Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

"I doubt any more than a handful would investigate, and those only the ones that stumble across the house and smell the blood. None of the demons that were here remembered anything about any of them being on patrol. As for more nearby, there are always more, but no strongholds within a block or so. This was as far out as most of the demons are willing to go for now, until they bring up sufficient numbers for a full invasion."

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

"Thank you, you've been very helpful. Somehow I think we'll meet again, Mathias."

Ashley begins moving toward the stairs, figuring that the mages on the upper floor would be more useful to the old wizard then the non-magical sort.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Matthias replies; "You are welcome. And that would not surprise me. Farewell for now. Look for the skinniest ones." And, with that, he walks out the door Ashley had just come in through, leaving her alone once more, if only in body. She moves on up the stairs, ending up on a landing with hallways that branched in all three directions except behind her, which led down the stairs. The one directly in front of her branched left and right after a short distance, while the ones directly left or right from her current position dead ended about thirty feet away. Both halls to her sides had a pair of doors, all of which were wide open, though the view from where she was standing didn't allow her to see anything within the rooms. The hallway was gloomy, but not so much that she couldn't see. The floor was also covered in blood, likely from the corpses that littered the area. All of them looked the same to her; thin, gray skinned demons, but she figured that, from what Matthias had said, the mages she was looking for would be thinner than the rest.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

The black door, Mathias said...

Figuring one direction is as good as another, Ashley moves straight ahead, choosing the right path at the branch. The excessive gore turns her stomach a bit, but for the most part she is able to ignore it. Her thoughts wander, not focusing on the slaughtered demons.

I've never actually seen Mathias fight, have I? That would be a thing worth seeing once.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Ashley passes by more dead demons as she heads down the hall, all obviously killed in hand to hand combat due to the way they'd either been slashed apart or crushed as though by a heavy blow. As she steps over one more bloody mess, Ashley reaches the T in the hall, and turns right. Two more doors, one of which is black, line the hall on the right, while the left side has only a few decorations hanging from the wall, as well as a single large broken window.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

As she walks down the hallway, Ashley gives no more then a cursory glance to the decorations, arrowing in on the black door. Her hand wanders to her gun hilt as she pushes it open, but with Mathias's reassurance that there are no demons about she doesn't bother drawing it.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Ashley indeed has no need for her weapon, as the demons in the room behind the black door are all very dead. They also seem slightly thinner than the other demons. A small rat squeeks in surprise as she goes through the open doorway, startling her somewhat, and runs under the nearby bed as fast as its short legs could carry it.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Ashley ignores the rat and pulls out the three devices the old wizard had given her.

I should save one to use later, in case I find something particularly interesting.

She two demons who look they were mages, and approaches the first one, applies the device, and stands back to see it work. Then she repeats the process with the second mage. With that done, she takes a closer look at the room and its contents.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

As she stabs the pointed ends of the magical devices into the demon corpses, they begin to emit a quiet high pitched ping every few seconds. after a moment, they release a constant tone of about the same pitch, and the corpses that had the devices on them simply disappear after about a second. The immediately annoying whine goes with them, and Ashley is left alone with only one more dead demon.

The room is a sparse bedroom, with no tables or chairs, only an empty nightstand and a small bed. The bed is clean and covered with warm-looking blankets, though Ashley can't for the life of her figure out why the demon mages might have been in this room. The bed obviously hadn't been disturbed, and there was no place for them to sit. She doubted that they would have tried to hide in here, as their was no way out other than the door she had entered from.

Perception: Success.

Suddenly, Ashley feels strange, as though there is something else in the room, something she isn't seeing. She closes her eyes and concentrates for a moment, trying to detect whatever it was by thought rather than by sight, and feels a tug toward one of the walls, as though something was on it or behind it.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

A secret panel? Or just something in the next room...

Ashley moves closer to the wall in question to see if there's anything unusual about it before she tries another room. A secret panel could easily explain the otherwise incongruous placement of the mage bodies. And a black door surely means something as well...

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Ashley hesitates for a moment instinctively before feeling along the wall where her instincts directed, and is only a little surprised when her hand goes through the wall as if it wasn't even there. That patch of the wall was, apparently, an illusion of some sort, though Ashley had no idea if it covered the whole wall or what was on the other side.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Well, it's not like a simple illusion would fool Mathias, right?

Ashley recalls the feeling that there was *someone* else in the room, and makes herself ready to defend herself against as she walks through the illusory wall.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Ashley passes through the illusion wall, finding that it does encompass the entire wall, and enters another small room. The room is about five feet wide and twenty feet long, with one end only a few feet to her right, while the other ends in a strange glowing gateway to her left. The gate is made of shiny black stone, and is covered in glowing green runes, while the magical portal within is glowing dark red.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

"Well now, that's different."

Ashley hesitates only a moment before drawing her gun and stepping up to the portal, intent on trying to pass through. At the last minute she hedges her bets with a thought intended to be overheard.

Mathias, if you're reading my thoughts... I'm going to go through this portal, behind the false wall in the room with the dead mages.

Of course, the daemon had said he wasn't reading her mind...

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

Ashley gets no response to her thoughts, though she can't tell if it was because he hadn't heard her or because he simply didn't feel the need to respond was beyond the young mage. Ashley steps through the crimson gateway, and immediately feels an odd weightless sensation as the world goes black. It remains that way for several seconds, leaving Ashley alone in total darkness.

Then, however, the world returns to normal. Sort of. The light blinks on once more for Ashley to find herself in a small stone building that was in rather shabby condition. Several holes in the walls and ceiling reveal patches of unfamiliar twilight sky, with no sunlight bu not in total darkness either. Patches and bands of color dot the sky, but do not cover all of what she can see. A closed stone door stands in front of her, but when she turns around, she can find no trace of any gateway back to the building she'd been in.

(Also you get 2 exp for finding the mages.)

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Ashley curses under her breath for failing to consider the possibility of a one-way portal.

The sky is wrong. That means... I'm either really far to the north or in another realm altogether. Damn. And considering who was guarding the portal this probably isn't the realm of fluffy bunnies. Double damn.

Ashley looks around the building, trying to decide on a course of action.

What I should do is go invisible and stay that way until I can find a way back.

Two major obstacles stand in the way of this lofty goal, though. First, Ashley realizes that doorways into her own world will hardly be common - quite possibly there is only the rift, and that is sure to be guarded on both sides. Second, there is a large stone doorway between her and any way out. No point being invisible if you have to open a large door immediately afterward.

So she opened the door just wide enough to slip through sideways, and peered through the crack thus exposed, to see what lay on the other side.

(Also, I assume you'd mention if it was suddenly cold. An Aurora, a large latitudinal movement, and especially a move to the other N/S hemisphere would give an unfamiliar sky and strange colors, but you'd pretty much need to have cold as well. >.>)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 40

(Yep. It's room temperature. You are, indeed, in hell. The aurora is a magical construct rather than a natural phenomenon in this case.)

Ashleys peeks through the crack in the surprisingly easy to open door reveals more of the same. A strange, starless, twilight sky with an aurora of brilliant colors that she would have admired under different circumstances. The ground is dry dirt, with no distinguishing characteristics, and no sign of any plants. She can see other buildings on hills nearby, all made of immaculate white stone, though many seem to be in various states of disrepair. The dirt doesn't seem to be packed, and isn't stirring, so she doesn't believe that there is any wind either. Nothing living makes itself known, demonic or otherwise.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

No plants. Considering what happens to plants near a portal on our side, I'm not actually sure if that's a bad thing. And if there's nothing at all moving... then anything that does move will stand out like a sore thumb. Time to stick to the plan, I guess...

Ashley casts the familiar spell to make herself invisible, and slips out the door, closing it behind her. Outside, she around again, hoping to see some sign of a way back.

This is where the demons come from, which I suppose makes it a hell. So then why am I more unsettled by the fact that there's no clouds, no wind... no storms?

(Cast and maintain invisibility, level 3 Light (trans))

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Spoiler

Ashleys Status: HP = 45, P = 55, EP = 36/40, Invisible

Casting: Automatic Success.
Stealth: Success.

Ashleys spell succeeds, making her practically invisible, and she slowly creeps out of the small stone hut the portal had dropped her in. She is glad of her spell immediately when a trio of men dressed in shabby armor and with swords at their belts come around the corner. None of them seem to notice her invisible form, and they pass by where she stands with bated breath, whispering quietly to one another so low that Ashley cannot hear what they say. They begin descending the hill that the hut stood upon, moving toward another much larger structure not far away. Meanwhile, Ashley spotted the glowing outline of the main gateway out of here a long distance off, almost out of sight, in mostly the same direction that the men were going.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Thunder in the Distance (thetwo)

Damn. That's... a long way.

Ashley follows the men at a safe distance towards the large house and the gate beyond.

I suppose it's possible that there's other doorways like the one I used, but in the other direction. And maybe they aren't guarding the gate from this side. I mean, they can't really expect an attack...