Portal in Ustimbar

[Ossan]

A New Portal   (10 hours ago)
message to everyone in the vicinity of Ustimbar
Stuart lays the last stone in place, and steps back as they lock together with a crackle of energy. The stones flash, and a pillar of light shoots up into the evening sky.

Then, nervous of what he's heard about these stones in the past, he scrambles away to wait where whatever the portal brings can't find him.

For some time, nothing happens. The pillar of light shines clear and still in the sky.

As the sun sinks into the west, the pillar fades, and the portal stones begin to pulse and shimmer with energy. They rise, spinning, into the air, making a disc at about waist height, then rotate so that the disc is upright, with its lower edge no more than an inch above the ground, and a diameter of about eight feet. The disc flashes, and the space between the stones becomes a bright blur, that slowly resolves into a scene of a forest at dusk.

There is a strange, distant ringing sound for a moment, and the portal blurs briefly, then it settles once more. For a while, it seems like that is all that it will do. Then, quietly at first, but growing in volume, a great cacophony of sounds begins approaching the other side of the portal. It begins distant and hard to make out, but as it comes closer, it becomes plain that it is the sound of many strangely-formed throats howling, snarling, shrieking, and trumpeting as monsters of all shapes and sizes thunder toward the portal. But underneath that is a strange but steady rhythm, as of the clacking of bones moving with a single purpose.

The portal blurs again momentarily, and the other sounds become faint as another distant tone overlays them, but soon this passes, and before long, the source of the sounds bursts into view.

Monsters race screeching and gibbering through the portal, followed closely by a column of undead at a quick-march. More monsters and undead break through the trees and into Ustimbar's formerly-peaceful hills and fields. As they are marching and stumbling through the portal, the same bell-like sound comes once more, and the portal blurs briefly. This seems to cause them to panic. The monsters coming through the portal now are wild with terror, and the undead are no longer in any semblance of order, but running as fast as their unnaturally-animated leg bones can carry them.

This continues for another little while, with the numbers passing through the portal each minute gradually decreasing, until at last no more are crossing from the woodland on the other side.

As the last monster disappears into the fields in the distance, the portal shudders as a fourth ringing sound is heard from the other side. Mere minutes later, a fifth tone sounds, this one loud enough to be heard miles away, and the portal flickers, emits an ear-splitting whine, and flares briefly into blinding brilliance before collapsing in on itself.

The portal stones crumble to dust.

I'm really liking some of these descriptions. I wonder what caused this one.

[Anaris]

What causes every portal these days is an adventurer putting together 8 portal stones and activating them.

In this case, you can see that the adventurer's name was Stuart.