<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/b/b9/4d2d1e8c4eac65fc29dedecec733004c.jpg)<br/>Quarion Silverbough</div>Quarion promised his parents that he would be careful, and not put himself at undue risk when the town militia were there to fight bandits such as these. He embraced them tenderly, trying not to think about the possibility, however slight, that he wouldn't see them again.<br/><br/>He put his fears aside as he trekked down the hill to join the militia at the barracks. The sight of the camp laid out reassured him that their expedition was well organized and well managed, and he examined the duty rosters with interest, committing them to memory. He mulled over some numbers in his head, calculating the best time for him to take his four hours of trance, then took some time to examine the inventory of supplies.<br/><br/>Quarion then went to introduce himself to Koris, inquiring about the youth's culinary experience and the plans he had for the expedition. Mindful of Captain Rowan's instructions, he kept out of the cooking itself, but couldn't help but give his advice, whether or not Koris asked for it.<br/><br/>After dinner, while Koris was washing the pots and bowls and the militia were arranging themselves into their sleeping positions, Quarion drew from his backpack a wide-necked clay bottle. He unstoppered it, allowing the faint scent of sour wine to escape. "Not my family's best vintage," he said sheepishly to anyone nearby, "but it's just what I need for my magic." He fished inside the bottle with a pair of tongs, and extracted a small ball of twine that had been soaking in the liquid. Stoppering the bottle again, he shook the excess liquid from the twine and started to spool it out along the perimeter of the camp, laying it in the dirt and murmuring arcane words. When he came back to the place where he started, he shuffled over to Koris and picked up some clean pans and utensils, with a hasty "heycanIborrowthesethanks", and stacked them up in a seemingly haphazard pile, with the twine knotted around their handles. He passed his hands over the structure and spoke more arcane words, and the twine glowed with a pale orange light, then faded again.<br/><br/>"I've placed a ward over our camp," he explained to Masota and Erin. "The twine is soaked in spirits of wine, and will ignite if anyone other than our squad crosses it. When that happens, the pots will fall down, alerting the camp to the intruder." He pointed out the line of the ward. "I can cover an area about forty feet square with a little under an hour to set up the ward. It's not a huge area, but if anyone slips past our sentries, it will alert us."<br/><br/>He planned to begin his trance half an hour before the start of the second watch, so that he would finish just before the final watch started. He occupied the time before rest with checking over his weapons and armour, then settled into his bedroll and performed the meditations for his trance.