Re: Centaurs in the City
Despite the ramblings, Melissa gets the basic gist out it: We’re going east.
She’d like to have a little time here to get some advance information about what lies “east” if she can, but today is not a good day to do it. Scolo needs her attention. It’s days like this… if he’s not watched, he’s liable to leave something magical just lying around, forgotten.
It prompts a thought: stories are full of old magical things, lying around forgotten. Did they have wizards like Scolo? How strange is Scolo, after all? Melissa hadn’t met all that many wizards, and those she knew who served the Blackguard were all somewhat “off” in their thinking. Not in the way Scolo was, but definitely, a few crooked arrows in the quiver. Maybe magic always did that to people, sooner or later.
So she gets the Centaurs to gather some information, as she gets Scolo ready to go.
“Your slippers, where are they packed? Are you sure? Let me check. No, no, this is breakfast, it won’t talk to you. That’s toast.”
The way east, they learn, is the Mos Trajectum Bridge.
The Mos Trajectum bridge, around here simply called “The Bridge” is the reason the town exists- it is the only bridge over the Meuse for many miles, and across it, the Via Belgica connects all of Belgica to the northern Rhine area.
It is a great stone bridge, with multiple arches, wide enough for two lanes of wheeled traffic with pedestrians passing to the side. Carvings of the Roman gods, and tributes to the emperors line the bridge, and there are still lamps on poles. The ancient magic still works, and the lamps still have a soft- though reduced- glow. .
On the Mos Trajectum side of the bridge, the west bank, the bridge entrance faces a large commercial plaza, the Mosae Forum.
On the far side, the east bank, the bridge landing is surrounded by a maze of ruins, mostly just walls and tumbled piles of stone, brick, and moss. This is the remains of the town that once occupied the east bank, across from Mos Trajectum. It has been laid waste. There is nothing to be looted here- these ruins have been fought over for years. The ruins provide hiding places for the scouts of both sides, and those who have crossed the bridge … know that this is the first place one is likely to encounter some force of the enemy. Since the battle, though, Huns have been few here- if anything, just scouts, here to observe the city.
The far side has been scouted often- Duke Gwalthus of Mos Trajectum sends regular patrols there. But he knows he cannot hold the far side of the bridge, so he does not even try. It is a “no man’s land”, patrolled, but not controlled, by both sides.