Jemal's Prisoners

The trip through the portal was gut-wrenching and dizzying. It seemed to last forever, but at the same time you know it was no more than a few seconds. A moment later you hit a hard stone surface and hear coughing from somewhere nearby... or was that you? With a shake of your head, you glance around, seeing unfamiliar shapes nearby.

The sky is dark and cloudy, it seems like twilight here. Ringing you about a hundred feet away are dozens of men and women, all dressed in similar strange clothing and holding strange looking crossbows. Clearing his throat, an elderly (about 50) human with gray hair steps forwards and speaks. Through his magic, you are all able to understand him perfectly.

"Welcome to Prison, maggots. The first thing you should know is that if you step off that stone while we're still here, you will die. Period." He waits a moment to see if anyone will test the theory.
"Ah good, not stupid after all. You may manage to survive here.. for a while, at least. I'm the Warden, Commander Roe, and it is my duty to meet new inmates and tell them the rules... We only have a few, but if you don't follow them, you WILL die.
First, Don't try to tell us your innocent or you don't belong here. Even If I cared or believed you, there's nothing that can be done. Your here till you die.
Secondly, you will NEVER attack or dissobey a guard. If you do, you will be executed.
Thirdly, when we leave here, you will be on your own. This is a prison, but we're not here to babysit you. Whether you live or die is up to you. We've provided you with a weeks worth of food, and after that you'll have to get your own. How you choose to do that matters not to me. Some have farmed, some hunt.. some hunt other prisoners. We've cleared the area for 2 miles to give you a running start from any bandits who may wish to prey on you, and that's the last help you'll get."

The Old man turns to leave, then stops as though he'd forgotten something, though it's obvious to some (Sense motive DC 15) that this is well rehearsed for effect.
"Oh, and by the way, before you start to think that you can kill your fellows that are on that slab with you, take a good look around. One of the faces you see is your Soul Bond. If they die, you die. So any of you that have a desire to stay alive, may wish to keep your fellows alive, too."

The Warden turns around and jumps onto a strange, metalic wagon. The guards do the same with a half dozen other wagons, and the Metalic devices rise 20' into the air.
"Welcome to Hell on Earth, people. Enjoy your stay." The Warden shouts down at you as they zoom off to the North (At least, you think it's north...) at extreme speeds, leaving a half dozen sorry-looking inmates on a slab of stone in the middle of nowhere. Around you is nothing but barren, dusty plains for many miles, though you can see a mountain range to the north (where the guards went), and what looks to be a large collection of buildings far to the southwest. The north east, east, and south east appears to be forested after a few miles. The barrenness is broken only by occasional rocks, and strange looking rusted metalic formations.

Picking himself up from the ground Quill dust himself off and looks around his surroundings in obvious confusion Funny I've heard that pompous twit Roe give that speech a hundred times before, never thought I'd be on the receiving end of it though. Boy am I glad I changed before I got here otherwise I'd of been dead meat.

As the guards depart in their metal wagons Quill speaks softly to no one in particular "But what if I really am innocent. " Looking around somewhat nervously Quills smiles uncertainly at the rest of the inmates.

"Hiii, the names Quill, as in the writing implement. It looks like we'll be having the pleasure of each others company for the foreseeable future, so I suggest we break the ice a little bit and maybe do some introductions, oh um maybe some team building exercises would help to, um you know cement the bonds of friendship we no doubt have for each other..."

Pausing in mid-sentence the average looking human male that is Quill takes a closer look at the only skeletal inmate. "Um I don't mean to be rude, but is my eyesight working correctly or are you and undead Lich or something.

Not that I having anything personally against vile rampaging undead who're hell bent on subjugating the world, you see um that's sort of a hobby for me too. Anywho the names Quill nice to meet you all, wait did I say that already" Quill holds out his hand to each in turn and gives a firm handshake and a "How do you do" while maintaining eye contact with any willing recipients.

Exiting from the portal, Xing'dao Li struggles to maintain his footing but, due to the disorienting effect of the portal, fell on his knees midway through the Old Man's speech. He fumes at his own weakness.

Rising back to his feet, he picks the dust from his robe and notices the manacles and handcuffs still on him. With only a word the chains on his handcuffs shatter and fall to the ground followed soon after by those on his manacles.

In his head, he ponders where on the Great Wheel he is currently in. Sigils begin to manifest themselves and orbit around his head as he does this. He also notices the precense of an undead among their ranks and he wonders what kind he is.

Know: The Planes=17, Know: Religion=23


Lord_Raven88, what language is Quill using while addressing the others?

Celes hits the ground awkwardly upon her expulsion from the portal, her front legs buckling under her so that she skids for a yard or so while her rear hooves scrabble for purchase on the stone. She picks herself up swiftly, even grazed and disoriented as she is, and looks about her with a gaze of pure confusion. The utter unfamiliarity of the place and the people around appalls her. It takes her a moment or two before she registers the fact that somebody is speaking, but once the impact of the words actually reaches her it's all she can do to choke down a scream of fury.

First her expulsion from the Order, and now this. None of it makes any sense to her. She hasn't done anything wrong.

One fist clenches hard around the grip of her sword in its scabbard at her waist, the knuckles whitening as she fights down the urge to draw it. It's so very tempting just to attack, to have the luxury of railing against something rather than having to try to understand what's happening to her. Clearly, looking at the array of weaponry trained upon her, she would stand no chance at all... but that makes the whole course of action seem only marginally less appealing.

Fortunately, the guards' departure comes before her self-control cracks, and she breathes a ragged sigh of release as some of the tension escapes her. The hand on her sword slowly relaxes and the arm comes back to her side.

She wheels around and steps back a few paces, looking up for the first time to take an account of her fellow prisoners. A flame ignites in her emerald eyes as she catches sight of the undead creature and her hand instinctively moves back towards her weapon as she draws herself up. She catches herself short of actually drawing the blade, though, her instinctive reaction immediately buried beneath the weight of her circumstances. This thing, as corrupt as it may be, is not her enemy for now. The words of the warden come back to her: 'one of the faces you see is your Soul Bond. If they die, you die.' It's not a familiar idea, but the words are clear enough.

She shudders at the idea that her soul could be bonded to the essence of that abomination.

For now, though, its presence will just have to be one more burden to be borne. And after all, with everything that has happened, sharing the company of such a being is hardly the worst of it all.

Garrack... what have you done to me?


OOC: Also waiting to know what language Quill is using before I post any actual interaction.

*Yes, whenever you speak, please note which language, everyone*

Xing'dao realizes that wherever this is, it is not a part of the Great Wheel. It is somehow seperate, and yet it seems strangely familiar.
As for the Undead, After a moment's thought and observation, he mentally corrects Quill's assessment.. not a lich, but a Death Knight.. perhaps worse, in some cases.

Quill recognized the 'crossbows' as Guns, and the 'metallic wagons' as Hovercraft.

Also, the uniforms they were wearing are highly advanced forms of armour, equivalent to Full Plate Mail, but no heavier than a chain shirt. He also remembers that this week's portal was slated to open in an area known as Southern Europe.

The warden's speech passes by without registration; the pronouncement by his fellow prisoner seemingly coming from a dream itself. He hardly notes the others, himself merely standing there in a loose silk tunic and silk leggings, tightly clutching his order's symbol: a majestic horse standing atop a green hill. He stares out blankly, his eyes glossed over in a shimmering glaze.

Coming out of his reverie, Eoghan notes his companions: two humanoids like himself, a man and a woman; another humanoid a good three to four hands taller than him with magical glyphs floating around his head; a centaur warrior woman; and some undead abomination.

"What did they do to me?" he mutters to himself in European. "Is this my own personal hell? or worse yet, am I still alive?"

OOC: Oops Quil was using telepathy to broadcast his thoughts to the group

Looking at the the others Quill telepathically broadcast his jumbled thoughts to the group in a split second

"While Telepathy is a much simpler and more eloquent mode of communication I understand that some of you may come from less sophisticated societies and thus might find it disturbing. "

"Ah that's not to imply any superiority on my part or naturally any inferiority in your part..."

"Moving on! luckily I'm well traveled throughout the multiverse, so if you introduce yourselves in the common tongue of your land I should be able to understand you. Then we'll be able to see if we have any language in common."

"Also while I think of it, while I'm in telepathic communication with you all, I can understand and thoughts you send my way, that's not to say that I can actually probe into your mind and read your deepest darkest secrets or anything, and furthermore just for the record I'd like to assure you that Dalgoth's Thesis on Telepathy in no way conclusively proved that Telepathy is harmful to your brains."

"I mean honestly does he really expect us to believe in some form of invisible energy that causes abnormal growths on one side of the brain. P-lease"

"Also the other cool thing about Telepathy is you can transmit not just words, but pictures sounds and even smells. Obviously anything you can think, you can send."

"You may call me Mei-Ying." Her language was a complex, flowing one, almost musical in its toneality but nothing at all resembling any European tongue.

Mei-Ying was a tall, stately woman of slim build and exotic features. She was dressed in an opalescent robe of unusual, but fine, make adorned with pastel shades and an odd, wide cloth belt tied in a large bow in the back. It suggests a shapely figure, without quite being clingy or revealing, and the smooth sheen of the material can only be silk. Her head looked bald at first, but a second glance showed that her hair grew from the top and sides of her head only, and was pulled back tightly into a bun against the back of her skull. A pair of long polished ebony sticks were thrust through the bun, crossing each other, to keep it in place. Around her forehead was a magnificent jeweled circlet that included a large green stone, jade or emerald perhaps, centered directly over her forehead, just above her eyeline. Complex earrings dangled from her earlobes. Her fingernails are long and curved, and laquered in brightly colored patterns, with several ornamental rings.

Despite the calm she tried to project, the sorceress could disguise her shock and dismay. It had happened so fast. It had seemed so dreamlike, she'd dared to hope... But no. This was real. After a moment she looked at the one named Quill.

"You know what this place is. I think a more thorough explanation is needed."

(she speaks Asian )

Celes is startled at first by the mode of communication employed by Quill, but soon that initial astonishment gives way to merely the feeling of being washed away on an endless tide of words.

How can anybody possibly be so very talkative at a time like this? she wonders, before her thought train is suddenly derailed as it occurs to her - wait, did he pick that up? Did I think it at him, or just think it? What about this? What if - ugh.

"Celes," the centaur girl cuts in sharply on her own thoughts, stepping forward with a soft clinking of her gleaming armor to briefly take Quill's offered hand.

She casts a dismayed glance at the robed woman as she realizes that she doesn't understand a word she's saying. "Do you understand her?" she asks Quill in European, her accent courtly and cultured but tinged with the slight lilt of her Elven mother tongue. "...Or me, for that matter?"

Shayuri said:

"You may call me Mei-Ying." Her language was a complex, flowing one, almost musical in its toneality but nothing at all resembling any European tongue.

Mei-Ying was a tall, stately woman of slim build and exotic features. She was dressed in an opalescent robe of unusual, but fine, make adorned with pastel shades and an odd, wide cloth belt tied in a large bow in the back. It suggests a shapely figure, without quite being clingy or revealing, and the smooth sheen of the material can only be silk. Her head looked bald at first, but a second glance showed that her hair grew from the top and sides of her head only, and was pulled back tightly into a bun against the back of her skull. A pair of long polished ebony sticks were thrust through the bun, crossing each other, to keep it in place. Around her forehead was a magnificent jeweled circlet that included a large green stone, jade or emerald perhaps, centered directly over her forehead, just above her eyeline. Complex earrings dangled from her earlobes. Her fingernails are long and curved, and laquered in brightly colored patterns, with several ornamental rings.

Despite the calm she tried to project, the sorceress could disguise her shock and dismay. It had happened so fast. It had seemed so dreamlike, she'd dared to hope... But no. This was real. After a moment she looked at the one named Quill.

"You know what this place is. I think a more thorough explanation is needed."

(she speaks Asian )

Click to expand...

Quills quickly telepathically translates Mei-Yings words and sends her message to the others before bowing formally before her in the manner of her people, Quill then address Mei-Ying in impeccable Asian in the dialect spoken by the nobility.

"Greetings Mei-Ying, your summation is correct in that I have heard of this place in my travels, this world was once called Earth or as I prefer to think of it Terror (from an ancient language native to this world), the natives of this world developed incredible technology said to be able to rival even what the greatest spellcasters are able to do today, before they destroyed themselves and let their world a devastated wreak."

"This world or plane if you prefer is used by many others worlds as a prison plane of sorts, it seems to be naturally cut-off from the all other planes of existence, thus once you arrive it's almost impossible to leave, unless your a guard of course."

"As I've heard it the guards who run this facility have somehow managed to create permanent localised portals to allow them to come and go from this place."

"Other than that the prisoners are pretty much left alone to fend for themselves. The prisoners are forced by necessity to form small groups and work together. We're all soul-bound to someone in this group, when our soul-bound partner dies thru violence or even old age then we will die also."

"Unless we manage to escape of course, and that can only be done thru the heavily guarded portals that the guards possess."

As Quill is speaking he telepathically sends his words to the rest of the group.

OOC: For ease of communication lets assume that Quill will automatically translate anything said in your native tongues and send it telepathically to the rest of the group. I'll let you know if Quill decides to make any alterations to what your saying on a case by case basis.