To New Horizons(2nd ed game, game thread)

[PurpleXVI]

Everyone

The portal looked surprisingly mundane, rather than some brilliant conflagaration of magic or a titanic gateway, it was merely a shimmer in the air. It was about wide enough for a pair of carts to pass through, and tall enough that no normal human or demi-human would have to duck when they went through. The portal had sprung up out of the blue in a forest glade a few months back, in the winter. Now, in the spring, after studying it and making sure that no army of horrible things was poised to come through from the other side to flay everyone, they had opened it up to just about any adventurous soul.

In order to avoid stampedes guards were watching the area, and travellers were allowed through in batches of twenty once an hour.

Upon approaching the portal, though, it started to seem more of an impressive experience. As soon as anyone got near it, the shimmering seemed to intensify, waves of scintillating colour sweeping across it like liquid rainbows. The air thickened and got hard to breathe, as though magic had a physical property, a strange gas that displaced oxygen. Just a few yards from the portal, the travellers, who were now all breaking their initial, confident stride as they encountered the strange conditions, saw that they were approaching not just a shimmer in the air, but a hole in it.

The hole was framed by a thin, transparent crystal structure, so fine that you would expect it to shatter in a high wind or at a harsh shout, decorated with odd shapes which all seemed to tempt the viewer with some form of hidden meaning or appearance, as though looking at them from just the right angle would unveil hidden mysteries.

Within the structure was the hole itself, though calling it a hole was a drastic simplification of some obviously unnatural twisting of the very fabric of the dimensions. It was a long, grey-walled tunnel with sharp light at the other end, the walls were probably best left described as "gray," but in fact they had an eerie appearance to them, like the inside of a tornado, twisting and contracting like the intestinal tract of some giant beast, waiting for them to walk right into it's stomach.

For a moment, the group faltered, but then one gathered the nerve to step inside, and the others followed. The first step in was like stepping over the edge of a cliff, for a second there was nothing underfoot and then a falling sensation, except that this fall was straight ahead, parallel with the ground. Several of the travellers screamed, but had hardly begun before they were on solid ground again.

At first, everyone was blinded by the bright light on the other end of the tunnel, out of it's murky darkness they were suddenly standing in full daylight again. As they blinked rapidly and tried to see where they were, the next thing that hit them was the heat. At home it had been spring, just a tad on the chilly side, here it was like being in an oven, and though they were away from the thick air around the portal, they were suddenly finding it hard to breathe again. The humidity wasn't helping any either.

They were able to breathe, though, and vision slowly returned. Above them was a cloudless, blue sky containing a single sun, a giant red orb four times the size of the yellow one at home. Down at ground level, things looked both familiar and alien, they were once again standing in a forest clearing, though this wasn't the sort of forest they'd left. It was some tangled, dark-green mass of vines and trees which was almost dripping water from the pure humidity in the air. All sorts of alien animal sounds echoed through the surrounding woods, from echoing yells that seemed to be two creatures speaking to each other to spine-chilling cries which sounded like some beast running afoul of a vicious predator. And not all those predators seemed to be in a hurry to kill their prey, often those cries lingered for several minutes before finally ending.

The clearing here also looked more man-made than the one on the travellers' homeworld, trees and brush had obviously been cleared in the last few days, as exposed stumps and severed vines were already turning brown under the relentless sun. Near one side of the clearing, as far from the portal as possible without being in the jungle, trees and semi-permanent wooden structures had been set up. It looked like not all of the ones who had come through the portal before them had headed off in random directions to seek adventure, because it looked like there was a tavern, a blacksmith and even a ramshackle stable, as well as a few houses that just looked like where someone had their bed and hung their cloak at the end of the day.

Leading away from the structures and into the jungle were several well-travelled trails in all directions of the compass. None looked like they wouldn't be overgrown in a few weeks, though, it looked like few people had so far gathered the nerve for the dangerous task of heading into the truly unknown.

As people started making up their mind and heading away from the portal, most threw one glance behind them to see what it looked like on this side. Unlike the obviously artificial thing on their homeworld, this one looked almost natural. It had the same sort of entrance, but it was framed by trees whose branches interlocked and formed a wide arch.


Bas

(OOC: This is Kazilan's character.)

As soon as the druid gathered his wits about him, he found himself extremely uneasy in his new surroundings. It was nothing that could be easily defined, but he felt as though he was in a graveyard, a dead place, despite the rampant growth all around him, and it wasn't the man-made clearing that was doing it. Nature was used to pruning, in the form of living creatures, grazing or forest fires, this was something else, something much, much deeper.


Bas, Anne, Tamora, Lorath

(OOC: Kazilan, dplax, Armen and Man Who etc., respectively. Anyone else who finishes their character sheet can consider themselves to be present as well.)

As the other travellers split off and headed for the temporary village to get a drink before deciding where to go, four people came up from the structures. Two of them were carrying a third on a litter and stopped some distance off to put him down on the ground and get some rest, appearing to be tending to his wounds while the fourth approached the group. At first it looked like he merely had a limp, but as he got closer, he turned out to have bandages covering most of his lower arms, a crutch and an apparently injured left foot. He was a young human, blonde-haired and despite his injuries he managed to give the people he was approaching a cheerful smile.

"Welcome!" He said, his smile becoming broader as he stopped to greet them, "It's good to see some people that don't rush off to get themselves killed as soon as they arrive. Sirs and ladies, I am Jonas," he bowed as well as he could despite the crutch, as though they were royalty, "And as you can see, I and one of my friends got into a bad scrape out there beyond the trees, I'll recover, but I'm not sure that he will without help, so if you can help him, or can give us some coin, just a few gold pieces will do, I'll tell you what I know of the surrounding lands. There are a few places that it would be wise to avoid, as we learned..."

(OOC: If you don't have your character sheet in at this point, and don't finish it before this little encounter is over, don't fret, I'll find a way to introduce you once you get a sheet to me.)

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Lorath was still a little disoriented from the travel through the gate, though he felt himself getting more used to his surroundings by the second. He was a short, spindly elf, and as such wasn't carrying much in the way of equipment. Shortly after exiting the gate he took off his robe and stuffed it in his pack to alleviate the sweltering heat.

When Jonas approached he nodded to the man and clasped his hands in front of him. "Nice to meet another group of adventurers on this side of the gate," he said. "My name is Lorath. We just got here, and would be glad to have any advice that you might be able to offer." He didn't have a lot of money left from his preparations, but would be willing to contribute a gold piece to a communal fund for helping this group, or by itself if necessary.

[Armen]

Tamora was disturbed by the portal but soon forgot her fears at the sight of the wall of greenery that surrounded the clearing. Her mouth widened in the biggest smile the group had seen on the face of the young elf and her eyes briefly lit up with excitement. She turned to Bas to share her delight in the environment they found themselves in and was surprised to see a troubled look on his face. Turning away, her eyes narrowed as she surveyed the vegetation with a professional gaze, widening slightly at the first sound of what sounded like an alien predator. She was short even for an elf and best described as wiry, dressed in green and apparently well outfitted with a quiver and shortbow slung over her back.

When Lorath started to speak she turned to regard the man that had approached them. She very much doubted this human would be able to give her any of the detailed information she would need. But she was wise enough to realise that Lorath was likely to be a better judge of the man than her and she was desperate to learn all she could about this strange new forest – not least what had caused the parties extensive wounds.

She nodded her assent to Lorath, leant on her spear and waited to hear what this Jonas had to say.

[ 01-12-2007, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[Kazilan]

Bas frowned, his slender fingers tightening on his staff as he gazed at the new surroundings. He barely noticed as a human approached and tried to strike up conversation. As the druid's eyes settled on the litter he gave a start and moved to the injured man's side. After a quick examination of the man's wounds he prepared a healing spell, pushing the edges of his cloak back so they did not interfere with the casting. A sickle caught the sunlight from it's place on his belt, the only spot of light on his body, covered as he was by travel stained leather armor.

[PurpleXVI]

Bas

The two of Jonas' friends watching the man on the litter were engaged in a quiet conversation and didn't notice the druid until he was right next to them, for a few seconds they looked poised to interrupt as he offered no explanation for his actions, instead just approaching their wounded comrade and starting to whisper prayers to something.

Bas almost found his stomach turned by the man's injuries, both of his legs, and half of his torso, were a mass of burns and large, fluid-filled blisters, he also seemed to be having some sort of feverish hallucination, but was too weak to do much more than mutter and feebly twitch.

His friends apparently decided to wait and see what Bas was up to, because they permitted the druid to finish his incantation. As the healing energy washed through the guy, most of the burns were cured, as well as the blisters, but he was still feverish. It was obvious that some sort of poison, rather than just superficial injuries, was responsible for his condition.


Lorath, Anne, Tamora

Jonas seemed to be caught as off-guard as his friends by Bas' sudden actions, and the only reason he didn't try to stop him appeared to be that he was too surprised to know how to react, "Is that guy with you?" He spoke to those of the group who hadn't wandered off, "If he is, you may want to tell your friend to start speaking, he could get skewered acting like that, not everyone is as slow to draw their weapons as we are. Still, you've handed me some coin and Mr. Quiet decided to try and help out, I owe you information."

He seemed to think for a moment, then spoke again, "We went through most of the surrounding area, but not too far from the camp, what I can tell you is only what we saw a few miles from here, within easy walking distance. South and east, the terrain rises upwards and the going is tough, we didn't go far that way because, quite frankly, we're a bunch of lazy bastards. After heading a bit that way, though, one of my friends, Erik, decided to climb a tall tree and see if we were headed for anything interesting or if we should turn back. All he could see was a large canyon that cut through the jungle in a line from southwest to northeast, he said it looked pretty wide, and unbridged, too, so if you wanted to head in that direction, you'd have to go around it or down into it. Far beyond the canyon, he said he could see mountains."

"Southwest and west, the land turns swampy, we found some ruins in a bog, but the ones we found were half-submerged and looked like they'd been raided years ago. Since we'd already been almost dragged under five times by constrictor snakes living in that water by then, we decided to not go any further in that direction."

"After returning to camp for some fresh supplies, we headed northeast, encountering little except for a river that we didn't feel ready to ford, this one crossed through the jungle from southeast to northwest, nothing interesting about it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching us from the point we arrived there."

"Seeing neither bridges, paths or easy crossing points, we went west from there, following the river downstream for a while, then just heading straight west. It was easy going, since the terrain was dry, underbrush was light and things were sloping downwards. First we came across a clearing that I'd say was just about straight north of here, nothing interesting about that place, except that some sort of terrible snake-like creature decided to pick a fight with us there. Would you believe that thing had a mane, a mane of feathers of all things? Bizarre beast, we didn't even see it until it dropped out of a tree and landed right on top of Erik, thankfully we managed to get it off of him before it could wrap around him and crush him, since that seemed to be how it liked to fight."

"Finally we went further west from there, northwest from here, and that's when things went badly. We found this wide open idyllic-looking lake, it was one of the moest beautiful things I'd ever seen. The surface was almost completely flat, the water was blue and so clear you could see the bottom almost all the way to the middle. We saw a village on the north shore, but before we went there, poor Jan wanted to go swimming in the lake, he said he could see something on the bottom that he swore was a treasure chest."

"So he swims out there, almost halfway to the middle and sorta treads water at the surface for a bit, looking downwards, seemed like he was trying to spot the treasure chest again. He dove under, swam down about halfway to the bottom, seemed to panic and immediately headed for the surface. He almost made it back before it looked like something pulled him under, so I swam out there, trying to get him back to shore. I dove under, grabbed a hold of him and started heading back, but he was already halfway unconscious by the time I hit the surface again. While I was under, something brushed against me, I don't know what it was and I never want to feel it again. At first, it was... Soft, like it was hardly more than dense water, but immediately afterwards it felt like my leg and side were on fire, I only just managed to reach shore before they gave out on me completely. It's been two days since then, and it was only this morning that I could even walk." Jonas seemed to shudder at the memory, "That's all I know about the area, hope you feel you got your money's worth."


Tamora

Tamora seems few plants that she knows, obviously this isn't the sort of forest she comes from. She feels that she recognizes a bird call or two in the distance, but that's about all. Nonetheless, she's willing to wager that none of the plants in easy view of the clearing are likely to bite her head off or have useful properties.

Still, from listening to Jonas, it sounds as though the predators of this world, alien though they might look, use the same sort of tactics she would have expected from hunting creatures at home.

(OOC: Apologies for any low quality in this post, I've managed to get myself a bit of a head cold...)

[ 01-13-2007, 08:07 PM: Message edited by: PurpleXVI ]

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

(OOC: Conferred with Purple a bit during this for the quick NPC question)

Lorath listened intently, a hand on his chin, as Jonas recounted his experiences exploring the jungle and other nearby areas. This was a rather complete description of the immediately surrounding area, and he felt it to be well worth his gold and Bas's healing spell. He hoped neither would be necessary while exploring the information obtained through this.

When Jonas finished recounting his tale, Lorath dropped his hand down to his side and nodded. "Just one more question, if you don't mind," he began. "Did the village look to be recently inhabited?"

"I think I saw smoke from cooking fires, but I can't say for sure, it was a damn big lake, and it was almost on the opposite side from us," replied Jonas.

"Well, I thank you for the information you shared with us, and hope you and your companion have a quick and full recovery," he said sincerely.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Gan Vahnsen

The half snow elf had been the last one through the portal – actually, he had almost not come at all. At the last moment before he had gone through, he realised much to his disgust that one of his bootlaces had flown undone, and so, he had paused to fix it. Unfortunately, said bootlace would not cooperate and he discovered, much to his ire that it would need replacing, for it had split in several places.

While annoying, it was not a hard task to thread a new bootlace, though it was taxing. As tedious as it was, it was better to get it right now rather than to wait until he was through the portal and encountering only the gods’-knew-what. And so, he had paused to fix his bootlace. It had taken him all of five minutes, but of course, being at the end of the line meant that he was delayed further. But! He had ventured forth!

…and found himself on the other side of the portal. He arrived in time to catch the last part of Jonas’ speech to Lorath, though he did not know who either of them were. He recognised the group from before he entered the portal, and they seemed as good as any to travel with.

So he did.

Standing someway behind the elf Tamora, he waited in silence while Lorath finished talking to Jonas. When he had, the half snow elf ventured, “I am afraid I did not catch most of that, I was… delayed coming through.” he nodded to the others, and added cheerfully, though his tone was sardonic, “So, where to now, brave fellows?”

[Armen]

Tamora appeared distant as she listened intently to Jonas' story - her eyes unfocussing as she attempted to form an accurate mental picture of the terrain he described. When she heard Lorath thank the man she quickly took a step in front of Lorath, reaching out a hand as if ready to restrain Jonas "Wait!", she said "You tell us that on your second journey you head north west, reach river, turn west and then attacked in a clearing north of here. This is not possible."

[ 01-13-2007, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[Kazilan]

Bas looked over his patient once more before addressing the injured man's two companions.

"I've done what I can to heal his injuries, but it appears there is some sort of poison in his system. You will need to get him to a healer or find an antidote as quickly as you can." Bas leaned on his staff and glanced around the clearing, his eyes coming to rest on his own companions, people he knew by name only. He found it difficult to be comfortable around non-druids, and at times felt as if the common language was a foreign tongue.

The half-elf pressed a hand to his forehead and turned back to the two men.

"Before you go, have you seen any recognizable animals? Deer, boar, birds, creatures that you would take for granted?"

[dplax]

Anne Evasdottir

Anne had never seen anything like it - she had only heard of the existence of such portals in legends and stories of faraway lands. A group of people had just gone through a couple of minutes ago.

"Miss Kilorn!" The voice startled her out of her daydreaming.

"Yes?" she asked, half turning to face the man addressing her.

"Miss Kilorn, I know that you are Anne Evasdottir, travelling under an assumed identity. I'd prefer if you came with us quietly."

Without a single glance behind her, Anne bolted towards the strange opening. Rushing footsteps followed her, but she had enough of a head start. Her last thoughts before leaving her home world were a quick prayer for the well-being of her two brothers, whom she had no idea when she would next see. A loud curse followed her...obviously those that should have caught her weren't authorised to follow. Anne breathed a sigh of relief. Several months of being hunted by the law were finally over, but what a price she had to pay...

The first thing she felt was the extreme heat. After her recent run, she was short of breath, and even the simple act of breathing in this unfamiliar environment proved to be a quite an effort. Anne stood there, doubled over, catching her breath for several seconds before surveying those around her. It was quite a mixed bunch.