Thema: Chapter 1 – The Journey Begins

[DM]

Swiftly you move through the rocks and find a good position to peak over to the fighting scene. You see six tall humanoids clad in mithral armour forming a defensive circle around a beautiful woman that seems to glow in a bright light. From all sides horrible creatures storm in but wave after wave gets slaughtered by the valid defenders.

Suddenly you duck as a huge shadow passes over your head. A massive winged creature lands directly in front of you, looking towards the defenders.

What follows now is a horrible slaughter. The defenders get cut into pieces within seconds. The creature and the woman stand directly in front of each other now. The woman mumbles some words in a language you don’t understand and suddenly the whole scene is flooded by a bright light forcing you to close your eyes.

As you open your eyes again there is no sign of the woman or the creature anymore….nor any sign of the fight. No blood, no corpses, no tracks. All you see is an empty space between the rocks.

[Chik-Cha Crookbeak]

Quite... interesting, she thinks while slowly standing up and surveiling the scene. Maybe an illusion, but if it wasn't she would have to have a talk with that gal. Destroying all that valuables, what was she thinking? With a shrug, she turned around and made her way back to the group, still cautious as not to be seen.

As she creeped out of the shadows right next to their supposed leader, she pointed vaguely in the direction of the fighting.

"Some warriors an' a gal where fightin 'gainst some monsters, but then they got slaughtered by a... I have no idea what 'twas, but it sure made short work of 'em. 'en, the girl cast a spell an' both vanished, along wi' any tracks. An illusion's my best guess."

[DM]

Craven sighs and leaves his cover.

“Wei-Ling, take the two others and search for any sources of magic where the fight happened. I will return to the Portal and ask for reinforcements.”

Swiftly Craven moves through the rocks towards the Portal, always keeping cover as good as possible.

[Wei Ling]

Wei Ling nods and heads out towards the area, where the fight has happened, if it has happened, that is. Once there, she casts a spell and looks around, her face showing a slight strain of concentration.

Spoiler (Anzeigen)

Detect Magic (Spellcraft +10)

[DM]

As you finish your spell you gasp in astonishment. The whole area around you seems to be covered in one overwhelming aura. You try to analyse the kind of magic but fail to find out too much about it, except that the school of magic active here seems to be transmutation. After a few minutes you cancel your spell as the powerful aura gives you a serious headache.

[Wei Ling]

The sorceress rubs her temples, the examination of the magical auras seems to be quite straining.

“This is strange. Some powerful magic was at work here, but it's neither illusory in nature, nor from the school of Conjuration, which I would have expected as they vanished from this spot,” Wei Ling explains to her companions. “It's transmutation magic.”

She then walks around the site for a while, looking for some further hint, what might have happened here.

[DM]

As you finish your spell you gasp in astonishment. The whole area around you seems to be covered in one overwhelming aura. You try to analyse the kind of magic but fail to find out too much about it, except that the school of magic active here seems to be transmutation. After a few minutes you cancel your spell as the powerful aura gives you a serious headache.

While you search the site suddenly the surroundings change. From one second to another you stand in high grass and in the distance you notice a forest. Quite surprised you barely notice a threatening growl, but the shaking earth abruptly sharpens your sense again.


Encounter:

http://games.dnd-gate.de/viewtopic.php?t=2040

[DM]

The Rhinoceros storms off and Varn mends Chik-Cha's wound. Still slightly confused you start to search the area for any signs of the ruins but fail to find anything.

Suddenly your surroundings change again. Instead of the high grass you now stand in a stony desert, still not a sign of the ruins. You hear a voice coming from behind a large rock.

“No, no. It’s all wrong! What are you doing you fool? It’s instable!”

[Chik-Cha Crookbeak]

Chik-Cha still seems a little shaky on her legs. From a pocket she draws out a small wand und points it at the other wound the rhino gored into her, and with a few magic words her wounds healed and closed, thus enabling her to continue in their mission.

---
Expend 3 Charges
3d83d8+3 = (5, 4, 5) +3 Gesamt: 17
---

[Chik-Cha Crookbeak]

Tucking her wand behind her robe again, her head slowly tilts as she looks into the direction of the voices, then wispering to the others.

"Nah' I understand. 'e goddman place is movin' an' shifting, and 'e guys we hear are 'e jesters who do it. Lemme check 'at out."

And with these words, Chik-Cha again ducked behind some stones, her robes fitting perfectly into their sandy color. This feeled like home, but she had to get to those idiots before they summoned something really nasty.

[DM]

You move towards the voices and find a good spot to observe what’s going on. You see two men, one with long grey hair and beard and a younger pale one. The older one hectically waves his hands in the air shouting commands at the younger one. Right beside the two you see the portal you used to enter this place. Around the portal you notice strange devices that seem to be connected to it.

“May the gods help me, how did I deserve an apprentice like that. I told you to connect the harmonium crystal to the arcane concentrator and not to the astral node!”

Muttering something the apprentice starts to tinker around on the devices again.

[Wei Ling]

Wei Ling lets the rhinoceros go, not wanting to waste her spells on a defeated opponent.

When the scene shifts again, Wei Ling says to Chik-Cha, before she heads off: “We should stay together, I would rather have them notice us than have us seperated in who-knows-what kind of planar environment.”

The sorceress follows the kenku, and also motions Varn to stay nearby.

[Varn]

The troll does a triumphating roar as the Rhinocerus leaves. Looking at the others Varn transform back into his original shape. "The best decision this beast did in its life was to leave this place for now. But the behaviour of wounded animals is hard to predict ... we should stay aware."

As the druid spoke the last words the scene changes again.

He gasps again as he looks over the sandy environment and recognice the voices. The old man breathes deeply and then follows the others as cautious as possible.

[Chik-Cha Crookbeak]

Wispering, the kenku turned her head to the others as they reached a point where they were able to see those mages.

"Waddaya think, should we stop 'ese idiots? I could dismantle some of this 'ing ot attack them, if one of ya would care ta give me a Spell. Circle two should suffice, eh?"

[Wei Ling]

“To be honest, I would prefer to get back, and these two seem to be our best chance. Also, I don't see what they have done to deserve being attacked. Surely, their... invention... is slightly annoying for us, but that's hardly a reason to kill them. Maybe we should consider to help them rather? Moving out of our hiding place and approach them should be good enough to stop them for now.”