Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Jump Gate

"I should be able to, . . ." He began in a low voice as he walked towards the mass of moss. Then as he strode forward, he unexpectedly felt an artificial surface through the soft sole of his left boot. Eyebrow raised, he looked down as he let the momentum of his right foot swinging forward plant both feet firmly on the surface, of which substance he couldn't see in the dim light.

"Hmmm! That doesn't feel like, . . " With a gut-wrenching 'snap', Tev found himself standing in a moon-light drenched chamber with a strange alter standing waist high right in front of him. The sword clattered to the floor from suddenly nerveless fingers.

"Rock!" He finished lamely then looked wildly about. "I, . . . don't think I'm in the Kardells any more!" He whispered.

Instantly moist warmth hit him and clung like a blanket. Wiping away the sheen of sweat that sprang unbidden onto his face, he blinked slowly as his mind whirled tightly around the idea that somehow he had been instantly transported from deep in the Meridian Sea to here, . . . somewhere tropical, by the feel of it. Then that idea suddenly triggered another thought.

With a hiss, he leapt off the piece of floor that he had been standing on and, in the same motion, put his hands on the alter and vaulted up onto it. That's where his strength failed him and he found himself slowly sinking to his knees as he stared down at the shadowed floor where he had just been standing. 'If I had jumped here in a blink of an eye by simply stepping onto a certain piece of ground, standing on the corresponding piece of floor could snap me back to the Kardells equally fast!' He thought as perspiration trickled down his face and back. Shaking his head slowly, he pushed the thought out of his mind and looked up.

Although the altar was low, it gave him enough of a vantage point in the moonlight to survey this new place that he, rather unexpectedly found himself. It was the ruined chapel of a church of some kind; the altar beneath him, several rows of crumbling stone benches stretching towards the back being the first two clues. Back, that is, if one could consider the altar being the front.

The chapel was perhaps 30 paces long and ten wide, with benches on either side, and a pace wide passage passing between them all the way to the back. The alter itself sat up on some sort of raised platform, with a space for several people to stand behind. That space, however, included the place on the floor where this 'jump portal' was. Somehow Tev couldn't see somebody just standing there casually. 'Perhaps this place was a chapel before it was a jump station.' Tev suddenly thought, twisting around to peer down at the floor. In the silver light that painted everything with ghostly color, the square where he had stood was easily visible, the sword from Kuosh laying on the ground right beside it.

It was a simple square of what looked like tile, set into the weathered stone around it and was just a shade lighter gray. But what made it visible was the odd pattern that was set into its center. Just as Tev began to lean forward to get an even better look at it, the soft 'thrum' of distant drums began to echo through the ruined chapel.

The soft 'thrum' made Tev snap erect as his head whipped around and his keen eyes raked over the walls with their missing windows and jagged holes. The battered pirate could feel his heart pounding wildly in his chest as he searched in vain for any sign that danger was imminent.

"Better not take any chances!" He muttered and carefully hopped down off the alter, bending down to scoop the Kuosh sword up in his right hand. Slipping around the alter, he padded down the aisle towards the back of the chapel, eyes wide and alert as he swung his head back and forth in an attempt to watch every window and hole in the building's walls. As Tev walked, he held the sword, slightly heavier than his own rapier, at the ready in his right.

Upon reaching what was left of a double door, Tev looked out into the dimness beyond and confirmed a suspicion he had been working on: the chapel was but a part of a greater complex, spreading out from the ruined church. But it seemed that whatever destruction, whether war or the elements, had befallen the buildings of the complex beyond, shattering walls and obliterating structure, had bypassed the church. For the rest of the complex had been reduced to untidy heaps of stone, with thick foliage springing up in the spaces between.