Gawl looks on surprised. "Magic? Do you think magic was involved in doing this to Creat?"
"Our adversary is a particularly sneaky one. We must be careful." he eyes Gawl carefully and wonders...
Hrumph! I never was much good at judging people. Too trusting.
Ami and Yeen snuffle around the men, seeking the scent of the jerk who stole the scroll.
Perception (Scent)
"Possibly," Mahdi says with an ungracious yawn and shrug. "Let me focus."
He chants in the language of fire as he continues to focus on his spell.
"Gawl, were you or your friend... Cleat? carrying anything magical?"
"No, but I did find this among the rocks near Cleat. I thought it was his. I tried to use it to bind his wounds." Gawl pulls a blood stained scarf from his shoulders.
Mahdi regards Gawl from under half-lidded eyes, silent a moment or two. He reaches out to take the scarf from Gawl, fingers brushing Gawl's as he does so.
Mahdi studies the scarf a moment, then casts prestidigitation to clean out the blood from it, because ew.
"It's a magical scarf," he says. "Your friend Cleat," Mahdi is perhaps intentionally mis-saying the dead man's name, "was clearly more fortunate in his possessions than the average bandit. Well, except for the part where he is dead now. And you've been nobly bringing him trying to catch up with us for some time now? Very kind of you."
He looks down at the scarf, brows knit, and chants some more over it.
"Why does it seem like I'm on trial here? My friend is dead. I came for help. I have no idea what I've done to offend you. We gave up our weapons. We were going away. I only came back for help. Seems like I'd be better off knocked among those rocks."
Gawl turns and begins walking back in the direction he came. He doesn't seem to be looking up, just gazing at the sand.
What Gawl says seem truthful to Mahdi and Aldebert.
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Pent startles as Mahdi speaks in his harsh language. After a moment or two, he settles in to understanding why it is the mage speaks as he does.
"Alrighty then. You're spooked. I get it. I'll let them know. You think he understands what we're saying? Ah, sounds like you have that covered. Janni's gonna have a hard time keeping a straight face if you insult his ever-changing mug. Must be nice, being a janni. Blink in and out like that, change your appearance every time you turn around. The amount of free samples alone at the marketplace would be worth it. That, and being able to insult someone, step on their foot, run away, wearing the face of someone you really really really don't like, then changing back and watching the fireworks... That, Mahdi, you should work on that kind of magic. I'd like to look into that, when we get the time. The amount of investigation throughout the Kelmarane marketplace would be invaluable. The slavers won't know what hit them. I'd march in, impostering as a new slaver to the area, get the scoops, then come back in later with the intelligence, and the credibility. Hoo, that's a game changer, right there. That's a playing field leveler. That's an evener of scores. That's Sarah's glorious justice. Oh, right, halfs need their words. Got it."
Pent turns to the halfs.
"Mahdi says there's illusion about. Worries that we're speaking with the janni again. He told me to tell you two. Not sure what you want to do about that. Don't suppose you can pull his pants down, and check under the tent. I'm pretty sure jannis are a prideful lot, and wouldn't alter their marbles and mast to reflect their new appearance in the facial area. Likely, they've got them sized all out of proportion, to make themselves feel better. Me, I'm perfectly happy with my mast. It's served me well so far. Figure it'll only get better with age, all the pulling on it gets done. Another year or two, and it'll be straight as a pendulum. Always leaned to the right, most of my life, but I've only been concentrating on its direction for the last two years. I'd show you, but we've got a guest. Wouldn't seem right."
Aldebert wonders at Mahdi's proof, but says nothing. If it is Gawl, he needs some compassion, if it is the Janni, keep your enemies closer...
"Wait, Gawl, relax. We're just a little keyed up you understand. Things have been rough out here for us too."
"Come, you must be tired, join us and relax. No sense in wandering off alone right now. Come." he gestures and tries to move the group back to the camp.
Ami's face blanks as he listens to Pent. His eyes flickering only once to the gnomes pants, or lack thereof. He glances at his brother, wondering what his brother thinks, then goes back to snuffling about for the janni's scent.
Gawl stops, but doesn't turn around. "Water. I'll stay for water then I'm leaving. There is nothing for me here."
"Have your water and goodbye then," Mahdi says with a bright, hostile smile. "You do have some nerve, demanding unaccepting, unquestioning aid from those you did try and rob and kill less than twenty-four hours ago, before your 'redemption'... if you really are who you claim to be. Were I in your position, I should be grateful for anything offered, and not argue with the will of armed men on edge."
Gawl resumes walking silently.
"Brother! There might be something here!" Ami yells back at his brother.
Perception (Scent - Yeen)
"I reserve judgment, but there's no doubt that the janni's out there somewhere. Would he come at us a second time, so soon? Ah well. I suppose if he turns around a second time, the halfs are going to halve him for his troubles. I will abstain from encouraging him to stay. If he leaves, I won't grieve. If he wanders, we'll not squander any more time worrying about him. If he departs, I'll be able to..."
Pent watches Gawl walk away, dejected. He trots over to the ex-raider, and produces genuine water, allowing the man to partake, should his will allow. "We would have healed your friend, for Sarah's blessings are plentiful, but he was well and truly dead. The kind of dead that you don't come back from. The kind of dead that turns your blood to gum, and turns your eyes to marbles. The kind of dead that relaxes the sphincters, and bloats the belly. The kind of dead that only brings the carrion birds a calling." Pent pats Gawl on the side.
Gawl continues to walk while he offers a reply, "I feared as much. I thank you all the same. It seems redemption only goes so far. I'll have to walk the rest of the way. At least then I'll only have Sarah to judge me."
The guards seeing no threat return to their rest. Garavel continues to watch from horse back.
Aldebert watches Gawls departure uncomfortably, Is he the Janni? Is he just a tortured soul? Either way his actions are making it harder to help him. Truly a lost soul...
"Brother! There might be something here!" Ami yells back at his brother.
His brother's shout breaks his reverie, and he rides over to see what he has found. As he approaches, he looks around for any visible foes.
Otah sits back in the sand, watching Mahdi and the smaller ones take turns in scornful judging and attempting to provide aid.
While the words of the party are mostly lost on his ears, he recognizes the tension. A small pang of sadness and empathy strikes the ex-soldier, as he watches the one bandit leave the body of his fellow behind, but he says nothing of it.
Otah stays with the camp, watching over it, but ready to stride into the sand at the first sound of trouble.
Ami and Yeen continues to snuffle and search for tracks and scents.
Perception - scent
Survival (Ami)
"I tell you, brother, Yeen caught something faint!"
"I found some tracks! Come!"
He does his best to continue to follow them, though he's not much of a tracker...
Ami and Yeen focus their tracking on where Aldebert points.
Perception - scent
Survival (Ami)
Otah shrugs as he hears Aldebert's discovery of tracks. Not wanting to be too far away yet again, he gets up and strides out from the camp.
"Whose tracks are they, Aldebert?" he asks, when he catches up.
Gawl moves well now that he is unburdened from the weight of his dead friend. Just at the horizon he drains his waterskin and then drops it too the ground. As the brothers continue tracking he walks out of sight.
Can we tell how old the tracks are? If fresh, Aldebert will continue to try and follow them.
"Otah, I don't really know. Yeen seems to be picking something up too, but it could be nothing." He shrugs, frustrated with the way the whole evening is turning out.
Ami and Yeen, finding sparse tracks, return to the party.
"Brother, we must be vigilant against this foe...and next time we find him, we cannot let him go!"
Ami and Yeen return to their shift at watch, encouraging others to return to bed as well.
In the morning, Ami will rest and pray, play with Yeen, and be ready to travel on.
The night passes without any other interruptions though it seems the sands have been disturbed. Strong winds coming from the south near the oasis only just manage to whistle near where the party had made camp for the night. Though any tracks left will be nearly impossible to find, the wind does promise to cool the days coming travel.
By midday the clear sky provides a hint of the city of Katapesh to the north. Though there is at least another days travel to come, the silhouette of great city can be seen against the stark cloudless horizon. To the south the wind looks to have picked up into a full fledged sandstorm. There is no telling how quickly it will move further north or if it will falter and calm.
"Brother! We should seek shelter! We cannot outrace the storm...well, Yeen can, but we cannot all run like Yeen runs," Ami alerts his brother, sniffing the wind.
"Mahdi, can you control the skies yet? That would be nice if you could," Ami asks hopefully.
Ami and Yeen begin to race this way and that, looking for suitable shelter for the party and hangers on.
Survival
Pent straps himself vertical in the saddle, and allows the camel's natural sense of pack travel continue the journey towards Katapesh. He dozes off, occasionally getting jostled enough to inquire if they're there yet.
"Otah, I'm warning you. Just because I'm resting my eyes, doesn't mean you can do as you please with your charcoaling. We've got ourselves a truce right now. A man's sleep is sacred. You break that truce, Sarah help you."
Mahdi watches Gawl disappear over the horizon without taking his gaze from him, then sits down to examine the scarf more closely.
When the others regroup from tracking attempts, he says, "This is a hat of disguise. It's a reasonably valuable magical item. I can think of little reason that a mere fellow bandit such as his 'dead friend' would have been traveling with it... and even if, by fate or fortune, a bandit had stumbled across such in recent history and worn it without knowing its power.... I tell you, there were recently active auras of illusion magic on that 'man.' However sweet his words, however noble his demeanor as he walked away: there is no logic by which that the story he gave us could account for active, or recently active, spells upon his person. A hat of disguise does not activate by accident; it must be commanded to do so. And remember that he claimed he trailed us for ages trying to catch up."
Mahdi's tone is crisp and pragmatic as he bundles away the scarf. "So if any of you are feeling heartbroken over his tale and are filled with doubts, keep in mind that it that was almost certainly the janni... and most probably, he killed this poor wretch Creat in order to bolster his tale with us."
"This teaches us two things: One, he must be a very good liar, and two, he must be capable of mundane disguises as well. Prudence dictates that we treat every single sympathetic traveler we meet henceforth, no matter how moving their tale or dire their straits, with extreme suspicion. I would rather have us err on the side of suspicion then be made fools yet again. In the city itself things will be harder yet, but... do what we can. Keep the pouch safe, keep it hidden, and stay wary."
With his summation of things delivered, Mahdi bundles in for the night.
"My domain is fire, not the sky," Mahdi answers Ami with a yawn, somewhat lazily awake with the chill of the day. He likes it warmer. "But I agree we should find shelter. I've no wish to be abraded into a bleeding wreck by whirling sand. Should we have no luck finding shelter, I suppose we can turn the wagon on its side and make a circle with the mounts, ourselves in the middle... it's what my parents did when I was a boy, anyway, and storms arose in the desert." Mahdi's tone is uncharacteristically wistful for a moment.
He turns in his saddle, counting their number what with Garavel and the guards. Quite a few, to stay together.
Aldebert listens to Mahdi, but his heart still bothers him. "You're probably right I'm sure. I'll be glad when this Janni issue is dealt with though. I'm losing sleep over this issue!"
- - -
"I agree, shelter is prudent."
Aldebert trusts his brother, and looks for a place to hide from the storm, should it present itself.
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Otah laughs at Pent's suggestion that he needs a truce.
"But dear gnome, I don't have charcoal." he smirks, "I have ink. It lasts much longer."
The cave-born soldier has no suggestions to offer in finding shelter from the oncoming storm, but is relieved that the party doesn't want to try and drive through it.
"We need to take care of this Janni then, before all our friendships are unmade."
Though there is an oasis not far to the north no one is confident that it will provide adequate protection. Garavel confesses his own surprise at the storm. "I've traveled this path many times before. I've never seen the sands come this far north."
By nightfall it is clear that the storm isn't slowing. If luck holds out the worst of it won't hit until just after sunrise. Though the guards make ready to make camp at the oasis, they look to Aldebert and Garavel before unloading.
Pent listens as Mahdi lays out his suspicions over Gawljanni. He nods in the appropriate places, but never takes his eyes off the Hat of Disguise. Right there. The magic he recently inquired about with Mahdi, in his hands. Right there. His hands start to open and close, like the mouth of a goldfish.
"Mahdi, give that here. Won't do to tuck that away, when it can be put to good use, almost immediately." Pent holds his self-clapping hands out, hoping to accept the Hat of Disguise into them.
...
As the sandstorm becomes a constant source of attention-getting, Pent hems and haws over its timing. "What if that's the janni's work? How powerful are jannis anyways? They have command over the skies, like Mahdi has over fire?" He continues on, debating what they might be able to resist the coming hostile winds.
"I might be able to firm up the sands, and provide us a bit of shelter, Sarah willing. Just need the time to do it, in the morning, as the sun rises."
Mahdi nods slowly at Garavel's words, rubbing his jaw and gazing at the wagon (while Pent gazes raptly at him and the scarf-hat, which Mahdi ignores).
"We could possibly patch up the wagon somewhat. Not like we have a great deal of wood with us, but..."
Mahdi pokes thoughtfully, ideas running through his mind. They have blankets and such to shove into the cracks, as well as palm frond and mud from the oasis, and he can mend the wagon to be as sturdy as it can be, but... hm?
He glances over at Pent, brows arching. "....that's... actually a quite useful suggestion. We might need a piece of rock large enough to use as a base, but if you can form that out into one wall, and the wagon can serve as a second, and our huddled mounts a third, we then have sort of a triangle of shelter... after a fashion. And I can give us a little bit of breathable air during the very worst of it... though not that long, I admit, and it will require an awful lot of leaning into each other's faces to breathe." Mahdi says, producing his scrolls of air bubble and tapping them against his palm as he thinks.
"...oh, fine, take it," Mahdi finally sighs as Pent continues to try and bore holes into him with his gnomish eyes. "Use it to play games with me, though, and I'll burn it to ashes atop your own head. Everyone! Be sure to soak your cloaks in water from the oasis-- wrapping them over your faces will give you moist, breathable air instead of a lungful of dust...."
Between Pent and Mahdi rudimentary shelter can be created. The challenge seems to be fitting everyone within the shelter. At the least a solid barrier from the storm can be created. Though there are plenty of slight hills, the sand is sure to continue to shift as the storm picks up.
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Aldebert feebly helps build the shelter in any way he can. He's not terribly skilled in such things, but he does whatever Mahdi and Pent suggest. Well, mostly. He thinks hard about Pent's commands before doing them, just in case something crazy slips in...
With the decision made to make camp everyone busily starts their preparations. As twilight begins to give way to darkness it appears the storm is shifting. Perhaps luck is with the party...
Any reason we can't create a Barrier with a Shelter for the animals and other weaker members? Do both? Or isn't there time?
If there's not time, then I think a Barrier is better. Protect everyone as much as we can. We'll not leave folks out exposed if we can avoid it I think.
Otah offers what knowledge and aid he can.
"If we can create an overhang, it'd make a bubble around us, and be less like to drown us in the desert."
Heeding the mage's advice, the dwarf dumps wraps some scrap cloth around his head and tips his goblet over himself.
Ami and Yeen contribute to building the barrier as best then can. Ami has no helpful magics to aid (unless something comes from speaking with plants!), but works hard when not distracted by Yeen.
He sticks close to his brother to 'protect' him from any who might try to steal the all important divine scroll.
Survival - build shelter
With then barrier in place it is clear something impossible is happening. It seems as the storm has nearly halted progress that a part of it is moving onward seperately. Two four legged forms seems to run just ahead of it, clearly trying to escape it. This gathered happening is heading right at the party.
Ami gapes at the impossible, looking at his brother, then Mahdi to see if they see the same things.
"Mahdi, what is it? Why is it wrong, Mahdi?!" Ami asks his human friend.
Ami, of course, does what he can to figure out the mystery, tossing sands in the air and watching the flight of birds to or fro the strangeness. He ponders what it might be.
Know (Nature/Planes or Religion w/Natural Divination)
Pent strains to see what on earth might be running ahead of the storm.
"Do jannis take the shape of four-legs?"
Mahdi squints and stares towards the abruptly halted storm, shading his eyes with his hands.
He shrugs irritably at the questioning. "I don't know. I think they can talk to animals, though. Maybe he sets the creatures to attack us. Well, let's hunker against the storm-- moisten your cloaks, put them over your faces, and be ready for battle or anything else. Whether they are natural or not, I can attempt to drive the beasts elsewhere with fire!"
Mahdi casts a spell that requires him to dip into his spellpouch and retrieve a little pouch of very fine, sparkling dust; the dust whips away into nothing by the wind as he casts the spell, and Mahdi's skin transforms to the color and texture of basalt rock.