In general, the Kharal tolerate merchant caravans wandering the steppe, so long as sufficient protection has been hired dissuade a band of reckless youths from engaging in a little opportunistic livestock rustling. Systematic oppression of trade is broadly considered inappropriate. Such protections do not, however, apply to a party comprising two people and one mule. While the herdsmen may move about the steppe in such small groups, they are always mounted, never walking, and possess a remarkable capacity to identify their fellows, or at least their horses, from a considerable distance away, often deciding to approach or ignore from well beyond earshot. Outsiders, by contrast, tend to face aggressive interrogation, at best, for dismounted wanderers are all too likely to represent bandits, cultists, madmen, outcasts, or some other kind of dangerous individual. Even in the case of case of desperate caravaneers who have survived bandit attacks, the most likely fate is enslavement.

We had hoped to remain sufficiently unobtrusive as to avoid notice on the path to Gudishmu, a post on the Mumum River that can be reached in ten days journey from the edge of the mountains. This, as it happened, was a wildly and foolishly optimistic projection, and we were surrounded by a hastily assembled group of riders at midday on the third day into the steppe. These warriors, who were mostly older Kharal as their youths had drifted southwest in response to the call to arms they anticipated coming from their Khagan with the turn towards autumn, surrounded us with bows drawn, but reacted with confusion when I presented the imperial badge and identified myself as an officer of the Sanid Empire, a state completely unknown to the majority. This, combined with Lady Indili's status as a sorceress, something no longer obvious from a distance due to the lack of proper robes and the non-traditional dryad-make staff but easily confirmed close up by summoning a shark-shaped shade, convinced them to convey us at once to the company of their tribal shaman.

Like the Bahab, and most people who lack a proper literature, the Kharal do not properly divide their mystic practitioners, though a few extremely talented youths have found their way into healer or sorcerer ranks in Shdustu. Their shamans learn bits of alchemy, healing, priestly blessings, and sorcery all mixed together. Some can even practice the simplest of wizardry transformations. This is highly inefficient, and most can perform a mere handful of rituals primarily by rote, leaving them trapped at the apprentice level. To my knowledge no shaman has even been accounted a master of any mystic art. To a people like the Kharal, close to the wilderness with little opportunity to train their intellects and widely varied needs for each small clan, the approach is useful, even if it limits their power compared to better organized states.

The shaman of the Runsupin tribe of the Kharal was old, and could only still ride with pain, but very wise. A single glance at Lady Indili's shade sufficed to recognize her as a master, and only a few moments of deduction to recognize that, while the symbol etched upon the imperial badge I had inherited from Erun Nassah was unknown to him, only a master apothecary could have manipulated metal and clay in the manner needed to produce it. He immediately instructed his fellow tribesmen to provide us with horses and escort us to Gudishmu with all care, claiming that sorcerers were to be honored and that the gratitude of the chapter house would 'rebound upon the tribe tenfold.' In this he was prophetic. The Chapter House of Summugigus, far to the east down the Mumum River, would dispatch an apprentice to live among the Runsupin tribe for a full year, and their aid allowed the eradication of a nest of giant spiders from the land that had slain over three hundred sheep in the past decade. As ever, the chapter house is careful to preserve its privileges.

Guarded by the Kharal, we had no difficulty reaching the town swiftly. Upon arrival, rather than approach the appointed viceroy who ruled the city, for Gudishmu, like most Nikkad settlements on the Mumum, was controlled by the Prince of Summugigus, but instead lodged at the small branch of the chapter house established here. Though the large town hosted only a pair of apprentice sorcerers, they had extensive contacts further downriver and were not lacking in resources. Recognizing the Lady Indili's mastery, they provided us with clothing, tools, and a small stock of paper. This allowed us to restore our appearance to something approaching professional. I made the decision to avoid announcing the presence of the Dragon Expedition and instead maintained the deception that I was merely a servant. Though this was debasing, I believed that avoiding entanglement with the Nikkad administration would allow us to move faster. We had no intention of staying in this town, and had every intention of departing swiftly to maximize our travel time in good weather.

Gudishmu stands at a bend in the Mumum River. Here its course turns, shifting from flowing nearly perfectly north to instead track northeast briefly and then wind its way east all the way to the salt seas in the eastern deserts. Several minor streams, sourced in the mountains to the west, join the flow at this point. This considerably increases its volume, rendering it a proper river rather than another muddy channel carved across the steppe. Once the winter ice has broken up and the surge of meltwater receded, it is quite navigable by barges and small boats. These are floated down the river to the east, poled by their guides, and then returned westward by being hauled against the current. Sometimes this is done using livestock pulling from shore, but in many places this is impossible and slaves must march upstream through the water, hauling the barges behind them, a brutal and exhausting duty. Though this traffic is very slow, especially westward, it allows for much higher volumes of cargo than any camel caravan, and in the eastern half of the river the water is deep enough to allow proper riverboats to sail back and forth in a much more traditional river trade.

This trade is the central occupation of Gudishmu. The town produces few notable products of its own, though it lies on fertile ground and sources much wheat and millet through its mills and dispatched far and wide as heavy bags of flour. Exchange of goods and people onto and out of the river is the central source of its living. Most of the goods that come from the east is traded to the Kharal or, eventually, to the Bahab up in the mountains. Ore is sent downriver to feed forges and kilns in Summugigus, where there are both forests to power them and the expertise to work them. Fish, pottery, jewelry, and fine textiles flow west to supply the yurts of the Kharal. The town, by extending wharf and protection to merchants, secures a stable existence. Duties on trade enrich the viceroy and pay the khagan's tribute, while debts incurred through failed merchant ventures and conflict with raiders provide a steady source of slaves needed to sustain the brutal labors demanded by the barge traffic. Greed therefore lubricates all processes in this place.

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Being relentlessly focused on mercantile efforts as it is, the town is not welcoming to travelers with no business of their own. Everything sold here is expensive, with the marketplace sellers working tirelessly and in concert to separate outsiders from their wealth from the least purchase of a meal to even those of ships and buildings. The town squares are dingy and dirty, constantly being stained with mud from the river. Animals stained by the road mingle with sailors soaked by the river to produce a distinctly pungent mixture. The walls here are built high and the merchants hire numerous mercenaries. This, combined with regular tribute payments, means the Kharal negotiate rather than raid. The result is a prevalence of raised voices and loud banter in the markets, and many arguments accelerate into violence due to the tendency to drink fermented mare's milk spiked with fruit wine. The viceroy does not police such matters closely, and injury and even death is quite common. The local law is that the town guard seizes the personal effects of those who die in the streets, a policy that does little to limit brawls and deaths. Many of the river merchants have relatives in the household of the Prince of Summugigus and blood ties to the various viceroys along the river. Those who do not are noticeable for their regular refusal to leave their barges and enter the town proper due to a fear of assassins within the confines. This made securing passage downriver somewhat complicated.

With many merchants and mercenaries within the walls, gambling lives side by side with violence, something the viceroy also encourages, as every gambling house is careful to provide him with a cut of the take. This is sufficiently prevalent that it joins to all major meetings and large wagers may be placed regarding substantial sums linked to merchant endeavors. In order to negotiate passage, I was obligated to participate in such games, a foul practice. The Enlightened Revelation rightly calls out the gambler as a fool, for the mathematics dictating perpetual loss are well known, but this, along with the warning against excessive consumption of alcohol, is the most routinely flouted guidance, something that does not change in any land. My father long advised me against such habits and had me swear to avoid all gambling upon condition of my service in the capital. Here I settled for making minimal bets, necessary in any case, as the coinage in our possession was barely a handful. I was not so arrogant as to think I could triumph in contests against veteran merchants and degenerate soldiers, especially considering that cheating in such games runs rampant, another source of constant violence.

There are a variety of games played here. The dice and bone games played by the Kharal throughout Shdustu remain common, as do the tables board games favored by the Nikkad, but the influence of the river and the need for games to remain playable while navigating a barge has led to the development and spread of a different form utilizing a box-shaped board with holes for pegged playing pieces and a spinning needle on a disc to provide chosen numbers. There are various formulations based upon this board, mostly race and knock-out formulations. Many such gaming sets are very fine, utilizing boxes and pieces made from carved bone with gold and silver inlay. Most valuable of all are those made from ivory, one of which I saw kept on display by the master of the finest of the gambling houses. Curiously, the white-carved material came not from the tusks of elephants, as it does in the Sanid Empire, but instead either in trade from the distant north, where it is said to be taken from tusked sea creatures, or from the marshlands of the south, where the Rutar harvest the enlarged teeth of monstrous frog-like mystic beasts found in that region. The most popular of these games is known as Spiders, Scorpions, and Shrimp, with the pieces forms as stylized fangs, stingers, and spines representing each of these creatures as they compete for control of Shdustu and the favor of the Divines. Finger-length and pointed to maintain their position on the complex box-board that represents the contested territory of the game, these resemble bone needles and serve as the most common means to deliver poison in Gudishmu. Poisoning one's opponent to avoid losing is considered an acceptable form of cheating, especially when they are not Nikkad.

As profit surmounts courtesy in Gudishmu, impoverishment presents both danger and difficulty. This proffered many challenges in negotiating passage downriver, especially as any human passenger must be weighed against the goods that would occupy the same amount of barge space. Nor were foreigners welcome in this place, deep within Shdustu where outsiders rarely reach. Many of the merchants refused to speak with me outright. Perhaps the viceroy's support would have made this easier, but considering the unsavory reputation of this personage, I suspect such an approach would have simply imposed additional difficulties. Such a greed-dependent style of rulership cannot sustain long in the face of Shdustu's endless vicissitudes. He was, indeed, assassinated the following year, though the merchants colluded to prevent the next viceroy from imposing any serious reforms.

After five days of gambling, drinking, and slowly negotiating, I finally secured passage with the river merchant Anassaga, one of the rare female proprietors operating the barges. This was beneficial, as she valued the presence of a sorceress far higher than most. Her business was in textiles, trading the hides and felt produced by the Kharal for cotton and linen produced in the floodplains to the east. A steady business, for clothing and blankets are endlessly in demand, especially as the weather gradually shreds even the best weaves and stitching, but not an especially profitable one. A portion of this business was the production of vellum, used by alchemists, priests, and sorcerers and far more valuable than most hide products. It happened that her brother commanded a tannery in Simmugigus and she was willing to allow me to work my passage, making maps of river channels as we went, in return for an explanation of the imperial method of making the finest manuscript-quality vellum which is superior to any local craftsmanship. This required a slight exaggeration of my capabilities as a scribe, but Lady Indili was able to privately share insights on this matter and I would say that the merchants were properly served.