<div class="floatright"><div align="center"><em><sup>click to enlarge</sup></em></div>(http://i.imgur.com/Vc8rqkl.jpg)</div><br/>Zerxel had seen the figure that she thought, hoped, had been Bo off to the north east.  But since she'd come ashore on the west side of the lake, she had to hope that she could make her way through this ghost town and find the woman who had warned her.  She certainly thought it had been Bo Leathershield, though her cynical and cautious part of her mind did hold in reserve that it could have been a trick to the dungeon.  Certainly the thirty foot high walls that sat at the upper edges of this circular city looked strangely unnatural, made out of what looked like black stone and surprisingly shiny.  While her eyes were adjusting to the bright daylight, she'd never feel fully comfortable out in it, and couldn't look at the walls where the sunlight struck it, as it reflected the sun's intensity.  Still keeping her eyes shaded from direct sunlight and squinting, she was able to traverse the  city streets without any pain or discomfort.  Well, from the sunlight at least there was no discomfort.  Her leather boots were soaked and her silken lingerie was clinging and binding to her skin.  She could deal with it though, she could deal with it.  She told herself that a few times as she began walking in a clockwise direction up the middle of the deserted street, she could deal with it.<br/><br/>She glanced down at her compass and whispered the word "key."  She watched as the timepiece / compass glowed breifly, then the glow started to shrink into the timepiece, focusing on the rim concentrating onto a single point of bright light that pointed off to the north west.  Well, that was good at least, she knew it was on the same side of the city as she'd seen Bo.  They probably weren't in the exact same area, but at least she didn't have to decide which direction to head in having to choose between Bo and the Key.  She snapped the timepiece / compass closed and stowed it again, knowing she could always check it again later if needed.<br/><br/>As she walked she passed homes and shops, some boarded up, some wide open as if an occupant had simply just walked out a moment ago.  Though most of the buildings seemed deserted.  Then, Zerxel had to praise her luck as she spied something on the side of one of the buildings, a boat house if she had to guess, on the right hand (lake side) of the street.  A sun faded map of the city hung on one of the walls of the boat house, behind a pane of glass and lock.  She hesitated for just a moment to inact mage sight and look for magical traps, and found none.  Then another minute with a practiced eye and fingers searching for regular traps, and again found none.  Either shattering the glass or picking the lock, the map was soon in her possession though and she noticed that there were very few markings on it, just the names of the four main streets.  Still it was better than nothing and she was well pleased with her luck.<br/><br/>She continued down what she now knew was Ash Avenue when suddenly light strains of music came to her ears.  On the alert she moved from the center of the street to the meager shade cast by an overhanging roof and looked around.  There on the left hand side of the street a building seemed to be coming to life.  Ghostly music flowed from it as wisps of energy or... something... flowed around the building.  She crept closer and with every step the building seemed to gain more life, the spectral patrons taking more and more solid form, looking like rugged men and women standing around the entrance to a building which had the music coming from inside.<br/><br/>Zerxel stepped back, fleeing to the shade of the roof and watched with wonder as the forms she saw began to again fade away as she retreated.  She moved in again and they solidified, became more and more real.  Strange at first she had thought they were ghosts, but the closer she got the more the figures she spied looked like real people.  It was almost as if the building was real, but the occupants existed in a different world and only came into the dungeon when someone got close.  Zerxel looked at the narrow street and realized if she wanted to continue in the direction towards where she'd seen Bo, she'd have to walk right past the tavern, and in this sunlight there wasn't enough shade for her to barely hide, let alone sneak past.  She could of course go around the town in the other direction, counter clockwise, though that would take an hour or longer to reach the same place she could get too in ten minutes if she were to go past.  She could always risk swimming in the lake again, but that somehow seemed like a bad idea.  Or she could cut up a side street that ramped up the side of the caldera, to Lava Avenue, and see if she had better luck getting around in that direction.  Then again, there was no sign that the people around the tavern were hostile, not everything in the dungeon was hostile after all.  She might be able to simply stroll past the tavern without being bothered.<br/><br/>She snorted with derision at that thought, even she wasn't so foolish as to believe that.