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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 4098881" data-attributes="member: 11574">An old enemy returnsDarkness assailed Haimish’s sight as he whipped around trying to locate where he was exactly. The echoing sound of water dripping led him to believe he was in a cave or underground as least. Haimish dug a sunrod out from his backpack and activated it. The room lit up in a burst of sight, corners long since denied light were exposed as insects, moles, and rats skittered away from the brightness. A solitary coffin lay against the right wall and a ventilation hole no more than four inches across provided the room with the stale air that Haimish was breathing. Haimish looked along the base of the walls for where the rats and moles scattered from the room and made the horrible discovery that they were plagued. Large chucks of hair had fallen from their skin and the rat’s tails looked more like shriveled calamari than a tail. He shifted the light again and one of the moles stared back at him with half a face, its one remaining eye was bloated and bulging from its socket. “Undead, great.” Haimish sighedThen a smoke began to fill the room from the ceiling port, Haimish backed away from the hole but noticed the smoke moved in a sentient way, contorting itself to avoid Haimish. Remembering his encounter with a vampire previously, Haimish struck his blade on the coffin, trying to knock off a good enough sized piece of wood to shove it into the creature’s heart. The mist formed a body and Haimish renewed his efforts to hack off a piece of wood. A familiar visage formed from the mist and Haimish stopped hacking, dumbfounded the bard stood as the rest of the body formed and Kalen stood before him.“Since there are only two ways into this room, and you’re not a vampire, it limits my choices down nicely.” Kalen states“How?” Haimish questions“Interesting, for that is my question as well.” Kalen states“You’ll not find my mind so easily taken this time Kalen.” Haimish spits back“Pfft. I don’t want it. I have an idyllic life here, you would just disrupt that. However I can’t really let you go back to the rustic civilizations with this knowledge either. What to do, what to do?” Kalen answersA wizard eye popped into existence in the far corner of the room, Kalen’s face showed obvious displeasure with this turn of events.“Tell you what, meet me and my associates for lunch on the observation deck in one hour and we can discuss particulars.” Kalen offered“Particulars of what?” Haimish inquired“Even now your humorous side shows it shall do you well in the coming meeting.” Kalen says and returns to mist form and ascends the air hole.“Wait! How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?” Haimish shouts up at the disappearing Kalen, “Damn, I wish I was with Adokul.” And with that Haimish is whisked away again.It took a moment for Haimish’s eyes to adjust to the odd lighting in this room. A large mirrored ball hung from the ceiling and slowly turned as the light from a couple of candles reflected off of its surface to splash the room in dozens of small points of light. Then he heard odd breathing that raised his alertness as he spun around awaiting the charging barbarian only to find a more disturbing sight.“Aaahhh!!!” Haimish screamed“Aaahhhh!!!” Adokul screamed“What? Hey, that’ll cost you more.” The pixie said pointing at Haimish “Aaahhh!!!” Haimish screamed again“What? How? You?” Adokul screamed“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” Haimish repeated“What kind of sick twisted plane are you two from?” The pixie questions“Get the hell out of here Haimish!” Adokul shouts Haimish blinks away while shutting his eyes so tightly he hoped they’d never open again.“Is this some kind of bet? Are more of your friends going to keep popping in here with you? Cause if they are, you’re going to need to pay for them too.” The pixie iteratesHaimish finds himself in a small apartment overlooking the west side of the island. He notes that the position of the sun hasn’t changed from when he first arrived and wonders if any time really passed at all.“Haimish my good man, what brings you back from your excursion across the island?” Kourk asks heartilyHaimish turns to face Kourk, sweaty and red-faced the bard shrugs his shoulders and stares back at the cleric.“Are you in need of healing? Moradin has answered my prayers!” Kourk relatesHaimish shakes his head, “No, I have a business luncheon.” “Ah! Perhaps you are in need of a shave? Let me get you my razor, I no longer have need of it.” Kourk states“No, that’s okay. I just need to drop off a few things before I head off to eat.” Haimish answer“Why certainly my good man. Perhaps we can chat later regarding your findings on this most peculiar island?” Kourk replies“Sure.” Haimish answers and heads to the privy where he unloads most of his valuables. Keeping his gold and sword on him though, he removes the odd rock from his back pack to find that the rate of bleeding has increased and the rock appears smaller, almost as if the rock was ice and was melting.“Great what am I going to do with this? I can’t leave it here; Kourk’s gone all weird on me this place must be affecting his brain. I’ll have to take it with me instead.” Haimish re-wraps the rock and places it back into his backpack. His thinks about the observation deck but nothing happens.Haimish remembers his two previous jumps and also what the half-dragon told them. He then starts handling each of his dropped items one by one and thinking about the observation deck until he comes to the jar of grave dirt and is whisked away. Haimish stands on the observation deck and smiles, he then thinks back to the room and returns to the privy in the party’s apartment. Haimish begins to clean up the red liquid the rock left on the floor, passing the cloths to the laundry bin Haimish gets a strong acrid smell like that of blood. The bard pauses and considers this problem, then putting a little bit of the liquid on his fingers he tastes it with his tongue and the world goes dark.Haimish’s head is filled with images of a great black dragon being dragged down into a large cavern, massive cords of rope loop over the dragon’s girth and cut through it’s skin down to the bone. Huge wooden skewers are passed through the great beast and you feel each of their entries; smell the rotten blood wells up from the wounds as large hunks of flesh fall from the body. A great cry from the dragon is cut short as blood curdles into it's throat cutting off the air flow. All is silent for a moment before a great gout of blood geysers forth from it's mouth. Haimish’s head spin back into his present location, his body bleeding from multiple stab wounds. A great pressure in his throat wells up and he hurls open his eyes wide as he projectile vomits a gallon of blood, spraying the room in a crimson wash. Woozy and exhausted, Haimish claws his way to a sitting position and vows never to do that dumb stunt again. Haimish teleports to the observation deck after getting cleaned up, but notices in the mirror that he is very pale but decides to meet with Kalen anyway. The bard is met on the deck by Kalen and a wizard wearing robes with the School of Ancient Knowledge insignia on it. “Glad to see you made it. You look dreadfully pale though, are you felling alright?” Kalen inquires“Sure, just doing some calisthenics.” The bard replies“Please be seated then.” Kalen shows Haimish to his chair, he notes they are the only ones dinning now, but there are seven wizard eyes floating about watching.Kalen notices Haimish’s observation, “Seems you’ve attracted great interest.” “Appears so, at least I feel safer.” Haimish answers“Did you feel as though you were in some kind of danger?” Kalen asks with a wry grin“No, I already beat you once.” Haimish answers much to the vampire’s chagrinHaimish is treated to a decadent feast of; Cream of Flumph, Ettin Tartar, and Poached Faerie Dragon Egg in Shell with a Zombie Béarnaise Sauce. Kalen then leans in, “What do you want for the item? We can deal now and avoid others mucking up the deal.” Confused Haimish is taken aback and is about to ask what Kalen is taking about when a rakshasa teleports next to the table.“Tricky undead, you thought to buy it outright without letting anyone else see it? I have the mind to turn you over to Ghornas for this insult.” The rakshasa comments, Kalen just rolls his eyes in disgust.The appearance of the rakshasa brings a gnome and erinyes teleporting in as well; they too stake a claim in the proceedings. Menthos makes his way back out of the dungeons of Hledra amid a swirling snowstorm, the teifling scours the landscape for signs the party made it out as well, barring that he scours the city in hopes of gauging just how long he’d been gone. The deep snow however, covers most of the buildings and what structures he does see are only ruins anyway. He trudges out of Hledra heading west in hopes that Kindoras Keep still stands.</blockquote>

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