Rashid Ben Omar, the desert guide
Traveling through the Khôm desert, even on one of the more frequented caravan routes is a dangerous thing. Trapped in a sandstorm, lost the way, the sun burning down relentlessly, many a careless traveller died in the Khôm. Get yourself a local guide. He will know the best way to the next oasis or watering hole and smell the next sandstorm coming early enough to find shelter. He knows the tricks desert raiders use to ambush and can avoid them (or lead right into them you might fear).
It's hard to tell his age, as sun and sand might have aged his skin and the first signs of grey in his hair might just tell of dangerous encounters he survived. He is a quiet man during the day preferring gestures and nodding to communicate, with the occasional murmured praise of Rastullah or very rarely a quote of the 99 holy laws to justify a decision.
As the desert nights get colder and everyone huddles around the campfire he becomes more talkative and one might even confuse him with one of the Haimamudim, the storytellers you remember from the Bazaars of the tulamid cities to the northeast of the Khôm. Besides the stories, more importantly he knows the desert even outside the established caravan routes very well. So if you want to find the legendary golden city, burried under sand since ancient times, he is the man to trust to help you find it and return alive to tell the tale.
Rashid is a competent Novadi Desert Guide (Aventurian Compendium p194, modified for desert by removing the swimming, fishing and sailing and changing crossbow to bow and the terrain knowledge from jungle to desert)
With a focus on advantages (aptitude survival, direction sense, resistant to heat), skills (survival, orienting, perception) and special abilities (predict weather, skill specialisations, terrain knowledge) aimed at survival in the desert he is the expert the heroes should hire if they ever need to go deeper into the Khôm desert.
Have the heroes meet and respect him as part of a regular caravan they travel with, so later when they need someone, they remember him and seek him out.
Considering he is often in contact with non-Novadis, his religious and cultural attitude towards them is more moderate than your average Novadi. Though to make him more of a challenge to work with you could portray him more zealous.
