We stepped through the portal after her and found ourselves in the mage academy at Aretuza. Scathe was asked if he had heard of the wild hunt. This was some mythical hunt by a race of elves called NL from another world. The mages believed a conjunction of the spheres was due imminently and they wanted us to go through the portal of the worlds to kill the leader of the hunt and bring back his crown. They said the portal had opened in Novograd and the hunt had an agent called Asmadan there already. No surprise really that he would be involved. They needed us specifically to go as they needed someone with elder blood (e.g. Scathe) to open the portal. They said they could use the crown to stop the conjunction and close the portals. While we were discussing this, there was a rumble and a portal opened in the centre of the chamber.
A squad of Redanian soldiers stepped through the portal and their leader shouted "kill everyone". More portals opened and more soldiers emerged. One of the Aretuza mages immediately created a portal through which we quickly escaped. As we stepped through we saw a golem entering the room we had just left. The mage said he had taken us to Sodden Hill. Another 20 mages had also escaped there. There was a large keep on the hill so we headed towards it. We were let in by the rector, Tisaia De Vrese.
We were warned that the Redanians were likely to attack again and were asked to help with the defence, so I started to set up a healing tent to help deal with the casualties. As we prepared, we saw many portals open in the woods and soldiers pour out and Bulgar spotted the Redanian commander on horseback behind his men. Bulgar asked a mage to create a portal for a surprise attack and we went through with some Temerian blue stripes who had been put under the command of Bulgar.
I quickly killed two mages with exploding arrows I had been given, and the others started throwing grapeshot bombs at the soldiers nearby. Bulgar threw one through a portal and we heard an explosion a few hundred yards away. The portal collapsed so he must have killed the mage casting it. That seemed a good tactic so I threw one through another portal with a similar effect.
I fired more exploding arrows and closed another two portals but two more portals opened behind us. Through them stepped three mages and a golem. One of the mages ordered the golem to attack Bulgar, so Bulgar charged it, hitting it with several good blows and breaking its arm off. Scathe then hit the golem with a bolt of lightning causing it to explode. By this point the blue stripes had all been killed in the fighting and the Redanian soldiers were almost on top of us so I retreated back through our portal. Bulgar and Scathe followed.
The Redanians rolled up some siege weapons which fired some form of magical energy. One hit the keep and did some damage and killing one of the mages from Aretuza. One of the mages created another portal and we went through to deal with the siege engines. I fired my last two explosive arrows at one of the catapults, destroying it and killing the crew and a mage that was manning it. Scathe managed to drop an explosive arrow as he tried to knock it and was wounded in the blast while Bulgar created a stream of fire, setting fire to a catapult and burning the mage by it. I threw my last bomb, destroying another catapult, then retreated back through the portal. Bulgar followed dragging an unconscious Scathe who had been hit by a ball of fire from one of the other mages. We left behind three functioning ballista which continued firing on the keep.
I patched up Scathe while Bulgar looked at the Redanian army movements from the watchtower. He saw figures running through the forest streaming smoke and starting to blanket the forest allowing the Redanian army to advance under cover. He got a mage to create a portal near to one of the figures and went through. He found a mage running through the forest with a sphere streaming smoke and so Bulgar quickly decapitated him. He then charged another figure carrying a sphere that he saw and gutted him. Bulgar could hear the noise of people moving in the smoke, and the sounds of what he thought was a frightener so he hid, waiting to ambush the mage controlling it.
He was successful and killed the mage and two soldiers then grabbed the charm the mage had been using. The frightener went out of control and Bulgar slipped away through the smoke back towards the keep. On the way he ran into a squad of Redanian soldiers. One of them struck him in his prosthetic leg leaving him sprawling on the ground. Lucky for him he had got close enough to the keep that we could hear the fighting and Scathe teleported to his location then teleported him back to the keep.
I crafted a rough replacement leg for Bulgar while Scathe cast the ritual to take control of the Frightener using the charm Bulgar had retrieved. He then sent it to destroy the rest of the siege engines.
Scathe then sent the Frightener towards the Redanian general. It was killed but many Redanian troops were killed and the Redanian general lost half his bodyguard in the fight. The Redanians continued to lay smoke and advanced on the keep. Bulgar saw something large moving in the smoke and then there were cries and sounds of the Redanians advancing. Suddenly there was a loud crash against the gate and ladders appeared out of the smoke being pushed against the walls. Bulgar rushed to the gate and found a golem pounding against it from the outside. He lowered a rope from the walls then jumped over to attack the golem. He surprised it and was able to destroy it with several good blows then climbed back up the rope before the bulk of the Redanian army could respond.
The mages said to gather in the courtyard ready to retreat through portals, and they gave me more explosive arrows to help cover the retreat. I killed a good handful of the attacking Redanians in the retreat but was hit in the chest by an arrow, a critical blow leaving me barely able to retreat through the portal before being able to treat my wounds.
We found the portal had taken us to Rivia. The mages rested for a day then created more portals to the Skellige islands. We went with them and I spent more than a week there recovering from my wounds. During that time Bulgar had a new prosthetic leg made of meteoric steel and attached by mage using a golem ritual.
When we had all recovered, Scathe teleported us to Novagrad to find the portal of worlds. There we found large armies camped outside the city. We were recognised by the troops as having titles in Redania and were allowed through into the city. In the city we saw a pulsing blue light coming from the town house of Lividicus Hanik we had previously tried to clear. I forged some documents commanding us to examine the house and when we presented them to the guards we were let in. We went up to the attic where the blue light was brightest. In the attic we found a passage with a bright blue glow at the end. There was something strange as the passage was longer than could fit in the house. I spotted that the first three portraits on the passage wall were of us. As we looked, they turned towards us and then stepped out of the picture frames.
They spoke in the voice of Regan saying we could go no further as it was forbidden but Scathe cast dispel magic on them and they disappeared. We moved forward into the blue light, experienced a sense of moving fast then found ourselves in a barren desert. Almost immediately five large tentacles erupted from the sand and tried to grab us. We fought them off though it was a difficult fight. I then had some time to deduce we were in the middle of the Korath desert. As we looked round we saw some figures moving within the heat haze in the distance.
Six figures on dun coloured horses approached. They were dressed in robes with turbans and had dark skin. When they spotted us they spurred their horses to a canter towards us. They pulled up in front of us and one made a gesture then dismounted. His wife spoke some Northern and asked what we were doing. We explained we had come through a portal and explained about Asmadan. She recognised the name and said it was an ancient name for evil. She said there was another portal protected by a Dora which was some sort of desert sand man who summoned sandstorms.
They took us on their horses to an oasis where they were camped and gave us food and water. They knew of the great hunt as "the riders in red who rode through the sky". We offered to try to kill the Dora which had attacked their village in exchange for more help from them. We were taken to a place where there was a sandstorm which they claimed the Dora controlled.
We rode in slowly. The winds picked up as we approached the centre and the horses became difficult to control, then something hit and killed the horse Bulgar was riding. He was attacked by a 9ft tall figure of sand and I got lost in the sandstorm in the confusion, but Scathe drove the creature off when he hit it with an ice spell. However the creature then appeared to consider Scathe as a threat and started to attack him in a "hit and run" manner. Scathe released an air elemental from his staff and asked it to deal with the Dora. It went off then the sand storm abated. The elemental said the Dora had agreed to allow us to pass. It had been ordered to guard the portal by his master who was an Ancel. It said the portal would lead to the poisonous valley or the ice plains. The Dora was called Grom and would come and help us. Clearly Scathes elemental had been very persuasive.
We stepped through the portal and found ourselves in a valley. There were blow holes along the sides belching out noxious vapours and visibility was poor. Suddenly a shadow passed over us and we looked up to see some large winged creature disappear into the mist. Bulgar thought it could be a wyvern or some sort of dragon. It burst out of the mist again and Bulgar was able to recognise it as a black dragon.
Bulgar waved at it and it banked sharply then dived towards us and breathed noxious gas at us before landing and speaking "Why are you here?" It said this was its land and we should turn round now. I persuaded it to let us pass but in return it wanted the head of Edrin Braklass and his crown. For 100 orins it told us the next portal would take us to the frozen wastes and we would find the portal to the world NL in the ice caverns of the Ice giant Jarl there.
We passed through the valley to the next portal. It was covered in ice and when we stepped through we found ourselves on a frozen tundra. I spotted three sets of huge footprints in the snow and whatever made them had been dragging something that was bleeding. We followed the tracks to some hills where the tracks went into a crevasse in the ice. We entered and started exploring the caverns inside.
In one cave we were attacked by two large white cats but Bulgar quickly killed both. In another we found crates of meat and parts of humanoid bodies. Further into the caverns we came across two ice giants, one of whom spotted Bulgar and charged. Buldar cried "Stop, the Jarl sent us to get you" then persuaded it to take us to the portal. It said the Jarl was called Hafnir.
The giant took us to an ice cliff which it climbed down. Bulgar tried to follow and fell after it. Scathe teleported me to the bottom of the cliff where we found Bulgar had landed on his head and needed some treatment. We were lead to the Jarl Hafnir where I was able to persuade him that the black dragon was planning to attack the ice giants. We also had to pay him 100 orins to be allowed to pass through the portal.
Beyond we found ourselves on a river bank. Across the river was a splendid city with buildings of light. Scathe said the architecture was of ancient elven origins. As we approached the city we were approached by a group of five elves in silver armour. I told them we were here sightseeing but they demanded we lower our hoods and when they saw Scathe they said he was to be taken as a slave. Bulgar told them Scathe was his slave and said we had come to see Edrin Braklass. They said he was on his ship 'The Wyrms Fist' at the confluence of the river Asnahad.
We walked along the river bank for an hour until we came to the ship. There were some crates on the bank and so we picked up several and carried them up the gangplank onto the ship. A guard in red armour indicated we were to put the crates with some others but then indicated we were to leave the ship. He was speaking in Elder and Bulgar clearly was struggling to understand him.
Bulgar walked over to him then drew his sword and hit him in the head before disembowelling him. The blows were not enough to kill him and he started fighting back, hitting Bulgar a critical blow in the chest. Scathe then hit him with a blast of ice, killing him. I quickly stabilised Bulgar then we moved further into the ship. Scathe saw three elves in red armour in a war room standing round a table with a map. One was wearing a crown.
We burst in and I fired two explosive arrows at the king. The explosions did not seem to affect him as much as I would have expected, but Scathe then hit him with blasts of ice before Bulgar severed his left arm. After all that he was still alive and blocked more of Bulgars blows, striking Bulgar back several times before finally managing to decapitate him.
Outside Grom started throwing boulders at other guards who had emerged on deck as we continued to fight the other two elves in the war room. They were finally killed and I quickly took the head, crown and weapons. Scathe deduced that the map on the table was a magical artifact which was used to move the ship through gateways. Scathe cast a ritual with the map and moved the ship through a gateway, appearing on top of the army camp outside Novagrad. He then took the maps and teleported me back to the Skellige islands before returning for Bulgar. Shortly afterwards he reappeared through a portal alone. He said Bulgar and Grom had entered the portal with him but had been lost as they passed through the chaos realm. There had been fighting when he had returned to the ship and so had needed to use the map to create a portal to get them both out and it had proved to have been unstable.