The Dreamlands

Locales abroad of the city centers, from out of doors to the outer planes.
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Spectre
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

"A pity," sneers the Archivist. It runs a long, spindly finger along its own cheek and shivers. "My brothers and sisters and I, we are all of us slaves of sensation." Ambrosia's pointed question catches the creature off guard. After a sudden silence, the Archivist gestures sharply with a clawed hand. "A dragon does not miss much." It nods, though. "The information is present here, but it is scattered, and therefore safe." Whispering now, the Archivist steps out from the machine and draws closer to Ambrosia. "Some things should never be compiled."

"For some secrets are too terrible to behold."
The Archivist clasps its hands together. Its rubbery flesh glistens in a most unusual way in the dim light. "The grimoire I speak of was stolen from a powerful Demagogue, a wretched kyton master—I have heard that his pierced face stretches along a thousand spiked rollers across the plane of Shadow. It was stolen by a Riversider mage." The Archivist grins once again. "It boggles the mind, does it not?" It would always find the bull-headedness of humans amusing. "He cannot keep what he has taken."

"It will taint this human's spirit. It will warp him beyond all recognition."
At this, the Archivist steps forward almost to whisper in Ambrosia's ear. Its tone is suddenly grave and conspiratorial. "You must take it back, before the kytons do. Return the grimoire to me and I will ensure that its secrets are never again mishandled."

"You have my word, mighty dragon."
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"

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Shadowcaller
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

'Slaves to sensation'? Well, there could be a lot of different sensations this one could be a slave to too. She hadn't even gotten impression that these beings even had sexes. Since if they did, did that mean that they reproduced? Or did they just have social genders? But why in that case?

So many questions, so little answers.

They certainly seemed to imply some answers were best not given and perhaps that was true in some cases.

But whatever that was true here or not, what she did know was that she didn't want them too close to her so as the Archivist gets close enough to whisper in her ear she pulls away and electricity can be seen coursing through her mane as a warning. Causing it to stand up straight.
"Distance." She growls, hoping they would take the cue.

But then, should they respect her wish, it was time for questions.

"You've yet to tell me why I should trust you or serve you in this regard. Or were my names an attempt of blackmail?"
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Spectre
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

The Archivist recoils humbly at Ambrosia's demand. It slithers back into the shadows cast from the great machine at the chamber's center. "My apologies, mighty dragon," mewls the creature, "I am not used to existing in this way." It raises its chin up and to the side. "I am not so naive as to ask of you your trust."

"I came to you, my form bare, as a mere scholar. I ask that you act on the values we share; you know as well as I the perils of mismanaged knowledge."
It sighs, a silky sound that echoes strangely. "But if values do not appeal; there is a certain deep satisfaction to be had in knowing that which others never will."

"Return the grimoire to me, and I will show you certain secrets. Return with the grimoire and you will depart with three pages of any volume in my Librarium."

"And we will never meet again."
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

Three pages? That didn't seem helpful to her at all. If she wanted pages out of a book it would be one she didn't have and if she didn't have it then she wouldn't know on which pages the important information was on. Unless she was expected to look through this seemingly endless library for inter? Hmph.

"Three books." She counters. "Anything less would be insulting." A beat. "But- in exchange I can give you copies of three books from my own library. Since as you said, your scroll know secrets that have been spoken and written, but what of those that has never even left the mind of its keeper? Since there are places where even such information is kept."
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Spectre
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

"We have a deal then," slithers the Archivist, its tongue dancing in its mouth. "You will return the grimoire to me, and we shall exchange knowledge—truly, there is no fonder union." It would not do well for the Archivist to insult his guest, and dragons were well known for their temper. It knew better than to risk offense, even here.

"I warn you," it hisses, "what you will find in the book you are hunting for can harm you. Some things can never be forgotten, even by dragons as mighty as Megeshi."

"It would serve you well to heed my words; I seek only to spare you."
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

That was much easier than she had though. Not even an attempt at bargain?
Now it felt like she should have set an even higher price. She had really sold herself short here.
"Do not take me for an amateur. I've come across books like that before." Though calling them books would be generous. "So tell me about this 'Riverside mage' thief of yours? Since I could use more to go on."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

The Archivist appears pleased, perhaps at the deal—it was hard to tell. "I assure you, I would not trust a matter of such importance to an amateur!" It bows low and cocks its spiked head to one side, the very image of subservience. It knew the value of diplomacy. "Regrettably, there is little to know."

"But skin shall be taken in Riverside—yards of it—and our man will be to blame."

"Find him and you will find the grimoire."


--

Ambrosia's surroundings begin to dissolve, dribbling down as a roiling mass.

Slowly, the Archivist's Librarium is melting away.
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Archivist's Librarium

Skin huh? For the flesh-wrapping business no doubt. Shouldn't be too much a problem since that seemed like it'd leave quite a trail. People getting kidnapped, murdered and horribly mutilated was things societies tended to keep track of regardless of their state and Riverside had never seemed that far gone to her.

"How will I get to choose the books I get as payment?" Is the final question she asks the Archivist before the dream fades around her.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"Hey, shush, don't argue with old people," Adir says, pointing at Lapis, not-at-all seriously. He starts down the pumpkin path, almost on automatic, sniffing the air and pricking his ears as he does. He understands Wenomir's logic, really, he does. But the deadly looking path could just as easily be genuinely deadly, and even Wenomir acknowledges it. Without a way to know what they're getting into, they have to give it their best guess. Tricks layered on tricks were the order of the day here. Just as the warrior says, there's no use spinning their wheels about it.

And he really wants to know why that smell seems so familiar...
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Spectre
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Re: The Dreamlands

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Shadowcaller wrote: Sep 21, 2022 10:09 am Archivist's Librarium

Skin huh? For the flesh-wrapping business no doubt. Shouldn't be too much a problem since that seemed like it'd leave quite a trail. People getting kidnapped, murdered and horribly mutilated was things societies tended to keep track of regardless of their state and Riverside had never seemed that far gone to her.

"How will I get to choose the books I get as payment?" Is the final question she asks the Archivist before the dream fades around her.
"In fitful sleep, you'll wander here, and forget all but that which you are permitted to take." The Archivist chitters, and its strange, slithering voice settles to a whisper.

"Now go and seek the insides-open one."

On that sinister note, the dream collapses.
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Lapis displays her stunning maturity level by sticking her tongue out at Adir.

Anyway!

Deeper.

Almost as soon as they're into the pumpkin road the pathway behind them is swallowed up in mist. Chances are if they started backtracking they would find something completely different than the path they just traversed. That's dreams for you. Not big on consistency. The trees are looming, spindly looking things and more than a few of them look like what one would get if they mashed together the concept of a tree with the concept of a scarce crow. The end effect is rather disorienting, an object that would be hard pressed to exist in the physical world.

"Oh, you're back again," says the crow perched atop a fence post nearby.

It's that bird.

The one that lead the hag to Cassie.

It looks just like literally any other crow, but it'll be immediately obvious to Adir that it's the same creature.

That's why this place smells so familiar.

It's the same field he met the bird in the FIRST time.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Realization washes over the stag. He straightens up, his eyes finally resettling on the crow. Honestly, the details of Cassie's rescue had kinda gotten away from him. But now he remembers distinctly. He remembers this place, the dry rot smell of it, the stink like fresh-laid manure over hidden corpses that have just begun to putrefy.

"I'm back again," he repeats, looking right at the bird. "Got a good reason I shouldn't blast you into a cloud of black feathers?" The crow knows he's fast enough and keen enough to do it, barring supernatural intervention.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Wenomir stands behind Adir, letting him take the lead but palming a cold iron knife discreetly, ready to strike if necessary. Does Adir know this creature? Maybe he encountered it while he was rescuing Cassie.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"Rude!" caws the bird. "Rude, I brought you to Cassie Cute As Puppies just like you asked me to."

And also lead a hag to Cassie.

But that part probably doesn't matter, right?

Doesn't sound like he's giving any great reasons not to blast him, though. At least not yet.

"Why are you here again aren't you happy with TWO Cassies Cute As Puppies? That's twice any many Cassies as before."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"I'm here to hunt your friend. You know, the one you brought to my Cassie?" Adir says, glowering. "I'd have nothing more to do with her, but I'm not gonna wait for the other shoe to drop on her petty vengeance. Do you know where she is?"
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Wenomir observes the bird, calculating angles of attack. If Adir fires, he'll be there to nail it with a cold iron knives should it avoid the shot.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"The old Hag Nana Roga? She isn't my friend," the bird replies, poofing up indignantly. "I owed her a favor and I performed it. No friendship! Not even a little. Hags aren't any fun to be around, don't you know that? All dark and broody and grinding up children to make gingerbread."

Sounds like a witch from a story book, honestly.

That's probably the idea.

"I knew you would save Cassie Cute As Puppies from her when she arrived you had the weight of the story behind you!" the crow says, sounding triumphant on Adir's behalf. Clearly that's all they need out of this interaction, right? Just some encouragement from a strange bird? They should feel satisfied and move along and not think of the bird ever again and-

"But you didn't tell us if you know where the hag is,"
Lapis pipes up.

The bird glares at her.

Somehow.

It's pretty clear he was hoping that would be missed.

"I do. But that information will cost you," the bird insists. Adir already knows that these creatures have an incredibly tenuous fear of death, about as much as one would expect to be afraid of having their character snuffed in a play.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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The Way of Autumn]

Good job Lapis, catching the little corvid in the middle of making its excuses. Adir plugs his face into his hand. His first thought is, indeed, threatening violence. Unfortunately that's just the sort of mood he's in. But he quickly reminds himself that it wouldn't do any good.

He sighs and says, "Well I'm not giving you my firstborn child or my memories or my ability to taste chocolate cake, or any stupid shit like that. Give me a reasonable price, bird."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"But prices are supposed to be unreasonable!" the bird laments, looking as distraught as a bird can. The thing pulls it off pretty well. Somehow. "They're always fun things like the first laugh of your youngest child or the memory of your first kiss! Those are the ones with WEIGHT!"

Poor bird.

It just wants to rob Adir of deeply important things.

"UGH! Boring things! Why would I want to ask you for boring things? Okay, fine. If you offer me hospitality in your home then I'll show you the way to the hag."

"To Nana Roga," Lapis interjects. "Not any old the hag. We need to find Nana Roga who tried to steal Cassie."

Oh wow.

If the bird was glaring at her before it's REALLY glaring at her now with those glittering golden eyes.

"You're just the worst sticking your nose in my dealings," the bird huffs. "Fine. I'll show you the way to Nana Roga in exchanged for hospitality."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"What kind of hospitality? On what terms?" The question is directed more to Adir than the bird. Such a request needs some very strict terms, otherwise the bird will cause no end of trouble.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"What they both said. Define hospitality, clearly. Define the length of time I'd be obliged to give it. Let's hear it clear," Adir says. "I can still walk. We can just find the old bitch ourselves. It'll be more of a pain in the ass, I'm sure, but better than being harangued into more trouble when I'm here to put an end to just that."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"No no no!" the bird squawks, flapping its wings irritably. "That isn't how it WORKS! I made an offer and then YOU make a counter offer! I offered an open ended payment of your hospitality as my price. And since you don't like that now YOU have to make a different offer. Don't you know haggling it's a fun game but it isn't ANY FUN if both aren't playing."

The bird sounds like a petulant child who just had the unspoken rules of some absurd game of make believe violated.

Honestly it is the sort of argument that Adir is probably well acquainted with.

The major difference being that this is a surreal dream world populated with capricious monsters instead of his back yard.

Tread carefully...
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"No more games," says Adir. "Answer the questions or skedaddle. If you physically can't - if you have to do it this way, because of what you are - then just skedaddle. No more bullshit."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

The bird responds by poofing up in consternation, glaring at Adir with those luminous golden eyes.

"You're no fun! No fun no fun no fun!" it caws, flaring its wings with each pair of words like a crow would whilst making regular crow noises. "You weren't any fun LAST time either I don't know why I even bothered. Well if you get lost and dead then that isn't MY fault Mister No Fun!"

And then with a flap of its wings the crow will fly away-
-to about thirty feet over there where it lands on a pumpkin-headed scarecrow's bright squashy noggin and begins picking pumpkin seeds from its eye sockets.

Our heroes have chosen to Reject the Crow's Offer of Aid.

But now they've got more things to figure out. The path meanders through the pumpkin patch, heavy mist and stalks of ripe corn obscuring vision at any great distance. The path ahead seems to split. In three, of course. Because it's always threes in this weird place. A path where the pumpkin vines grow thickest, a path where the corn rows are dense and tall, and a path where the heavy mist swirls with foreboding shapes.

"All the paths lead to the end of the Quest," Lapis helpfully points out. "The one we pick will just give different challenges."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

"It's probably for the best," Wenomir comments when the bird flies way. "Refusing to play their games is going to benefit us in the long run. And now I don't see any of those paths as better than the others."
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Adir flips the bird... the bird. He nods to Wenomir, feeling pretty much the same way. He feels like the bird's 'help' was likely to do just as much harm as good, and for yet another sticky price. He's not getting into any more binding contracts of any kind while they're down here. He glances at Lapis as he tries to select their new way forward - almost calling her by her name, on reflex. "What do you think, uh, my friend? Should I have tried hard with bird-brain over there?"

Unless one of the pair objects, Adir will start walking toward the denser pumpkin vines. Sure, their mobility might be limited or they might bring on some other danger, but it's better than the other options. Poor visibility might as well be a death sentence, especially for someone like him who's deadliest at range.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Making the bird gesture at the bird is a power play, Adir.

No way it'll ever recover from that.

As for Lapis, she looks contemplative. "It might have helped? If you had gotten a good deal out of him. Or made it worse. The line between good ideas and bad ideas here isn't very wide."

That's a pretty massive understatement for sure.

But now?

On into the densest part of the pumpkin patch.

And almost immediately our heroes run into trouble. Pumpkins begin rising above the ground, supported atop swirling masses of corn husks and sticks and wicker and ragged cloth. Considering the baleful flames they burn with and the threatening way in which they're moving they don't plan on being very nice to our heroes.

Oh.

Yeah.

Now.

With a horrible screaming sound the pumpkin patch elementals hurl themselves toward our heroes with reaching claws of cruel razor edged flint.

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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Wenomir has been alert for danger throughout this trip, every fibre of his body expecting an attack or ambush. Thus, when the pumpkin creatures attack, he doesn't waste a moment.

His axe is in his hand in a flash as he leaps towards the nearest pumpkin-creature. He tries to hack into its head with the axe, then land, dragging it downwards with him and using his momentum to smash it against the ground, splitting it into pieces. Best if these things focus on him and give Adir time to shoot.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

Adir unslings one of the long weapons from his back, a massive heap of a gun with long sheathes of metal plating accentuating what's essentially just a pair of vertically stacked tubes. The barrel of the thing gapes like a monster's mouth, far too large for any ordinary rifle, and he unleashes its voice with a single pull of the trigger. A football-sized cloud of steel shot expands towards the nearest creature to tear it apart, followed by another, and another. He'll continue putting more heavy loads of buckshot downrange as his companions presumably advance, carefully picking his targets, his barrel swinging precisely from left to right. The pumpkin patch is filled with a terrible riotous thunder, fit to challenge even the screams of monsters.

Adir will focus on covering Wenomir, both because he's better in sync with the man's movements and because Lapis apparently can't be harmed down here like they can.
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Re: The Dreamlands

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[The Way of Autumn]

There's a surreal, vague, clearly dreamlike feel to these awful things. Which makes it quite the pain in the butt to line up attacks properly. But our heroes will just have to make do, won't they?

Wenomir strikes the first pumpkin, the hulking, shambling thing with too long limbs and almost the IDEA of a pumpkin for a head. The idea bursts like a popping day-dream, only for a more coherent pumpkin laying in the ground to suddenly go hurtling through the air toward Wenomir from behind with the goal of settling on the elemental's shoulders. Shoulders that are, as it happens, a writing nest of branches and vines that seek to entangle the warrior.

Lapis, meanwhile, draws her sword as one of the pumpkins vomits a spray of flaming guts and seeds at her, to which she raises her shield and calls upon the Law of Infinite light. The flames are quenched and the force quelled as her sword blazes with brilliance. She lays down a single stroke, the light of her weapon reaching out to touch the monster and banishes most of its body, leaving only a burning pumpkin hanging in the air.

And Adir?

Well.

He shoots them a whole lot.

The spray of iron rends through the first monster, a veritable whirlwind of brown corn husks in the rough shape of a body with a bloated orange squash atop it, the holes making its 'face' lightless pits oozing black slime. Its insubstantial body is torn into, its pumpkin head splitting open and splattering muck everywhere. Where the ooze land black spiders come scurrying forth, scattering in all directions. The horrid thing does a pretty good job of exploding its innards mostly in Adir's direction.

Three of the horrors have been pretty badly maimed. And rather than rushing in to attack the remain six being... dancing? In a wide gyrating circle around our heroes.
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