Alea Iacta IX: An Easy Descent Chp. 13eath's dream kingdom
First of all, a brief note to say that, as you may have guessed, Meloch's player is back safe from Afghanistan and relaxing in London with his fiancee. Yay! Hence the lack of daily posts - plus, I was visiting Llyr's player and other friends over the weekend, and then have been prepping for some gaming this weekend.
In a game design note, the whole preceding sequence of scenes was, as alert readers will have noticed, based on the dreams that the PCs had been getting for the previous several sessions, about 2 years of real time, which is when I had come up with this idea. By the time of this session, I had 3 dreams for each PC, mostly false visions. To run this sequence, I had the PCs make Will Saves and then rolled on a chart for the person who failed by the most. People who had experienced their dreams previously got bonuses to their Saves. The sequence ended more or less arbitrarily at the point when, well, it stopped being interesting.
The following chapter owes much to the 2nd century CE Greek writer Lucian of Samosata. Thankfully, his copyright expired quite some time ago.
***
As the fog finally disperses, we immediately realize that we are not in any of our own dreams. We stand in the main square of a large city, just outside the other side of the Gate of Ivory. Three other gates ring the plaza, a barred and closed one of horn and two other open gates, made out of iron and out of ceramic. Each appears to open onto an endless, featureless plain, and we decide that, interesting as they are, they are not our immediate concern. Two springs bubble up into elaborate marble fountains; a thick, black liquid the consistency of oil flows out from one and into a pool at the middle of the courtyard, where it meets the smooth white liquid, which resembles milk, coming from the other spring, and then both separately run out through channels into the city.
A low wall, broken in sections, surrounds the plaza; it is garishly painted in blues and yellows and greens. Beyond we can see a variety of exotic dwellings - the knowledgable Cornelia points out what she thinks is the onyx-walled temple of Night, on one side, and the grey-columned palace of Morpheus, god of sleep and dreams, on the other. Various figures, some more insubstantial than others, hurry through the square or flicker in and out; some seem highly familiar, but none seem aware of us.
After some brief discussion, we decide that in a place like this, intent is crucial, and so we all focus our minds on finding Cimbrus, trying to ignore the sights around us. (It seems like a better idea to try and find Cimbrus before dealing directly with the BCP.) A road leading through the painted wall appears before us, and we walk down it, alert and weapons ready.
We soon find ourselves in a thick wood, full of oaks and willow trees; the ground is covered with dark poppies and mandragora trees also dominate the landscape. Periodically, we startle a tree full of bats, which swoop down at us, but we manage to largely prevent injury.
After some time of concentrating on Cimbrus, the wood finally becomes thinner, and we hear noises up ahead, sounds of combat. We rush forward, past the edge of the trees, and find ourselves on the outskirts of an enormous battle. Giant trees are striding forward, lashing the enemy with their branches; enormous wolf packs to the left and right of us are charging forward, and above us, a stormy sky boils and bolts of lightning come hurtling down from the clouds.
Far ahead of us, through all of the chaos, we can see what look like several assembled Roman legions, largely maintaining their positions, and beyond them, in the distance, a tall, well-fortified stone wall.
Cornelia, alone among us, gasps in recognition. "This must be a dream of mine - this is the battle at Hadrian's Wall, where my father died! But I never saw it like this...wait. This isn't my nightmare. It's Cimbrus's!"
The Druids and Caledonii charge forward, and the Legions respond with a thousand hurled javelins - directly towards us.