Portal to Another World

At the guild, The Lone Wanderer rents a small room and sleeps through the night. With morning still hours away, he sorts scavenged chemicals and empty injector casings across the desk.

Careful measurements and patient hands turn the salvaged materials into additional stimpaks. He seals each one, checks the doses, and adds them to his inventory before dawn light reaches the window.

He comes downstairs to the guild tavern, where Ettel, Leonard, Logan, and Mari occupy a breakfast table. Calimakal serves hot food while Ragna keeps the room lively with booming laughter.

The Lone Wanderer takes a seat and eats while the breakfast table fills with warm bread, eggs, and conversation. Calimakal keeps the plates moving as Ragna clears a space beside her.

He finishes the meal, then joins Ragna at the cleared table. Her massive hand closes around his, while Leonard, Logan, Mari, and Ettel turn to watch.

Ragna pushes hard, but the Lone Wanderer meets her strength and steadily drives her hand down to the tabletop. The contest ends cleanly, with his knuckles touching wood first.

A man bursts into laughter a few tables away, then rises up to approach the group. He is built like a brick wall, with a broad grin and the heavy stride of someone eager for a challenge.

Bingus plants one huge hand on the breakfast table, making the cups jump. Ragna laughs and rubs her defeated wrist while the others turn their attention toward him.

The Lone Wanderer leaves Honorhold guild tavern behind and arrives at western quarry.

The western quarry opens beneath a gray afternoon sky, its terraced walls dripping rainwater into muddy channels. Broken wagons and splintered crates lie scattered across the road ahead.

Bingus leads the party down the quarry road, with Ettel watching the ridgelines and the others spreading carefully around the abandoned caravan. No bodies are visible, but drag marks disappear between the stone heaps.

A deep groove cuts across the road toward the quarry floor. Beside it, a toppled wagon still bears a guild seal, while faint clattering echoes from below.

The party reaches the quarry edge and looks down. A smashed barricade blocks the lower road, and beyond it a huge silhouette shifts among the abandoned wagons as metal scrapes against stone.

The Lone Wanderer studies the quarry floor from above, matching drag marks to the broken wagons and following faint boot prints around the smashed barricade. The search takes several careful minutes.

He descends through the rubble and finds three quarry guards crouched behind fallen timbers, shaken but alive. A locked medicine crate rests beside them, its guild seal still intact.

Beyond the guards, The Lone Wanderer locates two more sealed medicine crates wedged beneath an overturned wagon. The labels are readable, though rain has blurred part of the destination mark.

The discovery answers the immediate search, but the time spent tracing the quarry leaves the party without a clear view of the huge monster. Ettel moves to check the guards while the young bearded man reaches for the crates.

Ettel organizes the three quarry guards around the sealed crates while the elderly bearded man, the young bearded man, and the bunnygirl secure a route through the rubble. Their escort reaches the upper road with every medicine crate intact.

The Lone Wanderer and Bingus descend toward the clattering below. Between the wrecked wagons, a huge hairless mutant, an adult mutant man with a broad, asymmetrical face, one clouded eye, a rusted shoulder guard, and a ragged canvas kilt rises, its gray hide plated with scavenged metal and one arm dragging a quarry hook.

Bingus squares his scarred shoulders, while the Lone Wanderer spots a red-painted release lever on the quarry hoist behind the brute. If pulled, it will drop a cage around the creature.

The Lone Wanderer raises his rifle and aims for the lever.

Ths brute is blocking a clear line of sight of the lever but The Lone Wanderer manages to aim just over it's shoulder.

The Lone Wanderer fires. The shot strikes the release cleanly.

Chains snap overhead. A heavy iron cage drops around the quarry brute and slams into the quarry floor, trapping the mutant brute inside.

Bingus circles the iron cage while the quarry brute grips its bars. The trapped mutant can no longer reach the road, the wagons, or the secured medicine crates.

Ettel returns from the upper road with the rescued guards and joins them at the cage. She checks the lock, then looks through the bars at the subdued brute.

Ettel nods to Bingus, who takes position beside the cage. The guards begin gathering the crates while the party decides what to do with the brute.

Ettel orders the quarry guards to reinforce the cage and keep the brute away from the road. The medicine crates are loaded while the quarry brute remains secured among the wrecked wagons.

The party leaves the quarry brute under guard and starts up the broken road with the recovered medicine. Ettel walks beside the Lone Wanderer in thoughtful silence, her trust intact but more guarded.

The Lone Wanderer leaves western quarry behind and arrives at Honorhold.

Honorhold’s western gate opens onto bright stone streets and ringing market bells. The recovered medicine arrives intact, carried beneath canvas while quarry guards and the adventuring party return in triumph.

At the guild courtyard, the quartermaster checks each seal and finds the medicine untouched. The intact delivery earns an additional hazard bonus from the grateful caravan master, enough to enlarge the promised reward.

Coins are counted across a guild table and separated into equal shares for The Lone Wanderer, Ettel, Bingus, Leonard, Logan, Mari, and the three quarry guards. No one disputes the accounting.

Bingus throws open the guild tavern doors and leads the celebration inside. Tables shift together, mugs rise, and the recovered medicine earns cheers from adventurers and staff alike.

Calimakal sends out steaming plates and foaming mugs while Ragna pounds a rhythm on the table. Leonard, Logan, Mari, and Ettel join the applause around the victorious party.

The toast becomes a roaring chorus. Coins clink beside the Lone Wanderer’s place, music rises from the corner, and even the guild’s usual strangers make room for him at the tables.

The celebration rolls on until the guild doors open again. A young girl steps inside, scanning the crowded tables before spotting Ettel and hurrying toward her.

The nearby cheering fades into scattered murmurs. Ettel rises from the table and kneels to meet Willow at eye level, while Bingus leans closer with unusual restraint.

Willow studies him for a brief moment, then reaches for his hand. Her frightened expression steadies as the crowded guild falls quiet around the search.

Willow keeps hold of the Lone Wanderer’s hand, making his involvement plainly personal as well as practical. Ettel gathers a lantern, while Bingus clears space through the celebrating crowd.

The Lone Wanderer follows Willow and Ettel through the guild’s side exit and across the bright avenue, while Bingus strides behind them with unusual care.

Willow leads them beyond the city wall to a quiet strip of grass beside the old fountain. The place is sheltered by low ruins and thick shrubs.

The Lone Wanderer reaches the fountain and surveys the ground. Small footprints cross the damp soil toward a collapsed stone arch, where a scrap of blue ribbon catches on a thorn.

The group reaches the collapsed arch together. Beyond the fallen stones, a narrow hollow opens beneath the ruins, and faint movement stirs in its shadow.

The Lone Wanderer follows the small footprints beneath the collapsed arch, reading their turns through damp soil and crushed grass. The trail ends in a sheltered hollow.

Behind a fallen slab, the elf girl sits quietly with her knees drawn up, clutching a little stone. She looks toward the group but does not run.

Willow squeezes past the stones and wraps both arms around Andre. Ettel kneels beside them, while Bingus stops at the hollow’s edge and lowers his booming voice.

The Lone Wanderer leaves Sheltered hollow beneath the collapsed arch behind and arrives at the guild.

The guild doors swing open onto warm lamplight, roasted food, and the layered noise of adventurers returning from the streets. The Lone Wanderer arrives with Willow and Andre safely beside him, while Ettel and Bingus follow close behind.

Willow leads Andre toward the breakfast table, still holding her hand. Andre stays close to her sister, glancing shyly at the crowded room before accepting a chair near Ettel.

Ettel settles the girls beside the fire while Bingus announces the successful rescue to the nearest tables. Ragna answers with a booming cheer, and several mugs rise in welcome.