The Chained Watcher

Backstory: Privacy (pt4)

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Running a hand under his mask, the Watcher slowly stretched from the seated position he'd held for the last month. Why did he stay in the same spot for an entire month, you may ask? Well, he couldn't just leave his defenses unfinished, now could he?

The ravine, now fully submerged in the churning mist, no longer required the bottle to produce more of the mist. In such large quantities, it's actually started displaying a tendency to clump together with more of itself, which is quite useful. His plans had evolved, and he started setting up contingency plans for if his retreat was found by some group he either did not want to or could not face.

First came the anti-detection countermeasures. Since the mist works so well and clings to itself, he carved thin tubes inside the walls to fill with the stuff. That should keep most prying eyes from easily locating his retreat, but it wasn't an absolute guarantee.

Next, he set up the defenses he'd activate if, despite his efforts, a large group of beings did come upon this place. The carnivorous roses are part of this, as are the creatures that now make their home in the mist of the ravine. Although they probably won't deter a sufficiently powerful foe, any casual adventurers or invading armies would find their path at an end.

What? Why is he preparing for armies when no one should even know he's here? Have you not heard about the reputation of Watchers? If he accidentally leads an army to his doorstep, as unlikely as that may be, he'd rather have a plan to deal with them than not.

And then he's got the panic button. You see, he'd really rather not lose all his stuff he's got stored here, but if an enemy that's too strong for him to beat arrives, he's got to have some kind of plan other than to die. Hence, his panic button.

Activating this dizzying array of enchantments, which he'd just finished by the way, will sink the entirety of the underground portion of the retreat deep into the mountain, all the while simulating an underground collapse up top. With the mist concealing what really happens, he should be able to teleport away from the fight and down into the buried rooms later.

And if immediate teleportation isn't an option, he can dive into the ravine and lose his pursuer in the suppressing mists.

Now that he's finished getting that final contingency set up, he can go back to experimenting with turning an imbuement into an enchantment, and vice versa.

Emerging from his room, he meanders aimlessly through the halls until he comes across a strange sight. Some of the magic items he'd made were definitely rather odd, but since most of them didn't have anything dangerous about them he'd just left them in one of the storage rooms.

Among those were a couple varied outfits that seek a dancing partner, and now one of them seems to have found one. Down at the end of the hallway he's currently in, one of the mortals is... dancing a jig with a cowgirl outfit, for some reason. They're not unskilled, but why in the middle of the hallway of all places? And did the outfit escape on its own somehow? That one does have gloves, so it using a doorknob is theoretically possible.

He just stands there, bewildered, for the rest of the jig, watching in confusion as the mortal and the outfit dance. Eventually though, the mortal notices him and stiffens. They try to bow, but the outfit they were dancing alongside tries to sweep them into another dance before they can.

The awkwardness of the mortal still trying to bow while the outfit tries to start them dancing again is enough to convince him to just... turn around and go. Whatever was happening here, he's not needed for it, nor does he feel the need to be a part of it.

The emotions leaking off the mortal twist into embarrassment, which to be perfectly honest he would feel too if he was in that situation. Just the thought of being caught dancing with a magic outfit by another Watcher is enough to make him cringe. Sure, he could threaten them to keep them quiet, but how long would that threat actually remain effective?