The End of Dreams

For years our forefathers allowed the Wandering Prince to claim dominion to the Truthroad for the lost. Now any that waver in their destination disappear, only to be found shivering and broken. Acting as the sacred position of Justice, we set out on the Truthroad with the intent of reaching his domain, The Dreamer's Refuge. May the Goddess find us worthy.

Hyam Silonus, Justice of Mysteries - Proclamation of Sentencing - 1642 Decus of Cat -

The Beginning of the Road

Transcript start
New to the land? Listen up, I ain't going to be holding your hand while we do this. The Truthroads are the only sure way to travel in the shifting land of Rynterna, the only roads that will bring one to their intended destination. Time is a tricky thing to navigate since the roads don't really care about when or how you get there, but as long as you get there. You can stray from the road a bit, go out finding food, water or a nice place to piss, but make sure you know where you want to get to. Otherwise, things get a bit muddled, and you'll find yourself wandering.
Now they say that a Faeling got bored and started walking on the Truthroad. Eventually, he started dozing off while he walked and walked, until he found the sister ideals of Mercy and Altruism in his dreams. So he settled down, made a nice home for himself and his two new brides, and opened his door to any who are lost on the roads. Or, at least, until recently.
Transcript end.

Dem city folk dunno how te treat'em Faelings. Dey like em stories, an if dey believe in em, they follow te rules all serious like. Get real pretendin like dey dem people in stories tho, so ye gotta watch'em make sure dey dun go crazy, elsewise ye might be a toad... or worse.

Bretin Swinard, Hamlet of Forpaston - Excerpt - page 94 of "Folklore and Faeries" (local/rural beliefs and superstitions)

Wandering the Road

Transcript start
We're looking for a sign from the Church of Seres. Keep your wits about you, if you see anything abnormal, come back to the road. Do not stop moving, do not stop thinking of your destination, do not touch anything abnormal. They say when the Faeling started hurting people, that the outer edges of the roadside began becoming warped, like how in a dream you don't quite have the same logic as you do waking. If you ever see a tower of stone and steam that doesn't fit right, you hold your iron pendant and come right back here.
Transcript end.

This is the domain of the Former Prince of Dreams and Wandering.
Under the Authority of the Goddess invested in the Tetrarchs
No being of sanity and consciousness may approach.

1642 Decus of Cat

H.Silonus, K.Drysan, S.Louni, W.Borier
Edict displayed roadside, Engraved iron plate

End of the Road

Transcript start
You have sharp eyes scribe, you saved us some time. The real problem's not getting to the tower, but getting into it. Thing with Fae is that they tend to change their domain to suit their mood and personality. Looking at the structure, this one doesn't particularly feel stable now does it? How do we get past the damned steam and the rocks flying around? There's no doors or windows until the top floor, it's like a blasted fortress, just with pieces in wrong places and in wrong colors. There was sound other than the grinding and slamming of the rings? Screams? Poor sods, hopefully we'll be getting them out.
We'll climb the leaning side of the wall, and while the black granite blocks won't take our pitons, the limestone portions will, though we'll have to follow the spiral up. Watch for the rings of flying debris, we'll keep our ropes short so when it crashes back into the tower none of us falls far. Stay away from the glowing sludge sections, stay away from the steam vents and make sure you know your timings for the rocks and steam rings crashing back in. May the Goddess mercy on our souls.
Transcript end

Subject - Fae (Prince) - Former Domains: Dreams, Wandering.

• Territory - Truthroad; Aimless.
• Manipulation - Twisted Iron Crown (Madness)
• Effect - Subject loses sense of reality [expected from a Fae unbound to a tale], becomes extremely paranoid and hostile.
• Memory Manipulation - Ties;Reverse. Innate Morals;off. Auditory Stimuli;constant;pain
• Effect - Beautiful anguish, destructive properties immediately realized. Entire persona and power shifts to match the new identity.
• Hypothesis Proven - Fae are tied to not only the tales and perceptions of other consciousness, but also their own. Drastically so if they are unbound in tale.
• P.S. - Artistic deconstruction and dismembering of Ideals;Mercy,Altruism. Physical beings outside the psyche even though prior studies indicate they originated from Subject's Dreams.

Report intercepted by Justice Borier - Indication of Shattered Activity - 1642 Decus of Cat.

The Dream Starts

The top floor looks akin to a warped pavilion, sections of the internal support pillars seem to be missing or colored black. Two of them look as if they are reflections in a curved mirror, being stretched high and low in separate ways, elongated yet fully solid. I felt bubbles of anxiety in my stomach, and belched.
A doorway horizontally placed leads downstairs, yet as we step through the threshold, our sense of ceiling and floor are changed and we are traversing up the stairs. The floor below? [next floor] seems to be an impossibly massive horizon in various patchwork of dark hued colors, broken by millions of pale pillars that rise up at different heights, many of which, including the ones we are currently on, making natural stair-like formations.
We ascended, at one point leaving Darin behind as he became petrified by fear at the height, the stone slowly growing from his feet. After an indeterminate period of climbing, we saw the doors overhead, far above even the tallest pillar. The dark sky grew only darker as a blanket of uncertainty draped over our heads at the challenge above. Beside me, a scream cut through the air like a knife as Feserth was ripped in half, split by her indecision. Gripped by desperation, I took the knife, still screaming, and sliced through the fingers at my neck. It was frantic and chaotic, but we managed to quell our emotions, and standing over the corpses of our mangled comrades and moods, we ascended.

When we got to the door, we stood at the edge of a precipice. Only darkness yawned, it's never ending maw belching out hot air. We attempted a single moment of daring. Kither's hand darted out faster than the snapping jaws, scooping out a tattered notebook. We cut our losses then, shaken by the face of a being that waited to consume us, the memories of our comrades' last moments weighing heavily us. It was only outside the tower that we deemed it safe to remove them.

When a mind breaks
how sweet the clatter, sharp the char
Reality prances
fits end to sound.

Stories seldom sway
broken binding blinks
dreams die dray
worries wander wearily

Bluther and skathe
as fire bathes
Tup and heather
as green, feathers.

Dance, weather
Scance, scarper
hurting scops fent aisen klose
Dream, Wander.
Scream, Scatter.

-Hyam Silonus, former Justice of Mysteries. Excerpt - last page, "Justice Silonus' Journal" Written in green ink, the notebook looks tattered, as if scrubbed clean.

The End of Dreams

We were unsuccessful in locating the condition of the former Justices, only a notebook that details the last few months of Justice Silonus. Looking back on this now in my right state of mind, I can only say that the tales of the Wandering Prince have now devolved into something grotesque, but it is the rare exception that the truth precedes the legend. Travelers are warned to always have a destination in mind, and never stray from the path while treading it, lest the new Prince of Screams and Scattering finds you.

Narrative account by the Scribe, Alex V. Stirden. Abbot of Verdona, the Pilgrim's Pass.

1651 - Decus of Fox.

The End of Dreams is conical in shape, reaching up to 90ft at the top of the structure, upon which a pavilion style viewing area rests. Made of black granite, its exterior is only marred by the vein of limestone that reaches the entirety of the structure in a spiral pattern. The base of the tower is 60ft in diameter, tapering off to the top until it is 15ft diameter at the pavilion. While the walls of the tower is mostly smooth, one can still see the filled in remnants of doorways and windows at different heights, indicating that this may have been a 4 story structure.
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RUINED STRUCTURE
1642 - Decus of Cat

Type

Lair

Owner

Prince of Screams and Scattering