who neglects these rudimentary precautions; his bones and others soon grace the dunes The wise adopt other practices to extend their lives and their profits The protection of cargo is worth plenty to the caravan masters, so they can afford some protective magic Those who can afford wizards use scrying magic to watch the surrounding desert for trouble Coin and favors can earn them aerial observation and protection from the Penmai Nok forest people suspended from their flying Sanid mounts; these fliers are glad to keep the caravan safe, but camp apart, finding the essence of camp life unseemly Left to its own devices, a caravan can easily consume half its cargo capacity in food and water provisions over the length of a single journey Caravan masters find such consumption wasteful if not ruinous Instead, they rely upon contracted, local sources for provisions whenever possible Some points are fixed, such as known wells or the permanent camps of local farmers and herdsmen Others are as mobile as the caravan itself: slave and thakal wagon trains dedicated to supplying the larger caravans while on the march Of course, those who know the appointed times and places of these contacts have great power over the wagon train A caravan’s endurance cannot surpass that of its mostburdened animals Any train can continue for a full week before its trisaurs and thakals become fatigued Any time beyond that demands extra care not to tax them too heavily Subsequent days must sacrifice time each day for rest and watering, slowing the caravan’s progress Failure to accommodate the animals thus risks their injury or death An injured animal is difficult to save, especially without magical aid, so most are discarded Fatigued animals become more difficult to handle and keep to task Very fatigued creatures can go berserk and damage everything around them—a chaotic circumstance every caravan master seeks to avoid Any teamster who allows his animal to run amok gets punished for his oversights and forced to pay for his animal’s damages Hijackers Stealing from a moving caravan is the dream of the desperate, but there is little to gain other than making off with a day’s rations or a handful of baubles Enterprising thieves know they must hijack entire wagons to make off with anything worthwhile, and they plan accordingly Hijackers must infiltrate a caravan with robbers who can handle beasts and drive them away with wagons intact They have their best luck toward the back of the caravan amid difficult terrain where they can slip away and hide, or at night, when one well-planned diversion can make all the difference 114 The dark hearted also turn to subtler options in the mysterious realms of Khitus Surreptitious hijackers can turn to magical mind control, bringing drivers unwillingly under their power, clouding their judgment just long enough for them to drive off course in a sand storm to their waiting “rescue.” Animals can be similarly controlled, or even influenced by skilled handlers and “whisperers” who know how to tap into their weak minds Very often, anything portable is divided among a crew, while identifiable wagons or animals with brands are disguised, discarded, or sold to those with even less scruples than hijackers Major Sites of Interest While many vistas of the Khitan wastelands are dull seas of sand and scrub, there are some locales and areas outside civilized settlements worthy of tales and talk Floating Earth Motes Cultured folk, safe in their water-fat cities far from where dust lives and breathes, derisively dismiss tales of windborne islands in the skies Wanderers know such things exist in the deep country, carrying false promises of life on incessant winds Alluvial soils and dust mix with the micro-fine tangle of minute roots and plants, some eventually swirling along the ground like a child’s top, growing larger as they collect more loose material In time, the bigger ones are lofted high into the air on wicked winds and stay aloft for days or weeks at a time All the while, their altitude changes drastically, ranging from bare fingers above the desert surface to heights barely visible from the ground Harsh winds support and tear away at them alike, sometimes rending them to pieces midair, the new remnants buoyed by ever-refreshed hot updrafts from below The least “floaters” are no bigger than dinner plates, swirling in accruals by the hundreds like flocking birds The largest motes can measure scores of cubits across, though, sufficiently buoyed to stay aloft and possibly carry the weight of visitors upon its evercrumbling and shifting surface Motes attract all manner of avian creatures, but never for prolonged activity Flying insects swarm them, the mote’s eventual demise often farther off than their own Birds follow them around the sky, feeding on the plentiful insects; few birds nest on motes as there is insufficient time to hatch an egg before it disappears Sanid, the great birds mastered by the Penmai, seek floating