The Traveller Has Come (Vis IV)

"Vis, its cold up here," Deliah said as the pair hovered a thousand feet in the air above the city.
"It is indeed. Bracing, isn't it! All of the people down there, like ants they scurry, not knowing what we have in store for them."
"For.." Deliah shook her head. "What *do* we have in store for them? You won't tell me," the young assassin pouted at her master.
"Not necessarily 'them', more precisely him," Vis pointed at a largish tower straight below them. "And not us, me."
"I don't understand. Why you? I thought I was here to complete my training."
"Complete? No, you have already done that. You have already proven yourself to me in more ways than I can imagine. This was a commission given to me and me alone. That much was specified." The master assassin looked around at the sprawling city before them.
"Specified... So why am I up here? In the wind, and the cold?"
"I need you to read this scroll," Vis handed the girl a black parchment tied with a blood red ribbon. "She gave it to me with the words 'When you're ready'. I *think* I know what it does." The bard cocked his head, and addressed the parchment in the girl's hand. "We're ready."
The ribbon around the parchment softened and began to glow as if being burned with an inner fire. The light became almost blinding as it burned away, leaving the parchment unscarred.
"Deliah, I need you to read that when I start falling. It is imperative that you finish after I have completed my task, but before I hit the ground at a speed likely to reduce me to a thin red paste."
"Thin red paste... THIN RED PASTE? What are you planning you... you... Bah!" Deliah threw up her arms in exasperation and worry.
"It'll be ok. I trust you. And Her. Ready?"
"Aye. I'm ready. I'll do as you ask. As I always do," she sighed.
"Well then, Off I go! Start reading... now!" With a thought, Vis dispelled the magics keeping the both of them aloft and the Assassin and the girl began to plummet through the air towards the busy city.
Vis flickered in and out of phase as he fell, making sure he still had control over his ring. Control that had been fading somewhat lately since the severing. This world just wasn't as fun anymore. It felt stale, worn out. He needed something new, something... fun.
Deliah screamed the words written on the scroll, and similarly screamed invective into the Bard's mind. "You didn't say anything about us both falling you bastard!"
"Don't worry, all will work out. YOu should miss the tower, and have plenty of time to complete the scroll."
Vis streaked towards the roof of the tower. Thinking for a moment, he began to sing. "Swifter senses, peaked perception, rapid reason, alacritous acuity, the flows of time I bend thy will to me, Karalthi's Hastened Thought, I set my actions free!"
As the magic took hold, a bluish-white nimbus surrounded the bard. The world seemed to stop as his perception of time sped up. He knew this was burning energy at a prodigious rate, and he only had enough to get him through his commission, maybe a bit longer. He had never tried to cast an effect of this power, and he strained with the effort of keeping it active. He streaked towards the tower to the perception of everyone outside the spell's effect. TO him, he drifted lazily, like a bee on the breeze. Of course, the bee had more control over its flight, but the Bard was focused on his task. He fell towards the roof, phased out, and passed right through.
Deliah, was not quite having as much fun. She trusted her master, she really did. But sometimes, she wondered a bit about his sanity. The scroll, fluttering in the hurricane of winds as she fell. Not a big thinker, Deliah struggled to read the words of magic, hopeful that she would finish before they both hit the ground. Suddenly, before Vis hit the roof of the tower, he seemed to explode into blue-white light. She kept reading though. That's what she was told to do.
Passing through the roof, Vis reached behind him and pulled out a sack. He drifted through the roof of the top floor, and found himself inside a bedroom, over a bed. Inside the bed was his target. Some local magistrate or other that had offended some local priest or something. Vis didn't care. He was tasked to kill the magistrate with extreme prejudice. He shouted "Hey! Wakey Wakey!" as he upended the sack over the man's now wakeful body. The magistrate sat straight up as the half ton slab of lead fell out of the bag of holding. Now freed of the spell's effect, the lead slab seemed to stretch slowly towards the magistrate. Vis knew it was falling at an immense rate of speed, and quickly phased back out to avoid getting any magistrate bits on him. The lead slab slammed into the magistrate's head, bursting it like an overripe watermelon. rocketing through the rest of his body, it proceeded to punch a hole through the bed and the floors below destroying everything in its wake. The only parts left of the magistrate were the lower parts of his legs, still in the bed.
Reaching the end of the scroll, Deliah struggled with the final three words. The magic burned in her mind like ice, making her ache for the release. She could hardly think as the ground loomed before her. An explosion inside the tower signalled her that Vis had completed his task. She began the final phrase.
His magic exhausted,  VIs began to perceive his speed. 40 feet from the hard packed earth, he seriously hoped this tower had a basement. Clouds of splintered rock and wood flowed around and through him as he fell the final few feet. He worried for a moment that Deliah's timing would be just a little bit off.
It wasn't.
The final words off the scroll, a blood red shower of sparkling fire surrounded the bard and the rogue. The scroll exploded with an almost physical force as the Bard and his Partner were ripped from the fabric of reality and flung off into the nether.

Vis regained consciousness and looked around. He was laying on his back, suspended in midair about 5 feet over a circular crater. He blinked and shook his head, and what seemed to be a soap bubble around him popped and he was dumped unceremoniously to the dirt. He scrambled to his feet and clambered over the side of the crater. Off to one side, he saw another crater, Deliah suspended within. He ambled over, and waited for her to come to. He studied his apprentice and noticed that her hands, and indeed her arms up to her elbows, and parts of her chest and neck seemed to be burned and blackened. "Hmm, that's not a good sign. She kinda needs those," He thought as he examined the rest of her form for injuries. Her eyes opened and she, too fell the 5 or so feet as the protective bubble around her popped. Vis hurried to her side, and examined her for other injuries. She winced as he touched her arms, the skin burned and raw, but not charred.
"Where the hell are we you bastard?" she shouted at the bard as she pushed him away. She fumbled in her pack for a healing potion, found it and drained it in one long swallow. "Oh, that's so much better. That scroll bloody hurt!"
"You know, I'm not too sure really. I don't think we're on Toril anymore. It doesn't smell right. It smells.. I don't know... fresh."
Deliah sniffed, "No, it smells like burning."
"Well, yes. That too. But, fire is the great renewer you know." Vis teased.
Deliah reached out and smacked him on the back of the head. "You know what I mean. Look, there seems to be a haze in the air. I wonder how long we were out."
"Probably not too long. I'm still exhausted. I couldn't strike a spark if I tried."
"Such a shame. You'll have to use flint and tinder like the rest of us."
"Perhaps. It *is* a bit chilly here. A fire may be nice. Looking at the sky, it seems to be late morning. I think it'll warm up a bit. I hope. We're not really dressed for winter." He mused, looking down at his light clothing, more suited for a summer in the city. While there wasn't snow on the ground, there was a certain crispness to the air.
Deliah took a small bluish ring out of a pouch and put it on. A small zephyr whipped around her as she invoked the power of the ring. She rose slowly into the air, to get above the treetops. "Hey, Vis! There's nothing but trees! No civilization anywhere!" She returned to the ground, and smacked him again. "Where the heck have you taken us?"
"Calm down Deel. I'm sure there's people around here somewhere. In the meantime... bloody hellfire, is it getting dark already? I thought it was early morning... Looks like its getting to late afternoon. Hm. Musta misjudged where north is."
Vis took a small red stone out of his pouch. He squeezed it between thumb and forefinger for a second until it made a popping sound. He then tossed it on the ground where it began to char the ground it fell on. "Who needs tinder when you have firestones?"
Deliah just shook her head. She sat down next to the firestone's cheery warmth and thought. Pulling out a strip of venison that had been dried for travelling, she waited for their next move. Vis pulled a couple of blankets out of his pack, and went to sleep rather quickly after informing the rogue that she had the watch.

Night passed uneventfully for the rogue as the bard slept. She watched the trees, she watched as not one, but two moons rose ofer the treeline. Tomorrow, they would travel south towards hopefully warmer climes in search of civilization. SUrely this whole world couldn't be a frozen, barren wasteland, devoid of humanity. After a time, she grew tired of watching trees and moons and unfamiliar stars, and crawled into the blankets with Vis. At least it was warmer in there. As she was falling asleep, she jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, and muttered "Your turn."

Vis awoke with a bit of a start and narrowed his eyes at the impertinent wench in the blankets with him. "you know, if I didn't like you, I would have killed you many times over by now."
"Blah blah. Delia sleepy now. Make sure nothing eats us."
"Fine.. Be that way." The bard sat up and crossed his arms. THe firestone was still cheerily burning away, and probably would for another dozen hours. He stood and stretched. " “Magical darkness envelops her form, light bends around her, hiding her body, the darkness fades, her body stays, Now, nothing is seen but a memory." he cast on the sleeping form before him, rending her and the pile of blankets she became when he got up, completely invisible. He turned, and looked around at the trees. "Cat, dog, rabbit or fox, ogre, troll, cow or ox, I change my form to deceive my foes, I polymorph myself to destroy those I oppose." and willed himself to take the form of a rather largish owl. He flew up through the trees to see what he could see. He broke the treeline and was stunned at the clarity of the sky. Two fat moons hung like fireflies well above the horizon. THey seemed to be in a northern coniferous forest. Perhaps 3 miles south of where Deliah slept, he ran into the snowline. A light dusting here and there, making way to larger, deeper drifts. He wheeled and flew on through the night. Gaining as much altitude as he could, he tried to see if there were any lights or manmade sights on the horizon. He could see none. They were well and truly lost. However, he had his bearings, and would be able to travel away from the snowline. At least they wouldn't freeze to death.

As he turned to go back to the camp, he caught a glimpse of a slight glow off on the horizon. Intrigued, he flew over that way, and as he got closer the glow resolved itself into a fire. Not a raging forest fire by any stretch of the imagination, but enough to account for the smell of burning timber they smelled earlier. Vis circled the fire, and saw a group of humanoids milling around the edges of the fire. He roosted in a tree, and watched more closely. The group of humanoids, now seen to be orcish in nature, were grouped around the edges of the forest fire. Every now and then, one orc would run up to, and almost into the fire to the cheers and shouting of the others. The closer a runner got to the fire, the louder the cheers. Vis sat and counted probably 5 dozen orcs all full of adrenaline and fire worship. Every once in a while, one would go too far, and would burst into flames. They weren't wearing any clothing apart from a loincloth that he could see. The rest of the orcs would all point and laugh at the one that caught fire. He eventually noticed one of the orcs standing over a barrel of some substance. The barrel orc was chanting and waving his arms around, and occasionally would throw a handful of whatever was in the barrel into the fire, causing a flash ans a fireball. The dancing and running orcs would periodically pass by the barrel and slather some of the contents upon their bodies.