A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 101: Unknown Skies
The portal swirled around us, drawing us away from anything we knew. The path seemed to twist and turn, and then it felt like something was pushing us back. However this resistance could only slow us so much. The resistance seemed to grow stronger, and for a moment, I through I could perceive something clawed observing us. Then, everything went white…
"…Comes another?" whispered a voice.
When I recovered, I could hear the sound of waves crashing agaist the shoreline. I got to my feet, and examined my surroundings. I was on a beach, that much was true. However, the skies above were nothing I'd seen before. Above, the skies were strange shades of green, red, and orange, all swiled together. There was no sun or stars to see, and small chunks of land floated in the sky. It could onlt be assumed we were atop a similar, but larger piece of land. My allies were around me, also taking in the bizarre sights of the place.
"Well, this is certainly different," said Narcrath.
"Indeed," said Uxarix, "but we cannot allow ourselves to become distracted from our goal".
"You're right," replied Narcrath, "let's get going".
We formed up, and started making our way deeper into the stage space ahead of us. We followed the only available path, carefully hopping from floating island to floating island. Eventually, we came to a large door set against the edge of one of these platforms. There were strange sigils around it, and it seemed to be a focal point of energy. As we approached, the air crackled with power and in a burst of green lightning, a large blue creature with a single red eye appeared before us, roaring.
I charged in, raking this creature with my claws and wounding it. Charles moved up to assist me, slashing at this beast with his greatsword, leaving a deep gash and sending our foe stumbling a bit. Lydratir took aim at our foe, putting rwo arrow into it, and it looked to be in very bad shape. Krisyra waved her staff, and a icy wind blew at our foe, slowing it. The cycloptic creature swung its fists at me, but I easily dodged its clumsy strikes. Narcrath rushed forwards, and blasted the creature with lighning at short range, and the creature began to fall, when I noticed a strange energy building it.
"Get back!" I shouted.
We swiftly back of from the creature, as its body surged with the energy and exploded. As the dust settled, we could see that there was nothing left of the creature we'd fought, and the door was now open.
"This seems too convenient," I said, "why would fight that creature open the door?"
"No idea, but from the looks of it, we don't have many more choices," said Krisyra, "There's nowhere for us to go but this door".
I looked around as saw she was right. The region we'd been exploring just sort of… ended here, with nothing but the strangely colored skies beyond here. With no other options, we stepped through the door. For a moment, I saw nothing, and then we emerged into a region of rolling hills. Above us was the same oddly colored sky, and behind us was the edge of this floating island. We ventured on, moving past trees of silvery leaves blowing in a nonexistant wind. before we could get much further, an ominous howling filled the air, and a large pack of what looked to be werewolves came bounding towards us. They seemed somewhat warped, much like the cultist we'd faced before.
Narcrath glared at these lycanthropes bounding towards us, and spoke is incantation. The air rippled with his arcane power, and all the werewolves looked a bit dazed from his attack. One of the werewolves tried to attack Charles, but he dodged its attacks with ease. another werewolf went after Narcrath, but its attack missed completely. Another of the werewolves tried to attack me, but my scales turned its attacks aside. Lydratir took aim at one of the werewolves, and with two quick shots took it down. Charles cleaved into the werewolf attacking him, slaying it. He then moved over to me, killing that werewolf as well. Krisyra's staff glowed with power, and large wave of water appeared, crashing down on the main pack of werewolves and sending most of them sprawling from the force. One of the werewolf shook the water from its fur, and charged at Charles, but his armor deflected its attacks. Uxarix stepped over to aid Narcrath, taking out the werewolf assaulting him. One of the werewolves came after Uxarix. He raised his shield agaist its fangs, and then counted its claws by bashing them away. One of the werewolves that hadn't been knocked to the ground by the tidal wave loped towards Krisyra, but she evaded its strikes. Another werewolf came after me, but again my scaly hide protected me from harm. Yet another werewolf shook itself off and came after Lydratir, but its wounded state combined with magic muddling its mind caused it to completely miss. More of the werewolves piled towards us, but were similarly ineffective. I tore into the werewolves near me with my claws, taking a couple of them down as they seemed to dissolve into nothing but a strange ichor.
The battle contined on, with spells blades and claws flying but beforelong we triumphed over our foes.
We continued across the hills, passing through caves and past strange, tentacle-like plants. Eventually, we came upon another door, similar to the one we'd gone through before. As we approached, a shadow the emerald lightning appeared again, and a portal burst open and a new foe appeared. What was before us was a imitation of dragon, and a poor one at that. It seemed to be a composed of parts of a large beast, a giant insect, and ehst looked to be some sort of metal. It stared at us with mismatched, blood-red eyes and somehow managed to form words.
"Interlopers," snarled the creature, "you do not belong in this place… the great one will destroy you. Turn back or meet your doom!"
"We will not be deterred," I replied, "We've come too far, fought too hard".
"Then face me!" snarled the creature.
Uxarix rushed up to our foe, striking it with his rapier. the blade flared with radiance, and then he struck a second time, making our foe stagger a bit. Krisyra summoned a flame, and launched it at our foe singing its hide a bit. Lydratir took aim at our foe, and fired. One arrow buried itslf deep in its hide, while the other bore right into one of the creature's eyes. Our foe was wounded, but it had only become angier. Its maw opened wide, its lower jaw splitting into a mass of fang covered tentacles, and it spat out a spray of acidic slime. The acid seared us, but we all weathered through. I approached our foe, tearing into it with my claws. I could see it was in bad shape, and wouldn't survive much more damage. Narcrath pointed at our foe, and spoke his incantation. From my position, I could see the ichor from its wounds quickly become dry, though this creature seemed to resist the spell. Charles joined me in the melee, and with a mighty swing of his greatsword he felled the beast. Before our eyes, it seemed to melt away leaving nothing but a stain on the ground.
The doors nearby ground open leaving us only one option: continue deeper into the void.
A/N: And there we go! Next time, our heroes venture further into this unknown place. Who knows what awaits them beyond? See you then.