Day 69 (S48)

The morning after Rina had been banned from Asmery, the group decided to try to get to the Giant Hills - home of the Jarl - regardless of the restrictions.
"I can disguise myself with magic so that no one recognizes me. Just say you picked up someone who just graduated from Wizarding School who wanted to test their new abilities by adventuring. I'll look like a normal Druce woman, and I'll try to only use spells wizards would know. Since we can now Scry on trees, specifically, I will look for a nice one near the base of the Giant Hills."
The rest of the party was all ready to go as Rina looked for a good place to get close to the mountains. The tree that Kin had taken care of in his room was now large enough for them to treestride through. Rina found a close tree, and described it to Alice to the best of her ability. Alice opened up the tree in Kin's old room, and they all walked through.
Immediately upon arriving, they could see a guard on a horse at the base of the mountains patrolling the area. Rina disguised herself immediately.

The mountains were craggy, and stood taller than the eye could see in many places. Snow covered them much lower than expected, and the air here was always cold.
Up on the mountain, the group could see a handful of 20ft tall giants working on the mountain. One who appeared to be the leader was pulling another two around in chains. The other two almost looked misshapen; their faces were ill-defined and their bodies looked much more blob-ish.
"Well, they are the Giant Hills," said Neely, "I guess we shouldn't be surprised."
Blanke started shivering from the cold, "I... I nnn...need... warmer ccc...clothes."
"Look, Blanke..." Rina started, "This seems like more of a you problem."
"Okay!" Blanke responded as he approached the guard on the horse. "I am Ser Blanke of the Queen's guard, I require clothing!"
"Oh!" the horseman responded, "Yes, great! Are you alone?"
"No, my party's back there," Blanke said as he gestured to the woods.
The rest of them emerged and followed Blanke up to the guard.
"We don't get many adventurers here, follow me and we will get you some warmer clothes and get you signed in!"

The party followed the horseman along a path that began to wind up the mountain just a little. It lead to a small fort at a low plateau, mostly built of stone from the mountain, with some inner areas built from wood from the nearby forest.
When they got into the fort, a man came out of the inner building with a notebook and a pen.
"Ahh! Adventurers! We need to get you signed in and interview you before you can go up the mountain. I need all of your names and the name of your group."
They group approached and each said their names, "Blanke the magnificent." "Alice Moondance." "Neely of Vorovni." Rina, of course, responded with her fake name, "Anastasia Marcov."
"And you're all of The Bound?"
"Yes," answered Alice.
"Well, as long as you don't have Rina with you," the guard laughed, "but none of you look like an elf. What made you want to join The Bound, Anastasia?"
Rina got into character, "Well, see, I just graduated wizarding school and I wanted to travel with an adventuring party to test my new skills! They were down a member to come here, so they let me come with them instead!"
"Wizarding school, eh? So that means you have a lot of spells and stuff?"
Rina pulled out her ritual spell book, now with fake spells scattered throughout - all written in Elvish, "Yes, see? These scrolls can be hard to decipher and I've been working-"
He cut her off, "Look, I can't read - you don't have to explain it all to me. Just everyone wait here, and the Sergeant will interview you separately."

They all waited, until a stern-looking woman came out of an office door, "First member of The Bound enter - tallest first."
Rina then realized that, being disguised as a Druce, she was the tallest of them. So she went in first.
The woman sat behind a desk and gestured for "Anastasia" to sit down.
"Name?"
"Anastasia Marcov."
"Age?"
"27."
"Occupation?"
"Well, see, I guess I technically haven't been paid for anything, so I don't know if you'd consider it an occupation. But I' just graduated-"
"I don't need a life story, what do you do for this group?"
"Oh, I'm their wizard." Rina said as she pulled out her spell book again, "See, I have this whole grimoire full of stuff and I really-"
"Once again! I don't need a story, just answer the question."
"I'm the wizard..."
"And your birth sign?"
"Well, most would say I'm the sign of the crab, but really I'm on the cusp of crab and bull so really you could-"
"Pick one!"
"I identify as bull sign..."
"And why do you want to go onto my mountain?"
"Since I just graduated I want to test my new skills."
"And you think my mountains are just a testing ground for magic?"
"Well, um... See, I really just wanted to join an adventuring party, and they're the ones who decided that my first mission would be here."
"So, you say this explanation is on your party members to justify?"
"Yep!"
The woman paused a moment, then let "Anastasia" go back to the waiting room with the others.