Chapter Three

Nera
 and Martyn disappear almost the second the fighting has stopped. Ravaphine, Urrak and Beiro are standing in the clearing with five dead
humans and a captive.

Urrak
 rips a scrap of cloth off the dead man's tunic she just cleaved into
pieces and cleans her sword before placing back in it's scabbard, a
giant grin plastered on her face. "Now THAT is what I been waitin' for!"

"Truly that was an impressive display of strength, Lady Urrak." Beiro praises.

"This sword's never done me wrong."

Ravaphine
 sighs and attempts to wipe off all the blood on her shoes with no
avail. "I'll try to look for the missing archway, do you want to check
 on the hostage?"

Urrak walks over to Poni and picks him up. "Aye, I'll check out the prisoner."

"Just be gentle, you giant."

Urrak walks over to the captured man and removes the hood from his head "Oi, y'alright?"

Urrak
 pulls off the hood revealing a human woman, roughly forty, with a gag
in her mouth. The rope around her ankles and the shackles at her wrists
don’t keep her from flinching when Urrak peers down at her.

"Hey
 there, it's alright. I ain't gonna hurtcha lest ye give me reason to.
Lemme undo these ropes then." Urrak uses her dagger to cut the ropes and
 offers her waterskin to the woman "Y'look like you've been through the
wringer, friend." She doesn’t have anything to remove the shackles, but
at least most of the woman is free.

"Who are you?"

"Urrak
 of the D'akshi stronghold. Hmm I cannae break these chains without
hurtin' ya. Rava, can y' use some kind of spell to free her? Doubt we'll
 find a key in this mess...."

Ravaphine
 comes over, a piece of strangely shiny metal in her hand. "I am Ravaphine, we're here to help you.
 I don't have any tools, but maybe we can break the chains?"

Urrak cracks her knuckles. "I s'pose I can try an' snap em"

"Unfortunately I lack the tools to do so as well." Beiro says from behind them.

“While you do that, I'll try to see if i can find keys in any of their dead body pockets."

As
 Urrak attempts to pull at the chains, straining in vain, Ravaphine
searches the men but only comes up with a few pieces of gold.

Urrak grunts in frustration, having no luck in breaking the chains, "Blast. These be some strong bonds. Bloody mess this is..."

"What about the tents?" Beiro asks, opening one of the flaps.

The
 three of them start searching, Urrak coming across a pair of bone dice,
 surely good enough to fetch a nice price.  "A little somthin' fer my
trouble."

Ravaphine
 finds more gold and the keys. "Found some keys!!!" Ravaphine heads over
 to the woman and asks before unlocking the chains, "Are you okay? What
happened before these men captured you?”

She
 relaxes a little seeing an elf helping instead of the giant. "I was in
town, looking to buy some meat when all of a sudden I wasn’t. I was on a
 road I ain’t seen before and that thing was sitting in the middle of
the road, smoking.” She points at the metal piece. “I picked it up,
figured it might be important or expensive. Then these assholes came and
 grabbed me.”

Ravaphine
 looks at the piece of metal and nervously places it in her bag. "I'll
be sure to be careful with this. I guess we're all in the same boat
then, just trying to get out of here. It's okay, my team and I...okay
mostly the orc, took care of the men who captured you" She then helps
the woman out of the chains.

"Aye that I did!" Urrak laughs a little louder than what is probably appropriate.

“Yeah,
 yeah, this is great. Wonderful. Are you done with the meet and greet? I
 was hoping the arch would be whole or at least the component pieces would be bigger so we wouldn’t have to find as
many. This is just… terrific. AND now it looks like the stupid people of
 that stupid town got sent with the pieces. Wonderful.” Poni grumbles
from Urrak’s hand.

The
 woman looks around with a scowl. “Is that that creepy little gnome I
hear? Where’s he at? This is all your fault, isn’t it? Dafyn said you
were up to no good.”

"Who..is Dafyn?" Ravaphine asks.

"Dafyn works the farm with me," the farmer replies.

"Well we're no friends of this fellow. We came here, same as you. From outta nowhere."

"Poni, how many more pieces are there?" Rav asks the rod.

"Why do you think I know? More than three. That's for sure. We've got the piece. Let's get going."

"Where are we?" the woman asks.

"Now that's a good question...."

"I never got your name," Ravaphine asks the stranger.

“Name's Lin."

"Lin, do you know of any of the places on this map?" she pulls out the map piece that was found back at the temple to show Lin.

"Aye. I'm from Bellbury." She points at the center of the map.

"Well,
 we have to find more components like the one you found before, and then
 we can all head back home. Shall we continue into the town?"

Urrak comes forward, “We should bring her back there, to her home."

"There
 was only the one here. We'll have to go back to Bellbury and use the
Quantum Riftshift Slipstream Teletransmitter to go to the next one."
Poni says.

"Speak Common, Gnome." Lin growls.

Urrak laughs, "Ha! I like 'er!"

She frowns and sidesteps away from Urrak.

Ravaphine sighs, "I guess we're going back to Bellbury. Everyone, grab onto my shoulders. Poni, can you take us back?"

"Yes, yes. Clearly I have to get used to repeating myself. Everyone has to touch, then you push the button."

Urrak
 places a hand on Ravaphine's shoulder, Beiro grabs hold of Urrak’s
bicep, and Ravaphine reaches her hand out to Lin, "Don't worry, it'll be
 okay. We’ll get you back home."

Lin stands and reluctantly takes her hand.

"Alright, it's now or never. I'll never get used to this. Pull the lever, Kronk… I mean, Urrak.”

As soon as Urrak pushes the button, they all appear back in Poni’s basement.

Lin lets go and frowns again. "I'm leaving. That gnome has a nasty habit of blowing things up."

"Y'sure you'll be alright? I found some gold on those men, if y'need it, it's yours"

She
 looks at Urrak oddly. "You always offer gold to strangers? I just want
to get back to my farm. I'm in no mood to be indebted to the likes of
you."

"Jus' tryin' t' be of help t' ya." Urrak walks to the other side of the basement.

"Hey, she's just trying to help. If that's all we are to you, then I guess we’ll be seeing you around."

Lin huffs a little. "Thank you for saving me." Then she walks out.

Ravaphine walks over to Urrak to talk to Poni. "One component down. Do you have a blueprint of what we need to rebuild?"

“Just my books. Once we have the pieces, we'll be able to piece them together again."

"Any idea where th' next piece may be? Or should we just start blinkin' around at random?"

"I
 can target the next one." The portal against the wall changes from one
brightly lit, dense forest to a more normal, but dark one.

"Onto the next place then I guess. If only we had more help."

~\*~\*~

Brimeia
 is sitting on the edge of the fountain, flirting with open air.
Seirixori is perched on the edge like she's watching over the cart with
pies, and an elven woman is suddenly standing at the side, pointing a
drawn bow at nothing.

Brimeia,
 who was enthusiastically lavishing compliments upon the dwarven
barmaid's lustrous locks, stops abruptly as both the lass and the tavern
 disappear, replaced by a familiar looking fountain… and TWO fine
lasses. What a lucky day.

Seirixori
 blinks as her field of vision changes drastically and she sighs
heavily, annoyed once she realizes where she is. "Of course, why bother
trying to do anything." She glances behind her and notices a slightly
familiar face and a new one, "Welcome," Seirixori says sarcastically to
the elf.

The
 elf  looks around, confused, surprised to find cobblestones rather than
 the familiar crunch of sticks and leaves underfoot. Instead she sees a
fountain with two tieflings sitting on it, a group of commoners eating
from a merchant's cart, and otherwise a deserted town. She raises her
bow in alarm, pointing it at the two tieflings who are staring at her.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

Brimeia
 recognizes the tiefling from before. Not so friendly but spirited and
quite a sight. "Well isn't this a pleasant surprise?" she croons.

Seirixori
 ignores the questions, poking at the fountain water, debating with
herself if she should go back to that house or walk around the town to
find out more about where she is.

"Ah,
 just as silent and statuesque as ever," Brimeia muses as Seirixori
prods the water. "Find anything in there? Besides your beautiful
reflection, that is?"

Rolling her eyes, Seirixori steps off the fountain, flicking water at Brimeia in annoyance. "Definitely not your brains."

"Oh, and who might you be, fair elf?" Brimeia asks when she finally looks away from Seirixori.

"I'm
 someone who is wondering how I ended up in this place, and what the two
 of you have to do with it.  Who are you working for?"

"Work?" Brimeia echoes, puzzled. "Why would I do a thing like that?"

"So you're not...mercenaries?"

"Mercenaries? Goodness, no." Brimeia answers the elf. "Only money I take is for a brawl fairly won."

Seirixori
 sighs heavily again, "We arrived here same as you. Going about our own
business and then popping into a city we have no knowledge of," she
replies before heading towards the burned house.

"Alright,
 someone better tell me what's going on or else I start flinging
arrows." The elf’s eyes keep flicking around, as if checking all angles
for an attack.

Brimeia
 looks undeterred by the splash and the comment. If anything, her grin
grows as she turns in the direction the other tiefling is headed,
talking to Enna over her shoulder.

"Not quite sure myself, elf, but Seirixori there seems to know something. She found that temple last time."

"I
 didn't find anything, it's right there, in plain sight. I'm going back
to where we were before, it seems to hold the only interesting thing in
this town." Seirixori continues towards the house.

"Oh, I don't know, Seirixori. I see at least a couple other points of interest around," Brimeia beams.

The elf lowers her bow and decides to follow the tieflings, resigned that this may be the only way to get information.

"Far
 as I know, some magical thing exploded in a fire, killed some gnome.
Something to do with why we're here, I guess." Brimeia explains. "I'm
sure there's an beautiful name to go with that beautiful face of yours."

As they reach the burned husk of a house, a woman walks out, a scowl on her face.

She looks at the tieflings and her frown deepens. "That gnome..." Then she walks away.

Brimeia
 opens her mouth to say something (almost certainly flirtatious) to the
woman who emerges from the burnt house, but she wanders off before she
gets the chance. She blinks at the mention of gnome. Surely not THAT
gnome?

Seirixori continues to ignore Brimeia and walks into the house and heads down the stairs.

The
 elf picks at the bracer on her arm, unsure of what to make of such
attention on her . "Enna." She follows Seirixori downstairs.

Brimeia
 beams when the newcomer obliges with an answer. "A pleasure to meet
you, Enna. Name's Brimeia." She follows both women down the stairs, if a
 little tentatively.

~\*~\*~

Seirixori walks into the basement and sees the group that was here before, "Help with what?" There's a dead gnome on the floor and a bunch of armed and armored
people standing around in front of an image of a
dark forest.

"We
 found a way to successfully teleport from place to place, and the more
components we find, the closer we all are to home. So...time to go
easter egg hunting," Ravaphine replies.

"Tiefling! Y'came back. Where's the other one?" Urrak asks.

“Ugh.
 It’s probably too much to ask that it was a coincidence that there was a
 villager that popped up with the component, right? But the piece isn’t
THAT small. There’s hundreds of people in this town. There can’t be
hundreds of components if they’re this big.” Poni complains.

As Brimeia enters, her eyes go wide at the sound of a voice she can't place. "What? Who said that?"

As Enna walks into the basement she takes in the group of strangers and stays by the wall.

"That's what I'm talking about! Power in numbers. Wait a second, who is this?" Ravaphine points at the elf by the shelf.

"Just
 another person who somehow popped up here, who I am's not particularly
important. How do you all seem to know each other and this place?"

"Same thing happened to us. I was just trying to deliver a package and I woke up here."

Urrak
 takes a step forward, "We all came here under the same odd
circumstances. Just happened to do it sooner. But the more the merrier I
 say."

Seirixori attempts to trip Brimeia with her staff as Brimeia walks by but Brimeia spots the staff and steps over it easily.

Ravaphine rolls her eyes as she catches the action, "Can you both stop making out and help us get to the next place."

Brimeia turns to Ravaphine, "Ah, ravishing Ravaphine! I certainly wouldn't mind making out with you instead."

Urrak sighs, "Some things never change...."

".....anyone
 feel like telling me why there's a dead gnome on the floor, and why no
one seems to be concerned with this?" Enna asks, after she takes a
closer look around the room.

“Oh
 yeah, that's Poni. He caused this explosion and he's the reason why
we're all here. Also he lives in this stick now," Ravaphine points to
the rod in Urrak's hand.

"I'd say it's a pleasure, but it's probably not."

"He's a wizard of some kind...I'm assumin'.” Urrak mutters.

Enna draws her bow, feeling a little silly for pointing it at a stick, but can't be too careful. "I don't trust wizards."

"Poni?"
 Brimeia frowns. "The explosion? Where..." She stops mid-sentence and
stares at the stick as it's mentioned. "You're joking."

"Hey now, drop yer weapons. Poni ain't here t' trick no one. And aye, Bri. It's true."

"He's our ride back home, unfortunately"

Poni scoffs at being called "a ride" anywhere.

"What about that... gnome?" Brimeia gestures at the body still sprawled on the floor.

"That's me. Try to keep up."

"But you're the stick...and also dead?"

Brimeia chimes in at the same time, "But he's dead."

"He's...half dead." Urrak says.

"Half dead is dangerously close to undead, and I shoot undead on sight."

Ravaphine sighs, "Poni I think you're gonna have to show them to believe it."

Poni
 sighs. "My Quantum Riftshift Slipstream Teletransmitter went boom and
now I am 'stick'. I prefer 'control rod', personally."

Seirixori
 steps up, visibly annoyed, as usual, "Can we please just get on with
this, I was in the middle of something important and I would like to get
 back to it."

"Ah but then we wouldn't have the joy of spending time in such lovely company." Brimeia flirts.

Urrak nods, "Aye I've got...obligations back home as well."

"We're going to have to go through another portal." Ravaphine says.

“Well now, that's all settled. Now where's that other piece we need t' find, Poni?"

"It's through there. Probably with another hapless and stupid villager."

Urrak
 claps her hand on Ravaphine’s shoulder. "Let's go! ...and in order to
do so, everyone must be friends and touch the person next to you. Be
nice."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't mind getting cozy with you fine women." Brimeia winks.

"Please keep her away from me."

"Seirixori, you wound me," Brimeia responds.

"I tried." Seirixori mutters.

"You're welcome to keep trying."

Ravaphine grabs Seirixori's hand in her left and Brimeia's hand in her right. "FRIENDS! For ten seconds!"

Brimeia grips Ravaphine’s hand, "Well a trip through... that won't be so bad in your company."

“I'm about itching for another brawl," Brimeia muses.

Urrak extends her hand to Enna "Well, y'coming?"

Enna looks to the image on the wall, dark and forested. She points to it, "What… is that."

"That is how we get from place to place. You all touch each other, push the button, put me through."

"Some foul magic. Same that brought us here, I imagine," she answers Enna. "Seems we've got no choice."

"It's not 'foul' magic. It's just magi-- ugh. Never mind," Poni grumbles.

"Well
 it's tossing us all around willy-nilly isn't it? And not it the fun
way," Brimeia grumbles at the stick-not-quite-dead-gnome-thing.

Ravaphine
 ignores Brimeia and Poni, "One step closer to home. Enna, it'll be
okay. Grab Urrak’s hand and we can get this started."

"I'm not much of a toucher."

"What if you put your hand on my shoulder?"

Enna reluctantly places her hand on the fellow elf's shoulder.

"Beiro, grab on and let's go."

Beiro happily grabs Urrak's arm again.

"Are you all about ready? Honestly, you'd think hired help would be more competent."

"Poni, I'm going to stick you where the sun don't shine."

"Hold
 on t'yer trousers, folks!" Urrak pushes the button and the portal
flares and frays at the edges. Brimeia grimaces at all the magical
commotion, finding it all unsettling.

"Now put me through. The sun's not shining there."

As soon as Poni crosses the plane of the portal, the surroundings change to a dark forest, no path, no road, no light.

Enna looks around, relieved to be back in her element. "Finally. Something familiar."

Seirixori nods, "I have to agree."

Urrak
 turns to Ravaphine "Here light this torch would ya? Might help us see a
 bit better.” Unsure if everyone can see in the dark.

Ravaphine
 reaches over to cast light onto the torch but accidentally touches
Urrak's hand instead, causing Urrak’s hand to light up.

"Ah! Y'clumsy caster! I'm a candle!"

"Never trust magic," Brimeia mutters under her breath.

"Anyone see the shiny?" Poni asks.

"There it is!! I see something over there," Ravaphine walks over to the bush and finds the next component.

Enna
 notices a trail of blood smeared across the grass. "Something was here,
 and it made a kill. Looks like it dragged it north.” She pauses,
studying it a bit more, "It's fresh. Keep your wits about you,
everyone."

Ravaphine clutches her bag with the components in them. "I hope you all are well rested and ready to fight again."

"Again?" Brimeia chimes. "Did I miss one? Damn."

"Must we? Can we not just grab what we need and go?"

"Poni, should we head back?"

"I'm
 with Candy Cane over there. We don’t have to save them all, you know.
We can just fix my Quantum Riftshift Slipstream Teletransmitter. The
people of that town aren’t worth the cabbages they grow. Not as smart
either.”

"I'm always ready for a fight." Urrak says as she draws her greatsword.

"Poni, is there a reason why people are kidnapping and killing for your creation?"

"Killin'? What'd y' find around here? This light is so bright it's hurtin' my eyes a bit."

"Who says the blood has anything to do with my Quantum Riftshift Slipstream Teletransmitter?"

"Well,
 the woman from your town said that she got kidnapped when she found
your component. What if another got killed or kidnapped again?"

"That doesn't mean anything. It's shiny. Cretins like you always want shiny things."

“You're lucky you're already dead, stick." Seirixori growls.

Enna
 follows the blood, expecting the tracks that go with it, "These are
goblin tracks. I take back what I said before, someone or something was
injured, but not killed. Definitely taken somewhere, though"

At
 the mention of goblins Ravaphine and Urrak ready themselves, knowing they are creatures who take delight in cruelty and
suffering, often taking slaves.

"All
 people deserve respect and t' be free from villiany. Goblins are evil
lil shites I'm ready to stomp some o' their 'eads in."

"We must take precaution if we want to proceed down the forest. What's our plan?"(edited)

"I won't say no to killing goblins."

"I'm always happy to go where you beautiful ladies are." Brimeia saunters along with them as they follow the trail.

Drops
 of blood here and there mark the way, and with Urrak shining like a
beacon, they make their way through the forest until the trees thin and
they’re looking at the bottom of a cliff. The blood leads into the mouth
 of a cave up ahead.

"My this is exciting." Beiro says, right before he disappears.

Brimeia is startled and unnerved by the sudden disappearance of the half-elf. "Never going to get used to that," she grumbles.

"Can one of ye try in sneak in? See if you can spot any o' th' blighters? I would but uh...my condition"

"Why sneak?" Brimeia asks.

"Y' want to be ambushed by goblins?"

Enna readies her bow, moving toward the mouth of the cave.

"Surely
 a mighty fighter like you isn't scared of a few goblins?" Brimeia
chuckles good-naturedly as she claps Urrak on the shoulder.

"Aye, not afraid. Just cautious. Goblins are a tricky bunch."

"What if we throw a bedroll over you? I say we all go in together."

Ravaphine
 removes the light from Urrak. "Sorry about that. Maybe if you lay low
and stay close to the cave walls, they won't see you if anybody is
there," she suggests.

"Praise the gods!" Urrak blinks and rubs her eyes.

"Will you two be quiet, you're basically telling them where we are." Serixori mutters to Brimeia and Urrak.

Enna sneaks into the mouth of the cave while the rest of them adjust to darkness again.

"Almost a shame. I rather like you shiny," Brimeia chuckles.

Urrak shoots Brimeia a look like "Nah dude"

"Of course, of course. No match for the light of your eyes," Brimeia responds, unruffled.

"People are dying, Brimeia" Ravaphine says in exasperation.

"Honestly, be quiet," Seirixori reiterates.

Enna mutters to herself, "Tricky bastards." Enna edges back along the cave walls to reconvene with the group.

"What did you see?" Ravaphine asks as Enna gets back to them.

“Damn place's rigged with a trap. Nasty giant vermin inside."

"Did y'see any way to disarm it?"

Brimeia is saved from answering by the reappearance of Enna. "Can't we just break it?"

"Was it another bear trap? should we try to walk around it?" Ravaphine asks.

"String across the floor, string moves, bell rings. Bell rings, Rat wakes up, Rat gets lunch."

"You guys did well with a sneak attack last time." Ravaphine says.

Seirixori, not wanting to get into a fight asks, "Is it really necessary to kill this creature?"

"I see no other option."

"If it's eating people, why wouldn't we?" Brimeia states.

"I can try a poison spray to subdue it."

"I'm with the tiefling on this one. Give me a goblin to stab some information out of any day, but the rat's inconsequential."

"Do we actually know it was a person it attacked? For all I know, it could have just been a small animal." Seirixori says.

"Can we try to walk around the rat while it is sleeping?" Ravaphine asks.

"I ain't that graceful, elf." Urrak says.

Brimeia shrugs, "Why bother? We're wasting time."

Enna rolls her eyes, "The rat isn't the one that made those tracks. That was a goblin."

"Which means they'll do more. We're wastin’ time." Urrak reiterating what Brimeia said.

"So... you're fine with this rat killing other animals but not us killing it?" Brimeia points out.

Seirixori
 rolls her eyes, "Animals eat other animals, it's in nature. We eat them
 as well, but we don't need to kill them for no reason."

Urrak throws up her hands and walks away from the cave mouth a bit grumbling in a circle.

"I'll
 go in and try to subdue the rat, hopefully it wakes up after we're
gone." Ravaphine says. "Unless, Urrak, you would like to do the honors"

"I'll
 be over 'ere when y' wanna smash some heads. But the rat should be
killed quietly if we don't wanna be ambushed. Poison, arrow, stabbin',
doesn't matter t' me."

A cackle of laughter trickles out of from deeper in the cave, the adventurers ignoring it, more focused on their arguing.

"However, it does unfortunately sound like there is a goblin inside if that laughter is any indication."

"Just hurry up then. If you don't come right back out i'm going in there myself, my way." Brimeia grumbles.

Enna
 pulls an arrow out of her quiver, "Fine, I'll go back in. Arrow should
do the trick quickly. Could do with some meat for my pack, anyway."

"And my axe," Urrak pulls out her axe, spinning it in her hands as she does.

Ravaphine steps up behind them, "Enna I'll be right behind you."

Seirixori sighs and follows them reluctantly.

Ravaphine let’s out a quiet sigh, noticing the trap Enna mentioned and the rat a little farther away, “I hope you're a good marksman." The rat’s ears twitch at the sound.

"Don't move another inch, tiefling." Enna says harshly, as Seirixori is more focused on the rat than their immediate surroundings. At the sound of her voice, the rat twitches again.

“Watch your step,” Ravaphine whispers.

"We want to get a jump on this thing, and that bell's gonna send a cadre of goblins our way." As the rat opens it’s eyes Enna readies her bow and lets loose an arrow. It opens it’s mouth to sound the alarm, but the arrow goes straight down it’s throat, killing it.

Enna points at the trap, "Don't fuck this up for us." she says as another bout of laughter comes from deeper within the cave.

Seirixori rolls her eyes and goes back out with Ravaphine to retrieve Urrak and Brimeia.

"The rat is dead, but there is a trap. Don't trip over it" Ravaphine tells them as she leads them inside.

"FINALLY," Brimeia huffs, heading in after Seirixori.

Urrak slowly walks into the cave and sees the arrow sticking out of the rat, "Aye, now that's one dead rat."

"There is a trap coming up, watch your step." Ravaphine points it out.

As they walk in, Seirixori’s tail starts wrapping itself around one of her legs, a clear sign of nerves, causing her to trip over the string and the bell rings. The laughter that’s deeper into the cave stops.

Ravaphine stills. "Well this is unfortunate"

Enna rolls her eyes and Urrak moves cautiously towards the goblins and throws her dagger and it flies right through one of the goblin's legs and lands inches from the prone body the goblins were dancing around.

"Whoops, missed."

“You haven't had breakfast yet have you?" Ravaphine jokes as she pulls out her quarterstaff.

Brimeia runs towards the goblins, the excitement of battle working her into a
frenzy. She draws one of her hand axes and lobs it at the nearest creature, completely showing Urrak up as she buries the hatchet right in the goblin's brainpan.

Enna moves around the two to get a better view, drawing her bow, setting her sights on the other goblin and looses an arrow.

The goblin yelps when it sees its friend crumple, and as it turns to face its attackers, it takes an arrow to the eye and falls to the ground,
unmoving.

Seeing there's more than one left Seirixori cries out, "There's more!" and gestures with her free hand, mumbling to herself as she does, and
grasping weeds and vines sprout from the ground underneath the two goblins in the distance. Unable to muster enough strength, they’re stuck, staring at the people who interrupted their murder party.

"Leave one alive, we might need it for information.” Enna cries out.

One continues to struggle, the other, angry, pulls it’s bow from it’s back and fires at Urrak, but it soars by her ear.

Ravaphine runs by just as Enna shouts, "There's a person there, make sure they
don't get hit!" Ravaphine nods and with an arching throw of her arm and a yell, a bolt of fire releases from her hand, killing the one that just missed Urrak.

Urrak runs around the perimeter of the vines and calls one of the goblin's mother a brothel worker.

Brimeia backs up, then charges forward, taking a mighty leap towards the
remaining goblin, landing on top of the burning goblin. She lets out a terrifying growl as she swings her greataxe at it, lopping it’s head off and it rolls to Urrak’s feet. Urrak snorts and kicks it farther into the cave.

"Welp, so much for keeping one alive."

With all opponents vanquished, Brimeia comes to her senses again, looking around dazedly. "Oops."

Enna approaches the bodies, moving frantically from one to the other,
looking for something. But all she finds is some small sized scimitars and shortbows. Frustrated with her findings, Enna turns to look at the unconscious woman. "So what do we do about this one?"

As the rest of the group starts to head towards the humanoid on the
ground, Seirixori releases her spell and Ravaphine and Urrak disappear
causing Poni to fall to the floor.

"Ow! We've gotta do something about that. You, pick me up!"

Brimeia only makes a face at the magic talking stick and makes no move to pick it up, still unnerved by it.

Seirixori picks up Poni but holds the device with two fingers and away from her. "If I must."

"I saw that, tiefling. If I had fingers, I'd be pointing at you.”

Seirixori rolls her eyes.

“Well? You insisted on coming here to find
her. You going to let her bleed out? Make this a complete waste of
time?"

Seirixori pulls out a small kit with herbs and uses what little skill she has to bring the woman on the ground to her senses.

"Where- Where am I?"

"A cave...that was full of goblins."

Brimeia puffs up, "Don't worry I hacked them all to bits."

She looks around and back at you. "You killed all of them? Just the three of you?"

"There were more of us, however..." Seirixori holds up the device in her hands
 and waves it a little, "I'm going to blame this thing, but we just sort
 of...poof in and out sometimes."

"I'm impressed. I didn't have my weapon and they caught me off guard.” She stands and winces, touching the back of her head gingerly. “Poof? Yeah, I
 guess that's what you might call it."

"Well you have nothing to worry about now, fair maiden."

She raises an eyebrow at Brimeia. "Right… how did you know to find me?"

"There was a trail of blood."

Seirixori points over to Enna, "Tracked the goblins."

"Well, thank you. Do you know how to get back to Bellbury? I'm afraid I might be in awful trouble when we get back."

"Blah blah blah. Can we go?"

"Shut up, Poni" Seirixori gives the device a shake. "Honestly I have no idea
where we are, nothing around here is familiar, however if we bring you
back to the town we came from, maybe you might know your way back?"

"Bell... bell.. sounds familiar," Brimeia hums thoughtfully.

"Yes,
 yes, touch each other, push the button. Let's get back home and fix my
Quantum Riftshift Slipstream Teletransmitter. Bellbury's the town where I
 live. Lived."

"The Qua- what?" Brimeia tilts her head.

Seirixori rolls her eyes again, "It doesn't matter, let's just go before anything else comes in here."

"Let's go. Get this woman back, there's nothing else to be gained here." Enna says, as she finishes double checking the bodies.

"Do we have the component?" Poni asks.

"The other elf had it."

"...Great. Better hope she comes back."

Brimeia, still looking confused when she addresses Poni, "Isn't that your fault, anyway, you... you stick gnome?"

"Let's go." he says, ignoring her.

“Yes,
 if you know which way to go, that would be best. I'd rather not be here
 when the animals catch the scent of fresh meat." the woman says,
grabbing a scimitar and starts for the mouth of the cave.

"Wait! We have a faster way to the town." Seirixori says, jogging after her.

"Faster? It's like fifty feet."

"We do?" Brimeia questions. Brimeia scratches her head, the magic not making sense to her.

"This
 thing can teleport us to the town. I don't know how it just... does.
But we have to all be touching each other, so there's that.” she says,
waving Poni in the air.

Lin walks back to them, placing her hand on Brimeia’s shoulder, "Oh. All right then."

"Oh. Right. That." Brimeia grimaces at the thought of the queasy magic feeling but smiles again when Lin comes over.

"Tap tap tap. That's the sound my foot would be making if I had one."

"You... hush. This is all your fault anyway." Brimeia drops her voice and leans toward Seirixori. "It is, right?"

"Ugh," Seirixori groans and sets her hand on the stranger's shoulder, "Elf?"

Enna extends out a hand, visibly uncomfortable but willing to go along.

"You don't have to touch. You'll just be an experiment to see if you come
back to Bellbury on your own or if you're trapped here forever."

Brimeia hooks an arm around Enna's and Seirixori presses the button, instantly
bringing them back to Poni's basement, his body still on the floor.

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