The guard turns away in disgust as Arakan abases himself. "You're pathetic. Just get down the stairs before I throw up." He waves them towards the exit.
Jareen turns to do as they say, hoping for an opening before this gets too out of hand.
The adventurers make haste down the stairs before the guards change their minds.
The adventurers bed down for the night. In the morning, the caravan is ready to move on. The templar from Draj returns from his stay up in the tower and is seen off by Coyotl. However, there seems to be a lot of activity from the guards. They are moving around, asking questions, although none have made it over to the party yet.
Tawfik again puts the group on point duty. They are the first to ride out on their crodlus, the rest of the caravan close behind. As they head through the narrow canyon that leads to the open desert, a group of six guards stop them.
"Who are you? Where are you going?"
Jareen will settle back to let Arakan do the talking. He's in a foul mood and has been quiet all night, and most of the morning.
----------------------
As they approach the guards at the canyon, he is pleased to see Jareen give him a chance to speak. "We are the advance guard of a caravan. We are leaving the nearby oasis, to continue our trek. Sadly, we are headed for the brutal open desert to get back on the road toward . Why, is something wrong?"
"We're looking for some people that look a lot like you. Get down so we can talk to you."
Arakan balks, but talks as he begins to slowly comply. Once off his mount, he folds his hands behind his back. "I'm sorry, but those are oddly non-specific instructions. 'People that look a lot like you' could very easily match any traveler that you choose to stop. How do we know you are legit?" He tries to buy them all a little more time if necessary, as he speaks, he tries to subtly draw his hand crossbow unseen.
"Some members of the House were killed last night. A big brawl, it looked like. One of those killed was seen talking with a half-elf, and with him a 'kreen, a mul, a half-giant and an old guy. Then they all left together, and next thing there's a load of dead people. So where were you last night?"
Meanwhile, Arakan gets his crossbow ready without being seen.
"Members of the House? You mean, up atop the cliff? We were up there, yes, but only to ask a request of an advisor to Coyotl. We were given our answer, and then sent away from his presence. There were guards everywhere. What would we have to gain, much less be able to survive if we had attacked the most honorable advisor?" He keeps the details vague, yet honest, hoping that admitting to their second meeting will draw them away from thinking they were involved in the first.
"That was you?" The guard snorts in amusement, and the others snigger. "Can't see you lot murdering anyone. Alright, on your way." The guards step out of the way, and Tawfik's men on point are allowed to ride on into the open desert.
Th'Kal bristles a bit at being laughed at. Normally it would lead to axes, screams, and blood... lots of blood. But when the clutchspeaker seems to react as if this is the desired outcome, 'Kal relaxes.
Putting the Tsalaxa enclave behind them, the caravan continues its trudge towards Silver Spring. The next stretch of the journey is probably the most dangerous, for it is here that the bandit attacks are most frequent.
The hills recede behind and the grit-blown Tablelands reassert themselves again. Flat-topped buttes punctuate the landscape and wind-carved boulders lie by the roadside. The few patches of scrub and cactus with their dusty grey-green leaves relieve what is otherwise a monotony of red, brown and orange rock. Large birds circle high in the warm updrafts, and at one point the huge shape of a cloud ray drifts through the sky, a long-tailed black shape against the blue. But the behemoth shows no interest in what is going on at ground level, and slowly disappears in the distance.
The day wears on and eventually the group are relieved from scouting duty by another team, and they take their place in the main part of the caravan. Tawfik gestures from his howdah that the group should come up and see him, and his mekillot is briefly halted and a climbing net draped over the side to help them up.
"There was some bad business back at Ablath, some senior people in the house getting killed." Tawfik narrows his eyes. "Anything to do with you? Don't give me any inix-sh1t."
"We've never killed a soul that didn't try to kill us first. What would it mean to you if we did?"
Tawfik snorts. "House Tsalaxa are murderous bastards. I'm pretty sure they sponsor half the bandit raids that go on along this road, and then fence then proceeds. I don't care what happens to them as such. I just don't want any trouble if we can avoid it, especially if it has repercussions for the caravan."
He looks out thoughtfully along the road. "The Black Sands Raiders are active along here. They are the worst. Keep your eyes open."
"I'd rather avoid any trouble like that myself. Is there anything about the Black Sands we should look out for?"
"Looking out is the main thing I want you to do. And if you see any, kill them."
"Of course. I meant, do they usually strike from the North, or in the morning, or some such. We will be wary."
"Their tactics vary. Just be alert."
The group are dismissed and climb back down from the mekillot. The caravan rumbles on. A hour or so later, Tawfik calls down, "The scouts are signalling! Go and see what the problem is!"
Jareen nods up at Tawfik and moves off.
Th'Kal takes his place near the front of the group with his senses keen to danger, axe ready to swing...
Cahel moves with the others to investigate.
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Arakan of course grumbles as he rides forward. They come off of scout duty, to do what, go see what the scouts on duty want? He'll have to remember that next time they are ahead. He didn't realize, when there was trouble they should just call the other scouts up to se what the problem is. Despite this, all the others hear is some muttering under his breath.
As the group gets within a few hundred feet of the scouts, Th'Kal notices something not entirely correct.
<zzzzZZZst> Th'Kal makes his best impression of the human version of a quiet <psst> noise to get the group's attention. Without slowing up his crodlu or making any other obvious change to his ride, 'Kal tries to comment to those behind him without shouting.
<brrzt> "Those scout up ahead are not our scouts. It is the corrects armor and mounts, but they are not the same people of the caravan. Ride normal until we gets close enough to spring the hunt upon them."
Arakan decides he will take his preferred spot at the back of the group, furthest from whatever threat these fake scouts are playing at. All the same, he draws his hand crossbow, loads it, then returns it to the spot in the small of his back where he keeps it. Openly, though, he keeps his hand on the hilt of his widow's knife. He starts looking around for any signs or locations where someone might prepare an ambush. His attention seems more focused on keeping his mount behind his allies, away from the threat he can see.
Understanding that the others have a plan for enemy contact, Cahel rides along near the middle of the group. Having no typical weapon he needed to ready, he merely used his totem as a prod for his mount, when needed.
The adventurers ride closer. The masquerading scouts sit patiently, waiting for them to arrive, hands casually on weapon hilts.
Jareen will hang back a little leaving our big hitters take the lead. He will call out when he's close enough to shout though.
"Hey, why have we stopped?"
"We found something up ahead!" one of them yells back, "Come up and have a look!"
The scouts glance at one another. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, exactly what I said. Who are you? Who's paying you? Who do you work for. And why, if you can casually sit there and chat do you need us?"
"Don't you recognize us?"
Cahel looks around, thinking these guys might be a diversion, possibly related to the head-swapper.
"No. Should we?"
Arakan stops his crodlu at just within his hand crossbow's close range, roughly right when asked if they are recognized. "No, no we don't. If we did, would we ask? You clearly aren't with us, so you better start talking before things get uglier than some of my team here."
"Hey, hey, no need for that!"
The one Arakan threatens leans back in his saddle. Another one says, "Aw, f*$# it!" and urges his mount to a charge, drawing his weapon.
Th'Kal:
Furio: