Greetings mortals (and otherwise)! Here is an account of a rather odd nightmare that myself and others found ourselves in.
I don’t sleep the way many do, and as such, when I dream, it is usually with intention. As such, it was quite unusual when I awoke in a prison cell the other day. I was with several others, and we could see other cells across the room as well as demonic guards patrolling and taunting prisoners. Usually this would be where we break out and stab our way free, but our weapons, magic items, and magic powers were all gone. A few of us found magic scrolls (later learned to be a gift from a group of demon hunters) in our possession, though, and Randal the Light was able to send spellbooks to some folks in other cells. Lucky for us, the guards - which had many of our missing items in hand - didn’t seem to be the brightest. One almost traded me a weapon for a skull from the cell before a superior stopped them. Eventually, it was Timm who found a way to get the upper hand. A guard was lamenting being unable to do pushups with a weapon in hand, so Timm suggested they put it down for a moment. As soon as they did, he grabbed the weapon and stabbed them before hiding deeper in the cell.
As more and more guards grew suspicious of the ever-growing pile of dead guards in front of our cell, we slowly armed up with looted gear. Eventually an escaped prisoner from another cell brought us a key and broke us free, and we joined up with a party of roughly thirty Realms adventurers that had been imprisoned, as well as one unfamiliar prisoner who later turned out to be a demon in disguise. We finally could stab our way out, and recovered many lost weapons (though spellbooks were more scarce, and at one point we had only three heal limbs among the party). Unfortunately we were no longer in the Realms, though fortunately we weren’t in hell - we were in some sort of demon-made nightmare skerry in the Dreaming, and we would have to press on to return to the waking world.
Next, we were forced to choose some sort of roles or traits - I fittingly was ‘Dangerous to All’, for example, while Cronin chose ‘Rage’, and Ace was ‘Well-Intentioned’. We encountered a new demon as well, the sword-wielding Malficence (this may be a misspelling of Malfeasance or Malificence, but that was how I saw it spelled) who seemed somewhat friendly for now.
In the next room, we encountered blood-splattered walls and many tortured souls with canvases in front of them. These seemed to be victims of The Painter, a demon killed last year, and it seemed the only way to put them to rest was to paint their desires in blood. At one point I heard that painting for all of them would revive The Painter, but later I heard that this was not the case after doing more research, which I hope is correct. And as Rosetta reasoned, with this being a dream, the blood we painted with was not real, and thus it was not blood magic to paint with it. Either way we had to paint a final canvas to leave, so it was done.
Next, we were in a room with several clockwork marionettes controlled by a person on strings in the center. When these immensely annoying enemies were defeated, the person could be cut down, and the puppet controlling them taken. In this room was also a young gelatinous cube, which was befriended by Violet and named Jelly. In Jelly we put to rest the remains of three skulls (Jimbo, Jeff, and Jeronimo) that we’d found in the cells, as well as someone’s femur.
Next was a room where a woman, her face wrapped in bandages, wept as she looked into a mirror, surrounded by shiny mirror creatures. The mimics became attached to members of our party, copying their actions, and after much fun for some from this we killed them by killing those they were copying. People were also able to talk the woman into giving up the mirror.
Next was an angry mob chasing some guy, but then the mob all turned into werewolves, and we killed them as we retrieved most of the rest of our stolen items aside from The End of All Things. Then was a treacherous obstacle course over a deep pit. In the end, six people were stuck dead on the other side, and Ace saved them by calling on the power of Malficence through his infernal sword - a move criticized by much of the party, who took the blade from him and had a long talk on redemption (Ace’s case was not helped, of course, by Malficence taking his side to defend him).
We were presented with a board on which several words were written: Nightmare, Despair (crossed out), Stealth, Malficence, Delight, Rage (in parenthesis), and a blank spot. These correspond to a group of demons that have been encountered (Nightmare is Yumi, Despair was Rixa who is now imprisoned, etc) over the past year or so. We needed to add one more word to progress - but what could we put that would not be twisted into a horrible foe? Ultimately, with time running out, Laika wrote ‘Hope’. We’ve since received a message from ‘The Hope of Demonkind’, who will surely become a problem later.
One final room remained, where The End of All Things blocked our escape, and an invincible shadow creature was joined by hordes of demons. Around the room were several lights, each with a few of the traits from earlier written beneath. To activate them, the person for each trait had to press that button simultaneously, while we remained under siege by demons. When all lights were lit, the shadow became vulnerable, and after two cycles of this, it was defeated. Cronin retrieved The End of All Things, and the way opened. Yumi, Demon of Nightmares, appeared and thanked us on our way out for joining her little ‘game’ (to which Rosetta rightfully called a lien and obligation). Outside the nightmare, Malficence reappeared and took back Ace’s confiscated demon sword, likely to tempt others with it.
While we escaped unscathed, the experience proved a nightmare to remember, and left many looming threats. What does Malficence hope to gain by helping us? Who was the demon-in-disguise who escaped the cells with us? Is ‘Rage’ on the list of demons because it is the trait of The End of All Things’ wielder? What is the significance of the traits? What new threats will the Hope of Demonkind bring? I’m sure we’ll find out before long. I, for one, am growing tired of the meddling of demons in this world’s affairs.
From now until the end,
N
((OOC:
This event was a ton of fun! I totally called that we’d start the event with all our stuff gone, and it ended up adding a great sense of progression to the quest as we slowly regained our resources. The new site was excellent for a dungeon crawl, with a highlight being the many doors from which NPCs could appear. Maria, Nate, and all the event staff did a fantastic job, and I’m looking forward to the next installment of the series!
Dan H))
