Elementalist schools are sometimes hard to locate, as Elementalists are often overshadowed in their community by the elemental wizards. However, animage Elementalists have the advantage of working with all the elements and not just one.
Summoners are also a difficult lot to track down. This is largely because the wizardly engineering discipline of Conjury is much safer at high level than animage summoning, even if a bit less versatile. Often times, Summoners work on small-scale efforts, due to the very real danger in powerful summonings. Of course, if you want someone to break a binding or a link, Summoners are generally your only recourse.
Mentalists and their schools go by many different names and will either stick out like a sore thumb in any community or will be noticeably absent. Common names are School of Mental Science, Temple of the Mind, School of Psychology, Psychiatric Clinic, etc., etc. The novice entering these schools had best be prepared to have his or her soul examined down to the core. If the school decides to accept a student, it will only be after thorough mental examination of all motives. Unfortunately, one cannot report that all schools only accept the purist of motives.
“This is disturbing.” Sir Talarius stated standing over a recently used fire pit.
“What is?” Barabus asked the knight.
“This was not a normal fire.”
Barabus crouched down near the ring of stones, swiped one of the charred logs in the pit with his index finger and sniffed the char residue. “It seems rather mundane to me.”
“Looks, but is not.” Talarius stated in his typically emphatic manner. “There is another stench in the air, barely detectable, that of sulfur and brimstone. Talarius wiped his own ungloved right hand on a small towel at his belt. “There is also a strong mana residue in the vicinity.”
Barabus shook his head. Talarius was riding point, scouting the way forward for the Rod. Barabus and the Rod had found him halted and dismounted examining what appeared to be the campsite of other travelers.
“And what do you infer?” Barabus asked. He could detect nothing himself, but the Knight was generally infallible in such declarations.
“A gateway.” Talarius surveyed the former campsite. “Note there are no pentacles, no pentagrams, no runes.” He swept his hand around the small clearing. “Simply a fire pit. Something, some fiend, opened a portal to the Abyss here.” Talarius moved about the clearing, peering intently for more clues.
“An exit? But why?” Barabus asked. “Did they detect us following them and try to escape back to the Abyss? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t. For several reasons.” Talarius stated without even looking up. “First, why would demons make a camp? Suddenly realize we were following them and then flee back to the Abyss after all the trouble and commotion they made getting here.” He shook his head.
“As to the camp, they had humans with them: wizards and or sacrifices, perhaps the humans needed to rest and the demons took time to survey the area and discovered us.” Barabus reasoned.
“A fair point on the wizards with the demons; however I doubt they’d flee after getting here. No, I am thinking they brought in reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements?” Barabus echoed.
“Yes...” Talarius had stopped near the far edge of the clearing with his back to Barabus, slowly moving his head around, perhaps sniffing? Barabus couldn’t tell. “Hmm...” He paused and turned with a troubled look upon his face.
“Yes, they had to of course know that Verigas would alert us. What they most likely did not count on was the speed with which the Rod was able to respond. Early this morning they realized that we would be upon them sooner than expected, and so called for reinforcements.” Talarius was twisting his head around.
“Is there something else?” Barabus was puzzled by the knight’s current behavior.
“Yes, there has been deception here.”
“Deception?” Barabus asked puzzled.
“Yes, I can sense that some form of truth hiding, cloaking or deceptive magic of a fairly high order in this area. It’s very faint, but for me to still be able to sense it, it couldn’t be more than a few hours old.”
“But it’s over there, not near the firepit?” Barabus asked.
“Correct.”
“Do you think it’s tied to the demons?” Barabus asked the knight.
Talarius shook his head in puzzlement, “Demons are masters of lies and deceptive truths, as well as illusions, but they generally don’t use cloaking spells. They revel in the fright they cause others.” He walked back over to Barabus.
“True,” Talarius continued, “There are wizards that will employ cloaked sprites and imps to spy for them; however that doesn’t make much sense here.” Talarius put his gloves back on. “In the forest, at night, all alone, why would a wizard waste magic cloaking a lower level demon in their own camp?”
Barabus thought for a bit as the two remained silent. “Could they have cloaked the sprites at this location, which is what you are detecting and then sent them back to spy on us?”
