His eyes opened, there was no sun above him and the sky mad
an eerie red glow. The silver lining of the clouds he remembered was replaced
by a bright orange glow outlining the moistureless forms. He looked around and
saw that the landscape he had awoken into was just as barren and lifeless as
the sky. The dirt he was lying on was of a dark ombre color and he could see
what remained of a camp. Stones were arranged in a crude circle and some traces
of footprints were still visible. He sat up and ran his hand through his thin
wispy hair. He noticed that across a strip down the middle of his head there
was a ropy scar rather than his hair. As his hand moved over the new surface of
his head he remembered exactly where he was.
There was that priest who had given Lyzzar the key to the
portal and asked him to go through it to defeat whatever aberrations had been
using the portal. He, Lyzzar, Scarlan, Poofus, and Sintori had gone through the
portal. He had caught a glimpse of the barren landscape but before he had even
said a word the ground shook and rose up around him, the last thing he could
remember was the red sky disappearing and darkness engulfing him as red stone
walls rose up around him.
Now he was no longer trapped in those walls and as he
surveyed the scene more carefully he could see some traces of his companions’
presence here. He was sitting at the mouth of a canyon. In one direction there
was just two sheer walls made of red stone that grew in size the farther he
looked. He shuddered, He had just gotten out from between such rock that he did
not want to return to the mercy of whatever land this was. He looked the other
way to the expanse that unfolded from the edge of the canyon. Here the
landscape was littered with small boulders, much like the ones that the camp
had been made of. There were also pools of green liquid scattered around the
landscape. He looked closely at one as he saw ripples going through the acid.
Two stalk like eyes emerged from the acid followed by eight small legs as the
creature moved away from one pool of acid and toward another one. A hiss came
from that direction as a larger creature emerged and snapped at the smaller
one. After a minute of jabs and posturing the smaller one returned to his pool,
the stalks of his blackish eyes bobbing above the water.
Bis stood, the small crabs would not be much of a danger to
him but they would not be pleasant to deal with either. They lived their lives
in acid, they had to have some sort of protection or special ways of survival
and Bis did not want to find out what they were. He had seen in the distance
what looked like the ruins of a camp of some sort. He could see what was left
of the watchtowers from where he stood. He set off in that direction, giving
the pools of acid a wide berth.
He could soon make out a few more details about the camp. The
walls created a semi-circle around the camp ending with the two watch towers.
Inside of the crumbling outer wall he could see one main building in the
center. It was made of the stones that were abundant and the roof was made of
something else that he could not identify. To the right of the main building he
could lee cages, many of them. They were empty but judging by all of the bodies
scattered around the clearing in front of the main bidding, they had not gotten
very far. To the left of the building he could see two strange figures. It
looked like they were fighting but he could not make it out too clearly.
He cautiously advanced to the camp and as he did the two
figures came into focus. One of them looked like a large ape with armor on. He
was cautiously attacking a creature that Bis had never seen before. It had an
open maw and long head with eyes that were barely visible just above it’s
mouth. Where it’s head connected to its neck Bis could see quills growing out
of its body, small at first but they got bigger up to about a foot long. It
also had a tail that was spiked and bout as long as its whole body. It was
currently trying to lure the ape to attack it on the side within reach of the
spikes or the spiked tail. The ape however was staying in front, preferring to
deal with the teeth and claws than the quills.
Bis cautiously moved closer hoping that he would not be
noticed. As soon as he judged himself to be within range he pulled out his
crossbow. Moving as quietly as possible he wound it up and took aim at the
quill creature thinking that he would rather face the ape than something
covered in quills. His aim was true and the bolt lodged itself into what he
suspected was the creature’s ribcage, hopefully in between the ribs to cause
some internal damage as well. He quickly reached for another bolt, not taking
his eyes off of the action in front of him. The ape had taken advantage of the
distraction and had smashed the thing’s skull with one of its great fists. The
creature had retaliated but the damage had been done and by the time Bis had
reloaded the crossbow the ape had just about taken down the quill creature so
Bis took aim at the ape. He let his bolt fly and just as he pulled the trigger
the ape turned to look at him and the bolt lodged itself deep in its eye
killing it almost instantly.
The two creatures were now both down and Bis approached
cautiously. He looked around the encampment and did not see much more than he
had not seen before. There were a lot of bodies lying around, most were covered
in rags and a few others had armor on them. To the left of the main building he
saw what looked like the remnants of the quarry. There were many stones but he
could see nothing of value. He decided to enter the main building. It was a one
story building and quite barren. He found some food but dared not eat it as it
seemed inedible to him. The inhabitants of this hell could probably eat it but
it could be poison to anyone else. He looked for any signs of his companions.
He had noticed the wolf claw marks that were a sure sign that Sintori had been
in the fray outside. He saw a staircase leading down to the basement and
descended it slowly, listening to see if he could hear anything but the two
creatures that were outside seemed to be the last survivors of whatever
happened here. He was soon able to see the whole basement. There were two large
open portals that seemed to be flickering. On the ground in front of the portal
he saw half of the body of one of his companions.
The druid Sintori had
been ripped in half and the last of his seeping blood seemed to power the
portal and was quickly running out. He looked around the room. He had to figure
out which portal he should use, the red or the blue. Which one had his
companions used. He frantically looked around as the portals both flickered and
got smaller as he searched. He knew that he had little time. He approached the
blue portal, he inspected it, looking through it as much as he could but was
not able to see anything. He cursed under his breath, no clues here. He turned
to the red portal but caught a disturbance in the blue portal. To his surprise
a large clawed hand emerged from the portal dripping what seemed to be water.
He moved quickly, not wanting to meet whatever was on the other end of that
claw that was pulling itself through the portal. He quickly jumped through the
red portal as he saw a large toothed face emerge from the blue portal then
everything disappeared.
