After a brief explanation by Hilbert on what exactly Nightmares were, and an unpleasant ritual involving the summoned mount clamping its fanged mouth onto their forearms, they were ready to go, each having given up about ten percent of their blood to the Bond.
Hilbert explained that summoning a Nightmare was a unique Ability pioneered by Merllyn. Because he had basically invented a racial transformation, he had some effect on the new Abilities allowed to the new vampiric variants. This hybrid Racial Trait/Ability allowed the user to summon an equine manifestation of their greatest fears and use it as a mount. It cost them life energy to maintain, or life’s blood for any not of the vampire race.
After they completed the ritual, they all received some version of this status notification,
You have ritually enacted a Blood Bond. For the duration of this bond, your health will be capped at 90% and the other 10% of your life energy will go toward your Blood Bound manifestation as tribute.
Sir Cador warned them that they would be dismissing the borrowed mounts in six hours, at which time, the Nightmares and the Debuffs would disappear. None of the mounts changed as they took on new riders, maintaining the shapes of their owner's fears, which seemed to universally revolve around hunger, and devolving into their more beastly enemies.
Their guides, however, were both exceptions to this rule. Hilbert's summoning had resulted in a mount that was a strange cross between a spider and a horse, displaying eight legs on an elongated equine torso and a set of arachnid eyes. Hibert audibly gagged as he approached the obedient creature, and shivered as he mounted it.
Sir. Michael’s summoning resulted in something that echoed the more Strigoi-like mounts of the Cavalry but had a deep purple tint to its skin and was incredibly sleek and muscular, as opposed to the uniformly skeletal/hungry look of the others.
Once all the mounts were present, they climbed into the saddles which were another part of the spell, each adjusting to their rider magically. With a final admonishment from Sir Cador that he would be notifying the Queen of their meeting, they had set off at a gallop. They rode past the border fort and followed the road behind it, into the Sanguine Order’s lands.
The mounts were completely metaphysical in nature, not true living creatures, and this made riding them much easier than it should have been. Tilly had never gotten a chance to ride a horse in his past life but found the experience with the Nightmare mounts to be eerily smooth. A rhythmic staccato of hoof beats marked out their mile-eating pace as they moved through the countryside at speed.
He could feel an invisible tether attaching himself to the creature. It started from the spot of the creature's bite, and ended in the center of its mass, Tilly guessed that was the active cost of the Ability being channeled through the Blood Bound Debuff. As soon as they were out of sight of the fort, Kindle dived back down to fly parallel with the group, complaining about the “animated parasites” the group was now riding. Tilly asked if she sensed anything evil from them, and she answered in the negative but maintained a strong feeling of distaste throughout their mental conversation.
Tilly wasn’t sure, but he thought it had more to do with him having another kind of bond, than any dislike she had for a summoning of this type. After a while, she ascended and promised to let him know if she spotted anything out of the ordinary.
An hour or two into their journey, the climate had almost completely reverted to something that felt much more alive than the endless reddish tan of the Deadlands. The ground became covered in green grass and was characterized by intermittent stands of trees and rolling moors. Eventually, they even started to pass small villages and farms.
The architectural style of these settlements ranged from typical middle-age village, with thatched roofs, and dirt roads, to human-sized hobbit-hole structures, that Tilly was able to Identify as Aos Si Barrows. Some of the ones they passed as they got deeper into the Order's lands were absurdly large hill-covered structures, that looked like they could fit 50-100 people.
The people Tilly spotted from the road were remarkably ordinary at first glance, pinging as
Level 22 Farmer
Or
Level 15 Peasant
They all shared distinctive creamy porcelain skin and glinting eyes like you would see on a cat in low light. He did not spot any other vampires on their trip but did see occasional groups of Dhampire Infantry posted in some of the larger settlements.
Overall, the journey was remarkably smooth and while the Nightmares were creepy as hell, whatever magic had created this summoning Ability had made it almost idiot-proof. Tilly could constantly feel the mount responding to his intent and any movement he made with the reins seemed almost redundant. In fact, as soon as he had set it in his mind that he was following the two vampires in the lead, the Nightmare he was riding had simply continued in that vein with little or no input from Tilly.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The mounts never slowed from the cantering pace that was set at the beginning of their journey. This probably had something to do with the fact that they didn’t seem to breathe, each one tirelessly bearing its rider for the low low price of its life energy.
Tilly would have loved to use the journey to ask more questions, but the noise of a group of hooves constantly hitting dirt and stone roads was prohibitive. So instead he just kept an eye on his surroundings, trying to learn as much as he could about their new neighbors. He also took the opportunity to break out some provisions and get in a meal while he could.
With the Alliance under siege, he didn’t think there would be much time for eating, drinking, or… any other essential bodily function during this quest. Luckily for him, the stress had tightened everything right up, and he doubted he would be going any time soon. He eventually looked back to find Amelia and Franklin asleep in their saddles and was glad they had found some time to recuperate. Gorock still held the rear of the formation, looking comically large on his horse-sized mount. This more than anything told Tilly that normal physics didn’t apply as Gorcok’s skeletal Nightmare didn't look any more tired than the rest.
Then it occurred to Tilly, that Gorock’s Constitution was probably also the highest in the group, so the ten percent the creature was gaining from the Blood Bond was probably more than enough to offset the extra effort.
‘Tilly, I see your destination ahead… It is not what you are expecting.’ Kindle sent through their bond, accompanied by her view of the City.
From her aerial perspective, the city was dominated by a structure that appeared to be a large stone castle, half sunken into the hill upon which it was built. That hill was surrounded by three rings of stone walls, making the approach to the central structure extremely secure.
As Tilly continued to examine the image, he realized two things were off from his initial perspective. First, he had vastly underestimated the scale. Kindle focused in on a figure the size of an ant patrolling the top of the outer wall, and Tilly realized that the central ring wall was twice as large as the one they had built at the mouth of the valley.
The second thing he realized was that the hill, which he could now see was closer in size to a mountain, was a part of the structure itself, mirroring the Barrow style of building that he had seen throughout the countryside. Stairs and gates were set directly into the side of the grass-covered dirt and led into a settlement-sized structure within.
Even with all of this, Camelot was still smaller than the Thousand Phalanx Empire's capital, both in geographic footprint and population. But what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in defensibility. The whole city layout was clearly designed with a militaristic purpose in mind.
“We should see the city once we top the next rise,” Hilbert shouted over the sound of the galloping Nightmares. The rest of the group perked up at the news, and Tilly glanced back to catch Amelia blearily rubbing her eyes in the saddle and Franklin stretching in his. Hilbert pulled up at the top of the gentle hill and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. No one gasped as the city came into view, but you could tell that everyone was impressed by the sight of the valley below and the huge hill fortress that dominated it.
From the ground view, Tilly got an even better sense of the scale. First, the hill that the castle was sunken into was probably the size of ten or fifteen city blocks, and it rose more than a hundred feet off the ground. The only reason Tilly didn't feel like it qualified as a small mountain was that it looked like it was made up of dirt, not stone.
Every inch of the hill not supporting an opening to the interior or a cobblestone road, was covered in grass and cultivated plant life. About fifteen feet out from the base of the giant Barrow was the innermost of the three walls, with one main gate leading out of the fortress and into a more traditional middle-age settlement with stone and timber buildings and slate roofs.
This more familiar cityscape filled all the space between the second and third walls. Outside of the second wall stood some of the settlement-style architecture of the inner section but also displayed larger more impressive structures, some of which broke with the middle-age theme. Tilly spotted a large timber arena and several buildings that could have been temples, including two that he thought he recognized from his time sneaking into the Temple of Light.
It looked like the space between the first and second walls was for commercial ventures, while the space between the second and innermost walls was reserved for native residential areas and smaller businesses.
Overall the city was incredible and made it crystal clear to Tilly the differences between the factions in higher and lower-level areas. Even the land around the city felt… denser. Richer in some indescribable way that made its potential apparent.
“And he will build a great city… where all will know peace and prosperity,” Hilbert said, almost to himself as they all looked out over the seat of power for the Sanguine Order. Then the dreamy expression on his face hardened into something more serious, and he turned to the rest of the group.
“There is a tax to enter the city. I do not know if you carry any Standard currency, but the price can also be paid in blood. Almost everything in the city can be bought with blood if you are willing to pay. The blood tax, once paid, typically results in a 10% Constitution debuff, and it lasts for 5-10 hours depending on your race. Once we reach the gates, I will banish your mounts, and the Blood Bond will be removed.
Ichiro frowned in thought, and Tilly wondered about money for the first time. Did they have currency? What was the “Standard”? How was that handled between Factions?
“How is the tax collected?” Amelia asked, staring down at the city with a considering look.
“What do you mean?” Then realization dawned on Hilbert's features, “Oh, gods! No one bites you or anything, we have magical devices that collect and store the payment to an exact degree.” Hilbert answered.
“The devices are certified by the Commerce Guild itself and can not be tampered with by any except guild workers. The city has a long-standing agreement with them to make our non-traditional economy work and it has been safely in place for hundreds of years. That being said, never give blood to someone looking to circumvent the system. It is in place for a reason, and exchanging blood outside of its bounds is illegal in our lands.” He finished sternly, clearly proud of the system that governed those in power.
At his explanation, Ichiro nodded slowly.
“We do have some meager funds if a need arises, but I would prefer we save them. Is everyone willing to pay the tax?” He asked turning toward the rest of them.