[sblock=OOC]
All right, let's finish this off. I'll be taking over as DM for the (exceedingly) brief time remaining.
[/sblock]
As you approach the clearing, you hear an eerie, wild chanting in a gutteral tongue, overpowering the laughter. It gets louder and louder, reaching a crescendo just a moment before you reach your goal. There is a sudden electric crackle and a burst of light from up ahead, and the chanting is replaced by gutteral cheering.
You push aside the last branch to see a large open space dominated by a glowing rift in the air. You have barely enough time to glimpse a skinny figure adorned with feathers and weird fetishes vanish into the portal. Behind troop two burly orcs, one of which has a bound and gagged woman thrown over his shoulder. She stares into your face, panic in your eyes, and from the portrait you easily recognize Gwendolyn.
Before you can react, the orcs step side-by-side into the portal and vanish, leaving you alone in the clearing - except for one final orc, who is kneeling by the gutted body of a man, rifling it for valuables and stuffing them in a sack. He is just starting to pry off one of the man's red boots when you appear. The orc looks up and instantly jumps to his feet, dropping the boot, and takes off running towards the portal, still clutching the sack. You'll have barely an instant to react before he too vanishes!