What Dreams Ae Made Of Part 3

In this land, dreams are dead.

It was sensed by Astaren as soon as he arrived. Alba, too, would simply be able to 'sense' it. Exploration commenced, a hunt through the township, abandoned now with its residents either missing or in Althean or ELunan care alternatively. A great, black altar of a kind had been discovered originally in the mines, though to nothing specific. A trace of lingering evil had been detected but no sign of the cause.

But here, in this place, the dreams are gone.

Sasha says, "Strange that dreams are dead in here. Wonder if it's beacause no moonlight gets in here?"

"Hnnn..."

As soon as she entered the village, Alba was Not Amused. Which is particularly worrying, given that her default state is 'find something that amuses me' and her idea of 'interesting and/or entertaining' is just enough off kilter to make those who know her wary...

When the altar is reached, she drifts around it, once, twice, three times, examining every inch of it closely, but never.... quite.... touching it.

"...Would that all answers were so easy," she mutters in response to Sasha's question. "My enemy may reach her influence into my spiders' dens, within the cool earth. She has not been with me since I come into the village, where full moonlight has touched often and often. Dreams, here, are dead."

Astaren shakes his head, "Moon light and dreams have nothing in common, that is folk lore." sounding rather certain on this as he glances to the alter. Glancing to Alba and then back to the alter, "Something was here, that is no longer here. May of been holding something at bay."

Nothing else is going on /immediately/ here. The altar remains silent. Something definitely passed this way at one point but whatever it is is long goen for now.

GAME: Alba rolls knowledge/arcana: (6)+13: 19

Carefully, Alba taps the altar with the back of one razored claw. "Onyx," she mutters, rising to assume a standing position, arms folded, razors singing cricketlike against each other, as she contemplates. "Much coin could be made from the breaking and selling of this thing... But, strange... See you, wizard, what markings and dedications this altar carries? Who it honors?"

Astaren hmms as he sighs and walks closer to the alter, clearly not wanting to have gotten closer. he moves up and takes a closer look at the alter.

Sasha stays back a bit....letting the pair that have better knowledge examine more closely...

Alba's head pops up, eyes widening behind her mask. "Wizard!" she hisses, turning about in the air, as if to scan theie surroundings. "Feel you that?"

Astaren pauses a moment anods, "no markings, at least none we can see with our eyes, though I have a hunch. Things like this always have something." Motioning to the alter, "See if we can move it out of the area and into the moonlight." shrugging his hsoulders and nodding to Alba, "I do yes, which means the thing is still in the pressence and feeding, or trying to feed on us. So that means we may have to go deeper into the mines." Glancing to the alter his eyes tart to glow as he takes a magical look.

GAME: Astaren casts Dimension Door. Caster Level: 12 DC: 20

Astaren stares at the atler for a moment, and then with a flick of his wirst and a oh shit look on his face is gone.

At close to the same time, Alba's hair lashes out and wraps around Sasha's waist. With a muttered curse of "Wizards," Alba flies to the edge of town as fast as she can.

Before long, people will be able to relink. It's hard to miss the flying hairball that is Alba, after all.

Astaren is outside the town, where dreams can be felt again. he is very whtie and meditating quietly with his legs crossed.

Setting Sasha down once she can be certain it's safe, Alba drifts slowly toward the napping wizard. "So rapidly did the wizard leave," she says, "that the wind obscured the vital information he surely had imparted as warning. Perhaps, now that the danger is elsewhere, he would care to repeat more clearly?"

Sasha says, "Thanks Alba. Glad you had my back."

Astaren slowly opens his eyes and looks at Alba, color slowly returning to his face. "You think the matter is that simple? Hush, sit down and listen Witch of the Felwood." his voice quiet, but firm. "I opened my eyes to magic, and where there was no magic before, there was magic after. Something hiding, like a lantern covered by the night, but as I looked, it looked back. Reached for me it did in a sudden flurry of magic, and my only choice to survive, was to flee and hide as fast as I could. Do to anything else would of meant the end of me. The others, were not in danger, not like I was."

One can almost hear the eyebrow rising behind Alba's mask. "...Many faces of fear have I seen, wizard," she says quietly. "Common among wetlanders is to wrap their fear in thorns, to prick and bleed those who would fight at their side. Because a wetlander fears more than all, to be seen as soft."

Turning, Alba drifts toward a tree. "When you have soothed the bruises to your pride, you would do well to remember to whom you speak, Wizard of the Fleet Foot. No wizard may I be, but neither am I an unschooled peat-grubbing worm farmer. Speak not to me as if I were."

A moment later, there is a tiny doll sitting on the earth. It has no facial features to speak of, butis starrrring at Alba. Face turnedf in Alba's direction.

WHERE DID YOU GO

You hear it, but it's not audible.

Astaren glares at Alba, glares daggers at her. "Witch." his voice constrained. taking a long pause, "No words can describe the insults you have just levied at me. The way you have spoken to me, you have no right. So I apologize for the way I addressed you, but you came here accusing me indirectly of cowardace and weakness. Then throw on more insults. I am here to help, risking myself. Treat me like you ahve before and I will take my leave."

"Many words can describe them," Alba says, a lock of hair slithering up, wrapping around a branch, and hefting her closer to the canopy. "Annoyed I am that the wizard had not two words to rub together before fleeing, not the flight itself, but it is no matter. Now I know what I did not. So, so, so."

Another lock of hair slithers toward the doll, wrapping carefully around it and bringing it up to sit in a razored palm. "Into the town we spoke of before, my dearest enemy." Turning the doll on her palm to point it toward the village, she leans close to speak into its ear. "There is something within, something that has murdered the dreams of everyone who once lived within. Missing, or mad, they are. And soon, perhaps, we shall walk back within to learn what has done this, and kill it as swiftly as we may."

Astaren makes his way to his feat and sighs, rubbing his head and still regaining some of the color to his normal palor. "Sorry I am most touchy when I have near deaths experiences like that. I am very certain if that thing had gotten me, I would be dead, or worse." shivering and shaking his head, "Again apologizes. Just know, I would never abandon anybody or run without some kind of reason without words." glancing to the doll and then back to the village as he hummms, "but we did learn something from all this."

"That thing, is here, that shrine is related. Whatever was on that alter, was most likely sealing it away. In truth, it may not even be fully free yet."

"She seemed to find the words just fine," Aya notes, almost absently. Obviously, she also departed mine, though the details of such might be somewhat unclear. Her eyes then shift from wizard to denoted witch and her doll. "Does anyone have any idea of what lies within, aside from something to flee from?" Back to wizard, as he offers more details. "I felt almost nothing. Maybe this ..creature feeds on fear?"

"I don't like it here. I can't see."

The doll's voice is now more audible. A mouth forms in its stomach to speak through audiblt.

"I can't see. Why can't I see? I WANT TO SEE. LET ME SEE!"

The 'enemy' is getting angry. "WHERE DID YOU GO, ALBA. WHY COULDN'T I SEE YOU?" Not shocking. She can't see where there's no dreams to see through.

Sasha says, "That's.....interesting." She then looks to Alba. "Same one we encoutered before?"

Astaren glances to Aya, "She probably did. But on to what that thing feeds on, it is dreams. Those who are stronger or more connected to dreams will feel it more." he offers with a frown as he glances back to the town, "We need to find whatever relic was hold it at bay and put it back, my best educated guess without more to go on."

"ARE YOU THE SAME RUDE DOLL!" Kisaiya says as she points at the griping doll because... It's Kisa. I mean, who knows exactly where she came from. Probably Kisa-space. It's like Cat-space but free of vomit monsters.

"I am not buying you a friend spider!" Kisa says to the doll, clearly assuming it is the same one that was demanding thing when she met it at Alba's.

Sasha says, "Stop, Kisa. The one behind the doll may be able to help us...""

"There are no dreams in the town, my enemy," Alba croons. "For you, there is nothing to see, ere you come here in person. This I would not advise, for what we face eats dreams, and I shall not guess what a morsel it would make of you."

The mask turns to face Kisaiya, and there is a long, slow sigh. "Gently, friend, gently. She angers because she worries. Because she fears. She is not wrong to fear."

Kisaiya makes grumbling noises at Sasha, opening her mouth to rebuttal when Alba turns to her. She stares. A pause, then closes her mouth as she sits back with her arms crossed - sans more grumbling.

Sasha places her hand on Kisa's shoulder. "Let the experts handle this, Kisa."

The hand on her shoulder and Kisa bats at it, sticking her tongue out at Sasha.

"If any experts exist..." Aya adds before looking between the others. "If there is some missing lock, it can't have been missing long. Of course, caging the thing would only leave it to be released again in the future."

Sasha says, "So, Alba. Where do we go from here?" She says as Astaren seem to walk away."

"I WANT A FRIEND SPIDER," yells the doll. Distracted by Kisa.

"YOU'LL DO."

She is going to turn Kisa into a spider unless someone stops her.

Probably.

Kisa sticks her tongue out at the doll instead of Sasha, then stands back up normally with her arms crossed.

"When we return," Alba says, turning to gaze at Kisaiya. Again, one can almost hear the eyebrow rising. "At any rate, what was said about the missing lock, I think, is correct." Turning the doll back to face her mask, she tilts her head. "We are going to return to the village, my enemy. If all remains as it has been, we will disappear from your sight when we enter again, for the dream within is dead. If there is aught you know of monsters that stalk dreams, my enemy, it would help us greatly."

Sasha says, "But....why just dreams? Why not magic too?"

Sasha says, "Or this could be an enemy of ELuna."

"Make them stop. Don't let them go there," answers the girl to Aya. "I don't want to not see! Don't GO. It's dark in there. Darker than I can see. There's nothing!"

She is upset by this. "Don't gooooo!"

She is squealing at them before she finally quiets herself. Angrily.

Sasha says, "huh. I do believe she's concerned for us, Alba....""

"You see true," Alba murmurs, and lifts the doll up to her mask. "We go, my enemy. We must. There is a thing there that has, and will continue to, eat the dreams of all men, women, and children it may reach. It falls to those with the power to stop such things, to walk into danger. It is the price of power, child... The strong are called to defend the weak."

Drifting to the ground, she sets the doll down into the grass. "Think upon this, child, and we shall speak more of it when we return."