Altea: A New Town

[ymir]

Making note of the location of the clearings and the thinning treeline, Carric descends from his perch and makes his way to the closest clearing, dagger in hand. As he walks, he mumbles something about people not having the decency to kidnap in the morning, and the importance of sleep, to nobody in particular.

[spoiler]Athletics: 1d20 3=23 (...this is getting silly, not that I'm complaining, mind you) -- to descend
Nature: 1d20 4=14 -- to try and avoid anything plantwise that might try to kill me (that should be a +3, so subtract 1 from it -- I hit the wrong key)[/spoiler]

[Dan2]

You descend the tree with little effort, and land on the soft grass and earth.
You try to carefully pick your way through the underbrush, but you find you simply have to push through to get anywhere.

The person you find in the nearest clearing is Telchar.
The smell of alcohol seems to permeate the air around him.  It seems impossible for him to have drunk enough to create that kind of smell, but the smell remains.
You note that, like yourself, he has no armor, overgarments, or weapons on him, and his pack is also gone.
However, somehow, he managed to hold onto a liquor bottle, still clenched tight in his hand, but now empty.

[ymir]

Carric lets out a sigh,"...I really shouldn't be surprised..." He looks into the nearby vines for the dwarf's belongings, setting some down beside him while throwing the clothes  on his sleeping form. "Up and at 'em, Telchar. We've got work to do." Upon his awakening, Carric relays the information he has gathered to the dwarf, both of what he suspects happened, as well as the locations of the others and the possible exit.

Once he was rearmored, Carric leads the way to the next clearing with the Dwarf in tow.

[spoiler=@Telchar]In the middle of the night, I was awoken by something which didn't feel right. I felt something for a moment, then blacked out. When I came to, I was in a similar situation as he.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=@Dan]Nature: 1d20 3=23 to find the next clearing
Do I need to climb up a tree, again? Or do I have a pretty good idea as to where they all are, still?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=@Others]I plan on going around and waking all of you up, so get to posting, damnit! There's XPES TO BE HAD![/spoiler]

[Huggles]

"Hnrrgh... what... I'm up, I'm up..." Telchar grunts as he wakes up and looks around, cradling his bottle. "Aww, by Thor's beard, did I pass out on the way to mah room again? I can't even remember what happened last night.... Where's everyone else? ... and oy, what's all mah stuff doin' up there in tha trees?!" Telchar gathers all his gear together and helps Carric look for the others.

[spoiler]I'm still kinda confused as to what's going on, but hey, let's go with it! I figure I was apparently drunk anyway. All I need to know![/spoiler]

[Dan2]

Telchar:
You notice that, despite the incredible alcohol binge you went on last night, you don't seem to have any sort of a hangover.  Your pack is missing, so you don't have any alcohol to celebrate with.

Carric:
After doing your vine-climbing trick to help get Telchar's equipment, you go from person to person and gradually wake each of them.

Everyone:
After being woken or waking on your own, you find yourself in the middle of a forest you've never seen before, with no clue who or what brought you here.
Carric has said that he knows that the forest thins a bit over in a particular direction.

What are you doing?

[Darius Stronghand]

"I know I'm really not the keenest, brightest mind of the Apostles... but I'm fairly certain we went to bed in a town.  Almark.  Why in Kord's Violence are we in the middle of Nowhere-Land?!  Mr. Wizard, you seem pretty on top of this nature stuff, as well as Nonsense-Magic... think you can pull from those two talents and figure out what in the planet happened to us?"

[ymir]

After looking expectantly at the Eldarin for a few minutes, Carric speaks, "I'm not sure what happened magically, but since Doriavan seems to be lost in thought, or somewhere else, I'll relate what I remember. Sometime during the night, I was distinctly aware of a chill running up your leg, which seems to settle in the center of my chest. Then, I feel an uncomfortable lurch, and everything went back to black.

Now, I'm sure there's some fancy explanation for this, but all I know is that we were taken from our rooms in the middle of the night, and left here. The only reason I can think of this is for us to be separated from the main fighting forces to put the town at a disadvantage, as if imminent siege wasn't enough.

At any rate, after waking up... again... I climbed the nearest tree and discovered that each of us were in our own clearing, and our gear was strewn about in the vines. Which brings me to another point: does anybody have their packs with them? We won't last long without rations or water. I also noticed that if we continue moving in this direction," he gestures in the direction of thinning underbrush, "we will be able to leave the forest, though I'm not entirely sure where that will leave us." Pausing for a moment after his short rant, Carric returns his gaze to the wizard, as if waiting for him to dispute any points or offer any new information.

[spoiler]Arcana: 1d20 2=13 -- not sure if it applies, but why not?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=@Doriavan]WTB Explanation?[/spoiler]

[atrocity05]

Doriavan snaps to, after trying to discern the reasons behind this.  He looks around at everyone and at the trees a bit more before beginning. "Well, I remember being disturbed in the middle of the night.  I had the tiniest hint in my mind that something was happening, but I'm not quite sure exactly what.  I tried to trace it, but it seems to have bested me so here we are."

[spoiler]
For Nature, Perception, Arcana as needed in that order (1d20+9=10, 1d20+9=13, 1d20+14=15)
[/spoiler]

[Dan2]

[spoiler=Doriavan]For whatever reason, your mind seems to be foggy.  Maybe it has something to do with being knocked out, maybe it's part of the trip here, but you can't seem to reason very well right now through the clouds in your head.

Even with your mind clouded, you seem to have no problem recalling and using magical formulae and spells, so you won't have much trouble in battle...[/spoiler]

Most of you are beginning to feel as though you are being watched, somehow...

Getting on the move might be a good idea.

[Huggles]

[spoiler]I tried to roll Nature, and... wait for it....
I ROLLED A 2! And I just accidentally x'ed out of the box, but seeing as how it was a craptastic roll for a 7 total, I don't think you need proof [/spoiler]
Well, I have no idea where we are, but I think it's time ta get a move on. Anyone got a clue of where to go, or am I gonna have ta pick a random direction?

[ymir]

"Well, like I said, I know the direction in which the woods thin out some, but I'm not sure where that will take us..." with that, Carric begins moving in the direction he mentioned, uttering a soft prayer to Sehanine.

[spoiler]Nature: 1d20 3=10 to try and figure out where in the Nine Hells I'm leading them

Also, once we get out (assuming we do), can we light the forest on fire?[/spoiler]

[Darius Stronghand]

Really don't like this whole mess... hopefully the "elf" knows where he's going...  Darius sheeply follows.

[Dan2]

As might be expected, the forest thins out as you follow Carric, but the more you see, the less sense things make.
Without the underbrush obstructing your vision, you can make out the edge of the forest, and beyond it, some very unnatural looking rock formations.

Taking great care, you move out of the forest to get a better picture of your situation.  The silence of your surroundings is decidedly unnerving, but it ends the moment you step out of the forest.
You step into the brilliant sunshine and find that you are actually in a large ravine decorated by ludicrously colorful flowers.
The forest behind you has disappeared as has the accompanying silence, replaced by the rear wall of the ravine and the chitter and crow of unseen birds and animals.

The ravine seems to direct you forward, toward the rock formation, but the surrounding walls look scalable, and who knows what might be on top.

[spoiler]As more information is revealed (like now), you can make more knowledge-based checks if you care to.
Nature and Arcana for now; and Perception, can't forget Perception.[/spoiler]

[ymir]

[spoiler]When you say it disappeared... did you mean that we lost sight of it because we walked so far, or that it went poof?
Rolls: 1d20 3=13,  1d20 3=21,  1d20 8=18
(Nature, Arcana, Perception, respectively)

Edit: Arcana should be +2, not +3, so that's a 20, not a 21.
[/spoiler]

Carric looks about, trying to make sense of what's transpired since last night. "Something tells me we're not in Almark anymore."

Edit: check spoiler

[Huggles]

[spoiler]16 Nature     http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1862228/
10 Perception     http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1862229/[/spoiler]

"So yer sayin' yeh think this is the work o' some wicked witch er something? That none o' this is real?" Telchar says as he looks puzzlingly at the overly vibrant flowers, mumbling something about his pipe and having too much.

[ymir]

"It certainly wouldn't surprise me... What do you think?" Carric turns to Doriavan, "You know the most about magical happenings, after all. Are we trapped in some kind of illusion? And I'm not asking a philosophical question, so don't give me a philosophical answer."

[Darius Stronghand]

"Illusion or not, if we can't break it, then it might as well be real.  In either case, a fundamental strategy in combat is to keep your options open.  If you limit yourself in what you can do, defeat is inevitable for you.

I don't like the idea of marching headfirst into the middle of a canyon... we should climb up that wall, and give ourselves some breathing room.  Heck, we might even see more of what's going on."

[ymir]

[spoiler]Athletics (Climb): 1d20 3=13

I'm assuming that passive perception is used to take into consideration things like looking for places to grab, etc?
[/spoiler]

Nodding at the suggestion, Carric moves up to the cliff wall and begins to (try to) scale it. "This is a bit steeper than it looks, but not too bad."

[Huggles]

Telchar immediately scampers up and tries to outdo everyone else at climbing up the wall.

[spoiler]Athletics 17    http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1863196/[/spoiler]

[Dan2]

[spoiler]Disappeared, as in the forest couldn't be seen any longer when you walked out of it.[/spoiler]

At the canyon wall, Telchar makes a fair bit of progress up, but Carric seems to be having trouble.  The flowers aren't firmly rooted into the side of the gorge, making it hard to get traction.
You don't remember spending much time here, but it's already nightfall.  It doesn't feel like it's been long enough to pass the day, and you don't remember the sun setting.

[spoiler]Carry on with the athletics.  I'll let you know what you see at the top later.[/spoiler]