We discussed our options for a bit, mainly refining the two ideas I had presented and what we ultimately decided on was to mostly play dumb and if that failed, we had violence as a viable alternative.

We’d simply head down the ancient road, seemingly unaware that there was a group of centaurs behind us and if we were stopped and asked about it, we would speak about a group of Ankhegs that attacked us as we had been resting, forcing us to flee in the night. As we fled, we got further north than we had planned so we had simply continued south-west as planned, instead of heading straight south, to avoid that group of monsters until we hit the forest, moving through it until we met the road.

It was a simple story that would stand up to scrutiny, thanks to a couple of Ankheg-parts that we had collected as we passed the windswept plains. Additionally, we carefully folded all but one of the magical bags we had taken from the centaurs, hiding them in Rai’s backpack, hoping to sell them further west. The last one, the one that looked the most ordinary, was hanging on Adra’s waist, being used in its intended manner. For now, we didn’t need all of them and if we met a patrol, it would be useful to see if they were readily identifiable. If they were, I’d rather find out in the middle of nowhere, where the patrol that found out might suffer an unfortunate accident before they could tell anyone, instead of somewhere close to civilisation. Selling stolen goods was doable but only with the right contacts, something we simply lacked.

A similar idea applied to the presence of Lenore and Ylva, allowing them to leave their Hallows at their leisure and the wearing of the trinkets we had been given by Sirius. If any of that threw up a red flag, we would have to kill the one putting up the flag. There were risks to our plan, mostly the question what would happen if those who realised that something was going on were smart enough to keep their mouths shut, not giving the game away until they were able to secure reinforcements but for that, the simple fact that we planned to travel as fast as we could should help to keep us safe. That limited the risk to magical communication, which could order people further down the road to set up an ambush but my hope was that my scrying and Lenore’s airborne scouting would allow us to avoid such a thing.

With a story agreed upon, we headed out onto the road and started walking. Sadly, the command-crystals had run out of power during the campaign against the centaurs and while I had looked at the magic inside a few times, I was far from able to recreate them and get us mounts. Maybe we would be able to buy something along those lines in a city along the way, but for now, we were reduced to walking, or rather, jogging. The loss reduced our speed by a bit, from having either Sigmir or me run along the mounts, setting the pace that way, we now had to accommodate Rai’s speed, which was a little lower than mine, if I used magic to boost myself along. Still, the magic of the ancient road allowed us to advance at a ridiculous speed regardless, thanks to its stamina-replenishing effect.

It wasn’t a big surprise to me, when we ran into a group of centaurs during the first day we travelled on the road. Just from the size of the camp, or maybe calling it a garrison would be better, I had been assuming that they’d need a constant stream of supplies to sustain it. What surprised me was just how big the group we came across was.

Ylva had picked up on the sounds of their approach long before they came into view and once she had done that, Lenore had left her Hallow and taken a closer look, sharing it with me over our connection.

Where before, the teams supplying the camps had been ten centaurs and a few oxen, the group coming our way consisted of thirty centaurs, guarding a group of eight oxen, all carrying magic bags.

I felt a shiver run down my spine when I realised that the idea to simply wipe out any force that spotted the incriminating details on us might have been a little arrogant. If we tried to fight the force moving towards us in a fair and open manner, we undoubtedly would be forced to retreat. In an ambush or using underhanded tactics, that changed but it hardly mattered for our plans.

On my signal, the others slowed down, hiding the speed with which we actually moved, trying to look like a mostly idle party travelling without making haste. Hopefully, it would also hide our strength and level, our normal speed wasn’t something most people could reach, never mind sustain for a long time, even with the magic of the road.

Once they were in sight, and thus we were in their sight, we moved to the side of the road, so they would be able to pass unencumbered. It took them a moment or two but then, an advance-party of five centaurs sped up, quickly crossing the distance between us. We had talked about such a situation before and decided that Sigmir would make the best spokesperson, her imposing frame making the idea of physical intimidation difficult and making it hard for the centaurs to look down on her, quite literally.

I had considered hiding in her shadow while they approached, demonstrating that there was more to us than met the eye but decided that it would be a little too confrontational as it could be taken as having something to hide or preparing an ambush. instead, I was openly carrying my Athame and the grimoire given to me by the Grandmother, playing the part of the pure magic-user.

The centaur-group slowed down far enough from us to demonstrate that they didn’t mean to attack, instead advancing at a walk to cross the last bit of distance.

“Greetings, travellers.” the centaur in the lead called out, giving a friendly wave. His body-language, what I could understand, seemed friendly and open, his weapons holstered in a quiver-like contraption strapped to his back. Meanwhile, his followers had their weapons in hand but not raised, making it clear that they were ready to fight, but not obviously threatening.

While I observed, Sigmir had returned the greeting and even produced her Adventurers’ Guild card to identify herself. When the centaur saw it, he looked quite impressed and asked us how long we had needed to cross the Plains of Endless Wind, which seemed to be their name for the windswept plains. Sigmir made a bit of a show out of the counting, as if the crossing had been something that had brought us to our physical limits, even asking me as if to ascertain that she hadn’t forgotten days due to the monotonous landscape and the endless wind, only interrupted by attacks from deadly monsters.

It was a convincing performance, she even managed to weave in the question how long we had tried to find our way after the Ankhegs had driven us from the road, making it obvious that we had been lost for some time. The centaur seemed to eat it up, asking questions about the dangers we had encountered, apparently eager to learn more about the terrain they’d move into soon.

In addition, as Sigmir answered his questions, she got in a few of her own, learning more about the movement of the centaurs, as the centaur happily bragged that they had moved from the border-region of Aretia and Valkar, where they had their home-range, trying to get more area for their people. He even let slip that they had allied with a large pack of black wolves while fighting against some orc-tribes, warning us that the orcs might attack us on sight.

It didn’t take long for the rest of their group to catch up and as the oxen walked past us, the centaur who had talked to us bid us farewell and moved to catch up with the rest of his people, followed by the four that had backed him up. As they did so, we also moved out, back onto the road, continuing our walk. Lenore, on the other hand, kept a close eye on the centaurs, hoping that if the centaur who had talked to us had suspicions, they would be relayed to the group-leader and some agitation might give us a hint if we had been busted.

But it didn’t look like it, the centaur that had talked to us was talking to another but it looked like a calm report, most likely relaying what he had heard from us.

And just like that, the first peaceful interaction with the centaurs ended, without bloodshed, murder or even conflict. It was almost boring.