Game Date: 1-4 Leaffall, 994 KC; Play Date: 1/20/2001
1 Leaffall (continued): Darra guarded the Asanos overnight. She dreamed that she woke inside the shelter during the night. Nobody else was around, but some of their gear was. She heard a horse snorting to the east, but stayed by the shelter. Suddenly, she saw the horse just inside the clearing. As it pawed the ground and charged, she prayed to Kuldor for protection and strength. She waited to dodge until the last moment, when it was too close to turn, and ran for the edge of the trees. The horse came around to a point between her and the hut. The rider turned the horse to circle the hut. As it picked up speed, it breathed smoke, leaving a growing cloud in its wake. Darra shifted to horse form, and when the other one reached the far side of the hut, she ran out to circle it, too, pacing herself to keep the hut between them. The smoke trail soon created an opaque curtain around the hut, which burned Darra's lungs when she tried to cross to the inside of the circuit. She then stayed outside most of the time. After a while, she noticed the smoke growing warmer, and she could no longer see the horse or rider. She shifted back to human form, and could no longer hear them, either. She heard the pops and crackling of a fire, which grew louder as tendrils of smoke started to rise from inside the circle. As Darra leaped through the ring of smoke, she felt a wave of great heat, then saw the hut and all of the gear around it smoldering or in flames. She woke, checked to make sure her friends were okay, then went outside to look for signs of the horse's passage in the clearing. She could see nothing in the poor light from the cloudy sky.
2 Leaffall: The others noticed that Darra had moved her bedroll outside. She looked about again in the morning light, and found a single print from an unshod horse. When she related her dream, Laylah suggested they move on as soon as possible. Naima asked Glaxis if his friend at the Haunted Rift would let them stay with him again. He thought so.
Laylah and Darra wished to get new shoes before leaving. (Laylah was outgrowing hers, and Darra had a boot ruined fighting the first undead Mynar.) Glaxis introduced them to a leatherworker he knew, who measured and cut the leather, and promised to have the shoes ready later that day. To their surprise, Glaxis had already arranged payment.
Ruqayyah met with the Ranae children as promised. She cast the shapeshifting spell slowly, so they could see the dance more clearly. They were very impressed, and some petted her caracal form while others remained too nervous around the wildcat. (Ruqayyah experimented with trying to cast the spell while already in cat form, but did nothing but exhaust herself.) She shifted back, answered some questions, then returned to camp.
Laylah climbed a tree to meditate. She asked Rashira what the new developments in the dreams meant, and was told that he was testing them, and himself. These dreams could not directly harm those not carrying the Asanos. When she asked what they could change about how they handled these dreams, she was told simply, "That question is part of your burden." Laylah had expected as much.
Darra reminded the others that the full moon was approaching, and if they left later today, she would need to stop for that change shortly after they passed through the Rift.
Glaxis returned with the new shoes, and a second bundle. He had feathered headbands for each of them, as keepsakes from their visit to the Ranae and the lands beyond:
Eskildes had helped him find the feathers. He had vouched for the women earning them, though he had only revealed the reasons for one of them (that of the giant eagle nest), as they weren't his stories to tell. Glaxis had also seen to rendering thanks to the Ranae for their hospitality.
The party left Rana and walked to the edge of the forest near the Rift. Ruqayyah had care of the Asanos, and spent some time that evening reading her holy scrolls aloud to it, lecturing it on the reasons for meditation and self-discipline.
That night, she dreamed that she was in the rough area outside the Rift, on a cloudy night. She couldn't see the trees, though they should have been visible. Hooves echoed around her, fading in and out and never coming from the same place. She shifted to cat form. The hooves sounded closer, and she could smell smoke from the direction of the Rift. She soon saw red eyes coming toward her, through smoke. She tried to shift to owl form and failed, so panicked and ran towards the forest. There were no trees, just rocky ground. She tried to use her magic to find the river, but couldn't. She tried to turn and circle around to reach the Rift. She could hear the horse, but couldn't see it due to the thickening smoke. As she passed it, it changed direction for her. She tried to leap into the air and take owl form, but failed again. On her third try, her fur changed to feathers, but nothing more. She kept running through force of will. The horse leaped out of the smoke at her, and just as it was about to land on her, she woke.
She cried out as she woke, but her scream came out as a shrill owl's hoot, which startled her companions awake. Her hands were covered in a grayish down that vanished as she looked at it, but her skin itched like mad afterwards. The others saw only Ruqayyah shaking and scratching her arms (except perhaps Glaxis, who was on watch?). After she told them about the dream, she took out her scroll and scolded the Asanos again. Everyone had trouble getting back to sleep after this disturbance--especially Ruqayyah, whose arms itched for much of the night.
3 Leaffall: Naima took the Asanos for the day. The party entered the Haunted Rift. A gentle rain started during the morning, and grew stronger as the day progressed. It lightened again around noon, but continued to drizzle on and off the rest of the day. They stopped before reaching the cave, so that Glaxis could go ahead to see Yantos. He returned an hour later, and Yantos led them to his cave.
Darra noticed that the drizzle fell through Yantos, but did not know what to make of it. She asked Glaxis about it later; he said it was related to his curse, but he could say no more without consulting him. He usually found it difficult to deal with people after they learned the full story. While the party dried out and ate, and Laylah sang to the unusual acoustics of the cave, Glaxis went aside with Yantos to relate their adventures since their last visit.
The women decided that the person on watch should also watch the Asanos; perhaps this would reduce its power over their dreams. Yantos offered to help them watch. After looking at the bundle, he recoiled in horror, and urged them to do what they could to rid the world of this thing.
During the night, the dream-eaters came near the cave again, but avoided the entrance. During Ruqayyah's watch, she asked Yantos about them. The dream-eaters aren't made of the same stuff as other creatures, and cannot be clawed or eaten.
On Laylah's watch, Yantos complimented her on her earlier singing; not being able to live among his people makes him miss such things. Laylah still had odd feelings about Yantos, but couldn't tell what was wrong. She offered to listen, if he needed to talk about something. He replied that she could do little now, at least not with this prior quest.
Each of the women had a fragmentary nightmare that night: Laylah dreamed that the cave was shrinking around her. Naima dreamed of large, spidery things she could never see clearly [the dream-eaters]. Darra dreamed of a horse made of fire, but could remember little upon waking. Ruqayyah dreamed that a shadowy snake swallowed the full moon, making the sky go dark.
4 Leaffall: Ruqayyah woke from her dream shortly before morning broke, and took cat form to swat and hiss at the Asanos bundle. The noise woke the others, and they compared dreams. [The poison in Naima's hand seemed to have finally run its course.]
Ruqayyah asked Al-Zaki [Glaxis] about his travels. He had not traveled far in Krith due to the difficulty of keeping up his masquerade in populous lands, and the even greater hardship of traveling there in his natural form. He noted that, sometime before they entered the Empire, they needed to discuss their plans further and decide his part in them. If their Asanos mission required them to go to the heart of the Empire, then he doubted it was safe for him to go with them.
Very few people in human lands know that Al-Zaki is a dragon. He gave the women his true draconian name: Thastygliax. Laylah suggested that he could go among humans as part of a circus, as a mage who claimed he could become a dragon. Most people would believe it simply illusion. He expressed some distaste at the idea.
The party left Yantos's cave and continued north, with Laylah carrying the Asanos.
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This page last revised 3/5/2001. | Copyright 2001 Timothy E. Emrick. | time@sluggy.net