Chapter 1, Session 1: The 'Heroes' Meet

General Summary

GOD DAMMIT! I don't have TIME for this! I came here to complete business and not get stuck in a FUCKING dream!

• Esmerae rages on the group discovering what had happened to them.

Bright and silver, she dances in the sky,

Twisting pirouettes, spins and notes,

They looked on, ever asking why?

The question and the mother left to dote.

A dream so bright but a woman begs and pleads,

A pound of crimson, a pound of flesh,

The price of curiosity, expensive as a crown, everyday waking afresh

Begging, crying, dreaming, too many fell deeds.

A fall at a cliffside,

A fire in a house,

The silver chains of hunters,

Cats hunting a mouse.

Kaechaek watches, the kings hours are few

Nightmares bring their terror

Dreams cause error

And the cycle begins anew.

A scream pierced the roads of Kaechaek as a halfling woman was being chased by 5 Spores and a Quori Hunter. The party, split and scattered for now, decided to approach this threat and help this woman, all emerging at different points. Hermione, the tiefling wizard, appeared first and immediately this halfling ran towards her, desperate to be saved despite Hermione's reluctance. Moments later, Fionn, a mature spook emerged to assist Hermione and engage these creature with his silver spear. Soon after, a spellcaster hidden assisted the party, who soon was revealed to be Peregrine, a famed acrobat and they were later joined by a pale woman named Esmerae who seemed to also wield strange blood magic and were travelling with a gold dragonborn who was DEEPLY enthusiastic named Auriel. Finally, a final individual joined the fight, a thin and emaciated human called Mallus who immediately recognised Fionn as a Spook and gravitated towards him during the fight to assist. The party easily dispatched the spores and the hunter within a few rounds and without taking any significant damage, after they dispatched the spores, the Quori Hunter remarked on how strong and talented the group were and that they would see them again after reporting to an individual named 'Dark-Sky Nyx'. Upon the creature vanishing in a mist, Tiana reappeared and thanked the party profusely for their help before offering them boarding and meals in her tavern as recompense... The party spent some time introducing themselves on the way to the tavern and getting to know one another, Esmerae clearly had a degree of care for Auriel as their travelling companion whom Esmerae fondly describe as a 'pet' whilst Hermione, upon recognising Peregrine, lost her mind and revealed herself to be a fan of Cirque Arcadia when they were performing in Garnet and that they specifically were amazed by watching Peregrine perform. At this time Mallus also introduced himself to Fionn and asked for their help in dealing with a nightmare that was haunting them constantly... Fionn agreed that they would chat that night about the nightmare in more specific detail. Soon after, the party arrived at a small hamlet that was quiet and near empty, the tavern was the centrepiece of the town and the party entered to find it was entirely empty and eerily quiet. Though their concerns were soon assuaged when Tiana brought out plate after plate of steaming delicious food and drink before explaining to the party that the town desperately needed help from the creature known as Dark-Sky Nyx and that they were a dragon summoning quori and nocta mori to haunt the town. During this explanation Fionn periodically felt cold chills throughout and questioned how a dragon would summon quori and nocta mori to haunt a village. The party were reluctant upon hearing that the threat was a dragon but were tempted when they learned there was a 10,000gp reward in any currency for killing the dragon. Despite Hermione and Fionn wondering how Tiana would have that much money and why they were paying gold and not traditional Kaechaek bartering currency. The party agreed to look for some more information the next day as night was coming in and Tiana explained there were only two other individuals in this hamlet left and that Tiana didn't like them as they 'talked together often and held hands in public which is rude for everyone else' but the party agreed to talk to them the next day as they may know more about this dream dragon. That night Fionn stayed with Mallus in a room whilst Auriel spent some time with Esmerae to assist them with an issue whilst Hermione and Peregrine enjoyed a relaxed nights sleep. Fionn and Mallus talked to one another as Mallus described a nightmare that has led to him simply not sleeping for years on end, in the nightmare, Mallus finds himself swimming towards the now destroyed mists of Thornden but, as he approaches them, an inky tendril reaches out and grasps his ankle, dragging him thrashing and screaming to drown... and then he wakes up. This same nightmare happens every time Mallus sleeps but, to Fionn's surprise, Mallus claims they had never ever caused a realisation and also claimed they had not slept in possibly years, they rarely needed to eat and they did not even need to breathe, leading to Fionn claiming they had seen similar things before. Mallus then explained that they had an item on their person that they always carried, a pearl that they claimed caused them to have the same nightmare each night but that, when they didn't carry it, seemed to give them the same nightmares anyway. They also revealed their dream trinket were magical tattoos on their body, when they were 'awake' their tattoos reflected key events from their dreams, an inky tentacle and rushing waves, however, when dreaming, their tattoo revealed key events from their waking life, a pair of black syringes and hazy faces. As Mallus went to show Fionn the waves and tendrils, their tattoos were revealed to actually be the syringes and faces, leaving them panicked and questioning if they were awake as they spoke, though Fionn took the time to calm them down and promised to stay the night to make sure they were safe, at which point he slept in the bed whilst Mallus sat in a nearby chair and just stared in silence into the middle distance. That night, the party had to make constitution saves and some of them failed, causing them to take a point of exhaustion.
The next morning the party gathered, with many of them completing their morning routines including Esmerae closing all curtains around them and Peregrine completing a gymnastic routine of flips and walking on their hands. However, when they reached the ground floor Tiana was nowhere to be seen for the time being and, when Peregrine tried to use message, they could not reach her either. Peregrine checked their Dream Trinkets and realised that the message had changed. The party had found themselves inside a shared dream!
The group immediately tried to piece things together and, as Esmerae raged about the frustration of this dream, the group realised the dream started with them on the road the previous day and, looking back, many things they'd looked back on now made no sense as Peregrine's most recent memory was being with the Circus troupe and not on their own travelling by foot, Fionn remembered walking and being struck on the back of the head and Hermione remembered being on a coach journey, not alone on foot.
Mallus began to panic at this point and stated the group must flood the room with light, leading Peregrine to make their horns glow and making Mallus stay close to them at all times for the light. Hermione grabbed ahold of Fionn and looked through the eyes of her meerbat familiar to scout the area, seeing a couple fishing in the distance and Tiana tending to a farm and collecting vegetables in a basket.
Peregrine then attempted to use a strange necklace from around their neck but it did not seem to yield any results, in frustration Peregrine explained it was a necklace they were trying to discover a purpose for. Hermione identified it but was confused by it's strange purpose and abilities as well as being unnerved by the fact the necklace could only be attuned to by Peregrine, they began to argue about the item as Fionn felt another rush of cold and immediately left the tavern with urgency. Upon leaving they almost ran directly into Tiana with her basket. The rest of the party followed and apologised as they revealed to Tiana that they were in a dream and the halfling immediately became distressed.
Fionn moved away from Tiana and, pulling on his skills as a spook, realised the cold sensation was coming from her. He pulled out his staff and asked her why he felt that and, as the halfling panicked and became more distressed, Peregrine and Hermione went to comfort her but, in that moment, Fionn stated that she was lying and stabbed her in the chest with his bladed spear.
The room was silently shocked for a moment before Tiana looked up and dropped their disguise, revealing the black robes of The Unwaking Coven and sharpened teeth smattered with blood and looked up at Fionn declaring 'you should have kept dreaming!' as the Quori Hunter reappeared to face the 

Report Date

30 Aug 2022