Portal Problems Chapter 3:

Soon, the road the party was taking began to climb, until the blasted forest was lost to fog.

Not long after that the road ended at a massive castle gate, which had been torn into pieces.

Inside was not much better as items were broken into so many pieces they couldn’t be identified, and most disturbingly, there were dried blood smears everywhere.

Then the party heard an odd chirping sound from around a corner.

Around the corner they saw a group of three very unusual animals.

They were green with stripes on their sides, they had three legs, and inside a large opening at the front they had dozens of insect-like eyes.

The creatures saw the party, and charged.

The mute Warforged called One Free Man did not hesitate, and brought his greatsword down on one of the creatures, killing it. He then attempted to hit one of the remaining two, but missed.

Nola took her mace and smashed one of the creatures, but while she damaged it, it made a yip sound, and a wave of sound hit Nola and knocked her back.

But before the creature could take advantage, Lim hit it with her warhammer and ended its existence.
The final creature was not deterred, and attempted to hit One Free Man with its sonic attack, but it couldn’t penetrate its armor, and a swing from the Warforged’s greatsword killed it.

With the battle over, the group realized that the sun was setting, and Nola advised them against continuing in the dark.

Nola said, “there should be an area over on the west side where the pack animals were stabled, it should make a defensible place to rest. And as One Free Man does not sleep, he can stand guard.”

The others agreed, and led Tonka to the stables, which while damaged, were in slightly better condition than the entryway had been.

Once they were settled, Jade asked Nola, “What were those things? My ears are still ringing, and I was behind you.”

Nola replied, “I don’t know their true name. They were among the creatures that came through our portal.”

She sighed, and then said, “I thought what we were doing was a glorious kind of madness. To reach out to the planets circling the furthest stars, and visit them. Somehow we never considered there might be things beyond our control, dangers of which we knew nothing.”

The party got as comfortable as they could, and the night passed quietly.