Dreams Into Journey

Smallfry is following at the back, picking as many crystals off the walls as he can without drawing attention to himself, stuffing them in his pockets. If his pockets get full, he will hide them in his cheeks.

@Smallfry

Valentia walks the same pace as Lia, the ever-serious Cleric holding out her attention to the path in front of them, as she quietly follows with the group.

As the group moves down the tunnel, Jororic inspects the crystals on the walls, wondering if they are the same as the stone in Lia's amulet. But, comes to the conclusion that the crystals were naturally formed,  whereas the stone is more of a cut gemstone.

Oswin takes a sample of the crystal. Despite their small size, they are quite resilient. As he chips it off, at each impact, it brightens for a moment as if in response but maintains its glow even after being removed from the wall.

Similar flashes are seen behind most of the group which is quickly discovered to be Smallfry chipping off as many of the larger ones as he could grab, and stuffing them in his bag. As a result the tunnel behind them is quite a bit darker.

Eventually, the tunnel opens up to a small chamber (about 30ft by 40 ft by 20 ft) with a shallow pool. Complete with much larger version of the crystals in the tunnel, framing a large oval piece of stone that appears to have frozen ripples on its surface.

"Do we step through again?"  Lia asks, glancing to the oval piece of stone.

Oswin shrugs, "Worth a shot, I guess." And he'll send in SD first, following after if it appears safe.

Oswin sends his construct forward into the stone slab. It collides with the slab with a resounding *bong!*

Anyone who wants to, roll a history check.

Oswin history: 18

Jororic: 23

 Smallfry: 24

Smallfry can almost recall what is missing. However, Oswin and Jororic realize that the reason it didn't work is because the the portal is not active, yet. They now clearly remember that Overseer Lyssida told them that the lodestone is the means to open the way.

Once the others tell her to use the loadstone, Lia moves forward to do so, trying to activate the portal with it.

"Lia, I t'ink ya gotta use yer stone on dat first!" Jororic quips.

(just going retroactive for the sake of progression! Is that oxymoronic?)

Lia touches the slab with the lodestone. Once she does, the frozen ripples start moving and the familiar crags of the Kharkan Mountains fade into veiw, along with the welcome sight of Kohmstead in the not-too-far distance.

Ready to be back on real earth, Jororic won't wait around any more and heads through.

Lia waits for everyone else to go through, not sure if the portal will close once she goes through.

Having enough of the dream dimension for a while, Jororic rushes through the newly-opened portal, while Lia waits to be the last. One by one, they go through, seeing the sun beginning to peek over the mountains and a wavy window of the world they left behind.

Lia is the last to step through, suspecting that the portal will close as soon as she steps through, as she has the lodestone. Her concerns are well-founded as the threshold the had just crossed shrinks down to nothing.

Just down the hill, the mining town of Kohmstead is seen. Lia, Valentia, Oswin, and Nessarian realize they are around the halfway point between the town and Nessarian's workshop.

"I believe it's time for me to hold up my end of the deal and get your payment. In fact, considering the amount of information I gathered and what had transpired in that expedition warrants greater recompense. Wouldn't you say?" Nessarian says.

"Sounds good to me." Lia would agree with the wizard.  "What are you thinking?"

Oswin would nod emphatically, “And we’ll need to discuss our next step as well.”