Mindscape Report
General Summary
The party, close to their their goal of finding Mithril castle found themselves falling though the ground into darkness. When they awoke, it was in soft beds, with food and drink nearby. A servant explained they were in Castle Mithril, and the castle was not the ruin they expected, but a fully complete castle ruled by the aging but alive Florin Greyeyes. It turned out the old Metallic knight had retired to the castle and has avoided contact with people for many years. His only companions, two faithful servant whose family had served him for generations.
The players took advantage of his hospitality but noticed that things seemed to ne a bit off. There were places in the castle they could not go "for their own safety" as parts of the castle had not been maintained over the years. Also Lord Greyeyes seemed aloof, and distant. The character also saw images of a strange woman beckoning them, and they began to suffer painful spell, like heart attacks.
After some investigating they managed to find the woman, who explained that she was a Dryad, and that they were all trapped in a dream, created by some creature who was feeding off the lifeforce of their sleeping forms. Following her instructions, the party found a way out of the dream and into the dream world. There they had to look for their captor's dream and enter it and defeat him. They almost made it when they got trapped in a nother dream. That of a young boy.
The young boy, was having a nightmare in which The Krampus, a Fey creature, kidnapped his friend, and he had to find and rescue him. They encountered a friendly man named Kringle who gave them flying reindeer mounts to travel to the island of broken toys where they would find the Krampus. Once on the island, then encountered an evil Alchemist/tinkerer who was creating monstrosities out of the toys on the island. The fought him and his army of mismatched toys, and saved the rest of th toys on the island from being transformed.
They then has to travel to an old Witch's hovel to find the location of Krampus. When they found her, in the middle of taking a Milk bath to retain her silky skin, she sent her gingerbread golem after them, as she was an ally of the Krampus and has often received "Snacks" for his victims. The party battled the Golem, whose stinging and burning Spice Breath weapon almost did them in, but then one of them, struck the tub, the witch lied in, and spilled the milk on the floor, instantly dissolving the cookie golem. The witch, knowing defeat gave them the Krampus' location.
The found the creature in cave with several kidnapped children. They defeated the monster with the help of a trinket provided by Kringle, and saved the children, allowing the boy to wake from his dream, freeing the party.
The party, back in the dream word sought out their own captor's dream, and battled through to face the dreamer. He turned out to be a Rakshasa Tiefling Psychic with powerful abilities to harm the mind. His two companions, ghast, that also fought on his behalf. The players were able to overcome him, freeing themselves from his dream and killing him in the process. Once freed they found the Dryad, who's tree was the very Sword tree they were looking for. With her help, they obtained the leaf needed for entrance into the Elven Lands.
Porting back to Hilston, they planned on using their new ship to Travel south through the river, to the elven lands avoiding the Vemoraxx, but the ship lacked a crew. They turned to their old companion Cantatus, former Pirate, but they found that while they were away, Cantatus, in an effort to help the cause and disrupt the Vemoraxx had taken up with a Pirate. The pirate had discovered some Past indiscretion of their friend, and they had somehow made him disappear.
Crissius is sure that the Cantatus is alive, as he is still inked to the Order, but where he is is unknown, so the party has decided to search for and free their former companion.