A rumble in the caldera
With Amrud bearing down on the party, shaking the fresh magma off of its scales Aranar’s instincts kick in and before anyone had taken a step, all 6 chambers of Clockwork Scorpion was emptied into the dragon’s hide. Swiftly stepping past Aranar, Anya charges forwards, using all of her concentration to hit the beast in its Ki points, trying to bring it down. Thryn, throwing artillery in after unleashes a massive fireball, but to everyone’s surprise when the dust settles the dragon is completely unscathed.
The fight is intense and chaotic. Amrud strikes out with tooth, claw, tail, and flame as he threatens multiple members of the party but in the end Anya digs into the Ki points in the dragon’s front legs, stunning it before Thryn summons a bolt of light right between its eyes, knocking it down for good.
Having all of a breath to recover, the party whips around as they hear a booming chuckle from the direction of the portal. “Enough blood has been spilled here that I can finally break down this barrier!”. Looking up, everyone can see through the portal above the dais clearly now. Through the archway they see flashes of worlds, full of water, fire, the deepest stone you could ever imagine, and then it settles on a broken world. It looks like the Anthus that would be behind the portal, but a shallow, sunken copy. Somehow all the trees seem to be slightly soft, like a vegetable picked and past ripe. And a large mountain in the distance spreads its wings, and speeds towards the gateway between worlds.
Seeing the weave of the magic in front of them, Thryn starts to sense the deeper connection not just to the portal and their magic, but the actual weave of the magic laid out before them. The ticking of gears and the whirring of dials, and the off and broken ticking noise in the background. This seal wasn’t just created with any magic, it was made using the elemental plane of order. The same plane that their arcane power comes from.
Anya stands aghast for a few seconds. In front of her is a world full of creatures completely unlike her own. In all her time studying and reading, all the sketches and drawings she has seen, it’s never been anything like this. Some of the dragons have two legs, some four, some are longer snake like creatures with just a set of wings. And they were all rushing for the portal.
Deep in Aranar’s blood something clicks, there is a kinship to this world, some level of experience he has from there. He knows these dragons, even through this new experience.
Snapping into action with some voice helping them from far beyond the material plane, Thryn begins to move the weave of magic around the portal. They see the gears, the architecture, the great design, it all makes sense now! Moving faster and faster, fixing the bolts and levers that were put in place to seal these dragons in their world, Thryn repairs the gateway all the while some creatures start making it through the gateway, and fly into their world, up and out of the Caldera.
Just in time, hands a blur as time has begun to slow around Thryn, the seal is repaired. The ticking that sounded broken has been repaired as the portal now flexes as the elemental planes move past each other. The portal then seals up into thin air, leaving nothing visible just as the massive figure was a few metres away and with an almighty crack and crash, the portal holds.
Again, no-one has the chance to say a word before all the left over planar energy Thryn was pulling on snaps back into place, throwing the party out and through worlds. Flashes of different planes, fire, air, deep underwater, a bright galaxy of wheeling stars and too many others to count fly past the party before they are deposited, unceremoniously and headfirst into a thankfully soft patch of grass. Just before Aranar loses consciousness, he realises the sky is a deep purple.
Eventually everyone awakes, under the same colour sky. Anya feels like it’s been weeks and downs several rations as her body starts telling her just how many times she got hit by a dragon. Looking around, they all see they are in a small glade on top of a mountain, not a dissimilar height of the seat of the dragon. But the ground isn’t burnt with lava and ash, it appears gentle and green.