Dudley felt the pain in his arm and was glad that his luck was good and that was all that was done to him. But it is always best to stay out of reach if possible, so after the creatures disappeared he moved to the rack of slings. "Sheilin guide my hand as I choose weapons that will serve your servant well." He then pocketed a hand sling, three sacks of stones and grabbed a well sizes pole sling.

Feeling he was better prepare to face the "Round Two" creature he heard the other discuss leaving. "We are better prepared to face whatever comes out of that pillar now. But luck has been with us and we have gained in each room, so let us see what awaits in the next room." The Cleric followed the party as they head to the portal by the bows.

OOC: Check and read your PM's before posting to this room. Very important.

You find yourself in a wood paneled room that is quite hot inside. You are all sweating profusely. It is a room about 10 by 15 in size. The walls are lined with wooden benches. There is a stack of 10 towels neatly folded on one bench. The portal is behind you and opposite to the portal is a shimmering blue “curtain” that is transparent but apparently made of energy. Beyond the curtain is another larger room with what looks like a sunken pool.

Everyone seems a bit startled, even flustered. Ivan looks around mystified, “Oh sorry dudes. I ain’t ever been in here before. We need to get out of the heat before I...before...I...” and then he moves to one of the benches and falls asleep – snoring loudly. As he snoozes his fur is starting to stand on end making him look poofier.

Mal wakes with a gasp, his saber flashing in a vicious strike to his right, fending off the demonic rope before scrambling backwards until he touches a wall, breathing hard and uneasy, and covered in moisture, a mixture of sweat and humidity.


Eyes flashing side to side, he slowly realizes where he was. Dropping his saber, he takes a moment to catch his bearings, resting his head in his hands. Had that been a simple dream? It had seemed too real. Too Lucid. He had seen her dying before his eyes. This was a vision! She was in danger, and he had to save her. He knew this to be true. Slowly lowering his hands, he glances over the rest of the party, curious as to if they had made it through without incident.

Dudley looked around the room to see that everyone seems a bit startled, even flustered. Ivan looks around mystified, “Oh sorry dudes. I ain’t ever been in here before. We need to get out of the heat before I...before...I...” and then he moves to one of the benches and falls asleep – snoring loudly. As he snoozes his fur is starting to stand on end making him look poofier.

Dudley addressed to company. "Before we move on did anyone else have strange experience as you pasted through the portal? If you did we should compare them before we pass through to another room. If we are lucky we'll learn them...I for one just faced a demonic creature trying to destroy my Goddess. She asked me to save her.....I did not succeed."

After stepping into the hot steamy room, Alôndas actually staggered to the side out of the way of the others behind him. The vision he had not only effected him physically but mentally as well. It seemed so real; was it a dream or a vision of things to come. He looked at the others as they appeared and he saw they too seemed shaken by their travel. This was an unexpected side effect of the transportation; one he could easily forgo.

Dudley addressed to company. "Before we move on did anyone else have strange experience as you pasted through the portal? If you did we should compare them before we pass through to another room. If we are lucky we'll learn them...I for one just faced a demonic creature trying to destroy my Goddess. She asked me to save her.....I did not succeed."
“I too had a … vision,” the Mage spoke up as he straightened himself, recovering from the shock of the experience,I was in a room and found my own body, it was dead, but then it came to life and drained the life from me. It was not a pleasant experience.”

He listened to the others, that might share their own visions, as he walked over to the shimmering blue curtain that appeared to allow egress to some sort of steamy relaxation room. He slowly reached out and touched the blue 'energy' curtain with the tip of his staff. If there was no adverse reaction, he would extend his hand through it and then step on through if everything seemed all right.

OOC: Backposting to our battle with the claw-beasties.

Alôndas casts a fast spell as the third beast moves towards him and Wembley. He cast a magic missile which strike the beast unerringly but does not slow him down. Wembley finished his casting right after the Syl and the Beast starts to stumble and then falls to ground - asleep.
“Alright!” Wembley calls out as the creature stumbles to the ground. “Haha! That was a nice bit of team work there, Alan! You’ll have to teach me that spell sometime. You see the look on his face when you hit him with that?”

Ivan calls from his perch above the spears, "Wow! You guys are like the Elvis of Violence!"
The cidal hovers over the sleeping beast. “Haha! Did you hear that, claw-beasty! We mages be a menace to be reckoned with!”

Before anyone can move to check the bodies or dispatch the sleeping monsters, they disappear in a "poof" of teleport. A feminine voice speaks out of nowhere saying, "Congratulations. Level 1 complete. Prepare for Level 2."
“Aw, man!” Wembley cries out when his prey disappears suddenly. With a glum face, Wembley looks to Alôndas. “Sorry, Alan. I was going to give you that claw-beasty as a gift too. I can’t believe they took it away. I bet it would have been good for all sorts of components and experiments. I wonder what kind spell you could have used the claws in. Did you see those things?”

While the others made plans to enter the portal, the little rogue continued talking to no one in particular while almost absentmindedly scooping up another pouch of stones. “You know, back where I’m from... the Brynnandells, remember... there’s this story of a nymph, real pretty and everything... apparently men can actually be struck dead if they look at her because she’s so beautiful.

“Anyway, she guards the Silvanmist Woods just south of my village. And she’s got this were-bear fellow that follows her around. They say his claws are longer than my legs. Kind of like those claw-beasties. I wonder which of them would be bigger? Those claws looked like they could of...”

Wembley stepped through the portal after Alôndas and stepped into...


OOC: This is part of Wembley’s “special time” after stepping through the portal.
a room, dark and gloomy.

“Huh,” Wembley muttered, slightly disappointed by his surroundings. There was no furniture, no wall coverings, and no doorways or portals. “Well, this doesn’t look like much of a throne room, Iv...”

The little mage looked around, suddenly realizing he was all alone. Hmmm... where’d everyone go, I wonder.
A large ornate chest stood alone at the center of the room, locked, bound in chains, with more locks on the chains, and wrapped in thick cords tied in huge complex knots. A gigantic lock topped of it, binding everything together.

“Now, why would someone want to keep a pretty box like that all tied up?” Wembley pondered with a grin. “That’s just not right.”

Moving to the chest with great interest, Wembley’s eager hands retrieved his thief tools. Should be to hard...
A slight movement and muffled sound from chest caused the cidal to take a quick step back. “Who’s there? Is that you, Ivan?”

Save me!
“Ivan, is that you?” Wembley repeated his question with a bit more urgency. “Don’t worry! I’ll have you out in just a second.”

The rogue examined the bound box once more. As he reached over to begin picking the massive lock, he asked, “How you get in there anyw...”

As Wembley moved to unlock the gigantic mechanism, a creature that looked like a glowing ball of energy appeared and began attacking the cidal. The creature struck with lightning like tentacles and, with each hit, Wembley could feel his life force ebbing away.

“Might and magic!” The rogue complained. “That really hurt!” He whirled the staff-sling overhead, launching a stone at the creature. “Take that!”

The stone was consumed by the energy ball. “Huh,” Wembley said, somewhat bewildered. He was rewarded with two more lashes from the creature’s tentacles. He could feel the tide of the battle quickly crashing against him. “Ouch! Hey! Seriously! Stop that!”

Desperately, Wembley tried to call to memory his other spells. Each time, the energy ball was able to strike first, stealing the energy from the mage. The cidal could feel himself starting to fade. Well, that was quick, he thought to himself as the darkness overtook him.

OOC: And so ends the dream sequence.
Wembley felt the temperature around him rising quickly. Huh, the cidal thought, his eyes still closed. I never counted on the afterlife being so... so... muggy...
The rogue opened his eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the ambient lighting of the wooded paneled room. Looking around, Wembley found himself with the party once again.

“Wow!” Wembley exclaimed. “You’re all here again!” Turning to Ivan, Wembley continued, “How’d you get out of the box?”

Ivan looks around mystified, “Oh sorry dudes. I ain’t ever been in here before. We need to get out of the heat before I...before...I...” and then he moves to one of the benches and falls asleep – snoring loudly. As he snoozes his fur is starting to stand on end making him look poofier.
“Aw,” sighed Wembley, as he looked over at Ivan. “That’s so cute!” The cidal moves to go and pet the cat. I wonder how he got of out that box?
OOC:Wembley's looking to pet Ivan, or following the party into the next chamber. (Chamber > Ivan the cat)

Dudley listened and heard similar stories. He desided to give more details of his experience.

"I walked through the portal and find myself in a grass field. There are no portals, no doors and no one else. The rest of the party was not there. I moved around looking for you, puzzled by why I would end up where you did not. Then, I did find someone in the field – a lady Cidal, with fiery hair and glittering green eyes. Her eyes seem to giggle and laugh while her face seems reflective. Her dress is layers of skirts with practical travelling leather blouse. She was wearing a scarf and pair of gloves in scarlet. On her left hand, is the Ring of Anlain, an artifact of the great bard Anlain whose songs still fill the small gems of the ring. I thought, OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my God! I stand before Shinara herself. I moved to bow or kneel or something that one should do when one finds your own goddess in a field but she takes my
face in her hands and brings me back to her level. She leans towards me and whispers ...

Save me.

Suddenly, a demonic creature, ten feet tall with fiery wings and burning skins rips Shinara from my grasp. The demon holds the goddess in his hand and laughs cruelly while Shinara starts to fade away within its grasp. The creature is feeding off the life of the goddess. Growing stronger by devouring the blessed life of the divine.

I attacked the demon but my weapons are useless, it is too big and powerful and does not even know I am attacking. As my goddess fades away, I feel my own life slipping from my body as if the two were somehow joined or part of the same essence.

I lost consciousness and could not save her. Darkness overtakes me. Them I here with you.

It seems we were all tested to some kind of virtue. I feel we will be met with more tests attuned to that virtue or pitted against it.

I think we are entertainment for something and we were lucky we reacted, had this place felt we are boring we may not have awaken.

Wembley listened to his kin share a story of the moments before arriving in this room. The rogue was noting the similarities between Dudley's story and his own experience. His ears perked up at one point.

Save me!
"Hey," Wembley interjected. "Ivan said the same thing to me when he was trapped in this box with all these chains bound around it. Well... at least, I think it was Ivan. It was hard to tell, you know, because he was in the box and it was all muffled. Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't Ivan, because, well, he's right here."

OOC: If he's able, Wembley is stroking the sleeping cat gently.
"Anyway... it was someone... and they definitely said, 'Save me,' just like Shinara said to you. And I went to help her and unlock the locks and, if it wasn't for this blue energy ball with wild tentacles suddenly showing up and sucking the life out of me, I would have completely picked the locks and freed her."

Pondering what he just said, Wembley suddenly is filled with a flash of insight. "Hey, you don't think it was Shinara in that box, do you? That would be weird. Can your goddess be in two places at the same time? Would she even fit in a box? I can't even imagine what it would be like to be stuck inside that box....."

As Crow followed the rest of the party through the newest portal he found himself in a state of pitch black darkness. Stopping suddenly he tried his infravision with no effect and slowly began to move forward only to stumble and nearly fall. Almost as if to help him recover his balance Crow felt the touch of an icy hand grab his neck and help him to remain standing.

However the sylvari face, pale white with red eyes and long sharp teeth that appeared before him to reveal his helper was Crow’s own. As he could feel the life leaving his body nothing the Sylvari Ranger tried to do to break the grip worked. As the last bits of Crows life left him, he found himself alone bur for his attacker and the darkness of the Black. Then as if it had only been a bad dream he suddenly found himself in a new wood paneled room all feelings of his drained life gone.

After a few moments of talk it became clear that each of the party had, had a similar type of episode while crossing through the portal. Though Crow kept the exact nature of his experience to himself he did listen to thoughts provided.

“No matter what each of us encountered it would seem the portals be more of a danger then first assumed. Let us, as I said before, try to lesser their use as much as we can.”

With his opinion stated Crow moved to examine the room itself.

Mal sat back silently, listening to the various storied. It seemed his own experience was fake. It matched the others too perfectly....

His Mistress of the Sea was in no danger....

"This wizard's game be gettin' old fast.... One's gods are not tools to be used against them... An' I'll personally enjoy shoving me saber through the crazy bastard's chest if'n we ever find him..." The Swashbuckler growls as he climbs shakily to his feet, and following Crow into the chamber.
Though the steam made it hard to draw full breaths, he manages to steady himself enough to help look around for anything of interest. He agreed with the ranger. Portals were a torture device in of themselves... Best used only when no other options presented themselves....

As you discuss the possibility of your visions being a sign or a play thing of the wizard who holds you here, Wembley attempts to pet Ivan as the humidity puffs him to new dimension. He only gets a couple of strokes in before the feline jumps up and away - hissing wildly. Then Ivan regains his composure and says, "Whoa dude - major uncool. I don't run that way - not there is anything wrong with it but still. Don't be getting frisky with me." Ivan looks around, "I need to get out of here before I go up another shirt size."

Alôndas puts the tip of his staff through the blue curtain. It parts to the touch of the staff, much as one would expect water falling in a sheet. He then touches it gently, and it parts again. The sensation is very faint, almost like a gossamer curtain or a spider web.

Beyond the curtain he feels the coolness of the next room, or at least, cooler than the very hot room you are in. There is a large sunken pool beyond the curtain with what appears to be clear clean water within. Benches and long chairs are set around the pool and there are many piles of towels on the benches themselves. There are there more rooms with energy curtains blocking the entranceway of each, located across and perpendicular to the one you are in.

Otherwise, there is no sign of beings within the pool area. Crow does a examination of the room you are in but there are no secret doors or surprise within the sauna. One can only assume the portals of this area must be beyond the curtains.

Seeing no ill effects from touching the gossamer like water curtain, Alôndas stepped into the curtain an into the cooler room beyond. Once there he walks around and begins to examine the room and the potential exits from the room.

“It appears to be some hint of steam room beyond and this a cooler wash room,” he says to the others, “I think this is just a room for relaxation. Seems the wizard relished his comforts.”

He examine the other energy curtains in the room and tries to see where they lead.

Dudley watches Alôndas step through the curtain to the pool room. "Well we best keep moving, someone grab the cat and let's go. Lucky we found that our dreams were similar, a common theme means they were planted to see how we would react. If we are indeed the Wizard's entertainment we mus'nt let him get bored." Dudley followed Alôndas and pushed through the curtain.

The inner room is cooler than the sauna but overall, still warm to the skin. The pool is clean and inviting but there is no movement within and you can see to the bottom that nothing seems to reside there.

The curtains are a solid blue from this side, making it impossible to see through them. The only way to see what is in the rooms beyond is to pull the curtain back or walk through one.

With nothing really to do but search the room that’s exactly what Crow did. Though no thief the Sylvan Ranger was still not a half bad sneak and looking carefully found nothing within this pool or sauna area. Looking towards the curtains Crow made his way to the closet one, the West, pulled it back and attempted to see what was beyond