Chapter 4: New Day

After encouragement from well-wishers, the party descends once more into the strange complex of rooms that leads to the portal. Renaya accompanies the group once more, staying near Yelnar as they walk. Atticus the pony seems less than impressed with his new subterranen environment, and despite being more or less willing to be led, he fixes Willitan with an equine glare when he thinks the halfling's not looking.

There's an undercurrent of excitement and curiosity and some apprehension as the group enters the large temple-like room that houses the portal, which remains open and unchanged from the day before. If anything, the burst of light from the other end of the complex has brightened this area even further. The symbol-runes carved into the walls still glow with color, still depicting the pastoral scene from yesterday. A faint mist emanates from the open archway, like a low, cool morning fog.

Yelnar steps through the portal first, disappearing silently into the fog. There's just a moment where the rest of the party looks at each other -- uncertainty, maybe, or wondering who's next to take the plunge -- but it's only a moment. Soon, everyone follows on the big warrior's heels.

As you pass beneath the archway, there's a sensation of coolness, like the breeze of an early summer morning: a faint chill heady with the scent of life and renewal. A few steps forward and the fog begins to clear from your vision. If you choose to look behind you, all you see is the fog, swirling and obscuring your vision. A few more steps forward, and your vision clears completely.

A verdant forest stands before you in a thousand shades of green. Trees tower above you, impossibly tall, their tops indistinct in the mist that hangs gently in the air. Shrubs make up the underbrush, from ground cover with tiny white flowers to taller bushes covered in small purple berries. The earth beneath your feet is a rich, dark brown, a path wending before you further into the heart of the forest. There is an undeniable sense of peace and calm in the air, but just beneath it, an undercurrent of being watched. Look as you might, from where you stand you see no animal life, though there are the distant calls of birds somewhere out ahead of you.

Curiously, the portal you entered from seems to stand unsupported along the path. You can walk around and behind it, but the fog only creeps forth from one side of the portal, the side you exited. The other side is a pure black that almost seems to draw light into it, and it has no thickness that you can detect.

The forest is undeniably verdant. It seems that everywhere Ephwrath looks, there is another uncommon plant species. For most, the inescapable feeling of peace and calm is unbroken. One could easily while away hours, days... weeks, even, soaking in the atmosphere.

For others, that faint nagging feeling of not everything being quite right can't be shaken.

Elora notices that while the flora all around is perfectly mundane, the air itself is redolent with magic. It is... not easily defined, it seems. It is not quite arcane, not quite divine, but something all its own. But one thing is abundantly clear: it was produced by someone or something immensely powerful.

Ephwrath, Ember and Willitan all continue to get the feeling that they're being watched, though a careful look about provides no clues as to what the source of this faint paranoia might be.

Verrian is certain that some sentient force is present, her telepathic senses and incisive gaze combining to plant this idea firmly in her mind.