The Road of Mertylmane, “the forgotten route”, is the only road between Nothenvell and Karlstorf, the coastal capital of Caloria, in the living gesta of Sogol. Long unused, it was reopened to supply a kingdom at war.
| Type | Place (route) |
| Chronicle | SGL |
| Spanish entry | El camino de Mertylmane |
Description
The road runs north past watchtowers (one with a moored balloon), abandoned farms imported from a world with seasons, and valleys of the mountains called the Stairs of the Gods, onto the white plains: ten days of cold without cover, where the outer lands touch a primary world. Then the coast.
The caravan
A caravan of thirty sleds, assembled by Uken (seven dogs each, one musher per sled, one guard per three), led by the red-haired Alfred Lenox and Duncan Ross, carried weapons, provisions and the ancient obsidian Nothenvell had identified. Its doctrine: never stop shooting, never stop.
The road’s defenders
- Eight bugbears attacking an overturned sled.
- An orc ambush under a stone bridge, meant to split the column.
- The remains of Frederick Mentieth, skull crushed by something huge and flat.
- Four invisible yetis, and a creature about 2.5 m tall plated in black ice that sought to freeze the convoy and eat the frozen.
The company of Sogol lost not a dog, helped by a premonition by Lucio that foresaw the ice creature’s next three assaults. When the snow dwarf Azidem reported her people’s old home occupied, the company left the convoy and went north to the Halls of Frost, the base from which the road was attacked.
Aftermath
After taking the Halls, the company asked Sidqa, the giant who wants to levy a toll on the road, for a letter of commercial intent (goods, prices, shipments, protection); neither it nor his magical contract was confirmed signed. The caravan’s report turned up in a hobgoblin’s boot.
In Karlstorf, Lenox and Ross confirmed the caravan arrived without losses. Sidqa wants to join the Halls to Union through his planar access; the portal would not remove the sled stretches. The travelers recalled about twelve days from New Edinburgh to the Halls. The king’s license is pending; the return to the temple and to Sogol was postponed to enter the forest through the Threshold of Aries.