"Ms Luna, don't let me slow you down! Go!"  and Gordra will let go of her hand and while still running veer away from her. 

*If i can see anyone else running with us I want to sort of run into the group and cast Disguise Self to make myself look like literally any other person in the crowd, and try to keep running.* 

What kind of roll you want for that? lol

(This thing is sensing you by some other means than sight. If only someone in your party could transport people swiftly on his back!)

**Bear Horse! To me!**

Amaruve, the Hyena in the rear, coughs and wheezes. He snaps threateningly at the monster as he follows the party through the streets.

When he hears Gordra call, he dashes up beside the old man and allows a moment for Gordra to climb on. With Gordra in the back with him now, he attempts to dodge if he can keep up with 50 ft. of movement, or dash when necessary. Gordra should be able to slow the thing down.

Riding a Hyena is a bit awkward the gait is smoother than a horse's in some ways, but each bound seems to lurch up and down significantly. The movement is long and smooth, and you are able to hold on in spite of the feeling that you'll be hurled into the air at the apex of each stride.

(You all solved my death cloud puzzle!)

The six of you outpace the Pretender cloud and make your way back to the tunnel entrance into the underground passages. The liquid white fire pouring downward from Vasht seems to be pooling beneath the arena: you see its glare issuing from the tunnel's mouth. At this distance, Luna, you sense an opening in the world beneath you. You instinctively know what it is: a portal... the next leap.

Based upon the distance you placed between yourselves and the smothering darkness behind you, you would estimate it will take roughly 2 minutes for the monster to reach you. (As a reminder, the tunnel leads to an intersection. The right turns heads to the medica and the arena (dead end), straight takes you to the captive hobgoblins (sidequest!), left takes you back to the lab (next leap))

Thosn, Jean, and Perspicacious are in the lead as you dash into the tunnel. Thosn grabs Rog's hand, and makes a final sprint for the gate ahead of you.

It's a simple iron structure, but as you approach, thosn throws out her hand to stop you. She points to the floor, where arcane symbols are scratched. You then notice the telltale shimmer of a simple barrier spell blocking the hall. She looks at you, Perspicacious, and says, The disc! Open the gate!"

Jean called out "Hard left! We can probably board up in there to figure out our next move!"

Amaruve (and Gordra) stop at the entrance to the tunnel to keep the way clear, but he (they) can move inside if overwhelmed.

(Or follows Jean's instruction if Gordra wishes it.)

"A portal," Cordelia isn't sure how, but she knows there is a portal nearby. A way out of this mess with the Pretender. She looks to her companions, their bodies ever shifting between their true selves and the bodies they've stolen. She looks at the professor and beckons him closer while she shouts, "There is a jump point down this left hall. A portal. We can leave before that thing eats us alive."

"Sounds good to me!" Jean exclaimed.

Amaruve searches for Perspicacious, who just hours before, he'd seen as a mortal threat. Who, hours before, he'd seen filled with fear. Who, hours before... He wouldn't leave her behind.

(Side note: Thosn is with Perspicacious at the iron gate keeping the hobgoblins imprisoned. I'm going to play for her (sorry, AP!) just to move things forward)

Perspicacious raises the symbol to the gate... and nothing happens. Thosn appears crestfallen. The device she had spent weeks researching and perfecting. It had failed.

Then, the symbol of the tower blazes brightly on the back of Perspicacious' hand. The runes on the floor are flooded by the light of amber-colored flame that appears there, and the faintly shimmering barrier falls. Shock appears briefly across Thosn's face, but then black arms of hadar again burst from her body, and the iron gate is ripped from the wall.

Slowly, cautiously, a small group of hobgoblins (no more than twenty) begin to emerge from the darkened cell behind the destroyed gate. Thosn approaches them and speaks urgent words of comfort and warning. "Time is short. You must flee, now." She directs them to the medica, as the dark creature advances yet behind you. 

"So few... Nearly a hundred were brought here, but so few are left unsacrificed..." She shakes herself, focusing on the moment. She turns to Rog, and pauses before speaking. "I... don't understand why you are traveling with these humans. I am certain now that you are not the Rog I have known these many months. But you have helped me. The magic that dispelled the barrier was not of my making- it was full of light, while all I can cast is shadow." She pauses again. "You must go with them to the lab. I don't know whether this body you wear will return to our people, Rog-who-is-not-Rog, but when you do... If Rog controls this form once again... I will thank you for it."

With that, she turns back down the hallway, and follows her people to the world above.

Not sure how to respond, and not knowing what will happen if she is able to leave this body behind, Perspicacious just nods to Thosn as the female hobgoblin leaves. Then, after lingering just a  moment to make sure they escape, Perspicacious turns to go and join the others, staring at the tower symbol on her hand. "What else can you do?" she ponders.

Amaruve is relieved to see Perspicacious' face appear, obscured though it is by Rog's less appealing mug. He roars with fury and protects the portal following the others through last. When they move.

The hobgoblins freed (God, I'm so happy I don't have to type "hobgoblin" anymore), the five of you enter the lab you escaped just a few hours before. It's a completely different scene than you remember. All of the violet torches have burnt out, and to the eyes of the bodies you now occupy the space is pitch black save for the fitfully pulsing deep purple rune spanning the width of the floor. To your own bodies' eyes, however... The center of the cavern is occupied by a huge white flame. Every feature is thrown into sharp, high-contrast relief. 

Cordelia, to your senses the portal (your escape) lies within that flame. The STR-DST is beeping madly, and the tuning fork sound you all have been hearing is overwhelming in its intensity.

And standing in front of the flame... 

Standing before you is the Pretender. He is wearing a human form once again, but his edges are a little bit... squiffy. His black silk is splashed the with unblinking, inky eyes of the homunculus and his head... His head is a memory, cobbled together from pieces of black smog and recolored in a pastiche of humanity. He is turned away from you facing the flame. As you approach, he murmurs, just barely audible:

"Unbelievable... I could not sense it before, and yet, here it is in all its sheer immensity..." He cocks his head at your approach and he booms, "And here come the would-be champions of the arena! Did you think there was only one way into this place? Did you think you would escape me here?" He laughs, then, and the echoes of his laughter are redoubled many times more than they should in this space. "You KILLED me. I wanted freedom for my people, for myself, and you five KILLED me." He pauses. "It actually isn't so bad, being dead. I can feel SO MUCH MORE now than I could before, and I suppose I WAS TRAPPED in the body of that beast..." He looks at Gordra, "YOU KNOW how it is, Master Dragonborn, slinging magic around without a thought for the CONSEQUENCES?! Oh, yes, I see your true faces, now, all of you." He looks to Amaruve, "Even you, cursed creature. You all have toyed with power beyond your imagining, and it will twist each of you worse even than the bear before this is done."

He is facing you, now, still blocking your path to the flame. "All I wanted was the power to reclaim my nation. Our brightest minds, our strongest practitioners of the mystic arts... all were taken to the TOWER, and our people were left unprotected against the onslaught from the Duke's armies. But now... NOW I HAVE more power than the entire species of hobgoblins could ever provide. And you all summoned it! Right here, in my circle, you brought more power to me than I could have ever dreamed to HARNESS ON MY OWN."

He begins to applaud, and the sound of his hands clapping together is like a thunderclap. "BRAVO! Unparalleled work!" He stops, "But I am being so rude! PLEASE! YOU MUST step through the portal or be lost in this world for all time. THAT LARGE BLUE FELLOW above us doesn't look like he can hold it open much longer!" And with that, the Pretender steps to the side and gestures magnanimously for you to step through the rift.

Jean waits for the others, to make sure no one is left behind before entering the portal herself.

Amaruve growls, eyes locked on the pretender. A caged beast, bound only by self-restraint.

Cordelia is incredibly cautious about this whole thing. Sure, they granted this man power by unbinding him from this mortal coil, but she wasn't sure how to feel about being allowed to jump. After all, at the end of the day, they still killed him. Who knows... maybe this is a trick.

(Insight: 2)

(With a nat 20...)

Luna, the Pretender has lied about a fair number of things, but he clearly wants you to enter the portal. And this is a portal. As to where it leads, however, you have no idea. You sense that he is also telling the truth about the rift's fragility, but you don't need him to tell you that. You can feel that it is about to fly apart and shut despite Vasht's efforts to wedge it open with the Novascope. 

In a flash of insight, you recall a late night scrolling through Wikipedia years before. Before you learned of the Tower, before you ever stumbled into that place between the worlds. It was an obscure topic: "List of current pretenders". It listed people who would hold a position of power had their nation or their throne not been dissolved or absorbed by another. This man didn't receive his moniker by chance- he lost everything and found himself in forced friendship and service to the man who stole his nation from him.

And yet... And yet you feel no pity. You're not sure whether you believe in things like "good" and "evil", but if there is evil anywhere in the multiverse, then this guy is definitely it. You feel a power in your chest that you've never before experienced. Prior to today, prior to the appearance of this gate, you've had exactly zero aptitude for magic. You know its forms and its theory, but the spark just wasn't in you. Now, however... The light of the portal in reflected inside of you. You can feel the outline of a spell in your mind, something that will hamper this monster and prevent him from harming you and your friends, at least for a little while. Unbidden, your hands raise in front of you, the stardust held loosely but confidently like a high-tech arcane focus...

Gordra says in a very flat tone, "Come now, everyone through the 'portal', our time here has come to an end." and Gordra dismounts his Hyena friend and waits for them all to get safely through the portal.