengers or crew for them to sell.
Faster than the Troll could follow, Karl’s maul was out and swinging.
Five stacks of [Bone Crusher] collided with the massive monster’s chest, and the air was filled with the sound of shattering bones and splintering wood as he was sent through the closed gate.
Karl turned to the other guard, who had frozen in shock.
“Looks like the gate is open now. No need for a fee to open it.”
“Thor, let’s go. I have no more patience for stupidity today.”
Karl expected something. Some response, whether it was anger, fear or outrage at his actions. But the Trolls just stood there as Thor walked out the gate with the wagon, and the puddle of Troll in the wreckage of the gate began to heal and reform its bones.
The gate guards were big, but only Commander Rank. However, Karl could sense that there were more powerful Trolls all over the city that hadn’t been alerted to the incident.
He walked a few hundred metres as Thor followed behind, with everyone tensely waiting for something to happen.
Only when they made it to the first of the farmers who were leaving the road to detour around to the south gate of the city did Karl begin to relax.
“Did the Stone Guard Gang lose control of the gate?” The farmer asked hopefully.
Karl shook his head. “No, I just smashed one guard through the gate itself. What is going on in Oakhamping?”
The farmer laughed at him. “I guess nobody told you. The City Guard disbanded last month, now the gangs control the gates. The Noble Silks control the south gate and most of the old city. The Stone Guard controls the North Gate, and most of the northern wall, while the slums change hands too fast to keep track of.
Did you manage to sell your goods? I see that you have a token from the Noble Silks.”
Karl internally sighed. So that was why they were giving him a hard time at the gate. He thought that the city was more organized than it was, and he was actually wearing a rival gang’s token.
“Yeah. The Noble Silks bought my entire cargo. I’ll have to pick something up along the way before I turn east.”
The farmer nodded. “There might be a bit left. Stay away from Berwickham entirely if you can, though. The Trolls have been at war with the Obsession Demons all summer for control of the city. When the river branches, follow it east, and you will end up back at the road again in a bit over a hundred kilometres.
If you’re lucky, there won’t be too many wild tribes or bandits along the way.”
