On the road

Quill Speaks: "I am sorry to say that I have not any money to buy a horse
or other items needed for this march, I has spent all that on the inn
where I was staying, hoping to sell some of my magical potions to gain
some money. Would it be possible for one of you to lend me a horse, or
some money that, if you wish I would pay back at the first opportunity?
Max here will not need a horse, he is a magical servant, so I can summon
him, or his other companions, at will over any distance."

"I do wish to come with you. I think that I would be a valuable addition
to the group. As I think I has previously said I am a widely adept with
many different forms of magic."

"I would be willing to go on foot. But I would slow down the search by
quite a lot."

"a common misconception amongst the  infantry" Kai remarks, turning his
head towards Quill, "but on any long march cavalry are no faster than
those afoot  the walking pace of a horse is that of a man and any real
horseman will spend a measure of his travel time walking to spare the
animal"

Kai's pause is now familiar to the group as a limited form of
punctuation, exaggerated to show some effect in his monotonous speech
"true a horseman will be more rested and can at need travel a distance
very quickly but there is much care and maintenance needed for the horse
such that i will spend two hours each day while we are bivouacked just
in doing so" Here Kai casts his gaze around the rest of the party and
continues "besides only the captain his squire and myself have mounts at
all so if there is a slow pace it will not be only thy fault"

Mac turns to Quill. "You have proven before that you can create food,
I will supply you with water that you need. Here is enough money for a 
weeks worth of rations. Buy them and come." Mac hands Quill 64 silver 
for money.

Quill runs back to the edge of town, grabs some trail rations from a vendor,
and catches up with the group within the hour.

You march north along the road, which passes between small farms on its way
north, and by 1800 you are several miles north of Tix, and the road has 
deteriorated into a wagon-path.  The savannah grasses that surround Tix have
begun to give way to sparse weeds interspersed with fine sand, and Tix is long
since out of sight.

The horses have now each been equipped with travois, and are pulling most of
the group's provisions.  Kai leads his steed, walking beside Manon, while Beren
attends to the Count's steed and his own.  Dax leads the way, followed by Gwar,
Kirion, and Mac.  Quill and Max march behind these three, and the horses follow in
the rear, as they are kicking up fair amounts of dust.

At 1800, Dax walks a bit off of the trail to small thicket of sparse trees,
saying, "Now we eat; care for horsses; disscusss desstination."  With that,
he sits down, pulls off his pack, and removes some dried meat.

Dismounting, Kai looks over his shoulder at the elf and drones "now we
see what volume you are capable of good quill" Pulling a feed bag from
the packs on his steed, he scoops it full of sand and continues "and too
whether the horses can be induced to eat what you produce" with which he
waves the bag in Quill's direction.

To this Quill responds with
 "No Sir Kai, Plant material is much less tiring to change to food,
 rather than sand, I will use leaves, wood and other natural materials.
 As I have shown I can change the unnatural into edible material
 but it is more natural, and less tiring to change organic material."

To Max
 "Fill the bag with leaves, branches and other plant things.
 Break them up so that they can be eaten."

When this is done (after the smoke settles.) Quill will wave his hands
over the bag for quite some time (~10 min) then say:
 "Here Sir Kai, try to feed this to your horse."
Handing him the bag. In it are the leaves, branches and other plant
material that Max collected. Nothing seems to have changed.

Kai takes the bag to his steed and attempts to hand-feed the things to the
horse.  The animal sniffs at his hand, nibbles on some of the leaves, but
otherwise seems wholly unimpressed with what has been presented to it.

Reaching into his supplies, Kai will lace the new fodder liberally will
sweet feed and try hand feeding his steed with the mixture.  "it may
simply take some getting used to but if this does not work it will
heavily curtail our ability to travel with the horses" he drones.

Quill nods

After some time spent trying the combination, and watering his mount
well, he will approach Quill with the empty five gallon waterbag.  "the
water they will need weighs far more than the feed so an even better
question is how easily canst fill this and the others"

" Hold it there."
Quill then wave his hand over the water skin.
The water skin fills about to one 5th. 

As Kai pulls the water skin away quill says "No, hold it there"

After 4 more passes of Quills waving hand the water skin is full.

"There you are, I usually travel with empty water skins."

With that Quill take an empty water skin from Max wave his hand above it,
which suddenly fills it shows it to Mac,
 "I have no need to water but your money was well spent, I will
 repay you as soon as I can."
He once again waves his hand over his water skin, grunts,  and says:
 "Does anybody need something to drink?"

He takes a drink. Should anybody indicate that they do he will hand over
the water skin, and anybody drinking will notice that the water skin
actually contains wine. It's not the best but it's quite good. (I think:
ask Steven)

This begun, if not settled, he begins removing the tack from his horse
and talking at the same time "the sorcery i felt lessened as we left the
city until i could feel it no longer  now that we are free of whatever
influence it may have held we should try to decide on some course of
action at least initially   i told dax he might not be guiding us to
some destination but rather keeping you alive while we look  still the
desert is large indeed and a random path is likely to do us little good 
thus i ask have any of you gathered any information or have you any
means of divination available which might point us on some path"

Pulling a currycomb out of the gear that was on the horse, Kai waits for
some answer.  Whether one is immediately forthcoming or not, he will
eventually continue "i myself have the means of providing any who wish
with a vision which might offer some clue  any who will volunteer for
this must be prepared for a dark seeming which may presage some future
event  if they can note well their surroundings and report back to us
mayhap we can find some guidance therein"

Mac volunteers "I will. I am very curious. Is it a spell of some sort?"

Kai produces a large leafy bundle from within a quite small pouch on his
belt, and sparks it alight with a flint and steel.  He waves it from
side to side, building the glowing area within, then moves the now
smouldering poultice first to the left of Mac's head, then to the right,
enveloping him in a hazy semicircle of pungent smoke.  As he stares
through Mac he intones "chaager iil faud let what may become be seen
maajer falit quolan may we meet its need" and tosses a pinch of powder
on the brand.

After an interval has passed, Kai's voice drones out "what you have seen
is only what may be and should serve as a warning as well as a source of
information" he cocks his head a little to the left and continues "can
you tell us what you saw perhaps some detail will give us guidance as we
hoped"