Any armies of good in the mountain or desert or heading towards the mountain or desert. This one is of vital importance and I'll spend several hours checking pretty thouroghly.
This one is your most shocking experience. As you begin to scry, your pool shows a scene over the Lowly Mountains, and heads south... it goes down towards a city built into the side of one of the mountains in the western parts of the mountain, right next to the great big waterfall that feeds the river. Your scry descends into the city, flying through stone until it reaches a single room inside a single building, where there stands a man. He is casting a spell, and likely has been in the process of casting it for quite some time.
Within a minute of you watching though, he finishes casting the spell. His mirror, in the room, suddenly shows a picture of you, and your own viewing pool. You are right there for him to see. There is a hall of mirrors effect where your scry sees his scry which sees your scry, and on until eternity.
(Apologies for taking brief control of you, but I thought it appropriate) You are startled by this, and instantly attempt to use your pool to counterspell the wizard's scry... but find that his scry is much more powerful than your own. You can do nothing about it! It sits there, watching you. The wizard appears to be taking notes about you. He knows who you are now. He knows what you look like, what you wear. Who knows what he'll be able to determine from his scry?
I assume you aren't going to scry elsewhere while this wizard is scrying you, lest you give him free knowledge. Fortunately, his spell wears off before twenty minutes is up, leaving you free to scry elsewhere.
There are no armies currently in the desert. There are no armies currently crossing the mountains. There is an army, however, inside this grand city you are witnessing, by the waterfall.
The defenses of the villages near the mountains (good side) (basically, are there armies in the village or nearby)
Aside from this great city you just witnessed, there are a number of villages along the river, away from the mountain. They are not walled, not have they any defenses you can see. Along the mountain itself, there are fewer villages... maybe a thorp or two around small woodsy areas... only woodcutters live there, and bring their goods either to the city you witnessed or elsewhere in the good country.
By the seashore and the mountains, there is a fishing village. No defenses you can see. It's a little over a week's ride by horse from the city to the sea.
The defenses of the cities near the mountains (good side) (same as above, I'll also try and listen to the conversations of some higher ups for things of interest. I'll do this more for the wealthier towns)
I've already mentioned that you've seen an army inside the city by the waterfall... which is hardly a village. It's a beautiful city, with soaring buildings, many built right into the cliffside. Artwork is everywhere... statues and the like to ancient heroes.
This city has two gates... one to enter the city itself, and another tremendous gate that guards the mountain pass itself. This pass would have been a very very simple way of crossing the mountains if not for this gate. It is currently open, and merchants travel through it in both directions, but that will change if an army tries to come through, of this you are certain.
Any easily accessible places of loot in above cities (a wizards tower, a bank, a magical item storage area, any useful visible magical items[statues, etc]
You can't determine whether the artwork is magical, but it is pretty, and artfully done. You can assume that the wizard was in his wizard's tower... but he's IN it. Might be dangerous.
proximity of above cities to each other (how long it would take for a messenger to reach the next city, how long it would take me to reach the next city, how long it would take my mephits to reach the next city)
No village in the good country seems to be farther than a day's ride from the next. The Good capital, which is a truely tremendous sized city constructed of white marble and situated at the river fork, is within a day's hard ride of the mountain city. Other cities are further apart from each other, but there are, as I mentioned, villages and smaller towns along the way. Most of the Good kingdom's population lives along the river.
The western nations (what there cities look like, what the countries look like, listen to random citizens to see how the people act, listen to merchants to see how they react)
The western nations are not nearly as civilized and beautiful as the Good nation. Their towns look much like towns on the moor, except the people don't look quite as pitiable (if one were to have any pity). Merchants try to cheat customers ruthlessly, but the customers are often wiley themselves, trying to cheat the merchants in return. It seems to balance out in the end.
In western nations, determine what merchants/spellcasters are likely to work with a Red Dragon (based on who they work with already)
Your scry fails. You must wait 24 hours to try again.
The protocol of visitors to the western nations
As the day is starting to get late, you are running out of time to look around. You witness what you assume is a minor noble with a petition to the king there at court. In the towns and cities themselves, there are few outsiders and those that you scry are not doing anything you can watch and emulate.
The protocol of heavily armed visitors to the western nations
Your scry fails. You must wait 24 hours to try again.
Scout the evil lands and cities looking for good armies that teleported in (this is also extremely important and would take hours but would be closer to the end of the day, so that a lot of them are here.
Your scry fails. You must wait 24 hours to try again.
Finally, I'll scout the good lands looking for armies. If I find any I'll listen to the common soldiers to see what they talk about. I'm hoping they might mention the armies plans.
You've already seen one army. Nowhere else that you can find has an "army" gathered. You have, however, seen messangers on horseback heading towards all the cities of the land... it may be that these cities merely needs to call to arms before the army comes forth and appears as such...
Common soldiers in the mountainside city are not talking of anything of interest, other than curiosity of where they will be sent, and speculation as to when they will see action. Moral is high.
