Movement of trade goods in the world?

[Borya]

(I've figured that sense this is more fluff oriented, that I would post it here. If it doesn't fit, feel free to stick it in General Discussion or where ever it works.)

Recently a question popped into my mind, which is, assuming the lands of Daragoth have some kind of "normal" economy, how do goods go from one place to another?

• Is there a reliance on magic, or would that end up prohibitively expensive to do for most merchants and most merchandise?
• In the case of the use of magic, would it be used regardless of how difficult the trip would be? Would the 'easy' trips be made without?
• And what of large shipments? Would they be split into parts and moved magically to their destination, or would it be plausible to move even some of the largest amounts of goods with relative ease via magic?
• In the case of forgoing the use of magic to ship things between cities, would any of the routes most adventurers are familiar with be used?
• Assuming the routes we're all familiar with are the safest widely known routes, what sort of strategies would possibly be used to traverse the more dangerous areas?
• Would there be more of a tendency to travel in larger (but less maneuverable and FAR more noticeable) groups, or smaller (but less intimidating and not as well manned)?

There are probably more things to consider, but this seems like a nice start.

 

[Thothie]

Well, the NPC's are always talking about caravans, trade, and dangerous travels, and the fact that bandits can, apparently, make a living doing, well, the things bandits do, suggest there is lucrative land-travel trade going on. Given how well armed the bandits tend to be, one may assume, mostly by armed caravan and/or merchant ship.

Galdet's Storage, is more a game mechanic than lore, although if you want to work it in logically with the aformentioned activity, it could be explained away by saying that 1) It's too expensive vs. physical transport, and 2) Only good for transporting small quantities of goods.