The Medievia Trade Run Massacre
by Vyramyer

I stood in an unfamiliar body at Athelasea's trading post, biting my lip as I readied myself for a new trade run venture. My bank account was lighter than usual, and I badly needed funds. Gandall joined me at the post, mounted on his appaloosa. I could sense the winds of a tornado whipping up nearby, reminding me of past misfortune. I chuckled as we bought our wagonloads of art and hit the road.

Just as I felt comfortable and our horses happily trotted on, we ran headfirst into a Troll warrior! Groaning loudly about the continuation of my usual bad luc k to Twynkles, we attempted to bring it down. Mildly confused between suddenly havin g mage skills, I alternated spells, gritting my teeth. A dragon swooped overhead, grinning down at us. Begging loudly to Vryce, I prayed it wasn't ours. As Gandal l's wounds caused him to flee from the battle, the ancient dragon roared loudly in my face and bought me down in a single slash.

A few moments later, we quickly resumed the chase for our freight. An earthquake shook the earth to a terrifying degree, also harming the trolls. Grinning at our luck, we took after the trolls and retrieved our freight quickly. Racing for the captains, hands rose up all around and pulled down our foes out of the blue! Stopping for a moment out of shock, I vaulted back up onto my Appaloosa and we s et to the road again. Oddly, other than a few lion dens scattered around no other mobfactions stood in our way. Spiders scuttled around the area by New Genesia, causing us to slightly speed up, but still nothing impeded us.

As we came around the u-bend, the sun hit us square on the brow as I gritted my teeth wondering if this hotspot would cause trouble again. I'd previously encountered Hellraider and forests here numerous times and was cautious of a repeat. However, we pelted past Kovy on our horses and still encountered no more mobfactions.

Grinding to a halt in Ruellia for a quick breather, we couldn't help grinning at our new found luck. I leaned against the Ruellia trade counter, scribbling in my reporter notebook, casually chatting to Gandall as we rested. Styg warned us about the centaurs ahead, as I casually laughed them off and said they'd be no trouble. We galloped confidently towards Ur-vile, the air around us silent. As we pulled up two rooms away, all hell broke loose as the surroundings exploded into a mess of centaurs, full of rage towards traders. Panicking, we made into the trading post by the skin of our teeth, selling our first pack horse and flopping down to wait out the bandits. Getting impatient, I flew back to Ruellia, joined quickly by Gandall. We set back off, charging towards where the centaurs were waiting. Yet, halfway across, the centaurs gave a great howl and disappeared back to where they came. Shrugging, and with renewed vigor, we sold again and repeated several times.

Fog crept around our feet as we continued traveling, now with numerous fae bats popping up in front of us. Personally, I'd had little experience with these new mobs and nervously skirted past them, unsure of their purpose. After asking Gandall quickly, I made a mental note to check later. The bats continued to attack us as we attempted to run past, and eventually, in the midst of thick fog, bat after bat came into the room until we fought for our lives. We fled and as I clutched a stitch in my side, yet another mighty dragon bought me to my knees. I fell to the ground, rolling my eyes as Gandall stood in the fog. As I lay on the floor at the necromancer's mercy, an enormous swarthe of Centaur bandits sprang into the area, horns blowing as they hunted my formmate down . As we soothed our wounds in the altar, we decided to leave this adventure for another time, with a current 4 million gold coin profit!

Conclusions drawn from this first trade run in 3 months:
1) Pride doesn't always come before a fall.
2) It really is just like riding a bike.
3) Trading with old friends is distracting, but a lot more fun.
4) Once someone mentions an mf, that mf will pop within 10 minutes.