Shtusisnu is a small city located at the joining of several tributaries along the southern branch of the great Mumum River. Though the river is navigable, with difficulty, by barge to the east all the way to Lake Tumum, relatively little lies to the east save desert and barge traffic is a modest local enterprise rather than a major source of trade. The city does serve as a key waypoint in the overland route from Summugigus to Snushgud, but this represents only a small part of the city’s character. Travelers are generally kept to a series of caravanserai located outside the main walls on the city’s western edge. The surrounding region, which is among the most populous areas in Shdustu, centered on the comparatively well-watered and easily irrigated lands spread between the three major tributaries, is focused on farming. Neither too hot nor too cold and with sufficient water, this section of the steppe contains the best farmland and pasturage in Shdustu. The city supports these endeavors rather than trade and relies on self-sufficiency rather than any external source of wealth.

Ruled by an independent prince, the city lies upon the edge of the spheres of influence claimed by the Kudustushgu and Mumsassim Khanates. As it can supply a rich tribute to whomever controls it, it is considered a key prize in the endless struggle between the khagans. Those who rule here are generally content to allow the Kharal to fight over their city, and willing pay tribute, but only after a khagan has proved his strength by bringing a siege to their walls. Though this might seem intransigence intended to avoid paying any tribute in some years, and that does happen, it is more substantially a scheme to avoid the ruinous consequence of facing tributary demands from two khagans at once. As Shtusisnu holds sway over many towns and villages spread out across the fertile zone encompassed by the tributary streams that it could not possibly hope to defend against a concentrated force of horsemen such a submissive relationship is inevitable. At the same time the expense of tribute, and the continual plundering of granaries and other stores in hard years by the desperate have limited the growth of this region and prevented it from asserting itself among its neighbors. For this reason the city cannot join the ranks of the great cities of the steppe.

During our arrival in a year of dearth, this vulnerability was very much in evidence. Though there was food in the city, for with rich soils even a late planting can still succeed, very little was available for purchase as families hoarded such stores as they had for themselves. Activity in the bazaars had largely halted, with the locals relying on private exchange networks to freeze out outsiders. The prince spent his days in closed discussions with his viziers and turned out his guard to fortify the walls and granaries. Everywhere we went we encountered hard looks and minimal hospitality. Even the arrival of the representative of a distant foreign empire, which at other times would have been a welcome distraction to the court, was broadly ignored. The prince met with me only in a single very brief audience, during which refreshments were not served and he simply bid that the Dragon Expedition was free to trade for whatever supplies it required before proceeding on its way. Though I had come prepared to relate the events of the sacking of Summugigus in detail, he asked only the most perfunctory questions regarding the incident before dismissing me.

Though this approach was broadly discourteous, the prince was necessarily very distracted by immediate local concerns. Between the very hard year and the general weakness growing in the Mumsassim Khanate as a consequence of ongoing wars, the prince anticipated that the khagan of Kudustushgu would, before the year was out, besiege the city and demand a crushing tribute. Regrettably, the prince’s intuition was entirely correct. A mere week after the river froze over sufficiently to permit horses to ride across the ice, the city was besieged. The tribute payment demanded at arrowpoint was crushing, and though the prince paid, seeing war as unwinnable, the result was infighting in the streets come spring as starvation loomed and families fought over the hoarded stores of their neighbors.

During the summer the situation remained quite some distance from crisis, and food and supplies were available for purchase, though prices were very high. Regrettably, Master Nemin was unwilling to continue south. He did not wish to risk attack from Kudustushgu raiders, noting that we held no protective pass from that khanate. Despite my request that he remain with us, he was resolved to return north, taking his caravan and mercenaries with him, and the Dragon Expedition was once again reduced to two people. As the prince refused to treat with a foreign delegation, finding a means to proceed south required an unconventional solution. This was found by making arrangements with the city’s powerful alchemical establishment.

Though Shtusisnu is small but the standards of cities, it is old. History suggests, and I believe, that it is the oldest still-inhabited Nikkad city. Throughout the many centuries of continuous residence, alchemy has always been practiced here. The stone foundations of the Herbalist’s Hall are worn smooth by the tread of countless feet. This building, which began as a small stone vault, now sprawls as a multi-story compound adjacent to both the prince’s palace and the city’s primary temple. It occupies more space than that held by any other single party in the city. The compound contains laboratories, libraries, dormitories, a privately held smithy and brewer, a secure ingredient vault full of precious stones, and a greenhouse enclosed in glass for the production of rare plants. Their herbal collection includes dried specimens of every plant known in Shdustu and many from the deserts and forests beyond, and the animals are represented by hundreds of bird and mammal skins. This even includes aquatic weeds found only in the salty environs of Lake Tumum. All of these are utilized in the formulation of medicines and poisons, and the alchemists trained in this city are widely regarded as the elite of Shdustu. The Rose Opal Healer’s Hall, located only a few streets away, shares scholarship with these alchemists and has produced every master healer known to this region’s history.

Alchemy occupies an incredibly prominent place in the business of the city. Many of the internal gardens cultivate herbs for use by the alchemists, and the locals also breed scorpions, spiders, and numerous insects to supply their needs, keeping them in basket cages. The city’s handful of kilns and small glassworks are not used to produce domestic wares, which are instead imported from the north, but to supply the containers and implements needed to produce and store the products of alchemy. Even those poor workers who harvest river reeds cut and dry them in a manner suited to the proper packing of elixirs, ointments, and potions for safe shipping. This mystical focus is the only remarkable feature of this city, which is otherwise quietly dedicated to farming and confines its inevitable feuding and assassinations to a quartet of long-tenured landholding lineages.

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In addition to their creations, the Herbalist’s Hall also trades in the alchemists themselves. It takes in fee-paying students and returns graduates to those towns and villages lacking an academy capable of producing them. The Rose Opal society has a similar setup. Even the city’s modest chapter house branch and its temples have been tinged by this practice, developing reputations for training and education rather than output. It seems that the lack of political authority is beneficial in this regard, as Nikkad mystics trained in this city are considered less of a threat to existing political structures.

Training for a position in another city necessitates journeying to that city upon completion of the apprenticeship. Such travels are generally undertaken during the summer, allowing for fair weather journeys attached to the ordinary course of trade. During the Thirteenth Year of Enduring Peace, however, trade was severely disrupted. This created a problem, one compounded by the desires of Master Alchemist Kinarnash, who had received word that his younger brother had died in the spring and wished to return to his birth city of Snushgud to conduct mourning rituals and meet with his nephews. The master was of extraordinary age, being seventy-nine, and extremely learned. Normally, the prince would attach him to the mission of a master caravaneer and assign a grand escort but given the present circumstances the prince refused to part with even a single soldier, and many of the caravaneers had no desire to make the long journey across the steppe.

Lady Indili, upon hearing of these affairs after presenting herself at the chapter house, suggested that the Dragon Expedition could offer a solution by serving as a protective umbrella for the master’s journey. The key to this plan was the acquisition of a protective pass from the khanate of Kudustushgu, which would then be used to lure a merchant to make the journey. However, the khagan’s representative had refused all such passes since spring, clearly aware of his fellow herders’ desire to fill their bellies through raiding. Despite this, Lady Indili convinced me that I should make the attempt. Erun would have approached the task with vigor and charisma, I embarked upon it with hesitation and trepidation. I shall never consider impressing members of the military class as skill of mine. I might have hoped to rely upon the influence of the alchemists to supply the necessary leverage but given that the prince was already openly resisting them, a source of many whispers in the city, this was drastically reduced.

Thankfully, the Divines seem to have been inclined to extend a measure of support to the expedition’s success. The khagan’s representative was an elderly warrior who had lost his left hand following a post-battle infection. He had spent the past decade relying upon the pain-reducing ointments of the alchemists to retain sobriety and was inclined to be supportive of their desires. He asked me only to prove that the Sanid Empire, of which he knew absolutely nothing, was sufficiently prestigious to bear the khagan’s stamp across his portion of the steppe. He requested a list of achievements the Dragon Expedition could claim to justify such support. By this time, word had spread across Shdustu of the death of the Obsidian Order dominator in the Dumum Mountains, and I therefore felt secure in supplying the Dragon Expedition as responsible for his death. He confirmed the tale by asking the chapter house and thereafter said he was most thoroughly satisfied. I later learned that this warrior, Durmundan, hated wizards for one had dared to try and tempt him to have his hand restored. This would not be the last time the enmity of the Obsidian Order served to benefit the Dragon Expedition.

With the Khagan’s support secured, the Herbalist’s Hall took over the work of assembling a large caravan under the auspices of the Dragon Expedition. Though I was nominally given command of this effort, a Nikkad official named Hirulinish served as the lead officer. He was a member of the prestigious Ulisnanal family, which owned much of the rich farmland to the south of the city and was a relative of the master alchemist who ran the Herbalist’s Hall. Hirulinish hired Master Caravaneer Banshandu to conduct monetary affairs and secured an escort comprised of fully fifty members of the Silversheen Mercenary Company as protection. Between caravaneers, soldiers, mystics, and servants this renewed expedition included one hundred and fifty persons, with an even larger number of horses and camels to secure travel in comfort.

It took over two weeks to assemble this conglomeration, which allowed me the time to tour the city and to examine the libraries of the alchemists. Broadly circular in structure, with an irregular bulge on the western side encompassing the merchant’s quarter, it is an otherwise typical Nikkad city. Clean, quiet, and compact, it is even more dedicated to these things due to the scholarly focus. Giant scorpions are raised here, of a slightly different breed than those found in Shnudidishgu as a consequence of mingling the breeds with those of the eastern desert. This included a highly favored brilliant malachite green coloration and jet-black scorpions trained to fight alongside assassins. Thankfully, camels hate these creatures, and none were brought along on the expedition. Several of the alchemists did carry natural scorpions, roughly thumb-length animals, along in small, specialized bowls.

Each of the large landowning families maintains a large private compound oriented towards the portion of the river-irrigated farmland that serves as the source of their wealth. The main roads, formed of beaten earth reinforced with ground pebbles, route between these compounds and the city center. It is a somewhat elitist but broadly functional arrangement. Rather than grapes, the people here mostly grow melons on their trellis walls, a benefit of the greater rainfall in the east. These are a small and sweet variety and are preferentially used to make sherberts, which are often served at the conclusion of formal meals in the city. Such wine as is produced locally is more often used by alchemists rather than drunk. Some of this is distilled using a freezing process during the cold of winter. The resulting alcohol is highly concentrated and used primarily to treat infected wounds. This is sometimes stolen by foolish youths who drink it and become dangerously ill. The many herbs grown here give the city a continual mélange of scents, that, while initially pleasing, grew progressively more distracting over the length of our stay. Many travelers notice this, and the merchant’s quarter is conspicuous by the absence of such herbal production.