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Karp exited the main entrance of the Traitor’s Tavern Inn and headed east on Town Square Road toward The Whitecoat’s compound. A waypoint for caravans sat past small businesses and merchants’ houses on Town Square Road. Karp walked past the caravan staging areas. The staging areas were little more than large fields with wood barbecue pits and latrines. Guard stations flanked six staging areas. Food stalls lined the road, erected between the entrances of the staging areas. The food stalls would open based on the occupied staging areas. The village council assigned incoming caravans to a stall, and the committee was obligated to distribute the caravans evenly so that food stall merchants had equal opportunity to sell. Still, new allegations of favoritism and misconduct arose each year. 

Karp passed the last caravan stall and entered a small woods that marked the edge of town. She still had roughly two miles to travel to The Whitecoat’s compound. Past the little woods, the side of the road opened into sprawling fields. A sound similar to a child crying stopped Karp. Although superficially similar to the sound of a baby, it was really a chorus of smaller whines that comprised the noise. Baby fly traps were growing in a ditch just off the side of the road. 

Baby fly traps were carnivorous flowers that ate insects and were especially fond of crickets. The fly traps’ bulbs resembled closed green coin purses. Vibrations opened the bulbs, and the flower would then emanate a sweet-smelling gas between ridges of the partially opened flower, causing the slight whining. A sweet liquid inside the opened bulbs paralyzed anything that entered. The weak poison didn’t have any noticeable effect on a person, but it paralyzed and killed insects. Once the bulb closed, digestive acid broke down the prey.

After Karp examined the bulbs to her satisfaction, she continued out of the woods and into a clearing. The Whitecoat’s compound sat on a hillock in the distance. Fifteen-foot tall sunken logs encircled the compound. Even from miles away, Karp could see a break in the logs for wagons entering and exiting the compound. The gate only opened for returning carts and for supply wagons with expected deliveries. Even Slart couldn’t convince the guards to open the closed and barred gate without prior approval from The Whitecoat. A pedestrian gate offset from the main gate remained open all day, and two sentries allowed entrance to visitors and workers. During the night, though, that gate was closed. A retractable ladder led up to the eastern parapet where sentries gave access to visitors at night. Regardless, the sentries rarely granted access to unfamiliar faces. 

A warehouse in the northeast corner dwarfed the wall. The building stored The Whitecoat’s merchandise before distribution to his regional stores located throughout the Lush Forest. Stables in the southeast corner supplied horses to pull wagons; these wagons lined the southern wall. Employees worked twelve hours a day for three days and then rested for three days. The majority of The Whitecoat’s workers lived with their families in the Village of the Traitor’s Tavern when not working and slept in a sixty-person barracks in the compound’s southwest corner during workdays. Fifty beds filled two large halls, and night shift and day shift alternated between the beds. 

Ten employees didn’t live in the village and were instead given permanent room and board in private chambers. In exchange for staying in the barracks, on at least two of their nights off, they acted as emergency security. The chow hall sat next to the barracks and acted as a recreation center for off-duty workers. The common area resembled the Traitor’s Tavern Inn, but in order to maintain discipline, no alcohol was served.

The Pavilion of the Three Rings shone as the manor’s crowning jewel. The Whitecoat’s mansion formed the first ring. However, The Whitecoat’s estate didn’t resemble the massive keeps typical of the Lush Forest. Instead of one building, thin, long verandas connected a series of small buildings. The main building, which had the living quarters, guest rooms, and private kitchen, sat in the southeast corner of the square, just west of the front of the warehouse. The manor’s two living quarters totaled half the size of the Traitor’s Tavern Inn. A large single room sat catty-cornered across from the living quarters. The Whitecoat trained and exercised there during inclement weather. Three room-sized buildings used for private meetings and entertaining sat in the northeast corner, southwest corner, and western edge of the square.

Starry night bushes formed the second ring. In direct sunlight, the plants had green spade-shaped leaves and closed black flowers, but at night the flowers bloomed with glowing red stamen. During the day, visitors ignored the foliage, but every night, stars enshrouded revelers at the central pavilion. White stars dotted the sky, and little red stars emanated in circular patterns from the bushes. 

Special sand imported from the Arid Desert formed the final ring. Shifters had created the glossy enamel coating that covered their weapons and armors with that sand. Crystalline structures infused the sand and refracted light and changed color based on the angle of the sun. Raking the sand in different directions changed its apparent hue, and patterns drawn into the sand changed colors throughout the day. Three paths led to the pavilion. The first extended from the small building along the western edge of the square, the second connected to the center of the eastern veranda, and the final stretched from behind The Whitecoat’s manor. At the side of the bushes, the regular walking path changed to a series of large-cut path stones lying in the sand. 

One large carved stone formed the otherwise unremarkable pavilion. Four pillars carved into the corners supported the roof. Karp found The Whitecoat drinking tea at a rectangular sculptured stone table with matching benches.