The Vortex Sucks!
The tenticled baker Gurg, for short gurggled his last scream as he was sucked into the box no less by
@Antipas’s hand. Gerald the head attended gave a creepy skull smile at
@Wittsen Dolgon as he seethed,
”Noooooooo!”. He had a short slender smile full of hate, almost as if telling the wizard
I’ll be back, and your nightmares will never be the same. Then slurp, Gerald was sucked into the box Wittsen held.
@Cassiopeia felt the impending doom of the vortex take hold of her threatening to suck her in. In that terrifying moment a memory of life before cryogenic stasis surfaced.
Dragon claw and mettle gauntlet caught her at the last minute pulling her to the safety of the rotted mettal palace. Oh yes the glamor that was the infinite white palace had been broken. A dilapidated building falling apart and rotten complete with torn curtains and broken windows now greeted the heroes. In the center of the sad building was the vortex full of hurricane wimds drawing enemy and ally alike into it.
Hanging on to a steel railing Captain Lumkiss looked down at his watch and tapped a button on it. He grinned at the team as the wind swept his hair and threatened to pull him in,
”Hang on! 3 more seconds and Diamond Clad will will pull us back!” It was now in this gale vortex that he pulled his jacket tight,
”Bundle up, its cold...”
One-two-three. The last thing the group saw before they came back to Shamlin was the frightened look of a pale black haired boy as he was sucked in to the box Wittsen held...
”S-Sorr-“
Welcome back to Shamlin
First thing first, it was cold... Snow covered the cars of Shamlin. Strangely it looked more like the graveyard of old earth than a place people called home. It was as if something had blasted it to peices and then come back and finished the job. Cars were blackened from being burnt or exploded. A quick look around revealed more than a few bodies decomposed and frozen beneath a heavy layer of snow. Nearby a short stocky man with a grey beard wearing a dark grey parka was at portable computer that was connected to a large silver box with a variety of technowizard crystals. In the center of the box nestled tightly in it was a silver sphere the size of baseball.
Pender Lumpkiss shook his head briefly and walked to the stocky man grasping his hand in friendship,
”Thanks Diamond for not giving up. Where did you get the infinity sphere anyways?”
Diamond looked at Pender shaking his hand then rubbing his own for warmth. By the snow on his jacket he had been out in the elements for sometime. His eyes grew wide when they caught sight of
@Alenysturathe ”Wow... A dragon. Fine scales flamewind.” He bowed slightly in reverence and nodded to Pender.
”Think nothing of it. You legionaires have helped me and my city Gloom to no end. Least of all I could aid you my boy. As for the sphere. A wonderful peice of tech that has no bounds. Almost anything is possible with it in hand, fade town closures, time travel, heck you could teleport into Chitown if you had enough knowhow. Lets just say a woman named Delaria is going to be really really surprised.” He chuckled slightly and muttered,
”Eh and more than pissed. I am glad she is in another galaxy.”
Pender and Diamond looked at the heroes who had made it back. Pender smiled sheepishly and tugged on his jacket for warmth,
”Welcome back team... I got to say your mission has not gone to plan. It has been two months after you disappeared into the Chaotic fade town. After you disappeared we and some others had tried to find a way to bring you back. We theorized time might be passing differently where you were. Minutes might be days or weeks.” He paused thinking for a moment,
”Shamlin has seen some bad days. After you disappeared something happened to a few dozen people. A darkness swept over them dissolving their bodies. Then the CS came back with a vengence, and despite...” The captain’s face darked and Diamond put a hand on his shoulder. Lumpkiss shook it off frustrated,
”Despite the paltry efforts of the Legion and Dweomer the CS destroyed everything this town was. Its a grave yard for automobiles and people now. I couldn’t stop them... I am sorry.” Pender Lumpkiss gazed out into the snowy town with a frown on his face. Something had changed about him, he seemed hard and no longer the bumbling fool.
”Gods if I could change things... Ultimately we couldn’t bring you back... Until now.”
Pender stopped talking letting the words sink in. Diamond tried an uncomfortable smile and continued,
”Aye, We got a hold of the infinity sphere, it let us do what we needed.” He glanced at Wittsen and nodded,
”A pandora’s box. Nice, looks like it helped eh? I can take it back to gloom if you like and store it for save keeping in the black vault if you like... Although, supernatural evils are attracted to those boxes light a bug to a bright light... I uh...” Diamond Clad fumbled his words at the end unsure if he could ask for help.
Pender chimed in finding his voice once more,
” I am not sure we can really ask you for much more. The way I see it, you can come back with us to the Castle, and to Gloom if you like. Seems that pandora’s box could use protecting, and I am not sure if the Legion will be in the mood to asist me or us. I might have disobeyed orders to stick around this long to get you back.” Lumpkiss smiled sheepishly,
“I took it personal when they pulled the plug on our operation here. We had been trying to recover you for over a month. Stargazer said she could not see a future where you returned, and that was it...” He paused again slightly uncomfortable,
”Anyways, the important thing is Diamond Clad, answered my call and helped me finish the mission... Speaking of missions, Captain Claude is about 100 miles east in between the federation of magic and the Shemarian Nation setting up his third communication relay. We never did find the assassin.... Odds are he or she or for fucks sake it is still around... Or... We were recently contacted by a cyber knight named Mcgregor... Lord Coake mentioned he had gone missing, but it seems he has a bead on where Llyboc’s base of operations is.” Pender looked out into the snow fields of Shamlin and sneered,
”I would love some payback. It might be a trap, we have tried to get Mcgregor back on the radio, but no dice. Last thing he said was he was at Echo Base some place up north in the Erie Lake, he mentioned seeing an old plackard with CP on it and a flag... My money is the old United States Military base, Camp Perry. Probably a few hundred miles trek.”
Lumpkiss looked at the team as a light snow started to fall,
”We got a couple of vans, running off diesel... Look, I am not going to order you to do anything, but what do you want to do now? You could just call it quits if you like, take a van and disappear or just go back to the Castle. No one would blame you. Jones, Wittsen thank you for bringing the team back.” Pender shook Jones and Wittsens hands thankful they lived up to their end of whatever deal they had struck. Diamond clad started to pack up his equipment. He put the infinity sphere into a box made of black stone. The two packed up their gear and began to haul it to one of the nearby vans. A keen ear could hear Diamond Clad mentioning to Pender he wished he could use the sphere to undo it all. The noon day sun shown down waiting for a course to be set.
So we are at the super fun fp moment where a course must be set. I laid 4 options.
-Head to Claude and find the assassin
-Go with Pender and Diamond to protect the Pandora’s box
-Go after Llyboc
-Take a van and ride off into the bleak sunset.
(Not so secret path... I laid enough clue by 4s for another option)
Rp for a bit (week and half), and then lets figure where we want to go. This direction will be the course for out last quad. Thanks you.