Re: Bruxzella, the Ides of December
Swift may not have to wait long for the comforts of civilization.
On the outward leg of their journey, they missed Ganda. The tracks they were following avoided it. But now, heading back, the priority is speed and convenience, and that takes them a slightly different way. This portion of the Duchy was largely missed by the Huns, but it is also relatively empty- just a few farms and sheep pastures along a raised road that connects Ganda with Bryggia and other settlements on the sea.
Taking the road, the make it to Ganda after a two day journey back through wilderness. Along the way, Ayren has dealt with the injuries, but soreness and the ache of over-abused bodies has set in. The long slog through the cold marsh didn't help, but the last leg of the trip, along the Bryggia-Ganda road, was a blessing.
But Reney knows this area, being a native of Belgica, and he proposes that the group head immediately for the castle, on the northwest side of town, the capital of the Duchy of Ganda. As they recall, Titus and Seti were headed there two help get Ganda back on its feet again, as the Duchy as a whole had been badly hit.
Ganda is situated on a low plain where two rivers, the Lys and the Schlee, join in a complex meeting, made more complex over the centuries by artificial changes to the water courses, to improve transport, drainage, and defense. The town is built on high ground, while much of the surrounding area is flat and low and experiences frequent floods. But, when not flooded, the fertile and moist soil hosts rich grass meadows, and in these meadows graze some of the fattest, happiest, healthiest looking sheep in Europa.
The water courses also protect the town, which has no fortifications beyond a few towers and a wooden palisade wall. The rivers provide not one but several rings of interlocking moats. The land surrounding the town is low and damp, the kind of soil that can quickly turn to sticky, deep mud. There are holding canals, arranged so that water can be let loose to spill into the meadows in the event of an attack. With those let free, Ganda would very quickly be surrounded by wetlands.
Ganda is not a very large town, and unlike many others in the region does not have a depressed, impoverished look. It's a mid sized place, and prosperous looking.