The sylph families sit enraptured by Abnaki's tale, and are helpless to resist their great relief at his reassurances. They are ready to follow your orders to rid themselves of this creature, and ask whether they should sleep in the same quarters, or separately, to best support your efforts, and so on.
The children repeat Abnaki's earlier alliteration in a singson verse, tiring themselves out for bedtime.
"Qizz (stay) awake and (watch) for trouble?"
Qizz can stay awake and watch over us, but there's no way I'm staying behind. I've been fighting my own nightmares for years.
Gabe enters into a deep meditation, focusing on himself, his image, his ki, ensuring he knows what and who he is. Centering himself so he is able to control his emotions and erect a kind of mental armor. This is made a bit easier as he can literally create mental armor in the waking world.
Samen has no particular ritual that he performs, but he intentionally relaxes more than usual. He lets his mental guard down just a little more than normal to invite the nightmarish assault he's expecting.
Nothing so crude as an assault-- instead, all of you are outside a shadowy maze of grays and blacks. You feel certain your foe lies within.
A familiar voice - "Eh birds, knew ye would come this way sooner or later. Can't tell iffit's soon or late though - 's the trouble with dreams, wouldn't ye say?"
An unfamiliar face - a sylph with beak and feather crawls out from a spot near the dark, undulating walls. He is chained. The bird-like features do him no favors - they seem more like deformities than enhancements.
Osna Ghosthand, still kickin' around in the land of Dreams.
The chains are coming your way, undulating like snakes. You don't detect any malice from Osna - he seems to be disoriented.
Friends (are) very asleep. Kallik-friend (is gone). For now. Everyone (seems) safe. Qizz (stays) awake.
"Osna! Delightful to see you again. Let's see if we can do something about those chains."
Samen will cast chains of perdition to tangle up and hopefully neutralize the other chains, and in a sort of dream logic, cancel them out.
Kallik nods at Samen's choice of spells. For good measure, she tries to scare away the damn shadowy stuff, to bolster Samen's attack.
Osna watches in slack-beaked amazement as you quickly banish the chains with spell and glower. He tries to stand up, but his legs cramp - it is obvious that he has been chained to the ground for a very long time. "Shite, that hurts. Okay. Are you--oww, damn it--are you real? I've had this stupid 'rescue me' sequence about a hunerd times, and it gets real old, bird."
"You seem different, though. Weird as cac, but maybe real? Please?"
Gabe moves to assist the crow to stand. "We're a real as anything can be. 'Real' seems to mean less and less the more progress we make against Moon though."
"Hello again old friend. Let's get you to a safer part of these lands, yes? Perhaps my domain?"