PF Plight of the Modern Man IC

[AngryCyc]

It happened suddenly. A great glowing portal with rippling edges opened without warning. Peering through you saw a land out of fantasy. Strange creatures and animals, peoples of various types, swords and shields and magic. You felt a strong emotional pull to go through, but also had a voice of reason telling you that if you would go through you should be prepared. Without any notion of how, you knew that you did not have long.

You grabbed as much as you could think of, and came back to the portal. The scene had changed as you prepared, and now you look upon a cold stony mountain overlooking a plane, with a solitary road cutting through it. The portal flickers briefly and you feel within you a pulling, telling you to jump through as the portal will only last a few more seconds!

[skypse]

Out of pure curiosity Jim touches the image inside the portal. After understanding that it is not his imagination, he jumps inside, with only thought in mind of what this strange phenomenon is.

Thinking:
I've read about stuff like that, parallel dimensions, potential time travel, quantum physics theories. I never thought I would actually live to see something like that in person. Oh boy, I so much wish that this is not a hallucination or a dream... Even though it most probably is... Well, since I don't seem to wake up soon, at least I should enjoy the ride!!


P.S. Jim will speak in indigo and write down thoughts in italics format

[Wolfcreed]

Lights a cigarette and inhale as much as he can while trying to calm himself. He always wanted to experience something supernatural but now its different. Magic exist and he can see it!, touch it! and that terrifies him.
He keeps telling himself:

Relax relax you can do it, you always wanted to live in a different age so now why you hesitate?
Exhales
Too bad i cant bring my friends too...

Rolls another cigarette, lights it and after taking his bag says: Oh well and walks through the portal.

I'll be writing in dark gray italics when i think and in dark gray bold when i speak

[AlexTheReaper]

Alex tries to pacify himself from the shock. Tries to process what actually is in the image while trying to understand what's happening.

Then thinks:
This may be a great opportunity for another great adventure.

With great enthusiasm and quick moves he starts putting in a backpack everything he could see in front of him and thought they would be in use. With his slingshot in pocket, he closes his eyes and jumps through the portal still not 100% that this was not a dream.

I will write in medium blue when i speak and in medium blue UNDERLINED when i think.

[AngryCyc]

Jim wakes. No, "wakes" isn't quite right, as he didn't feel like he was waking from sleep. Certainly he wasn't in any sort of position for sleeping, nor did he feel the restfullness of a good night's sleep nor the sleepiness of not having received quite enough sleep. Yet "waking" is the closest he could liken the experience to, since one minute he was simply and entirely unaware of his own consciousness and the next he inexplicably was. His eyes were already opened and taking in the scenery around him. There was no profound moment of unveiling, but merely a strange feeling of suddenly coming into being in media res.


Now that he was there, however, he had time to really start thinking and feeling and experiencing. The memory of preparation, of jumping through a portal, was still there in his mind. Though it felt distant and alien. He had reasonable suspicion that he had simply moved from his previous time and place to a new time and place in a matter of instants, yet his senses were not giving him that impression. His senses were telling him it had been ages since he had leaped through the portal, and for a split second the thought that it had all been a dream, that his earth life was the dream in fact, flittered through his brain. This quickly passed however upon turning around suddenly and seeing behind him, in a matter of microseconds, a very familiar portal showing a very familiar living room with very familiar possessions, before the portal silently collapsed in on itself with a metaphorical pop!

The portal had in fact been real, as he just saw. Yet the strange feeling of ages passed was still upon him.


A tumultuous cacophony of the senses quickly rushed up to fill those vacant thoughts however! Jim suddenly realizes that wherever he is, this world, has a scent unlike any he had smelled before. It was pure almost, unspoiled. That, or it was just so completely foreign to him. There were trees and grass, shrubs and bushes, all manner of plant life. Yet they did not seem familiar. They certainly did not smell familiar. It was neither pleasant nor unpleasant however; merely new.

Jim found himself standing near the lower hills on a steep, barren, rocky mountainscape. The place his eyes currently rested, where moments before a portal to his home had been, he sees grasses and gravel, light soil, and large rocks slanting upwards towards the mountains. Miles away, or perhaps just by a trick of perspective, he sees the mountains suddenly carve upwards, suddenly switching from grass and gravel to sheer cliffs and jagged rocks. Looking back below him and to either side, he notices that trees and shrubs grow denser and broader as the curve down the mountain, down the hills, and turning a full 180, he notices that the terrain below him is a relatively flat plain stretching out as far as he can see, spotted with several distinct groves of rather dense forests, with ranges inbetween featuring lighter, less densely packed forests all the way to large barren empty spots. Far, far away the horizon loomed as flat as it could be in that direction.

A quick look to the position of the sun told him it was towards the plains, his shadow being cast back towards the hills and mountains. Assuming this new world was similar to his old one, that quickly told him that the plains he was facing were either straight east or west, with the mountains behind him being the other direction. That meant that turning 90 degrees would equate to these low hills running roughly due north/south.

That was one small mystery out of hundreds or larger ones solved. But whether the sun was currently rising or setting was a bit of a problem he couldn't figure out in a quick glance. If the sun was rising, he figured it to be somewhere between 9-11 am. If setting, somewhere between 5-7 pm. He could not tell which. The temperature felt... cool maybe? Certainly chillier than where he had left, but with no idea if it was cooling from warmer temperature or warming up from much cooler. If it was warming up, it would be quite pleasant to know the temperature would get to a more comfortable state shortly. If it were cooling however, it would mean for a probably very cold and blustery night. A closer inspection of the foliage around gave little clues to the season, again assuming this new world even had seasons... Yet it at least told him that this was to be the first thing he should be concerned with. The difference between a hot area and a cold area would mean drastic differences in his next few actions, and his well-educated mind told him as such.


Looking around more closely, he tries to take in as many details as he can before acting. The mountains, it seems, have some snow near the top. At least as far up them as he can see. There may be more beyond the cliffs he sees high above and far beyond him, but those at least are snow covered. A look north (or is it south?) shows that the lightly forested hills do not feature any such snow but rather have... have... WAIT! His eyes readjust and focus more closely on the hills. Snaking along inbetween what he had originally thought to be simply random groupings of trees he now notices a very distinguishable dirt road or path, its size impossible to tell as he is unsure of the relative distance away, but a path no less! The path snakes along the various hills some ways before disappearing behind a larger hill, the other end of the path seems to lead down to the plains and disappears likewise into one of the many larger, denser forests.

Something moves along the path.

As Leon steps through the portal, the scenery shifts once again. All goes black for a second as his head and eyes cross the portal, and he feels the floor falling out from under him, before suddenly he sees blinding white light and feels his stomach catch in his throat as he realizes he is falling, falling! The momentary shock ends as his feet and legs, and even his waist, suddenly plunge into loose, yet icy cold snow. Cold, wet, light, powdery snow. It quickly fills in the loose parts around his clothes, and a large cloud of it that was kicked up by his fall settles all around and on him. He now sits like a carrot half-buried in the snow, feeling an icy wetness start to soak through his outfit. Looking around, he notices that the snow is at an angle. He is on some sort of slope. Looking upslope shows him a looming mountainscape with jagged cliffs and rocky edges, and downslope shows snow for someways more before leveling out to more gradual hills and eventually plains. Trees and shrubbery dot the landscape below him, but the snowy mountains in his immediate vicinity show little to no plantlife at all, only snow and ice. Judging by how far into the snow he sank, he figures it is quite deep indeed.

Pushing and pulling, and with quite a bit of wriggling, he works his way sloppily out of the snow. It's cold. He's wet. Even the most basic of survival knowledge tells him this is a problem. The plains and hills below him show the sun is low in the sky, but with no clue of whether that means it's morning or evening. It looks to be either an hour away from sunset, or an hour past sunrise. He looks at the sun for a few seconds trying to gauge it's movement (unsuccessfully) before his eyes pick up something somewhere amidst the various hills below him: ... SMOKE! Clean, white, billowing smoke! The thought of a warm fire quickly fills Leon's mind as a wonderful way to get this cold and wet off of him as soon as possible.

He can't make out many more details of his surroundings, partially because his attention is more focused on the cold and wetness, a sort of primitive "flight-or-flight" response kicking in as he worries if the night is about to come upon him and freeze him solid......


Alex leaps through, eyes closed, and feels his feet land firmly on solid ground below him. He takes a few seconds to open his eyes. No, wait, that's not right. His eyes WERE open already, yet the darkness persisted. He looks around but sees nothing in the darkness. All he knows is that his feet are on solid rock. His other senses tell him that it is cool and damp, and that there is a wind blowing in his face. The air smells clean and fresh from the wind, but when it dies down the air is dank, earthy, and stale.

Reaching a hand forward and taking a step, he finds a smooth rock wall before him.

A sound that he can't quite distinguish makes its way up to him from the opposite side that the wind is blowing. It's a sound that he has no framework to understand, yet one that makes his blood turn cold. The closest experiences he could describe it as would be a mixture between glass shattering in slow motion, small rodents being injured, and deep thumping bass from a block away.

The sound grows louder.

[skypse]

Jim understands that this world, although similar, could be much different than his own. He knows how to survive on earth, or at least he thinks so. After all he was never in such situation but he has read a lot about wildlife and survival in the wilds. He takes out his compass trying to understand if the physics of this world work similarly to his own. He remembers having read something about the leafage of the trees and geographical orientation. The book said that the trees had a tendency to grow towards north so they usually have richer leafage on their north-looking side. He wants to have an idea where North is so he can at least understand what time it is. This should give him an idea of what he should do. He clings on his sweater and pulls the hood over his head to protect himself from the low temperature and stays for a moment to think of the situation.

What is this place? Why the heck would I end up here? There are no signs of civilization around and I sure as hell cannot climb on that mountain. The snow alone could kill me. It seems safe here but in any case I can't stay in this place forever.

Hey what's that? I can't see clearly from here but I think someone is there! Should I shout? No! I can't know what else is around here, maybe a bear or another wild animal. Now that I remember, I should find cover so that the winds cannot take my scent. If this world seems alien to me, I don't want to imagine what I would seem to it. I should wait and see where is this thing going. Maybe it is coming here.

[AlexTheReaper]

Alex tries to concentrate to see something in the darkness in which he is. He uses his blouse to cover his mouth and nose to make it easier for him to breathe in that enviroment. Alex was frightened because he could not understand where is he and the sound that something was coming towards him only make it worse

After recollecting for a minute, he came to his senses and he knew that at least he needed to be able to see what's going on in order to act. He blindly starts searching in his backpack before he finds his flashlight and turns it on

[Wolfcreed]

Leon takes out his scarf and muffles his neck, mouth and nose in order to keep it warm and help him to breath better. He always enjoyed cold weather but this was out of limits for him. He puts on his hood and gloves trying to keep as warm as possible and start heading towards the smoke he saw. After some time he realises that he is in an unknown world alone without knowing what to do and what to expect.
The shock from the sudden temperature change and his portal travel experience didnt give him time to think all that.He takes out his kitchen knife and hold it inside his sleeve just in case a wild animal appears.

Thinking:
"Thats not good... No good at all.
Funny that my wasted year in the army will actually help me now.
Who would have thought...
Lets hope i'll find someone to help me before i freeze to death"

[AngryCyc]

Jim watches the figure walk steadily paced along for a several seconds, disappearing out of view behind some trees and hills, and then appearing again. It appears to be moving neither towards nor away from him, but rather on a path perpendicular to him. One final view of the figure, and then it disappears for good to the right, somewhere amongst the hills and trees below the looming mountain.

Alex shakily fumbles for his flashlight, finally finding it. Clicking it on, it takes his eyes several seconds to adjust to the relative brightness. He starts making out several details. First, he appears to be underground, or in some sort of mine or cave of sorts. The walls and ceiling and even floor are all stone and earth, but also appear to have been carved or worked by hands. Turning the lightsource around him to observe everything, he notices that towards one direction is a slight incline, and that the freshest, coolest air comes from towards the incline. Turning the other way he notices that the cave indeed continues to decline. Or that is what he would have thought, had he not been immediately distracted by a strange shape hanging from the ceiling.

http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/208137/Darkmantle.jpg


Leon stumbles through the snow. The snow is not too dangerous, nothing about it is particularly troublesome. But his legs are starting to get colder and colder, so they do not respond as well as he would like them to as he trudges along in the cold and wet. After several minutes the snow starts to thin and he's left with cold and frosty vegetation, grasses and shrubs, which quickly make their way to short trees of some multitude of varieties he has never seen before. All the while he heads closer and closer towards the smoke he saw.

All in all it takes probably 20 minutes before he closes the distance. The temperature is significantly warmer, maybe 5 or 10 degrees, lower once he is out of the snow. It is still cold enough to be a danger though.

The trees grow thicker and closer together as he walks. It seems that the plains beneath the mountains are quite forested in some spots. Finally he thinks he can make out where the smoke is billowing from, just on the other side of one final wall of trees blocking out his vision.

[skypse]

Frustration and panic started filling Jim's mind once he saw that his compass didn't work at that place. Sh1t! He thought. By the look of it, this world doesn't work at all like mine. And that shadow... Where did that thing go? A cold breeze interrupted his thoughts and helped him remember that he couldn't spend the night at that place or he'd most probably die from the cold. After taking a deep breath, he decided to walk down the hill, towards the plains. After all, setting or dawning, lower altitude HAS to mean higher temperatures.
His peripheral vision catches his shadow on the side of the hill when he starts moving. Suddenly his eyes sparkle! Jim had figured out how to learn the most important thing at that point of time. Searching in his backpack for a couple of moments, he finds a pencil he took with him. He went and drew a line, right at the top end of his shadow. If time at least passes here, in thirty minutes I will know the direction of the sun. Never mind north or south right now. I need to know how much time I have to prepare for the coming night. After drawing the line and once he was calmed about this, being sure that this time he would have his answer, Jim remembered the disappeared figure. All I need is 20-30 minutes. I have to stay in this place. He said to himself. He took out his binoculars, scanning the area in the woods and around that path he saw earlier, trying to find out what that thing was.

[AlexTheReaper]

Alex is paniced seeing the figure hanging from the ceiling.Tries to distinguish what this thing is when the same time does some step back too the incline. After a few seconds he thinks:I can not stay in here just looking this strange think hanging and waiting till it attacks me i should better move outside that cave or what this tunnel i am in is.

Then turns his back at this thing and runs towards the incline to the fresh air.

[Wolfcreed]

Tries to find a spot where he could see clearly from where the smoke is coming. He doesnt want to make any noise before he found out what kind of people live there. He search for a tree that is easy to climb or a cover into thick bushes so he can scout the area . His heart rate is increasing as time pass, he really doesnt like the unknown and is kinda regreting for walking through that portal.

What the hell was i thinking and i decided to enter that goddamn portal? Wellplayed Leon, you got an one way ticket to killyourselfville.
I really need a drink right now.

He opens his backpack and takes out his tequila bottle and drinks a couple of shots in a desperate effort to calm his mind. Then he continues to sneak his way through the woods

[AngryCyc]

Jim watches for sometime, noticing with alarm that the sun is sinking lower and lower and the temperature is quickly dropping as it does. Observing with the binoculars he doesn't see anymore movement nor is he able to make out any shapes, but he does notice that some thin, wispy white smoke is coming from the direction the shape ended up heading. It looks like it's a short hike from where he is, but by any estimates, it would be a race against the setting sun to get to whatever is making the smoke before darkness sets in.


Alex runs for a short time, hurried on by the sudden sound of a wet, membranous-almost flapping sound and a light sucking noise behind him, but he quickly outpaces the noise. The flashlight guides his way for a few minutes before he notices that the tunnel ahead is lit with natural light. He draws closer to the opening of the cave system. Here the area is more worked. Mine carts and even some mining tools can be seen every now and then, and the walls and ceiling have some wooden braces throughout them. Finally stepping out of the cave, Alex is hit by a blast of chill. The outside air is much, MUCH cooler than what was in the cave oddly enough. Stepping outside he sees that the sky is still lit, but he can't see where the sun is, other than that it is somewhere in front of his. The cave opening faces a heavily wooded forest. the sun lies behind the trees, somewhere low on the horizon. Behind him he notices the cave is at the base of some rather large, steep, snow-capped mountains.

In front, somewhere in the trees, Alex hears voices, and even a bit of laughing.


Leon notices two things almost instantly. The first is that, good lord is that alcohol a lot stronger than he remembered it! There doesn't seem to be any sort of wait period for it to take effect. Rather, it's like every drop of alcohol hit his system at exactly the moment he imbibed it! The second he drank it, it took effect immediately.

The other thing he notices is how incredibly difficult it is to fight through trees and brush here. They do not seem to bend or yield at all. He takes a couple tries at getting a good foothold on a tree before he finally manages to force himself up into the lower branches. With much grunting and scraping, branches breaking and bark being roughly shunted off, he finally gets to where he can see into a small clearing in the trees. And looking back at him from the same clearing are two...... people? Figures. Roughly humanoid in appearance. Both are staring at his exact spot earnestly. They sit around a campfire that is now evidently the source of the smoke.

One of them is tall, fair featured, very human looking. Except his cheekbones are exceptionally high and pronounced, and also his ears both end in little nubs almost like points. The other is shorter, maybe 5 ft high at most, but much broader and stouter. He looks to carry a lot of musculature and girth in such a short frame.

Both stare at Leon, the taller one resisting laughing at his ineptitude in climbing through the brush, while the shorter one fiddles with a longbow in his hands."Need uh... Do you need anything there, fellow?" he says in a low gruff voice.

[skypse]

With the fear of staying alone in the darkness of the mountain, Jim decides to take the risk and go fast towards the smoke. Worst case scenario whatever is there will kill me. But that's no different from my chances of surviving the night without any warmth or cover. Especially since I have no time to look for one. Best case, it's another traveler and this smoke comes from a firecamp which means if he is friendly, I'll survive this night and find out more things about this place.
With this thought in mind, Jim puts his binoculars back in his backpack and moves quickly towards the smoke. It was all or nothing for the young man and he knew he had to go for it.

[Wolfcreed]

Woah calm down dude, im not here to pick a fight while trying to put his knife from his sleeve into his bag as subtle as he can.


How about offering a drink from my favorite flavor in exchange for letting me dry my clothes in your campfire?
You two look like men who enjoy a good drink.
In my honor i have no intention to cause any trouble, not that i could hehehe smiling at them
Im gonna take of my scarf and hood as an act of goodwill ok? and with a quick glance tries to define the height,
in order to jump down if things go unfortunate without getting himself killed from the fall.

Thinking: Damn first time i meet people in these foreign lands and im already being aimed from a hunter. Lets hope the first animal i come across isnt a giant hungry bear. The best shot i have with these two is to analyse their personality and play along

[AlexTheReaper]

Running to the natural light with his flashlight still on alex looks back to the tunnel in order to see if he is being followed by this strange thing. Having run the whole way from where he started to the entrance he stay there in the cold air to take some breaths. Feeling the cold air filling his lungs alex thinks:I can not stay here in the open. if i do that i will propably be dead from the cold or the animals that they live in the forest. I should find something safe to make a camp and start a campfire.

He feels excited when he hears the sounds of people laugh into the forest and starts his way following the sound.

[AngryCyc]

As Leon tries to gain control of the situation, suddenly two more modernly-dressed humans stumble into the same clearing from different directions. the two newcomers see eachother, another man in a tree looking nervous, and a pair of odd looking people by a fire. The taller fellow laughs even harder and the shorter, gruffer looking person rubs his brow with his hands, looks down into the dirt and says"I knew it was going to be something ridiculous. I told you that, didn't I? Of COURSE it wasn't ever going to be something as simple as grabbing some leftover adamantine and hightailing it back to town. Well? What do you have to say?" He looks up to his taller companion.

"I say," the taller one begins, stifling the laughter he was pouring out before, "that based on the way these ones are dressed, especially with this cold coming on tonight, that we are going to need a bigger fire. Come on, come on then! There's plenty here to warm you lot up in the meanwhile! Come have a seat, make yourselves comfortable! He waves each of the three over and gestures to the warm fire burning near them. "This here is Winbin, and I am Tam. You guys know eachother? Come introduce yourselves. I'll go grab some extra firewood to make this fire a bit more fitting of... 4.. 5? Five of us now. UNLESS ANY ONE ELSE WISHES TO COME CHARGING INTO OUR CAMPSITE TOO!" he yells the last part, cupping his hands around his mouth and aiming into the portions of the woods that no strangely-dressed individuals have just tumbled out of. Shrugging as nobody else steps out, he starts making his way out of the clearing, stopping every few steps to pick up some fallen sticks and branches off the ground.

[skypse]

Jim looks stunned at the whole scene without being able to make sense out of anything around him. It was all too much for him at that point. Two persons who he never saw before, one tall and one short like some cult black and white comedy movies he used to watch when he was home, one grumpy and one joyful and happy. Yelling at each other for no apparent reason and then the tall one yelling at the woods for more strange people to show up?!??! What strange people? Everything else around him was strange enough! He didn't need more "strange" in his life! Then he looks across the camp, 2 familiar figures of someone he never saw before. But they had clothes and items with them that seemed familiar. He had just seen that bag in a store 2 blocks away from his home! And that T-shirt! He really wanted to buy one of those cause he thought the animated picture was hilarious! But how can they be at that place?

Ideas of this scenery being a dream were filling his mind again, but the warmth from the fire as it sparkled the humidity from the new branches the tall guy threw in ensured him that it was no dream. He quickly grabbed a couple of sticks around his feet and moved towards the campfire to get more of the heat.

Hi there. My name is Jim. *drops the wood in the fire* I am not really sure how I got here or what this place is and I am not sure of how to explain all this but I guess I can start from somewhere. Well, weird as it may sound to you, I think I was teleported here via magic. A strange circular thing appeared in front of me some hours ago and an inexplicable force drew me into it. The whole feeling remind something that I've read in books. After I jumped in that, I appeared there *shows the cliff side* and now, well now here I am. Could you please tell me what is this place?
Jim was moving his arms and hands maniacally making gestures along with his words trying to show what he was saying as he wasn't sure that the two would understand his language. Sure he thought he heard them talking English some moments ago, but he still didn't have a clear picture of what's going on.

[Wolfcreed]

Leon descends from the tree carefuly and walks towards the tall guy. As he approaches he was listening Jim telling that he arrived to this world the same way he was so this just made stronger the feeling of safety he was beginning to feel. Looks Tam with confidence and says:

Thank you for your kind invitation Tam, i really apreciate your help. Without you i probably wouldnt live to see the other day. My name is Leon and i was teleported here by somekind of portal or whatever that thing was like Jim over there. So i could really make use of any information you can provide.

He walks over to the fire finding a good spot from where he could observe the others without seem to distant from them. Rolls a ciggarete to enjoy the moment and ask Winbin.

Winbin if i recall right, did you say adamantine or im still drunk???

Leon thinks that it is very strange that another person from his region was teleported here the same way and in the same area. There must be a connection between the two of them and he was persisted to find it out. He knows that is probably better to try befriend that huge guy named Jim since they are on the same page here. Alone and with strange people around them. After all 2 brains are better than 1.

So Jim do you mind share some details about what did you do in your life before the summoning and where do you live. If we are from the same area its highly possible to see people we know or even people who know how to go back in our home/time whatever...

[AlexTheReaper]

Alex moves carefully through the last trees to meet the company near the fire. Feeling nervous because he is not so comfortable with social encounters. When he reaches the campfire starts telling some things about himself.

Hi there, my name is Alex i am from greece. I came here from a portal that opened into my room and the first thing i found here is a strange hanging thing from a seiling into this mine. *and saws the mine up to the hill* I runned out from there and starts hearing the laughter through the forest so i thinked it could be better to come here than staying there and be dead from the cold or this thing inside the mine till the morning.

Then Alex sits down near the fire looking nervously the new company and trying to make himself comfurtable with that.