"What in seven kingdoms happened?"
Blood drips and Mahb glares balefully at the young woman while her hair writhes across the floor like a nest of agitated snakes, "You've come to the land where calling me an 'evil hag' earns you a chokin' throatful of my armpit hair. Let us tend to our wounded and then we'll get to you." Mahb hobbles towards Eva, using her hair to steady herself.
Alexis rises up to the challenge, also sounding threatening. "Those who speak the truth should never be punished for it." She keeps an eye on Mahb and her hair for a few seconds, and although she would expect anything from the old Hag, there is something really amiss in this scene.
She looks around and, with a sad expression, asks a question to them. "So, did we failed? Are the others dead?"
Kjel winces in pain as the red vampiric moss continues to grow in his wounds.
The hag cackles humorlessly. "Truth? In that case, you're a fool to name me 'evil' when the evidence stands agin you. Consider that truth." Mahb waits patiently for Eva to finish with Kjel, her blood pattering against the floor counting the moments. She mutters, "First that damn metal mina bird and now this."
Alexis crosses her arms and waits until the others are healed so they could explain what happened, but meanwhile she keeps discussing the subject at hand. "Don't try to fool me, old Hag. You're crustier than demons and twice as mean. I see no evidence in your favor, but quite the opposite. You, on an evil place." She eyes once again her surroundings. "I don't know what you're gaining with this, yet, but it's just a matter of time. You even evaded my question entirely. Where are Luther, Valeria, Trusk, Wylliam and the Lynx?"
Pulling out two Alchemist Fire, Eva offers one to Mahb. "Here, for the vines. Direct hits take them out with minimal damage. You can do it, or I can. But I need to get this moss of of Kjel." She looked down with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Kjel, this is going to hurt." Eva then begins to pour it out over Kjel.
Eva had yet to address Alexis since her initial shock, answered her. "Luther and Trusk are still back in Perdition's Point." She didn't look at Alexis at all, focusing more on her healing tasks.
Alexis clearly disbelief it. "Still back there, hun?? So you're saying they returned in one piece? What about Valerya and Wylliam?"
"Luther... and Trusk never left. I... I haven't met anyone named Valerya, or Wylliam..."
Mahb nods her thanks to Eva and gingerly applies the burning liquid to the seedlings burrowing through her skin.
"W-What?" For the first time she really looks at you, and her mind is racing through the possibilities, but the one that included another place of existence is far far away. "Have I gone mad?!" She demands an answer.
"Garrggh. I hate burns. Cuts, aren't so bad, but burns just suck. No choice I guess. " then seeing the two ladies go at it "Do you think this is a good time to bicker? Shouldn't we be making sure there's no other threats and clearing out this place? I think bickering is best done in a tap room where alcohol can prod it into more amusing actions. " and he will get up off the floor and re-arm himself ready to keep exploring the tower.
"Just be glad I'm not having to stab you with syringes. Cathran despises those." Eva gave him a small teasing smile and poked him with the healing wand a couple times.
"Okay Mahb, your turn." Getting up Eva poked Mahb a couple times with the wand as well.
"I... don't have that answer Alexis..." Eva, having gotten the other two stable, moved to check on Lineera. She also got a couple pokes with the wand.
Mahb begins to think on what she saw. It looked like a gate spell, except that it didn't look like a planar gateway, and it obviously wasn't planned. It looked more like a planar gateway spell that went wrong, probably from being disrupted. But again, the other side didn't look like the plane of fire or earth or water or shadow. It looked like a mirror version of the prime material plane. There are some theories that there are multiple versions of the prime material plane, each with it's own set of elemental and secondary planes. If that's true, then the spell that was disrupted wasn't a planar gateway, but an interplanar gateway. For it to reach here, a similar spell would have needed to have been enacted here as well. Which would mean... the creatures enacting the spells in both this and the mirror plane would have been trying to open an interplanar gateway. But not between here and there, or it wouldn't have been disrupted that way... which means they are both trying to open the a gateway to the same place... probably beyond the mirror planes, to something beyond them...
Alexis' behavior soothes a bit, but she remains in her place. "Why have you come to this place?"
"There's been some kids around here gone missing. One of them was from a family I was protecting. Figure it was my duty to get to the bottom of it. Found these people looking into it as well, and tagged along. "
Pure and simple, the answer made her think about it for a bit. "But what about the previous party Eva? The one I was in with Luther and the others? Don't you know about it?"
Since it's likely to come up.
Luther : Luther is a very old man, for those who don't remember, and he's getting senile. He's been in the village forever. He had a son, who'd have been in his 30's right now, but the boy died of a fever when he was 13. Luther Senior never recovered, and his wife left.
Trusk : Trusk was a half-orc who was fairly normal in his childhood, but he had the same fever as Luther Junior. He survived, but it permanently damaged his brain, and left him damaged. Luther Senior took him in before he started going senile.
Wylliam : You've never heard of this Wylliam.
Valyra : Same thing, never heard of her.
Lynx : There's tons of lynx's around Perdition's Point. None have every scratched words in wood, if that is brought up.
Mahb lets out a small sigh, "You do good work, Eva-girl. My thanks." Feeling remarkably more chipper, the hag skirts Alexis by a wide margin and examines the location of the vanished gate - sniffing the air then fingering and tasting residue from a wall. She clucks with fascination, "This was an interesting bit of magic, actually two simultaneous bits, if I don't miss my guess."
Her curiosity satisfied, the witch turns her attention back to the coffins and uses her hair to open the nearest one carefully hoping to find one of the missing children.
"Previous party?" Eva sounds confused, but having helped Lineera, she moves to look at Alexis. "Luther never left town. He always sends someone else to place his shipment orders anymore. It's usually Trusk. And he didn't go this time, since we did it." She drops silent for a bit before she lights up, "Oh! That's how you got here! They must have decided to bring you back, and sent you here to help us! I know it takes powerful magi, but those clerics. I'm sure they were strong enough!" Eva was bouncing some by the end of it, thoroughly convinced that's what happened. "Lia must be so happy!"
Mahb catches the small alchemist's eyes and slowly shakes her head, clearly of the opinion that something else happened.
"...Mahb?" Her eyes are questioning. She hasn't let go of the hope she's right yet, but Mahb did make her question it. Moving over to stand next to her, Eva quietly asked, "Rydych yn gwybod rhywbeth?"
"That doesn't make any sense! Lia is being cared by her father, and she is not very happy since Luke is still in coma." Her eyes sharpen a bit. "Now, where did they bring me back from? And who are you talking about?"
Mahb looks sympathetically to her small friend and speaks for quite some time in a lilting and convoluted tongue. At moments, she gestures to the gate area, points at Alexis, or draws odd sketches in the air with her withered old fingers to emphasize some point.
Kjel is completely lost in the conversation, and to be honest, doesn't really care so he will just take a close look around the place while he waits.
herp
and will also look over the body of their downed foe in case there is any equipment of worth
The body has nothing on it. Apparently part of her transformation ripped her belongings apart, so she didn't bother with much beyond clothes at the start.
"Shouldn't we go upstairs and see what is there? "
"...Oh..." Eva droops a bit, sniffles a little after getting so hopeful only to feel like it was crushed. "...The clerics of Pharasma that journeyed to Perdition to help with the rebuilding..." When Kjel speaks, she turns and gives him a small nod. "I still want to see what's under that moss in the alchemy lab... But we can go upstairs first."
She lifts her arms. "You're not making any sense, as usual. But if you intend to find the children, I'm with you for now."
Alexis looks at the coffin Mahb is peeking at, careful with any tricks their enemies could have put there.
Mahb finds nothing alive inside the coffin. What she does find in the coffin is enough to make even the crusty old woman slightly ill.
Lineera struggles to her feet with a groan. "Oh goddess above, I nearly went to the Boneyard there didn't I?" Lineera looks to the corpse of the necromancer and spits upon it. "That's for calling me b#%@&, b++!*!" Turning towards her comrades she asks, "Is everyone... all...right?" Her eyes focus on Alexis. "A-Alexis? I... I don't understand. You were dead..." Lineera walks shakily towards the woman, then throws her arms around her in a hug. "I'm so glad your safe."
Mahb lets the coffin close. "Whatever is in there... I can't tell if it was human once." She moves to inspect the other coffin and decides, for good or ill (with ill being the more likely result) to cut to the chase. "Alexis, our Alexis, is dead. This woman" she points a craggy finger at Alexis, "...has slid through a gap in reality. She is from another world, very like our own but not the same. In her world, Trusk and Luther's son were not effected by the fever when they were children. Her young Luther still lives - or did as of a few minutes ago - and her Trusk was not brain-addled from that childhood illness."
She turns an eye on Alexis even as she continues to work over the coffin. "Your world is shut and you are in our world now."
Second coffin same as the first.
Mahb closes the second coffin with finality. "No child here, either." She glances around the room. "Maybe this was a lure and we'll find the kids upstairs."
Mahb opts to sweeps the alcove and podium for anything of interest before moving on.
There were remains inside, but they were no longer human, and very much not alive.
Nothing on the altar.
"OK, let's go on upstairs. " and he will lead the way up the stairs.
Riley cleans his sword and rests from the battle. He is glad to see the two join them. "Good work Kjel. I probably couldn't have taken those blows." He bows his head slightly. "You OK over there Lineera? I couldn't stand the thought of going on without my favorite tan elf."
"I don't really think I did take those blows. I wasn't exactly terribly able by the end of that tussle. "
Alexis is careful at first, specially for being a drow, but the situation was way too complicated for her to process it all at once, so she lets Lineera hugs her, but does not return the affection. When she is done Alexis gets even more careful and backs away a step. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
Then Mahb went straight to the point, and although it was a better explanation than her time trap she still doubted, for some time, but then she couldn't call anything crazy these days. After all, her son was in a magical coma, she fought monsters from child stories and there was power everywhere. Evil was upon the land as never before, and she saw things that couldn't been unseen.
Furthermore, she saw herself on the mirror/gate and the place was definitely inverted, as was she. Alexis couldn't deny it anymore, but she tried. "I am not and was never freaking dead!"
Kjel tromps up the stairs, and finds a hallway with multiple doors. The vines are here as well.
He will take a careful gaze around to see if any threats are present.
"You people coming or what?" then he will check the closest door to see if it is unlocked.
Alexis follows the man, dropping the unpleasant subject.
"CAAAAAAWWWWWW!!!! Fight over with? I can't see anything! CAAAAWWWWW!!!!!"
Nothing appears out of place in the hallway. There are doors at every point, all closed, and grown over with vines. None of the vines have scythe seed pods.
He will open the door to the east of the stairs.
Riley holds up a set of nice thieve's tools. "I can get that for you if you want. There were some nasty traps down stairs."