The Wain Road (North-South Run)

Merchants traveling overland from Bard’s Gate to Eastgate prefer taking this moderately safe highway, especially if they carry a token exempting them from paying local taxes while traveling along this road. Otherwise, the lord-governor’s sheriffs collect tolls at irregular intervals from those who are not fortunate enough to benefit from one of the many trade agreements the metropolis of Bard’s Gate brokered with the Kingdoms of Foere. Built by the Hyperboreans, the paved highway ideally suits wheeled vehicles as well as foot traffic. Like many roads in Eastreach Province, real and illegitimate landholders attempt to collect tolls from passing travelers. However, the lord-governor harshly addresses those poaching money otherwise destined for his coffers. When his sheriffs capture a scoundrel posing as one of their own, they mete out immediate justice by beheading the offender and impaling their decapitated head atop a pike imbedded into the side of the road as a warning to others inclined to follow down the same path. Bandits are the most common threat to travelers venturing along the Wain Road, though goblins, stirges, and other monsters also plague some isolated stretches of the Wain Road. For this reason, mercenaries typically accompany merchant caravans heading to or from Bard’s Gate or Eastgate.

Type

Road