Past The Gate

[Volthawk]

OOC thread
---

The ruin the portal was found in was one of the worst in the area, most of the aged stone lying around it in various states of intactness, the whole area covered in strange, razor-sharp vines. The team that found it have cut a pathway through the vines, with sentries at the end of the path keeping watch for the monstrosities that stalk this old, ruined city. Inside, you go down, into a large underground room - this one is in far better state, with small insectoid constructs flitting around repairing any damage to both the existing structure - the walls appear to be reinforced by criss-crossing iron bars - and the equipment set up in the room by the Order. And indeed, the warforged that make up the 10-man team are no exception, and even now you see one with those constructs repairing it while it works on some weapon. By the sides portal - built of obsidian with strange writing covering it, seemingly taking some parts from the various elemental and extraplanar languages, not particularly large, with enough space for around two or so normal-sized humans to fit into side-by-side at once - a pair of warforged stand, and another stands in front of it, rather close, seemingly examining it.

[gunnar11]

Norm entered the room, trying to remember every little detail about it. He saw the constructs, the warforged, the different objects in the room. He then approached the obsidian, looking at it closely. What was it? What could it do?
He decided to ask the Warforged:
"Uhhm... Hey there... Could anyone of you tell me what it says on this obsidian here? Or maybe tell me how many persons I will be going through the gate with? Thanks..."

He looked for words, maybe phrases he could recognize. He also looked at the others in the room. Were these the ones he would be travelling with, or was one of the warforged on the team too? Was there someone missing?

[Eledragon]

A tall (for her), beautiful elf strides in. she moves with the gracefulness of a cat and the silence of an owl. she has long, blonde hair tied in a neat ponytail, and green eyes. a charred black bow with two squirrel carvings lies upon her back. she bears an adamantine blue breastplate and simple archers' gloves.

she says cooly "I believe I will be going with you. my name is Aren. I hope it will be pleasant enough to travel with you." her voice was ice, and you wonder at the fact that there isn't frost on her lips.

[TurtleKing]

Floating around to keep from disturbing the creatures a small figure lands near you. She has skin as a pale blue with tow short nobs for horns and a pair of wings. After applying the finishing touches to one of her maps she puts it away before addressing you. Hello my name is Aery. I could check to see I know those are. Aery then pulls a small book going over to the writing to try to identify them.

Spoiler

Show

Using Tome of Worldly Might for Know Planes.
Know Planes: (1d20+10)[27]
Know Arcana: (1d20+9)[16]
Also seeing if its written Auran, Terran, or just Common.

[Volthawk]

The examining warforged doesn't turn around to look at you, and talks in a quite clipped, emotionless voice. "Instructions. Directions. Information. Who made it. Why it was made. Where it goes. Four person team unless problems occur." Once Aery speaks, it nods, still not turning around. "Assistance would be useful. Language appears to be a hybrid of our current languages. Unravelling it takes time. Don't have a very good understanding of the extraplanar languages."

Studying the portal, and using the information from what parts of the writing she can decode, Aery can work out that it appears to use other planes in the travel, despite apparently it ending up in a location on the same plane - she can make out writings about the Elemental Planes of Air and Earth written solely in the language of those planes, seemingly a...deal, a contract of some sort with the elementals of those planes. Norm can also see the same with the denizens of the Plane of Fire. Some of the arcane languages and runes along the portal seem to be similar to those used for various types of teleportation magic around in the world.

[bindin garoth]

Evzen

Evzen decides to stay back, letting the others inspect the ruins. Stuff like this had never really interested him anyways, why should he start now. However, he does figure it'd be good to introduce himself to the part, and walks over to them.

"Name's Evzen. I'm good with mechanics and stuff, and soem arcane stuff, but not runes or anything like that. Good fighter too, can beat down the best of em'." He says in his slightly rough voice.

[TurtleKing]

Aery
Alright have something. This "Door" can take you around this world in an instant. How would be using the elemental planes as the power and such. Basically put this will teleport you around the world reducing the time it takes to get places. I will be using what ever is at the end of the other side as the origin point for my maps. So anyone know hoe this works? Once we do then should pick a non dangerous sounding location to go to.

[gunnar11]

Norm
It says something about a connection with the Fire Elemental plane. We should care a bit more before entering. Cause, you know, Fire Plane and such...
Norm says before continuing reading. Then he remembers he has to be polite, to introduce himself:
Hi, I'm Norm
He tries to sound friendly, but he's, you know, a half-giant....

[TurtleKing]

Well anything else you can tell about this gateway before we use it? Part of the identification process of how it works is to use it.

[Volthawk]

The warforged nods. "Planar travel. Interesting. Only has one location. Few of squad are on other side. Keeping portal secure. Seems to be a different landmass. Not this continent."

Another warforged, the one that was being repaired, looks up. "Yeah. I was over there, and I didn't recognise it. Plus it was all overgrown and jungle-like, but was also coastal. And you don't get proper jungle by the coast around here."

[bindin garoth]

Evzen

Evzen was getting impatient. All this talk about where the portal lead too and what could be over there bored him. He hadn't got his fighting skills by being careful; he had gotten this far by charging head-first and fighting his way to the top!

"Are you all ready to go?" he says, clearly ready to jump head-first through the portal.

[gunnar11]

Norm

"Last one there pays the first inter-portal drink!" Norm says as he goes through the portal with his loyal steed. He has his equipment ready, in case he has to fight.

[Eledragon]

Aren merely strides through without a worry in the world.

[TurtleKing]

Well away we go. Aery floats in after the others.

[bindin garoth]

Evzen

Evzen follows the others, excited for what is to come.

[Volthawk]

The portal enters into what first of all appears to be a small ledge on the side of a cliff of some kind. In front of you is a vast ocean, stretching off out of sight, while the cliff itself is overgrown with various plants. Looking up, you see huge trees stretching over the edge of the cliff, while below you you see huge pieces of long-rusted metal of some kind amongst more plants, for which even hitting the sea seems to not have any effect. There are some fresh-looking wooden walkways along one side of the cliff, going around the cliff and up.

[Eledragon]

Aren stands staring at the sea for a long time, then looks towards the trees. with a confident stride she sets a brisk pace along the walkway, calling "There may be civilization here, and I would like to get moving!"

[TurtleKing]

Hmm. Feel that breeze. Quite lovely. Well lets go. Aery floats around enjoying the breeze before heading up.

[gunnar11]

"Hmmm, interesting. Didn't expect the sea here.
Let's go! By the way, who's the one paying our inter-portal drinks? Norm says, as he gets moving and takes his mount along him.

[bindin garoth]

"He who brings it up shall pay it." Evzen says with a grin. Truth be told, he was surprised by the landscape, having not been expecting this. However, he quickly decided its best to explore and continues along the track with the others.

[Volthawk]

You climb the somewhat rickety wooden walkways, coming out into a clearing among the thick vegetation. Up here, you can see strange flying creatures - segmented things, about a foot long, with tiny, scintillating feathers covering the segments, apart from a column of striped chitinous plating running up the back of the creatures and between the wings, large in comparison to the rest of the creatures, on the segment behind the head. On the other segments are legs, the first four larger than the smaller pairs on the segments further back, and the creature has a long beak. They seem peaceful, however, seemingly eating out of immense flowers that ring the edge of the clearing. In the middle of the clearing, one of the warforged stands, examining one of the creatures - although this one is much, much larger, larger than all of you and larger than the warforged, which seems to be taking the approach of looking at it bit by bit. It also appears to have not noticed you.

[Eledragon]

Aren immediately draws her bow and drops into a stealth stance. she motions to the others to stay quiet and approaches the creature.

Spoiler

Show

hide: (1d20+17)[28]
move silent: (1d20+17)[34]

[Volthawk]

Both the creature and the warforged examining it don't notice Aren. A few of the smaller ones do notice her, but after stopping and either watching her or listening out for her, go back to their business.

[Eledragon]

As she gets closer, she eyes the strange creature thoughtfully, wondering what it could be.

Spoiler

Show

taking 20 for spot+search, equaling 23 and 21, respectively.

[bindin garoth]

Evzen decides to hang back, letting the others move forward. He was not good at moving silently, and decides it best for him to hang back a little ways.

[TurtleKing]

Aery floats closer slowly almost has if inching along to get a better look.

[Volthawk]

As Aren gets closer, the creature seems to notice her, looking up. This prompts the warforged to turn around as well, looking to see what startled the beast. He notices the group other than Aren, and waves.

"Ah, you're the people here to have a look around here, right?"

[bindin garoth]

Evzen, noticing the warforged waving, decides it to be safe and moves forward.
"Yes we are. How are things going here?"

[gunnar11]

Norm also approached now. His horse seemed to be a little uneasy, but after some quiet whispers coming from Norm, he seemed to calm down, now just eating some grass.
"I'd like to know a bit about the surroundings, threats to be found, maybe a map, any info you could give us." Norm mentions, after Evzen.

[Eledragon]

Calmly rolling up out of her feline stance, she states "Yes, we are. What was the nature of that beast?"