Red walks to the front of the party and speaks for the group.
"Well, Mr. Geralt Sir, we're from the Library in Riddleport. And while we wish to help your son retrieve the necronomicon as a trusted VIP, we also would like to ensure the safe return of the book back to us..." Red says, taking his hood off to seem more sincere.
Red quickly realized his blunder and speaks up again.
Oh! oh! Silly me, where are my manners? he laughs, a little hint of his nerves shining through. "My name is Red Huntsman! I am accompanied by my other coworkers from the library, Tether, Dendar, Leo, Owlbearto, and our leader for this mission, Minato."
Dendar looks awkwardly towards the man, neglecting the question he points at Geralt. "Y'know Turt? Turt Snacko?"
Geralt sniffs at Red, sipping his drink and frowning for a moment.
"...hm, I guess that's a good enough reason...Fox's people are usually reliable" he murmurs into his drink, staring Red down with a bored glint in his eye.
"Just like that? You aren't gonna ask for their souls or anything darling?" Helena speaks up incredulously, her pink eyebrow raised at her husband.
"Why would I need that? I'm not you..." Geralt drawls back, causing Helena to look slightly offended.
Turning away from the huffing evil entity, Geralt's head snaps to Dendar when he speaks up. His eye's go a bit unfocused, before simmering down in his normal icy stare.
"...no relation"
His words have a small amount of distaste in them when he claimed to have no relation to Turt Snacko
Dendar blinks and bites his lower lip in thought and says "Hmpf ok, can't wait to tell him someone else has a last name like him though.
Owlbearto pieces together different parts of this situation together. "Seems rather quaint someone holding no relation to Turt could have a VIP status with Fox. A family member of Turt's is sightworthy to Fox due to her admiration of Turt. Ehh whatever Dendar can tell Turt, I'm not trying to get on this guys bad side. Dendar's innocently speaking so he should be fine."
Dendar picks his head up in excitement, "PORTAL TIME BABYYY"
"Sorry about my coldness, interacting with so many new people is a bit stressful, but don't fret, will try and get Landon home for your family vacation!" Leo says with a smile, finally acting like himself again.
Red feels Gari crawl from his shoulder to under his hood to cling to the top of his head.
Red walks up to Leo and stands on his toes to whisper into his ear
"So uh.. what happens when I run out of treats for him?"
He whispers back
"Usually starts getting fussy and starts biting, why?"
Red motions to the top of his head, where Gari is now sitting, still whispering.
"I ran out... I dont think he knows..?"
Red feels something pulling on his hair that isn't just Gari moving around.
"Red...do you really think a bat can't hear us right now..."
"Oh... oh s&&$." Red looks around at the family nearby and slowly takes a step away from the table. He then looks at Leo, eyes filled with desperation. "help me"
"Yea yea hold on" Leo starts rummaging in his bag for some more treats.
Red takes 1 damage, it's not very effective...
Red brings his hands up to cover his head, wincing a little.
"Owww..."
Leo keeps digging in his bag...not finding what he is looking for, Gari shifting under Red's hands.
"Uhhh am I out of treats...? I should probably take Gari back then before he keeps biting"
Red takes 1 damage, it wasn't very effective...
Red takes his hands off his head and reaches his hands into his pocket, he chants a few words and pulls his hand back out with a crude looking treat.
"If you want it you'll have to come out and get it!" Red says, almost taunting Gari.
Gari crawls out from Red's hood and latches onto his hand, nibbling at the "treat" and his fingers.
"Yea that'll work too" Leo takes Gari back, fighting with the hungry bat as he still thinks that there is food to eat before being put back into his coat pocket. Leo then takes out a raisin from some sort of trail mix and gives it to Gari to hold him over for now.
Red combs through his hair with his fingers, brushing it back behind his ear.
"Yeah, had to think quick before he started pulling out hair..." He says, letting out a small whine. He then looks back at the futuristic blue-pants wearing family and Landon, before turning back to Leo.
Leo rubs his head, feeling a little bad about not having enough treats
"Luckily he doesn't hurt that much, he is on par with a paper cut. I'm sure he only got in a few nips on you anyways"
"Figures a mortal would pick a flying rat as their familiar" Helena huff's, looking at the by-play of Gari with no small amounts of disgust. The exact opposite of Geralt and Bonnet, who both seemed rather amused instead. Coughing into his hand, Geralt casually sticks his hand into...something. The gathered group can't see it, but Geralt's hand dissapears completely as he does....something.
"gotta get a good grasp..." He mutters, before pulling and ripping a hole in the fabric of space and time. The portal glows blue and white, the two color's swirling around like a Vortex of some kind. "there, do hurry back?"
"Papa! Can I go??" the younger 6 armed girl squeals, looking very excited.
"No" both Helena and Geralt deadpan.
Leo stands there and looks at this foreign gateway
”We just...walk in?”
Dendar's eyes fill with glee, he stands next to Owlbearto saying, "Alright buddy practice time, pick me up like I'm a couple of kobold eggs. Gotta know what it feels like to avoid messing it up ya know!"
Owlbearto rolls his eyes a bit before picking up a fetal positioned Dendar and walks into the portal however he need be.
Leo nods at Dendar’s comment before following them in
”I guess that is a yes”
Red shrugs and nods a quick "thank you" to Geralt and his family before crossing through the portal himself.
"I wonder if this is what it's like to be summoned... I'll have to look into that once I really get into making monsters appear..."
Landon thanks his father with a smile and hurries off into the portal next, hopping inside with no hesitation. Minato gulps, tightening the straps of his hood and running inside next. Geralt blinks, looking suddenly annoyed at something. Tether feels suddenly very lonely as the trio at the table all stares at her.
"...go" Geralt orders, lifting his cup of tea that definitely WASN'T full a minute ago. "...your taking up more of my family time the longer you stick around..."
Together the party floats down the swirling sea of blue and white. A low drone is the only sound that permeates the area in which they've thrown themselves in. It feel's as though your underwater, there is no oxygen here yet you feel no need to breath at all. This swirling vortex assaults the sense with image's of things familiar and unfamilar, silent pictures of your past and things that haven't happened. Through this all, you feel at peace, like you could be scattered across existance at this very moment and that would be fi-
Suddenly, as quickly as it starts, it ends. You all are harshly dropped out of a identical portal onto a hard stone walk way surrounded by tree's.
Minato groans, slowly peeling his face off of the ground as he wobbles to his feet.
"uuuaahhg...what...what kind of portal was that?"
Landon steps out of the vortex with practices grace, the hole closing behind. His dress shoes clack onto the stone as he looks at the downed group in barely supressed mirth.
"First time in the Vortex? What am I saying, of course it is...the dizzyness should fade in a minute"
They group has found themselves onba cobblestone path flanked by forest on both sides. The path leads upwards, meeting with some stone stairs that lead up to a large stone mausoleum that looms over them all from their landing point. Surrounding the building is a large stone fence with a metal gate entrance that is currently opened...
Dendar finds himself sprawled across the floor picking himself up and looking at Owlbearto several feet away dry-heaving. "Your telling me you get used to that..."
After Owlbearto finishes causing a scene he looks up halfheartedly at his surroundings. He smears saliva off his beak and lets out a small chuckle, "At least they gave us the courtesy of leaving the gate open this time"
Leo lays on the ground, looking up at the portal
”Ow...glad to see the portals do that here too...”
Red slowly lifts himself from the ground, holding his head.
"A little rough on the landing, but not too bad..." He raises his head and takes in his surroundings.
Leo gets up and checks on Gari in his pocket.
"He's...im sure he's fine." After taking his hand out of his coat, he starts to look around where they are.
Landon nods eagerly to Dendar's question, lookingnactually happy to discuss the topic.
"Yeah, the vortex is a special place and is used by all members of the enforcer's to get from place to place, the second generation was born with a immunity to its effects while our parents had to build it up through exposure...it can also be quite fickle sometimes and has the annoying tendency to drop you off where you want to go but 5000ft in the air..."
Minato pale's, before comically pulling his hoods strings to tighten it around his face.
"W-What?! That's something you tell people before they agree to join Mr.Landon...!!!"
Landon blinks owlishly at the young boy's reaction, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
"Uh...sorry? But my dad is good friends with the Vortex, we were fine from the start"
"you speak as if it's alive..." Minato say's dryly, missing the almost amused smirk that grows on Landon's face at the question...Leo is the only one who notices. "anyway...lets go yeah?"
Minato then turns away and eagerly begins to run up the stair's on his little legs.
Dendar hurries after Minato, "Woah wait up!"
Owlbearto trails behind Dendar smelling the ground trying to get a whiff of either books like the doctors house or the smell of a person.
Leo will remember that.
"So this is what we're doing now." Leo follows after them up the steps.
"I suppose so." Red answers Leo as he brushes himself off and follows the rest of the party up the stairs.
The party follow's their rushing leader up the stairs and past the gate. Immediately you notice you aren't alone as multiple parties of mercenaries are setting up their camp's in the courtyard infrint of the entrance to the mausoleum. Their seem to be four tents already set up, with their own groups surrounding them. One of the members of the smallest group, a party of 4, catches you in his vision and gives a friendly smile, waving you all over.
Minato doesn't respond however to the wave from what you can see, his eye's drifting elsewhere at something that's caught his attention.
Landon's eye's focus on the man waving at them.
"...I didn't expect people to already be here..."
”is this like...a tourist queue?”
"Look's like Mercenaries..." Landon responds to Leo curiously, his high-tech eyes turning from the still waving man to where Minato is staring, frown immediately forming on his face at the sight. A handsome man in eastern armor with long sliver hair and angular features rests in one of the 4 mercenary camps. The man relaxes, his needs being seen too by three half elf girls dressed in rags and looking like they haven't bathed in a while.
The 2nd group, the one who's member is currently waving at you, is a group of four who sits around a fire that they're currently cooking some skinned rabbits on. It consists of the man who waves, a slim spiky haired blonde man dressed in gaudy leather armor with two sabers attached to his hips. Beside him is a tall half elf woman also in leather's, a bow at her side and long purple hair held up in twin tails, she seem's annoyed with the waving man. Across from them is a heavily armored cleric who's face is covered by a massive helm, currently reading a tome with the last member. She's small, only a bit taller then Minato, and dressed in a flowing mages robe and carrying a staff.
Red leans over to Landon and whispers.
"You know that guy? These people look kinda tough... He looks at the man being tended to by the dirty half elf girls. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this.."
”Well, we arent doing much anyways so...” Leo looks out the corner of his eye at the man in the eastern armour and is taking everything in his power to not light him up with explosives, or give away how disgusted he is at the sight.
"No...definitely not" Landon whispers back to Red, eye's narrowed slightly. However he turns back to the waving mercenary "That guy looks friendly enough i suppose...I'm sure he could answer our questions..?"
Minato bites his lips at the sight of the girls tending to the one man's camp. Their eye's dull and fish eye'd. The three girls are all dressed is sack cloth, no shoe's, and are pretty thin for their sizes. If you've ever seen slaves before, they definitely fit the picture. The first one, a slender girl with unevenly cut green hair sits on the dirt ground on her knee's and tends to a fire. The next one, a tall half elf woman with light blue spiky hair sits on a log and is attempting to sew a hole up in a pair of pants. As she turns her head, anyone watching can see the horrifying sight of the half elf's ear's...they've had their tips slashed off. The last Half Elf red head holds a giant fan and slowly is creating a breeze for the man in resplendent eastern armor.
Meanwhile, the third camp is full of loud and boisterous laughter as it seems to be in the middle of a party. Human's, Orc's and a singular Dwarf all crowd around their fire, drinking mead and eating comically large legs of ham and Turkey.
The fourth camp seems to have been completely abandoned...no one is there and it looks as though it hasn't been touched in a while.
Red sighs out.
"Those poor girls..." His face is hidden under the shadow of his hood, but it's easy to tell he has a tone of empathy. "We should get searching for this thing soon, Gods above know what I'll end up doing if I have to keep watching this..."
Leo just keeps looking down, speaking quietly
”If we kill ‘em...then we don’t have to watch anymore”
"Hmmm... but how strong do you think that guy is?"
He says, referring to the man in the fancy Eastern armor.
He glances towards him only for a moment.
”I really....really don’t care....”
Red shakes his head.
"You're right." He looks at the rest of the party to see if they agree.
Minato finally turns from the sight, pulling his hood farther down his head and blocking out his eye's before slowly turning to his talking companions.
"D-Don't forget the mission... the youngster mutter's "we can't start a fight here without knowing what's going on..."
Landon takes in the young leader's hunched over form, and his iron grip on the shaft of his scythe. He releases a sound that seems to cross a grunt and a whirling piece of machinery before looking back at the eastern man for a moment, sneering. For someone so unemotional, Landon sure can sneer.
"...yeah yeah" Landon says "don't start a fight....yet"
"No need to jump the gun again Leo so just chill"
Leo takes in a deep breath and slowly exhales, appearing to calm himself down
"Fine yea...analyze the situation first..."
Leo doesn't really notice anything else beyond what he's already noticed. Though this whole situation is pretty weird already.
...He does see that the spiky haired blonde merc is now waving a rabbit on a stick at his group.
”I guess we’ll just join them for now, they seem friendly and we could probably probe them for info”