With the strangers guarding the door looking out at the trees, neither of them were paying much attention to what was going on above them. This allowed the hawk to easily swoop down and get a good look at the strangers. Both strangers were men wearing black hoodless robes decorated with a strange plethora of accoutrements that ranged from mundane twigs and leaves to macabre animal skulls and appendages. Ten feet above the door was a window that allowed the sun to shine into the tower's interior. The hawk landed here and peered down upon nine more strangers. Eight of these strangers, all of them men dressed similarly to the men guarding the door, were working on what appeared to be strange arcane experiments. The ninth stranger was an androgynous elf dressed similarly to, yet much more ornately than the men. The elf stood in the center of the room and watched over the eight men as they worked.

The hawk remained at the window just long enough to take this all in before taking off and flying further up the tower before anyone in the room noticed the hawk's presence. Further up the tower there was an other window to allow sunlight into the upper level of the tower. From this vantage point, the hawk spied a second androgynous elven stranger speaking with an elderly blue skinned tiefling woman with long black hair, short brass horns, and sharp red claws.

"The adventurers should be here soon." The fiendish crone said to the elf while she inspected ten black sacks covered in stitches and arranged into two rows of five along a long wooden table. "I trust you two will be ready for them once they arrive?"

"Yes, Nanna May." The elf replied.

"And I needn't worry about anything going wrong on your watch, need I?" Nanna May asked as she nodded in satisfaction at the sacks.

"No, Nanna May." The elf replied.

"Good..." Nanna May said as she turned to face the elf. "We stand to gain much today. And if we play our cards right, we stand to gain even more tomorrow. So you two make sure those cards are played right! Am I understood?"

"Yes, Nanna May." The elf replied.

"Perfect." Nanna May approved with a slight nod of her head. "Run along now, Emmyth. And make sure Elnaril understands as you do."

"Yes, Nanna May." Emmyth intoned one last time before turning away and descending a staircase leading to the lower level of the tower.