The Traveling Show Visits Cambete
One of the reasons for Phileas’s choice of Cambete is that is a very easy run. Cambete is about 12 miles from Basilea, and the whole trip is along the road that follows the west bank of the Rhine. It is a flat, floodplain region- no slopes at all, and that is exactly what draft horses like.
(As does Tahra. It is impossible to get any serious witchery done in a bouncing wagon on rough terrain, but this is a very gentle stretch)
Later trips will be harder, of course, but this easy jaunt is a nice way to start, and for the Argentos’s to see that all is arranged properly and in working order.
Once, the rural landscape between cities was populated. Little villages of farmers were everywhere. But in the last fifty years, since the fall of the Empire, everything changed. In the world the characters know, these broad stretches of empty land are deserted, and people live in walled towns and cities where they can be protected. Basilea’s farms extend north along this plain for about four miles, after that it’s not worth it to farm while going back and forth from the safety of the city on a daily basis.
During the trip to Cambete with the caravan passes no one on the road. This isn’t unusual. Since the last battle at Cambete, the river between Basel and Cambete is safe. It is simply easier and cheaper for farmers and artisans to move their goods by boat.
The caravan progresses at about walking speed, no need to rush the horses. There is a stop for lunch on the road, and then another stop just outside of the town, to shift into “arrival mode”.
From here, the cast can see Cambete’s walls and buildings. The town certainly shows signs that the past century has not been kind to it. Cambete has literally retreated. The outer areas of the town have been demolished to build the wall around the inner area, and turned into farms and groves- with walls and columns sticking up in odd places.
Even as they stop, they already draw curious looks from people out working in the fields.