Chapter 1: Welcome to Paxectel Island

You wake in the morning, revitalized and refreshed. The inn keeper prepares you a warm breakfast with a side of their house-brewed cider (a very popular and refreshing drink amongst the locals). You discuss the events of the night before and eventually resolve to head out and start your investigation. There is disagreement amongst you over which avenue of research will be the most productive, but you all agree that leaving the inn is a first and necessary step.

As you step through the door a wave of electricity breaks upon you. A strange shimmering fills your vision, as though looking at the world through the heat of a flame. Stepping forward, the road, grass and even the inn begin to fade. Your vision blurs around the edges and everything around becomes less real. You hear the crashing sound of the surf, and smell the sharp tang of the sea. You feel the warmth of the sun, and through the mists you see a bright orb overhead.

As your vision clears, you find the inn and countryside are no longer present. What stretches before you is a strange island with ruined structures dotting the landscape. The sun shines upon you from a cloudless sky, and from its position you would guess it to be midday.

Looking around, you first notice that you've stepped forth from a strange portal of swirling and conflicting colours, onto a large stone dias raised a few feet above the ground. The portal is on the edge of a small island that is several hundred feet across and nearly a thousand feet from the northern shore to southern coastline. Surrounded by water on all sides, the sea continues from the island for perhaps a mile in all directions, where it ends in violent storms that threaten to tear even the sturdiest of ships asunder. Ruins dot the landscape, an obvious sign that the place has seen better times.

Everyone is standing beside you on the dias... except Tiana.

((OOC: Island Map, you are at "A"))

Almost immediately after asking aloud, the answer to her question leaps to the front of Aenwyn's mind. There was no portal there originally and the inn definitely wasn't an illusion. Something dragged them all here. The magic energies flowing around the portal behind them suggest to her that they had just been forced through it. But what forced had given them the metaphysical push necessary she didn't know.

What in the world...?! Elandra thinks, as she looks around herself and at her companions, eyes wide with shock. "That's it. I'm laying off the wine," she says blearily. "I'm assuming everyone else is just as lost as to where we are?"

Dimal recognizes nothing. This is not a place he has been before, nor has he seen it in paintings or images. The brings to his mind the immediate hypothesis that they were now on another plane. After all, that sensation of being dragged through the portal was not unlike a rather ungentle dimensional door.

This is not a plane you could hope to recognize, a fact you quickly come to appreciate. It's not so much a plane as it is a pocket dimension. It is probably not much bigger than the island itself.

At Singer's suggestion, once you are each prepared, you head towards the ruins at the center of the island. The ruins are of what was once surely a great cathedral (D), now only two walls stand along with a portion of the third. The floor is covered in the shattered remains of what were probably beautiful and vibrant murals. There are also strange skeletons scattered about, as if a great battle had occurred here. You can see that in front of the ruined cathedral is a very large shrine (C), reaching almost 20 feet into the air. It is carved as a representation of the Lady Trinity and her three aspects: Charity, Faith and Hope.

While examining the skeletons Elandra notices something out of the corner of her eye. Just by the edge of the cathedral ruins, the crumbled wall appears to conceal something. A closer look reveals a secret door built into the cobblestones beside a collapsed portion of the wall. The skeletons, however, are uninformative.

((There's more, except I can't find the tables I need to roll on to tell you what more you found... grrr))

Opening the door Elandra hears a loud click. Too late to move out of the way, she sees a thick cloud of green smoke billow out from the door frame. Herself, Z, Singer and Aenwyn are caught up in the gas cloud. They cough and sputter as the cloud clears, and once it is gone they see that the door leads to a narrow staircase that leads to what is presumably a crypt below the ruins of the temple.

Can you all make three Fortitude Saves at DC 20

Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Elandra thinks angrily, as she tries to hold her breath and bear through the poisonous cloud. A year reading books at the estate and you've gone soft. As the gas clears, she looks around at the others and says, her tone and expression sheepish, "Err, perhaps someone with a better eye for traps should take the lead going forward.

"Ah, Goddess!", Aenwyn gasps. I didn't ask to be this close to the front!

((Missed Singer 2 somehow))

Singer briefly begins to feel exhausted, but a minute later the feeling passes. No one seems to be affected by the smoke, which has by now fully dissipated. Before you is the open door, a narrow staircase descending into the crypt below the ruined church.

Having decided on a path, the group proceeds to the shrine in front of the ruined cathedral. As you proceed through the ruins of the cathedral, doing around piles of rubble and ducking under half-collapsed archways, Elandra stumbles over a stone, kicking it aside and revealing a trinket of some sort. Bending, she identifies it as a charm, a little bronze flame that was likely once strung on a pendant. A charm worn by those who worshipped the Fire Goddess of old. She takes it, and upon picking it up senses its magical properties.

It is a beautiful stone statue, about 18 feet high and 6 feet wide. The face is carved as a near-life representation of the Lady Trinity and her three faces, Charity, Faith and Hope.

As you approach the shrine, you all feel a bit refreshed, elated and as if you are somehow wiser than you were before. You notice something at the foot of the statue. A small moonstone bead, not unlike the ones from the necklace that shattered back in the inn.

Elandra finds Mabharo's God of Fire. It is a small token which can be activated to cast Fire Shield. It has one use.

You all have the Blessing of Fortune - You may use it at any time to reroll a single ability check, attack roll, saving throw or skill check, taking the better result. The Blessing may be used once.

Pocketing the charm, Elandra carefully walks over to the bead, looking around for signs of tripwires or pressure plates that would set off yet another trap. If satisfied, she bends down to pick up the little moonstone bead, rolling it through her fingers. "Well, doesn't this look familiar..." she says, looking around at the others.

Elendra sees no reason to proceed with caution and picks up the bead. It is exactly as she thought it was, a little moonstone bead. She gets the sense that it, like the token she found in the ruins, possesses some limited magical power. Although precisely what she isn't sure.

Zisera returns with a report. There is a small campsite to the south of the portal (B), all along the coast (F through H) are signs of an ancient battle, and there are several buildings and ruins to the south of the chapel.

Aenwyn detects a faint aura coming from the entire island. The signature of the aura is strange to her, a kind of ancient and powerful magics she has never before encounter.

Following Dimal, the group heads due south (towards building I). The first building they reach (I) is heavily damaged and several trees have fallen on the roof. It looks like it used to be an armoury, although the interior is bare of anything useful. The only remnants that indicate a purpose are the shelves and and stone racks designed to hold weapons and armour. Pressing along (towards J) the group finds a copse filled with trees and rocks big enough to climb over. There is a shrine here with symbols indicating a deity forgotten by time. The final building in this group (K) looks like it used to be a barracks. It too is in disrepair and several trees have crashed through the ceiling.

Continuing to explore, the group moves along the path (towards O/N, from around behind I) across the yellow grassy field they see a stream leading into a cave of some sort. The cave is over twenty feet high and extends into deep darkness several dozen feet back. The air is surprisingly cool, the walls smooth and the dirt floor umarred by footprints. You can hear muffled voices coming from the depths, and straining it sounds like it may be the voices of those who were in the inn the night before. Standing at the edge you see a narrow staircase descending into the black depths. The sense of magical energy grows stronger as you stand at the top of the stairs.

Dimal's vision blurs in the familiar way and he sees the patrons of the inn, cheering laughing and carrying on as they had the night before. Blissfully unaware of the strange experience he and his fellows had after the mysterious bard's song. Something changes, as if the visions is mixed, the spell is confused, the target is unclear. There is another vision, this one black and fleeting. Swirls of darkness and madness, of pure magical energy. The force is strong and Dimal's mind is wracked with pain as it tries to comprehend the meaning of the twisting, writhing, essence of magic... Then the visions fade and he sees a familiar face, that of the bard who played at the inn the night before and whose moonstone beads had brought them to this place. A second vision clouds this one, a ragged woman, skin old and worn. She looks like she may be dead, but she moves and walks - a lich perhaps? Before he can focus on her the spell ends and his vision clears.

After much deliberation, Z is sent down in advance of the group, but soon returns. The serpent reports that the stair continuous for some distance, well beyond the distance she can explore on her own. It appears to be the entrance to something, although what she is uncertain.