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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 1346620" data-attributes="member: 726">Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 203(a short installment)When the conversation picks up again, it leads to speculation about what the orcs might do next.  Is there a danger that they'll brave the Beast Cave portal and eventually discover the relatively helpless people of Green Valley?  Or will their inherent fear of the “Skull & Crossbones” portals prevent such an excursion?  While the Company did indicate which gate they came through, they at least didn’t admit to having killed the monsters beyond.  Dranko toys with the idea of using their deck of illusions to leave a fake monster just on the other side of the portal, but that doesn’t get beyond the speculative stage.Eventually the conversation turns back to the nature of this weird network of mini-worlds, and what the Black Circle might be up to.“If I were the Black Circle guys,” says Dranko, idly scratching himself, “I’d make the ‘right door’ one of the gray gates, that people don’t think work.  I mean, they’re not living with the orcs, or off in some field.”“Didn’t the orcs say they didn’t think those gates went anywhere?” says Kibi.“I think we should go back and warn the people of Green Valley – just in case,” says Aravis.“We should go somewhere,” says Grey Wolf, growing impatient.“I’m kind of curious about the gate with the red smear,” says Kibi.“Someone slapped a bug on it,” says Dranko.“One horrible gate is just as bad as any other horrible gate,” adds Ernie.The Company falls silent again, looking around at their options.  Terrible monsters.  Orcish homelands.  Staying right where they are doesn’t sound so bad, really, despite the heat.  An animated and not-at-all serious discussion breaks out for a few minutes about how the Company could just stay in this new two-sunned world, as highwaymen terrorizing all who come through.   When moral objections are raised, Aravis suggests the less-evil-sounding role of “toll-collector,” though Ernie and Step still thinks that smacks of extortion.When the jokes finally subside, the Company finally gets down to actual business.  Aravis casts true seeing and looks at the portals, hoping for some insights beyond what he gleaned with detect magic.  They look pretty much the same, but he thinks that while the blue ones are magical portals, the gray ones are not.   Furthermore, when Aravis extends his gaze into the Ethereal Plane, he sees magical energy is flowing both into and out of the blue gates, but not the gray ones.Morningstar drops into trance and tries going into Ava Dormo, but to her great consternation the Dreamscape doesn’t exist in this world.  Eventually the Company decides to discover what happens if someone walks through one of the gray portals. Grey Wolf and Ernie volunteer for the job.  While Aravis looks on with his true seeing,  Ernie (with a rope held by Dranko, Kay and Step tied around his waist) walks into the gray hanging rectangle.  Grey Wolf casts see invisibility and follows on his heels.From the point of view of the rest of the Company, Ernie and Grey Wolf go in one side of the gray plane and come right out the other side, as if they had simply stepped through a large empty window pane.  From Ernie and Grey Wolf’s points of view, the journey is a bit different. They are in space.  That’s what it feels like.   It's like the inside of the Crosser’s Maze when they first arrived.   But as unsettling as the Crosser’s Maze had been, this – place? – is much more disturbing.   They feel like the very fabric of existence there is warped and nonsensical, as if either it or they have no business existing at all.  It hurts their psyches just being there.  Worse, there are – things – out in the space, terrible things, things that also should not, cannot exist.  Grey Wolf and Ernie don’t actually see these things, but they know… oh yes, they know.  After about 10 subjective seconds, the two of them are flung out of that horrid place and back to the relative normalcy of the world with two suns.   They stand blinking stupidly in the yellow dusk.  Aravis with his true seeing sees a strange sort of magic he has never encountered before.  It clings to Ernie and Grey Wolf like a damp mist, but it’s already boiling away, evaporating into the air and vanishing like smoke.“Nothing, huh?” says Dranko.  “Are you guys ok?”Ernie blinks again and squints at Dranko before speaking.“We went to a bad nothing place like space, where there were… things.  Swimmy things, that shouldn’t be.  It was like the Maze, but yucky.  They shouldn’t exist.”  Grey Wolf just stands there, a stricken look on his face, vaguely echoing what Ernie is saying.  When Ernie is done, he adds:  “My head hurts.”When asked what these things looked like, they have no answer, and their feeling is it’s just as well they don’t know.  The rest of the Company is startled to learn that the Ernie thinks they were gone for ten seconds.Dranko points out to the rest that the rope he’s holding is still tied to Ernie at the other end.  It goes right through the plane of the gate.  They untie it and pull it all the way through, and it meets no resistance.  Aravis sees that the rope trails the same magic as Ernie and Grey Wolf, though only for a few seconds.  (Dranko also tastes the rope on impulse, but there’s no special flavor.)  “We could do that with all the portals in this place and turn the whole thing into a huge web!” he says.  Morningstar sighs and starts praying for restoration prayers, which she uses on Grey Wolf and Ernie to clear their muddled heads.Ernie says, “Aravis, I don’t think you should go in there, but I’m really curious as to what it looks like with the Maze.”“I wish I could use the Maze at all,” says Aravis wistfully.  Well, that was all very interesting, but the Company is no closer to getting anywhere new, let alone finding the Eye of Moirel, so they amble en masse over the portal marked by the red smear.     This time it’s Dranko, Kibi and Scree who volunteer for scouting duty.  They tie a shorter length of rope connecting Kibi and Dranko, and tie a second rope to that one.  Step, Grey Wolf and Kay hold the other end of the second rope, ready to pull in an emergency.    The three walk through the blue portal.For a couple of seconds, the rope is expectedly taut.  Then (to their obvious consternation) the three holders fall backward, the rope unexpectedly severed.  The end of the rope is charred and smoldering!“That’s not good,” says Ernie.“We should give them a couple of seconds to come back on their own,” says Grey Wolf.  “They’re not stupid, and we shouldn’t be either, so let’s not go charging in after them.”For Dranko, Kibi and Scree, there are the seconds of black void and uncomfortable pulling, and then – heat!  It’s HOT!  Specifically it’s red hot, and that’s no metaphor.  They have emerged into a place where the slightly gelatinous ground is red, the smokey air glows red, and that wide river of flowing magma not 20’ away is certainly red.  There are no trees, or rocks, or any normal terrain features to be seen.  The air is shot through with bursts of bright orange flame.  The only thing besides themselves that isn’t red is the blue portal, which looks almost purple in the ruddy ambiance. Their boots start to smolder in about one second.   Right around the time that Scree says “Er… I’m melting,” Dranko and Kibi’s clothes burst into flame.“Time to go,” gasps Kibi, and they all tumble back through the blue portal.  When they arrive in the tall grass, they’re still on fire.  Some of Scree’s rocks are glowing orange like hot coals.  Dranko fumbles for his decanter of endless water and has soon extinguished himself and Kibi, cooled down Scree, and put out two small grass fires.  Morningstar and Ernie administer some healing to the burn victims.   Once healed, Dranko and Kibi tell the others what they saw.“Well, we’re two for two on sucky gates,” mutters Grey Wolf.…to be continued…</blockquote>

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