After his companions talked about what they were to do soon, Brogan stood up and stretched. He was now rather intrigued by the gates they were standing close to and went closer to them, looking at them from nearby. "Shouldn't we... go inside as soon as possible?" he looked back at the group. "And what would happen if I were to just step inside?" Brogan slowly got his hand closer and closer to the gate.

Dralith Da'Seloth stood before the gate as his companions rested, albeit briefly. The swirling mass of what seemed like living fire loomed before him. He'd gone through two other gates such as this but one was never truly accustomed to traversing the planes of Oblivion. The horrors that dwelled within were not something to look forward to. He gathered his wits as Brogan reached for the gate. "Master Brogan, hold if you will." He said as he turned to face the group. "Well, you've done a fine job thus far. I'm impressed with your abilities. But this.." he gestured to the gate. "This is the true test. Within the plane of Oblivion you will not only be tested on your martial prowess.. but also your strength of mind. Take heed as we enter.. there will be things to see that you'll wish you'd never laid eyes on." At this, he drew his enchanted Akaviri Katana. A surge of electricity flowed down the blade as it came free of its sheath. The Hero of Kvatch turned and walked through the wall of living fire that was the gate.

The group hesitated for a moment, unsure. But they gathered their courage and, with weapons ready, entered the gate.

Immediately their sense of smell was assaulted by the stench of death, decay, and things burning. The ground beneath their feet was red as if it were with in iron. The sky was as scorched as it had been around the gate in Cyrodiil. Strange, tentacle like plants dotted the cobblestone pathway that lead to a massive obsidian tower. Beyond the path in either direction was molten earth, ensuring them that there was only one way to go. Forward. Along the pathway could be seen Dremora and the imp like Daedra known as Scamps. Upon seeing the adventurers, they turned now and cast fireballs in their direction. Dralith could be seen removing his sword from the chest of a Dremora. He turned to the group as they came through. "Forward!" he shouted as he charged down the path, katana in his right hand and a ball of lightning in his left.

Katrina stood there, slightly stunned from the monstrous environment. She finally came to her senses in time to scramble out of the way as a scorching ball of fire shot past her. She drew her blade and wearily approached the enemy. Another fireball flew at her, but she managed to jump away again. She quickly rushed forward and reached the scamp who had been attacking her. It screeched in hate and lunged at her, claws raking. She dodged, but only barely. Her tunic was torn slightly, partially revealing the chainmail beneath. She swung her blade and caught it on the scamp's shoulder. It screamed in pain, grabbing the blade and trying to pull away. She allowed it to pull the sword off. The scamp took a couple of steps back, shocked. With a quick and smooth movement, she swung her blade and removed the monster's head.

Katrina frowned as the beheaded creature fell to the ground. Her heart was beating very fast. She looked around and stared at the burning land. Feeling light headed, she held her head and moved away from the general battlefield. She heard a roar behind her. She quickly spun around in time to see a dremora charging at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she couldn't react in time. Her vision blurred as the dremora threw her to the ground. Briefly, she stared the fiery red sky above her. She blinked and looked at the dremora standing over her. It raised its mace and, with a cackle, swung it directly at her head. She rolled away and struggled to her feet.
She missed the familiar weight of her sword and realized she had dropped it. She scanned the floor and found it lying directly behind the dremora.
She cursed and and returned her gaze to the dremora, ready to dodge if she had to.

The sudden change, as they crossed the gate disoriented Brogan. It probably disorientate everyone, because everything changed. The smell in this place did not bother Brogan that much, as he was used to horrid stench when he was making his poison. It was the pressure of the air around them, he felt as if he's a foreign body in someones body. His companions around him didn't look all that hot either, except for the Hero.

A fireball suddenly went past nearby and while Brogan didn't need to dodge, he jumped away from it. His experience with fire made him a little overly cautious around it. "So this is what I'll have to deal with for the time being?" he thought, annoyed. "I'd better get used to it then.". He unsheathed the katana and started stepping towards an imp, but the stepping had to be quickly changed into running and dodging, as the fireballs kept coming in huge amounts. While Brogan managed to dodge all of them, he felt that something is not exactly right, as he already felt as tired as if he was sprinting for good ten minutes. Nevertheless, he managed to close the gap between himself and an imp.

He swung, hoping that it will be first and the last hit he'll have to take, but the imp managed to parry it. But the parry came with a price and the imp went spinning on one leg and as he did that Brogan pierced the katana right though his head. He took the blade out and cut the scamps ear off and put it in his pouch. It was a creature he has never seen and he couldn't resist the urge to experiment. He took the out a small vial and dropped a few drops of blood from the blade. As he finished doing that, he had to look back, as another fireball flied right past his head. He tried to find the culprit, but dropped that, as he noticed the imperial Katrina, rolling away from a dremora swing and as she stood up - her sword was gone. It was not in her hand anymore. Without thinking about anything else, he rushed towards the dremora and was praying that he'd make it in time, but fortunately both Katrina and dremora had decided to take their time for a staring contest. As he closed in on the dremora, he noticed a sword down on a ground and realized it must have been Katrina's. With the speed he had, he used his sword and pushed Katrina's sword towards her. He didn't know if the sword made it to her, because with the momentum he dashed in front of the dremora and blocked it's swing, dedicated for Katrina. It made Brogan himself lose his balance and take a few steps back and readjust.

"Ever thought these guys? Because I have no idea how to fight them." Brogan asked Katrina, looking at the dremora's body, waiting for a slightest twitch.

Henry curiously entered the oblivion gate. It felt slightly strange, as if he jumped into water, yet there was no liquid, though the air suddenly felt unbreathable, yet that was for less than a heartbeat. As Henry emerged, foul stench of burning dead people fell upon him. It was not a nice smell, needless to say. Henry waved his hand in front him and said "I think some soap would kill them easily."

Before Henry's eyes had more chance to adapt to strange red lighting that was all around them, he heard a few fireballs thrown his way. Henry just took a rational decision - he stayed behind Dralith and mimicked his movements, to dodge the skillshots. However, the Hero of Kvatch soon got into fighting and Henry had to move away.

Just as the Bard was not in the shadow of a much more intimidating warrior, suddenly fireballs flew his way. Henry gracefully bowed or jumped to dodge them as he was moving without a clue on what should he do. He saw the Imperial woman attacked by a Dremora and Brogan rushing to help her. The bard remembered that his spear is still on his back and he took it in his hand and placed it's tip in front him, after spinning it twice. He then heard Brogan ask the imperial something about how should one fight these monsters and Henry chimed in "The concept is pretty easy -- you stab them multiple times. If that's not enough a dozen more. That's my guess." He then started sprinting towards the Dremora with the intention to impale his leg, however, he glimpsed that a fireball was heading his way from his flank. It was all the Bard could do to try and hit the incoming fireball with his spear, obviously losing his sprinting momentum. The heat wave exploded as it connected with his spear and Henry was tossed a couple of steps to another side where he plumped on the ground.

The bard slowly got up with the fear of another incoming fireball, though he was still somewhat dizzy. The luck was on his side - no fireballs were homed his way, so he grinned and carefully looked around to find the scamp who threw the fireball at him. When he spotted it, the Bard tried to think of a plan to attack him but to no avail. Thus he said somewhat silently "Well, certainly I'm not the best person to do the stabbing, though."

Brogan wanted to reply to the Bard with something witty, but he didn't have any time, as the Dremora finally moved towards him. "Even if they seem to be well armored, they don't have anything that protects their face." he thought. "I need to move in such a way, where I'd get a chance for either a lunge or a slash. Lunging straight to its face is way too risky, because he could easily dodge it. But with three of us, getting behind him would be rather easy." He jumped backwards and figured he could dance around him for a bit, because he wasn't wearing armor. And after a few dance moves, together with Dremora, he tried faking a dash to one direction, but actually going the other, but failed, as the Dremora didn't react to the fake dash and swung it's mace in the direction where Brogan was heading. He managed to dodge it by diving to the side of the dremora, but he fell down on the ground in a really uncomfortable way and it took him a few seconds to get back to his feet.

He could hear a fireball coming towards him, and that might have just saved his skin from burning. He ducked quickly and the fireball went past his head. He could feel the warmth of the fireball, and how close it went past though him. Brogan turned around to face the Dremora, because he couldn't be distracted for long and he was greeted by pain in his jaw. He was sent flying in the air by the blow of the mace. At least seven of his teeth were flying outside his mouth. His jaw was most defiantly ruined from this hit and he fell down on the hard ground which probably broke a few bones in his body. And he laid there, motionless. Alive, but unconscious.

Henry just kept dancing around the battlefield, dodging everything that was thrown at him, while at the same time trying not to lose te Hero of Kvatch from sight, as the man was their only hope of getting out of here alive. Henry soon found himself closing in on a scamp, that was facing him sideways. Without too much hesitation, Henry sprinted towards the daedra and tried to impale it, though the scamp stepped away at the last possible second. However, Henry already had a plan for that, thus he halted as swiftly as he could and started spinning towards the direction of the scamp, having retained only his left foot on the ground, while holding his spear solely with his right hand on the very end. By doing that Henry used his weapon as a sweeper and knocked down the scamp with the middle of his spear's shaft. The bard quickly regained balance by putting his right foot on the ground and stepping forward with his left. He then kicked the scamp, that was already trying to get up, knocking him a little bit further and soon afterward putting his spear through the scamp's body. Henry then smiled and shouted "One! The stabbing really works."

However, as Henry turned back to look behind he saw only the Imperial woman. The Bosmer named Brogan was nowhere to be seen, though the Dremora they were previously fighting seemed to be walking towards a rock in a rather swift pace. Henry did not know why the Dremora turned its back to all of the fighting, but Henry thought it would be the perfect chance to sprint and stab it in the back, as he was no more than twenty to thirty steps from it. Henry started running, readying his spear for an attack, but he was stopped, because running through an open plain made him an easy target and some scamps did not want to make that crossing too easy. He did get as close as 10 steps -- enough to examine the rock that the Dremora was closing in to and...

"That's Brogan!" Henry suddenly realized and shouted "By the divines, defend him -- someone." The shouting probably got the attention of more scamps or maybe the same ones concentrated their fire on him, anyhow Henry was forced to retreat even further from the laying Bosmer. The bard hid behind a rock to think for a second and then emerged from there with somewhat of a plan. It did not seem he would be fighting anyone soon, so all that Henry did was use the time he had to get as close as possible to the Dremora and throw his spear at it. The plan worked spectacularly well, as Henry strided while swinging his spear for a throw and let it to the Daedra. However, the spear did not seem to do any damage it just bumped into its armor. The throw did accomplish another thing -- the Daedra let out a strange sound resembling of a growl and turned away from Brogan to face the battlefield again, searching for the one that threw the spear. Obviously, Henry was the first one to be caught in its eyes and the Daedra started running towards the Bard. Henry just turned and wanted to run, but he stayed in one place for too long -- he did not have enough time to dodge a fireball headed his way nor did he have a weapon to block it with. Only thing the Bard was able to do was a half-step to a side. The fireball still connected with his shoulder and exploded. Henry was thrown aside by the explosion, though he somehow managed to stay on his feet and only fell on his knees.

He felt a heavy burn on his left arm and grinned from pain. The pain was there, obviously, but he knew he can't stop know, "The song cannot end now" was his thought, thus the bard found his strength and stood up again, looking at the still-incoming Daedra. After standing up he still had a few seconds, so he quickly looked around to get a better view of surroundings, although the Bard was still dizzy from the explosion. He then started backing away from Daedra, slowly at first, though increasing the speed with every step and soon enough running at full speed trying to create some distance.

"By the divines, defend him -- someone."

Katrina ducked down and grabbed her sword. As the daedra was lured away, she sheathed her blade and crouched down next to Brogan. She slipped her hand under his head and lifted it slightly, examining his wounds.
"I can stop the bleeding, but we need time and a bed to heal the rest," She said grimly. She hovered her hand over his jaw and carefully scabbed the wounds. She was sure she would be able to replace his teeth, but if his jaw was broken...

"Can you get up? You can't stay here, it's too dangerous," She said. She looked around and spotted his teeth lying beside him. She sighed and gingerly picked up the few she could see. She stuffed them into her pocket and quickly wiped her hand off.
She gently rested his head on the ground and stood up. She stumbled dangerously, the world spinning around her. Her vision blurred and she fell to one knee again. She held her head and cursed. Something about this place was affecting her.

The fight was going as he'd expected, somewhat. Daedra were falling but several members of the group had sustained wounds. A downward stroke came at him from the right and he spun on his heel, the claymore striking the ground harmlessly wide as he ducked under the Dremoras reach. As he came up he thrust his open palm for the its face and latched on. The dremora flailed and hit him in the abdomen with a right hook in an attempt to get him off. Not enough as the Hero of Kvatch discharged the lightning bolt that he'd been holding in his hand. At such close proximity, the bolt blasted the creatures head from its shoulders and the body slumped to the ground. Dralith did not savor the victory however and instead moved to his next foe, dodging a fireball as he did so. Fireballs would have little effect on the Dunmer but he would rather not embrace one if given the choice.

Realizing that the closing Dunmer was too quick for its fireballs, the scamp began to back away and lashed out with its claws as Dralith got close enough. Again the creature was too slow and its swiping claws raked the empty air. It's hands were severed by a lightning quick slash from a Katana and its owner spun in place, thrusting the blade back and into the Scamps chest. Dralith withdrew his blade from the body and rolled forward. As he came up, a pair of throwing knives left his empty hand and struck another Scamp between its shoulder blades, dropping it.

Dralith stood and surveyed the battlefield momentarily. Just as he did, he caught sight of Kiba falling to her knees, bleeding from several wounds. The female Dunmer hit the ground and lay unmoving and unblinking. 'Damn.' he thought. A Dremora had stood before her and now turned to seek another enemy with a bloodstained axe. Dralith had been about to engage the creature when a large form barreled into it and knocked it over. Karnog. The tackle was followed by a series of bone crunching punches to its face followed by the butt of his axe. Karnog stood over the beast, victorious, and sought another foe. The Dremora lay quite dead with its face little more than a bloody pulp.

It was then Dralith noticed the peril that had befallen the Bard. Wounded by a fireball and being chased by a Dremora. In his momentary lapse of awareness The Hero of Kvatch was struck by a fireball from the left which he immediately retaliated with a lightning bolt. The scamp dropped and its body convulsed and spasmed from the electricity. His own wound was superficial at best, a bit scorched but otherwise unharmed. Being Dunmer and facing a fire based enemy had its advantages. He sprinted for the Bard and refused to allow any more distractions until the man was safe. Henry was running but the Dremora was in close pursuit and determined to kill him. 'Not on my watch' he said under his breath, hastily making his way across the battlefield.

Once within range, he threw his enchanted Katana at the Dremora and drew two daggers from his belt. The throw didn't have sufficient force to kill it but the blade sank deep into its side and the enchantment sent waves of electricity through its body as it turned to face this new threat. The Hero of Kvatch was upon it then, a hurricane of jabs, slashes, parrys and thrusts with Elven daggers. His lightning quick dagger strikes overwhelmed the slow mace wielded by the Dremora and it gave ground. As it fell back it swung desperately for his head and had Dralith not ducked at the last possible moment the blow likely would have ended him. His duck turned into a backwards roll and he threw his daggers in a surprise move. One struck the Dremora in the stomach and the other was deflected by the mace. Dralith of course had other daggers he could have drawn but instead his hands flared with destructive magic. Lightning in his left and frost in his right. The Daedra snarled a challenge and rushed forward only to be met by the combined force of a frost enhanced lightning bolt.

The force of the magic sent it reeling onto its back and it lay unmoving with a scorched patch of its frozen skin visible through a hole in its armor. Dralith retrieved his sword and daggers, placing the smaller blades in their sheathes. "A bit.. flashy.. i must admit. But thats all part of the show, isn't it Bard?" Dralith winked to the man then set off to end this fight.

"Imperial, are you feeling all right?" Brogan tried to say as clearly as possible with his lower part of the face being in shambles, he was still lying on his back, afraid to move at all. He tried to smile at the imperial, but he was smitten by the pain and a smile he tried to show, changed into a horrible grunt of pain. Brogan tried to move his arm and, while it hurt a little bit, he felt that it must have been just bruises. He moved his other arm and his legs - all of them seemed functional, so he decided to try and stand up. He tried to roll on the side and then push himself from the ground and with great effort he came stood back on his legs.

He tried to make sense of what was happening around, but nor he could remember what was happening, nor he could see what was happening. Everything around him as a red blur, and after he blinked, he saw the Imperial in front of him. He felt that he was laying on his back again. He looked at the imperial and shook his head, as to answer her question if he could walk. But Brogan was determined and tried to do the same and tried to stand up, but this time, instead of standing up, he leaned on the Imperials shoulder.

Brogan managed to blurt out "..sorry for being a burden..." before losing his consciousness again.

"I'm fine!" Katrina said, rather more angrily than she intended. She was furious at how weak she appeared. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She started as Brogan began to stand. He suddenly swayed and began to fall back down. She panicked and grabbed him before he hit the ground, lowering him down gently. He shook his head at her, and she understood.

"...Sorry for being a burden..." Brogan said, leaning on her shoulder. She shook her head and was about to reply when he slumped. She froze, but relaxed once she realized he only lost consciousness. She wrapped his arm over her shoulders and took a deep breath. With all her strength, she lifted her tired body and Brogan off of the ground. She turned towards the Oblivion Gate. She had made up her mind; no matter what Dralith would think, she was going to take Brogan out of here. He was in no condition to fight, and they needed peace if she was to heal him. And so she slowly made her way over to the Gate.

Henry heard a thump, as if someone threw something at his chaser's Daedric armor, so he dared to look back and saw the Dremora standing and looking somewhere else, not at the Bard. He quickly grasped that it was looking at the Hero of Kvatch who shortly attacked it and quickly disposed of the Daedra with the help of his magic. The bard halted from running and nodded a thanks to the Dunmer. After his words, Henry answered
"Thanks, though I already had him." Henry smiled " We'll count him as mine. Two, that makes it."

Henry then started moving towards where his spear was lying, because he had no other weapon, except his lute, which cannot be considered a decent weapon either way. Luckily, most of the Daedras around the spot were killed and Henry crossed the battlefield without too much hindrance. As he finally retook his spear from the ground, Henry saw that the Imperial woman was taking Brogan towards the Oblivion gate outside. The bard quickly jogged to catch up with them and said "Where are you taking him? We can't leave the gate, Daedra might venture out through the gate, someone would have to be a flunkey and simply stay and defend Brogan. We must either get him on his feet or.. Well.. Leave him here." The bard grinned after saying that, because all of this fight seemed not as heroic as one would expect.

Katrina paused and turned to glare at Henry, "I am not leaving him. If you are not willing to help, I suggest you clear off." She turned back to the Oblivion Gate and continued. She stumbled to the side as the world began to spin again. She gritted her teeth and finally threw herself and Brogan through the portal. She stumbled onto the other side of the portal, finally back on Tamriel. She gave herself a minute to adjust to the sudden change, and made her way to some large rocks nearby. She gently lowered Brogan down to the grass and let him lean on one of the rocks.

Katrina crouched down in front of him and examined his jaw. She frowned as she seemed to spot something out of the ordinary and gently touched his jaw. She flinched and pulled back, quickly realizing that something was very wrong. She would have to strain herself to the very limits, and even then he'd need a professional healer to fully solve this.
She decided to wait until he woke up again. He might be able to tell her if he was injured anywhere else. If he could even speak...

She sighed and turned away. She watched the Oblivion Gate with a hand on the handle of her sword, just in case anything emerged.

The stench was gone, as well as the thick air, which put Brogan's body under huge pressure. He got used to it inside the gate rather quickly, but only after he was outside the gate did he realize the difference between being inside and outside the Oblivion Gate. However, unfortunately, he couldn't say that the air was refreshing and cool. It still felt really warm and stuffy, as the Gate was "leaking" and ruining the landscape around. To add to that, the immense pain in Brogan's jaw didn't help either. He could remember, partially, how he tried to stand up or how he tried to talk. Right now he wouldn't be able to say a word. It must have been the adrenaline back then, because the pain wasn't as horrid as it is now. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He knew he was already out, and he wondered, if the fight was already over.

He saw Katrina, just besides him, looking over to the Oblivion Gate. Either the fight ended horribly, or they came out before the end of the fight, but he shooed away the former thought, because if that was the case, there would probably be monsters pouring all over from the gate. Or was that why Katrina was keeping an eye on the gate? He couldn't tell, which was true. He breathed in deeply though his nose and it went though almost painlessly. "At least my insides are doing okay." he thought, and was about to smile, but the pain didn't let him do so. He tried touching his jaw, slowly getting his hand close and the moment he touched, he let out a deep sounding grunt of pain and he could barely focus. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily, hoping the pain would get easier to deal with, with time.

Henry looked at Katrina, who didn't want to listen and kept moving on towards the Oblivion gate. Henry shook his head. "Women" he mumbled and turned towards the battlefield. After a second he turned back, looked at the gate once again and added to himself "Or maybe young love. A heroine saving her chosen one. Aye, 'tis what I'd like to think."

Henry slowly started moving deeper into oblivion, trying to follow the Hero of Kvatch. That proved quite easy as the man was cutting down the Daedra as butter with a hot knife. Henry finally moved towards a group of three scamps, that were all facing the Hero, thus, their backs turned to the Bard. Without hesitation, he stabbed one scamp in its back, while it was readying a fireball to throw at the Hero, then quickly kicked another one's leg and while it was falling, spun his spear making a backwards step at the same time, to hit the Daedra's muzzle right before it fell on the ground. Henry's plan turned out to be a success, as the slash together with the falling momentum the scamp had opened its skull and made it finish the fall resembling of a ragdoll. After accomplishing this move the Bard groaned, because his arm still hurt from the blast that hit him earlier on. The groan, or maybe just the sound of a weapon slash, caught the attention of the third scamp of the group.

The bard quickly repositioned himself to face the third scamp, though it was hard to control spear with a half-responsive hand. It spotted Henry and seemed rather unhappy about the deaths of its kin. Then again, the bard had no idea how unhappy scamp look like, so he just made an assumption. The enemy, however, did not hesitate like Henry did and lunged forward, its claws ready to rend his face. Nevertheless, Henry pretty much anticipated that and he could no way finish a defensive move in time, not with that pain in his arm at least, so he just pushed his spear forward and let go of it, while sidestepping at the same time. The imp hit the spear's shaft as he literally had nowhere to go to dodge it and clumsily thwacked the ground. Wasting no time bard strided towards the fallen Scamp and treaded on it. The Imp was clawing the ground, yet Henry left it no chance to injure his legs and started trampling the scamp. When it was finished, Henry kicked the lifeless body away and took his spear back, while mumbling "Five."

The bard then proceeded towards the Hero of Kvatch and when he finally got close enough shouted to him "So what's our plan in here? The portal is obviously not closing no matter how many Daedra we kill in here. And we are taking heavy losses, the Imperial woman took Brogan outside, I don't see a few of those who ventured in either." While saying these words Henry tried to get as close as possible without actually hindering the Dunmer's fighting. At the same time, the bard tried to position himself to defend the Hero from possible back-attacks. He then added a question "Do all these scamps fight in the same pattern? Throwing fireballs and lunging when you get in a few step distance. This makes them easy to anticipate."