Tristain takes a moment to examine the area with Detect Magic, looking for dream loot before escaping to the much less awful real waking world.
Concentration
"Okay, you have the skull, right? Because I don't want to go back there," Vanyan asks, feeling the cold pull of the ghoul grave up on him still.
* * *
Spellcraft - ID golden rod for next visit to dreamland
Kyffin checks for the skull and hands over anything else that may have made the trip.
"Boy I don't like that place. Can't even count on the undead to be reliable." he shakes his head, glad they're free of it for now.
"Tristain, what else do we need to get in that god forsaken place?"
Albert gets the heck out of the ghoulish dreamland.
Awaking
"So it does work. That was quite an experience. What compelled you all to go there?"
"We had to get this skull. It is, uh, complicated.” Kyffin begins, looking too Tristain to explain further. ”Tristain has been doing research.”
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It takes Tenebrynn a few steadying breaths before she's able to wrench herself from the Dreamlands and wake once more beside the others. "Ugh. I'm beginning to think there really isn't any place nice at all in there." She turns to Al with wide eyes then and adds, "And you really surprised me, Al. I thought for sure you weren't even going to give those ghouls a chance to talk." She then scoots over to Jasno and pats him on the shoulder. "We have to go on like four more trips for weird objects still too." She takes a breath as she tries to think of how to explain things succinctly. "We used to be bad people who worked for a worse man. He did something to us that stole a lot of our memories, we're pretty sure he's up to no good, so we're chasing him to both stop him and get our memories back." She pauses to give Jasno a few moments to wrap his mind around that much at least. "We followed his trail to the Dreamlands, found that a part of personality broke off and is still there, and it knows who Lowls, that's the man's name, it knows who he sought out in the Dreamlands. We need to gather a bunch of weird gifts for that thing in the hopes we can we an audience with it so we can try to get it to give us our memories back."
She huffs, not realizing until after the fact how many words that would actually take to try and explain.
Waking HP: 67/75
Dreamlands HP: 67/75
Nonlethal: 5
AC: 17 (14 T / 12 FF) // 25% miss chance for ranged attacks
Fort: +11 // Ref: +9 // Will: +3 (+2 vs illusion)
Burn Accrued: 5/8
SLAs: dancing lights [ ], ghost sound [ ], prestidigitation [ ], speak with animals [ ]
Ongoing Effects:
Warden of Nature: +1 to hit/+2 dodge bonus vs aberrations, oozes, vermin
Foe of the Strange: +1 to saves vs aberrations, -10 to confusion results
Point Blank Shot: +1/+1
Haste: +1 to hit, +1 reflex, +30ft movement speed
Elemental overflow: +x to hit, +2x damage, and visual effects on person as long as burn is present (x = current burn)
Ability Score increases (+2): Dex, Con
I can still feel my body..
Jasno shakes his head, trying to clear his mind or shake the feeling. "So that place. Can it have that kind of.. hold on anyone? How many times have you all gone in? Eyes widening as he looks at those around him.
What have they seen?
"Well said Tenebrynn." Kyffin begins before turning to Jasno, "'Been there a few times, and each time it taxes the very soul. A dangerous place that's for sure, and not one we take going to lightly. But we must follow the path we're on if we're to find salvation."
As you fill in your newest companion on the dangers of the Dreamlands, you also resume your usual routine, several more days passing as Tristain investigates more possible destinations in the books.
He follows-up on Tristain's notes about the feline tail, confirming that felines with blue and purple tails are called pards, and they can be found in the Dreamlands’ Enchanted Wood. In addition, one of Lowls’s diaries indicates his intent to seek the advice of zoogs, a race of intelligent rodent-like creatures native to the Enchanted Wood. Zoogs are carnivores and particularly enjoy feline flesh; Lowls assumed the zoogs would know where to find pards.
Further, he starts looking into the green stone idol, learning the water lizard referenced is no mere animal—it is a representation of Bokrug, one of the unimaginably powerful Great Old Ones. A horrid treatise collating rumors of the Great Old Ones asserts that Bokrug lives in a vast, unnamed lake in the Dreamlands. A race of alien creatures founded the city of Ib on the shores of the lake and worshiped Bokrug there. An idol of green stone was central to their rites. A quasi-historical dissertation relates how Ib was destroyed by proud and warlike humans disgusted by the aliens’ bizarre rites and unusual physiognomy. The victorious humans were from a city called Sarnath. After destroying Ib, the folk of Sarnath carried away a strange green idol and housed it in one of their temples. The idol disappeared from the temple soon thereafter.
He's also sure he could use the Dreamlands ritual to get you to either Sarnath or the Enchanted Wood.
"What a path to find yourselves on. I can't quite say if it sounds preferable to religious zealots, but at the least it seems like there might at least be a chance of survival. I'll see what I can do in terms of working on becoming a bit more of a help if you all will still have me?"
Tristain smiles as Tenebrynn explains to Jasno what they are all doing. She does it well and keeps him from having to go through all the unpleasant facts himself if he was going the talking.
”Ayep, Jasno, and we have to find a few more objects. More weird things from different fragments of dream reality,” Tristain continues. ”I can’t imagine any of them will be any better than that last one.”
Tristain yawns, almost as if he’s not sure if he has slept or not. He doesn’t know if dream sleep is the same as sleep or waking.
”Well, I’ll do some more research and try to find our next landing spot.”
Tristain will explain the above, but probably not want to go back until the next sleep cycle at best.
He shrugs as Jasno seems uneasy, for who can blame him after what he's already seen? "It isn't an easy road that's for sure, but you are still welcome of course."
As a few days have passed, Kyffin is willing to head out on another Dreamland Adventure® when Tristain lists their options. "I say we try the Enchanted Wood first. Might kill two birds with one stone there if we're lucky and can manage it."
"Enchanted woods seems a good start. Them dreamlands folk are tough and we may need a little more skill before going to a dream city where people ain't afraid of war".
"Zoogs and pards? I don't know what either of those things are, but they can't be as bad as something called a 'great old one'." The little gnome shakes her head at the thought of having to tussle with something that sounds so terrible. "I sure hope this poet we're trying to find appreciates these crazy gifts!"
She then turns to Jasno and shrugs, "Don't feel bad, Jasno. I've been on these trips a couple times now and all I did on this last one was keep blasting myself into floating somersaults. And I don't know if the Dreamlands are actually better than being stuffed in the hold of a slaver's ship, but whether it is or isn't, we still really appreciate your willingness to help us."
"They sound strange that's for sure. Somersaults seem a bit better than making like a statue." Pretends to be a statue.
”Okay, fine. The pards it is,” Tristain agrees, both with Kyffin, but moreso with Tenebrynn. ”Yeah, Jasno, I’m not sure that if you don’t wake up screaming from the Dreamlands, I’m not sure you’re doing it right.” Tristain stares wide eyed at the thought of going back. ”Besides, sleep paralysis is a real thing. You just can move in your sleep...makes sense it would happen there.”
”But we can try for the zoogs tomorrow night. I’m sure it will all be fine.”
You activate the ritual, feeling the now familiar pain doing so entails , and find yourself on what appears to be a wide, flat branch of an enormous tree. Smaller branches end in sprays of wide, sturdy leaves and connect to the branches of other trees throughout this arboreal landscape.
The ground seems distant far beneath you, while the immense trees reach yet further upward, extending smaller branches and ordinary-sized leaves. The sun shines down, making it easy to see all around, though shadows pool where the canopy far above blocks the light.
Jasno looks up for secure places to climb the branches, whispering. He is unable to resist the urge to scale the enormous tree.
"It's like a sea of green. I bet these make for great climbing."
Kyffin watches Jasno climb like a monkey, "Careful up there, not all of us can follow so easily, ant it's a long fall."
He looks around, asking Tristain, "So where to?"
”We’re looking for Pards and Zoogs, of course,” Tristain says, but really doesn’t have any real sense of what that means. ”Uhm, I’m not sure which direction to go, but uh...maybe that way?”
From the tree, having climbed about 10 feet up.
"Maybe I should have found out if either of those things live in the trees before I started climbing."
Tenebrynn zips around the branches, curling in tight corkscrews above and below them as she looks about. She observes cheerily, ”This place is much nicer than that creepy necropolis! Maybe this trip won’t be so bad!”
As you look around, however, you notice several creatures -- skittish amalgams of beast parts with luminous eyes, a rat's tail, simian appendages, and tendrils extending from a mole-like nose -- peeking out cautiously at you.
Tristain looks around, noting the creatures who seem skittish. What the creatures don't know is that Tristain is a master of being skittish, and freezes in place, ready to flee.
"Hey there, little beasts." Albert coos at the creatures and extends a hand slowly for them to sniff if inclined. "What are you things, never seen nothing like you before?"
Kyffin waits to see how Albert handles the creatures before making further suggestions. Maybe they're friendly? Knowing they're in the dreamland, he carefully grasps the hilt of his scimitar, though he does not yet draw it.
"I hope he knows what he's doing."
"Hello," one says, the others poised to flee at any wrong move. "You do not look like you are from here. Who are you and why are you here?"
Tristain untenses just a little bit as Al creates an opening to talk. Tristain is pleased when the critters speak.
”Yeah, we’re not from around here. And we’re sorry to find ourselves in your tree, but this is where our dreams lead us,” Tristain remarks. ”I’m Tristain, that’s Al, and that’s Kyffin, and that’s Tenebrynn and that’s Jasno.”
Tristain examines the creatures.
Jasno carefully climbs down the tree hoping his action minimizes whatever threat he and the others might pose to the creatures.
Kyffin tries a smile as he's introduced, though it's a poor one. Still, he lessens his grip on his blade and does begin to relax a little. He's further pleased that at least some of the team can move about this canopy easily.
"We're, uh, looking for pards. Might you be able to guide us in the right direction?" he waits to see how helpful they might be in their quest.
"Ayep, all that was true, strange as it sounds. We're here in our dreams looking for a pard tail, then we can wake up and leave your dream world and you in peace, and maybe with a bit of pard to munch on, how's that sound? You folks know where any pards are at?"
At Tristain's introduction, Tenebrynn halts her flight and turns to regard the zoogs, waving cheerily as she does so. "Hello!"
Eyes -- and Jasno realizes there are maybe dozens of them -- follow the dwarf as he descends again, while the one more assertive zoog continues to talk.
"Oh, those sound like pards," it says. "There used to be some on the forest floor, but we killed and ate them several weeks ago. They were delicious!"
Its eyes roll back as it relives for a moment the apparent feast, mouth tendrils quivering.
"We do still have some bones tails, though -- they're pretty. I could give you one if you find us some new cat to eat."
He tells you several tigers hunt a higher, sunnier portion of the Enchanted Woods’ canopy. If you return with a freshly killed tiger to the zoogs, they are willing to trade it for the pard tail.
Concerned about the number of them..
"These tigers must be something else to elude a group of your size."
"Yes, they are dangerous, but they usually stay out of our trees!" the zoog admits.
”Do you know why they’ve come into your trees now?”
”Is there a good way to climb the trees outside, of, uh, you know, climbing?” Tristain asks, hoping for an escalator or elevator or dumb waiter or something.
Jasno considers how he might help others climb while awaiting the creature's reply.
Kyffin nods, Now we're hunting tigers in the jungle of our dreams.
He tries to clear his head and look for a safe way down, assuming their new allies don't have a way.
"Right, a dream tiger for a magical tail, you rat folks got yourselves a bargain." Albert considers the dream climb to the sunny canopy of the enchanted woods.
The zoogs explain that the tigers are a few miles to east, and you can probably walk along the tree boughs to get there.
That said, they suggest you try getting zoog legs and arms; climbing the trees isn't really that hard for them.
As this is a dreamscape from which the party can escape somewhat easily, and a place they can return to, Tristain goes off in the direction offered by the zoogs. Sadly, he doesn't have the ability to grow tails or arms, which really was an oversight on his part.
Tenebrynn shrugs as her question is seemingly overlooked by the zoogs and she floats nearer to the group. ”I guess we go that way then? I hope these zoogs prove more trustworthy than Wilkins and his group.”
When the group is ready, Tenebrynn takes point, twisting and corkscrewing around the branches and boughs as the others slowly make their way eastward. Additionally, gentle eddies of breezy gusts work to keep the group’s scent close and from spreading.
Kyffin picks his way carefully through the branches of the tree, wishing he was on solid ground. Still, with time, he settles into a routine and walks along with the others. "Tigers huh? They're probably really nasty, with big sharp teeth, so everyone be on your guard. Nothing in this Dreamscape has been easy." he adds.
"So it sounds like we can walk for a bit and figure out the climb when it's time. I'll leave the tigers to you." Jasno looks to Kyffin with a smile.
Albert sets off through the trees with the rest of the party. "These are some mighty big trees for us to be walking in them, might be some mighty big tigers waiting for us."
You set off in the indicated direction, the trees surprisingly wide enough to easily accommodate you. The leaves and branches in this section of the forest canopy are open to the deep blue sky above and are bathed in bright sunlight.
You suddenly notice something strange off to your right -- a man, who is bound, gagged, and staked to a leaf with wide thorns. You can just hear him try to scream though he seems to stay very still, but before you can react, Kyffin and Tristain feel stabbing pains, and Al hears something scrape off his armor!
You see a couple flashes of daggers as they emerge bloody, but they disappear a second later, leaving no hint as to who or what is attacking you.
[spoiler=Mechanics]