As he entered the village he looked down the sides of the walls running around it, half expecting an ambush, but he didn’t see anyone. Nudging his mount forwards he looked in the small windows of homes not seeing anything – some of the homes didn’t have proper doors they would have a heavy curtain over the entrance that would be pinned back during the day – some of the curtains were closed leaving the windows dark and empty, others would be pinned open the light spilling into the homes of the people that should be here, as he got to the centre and the two story building with a worn sign with peeling paint showing three casks an ale mug and cluster of grapes with the name of ‘Crossroads Inn’ at the bottom of it. Kadin dismounted and tied his horse to the hitch in front of the inn. He pushed open the door and stepped inside. He was in a long low room with a bar at the far wall with a little alcove where you would need to turn right to go up the stairs. Under the stairs and behind the bar were first a selection of bottles, it looked as the wood for every other stair extended on to create shelfs, then as more space allowed small casks of spirits like dwarves fire whisky, then on to larger casks holding ales and common wines. Where the bar ended it was almost at the other end of the inn and lead to an archway behind it leading to what Kadin assumes would be the kitchen then in front of the archway at the middle of the room was a stone fireplace which still had a few glowing embers in it. In front of the fireplace were arranged a small collection of tables – there didn’t seem to be any order to them there was a circular table with five stools at it next to a square one with four chairs then a long table that looked like it was built with the sitting bench attached to its base. But with no fire and the stained glass windows the entire room was dull and cast in shadows.

“Hello.” Kadin called out surprised by how loud and intrusive his voice was – but it was quickly muted back into silence.

“Inn keeper.” He tried again but still nothing.

He walked cautiously over to the arch and looked behind it where he saw a door leading out to the back of the inn along with a big square table with various cups, plates and bowls as well as two large chopping boards under the table were various pots and pans and at the side of it was another fire place with a metal cooking plate over it and two small ovens at the side of it behind it on the walls were various herbs hanging from the roof and small jars of spices against the wall off to the side of it was a small stairway leading down to the cellar. But Kadin didn’t go down he turned around and headed to the stair – he needed to look around but he still needed to hurry as he had to get after his contract again.

He quickly went up the stairs and found himself in a narrow hallway with one door directly in front of him and three other doors to his right. He reached out with his senses to look for traps and didn’t find anything he also didn’t detect any life anywhere near him .. but he hurried to the first door and opened it. It looks as if this was the innkeepers best rooms as it had a large bed against the wall a big window looking over the middle of the village with a small table and chair in front of it but was empty and he didn’t see anything – he tried infusing mana into his eyes again and still nothing, the second room was smaller with two small beds one against each wall and a small chest at the foot of each bed, but still nothing. The third room was similar to the last but this had a single larger bed in the middle bot nothing more.

The last room- the one in front of him was another larger room but had multiple bunk beds in them this room also had a fireplace against the wall right above the one in the common room below – the fire itself was dark and empty but this room caught Kadin’s attention in the middle of the room there was a large circular scorch mark witch looked like they were caused by liquid waves as the would start at opposite ends with a wide base but then looked as if they had come up off the floor before falling back down on it – it was a rough looking pattern but behind the wave marks there was a smaller circle scortch mark that looked as if it had been drawn on a perfect circle about a fingers with char mark and about four feet across and at the edges between the two were several glyphs or runes burnt into the wooden floor. When Kadin used his mana view this time the glyphs and runes still glowed with magical energies, but nothing he was familiar with the perfect circle also had a strong magical aura around it that shone upwards by a few inches before dimming to nothingness the runes however still slowly pulsed with power, but were slowly getting weaker as he went. Kadin didn’t know what this was but he was pretty sure this was his quarry.

He tried to use tracking magic on it to see if he could follow a trail.. for all his efforts he could only get a slow pull towards the eastern barrier – but he already knew that was the direction he was going and after a little time trying he decided he would be better to search for any physical tracks.

He left the inn and checked a few homes on his way to check the barracks and there was still no signs of any life. When he got to the barracks he did a quick search still finding all the weapons and arms in the armoury and even the commanders safe for paying his men closed and looking as if anyone would expect.

Kadin briefly debated with braking into the safe to see if there was anything more … but ultimately decided against it .. there was no real reason to think there would be anything there and he was fine with looting in bandit hideouts or guild targets but not with stealing from the crown or the nobles of this land just because he could.

So he went and untied his horse and lead it towards the other side of town and the east gate that would lead to the blasted lands. As he got to the gate he searched for any tracks or trails and he needed to head further and further out and was getting a little worried as he wasn’t finding anything .. then just as he was ready to turn back and start again he saw something footprints – prints that were left in the last few hours judging by the trail .. he was a little confused as there was soft ground all around that had no tracks and then tracks that looking like a person running towards the blasted lands for about twenty or so steps before just disappearing again.

Following on the tracks he found a fresh set again but further on, which would then disappear. Kadin finally figured out the tracks were between small teleports.. it looked like the necromancer was running to the east and teleported a few hundred feet rand for a bit then teleported again. Kadin had a similar ability called blink but its range was much smaller than that he could only manage about ten feet, and even then it drained him and his magic fast and took a few second to recharge. But he now had a trail to follow. So he mounted his horse and started to make his way to the barrier to the blasted lands.