Well now, I'm gone for a few hours and things go to hell in a and basket without me.<br/><br/>The use of sense motive in this case can be justified because the Bluff check in question is not a verbal one. The Mage has a chance to set of a warning in your head saying "Hey there something not quite right here" (dc 10 cause hey, its not everyday a woman has a elder wizard as her escort). But we have all had those little feelings that we have ignored. Sense motive was probably better then a Knowledge(arcana) check because it allowed everyone to make the check and The fact that Knowledge checks are usually active, So your not gonna stand and think just to realize something is not quite as it seems.And in case you need any fruther reason as to this choice remember the golden rule at the begining of every DM'S Guide.<br/><br/><strong>The Dm's word is law and trumps anything presented in this book</strong><br/><br/>Meaning that it was well within her right to give sense motive another use as a basic intuition(since 3.5 kinda lacked that as compared to $th ed's Perception and intuition skills). So before anyone flys off the handle(to late?) take a deep breath and remember that D&D is a game that is about testing the limits of imagination and leave your mind open to different applications of base skills, cause they will still work like normal but just get a little more powerful.