Portal to Another World

The guild celebration gradually quiets. Bingus, Ragna, Calimakal, the elderly bearded man, the young bearded man, and the bunnygirl remain downstairs with the last guests, while Ettel stays with Willow and Andre near the fire.

The Lone Wanderer leaves the warm noise behind and climbs to his rented room. The door closes on muted laughter, settling the night into quiet.

By morning, pale light rests across the small desk. Alone and uninjured, he sorts his rifle, ammunition, stimpaks, and scavenged supplies into careful rows.

At the bottom of his belongings, his fingers find a worn black eight-ball. Its scratched surface and familiar weight call back to a friend from before, a friend from the wasteland.

He turns the lucky 8-ball once in his palm, then places it safely among his personal gear. The small token joins the rifle and supplies in his inventory.

The 8-ball always had some kind of superstitious power. Seemingly giving whoever held it luck, which greatly increases their chances of success.

The Lone Wanderer descends toward the guild tavern, drawn by the smell of hot bread and eggs. His boot slips on the polished stair, and he catches the railing. A bit embarrassed, he continues going downstairs.

As he approaches the table, Ettel shifts aside, making room beside her.

The Lone Wanderer takes the offered seat among Ettel, the elderly bearded man, the young bearded man, and the bunnygirl. Ragna thumps the table in welcome while the towering barbarian raises his mug.

Calimakal sets the steaming plate before him. Conversation resumes around the table as the Lone Wanderer joins Ettel’s party for breakfast.

The guild doors swing open, and a young adult woman in bright patched motley steps inside. Her painted smile, red curls, and jingling cap announce a royal jester before she says a word.

She snatches a spoon from the nearest table, flips it over one shoulder, and catches it in a mug without disturbing the foam. The towering barbarian leans forward, delighted.

Audree places three eggshells across the table and begins shifting them between her hands. One shell vanishes beneath a napkin, then reappears balanced on Calimakal’s serving spoon.

The Lone Wanderer places several gold coins beside Audree’s eggshells, careful not to disturb her arrangement. The tip catches the morning light on the crowded table.

Audree gathers the coins with both hands, then bows so deeply that her jingling cap brushes the tabletop. Her elbow bumps the napkin, sending it fluttering toward the towering barbarian.

The Lone Wanderer finishes his breakfast while Audree continues her performance beside the table. When he rises, his boot catches a fallen spoon, and he scrapes his shin against the bench before recovering his balance.

The scrape stings beneath his trouser leg, but he leaves the table without further trouble. He crosses the guild’s busy hall toward the shop, passing beneath racks of weapons and armor.

Ezra looks up from behind her counter as he enters. The dragoness shopkeeper sets aside a bundle of leather straps, her attention settling on him and the gold tip still absent from her display.

He reaches Ezra’s counter, arriving safely despite the fresh scrape. His rifle remains with his gear, while the dragoness leans forward expectantly among the shop’s displayed supplies.

Ezra’s smile sharpens with professional delight. She moves along the counter, laying out a sturdy grappling hook, several sealed bomb casings, and a polished silver clasp suited to Ettel’s armor.

She demonstrates the hook’s locking mechanism and checks each bomb’s casing without opening it. The clasp bears a small engraved shield, while the total price is marked on a slate.

Ezra accepts the coins and wraps the silver clasp separately before handing over the purchases. The grappling hook settles into his gear, the bombs are secured in padded cases, and Ettel’s gift is ready to deliver.

The Lone Wanderer leaves the dragoness shopkeeper’s shop with the grappling hook and padded bomb cases secured in his gear. The silver clasp rests separately, ready for Ettel.

He returns to the guild tavern, where breakfast continues around the crowded tables. Audree performs a juggling trick beside the meal, sending spoons and eggshells into an appreciative circle.

Ettel rises and leads him across the guild hall, past contract boards and training rooms. The upper archive door stands beneath a carved sign of stars and concentric circles.

Inside, tall shelves hold maps, expedition journals, and sealed reports. Ettel presents him to Hershel, an elderly, narrow-faced archivist, a thin human man with pale skin, thinning white hair, and ink-stained fingers, with silver spectacles and a dark green robe, who unlocks the portal-records cabinet.

Hershel sets the thick ledger on the reading table and opens the cabinet fully. The Lone Wanderer is now inside the archives, with the portal records available for study.

The Lone Wanderer retrieves the planar disturbances ledger from the reading table and compares its dates, diagrams, and violet portal reports against the notes on his arrival.

Hershel turns to a diagram showing paired circles and points to a notation beside the Capital Wasteland report. The destination can be reached, but only by reproducing the original portal’s resonance.

By matching the ledger’s dates to his memory of the violet opening, the Lone Wanderer learns the route home: the guild must recreate that resonance around an object originating in the Capital Wasteland.

The answer is complete, but the study consumes most of the morning. Several resonance tables remain ambiguous, leaving the exact activation window uncertain and requiring further checking before the ritual begins.

The Lone Wanderer closes the ledger and leaves the eight-ball safely among his gear. He steps away from the reading table, leaving the uncertain resonance tables for another day.

Ettel thanks Hershel and leads him through the archive door. The archivist relocks the cabinet behind them as they descend the stair toward the guild’s busy main hall.

Below, Audree performs a balancing trick beside the breakfast tables, keeping a spoon, a cup, and three eggshells spinning while guild members watch. She catches everything safely as Ettel and the Lone Wanderer emerge.

The Lone Wanderer crosses the guild hall to Ettel and brings out the separately wrapped silver clasp. He offers it to her without interrupting Audree’s careful juggling nearby.

Ettel accepts the gift and unfolds the wrapping. The polished clasp bears a small engraved shield, its silver catching the warm light from the tavern windows.

She turns the clasp over in both hands, examining the shield and fastening. Her guarded professionalism softens into open surprise as the nearby breakfast conversation quiets.

Ettel fixes the silver clasp to her armor and checks its hold. Audree’s next tossed eggshell lands safely in a cup, while the guild’s attention returns to the morning.

The question carries across the breakfast table. Audree keeps three eggshells circling above one palm, while Leonard and Logan pause over their plates to consider it.

Logan pulls out a book, trying to find any notes he might have written over Maximus Starfall's disappearance.

Breakfast continues around the crowded table. Audree balances a spoon, two eggshells, and a butter knife in a wobbling tower while Leonard and Logan study the notes on Maximus Starfall.

The tower leans toward the table’s edge. Audree reaches for it, clips a mug with her sleeve, and somehow catches both the mug and the falling eggshells without spilling a drop.

The guild doors open before the applause fades. Ash enters, a hulking baby-faced Amazon, and scans the room with urgent uncertainty before approaching the breakfast table.

The Lone Wanderer rises from the breakfast table and faces the hulking Amazon. His offer draws Leonard and Logan’s attention away from the notes, while Audree’s juggling slows.

Ash steps closer, visibly steadied by the agreement. Her urgent appeal becomes a shared search, but several guild members now look to the Lone Wanderer as the person responsible for seeing it through.

Ash turns toward the guild doors, waiting for the Lone Wanderer to follow. The offer has won her trust.

The Lone Wanderer follows Ash through Honorhold’s western gate, with Leonard and Logan close behind. Clear morning gives way to damp woodland and a narrow trail between old trees.

At the forest edge, crushed grass and snapped saplings mark a broad path away from the road. Feathers and tufts of fur lie scattered beside fresh, oversized footprints.

Ash kneels at the trailhead without touching the disturbed ground. Beyond the first trees, a fallen trunk bears deep parallel gouges, while silence settles over the forest edge.

Ash leads them beneath the trees. Crushed ferns widen around a muddy hollow, where scattered feathers and fur gather beside a torn patch of bark.

A low tremor rolls through the ground. Birds burst from the canopy, and the broken branches ahead shudder as something large moves beyond the undergrowth.

The towering cyclops woman steps from between the old trees, emerging from the direction of the deeper forest. She pauses beside the gouged trunk and studies the disturbed ground.

The Lone Wanderer crouches over the mud, comparing the oversized prints with crushed ferns, scattered fur, and the direction of the dragged marks. He follows them into denser woodland.

The trail leads to a shallow ravine beneath tangled roots. Several frightened animals huddle alive in a sheltered hollow, while fresh tracks continue toward a dark cave mouth.

A hulking bear-like demon steps from the cave, an adult male with dark russet fur, a broad scarred muzzle, heavy claws, and a torn green sash around his waist. He blocks the entrance.

The question raises the tension in the air. The bear and the cyclops woman staring at each other with their hands gripping their weapons tightly.

The towering cyclops woman steps between the hulking bear-like demon and the hollow, towering over the cave entrance. Ash begins coaxing the animals toward the safer thickets while Leonard and Logan prepare to follow and guard them.

The Lone Wanderer steps beside the towering cyclops woman and drives into the hulking bear-like demon, striking for the demon bear’s center mass. The hulking bear-like demon absorbs the blow, twists, and hurls him into the ravine wall.

The impact knocks loose a curtain of roots beside the cave mouth. Behind it, the Lone Wanderer glimpses a narrow passage descending around the den, while the hulking bear-like demon prepares to fight.

Ash keeps the surviving animals moving toward the western thickets as Leonard and Logan shield their retreat. The hollow clears, but the hulking bear-like demon’s stance leaves the newly exposed passage open.

The towering cyclops woman keeps the hulking bear-like demon’s attention with her towering presence while the Lone Wanderer regains his footing. The bear remains ready to strike, but the root-hidden passage offers a clear way around him.

The Lone Wanderer raises his bolt-action rifle and fires at the hulking bear-like demon’s head. The shot lands cleanly, killing the creature before it can reach him.

The bear demon collapses on the forest floor, lying motionless.

The forest falls quiet except for Ash guiding the frightened animals farther from the den.

The towering cyclops woman turns toward the root-hidden descent while Ash keeps watch over the retreating animals. The Lone Wanderer winces in pain from being thrown earlier.

The Lone Wanderer pulls a stimpak from his gear and presses the injector against his injured body. The casing clicks, releasing its dose beneath his skin.

Cool medicine spreads through him. The pain from the demon bear’s impact recedes, his breathing steadies, and his strength returns without leaving him impaired.

Ash keeps the surviving animals gathered near the western thickets while the towering cyclops woman watches the dark passage. The dead demon bear remains motionless beside the den.

The stimpak lies empty in the Lone Wanderer’s hand. Ahead, roots frame the descending passage, and faint air rises from the darkness beyond.

Ash settles beside the frightened animals as the towering cyclops woman moves toward the roots. The forest waits around the open descent.

The Lone Wanderer ducks beneath the curtain of roots and enters the den. The passage opens into a broad chamber lit by pale daylight filtering through cracks in the stone.

Inside, he finds a hoard of scavenged supplies: animal bones, torn sacks, rusted tools, and several sealed wooden crates stacked against the far wall. The crates have oddly familiar symbols on them.

He examines the crates without disturbing them. There are also several books that have the emblems of the Brotherhood of Steel. The supplies were stolen, not gathered from the forest.

At the rear of the chamber, the Lone Wanderer discovers a crude wall of stones concealing a second cache: intact medicine bottles, a coil of rope, and a letter signed from someone from the Capital Wasteland.

The Lone Wanderer retrieves the letter from the rear cache, brushing dust from its folded pages before carefully opening it beneath the chamber’s pale daylight.

The letter describes a supply convoy meant specifically to be transported to this world through a portal.

Mason writes that the convoy is meant to head to a distant kingdom, far from Honorhold.

The final lines provide no further useful information.

The towering cyclops woman leans toward the letter without touching it. Beyond the chamber, the forest remains still.

The Lone Wanderer searches the sealed crates and scavenged sacks, checking labels, false bottoms, and wrapped components with practiced attention. The towering cyclops woman watches from beside the roots.

Beneath torn canvas and rusted tools, he finds a reinforced weapons case bearing faded pre-collapse markings. Its latch opens under his careful pressure, revealing a plasma rifle cushioned inside.

The weapon is worn but intact, its green power cell seated and its emitter free of corrosion. A second cell and a maintenance card rest beneath the rifle, giving him useful ammunition and firing guidance.

The Lone Wanderer lifts the plasma rifle and confirms its weight, charge, and controls. The cache also contains additional ammo and stimpaks, free for the taking.

The Lone Wanderer secures the plasma rifle, spare power cell, ammunition, stimpaks, medicine bottles, and Mason’s letter into the recovered sacks and weapons case. He braces the load against his back and lifts.

The weight strains his lower back, and the weapons case slips against a stone. He catches it with his scraped palm, earning a sharp sting, but keeps the supplies secured.

The towering cyclops woman steps aside from the roots to clear his passage. He carries the secured cache through the den and climbs toward the pale forest light without leaving anything behind.

Ash stands among the surviving animals at the western thickets, keeping them gathered near water. Their frightened movement has quieted, and the trail behind them is clear.

The Lone Wanderer returns to Ash with the secured supplies and sets the load down beside her. The towering cyclops woman emerges behind him, watching the cache and the quiet animals.

Ash begins sorting the medicine bottles, rope, ammunition, and sealed crates into manageable bundles. The surviving animals remain gathered nearby, safe beside the water.

The towering cyclops woman lifts the heaviest wooden crate with one hand and settles it across her shoulder. Ash secures the smaller supplies, accepting the decision and its public burden.

The supplies are divided for transport, with Ash carrying the medicine and the towering cyclops woman bearing the heavy case. The route back to Honorhold is now set.

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

Honorhold’s western gate rises ahead through clear afternoon light. Ash carries bundled medicine, the towering cyclops woman bears the heavy weapons case, and the Lone Wanderer guides the remaining crates through the busy gate yard.

Guards hurry to clear a path as the recovered cache arrives intact. Citizens stare at the strange otherworldly markings, sealed medicines, and the enormous cyclops carrying a case above her shoulder.

The white-robed magistrate emerges from the gatehouse with two clerks. Judge’s gaze settles on the marked crates, then on the Lone Wanderer, while the surrounding traffic slows to listen.

The gates close behind the last crate. Clerks begin recording each seal and bottle as Judge leads the group toward the council chamber, with Honorhold’s attention following the unfamiliar cache.

Inside the council chamber, the Lone Wanderer reaches for the letter but ends up with empty pockets. The clerks have already sealed the crates and removed them for inventory.

His explanation gives the cache a route and purpose, but no paper appears. The sealed inventory has taken the letter with it, leaving him unable to show the evidence he brought back.

Judge gestures toward the guarded record table rather than the confiscated cache. The missing letter turns the account into testimony, and the distribution decision must wait for the clerks’ inventory.

The Lone Wanderer scans the guarded record table, comparing crate seals and inventory slips. Beneath a folded manifest, he spots the familiar edge of Mason’s letter among the clerks’ papers.

He lifts the manifest and retrieves the folded letter without disturbing the sealed crates. Mason’s signature and the portal instructions remain legible beneath the creased paper.

The Lone Wanderer crosses to Judge and places the recovered letter before him. Ash leans closer, while the towering cyclops woman watches the exchange from beside the crates.

Judge studies Mason’s letter again, then looks across the sealed crates toward the gathered clerks. Ash and the towering cyclops woman remain silent, waiting for his conclusion.

Judge taps the portal instructions with one finger. The convoy’s origin, destination, and hidden cache now connect Honorhold to a wider military movement beyond its borders.