"Well, since we do our adventuring at night so I haven't prepared my spells yet...we could try to remove this curse."Winter nods at Garrosh.
At the end of her prayers, Winter is perspiring heavily. "I tried..the curse is too deep."
You have a sudden urge to jump into the waters of the Sellen River to clean of the feeling of tentacles slamming into you in the dream. Why would you want to do that in the first place?
"It was worth the effort Winter..." - Garrosh nods grimly - "I guess there is not much more we can do but rest for now - then we will bypass that monster. We should not risk any further delays"
Piotr instinctively reaches out with his magic and tries to help the symptoms since he can't with the cure.
The day passes uneventfully as the party goes back to sleep with Winter having an extra long prayer session to Pharasma that she will be able to help Rose the next day.
You have a sudden urge to jump into the waters of the Sellen River to clean of the feeling of tentacles slamming into you in the dream. Why would you want to do that in the first place?
In the night, Rose slips into a coma...
The shopkeeper comes for you again this night to drain your life force. This time as he inhales your essence, you find yourself somewhere else...
You find yourself in a spacious, round room has a vaulted ceiling barely visible through a haze of blue smoke. Soft round couches cover the floor along with several golden braziers, ornate hookahs, and small tables.The curved wall is pierced by curtained archways leading to small private chambers.
A hag with an elaborately coiffed hair and a curvaceous form draped in expensive fabrics seems to be overseeing her tiefling servants peddle drugs to humanoids of different races. The hag seems to strike you as somewhat familiar for some reason...
Winter tries the next morning to purge the curse on a comatose Rose, succeeding on the first try.
Then Winter casts a healing spell to restore Rose's mental faculties.
"Welcome back."Winter tells Rose the moment she wakes up.
Rose’s hair is a tangled mess, her face is almost as pale as her lips, and the redness around her eyes is not the usual abundance of make up (so it would seem), but natural shadow. She clings to the suture vine in her lap as if she has no idea what else to do with her hands.
“Thank you, Winter,” she practically stammers. Her mind is fully restored, yet Rose is not the same confident woman that she always has been in her waking hours. She is frail, withered …and not wearing pink.
She says, “The shopkeeper came into my dream… and he…” Rose finishes her story questioning, “Is that what those men were doing at Iris Hill? Inhaling memories… or …life essence? What is the travesty with some people?!”
She looks as if about to have a nervous breakdown.
Once Rose had communed with Violet Tiff suggested, "Let's hurtle our consciousnesses into a subjective reality!"
The day passes uneventfully and during the night, Violet attempts the Ritual again.
As Violet touches the staircase, it shrinks in her hands. Violet begins the ritual...
"We, The Seekers, are bound by a common purpose - the thirst for knowledge." Tiff chants.
She then passes the miniature ivory and horn staircase to Winter, and the staircase suddenly grows bigger and Winter runs her fingers down the 70 steps.
"We have gathered this very night in order to open the gate to the Dreamlands."
Winter passes the miniature ivory and horn staircase to Garrosh,who grabs the staircase in his palm.
"For beyond lies the knowledge we seek."
Garrosh passes the ivory and horn staircase to Rose, who takes the staircase.
"Let the portal open between this world and the Dreamlands."
Rose drops the stairs case in the center of the ring made by the party, the staircase sinks into the ship deck, expanding to the size of a normal staircase and leads downwards into darkness...
Rose’s hair is a tangled mess, her face is almost as pale as her lips, and the redness around her eyes is not the usual abundance of make up (so it would seem), but natural shadow. She clings to the suture vine in her lap as if she has no idea what else to do with her hands.
“Thank you, Winter,” she practically stammers. Her mind is fully restored, yet Rose is not the same confident woman that she always has been in her waking hours. She is frail, withered …and not wearing pink.
She says, “The shopkeeper came into my dream… and he…” Rose finishes her story questioning, “Is that what those men were doing at Iris Hill? Inhaling memories… or …life essence? What is the travesty with some people?!”
She looks as if about to have a nervous breakdown.
"I think that might have been a manifestation of the curse that you were under?" Winter opines. "Or could it be a vision of the future?"
"I think the people at Iris Hill were doing drugs and sacrificing townsfolk for some nefarious purposes." Winter answers.
The party takes turns to touch the staircase, sending their sleeping minds to the Dreamlands.
The heat shimmers in the distance, creating an air of unsettling illusion when looking towards the horizon. The only structure in sight is a partially ruined limestone caravanserai. The place looks like it has been abandoned for years.
"Tiff, perhaps one of your summoned creatures can distract that monstrosity, and then we can run past?" - Garrosh ponders - "Or if some sort of magical barrier is created around it, to replace that curtain, it cannot see us?"
Piotr does some poking around and does find a door leading to the other side, in the other direction.
The door into this room stands ajar, wedged open by a ledger that tumbled to the ground from within the room. On the short stretch of wall just north of this room, a secret door connects to a storage room in the courtyard. A steep staircase heads up
Tiff makes her preparations once they get close to the Caravanserai, casting a bevy of spells from her own power and from the scrolls that only temporarily cease to exist in the Dreamlands. She grows a pair of wings, thick lion-like fur on her lower half, and gains a full foot and a half of height. Tiff and the multiple illusory copies of her answer Garrosh, ”Bob and company will happily serve as a distraction if needed. Though now that I’m prepared I may also serve that purpose.”
Bull’s Strength, Piotr (16 minutes)
Cat’s Grace, Garrosh (8 minutes)
Enlarge Person, Rose (8 minutes)
Shield, Rose Garrosh (1 minute, reupped between encounters)
Prot vs evil, self (1 minute)
Long Arm, self (1 minute)
Monstrous Physique I to Maftet, self (8 minutes)
Shield, self (1 minute, reupped between encounters)
Barkskin, self via Blossum (30 minutes)
Heightened Awareness, self already cast (10 minutes)
Mage Armor, already cast (hours)
Ant Haul, already cast (hours)
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
4th: Beast Shape II, Summon Monster IV, Unprepared slot
Tiff glances at the ledger on the ground with some interest.
Tiff finds the writing in the ledgers utterly indecipherable. She realized that the bookkeeper was cursed so that letters and numbers would twist into illegibility as they were penned.
This tidy office is sparse but tastefully decorated. Framed paintings of landscapes from the Dreamlands hang on the walls, including a many-spired city with marble walls and brass gates (the city of Celephais); a windswept waste beneath a distant, ominous mountain (the Plateau of Leng); and a gloomy port city constructed primarily of basalt (the city of Dylath-Leen).
The party sees Count Lowls, except he is dressed in tattered yellow robes crafted from frayed caravanserai curtains. Count Lowls looks up from the desk he is studying ledgers on and greets the party. "Hello there, it's been a really long while since this Caravenserai has had visitors. How did you find your way here anyway?" Count Lowls asks.
"Oh, and I am the Yellow King. I don't know why you looking at me with murder in your eyes, but if I look like someone you know in the past, that would be because I used to be that someone, except a part of that someone split off to form me, so here I am. You wouldn't say your breakfast is a part of you, would you?"The Yellow King adds.
Rose considers murdering him. The Yellow King is arguably worse than Lowls. That whole cult follows him.
“Ah, yes, murder-eyes… in the opinions of some, the red make-up around the eyes gives a femme fatale vibe. It is the intended effect… or perhaps once was, and now the look has grown on me.
“Monsieur Yellow-king, are you aware you have a following? There are men who don yellow robes and kill and die bellowing your name? Yet you are surprised we look upon your appearance with seemingly-lethal intent, and so I wonder. What do you know of Count Lowls, and the perceptions of yourself, the Yellow King?”
Tiff looks back and forth between the murder eyes and the Yellow King.
"They do more than kill." Piotr grumbles, like a boulder rolling down a hill about to smash into someone "They ate people too."
Ann moves closer to peer at the ledgers "What are you so intent on studying?" she asks.
"I don't know what following you're talking about since I was a part of Count Lowls, until I somehow split myself from him, and ended up down here. I do not know where Count Lowls is now, but as once being part of him, I do have some information that he knew."The Yellow King answers.
Tiff thinks that Rose has mixed up her entities. There is a powerful Great Old One known as the King in Yellow, not the Yellow King. And if the entity talking to Rose now is the King in Yellow, she would likely be insane now, though how close a grip on her sanity she has to begin with could be in question.
Tiff explains what the King in Yellow, He Who Shall Not Be Named, The Unspeakable is to Rose later.
Tiff thinks for a moment, "Wait, so Lowls was here and then you split off from him like asexual plant propagation? He left a bit of his mind her and it grew into you? Fascinating! Is it a property of the ritual or the Dreamlands itself I wonder. Was there something that needed to happen to trigger it, if so what?"
Tiff breaks her questioning reverie and asks something perhaps useful, "So what was Lowls after in the Dreamlands?"
Ann moves closer, trying to read what the man is reading. "Was the split voluntary?"
"The split was voluntary from my end I'm sure, else how would I have willed myself to be a separate part of him, existing out of him? I posit the split was due to the wonderous nature of the Dreamlands itself. Afterall, the Dreamlands is a place of infinite possibilities!" The Yellow King enthuses.
The ledgers are illegible, and Tiff recognizes they are written by the same, cursed person.
"Lowls was after knowledge in the Dreamlands. What then, brought you to the Dreamlands?"The Yellow King asks.
"We come after Lowls" - Garrosh growled.
Ann seems disappointed in the ledgers, but looks up to the Yellow King and says "We have questions for him. Do you know everything he did, or did his memories go with him?"
Piotr shifts closer to Winter with his shield readied since he doesn't trust this king at all.
Rose … would likely be insane now, though how close a grip on her sanity she has to begin with could be in question.
Rose lets her guard down just enough to not look murderous. She takes in the conversation, simply listening with interest for now.
"I can only tell you what he did before we split, and all of us are quite similar in which that we're all split entities. I can feel it off you that you're also not whole."The Yellow King answers.
Violet tries to understand. “Not whole?”
She considers the Yellow King’s words and also Rose’s dream, and tries to piece the puzzle together…
Piotr frowns, looks at Ann, then looks to Violet to answer "He's talking about our memories. Garrosh, Ann, and I have holes in ours. Years where we were working for Lowes, we've been told."
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Tiff’s mind races at the revelations and the subtext, she looks back and forth between the Yellow King and Piotr. She decides some conversations are better talked about later, ”Peculiar, I don’t feel like my quiddity has been fractured. Was it the same for you? Is the realization gradual? In any case since my friends are uh… looking for your mother. What were his goals in the Dreamlands? Maybe retracing his explorations will lead to revelations about his current whereabouts.”
"I don't have a mother, I was born of my own independent desire to exist as a separate being. So poof, here I am!"The Yellow King waves his hands bombastically.
"And yes, that statement would be more applicable to some in the group," He eyes over Garrosh and Piotr.
"That being said, I do happen to have quite extensive knowledge on where Lowls went to in the Dreamlands."The Yellow King seems rather full of himself at that statement.
Winter raises an eyebrow, "Do you often deal with people like that while you were on the City Watch?"She asks Piotr conversationally.
Piotr nods but then adds "Normally they'd be reeking of alcohol, or looking broken in body and mind so we'd have to call in those kind of doctors." he frowns, as he often does.
"Do you know about our past? Our memories have been stolen" - Garrosh growls at the Yellow King - "Do you you know what were our duties, while we were employed by Lowls?"
"Well, I remember that Count Lowls brought you to see the Mad Poet, where you lost your memories. I wager you could get your memories from the Mad Poet, but he's a particularly picky individual. Fail to bring him the right gifts, he wouldn't even deign to see you." The Yellow King states.
"I don't suppose we could find that kind of doctor in the Dreamlands would we?"Winter sighs.
"Hey, you don't have to talk about me like I'm not here!"He stomps his foot like a spoilt child as he glares at Winter and Piotr.
Piotr doesn't like the glaring at Winter one bit and shifts a little to be in front of her. "Not every conversation has to be toward you." he snapped, which since the conversation was about it the Yellow King probably is correct in its rudeness, but still...
:)
Ann tries to slip in to mollify "The ledgers you are pouring over are beautiful, I cannot understand them, since I'm not as learned as you, but they are still rather interesting. Do you have recorded What gifts we would need to bring this Mad Poet in them by any chance?"
Garrosh nods in agreement with Ann's line of reasoning - "And where we might find him"
"Ahh, someone who finally understands the value of knowledge.Good gifts for the Mad Poet are scattered throughout the Dreamlands. They are rare, esoteric, and never easily gained. Lowls identified six or seven of these gifts. I recall writing them down on the flyleaf of Dichotomous Translations of Aklo Syntax, but I can’t recall what they were. Lowls painstakingly scoured his tomes to research each gift, learning where to find it in the Dreamlands and then dreaming of that location. I recommend you do likewise. Some of the gifts required trickery or guile to obtain; others, delicate negotiation or brute force. I don’t know the minimum number of gifts the Mad Poet will accept, but Lowls acquired all the gifts on his list. If you want to make do with fewer gifts, or if you have some problem acquiring them all, the Mad Poet might condescend to converse with you anyway. That’s up to you. Once you acquire sufficient gifts, return here. I’ll escort you to the Mad Poet’s oasis, and you can petition him for the answers you seek.” The Yellow King answers.
”It seems we have our path set before us” - Garrosh grunted, remembering they should have such book in their possession - ”Until we meet again” - he nodded at the man, and prepared to leave.
Violet is ready to move forward, but just to make sure, she asks, ”We can go around the creepy bathtub monster, right?”
"Avoiding him Does should like a lovely idea." Ann agrees with the brilliant little fae.
Piotr nods as well but then points to the remaining door. "What's in there?" he asks the King.
Opening the door behind the Yellow King reveals eight-foot-tall walls which enclose this rooftop, serving the caravanserai’s operators as a private balcony. It is exposed to the hot desert sun and is empty.
Piotr looks a little dejected. Sighing he says "I guess that means we need to go back and-" Ann joins in to say at the same time "Read"
While Piotr says it with a groan, Ann says it with a contented smile.
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Tiff grins at Piotr, "Don't worry I like reading, my second favorite past time. See you on the other side."
With that comment she wakes up.
Or so she would have liked, she keeps concentrating.
Tiffs face starts to become red with embarrassment.
Which quickly turns a shade of purple as she focuses harder.
A small toot is heard as a fart escapes.
Tiff gasps for air as a blood vessel beings to pulsate on her forehead.
Finally she disappears from the Dreamlands more than a full minute later.
Tiff doesn't waste any time and pillages the book supply looking for the prescribed section of the prescribed book.
Tiff looks at the flyleaf of Dichotomous Translations of Aklo Syntax and finds the following items listed:
Viscount's signet ring
Feline tail(blue and purple mottled fur)
Skull of ghoul royalty
Green stone idol of a water lizard
Nighthag ambassador's heartstone
Captain's tricone
Red webbed foot
Tiff looks at all the books the party retrieved from Lowls manor:
Elements through the Spirals of Time
Spiders of Sin and Sky
Theological Agreements of the Kingdom
Monuments of the Forest
Tigers and Flies
The Wise Harmony
The Codex of Three Prescriptions
Manual of Silence
The Unified Manual of Understanding
Atop the Valley’s Soul
The Falling Silk
In Admiration of Keeping Pacts
Festival of the Snake
The Forgotten Servants
The Illusion of the Weeping Ones
Curses of the Black Lake
Men and Vultures: Denizens of the Darkened Depths and Dead Skies
Shards of Sight
Emotions of the Past
The Shadow’s Ship
Voyage of the Rainbow Servant
Which would she want to read first?
You feel the urge to take a bath in the river again but manage to resist it.
Tiff settles on the Unified Manuel of Understanding. Skimming the contents at first for any possible mentions of their newly acquired laundry list.
Ann opens up the delightfully titles "Spiders of Sin and Sky" nestling into her brother's less than comfy bed, while he spends the time cleaning his armor and weapons.
Tiff realizes that there are references to The Codex of Three Prescriptions, Manual of Silence on more about the Royal Ghoul's skull.
Ann on the other hand, picks up the Spiders of Sin and Sky and realize that there are references to other books, Elements through the Spirals of Time and Theological Agreements of the Kingdom, with regards to the Viscount's signet ring.