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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1597291" data-attributes="member: 2323">Realms #273] Divinations in the DarkIt was well into the second watch that Ixin was awakened by her familiar. She sat up amidst her blankets and spotted Feln descending the wall with the aid of the Slippers of Spider Climbing with Vade clinging to his back. It was their surreptitious return to camp that had awakened Martivir and Ixin did find it somewhat odd.She had spent the first century of her life sheltered within the pampered safety of Clan Vermillion's holdings in the Bubbling Mountains on Fireshore Island, and when clan politics had resulted in her being sent to abide under the care of Skrazargul the Green in the human city of Highgate, she went with an unmatched naivete. Two decades spent within the ancient green dragon's web of intrigues, suffering all the rapacity that the world of criminals had to offer had sharpened her paranoia a great deal.She rose to her feet and spread her arms, clawed fingers curled into the first symbol of the cabalistic gestures of a spell. "What are you two doing?" she growled, her voice not quite loud enough to guarantee awaking the others, but threatening to just the same."Eep!" Vade whimpered and jumped behind Feln, but the half-orc merely narrowed his eyes and glared at the sorcerer."We're on watch," he grunted in reply. "What does it look like we're doing?""It looks like you're sneaking back into camp," Ixin said. She had spent too much time among liars to believe that Feln wasn't hiding something. "Can you explain why you are sneaking back into camp this way?""I thought I heard a noise on the other side of the wall," Feln countered. "We were just checking it.""And?" the mage pressed."And what?" Feln challenged."And did you find anything?" Ixin asked and the half-orc's demeanor softened."Oh. No, we didn't," he said. "False alarm.""This is strange behavior indeed, my friends," Ixin said, suspiciously. "Please don't take it personally, but I would like to cast Detect Magic on both of you to determine if you are under some sort of spell.""Go ahead," Feln told her, spreading his arms away from his body. "If it'll make you feel better, cast away. Right, Vade?""Oh... Uh... Right," the halfling said nervously and stepped out from behind Feln's leg. "Ummm... Cast away."And she did. But apart from the usual assortment of magical gear that both halfling and half-orc carried, there was nothing untoward about them."See?" Vade grinned after the inspection was over. "Nothing to worry about. Why don't you go back to sleep? We've got a big day tomorrow.  I can't wait to go see the white tower.""What white tower?" Ixin asked and Vade scratched at his head and suddenly found something very interesting on the ground near his feet"Uhh... I had a dream about a white tower," the halfling blurted out. "I don't remember anything else.""Dreams can be important," Ixin started and Vade cut her off by again saying, "I don't remember anything else.""Are you sure you're all right?" the drakeling asked, narrowing her eyes as she studied him closely. Feln grabbed Vade by the back of the shirt and tugged him away from Ixin."He's fine. Just a little spooked by this place," the half-orc said and Ixin nodded."I don't blame him," she said with a smile. "This is a very strange place."Freeday, the 22nd of Wealsun, 1269 AEIt dawned cloudy with the threat of rain in the air. Ixin said nothing of her strange encounter with Feln and Vade and neither of them brought up the subject. After a brief meal, it was decided that they would use Vade's Slippers of Spider Climbing to go over the wall one at a time. Vade went up first on Feln's back and waited at the top of the wall to toss the magical footgear back over to the next person in line. The process was time consuming, but it worked flawlessly and soon they were all standing on the damp grass inside the wall.It was much as Martivir had reported. The area was overgrown, but the plants were not a third as thick within the wall as they were without. From where they stood, they could see three of the four buildings that the owl had seen, one situated in each of three visible corners of the black wall. The fourth, presumably nestled in the last corner, was obscured from their view by the twenty foot tall hedge of thorns that marked the center of the enclosed space. The hedge formed a circle a hundred feet across, and the vibrant green tree was visible towering above it."Well?" Karak asked. "Where to first?"</blockquote>

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