Thomas instructed the bellboy to place his suitcases just inside the doorway before dismissing the hotel employee with a moderate tip. Walking deeper into the suite the Magus turned around slowly and took in the appearance of what was to become his workshop for the foreseeable future; the lavish penthouse apartment was a bit more extravagant than he was comfortable with, not to mention far too expensive, but in this situation it was far more important to choose a location for its security than comfort.

Walking over to the window which covered one wall of the room Thomas gazed out over the park; in the distance he could see the downtown area, its rather minimal skyline silhouetted against the sky, and if he were to walk over to the other window he would be able to see the forest as well. His rented apartment dominated the entire top floor of a hotel in the rich district of this small, forgotten slice of America. Why such a small town needed a luxurious hotel like this he didn’t know, perhaps to play host to wealthy investors for the mining interests this town had, but ultimately it was of little concern; he would just count it as a little bit of good fortune that it was here and also currently uninhabited.

Turning away from the window he returned to his suitcases and selected the smaller of the two, carrying it over to a coffee table and placing it down on its side. He undid the clasps and flipped it open, swiftly beginning to remove various implements, parcels and packages from its interior; he had much work to do to prepare for the upcoming war. It would take some time to make this place into a suitable workshop, much to be done before he could consider it even remotely safe from attack or detection. Much to be done; at the very least he wanted to establish the basic defences before nightfall.

He began with the bounded fields, focusing on making them undetectable rather than powerful; he had other methods of protection to rely on, ones that would not act as a beacon to anyone with the means of detecting magecraft, so he opted for subtlety over brute force. Hiding his presence was the more important than layering defences. A field to avert the eyes and make the penthouse seem uninteresting, a field to mask the use of any magecraft happening inside, a field which would hopefully go undetected for the duration of this war.

With that done he moved on to other business. He would strengthen the field later, when he had more time; the field had taken some time to establish and outside the sky was already turning orange as the sun began its descent. Luckily the next few steps were simple and quickly performed so long as the necessary preparations were made beforehand, which he had of course done; simple, but no less effective for it.

These early stages of the Grail War were perhaps the most hazardous and the most crucial; entering into the battlefield with no workshop, no knowledge of your opponents and with some of the greatest heroes in history as your adversaries. How you spent your time here could make the difference between life and death in the long run. A Magus was nothing without the proper preparation after all.

It was in his favour then, that he had already performed the most important action before leaving the UK.

[color=aba000]“Rider; prepare yourself. Tonight we are going hunting.”[/color]