Information on the Desert Nomads ================================ Information from merchants who trade with the nomads: The nomads speak Sindhi. They are all nomadic. They meet at various oasis and trade there with passing merchants. 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. There is a trade route from Gola Keep to Slagovich across the desert. It is 9 days from Gola Keep to the first oasis. 11 days from the first oasis to the Twin Oases. Then another 28 days on to Slagovich (not sure on this number). It has a few branches, which head off to Hule (north) and Yavdlom (south). Placed at regular (8 mile) intervals are stone pillars, which can be simply followed. The main trade goods on this route are red steel from Slagovich and spices from Sind. The nomads favour worked goods, particularly metal ones. They trade hides and some unworked precious metals. Worked goods as in weapons, light armor, arrow heads, pots, stuff like that. Base trade modifiers with the Nomads (note the market is small): Armor and Shields +2, Hides -3, Pots and Tools +1, Precious Metals ?, Weapons +3 Some of the threats in the desert: - Dust 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. 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. - Wyverns: They sometimes attack caravans. They fear fire. Some of the merchants at the Twin Oases 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 - 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. There are about 2 dozen tribes. They roam all around the plains, looking the decent grazing lands (that is a sore point for the nomads - they don't like Sind much). In the past, the Sindhi have moved further and further westwards. In their greatfathers' days, they grazed their flocks at the edge of the swamp. Now, they are restricted to the deep desert. It was a slow expansion by the Sindhi, no war. There are quite a few of the tribesman, but there are many, many more Sindhi. The tribes get along reasonmably well with each other. They typically don't fight much, although they do stage games, and posture a fair amount. This tribe had 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. 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.] 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). 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 put together a rough map from what they said, 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. There was interest in Tess as a potential husband from the tribeswomen. Tess politely declined of course. The nomads are polygamous like the Sindhi. Information on 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. The most powerful mage rules Jaibul. If they die, then it's a free for all until someone proves they are the most powerful in the country again. It's the reason Jaibul has powerful mages, and yet is ineffective in world affairs. One of Tessarael's agents also made a painting of an appropriate location in Jaibul to teleport to.