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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2497530" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Forty-EighthIn which: Anvil demands an explanation… so does Djamel.Lira watches as Anvil leads the blinded, shackled Baasim back to the camp.  She nails him with a pair of magic missiles.Baasim turns his head frantically, trying to find the source of the sudden pain.  “Look out, Justicar!” he cries, “More enemies!”A few minutes later, Eva comes half-walking, half-sliding down the ridge.  She has Bob’s bridle in one hand and drops him with Thatch before reporting in.“Did any escape?”  Anvil asks her.She shakes her head.  “Not in that direction.”“Where’s Djamel?”“He’s…. ah… taking care of the last one.”  Her voice drops.  “I didn’t look too closely, but he’s not making a quick job of it.”“Ah.”Reyu slithers up to the group and then shifts back into her more usual aspect.  “Poison took out that last one going the other direction.  He’s already dead.”Anvil turns to Baasim.  “What are you doing here?  Why did you attack us?”“I never attacked you!” he protests.  (Lira nails him with another set of magic missiles.)  “Ouch!”Lira half expects Anvil to tell her to stop attacking his prisoner, but he keeps his attention on Baasim.(Note: This was the first time Anvil was able to successfully strike someone blind.  Fajitas asks BMJ how long the effect lasts.  BMJ looks it up. BMJ: D’ah ha!  It’s permanent!Fajitas: Permanent?  Let me see that.  >takes book<  Oh, but it can be dispelled.BMJ: Yeah, you can get with the dispelling.)“Why have you done this thing?” Anvil repeats again.“I was coerced,” Baasim protests.  “They accosted me in my tent.  Threatened my wives.  They demanded I tell them where the Justicar had gone…. OUCH!”“Why?”“Who knows how such criminals think?”Lira decides to try a charm person just for variety.  And hey, she might have successfully charmed the tailor back in Siunethrit.  Unfortunately, as is so often the case with Lira and enchantments, the spell fizzles.  However, it seems to fizzle differently than her charm person spells usually do.  Following a hunch, she tries detect magic.“Eva?”The rogue turns to where Lira is staring at Baasim with what she thinks of as her friend’s “detecting” expression. “Could you take off his amulet?  It’s got some kind of enchantment on it.”“Yes!  Good!”  Baasim quickly shouts, “That is the device they used, to force me to betray you!”Lira rolls her eyes.  “If you are going to lie, could you at least lie logically?”  Sadly, a second charm person is no more successful than the first.  However, Lira at least is fairly certain Baasim resisted the spell on his own this time.  Lira goes back to magic missiles.Eventually, it becomes clear that they are going to get no useful information out of Baasim, unless his protestations that he would never willingly betray the party could be considered useful information.Djamel returns and Anvil takes Baasim out into the desert, away from camp.  His last words are, “Baasim forgives you.”###Djamel clears his throat to break the uncomfortable silence that has fallen over the group.  “That was an… interesting… battle.”  No one misses the emphasis on “interesting” or the fact that he is looking at Lira and Annika when he says it.The sorcerer swallows.  “Indeed,” she says.  “Is that going to be a problem?”“The desert is dangerous enough without being ignorant of the true nature of ones companions.”“We were not forthcoming,” Reyu allows, “but this is not a friendly land for those of some of our… talents.”Djamel considers this.  “So, why do you travel through the desert?”“It is as we told you,” Anvil answers as he returns to the group, sheathing his sword.  “We seek an individual whom we are told lives in or near Pesshetaup.”“We don’t want to cause any trouble,” Lira adds.  “And we only attacked to defend ourselves.”Djamel nods, and nothing more is said.###At first light, Kiara goes to investigate the voice she heard crying out just before the attack.  Accompanied by Reyu, she finds the corpse of a human male, dressed similarly to the slavers who attacked them.  He clutches a set of bolas in one hand, and his body is twisted as though he died in horrible agony.Reyu looks for tracks around the body, or any signs of who might have killed him, and by what means.  Aside from the man’s own footprints, he is surrounded by untracked sand.The group presses on.  At Djamel’s advice, they do not bother to bury the fallen, trusting the desert to claim their bodies and leave no trace.Eight days into the desert, Reyu wakes at dawn to conduct her prayers when she makes a troubling discovery.Djamel is gone.She quickly wakes the others and soon their fears are realized.  There is no sign of their guide.  Or of the camel which carried their food and water.</blockquote>

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