"Drakes and Gnolls? You don't mean Izril, do you?"

"I do, yes, can you tell me which direction it's in?"

He looks a bit gobsmacked. "Izril is north, I believe, but—do you know you're in Chandrar?"

"No, I was kidnapped and not informed as to the destination." He does not expect to get all the way back to Liscor but it's the way to head.

"My... condolences?" What does one even say to that. "You're very far from home. Are you going to be pursued?"

"I can't guarantee otherwise. I'm willing to spend the night outside of town if that's a concern, though she actually didn't do much collateral damage to my house."

"I won't ask that of you, after you've offered us your Skills. But we cannot hide you from them, if they come searching. And I would ask that you not stay here more than a few days at most."

It may be a mistake, but they have to do this much.

"I plan to move on tomorrow. I don't expect you to hide me at all and will not count you as having failed me if I am recaptured."

"Very well. Luck be with you."

And he'll ask the boys to post a lookout during the night. He doesn't know what they'll do if trouble comes knocking, but better to see it coming than not.

Is there a room he can sleep in for the night?

Yeah, someone has a spare room they rent out to passing travelers.

Then he'll go to sleep there.

It's an uneventful night.

In the morning...

He doesn't think the threat model here is actually one where he needs to avoid having spells. A Dominate, if she could do one, would be the sort of thing you'd want to have ready during a kidnapping, and it's certainly not that she can't land enchantments on him, though at least the charm seems gone now. So he wants an Endure Elements, because he doesn't actually understand her remark about winter coming in two hours any better after a night's sleep. A Refine Improvised Weapon, since he doesn't have his mace but can probably find a stick and there's no guarantee that every scorpion is that willing to keep its distance. Ant Haul so he can make better time in the armor. Speaking of armor, Spiked Armor, on the principle that he wants to be really really REALLY inconvenient to kidnap. Protection from Chaos in the domain slot, she seemed to rely on physically touching him and he's not positive she's evil but he's more confident she's chaotic; Qualm and Prayer as usual in the other two. Orisons for the day: Guidance as ever. Create Water. Resistance. Light. Suppress Charms and Compulsions, Delay Poison, Owl's Wisdom, Hold Person. Create Food and Water; if they'll give him breakfast here he can hold on to it till evening and have food tonight and tomorrow morning and use the third circle slot for something else. - he's very close to having another third circle slot, he can tell.

Breakfast in the offing if he makes more water?

Yeah, he can have food.

The house is well-insulated enough, but if he goes outside just after dawn, it's freezing cold. There's some ice slush on the ground suggesting there was hail or snow last night.

If he looks up, there's a sort of... whirling, low-flying cloud, like an magical hailstorm, dancing across the sky. It looks not that large from the ground, but if you tried to adjust for perspective—it's got to be miles across, at least, and moving at least a mile a second. Its shape twists and changes as it moves, and it follows a mercurial path, like a darting squirrel.

Huh. There is some kind of gigantic Winter Elemental frequenting the desert. Weird. Endure Elements.

And he heads north.

Good thing he has that Endure Elements, because otherwise this is deadly weather. The desert is tough to traverse with the melting ice, but not impassably so. The precipitation seems to have been unevenly distributed, with fields of slush fading into dry sand and back again.

It warms up as the sun rises to something more tolerable, but still notably cool.

Endure Elements doesn't requires you to specify the elements you're enduring at the time of casting. He'll be fine all day.

There's more than one of the maybe-Winter-Elementals, he'll notice. The one he saw the morning wanders away, eventually discorporating into wisps that vanish up into the sky. One seems to be haunting the silhouette of a rock shelf to the distant east. Another drifts in from the west, zig-zagging over the dunes.

...At some point he'll notice that one's stopped zig-zagging and is headed on an intercept course with him.

Hopefully it's just curious?

Whatever the subjective internal experience of the elemental(?) approaching Blai is, it doesn't stop at merely getting close. The storm is swiftly upon him, and engulfs Blai in its entirety. It's... not attacking him, if it makes sense to attempt to classify, but it's still, you know. Being in the middle of a whirling hailstorm.

Well, he can put his arms over his head so the hail doesn't bonk him too badly but it's not outside the endure elements range. It does interfere with his ability to see though, so he stops walking.

Out of the storm, motes of pale blue and white emerge. Not point glows, but small, elusive blurs, seeming to shift shape as one attempts to focus on them. They dart around Blai, as if inspecting him, but keeping a healthy distance.

Guidance. ...Guidance. Guidance. It makes it a little easier to avoid the hail. "Hello."

The motes agitate as he casts. They react when he says hello, but don't or can't communicate back.

One of them seems to conjure a lump of snow out of nothing and hurl it at Blai's face.