This idea uses the Gnarp (I have recently come to LOVE that word) Scarab as a basis for usefullness/functionality and borrows from Kitrinx's [excellent] idea in the Guild Abilities folder.

You also see a rack made of antlers.
>look on rack
On the rack you see a pothanit tusk pipe wrapped with leather.
>look pipe on rack
The pothanit tusk has been hollowed out to serve as a smoking pipe and is lusterous and clean, save a few stains of tobacco in the bowl. Frozen in an eternal chase around the stem, the shapes of both predator and prey are stamped into the leather straps that provide the pipe with grip.
>buy pipe
The shaman steps up and gives you a pothanit tusk pipe wrapped with leather! Nomads don't need money, silly! [Okay, this part is optional.]

If mechanics allow, it would be nice to activate the pipe by putting tobacco in it and lighting it. If mechanics don't allow, then I suppose it could be done with just the pipe's verbs.

>put my tobacco in my tusk pipe
You put your [Any Type] tobacco in your pipe.
>drop my pipe
You gently set the pothanit tusk pipe on the ground before you.
>light tobacco
Standard messaging for lighting tobacco. I'm too lazy to look it up.
As the tobacco in the pothanit tusk pipe burns, smoke drifts from the bowl and lingers over the ground for a moment before gently dissapating with a nearly audable sigh of relief.
>walk away
Some travel occurs here.
>inhale my pipe
You take a long drag off of your pipe.
>'It looks like rain. Everyone put your instruments away.
As you speak, the smoke drifting from your mouth seems to absorb the sounds. An errant breeze picks up from nowhere and carries the smoke off, out of sight.

at the sight where you originally lit the pipe;
>
A wisp of smoke drifts in on a breeze. As the smoke passes you, you hear a faint whispering voice say, "It looks like rain. Everyone put your instruments away." The smoke dissapates.

And, as a final note, if none of the above is possible, it would still be nice to see this instead:
a pothanit tusk pipe - Normal pipe with special Nomad-like smoking verbs.

S.

>>a pothanit tusk pipe wrapped with leather.<<

Ooh. Brilliant.

And I have two more ideas for Nomad items, the latter one was thought of primarily because of the tusk pipe. Err.. actually, here's nine ideas for Nomad items. Enjoy.

>look on rack
On a birch rack covered with a layer of leather you see a large doeskin, a small white fox fur, and a birchwood ava.

>buy doeskin
You give a silent shaman your 250000 platinums and he hands you a large doeskin.

>look doeskin
Short fur has been sheared tightly to the skin, its brown color so deep that it appears only as black with a sheen of dark brown when brought near light. A streak of stark white cuts through the underside of the hide, its fur the softest to touch.
>TURN doeskin
You turn the doeskin over to its leathery underside.
>TAP leather
You tap a large cut of leather in your right hand.
>look leather
The dark hide appears well-oiled and smooth, appearing for all intents and purposes to be a fresh kill and recently cured.
>TURN leather
You turn the leather over to its side of soft fur.
>TAP doeskin
You tap a large doeskin in your right hand.
>PULL doeskin
You pull at various points in your doeskin, turning it into a snowcloak.
>TAP snowcloak
You tap a brown and white snowcloak of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>look snowcloak
Short fur has been sheared tightly to the skin, its brown color so deep that it appears only as black with a sheen of dark brown when brought near light. A streak of stark white cuts through the underside of the hide, its fur the softest to touch.
>TURN snowcloak
You turn your snowcloak over, revealing its leather underside.
>TAP snowcloak
You tap a well-oiled snowcloak of dark supple leather in your right hand.
>look snowcloak
The dark hide appears oiled and smooth, appearing for all intents and purposes to be a fresh kill and recently cured.
>PULL snowcloak
You pull from strings on your snowcloak, constricting the sides into a coat.
>TAP coat
You tap a well-oiled coat of dark supple leather in your right hand.
>TURN coat
You turn your coat over, revealing its furry underside.
>TAP coat
You tap a brown and white coat of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>PUSH coat
You fold certain sides carefully, turning and pulling until you have a shoulder-slung bundle.
>TAP bundle
You tap a brown and white bundle of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>TURN bundle
You turn your bundle over, revealing its leathery underside.
>TAP bundle
You tap a well-oiled bundle of dark supple leather in your right hand.
>PUSH bundle
You fold certain sides carefully, turning and pulling until you have a back-worn rucksack.
>TAP rucksack
You tap a well-oiled rucksack of dark supple leather in your right hand.
>ROLL rucksack
You roll your rucksack into a long back-tube.
>TAP back-tube
You tap a well-oiled long back-tube of dark supple leather in your right hand.
>TURN and TAP
You tap a brown and white long back-tube of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>ROLL back
You roll your back-tube into a heavy shoulder quiver.
>TAP quiver
You tap a brown and white heavy shoulder quiver of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>ROLL and TAP
You tap a brown and white slim thigh quiver of soft doeskin in your right hand.
>UNTIE quiver
You unravel the quiver into a massive blanket.
>TAP blanket
You tap a brown and white massive blanket of soft doeskin in your right hand.

You get the point. There can be more options, like a robe, a mantle, a hooded robe, shoulder satchel, a haversack, a poncho, a dress, a hooded cloak, etc. The whole purpose of these are function for the tundra. I'm also thinking of a smaller item, one that reverses from a medium-sized cut of white fox fur into a medium-sized cut of silvery hide. This could turn into a pouch, a hood, a thigh bag, gloves, a shawl, a scarf, an armband, a neck pouch, a cloth (to clean instruments), a sarong, etc. Nomads would be the only ones able to properly change the items (similar to how G'nar-Peths can only change the color of the blindfolds). Perhaps there could even be a weapon--in it's fullest form, it could be a Rakash ava, with three varying blades on a quarterstaff. Take two of the blades off, it can be a halbred. Retract the middle one into the staff, and it becomes a quarterstaff or HT. Take the crescent moonblade and use it as an ME machete. Take the small blade and use it as an LE/LT, a sort of skinning knife. Such is my dream. Of course, anyone would be able to use the weapon and change it as well, but it would be sold in the Nomad merchant.

Another suggestion (the one which Smozh's post got me thinking about) would be a type of dried weed, cured, flavored, and enchanted by the Windwalker tribe, that has the same basic qualities as tobacco with a few varying characteristics. For the sake of the suggestion, we'll just call it some random name: "lunjaa". The plant itself only lends itself to cold, mountainous terrain like that of the high Steppe, in turn lending itself to the Windwalkers over the years for study, practice, and advancement of its art. The ones sold would likely be the more functional, practical lunjaa rather than the ritual lunjaa. The unique physical property of lunjaa that separates it from tobacco -- besides a distinctively crisp taste and scent -- would be its voluminous, blued smoke. It is a natural property to the plant, and it's a property that the tribe has come to associate with Xibar during rituals, enchantments, beliefs, and the whatnot. The benefits of these things being a form of tobacco is that--they give multiple uses per exhale for as long as the tobacco lasts (which isn't very long), which is also good because the tobacco dies so quickly that it lends itself to having rather potent effects as far as cantrips can go. All people can smoke the lunjaa of course, but they cannot do the specialties that a Nomad can--for them, it's simply a steppe tobacco that produces blue smoke (similar to how the non-Moon Mages in the Steppe use it).

All lunjaa have the following inherent scripts:
Blue smoke rises from the pipe and wafts into the air.
[Your usual smoking message here]. Stray currents of intensely blued smoke hang and drift unto tiers of air before collapsing into nothing.

>look in basket
Inside of the basket you see some duinen lunjaa, jantras lunjaa, edre lunjaa, laeamo lunjaa, ormo lunjaa, and hentor lunjaa.

>buy duinen lunjaa (stronghold lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale [person]
You blow a thin stream of blue smoke at [person]. The swift current rushes against [his/her] chest and gently sprays over [him/her].

The blue smoke that has momentarily settled in layered esoteric patterns around [person] give way to a vague, dullen haze.

>exhale [self]
You lower your jaw slightly and slowly release the smoke, letting it tumble into a series of eddies and unexpected whirls against your body, lending it a brief blue glow.

The main effect of duinen lunjaa is to serve as an aura barrier. It prevents predictions from being made on the target, prevents the Alm Shalka Albir cantrip from being worked on the target, disables Lunar Aura Devices from working (if they work like I think they do), and perhaps could go farther from that: disabling Locates, Shadewatch Mirror, familiars, Ranger whispers, and the lot of mystical affronts sought out by the mind.

>buy jantras lunjaa (marriage lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale [person linked to with Seer's Sense]
You chant a few brief words in an almost nonexistent tone, each word soundless and muffled by the haze of blue smoke that erupts from your mouth in a chaotic gush before quickly falling upwards into the air.

(The person you're linked with sees this):
You notice the wind change direction for a moment as a slight, though steady, breeze rushes against you.

The slightest trail of color reveals itself on an internal coil of air, whipping out of existence as soon as you notice it. As it collides with your face, the brisk wind seems to kiss your forehead as it continues past. You blink, feel your mind introduced to a foreign thought, blink again, and see...

This would send an image of your location to the person you had cast Sense on, in a sort of reverse Locate.

>buy edre lunjaa (stream lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale line
You exhale a line of blue smoke that whorls over on itself before steadying into an eerily gliding edging of color in the air.

The purpose of stream lunjaa would be to exhale a line of blue smoke that would stay in the air of a room, as all smoke images do, but for an extended period of time (anywhere from two to ten minutes depending on Charisma). As you travel room to room, you continue to leave a stream of blue smoke for about thirty seconds to two minutes, the stream pointing in the direction of where the Nomad departed. If the Nomad doubles over himself, the stream decays entirely and a new 'inhale' and 'exhale line' will have to be made to start over.
You also see: a stream of whorled blue smoke, a glaysker flower, a yelith root, etc...
>look smoke
The fading stream flows faintly to east [or wherever it is that you the Nomad went].

>buy laeamo lunjaa (thick meadow lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale
You relieve your seriously displeased lungs of a dense cloud of blue smoke, which seems to pause and gather in the air before you.

The cloud drifts in a lazy line, the occasional arm of smoke curling off to touch and fasten itself to a blue moonbeam.

A tendril of blue smoke trails away from the cloud and embraces a blue moonbeam.

The purpose of thick meadow lunjaa is to make all blue moonbeams in the area last until Xibar sets, regardless of their individual durations set during casting.

>buy ormo lunjaa (disaster lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale ball
You thrust your curled tongue, releasing a tiny ball of dense blue smoke.

You also see: a tiny ball of blue smoke.
>look ball
The smallball is made of dense, vividly blue smoke that swirls gently to the right.

A ball of blue smoke expands as it hangs in the air, the thinning tendrils clinging onto each other.
You also see: a large ball of blue smoke.
>look ball
The hollowed ball creatures a image of smoky figures and high detail, catching the slightest notions of color and hue without straying too far from its hazy blue base. As a wave of dense blue smoke passes to the right, a patch of clarity opens and you see... [event prediction].

As the smoky ball expands further, the chords begin to detach and seek the wind before the entire structure dissipates line by line.

And the purpose of disaster lunjaa would be to show an event prediction to an entire room. The Nomad who exhales this ball must first have an Events observation pool of at least two or three. It defaults to the last event made.

>buy hoyiro lunjaa (ascending lunjaa)
>smoke
>exhale (Must smoke and exhale at least six times.)
(Emits normal exhale messaging, in addition to the lunjaa-specific "Stray current..." message mentioned up top).
(Messaging if under the open sky--)

Your eyes begin to feel slightly heavy.

You feel your heart skip a beat and smile.

Your vision blurs for a moment, though in the sudden haze things seem remarkably clear. Distinct forms give way to colors, which give way to movement, which give way to something tangible though even less distinct, there seem to be many of them, which, too, give way. Your vision returns.

You feel your heart skip a beat and smile.

(immobilized) You feel different. It is not sudden, but not expected. At first you unable to discern what has changed, though you soon realize that you have given away the feeling in your limbs. It feels exactly as though your arms and legs have been painlessly cut from your body.

(immobilized) You smile, but you have lost the ability to move.

(immobilized) Your body closes and opens, closed.

(sleeping) The world centers itself into a deep blue.

(sleeping) Your pulse--the only audible sound you can understand--becomes a staccato rhythm that gains a jarring speed. As it increases, you realize that your mind has taken to chanting beside it, underneath it.

>look
[The Sky]
The world pulses with wind and light. Blue is sharp to your eye, a foreign blanket of conformity. There are no clouds, no stars. This is a color, an ocean. There are intangible waves that remain unseen and unfelt, as you have no body. A placated sense of understanding is inherent in all the vague shapes around you. The only sensation is the presence of these unseen forms, but that sensation is no different from the feeling of the blue. You are in league with them, though you retain the sense of a visitor.
Obvious exits: None.

(sleeping) The dullen roar of the heavens fastens attaches itself to the silence and you forget your name.

(sleeping) You feel safely drowning.

(sleeping) A moment passes and you realize your heartrate has stopped entirely, and with a practiced air you banish worry from your mind. You have done this many times before.

(sleeping) You feel nothing.

Verbs can be performed in here. You can say anything you choose, and to the outside world it appears as though you're mumbling in your sleep. You can pray or meditate, and the messaging appears as:
You beseech the spirits for answers to questions you have long since forgotten.
A purpose strikes you like a flash of light for the most brief of moments as you ask your ancestors for a new guidance.
The vague shapes listen and stay the same, changed. Things are gained in understanding by the blue.
You look into the eyes of the universe and pray.

(unconscious) An old world comes into focus, though you remain rather bleary-eyed, coughing and tearing up painfully on the ground. Your body shivers with an impossible cold. Breathing is difficult.

(Messaging if indoors--)
Your eyes begin to feel heavy.

You feel incredibly tired.

You blink, confused.

(At this point, inebriation sets in. Judging from various posts by the Bard Guild team, it seems that some sort of an inebriation counter is being set into motion, this should work well with a misused noyiro lunjaa.)

Ok. So basically, the ascending lunjaa puts you into a sleep. By the time you reach the sleep state denoted by "sleeping", you're still in the outdoors room that you smoked the lunjaa in, completely vulnerable to the world, however: A) Your vision is turned off to everything but the scripts and the new LOOK. B) You appear to be sleeping to the outside world. When you "come back", you have very little fatigue and a minor spirit drain. To perform this successfully, you must be outdoors, have removed gwethdesuans and albredine rings, and have casted Aura Sight or Clear Vision or somesuch beforehand. No, it doesn't do anything. If someone who isn't a Nomad uses the hoyiro lunjaa, they will simply revert to the indoors messaging.

Or, if all of that isn't possible, how about some tobacco that makes blue smoke?

A reed bungalow, Shelley Long, and Pottery Barn,
Louisa Catet.

Okay, I figured it's about time I gave some actual verb ideas for the rattle I proposed (like with the pipe).

On the tawny rabbit's pelt you see a turtle-shell rattle seated atop a leather wrapped handle.
>buy rattle
Tada, you got a stinkin' rattle.
>tap rattle
You tap one knuckle against your rattle and listen to the hollow echo from within.
Smozh raps upon the turtle-shell shell of his rattle, evoking a hollow clacking sound.
>shake rattle
You hold your turtle-shell rattle at arms length and shake a rhythm that you summon from somewhere within yourself.
Smozh holds his turtle-shell rattle out away from him and shakes it back and forth with a focused rhythm.
>rub rattle
You place your hand on your rattle and focus your senses inward, listening for the spirits of your ancestors.
Smozh rubs the turtle shell at the apex of his rattle and gazes off into the distance.
>wave rattle
You breathe deeply and focus, swaying your rattle in a wide arc back and forth before you.
Smozh swings his turtle-shell rattle in a wide arc from one side of his body to the other, then brings it back again.
>dance rattle
You breathe deeply and dance about in a circle, humming a melody that you hear on the wind while shaking your turtle-shell rattle in unison.
Smozh slowly dances in a circle, humming a florid tune and shaking out an animated beat with his turtle-shell rattle.

I also had an idea for a divination cloth, but I have a nagging feeling that the item already exists. Can anyone confirm this? I may just be senile. Regardless, if it doesn't exist (or even if it does), it's an idea.

On the scratches yew table you see a <place pelt here>.
>buy <pelt>
You are now the proud owner of a dead animal skin.
>turn <pelt>
You stretch your <pelt> out on the ground before you, turning it over to reveal the smooth underside.

Now, ideally, it'd be nice to be able to throw divination bones on the pelt. If that's not possible, it'd still be nice to RP out that you're doing it, even if the game doesn't support.
I was also unsure of what would be the best description for the pelt. It could either be one fixed description for all of them, a variety of types to choose from, or the pelts could act like the blindfolds and change. Here are my ideas for descriptions:
a rich red fox pelt
a light brown coyote pelt
a stone grey rabbit pelt
a striped grey badger pelt
a black and white skunk pelt
a brown-grey racoon pelt
a rich brown beaver pelt
a red-brown bobcat pelt


S.