Naren says "Sometimes, even I hate it when I'm right."

*Pause*

"Maybe I should have saved the calltrops."

Still groggy from the lack of sleep and the nightmares that tormented her thoughts, Semina heaves up the remaining leftover in her stomach.  She wipes her mouth with her sleeve and notices the beautiful carpet she just made a mess of.

She begins to pick herself up in stealthy movements as the bright colors catch her off guard from the tapestries on the walls.   She can only remember collapsing the night before with a dagger at her side when an eerie feeling creeps into her soul.  

'Where is Icerick?' she questions herself.  Panic begins to ensue when she fears the lost of her friend and her satchels of weapons. As she kicks aside her bed roll a friendly gush of air swishes over her ear, and she turns to face her faithful companion. Her relief is overwhelming, and she hugs the horse before checking on the condition of the rest of the party.

Semina eyes her companions as she arms herself with her hand axe.  She looks towards the others who are holding a rope with a dead mule still attached, and its facial expression sends violent jolts throughout her body.  As she calms herself down with her training, she prepares herself for any other surprises lurking through the doors that opened by themselves.  

She fills her backpack with rope, rations, torches, flint, steel and attaches her cross bow on the outside.   She places her belt pouch around her waist, attaching her water skins, gold  and daggers in place. She ties the quiver of quarrels around her belt pouch and gathers her last hand axe and staff for the journey.  She will have to leave Icerick with grain and light water, because she dares not take him into the dark that lies ahead.

Whispering into the horses ear, "You must stay behind my friend," she scratches under his chin.  "Don't wander off, and stay away from the mist," She throws him a warning glance.  "I will come back for you if I survive."

Kidnapped!"  Thraim says in a strained voice as he stamps his boots, and draws his longsword.

He looks around and is relieved to see that everyone of his group is there, conscious, and coherent.  The little and brief feeling of relief was enough to pull him from the brink of spiraling into complete and unrelenting anger at the situation, and just how powerless they were against it.

Thraim takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, centers himself, and exhales slowly.  A moment later, he opens his eyes and cracks his neck.  A wave of bittersweet pleasure washes down his neck, and he is ready for battle.  

Speaking is his usual good-humored tone, but with a menacing look in his eye, Thraim says, "supernatural forces have contrived this night, and our arrival here.  Let us not keep our host or hosts waiting, shall we?"

"That would be most impolite." For a brief moment, flickers of arcane energy play across Narens' fingers.

Heathcliffe, groggy eyed, awakens at long lost. Looking around at both his surroundings and bewildered companions, he can only muster enough sense at first to say, "Where are we?!"

Then gathering back his wits, he speaks to the others, "We need to escape this place as soon as possible... but if we can confront the master, though I dread the possibility, we ought to give him a piece of our mind."

Semina looks towards Thraim as a smirk appears across his face.  She knows the dwarf is not to keen on surprises.  She double checks her gear and joins the rest of the group as they awake to their surroundings.  

"Ready when you are," she motions her hand towards the open doors. "Let us see what wonders await us." Semina give one more cautious glance around the foyer and walks slowly over towards doors.  "Would anyone like to go first?" she turns her head back to the party.

The halfling proceeds to the doors carefully and enters cautiously with nothing more than a quieted "I will."

Semina follows quietly behind the halfling.  She keeps a good distance while he tracks ahead of her.  

(OCC: Can you give some more description of the hallway we are walking into?)

Naren stays in the middle of the group, like a smart wizard.

You check your gear and tighten straps and belts as you file into the grand hallway.  You begin to take stock of the situation, when you feel a chill breeze from behind you.  Glancing back, you see the foyer appear to twist and warp slightly around your mounts.  As the deformation becomes more pronounced, you can see the faint outline of a hilltop superimposed over the floor of the room.  There is a low oscillating buzz that grows louder as the room becomes more transparent, until you can clearly see the hilltop and the room is but a faint ghost outline around it.  One of your horses puts its head down and pulls up a tuft of grass to chew on, oblivious to the change.  As the horse brings its head up to look in your direction, there is a bright flash of blue light accompanied by a loud crack, as though massive stone doors slammed shut.  Rubbing your eyes for a moment, you find yourselves looking at an empty foyer.

"...Let's not leave anything behind or separate the group." Naren says shakily. "Whatever powers this mansion, it is beyond my own power."

With a momentarily pale look on his face Thraim says, "that's sound advice Naren, sound advice."

Semina jumps back against a wall as the blue light flashes with a thunderous sound.  She looks back in the foyer noticing the steeds have disappeared.  She glides towards the open door to make sure they are truly gone.

'Icerick!' she shouts inside her mind, not letting a sound escape her lips.  She lightly pounds her fist against the wall, and bows her head at his loss.  Semina calms herself down a bit, and walks back towards Heathcliffe's direction.  She removes her hand axe from a belt pouch, and begins to breath deeply.  "Heathcliffe," she pauses "lead the way," as she motions the group forward.

Sander readies his mace and is ready to follow Heathcliffe's lead.

"Semina, Icerick may be fine, anything is possible in this place. For now, he have to assume he can get by on his own, because we have bigger problems."

Semina looks over at Sander as he tried to console her about Icerick.  'I must remember not to let my emotion get the better of me,' she contemplates to herself.  She nods her head and smiles at Sander.

"Agreed," she lifts her hand.  "That is why I brought my other companion out from hiding," she glides her axe out for all to see. "Let us find these bigger problems then."