Traveling north Stolas and his group follow Uriel and Morag as they lead the trio to the foot of a large estate.

Enclosed by a tall wall coated in vines and leaves, the mansion grounds span several acres of the open hilly landscape. Looking past the iron gate at the entrance Stolas can see the front lawn of the mansion spanning about one hundred meters from the gate to the Mansion’s doors. At each of the four corners of this welcoming ground stand a two-story guard outpost. Each out post appears to be manned but from his vantage point Stolas is unable to tell what species they all are.

“Uriel and Morag are returning!” Unlocking the gate, the two half orcs announce their presence to the guard posts. “We have guests with us!”

“I don’t smell any creatures… humanoid nor beast…” Ansel leans in towards Stolas whispering to him, her eyes are focused on the guard towers.

“Well there’s definitely something up there.” Following their ‘hosts’ Stolas and the others watch guards as they in turn watch the trio.

“Take care not to stray off the path,” Uriel calls out warning towards Stolas and the others. “There are some poisonous plants hidden among the grass and shrubs. I wouldn’t let them scratch you or this will be a very short visit.”

Approaching the mansion for the first time the trio take in its grandeur. Standing at three stories tall the building’s east and west wings spread out like arms open for a hug. Supported by columns a large balcony spans the length between the wings and completely shades the front door. The mansion shows its age in the white painted exterior, rough and dirtied the paint has worn away in the areas most exposed to the elements.

“Are those poisonous as well?” Stolas points towards the ivy and vines climbing their way up the walls and columns.

“The flowers are,” Uriel nods and adds, “don’t get too close they will release a cloud of pollen.”

“Kinda hard not to.” Ansel pulls away from the plants forcing her way into the center of the group.

“Obviously, it wouldn’t be a good security measure if it wasn’t.” Morag nods a hint of pride rang in his voice.

Opening the door with a key, he ushers everyone in and points up the grand stairs prominently featured in the entrance. “We need to head to Lady Lenore’s study. That’s where she received the mage.”

Leading them up the grand staircase Uriel and Morag take the trio past the tiled entrance and through the wood floored hallways of the second floor. While they pass by numerous works of art all faded by the passing of time, oddly enough they don’t pass by servants of any kind.

Seeming to have noticed the same thing, Ansel shoots a look at the imp raising an eyebrow. Before he can respond, they arrive at an open doorway leading to a large room lined with bookshelves, with a pair of comfy looking chairs set around a low table.

Walking in Solas glances around at the large leather-bound books, I wonder if she has any magic tomes?

“Okay so what has his scent on it?” Turning to face the half orcs Ansel draws the room’s attention to herself.

Uriel and Morag share a look, suppressing a smirk Uriel points a finger behind her, at the chair.

“…” Thinking they mean there is some personal item he left behind, it takes her a moment to realize that is not the case and they are pointing at the chair itself. “Hell no! I’m not sniffing that!”

Her face instantly lights up into a crimson red.

“Sorry, but he was very careful not to touch anything or leave something behind.” The more talkative half orc shrugs, “He didn’t even drink the tea we offered him.”

“Stop joking around.” Her tail stands up straight behind her. “It’s not funny.”

The two half-orcs just shake their heads. “Sorry but it’s the truth.”

“Grr…” Gritting her teeth Ansel slowly lowers herself next to the chair stalling for as long as possible. Shooting the imp a burning hot glare she adds, “I swear I’ll get you back tenfold for this humiliation!”

“Why me?!”

“Because this is all your fault!” Her face somehow becoming even redder.  

…

Sometime later after a large amount of very heated complaining, the trio of Stolas, Jade, and Ansel head southward following the wolf girl and her nose. A bat flies high overhead to keep watch over them.

“*sniff* So while I’m playing hunting hound, *sniff*” Ansel periodically sways her head checking for the mage’s faint scent on the wind. “What exactly are you supposed to be doing? *sniff*”

“I’m keeping an eye on the ambient mana.” The imp likewise scans the environment before him. Using his mana sight to watch the mana ebb and flow through Vernus plains. All around him green wind mana naturally forms and quickly dissipates in large streams.

“Okay, *sniff* what good does that do?” Keeping her nose facing south, Ansel watches him out of the corner of her eye as he takes slow careful strides.

“Every mage I have ever met has had one thing in common. They’re all paranoid.”

“Okay, and how many have you met?” Ansel briefly breaks her concentration to give Stolas a curious look.

“More than you can count on one hand,” The imp simply shrugs, picking up his pace to match hers he continues, “But getting back to the task at hand. I believe this mage will have placed some spells designed to hinder tracking him. Which ironically would make him easier to track using my mana sight since I can see the spells themselves.”

“Wow, that’s really useful,” Ansel nodded, seemingly to be genuinely impressed for the first time since he met her. “So why don’t you use it all the time?”

“Because-” *Thump* Stolas trips over a rock hidden by a swell of mana and slams his face into the ground. “Ow…”

“Heh,” Not bothering to hide a small laugh Ansel leans down offering him a hand. “You need to train your other senses better and not rely on your eyes so much.”

“Yeah, I know…” The imp sheepishly accepts pulling himself up, as Jade hangs close to him pushing itself up against his scraped leg.

“Is it trying to comfort you?” Watching the slime run a tendril up his leg with a frown Ansel tilts her head, rather unsure of what to make of the action.

“Either that or Jade just likes the taste of my blood.”

In response to his statement the slime just burbles against him, with small bubbles forming and popping within its body. Whether it was a happy noise or an upset one was hard to tell.

“So, before your trip did you manage to see anything?” Getting back to the task at hand Ansel turns her attention southward again sniffing the wind.

“I did, well sort of.” Extracting himself from Jade, Stolas points southward towards some hills. “I saw some mana disturbances that way. They were faint but the flow was way too still to be natural.”

“Meaning?”

“Usually calm spots in the flow of mana indicate a stasis field or anti detection spells.”

Leading the trio back on track, Ansel glances back at the imp with a curious expression. “So, are you a mage too? You seem to know a lot about magic and stuff like that.”

“No. Everything I know is from observation. I never got a chance to officially learn magic.” His lips curl into a frown, and his demeanor closes off.

“Oh,” Despite her curiosity Ansel lets the matter drop.

The trio walk on in the heavy silence for some time. Reaching the hills close to an hour later, they get a better view of their possible destination.

About three miles out on the edge of their vision, a large walled off fortress set atop a small cliff. Surrounded by the cliff on three sides, the only way up to the fortress was a steep inclined, and wavy path. The cliff itself dropped about sixty feet before coming to a large, shallow stream that meandered nearby. As for the fortress itself. Large black iron walls towered over the landscape, with large intimidating spikes lining the top of the walls obscuring any patrolling guards. Each corner featured what appeared to tall watchtowers decorated with the same savage spikes. From their distance it was hard to get an exact read on how tall the walls were, but it appears to be four or so times the height of the guards standing nearby. They could not see any building past the walls except for a tall central castle like one.

“He’s not in there is he?” Ansel whispered huddling close to the imp’s shoulder as all three hunkered down near one of the sparse bunches of trees. Despite their distance the group needed to stay hidden from patrolling squads of goblins.

Thankfully, the trio seem to be on the edge of this clan’s territory since only one squad of four goblins passes by their hiding spot.

“…” Concentrating Stolas focuses his mana sight on what looks like a small outpost, similar to the one his group stayed at. The flow around it was sluggish suggesting their target was holed up in that area. But before he could open his mouth to say something, a ripple in the mana shoots out, flying at high speed towards the castle.

“I think he’s over there.” Stolas points out the building, but stops Ansel as she gets up to move. “Hold on he just did something, and I have no idea what it was.”

“Did he teleport?”

“No, the effect was too small.” Stolas shakes his head. Searching the area nearby the outpost he notices a disturbance. “What’s going on over there?”

In the distance a large number of goblins, and orcs begin appearing from the southwest. A loud drum beat pounds setting the pace of their march and nearly drowning out the excited shouts of the warriors. At the center of the procession are three carriages pulled by teams of very terrified horses. And sitting atop the center one is a long-limbed troll drinking deeply from a large wineskin.

With his mana sight active the imp sees that ripple once more, this time it is directed at the troll himself. Jumping to its feet the troll waves it hand producing a ripple of its own. Turning to its warriors it says something, but the distance is too great for the words to reach Stolas, however the resulting cheer did.

Emerging from the outpost tower a single human runs out and joins the procession, with another wave of its hand the troll beckons the human up onto the seat next to it.

“…” Ansel and Stolas share an apprehensive look, they can only watch as the procession slowly makes it way to the walls and enter dragging a train of chained humans behind them.

“…We should head back…”

“Hold on,” Ansel stops Stolas with a hand on his arm.

“What?”

Giving him a sidelong glance. “You’re just going to leave without even giving it a try?”

“Are you insane?”

“Are you?” Throwing his words back at him, she faces the imp raising an eyebrow at him. “Or do you really want to go back to a dungeon lord, who is also a vampire, empty handed?”

“We don’t really know if she is a vampire per say…”

“…”

“Okay, okay!” Unable to handle the weight of her glare, Stolas relents. “What do you propose we do? They aren’t exactly going to let us walk in through the front gate.”

“I have some rope,” The wolf girl shrugs digging through her pack.

“Why do you have rope?”

“Because it’s really useful?” She gives him a weird look. “Question is, why don’t you?”

“Because I’m not out here by choice.” Stolas simply shrugs, shifting back to the task at hand he adds, “So what do you propose?”

“You said Jade can fly right?”

“It’s more of floating than actual flight.” Stolas past the green bubbly slime as it starts to swell up and float like a balloon next to them.

“If I attach something like this,” Picking up a nearby rock the wolf girl ties it to the end of the rope. “and Jade can float it to the top of the wall letting you and I climb up.”

“And after that?”

“…” The silence stretched on for a minute before Ansel opened her mouth again, “We’ll improvise.”

“…” mulling over the decision Stolas remains quiet. He doesn’t like their chances of sneaking into a possibly hostile fortress, but on the other hand; he didn’t want to gamble on the mercy of a possibly upset vampire.

“Fine…” With a heavy sigh the imp agrees with Ansel, “As long we escape if things get dangerous.”

“Obviously,” Placing a hand on her hip she gives him a reassuring smile. “With me here we’ll be in and out before they even notice.”

Keeping their bodies low to the ground the trio stealthily creep up to the section of the wall closest to the cliffside. Hoping there are less guards on this side they hand Jade Ansel’s makeshift grapplehook.

“Okay Jade be careful up there,” Sending it off Stolas and Ansel watch the slime inflate to a nearly twice their size. Slowly drifting Jade’s large balloon like body lazily rises up the wall, close enough to the top spikes to invoke some anxiety in the two below.

“Kind of conspicuous isn’t it…”

“Yeah…” Stolas runs his eyes along the wall searching, “Lets hope we get lucky and no guards notice…”

Cresting to just above the edge of the wall, Jade begins releasing the stored-up air as quietly as possible. Once the gelatinous blob disappears behind the spikey parapets Ansel waits a moment longer before gently tugging on the rope.

Satisfied it was secure the wolf girl holds it out towards Stolas, “You want to go first?”

Taking the rope, he wraps it around one arm and hooks his spear through the back of his shirt. Climbing up, the residual heat from the day burns into the soles of his feat hindering him as he tries to put strength to them. Somehow the heat felt different, almost like it is more intense than it should be.

Activating his mana vision for a second, he notices shades of red mana coursing through the iron reinforced stone. What troubled him the most was how the red mana interacted with the blue mana flowing through his body. When the conflicting manas meet they violently reject each other forming a new pale white shade before breaking down into raw mana.

Now that’s worrying. Without anything he can do about it for now he pushes the matter from his mind heaves himself up over the wall, landing next to his slimy companion.

Taking a quick glance around the imp is relieved to see no guards on this section of the wall. For now, it appears they would rather stay up in the towers with a warm fire than patrol in the cooling night air.

“Good job,” With a whisper he pats Jade before giving Ansel the all clear.

Pulling herself up the rope with far less effort than he did, Ansel hops over the parapets with grace. Giving him a concerned look, she stops Stolas for a second. “You okay? It seemed like you were struggling for second.”

“Yeah, I just noticed there was a lot of red mana in the walls.”

“Are they enchanted?”

“That or they just absorb mana easily.” The imp shook his head. He didn’t know enough to be certain of a conclusion. “All I can say is that we shouldn’t stick around to test it.”

“Good point…” Turning her attention away from Stolas, she scans the surrounding buildings.

Aside from the large three-story fortress various single-story buildings dotted the area. About three in total. A large stable sat near the gate where a few horses could be seen huddled inside, from the looks of it they seemed to have belonged to the merchants that war party from earlier captured. Behind the fortress sat a large square, stone hut with a few guards ferrying the stolen merchandise inside from the merchant’s carriage to it and the castle. The final building situated below the trio’s position appears to be a barracks/training ground, that thankfully seems to be empty at the moment.

“Can your mana sight locate the mage?” Ansel points at the castle, “He should be in there, right?”

“…I can’t tell. The stones are too thick, the stone’s natural mana is blocking me from seeing inside.”

“Figures… Alright, I guess we will just have to do it the hard way. Try to be quiet you two.” Gathering up her makeshift grapplehook and rope the wolf girl leads them off the wall.

“We can be quiet when we want to.” Holding his spear in his hands, Stolas frowns at her insinuation. Regardless of how he feels he still sticks close behind Ansel carrying Jade on his back.

“In the short time that I have known you, you two have yet to prove that.”

Stolas tries to defend himself as quietly as possible while they set off into the castle grounds.