September 6, 1372
....to land in the middle
of a
well tended field of bright flowers. Other fields and pastures are
nearby, the latter having flocks of golden fleeced sheep grazing in
them. Off in one direction is a forest of giant trees, each tree having
leaves of a different colour. Farther away is a range of mountains. One
of the tallest peaks, you discern, appears to have been carved into a
giant fortress of some sort.
No sun shines in the cloudless sky. Illumination is provided by a
dazzling white object atop the highest and most distant mountain peak.
Niko's rod of security and Kadlian's portable hole - along with its
contents - have been destroyed.
"What just happened?" asks Dor. He unsheaths his sword. "Bill, are you ert or inert?"
"I'm Bill!" snorts the sword, "Ert and Inert are my brothers."
Galil's eyes widen in surprise and even a hint of delight.
"Amazing!" she murmurs softly, taking in the wondrous sights one by one. "Most amazing."
Kadlian picks himself off the ground and looks at Niko resignedly.
"That... was among the stupidiest things you have ever done. I
think it rivals how you most recently died as the stupidiest thing you
have ever done."
Niko stands up and dusts himself off, "Actually, I don't think how I
died was that stupid. I really thought I could out fly the
explosion of my grenade."
"Well, from our vantage, it looked incredibly stupid. Now, if you
had tossed the grenade away from you, you might have survived."
"I did...I dropped it behind me as I flew away to blast the stupid
troll or whatever it was I was fighting...should have chucked it around
the corner for those stupid gnolls though..."
Galil glances at Lord Kadlian in surprise, "Forgive my ignorance Lord Kadlian, but what exactly has Niko done?"
"Well, he just ruined two very useful and expensive magical items with
his thoughtlessness as well as whatever he had left in my portable
hole. You see, the place where the rod of security took us was an
extradimensional location. And my portable hole is another
extradimension location. When you open one in the presence of the
other, you are guaranteed to cause undesirable results. We are
exceedingly lucky to have survived the experience."
"Oh!" Galil says, nodding in understanding now. "So this
was not the result of the ancient magics of Golgar or even the Elven
ship. So we are where now? Another extra-dimensional
space? Or another world entirely?"
Niko shrugs. "I'm not well versed in extra-dimensional rift
magic. Fighting magic, yes...extra-dimensional rift stuff, no."
Niko closes up his cloak, as he's wearing nothing underneath. "In any
case, let me know what else anyone lost in the Portable Hole and I'll
try and replace it...including the Portable Hole, itself!"
"Other than your equipment, I had emptied the hole when we were in Occa's mansion."
"Well, I guess that's good news...I lost a helm that wasn't very useful
at eavesdropping, a wand of steam, a rod of cancellation, a magical
cutlass, magical plate armor and some tech weapons and my
spellbooks...oh, damn...and my luckstone! Crap! Out of all
the things to lose..." He sighs. "Oh, well..."
Niko claps his hands together, "Now, shall we try and figure out where we are?"
"Yes, but I wonder if we should make camp and let Kailar, you and
Trinity regain spells, first. Trinity, what kind of spell components do
you have on you?"
Trinity, however, boxes Niko's ears.
"Did you not ever pay attention when you were learning magic? Are
you daft? Everyone knows to never open extradimensional spaces
inside another extradimensional space."
"Actually, I thought it was never put an extradimensional space inside another..."
Trinity next storms off in disgust towards the multicolored forest.
"Trinity, perhaps it is unwise to go dashing off in a place we know
nothing about?" Galil calls out, rising to go after Trinity.
Malvis gets up, looks at the rest of the group, shrugs his shoulders as
he says, "I know. I follow her everywhere. But what can I
do?"
With that, he runs after Trinity.
"Would it be better for me to wait for Niko to do something else
stupid?" the mage says over her shoulder. "First time he
killed himself, second time, he almost killed us all. I don't
think I want to wait."
Galil chuckles.
"You do have something of a point there," she says, catching up to
Trinity. "We may as well try to find out more about where we are
and seek some kind of shelter as I've yet to find a place that is
benign to strangers."
Galil waves for the others to follow, not particularly fond of being so
out in the open any way. Galil glances at the flowers with
interest, but keeps up with Trinity.
"Lord Kadlian? Shall we head towards the mountains or to the forest?" Galil asks, calling over her shoulder.
"Sure, ask the guy who almost got us killed last time too. Let's
sit down and form a committee and debate the whole issue. Perhaps
a recall election would be best," says the mage, "I'm tired of always
waiting. Waiting, waiting, I'll die in Casablanca. So, let's see
if we can face the dangers of the fireswamp. We have to watch out
for the ROUSes, however. So keep a sharp eye out."
Galil frowns at Trinity.
"You are being childish and unfair though I do understand why you are
impatient. However, your attitude will not help matters and in
fact will only make it worse for you." Galil says firmly.
"I am not being childish." says Trinity, stomping her foot. "Not! Not! Not!"
Galil chuckles and retorts, "Are! Are! Are!"
"I will keep an eye out but perhaps the rodents of unusual size you
speak of are merely manifestations of your agitated state." Galil
smiles. "Want one of the apples I'd saved for Puffalump?"
Galil asks, pulling a small apple from the recesses of her pouch.
Trinity sits down, "Yes please Miss Galil. An apple would be nice."
Galil gives Trinity the apple with a smile as she waits for the others to catch up.
The rest of you go over and join the mage, cavalier and illusionist.
"If we are done, let us go into the forest. Trinity, Kailar, how
long do you need to memorize a few teleport spells? With
the lack of a portable hole, you are going to have to shrink us to get
us back home."
"I'm thinking there is an issue here you are failing to comprehend is
that we don't know where we are. If we're on a new plane, then
we're outta luck, as teleport can't cross the planar barriers.
And the fact that there was a planer rift, well I'm not sure what I can
do actually."
"Ah."
Kadilan frowns. "Well, yes, that is a problem. I was
unaware of that limitation with teleport. How did Occa get us to
Hell, then? Or is that not another plane?"
"Well, there is this small factoid, that Occa is an arch-mage, and can
cast teleport without error, a spell that allows extraplanar
travel. You've got me, and I'm it, 'less Sir and Kailar have a
better idea, and Sir doesn't get into a card game with some of the
locals."
Kadlian looks puzzled. "Teleport without error? I have
never heard of that spell. That would explain the discrepency,
then. I do not believe Sir is here and since you and Kailar
cannot teleport us off this plane, I suggest that we find some signs of
civilization and attempt to make our way back home."
"Well, there are probably many spells you are unaware of. It's
not your job to keep track of spells, that's my job. So let's get
hoofing," says Trinity.
Malvis rolls his eyes, and murmurs, "I hope some of the locals are
really nice archmages who want to help lost adventuring parties."
"Me too."
"I'm sure we'll find one," says Trinity.
Malvis looks at her, and says, "I certainly hope so. Somehow, a
world where all light is magical just doesn't seem right, however
similar to my abilities it may seem."
"You need to learn to be an optimist," says Trinity.
"Perhaps," Malvis responds, "but I do wonder how much of what we are
looking at may be an illusion. Golden fleeced sheep and
multicolored forests just don't sound right."
"Even if we are on another plane?" Galil asks. "I have no
idea what such places are like but if they aren't normally like this
then we are probably in grave danger as it looks quite fair so perhaps
must be foul."
"I certainly hope not," Malvis blurts out, "But your idea is troubling
indeed. Perhaps Trinity is right, we should just live in our
imaginations, and let our ideas of 'normalcy' be altered by
circumstance."
"And cat's who win at poker against the gods is right?" asks Trinity before singing,
"Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three.
Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. take a
look and you'll see into your imagination. We'll begin with a spin
traveling in the world of my creation. What we'll see will defy
explanation.
If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it. Anything
you want to do it. Want to change the world? There's nothing to
it.
There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be. "
Galil nods.
"I too am not greatly educated in these matters concerning planes and
bags and extra dimensional spaces. However, finding civilization
might be a prudent course of action so long as we observe before
presenting ourselves to their cooking pots." Galil says gaily,
still rather entranced with the recent travels and exotic sights around
her.
"Indeed."
"Well, I suggest we head for that fortress carved into the mountain up
there. And if we're really on one of the outer planes, I think we
should probably be careful with what spells we cast. I just hope
we're on one of the plane of good..."
"I would rather explore the forest first. If we see no signs of habitation, then we can go to the fortress."
Galil frowns, looking quite doubtful about heading for the fortress.
"Those that need live in such a place must have reason to so seclude
themselves. Perhaps there are Elves in the forest that could help
us?" Galil suggests.
"My thoughts exactly."
"Unless they are oompa-loompa's." says Trinity. "Maybe we could find some snozberries."
Malvis frowns, and asks, "Are oompa-loompas like elves?"
"No oompa-loompas are orange, and give people candies, and arn't so
meancompoops as some elves we know," says the woman, looking at Kadlian
before looking back at Malvis, "And they sing lots of songs."
Kadlian laughs. "You do not want me to sing. I cannot carry a tune very well."
Galil smiles, "Some berries would be welcome if they are edible.
It is my understanding that there are spells to detect nearby
evil? Or devices that would tell us? Perhaps it would be
wise to know just what we are in for."
"Yes Miss Galil. I can cast that spell, it's one of the ones that
Erica let's me cast," says the woman. "I'm good at it and have
worked really, really hard at learning it. Want to see?"
Galil smiles. "Explain to me first how it works so that we can make the
best use of the spell and then we shall ask Lord Kadlian if he wishes
for you to cast it at this time."
"Well you see, Miss Galil, I stand up and wave my hands like this."
says the woman, waving her hands around, "and say the magic words and
then I can see the good or evilness of things. It's like seeing
the world in all sorts of strange colors, and we have to avoid the evil
colored ones," says Trinity. "I need a detect oogie spell, as
that would be really cool too, but oogieness and evilness are two
different things. However, if this place is evilness, I can look
around." says Trinity.
Niko says in an ominous voice, "Just remember that you might go insane if you cast Detect Evil and this is an evil plane..."
"She already is," giggles Edelle.
"Right. So, let us skip that spell for now, okay?"
Trinity looks forlorn. "Okay, Mr. Kadlian, Sir. We'll not cast
anything. We'll sit here and eat our apple and be quiet now."
"As you wish."
Trinity whispers to Galil, "See, Miss Galil, I think he likes us. You know what he just said, don't you?"
Dor concentrates real hard for a minute.
"Well since Bill wasn't Bill when we were in Hell and he's Bill now, I don't think we are on a plane of evil."
Trinity sings, "I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a
bill. And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill. Well, it's a long,
long journey to the capital city. It's a long, long wait while I'm
sitting in committee, but I know I'll be a law someday at least I hope
and pray that I will, but today I am still just a bill. "
"Agreed. Let us explore the forest and see if we can find any elves."
Niko turns invisible and has Dwarf's Envy and his magic dagger drawn.
To no one in particular he asks, "Ummm...are we going to memorize spells
first?"
"I thought you wanted to be careful about casting spells. And
since teleport will not work to get us home and that is the only thing
that Kailar and Trinity have used, we might as well walk for a
while. I want to get an idea of where we are before we make a
camp."
"That wasn't us," says Trinity. "We don't know about that."
"I know and neither do I. But, it sounds like a sensible approach right now."
You set off in the direction of the forest, crossing several more
fields of flowers, each separated by a neat, well tended gravel road.
You reach the edge of the forest without incident, and walk under the
spreading boughs of the giant trees. Now you note that the trees are
planted in neat, orderly rows. Their bark is metallic, copper, gold,
silver or iron. The colours of their leaves range from deep greens to
fireball red. Some of them are flowering, and you see bees buzzing from
bloom to bloom. On others there are fruit, apples, plums, oranges,
peaches and others that you have never seen before, in all the colours
of the rainbow.
The floor of the forest is carpeted in short, green grass.
As you have been walking you have noticed that the light is slowly
dimming. At last a starless night falls. You stop and make camp.
The night passes without incident.