An end and a beginning (Noble) (CURRENT, Voting in progress)

As promised, here's the thread for the Noble path. I have edited the previous thread a bit to explain why Diana and her mother did not leave as soon as the portal was ready.

For a few brief moments Diana just stood there, trying to decide what to do. A small part of her wanted to follow her mother and help... but another, stronger, part of her realized that she would not be of much help, especially since she did not even have a weapon.

“Let's go.” Diana said with a sigh and headed towards her own room, Elena following a step behind her.

Their rooms were on the second floor, next to each other, with Diana's naturally being the bigger and better one. As the pair rushed up the stairs demonic screams and shouts could be heard from somewhere outside, but thankfully none were particularly close.

Once they reached their destination the two women separated without a word, each one going inside her own room. Diana quickly removed her dress and put on another one. Her new dress was dark brown and had slits on both sides, going all the way from her feet almost to her waist. It left her feet mostly exposed, but it also made it much easier to move around. She then took her steel dagger and her Greater Summoner's Staff, feeling a bit more confident now that she had an actual weapon. Next she put on her Veil Charm – a simple silver necklace that could change her appearance, if necessary. And finally, she took her backpack. Inside it were some money, some food rations, extra underwear, and two more dresses: The first one was the same as the brown dress Diana had just put on, the other was an expensive emerald green dress that emphasized her curves and left a good third of her breasts exposed. It was a dress meant for formal occasions such as parties, not for travel, but it never hurt to be prepared in case she needed to look like a noble.

Diana took a quick look in the full body mirror on the wall of her bedroom and after a brief moment of hesitation decided to put on a cloak. She chose a heavy brown cloak with a hood that would both hide her face and protect her from the rain. In the worst case the cloak could also be used as a blanked – though the young noblewoman hoped it would not come to that.

When she was finally ready Diana left her room and found Elena waiting for her outside in the corridor. Her bodyguard was now wearing her usual dark gray armor and had two longswords on her back.

Diana and Elena just nodded to each other and then rushed down to one of the mansion's cellars. It was a small cellar that had been cleared of everything inside so that the sorceress could work freely when preparing the portal.

Once they had reached their destination the two women stopped and examined the portal. It looked like a large dark-blue circle that reached from the cellar's floor all the way to the ceiling. Somehow it looked the same way from every direction. As they were about to go inside the small cellar, however, they heard the flapping of wings. Turning around the pair saw three imps flying towards them.

“How annoying. Go. I'll kill them and join you. And be careful – there's no way to be sure the other side is safe.” Elena said with a tone of voice that Diana was very familiar with. It was the tone she used when she wanted to make it clear that she would not budge and so there was no point in Diana arguing with her.

“I'll be waiting. Be careful.” Diana said as she watched Elena, with a sword in each hand, stepping forward to engage the imps. Without further delay she turned around and quickly stepped through the portal...

...and in the blink of an eye found herself someplace else, all alone.

A quick look around revealed no danger so the young summoner focused her gaze on the portal, waiting for Elena to step through it and join her... but she did not. Instead the portal flickered once and then simply vanished, as if it was never there.

What the hell?... Where did the portal go? And where are Elena and mother? Diana cursed in her mind, then took a few deep breaths in order to calm down.

Once she had calmed down she started examining her surroundings, now a lot more carefully. The first thing she examined was the large, tall rock that she had seen behind the portal. It was nearly as tall as a three-story house and was clearly man-made, at least in part.

Next was the fact that sunset was fast approaching, so she did not have long to find a place to spend the night. She could see two places where she could go: A village to the west and some sort of ruined tower to the north-west.

To the south the ground ended at a cliff edge. Looking over it Diana saw a dark sea at least 30 meters below her current location.

To the north were several hills, with the ruined tower on the largest of them.

There was a relatively straight dirt road going east to west. To the east it was climbing up, while to the west it was climbing down, towards a small village, likely the same village the sorceress had mentioned after opening the portal.

Still no trace of mother or Elena. I hope nothing happened, but even if something did there's nothing I can do about it. I should worry about myself. For starters I should find a place to spend the night.

Skill Vote: Which is the last of Diana's skills - Stealth or Ranged attack?

Both skills received 2 votes during the previous vote, leaving them tied for fourth place. In case of a new tie I will use my tiebreaker vote.

Primary Vote: What does Diana do next?
A. Go to the village – hopefully there's an inn there, or at least some reasonable people willing to share their home with her
B. Go explore the ruined tower – maybe she'll find something of interest. In the worst case she can spend the night there, although it likely won't be a very pleasant night.
C. Do something else (specify what)

X. Minor Action

Note on summoning: Before doing anything else Diana could summon one or more creatures. You can check the character sheet for a list of her current known summons. But remember: A girl accompanied by a bunch of summoned creatures is guaranteed to attract A LOT more attention than a lone girl.