glorious-misunderstandings
Nazir takes stock of the situation. None of them have anything useful prepared, so this yet another emergency expense that will probably sit on his balance sheet until his insurers notice and raise his premium. Urgh.
"How many of you have cast Augury before?"
Only a few hands go up. Typical.
"The quality of an Augury result depends on how well-specified the question is in your mind. You must hold the course of action in your mind with as much fidelity as possible, for the entire duration of the casting, without allowing outside concerns to sway your view of the situation. When you cast it, the scenario you will envision is this." He clears his throat. "There is a human man named Abtin Mekht who lives in the Black Dome of Sothis. At this time, on this day, he will be in the Old City. To the best of my knowledge, he is the only person in Osirion who meets that description. I will use this wand to cast Sending, targeting Abtin Mekht, with the following message: 'Scorpion black, humanoid shape, unknown origin, seven up, very fast. Unclear intentions but polite thus far. Killed a blue dragon in one round. Shiman-Soth, now.'
"You will not, while casting Augury, consider the implications of this exercise, only those facts which you expect to directly observe. I will indicate you in pairs. One will cast Augury as I have described, five minutes after I begin casting Sending, while the other will cast Augury at the same time while considering the scenario in which I do not complete the spell and nothing further is done. Any questions?"