Theo is doing that random method of researching with a grin. He occasionally has to slap the White Rabbits paw from turning a page.
He absently chews on the maggot.
Needs a bit of cinnamon.
Dervak sees the maggot and resists the urge to say "Hey, you gonna eat that?" - those days are past.
Then he watches Theophilus chowing down. He is somewhat confused by the hatter's comment. If I could have afforded cinnamon in those days I wouldn't have been eating maggots...
But at the mention of Leng, a bit of the old savage Dervak resurfaces.
"Denizen of Leng? And a slaver? So like the 'woman' who bought and sold me," he growls. "I will bring the Mad Poet the captain's hat with the slaver's severed head still inside it."
When Mara discovered that the next book she needed to read was written in Necril, she stopped and meditated for a while, praying to her father for help in reading the language of ghouls. Then she resumed her research for another hour, before calling it a day.
Kat massages her temple as she tries to wrangle all this madness. She knew that Lowls was in deep with some nasty eldritch forces, but slavers from Leng? Damn. And she has a sneaking suspicion that this is just the beginning.
The ritual is completed and you step down through the portal that leads impossibly through the floor of the ship.
You yawn as everyone wakes up in their hammock. Morning light seeps in through the cracks in the door highlighting motes of dust that drift lazily in the air. Wiping the sleep from your eyes you realize that you must have slept through the night without remembering what transpired after you completed the ritual.
Mara woke up and got out of her hammock, feeling slightly disoriented. What happened with the ritual? She walked over to the door and opened it, looking out on to the deck of the ship.
Theophilus sits up. He stretches. Looking at the rest of the group, he smiles.
Nice nap!
Dervak looks around for the Vorpal Scimitar, thinking he might still be in the Dreamlands.
Rowan notices that Skywin is acting strangely, she is gazing off in the horizon and tilting her head as if trying to hear something. Normally boisterous, loud, and quick to engage her passengers and crew she barely acknowledges anyone at all.
Theo (as he usually does once he wakes) starts fishing. The waters are unusually clear and teem with iridescent fish. They are unusually crafty and easily eat any bait Theo uses without being hooked. Slowly it dawns on Theo that he’s never seen, heard, nor read anything about these fish. Not necessarily unusual but Theo knows a lot about fish,
Mara looks to the bank of the river and sees a herd of flabby waddling quadrupeds drinking. They vaguely resemble elephants with short trunks and small ears. Seeing the boat approach they quickly flee into a nearby forest. Mara is certain these creatures are not native to the Inner Sea region.
Kat observes the swaying contours of the Sellen river. They turn at odd unfamiliar angles. At first she thinks that they have gone down an incorrect tributary but as more sleepiness is chased from her mind it dawns on her that she doesn’t recognize the river they sail at all.
Dervak sees no evidence of the vorpal scimitar on his person or stored in the passenger berth. Undeterred he finds a chest he doesn’t recognize near the fore of the ship, opening it he finds what he seeks: A rusty scimitar and a clear emerald, the items from the dreamlands that were gained searching the Caravanserai.
Everyone catches sight of a ship pursuing the Sellen Starling just over a quarter mile behind you. The hull is dark and its red sails seem to be drenched in blood rather than merely red cloth. Mara can just make out the nameplate on its prow, Bloodwind.
As everyone starts to rush to prepare for boarding Skywin’s head snaps back and lets loose a terrifying howl. Her form shifts into a hulking shadow twisting from moment to moment; shapes of jagged hooks, grasping hands, and writhing tentacles. Around you the dream version of the Sellen Starling takes a darker more frightening cast. Shadows become impenetrable hiding places for things that lurk out of sight, the familiar sights of the ship change ominously, and the comforting faces of the crew and your companions become masks for monstrous sadistic enemies.
The parts of Theo’s brain that don’t deal with screaming in abject terror recognize that the creature is an outsider native to the Dreamlands called a feargaunt. Beings that invade a dreamer’s nightmares potentially killing the dreamer. Theo knows it can cause fear in creatures that are near it and that it is incorporeal.
Theophilus smiles at the Tricksy fish. The gentleman barely suppresses a sigh, as their captain transforms into a fear monster.
We should have gone to Tahiti. I have heard that it's a magical place.
The Witch begins a full round cast, using Rowan as cover.
Theo knows it’s just the monster altering his perceptions but he can’t help but shake in terror at the sight of it.
The nightmare reaches through Rowan and into Theo’s head caressing the mad hatter’s brain. It pulls back it’s appendages which have changed into hooks; fishing out the hatter’s kind thoughts.
The Mad Hatter plops down onto the deck. He weeps.
Dervak draws his falchion (move), rages (free, taking the bonus to Strength), uses Arcane Strike (swift), and casts Bladed Dash (standard) - a bard spell granted by his archetype.
A multi-hued cascade of Dervaks shimmer along the path as the warrior moves past Kat and through the demon's reach (no AOO). Dervak strikes with his sword.
Mara's eyes turned pitch black and her color drained; a stream of sparkling stardust flowed towards the nightmare creature, surrounding it. Then she stepped back from the corner.
Dervak slices the nightmare made flesh and dark flecks of ectoplasm spray through the air. Tinges of fear edge around his controlled anger filling him with thoughts of retreat. The light created Mara is consumed by the feargaunt; this terrifies her.
Kat quickly downs an extract and settles into her fighting stance before moving the threaten the monstrosity with her longspear.
The sinking fear of not knowing what happened to Marianna springs to the front of Kat's mind distracting her.
Rowan enters boar style.
Rowan's strikes don't penetrate the darkness that surrounds the creature and it laughs at him with a distant warbled laugh. Even still Rowan steels his soul for the fight.
Theo still sees the thoughts leaking from his mind.
Theophilus plays on the ground drawing sketches of brains peeking out of a hat...He lazily takes out a wand, taping himself.
Theo heals himself and no longer feels his thoughts leaving him.
The shadowy outsider reaches into Dervak's throat causing uncontrollable spasms and fishes out something light blue and insubstantial. Dervak's voice suddenly feels smaller without reducing his volume in any way.
Mara couldn't figure out anything really useful to do where she was, so she moved back around the cabin structure, until she could see Kat and Dervak. Then she concentrated, speeding up the flow of time for them and herself.
Kat pays close attention to the creature's movements, looking for patterns in its movements and places it may be vulnerable. She has difficulty pinpointing weakspots in its hazy form.
Dervak recalls tactics for fighting spirits (move action to use Barroom Brawler to pick up Ghostslayer), then casts a spell (Bladed Dash).
He again flashes through space, making a single attack at any point in his movement (in this case, his starting space).
Dervak's voice continues to leave him as he makes his fighting retreat while Kat disrupts the form of the creature.
Rowan manages to grab onto the creature with his two magical fists and tear its flesh away.
The Bloodwind with its blood red sails looms behind you closing rapidly. It is about 750 feet away.
Theophilus walks behind Dervak and he tap, tap, tapping on ...his shoulder.
Rowan sees the creature take on a vague horrible shape, one that is terrifying for him to behold. He shakes off the visage, wise to its tricks.
Mara healed Dervak and pulled out a potion, stepping towards Kat. "Do you want a potion, Dervak?"
Kat continues her assault on the feargaunt, now able to take full advantage of her increased speed and unobstructed by Dervak. She calls back to the others.
"We got this! Heal up."
Dervak notices the approaching ship and casts Longarm.
Theo peeks over the railing to see the fast approaching ship. The Witch does some quick calculations, before figuring out the most opportune moment.
I will summon Killa Croc once they are 40' away!
Kat again bumps up some unseen force diverting her spear away from feargaunt. Rowan pulls more and more ectoplasm away from it. The creature stares menacingly into Rowan’s eyes and he is overcome with abject terror. The ship is now 500ft away.
"Kat, give me some room!"
Mara moved back to Dervak, drawing a magic rod, and cast a spell on him, imploring, "Mommy, give Dervak some orcish courage!"
Keeping her focus on the monster. Kat throws up a casual two fingered salute to let Dervak know she’s going along with his play. She lunges at the monstrosity twice, then takes a step back to make room for Dervak.
Thinking that that pirate ship is slow, the Witch Evil Eye Hex the ugly, writhing monstrosity (DC 18 -2 attacks).
Dervak gives Mara a quizzical look. "Orc courage? Really?"
He shakes his head and moves in to attack, his elongated arms swinging the sword.
Kat and Dervak smack the creature again and it stops moving. It slowly falls into the boat unmoving and unconscious. When you look away out of the corner of your eye you swear you still see it moving to attack. But when you look again it's fallen through the boat and washed away by the otherworldly river.
At the same time as his companions attack Rowan jumps overboard, fleeing. He swims to shore and starts running as fast as he can away.
The Bloodwind makes its approach; on the deck are eight figures. Six look like human warriors clad in half-place and wielding wicked halberds. Another is a simple dark mass with two pin pricks of light, eyes. Finally a man wearing loose fitting clothing from head to toe, topped with a captain's tricorn.
"Rowan, come back!", Mara called out, as her friend swam away. With the pirate ship approaching, she turned her attention to the immediate threat. She moved to Dervak and intoned a prayer.
"I'm going to blast them with fear when they board us — leave me a clear shot!", she advised her allies.
Theo starts a full round cast.
After toughening Dervak's skin, Mara hurried to the starboard side, near the bow. "You don't want be be standing next to the starboard gunwale," she told her friends, and prepared to cast a spell when the enemy boarded the Sellen Starling.
Dervak moves up next to Mara and casts Shield.
He stays in Rage and is ready to make use of his Combat Reflexes.
Kat moves up and drinks Shield and Barkskin extracts. She grins as she feels the adrenaline hitting her. It's been a long time since she's gotten to have a good fight, and she can already feel herself loosening up. Nothing like a little fight against dream monsters to get the blood flowing. Well, metaphorical mental blood. She'd have to read more on how that stuff actually works.
With Dervak's second round, he draws and drinks a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (which should be back the next time he returns to the Dreamlands?)
The ship beneath the blood-red sails is made of dark, gnarled wood. Open hatches provide a view of the rowing benches below. These benches bear manacles at every seat but are currently empty. When it catches the dream version of the Sellen Starling the boarding planks deploy themselves. There is also a conspicuous lack of sailing crew, but you don’t have time to ponder why.
Mara unleashes a cone of fear onto the deck of the Bloodwind, all but three of the mercenaries decked in half-plate drop their halberds and flee below deck. Captain Vadrack and the black cloud also remain, safely out of the area of effect.
The mass of black energy behind the mercenaries is some sort of incorporeal undead but no one can place an exact kind.
The captain pulls out a thin piece of obsidian and intones a word of power. A bead of white hot fire shoots past you to the port side of the ship and explodes in a torrent of fire. While the party survives the Starling's sails and parts of her deck have caught fire.
Theo begins another full round cast.
"Mara, can you either douse the flames or send me across?"
Mara figured that fighting the enemy had to take precedence over fighting the fire, so she concentrated, opening up a rift in dreamspace and teleporting Dervak to the enemy ship.