Thothalas settles an apparatus about his head with various telescoping lenses and adjusts the glasses to stare at the pulsing aura of the portal."Fascinating! Oh, yes, oh, my yes! Here, here, the crystalline matrix of plasmatic graviton waves. Very nice. Oh, yes, very secure! Oh, oh, I see, the gravitic-temporal spacial intermix is perfectly in balance. Not much chance of this thing collapsing and leveling a hillside, I'll tell you. Hmmm, I might be able to alter the temporal shift of my own portal, but I'll need a desity factor of...."
The young mage turns his magnified eyes to the crowd behind him.
"Oh, sorry, I'm holding up the line. Theories, you know; fascinating stuff. Oh, by the way, might want to cushion for landing. The portal's color shows a ground exit point. Fine by me, I didn't want to land in the stinky swamp anyhow."
"Ta ta!"
Exit one verbose elven mage. 
A quick interdimension rollercoaster ride later...
Thothalas lands beside his teammates near the village of Stinkwell.
"Oh, my! Can't blame the villagers for false advertisement," he said, covering his nose with a handkerchief.
But he soon forgot about the smell and began studying the portal on the exit side until all have arrived.
"Hmmm, never seen such an elongated phase inversion. Noutgin could do wonders with this. Hmm, if we just had a little more time, I could thread a spell in the matrix... but best not tempt fate... I mean, when these things blow, they reeeeeeaaaaally BLOW!"
He ignores the bunny head poking out of his satchel and its hiccupping, dazed expression.
--Previous Message--
: Bidding his fond farewells to his friends,
: Sterling leaped through the portal into
: what he thought would be a short step to
: the other side. However, upon entering
: the magical doorway he found himself
: sliding through a tunnel of blue-green
: light lined with numerous glittering
: stars.
: He had absolutely no control over his
: movement through the tunnel. Spinning to
: and fro, the Drow sought to orient himself
: until he came bursting out of the other
: side of the portal, landing flat on his
: back in a patch of mossy grass.
: "Zak's been watching too many
: episodes of Sliders", commented the
: Swordsman rising to his feet and brushing
: himself off.
: Instantly the Dark Elf discovered the
: first disadvantage of having heightened
: senses when his nose was assailed by the
: pungent smell of swamp gas and decaying
: matter. He now knew why this place was
: called Stinkwell.
: Looking around for any signs of life, he
: only saw a few sheep nearby but no
: shepherd attending them. A little farther
: away, he saw the town and wondered how
: anybody could live in an area that could
: be easily nicknamed the Armpit of the
: Realm.
: Still, he had a job to do and scanned
: the area for any potential threats. Upon
: finding none; he waved back at the portal
: for the others to come through, while
: warning them about taking that first step.
: The Drow wondered if his companions would
: be able to hear him on the other side?
: ((A Point To Ponder))
: ((NEXT))
:
