Ulmwin yells out a quick apology toward wherever the startled cry came from, before no doubt spending only longer to get back into a position where he can possibly navigate, belatedly answering Randy's call.

"Sorry, I took on some bad smoke and completely lost them," he says, still coughing, before glancing back up.

"I can get back in the air, but might have to retrack them- Anyone else still got sights on them, any clue on the portal?"

"I'd have to rest for a bit before I could try detecting where the portal itself is. By the time I could, the hell hound would surely either be gone or joined up with others." He looks around in frustration. " I can't seem  to get enough of a handle on these things in order to track them normally.  Maybe if it was daylight or if it was some other surface than cobble stone...."

"One of those things will come sooner or later, but I'd hope we can do something before then..."

"We can split up and look?"

Dornikal asks.

"I'll fly back up for now, see if I might be able to spot anything else from higher up," Ulmwin states, hoping to at least get some clue through that.

Randy gives a reluctant nod to splitting up. "It's about the only option right now.  Ulmwin can try to track them from the air. The rest of us can split up into groups and look around. Don't go off by yourselves." Here he gives a look at Dornikal." If you get jumped by a pack, you won't last long by yourself.  If I run into something, I'll try to alert the rest of you with this." He points to the Horn of Silent Warning.  "If the rest of you run into something, try to get Ulmwin attention so he can give you some cover until you can hole up. Then he can come get the rest of us.  Now lets figure out which streets we're going to cover."

"Aye think aye can handle a pack of those little pups, by Dumathion's grace."

Dornikal says primly.

Watching Ulwmin fly away Dornikal sighs and digs in his pack to pull out the ebony fly.

"Aye can also provide some coverage from above, but aye think ye might be better on it Randy."

He will drop the figurine into Randy's hands.

Randy eyes the figurine with a slightly panicked look on his face, which turns first white and then an interesting shade of green. " I, uh...I'd rather not if possible. I don't seem to do so well in the air...."

"Oh, right. Aye understand that..."

He turns and looks at those assembled appraisingly before his shoulders slump and he steps back and summons the fly mount by tossing it on the road behind them. He then has a quick discussion in dwarven with the fly,

"Okay fly, ye don't like meh and aye don't like ye but this is important so we need to work together."

He waits for affirmation from the fly before mounting it and raising into the air, unsteadily, to help Ulmwin with the aerial scouting.

Perception: 25

"By Moradin's beard!", the dwarven woodworker exclaims as a huge fly bursts forth buzzing from the little statuette. 

Dornikal is interrupted when stating that the fly doesn't like him by a buzzing protest and a wet, hairy proboscis suctioning at his shoulder, only to retract with sad buzzing when Dornikal continues that he doesn't like the fly. It's feelings seem hurt, but it resignedly acquiesces to his commands. 

"I'll stay with the ground crew! Need a good, logical dwarven perspective!", Longarr calls up. "Wouldn't catch meh dead on a thing like that.", he mutters to Tinker, Randy and Coljin.

Up in the air, Dornikal and Ulmwin can see that there are other spots in the city that are aflame, though at least were. The spot they just left they can make out flying figures, one of which seems to be unleashing intermittent torrents of water at the blaze, and they seem to be winning the battle against the fire. From the subsidence in flame in some of the others Ulmwin saw before, it's possible there are more than one fire crew, or the one at this blaze has already hit some of the others.

As the fly spirals higher, Dornikal can make out what maybe a pattern. Of the blazes, both growing, subsiding and being battled, there seem to have been a couple of small fires set along a path from the larger sites, of which they encountered hellhounds at one. These smaller, more recent flames seem to be on routes heading up the gradual rise towards the University. If multiple portals opened as Randy reported and hellhounds spilled out into the city and set aflame to the area before peeling off (or being run off, in the case of the trio you battled), and were converging on the University grounds, one might expect it to look exactly like this.

Dornikal takes a deep breath at the fly spit on his shoulder but keeps his expression neutral. Eye only twitching a bit.

Once in the air, and the fly behaving, he gives it a hesitate pat.

"Good fly. Ye keep it up and aye'll give ye a name."

On spotting the pattern, he'll shout down,

"We need the fastest route to the University, they look to be congregating there!"

((Give me an Animal Handling check, Dornikal.))

Randy mutters to himself "The University  potentially involved again..."  He turns to Tinker  "We need to take the most direct route we can to the University.  Can you show us the way?"

Animal handling: 9

((Sorry about radio silence.  I've been distanced from a lot of things recently))

When posed the question of needing a weapon, Tinker shook their head, quietly scanning the surroundings for any clues on where to go.  The seemingly sudden chaos unsettled them, with how quickly the world could be turned upside down.  Still, when addressed directly they snapped from their thoughts and gave a nod, "I believe I can.  It is an area I seldom frequent, but few in this city would not know their way there."

Randy gives Tinker a nod. "Let's go."

Tinker takes the lead, taking the shortest path they know of to reach the academy.  "I will warn you, the University's researchers can be...  Eccentric.  Valuable clients, but not always sensible.  Some may be intrigued enough by this portal to wish it to remain."

Just in case any check is needed for actually navigating the city towards potentially its most significant landmark...  Take your pick.  I've personally ordered them as I would expect relevance.

History: 4
Survival: 15
Perception: 21

((And what do you know, History, my most relevant thought, is a nat 1, which is potentially the most hilarious result.  Turns out Tinker dislikes the University so much their instincts drive them away from it))

((Also sorry about my absence!))

As Dornikal says he needs the fastest route to the University, the fly takes off.

Tinker

The tall armored fellow gives Randy something else to worry about as they move through the city... the potential for researchers to actually want  a portal to the hells to remain open... surely not? 

While Tinker hasn't frequented the University district much, as most of his jobs he's taken on from the academics there have come through intermediaries, Longarr had done some on-site work a few months back, a custom built bookcase in walnut and ebony, with intricately carved detailing and a glass front (but of course he's too humble to do more than give you a full description of the work....).

Either way, the dwarf is able to help nudge Tinker when his route goes too far astray. ("I think they might still be replacing the cobbles that way, should be able to go left here instead... you know Widow Barnes is going to have her head out the window enough to be be an expert on stuff she hasn't seen tonight... I don't relish being pumped for information when we're trying to be somewhere, let's go straight on instead..." )

Dornikal is eventually successful, through threats or cajoling, to turn the fly back, and he's able to regroup and further guide the party towards the University, Ulmwin assisting as the fly is occasionally taken with exuberant jaunts.

The city streets and buildings along the route you're taking transition from denser buildings to more larger stone buildings set on a bit of land, most surrounded by a bit of yard and a wall. Tinker would know that these were once homes, though a fair number have been converted to museums or offices for various organizations or foundations. They are clearly a older than some of the buildings they've jogged past. As the large buildings come to an end, you approach the University grounds, a tall stone and metal wall surrounding it but with an open gate through not too far away. On the other side is a small green space park to the right, and a climbing, winding road leads up past some smaller outbuildings as it makes its way up to the multiple larger stone edifices that make up the University proper.

Dornikal is sweating more than his run through the fire.

"Fly, ye aren't gonna get a name behaving like this!"

Dornikal's knuckles are white as he holds... whatever it is he holds to stay on and he is continuously repeating a litany of short prayers and promises not to leave the safety of Moradin's creation, knowing Dumathoin to understand the current situation.