Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

Lionel sees the threat and calmly calls upon his helmet to teleport the entire group. Everyone vanishes with twisting inversion of reality and appears, exploding back into the world next to the portal with a thump.  Laffa looks around frantically, then glances up the hill where the dark creatures are yet to emerge over, and leaps through the blue'ish green rippling vertical pool of magic, vanishing.

Presuming the rest of the group goes with him....

You emerge standing on a massive branch, at least a hundred feet around with thin bark, a gray silver in color. The ground slowly slopes away from you to the left and right. Looking up you see nothing but massive leaves and branches filling the entire view in most all directions. This branch stretches away where is seems to grow eventually thinner and thinner.  Unlike a curved world, you can see the branch for as far as you can see before the air itself acts like a fog for the branch to vanish into. The other way, it goes maybe a mile, but gets larger and large before eventually meeting a massively wide trunk of the world tree that must be a couple of miles wide. 

Nestled in the crook of the trunk and this branch is what appears to be a medium sized town. 

The bark from this portal to the town looks well worn with wagon tracks. 

Laffa stops for a breather, heaving for a moment. Then shakily he looks about and says "There...that's Crux. We made it.  Great." 

Ulthan feels queasy at all the plane hopping for a few seconds, the change in terrain is jarring to say the least. It makes him forget to ask questions about the previous place with what happened, what were those things, why are they not coming through the portal, how dangerous are those things. But he just focuses on the here and now, basically the past 5 seconds which pass by quickly. His memory never been great, he will follow the group, having trouble focusing on what our current wants are.

"This is truly a real tree..." Somehow the fact that "The World Tree" is an actual tree surprised Lionel even after all this plane hopping the group was doing. He touched the bark. "And it is alive... The wonder of wonders!" The paladin looked towards the city. "Do you think that name is literal too? Guessed we will soon find out. Shall we?" Laffa was a perfect "mine canary" - if he felt safe, it meant everything had to be dead quiet around here and the group could simply walk to their destination. Still, on the way there Lionel had to get to the side of the branch, very curious of the view. "Have to admit, never truly felt as being a real bird before. Strange feeling! Not unpleasant but funny." Once curiosity was sated, though, he returned to Laffa. "Can you tell a bit about that city? That things behind too - you said we were relatively safe and yet they attacked. What was it?"

Meepo stares at the portal for a long moment, trying to see if he can recall what those things they just escaped might have been... Arcana: 17 (Figured arcana due to him being a necromancer and not a cleric...)

Ketch follows, quietly longing for the days when there was a sky in the sky, life in the world and trees were normal ass trees.  He half wonders if he got one of those brain sicknesses back in Barovia…

Meepo thinks back to the creatures. He'd only seem them for a moment, and from a distance. He was sure they were no normal undead though. Not just some oversized shadows. They had a real malevolence....indicating a very strong binding with the plane of negative energy. Likely he would guess they are connected to the destructions of that world. 

Lionel, eager for a view down below, gingerly steps to the side, moving closer and closer to the edge of the branch. As he does so, he feels...no change in gravity.  Or rather.... a constant change in gravity. It is always pulling him towards the branch. He walks far enough that he is looking straight down and up. A weird vertigo ripples through him as he's standing "sideways" on the branch.  Far far below he sees a tiny vast world from which the world tree sprouts. 

Everyone else witnesses Lionel slowly walking away around the branch, while always seeming to stick solidly to the branch itself. 

Laffa pulls a bottle out of his bag and takes a big shaky swig, and then puts it back. With a full body sigh he seems to relax.  "Well, now ya know, Laffa is wrong all the time, often to his own detriment." He glances to Crux, "Uh....lots of people live in Crux, like I said its a strangely small town considering the amount of inter-world trade that goes through here. Other branches contain these always open portals to all sorts of other places. Anyway, peaceful place...commerce first sorta mentality." 

Shrugging to himself, Meepo turns and follows the others. He watches the giant-kin walk around to the side of the branch, but glances away as it appears the huge big is standing sideways. Moving over to the sad wizard Meepo cocks his head as he listens, but does not respond.

For a full minute, Lionel wrestled with the wish to spread the wings and fly. Not only it felt very fitting, the bubbling curiosity inside him demanded some actions! The place was beyond strange and there was something in the very words "world tree" that cried for some grand jest. Instead, though, as a responsible adult and an experienced mercenary, he returned to the group and continued walking toward the "peaceful trade hub". In his practice, quiet places had the biggest chances for a sudden explosion of violence.

"hrmpfh skiver tail curse kobold go to crux 3 crown why crux where crown hrmpfh".

A number of blank faces, including Laffa's stare at Ulthan a moment, before turning and continuing their march to Crux, none the more enlightened by the goliaths mumblings. 

Nestled between two major branches of Yggdrasil, the small community of Crux has existed for well over a hundred years. Though only about 800 people call it home, Crux is a well-known stop for planewalkers on the World Ash. Two large inns provide nice accommodations for folk passing through.

On your approach to town, you note an overgrown squirrel running on two legs, with two massive acorns in it's paws.  It runs by several dozen feet away, apparently wearing a loin cloth and hat, and chittering in an angry agitated fashion as it gives you the stink eye while passing quickly. Nothing else comes of the strange sight. 

You walk in to the town, whose roads are well worn ash bark past a large collection of warehouses that must be critical for trade, past a place that appears to be a slaughterhouse, past pig pens, a woodworking yard nestled among numerous buildings, and into the towns court square. You're here looking for Machil Rillyn according to Laffa who walks you through what actually appears to be a quiet little trading town, though its clear they're used to a lot of passer throughers. Unsurprisingly, all of the buildings in town seem to be made of Ash wood. 

Laffa says, "Well, we got The Lucky Lam on the east side over there, sorta a crappy dive, for those on a budget or criminally inclined. Then there is The Kings Table is a top shelf tavern and place to eat, and has nice rooms. They also got a market, and various shops course if yer interested. The Rillyn family home is this way, if you're so inclined to get straight to business as it were." 

Ketch tells Ulthan that the Sad Wizard is leading us to the crowns…  he thinks.  Or maybe to the wish dispenser.  Really, Ketch isn’t sure.  But if Sad Wizard leads them astray then they’ll feed the roots of this world tree…

Ketch otherwise heads to the King’s Table ready for a feast of recognizable courses!

The King's Table did sound very tempting, especially after the four hours of marching across the dead plane. "Let's eat first and then find that Rillyn." The matter was urgent, of course, but it's easier to think on the full stomach.

"Meepo do like food." Meepo says with a nod, ready to head for the nicer inn.

Mordekai realises how much he's been missing the comforts of an upmarket tavern, traveling the planes seems to build quite the appetite... once the initial nausea wears off. The group seem, without much communication of any kind, to all decide on the same plan and Mordekai heads to the Kings Table with the others. 

"How's this plane for you, Quinn? A little more comfortable?"

Quinn chitters happily, "Yes, there are many lies here. You and your....friends? lies? ....they must ingest more chemical sustenance now?" 

The group heads on into the Kings Table. This place feels a little bit like Sigil, thanks to the variety of the people in here. Unlike the rest of the people living in Crux who all appears mostly human, a lot of dark hair, dark complexion, obviously from the same stock, the people in the Inn are from all over and of all types. You inquire after room and board. 

The woman behind the counter running things looks up and says, "Dinner is no problem, find a seat and Isa will come for your order. But, I'm afraid we're all booked up for the night. You could try the lucky lam about a block from here."

Indeed, dinner is delicious. You're served steaks, baked apples, a lovely cider, and fresh bread along with strips of bacon and a lovely buttery gravy.  All the food is imported. Laffa eats the food ravenously, then takes a glass of cider down pretty quickly, though with glances at Mordekai, sticks to only a single glass. As you sit about, folk talk. You hear someone mention "Ratatosk", which are apparently the squirrel creatures that live in the tree and seemingly are the trees protectors. They apparently 'put up' with Crux and the trading that goes on, but are a bit grumpy about it.  Otherwise, news of the various going-ons include mostly news from elsewhere. Travelers from all over the planes, traders, and tourists, chit chat about this and that that happened near and far, but none of it seems relevant to you.

Anyone looking for any particular information? Any questions for the proprietor? 

Since they had their own guide here - Laffa was even relatively sober - Lionel did not see the need to ask around about anything. Or, better say, he had thousands of questions but that was an idle curiosity of a tourist, not something one would bother busy traders with. For a while, he simply enjoyed the food but once the first hunger was satisfied Lionel tried to get more information about their target. From Laffa himself, at least for now.

"So, most people are come and go - from different planes or from other trade hubs, but some sit here and take care of the places to trade. And that Machil Rillyn is from such a family. You said he was a noble brat - is he still? I mean, when did he get the book? Can we even hope to find the Rillyn alife?" That was mostly idle conversation with a simple answer - just go and see - but Lionel hoped that Laffa can know a bit more. "Do you know what did he pay for the book? What can a man in a place like that even want?"

"Just a random thought...  but if hostilities break out I suggest we be very careful of the tree.  Perhaps no fire and be careful with the swinging of blades?" Ketch looks to his own axe as he says the last, reminding himself.

That was a good point. If in Sigil you can be forever imprisoned for using teleport, who knows what restrictions The World Tree has. Lionel looked at Laffa and asked: "Are there any restrictions? Anything we have to be aware of?"

Laffa sniffs as he picks at the remnants of his steak, cutting a bit more meat off of a fatty bit he'd set aside.  "Um, yeah, that's right. The Rillyn family is real well known here. They basically trade in all sorts of goods, bringing it through Crux to wherever. He was...what, maybe....in his 20's when he sold the book to Zikran. So, he's probably in his 40's now? Maybe he runs the house. Who knows. I've no idea what Zikran paid for the book, but...you know Machil is from a trading house, they buy things and sell things....why else, for profit. Wherever they can find profit." 

((And about specifically forbidden spells/actions? Aside from "do not disrupt the trade"?))