Stratos suddenly twitches back to full awareness, brought back by the pain of the burn, and by Isat's reassuring presence.
"I...I was lost in some sort of eudaimonia. I smelled a powerful smell of milkwoods, and felt a presence calling me. It was female, and sensual, and yet startlingly feral. I wanted nothing more than to go to it. To her. She promised me knowledge. It was as if you were all retreating in a mist, no longer flesh, and no longer important. I would have run to my death. "
Crassus comes close to Paper. He points to Paper's gladius, and then to his stitched mouth. Again he points to the gladius, and again, to the mouth. He has a dour air about him. He trots next to Paper, as Paper and Modius wander forward.
Isat:
Lets let the others catch up, before you lay this one on them. I recommend waiting until Patrick and Karlis have posted.
Tal
"Stop!"
Isat looks bug-eyed at the ground just in front of Paper and Modius, the urgency of his tone unmistakable.
Tal
Can any of the others see anything at all?
Isat
Isat:
Leaning closer to the patch of ground, Isat finds himself drawn inexorably into the world only he can see.
"So small, so beautiful ..." he murmers, apparently walking on the spot, absorbed by the sights and sounds around him.
"Look! They fly! It's a whole city!"
Everybody except Isat:
Paper looks at his comrade
"Healer! What fascinates you so?"
"Can't you see it Paper - a whole city! I must see more, must get closer."
Paper grips Isat on the shoulder
"You are misled healer. And beware using names, even nicknames in this place. Look again, you are being fascinated by some glammer."
"No brother, it is truly so. See, there are lights, houses, creatures of wonder. It is a whole world."
Paper looks down again
"I see naught but a few poison toadstools and a hedgehog's skull. I say again, ware the glammers of this place.."
Isat may now make another will save. DC is 16. Add +2 to the roll because of Paper's help.
"Why can't you see brother? How can you be so blind?"
"Persian. Listen to me. We have been beset by illusions since we first enterest this realm. Fight it. It can do us no good to stare at tiny glammers while our quest remains undone."
"I tell you, this is no illusion, but a whole world. With a step I can enter it. Who knows where our quest is meant to lead us?"
Paper
Crassus seems to have made a decision. He claps his hands, and points to the edge of the woods, back toward the wraith barrow and the hills where the giants roam. He makes a shooing gesture.
Paper ** spoiler omitted **
Paper stands up suddenly, a look of longing in his eyes. He begins to head to the deeper forest.
Stratos moves over to where Isat and Paper stand. He says "Mind if I take a look?" He bends down low over the faerie city, and, to Isat's sudden consternation, picks up the acorn cup.
Isat:
As he straightens, Paper drifts toward the deep woods. His calves bunch, as he readies to heed a phantom call.
Initiative checks again. Anyone who beats Paper's initiative by two or more can intercept him. Crassus is not in line to do so.
Rufinus seems not to have noticed, and is moving toward Crassus.
Stratos is bent down over the toadstools.
Unless Paper rolls an initiative of 18, Stratos will be able to intercept him.
Paper
The horseshoe singes Paper through his trews, where the horseshoe has been looped through his belt for safekeeping.
3 points of damage. New will save, at +3.
Paper bats the horseshoe to the ground. Again, the horseshoe is blistering the very ground it lands on.
As Paper moves to run, the sun suddenly careens out of the sky, plunging the mini world into night. It cavorts backwards into the sky again. the wind stops, then starts, then clouds bloom in the sky, then the clouds abruptly mottle into darkness, and sleet pelts down into the woods. The time is mid-day The sleet holds.
Initiative: 1d20+3=4, Will save (with +3) 1d20+3=22
Paper stumbles as the horseshoe burns his hand. He moves like someone who has drank to much Chian wine
Shaking himself free of the illusion, Isat stands up abruptly and realises that the danger to him and his companions is growing by the second.
"Centurion! Halt. This also is illusion!"
He looks at Stratos with gratitude and relief. "Countryman, my mind is my own again. I thank you."
The shock of the horseshoe burning him jolts Paper from the reverie of the enchanting call.
Crassus looks wide-eyed and startled at the sudden change in time and weather. He again beckons everyone out of the woods. The horseshoe is cooling. The sleet continues, drenching you and chilling you. The ground is swiftly turning white. Even over the din of the cacophonous rain, a gong sounds from far away, back the way you came.
"Man-horse, we should stay under cover. This weather is not safe. What is happening?"
Paper shakes his head
"What by the flaming brass balls of Hades is going on?"
"No names! by all the daeva!"
Flails his arms to chase you out of the woods.
The sun plummets out of the sky, and the woods plunge into inky darkness. The axe that Hrothgar bore is glowing a dim blue. With the sleet driving down cruelly, the lack of light is disorienting. A ball of light appears in Stratos' hands.
Covers his head, and runs out of the woods, toward the hill
"Freya's dugs, this is as cold as a witches tit!"
Rufinus pulls one of the eldritch torches out of his bundle. It shines like a beacon through the trees and icy rain.
"Someone is meddling. Back brothers and stay together!"
Clutching his robes around him and shivering hard, Isat heads towards the others.
"For the love of God men, let's get out of here!"
The party moves uncertainly into the hills. The full brunt of the storm is on you now. Crassus maneuvers you all toward the road. The dark hill looming in the night is not as covered by sleet and snow as the rest of the realm. The warding stones hiss as the sleet that touches them boil away.
It is hard going. You press into the wind, and the driving ice. The temperature drops swiftly. After a half hour of miserable, disoriented hiking, the sleet suddenly stops, and up above, the full panoply of the stars becomes visible. The ice crunches underfoot, and the chill in the air cuts deep. The sun is tossed into the darkened sky, to a position close to midday. The ice gleams a hard white.
"I count five possibilities, each more dire than the last. First, we could have unwittingly broken some taboo, and angered Thereus. Second, the centaurs that are foe to Thereus may have made thier move. Third, Levi may have come to this realm, Fourth, Levis succubus may have come through the wards that held her away, and last, and most grim, Rafi and his killers may be upon us. I do not see how that could be possible without magic of their own, but the hellhound they had shows that they are not without arcane resources of their own."
"By Christ! I thought this stuff was all controlled back at the circle where we started."
"I count five possibilities, each more dire than the last. First, we could have unwittingly broken some taboo, and angered Thereus. Second, the centaurs that are foe to Thereus may have made thier move. Third, Levi may have come to this realm, Fourth, Levis succubus may have come through the wards that held her away, and last, and most grim, Rafi and his killers may be upon us. I do not see how that could be possible without magic of their own, but the hellhound they had shows that they are not without arcane resources of their own."