While Myron had found no doors in his search along the way, the hallway and haze faded to reveal a large room with a round table with eight seats around it.

To the right there was a bar, with a doorway that--and now there were sounds of food preparation and the aroma of baking bread--likely led to a kitchen.   To the left was a door.

At the table at the seat furthest from the hall entrance, Kethryl sat.

"Be right with you," called a young woman's voice from what apparently was the kitchen.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:15, Fri 21 Jan 2022.

In reply to DM (msg # 1):

"Hello? Do I know you?" Myron said as his eyes cleared. It was hard to focus on the other person, he wasn't sure if they were friend, foe, or indifferent. The food smelled delicious! He realized he was starving for a meal when he smelled the odor of fresh baking bread and ham on the griddle.

Barely had the words left his mouth than Myron realized that of course he knew Kethryl--they had traveled together for years before this odd occurrence.

Then another familiar figure stepped from the mist of the hall into the room, Brumrok GoldenOak.

"Is that you Kethryl? Brum? What in the name of the gods is going on? What is happening? Something very strange! My mind is being played with it seems. What is happening with you?"

"I thought it was a strange dream, and a terrible hangover,  or that I'd died...might still be, by the gods my head is spinning.  I remember a green mist, a feeling of doom, and then seven bright lights, and then waking up here with half my stuff missing".

In reply to Brumrok GoldenOak (msg # 5):

"Just half, looking, all my magic items are gone, we've been robbed it looks like. Someone slip us a Mickey Finn, knock us out, and take everything?"

A young woman with a very heavily laden tray came out of the kitchen.  She was attractive enough, with brown curly hair peeking out of the white cap she wore.  If anything, she seemed to look the part of the stereotypical barmaid.

In the middle of the table, she set four loaves of bread, a pot of butter, a pot of strawberry jam, and a pot of honey.  Then, a plate laden with three dozen strips of bacon went into the center of the table.  In front of Kethryl, she placed a plate with a good pile of scrambled eggs sprinkled with cheese.

"I'll go get more," she said, "just take a seat."

With that, she was off to the kitchen again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:17, Fri 21 Jan 2022.

"It was green flame, and the seven lights were us.  We haven't been robbed.  We've been transported...  to breakfast, evidently."

Risa looked around.  A few of them were missing, as was their mysterious host, noting the eighth seat.  She expected each to arrive soon and sat down next to GoldenOak, reaching for the bacon.

"Any sort of analgesic would be nice if you have such things, Miss," she said when the barmaid returned.

In reply to Risa (msg # 8):

Myron paused and thought over what Risa said. It was possible he guessed.

Kethryl looked around the table, and took in the sight of his companions. They were the same as he remembered, but different somehow.

~I wonder if I am the same to them?~

"Risa has it right...it was seven green flames within a larger green flame...or something like that! As to the seven separate flames representing us, that makes sense, given this table with chairs enough for us plus one.

My pack is also much lighter than when I last packed it. My sword and bow are not the magicked ones I had...I have no dagger...and my head pounds as if I had drank a barrel of Brum's favourite brandy."

The elf paused to eat some of the eggs and to butter a large piece of bread.

"I am famished as well.

But more importantly, while I know all of you as we have spent so many years together, I sense something different about all of you. And what that is, I cannot say."

"Younger? Older? I can't pin it either."

Fram kicked open the door with his shield forward and mace ready to strike, only to see his companions gathered around a table. His grimacing expression moved through bewilderment until it settled on relief to see familiar faces.

"Myron, Kethryl, Risa, Brumrok... Glad am I your faces to see," said the dwarf in his halting Euphranian, thick with accent. Hooking his mace on his belt and removing his shield from his arm he sat down at the table with the others. "Sorcery this is, decades passed ... but to duties of my youth just now I woke. The same with you, it is?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:06, Wed 19 Jan 2022.

Brumrok sighs on seeing his fellow dwarf, damn his thick webbed skull he didn't see if before,
"Fram, you didn't happen to pray for help just at the last did ya? Those seven lights, maybe not arcane magic but divine infernal interference morelike!"

In reply to Brumrok GoldenOak (msg # 13):

Myron giggled, they were friends forever and forever teasing one another. "By Sekel you can be mean spirited Brum, but you are very funny. Sit and eat Fram, we're trying to figure out what the hell happened to us. Looking in my spellbook I found my understanding less clear than normal, my spells appear limited!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Tue 18 Jan 2022.

The barmaid did return, bringing plates of cheese-decorated scrambled eggs to each member of the group as they took seats, along with glasses and cups, and a few pitchers--ale, fresh apple cider, and coffee.

"Sorry, I don't know about," she said, utterly mangling the next word, "analgesics" before finally carrying on.  "Perhaps some of the ale will help?"