The Mandala Bastion

The mage that opened the way was the first through the portal, I followed close behind. Partially because I had a fear in the reaches of my mind that he would simply close the Realmportal behind him to stop our questions, and partially because of a deep seated curiosity for what would be on the other side. I can't help it, it's why I took to exploring the Realms so well I imagine.

When I stepped out the other side, my first thought was interrupted by a gust of wind strong enough to nearly push me back through the portal. When I recovered, I thought the gust blown something into my eye as everything around me was gold. The ground I stood on to the sky and clouds. Rubbing my eye, I found I was looking at the Realm as it really was.

Looking for the mage, I could see he was pacing away from me at a steady rate along the length of what we were standing on. I hurried to catch up, the fact that we were standing on a massive wall.

It was clearly a colossal structure, wide enough across I'd be winded if I ran one side to the other, long enough that I could see either end disappear into the distance, and tall enough that the wall is all I could see.

Evenly spaced along the parapet were towers draped in banners and equally massive statues done in the Hindu style. Unlike the statues of their gods, each of these was fully armored, with each of their many arms bearing a weapon or shield. I even noticed that within the tower windows, countless arrows peaked their golden tips out, knocked in half a dozen bows held in a dozen hands per window.

I finally caught up with the mage, and tried to question him about what all this was. Grand as it was, I couldn't imagine why someone would build a fortification on such a scale, and against what?

The question barely left my mouth when the mage stopped, and turned to point off one of the sides of the wall. I stared where he was pointing, but saw nothing but the golden haze that permeated the whole realm. That was until an actual chill wind blew across the golden battlements. As if following the wind, the sky on that that side of the wall quickly lost it's golden hue. From a single point in the middle distance, a darkness spread like the light was being subsumed by ink.

What followed a moment later made me wish that was the case.

There was no ink, no actual change in the color of the sky. Only a massive hand with inky black skin emerging from the golden haze, fingers outstretched. So massive was the digits they looked like they could grab a section of the bastion we were standing on and tear it away with little effort. An action it seemed to be attempting.

It was to our luck, though it was my heart stopping shock at the time, that the massive hand was not alone. Before it could grip the wall, a blade, the same gold as the wall and the size of a building passed silently through the air above me. The blade severed the hand, which tumbled past where I could see on the wall. The stump did not bleed, and the hands owner made no sound in response to the grievous wound. Following the impressive length of the blade back to its wielder. Another arm and hand, equal in size to the first, but with sky blue skin instead. It had no time to rest, as the first hand, now stump, was joined by a half dozen other pinpricks of black in the sky. Soon followed by hands that held their own weapons, these weapons matched their wielders inky black skin. 

The blue hand, wielding it's golden blade, seemingly summoned up it's own cohorts to match what seemed to be a growing horde of limbs attached to bodies I couldn't see for the clouds. Then, a clarion call from nowhere followed by rumbling drums. 

As if on cue, the legion of many armed statues around us sprang to life in unison, showing an energy that even flesh and blood couldn't always match. The threw their spears, loosed their arrows, and lept from the wall with arms splayed wide towards an enemy I assumed I couldn't see. All of this towards the side of the sable invader, despite it's size.

The mage looked at me, far more calm that I was, and opened his mouth for the first time since, we'd been introduced.

"This is the what you seek." He said, not asking a question.

"What? I don't know-"

"This is it."

"What are those things?" I asked him, far too distracted to pursue my crown-given goals. He gave a knowing smile at my discomfort before answering. 

{The rest of the journal is torn out, and the second half of the page is missing}

Type

Dimensional plane