Episode 2 Scene 1 The Journey North

Once the again the mist seems to swirl and coalesce and the Mist Lady appears once more before you. "I can assure you that I and my brother's powers are sufficient to maintain rightful ownership of this marsh. Further keep in mind that we have opened our home to you without fully knowing all your powers and intentions nor have we asked you about them. You live up to your end of the contract and we will live up to ours." She sounds indignant as if the mere suggestion of otherwise was taken as an insult.

Brindel bows in greeting the Mist Lady. "Your Highness, we do not doubt your sincerity. If you meant us harm, I believe that would have been evident by now. As you heard, we would like to know more about this 'door.' Is it an actual physical door that we would be used to, or is it a term to describe a portal of some kind?"

"Also, one of our goals in our exploration was to find the source of the undead that inhabit the swamp. Do you have any information on them?"

"Well again do not question our authority here as that is extremely disrespectful. As for the door, you are astute and that is good, it is more of a portal perhaps but it is what we call a doorway thus a door. As for these undead, if you mean the forever unliving they do not inhabit this... marsh. It is not a swamp."

"My apologies, Your Highness, on two counts. First, we meant no disrespect. We are accustomed to the established hierarchies outside the marsh and we use speculative discussions to familiarize ourselves with new information. Second, my home is in the mountains and I am not used to environments such as this. I occasionally mix the the words swamp and marsh."

"I am a soldier who does his utmost to accomplish a mission; however, the mission is not entirely clear. What sort of portal do we need to close? What is on the other side of the portal? Some of us, including myself, may need to adjust our spell complement for the best chance of success."

"Understandable from individuals such as yourself, but I do expect quality demeanor from my... allies. The nature of the doorway is the same as all doorways but the form it takes can be quite different. For instance, the doorway that I would create for you will be a sort of water funnel. As for what is on the other side, well it is place I can assure you that you would not want to go to, and all you need to be concerned with is finding its anchors and destroying them."

Brindel shudders at the words "water funnel" and responds, "I request other clarification and simplification, Your Highness. What is the appearance and nature of the doorway that we need to close? Am I correct to conclude the water funnel will get us from here to the jungle island and we will find the doorway there. How will we recognize the doorway? And what is the shape and nature of the anchors? We may need to prepare specific spells before we travel."

Egret quietly clicks his tongue as he listens to the increasingly disorienting conversation. He is pretty sure that it would be much shorter if they weren't as fancy with their words, not to mention the lady's insistence on being as vague as possible - and though the druid guesses that it might be unintentional, it doesn't alleviate his earlier suspicion in the slightest. Haughtiness in her demeanor doesn't help either, and Egret is slowly growing impatient. He never thought he'd miss the military, but at least they were concise with their missions.

Once the lady answers Brindel's questions, the tiefling steps forward. "I apologize for iterrupting, but I'd like to check if I'm understanding our mission so far. You will create a portal to an uninhabited jungle island. Somewhere on this island there is a doorway - or something that can be described as a doorway in function - which you need us to close. It has protectors, and there is some sort of a deceiving being behind the doorway itself. And to close the door, we need to destroy the so-called anchors."

He pauses, staring at the lady for a moment. "I'm quite curious as to the nature of this being behind the door, and why you want to - I assume - prevent its access to the island."

"Due to the nature of doorways it will be fairly obvious once found, however what the doorway looks like specifically this I cannot say. You are correct on the purpose of the water funnel doorway and yes the doorway to close resides upon that jungle isle. Like the doorway the anchors should be fairly obvious once located, however I cannot say what they will look like exactly but they will resemble the nature of the doorway in some way and there will either be three or seven of them. If there are only three they will be fairly large perhaps bit bigger than your large friend but if there are seven then they will be small perhaps a bit smaller than you."

The Mist Lady then responds to Egret's inquiries, "I will create a doorway, yes but the isle is not uninhabited, there are various inhabitants there. Some may turn out to be friendly, others not so friendly, while still others may appear friendly only to turn on you later. Thus you must be careful how you interact with the inhabitants. Your statements about the doorway and the being are correct, although one does reside behind a doorway one resides upon the other side of a doorway. The nature of the being on the other side of that doorway, is I believe what you would call evil. Closing the doorway will break its hold upon the isle, freeing Isle from its influence."

Shump has a confused look as he listens and seems restless. Murmurs to himself "Doors?"

Haelga puts her hand on her large green friend and says, "Let os go. Vee shud du dis task, den be on our vey."

Shump gives Haelga, a positive indication, "Shump noise." You can see where he got his name. It is a very distinctive sound.

Brindel turns to the party. "It appears we are all going. Secure your gear everyone. We don't want to lose anything while we travel," he says, then follows his own advice.

"Yes, it is called Neverland. Oh you are ready to leave right now, excellent I do like men of action. I will have my brother help you get to the place where I can form the doorway. Brother please a path to the tower."

With the request the black liquid seems to solidify into a seven foot wide surface of almost glass like appearance leading off in a straight line slightly off to the groups right and away from the river thus deeper into the marsh.

Brindel bows to the brother. "Thank you, sir."

He then looks at Lex. "Ah, Lex, remember when you asked me what will we do if we find the tower? I said, using a common idiom, that we would cross that bridge when we arrived. That bridge is now here."

He turns to Mist Lady. "Assuming, Your Highness, that you are referring to the tower that is rumored to exist in this marsh."

"Heh, men off ekshun," Haelga grunts under her breath as she thinks about the punishment she will no doubt endure in order for these more talented folks do their magical work.

Shump just stands by Haelga blocking the light... Seems he is listening and trying to understand. Has given up on door. And trying for Tower.

Brindel could only bow towards the bridge as the Dark One's persona had not appeared, while the Mist Lady responds, "There exists but only one tower within the marsh which I had already stated. Your question is beneath you. I am awaiting your arrival." Her tone sounded a bit disgusted and her final comment while seemingly a bit odd, as it implies she is already there while she appears to be currently here, did not sound like she meant anything but exactly what she had said.

It takes the group the remainder of the day to walk the black bridge to the tower which they do not truly see until they are within about 100 hundred feet or so of it. Lex being the scientific mind that he is realizes that if they can only see it that close and with the distance it is from the river, they only way some could have seen it from the river is if the mists had parted lending credence to the Mist Lady's claim that the had showed it to someone that she referred to as the River Queen. Could that be the old lady back in town they had met who said she had reported it? And if so why would the Mist Lady call her a River Queen as that implied nearly equal status to her own.

As the group gets a bit closer they notice a large humanoid, as in giant sized, sitting up against the side of the tower. It appears to be sleeping from its position.

During the bridge walk, Brindel says to no one in particular, "Finally, a sturdy place to walk on."

Go tower. Go door? He walks along side Haelga.