Nazhun descended the spiral tower and his face cleared somewhat as he noticed Elena entering, with Mark still at the door. "Please give me a minute or two." the old man bid the apprentice. "When you hear me call from the stairwell, please come up to my lab Elena." After waiting for the obvious acknowledgement, the wizard feebly climbed back up the stairwell.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>With the inn located at the main road, Thorin had no trouble reaching the city's western gates. He did pass several guards on his way, but they seemed to be patrolling the streets in general, not actually directly involved into any event. One of the guards at the gate seemed to recognize him. "Be careful out there!" the soldier advised the woodsman, as he offered a recently lit torch. "Lots of huntsmen reported sightings of greenskins this evening."<br/><br/>[Thorin leaves towards the western forest (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=96539#msg4195078)]<br/><br/><hr/><br/>John really wondered what was up with this girl. First she was looking down on him, acting all high and mighty, and then she flipped all over, as if they were going for an evening stroll under the moonlight, instead of dark clouds that poured down rain and thunder on them. All that magic stuff Nazhun is teaching them must've turned them slightly insane, the soldier thought. He shook his head as he continued to make his way to the tower, pulling the apprentice along with him, as he glanced at the soldiers heading into the alley.<br/><br/>"Exciting, you say?" John answered, quite annoyed. "Our men are all out and about, just trying to keep the town safe, and we still have people falling victim to those... things! The barbarians and orcs are coming closer by the day while we lack the manpower to fend of an entire warband, and you got the nerves to talk about exciting? Miss, if I wasn't on duty right now, you'd have earned yourself a slap in the face!" He didn't react to her blabbering about conjuration and whatever she was talking about, but it did run a shiver over his spine. Conjuration has often played quite a role in folklore and legends and never something good came from it. Yet here this little brat was jumping at the thought of performing it herself...<br/><br/>The other watchmen had ventured into the small alley, as John and Erin passed by, sticking to the main road.<br/><br/>[Erin Perception 5+6=11: If she were to look into the alley, she would notice a total of six guards, three approaching from the opposite side. Several of them carried oil lamps, illuminating most of the alley, save for the shadows cast by bags, barrels and heaps of dirt. Their heads looked up at another figure that quickly climbed up the wall of an adjacent house with fascinating agility. It was already out of the lamps' auras of light, but she could still notice the human climbing up the wall, if it was indeed a human, to be mostly lacking clothes.]