>>/4767/
The spellsword had the trade plate, the white dude, he was called "the guard" the trade plate identified the white dude spellsword as the noble's son. This is all documented. Of course Joy likes to mess with our heads calling him "the guard". Also, the black guy was driving the rothés, he was a level 1 ranger, unaffiliated. He didn't even have a plate.
So consider this, black guy, trader with cart and rothés, knows this is shady, leaves his plate behind because nobility would just tell the guards "this is my man-servant". No fee. Guards don't want to make waves.
This is my theory, the noble leveled through the trade guild, look at this shady guy's spells. He hires this cart driver with OP protection to do this really super lucritive slave trade probably with forged documents, they already had confirmed forged documents they gave to the orphanage headmaster.
So they probably want to claim these are orphans being transferred so they bring all the furniture, but either hide them after they get in or set up a false front and funnel orphans into slavery.
The black guy was unidentified, we didn't find ID on him. White guy had the ID. He was also level 4 spellsword.
The ring of shared suffering: dude needs a ride, if the driver dies those rothés ain't gunna budge. They only obey their master. So if this weak ranger was hurt, then white guy is f'd.
White guy also had a skill to gain 4hp per turn, so he's gaining hp every turn. They probably expected bandits to see these slaves and thought they could handle them. Apparently they didn't expect us.
[Joy] Ashley has some factual information here. Her conjectures are not necessarily correct but they also might be. Only I know for sure.