Dresden: Time Warp

Ellie's senses were greeted by a strong dark presence. She could feel a ward designed to kill across a doorway about three metres down the hallway, and behind that... she couldn't be sure, but it felt like someone was working magic in the room.

Holland shivered involuntarily as they moved closer to the doorway.  He drew some power from the lantern and let it linger in him,  ready to cast if he needed.

Elli opened her eyes.

"The ward in the doorway is killer. Don't know if you want me to try to take it down or you think your swords will do the trick."

Inigo looked at the blade in his hand. "I think the sword will do the trick." He replied softly, hefting his weapon.

Inigo reached out towards the ward's base with his silver sword, and tweaked at the magic, dispelling it with a deft flick of his wrist. The group stood silently for a moment, waiting to see if anything would go wrong. Satisfied that he had successfully dealt with the ward, Inigo moved to the door to open it. "Anything else I should be prepared for?" He asked Ellie in a whisper.

Elli frowned.

"I think someone's working magic in there, but it feels odd. I'm not sure what they're trying to do."

Inigo considered Ellie's report. "I think we'd better chance it." He said, drawing his other sword with his left hand.

Once everyone was ready, Inigo kicked down the door and stormed in. It was at this point that everything went wrong. In the room on the other side of the door there was a figure with its back facing the entryway. It was working some sort of magic in a circle, presumably linked to the large ritual set-up directly in front of him. In addition to the figure facing away, there was another man facing the door. When the Vanguard burst in, the second figure jumped, startled, and stumbled onto a large glowing yellow rune carved into the floor.

With a blinding flash, the Vanguard lost consciousness.

***

Holland awoke to find himself outside, and surrounded by rolling green hills.

Holland sat up and blinked a few times,  taking in his surroundings and being generally confused with everything. The next thing his mind went to was his lantern- - still gripped in his hand. Well,  he thought, at least there's that. he stood up and looked around the landscape for his friends.

Holland could see no other figures from his current position, but as he was situated fairly low-down in the rolling hills, his view was very limited in all directions.

***

Ellie regained consciousness, and was greeted with a headache so powerful an outsider would think twice about engaging.

Frowning,  Holland sat down cross legged and drew on the lantern's power.  He tried reaching out with his mind to feel for the faint empathic links with his friends.

Elli whimpered and pressed her hands to her temples, hoping that the throbbing would die down after a few seconds. It didn't. Without moving, which she knew from experience would make things worse, Elli tried to look around. It took a couple of seconds to focus well enough, with the world spinning around her.

Elli was, much like Holland, surrounded by rolling green hills on all sides, with nothing of note in sight.

***

Holland could detect Elli's presence, though it was faint, and while he couldn't be sure through the tenuous connection offered by the lantern at their current distance, it felt as though she was in some sort of discomfort. No other members of the Vanguard were close enough for detection.

John woke up having just entered the strange building, and getting knocked unconscious by an even stranger light. To his surprise, the building was gone. John immediately checked his cell. "No signal" he said. Realizing that the GPS was useless, he turned it off. John mumbled to himself "OK, I'm probably in the Nevernever again, maybe this time I can get out and deliver this pizza fast enough to keep my job." And on he marched, both praying to and cursing every god he could name.

"Greetings traveller," a voice called out to John, "what strange garb, where do you hail from?"
A female figure stood between John and the sun, making it hard for him to make out the details of her appearance.

Nomei slowly drifted back to consciousness, letting her eyes stay shut for a bit longer before rising to her feet and observing her surroundings.

Deciding that a fairy would be less curious than this person, John admitted that this was probably not the Nevernever. He stated, "I'm came here to deliver this pizza to the run down abandoned building-shaped-thing, got moved against my will after being knocked unconscious by a strange light, and now I can't find my car anymore." as if it where an everyday occurrence for him. "have you seen an... I. C. Weiner... again, really?" John asked, while questioning himself why none of this surprised him.

In the distance, Nomei could hear the sound of voices talking.

Nomei stood up, stretching and shaking the last remnants of unconsciousness from her mind. Relaxing her muscles, Nomei sighed deeply, saying to herself, "Honestly, I swear we should have seen that coming."
Nomei turned towards the voices she'd heard and headed in that direction, once again speaking to herself out loud, "I wonder where Elli's been knocked to... I just hope she's okay."
She sighed again and looked to the sky as she walked, "And the rest of them I suppose."

As she approached the voices, she found that she could not identify either one. One sounded male, while the other was decidedly female. The conversation seemed amicable enough. Once she drew close enough to see the people speaking, she noticed that the man was probably a pizza delivery guy, while the woman was outfitted in strange clothing.

Holland stood up and dusted himself off, then headed on the direction he had felt Elli's presence. As he walked, he took in the countryside and tried to determine just where the hell he was.

"Your speech is strange," the woman said, "what are these words you use...pizza and car...what do they mean?"
Turning to face Nomei, the woman frowned.
"Another in this strange garb..."

Elli tried to sit up, which she could tell immediately was a mistake as the world spun around her. She dry heaved once or twice before getting her stomach under control. Gently, she lowered herself back down and covered her eyes.

I'm helpless for the moment, so I might as well lie down and speed up recovery. The sun and the plants will help, since being around those seem to recharge my magic faster and that's probably the issue here. Better not to make any noise, since Holland can find me anyways. Shouldn't be too long, maybe an hour. The mantle makes things faster.

There was something important about the mantle that Elli couldn't quite grasp at the moment, but she was losing focus fast. She drifted off into semi-consciousness with one last thought: It's a beautiful day...

"You don't know what a car is? or pizza?" John replied, somewhat astonished. John looked around to double check that this wasn't the Nevernever, realized that a member of the fae would know what a car is, and asked. "OK, this is definitely a new one, where am I?"

After a few minutes of walking, Holland found himself looking down at Elli's prone figure from the top of a hill.

Nomei approached the two strangers, raising her hand to wave at them.
"Hey, have either of you seen a blonde girl carrying two swords around? About this tall?" She indicated Elli's height... minus an inch or 5. "Maybe a troublesome blonde teenager, plays with glass a lot? Or how about a tall grumpy guy with two swords? A strange guy carrying a lamp?"
"Though I suppose we're all pretty strange," Nomei mumbled.

"Can't say I have," John replied, still trying to think of where he was. "Have you seen the city of Vancouver?" he asked back to the woman. "I swear I was there just a few minutes ago."