Session 35: "Where am I?" thought the Caterpillar.
General Summary
"Dreams" of a Caterpillar
The session began with a long narration. “Those of you that sleep, do, and those of you that meditate find yourself experiencing an uncomfortable level of what could only be interpreted as “dreams”. Some of you may not be sleeping, and you see some of the strangest, hardest to explain things of all. It seems like just a shimmer or a mirage, and what you see is a brief moment of sandstone as the changing environment is suddenly replaced with a blindingly bright light.” “This light is like a tunnel, surrounding each of you in this space. It strips you bare, down to your flesh, then your bones, then your mind, then just your spirit. It’s not clear that you are all sharing this vision yet and you definitely feel like you are alone at this time, though that’s not entirely true either. This initial loneliness is quickly replaced with a greeting and a realization that this light around you is capable of perceiving you. The greeting has no real “words”, though it does involve comfort, friendliness and warmth that would be carried by an old friend. The tunnel ends with darkness, not really evil or menacing darkness, just what you would expect to see at night or underground or in a dark room. If anything, the darkness is comforting and your eyes begin to adjust quickly to the now absent light. Trees, brightly colored bushes and grass, flowers of all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors surround you, and for you, DAN, all this vegetation looks incredibly delicious. Sustenance! It has been so long since a variety such as this was available, and it seems to be all yours. ” “Some of you, Kaswink and Agave, find yourselves looking down, much taller than you’ve ever been, though also just the right height. Your innumerable arms are stretched out wide with the normal amount of tiny growths stretching out into the air and rustling in the wind. It is almost time for sleep, though something new seems to have arrived in your normally quiet realm. Whatever it is looks hungry, and it might have a hunger for your particular existence.” “Some of you, Hysteria and Frode, find yourselves to be much closer to the ground. Your spindly arms reaching as high as they can with tight bristles rubbing against each other and the webs of spiders providing some limited company. You feel your lower body stretched out and connected to the earth below, and you feel a new presence nearby. A rather minuscule creature, something new for this realm though…something completely new indeed. You sense a hunger within it, not the hunger seen in the spider that lives in your arms and fingers, but a different hunger focused entirely on your stout frames.” “One of you, Namina, is a bit shorter still. Your legs bent and thick beneath a normally lithe frame though the season has provided an extra ridge of insulation. Your hands instinctively wipe your face, grooming the fur and providing just enough moisture to clean the rest of your head, brushing past tall ears and as they spring back into place you pick up on a new sound. The sound of something arriving nearby and moving with tiny legs. Not a predator… what is it?” “Lastly, one of you, DAN, finds yourself in the smallest of forms described. You are within the body of the one seeking sustenance, the one that has just arrived, the outsider perceived by the others, and the one thing currently on your tiny, many-legged mind is quite simple: Eat. You’re surrounded by so many things to eat, thankfully, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure that out.”After clearing up the feelings involved in this experience, particularly that it is "dreamlike" but that for the most part it is in the moment. DAN was this caterpillar, Namina was this rabbit and the rest of you were these plants. First, Namina decided to look for her family. Surely they must be around here somewhere in a warren or something around here. Agave tried lowering his branch-limbs to feed the caterpillar as it looked quite peckish. Frode tried shaking the spider that lived in his limbs away so that the caterpillar wouldn't get hurt, and Hysteria caused the plants around them to grow thicker with vegetation for this creature to feed on. Namina eventually also tried to interact with this caterpillar, hoping to just calmly investigate. DAN, noticing that some food was being lowered down for them from the nearby tree, decided to climb on to avoid the rabbit (Namina) as it was also approaching. They were able to eat a leaf from this tree, but the pain felt by Agave caused him to shake and remove the caterpillar from his branches. DAN fell a great distance for a caterpillar, but was cushioned by the overgrown vegetation. DAN ended up just eating some of the overgrown plants around them. This caused Hysteria to also retreat their offering as it hurt quite a bit. DAN felt dejected and began to cry as a hungry sad caterpillar. Namina offered the caterpillar a leaf as a peace offering, and DAN enjoyed half of this leaf before offering the other half back to the rabbit. Namina pushed the leaf back and hopped to the spider, and DAN decided to try to bring this leaf slowly to the rabbit as they were not giving up on giving this gift. The spider reared back and hissed at the rabbit. It was a rather large spider, and the Namina rabbit chose to try and eat the spider. She grabbed onto one of the legs successfully which caused the spider to bite back. Caterpillar DAN tried to strike the spider as well which caused it to fall backwards and break its leg off in Namina's rabbit mouth. The caterpillar eventually felt full from all the bits and pieces they had been able to get their caterpillar bits on, and the "dream" began to end. You all managed to feed this caterpillar and keep it alive, great job probably! Hint about The "Dream"
Those of you that have read Tympi's Journal may recognize what is happening in this vision...though someone seems to be missing.
Labyrinth - Door 0 - The Mimic
With the caterpillar filled, all of your visions began to fade into nothing as they were replaced with sandstone walls. "As you regain consciousness you find that you are no longer where you were in the vision or where you fell asleep, but you are surrounded by your allies. Where you are is, well, it’s quite the mystery. You’ve never been here before, that’s for sure, and the terrain doesn’t offer much in terms of an explanation beyond sandstone walls and an unusually damp floor. You’re in a long hall though, and there are doors lining the wall to your left, every 20 feet there’s a new door with burning sconces providing a small amount of light as well. To your right there is a long stretch of hall which ends in darkness as the sconces don’t seem to go forever. In front of you is a single door which seems to be at the center of this long hallway." You all discussed the strange "dream" you just had, and the topic of plant pain came up which seemed to be a bit controversial. Agave mentioned that shared "Dream" experiences seem to be rather common in this Spirit World, and the topic of your unusual new environment was avoided for some time. What are dreams, anyways? This question was pondered, and Hysteria confirmed that "We don't really dream as it is prevalent amongst my peoiple to not take stalk in dreams. They are either something outside influencing you or something inside conjuring nonsense. Given our experiences here it is more likely the former than the latter. It doesn't seem to be inherintly malicious, though something could be trying to communicate something." DAN agreed, and voiced the opinion that your presence here and your impact on nature might be causing a lot of harm and pain since the dream featured a lot of plants and nature in pain. Getting involved might be causing more problems. Bringing more people could also be causing similar problems. Agave and Hysteria were the first to bring up the subject of "Where are we?"Agave took a small look around the immediate area to see if there are any cultural markings or anything that would help explain what is going on, but it all just seemed to be solid sandstone and simple sconces. No helpful markings of any kind could be found in this area of the Labyrinth. Frode seemed concerned about the location, worried and hopeful that you are not in The Maze again. Namina suggested going into the darkness first as that tends to be a good idea. Frode, however, had different ideas and decided to open the nearest door. Frode grabbed the handle to yank it open, but found it locked and his hand stuck as if in contact with a very powerful adhesive. Hysteria told Frode to stand still as they reached for their blade. They tapped the door with the point of their dagger and experienced a similar stickiness, though they were able to pull it away with ease due to the smaller point of contact. The door definitely had something sticky on it. Namina had the brilliant idea to use alcohol and asked Agave if he had any. Agave felt this was a great idea and said so as he reached for one of his trusty bottles and began drinking it before Namina interrupted him with a stern look. Frode attempted to free himself from the door once again, and the alcohol was very helpful as he easily pulled himself free. Though, the moment that his hand left the door, a tentacle appeared from the door as if cleverly disguised and grabbed at Frode's wrist. Hysteria was quick to stab this tentacle and Frode was freed again as the fight against a door began.
The door attempted to attack and grapple Hysteria with its gross sticky tentacles, though Hysteria was too quick for it as Agave lashed out with a vine to pull the door off its hinges. He was somewhat successful, and the door split in half though it wasn't removed from its hinges. Instead it just revealed all its gross tentacles, teeth and stuff lining the half of its body that remained. The interior of the room was also now visible and it seemed to be filled to the brim with treasure which began to spill out into the hallway. DAN was next to strike and did so with aplomb. Their strikes against the door were numerous and destructive as the door was completely freed from its hinges and destroyed. It was reduced to a pile of goop and teeth, simply lying on the ground dead. The doorway was now wide open with treasure ready for the taking. Namina, feeling that this might be a trap, chose to use her control over wind to pull some of the coins and other treasure from the room while cleaning up some of the monster guts. Some of you, mostly Namina, became covered in goop and treasure which stuck to the remaining adhesive. This treasure seemed to be perfectly innocent, and some of you decided to get a closer look at it now that Namina was drenched in slime and gold. All of the treasure that was visible appeared to be incredibly well-done counterfeits with only the most minute of imperfections visible, though they were otherwise perfect duplicates of each other. Hysteria also noticed that, now that the door was open, they seemed to be actively duplicating and slowly filling the hallway. Meanwhile, Agave tried to investigate these monster guts and discerned them to be similar to a mimic. Kaswink likely harvested some adhesive.
Hysteria, hoping to bend the gold and get a closer look, decided to stab at a coin with their dagger while scooping it up. The coin instead poofed into dust before the space it was in was replaced with another duplicate. The hall continued to fill with coins. Namina took a moment to investigate again with her glowy-magic-detecting-super-eyes ability active. She discovered that all the coins slowly filling the hallway were illusions with a little bit of conjuration. Despite being illusions they still had weight and were tactile, and the conjuration was likely responsible for the constant duplication. While looking around she also found a special Coin that seemed to be of a completely different school and unusual color that was unfamiliar to her prying eyes. Agave and Hysteria helped look over the coin with her. Using context clues and magical knowledge it seemed that this coin was capable of duplicating itself by creating tangible illusions which are also capable of duplicating themselves. Every minute all the coins would duplicate to fill the space. Agave chose to store this coin in a tequila bottle to keep it from continuing to fill this hallway. You now have a decanter of endless coins. Namina again suggested going "south" into the darkness so that you guys would have a "comfy dark space".
Labyrinth - Door 1S-2S - The Mouth and the Inn
Heading into the darkness was agreed upon, and another door was quickly seen. Most of you were suspicious of this door, but the curiosity was something too hard to ignore. Frode agreed to try opening with a spear and found the door to be far less sticky than the previous, however, it appeared to be locked. Hysteria swiftly picked the lock, it was rather basic and easy to pick. On the other side of the door was as big mouth! It had several tongues and rows of scary teeth, but no other facial features and no signs of any room. Preparations were made to open the door and attack immediately to vanquish this unusual creature. Most of the prepared attacks happened without a problem, though the mouth was also prepared as its door was recently opened then closed. While you all were attacking it demonstrated an ability to spit projectiles like arrows and bolts back at you, it had a powerful roar that caused fear in some of you, and it bit down on Frode when he tried to attack with his spear. Thankfully, Frode was not swallowed as Kaswink pried the mouth back open. Otherwise, the monster was defeated rather quickly, and as it fell to the last attack the walls around you shook and became slightly less opaque. Hysteria suggested climbing inside the mouth to see what's inside and where it goes, but this idea was vetoed almost immediately.Moving on from the Monster Mouth Door (the monster mouth), you came upon yet another door. This hallway is lousy with doors! This door had a lot less lighting available as it was getting farther from the lit sconces. Hysteria chose to open this door and discovered an inn, the Labyrinnth Door as it were. This door led to an area with five beds and a partition hiding three hammocks. Namina was very disappointed at the lack of anything aquatic for her to rest. Meanwhile, Hysteria didn't see any valuables and decided to run down the hall to a different door.
Labyrinth - Door 3S - Infinite Suffering
Further down the hallway from the inn was yet another door. This one was completely shrouded in darkness as the sconces from much further down the hall did not reach it at all. The door here was made of glass and, as Hysteria observed, had the words "INFINITE SUFFERING" written in bold, dripping, bloody letters. Beyond the glass was just darkness. They quickly asked Namina to examine it with her special eyes and it was revealed to not be magical. Hysteria then decided to open the door. They found themselves suddenly outside. Wherever they were was sandy, rocky, with cliffs visible in the distance that were made up of striated rock. It was nighttime wherever this was, and a massive wall was just behind them which seemed to be made of sandstone much like wherever they just were. Based on descriptions found in the journal, it could be assumed that they were in the Badlands, and that this wall and the hallway they were in belonged to the same Labyrinth The Writer found himself in. Hysteria thought quickly and decided to reach out to Namina using magic. The spell involved had a limited range of a hundred feet or so which means that Namina must be somewhere nearby as she was able to hear them and reply. They next investigated the wall by tapping their dagger on it, though Namina (or anyone else) was unable to hear the tapping. Looking around outside, Hysteria saw what could've been a mirage as a nearby cacti started wriggling in an unusual way.Inside, Namina was acting erratically, shouting for Hysteria to respond and moving about. Some concern was expressed, but only mildly so, but Namina explained that Hysteria is likely in trouble on the other side of the Door of Infinite Suffering. Agave chose to investigate this door and saw the same glass door, infinite suffering in bloody letters, and beyond the glass was just solid black darkness. His plan of attack was to light a bonfire on the otherside of this door. When he did, he was unable to see the bonfire on the otherside but knew that it was a successful spell. He next tried to damage the door by releasing some thunderous blast from his little rat hands. The thunder caused the glass to crack and a small piece of glass to fall to the ground. Namina then decided to summon a wave of water to crash through the door, continuing on with Agave's "destroy it" method. The wave damaged the door greatly, it was hanging on by a single hinge with most of the glass now missing as the immense pressure caused the small hole that had formed from Agave's attempt to provide enough weakness to leave it devastated. As the glass shattered and fell into the room it appeared outside next to Hysteria. Namina then kicked at the last hinge, destroying the door and stepping into the space beyond. She then appeared outside next to Hysteria.
Outside, Namina and Hysteria discussed the unusual plant life around them as they were mostly unfamiliar with it. They had seen Agave create such plants, but they were otherwise completely inexperienced with such a setting. Hysteria tried to explain the wriggling cactus, and, as they did so, another cactus just faded from existence for a moment before returning to its original spot. Kaswink, who happened to also be outside, explained what a cactus is and that it shouldn't be doing what these cacti are doing. Inside, Agave used some previously demonstrated magical ability to cause the earth to erupt from the ground with hopes of destroying a portion of the wall attached to this "room". The wall was obliterated, more shaking occurred around those that were inside, and the other walls became even less opaque as if fading from existence. What remained of the room was visible as a solid block of seemingly solid darkness, like a black cube. Those that were outside saw several cacti vanish while some turned into long needles before disappearing as well. The ground also shook outside. Some debate on whether or not anything was happening was had, and Frode tried shouting into the darkness cube, though the outside team didn't hear anything. Frode was a bit dejected, and explained to AND that this is outside the paygrade. Outside, Namina approached a cacti and watched it shift in and out of existence while changing colors. Then, amongst the discussions of what is or isn't happening, Namina did something both very unusual and very dangerous.
Labyrinth - The Wheredigo
Namina decided to banish Hysteria from this plane of existence, and Hysteria was willing to be banished in such a way. The random location that Hysteria ended up back on Taranel was in an office. There was a half-elf man wearing a suit and some fingerless gloves trying to look cool. His glasses were halfway down his nose as he was filling out paperwork and stamping different forms. He commented "Well, this is the best place for you to pop up! Welcome to the Ministery of the Advancement of Science and Technology. I'm Wayne. I'm going to need you to fill out these forms...all pretty standard stuff for an interdimensional being." Hysteria seemed confused and rejected any such notion of filling out paperwork. Wayne seemed stressed and incredibly upset about the existence of paperwork. Hysteria waited for the minute to expire and for them to return to the horrible ...wherever they were, and as they did they felt the tiniest something biting the back of their neck. It couldn't just been a random itch or something, but Hysteria decided to smack it. When they brought their hand back they saw an unusual creature. It seemed to be shaped like a potato, it had needle-like legs and a circular mouth filled with needle-like teeth. It was about the size of Hysteria's palm, and as they returned to the Spirit World the creature vanished.Agave, meanwhile, decided to explode more of walls inside. The next eruption of earth damaged another portion of wall quite severely and the ground began to tremor once more. The walls completely faded from existence, and what was left was a completely featureless void. There was nothing... no darkness or light, though you could all see each other in this new place. The inside and outside had met once again. Within this nothingness you could all hear something very small screaming in pain. Frode and AND seemed eager to go help either their friends or whatever was crying out. Searching for the screaming began, and Agave seemed to have some idea of what direction to go. Questions were asked as you roamed about this void, namely "Where are you?" and "Where are we?" As that question was asked, the screaming suddenly stopped and the walls began to reform. Looking around and continuing to walk, the walls were able to be walked through and other rooms in this labyrinth were clearly visible. Whatever was making the screaming was nowhere to be seen! While looking for the creature, he decided to test some magic. His bonfire was easily visible and did provide some heat, though it emitted no light. It seemed almost like paper or cloth just being blown by a fan to look like fire. Continuing to spam this spell, the area was still unusually quiet and walls were still slowly forming, but at one point the bonfire must've done something as the screaming started up again as walls faded once more as well. Namina tried to ask another question "Can we go home? Will you take us home?" The creature just kept screaming. Agave also tried using his beam of moonlight, that's a good trick! The moonlight appeared as it usually does, but, much like the fire, it had no light. It just seemed like a solid bit of fabric hanging from some unseen space. The creature continued screaming.
The search continued, and you all finally found the source of this awful, high pitched, wailing sound. A little potato-shaped creature that was now familiar to Hysteria was lying on the ground, writhing and crying. Frode, seeing this, claimed that it was definitely sent here to suffer. Agave asked it "What are you?", and something in his mind told him a rather confusing thing: "That's the wrong question, and you don't want to ask the right question."
As the creature suffered the black void returned, and as it died and left behind its special item the void began to slowly be replaced with a forest as trees grew along with grass and other vegetation. Where you were was a mystery, where you currently are is also a mystery, but one thing is for certain: You are no longer where you were, and you are where you are. Agave's fine hearing picked up the sound of saws, hammers, and axes nearby. A familiar sound from his trip to the different Mothlight Tree locations. There might be a logging camp nearby, is someone destroying the forest?
In-game Date:
Nurend 30-31, 308
Discovered Spirits
Wheredigo Acquired Items
Duplicitous Coin
Teleportation Needle Harvested Stuff
Mimic Adhesive
Mouth Door Teeth? Tongue?
Nurend 30-31, 308
Report Date
27 Jun 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
Related Characters
Wheredigo Acquired Items
Duplicitous Coin
Teleportation Needle Harvested Stuff
Mimic Adhesive
Mouth Door Teeth? Tongue?
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