Post
by mushgnome » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:32 pm
Highbough grabs an exhausted-looking Wen by the nape of the neck and pulls him into the room. "We came back to tell you your friends need help. The three Men are stranded on the other side. It's my fault: I activated the Ring by accident! I thought activation would require an active command word or gesture, but discovered that merely looking at the Ring's reflection in a mirror is all it takes. Worse, the mirror was consumed in the journey, so we didn't have a way to get back. I sacrificed my beautiful silver dagger as a makeshift mirror to get the two of us back. Elves first, you understand."
The Grey Elf presses both palms to his lumbar and unkinks his back. "What we saw on the other side, you ask? Undoubtedly one of the great and terrible Alcazar fortresses! As Dorgan, Wen and I discovered on our Fairy Forest vision-quest, there is a vast network of these castles, linked by a wall as far as the eye can see. The landscape is barren of life and the atmosphere inhospitable to Man. And all around lie the fallen corpses from a long-ago battle. Our scouts saw two of the were-beasts picking through the ancient battlefield, as though scavenging for some useful weapon or armor. We could have easily taken them and tortured them for information, but we didn't want to risk being seen from the walls and raising the alarm."
There is a dramatic pause. "So what are we going to do about it?" Rising to his full height, the Elf glares down at the humans. "What is this I hear that you gave Dorgan, Dhren, and Desmond permission to wander off from the Abbey just when we need them most? The dwarf got stung by a bee so let's all gather around the magic owl and write love letters to the Elf-queen? Bah! I was going to take a nap, but since nobody else seems to care about the lost sheep, old Highbough must take up the shepherd's crook. Everybody gather round and listen to my plan. Wen, our original intention to get a good night's sleep and memorize spells of scrying and detection was the better plan, but now that hesitation means certain doom, I think we must wait to rest until we bring everybody back safely. Do you agree? Someone tell those pilgrim-people to drop what they're doing and gather mirrors or improvised reflective surfaces. What are you staring at? Do it now! Do you know what it is like on the other side? Time passes differently there; look what's happened to me!!!" The old Elf holds up his hands in disbelief as if noticing his parchment-thin skin and arthritic knuckles for the first time. "If we don't hurry, your friends will be old men in diapers, and Gustave a shriveled mummy in his prison cell."