This is an Unusual Community

It is not the people who are unusual, it's the make-up of them, the mix.  I've been struck by how diverse these people are while I've been talking to them.  I've learned quite a bit about the way this transport industry works, and how different people slot into the smooth running of the caravans.

There are two large community groups here.  The biggest one is the traders that are just preparing to leave, these can be caravan participants who are gathering guards and maybe other parts of their shipment, and who may be hanging around in the town for a week or two while all their trade comes together.  This group gradually gets bigger and bigger until a caravan leaves.  One of them left this morning, we'd only been here for a day - but I watched it go.

The next group are the traders that are just arriving in the town with new caravans.  These are briefly the biggest group, for a few hours every week or two - there are people in these groups that are just happy to be back in civilisation, they're arriving dusty or muddy from the journey and often with tired guards and pack animals that have been hauling their loads for several weeks.  There is something of a euphoria that can overcome the traders as they arrive, so they say (we've not seen any arrive yet).

Of course, there are the locals.  All-in-all these are quite a small group of people, but they provide essential services - inns, equipment repairs, blacksmithing, etc., to the caravan operators, traders and their guards and passengers.  These people seem to be making a really good living from these temporary inhabitants.  Money would have to be good - you'd certainly get a quieter life doing this in a more ordinary town.

The other groups are the ones that are here for the caravans themselves - the van operators, guards, load/unload/labourers, even some bards and minstrels to entertain the people who ship their goods long-haul.  There must be something about spending long periods travelling the wilderness, because most of these people do this repeatedly.  The get off one caravan and immediately get themselves booked on another one going back in the opposite direction.  Although they're spending a lot of time in the wide open land of the wilderness, they're cooped up together - it's potentially dangerous to be away from the protection the caravan (and its guards) brings if your out in the middle of nowhere.  Many of the van operators have become traders, too.  There is quite a free market that has developed in the caravan waiting areas.

The cart drivers are quite polite to each other - and it took an hour to get them all going and plodding out through the exit between the holding areas this morning.  The large carts take some effort from the beasts to get them moving, but once they're rolling they seem to be difficult to control quickly, they're much more cumbersome than normal sized carts.

I spoke to some of the drivers and they all seem to prefer different places in the column.  Some of them wanted to be at the front, others at the back.  They all seemed to think that in the event of attack they'd be in the safest place, or in the place where they could escape easiest.  I suspect that means the caravans are not often subject to attack.

I spent the whole morning and into the afternoon just chatting with some of these people.  It was the van operators and guards who I focussed on for the most part.  These people are the ones most likely to have experienced any bandits recently.  The traders will have arrived with goods and will have moved on.  There have been attacks recently although the traders who just turned around at the far end of their last and come straight back have not been on the road headed south for more than two months (the journey time is four to five weeks, depending on the weather), so their information is not up to date - and many of them have just left once again on the latest caravan.

The anecdotal reports, though do confirm that the bandits have been working at this end of the journey, and they've attacked a couple of the smaller caravans, but only under cover of darkness, and only while they were still in the semi-civilised region of South Caldonacia.  Some goods were lost, but it was mostly foodstuffs - flour, honey, some root vegetables and the like.  The information is quite sketchy, and I've struggled to gain any coherent information about locations and times of attacks.

Perhaps if another caravan comes in during the next few days they'll be able to give us some better information.  News of attacks during this latest trip would be ideal.