Nightmares and Nudity

The last couple of days were difficult.
We were tasked with retrieving some ritual objects yesterday that required us to go out hunting outside of the city. Anchor Root had an interesting conversation about "lucky bones" and the powers of fate. If she wasn't in this specific place, I would guess she hadn't internalised the devastating powers she could apparently wield if her hypotheses about fates affects on the living are accurate. But she is probably just being humble. If it occurred to *me* what power like that could do intentionally, given what accidents can cause, then Anchor Root is certainly at least aware. I suspect she must, at least in part, be here to explore those powers in more depth. Her talk was interesting, fate is probably an idea we should be paying heed to.
 
Interesting as that was, the day began to sharply decline once we left the city bounds. We were attacked by an infectios and sentient mushroom and I distinctly recall annoyance at how innefectual I had been at actually wounding the creature, or protecting my allies. The spores afflicted all except Malnar with some strange disease, and I believe now that if we did not have access to the Magaambyas healers, we would have died within days. As it was I got..very sick... the fever burned my skin and made my head swim. Focusing my thoughts became difficult, and I became irritable. My memories of the trip back are...hazy.. I yelled at one point, about Illiara? and then we were back. Ruin didn't want to stay in bed I think...did i promise a duel...or was that today? I remember meeting someone who I think was teasing me for putting a towel on "naked for nethys" I remember hearing. I don't think there was any sexual or mocking subtext to it, certainly when she walked in on me naked later she didn't comment, so it seems like it might just be how she is...I think i might have found her amusing if i was in a better mood but as it was, I had little enough time for her, especially after her little joke about demons. Looking back, I wish I had gotten angrier than I did about that. She wasn't a foreigner and my people's struggles with Usaro are hardly a secret... But perhaps that memory is being coloured by my nightmare...
 
I dreamt I was a child, In the demon prison. Trips to the prison at a young age weren't entirely uncommon. Initial combat training begins young and seeing the enemy beforehand in a controlled environment can help steel the nerves, but this was different. I dreamt of walking alone into the deeper passages, places my father would take me alone because the trainees weren't allowed. My father did not accompany me in the dream, though. Even that stern face would have been welcome...but I was alone. The tunnels seemed less ordered than in my memory, at first seeming to be hewn from crude stone, then gradually growing warmer, softer...wetter. Until i could swear that each step I took I was being swallowed by some monstrous throat. The creatures in the cells, if they even were cells, were no longer chained as they would have been. Lumbering from the shadowed walls were almost all threats specific to Usaro: many not technically fiends Charau-ka, Girallons, Anghazani... and Giant ape creatures with horrid mouths where there hearts should be whose names I do not know.... Other things, less describable called from those depths... they didn't rage or beat at the walls as i might have thought. I have a deep and unsettling thought that they were beckoning to me... I don't think I was in the prison anymore...
 
The next day I woke I was mostly recovered, and if it hadn't been for the dreams, I'd say I was feeling my old self again. I was (and am) still feeling a bit less diplomatic than usual, but I feel a bit more put together. I can focus again. So i was able to participate in my own way with the ritual we performed to banish the Pugwampis. The escaped creature fled the sound of the resultant bell. And like that, it seemed the task was done. But our recovery had slowed us and we must begin the next task immediately. As soon as i jot these words down, I'm going to head to it.