Master Filament is struck by the deeply nightmarish images overflowing from the dragon. Sights and sounds of his previous students in terrible agony, each one struck down by an unseen assailant while he's unable to help them. Master Filament turns to bolt...
As he does so, Antares sends a volley of magical force bolts at the nightmare dragon, followed by Breq landing a slice with her knife and Xenal impaling the center of its body with her pike!
A shudder runs through its body, the vibration traveling up through the pike and into Xenal's arms. The dragon freezes. The whispers lose coherency. It speaks out with a neutral, grinding voice. "I am only a reflection. A pale imitation of the true Kanavu. Know that by destroying me, you have earned an enemy. One that knows you. One that will haunt your dreams. Forev-" Its words are interrupted by the shadows that make up its muzzle fragmenting and dissolving into a thousand tiny streams of smoke.
Before long, all that's left in the room is a smoky haze, and even that fades away to nothing. The dragon is no more.
---
With the dragon gone, you notice that the dais it was standing on is covered in wriggling inscriptions that match the strange diagrams on the sandstone tablet fragments you retrieved earlier. Additionally, the dais has a clear depression, sized and shaped to accept the completed tablet.
You set the tablet in its appropriate resting place. Behind you, the violet force fields surrounding the central chamber dissolve and vanish.
Your team descends down the central stairs, heading deeper into the mausoleum. As you walk, your step becomes lighter. Positive feelings begin to well up within you. The sandstone walls around gain a clarity, a purpose, a sense of 'rightness'. You continue to descend, and begin to see flowers blooming along the surface of the sandstone. Forget-me-nots, lilacs, hyacinths, their petals opening as you approach and closing as you walk past.
You lose track of time. A sea of blue, violet and green greets you as you approach and waves farewell as you leave, only to be replaced by yet more colors. A sense of serenity accompanies you as you wander.
Breq, Master Filament and Savoy manage to rouse themselves from the pleasant dream at about the same time. They clear their eyes and find the group standing at the bottom of the set of sandstone stairs, flowers nowhere to be found. Instead, a short narrow hallway ahead ends with a sandstone pedestal atop which an urn rests. Floating above the urn is a shimmering pink bubble giving off a soft warm light.
|
The last words of the nightmare dragon linger in the android's thoughts for only a short while. When the force field vanishes, allowing them to descend deeper still, Antares is surprised to see flowers of all kinds opening up as she passes. The place has an idyllic beauty that is both strange and wonderful, and soon she is entirely lost in a sense of peace that she has never known...
The three that managed to snap out of the dream take out the Bubble containment device and unscrew it. A whizzing sound emits from the device as you point it towards the Bubble. The Bubble wavers and then rushes towards you. It spins around the entrance to the containment device, and like a star being drawn into a black hole, it is slowly siphoned away. Once its completely contained, the remaining members of the party snap out of their dreams.
----
The swim back out to the Loreseeker is in some ways even harder than the way in. In some sections you have to swim against the current, anchoring yourselves against the walls of under-'water' tunnels to take brief rests. By the time you emerge back out on the surface of the moon, you're all deathly tired and your armor's life-support is rapidly diminishing.
You rush through the ice-storm and get dragged around by the wind and methane snow. But by working together to keep people from being blown off course entirely, you make your victorious return to the Loreseeker!
----
Back on Absalom Station, and with the icy experience on Preahan already seeming a distant memory (or distant dream, perhaps), you arrive to the Communion Vaults. A blocky, hexagonal structure sitting on the Lorespire Complex's campus, you notice that its outer surface sports the exact same kinds of violet runes that you saw deep within the moon. Venture Captain Arvin meets you at the entrance and waves you into the Vault with an excited grin.
"You found one, didn't you? A Somnium Bubble! Let's see if Whisperer of Solar Winds accepts it."
You pass through heavy, lead-lined doors, tugged open by novice Starfinder recruits not yet initiated into being full agents. The chambers within are labyrinthine, sporting architecture strangely reminiscent of the sandstone mausoleum. In a quiet nook in the back of the Vaults, a luminescent yellow creature drifts freely within a haze of pink mist. Arvin holds a hand out to stop you all from approaching.
"This is Whisperer of Solar Winds. Careful to not disturb them." He gestures for you to present the Bubble.
When you open the containment chamber, the Bubble slowly drifts outwards, bringing with it a wave of pleasant flowery scents. Whisperer of Solar Winds expands and contracts, and with a sudden wind, it *inhales* the Bubble.
A wave of warm, happy thoughts emits from the Dreamer. And you hear within your minds, a burbling "Thank you, Starfinders. Not only have you brought this aspect of my kin to us, but you saved it from a horrible fate. Your efforts will be remembered, and dreamed of among us."