Jackal marks

Whatever you do, don't let anyone sell you anything in here.

When buying something in one of the transit settlements between The Surface an The Tree layers, one needs to watch out not to buy anything marked by the Jackals. Those groups of bandits rob most of the people leaving those settlements, trying to get their new gear as well as their Surface Bazaar Locker Permits. And for that, they created their own markings which let them decide who's worth being robbed and who they should stay as far away from as possible.

The marks

In most cases, Jackal marks consist of strings and beads tied in specific ways and attached to items sold by those working for Jackals. They are simple and easy to overlook as harmless by anyone who travels through transit villages for the first time. While their colors might disappear due to the bleaching properties of the sun shining on The Surface layers, their shapes and numbers still hold their true meaning. Sometimes, the colors are preserved by covering the beads and strings with a little more condensed version of protective oils worn by almost everyone on The Surface.

"Recycling"

The marked items sold by the traders are often of the type their colleagues would need right now. For example, if their friends outside of the settlement would need some water in the near future, the potential victim will be met with tempting offers of water skins. Thanks to that, once the victim is robbed, the Jackals won't have to return to refill their resources for a longer time.

Why?

So why do Jackals go through all of this?
First, to lower the chance of attacking someone capable of defeating, capturing, or even killing them.
Second, while they could attack inside one of the settlements, that would draw the attention of authorities. On the other hand, attacking those coming from lower layers to The Surface can always be explained with an attack of the Beasts from Above, giving one an alibi or at least slowing down the possible investigation.

Common Phrases

The meaning of the colors changes very often and can vary between the groups of Jackals. Still, those are the most common combinations of markings and meanings.

Red figure-eight knots

Stay away, this group is dangerous.

Yellow beads

Valuable target.

A simple blue knot

They have locker permits.

The number of attached lines or knots

The number of the people in the group that left the settlement.

How the victim is marked

The moment someone enters the transit settlement, they become the potential target of Jackals. The group's scouts will follow the person, assess their wealth, how strong they seem, do they plan to go to the higher or lower layers next, and did they use the local lockers to store their gear. They message their friends and the traders continue their job next.
The trader's job is to sell a marked item, something useful in the following journey and something that usually isn't kept hidden within the backpacks or under clothes. The most often used product for this are the waterskins.
The last part of the job is done by the proper Jackals. They ambush, rob, and often kill the victims marked by their colleagues after spotting the right marks through their binoculars.