Chapter 73: Chapter 71: On the Road

“So…how long until something interesting happens?” Ellie asked, looking up from her cards. “We’ve been on the road for hours.”

“I mean…we are somewhat limited by the speed of the busses.”  Tess replied.

Members of the expedition who didn’t have their own means of transport were riding on one of a number of large, armored, vehicles that the guild had supplied. They were hoverers of a sort, though much less…nice-looking than the one Tess was used to using. They were clearly meant for moving large numbers of people or bulk goods, but they were also bulky and slow.

“I would not expect much of interest to occur for a few days yet.” Maven said, placing a card down on the table that was in the middle of the hoverer. “And I believe this means I win.”

Alice groaned. “Isn’t this your first time playing? How are you so good?”

“I’ve played similar games in the past.” Maven explained. “But, that aside, would my guess be correct?”

“Yeah, basically.” Alice said. “We’re not going to hit unknown territory for a while. Until then, it’s mostly just driving. Once we’re there, we’ll get to do more exciting things.”

“How far away is this unknown territory, anyway?” Ellie asked. “Surely you’ve mapped quite a bit of the Outlands, right?”

“Yes and no.” Alice replied. “It’s not like Mael, we can’t just send up satellites and get a picture of things that way. I mean, we’ve tried, but they have a tendency to get offed by monsters before they ever make it to orbit, at least on this main plane. Turns out there’s some really nasty stuff lurking in the skies, and we can’t get past it. On some of the sub planes that broadly fall under the definition of the Outlands, we’ve managed to get satellites off, but it’s just too expensive to do it here just to have it fail again.

“Add to that the fact that this main plane is far bigger than Mael, and infinitely more dangerous to traverse, and you’ve got a recipe for lots of uncharted land. We’re heading off towards the least-charted area, but even that’s a good three thousand or so miles away from where we are now.”

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