Hu Nassah began his assembly, organization, and outfitting of the expedition to find the dragon as soon as was permissible following the new year's celebrations that rang in the Tenth Year of Enduring Peace. Court records officially designate the enterprise as the Dispatch of Expeditionary Observers for Draconic Affairs, but all involved came to refer to matters simply as the Dragon Expedition, a label I shall maintain for both brevity and convenience. This proceeding was conducted in some haste, for the intent was that the expedition should depart Crisremon before the conclusion of the third month in order that it might challenge the passes of Shdrast in the fifth month.

Hu Nassah, being a minister given to efficiency in all things and unafraid to deploy the full potency of the imperial authority granted him by his majesty, acted swiftly. His first move, in a maneuver that will doubtless be familiar to those with any understanding of Sanid Empire court politics, was to appoint his second cousin Erun Nassah as commander of the expedition. To any foreign readers who may find this practice confusing, it need only be said that among the Sairn people it is considered deeply uncouth to bestow authority, gifts, or other favors upon one's own offspring. The network of favors, powers, and wealth that flows through any imperial court therefore passes instead from uncle to nephew and thence to more distant relations. Only the Emperor's own household, their continuity being essential to the state, is exempt, though many a nephew has attempted to usurp a son, sometimes with support from the reigning emperor, and sometimes successfully, across the course of the empire's chronicles.

Erun Nassah was an energetic young nobleman and much given to sport. He was well-liked at court, had traveled extensively within the Core Provinces, and was considered wholly loyal to the Emperor. Though there were those who protested his appointment, such objections being inevitable in response to any court action not a direct imperial decree, these had no power to sway Hu Nassah. They did make note of his general lack of foreign service experience, rumors of rashness and glory-seeking, and a tendency to drink to excess, though such charges could have been leveled at almost any young nobleman with any proximity to the court.

I did not, myself, know him prior to joining the expedition. The Nassah clan, being among the core families of the empire with generations of service in high office, moved in circles far above my simple provincial roots. As I recall from my initial impression, and such notes as I composed at this early stage, the choice seemed reasonable enough. Whatever his weaknesses, Erun was in vigorous health and displayed an eagerness to voyage to distant lands uncommon among the ranking courtiers, most of whom felt there was little worth seeing beyond the walls of admittedly glorious Crisremon. The prospect of tracking down the dragon seemed to serve him as a genuine inspiration. He worked hard to assemble and formulate the expedition and did not produce a ceaseless stream of complaints in the manner of one forced into such a posting as a punishment would surely have done. Such enthusiasm was broadly recognized as highly valuable, whatever limited interest he might have possessed regarding minor details.

Erun's first major decision, made in consultation with his uncle, was to determine the size of the expedition. Two options were available for consideration: the highly sacred and auspicious number of eighty-one persons, and the somewhat less sacred but notably larger number of ninety-nine persons. Erun, who believed in choosing the most auspicious option regardless of practicality and had desires shaped towards a swift, militarized operation, argued for eighty-one. Hu Nassah overruled him in favor of ninety-nine, with his principle argument being that the increased size would allow for a large complement of support staff, thereby increasing the comfort of the elite experts the expedition would necessarily need to recruit and making their acceptance more likely. In this matter, Hu's will prevailed.

I confess I have never found numerological arguments of this kind theologically compelling. The Divines, being inestimably beyond us in all things, are surely above granting approval or disapproval based on such petty considerations of mathematical chicanery. Proper observance of the commands and virtues granted through the Enlightened Revelation are surely far more important than elements of presentation. Decimal organization would be simpler and provide greater elegance in operation, but as ninety-nine is merely one less than one hundred the functional difference is minimal. Certainly no one, not even Erun at his most optimistic, believed that the expedition would maintain such numerical alignment for very long after departing.

The core character of the expedition was agreed by all involved, potentially including the Emperor himself, to be military. This structure acknowledged both the dangerous nature of the enterprise and the need for the Sanid Empire to project strength into distant territories that, while they nominally comprised tributary kingdoms and states, were little acknowledged, poorly known, and had not seen any garrison presence in many years. In the case of Shdustu specifically, it had been over one hundred and twenty-two years, a gulf of time extending into the previous dynastic period prior to the Husun, since any portion of the region had suffered a garrison force. It was therefore expected that imperial authority would be challenged both politically and openly, and the expedition would require the means to assert the Empire's power through violence. Additionally, as the expedition would inevitably carry considerable treasure with it to provide gifts to foreign rulers and a stockpile of trade goods to defray expenses, protection from simply banditry was essential.

Hu Nassah assigned a unit of elite Imperial Guardsmen, among the best soldiers in the whole of the empire and, if the chronicles are to be believed, the entire known world, as the core of this function. This force was drawn primarily from the Winged Cavalry Corps, assisted by a small contingent of the empire's legendary crossbowmen, feared far and wide. As Imperial Guardsmen are in short supply and not easily detached to distant duties beyond the Core Provinces, the balance of the expedition's soldiers were to be hired mercenaries. The initial mercenary group was drawn from the ranks of the Stone Irons, a well-known company. Among their kind, this group was considered both highly skilled and thoroughly dependable, and many among those chosen had previously served in garrison posts at the edge of the Shdus Desert. It seemed that Hu Nassah considered this experience, with at least proximity to the long road to Shdustu, highly valuable. Though the employ of mercenaries, however exemplary their reputation might be, rankled a number of those assigned to the expedition, Erun countered that this method allowed for soldiers to be swapped out as needed along the way to provide forces suited to changing local conditions, something drawing soldiers from the Imperial Defense Corps would not have made possible.

The Stone Irons contingent, a mixture of crossbowmen, pikemen, and doughty swordsmen, was led by a grizzled warrior named Letal Sakan. A solid individual and one who quickly proved his skills through sparring with the Imperial Guards, he raised no objections. Inquiries into his background suggested a persistent temper and a tendency to overindulge in drink, but as such traits are almost universal to the mercenary breed they served more to meet expectations than be flagged as flaws. Erun, at least, took to Letal at once, for they were similar in age and temperament despite the far heavier weight of those years upon the mercenary, and included him in all councils. At the least, he was nearly fluent in the common languages of Shdustu, a rare asset among any person in the Sanid Empire.

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Equal in size to the military component was that of the caravaneers. This group comprised the animal handlers, servants, cooks, merchants, and various other laborers necessary to move any enterprise across such a vast overland course as was planned. Composed of forty persons in total, these paid affiliates matched the soldiers' numbers. These were primarily men, as the soldiers were, but included five women designated on the official rolls as washerwomen or seamstresses. They served those duties, of course, but it was universally understood that they possessed a second, nocturnal, profession as well. This arrangement may surprise those who have long lived in the Sanid Empire, where houses of pleasure, though subject to the appropriate special tax levy, are allowed to operate openly. The deception, in this case and with regard to most other caravans of large size, involves legal technicalities. Neither a merchant in good standing who has procured an imperial travel permit nor a military commander in possession of the dagger of authority may, by law, employ prostitutes. Thus, the mild deception has long been standard practice with regard to official caravan record keeping. In a typical mercantile caravan these would have been the only women present at all. It was noteworthy regarding the unique purpose of the Dragon Expedition that this was not the case.

The caravaneers were assembled and governed by the steady eye of Master Caravaneer Nemin Lam, a man of late middle age whose lengthy career had served to earn him but little wealth measured in coin, but considerable quantities measured in experience. He had made the journey to Shdustu and back three times, a full circuit more than any other considered for the post. Truthfully, only a small number of merchants residing in the Core Provinces had ever made the journey, and fewer still had any desire to make it again. Even a rarity such as Master Lam had not penetrated deep into the region, preferring to conduct business in the southwestern border section. Yet his knowledge went deeper than any other who might be found, certainly within the hasty time-frame the expedition demanded, and he made no effort to shirk this lengthy and hazardous assignment as others might have. These traits combined to make him the obvious choice. Allowed by Erun to pick his own employees, he mostly chose experienced hands belonging to the company run by his significantly more successful younger brother. These workers were no strangers to the needs of desert, mountain, or steppe, but only a handful among them had ever traveled to Shdustu.

Of the remainder of the company the assembly was considerably more variable. The services of four men of the Redbone Explorers Guild were procured in the hopes that their specialized skills would help to locate the dragon or, failing that, discover some other valuable treasure hidden in the ruins of foreign lands. At the least, they represented a bulwark against the threat of wizards, very much rumored as a danger of such distant regions.

The Imperial Apothecaries Guild lent four of their own as well, a middle-aged master and three younger female journeymen of notable comely countenance. The unsavory association between this group was clear to any with eyes, but the Apothecaries Guild has long enjoyed the protection of the imperial house and therefore none dared to question the arrangement. Far more welcome, and considerably more willing to share the camaraderie of others were a pair of healers of the White Onyx Order, husband and wife. Hu Nassah had gone to the White Onyx Pavilion himself and requested such support directly from the Paramount Healer, thereby securing allies of great potency. Much more mysterious were the two sorcerers added to the roll, one of the lightning school and the other of the rare essence school. Both wore garb embroidered in the symbols designating their mastery, but as is typical of their kind revealed little of themselves to the assembly. Two slaves, rarities acquired from Shdustu by the court years before, were brought on to serve as translators, a teenage woman of the Nikkad, and a young man of the Kharal. They had been sold young and retained only fleeting memories of their homeland, but Erun counted their language skills, despite having weakened over the years, of considerable value. They were also made available to serve as general servants to the officers and specialists when those skills were not needed.

The final five members were those assigned as officers of command for the expedition in the eyes of the Empire. This included Erun himself, of course, but also his bodyguard and manservant Yomat. Everyone believed, even from well before departure, that this taciturn man who rarely spoke was an agent of the Imperial Inspectorate, something he made little effort to deny. Tomad Murad, a member of the exceedingly wealth Murad clan that had been the primary opposition to the Nassah clan in the highest offices of the court for generations, was assigned as the expedition purser, a position of considerable importance and whose awarding to a Murad Erun accepted begrudgingly at best. I was, myself, assigned the position of expedition archivist and cartographer, a posting acquired mostly through the accident of being the only member of the Cartography Bureau with any knowledge of Shdustu's languages. Certainly I lacked both the connections and merit to earn such an appointment on my own, though I suspect my provincial origins may have also been considered a benefit as it allowed Hu Nassah to avoid appointing any member of a third powerful clan to the expedition. The final, and perhaps most unusual and significant addition to the company, was the Princess Romou. A minor member of the imperial household a single step away from the loss of such status entirely, she was assigned to the expedition in the position of priestess – though one of the animal handlers among the caravaneers had sufficient ritualist training to conduct everyday and event observance as needed. The princess' stated motives for joining the expedition were viewed with considerable skepticism both within its ranks and among the general populace from the start, and a great cloud of rumor followed her, swirling endlessly, during the early portion of the journey. As none of these base suppositions proved truthful, I shall not sully her name by mentioning them here.

These then were the ninety-nine chosen by Hu Nassah, a company such as I certainly had never expected to join.

Of course, the expedition comprised far more than simply its human component. A great deal of gear was necessary to support the effort. This, as well as the transport of the expedition members, necessitated the inclusion of a great many pack animals. Caravan Master Lam, in a choice I and several others found unnecessarily presumptive, forbade all use of carts or wagons from the outset. This claim originated in his assertion that such conveyances could never be used to cross the snowy passes of Shdrast and acquiring them only to leave them behind at such an early date would simply form bad habits. Instead, the expedition would set out accompanied by nearly two hundred pack mules and almost one hundred horses, a mixture of military mounts for the Winged Cavalry and riding animals for others, with the majority of the expedition, including myself, operating under the knowledge that we would make the entire journey on our own two feet.

Ungainly as it was, and subject to much chaos, bickering, and struggle, it should be noted that Hu Nassah succeeded in his goal. On the twenty-seventh day of the third month, a most auspicious date, the Dragon Expedition departed Crisremon.