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Through blood and pain, Fearless and Pinkie force their minds to break free from the Dreamlands, escaping as the city of Sarnath falls around them and is swept away by flood.
The Watchmen wake within their cabin in the Sellen Starling, but any sense of being safe fails to return for some time. The beast that destroyed Sarnath haunts their already troubled minds, and it is hard to shake the feeling of dread and despair that lingers even across the boundary of worlds. For the Mariner, who vividly recalls his dismemberment and subsequent consumption, the effects are more pronounced, as if part of his dreaming mind will forever remain in the belly of the Beast, slowly digested, forever.
The door to the cabin thumps open, and Skywin stands in the threshold with a steaming bowl of stew with rice and chunks of blood sausage. ”Ah, thought I heard you stirring. Who’s hungry?”
Fearless lies there, still shaking, blood covering his face where he smashed it into the wall. "We are getting close and closer to not making it back from that Dream Realm..." He sits up quickly. "Did anyone grab the idol!?"
He looks over at Skywin, munching on her breakfast. "Oh, hey!" He feels like she just walked in on a private, sacred moment and is quite embarrassed at how they all must look.
Cats slaps Pinkie again, worried about the man’s delay in waking up.
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Hmmmm. These quests for items are getting more and more dangerous. An Old One. That's about as "top of the disaster list" as I think I can get.
I'm glad everyone escaped with their minds in tact.
Brother says that, but looks with penetrating gazes at each of them to see if they really did survive the experience.
"Im up Im up......." pinkie shiver as he remembers the pain it took to bring himself out of that cursed place "i never thought i would say this but i miss that evil ship."
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Fearless laughs clapping Pinkie on the shoulder as he stands up. "That's the spirit, and this isn't even over yet. The worst is yet to come." Fearless gets real serious as he kneels down eye to eye with the prone Pinkie. He moves in close whispering quietly. "You haven't seen the Shapeshifter naked yet..."
With that Fearless stands up and rushes back to his room, grabbing a sausage from Skywin on the way back to the books. "Three items left. Need to research."
Cats declines from slapping Pinkie a third time now that the man seems to be awake, if stuttering. With relief, he finally takes notice of food and moves in.
”Oh man! Do you have any tuna and catmeal, holding the catmeal?” Cats takes what is offered and sits again, looking to eat in peace. ”So, you have the idol, right, Cattie?”
Pinkie checks himself and does not find the idol.
"Well I had it somewhere" he continues checking pockets and under everything he can think of "maybe the cook picked it up"
You hear Fearless' voice call back from the other room. "Don't worry 'bout it Pinkie. That stuff stays in the Dream Realm."
Cats looks at Pinkie, a big piece of blood sausage in his mouth.
"Listen here, Cattie, it's kind of important. Like Catless says, if you had it in your dream, you have it in the Dreamcats. Do you recall having it before you woke up? It's important." Cats chomps on breakfast, again wishing that Skywin brought sardines and oatmeal, hold the oatmeal.
The Mariner wakes up in a pool of sweat, hands reflexively gripping the sword that lay at his side and bolts upright screaming and swinging. His clothes is soaking wet, breathing with heavy pants as if still in a rage. The colossal teeth still eating him for a few moments until losing the grip on the pommel sends the broadsword into the wall.
Wide eyed, he looks around at the cabin and the Watchmen.
Pinkie stops searching and to listening to Cats
"What the heck last time I came back from there I kept that captains sword"
he waves around the scimitar
" But I remember when I jumped I had .....no i didn't trip......I did so jump....Well falling is how i got out of there last time...what do you mean the ship threw me off?"
shaking his head he says " yea I'm pretty sure I had it"
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Jasper spends his time with a couple different paintings. The first is of himself on a coin of the realm..
His depiction reflects just how self centered and egocentric he is. Jasper's vanity and cocksuredness is in full view.
He starts to work on the back of the coin-- but leaves that incomplete. Instead switching to a different painting.
A scene, with all of the Watchmen sitting at an oak table in a posh room. Brother Butterfly lounging comfortably at the head of the table. Along the sides are Mariner and Skywin to the Left. Pinkie and Cats to the right. The Green idol that they recently claimed in the middle of the table. Two playing cards show themselves face up. Cards forgotten these past couple months. They are Tarot Cards of different styles but the same value – .The Foreign Trader. . The final Watchman, Fearless is in the background, with servant livery and a sterling silver tray balanced on his hand. An unusual headpiece rests on Fearless's head, and his eyes have this vacant stare like he has been charmed.
Drawn in the far right corner, almost blending with the drapes is a creepy person holding a gem..
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Pinkie looks over Brother Bs new painting "I always knew you considered me your right hand man....it is so what it means....what is the last supper.....well it sounds like some kinda doomed meal..... will you all just shut up and let me be happy about something for a change....im sorry whos being rude?
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Jasper confirms that Pinkie caught the iconography and symbolism.
Yes. Yes. Right hand man. Exactly.
He then lowers his voice. Puts his finger to his lips.
Shhhh. Fearless doesn't need to see this. It'll be a fun secret.
Brother certainly plans for Fearless to end up seeing this.But he always takes it *just* the way BB wants him too, if he happens upon the paintings.
" yea I'm pretty sure I had it"
"Ah yeah, good good, cattily good," Cats says. "What's next? I mean, besides creepy paintings? Don't we get enough of that in our dreams?" Cats has never really understood art (unless it was of the nudie variety) and most of Brother's symbolism is lost on Kast.
Settling down over bowls of stew, the Watchmen try their best to find their way back what passes for normal in their world. Brother Butterfly paints away his fears, Pinkie chats with himself, Cats enjoys a meal, and Fearless unpacks more of Lowl’s research and notes to decipher clues to the remaining gifts you need to collect.
For The Mariner, normal seems to be slipping further away. He looks into the bowl passed to him and his mind can’t help but see his own entrails sliding down a dark gullet.
Over the next few days Fearless unravels the mysteries of the heartstone...
Lowls sought the heartstone of a specific hag—an ambassador and soul-trader named Quaveandra.
All night hags carry a heartstone—a special gemstone worth at least a couple thousand gold that is worn as a periapt. A heartstone's magic is fueled by the hag's spirit and proximity—once separated from its owner (or upon the hag's death), a heartstone retains its magic for a limited time before becoming a nonmagical gem again. The heartstone instantly cures any disease contracted by the holder. In addition, a heartstone provides a +2 resistance bonus on all saving throws. A night hag that loses this charm can no longer use etherealness or soul bind until it finds a replacement gemstone.
Lowls learned that Quaveandra’s heartstone retains its magic for 1 month out of her possession, rather than 1 day. A register of extraplanar diplomats lists Quaveandra as an ambassador to the city of Dylath-Leen, a grim city of basalt and one of the Dreamlands’ most notorious havens for vice. According to a diary brimming with spiteful rumors, Quaveandra has an unnecessarily large retinue of retainers and an insufferably manner - Fearless suspects Quaveandra may have been the same hag the Watchmen saw in a vision at the Caravansary.
Eventually Fearless learn the proper phrase to use with the Dreamlands excursion occult ritual to reach the ambassador in Dylath-Leen.
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Pinkie grabs some food from the ships stores and settles into a corner of the room and asks.
"So I've called a few people hags in the past but what exactly is a night hag?
As he continues stuffing his mouth full
" i mean is this another snatch and grab and what the heck is a peripat anyway i need smaller priced words"
" and oh yea do i not have to jump off something high to get out of that place"
"And oh yea do you all have stuff waiting for you over there to use and do you have anything i can use to stick people? Prefer some shortswordy thing."
"And oh yea how many times we gotta go back to that place"
"and oh yea....well i just ....hey....better that i ask stuff....what do you mean ....oh maybe your right this time....no i wont say it again...just shush and let mme handle this."
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Fearless shuts the books. "Sounds like we go back in two more times Pinkie." He rubs his tired eyes. "A peripat is like an amulet of sorts."
Fearless goes one to explain what little he knows of night hags. "It has been a few days. Should we go back in while we are tired now?" He slowly gathers the necessary supplies for the ritual. As he does he notices a new painting resting in the corner. It makes him stop in his tracks for a moment as the he looks at the tray balanced on his head. He shakes his own head too tired to deal with it. His arm reaching out to point at it as he yells at noone in particular. "It doesn't even make sense! Who would want to charm me!?!?!?"
"That's it, I am finding another Doomsayer. Next port we go to. Or maybe I will just gather all of his bald children shapeshifters around the world." Fearless mumbles to himself as he sets the ritual up.
Cats doesn’t have any words to answer Pinkie, he knows little other than what he can learn from the pictures in the books.
”Twice more, eh Catless?” Cats looks at Fearless. ”If that’s what we have to do, that’s what we’ll do, but not sure anything is going to be worse or harder than that dream god we just saw. That was horrible, even though I easily brushed off it’s evil aura.”
Cats will be ready to go back to the Dreamlands on the next night, after a long day of catnaps.
Pinkie climbs under one of the bunks to get some rest before they head back to the place of dreams muttering to himself.
From under the bunk he says
"Brother B you should let your imagination go and paint what you thinks gonna happen there. Maybe get some divine inspiration.....shhh....why cant it work that way gods can do anything they want......well they put you in my head.....no i still haven't figured out why....well its mostly a curse for me."
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[quoote=Pinkie] From under the bunk he says....
A large, empty jug with large XX's on it rolls from Jasper's sleeping grasp. It teeters and totters a bit along the bed rail, finally falling off the top bunk where BB is laying.
NNNNNmmmmmm. HuhheleleeAs the jug falls, the lantern hanging a lantern hook swings with the motion of the ship. Connecting with the jug, knocking it off it's descending course just enough to make it land of Pinkie's bunk. The fact that the jug lands on a soft bunk instead of a hard wooden floor must be Desna's intervention, preserving it's "ceramic" life just a little longer.
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The Sellen Starling continues down the river. From his usual perch in what has become known as the “Cats Nest” Cats watches the landscape float past. The forests of Kyonin give way to rocky ridges of the Five Kings Mountains on the right while the lands of Galt slip slowly by on the left.
Fearless continues his research. Lowls notes are making more sense over time, but every step forward seems like a step closer to dark mysteries no sane being would wish to know. His mind struggles with the knowledge, too much of which feels familiar, though he cannot be sure that what he feels is born from old memory or delusion.
From the darkness underneath a table Pinkie’s voices talk in circles. Without the boy’s physical presence the voices are more distinct, and one could almost imagine the multiple participants engaged in dialogue.
Across the cabin the Mariner lies wrapped in blankets, swinging gently in a hammock, his eyes staring at patterns of wood on the ceiling... underneath the blankets, cut into his arm near the others is a new name - “Mariner.” He doesn’t recall how it got there, or if he did it himself.
Brother Butterfly dozes with a wine bottle pillow... he finds himself standing on the deck of the Starling in the last light of dusk. Drifting in the downriver current, the ship passes a large white rock protruding from the water to the East. Looking down, Jasper finds a butterfly upon his hand, wings slowly opening and closing. Suddenly it lifts from his hand and flutters off, dancing toward the shore where a tall stand trees rises against a sky almost lost to night. Within the trees a soft light begins to glow.
***
“Woodsedge ho!” One of the sailors bellows from the bow of the ship.
Along the eastern shore of the Sellen a sprawling city comes into view.
The home of one of the fathers of the revolution, Darl Jubannich (who wrote the damning book On Government that helped start the Red Revolution), Woodsedge has always served as the traditional home for dissident thought and radical philosophies in Galt. Even with the country in its current state, nothing has changed. No matter who is currently in power, one can almost guarantee that the opposition to them will begin in Woodsedge, and any visitor is almost certain to find some sort of dissident movement afoot.
Woodsedge is a destination for disgraced senators, ousted nobles, and simple outlaws that would not be tolerated in other Galtan cities
Cats seems very eager to stretch his sea lake legs, happy to go into town to shop and gawk and eat food.
”Yeah, lets go for a stroll. What can go wrong? When you think about it, we’re probably totally cat here,” Cats mentions while rousting the party into action.
Fearless shrugs. "May as well incite another cult or riot. We seem to be good at that each port we stop at."
Eyeing the city Pinkie starts pacing the deck of the ship half the time looking excited and other times looking terrified all tthe wwhile muttering to himself;
"Yes I remember....We dont need to go over it...yes dress plainly.....I know I know crowds are our friend....right nothing big...i know you already said that dont stand out.....i know i screwd up... yes search the ship next time before it dumps you into the ocean."
As the others come up on deck Pinkie moevs over to Cats and whispers in an odd but familiar voice much to deep to come from the yout.
"Care to make it a game? I'm betting on the boy these days"
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::creak::
::creak::
The Mariner lays listless and weightless in the hemp hammock.
(soundtrack for his second Dreamlands death}
::creak::
::creak::
Wrapped in a blanket like a bulbous cocoon, he squirms slightly. Inside the grimy burlap chrysalis, his mind corded tight like anchor lines around the bulkhead spindle.
::creak::
::creak::
He rolls off the suspension at the sound of the port call, and head out the cabin.
"creak…"
"creak…"
While they wait to dock and enter town Fearless dumps the bag out to begin sorting. "Claim what you want, the rest will be sold."
He holds up a magical longsword and tries to identify its properties.
Then an item catches Fearless' eye. Fearless grabs Red Destiny and smiles as he walks over to Pinkie, handing him the weapon. "You left this behind."
Cats smiles as Pinkie is reunited with is lost destiny, the sword.
”C’mon, I want to see what they have for sale in town. Might buy me a cat or two.” Cats begins to stroll into town, looking for the marketplace to buy and sell loot.
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Brother Butterfly grabs the medical notes and the artwork from LLewelyn.
I'm going to go around to different places and see who would be interested in this. THe medical notes - I'll see if there's a university here. The art-- I'll snipe a nobel and sucker him into buying them for more than they are worth.
Also, Fearles,s you should do something with this nameplate. I think it's be kinda cool for you to summon The Book of Nights or something.
Anyway I appear to be the best qualified to have this vestment. Pretty good deal.
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Digging out some old loot from the bottom of a bag of holding, Fearless is able to identify the following items.
a +1 longsword that sheds pale purple light equivalent to a light spell.
These are called Confabulation Plates
brass-colored metal plates have rubber edges and screws
at each corner used to tighten the plates like a clamp. In
the center of the top plate is a fleshy tube that ends in
a suction cup ringed with tiny teeth. Next to the base of
the tube is a small winding key that powers the device
and a toggle switch that selects the device’s function
(dead or plants).
To use the confabulation plates on a dead entity, the
user must clamp the plates around part of the subject’s
body and attach the tube to the subject’s bare skin. Then
the user has to crank the winding key for 1 minute.
Once this is complete, the user can ask the corpse two
questions, and the response emits from the device in a
metallic, buzzing tone. This effect is identical to speak
with dead.
If the device is selected to be able to communicate
with plants and clamped onto a plant, the user can
communicate freely with the subject for 5 minutes as the
spell speak with plants.
Confabulation plates can be used once per day.
The Watchmen head into Woodsedge. Brother Butterfly rolls out, ready to paint the town (or at least pee in a few alleys after a good pub crawl). The Mariner shuffles along, following like a zombie going through the motions of life. Reunited with Red Destiny, Pinkie joins Cats and Fearless as they seek out merchants to bargain with.
As days go, this was a good one. Perhaps the best in memory. The food and drink was delicious. The merchants well supplied and only a little greedy. No one gets lucky with the ladies, but no one tried to kill anyone either.
PERCEPTION
That night you dream of your day in Woodsedge, replaying a time late in the day as you are weaving among trader's stalls in the merchant's district. The moment seems like a memory, but you notice a strange occurrence that you don't recall happening in town. A gust of wind passes by, and in it's wake you notice a handful of what seemed like playing cards swirling on the ground. Before you can move closer for a better look they are carried off by the wind and vanish into the crowds of shoppers. Then a familiar voice whispers in your ear...
"Still hanging around these idiots?" Says a familiar voice you haven't heard since Briarstone Asylym. A voice that belongs to the Twin.
"Trusting them will get you killed." He whispers.
You awaken, the dream fresh in your mind.
That night you dream of your day in Woodsedge, replaying a time late in the day as you are weaving among trader's stalls in the merchant's district. The moment seems like a memory, but you notice a strange occurrence that you don't recall happening in town. A gust of wind passes by, and in it's wake you notice a handful of what seemed like Harrow cards swirling on the ground. Before you can move closer for a better look they are carried off by the wind and vanish into the crowds of shoppers. You give chase for a few steps, then stop at the sound of indistinct whispers...
You awaken, the dream fresh in your mind.
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Cats holds out his hands, wondering when there is going to be coin in them.
"Like do I have 10,000 to spend? More, less? C'mon, lets sell all the things we don't cat," Cats says, just a bit of whining. He's not good at math, or adding, but can horsetrade pretty well and talk a good game, but he's not much for figuring things out. "No, I don't think I need them concatluious plates, nah, not for me."
Cats will help sort and sell all the unneeded loots.
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I must remind those that contributions to Desna are always appreciated. I'm going to be placing a sizable contribution to the local Desnian church here to promote The Great Travelers good works in the local region.
So, anything that the rest of you want to toss Desna's way will be placed on their contribution box.
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"Well I need a little of everything but was gonna live off the land so to speak.
The Mariner flips a ragged cowl over his head as he begins to feel Woodsedge scrutinizing him.
Have I been here before?
Why is that sod looking at me?
Who are you?
Are we enemies?
Why am I on this wall?
Where's Buttercup?!
He quickly blinks the psychotic miasma away and focuses on the drink and food, and pretending to enjoy shopping for goods with Butterfly. "Oh yea, that's great. Looks good on you. No, it doesn't make you look fat."
he also has crowd control that allows him to move freely threw crowds with no move penalty
also if he is with others he when he picks something he will drop it into one of their pockets if he can and ask for it later if he can.
and if he needs to he will use controlled rage and evverything goes up by 2
Pinkie pilfers his way through town, lifting all sorts of little goodies. Over the course of the next few days his companions discover odd trinkets stashed in their pockets, though they can’t recall buying them.
The Mariner looks upon the piles of gold that's worth several kings of ransom. Never imagined he would be close to such riches in ten lifetimes. Though from waking at Briarstone and witnessing all the horrors, real and imagined, the blinding metallic mountain of coins felt as intangible the dreams of late.
When no one is looking, he takes out the three pieces of gold from his pocket and tosses it into the pile, fishing out two coppers instead. Then pressing each with the V of his fingers onto his eyelids, he grimly smiles and drops them back into his pocket.