Hello friends, foes, and otherwise,
For weeks, months even, adventurers had been coming up to me asking if I was prepared. “This is the quest where Makhta will be cured”, “this is the quest where Makhta dies for all time”, “Jasper please gods whatever you do, do NOT talk to Robin”, the list goes on. From the moment I saw the listings in taverns requesting help in a mission into the Dreaming, a mission to save Makhta from the clutches of a Nightmare, I knew I would be there and I knew it would be done. However, with all the time in the world to prepare, with all of my dearest allies by my side, there was nothing that I could have done to prepare me for the quest into the Dreaming that was ahead.
The sun begins to set on Friday night, and the reality sets in that this is the time where decisive action must be taken. We begin with a ritual led by Raindrop and Omri (I think, Omri might’ve been Robin at this point, or maybe was always Robin, or maybe never, it gets a bit dicey). This ritual involves us all being pulled into a ritual circle, connecting ourselves and being ultimately pulled into the Dreaming. Our objective was to make it to the Dream Forge to get the forge and also to help the former Dream Smith who had been shattered.
We first end up in sewer tunnels swarming with rats. I was guarding the front of the line, which eventually became the back of the line when it came time to get out of the pool sewer, so I do not entirely know how we got out. What I do know is that there was some sort of acidic gas, causing all of our armor to be constantly broken. This paired with the poison and diseased rats swinging at us, made for a challenging fight. There was also a king rat, or some other corrupt entity, swinging with withering shots which would make it so that whatever was hit could never be healed again, scary stuff.
The rest of the night was spent travelling Dream by Dream, trying to navigate to the Dream Forge. We spent time challenging Death Knights, chasing bunnies, being tempted down a long dark path (my favorite), crossing acid lakes while moving stones, and more. We were also joined by what I have to assume was Robin, or a part of Robin, or something along those lines. For those of you who do not know, Robin is a trickster fae and depending on who you ask is either our knight in shining armor or someone who needs to be put down (I do not recommend asking for general opinions on him in front of two people who hold opposite opinions, that was my bad). So this person who had joined us went by no name until given them (did not have to be your own) and was seemingly dealing out words and concepts as needed. You offer them a concept and they would write it down, they owe you something, they’ll give you a concept. It was very strange, and it was only after they said to me “Ah yes, so you will give me drowning” and wrote that down did I realize that antics they were up to.
Another crucial part of the night was a fight with Gregor the Red. Gregor was the Nightmare who controlled Makhta, a reality bending vampire responsible for the quest we were currently on. He appeared to us in the Dreaming and began to kill, dissent, and otherwise maim our party. Even as we would kill all of his minions, he would summon them back up. Even as we would have to put our friends down, he would raise them once again. It wasn’t until we were all dead that we got the sense some of us had been made into Dream thralls. This will have to be a problem for later.
With all of that, we made it to the Dream Forge and were able to help the Dream Smith. As a reward, we were offered to take the Dream Forge with us on our journey, a tool we would later rely on to finish the final fight.
However, to get to the final fight, there were still many steps that needed to be taken. Saturday starts with us ambiguously between the Realms and the Dreaming. However, this time when we enter the Dreaming, we are met with the fact that anything stealable we had has been taken from us and scattered around. We were firmly in the Plane of Lost things.
The party was split up, locked between doors that required sacrifice to get through them. Specifically it had to be the sacrifice of magic items, or money if none were available. We slowly make our way through, fighting Dream creatures, recollecting our things, sacrificing these innocent squid creatures we found (don’t worry, I saved them best I could). Now, the Plane of Lost things does not only have our recently lost things, it has everything that has ever been lost and not found. This definitely perplexes me as we wandered around and who do I see but Jemorse “Jem” Havarti Sherwood, my infant son who I saved from Hell in January and promptly adopted. My poor child, who I left to be babysat at home as the Dreaming is no place for an infant, somehow ended up in the Dreaming. I, of course, rush over to see my son, hanging all of my weapons away to be more endearing, to which I am immediately attacked by Dream creatures. Eventually I am able to make my way to Jem, who is speaking more words and sentences than I have ever heard. This may have all been a dream hallucination, but it was definitely unsettling. Thankfully, Laika was able to use some divine magics to send my baby back home to where he belonged. However, before he left he found a paper with some words on it, seemingly related to fixing a vampire. I pocket them for later.
We are able to make it out of the Plane of Lost Things, as we built a path out over the void, and on our way out we recover a Dream Shard from a Nightmare (or maybe Dream Demon, though I thought those were all dead and I am not sure where the line is drawn). I later learn that these Dream Shards are what we need to collect to forge a weapon that will be used to slay Gregor the Red, so it is important we get as many as we can.
Our next stop was to pick up a clock. But not just any clock, a clock set to 2:53. Seems oddly specific, sure. However, it was extremely important as my good friend N had a bomb in his bag set to go off at 3:00, and ensuring the clock never passed 2:53 was very important to keep us all alive and unexploded, so back into the Dreaming we went. We were guided to what we were assured was the right location, and began fighting a litany of creatures. Some spore like, some undead, some plants reacting to sound. We were also finding copious amounts of clocks, however none were the right one. After we recovered all of the clocks, and solved the puzzle to leave, we realized we were in the right place, just not the right time. Our guide had missed the mark by a few thousand years, so we had to go back in. This time, the enemies had evolved. Constructs taking over our friends, turrets shooting fireballs at us from what I can only describe as extremely advanced bows, and metal as far as the eye could see. It was not easy, but after fighting wave after wave of creatures, and doing what I assume was a puzzle while getting nearly engulfed in flames, we were able to get the proper clock and prevent N from exploding.
With a wild, but pleasant, change of pace, we were invited to a party by someone named Joy. This party, believe it or not, was a joy! There were delicious snacks, drinks, and ice cream with whatever toppings you could want. However, there is no joyous party without ulterior motives in the Realms, and we realized that Joy had a Dream Shard around her neck. So as good guests, we first enjoyed the festivities, doing what we could to recover ourselves to prepare for the work ahead. Liselle had a great idea, that since Joy was offering us anything we wanted to be happy, that if we all pretended to be distraught over not having the Shard, maybe she would offer it to us. We did our best to put on a sad face, however Joy seems to simply join us in our sorrow. We then attempted to switch gears, providing so much joy. Food was eaten, happy stories were shared, all of the good things and we were given the Dream Shard! However, like I said, no party without ulterior motives. An entity that I believe was unrelated to the party entered the room and killed all of us by their voice. It was very lame and unfortunate of them to ruin the party like that but the show must go on.
Once back into the Dreaming, there were more Death Knights to challenge. I don’t know if Garm was bored, or his Death Knights just looking for something to do, but I was getting a kick out of beating them honorably. While the night before I had taken a combat approach, today I was feeling more analytical and challenged a knight to a game of chess. While it was hard fought as I relearned any sort of strategy move by move, I was able to take the checkmate and recover a Dream Shard shard (yep, we are getting granular). While we needed four Dream Shards to make the weapon, we now needed four Dream Shard shards to make a Dream Shard to get the fourth of the Dream Shards we needed to forge the weapon (say that 10 times fast). My allies were able to get the other Dream Shard shards from the other Death Knights. In this time, I was fighting some random zombies and undead who were causing problems. One of which, coughed up a Rowan, which I was confused at why one would eat a Rowan to begin with. In the spirit of science, I immediately threw it into my mouth and contracted a disease. Coincidentally, while I was seeing if Rowans were secretly flavored, I was stabbed numerous times and died.
I am told someone gave me a Seed of Life to cure my disease and let me regenerate. However, in my sickened stupor, I had a vision. I was visited by a spirit, but not just by any spirit, by Makhta’s spirit. The same golden spirit which saved my life when I was helping to slay Anti-Time in Sanctuary. Of course, I was trusting as this version of Makhta visited me, asking what steps we were planning to take to rid her of her vampirism. I told her, let her know our current plans, but nothing concrete had been formed. She then provided me with the steps I would need to cleanse her of her vampirism, a ritual for which we were collecting the parts the entire night.
At this point, most of the adventuring party had left to go help.. Slay? Save? Befriend? a dragon. I don’t entirely know what they were off to do, but I stayed back to discuss with Margaret and Lako. We realized that we nearly had all of the components needed for the ritual. Just before the party, there was someone in the tavern playing “metal” music with this strange guitar connected to a loud box. I had no idea what it had to do with metal, but it was very good music. Some people joined in the festivities and played music with him, which resulted in him giving us a time splinter, a wooden stake. This ended up being a crucial part of the ritual. Additionally, we needed the words that Jemorse found in the Plane of Lost Things earlier in the day. Lastly, we needed magical chains bound to the Endless.
A part of this story I frankly left out, was at some point, I fell asleep. I am one that is usually of sound mind and body, and usually quite sure of the actions I take. However, this time, I fell into a deep Nightmare. I woke in a dingy room, walls covered in chains, surrounded by the corpses of my friends. The jailors, who I later learned were Kord and Cordelia, two Nightmares still at large, were berating me, blaming me for the carnage in front of me. Eventually, a gross amalgamation of my familiar Ferg also appeared, scorning me for my actions. It was a lot, all of it, and all of it all at once. I only retell this Nightmare to note the chains, the chains covering the walls. Since I had been to the room, I was unable to go again. Aiden Penclaw was there, and while I will let him tell the story of what happened in the room, he was brave enough to go into the room and recover the chains.
With this, we had all of the things we needed to complete the ritual. Once we returned from our final meal before action, Makhta had joined us. She was within her own control, however we knew that we had to do the ritual soon so we could begin the process of fixing her and killing Gregor.
We lay Makhta down on the ritual table, we bind her with the chains, offer her blood, speak the ritual words, stake her with the wooden splinter, and it seems to be done. But of course, the job is not yet done. Gregor the Red appears, immediately rending all in the sound of his voice. I am not sure what happens next as my hand holds the stake into Makhta’s heart, and my body falls to the floor. But soon I awakened, flashed back moments before the ritual ended, my arm already swinging down to plunge the stake into Makhta for the second time. This time, Gregor appears but does not rend us all, we have a chance to fight.
Fight is exactly what we do. We fight his minions, Evil Ryu shows up, possessed to follow Gregor, and attempts to slay Griffin. Eventually we learn that there are more steps we must take. Before killing Gregor we must restore Makhta, and before restoring Makhta we must collect the relics of her spirit. We are given a list of tasks, each relating to its own relic. Dionin appears, if not just in a dream, and I work to broker deals between churches to get the staff from him we need to get Makhta’s pike. Others start to tackle other aspects of the list, getting the relics that come with them. I stand in the tavern, and with all of the attention I can garner retell the story of my first time meeting Makhta, and the time that she saved my life as I fought to protect those around me, earning the relic of her mug.
With all of the relics collected, a ritual is done to return Makhta to her past state, before she was inflicted with the reality magic turning her into a vampire. But there was still work to be done, Gregor had to be dealt with. I was quickly pulled into another ritual, one to forge the sword we needed to kill Gregor, while others set up the ritual to summon him. Everything after this happened so fast, Gregor appeared, Alias fought him until he fell, Ryu (now probably not evil) showed up and ripped out Gregor’s heart, and it was over. All of the fear, the anxiety, the worry for a friend that needed our help, was gone. The day had been won.
I later learned that the ritual delivered to me was a trick, that someone had taken the appearance of Valkyrie Makhta to deliver these lies to me. But I don’t look at it that way. Sometimes the correct path is difficult to walk, sometimes it is plastered with hardships, but you walk it anyway. I’d like to think that this was just another necessary step to get to the reality where Makhta was saved. I’ll let you make your own decision on that.
Until the sun touches the sea,
Jasper Sherwood
p.s. As a final aside, while Gregor’s heart, a Heart of Nightmare, was ripped out of his chest, it was not destroyed. It exists in this Realm, and currently inflicts whoever has it with the compulsion to hold onto it, making them unable to give it away. Be careful with this artifact. I seek to have it destroyed, but only time will tell how this cursed object will corrupt us.
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