Mephiskaran and Falmin
In the doorway was an opaque sheet of what appeared to be falling smoke, completely filling the sandstone arch. The homunculi indicated that they had arrived, but none of them actually approached the archway. Instead, they formed a ring around it, with none of them getting closer than about three feet.
The Follies stepped through the doorway, and each of them had the same experience: the moment any part of them touched the smoke, they were simply through it and inside the chamber beyond.
In approximately this order, they were greeted by intense cold, a bare and forbidding stone room, and the sight of the largest man any of them had ever laid eyes on.
Mephiskaran's chamber consisted of four stone walls, on which were several torches, a long trestle table (with one end pointed at the door), numerous high-backed chairs, and a sofa. The sofa was placed at the far end of the table, and seated on it was a truly enormous human -- literally several feet in diameter, with his braided hair and beard flowing over him and down onto the floor. He was wearing a plain blue robe, and seated on his shoulder was a peculiar creature that looked something like a homunculi -- only with gigantic eyes vastly out of proportion to its tiny head.
Between the Follies and Mephiskaran was a sumptuous feast covering about half of the table; apparently, a multi-course meal was in progress. As their eyes traveled over the food, the Follies also noticed that the thing on Mephiskaran's shoulder was carrying a miniscule bow with an arrow nocked, and it bore a small quiver of arrows on its back.
"You guys must be the ones who wanted to see me. I'm Mephiskaran. Come in and have a seat."
As the Follies introduced themselves and brought up the subject of their visit, Mephiskaran grilled them for background details. He seemed particularly interested when Jaehn related to him that he had studied on Evermeet under Archmage Larkin, in the great city of Leuthilspar. Once the introductions were out of the way, he urged them to get down to business (in between dollops of blancmange).
The Follies showed Mephiskaran the painting, and described some of the circumstances surrounding it. They also produced Soriyo's Crop, the wand they had taken from Liddis Malzevent's body -- and Mephiskaran identified it without any hesitation. When he had heard quite a bit of their tale -- the possible connection to the painter Malionh, the appearance of the shimmering man, and so forth -- he asked to hold the painting. With some reluctance, the Follies passed it over to him.
Placing it on the table before him, Mephiskaran sent a stream of sparkling motes cascading out of his forehead and down onto the Promise of Darkness.
"Well, it's definitely a portal," he said after a moment's concentration. "How much do you know about portals?" The Follies replied that they knew a little bit, but not all that much -- only Jaehn had had any significant contact with them.
Mephiskaran proceeded to give them a quick lesson in the basics: very expensive, fixed to one location, and a one-way trip unless you built a counterpart at the other end -- and Algaer was definitely in there. His best guess was that the painting showed the last thing that would have been seen through the portal as it closed.
Turning his gaze back to the party, he said, "But I've never seen a portal like this before, and I've seen a lot of them in my day." His voice hungry with excitement, he added, "Who are you guys? You've just shown me something I've never seen before, and told me about something else that I've never heard of." He said this with a note of surprise in his voice, as if it didn't happen very often.
Beginning to feel as though they'd just put all of their cards on the table without seeing what was in Mephiskaran's hand, the Follies clammed up. They told him that they wanted to find out how to operate the portal -- and nothing more.
Leaning its misshapen head closer to them, the creature on Mephiskaran's shoulder said, "Yes, master, but who might want to know about them?" Its voice was languorous and unpleasant, and it turned towards Mephiskaran as it finished asking this question.
In the next few minutes, the decidedly uncomfortable Follies hashed out the basics of a deal with Mephiskaran: he would open the portal for them in exchange for the information they'd already given him, as well as a report of what was on the other side. After establishing that they wouldn't sell him the painting outright, the enormous man focused on getting them to agree to tell him what was beyond the portal.
With surprising dexterity, Mephiskaran reached around into the back of his robe and produced a small leather pouch. Unwrapping it, he revealed an irregular piece of what looked like glass or crystal. Holding it up to the group, he asked, "Here, have you heard of image crystals?" When the Follies said no, he handed the crystal to the thing on his shoulder -- referring to it as Falmin -- and motioned for the Follies to gather around him.
Falmin stepped carefully around the food on the table and turned to face the assembly -- the six Follies and Thissiken gathered around Mephiskaran's bulk, like moons around a planet. The creature held up the crystal and muttered something under its breath, and the glass went completely dark, then lightened -- revealing a perfect picture of Mephiskaran and the Follies.
Taking the crystal back from Falmin, Mephiskaran said, "See? I will give you several more of these, and you can make images of what's on the other side of the portal."
His eye on the crystal, Tal casually asked, "How do you erase them?"
"Oh, you can't erase them. You can break it, though -- it's just glass."
"We'd like to have that one, then," said Tuggle.
"No, I think I'll hang onto this," replied Mephiskaran, smiling broadly. Having returned to his shoulder, Falmin drew its lips back into a loathsome grin.
"We'd really like to break that one, then," said Tal. In response, Mephiskaran tucked the crystal back into his robe.
Honestly, if the involuntary shapeshifting comes from somewhere, it's not somewhere that I remember. What are you thinking of, Tony (apart from Bewitched, of course...)?
