The morning after leaving their campsite outside Riverstone City, the group joined the western trade road at a point where it widened considerably compared to anything near Magical City.
The difference was immediately noticeable. The road near Magical City carried steady traffic, but it was the traffic of a regional hub—merchants serving a defined area, cultivators moving between familiar destinations, and caravans following routes they had followed for years.
The western trade road felt like something different entirely. Large merchant caravans moved along it in both directions, some of them carrying enough wagons that passing them from one end to the other took several minutes of walking.
