Dwarven Vault 6

Completely entranced and smiling vacantly, Velendo takes another step towards the dull black portal.

Splinder realizes what is probably happening and barks a command in dwarvish. Like a well-oiled machine, a dozen dwarven troops charge across the room towards the portals. They can't reach Velendo in time; he's just too far away. They can reach Agar and Priggle, though, and two teams of dwarven soldiers pig-pile on top of the only people shorter than they are. Within seconds, the gnome's and halfling's toes are the only things that can be seen under the two piles of sprawled dwarves.

Velendo pauses and watches the dwarves with mild concern, frowning slightly. "No, it's fine," he comforts with a tone of certainty. "Stop worrying. Honestly, I know what I'm doing."

He turns back towards the portal. As he does so, Galthia decides that enough is enough and sprints towards him from across the room. The monk is fast; before Velendo can complete another step towards the portal, the githzerai has crossed the distance and has swept Velendo's feet out from under him. "Sorry about this," Galthia says quietly, and then slams his iron-hard fist into the softness of Velendo's belly. Velendo whoofs air outwards, and Galthia sits down on him and wrenches his arm into an unbreakable shoulder lock.

"Oooof! What are you doing? Get off of me!" Velendo gasps under the weight of the monk. "What are you, possessed?"

"No. But you might be. Stay still."

The rest of the group is hurrying forward as well. Mara narrows her eyes at Glibstone and issues him a command. "Glibstone! Figure out which portal gets us out of here!" Glibstone starts to object, but there's something of steel in Mara's voice, and instead Glibstone bows slightly to her in agreement. He hurries forward and starts examining each portal in turn, focusing on his work and tuning out the others – grunting dwarves, Nolin casting eyebite, Malachite detecting evil, Tao attempting to talk sense into Velendo.

"Velendo, listen to me! Is what you're doing reasonable?"

"What? Of course it is!" Velendo lifts his head, and has it knocked back by Galthia. The portal is right there! So close! It's the most interesting thing in the room by far, and Velendo can hear it calling to him.

"No it isn't," Tao answers. "You're trying to rush into an unknown portal. You would never do such a thing normally. Something has enchanted your mind."

"Don't be stupid," the old cleric scoffs. "I have more willpower than anyone else in this group! Nothing is going to affect me like that." The cleric rolls his eyes in annoyance and does his best to wiggle free. Tao sees the attempt, and decides to err on the side of caution. She drops a wall of thorns on top of Velendo and Galthia, completely blocking the suspicious portal. Velendo tries to wrench free again, and yelps as holy thorns tear into his skin. "Ha ha, very funny, a wall." His voice is slightly muffled by the thorns. "Is this REALLY necessary?"

"Yes," answers Galthia shortly. He finds that he can shift slightly within the thorns, at least enough to maintain his grip on Velendo. The thorns hurt, but they stop Velendo from moving, so it is a pain he can bear.

"I've used eyebite to put both Agar and Priggle to sleep," announces Nolin. A rumbling snore issues from a sleeping, frowning Priggle. "But I can't affect Velendo if I can't meet his eye."

"Nice work, Nolin," says Mara. "He might be immune anyways. Glibstone! Have you found the exit?"

Glibstone, over near the other portals, glances over with irritation. "No, I think that – yoww!" The loremaster's bells jingle as he tumbles up towards the 30' tall ceiling. Inches before he hits it, a 10' diameter circle of glowing runes appear in the ceiling's plaster. Glibstone falls upwards right into the magical portal, instantaneously reappears back near the floor, continuing to fall upwards faster and faster within the reverse gravity field. A dozen of his flickering shadows, each thrown by the light from a different glowing magical sword in the nearby weapon racks, follow him on the nearby wall.

"Uh oh," says Nolin. "I think we have a problem." He studies the dwarf even as he notices the interesting doppler effect of Glibstone's screams. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA jingle.. . AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA jingle.. . AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! With a small shudder of horror, Nolin realizes that the ring of runes on the ceiling is quickly getting smaller and smaller in diameter. Within a few seconds, the ring of runes will be smaller than the dwarf, and instead of teleporting downwards he'll slap into the ceiling with a very wet smack! "Nice acoustics in here. But we DEFINITELY have a problem."

Malachite frowns. "And there's something evil in here, as well. A sword, perhaps? Maybe even something undead, although I'm not sure. If you can help Glibstone and they have Velendo under control, I'll check it out."

Nolin rolls his eyes and sighs as Malachite bounds up the stairs past the snoring Agar and hurtling Glibstone. "It can take a number and wait in line with everyone else. But sure."

Tao is still talking to Velendo, trying to reason with him. "Look, if I remove the wall, do you promise not to try to go through the portal?"

Velendo's voice emerges from under the thick thorns. "Yes. That seems reasonable."

"You sure? You promise?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"All right, then." Tao dismisses the thorns, and Velendo immediately tries to roll towards the portal. Galthia is ready for him, though, and proceeds to beat the elderly cleric into total unconsciousness. Most of the other people in the room wince and turn away as Galthia slaps down on pressure points and joints, thumping him and choking off Velendo's air supply until the cleric stops moving.

"Ooof," says Splinder as Galthia's other fist pistons down. "That's gotta hurt."

Nolin's occupied by other things, of course. He casts feather fall on the hurtling dwarf. Doing so instantly slows the loremaster's speed from 200 miles an hour down to 20 miles an hour, and as the ring of runes shrinks into nothingness, he smacks into the ceiling with a clattering jingle. He lies spreadeagled on the ceiling, apparently unhurt other than a small nose bleed.

"Urrgle," exclaims Glibstone. "Whurf!"

"Here's a rope," says Nolin as he tosses up a line into the reverse gravity zone. "Let's haul you out."

"Thuggl."

As Glibstone wobbles over to a corner deep in shock, the group reconvenes and wakes up Velendo. "Look," announces Tao authoritatively as the cleric regains consciousness, "you're not acting rationally. You lied to me. Can't you see this?"

Velendo shakes his head to clear it. "There's nothing wrong with that portal!" Tao snorts.

"Watch." She takes an arrow and slides half of it into the flat, inky blackness. She pulls it out, and the arrow is sheared off cleanly half way across.

--> At this point Velendo fails his second will save, rolling a natural one. Just one of those days.

The company falls silent. "How?"

"I have a spell that can regenerate body parts. Just let me touch it with one finger. If you're right, I'll apologize and cast the spell to get the tip of my finger back. If I'm right – and I am – you get to apologize to me." The group exchanges a look.

"Can you cast it one handed?"

Velendo fixes Mara with a look. "Of course I can cast it one handed. But I won't need to."

"Uh huh." The group exchanges another look. "I think we should," says Nolin. "It might be the only way." So the group carefully grapples Velendo. With three people hanging on to him in such a way that he can't possibly lurch forwards, they slowly approach the black portal. Velendo stretches out his hand.

"You see?" he asks as he pokes his little finger forward, the portal's silent song encompassing him and filling him with happiness. "Now watch. It's just fi--" His little finger touches the darkness, and his whole hand is yanked forwards by some irresistible force. The Defenders strain, and shove Velendo backwards before more than his wrist disappears into the darkness. He lands flat on his back.

"Fine?" finishes Velendo. He stares at the severed stump of his wrist as bright red blood fountains up into the air, and the jagged pain slices through him.