Nomadic:Sessions:20160312

It is Thursday, June 19, 2008. Around 10am, as Vicente is talking with Father Martin, he notices Valerie leaving the Winnebago and walking off among the trees. A little while later Vicente senses a surge of magic in this low-mana world, from the direction Valerie went.

Valerie is awakened by the sound of footsteps on hardwood. Opening one eye, she finds herself lying on a comfortable bed in a well-furnished bedroom. "Okay, Mr Director, what the hell..." she grumbles, sitting up to find a three-foot-tall creature staring at her. He looks exactly like a Keebler elf. As she stands up, the elf looks disappointed and says, "Oh, you don't like the bed. My name's Tinsley. Do you wish some breakfast? Follow me." Instead, Valerie steps out of the window onto a lush green lawn. Sighing, Tinsley follows her.

Vicente casts Detect Magic and tracks Valerie's footprints to a small clearing; in the midst of the clearing is a ring of mushrooms. He realizes that the fairy ring is the source of magic. Valerie's footsteps lead into the center of the circle, and the grass is bent as if something had lain there.

Ahead of her Valerie sees a well-manicured garden filled with fruit trees, flowering shrubs, tall oaks, and glimpses of exotic animals. Tinsley, who has now been joined by three other elves, asks her, "Could you meet the Lady?" "What lady?" He says importantly, "Lynette, lady-in-waiting for the queen-to-be, Aurora." "I'm already in another picture," grumbles Valerie.

Vicente casts Sense Life and other than himself, he detects no sentient beings. He calls Valerie's name and gets no response. Taking a deep breath, he broad-jumps into the circle. He feels summer winds lift him into the exact center. There's a flash of power, and in the next moment he is standing in the center of a ring of power, eye-to-eye with a powerful-looking unicorn. "Are you my ride?" Vicente asks jauntily. The unicorn stares at him, its nostrils flaring slightly. Vicente then asks, "Are you my guide?" "I am your guide," says a six-foot-tall elf, stepping into view. "Just call me The Hunter."

The Hunter is dressed in traditional hunting garb and bears a longbow. He explains, "I hunt intruders that come through the phase circles." He had just recently transported a 'beautiful lady with elven qualities.' He refers to this place as Underhill and says it is ruled by Queen Titania.

"Humans have caused some problem for us," he adds, as he and Vicente walk toward the trees. Vicente: "That's like a parent blaming a child." The Hunter: "Absolutely." Vicente confirms that this land is ruled by the Sidhe.

The Hunter: "Talk with the Lady, solve the problem, then you can go home." Vicente: "Did we cause the problem?" The Hunter: "All of the above.... Our realm has been drawn closer to a human reality that we had divorced ourselves from a few hundred years ago."

Valerie sees Vicente and The Hunter and walks up to them, still followed by Tinsley and the other three elves. She thinks they're in the wrong movie and wants to get back to the others, but Vicente says "Let's just see what these people want."

The Hunter leads them to a magnificent estate. The hallway to the throne room is lined by male and female Sidhe in full battle armor. The human strangers are presented to Lady Lynette. Vicente gives his full name, Vicente Carbone. But Valerie refuses to identify herself (she had earlier said to Vicente that according to the stories, giving one's name to the Sidhe granted them powers over one), so she is thereafter called Lady.

Lynette explains that the Sidhe had closed off ten of twelve portals that had mysteriously appeared in their lands, and their people were making progress on closing the eleventh. The twelfth, however, they had been unable to deal with; the portal had to be closed on both sides, and the world on the other side of the portal was fatal to Sidhe -- no one who had gone through had ever returned alive.

After a lengthy exchange, during which Lynette threatened to imprison the humans and otherwise prevent them from returning to their own world, Vicente and Valerie agreed to make the attempt. Lynette gives each of them a pendant with the inscription "Knowledge." Valerie asks if there is a way to locate other Sidhe, on the narrow chance that any of them are still alive, and Lynette gives her a crystal that will indicate to Valerie the direction and approximate distance of any living Sidhe within fifty miles.

The portal on this side appears as a black door in a white frame standing upright in a fairy ring. They step through onto a stage in a darkened theater. Instantly they know that this place is called Palidon, part of a country called Trifane; the year is 210 AE. Vicente realizes that the two of them are in a high-mana bubble in a no-mana world. The only other person visible in the theater is seated in the very back row; he appears to be an elderly man dressed in a black suit. Rising, he gives his name -- Pasquale Marco Barrett, called Marco -- and identifies himself as "Gatekeeper, the most expendable of the Ruling Council." Vicente casts Aura and staggers -- Marco's Aura is the most vile and evil he has ever seen.