Tess visiting the nomads ======================== Trip dates: 1027/03/01 - begin: traders in Baratpur buying goods, mules, wagons 7 days in Baratpur to buy goods. 1027/03/08 7 days from Baratpur to Gola Keep. [Tess joins traders 1027/03/15] 9 days to first oasis from Gola Keep 1027/03/24 2 day stop over 1027/03/26 11 days to second oasis 1027/04/09 7 day stop over (to sell goods) 1027/04/16 [Tess joins nomads 1027/04/11] 11 days back to first oasis [Tess joins traders 1027/04/27] 1 day stop over 1027/04/28 9 days back to Gola Keep. (One wagon stops there to sell weapons - meet up in Baratpur.) 1027/05/09 [Tess leaves for Karakandar 1027/05/06] 7 days on to Baratpur 1027/05/16 7 days to sell goods 1027/05/23 end: traders meet up in Baratpur Net time for traders: 78 days - 14 days in the city, 64 days outdoors. Net time for Tess with traders: 46 days Tess asks Sindhi merchants what is known of the nomads. They speak Sindhi, they are all nomadic. They meet at various oasis, and they do trade with passing merchants. A peddler or tale teller should be able to meet them and maybe even travel with them. They ride horses. They occasionally trade horses, although the merchants say their horses aren't very good. Their horses are ugly and mangy. They aren't even particularly fast. The merchants recommend avoiding insulting the nomads' horses. Taking the trade route across the desert is the best bet. You might not meet them on the first run, but you will meet them eventually. The trade route is pretty long. The entire route is 48*24 miles long, with two major oasis stopping points along the way. It has a few branches, which head off to Hule (north) and Yavdlom (south). The nomads favour worked goods, particularly metal ones. They trade hides and some unworked precious metals. Worked goods as in weapons, arrow heads, pots, stuff like that. Armour isn't likely to sell (too hot). Tess takes trade goods, 4 of his traders, and 20 1st level warriors and 2 2nd level warriors that he is training with him. Weapons: 1 load = 1 crate, 100 lb, 20 scimitars (80lb) 150 gp. Armor: 1 load = 1 crate, 100 lb, 20 scimitars 150 gp. Shields: 1 load = 1 crate, 100 lb, 20 scimitars 150 gp. Pots and tools: 1 load = 1 crate, 100 lb, 25 gp. Hides: 1 load = 10 bundles, 40 lb, 150gp. Nomads (normal trade values, and note the market is small): Armor and Shields +2, Hides -3, Pots and Tools +1, Weapons +3 We take 12 crates of weapons, 4 crates of pots and tools, 2 crates of shields, and 2 crates of light armor. 2,500gp total. 2*(6x150+2x25+1x150+1x150 = 1250gp worth) 2,000 lb of goods, 3 wagons lead by 2 mules each We could borrow light horses from the army, although they will have military markings. Tess is too good a spy to not realise what that means if they are examined. As a result, Tess decides to take wagons with mules. From Gola Keep: The pace is relatively slow - walking pace, so plenty of opportunity for Tess to wander around and chat while we ride/walk beside the wagons (though everyone should be able to ride if they wish). Aldara will keep an eye on things at night. Some time passes on the road, with the wind, sand, and Tess' companions for company. Placed at regular (8 mile) intervals are stone pillars, which can be simply followed. If you lose a stone pillar though, you could easily get lost out here. Tess meets the occasional trade group coming the other way, and can swap information about the road ahead. Seems safe enough so far. After 9 days, we get to the first oasis. Camped at the oasis are other traders, taking it easy. We set down there for a couple of days and chat with the traders and so forth. They haven't seen any nomads at this oasis on this trip, one group did encounter some at the twin oasises (the next set of oases). We eat a few dates, water our horses, and trade for different foodstuffs with the other traders. The traders are bringing Red Steel back from Slagovich - another reasonably small volume but high value material, which is finding a small market in Sind - cheaper than mithril and similar quality. These traders trade with the nomads sometimes. It's unreliable, so they don't carry a lot to trade. They carry stuff more to make sure the nomads remain friendly more than anything else. They are cagey about what sort of profit do they make on spices in Slagovich and red steel in Sind. After 9 days of travel from this oasis, we hear shouting from some guys at the head of the small column. A glance reveals three small whirlwinds, heading straight towards the wagons. Tess will get out and Aldara will fly up and take a look then head back to the familiar pocket, Darielle will keep hidden in a wagon. Tess gives an order to halt the wagons and assume a defensive formation, and to batten down the fronts of the wagons. Traders can stay inside wagons, warriors should be out and ready. As we asume the defensive position, the whirlwinds circle arund, kicking dust in our faces. Tess will stand in front. Thin laughter comes from the whirlwinds. Tess says greetings in Sindhi. Ignoring Tess, they circle the entire group, and then head off. They are moving pretty fast, about twice as fast as a horse. Aldara circles up to try and spot where they go. They whirl off a ways and then (out of sight of the wagons) collapse into three small greyish things, which roll around laughing. Tess: "Probably elementals or elemental-kin I'd guess." The guards start to relax. Tess tells the guards to stay on watch, "keep moving ahead but more slowly, I'll be back in a little bit." As Tess starts to move towards then, Aldara sees them assume whirlwind form and take off into the desert. Over the communicator, Lani says they were probably Dust Mephits. Tess lets the guards know what they were, and what danger they might pose. They're normally not very dangerous, but they are mostly resistant to normal weapons and heal very rapidly - red steel weapons should hit them fine according to Lani. Nothing else happens for a further 9 days. Tess spots some people in the distance, watching the caravan. They are off the route, riding horses. Tess sneaks up to within fairly close range on foot, then wanders out and wave hello and says hello quietly in Sindhi with a friendly demeanor. A pair of young guys (about age 15), dismounted and watching from a sand dune, leap up in surprise as he appears from nowhere. They take to their heels, running and leaping onto their mounts before fleeing. They gallop off for a bit, then slow down and seem to talk for a bit, before heading off at a reasonable pace outwards. The terrain here is pretty easy to traverse - they soon outdistance Aldara. The next night (1-2 days out from the oasis) Aldara spots something large, maybe 10' long, winging high overhead. Tess will put out the camp fire, and make sure that the warriors are ready. Tess is having trouble seeing it, even with with elfsight. It circles a bit lower when the campfires are put out. It appears to be something with two wings, a long neck and a tail, it has skin rather than feathers. It circles a few more times and then heads southwards, descending in altitude. The next day we spot the oasis. There are about 50 people there - some merchants, some guards, some nomads. Tess will bring in his group of wagons (he's in his Sindhi trader disguise), and be friendly to the merchants. Some merchants mosey on over to check out this new group. Some nomads are camped in tents, sitting and drinking. Some young nomads are showing off to each other and a small group of mostly non-nomad girls - they are playing around on their horses, reaching down and grabbing things off the ground to throw to each other, standing on their horses backs, etc. ... pretty good for such young bucks. Tess would have some trouble with some of the things they are doing. The nomads' horses look pretty crappy - too stocky. Some of the merchants have the dark skin of Sind, some the red tinge of the Gulf of Hule, and some somewhere else: Tall and slim humans, with very dark skin and tight curly hair. A close look by an expert spotter like Tess reveals they also have slightly pointed ears - their features are human, but their ears are not quite. They talk about the south road, so presumably are from the south rather than north. The seekers ran into some primitive villagers down there somewhere, at the end of a long peninsula, who had dark skin. The traders from the south are trading sugar, coffee and cocoa (all of which are luxuries) - they are looking to buy iron and other metals. Tess approaches the nomads to discuss trade. On the way, Tess sees the couple of young guys he saw earlier. They are pointing and whispering. A nomad elder gestures for Tess to sit, and then sits silently, watching Tess and sipping his drink. Elder: "You wish to trade?" Tess: "Yes good sir, we do. We have fine weapons, shields, pots, pans, and some armor too from Sind." The elder sits and says nothing for a minute. "Let me see these goods." Tess organizes the goods be brought over for display. The Nomads speak Sindhi among themselves, accented but understandable. The elder examines the goods, and then sits for a while. Tess waits quietly. Elder: "I'll consider them." Tess nods. "What do you have for trade?" The elder will crook a finger, and some others will bring out materials and lay them out. Tess will look over them, along with his trader underlings: hides which are cured from some strange beasts, some plain some with elaborate workings like beading. Some are fashioned into suits of armour. Tess admires some, enquiring as to the origins of others, checking how supple the armor is, that sort of thing. They won't sell particularly well in Sind, but they are pretty cheap here though (price -3). Tess will enquire as to the 10' long flying creature he saw a couple of nights ago, "What might that have been?" He asks their advice on dust mephits too. The elder will think on the matter a while. "Probably a wyvern. They sometimes attack caravans. They fear fire. The mephits do not normally attack, although they done so when provoked. Sometimes they play with your goods, throw them around. It is best to gently disuade them from continuing this." The elder looks pleased at being asked for advice. Tess will thank the Elder for this advice and make sure that his traders follow this. The elder will talk with Tess bit more about his travels, the elder seems friendly. Tess is friendly too, discussing trade, the desert, enquiring about weather (what to do if there's a sandstorm), asking if there are any other troubles to watch out for and what to do, enquiring as to the nomads - is this your tribe, only some of them? how far do you travel, that sort of thing. Tess will also happily discuss Sind, and perhaps a little of adventuring if this guy is interested in that (though changed somewhat to be appropriate for Tess' cover). Tess is curious as to the size of the tribes, and will compliment them, "The youngsters here are very skilled, I'm impressed on their horse riding, they have well trained horses." The Elder discusses these things. There are about 2 dozen tribes. They roam all around the plains, looking the decent grazing lands (that seems to be a sore point with him). He likes to hear about Tess' adventures. He doesn't seem to like Sind much. "In the past, the Sindhi have moved further and further westwards. In my greatfathers day, they grazed their flocks at the edge of the swamp. Now, they are restricted to the deep desert." He seems pleased that a Sindhi merchant can recognise the skill of the riders. Tess enquires as to details of that history - it was a slow expansion by the Sindhi, no war. There are quite a few of the tribesman (how many he doesn't really know) but there are many, many more Sindhi. The tribes get along reasonably well with each other. They typically don't fight much, although they do stage games, and posture a fair amount. Tess will ask after some thought if he could stay with their tribe a little while, perhaps to learn a little from them as they ride so well, once these trade goods are sorted out, and he can send the wagons on back to Sind. The elder is happy for Tess to do this, Tess can either stay here at the oasis with them, or return to where the rest of the tribe is. Tess decides to visit the rest of the tribe, with Darielle accompanying him. Tess travels to the rest of the tribe in the company of some men who are returning with trade goods, borrowing a horse from the nomads. They don't have cats, so children (and some adults) will come up to talk to Tess, but really to pat the cat. Darielle of course enjoys the attention. The tribe has about 300 people - the other two dozen tribes are similar in size. Fairly much all adult males can fight. Everyone rides. They migrate constantly - the land is so poor that if they don't they deplete it straight away. The tribes are very thinly scattered over this region. This tribe is currently following a river running through the desert. They are 8 days at mule speed (8*24=192 miles) from the oasis. They ae gradually moving further away from the oasis, while Tess stays with them. This tribe doesn't hang around near Baratkand - the land isn't liveable. [Most Baratkanians live near the swamp, it's the best land - that part of Baratland has many natural springs, making it quite lush. The land to the NE of that is poor, and sparsely populated, although still better than this land.] Over that time, Tess finds out that their horses are a lot better than they look. They are rather tough, and can go longer periods without water than normal horses (they have the Long Stride feat instead of Run). Tess praises their horses' endurance. Tess gives them a bit of sword training, tells some stories, and so forth during that time. They don't have any other problems with their neighbours (no one wants their land), aside from the monsters in the desert who want to eat them. They make mention of wyverns and a few dragons that are in the desert. One tale Tess hears is of a mountain range where the gods of fire do battle with each other - the mountains aren't far from the trade route, just south, in between the 1st and 2nd oasis. The nomads normnally the traders. Sometimes they trade with them, occasionally they fight them. They fight if the traders greedily take too much water from the oasis, or molest their women, or (list of reasons). Tess puts together a rough map from what they say, though they don't have any written maps. They did try and take back Sind. One human Hulean came along and spoke with them about going with them to Sind. It wasn't hard to convince the nomads. In fact, many men from this tribe went into Sind with the Huleans to take back what was theirs, but then the Huleans gave up, so they returned home. Although none of these guys in particular saw action against Grey himself. They still have trophies and such they took. No Huleans stayed with the nomads. The Huleans were mostly humanoids, although they did have humans too. The Huleans did not pay them anything - the nomads were invading to try and grab some land. The nomads have been gradually trading some of their war trophies back to Sind in return for goods, and trading it with other places too. All of the trophies are fairly minor in Tess' opinion. They don't know of any large groups from other countries that have traveled through the region since the Sindhi-Hulean war. Tess' folks spent one week at the 2nd oasis for trading. Tess teleports to the first oasis and rejoins his folks. Tess' traders spotted something shadowing them in the sky not far from the oasis, but it didn't approach - big (maybe 10') long, wings, head, tail, etc. - probably the same creature (probably a wyvern) Tess saw earlier. There was interest in Tess as a potential husband from the tribeswomen. Tess politely declined of course. The nomads are polygamous like the Sindhi. They don't seem upset at Tess. It's the older women trying to matchmake the younger women with Tess. They ask things like if he is already married, how many children he has, etc. Tess mentioned that he is soon to be married, which doesn't faze them. Some of the young women keep trying by more informal methods, but Tess fobs them off in the night as well as by day. The youths who were trying to observe Tess' wagons undetected, are slightly in awe of Tess, and pretty soon the other yound men are too. They think of him as a great wizard, which amuses Tess. Tess gave them a couple of tips on sneaking too, which makes them happy - they were practicing on Tess' caravan, so they were pretty dissapointed at being found. Investigation of Jaibul by Tess' agents ======================================= In the meantime, Ved, Ratnam, and Suniti will go and investigate Jaibul Suniti has some skill in painting, so she can paint a teleport location for Tess in Jaibul. They found that Jaibul has two major fortifications, the capital and an inland fort. The capital has a strongly built concentric castle. The harbour is also fortified, to a lesser degree. They made maps, counted soldiers, etc. Jaibul has slightly less soldiers than Baratkand. They made an estimate of food stocks and the like for seiges, although they really can't be sure of those numbers. They aren't sure what magics have been used to reinforce the walls - they approached the walls and got estimates of height and so forth, but thought the threat of discovery was too high to do actual sneaky stuff inside the walls. The slaves in Jaibul, while not happy, don't seem likely to revolt any time soon. Jaibul are disliked by their immediate neighbours, as the neighbors cop the brunt of the piracy coming out of Jaibul. Many of the merchants are heavily armed, and willing to engage in piracy if they think they can get away with it. Jaibul are rumored to be allied with Hule, but it is just a rumor. Hard to say how many reserves they would be able to call upon. Depends on how quickly the Black Rajah can call apon local leaders. In Sind the local warrior caste can be called apon to act as a reserve. It's likely this place has a similar setup. More time sepnt there could get an answer to this. One of Tessarael's agents also made a painting of an appropriate location in Jaibul to teleport to.