As soon as Hans entered the Outpost alarm bell started ringing, this either meant that something was on fire, sandstorm is comeing, Undead are attacking or various combination of the previously mentioned points. There was no smoke anywhere so that at least ruled out the posibility of fire starting or at least in his mind it did. So it must be either an attack or a sandstorm, but before he could ponder in what way he could help, some guard took his arm and lumped him into a crowd of civilians and shouted
- THE ENEMY IS ATTACKING SO GET MOVING
And so he and the rest of people got moving. Even though he wanted to help not escape, he was unable to do anything else than run with the crowd and find some building to hide in, which all of them did. It was the communal house, with loads of beds out into neat rows, thankfuly someone was had enough forsight and put some materials for baricades into the building ahead of time so there will be no need to deconstruct the beds. So the civilians baricaded the windows, the doors and any hole that could be used to get inside, it got a little bit stuffy inside, which was kind of a problem for guy wearing all black outfit, a mask, and some elements of a plate armor (Cuirass is under the Overcoat)

The undead were starting to thin out, and they weren't regenerating. Watching from her spot on a pile of boxes, Myouga was feeling confident. With the slow-walkers out of the way, they would just have to weather the sandstorm. Her smile began to fade when she heard shrieking and the clattering of hooves. This wasn't good. She had heard the stories of towns ravaged by these ghostly riders, places ripped apart in their mad search for revenge. They shouldn't have anyone in town who would be their target, why were they coming after Aestas? Looking in the direction of the pyramid, the arcanist had a hunch. Psyching herself up, she didn't let her worries show on her face. "Alright everybody! Looks like we've got company! Let's show these ghosts of the past that what happens in the past, stays there!" She shouted.

The other mages still had enough magic in them in case the riders did try to break through the wards. The fight was halfway over, and she wasn't going to let the settlement fall. The ghastly shrieks of the spectral steeds carrying their riders were growing louder, and soon they were in sight. Stallions with half-rotted visages bearing armored men bound to this world by a malevolent will thundered towards the gates. "GIVE US THE GIRL!" They screamed, voices on the winds. The guards were tense, but Myouga crossed her arms and grinned. "HA! I'd like to see you try, ya old coots! Give it up already–your god's dead!" The riders were hurtling towards the entrance to the outpost when they were repulsed by a powerful, invisible force. In response to their presence, the wards shone brilliantly with a golden light and they could not advance further. They then circled the encampment, trying to get in to no avail.

Eventually, they left empty-handed. When all was quiet, the little mage let out a cheer. But then sand was coming in, lots of it. The sandstorms! "Everybody, get inside! It's gonna be a big one!" She didn't see her former student, but knowing her she probably was inside keeping others safe too. Ducking into one of the buildings, she and several other outpost residents began blocking up the doors and windows with anything heavy while waiting for the storms to pass. The two tornadoes laden with sand had hit, and began showering the streets with pounds of quartz. Even the cats had hidden away, and the streets were emptied once it started.

She had been holding her breath when the ghostly riders came, and after what felt like forever they finally left. Heaving a sigh of relief, she then began to hear the howling outside intensify. The window shutters and doors began to shake as the winds pushed against them, and sand was starting to leak in through the cracks under the door. Still, the heavy crates were pushing back and keeping them shut. Nothing else could be heard when the twin sandstorms battered Aestas. It was as if the very desert was trying to bury them alive. The protective barrier set up by the mages were weakening the strength of the whirlwinds, but its primary purpose was to deflect any magical attacks sent against the outpost. 

While the storms raged, she thought of her mount and the other animals in the stables. Did someone make sure the doors were secured? She bit her lip as she fretted, she should have checked before she blocked up the medical ward! Basil should be fine, but still there were the horses and cats too. She then heard the sound of cupboards and cabinets being opened, and rushed to the storage rooms. Where was it coming from? Finding no one in the storage room she went towards the direction of the infirmary and found someone pilfering bottles of smelling salts, disinfectant, and rolls of cotton. "Sir, what do you think you're doing?" Raising her voice she put her hands on her hips, looking at this person who was stealing the medical ward's supplies. Somehow this man seemed familiar, but her mind was more preoccupied with the question of what exactly he intended to do with what he was taking.

Glancing at one of the labels, she saw one of their jars of burn ointment being taken. It was clear he didn't know what half of the things he was taking did, and that they had been put in a cool place to prevent spoilage. "I'd rather not report you to the guards, so if you could kindly empty that sack of yours I'll overlook the offense this time." Of all the places for a thief to show up, this had to be it. The alchemist was visibly upset, as these items were provided to them out of the generosity of the northern kingdoms and they weren't getting any more until the next caravan arrived. If they wanted to steal something, they should have picked the tavern.

Apparently there was a lack of corpses in the camp to use as a makeshift army. What a shame, really. Others might disagree with his analysis of the situation, but a few revenants would have been a lovely addition to the defenses of the area. Regardless, it seemed as though his talents weren't going to be needed; with so many powerful magi in one place hailing down what had to be meteors on these creatures' heads and erecting nigh-impenetrable barricades of magic around the settlement, there was nothing he could, or really wanted to do. It would only give him plenty of time to plan his entrance into Aysut, and more rest after his journey.

He slipped into one of the larger buildings…judging by the interior, it seemed to be some sort of common restingplace for researchers that weren't full-time residents.  Already, preparations were being made for the oncoming storm, with windows being blockaded and the door quickly fastened shut behind him.  This was indeed some serious business.

The atmosphere was incredibly humid and hot, and the body heat of a bunch of panicked creatures crowded together wasn't much helping the situation.  And due to his size, he found himself getting pushed around by the frantic crowd.  Eventually, after wading his way through to a more open area, he found himself next to what he assumed was some kind of metallic pillar at his height; he was desperate for fresh air at this point, and he figured that if he could get above the miasma of sweat and fear, he'd be able to breathe like a normal bloody person once more.

With some difficulty, he clambered up the strangely-fabric-covered, metal pillar, his claws snagging at the black drapery until he finally crested the pillar's head, taking a deep, gasping breath.

Wait…the pillar's head?  

He looked down into the eyes of an admittedly rather creepy looking bird-shaped mask, as he managed as friendly of a smile as he could.  "Oh hi…didn't quite see you there!"
dHowever, he would have to get inside rather quickly, as a massive tornado of sand seemed to be descending upon them.  

He muttered listing of the items in a distracted haze when the girl spoke to him, he responded quickly with a loud Shush as he started speaking confident "I need you to get me Iron shavings, try using the posts from the cots" he glanced back with a small smirk covering his dirty face as he held a vial containing bleach, "When the bleach reacts with it should produce Hydrogen enough of that gas we can at least start to produce incendiary bombs for the people outside, however, some people will get hurt from miss firing" he stuck his finger in the air pointing at the Burn Ointment.

As he waited for the rest of his ingredients he went over to a wash basin taking of his makeshift hat allowing his messy brown hair to flop over his forehead allowing him to clean, "I need you to tell me whats going on out there, because I'd rather not be eaten alive but a bunch of undead before I got home" he thought that maybe he more of commanded than asked about the problem here but ever since his mom died his joyful side was truly a rare sight to been and not a lot of people had the ability to bring it out, his mind drifted to his research as he clapped in the air with a large grin "Regi, You Genius!" of course talking to himself was a habit he picked up in his travels but whats better than a argument when you always win, he turned staring at the girl "I need my bag with a lot of patches and burn marks, its got books that are important to me maybe important to you too if you really need to help people" he grinned rubbing his eyes to remove some water.

- Ehm ehm - Was Hans's reaction to lizard looking thing hanging from his head - ……… Me too? ehm ehhh I'm zorry but who are you and what are you doing on my head? - He asked in the most polite tone he could muster at the momment without sounding too distressed about the fact that he didn't feel the little guy climbing on him. But before he got an answer Hans heard a terrible ghostly howl from the outside. This starteled Hans so much that he accidently shaked off the creature from his head and into a crowd of people which started panicking even more because of that.

The guards were herding people inside, and Myouga was helping as much as she could. Most of her 'help' took the form of using wind to push people into buildings faster, and moving boxes with telekinesis. The sand flying around was getting worse, so she had her hannya mask on so she wouldn't get blinded. "This is gonna be a pain to clean up when it's gone…" She grumbled as visibility was dropping. Pulling out a piece of fish she herded the cats into the building she and Lise were staying in and locked it up. Using what little magic she had recovered from that meteor shower she dropped onto the army of undead, she bolted the doors and windows. The sound was like somebody pouring a really, really big bag of rice out all over the town. Noisy, and continuous. 

She waited inside with the kitties for what felt like forever, getting bored as time ticked by. It probably was only less than ten minutes, but she was getting impatient. Why couldn't the sandstorm move faster and hurry up? Holding one of the cats, she looked at it. "Ughh, I'm so booored. Aren't you bored?" The cat meowed at her, and she had no idea what it was saying, so she put it down. Lying on the ground she put a dried sardine on her stomach and let the cats climb all over her. At least the riders had retreated, hopefully that would be all for today. She was not looking forward to cleanup duty, and there weren't brooms big enough to shuffle the sand out. She then remembered the caravan hadn't arrived yet. Were they ok out there? They were pretty far out from other oases and towns, so it was a big risk venturing here.

About an hour passed, and the storm blew over. The little mage had fallen asleep by then, the fatigue from using such a powerful spell finally catching up to her. The cats seemed to sense it too, and were trying to get out. One of them finally grabbed hold of the handle while others knocked the beam that barred the door out of the way. Swinging open, sand spilled into the room as they ran back into the great outdoors.

When the man stuffing much-needed medical supplies into his own bag shushed her, Liselotte crossed her arms and gave him a deadpan look. He was muttering nonsense, and seeing that he was in the infirmary he was most likely a patient. Resuming her usual smile, she walked towards him slowly. "I suppose you just woke up, but the outpost's forces have already sent those walking cadavers packing. There's a rather violent sandstorm raging outside so I would suggest you remain indoors. Sir, I'd prefer not to repeat myself–please empty your bag." Then the man, likely still delirious or delusional, told her to get something for him. With a smile like a cat's, she sauntered closer and feigned concern. She really didn't have the patience to deal with this, not right now. 

"Dear me, it seems I've been mistaken. You must be one of the patients who came in today. It appears the rest of our staff is currently busy at the moment, so I'll be assisting you for today with your recovery." In one of her hands, she had a small little bell. A faint tinkling of metal was heard as she rang it, causing anyone in the immediate area to feel drowsy. It also had the wonderful effect of making her words more convincing, and to add more to it she cast a charm spell. "You must be tired, you should rest to speed up your body's recovery. Why don't you sit down on one of the cots here?" 

And if that didn't work, then she would help put him to 'sleep' until someone from staff was available to keep an eye on him. There were plenty of clean sheets around to keep him in place, and quite frankly having someone who wasn't personnel putting things in disarray was getting on her last nerve. She told herself that he was probably still confused, and shouldn't blame him for acting in such a manner. He just needed a little more rest to clear his head…that was all. 

 

"Simple heat stroke not enough to keep a great blacksmith down" he grinned raising an eyebrow at her, he couldn't put a finger on it but that face of fake care reminded him of someone allowing himself to put the sack down he looked down at her curiously before even asking he heard the gentle tinkle of a bell, eyes widening Regi started stumbling forward, "No no no, you don't understand I need my notepad, I'm not crazy you didn't need to use that" tripping on his own feet he accidentally broke things as he grew closer to books pulling them to the ground.

He hastily went through the books through them around slumping against the wall, "I need to get home… to find him" grabbing a old wrinkled book with coal dust covering its page he tried to get back collapsing trying to fight against the enchantment "I left Cricket… all alone" as he let out a large exhale of air falling asleep finally even if it was not to be the most peaceful of sleep.

"Myeah!" screamed Ivacus ferally as his lithe frame was literally launched backwards into the crowd, causing an immense hubbub behind him.  Once again, after falling through the few people that had caught him on their backs without their consent, he found himself in the dirty haze of the sandy floor and leg sweat, much to his dissappointment.  

A fitting metaphor for his life, he surmised…he climbed one mountain, only to realize it was actually a giant that was all too happy to throw him back down to the bottom again.

"Nask etcsharrh…"  he muttered to himself as he once again got to his feet…only to be kneed in the back of the head by a careless muscleheaded buffoon, sending the little lizard man reeling into the throes of unconsciousness.

His dreams were filled with zombie waiters serving endless platters of eggplant casserole.