Czein stands, ripping the axe from his back and lashing out at the nearest body with a feral roar.
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A huge half-orc grabs an axe, roaring in rage and swinging out at the nearest hooded figure. However, the axe-swing goes wide as the figure, whose hood falls back to reveal a tiefling, jumps back.
The interruption gives Crystal control of her body back. She immediately draws her bow, looking all around in the chaos for the halfling who dragged her into this hell. She has a debt to pay.
Ragnar jumps to his feet and starts shouting an invocation himself. His hands start to glow in a white light and where he traces his body, they leave behind a faint magical glow.
While he does that, he also searches for his companion, a tiny bird called Vi, and reaches out to her with his empathic link.
As soon as the spell takes effect, he tries to make out the dwarf that brought him here.
Raven unfurls, moving in a sequence of stilted, jerky motions that end with her standing -- and a primed bomb hurtling towards the closest knot of hooded abductors. Her face is placid, but her eyes burn with wrath.
"My life is my own!" she shouts as the bomb explodes. "I am not yours to use and consume!"
Juid lands with a painful thud. Through sheer will to live and thwart whatever plans were underway on this day, he rolls over and gets up with a groan. His hand reaches for the obsidian holy symbol as he sends Sarenrae's fire through his burning hands into a clump of robed individuals, hoping to avoid the newcomers.
fire damage
The entire places erupts into a melee as the twenty-odd prisoners stand and begin fighting for their lives. A pale, white-haired woman pulls out a bow, looking around the room. There - she spies a small halfling as he sends a lightning bolt crackling into one of the tattooed women
You sense that Vi is with you, although completely confused.
An unusually scrawny Ulfen man dusts himself off and casts a spell. He looks around trying to differentiate one hooded figure from the rest, but is unable to.
Shouting that she is the master of her own destiny, a petite woman moving with jerky movements and covered in her own, different tattoos throws a bomb into a crowd which explodes, only adding to the chaos and cacophony of the situation.
An old Keleshite man takes a little longer to get up, but he immediately sprays flames into the nearest hooded figures.
"Work together!" Raven shouts at the other prisoners. "We can take these bastards to pieces if we work together! "
The Kellid-looking woman rushes over to Juid's, moving much more smoothly now. "Let my science support your magic!" she shouts -- and tosses another bomb into the clump of robed kidnappers he had just pelted with magical fire.
Hector shakes his head, trying to get his bearings straight.
Getting up, Hector draws his rapier and locks down his guard while assessing the situation.
Even though confused, Ragnar still heard the order one of the tattooed women gave: destroy the spheres and get the prisoners out.
I have nothing to destroy one of the spheres, but getting out, that sounds about right, he thinks, starting to make his way to the portal.
"This is madness! They are much stronger then we are! "
On his way he stares down one of the hooded figures.
Spells begin to arc across the room, punctuated by the occasional bomb from an odd-looking, petite young woman. A crackling lightning bolt fires two inches past Hector's face, singing his eyebrows.
”They’re going to die in the crossfire!” shouts one of the tattooed women. ”Cast it now!
”But we’ll lose track of them!” complains another as she slashes out with a glowing greatsword.
”SO WILL THEY!” shouts the first.
The third looks at everyone in the room and swears to herself. She starts casting, and throws up a hand. One of the people in the room, a strange-looking young woman, starts to glow violently green. Her head snaps back and she begins screaming.
That young woman is you. You’re unsure what happened, but something has triggered a mechanism within you and energy is just pouring out of you.
”I’m sorry!” calls one of the tattooed women. ”If we can find you we’ll explain!”
Suddenly, the world falls away once more. However, instead of darkness, it is a whirling vortex. People are falling, pinwheeling, screaming. A donkey lets out a loud HAW, somehow caught up in all of this. The world spins, and spins, and spins...
With stomach-lurching intensity, everything suddenly stops. And you are wet.
It is roughly midday, although it is hard to tell as rain sheets in. You see nothing but fog and cloud around you, making it difficult to make much of the terrain. However, this is more certainly a mountain side, and a carved-out area. You stand here with five other people, and bizarrely enough a donkey. All five are recognizable from the bizarre ritual you just took part in.
It appears the surface you stand on is carved out of a cliff face to create a 20' by 20' circle with a high ceiling. It appears there were once carvings on the ground, but they are too faint to make much of. Rain pelts down at an angle, rendering this shelter useless.
At the edge of the circle is a narrow ledge, around 3' wide. What was once a steep staircase lead up to the ledge, but has crumbled away. 20' below is a much wider, and safer path which leads westwards.
"What has that blasted lady got me into now!" shouts Hector as he takes in his yet again new surroundings.
Before you stands a tall human with short dark hair and a long beard with silver rings braided into it. He is wearing an elaborate red silk robe with silver ornate that is still shimmering with the magic from the spell he just cast. Every drop of rain makes the magic barrier around his head, breast and shoulders gleam. His amber eyes are sizing you up one by one.
”The name’s Ragnar Djorinson, merchant. Under other circumstances it’d surely be a pleasure meeting you all,” he says with a low, warm voice you’d expect from a dwarf maybe. ”Does anyone have the means to find out where in all the worlds we are?”
The towering Half Orc sizes up each person in the circle and, without a word, walks over to the destroyed staircase to find a way to climb down and/or an anchor point for his rope.
He's also trying not to throw up from the spinning sensation.
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The half-orc stares down over the edge. It's a tricky climb, but not impossible. One false move could lead to a nasty fall to 20' below.
You're in a temperate mountain range of some kind and obviously standing in a fairly severe rainstorm. It's quite cold, but the fact you're high up on a mountain and in a rainstorm confuses matters. Once the storm passes, or you descend below the clouds, you may be able to get a better idea of where you are.
An old man with his head shorn and the almond brown skin of the Keleshites stumbles over to the donkey to calm it down. Once he has an opportunity to catch his breath, he straightens somewhat and speaks, his mellifluous voice easily audible within the space despite the elevated wind and the falling rain.
My name is Juid lan Dêguís and this is my travel companion, Pîsim. I'm unnaturally happy to find that he's both well and... here... with my few belongings. With Sarenrae's grace, we'll soon understand what exactly just happened to us. From the air, I would say we're high up. But could we be in the same place but a different... time?
Juid examines the cliff wall physically, with his hands and eyes, hoping it hides an entrance of some kind with shelter from the rain. He is clearly not experienced at this sort of examination.
Oww...
Crystal pushes herself to her feet, her grey studded leather with black and purple trim creaking as she does so. She checks her head--oh, good. Her grey slouch hat is still on it. Her stark white hair and blue eyes look over the rest of the party as the rain falls on her abnormally pale skin.
"Crystal Delphi." She fingers the symbol of Pharasma around her neck, her other hand gripping her longbow. "Does anyone know where we are?"
Juid looks over the wall as best he can, but secret doors in mountainsides have never been his forte. The cliff face remains indomitable.
Crystal takes a look around, searching for a way off this mountainside.
Raven, who still seems under the weather from the sudden release of energy, staggers for a place where she can sit and recover. "I do not," she answers Crystal's question. "I am Raven Six. I do not understand any of what has been happening recently..."
All of you recognise Raven as the one who suddenly turned into this strange beacon of power before you were transported to wherever this is. Crystal starts to scour the relatively small area they're in. The only immediately obvious exit is down the broken staircase.
Having circled his way around without finding other egress, the aged Juid comes to the cliff where the tall half-orc is standing, looking greener than usual. "Can this be our only way off the mountainside? The fall is enough to kill me."
“I will try to sense any leftover energy from the teleportation on you Raven Six. Maybe we can learn something from it before it dissipates.”
"I have rope," Raven says, waving Juid's objections away. "If need be, we can use it to descend to the lower path. Well; most of us." She glances at the donkey.
Czein takes a rope out of his bag, looping it over a crag in the rock so that both ends are used and it could easily be pulled down. Once sure its secure, he throws a leg over the edge.
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The young Varisian slides his rapier back into its sheath. Hew then unfastens his buckler and attaches it to his backpack. He brushes back his jet black hair before speaking.
"I'd say well met, but under these and previous circumstances I'd be inclined to say otherwise. I am Hector Quigley. Perhaps we try those stairs, shall we?"
There are a couple of crumbling pillars at the top of the stairs. Czein kicks one and it doesn't fall over so he loops his ropes over it and easy scales down to the bottom. The rain continues to sheet down on everyone, drowning out conversation and soaking you to the bones.
Hector neatly springs over to the rope and scampers down after Czein to the bottom.
Crystal, not having any other ideas, and not entirely convinced Raven is entirely safe to be around if she's the one who brought them here by accident, follows the burly half-orc and the Varisian.
Raven staggers to her feet, makes her way over to the rope and follows the others down. Although she is clearly not an expert climber, she still manages to climb down without injuring herself.
Juid looks at Ragnar, the only other person still on the carved out area. He extracts another length of rope from Pîsim's saddle bag and projects his voice over the rain to the witch.
"It seems the others have decided this is an "all for themselves and one for none" situation. Would you be willing to help me lower Pîsim to the ledge below? I believe we can use the remains of the pillar to reduce the weight. Alone, I fear, it might still be too much for me."
He begins to tie it in a loop around the donkey's midsection, using the pack saddle for stability.
Czein looks up and sees the donkey being tied to the rope and begins swearing to himself about everyone that simply decided to use his rope. He anchors his foot into the wall and grabs the opposite end of the rope to lower the beast down in hopes of eventually getting his rope back.
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Raven awkwardly climbs her way down to the path below.
Pîsim is VERY unhappy about going down the cliff face but he shows himself to be as surefooted as a shetland pony as he slowly makes his way down, particularly with the rope to anchor him. A low HAW sounds out as some rock crumbles beneath his foot, and the slippery terrain makes him even unhappier. However, the donkey finally makes his way to the bottom with Czein's rope in one piece. He promptly tries to bite the nearest person, but is safe and sound.
Ragnar follows the others down, after helping the priest with his donkey.
Ragnar studies Raven for a few moments. There is a strong residual aura over the portal site, and a different strong aura over the rest of the party. Raven's aura is of overwhelming power, something you've only read about before. All of these auras are lingering and fading quickly. The intense nature of the aura around Raven belies any knowledge you may have to identify it.
The aura on the site and your party members is conjuration.
There is a second conjuration aura on the rest of the party, a little stronger than the aura associated with the site.
This site is magical and meant to receive incoming magical travel. It does not seem to be capable of sending people, at least with the information you have.
Juid watches the last of the others go down before him and sighs. Probably twice the age of Ragnar and three times that of Hector, his frail arms hardly look up to the task of climbing, even such a short distance as twenty feet. But there is no other choice. He tries to coil the rope around himself to give him a back up should he slip and he lowers himself down the rope, taking his time.
Necessity, being the mother of invention, is on his side. He betrays nothing of his frailty as he gracefully manages his way down the rope.
Reaching the ground beneath the plateau they had emerged on, Ragnar adresses the others.
"I think we should stay together for the moment. It makes us stronger," he says, then hesitating for a moment. "And about my abilities. I usually don't show them off publicly, so I would suggest you don't go tell anybody that I can wield magic. Common folks often react strange to wizards."
"Well, Master Ragnar, merchant and wizard, I shall be inclined to agree. My morning routine was quite aptly ruined and I fear that the rest of my day's errands shall be left unfinished," says Hector.
He takes a moment to look about the place they have found themselves and then sighs. Man, should have spent some time studying geography. Didn't expect to leave Korvosa so soon though. Wait a minute! Tallos gave me a survival kit complete with some basic maps!
"Let's try to find some place a little drier. I have some maps. Not sure how reliable they are, but their usefulness or lack thereof shall provide us with at least some kind of insight as to where we are or are not."
Crystal, for her part, keeps quiet, instead keeping watch for anything out of the ordinary: hidden predators, branching paths...
"And about my abilities. I usually don't show them off publicly, so I would suggest you don't go tell anybody that I can wield magic. Common folks often react strange to wizards."
Can't react worse than being around me. Crystal snorts as Ragnar asks that his abilities be kept discreet. "Very well."
"That is admirable of you," Raven says to Hector. "Do you also have a compass and perhaps an astrolabe so we can determine where on those maps we might be...? Does anyone?"
Czein looks around and, after a moment, resigns that the wise choice would in fact be to stick with the group. At least until I get my bearings...
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"That is admirable of you," Raven says to Hector. "Do you also have a compass and perhaps an astrolabe so we can determine where on those maps we might be...? Does anyone?"
"Lady Raven, was it? Well, you umm.. see. I haven't ever found myself outside of Korvosa. Thus I have not yet been in need of a compass or other navigational tools. I just happened to come across these maps. They are rather rudimentary and only show major landmarks and features. "
"It's better than nothing. Might as well go for it." Crystal shrugs, her longbow still readied for trouble.
"I recommend we find shelter before perusing the maps," Raven says. "Paper would suffer from exposure to these circumstances. Let's try and find an unoccupied cave or something. Is anyone here a trained survivalist?"
The wind picks up as the group speaks, chilling everyone to the bone, but moving some of the cloud. More of the mountains are revealed, although the rain continues. The party appear to be standing a short distance below the tree line in a range of sharp, jagged mountains. The mountains break to the south, revealing foothills and a large lake with a small village at its south shore.
You stand at the end of this path with the crumbled stairs leading to your arrival site. The path itself leads southwards, winding around the side of the mountain. It is at least 15' wide and seems quite stable.
"Or we could try to make it to what passes for civilization," Raven says, pointing out the village. "I'm sure a hot meal and bath and a dry bed and change of clothing would do a great deal to improve everyone's disposition." A beat passes before she says: "It would certainly do wonders for mine."
"I agree. And the path seems stable enough. Staying out here is sure only only net us overexposure to the elements." Juid takes Pîsim's reins and starts to lead him slowly forward along the path, leaving plenty of room for those faster than him to pass. Wisps of vapor can be seen emanating from his robes and anyone who gets close enough can feel that he emits more heat than the average person.
Ragnar walks with Juid. He remains silent for now, trying to get a sense of everybody.