"Undead that retains their sentience? Hogwash. My Jarl, this is very clearly a hoax, perpetrated by the necromancers to get us to lower our guard against them. I assume they planned to infiltrate our jarldom with spies with this excuse, or assassins even.
We should make the policy to destroy any undead found in our land even stricter, so that we do not fall for these corpse lovers' ploy." - Sigismund Winsclav, head advisor to Knut Svennson, Jarl of Istria, circa VA 45.
Port Erbe
Southwestern Ptolodecca
Lichdom of Ptolodecca
4th day, 4th week, 7th month, year 75 VA.
"Welcome, to Ptolodecca," announced Aideen as the ships pulled into the small port town. Port Erbe was situated in southwest Ptolodecca, geographically the nearest port to the Elmaiya Empire where they had been at.
It was relatively small as port towns go, as the empire has been historically neutral or hostile towards the lichdom, and what little trade goes on between them happened mostly by the land route. Most of Ptolodecca's maritime trade came from the east, where several of the distant jarldoms frequently traded with them, and the waters were in general safer which led to merchant ships from the other continent favoring the east route as well.
Despite the moniker of "Land of the Dead", Ptolodeccan soil was quite fertile, though there had been some truth to the rumor that the fertility of the land was from the unknown number of corpses buried within. The Bone Lord had not conquered his parcel of land by diplomacy, after all.
Either way, his lands had always been one of the most self-sufficient in the region, the constant presence of undead guardians in even the smallest villages meant they could afford to range out further, use up more of the wilderness, something most nations lack the manpower to do.
As a result, while the Elmaiya Empire has no need for it due to their own fertile land, many of the independent small Jarldoms to the east - especially those in harsher and colder lands - heavily imported grains and other foodstuff from Ptolodecca on the regular, exchanging them for fine furs and materials often only found in their region.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Port Erbe to the west on the other hand, was not a trading port, and more a military port built to discourage imperial advances by sea. To be fair, the last time the empire and the lichdom had entered an armed conflict, it was during the days of the first empire, and that conflict had ended with the empire shattered into centuries of smaller, warring fiefs contending for supremacy before they reunited into the current second empire.
They had been a day behind schedule, the ships were running on skeleton crew, which reduced their efficiency and cost them a day's delay, but the rest of their journey was uneventful. The considerable amount of loot in the privateer galleon's hold also more than made up for the small delay, as the ship had apparently just returned off a successful hunt when they ran into them. Not even counting the value of an intact ship on top of it, it was a very profitable fight by any standards.
Aideen led the two other unliving and their families, along with the agents from the Death's Hand, down from the ship and into the town. While the port itself resembled a fort more, there was a town that grew around it in the inland direction, so she brought them there, to allow the newcomers a day of rest at the local inn while they waited for their travel arrangements to be readied.
The next day, after a simple but filling breakfast, they split up into three large carriages, each capable of hosting a dozen people comfortably with room to spare. The carriages were drawn by teams of undead skeletal beasts, some sort of horned equine beast judging from their shape, with two necromancers manning each carriage, working in shifts so the carriage could run all day and night without ever halting.
Inside the carriages were enough amenities that the occupants would not need to leave the carriage during the trip, set in relative luxury as it was decorated with ivory set in silver. Carriages like these were usually set aside for transporting envoys or other visiting dignitaries, though returning teams of agents also had access to their use.
The agents split up between two of the carriages, while Aideen went to the third with the other two unliving and their families. The heavily enchanted body of the carriage meant that they didn't notice a thing even as the necromancer driving the carriage started their journey, neither noise nor vibration were noticed by those within.
It would normally be a two week trip from Port Erbe to Tohrmutgent by normal carriage, but the undead-drawn carriage was not only faster, it also never stopped. A two week trip was covered in as little as three and a half days instead, and by the beginning of the next week, they found the walls of Tohrmutgent in sight.
They arrived to witness the astounding sight of a massive, multi-ton section of said wall walking towards the outskirts of the city, which were mostly enclosed by similar wall sections, with other, newer sections being built there as well. To be precise, it was not the wall itself that walked. It was just placed over a thick platform of bones with countless legs underneath it, and it was these that walked it to its new position.
Tohrmutgent was expanding, the current walls fully encompassing where the Vitalican refugees had lived beyond the walls years ago, and then a good distance beyond that on top. The moving of the walls were done by mage cadres working in unison, as it served as good practice for them.
Aideen smiled as she saw how the newcomers had boggled at the sight before them. She herself had a similar reaction earlier this spring, when she saw the wall's moving process for the first time with her own eyes.