Kartakass: Chapter Six : A foreign land

[steveflam]

The sound of birds chirping and hooves clacking awaken you. As you look around, you see you are not in Kartakass anymore. All around you are hills. Lustrous green hills and in the distance a town can be seen. It looks to be midday, judging by the position of the sun in the sky. You are in a meadow atop a hill. As you look down, you see a road and a horse drawn wagon driving in an eastwardly direction. At least you think it's east? Lucius, Van, Cornleius, William and Alexander are all there. Jacob and Tarlyn are nowhere to be seen.

[ewancummins]

''Gods and Dead! Where are we? ''

Cornelius wanders about the hill, looking at his new surroudnings.

''Jacob? Tarlyn?''

Seeing the horse-drawn wagon on the road below, the dwarf jogs taords it , shouting,

''Hello! Excuse me....''

[steveflam]

''Jacob? Tarlyn?''

Seeing the horse-drawn wagon on the road below, the dwarf jogs taords it , shouting,

''Hello! Excuse me....''

No answer seems forthcoming to Cornelius' query for the two dark elves. The wagon stops and a male dwarf descends from the wagon, looking at Cornelius. He is dressed in a cloak and a warhammer at his hip. A chain hangs from his neck and a pendant with a hammer and an anvil at the end of it. He isn't like any dwarf Cornelius has seen before. Not to say that is a bad thing. Just not a Darkonian dwarf is all. The dwarf looks at Cornelius with a frown, as if trying to put a place to his dialect, Cornelius thinks. "Yeah. What kin I do ye for today?" Then the dwarf raises an eyebrow and asks Cornelius "Where ye be from, laddie? Ain't never seen ye before in these parts." The dialect the dwarf speaks is foreign to Cornelius as well.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Sweet sweet sleep. Darkness, then finally awareness. Slowly at first, as if to test himself, he tries to open his eyes. A sigh of relief escapes his lips as he does see! Looking around he notices it is dark. Then his vision kicks in and he sees a form near him. Concentrating slightly a faerie fire illuminates the form. He smiles as he recognises the form as Tarlyn. The drow appears to still be sleeping. Jacob stands and takes stock of himself first. He feels around in the dark and exhales deeply. Nothing is missing. He then approaches Tarlyn and verifies the sleepin drow's bag, finding what he did put in plus other objects which he returns.

Now he takes stock of their surroundings. After a few seconds he realises that it's dark for a reason! They seem to be inside a ....... cave? He walks around a little and quickly realises it's not a cave but a .... passage? Where in the nine hells are we? And where are the others? I hope they are not in any danger. Jacob utters a few arcane phrases and a wall of glimmering force comes into being around Tarlyn, protecting him from any intrusions while he looks around for a few minutes. HE walks down the passage quietly, his elven heritage helping out in that respect. The passage seems to descend further and Jacob begins noticing that strange emanations emit from the whole passage. Odd. What type of emanation is it? Detect magic it is. Jacob does just that. His eyes narrow as he realises where they are. Frowning he returns to Tarlyn and considers his options. They'd be better off if both of them were awake, so Jacob patiently awaited for Tarlyn to wake. To ensure their safety he began humming and chanting. He grabbed onto Tarlyn's arm and both drow seemed to disappear. That'll do nicely for now. Once Tarlyn wakes, we can decide our next course of action. He won't be happy. I know I am not pleased. I have no teleport spell memorised otherwise I'd get us out of here now. We'll have to wait until the next day.

[ewancummins]

Cornelius, remebering his dignity,executes a simple bow and says,

''Cornelius Ordmann at your service. I'm from Tempe Falls, in the kingdom of Darkon. I am afraid I've lost my way, could you tell me where we are now? ''

[steveflam]

The dwarf frowns. "Tempe what? Darkon? Is that from the other side of the realms? I'm Neg Ironhelm of Shadowdale. That's the town ye see back there, Cornelius."

[ewancummins]

''Shadowdale? Hmm, never heard of the place.''

Cornelius pauses to think a moment.

''As to where we are in relation to my home... Oh, yes, my maps! ''
Cornelius retrieves one of his hand drawn maps from his pack. He unrolls it and point out Darkon, in the northern portion of the world-continent.

''Now, do you recognize any of this? ''

While they are speaking, Cornelius' lizard climbs out of the pack and begins to search the nearby area for bugs to eat.

[steveflam]

Neg examines the maps. He looks at Cornelius with a sorry- can't-help-you-there look. "Sorry I can't help ye out. But if ye head on into Shadowdale try the Old Skull Inn. There's always a bard there in the evenings and he or she might be able to help you out, Cornelius. I've got to be goin. Well met and I hope to see you again soon. Maybe you'll have some answers by then." He turns and goes back onto his wagon. The wagon begins moving and is soon a speck in the distance.

[ewancummins]

''Thanks. Keep safe.''

Cornelius trudges back up the hill, retrieving his lizard on the way [the little fellow has nabbed a fat grasshopper and is busily munching away]. When he gets back to his companions, he says,

''Well I spoke to the wagoneer, another dwarf, and he says that town down there is called Shadowdale. He's never even heard of Darkon! I think it's possible the Mists have taken us far away from home,even further than Kartakass. ''

[VAN]

Van stands up and looks around puzzled. He doesn't recognized the place and at the same time he is worried about the 2 dark elves.

"Ace, look around and tell if you can see the 2 drows." Says Van telepathicly to his hawk.

As Cornelius returns he says:

"Strange, but I know that mists can do that. I have never heard the name Shadowdale before but lets head to there and hope to find some answers. Has any of you memorized tongues or comprehend languages? It might be handy if we find out that these people don't speak our language."

[Ail]

Hey Van, I'm with you. No, I don't have any of those spells prepared, but we might be better off if we ask around the name of the land we're in, and perhaps even the time of year.

As you said, I've heard extremely rare tales of mist transportation, but remember: Jacob himself came from a land different from our own, and Tarlyn too, if I'm correct.

[lostboy]

Draven wakes as if from a deep dream, the sunlight streaming on his face and the feel of the soft grass under his back. He cracks one eye open and the world spins madly bringin a thundering pain in his head, "oww" he moans and is quietly sick all over the grass.

Wiping his mouth he looks around in amzament, "umm someone tell me whats going on, where the hell are we?" he groans clutching his head.

[BigBadQDaddy]

William, who drew his pistol as soon as the party appeared in this strange new area, stands in stunned silence, pistol in hand hanging limply at his side. Jaw slacked, his unblinking eyes survey the area, taking in the sights and sounds in a horrified fashion.
His brow tightens as he begins to realize there is no way to rationalize what has just happened and slowly his mouth begins to make words in silence as he hasn't taken a breath since he arrived in this place.
He looks from party member to party member, trying to see some sign of understanding, but only seeing more confusion and in some cases a troubled sort of acceptance.

[steveflam]

200 miles from Menzoberranzan, the Underdark
Conversation in Drow
Tarlyn stirred. Groaning his hands went instinctively to his sheathes. He slashed at the air, though his hands were empty. Realising his hands were empty, the warrior opened his eyes. Taking in his surroundings, he frowned. He did recognize Jacob but saw none of the rest of the party. "Where are we?" he croaked.

"Brace yourself. We are in the Underdark to the best of my knowledge. That lycanthrope almost bit your arm off at the Inn. That is a regenerated arm you have there, Tarlyn. I don't know how, but we're back in Toril and in the Underdark. I thought I'd teleport us out of here when I can get new spells, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow."

Tarlyn smiled at the thought of being back in the realms. But he frowned at being in the underdark. Not a good place to be. Something in the back of Tarlyn's mind was nagging him. Teleport........... yes.... I seem to have heard that.... yes! No teleport spell can get you out of the underdark....... That's it! I seem to remember that from Mage School in Ched Nessad[sp]. He brings the fact up to Jacob.

"Jacob, you can't teleport out of the underdark. We'll have to find another way out, I fear."

"That's not good. I'll meditate on our predicament and after that, I'll peruse my spell book for spells to get us our of here and find the others. Rest a little, it might do you some good, Tarlyn. I'll wake you later."

[VAN]

Van looks down the road and says:

"So, are we ready to go? There is no point to stand here, in Shadowdale we might get some answers and for sure a place to spend the night. I just hope our friends to be ok as well."

[ewancummins]

''Well, that dwarf wagoneer understood me well enough. With luck, we'll be able to communicate with the locals without too much trouble.''

Cornelius looks down the hill towards Shadowdale.
'' I agree- we ought to head into town now. If Ace spots the elves, we can go and fetch them, wherever they are. Of course, it's possible the Mists deposited them elswhere- or maybe left them behind! One never knows, with the Mists.''

With that, the dwarf begins walking down the hill towards town, moving at an unhurried pace.

Best to remain calm in front of the longshanks. If they see a dwarf getting upset, they'll take fears.