[center][h3]Tora and Poppi[/h3]
[b]Level 6 Tora[/b] - (28/60) EXP and [b]Level 5 Poppi[/b] - (36/50) EXP 
[b]Location:[/b] Devil's Casino, Inkwell Isle
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1005[/center]

Nero squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and blinked twice in quick succession. As a devil hunter he'd been through the wringer, tossed around by giant monsters, caught up in whirlwinds of fire and ice, and obliged to fight headache-inducing Blitzes and Chaoses, but still he'd never experienced anything quite like that. The smells of smoke and booze, rare and unpleasant to his senses, helped revive him. He was lying on his stomach halfway beneath a craps table, a stool across one arm and his back, and there was something large and heavy on his head. Grunting, he pushed it off to his right, at which point it began to wiggle.

“Meh meh meh?” the fuzzy, egg-shaped thing said, rolling onto the ground beside Nero. He stared at his new acquaintance as he came to his own senses. “Why everything go funny?”

On Nero's left, a girl with periwinkle-colored pigtails and a maid hat crawled out from beneath a wine-stained tablecloth. She seemed relatively nonplussed. “At this point, Poppi not ask questions.”

To be honest, Nero agreed. “You know,” he said, speaking as if nothing about the situation was wrong. “The fact that this isn't anywhere near the weirdest thing that happened today says a lot.” He pursed his lips at Tora. “You some kind of ball hamster, pal?”

The Nopon shook his head, for all that accomplished on someone with no neck. “Nope. Am Tora!”

With that question answered in a very helpful manner Nero extracted himself from the mess and stood up, giving the odd pair a hand in the process. Poppi gave a polite smile. “Thank you.”

“Don't mention it.” The devil hunter looked around. The casino floor was in a state of remarkable disarray, but the heroes were picking themselves up. Some were even starting to help tidy up. It wasn't long before Nero tracked down the ringleader: the solemn-looking sheriff with the great hound at his side. Also on hand were the Ace Cadet and Linkle, who he'd never seen, as well as Donnie and Death, two companions of his on the harrowing trip through the Dead Zone. And, of course, Bowser. He and the oversized, suspiciously demonic-looking turtle had never met, but he couldn't have missed glimpsing Bowser while at Hammerhead. Bowser wanted to know where in the world he'd ended up at the moment, which represented a fairly common line of inquiry at the moment.

Having recovered from the sudden shift as well as a momentary entrapment beneath the Ace Cadet, the demoness known as Megaera decided to answer it, although not without a strain of irritation in her voice. “Devil's Casino, in the Inkwell Isles. Sitting right in the middle of the western bay. Wasteland to the south, Lominscuttle Town to the north. How did you get here?”

The Houndmaster looked upward, nodding his head. “That inexplicable hole. Some spacial devilry on the part of that charlatan. Despite his departure, it remains agape...we should be able to return from whence we came.” He produced a whistle and gave it a blow. Movement stirred above, and after a moment a number of ropes dropped down into the casino. 

Tora, meanwhile, had been thinking. He remembered the enormous map laid out the other day across the dinner table in Peach's Castle—memories made during mealtime, after all, tended to stick with him. “If friends in east bay, but Land of Adventure on west...” Eyebrows raised, he looked up at the others, landing ultimately on Bowser. “That means we on other side of whole map! If hole stay around, that mean we have way to travel huge distance aside from Blazermate teleporter!”

"Masterpon got it backwards," Poppi told him.

It was at that point that the attention casino patrons, who'd all more or less recovered and been muttering in low tones, became keenly felt by the Houndmaster. His whistle had drawn their gaze, and a statement needed to be made. Clearing his throat, he climbed on top of a nearby table and began putting the facts together. Then he started to speak. “People of Inkwell Isle,” he said in a loud voice, “As a keeper of the law I hereby condemn the manager of this establishment, known as Gneidxick, for impersonation, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Furthermore, this space is now juxtaposed to the Land of Adventure by way of this rift. As such the casino will be temporarily shuttered, until such time that the wrongs perpetuated here are put to right. You should return to your various domiciles.”

Slowly, the patrons started to move. None seemed very happy, but nobody planned to challenge the Houndmaster with such an impressive army at his back. Some disappeared or morphed away, but most left through the front door. When it became clear that the lawman's declaration was being respected, he addressed the various heroes and adventurers around him. “As should we. Let us ascend, recuperate, and lay this nonsense to rest.”

The statement sent the whole assembly into motion. Tora and Poppi didn't plan to wait in any lines for their chance to climb up, so the artificial blade simply picked her masterpon up and boosted back into the Land of Adventure. They touched down amid a crowd of onlooking townspeople gathered to watch the situation unfold, and for the first time got a good look at the hole Gneidxick left. While pretty large, it sat squarely in the middle of the guild hall, and there seemed to be plenty of space to go about business as usual. “Wonder how Bowser will get up,” Tora mused aloud, peering doubtfully at the anchored ropes that most would be using to make the ascent.

“Since hole seems permanent, maybe people work together to make some sort of lift,” Poppi suggested.

“Ooh, that sound like fun.” Predictably, Tora's mind already raced to come up with ideas to make the notion a reality. “If we get wheels, cranks, chains, and plenty of wood, Tora could probably make with help of pretty smith sisters.” A moment passed before he caught Poppi's sternly disapproving expression. “...What?”

[hider=Results!]
[b]Party:[/b] [@Yankee]'s Ace Cadet, [@DracoLunaris]'s Bowser, Bowser Jr, and Kamek, [@ProPro]'s Courier 6, [@MULTI__MEDIA_MAN]'s Geralt, [@Dawnrider]'s Hat Kid, [@Gentlemanvaultboy]'s Linkle, [@thedman]'s Michael & Franklin, Lugubrious' Tora & Poppi
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +13 EXP
[b]Play Yourself Bonus:[/b] Bowser, Bowser Jr, Kamek, Hat Kid, Linkle
[b]Play Yourself Reward:[/b] +2 EXP
[i]The Play Yourself Bonus was awarded to anyone who took a load off the GM's back by writing out their battle, including the miniboss, and characterizing them correctly[/i][/hider]