Chapter Four: Castle Naerytar

Hmm. Let me take a look. he says, peering at the markings.

Erich can tell, after looking at it for a few minutes, that this is a circle of teleportation.

I wonder if this is the portal that Rezmir had indicated. Wasn't there some word or something on that piece of paper? Drazzer? Damzir? Crap. NO! Draezir! Erich says, pushing ahead recklessly with his words, unless someone stops him.

Bughu patiently answers, "Look at the note."

Leema snickers quietly.

As Erich speaks the command word, you all suddenly feel a jerking motion behind your navel and your world turns upside down. After a few moments you are standing atop a mountain. Dark pine woods are all around on the slopes of a mountain valley; the air is cold and fresh. Two ancient stones stand to either side of you, and no more than a bowshot ahead along a path is a large house, with stone on the ground floor, timbers above. Within sight are more standing stones.

Pine branches shift and sway in a gusting, fitful wind. A squirrel chitters and then falls silent.

The ancient building ahead has a wood and plaster upper floor over a fieldstone lower floor: its shuttered windows are all closed. The roof is completely overgrown with moss. A single door stands slightly open. Smoke pours from one of three large chimneys.

"Looks like someone's home," says Bughu, shaking his head free of the sensation of instant travel. "How should we do this? Infiltrate as cultists, or assassins?"

"Cultists have served us well to this point." Leema replies, adjusting her make-shift cloak while trying to steady herself.

"I say we continue the ruse for now."

Bughu nods. "Find the leader, then," he says, before looking at everyone. "Do we need to rest before we proceed?"

A rest would certainly be welcome. If no one knows we are here, our ruse is intact. Let's find a place to rest where we won't be seen. Erich says, looking for places near by that could suit.

Bughu assists, looking for a secluded area well away from the ancient house and the standing stones. "If those other stones are portals like the one we stepped through," he reasons, "we'll be better off further away. We still know where the house is."