Immersive Ink

"And there goes our ride home." Olaf says to Torben with more than a trace of irony in his voice, "Okay, then I guess we need to make the best of what we've got. I'll get Dieter."

Olaf crawls up to the rim and tells Dieter, "The elves have left, hopefully to return with a mirror soon."

"Come down into the crater so we can decide what the three of us should do next." Olaf urges.

Dieter takes one last look around, to make sure he'll have some peace, and then goes down into the crater with Olaf.

"We need shelter from that wind, first of all," he says loudly enough to be heard. "And then we need to keep an eye out for more of those scavengers. Or anything else about.

"And lastly, we should get some rest. Who knows how long we'll be here before they return with the rest of the party?"

Ack

Highbough's eyes seem to crackle with eldritch energy and the old Elf wears an exhilarated expression on his face as he is sucked into the portal...

coffee wrote:Dieter takes one last look around, to make sure he'll have some peace, and then goes down into the crater with Olaf.

"We need shelter from that wind, first of all," he says loudly enough to be heard. "And then we need to keep an eye out for more of those scavengers. Or anything else about.

"And lastly, we should get some rest. Who knows how long we'll be here before they return with the rest of the party?"

Olaf nods and adds, "If we leave this spot, we need to make sure the others will be able to find us when they return."

Olaf isn't sure anyone is returning, but he's not going to voice that idea.

"Did you see anything that looks like shelter from the edge of the crater?" Olaf asks Dieter adding, "Other than that fortress over that way."

"I did't see anything that way, but perhaps in another direction..."

Dieter goes to the opposite edge of the crater and looks out that way. Does he see anything that would appear to give shelter?

Torben

Torben coughs as a gust of wind blows red dust into his face. 'If time passes differently here, we might be on our own for a good while.' He watches Dieter scope out the other end of the crater. 'If he sees nothing that way, and I imagine you can see a great distance, the fortress might be our only recourse.'

Not a minute after the elves are swallowed by the ring Dieter, Olaf, and Torben all hear a faint whine over the wind, which very rapidly grows to a screeching drone that drowns out the wind and is punctuated by a rhythmic, dull beating like huge war drums.

Whatever it is, it is approaching from upwind--being approximately "left" if the fortress is "ahead"--and no sooner have our trio turned their heads in that direction when they see a skiff--a small ship gone all wrong and sailing in the air!--bearing down on their position at great pace! It's oncoming at an altitude of just 30 yards...

The skiff is approximately the size of this but has horizontal masts to port and starboard supporting arrays of kite-sails.

Can we see who or what are manning the skiff?

This could be very bad or it could be good...

Looking up it from below, into the wind, at closing distance... Dieter can see there are humanoid figures aboard.