Down the beach a good way, a seam of energy tore open out of nothing, stretching and ripping in crackling green lights until a sphere of not-here appeared, outlined by glimpses of a slowly spinning bronze gyro.
"It worked!" screeched from the dry depths of what remained of Dhalekar's throat as his formed slowly appeared in the bubble of other-reality. Standing behind him was the looming mass of his pet ogre, Smiles, groaning in his usual agony, looking regretfully at the bladed hookups his master fitted on the permanent fastenings where the ogre's hands used to be. "To think I only had to push the device so little, it is as if this pocket
calls to me, Smiles, it must be our destiny to see what lies in store here!" The spinning gyro slowed to a stop, and the view of them and into Dhalekar's temple was crisp and clear, and the horrid pair stepped through the barrier of the bubble between planes.
It all happened a bit fast, feet upon the sand of the beach, everything seemed so drastically different; the lich's robes dropped down, only hugging his meagerly meated pelvis, the material changing into something strange and thick and soft. His amulet of Celanopteh, had somehow became this string of the most wild exotic flowers Dhalekar had ever seen. The Rod! The Rod of Akagrithi! It had become something unknown to the lich, a long, pole looking object resembling a lance, though instead of the hard business exterior he was familiar with, it was as if a bat made of some sort of fabric had wrapped its wings around the pole. "The rod... Master's rod, that cannot be... Smiles! Something went wrong, we need to get out of here imme-" His magically augmented voice died down in its echoes, as Smiles the Improved Ogre, had already left his side. The brute had raced along the sand to the shoreline, crashing into the water and flailing his arms wildly in the air, slapping the water with bizarre, noodley appendages that had somehow replaced the intricate bladework Dhalekar had spent
weeks on to fit to his permanent fastenings.
The lich stared at the oddity of his companion-slave, when he heard the rift close behind him. He rasped real air in his lung cavities in horror and shock before his echoing projected voice returned. "N-No! No!!" He hurriedly moved in what incantations of activation he could conceive in desperate gesture, but without the devices and artifical aids in his temple, he knew all too well that this could only be in vain. "NEEEEEEAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" he boomed into the beautiful blue skies in agony over the situation.
After a few painful moments of collecting himself, Dhalekar stood tall, looked into his surroundings - there seemed to be sentient beings further along the shore, and called out to Smiles. "It seems destiny has different plans for us, Smiles... No matter, if this is what we have, we shall work a new empire from the sands here if we must! Come smiles!"
Smiles did not hear his lich master, there was only the sun, the waves, and the noodle arms to the happy monstrosity.
