S53: The Abduction of Dorus

The SOP are victorious against a vegetative foe in a battle that could have easily been avoided. Mokon is still blind. Nom is barely conscious. Alora and Fay are mostly unscathed. The crew moves forward, toward their destination of a gas filled balloon. As they travel through the thick jungle Mokon feels a seering sensation completely through his right shoulder. He yells in pain and concern. Alora is the first to notice the bubbles -- twenty to thirty small bubbles of different sizes hovering, unmoving in mid-air. She instantly recognizes them as time dilation bubbles the like of which had robbed them of more then two and half years only weeks earlier. Alora signals to the group as she points out the danger. Mokon had unfortunately walked through a marble sized bubble that slipped through his armor and shoulder as easily as a hot knife through butter. They must stay on guard.

More carefully the group moves forward - Fay leading a blind Mokon and Alora holding the hand of an elderly dwarf named Fendrus. As they walk they notice more distortions in the fabric of time. One in particular, as large as a house appears and eats away the trees within. The group watches as trees, flowers, and bushes age, wither, and die in the blink of an eye. Clearly Milbin is having trouble controlling the thinning of the veil between realms -- the group is running out of time. They increase their speed toward their destination. 

Upon returning to JenI’s dilapidated shack their gas balloon seems intact and hovers precisely where they left it -- approximately 80 from the ground by rope and immovable rod. Fendrus speaks up. “Would you look at that… a balloon. I used to be an avid kiteer… a flier of large kites. Mind the wind currents and you can do some amazing flying.” Alora takes note of his knowledge and begins to ask questions about wind currents and how they could use them to better navigate their unruly balloon. Nom and Mokon have other ideas, quickly grabbing materials to build a rudder to, hopefully, aid them in traversing the winds. Nom misty steps and climbs her way to the gas balloon above. Remembering how to control the balloon, with the help of her friends , Nom lowers their mode of transportation softly to the ground. Mokon, knowing vampires are in their near future, is waiting with a barrel of water with the plan of creating as much holy water as he can. As the group boards their balloon Fay pauses. She can’t help but feel as though they are being watched. She spins around, but sees nothing of interest. The SOP take to the skies.

The trek cannot go fast enough. Dilation bubbles pop in and out of existence, even at this distance above the earth. Fendrus ends up being a great teacher of air travel. How unexpected. The crew catches gusts and currents by watching birds and similar telltale signs allowing them to make incredible time. During their travel Alora takes a moment to contact Dorus using a sending spell. She asks if he is alive and if so, where is he? The response is instant and someone cryptic, still, at least is alive. Dorus explains he is in a cell with three small children, he needs help. Alora and the rest of the group have no idea how to help Dorus at this time, maybe Milbin can shed some light. 

The group is close, they can see the telltale chasm they were required to traverse on their initial visit to Milbin. They do not want to deal with the intense guardian, nor do they want to deal with his plethora of arrows. They opt to find an alternate location to land. Luckily a cleared area is available upon the hilltop directly behind Milbin’s fallen tower. They easily land and even more easily travers down the hillside. Down the hatch they go continuing down a long steep stairwell ending up at the entrance to Milbin’s chamber. The entrance with multiple traps. Fortunately, they remember the traps as they had triggered most of them previously and easily evade switches and trapps. Rushing down the second set of stairs the group first notices an intense earthy smell, a smell that was not as pungent as it had been previously. They also hear a distraught Milbin and Banli. “Stay still Milbin. I’m trying to help. You might be trying to help me, but you are failing. Ouch. Stop pushing so intensely. I have to stop the bleeding. You are going to stop me living if you don’t…” Milbin’s words are cut short as the group rushes into view. The chamber is not as they remember. Every inch of the room is covered in rotting trees, brightly colored mushrooms and fauna, and lumps of dead flesh. A once gargantuan time dilation bubble has been replaced with a smaller, much angrier looking orb. The orb stretches and swells as bright colors spark and churn. Milbin lays on the ground bleeding, Banli kneels over him trying to stop the blood from flowing. Empty bottles of healing potions are scattered around the room. Alora immediately rushes to Milbin, healing his wounds. Without a thank you he stands and then inquires about the gem. Mokon and Alora help Chester to regurgitate the large diamond. Milbin leads them to the optimum placement. “Very good, this will work nicely… I believe. Now move.” Milbin begins to work. Sparks and bright lights pulse from his hands. 

The group asks what happened. “I don’t know exactly, all I know is that the orb pulsed when the gem cracked. Torin and Luscious disappeared. Presumably pulled into another realm… either that or completely disintegrated… hard to say at this point. These beasts escaped during the pulse and I did an adequate job of defending this place and myself. It could have gone better.” Milbin continues to manipulate the large gem. 

Alora casts another sending spell to see if Torin was still alive. “Alora, is that you. Yes I’m alive. And I made a friend. I don’t know where I am. There is a mean looking vampire here. Hurry.” 

Then Milbin stops his work and abruptly turns to Fay. “The shadowfell, I can sense it on you. When you work in this realm as long as I have you can tell. What is it.” Fay’s eyes widen as she produces a shard sliver she had found long ago at Huther’s lab yet had never determined it use. Milbin grabs the shard, produces a bright light above his head, and a large magnifying glass in front of his google covered eyes. “Yes, I know what this is. This is a travel shard. It connect mirrors. Think of it as a shortcut to pretty much anywhere. You mean to tell me you haven’t been using this to travel across the GrimShackle? How stupid. Use what is between your ears not your physique.” He flexes his muscles and waves it off disappointingly. He plops the shard back into Fay’s hand and goes back to work on the large red diamond. “Ridiculous. What wasted potential.” Fay seems cautious. Not sure of what this mirror travels means. And why did she see a large yellow eye when she tried the shard? Milbin responds. “I don’t know exactly how these work. Sometimes they connect mirrors directly. Other times they connect to a sort of hub in the mirror realm. A realm that skirts the edges of our material plane and the shadowfell.”

Banli spends most of her time trying to explain Milbin’s behavior and how he is very stressed.

Fendrus, who had been watching from and standing silent in the stairwell, approaches the group for the first time. Alora begins to introduce Fendrus to Milbin and Banli when Milbin speaks over her yet again. “Fendrus, old friend, is that you? What has it been 150 years? Where were you off to?” Fendrus' eyes light up and he begins to explain the last more than 100 years. Alora exclaims her confusion about the Milbin/Fendrus connection. “Oh yes, I know Fendrus Jarnigol. Who doesn’t. He’s only one of the wealthiest dwarves in all of the Grimshackle. He was the one that founded Jarnigol Holdings. His son has made it into quite the empire of wealth. It’s like you know nothing. Use your brain.” When Milbin mentions Fendrus’ son his eyes grow even wider as he begins to ask Milbin question after question about his boy. The two wander off in discussion. 

During all of these conversations Mokon takes a little time to test the boundaries of this newly-collapsed, dimensionally-ripped orb. Body after body he throws the felled bodies into the pulsating rift. The bodies are ripped to shreds, each spinning and tearing before disappearing completely. Even Mokon knows jumping into this orb would most certainly be instant death. Still, there are more things to throw in this thing as he starts to huck trees, mushrooms, broken tables, basically anything that is not nailed down.

Nom and Alora insist that Fay at least try the shard again. Fay does her best to sway the group to other means, but is eventually persuaded. Fay takes out her hand mirror. She moves the shard closer. The shard begins to frost. Fays fingertips grow cold. Upon touching the shard to the mirror the reflective surface begins to warble as if made from water until it solidifies once more. Fay can just make out something else behind the mirror's surface, but what lies behind, she is unsure. She brings her face closer to the mirror until it submerges. She feels as though she is being pulled. Her brain tells her body she is rushing through space, but her body tells her brain her feet are steady on the ground. Then her body equalizes. In front of her, she sees a huge stone monument with two large beams going upward. In the center a glowing shimmering portal -- much like the mirror's surface when touching the shard. A campfire flickers. A small tent is nestled between stones. Fay notices the outlined shadow of two figures between herself and fire -- a small humanoid figure with large pointed ears and a smaller long haired creature. The larger creature slowly pets the smaller. Outside the campfire’s light is total darkness. A darkness that looks strange  -- almost inky. Fay pulls her head from the mirror -- feeling the rush of momentum once more. She is once more in Milbin’s chamber and assured the group there must be another way -- giving very brief detail of what she had seen.

Milbin is still dumbfounded and the dumbfoundedness of the group and lets them know of his disapproval. Alora, who is not entirely happy with Milbin’s very matter-of-fact and degrading attitude, begins to give Milbin a very verbal tongue lashing. In return, Milbin, not interested in what Alora has to say, snaps his fingers. An opaque purple hued dome appears over him. Alora knows it is a dome of silence. Her words fall on deaf ears. But not for long. Messaging directly into Milbin’s brain, avoiding his dome completely. Milbin’s shoulders droop as he is forced to hear every… last… word because not only does the dome stop sounds from coming in, but stops a spellcaster from speaking the words to a spell. Alora finishes her thoughts, flips her brightly-colored, patch-embroidered cape, and walks away with a smile.

Now the group must decide what to do. Do they take a chance in the mirror realm, or do they hop in their balloon and head to the druid grove that is potentially still overtaken by an army of angry gnolls.

Dorus Arc

Dorus wakes with a startle. He is starving and incredibly weak; which is strange as he had just recently fed on Fay. As his eyes adjust to the darkness he finds himself in a dank cell. A large iron-maiden is bolted to one wall, a cage sits behind him, and a wall of bars lets trickles of light in from large braziers. He smells blood and hears the beating of three hearts. As his head spins around he sees the cage houses three small children. The children are nestled in the corner trying to muffle their cries. On the floor Dorus notices three pale creatures circling the cage. The creature's pale skin almost looks mummified. Long-sharp fangs protrude from lipless jaws. Although exhausted Dorus quickly dispatches these weak foes. And although starving, he refuses to feed on children.

Dorus approaches the childrens cage asking them questions about this place and potential escape. The children are as equally confused as Dorus. One of the children, a larger boy, is willing to speak. “Mister, are you dangerous? You don’t look so good.” Dorus explains he is not feeling great, but he is no danger to the children.

Dorus walks to the barred wall and pulls on the large bars of the iron door. It does not budge. He hits the door with his large loxodon frame. It does not move -- he is too weak and the bars too strong. Looking into the adjacent room he sees a stone table. On the table a body. The body is flayed open. Bones and internal organs exposed -- strangely very little blood. Then he notices two bottles of thick red liquid on the table alongside the corpse. Dorus can smell blood -- not fresh blood, but blood nevertheless. Investigating from a distance his eyes widen in shock. He knows that robe, he recognizes the face of the corpse -- Luscious, the mage that was helping Milbin stabilize the rift. Luscious the mage who owned the magic shoppe in Therack. Looking around further he sees another cell, much like the one he resides, past the room with Luscious body. He also noticed a large sheet draped over what appears to be a piece of furniture or a crate. At the base of the sheet, broken pieces of mirror.

Time to test the lockpicking skills. Bone after bone Dorus tries to find one that may be of use. But all the bones have withered and are incredibly weak. Rooting around in his fanny focuses on finding a lockpick and a key. Both items just happen to be there, unfortunately both do not help in picking the lock -- a combination of wrong key and bad lockpicking skills.

Dorus' trunk lashes out trying to reach the bottles of blood. His trunk lands just short of his intended target. He yells back to the children in the cage asking if they would help Dorus if he freed them. “Sure mister, we’ll help. You ain’t gonna eat us are you?” Dorus assured them once more he will do his best. The cage of the children is much weaker than the iron bars of the cell. Dorus easily breaks the lock. When he does so the most vocal of the children asks. “What do you want me to do mister?” Dorus asks him to slip through the bars of the cell. The boy begins to squirm and wiggle his way through the bars. As he does so, the tight fit causes the boy to gash his arm deeply on a sharp edge of one of the cell’s bars. Dorus fangs extend fully. Dorus feels the spikey teeth on his trunk break through the skin. His pupils collapse to small pin pricks of black. Dorus, afraid of what he might do, rushes to a hanging pair of shackles in the back of the room. He fumbles and fights to chain himself to the wall. No key means no locking the shackles. Dorus fights the urge with all his might until finally he regains control. The boy squeezes his way through the bars. Dorus gestures to the decanters of blood. “Yuck what happened to this fella? All his bones are showing mister.” As the boy stares horrified at Luscious corpse he accidently knocks the first bottle to the floor. It shatters as blood spews across the floor into cracks and crevices. The boy freezes. Turns slowly in Dorus' direction and quietly says. “Oops.” Dorus sighs, explains it is fine, and tells the child to get the other one. The boy walks to the other side of the table still infatuated with the defiled body on the table. “This is really gross, Mister. I can see all his insides. They are on the outside.” Dorus forcefully tells the boy to pay attention as he does not want a repeat from the last bottle. Picking up the bottle carefully the child begins to walk toward Dorus, but the draw of death is too strong as his head slowly begins to turn back to the corpse. Frustrated Dorus uses thaumaturgy to yell for the boy to pay attention. The child startles almost dropping the vial once more, but is able to maintain his grip. He hands the much needed sustenance to Dorus who greedily drinks it down. The blood is old… stale… unsatisfying. But at least it takes the edge of his hunger. The other two children rush from the cage. They are smaller so they easily fit through the cell bars. They cower in a corner of the adjacent room. 

Feeling slightly refreshed, Dorus decides to break the lock instead. Over the next couple hours he is able to loosen one of the spikes from the iron maiden. Jamming it deep into the door lock he begins to beat the spike with his hammer. Deeper and deeper the spike goes until it becomes one with the door. Dorus hears the lock groan and break.

Dorus then asks the boy to look around the other cell for anything strong. “Sure thing mister.” Scrambling to the other cell, which appears empty, the boy begins to dig around, tossing ancient bones aside looking for something of use. He does not. As the boy walks out explaining his lack of findings something else crawls out after him at an incredibly slow pace. Dorus sees it is another of the mummified spawn, but knowing how easily they are dispatched he does not worry -- he’ll just wait until it gets closer and then dispatch it like the others. 

Dorus hears a small voice once more. “Mister, my arm really hurts. I cut it real deep.” Dorus stops what he is doing. Rips off a piece of his robe and hands it to the boy who in-turn wraps it around the cut on his forearm. “Thanks mister. It feels better already.” The power of suggestion is a great thing, now if Dorus could use it to open a door.  

Looking around he re-notices the clothed piece of furniture, and asks the boy to unsheath it. A broken mirror lies behind. Dorus helps the boy move the mirror closer to the cell bars where Dorus methodically repairs it with mending. The creature is close now. The boy begins to taunt it to get it to move closer. The boy stumbles as the creature hisses and grabs his leg. A large hammer stops him short. “That was close mister. Real close.”

Frustrated, Dorus tries yet another approach. He rips off the remaining bottom of his robe, wets it, and wraps it around the bars. He then finds the strongest bone he can find, sticks it into the piece of cloth and turns. The bone snaps. Just then Dorus hears footsteps. In walks a short, balding, purple skins creature pushing a wheelbarrow. “How did you kids get out? Ah, no matter, not my job. Clean up the bones cause more kiddos are inbound. That’s what I’m doing, cleaning up the bones.” Dorus speaks out asking the creature to let him out. “Not my job.” As the creature begins to pile bones into his cart. Dorus has no luck convincing the purple being to help him, and he seems very unconcerned about the children having escaped as he continues on with his work disappearing around a corner with his cart full of bones.

Dorus remains stuck, feeling somewhat hopeless, and with no current plan for escape.