"Dammit. I lost her. Maybe there's someone else we can..." And that was when the entire ground looked like to was crumbling. He fell on his back, but at least noticed a few of the others disappear.
Okay, who to focus on. He decided to see if he could find Simon before going after those people in the dark.
Caine swears as he spills his vodka martini! The Magus looks up in time to notice those exiting the room.
He stands and follows them....
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Weird.
Adrian is compelled to enter the room he thinks Simon entered through. He wants answers.
Aiko does her best to stay close to Ameiko.
"This is wild," she grumbles. "How could a simple wedding cause this much strife and this kind of massive magical interference? Why would someone go to all this trouble?"
Magic is so f*~&ing awesome!
Caine stands among the arrivals. He attempts to see any markings, runes, glyphs, weird writing in arcane gibberish.
The Magus cast Detect Magic (using said arcane gibberish).
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Caine stop concentrating. The Magus then begins asking around as to what is going on?
"Everything would have been so much better with just a simple wedding under a canopy."
Adrian continues to look for anyone suspicious.
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Everyone appears to be hurrying through the door with the purple light. You hear cries that the portal won't stay open that much longer as servants appear to be helping the guests through the door. Other guests seem to be disappearing on their own with apologies on their lips just before they vanish.
Caine struggles to find anything out as the guests hurry towards what appears to be a door that leads out to the streets in Riddleport. You recognize the area - as it is close to the marketplace.
Caine will exit along with the remaining guest.
Now, what?
Sandru is wandering through the marketplace looking for supplies for the last leg of the journey to Brinewall when he walks over towards Caine and asks
"I thought you were attending the Weatherly wedding, what are you doing here? and wearing those clothes?"
Aiko emerges from the portal just behind Caine, with Ameiko in tow, and says to Sandru, "Consider this the wedding party. The wedding itself was interrupted on account of acid rain."
"That and we think foul play's involved. The problem is we haven't figured out who's behind this."
"Did you say acid rain? In all my years of traveling, I've never heard of acid rain before. Is that what that grey fog was that I saw approaching from the water?"
Sandru turns to look back towards the sea "Well, either it lasted as long as it was going to or someone disabled it - as the sky over the manor is clear now."
"Oh yeah, definitely a magical phenomenon. Someone really hated the idea of this wedding."
I am pretty certain that the punch was spiked.
"Sandru, did you happen to see any suspicious people around the wedding or building just now?"
"Sorry Adrian, I didn't see anyone that caught my attention. I've been shopping for supplies and looking for anything special."
"It was horrible, Sandru!"
Zaraleva tries to gather the wounded and then channel.
Ameiko follows Caine through the portal and exclaims
"I totally agree Zaraleva! I never would have imagined that would happen. As much as I would like to help, I've just seen magic being used that I've only heard in stories. I think we are in over our heads here. It might be best to excuse ourselves but isn't all our stuff still at the manor?"
"I left my things in my room and I would really like to change out of this dress. I feel really strange dressed like this in the streets of this city.
Caine just smiles and blushes at Shalelu.
"All right, so, let's get our things and see what we learn along the way," says Aiko. "We're kinda in the middle of this now."
Adrian sighed, but nodded in response.
"Alright. Let's get our stuff and move out. And maybe we can see something along the that might help us figure out what's going on."
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As you approach the Weatherly Manor you notice several men in brightly colored robes chanting.
There are many guards dressed in various armor weilding sheilds and swords defending the grounds.
As you get closer you notice James and wave to get his attention. He comes over to you and says
"Thank the gods you are alright. We were worried you might not have made it out OK."
Oblivious to the kind of clothing those priests may be wearing, he addressed to James instead.
"We're alright. Still trying to figure out what's going on." He did glance at the chanting men.
"Did you invite those people over?"
"Hmmm..advanced Divination...interesting..."
"That man... there was a rober figure that told us to check on the servants. We weren't sure if he was there to help or throw us off."
"Can you please tell us any kind of progress you've had in what's going on?"
Caine seems a bit taken now with Shalelu in her dress....
Waking up from a dream, Caine nods at Adrian's question.
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Simon looks at Adrian with a grimace on his face. "The priests have determined the location of Peter and Wilma. They were taken to a place just east of Crying Leaf. It is an elven city at the southeast corner of the Mierani Forest. Bikon Rankoff is said to have a wizard friend who operates a tower near that city. The mage is elven born and supposedly has been outcast from his native lands due to his illicit activities. I image this elf has been hired by Bikon based on the disgrace brought to his family by Wilma's refusal to marry his son Kyle."
Simon takes a deep breath and continues "I am confident the threat to the wedding guests is over and I apologize that this family drama has ruined your day. My family's honor has been disparaged and I intend to make the Rankoffs pay dearly."
A man in wizardly robes appears next to you suddenly and says "Master Weatherly, all is prepared. We must go now." Simon nods and the two of them disappear.
Aiko shakes her head suddenly.
"Huh. I did not expect to get in the middle of wizard wedding weirdness when I woke up today."
She smooths her formal dress out and adds, "Since we're already dressed up... now what? Should we head back into the city for a bite to eat, perhaps? We can let someone else do the cooking for a change." She grins at Ameiko with that comment. "And the cleaning of dishes."
"I think we would stand out in these clothes. Let's find out if we can return to our rooms and change into our normal traveling attire. I very much doubt the festivities are going to continue. However, I imagine there is still food for the reception. Maybe we can grab something quickly on our way out. I also don't want to get mixed up in whatever squabble the Weatherlys have with the Rankoffs."
It was tempting to be sure, but Adrian eventually nodded in agreement.
"Then we better get going then. At least these clothes look nice. I doubt I'll ever wear anything this good again."
"Oh no! Three of my potions are broken." She shakes her head adding "They can be replaced, but I'm not sure this dress was worth the trouble."
"They broke my compass!" says Aiko indignantly. She pouts for a moment and says, "Well, at least it wasn't that expensive, comparatively."
Adrian grimaced at the current state of their items. "The compass we'll need to buy if no one else has a spare. At least the wagons themselves don't seem to be damaged that much."
Caine looks at everyone, shrugs, and gathers his things from the rooms.
So, this is the big city. Way too much drama for my liking. When can we hit the road?
"Let's just buy the supplies we need and get going again soon," says Aiko. "This whole thing really threw me for a loop."
"I really want to join them and go save the day, like we did against the goblins."
She's a little pouty that everyone just wants to leave.
Also, she has no compass.
"Well, Crying Leaf is on our way to Brinewall. We don't have to decide right now."
"In that case, we can decide once we reach the road there. For now, let's go buy a new compass and leave."
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With everything and everyone loaded into the wagons, the caravan resumes its journey to Brinewall.
You cross the Velashu River leaving Riddle port and head north with the river on your right side and the Calphiak Mountains on your left. The next day of your journey ends with the peace and quiet you experienced earlier in the trip.
On the next day the road narrows considerably and becomes more of a pathway with a pair of indents in the ground where the wagon wheels hit an occasionable rut, rock or tree root disrupting the otherwise pleasant day. As you near the Meirani Forest you spot several overturned wagons up ahead. They appear to be on fire with cries of help coming from that area.
Zaraleva, trying to be alert, looks for villains and listens for deception in the cries for help.
"Saranrae's Blessing! We have to help them! Wait, what's that lurking over there?"
Adrian signals his cart to slow down before getting on the ground.
"Whoever did this may still be out there. Stay alert."