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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6464163" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>No one else had any inclination to interfere with the coins so we left the whole thing alone; I wasn’t quite sure what would happen if we began to collect the coins but it was probably for the best. We were in a dreamland anyway, so it was unlikely that these coins would stay as gold once we managed to leave; I had the same concerns about the items we had found here so far but at least they would help us while we were here. </p><p></p><p>We all flew on, concentrating on our thoughts; the Path of Sorrows seemed to preclude conversation as we all pictured sad memories. Suddenly, Longhelim stopped and looked intently into the distance; I followed his gaze and saw a figure, a rider approaching; his horse was flying but was not moving particularly fast; nor did he have any sort of lance or spear. He moved towards us in a leisurely manner and as he approached closer, Longhelim hailed him: </p><p></p><p>“Ho, Sir Knight!”</p><p></p><p>There was no reaction, just a steady approach. We all tensed and Drudge nocked an arrow. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim tried again: </p><p></p><p>“Greetings, Sir Knight!”</p><p></p><p>Again, no reaction but by this stage, he was close enough that we saw that the armour was badly torn and pierced, the helmet askew and partly broken while the barding of the horse was in fairly similar condition. Just as Longhelim was about to shout again, a strange sound, almost a gurgle came from the rider and then we saw that he had no throat; we could see right into the back of his neck. At this point, he was next to us, the horse stopped but again, there was no hostile move. </p><p></p><p>Seeing that he could not speak, I took out a quill and parchment and approached him, but as soon as I touched his hands, the whole figure, armour and all, collapsed. Oddly, he stayed on the cloud cover, as if it was a solid surface.</p><p></p><p>I looked at Longhelim, who just shrugged. In the meantime, Drudge managed to catch up to the horse and calm it down. </p><p></p><p>Felix was rummaging through his pack: </p><p></p><p>“Do we want to talk to him?”</p><p></p><p>Longhelim replied, rather surprised: </p><p></p><p>“Umm, how? He’s dead!”</p><p></p><p>The priest continued rummaging: </p><p></p><p>“I have a scroll here somewhere; I picked it up ages ago; it allows me to ask the spirit questions; not very many and it may not work but it would be nice to speak to this fellow if we can, don’t you think?”</p><p></p><p>Felix finally found his scroll and cast the spell. Unfortunately, although it worked, it did not produce a great deal of knowledge; the figure answered all of our questions with the phrase: </p><p></p><p>“Beware of the dragons!”</p><p></p><p>It repeated this over and over again, in answer to every question asked of it; so, all in all, not a great deal of help, especially as we were in a dragon’s dream. </p><p></p><p>Leaving the remains behind, we continued on our journey, this time with horse in tow; at this point, the air began to burn in solid blocks parallel to us; the flames were in quite colourful hues, mostly blue and orange; we tried to stay away from these strange walls as much as possible but suddenly there was a shout from John: </p><p></p><p>“Drudge! Wake up! This isn’t a good place to sleep!”</p><p></p><p>The ranger blinked as if rousing himself and said: </p><p></p><p>“Something’s wrong! I shouldn’t be this tired!”</p><p></p><p>He did look very pale and his skin was quite pale. Felix took out a wand and tapped him; this seemed to counteract whatever it was that was affecting the archer as he straightened up and began to move more energetically. </p><p></p><p>I looked at John with a question and he just said: </p><p></p><p>“No idea what was going on there but he looked as if he was dropping on his feet.”</p><p></p><p>We began to fly again when this time, Felix stopped, gazing into the distance. Whatever it was, he saw it some time ahead of us; but, moments later, I was able to see a dark shapeless lump flying towards us. It moved fast and seemed to be quite large. As it approached, we could begin to see that it was a mass of chains some of which waved in the air. They seemed to weave and slither like a huge assortment of snakes; I really didn’t like the look of them and I began to get ready to move out of this thing’s way. </p><p></p><p>There was a shout from Longhelim: </p><p></p><p>“Stop, Faden! If we stray from the Path of Sorrows, we may not be able to find it again!”</p><p></p><p>Glancing forward, I replied: </p><p></p><p>“That thing, whatever it is, is on the same path and it’s heading right for us. We either move or it runs us over!”</p><p></p><p>John was still looking at it when he shouted:</p><p></p><p>“No! Look, it’ll go right by us!”</p><p></p><p>I looked at it skeptically: </p><p></p><p>“If you say so, Longhelim, but be ready; I don’t like the look of that at all!”</p><p></p><p>He muttered in reply, as he drew his axe: </p><p></p><p>“Neither do I, Faden, neither do I.”</p><p></p><p>Everyone else was readying weapons and as it approached, we could hear thin wailing emitting from it, like the crying of a child. Then, as it flew by, one of its chains lashed out and wrapped itself around Victor, drawing him into the mass. Longhelim reacted immediately, flying up and hitting it with his axe; Drudge loosed off a barrage of arrows at it but individually they did not seem to do a great deal. </p><p></p><p>Seeing that swirl of chains, I cast a spell which turned me invisible and then moved slightly. Longhelim was given a spell by Felix which made him impossible to be entangled by the chains while John retreated. There were still thin, child-like wails coming for the chains but among them I heard a groan from Victor and I saw that the chain had tightened around him; I realised that he did not have very long before he was squeezed to death. Under invisibility, I flew up and, touching him, cast a spell which transported both of us just behind John. Simultaneously, Longhelim began a sequence of powerful blows onto the mass; the wails rose to shrieks and sobs and then there was a barrage of arrows from Drudge which caused the mass to go inert.</p><p></p><p>Longhelim poked it mistrustfully, ready to rain more blows on it but it just floated there. </p><p></p><p>Felix administered healing to both Victor and Longhelim and then we continued on our travels. The Path of Sorrows was as evident as ever. We bypassed several islands and had to wonder into a couple of clouds travelling the Path but the it was not until the next section of clear sky that we came across another peculiarity. It seemed incongruous at first; initially it resembled just another of the peaks which jutted out through the cloud cover; however, as we approached, we could see that its colour was different and as we stopped and observed it more closely, we could see that this was due to water pouring over its surface; curious, we approached cautiously and saw a spring gushing foaming water out of the crag, sending it tumbling down the side of the mountain into the cloud. This was unusual in itself as we had not seen anything of this type before, but it became even stranger when we approached closer. </p><p></p><p>There were solid things in the water, also tumbling down the mountain. By this point, our attention was firmly on this rather peculiar waterfall or spring or stream or whatever one could call it. Closing on its location, it became obvious that the solid things were actually creatures; all sorts of creatures: frogs, toads, snakes and even tiny dragons; I recognised these as pseudo dragons, the rarest of all dragons; a mischievous, capricious but good hearted type who often formed strong attachments to magically gifted humanoids. </p><p></p><p>I was highly tempted to attempt to form one of these attachments but then I remembered we were in a Golden Dragon’s dream and also where we were going; in the first case, it was unlikely that either the dragon or the attachment would last beyond the dream and in the second, even if one of these did decide to attach itself to me, the chance for the poor thing to survive where we were going was minimal. However, I was curious about the water from the spring so I asked everyone to stop, took out a small bottle and caught a little of it; as soon as I did that, I felt something very strange happen to my skin and glancing down as I was astonished to see that it had turned green and now had a distinct reptilian look to it. </p><p></p><p>How odd! Faden the reptile dwarf!</p><p></p><p>However, that was not the only peculiarity; there was something else. I couldn’t quite work out what was going on so I did a few quick experiments; first, I tried cutting the skin with a dagger; it was only shallow cut and my skin did not seem to be any harder than normal; it also hurt the same. Then I tried to cast a couple of tiny spells and they seemed to work; after that, I tried a few sparring moves with Victor with my dagger but that was no different; I was as clumsy as ever with weapons; finally, I lit a small taper and rapidly passed my hand through it; I didn’t feel anything; thinking I had done it too quickly, I passed it through the flame more slowly and again did not feel anything. </p><p></p><p>More excited, I cautiously left my hand in the flame…….and felt nothing; really nothing; it was as if the flame did not exist. The others stared at me with bemusement and I moved to Longhelim: </p><p></p><p>“Your axe; unsheathe it for a moment!”</p><p></p><p>Dubiously, the paladin took out his axe and the head burst into flame as usual. Cautiously, I put my hand into that flame, ready to withdraw but again I felt nothing; it was as if I had become fireproof. This was very exciting. </p><p></p><p>I turned to the others: </p><p></p><p>“Look, no pain! Fire doesn’t hurt me!”</p><p></p><p>John raised his eyebrows and quipped back: </p><p></p><p>“Yes, but you look like a lizard!”</p><p></p><p>However, Victor was looking with interest and cautiously approached the spring. Gently, he put his hand in the water and let it run over it. Immediately, his skin turned green and scaly like mine; again he asked Longhelim for his help and using the flame from the axe, saw that it did not hurt him. And despite his comment earlier, irrepressible John immediately got some water as well and also joined the scaly group. Longhelim, Felix and Drudge looked dubiously at the rest of us and politely declined to partake of the waters. </p><p></p><p>After that, we continued on our journey. </p><p></p><p>The region began to have more islands at this stage and on one of them, we saw the strangest thing. As we approached, we could see a great deal of movement; it was incredibly fast, jerky movement as if time moved differently there. We approached as cautiously as usual and upon closer examination, we saw small people, a swarm of tiny individuals in fact; they were building castles, cities, dams, rivers; we could see that some were fighting, others were sitting and talking; we could see tiny schools, farms and settlements; it was as if the whole mountain was a world and we were seeing the tip of the civilization, with its peaks and troughs; it was the strangest sight, being able to see history being made. I passed this peak reluctantly; I was very curious to know what this group and I would have dearly liked to have observed them, but unfortunately, we had to go. </p><p></p><p>Journeying on, we saw another peak in the distance, although this one had the most peculiar shape; upon closing on the location, we saw that it wasn’t a peak at all but a rather strange animal; as we approached, I saw that it wasn’t a strange animal at all but in fact it was a cow; but a cow the size of a mountain. </p><p></p><p>Again, we approached; the Path of Sorrows took us straight past this creature. Silently we walked and as we came closer, I could see that blood was pouring out of wounds in the creature’s body, forming enormous rivers. It was quite grisly and became even more so as I realised that the creature’s eyes were alive and rolling to follow us. It did not make a sound; there was no sign that it was in pain. Again, as we walked past, there was no sound. </p><p></p><p>As we left it behind, I muttered to myself: </p><p></p><p>“That has to be the biggest cow I have ever seen. Even for a dream that was strange!”</p><p></p><p>Drudge was right behind me and as he flew past me, he whispered, shaking his head:</p><p></p><p>“Faden, it was an ox!”</p><p></p><p>Oh! I must confess I felt a little foolish.</p><p></p><p>We continued travelling, following the Path of Sorrows.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6464163, member: 6692807"] No one else had any inclination to interfere with the coins so we left the whole thing alone; I wasn’t quite sure what would happen if we began to collect the coins but it was probably for the best. We were in a dreamland anyway, so it was unlikely that these coins would stay as gold once we managed to leave; I had the same concerns about the items we had found here so far but at least they would help us while we were here. We all flew on, concentrating on our thoughts; the Path of Sorrows seemed to preclude conversation as we all pictured sad memories. Suddenly, Longhelim stopped and looked intently into the distance; I followed his gaze and saw a figure, a rider approaching; his horse was flying but was not moving particularly fast; nor did he have any sort of lance or spear. He moved towards us in a leisurely manner and as he approached closer, Longhelim hailed him: “Ho, Sir Knight!” There was no reaction, just a steady approach. We all tensed and Drudge nocked an arrow. Longhelim tried again: “Greetings, Sir Knight!” Again, no reaction but by this stage, he was close enough that we saw that the armour was badly torn and pierced, the helmet askew and partly broken while the barding of the horse was in fairly similar condition. Just as Longhelim was about to shout again, a strange sound, almost a gurgle came from the rider and then we saw that he had no throat; we could see right into the back of his neck. At this point, he was next to us, the horse stopped but again, there was no hostile move. Seeing that he could not speak, I took out a quill and parchment and approached him, but as soon as I touched his hands, the whole figure, armour and all, collapsed. Oddly, he stayed on the cloud cover, as if it was a solid surface. I looked at Longhelim, who just shrugged. In the meantime, Drudge managed to catch up to the horse and calm it down. Felix was rummaging through his pack: “Do we want to talk to him?” Longhelim replied, rather surprised: “Umm, how? He’s dead!” The priest continued rummaging: “I have a scroll here somewhere; I picked it up ages ago; it allows me to ask the spirit questions; not very many and it may not work but it would be nice to speak to this fellow if we can, don’t you think?” Felix finally found his scroll and cast the spell. Unfortunately, although it worked, it did not produce a great deal of knowledge; the figure answered all of our questions with the phrase: “Beware of the dragons!” It repeated this over and over again, in answer to every question asked of it; so, all in all, not a great deal of help, especially as we were in a dragon’s dream. Leaving the remains behind, we continued on our journey, this time with horse in tow; at this point, the air began to burn in solid blocks parallel to us; the flames were in quite colourful hues, mostly blue and orange; we tried to stay away from these strange walls as much as possible but suddenly there was a shout from John: “Drudge! Wake up! This isn’t a good place to sleep!” The ranger blinked as if rousing himself and said: “Something’s wrong! I shouldn’t be this tired!” He did look very pale and his skin was quite pale. Felix took out a wand and tapped him; this seemed to counteract whatever it was that was affecting the archer as he straightened up and began to move more energetically. I looked at John with a question and he just said: “No idea what was going on there but he looked as if he was dropping on his feet.” We began to fly again when this time, Felix stopped, gazing into the distance. Whatever it was, he saw it some time ahead of us; but, moments later, I was able to see a dark shapeless lump flying towards us. It moved fast and seemed to be quite large. As it approached, we could begin to see that it was a mass of chains some of which waved in the air. They seemed to weave and slither like a huge assortment of snakes; I really didn’t like the look of them and I began to get ready to move out of this thing’s way. There was a shout from Longhelim: “Stop, Faden! If we stray from the Path of Sorrows, we may not be able to find it again!” Glancing forward, I replied: “That thing, whatever it is, is on the same path and it’s heading right for us. We either move or it runs us over!” John was still looking at it when he shouted: “No! Look, it’ll go right by us!” I looked at it skeptically: “If you say so, Longhelim, but be ready; I don’t like the look of that at all!” He muttered in reply, as he drew his axe: “Neither do I, Faden, neither do I.” Everyone else was readying weapons and as it approached, we could hear thin wailing emitting from it, like the crying of a child. Then, as it flew by, one of its chains lashed out and wrapped itself around Victor, drawing him into the mass. Longhelim reacted immediately, flying up and hitting it with his axe; Drudge loosed off a barrage of arrows at it but individually they did not seem to do a great deal. Seeing that swirl of chains, I cast a spell which turned me invisible and then moved slightly. Longhelim was given a spell by Felix which made him impossible to be entangled by the chains while John retreated. There were still thin, child-like wails coming for the chains but among them I heard a groan from Victor and I saw that the chain had tightened around him; I realised that he did not have very long before he was squeezed to death. Under invisibility, I flew up and, touching him, cast a spell which transported both of us just behind John. Simultaneously, Longhelim began a sequence of powerful blows onto the mass; the wails rose to shrieks and sobs and then there was a barrage of arrows from Drudge which caused the mass to go inert. Longhelim poked it mistrustfully, ready to rain more blows on it but it just floated there. Felix administered healing to both Victor and Longhelim and then we continued on our travels. The Path of Sorrows was as evident as ever. We bypassed several islands and had to wonder into a couple of clouds travelling the Path but the it was not until the next section of clear sky that we came across another peculiarity. It seemed incongruous at first; initially it resembled just another of the peaks which jutted out through the cloud cover; however, as we approached, we could see that its colour was different and as we stopped and observed it more closely, we could see that this was due to water pouring over its surface; curious, we approached cautiously and saw a spring gushing foaming water out of the crag, sending it tumbling down the side of the mountain into the cloud. This was unusual in itself as we had not seen anything of this type before, but it became even stranger when we approached closer. There were solid things in the water, also tumbling down the mountain. By this point, our attention was firmly on this rather peculiar waterfall or spring or stream or whatever one could call it. Closing on its location, it became obvious that the solid things were actually creatures; all sorts of creatures: frogs, toads, snakes and even tiny dragons; I recognised these as pseudo dragons, the rarest of all dragons; a mischievous, capricious but good hearted type who often formed strong attachments to magically gifted humanoids. I was highly tempted to attempt to form one of these attachments but then I remembered we were in a Golden Dragon’s dream and also where we were going; in the first case, it was unlikely that either the dragon or the attachment would last beyond the dream and in the second, even if one of these did decide to attach itself to me, the chance for the poor thing to survive where we were going was minimal. However, I was curious about the water from the spring so I asked everyone to stop, took out a small bottle and caught a little of it; as soon as I did that, I felt something very strange happen to my skin and glancing down as I was astonished to see that it had turned green and now had a distinct reptilian look to it. How odd! Faden the reptile dwarf! However, that was not the only peculiarity; there was something else. I couldn’t quite work out what was going on so I did a few quick experiments; first, I tried cutting the skin with a dagger; it was only shallow cut and my skin did not seem to be any harder than normal; it also hurt the same. Then I tried to cast a couple of tiny spells and they seemed to work; after that, I tried a few sparring moves with Victor with my dagger but that was no different; I was as clumsy as ever with weapons; finally, I lit a small taper and rapidly passed my hand through it; I didn’t feel anything; thinking I had done it too quickly, I passed it through the flame more slowly and again did not feel anything. More excited, I cautiously left my hand in the flame…….and felt nothing; really nothing; it was as if the flame did not exist. The others stared at me with bemusement and I moved to Longhelim: “Your axe; unsheathe it for a moment!” Dubiously, the paladin took out his axe and the head burst into flame as usual. Cautiously, I put my hand into that flame, ready to withdraw but again I felt nothing; it was as if I had become fireproof. This was very exciting. I turned to the others: “Look, no pain! Fire doesn’t hurt me!” John raised his eyebrows and quipped back: “Yes, but you look like a lizard!” However, Victor was looking with interest and cautiously approached the spring. Gently, he put his hand in the water and let it run over it. Immediately, his skin turned green and scaly like mine; again he asked Longhelim for his help and using the flame from the axe, saw that it did not hurt him. And despite his comment earlier, irrepressible John immediately got some water as well and also joined the scaly group. Longhelim, Felix and Drudge looked dubiously at the rest of us and politely declined to partake of the waters. After that, we continued on our journey. The region began to have more islands at this stage and on one of them, we saw the strangest thing. As we approached, we could see a great deal of movement; it was incredibly fast, jerky movement as if time moved differently there. We approached as cautiously as usual and upon closer examination, we saw small people, a swarm of tiny individuals in fact; they were building castles, cities, dams, rivers; we could see that some were fighting, others were sitting and talking; we could see tiny schools, farms and settlements; it was as if the whole mountain was a world and we were seeing the tip of the civilization, with its peaks and troughs; it was the strangest sight, being able to see history being made. I passed this peak reluctantly; I was very curious to know what this group and I would have dearly liked to have observed them, but unfortunately, we had to go. Journeying on, we saw another peak in the distance, although this one had the most peculiar shape; upon closing on the location, we saw that it wasn’t a peak at all but a rather strange animal; as we approached, I saw that it wasn’t a strange animal at all but in fact it was a cow; but a cow the size of a mountain. Again, we approached; the Path of Sorrows took us straight past this creature. Silently we walked and as we came closer, I could see that blood was pouring out of wounds in the creature’s body, forming enormous rivers. It was quite grisly and became even more so as I realised that the creature’s eyes were alive and rolling to follow us. It did not make a sound; there was no sign that it was in pain. Again, as we walked past, there was no sound. As we left it behind, I muttered to myself: “That has to be the biggest cow I have ever seen. Even for a dream that was strange!” Drudge was right behind me and as he flew past me, he whispered, shaking his head: “Faden, it was an ox!” Oh! I must confess I felt a little foolish. We continued travelling, following the Path of Sorrows. [/QUOTE]
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