Dreams all Fail

It's about noon on this particular Tariday. Getting up this far is on the tricky side, given the snow and ice from melt-and-freeze that happens under bright, clear sun on snow, and Dolan's been taking his time, following well-used tracks that have been cleared by some enterprising arcanist student given leave to play with fire spells. When he approaches the porch that is the opening to Auranar and Verna's home, he is wrapped securely in warm winter adventuring gear, armor and weapons and all today. Notably, instead of the golden gem in the scarred and ruined right side of his face, the area is instead covered by an eyepatch, and his hood is down, a warm hat pulled down over his ears where it will not obscure what remains of his vision. He carries in his arm a sheaf of scrolls, and he looks positively exhausted, dark circles under his eyes, his steps shuffling a little.

Auranar is standing quite visibly on the porch, her new black cloak making her stand out against the whiteness of the snow like an inkblot on a new piece of paper. She is in the midst of using a spell to clear their stairs leading up to the porch. Slowly but surely the snow moves under her direction, shifting as she focuses intently. It is a VERY slow process, but she seems determined to do it this way rather than use the shovel that is nearby. Or allow Verna to be of assistance.

Verna is also present on the porch, to little surprise. She is assisting, but only indirectly. Namely, she has prepared hot tea, accompanying cookies, and has a warm blanket or two convenient for post-work reheating. Quality control checks are performed on the tea as she sips whilst observing Auranar's work. This helps to curtail the urge to offer helpful-yet-not commentary as well as possibly battle her own eye-circles.

The sight of Auranar struggling to clear her steps immediately galvanizes Dolan into action, and he picks up his pace, making not for the steps, but directly for the shovel nearby. "Brightest of days, Auranar, you don't have to do all that. Let me put this down and I'll do that while you read." A shift of the scrolls indicates something of interest to Auranar. "I didn't get everything, not even close. I'll have to -" he pauses, and takes a deep breath. "I'll have to try again." It doesn't sound like he considers that a pleasant prospect.

The wild elf pauses as she finally - a bit belatedly really - notices Dolan. Her concentration wavers a little, but she manages to keep the spell focused on clearing the steps. "Oh! No Dolan, but thank you for the offer. I'm practicing my magic. Trying to get better." She offers a slightly weary smile. Unlike the other two she doesn't seem to be lacking in the sleep department. Auranar waves Dolan toward the porch and tea. "You sit down, and I'll read the scrolls, but you leave these steps to me alright!"

Verna lifts a hand to greet Dolan when she spies him. Said hand promptly shifts to a warning wave away of warning (behind Auranar's line of sight) as the man offers his aid. Her gesturing alters again before Auranar turns back to the porch, now a beckoning motion. "Auranar is doing exceptionally well. Please, come and enjoy some tea. You look as if you could use both the rest and the energy." Verna sets her own tea down to bring another chair closer to the portico table.

Dolan's features fall a little bit, but he nods and, with great care, ascends the steps to the porch and sets the scroll sheaf down on the table where Auranar or Verna can reach it, then fairly flops down into the offered chair, turning it so that neither of the other two chairs are on his right side. "I'm happy to help if you get tired. I got the notes you wanted. Like I said, I didn't get everything, I - had to get out too quick." A shudder ripples through him. "But, I got something. The Knight gave me a clue for how to take out Kol."

Auranar focuses a moment longer on the spell before dismissing it with a satisfied wave. "So that's why you look so tired? You spent the whole night dreaming rather than sleeping?" She arches an eyebrow at him as she joins them on the porch and starts with a sip of tea before she picks up one of the scrolls. The wild elf then sits down and pulls one of the warm blankets over herself, shivering a little bit as she realizes how cold she is. "You were given a clue as to how to defeat the vampire? That's great!"

More enthusiastically she peruses the scroll.

A ripple of emotion, or likely plural, briefly cross Verna's countenance at Dolan's words. Her eyes flick to the now seated, warming and eager Aura before returning to Dolan. She promptly pours a fresh cup and places it before him before refilling her own. "I hope that your dreams remained pleasant if not as informative as you might have preferred. Still, any clue is yet helpful."

Dolan's expression at the well-wishes speaks volumes, and he picks up the tea in mittened hands, then shifts it to one and wraps his cloak around himself more tightly. _That would be a no._ "Not even a little bit," he mutters, but sips at the tea. "The dream on that at least was pretty damned clear. I don't think I got to finish it before Kol jumped out of it," he mutters. "But it showed someone suckering Kol into a trap. Looks like he's fast and he's strong, but he doesn't really pay attention to his own safety. But why would you tackle him into the water?"

Auranar skims the scroll, her brow furrowing. "That sounds like your dream Verna. Minus the bit about..." She trails off and looks up. "That is, it seems that you two have had a similar dreaming experience. It must mean something."

Verna looks to Aura again and cannot contain a wince at the part unspoken. A pause, a sip of tea, and then she nods. "It may well be the same vision. I believe what we witnessed was Kol Demontry's demise at the hands of many Alexandrian heroes, in the temple square below." A hand gestures to the cliff face beyond the house. "I was not present for the event, personally, but know of it."

Looking back to Dolan, she explains, "The temple fountain was all but destroyed, but the spring feeding it continued to do so. To vampires, running water is nearly as purifying as Daeus' light. Demontry dissolved into nothingness after forced submersion for enough time. Not to say that it was an easy task."

After a breath, Verna adds, "Perhaps this is why he infected these dream-visions, himself; turn them to nightmares and prevent use of the knowledge. What defeated him before may well do so again."

For a very long space, several breaths, Dolan stares off into the distance, jaw set. "So - whoever that was - suckered the vampire into the water using himself as bait, and then they tackled him into the water until he - dissolved? That -" He sucks in a breath, as one trying to steel themselves. "I dunno if I'd have the guts to do that, but - that looks like what the Knight is asking me to do. The vampire's after _me_, for damned sure. Sounds like I'd better read up on what'll work and what won't. I wonder if any of those people are still in Alexandria."

Auranar looks up from the scroll. "Seldan. It was Seldan who tackled Kol into the water and saw him dead. He's a paladin of Eluna, and a friend of mine. A good, brave man." She nods once and looks at Dolan. "You say the vampire is after you... what makes you think so?"

"Yes, it was he who was bait, and his plan," Verna confirms. "He is currently occupied in other matters, however. Contacting him may be problematic, at best, and he may be unable to aid in this matter. Not directly." A fact that is regrettable, judging from her shift in tone.

As she cannot change this fact, she turns her focus back to Dolan and his statement. "He appeared quite ... fixated upon you in the wilds. Do you have any insight into his motives?"

Dolan, tea halfway to his lips, stops and looks up. "Was this the man who had the statue of Daeus by accident? The Elunan was him? And you two know him? Auranar, it's sounding more and more like we need his help. If he knows how to stop the vampire-" And then Verna chimes in. "We really ought to try, at least," he lowers the teacup, sounding crestfallen. "Look, I've got no idea why, but there's no damn doubt. When we were trapped in that farmhouse - he never went after anybody but me. He pushed past others to get to me. He keeps calling me the amber-eyed one." That shudder ripples through him again. "In the dream, too."

He's started to breathe, and speak, more quickly. "If there's someone who can stop it, I don't stand a chance."

Auranar... she understands Dolan's feeling all to well. "You're in good company Dolan. We won't let him hurt you." She wishes she could be sure of that. "We'll kill him. Throw him into a river or something maybe. I'm sure there are other ways to kill him as well. Creatures like him always have a weakness."

She falls silent briefly. "I can ask Seldan. At the very least he might have some advice, but... Verna is right. He has his own things to attend to. Things that his goddess has specifically told him to take care of and our problems are not among them I'm afraid."

"Dolan..." Verna's tone softens. She also understands Dolan's feelings on the matter. "No one of us stands a chance against him. Seldan defeated him with the aid of many others. We do not stand alone. That is our greatest strength. Auranar speaks the truth: we will not let him harm you, nor any others. We will ensure that he ceases to exist a second time."

_Pull it together, Brydion,_ Dolan chides himself internally, his single remaining eye staring off into the distance as he searches through what he saw last night. _Be the hunter, not the prey,_ he reminds himself for the umpteenth time lately. "I'll help," he says finally, the tea all but forgotten in his hand. "I'll find out what vampires are weak to. Sunlight, I'd think. It sounds like running water, too. I'll have to do some reading, I may as well do that while I'm waiting on the artificer's guild."

The wild elf finishes with the scroll and sets it aside, picking up her tea and watching Dolan intently as he speaks. Auranar sees his distant expression, his resolution. But also his resignation. "I'll help too Dolan. I don't really know anything about vampires, but if this Kol fellow is going to hunt one of my friends I should know more." She looks at Verna thoughtfully. "This is sort of your area of expertise isn't it Verna? What do you usually do to kill vampires?"

"Sunlight, running water, wooden stakes," Verna suggests with a nod to Auranar. "Those are weaknesses to most vampires. Magic, especially necromantic magic, will also affect them as any other unliving, though they are more resistant than the lesser mindless variants."

She looks to them both, and between them. "I will not rest until he is no more. As a Mourner, I cannot suffer such an abomination to exist. More personally, I am responsible for his return, and all the destruction he now brings."

"Yeah." Slowly, Dolan seems to be at least mostly pulling himself together, tea still in his hand. He's quite obviously forgotten about it. "I didn't get to ask where the other four totems are. I think - the Nightmare's watching that statue, or it's - wait, you had a vision like that too?" It seems to be registering quite late. "What did you see?"

"Do you mean me, or Verna?" Auranar asks Dolan, noting his sudden interest and it draws her attention as well. After all, if it has him this invested, then it's probably something important. Her own tea is forgotten now as well, set aside onto the table at her side. "Verna had a dream about Kol, and I a vision about the totems."

Verna hesitates a moment, and when is about to speak, Aurnar makes the important question of clarification. She pauses further before concurring. "Yes, we both had vision or dream, at different times." She then looks to Auranar. "Unless you had another?"

"Verna. I knew about Auranar's, she said something about having the same thing-" Dolan trails off again. The man is processing an awful lot. "We know that the statues affect your dreams. About the only way I sleep soundly is to throw them all in the haversack," he laughs shortly. "You didn't see the Nightmare in yours, did you?"

Auranar nods at this and abruptly remembers her tea. She picks it up and takes a sip, glancing at Dolan's hands and hoping that he'll remember that his own tea is still there waiting for him to drink it.

Verna nods lightly at the clarification and answers the question. "I witnessed Kol's end in the template square, yet it was as if it were my own memory. It was my challenging cry to him. My blood let by my own blade to tempt him. My hands holding him fast to drag him into the waters. My call for aid and action that caused others to surround and keep us both in the water. Afterwards, my weariness and sense of victory as I was tended by friends." A brief pause for breath. "It was not until after that perspective changed, and I realized it was Seldan's memory, in truth, and not my own."

Her eyes then lower to her tea, though she does not reach for the cup. "I did not see The Red Maw, but I did experience a nightmare after. Not one, but many. Each time I believed that I awoke, it proved to be another layer of nightmare. Each time, Kol was present, or his presence implied."

"Huh." Finally Dolan lifts his rapidly cooling tea to his lips, and takes a long slurp. "He came out of the Dream Realm, right, so I guess that makes sense that he'd be messing with people in it. There's only one way to make it stop." The bolstering of friends seems to have allowed him to gather himself, and get himself back under control. "I didn't see the drag in the water part, Kol broke the dream before it got that far. So that's what happened." Obscurely, that seems to reassure him. "We'll have to get Kol out of the way, before we can deal with the Nightmare and its lackeys."

"The world will be better without him in it, that's for sure." Auranar states grimly, glancing at Verna. The lack of description for the rest of the dream does not go unnoticed by the wild elf, but it is not her place to do so. "Yet it does seem that it's likely that we will need to defeat him if we want to get things done sooner than later."

The goal was to inform, reassure, unify. Yet, even that this is accomplished, it seems... wrong? Not enough? Dolan is assured, even as Verna's thoughts dwell on the nightmares. Nightmares of her own creation.

A fist slams down on the table, albeit with only librarian ferocity. The cup before Verna shatters, though it may never have been struck.

"Of course he will be stopped! We can't allow his sadism to continue! I won't allow him to harm anyone else! He will NOT touch her!"

As quickly as Verna's adamance and voice rise, her head then falls to her hands upon the table. The flare of ire deteriorates into ...sobs.

Startled, and taken aback by the abrupt change, Dolan sets his tea down and reaches immediately for Verna's shoulder, then draws back, unsure if he should touch her. "Fuck," he says simply. "Look, I'll do it. If that's what it takes, I'll do it." This is so awkward. "I can't get on with dealing with the wolves until this vampire isn't chasing me anyway," he explains helplessly. "It's going to take a lot of us."

Auranar tosses aside her blanket, and sets her cup down in a moment, rushing to Verna's side and embracing her. She offers a warm smile to Dolan. Silent thanks for trying to comfort the woman she loves. "It's not that Dolan. It's the dream she had. Kol kept... killing me, or taking my form to taunt her with. She kept waking up to find me harmed. Imagine if you woke up - or thought you woke up, and he'd hurt Andelena." She looks at Dolan steadily and hugs Verna all the more tightly. "You won't do this alone Dolan. We'll help."

Verna is mostly still, now, saved for the stuttering shake of broken breaths. They steady enough after a few moments of Auranar's embrace for her to speak, though she does not significantly raise her head. "I am sorry. This is my doing. I never wished to bring any of this upon any of you."

"Mama used to say there's no use crying over spilt milk, and she's right," A sudden stormcloud passes over Dolan's features at that mention, his breath catching, but he plows resolutely on. "We've got to do something about it. I can't just hide and run, and I know I'm not alone. Which reminds me, I'm going to be out of the city for a bit, me and Andie. Got a mystery to deal with."

Auranar nods to Dolan and runs her fingers over Verna's short hair for further comforting. "This isn't your fault Verna. You didn't purposefully bring this evil into our lives. All we can do now is move forward. Destroy him. Once that's taken care of we can all rest easier. It might be good for you two to get out for a bit. I hope that you guys find what you're looking for, and that everything is alright." She flashes him her teeth. Not really a smile, but something more fierce. "If not, we'll be here waiting for your call to action."

Verna falls quiet again and rests head against hands anew. Her breathing is more steady as she is simply... there. Not relaxed, exactly, but ...soothed. Auranar is correct on all counts. Specifically, the resting easier sounds delightful at the moment.

"Then I'll finish the clearing out. You two stay put." Dolan sets down his tea and gets to his feet, not waiting for or brooking argument, he leaves the sword he'd set aside in its harness earlier and jumps off the stairs, taking up the shovel that had been left to one side. He sets to without hesitation, clearing snow with the swift efficiency of one accustomed to the task.

-End