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In the morning he tells Aman about the inability to figure out how the Staff works. Aman will send a message to the College to see if the students and can bring anything up with their research.
They swing by the Sandvoyagers Compound in the morning to get some information and supplies. There is a bazaar here with a variety of merchants, although probably less than normal due to the impending battle-preparations. That can shift the focus of a community.
There are a few tents here, stables, washing area, and such. There’s even a small tavern-inn for the local Sandvoyagers and their employees. Nira is here, the woman they encountered in Skarda’s Mirror. She signed on with the Sandvoyagers. She joins their table and they get caught up on various pieces of business here.
She tells them that there have been very persistent rumors that the princess was not actually taken anywhere. She’s still here in the Oasis. She’s heard that from multiple sources. She connects Alzar with a local sub-chief of the Sandvoyager Guild here. He’s been serving here for almost three years, and there have been some…changes...in some of the dervishes in the last few days. But only some. There is a second, hidden dervish compound on the outskirts of the Oasis‘s vegetation (about 1.5 miles diameter) and most of the odder behaving ones are there.
Alzar decides to check that out. As they near it, he agrees, these dervishes are a bit peculiar, their clothing is a little different, and their manner is as well. Alzar gets Tolvar to cast Invisibility on him again and he scouts out.
The compound here is just 5 tents big, and there are 13 dervishes, no one else. As Alzar inspects, he notices that there are no beds here in the compound’s tents. Where do the dervishes sleep?
He watches, and waits. Soon enough, he sees someone open a secret door in a rock, and head down.
There is something here.
Alzar uses the Star’s Gem of Seeing power and nothing is revealed under it.
He heads over to the secret door, still open, and checks it. There are steps down. Should he head down now, while Invisible, and see what he can find? Or should he grab the group, take down these dervishes, and then go down in force? He decides to scout on down…
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