<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/ljYAgW2.jpg)</div><br/>Making her way through the town, her boots uncomfortably damp and her clothes clinging to her in a rather annoying way, Zerxel valiantly did her best to ignore both as she made her way to Bo, one of her good friends from their shared quarters during her year of training.  It wasn't that difficult to ignore the sun's brightness now that she had grown accustomed to it for the most part, but it was going to be an annoyance if not a downright hindrance, but there was little point to dwell on it save to keep to the shadows as much as possible.  Zerxel was reassured though when she took out the compass and timepiece both, and saw that the golden key was in the same general direction as Bo was, so that was a load off her mind, to say the least.  If they were in the general same location, then that'd make searching for the two of them that much easier, provided that had truly been Bo, or that she was in her right mind still.  There had been at least one year she'd seen that had the Dungeon letting loose clever doppelgangers of the real contestants.  Once defeated, the doppelgangers replaced the real contestants and then sought those that were left, or simply disappeared, she couldn't remember which.  Either way, she'd keep one eye on Bo at all times, just on the off chance she'd been compromised or replaced or whatever.  All the while, Zerxel kept to the shadows as best she could, ducking into each shady spot as she could as she went along to what she hoped would be her destination.  As beautiful as this town was in its dormant volcanic center, she wanted to be out of here.  This place was given her the creeps.<br/><br/>It was either luck or something more that Zerxel saw the map behind the simple glass barrier, but she wasn't too worried about the locked passageway before her.  Picking the lock was child's play for the dexterous drow who could have easily picked the lock with a simple paper clip, let alone an actual lockpick.  Either way, it didn't take long for the Drow rogue to slip into the store, grab the map, and bring it back out so she could look it over.  She was mildly disappointed there weren't more on the map, but what little there was was certainly better than nothing, and it gave her a point of reference for where she was, and where she needed to go.  It wasn't until she came upon the strangely, she didn't want to say haunted, tavern, that she came across her first hurdle outside of the creature in the lake that had almost dragged her under when she'd came down through the portal in the first place.  The ghostly people milling about might not have seemed hostile at a glance, but the rogue wasn't stupid enough to risk exposing herself on a whim.  Instead of circumnavigating around however, the rogue looked to the rooftops, an idea coming to mind.  Why was she bothering sneaking about the streets when she could take the high road?  Sure, she might miss something of note inside the tavern, let alone anything else along the way, but she could come back with Bo, unless she had a better idea, and take a look around.  Whatever the case, she sure as Hells knew she wasn't going back the way she came.<br/><br/>But as tempting as the idea was, she was also mindful of the fact she was still under the eyes of the crowd, so she made it a point to drop a little comment as she got closer to the spectral entities.<strong>"What in Malefactus's name?"</strong>She whispered, just loud enough to be heard by the nearby eyebots.  Narrowing her eyes further, Zerxel looked at the 'ghosts', and while she didn't believe they were harmless, she didn't think she could sneak around the tavern with its 'ghostly patrons' either, and getting to the rooftops might not be possible.  If she couldn't find a way to the roofs, and thus bypassing the place entirely, she'd take a chance, a calculated chance, by passing in front of the tavern.  If her hypothesis proved true, dangerous or not, the locals surely wouldn't attack on sight.  They'd lull her into a false sense of security first, or so that's what she believed the ghosts would do if they were indeed a danger.  There was only one way to find out....  Heading for the nearby buildings away from the tavern, Zerxel took a breath before realizing, too late when her feet touched down, that the buildings around the tavern were about as old as she was, if not actually older.  It was hard to tell, only that she didn't get to traverse the rooftops.  She instead ended up falling on her ass.  She groaned and let out a string of Drow curses in frustration and no amount of minor pain as she jumped to her feet.  Well....tavern it was then.