The only thing Dornikal feels might be pulling him is Randy pulling his leg, if this is the stoic ranger's idea of a joke.

"If aye can even see the portal aye image aye can hit it."

Dornikal looks uncertain at the thought.

"Though last portal aye hit left meh underwater fighting some monster fish thing. Aye guess its fine to check it out but aye still think having Kreldoran along would be good."

Dornikal follows along, not entirely reluctant but certainly not with his usual vigor. Also he is still pretty (literally) chewed up which may be taking a bit of the skip from his step.

"Regardless, duty calls, then? We should excuse ourselves to our new friends for a moment..." he proposes he's willing to be the one to step forward, but waits for opinions on the matter 

"If you don't feel up to it, you could head back and alert Kreldoran I suppose.  Regardless, I need to go and investigate before the signature fades.  I'd prefer to have some company ... just in case."

Ulmwin nods.

"Always with you, Randy. Just a moment," he states, turning to quickly go back toward the other group. They couldn't well leave and have them questioning after all- So better to address that out of the gate. Quickly addressing either husband or mother of the little troupe, whoever seems more available.

"Hey, apologies, but my friend thinks he might have noticed something potentially dangerous in the distance," he says, intentionally ambiguous, "And we ought to go check it out. You will all be fine packing up while we go do that? Hopefully we're back by the time you finish. If not, Zokk up there seems a bit shy but is with us, so he can probably help you should we not be back yet?"

"...And yes, I know, don't see their likes every day. Everything is fine as long as you keep fire away from him, though."

"Oh... something dangerous? Yes, suppose it's worth checking out, we're good here thanks. Zokk? Is... is that tree waving at me? Oh my..."

"Yes, certainly, no fire. Err, Whoospie, do you have any signal bolts?"

The tabaxi looks up and nods, rummaging in a pack and walking towards Ulmwin.

"One of you have a crossbow? We can lend you one if you don't... I'm going to go say hello to your friend.", she says as she heads towards the tree-line, hands out to show she's not carrying fire.

"Tthis is easy to use, just flip this catch, then fire it into the air, as straight up as you cann. Wwe will see it and come as quick as we cann. Uunless we need to run instead, in which case, fire this onee.", the inventor hands Ulmwin two bolts, each with a small metal canister in place of a metal tip, each having a toggle set into the side. The one for 'come now' has a green stripe down its length, and the one for 'run away' has red bands.

Randy had a good sense of the distance and direction, and is eager to track the pull he felt before his sense of its location fades.

You cross the alpine meadow, and where it starts sloping downward, see more clearly that it transitions into a boggy fen.

((Randy, let's have a Survival check with advantage as you lead the party towards where you felt the tug.))

Ulmwin nods, thanking Whoopsie for the bolts, and shows his own crossbow. "Green for come, red for run away. Hopefully neither will be necessary!" he says, letting out a soft chuckle at seeing the overcautious approach for Zokk... But then quickly regroups with Randy to go investigate this enigma that caused their little time showdown. Not that he's going to mention that part out loud.

"Mmake sure it's at full draw before you flip the catch, you don't want to flip it and then try to load it, that would be badd."

Survival (with advantage):9

Randy forgets his basic orienteering skills in his haste to find the portal and promptly steps into a hole up to his chin in brackish water.  He sputters a bit, looks sheepish and crawls out of the bog.  Soto voice : "Don't follow the lights."

It's certainly not a direct route to through the swamp as the party trudges through the murky depths. The crisp mountain air cedes way to an environment thick with moisture and the pungent scent of decay, as it becomes clear that there is something amiss. In the end, after close to an hour of tromping through the swamp, it is a billowing fog that hangs around their knees that ends up leading them to a small clearing, the foliage thinning slightly to reveal an eerie sight. Nestled amidst the tangled roots of ancient trees, a shimmering disturbance in the fabric of reality comes into view. 

The portal stands before them as a mesmerizing spectacle, a swirling vortex of intermingling colors that defy definition. Its ever-shifting hues range from deep, velvety purples to vibrant, iridescent blues, with occasional flashes of emerald greens and fiery oranges. The misty tendrils emanating from the portal dance in the air, as if reaching out for something beyond their grasp before collapsing and flowing out to blanket the swamp. At the right angle, occasional glimpses beyond can be seen, where towering dense vegetation takes up the view. 

The area surrounding the portal bears the signs of its disruptive presence. The ground beneath is churned, as if marked by the passage of enormous, reptilian claws. The plant life nearby shows signs of withering and mutation, twisted into unnatural shapes by the interplanar energies that seep from the portal's core.

Not enjoying the squelching in his boots Dornikal asks when they see portal.

"Okay. There it is. Now what?"

He tries to track the way the tracks headed after passing through the portal.

Survival: 14

"At least what seems to be beyond the portal isn't immediately horrible... But the question does become what we do now, doesn't it?" he asks, gazing over the portal. Were any of the books he ever read "how to close a portal 101?

(I think I rolled 13+7 arcana on my sheet? Not sure how that works) 

"Last time using the Planar Warrior ability had an effect, as did  wild magic." Randy looks around for something to target. "I wonder if that hydra came from here?"

"Wasn't it a part of some university thing gone wrong? Unless that the university in question is not mentioning a few details about that whole transaction..."

Randy examines the tracks:  Survival: 19

(I don't think the dice roller likes Randy right now :-(   ) The tracks are half gone from the bog seeping into them and Randy can't tell much. He shakes his head.  "Something big came through here.  I'm just not sure what. Keep alert.  We don't want to get jumped by some big nasty."

Ulmwin gives it a glance himself. 

8

The tracks head into the swamp, where they are masked by the murky water, but most head in a generally southern direction.

From what Ulmwin can recall, there are a few ways in which portals typically can form. One would be vial the casting of a spell for that express purpose, which could range from short distance hops about the same plane, to larger teleportation circles, to portals between planes. To end one of those, one might just have to wait for the spell effect to end, or disrupt the arcane workings that are powering it. Another would be spontaneously occurring, a thinning between planes to the point they overlap and begin to spill through into one another. This would seen to be the latter, much less stable, but potentially more persistent. The changes to the vegetation would imply it's been open for a while, and if the hydra came through or was drawn to this area long enough ago for the monster hunters to have caught wind of it... weeks? Months?

Ulmwin's mind is drawn to a performance he saw once as he struggles for an analogy for this planar rift, and stumbles upon a memory of a pair of contortionists. The performance itself was otherwise unremarkable, but it involved a brass ring that they play-fought over in the middle of their set, in a sequence that went on frankly too long to be entertaining, but not long enough to have circled back around to be comical. Anyway, the diameter of the ring was about as long as elbow to fingertips on the performers, and one of them was holding it in two hands when the other grabbed it from the other side and they struggled back and forth, each with fingers passing through the middle of the ring and curling around the other's side. In the act, their fingers both slipped free at the same time, and the ring dropped to the stage and rolled into the audience, where it was claimed by a small child, which was the post entertaining part of their piece... but has little bearing on current portal ponderings. In essence, Ulmwin would suspect there are aspects of this plane that have curled through and anchored to... wherever, and aspects of that plan that have curled through and anchored here. Perhaps two plants growing on either side of a window sending tendrils through the opening would be a more apt description, but a bit further from his lived experiences.  

((Randy had floated the idea the hydra was an escapee from the University, but as far as the monster crew knows that's not the case, and just that someone there needed hydra blood.))