City of Almazur.
As Shadya considers all the implications of the idea that the Scarred Man might be following the Party's previous path, she calls for yet another delay. If the Scarred Man knew of their adventures than he may have found and taken the water samples brought back from the Well of Al Arzum and - possibly worse - he might now be in possession of the crystals that hide one from the Dragon's power of smell. If the Scarred Man knew and had taken either, there looms the possibility that we might have to confront him within the Dragon's territory and, possibly, with him having all the magical advantages that we once used.
The Party returns to Jafar's house. Neither Fiamma nor Akbar know where the old mage would usually keep the crystals. The water, though, is presumably kept in the laboratory. The Lab proves to be locked which fact does not faze the half-elf for even a moment. "Open Sesame," she cries - to no effect. Then she asks the name of Jafar's pet monkey and, having it recalled to memory, says, "Ookie, ookie." To most everyone else's surprise, a ghostly monkey face appears.
Conversation with the monkey indicates
At the monkey's request, Shadya fetches grapes. At Fiamma's request, the monkey provides her with a magic ring:
By this time Fahd is impatient to be gone to see if his sister is truly endangered. He is willing to go with just the "military types", Shadya and Orlando, riding hell-for-leather and leaving the others to catch up in time. Orlando points out that we would be but 3 against how many? Shadya notes that if help can be roused amongst the villagers, the muzzim will have roused it in the Arzum's defense and that we would add but little strength, particularly given, by Jafar's reluctant neighbor's reckoning, we are already 2 days behind the kidnappers. The decision is made to ride hard but not so as to risk either Akbar's health or Nasir's donkey.
The Town of Shamar.
As we feared, smoke is rising from the town of Shamar. It is from the roof of the house of the Arzum. Villagers relate that a band of 8 men including the scarred one came and beat up the muzzim and stole away the Arzum. This happened less then half a day ago. Shadya notes that we are much closer on the trail than had been thought.
Akbar tends the muzzim who relates that the scarred man's henchmen found the girl while the scarred man himself applied pressure to bring the muzzim to talk. He still believes that the scarred man is not a minion of the Dragon. Shadya considers sending word to her Temple to rouse our own force to bring against the raiders before they reach the Dragon, but the muzzim notes that there is only one villager competent alone in the desert. He can either guide our Party in the direction the raiders have gone or he can go to the Temple; not both. Shadya delays a decision until the route of the raiders is determined.
The tracker determines that the raiders headed SE. Shadya's school is to the NW. The Dragon's mine is to the ENE. What are the raiders planning to do? The Party deduces that the raiders either want the information that the mage and girl have concerning the mines of Arzum so that they can raid the Dragon's hoard or they want the two as bargaining chips with the dragon. Given that there are two cities in the direction the kidnappers took (and no dragon), and that one of those cities is rather unsavory from the civilized desert point of view, it seems likely that what is wanted is information and that the raiders are willing to pay an unscrupulous mage to magically extract said information.
Suddenly realizing that Akbar is an information-extraction mage, Shadya conceives a plan whereby the Party masquerades as a diviner-and-servants heading to set up shop in said city. If they can overtake the kidnappers and play the part well enough, the raiders might choose to pay us to get the information they desire and, perhaps we can bargain that the payment be Jafar and Amina's freedom. Shadya warns Akbar to give as little of our hard-won information as possible but, if necessary, give all except the fact that it was obtained non-magically and by us (it does no good to have escaped the Dragon's smell if he learns of us by tell-tales). The muzzim obtains for us the loan of camels (more status, better constitutions than our tired mounts) and sufficient clothes to disguise Orlando and Fahd in garb such as Shadya's and to make Akbar a tad more prepossessing. Fahd provides saifs for the disguise.
En route it is decided that Nasir is to hide in one of the camel packs when we near the raider's camp just to provide secret eyes for us and Fiamma is to be an exotic slave-musician, bringing her bardic powers into use from the very first to enhance the illusion of great magery we want Akbar to assume.
The Raiders' Camp.
As planned, we come upon the raider's camp and are accosted by a guard, Kazim, who speaks for Al Arah. Shadya haughtily makes jokes about mountains needing guards and, with an exchange of bad wit, we are urged on our way. However Fiamma's background chanting finally makes it into Kazim's brain and he halts us again and invites Akbar to aid Al Arah. "For a sufficient price," retorts the mage.
The stroll through camp indicates to our intrepid observers that there were at least 5 perimeter guards (3 of which are our escort) including one at the horse-keep. Four more bandits plus their leader Al Arah - the scarred man - wait in the tent to which we are led. After the usual verbal repartee, Al Arah indicates that he wants information about getting into the Dragon's Lair and recovering a flask of variable potions. Akbar goes through the motions of going into magical trances and, over time, reveals to the raider chief the existence of the stairs to the underground city (although strong creatures of the north are needed to shift the rocks thereto) and the need to go down and to the south therein. He describes the minions of the Dragon and that they must be avoided or destroyed, but maintains that the only really great opponent is the Dragon himself. He tells that the Dragon knows those who have touched his treasure and their descendants by smell as, also, he can detect the presence of maidens. Al Arah is assured that he need avoid same and that he must be sure that none who go with him have ever touched what the Dragon claims, to be able to venture into the Dragon's land. In the last, Akbar tells Al Arah that the flask he seeks may not be of a size that is easy to carry. Then the mage makes a show of weariness. Al Arah declares a generous price for this information: 100 shekels plus a ruby (which Orlando evaluates as acceptable) plus a spirited slave girl. Akbar, attempting to ascertain the presence of Jafar, asks if perhaps a male slave might be available instead, implying that he regenerates his powers with the energies provided by slaves and that process might cause him to alter his sex to that of the slave so used. Al Arah denies the availability of a male slave. The Party is puzzled but accepts the fee, not willing to risk further exposure in an enemy camp. Shadya observes that the slave girl is taken from a special tent in the middle of the encampment. It is indeed Amina, indecorously dressed and somewhat the worse for wear.
With pomp and dignity the All-Knowing Akbar leaves with his entourage. Amina is perched with Fiamma who, suddenly, she recognizes. Fiamma manages to hiss a warning and the group travels into the night. At a safe distance the group pauses to question Amina and allow her a reunion with her brother. She reveals that there was indeed an old man held captive with her in the tent; he is bound and gagged and she believes him to be "not well."
The group discusses their options: send word back to the wizards of Al Mazur so that they can harry the bandits and recover their own? Send word to Shadya's temple to assemble a force large enough to take on this bandit troupe? Either case will take time and either Al Arah has all the info he needs and so will not continue on to the southern city but turn and head towards the Dragon's lands or he has not the info he wanted. But - we gave him enough information, certainly almost all he would get out of Jafar now - save for our existence and the crystal's existence both of which are info bits that he must not learn! Orlando points out that they would not turn a captive wizard over to another one so the matter is - will they kill him, abandon him (to possible rescue), or take him to the city for further info-gleaning? All of the above indicates that we must rescue him sooner rather than later. The group ponders and plans, trying to take into account that (1) Shadya, Fiamma, and Orlando are our bowmen; (2) Shadya and Fiamma are our animal handlers; (3) Nasir, Akbar, and Amina are non-coms; (4) that Jafar is in the middle tent; (5) we do not ride war camels and thus cannot do a cavalry charge; and (6) the bandits must be denied their horses if we are to escape serious pursuit.
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