The feeling of entering a portal is indescribable. The journey is akin to a deep sleep, seeming both eternal and instantaneous. This being your first time in an extra-dimensional space, you do not know to be afraid at the sudden and terrible tearing sound that reverberates between the vast walls of an eternity - but when your vision cracks and splits between a hundred thousand worlds of bliss and agony, piled one atop the other as in a deck of strange and alien cards, your gut tells you that something is certainly amiss.

Suddenly, you find yourself violently deposited into a dark chamber. A torch burns in a sconce near a heavy wooden door, illuminating the small room along with its other inhabitants - and from the look of them, they have just endured a similarly confusing and horrifying journey.

At the center of the room is a short pedestal with a long, thin crystalline shard jutting from its top. The shard casts an eerie red glow upon the puzzled faces of the room's occupants until the sound of a cranked lever from outside the room causes the crystal to dim.

Along the walls of the room are a series of ten pair of open shackles made of iron and fastened firmly to the brick.

On the wall beside the door there is a heavy bronze plaque that reads:

"Welcome to Ribcage. You are guilty of the crime of using transportive magicks in order to access the Citadel of Lord Astin Jox Tabolt Paracs. Please remove your weapons and other equipment and deposit them near the door. Once you have done this, please use the shackles provided by attaching them to your wrists. If you do not have wrists or if you have more than two wrists, alert the guard on duty to your special needs."

The writing is in a language that you can read. If you are illiterate, the lettering is replaced with detailed pictographs that effectively get the message across.

"Oy," I say, eyes still closed, "my head!"

Breathing hard, Raesene stumbles as his falling foot hits smooth, worked stone instead of the rougher surface he'd expected. "Robhric!" he cries. "Robhric, where are you?! And by Haelyn, what was that? That felt particularly unwholesome, not at all like our path across the..." The knight's baritone voice, already drowned out by shouts of surprise and frightened animals, trails off as his eyes begin to adjust to the dim, flickering light. Turning this way and that, he catches sight of Robhric. He takes a half-step towards his brother but, squeezing between his horse and their pony, he suddenly stops at the sight of shackles dangling on the wall.

"That damned wizard," snarles Raesene, "he tricked us! All this way, just to end up in a cell!" He shoves his bulky frame between their mounts and grabs Robhric's shoulder. "We are betrayed, Robhric--"

A shake of Robhric's head cuts off Raesene's words.

"I do not believe the High Mage intended this outcome," Robhric says distantly to his elder brother as his eyes flit across the words on the plaque. "If this message can be believed, our path here was...intercepted. Though, judging by these instructions, I cannot say whether we have been captured by another wizard or a simpleton."

He looks around the cell, taking in their surroundings and a quick accounting of their possessions. He feels a considerable relief knowing that their mounts survived the mysterious journey intact, even though the beasts crowd them in the cell's limited space. He reaches up to stroke his horse's muzzle, hoping to keep him calm. The last thing he wants is for the beasts to panic in this confined space.

"Mayhap these other prisoners can tell us more," he adds with a glance at the small, groaning figure. "I hesitate to call for a guard."

Well there's a thing, Joshua thinks to himself, as he looks around. Well at least there's other people here. Something very odd just happened.

Picking out the odd unfamiliar sound and rthym here and there in their speech, he looks at them with puzzlement clear on his face "Joshua" he says slowly pointing to his chest...

He looks back to the others and gives the heavy door a nod "what say we give the old portal a quick once over, eh?" and matching action to words strides over and strokes his hands over the wood slowly. "Not much give there I think, but no expert I, one of you fellows might have more luck"

Glancing at the notice he gives a wry chuckle "burn that for a bloody lark" he says, shaking his head.

He picks up the torch, "some of you might need a looksee yourselves" he says moving the circle of light back to the group. With the torchlight flickering in his face, his tiefling eyes are clear for all to see.

(ninja'd by Devin but still accurate)

Joshua discovers that the heavy door is locked. In addition to the locking mechanism, he can hear the rattle of a bar on the far side, further obstructing their progress.

One of the elves stands up, brushes down his tunic and says:

"Qu'est-ce qui te prend? Dunn? Où diable sommes-nous?"

He approaches a short fellow with a big nose, helps him to his feet and says:

"An bhfuil tú ceart go leor mo chara? Is cosúil go muid go dtí tar éis titim isteach a shocrú aisteach an am seo. Féach ar an buachaill diabhail thall."

Spotting another elf behind the horses (horses? in a prison cell?) he walks over and addresses the other:

"Salut. Mon nom est Morlan. Savez-vous où nous sommes?"

Having only received a blank expression from the other elf present, and having noticed that the humans and the demonspawn are speaking in dialects of the common tongue, Morlan turns and addresses then in the clumsy human tongue.

"Good day! My name is Morlan Orgraine, of the House of Egremont. My short friend over there is called Dunn. Do any of you fellows know where we are?"

"Says over there," with a glance at the plaque, "welcome to Ribcage, and some screed about citadels," Joshua answers the elf, "never heard speak of it before, me, and I ent in the habit of doing my own chaining... which they seem to favor"

Joshua moves towards the elf and his gnome companion and offers his hand.

"Blood favor me but we'll need our wits to get out of this trap" he says, "what say you to working together and giving our jailers the slip?"

OOC "demonspawn" ... love it!

Morlan raises one eyebrow as the creature puts out it's hand in greeting.

"Oh well," he says, "strange times makes for strange bedfellows!"

He reaches out and takes the offered hand in a firm handclasp.

"I see we hold similar views on voluntary incarceration, at least, and that's good enough for me. Now, let's see about getting out of here."

Releasing the changeling's hand Morlan approaches the door and examines the mechanism. He takes out a soft leather roll of fine instruments and begins gently probing the lock.

"Could you bring that torch over here a bit closer?"


[ Morlan will attempt to Open Locks, but if he fails or if the bar proves impossible to release he'll use his special fall-back device to open the door ]