I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger...
| I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger... | |
|---|---|
| Date | 11/27/24-1/20/25 |
| Storyteller | Doug |
| Tier | Yes |
| Player Characters | Vara, Melfyra, Illiam Elro, KOD, Suttonalia Morroweather |
| Rewards | 250xp, level appropriate amount of gold with minor bonus. |
| Result | Painful Success |
| Author | Illiam Elro |
| Downtime | 28 |
I'm half a day early, but I don't much care. I need time to see a safe starting route for these folks.
Maybe Cyrus' dreams. He's a calm dreamer, and the little ones do love to play when I visit... Yeah, that seems like a good kickoff point.
Still gonna see if there's anything else decent before they get here, however. Lots of dead ends, not really anything suitable before they arrived. Cyrus is the best option. Melfyra, Sutton, and the inorganic dreamer named KOD had arrived with some time to spare. It's nice to have friends nearby for this, but it's also a bit nervewracking.
A handsome stranger named Vara arrived a tad late, but attentive all the same. Everyone was ready, the charged crystals in tow. Sutton was scolding me for jumping ahead on my work without them, but Viktor covered for me, much to my surprise. (Thank you again, you get it Vik.)
He then passed out the images of the crystal creature we were to hunt down and study. I have no idea how he did it, but he actually managed to record it on paper after all this time. What an amazing Magescribe, he is...
After the briefing, I gave everyone a quick rundown of the roles each of them had to take, and Vik told them what each of these stones they've slept beside would do in the Dreamlands once we cross over.
From here on out, I'm only going to report our discoveries, in respect for the privacy of those dreaming.
First 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] We're calling this a Dream Eater, given we discovered it feeding on more inexperienced dreamers of the outer Dreamlands. It appears to be bulbous and fleshy, with bioluminescent arms and mandibles reaching for any dreamer it can feed off of. It had eight holes on the upper part of its body, with six lit tentacles to pair with it. Melfyra deduced that it must be strong of the mind, but weak of the body in terms of its fortitude. I figure with that, it must be pretty resistant to anything that isn't magic. When Vara and I snuck up on it as we tried to pass, it saw us with ease, and exuded a roughly 10' radius of shimmering pink smoke. It provided decent cover, both of sight and of lungs. Luckily, I smoke Flayleaf on the regular, so that was nothing for me. Dunno how Vara got out of that unscathed, will have to ask them about that later. It managed to escape, by my guess, through tearing a hole in the dreamscape we were in to go elsewhere. The hole it tore captured the almost irrevokable fascination of most of us, but we had to press on regardless.
Second 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] Much more docile, the fluffy quadropedal 'Wandercatcher', as we're calling it, seems to guide dreamers back to... Somewhere. We're hoping it's back where they belong. It ties wandering dreamers to a silver thread on its horn, to guide them behind and take them where they hopefully need to go. Though, once guided, they seem to explode into... Confetti? Rainbow confetti? Just rainbows? The explosion was like a pop, though, was very painful on the ears. One can pray this doesn't hurt the Wandercatcher, I suppose.
Third 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] It's a long fuzzy weird lookin' worm. Like weird as fuck. Why does it have a bow? This thing feels goddamn abyssal.
We're calling it a Stringworm and moving the fuck on.
Fourth 'Creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] Holy literal and proverbial Gods, it's one of the Lords of our current plane. A Prismatic Dream Lord. I've seen these at a distance, but never beheld their beauty so closely... Things seem to warp in its favor for a good 200 feet, due to its strong Will. I can only dream of a fraction of this power. Decisively, we evade its notice, so as to not upset the mission or the Lord themselves.
Fifth 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] Light motes used to lure one into this barnacle-humanoid looking thing. We're unsure of its intention, and do not wish to find out.
Sixth 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] [Animal] This Goose is somehow a more powerful Dreamer than me. It is giant and buff.
Fucking no.
Seventh 'creature' encountered; [Dream Tag] Pure horror incarnate. When Melfyra and I tried to get a better look, it just left us with the deepest pit of dread in our chests. Its form was... Nebulous. Ever-shifting with lots of creepy little stick-like limbs. Its face, I can't even describe it. We moved on promptly, given it was far enough away to simply ignore us.
Alphos; [Dream Tag] We found them. In the infinite sands of the inner core of the Dreamlands. The beings I was looking for- Or rather, just one of them. Its name is, well, every letter in every script ever. Dubbed Alphos, for ease. They seem to be a Dream Conduit for Gods. We're deep in the Dreamlands now, and we've entered the dreams of Gods in these travels. Though, Alphos seems to be one part of two beings, the other half of which is currently missing. Despite that, Alphos has incredible power, including being able to morph people into their more stronger forms, based on what Alphos percives as the strongest in the group. Vara, for a moment, was apparently equal to my power due to this effect. Turns out, all those months ago, I fell into a trap that was meant for their other half, dubbed Lexik. Their name is every word in every script ever. That's rough on the Onomancy, but I might be able to do something about this. I really, truly, had nothing to do with any of this until I inserted myself into Infinity itself. Wild. And infinity, I did experience for a short moment, because I offered to help find Lexik later down the line. Alphos imparted on me this information, as well as Lexik's comprehensible form.
Upon waking up, it seems as though Melfyra and I took the most damage in the Dreamlands. Both of us came out scarred in some way, while the Sutton, KOD, and Vara were thankfully otherwise unharmed. Gods willing I can pay her back in some way, after this twisted beautiful mess.