Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9677491" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 97: CORONATION DAYPC Roster:  Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 20             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10/eldritch knight 4             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 10/paladin 10             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 14             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 20Game Session Date: 31 May 2025 - - -"Hey, kupo!" Mogo greeted the dreamwalking team on what could very well be their last night of life.  They had been making their preparations for the transition to undeath among the members of the Forbidden Lands, as they had still received no word from Andrea Jandoval and it was entirely possible she had failed to survive her attempt at becoming a lich.  That meant it was up to them to enter the chamber where the Conclave of Skulls was convened, an area no living creature could enter and survive.But for now, there was Dreamlands business that needed their attention.  The five stood with Mogo in the study of Chrysos Arkaunum, the gold dragon leader of the Council of Dragons.  As usual, he was in his human form; the other four members of the Council sat at their places around his large, wooden table, also in their own humanoid forms."We have come to a consensus," Chrysos announced.  "We had all agreed to assist Princess Caroline in the day-to-day running of the Dreamlands, until such time as she was able to run the place by herself.  We will, of course, still be around to give any assistance needed, but we feel there's no reason to delay Princess Caroline's ascension to the throne of the Dreamlands and taking on the title of the new Queen of Dreams.""Are you sure about that?" asked Thurloe.  "She's like, what - six years old?""She actually had a birthday a few months back," replied Chrysos, "so she's seven.  But despite her young age, Princess Caroline has shown herself to be a natural dreamwalker - a savant, really - having discovered numerous ways to alter the various dreamscapes despite having no formal training by any of the moogles.  She has figured out how to do things we dragons, despite our advanced ages and previous familiarity with the Dragonmind - a sub-part of the Dreamlands itself - cannot do as far as dream manipulations go.""But she's still only human," Alewyth pointed out.  "She only sleeps, what, eight hours a day?  The Queen of Dreams is a full-time job, surely.""That has been discussed fully, and a solution arrived at: Princess Caroline has agreed to be bitten by a hypnalis viper here in the Dreamlands, which will place her mortal body into a stasis coma and allow her dream-self to remain in the Dreamlands indefinitely.  We mention this to you now because we seek to send you into the Heart of the Dreamlands to procure us the hypnalis viper needed for the ceremony.""You want us to get a hypnalis viper to put the Princess back into a dream coma," reiterated Xandro.  "The same dream coma we worked hard to get her out of.""Different circumstances, kupo!" declared Mogo.  "And the Princess is okay with this plan?" asked Zander.  "She's giving up life in the royal family, growing up, maybe becoming the eventual ruler of Armaturia if the king never gets married and has an heir?"  Chrysos assured them that was indeed the case, and reminded them the stasis coma was always reversible if it came down to that - they'd already performed the ceremony to revive sleeping victims from their dream comas dozens of times.Once the dreamwalkers eventually agreed. Mogo reminded them that the Heart of the Dreamlands, unlike the various dreamscapes formed by sleeping minds, remained in a normal configuration.  "You've been to the Nightmare King's snake farm - that's where you're most likely to find a hypnalis viper, kupo!  And remember, we need it alive, kupo!"  The dreamwalkers made their way through the ruins at the Heart of the Dreamlands and headed over toward the area where the Nightmare King once ruled.  Xandro opted to fade into invisibility as he walked, courtesy of his ring, and Wakuren tried something he'd been wanting to try: "turning" himself into a mummy in the Dreamlands, if only to hopefully get some idea of what it would be like.  After all, it was very likely they'd each be going through their transformation rituals as early as the very next day; Alewyth had already selected and purchased her vampiric coffin, while Wakuren had picked out the canopic jars into which several of his organs would be stored after removal from his body before he was wrapped in ceremonial bandages.  Thurloe cast a Randor's telepathic bond spell so that all but Zander could communicate via thought; unfortunately, the elf sorcerer did not have his pseudodragon familiar Petey with him in the Dreamlands to "fill in the gap," as it were.They had made it past a jagged hill with a sloped side facing the pathway they were following, when one of the boulders at the crest opened its eyes and revealed itself for what it really was: a nightmare beast, one of the massive, powerful brutes that roamed this section of the Nightmare Lands and preyed upon those who passed.  It uncurled from where it had been sleeping, ran to the top of the crest, and saw four potential meals walking single-file below.  So it hurled a fireball down at Wakuren, Alewyth, and Zander, figuring to catch at least three of the four - Thurloe was too far ahead of the others, and Xandro, unbeknownst to the nightmare beast, was walking right behind the spellsword, still invisible.  Before the flames had run their course, the massive predator was making its way down the 10-foot drop of the hill's front slope, mouth open in anticipation of a quick meal, curved tusks and fangs glistening with its own saliva.Wakuren raced forward in a charge, with the shield of Cal held before him.  He channeled Cal's smiting energy through the shield as he slammed it into the nightmare beast's foreleg, and dodged the subsequent attempt by the massive brute to bite the half-orc's head off.  Behind him, Alewyth activated her butterfly brooch and took to the air, then unstoppered a potion of invisibility and drank down its contents, disappearing from view.  Thurloe activated the fly effect on his celestial armor and joined the unseen dwarf in the sky, flying up to eye level with the horrid nightmare beast.Zander cast an energy drain spell up at the nightmare beast and he could tell it had an immediate effect, for the creature actually stumbled a bit after having been hit.  It shook its head as if to shrug off the effects, but they were here to stay.  Xandro backed away from the beast and began playing the song of inspirational courage on his Dardolian Lute, as the beast went into a frenzy, snapping its tusks at Wakuren and stabbing at him with its horns, all to little effect.  But the mummified cleric was only too happy to respond with additional attacks with his shield.Alewyth suddenly popped back into view as she brought Sjondra crashing into the side of the nightmare beast's head, right as Zander cast a horrid wilting spell at it.  Thurloe wasn't quite ready to leap into melee combat with it just yet, opting instead to cast a stoneskin spell upon himself.  But Xandro, deciding he didn't want to spend this whole battle playing a tune upon his lute, rushed in and stabbed at the beast with his rapier Deathwhisper, returning to visibility along the nightmare beast's side, confident that the foes directly in front of it would keep it busy.And sure enough, it kept directing its attacks at Wakuren, the first person to hurt it - although it also made passes at Alewyth with a horn and a set of its front claws, as she was just hovering in the air before its face.  The dwarf brought Sjondra crashing down upon the top of its head for the effrontery.Zander stopped casting spells at the nightmare beast for a moment so he could focus instead on Wakuren.  Targeting the mummified half-orc with an enervation spell, he caused some of his wounds to heal up, now that Wakuren's dream form was in the semblance of an undead creature.  But Thurloe was there to pick up the slack, bringing his bastard sword Spellslicer in to cut a gash across the nightmare beast's brow.  And while the brute howled in pain from that attack, Xandro stabbed it again with his rapier multiple times.That finally directed the nightmare beast's attention towards the bard/rogue at its side, and it snapped Xandro up in its powerful jaws before the human had a chance to jump aside.  He felt energy cascading through his body while inside the beast's mouth, and figured it was some sort of energy drain attempt - an attempt he was able to shrug off with some effort.  The nightmare beast clawed at Wakuren and stabbed at him with its horns, this time getting in a fair amount of damage.  But then Wakuren slammed his shield of Cal up at the creature's throat, and between that and Xandro's rapier stabbing at it from inside, the nightmare beast finally let go of the last remaining shreds of its own life force, crashing down the hillside slope in death.  Xandro crawled out of its mouth, while Zander cast an enervation spell at Wakuren to heal up some of his wounds.  Wakuren then cast a cure serious wounds spell on Xandro, passing on the healing to another combatant who badly needed it.And with that, the dreamwalkers continued on their journey.  Xandro was the first to see the Nightmare King's snake farm off in the distance, but Wakuren was the one who saw the hypnalis viper crawling low to the ground behind a fallen tree trunk, only its head held up to spy upon the approaching strangers.  After the half-orc mummy warned the others through the link, Thurloe was able to spot it as it came slithering at full speed through the scrub brush at them, and he fired a ray of enfeeblement spell at it as it approached.  Xandro once again started his inspirational song on the lute, while Wakuren advanced toward the serpent and raised his arms, causing the hapless snake to succumb to an overwhelming, undead-induced sense of despair.  It froze up in sudden fright, allowing Wakuren to scoop it up in his arms and say the command word that sent the two of them into the interior of the magic lamp he carried at his belt.  Hesperna's lamp went dropping to the ground, and a few moments later Wakuren rematerialized at its side.  He picked it up, pocketed it again, looked to the others, and said, "Mission accomplished.""Then let's get it back to the Princess," said Zander.Princess Caroline was closer to them than they had imagined; rather than back in the old Queen of Dreams' throne room, she had been busy setting up shop in the ruins of the city the dreamwalkers had first passed through on their way to the Heart of the Dreamlands.  Mogo and the five individual moogle guides - Calliope, Doc, Kupek, Mogchamp, and Mokie - were there with her, as was her stalwart companion Mr. Toad and his new bride, watching as she opened up floating windows in mid-air around the ruins of the amphitheater, arranged in stately rows, bent in an arc so each could see the proceedings.  Behind each window sat a humanoid figure looking out; these, the dreamwalkers surmised after spotting not only Chrysos and the other members of the Dragon Council but also Knobgobble, the gnomish court jester who lived in the Imperial Castle with Princess Caroline Devlin during her waking hours, were all sleeping dragons in their lesser forms: human, elf, half-elf, dwarf, gnome.  The Princess had joined their own individual dreamscapes with the amphitheater, allowing them all to watch the ceremony without leaving their own individual dreams.  It was something none of the dreamwalkers had ever seen done before, reinforcing Chrysos Arkaurum's views that she was quite the dreamwalker savant."Knobgobble, can you see everything okay?" she called up to her jester friend.  He called back in the affirmative, after which the Princess said, "I'll need you to let my brother know that everything's okay and not to try to wake me up after I enter the dream coma again.""As you wish, Princess," promised Knobgobble.  And with that, she nodded for the five dreamwalkers to approach.They'd discussed, on the way back, how best to deal with the situation; Wakuren - no longer in his mummy form so as not to frighten Princess Caroline - dashed inside the lamp and returned with the hypnalis viper held tightly just behind its head.  Zander stepped forward and cast a polymorph any object spell upon it, shrinking it to the much more manageable size of a garter snake.  Princess Caroline rolled up one sleeve and bravely extended her arm, looking away as Wakuren brought the serpent up to her bare flesh and induced it to bite her.  Princess Caroline hissed when it bit her but refused to cry out - she was, after all, seven years old now and not a little baby any more.  But as the venom coursed through her dream form, she could feel it passing through the planes into her living, breathing body back on the Material Plane, causing her breaths to become more shallow as she slipped into the magical dream coma, a form of stasis during which she would need neither food nor drink, nor would she age - she had just made herself effectively immortal, with her consciousness now permanently inhabiting the Dreamlands, as its new ruler."Okay, that worked!" she exclaimed happily, pulling her arm away from the hypnalis viper and beaming with a wide smile.  "I don't want to be the next Queen of Dreams, as the old one kind of ruined that title for me.  I'm going to be the Princess of Dreams!  Now, let's all have cake!""What shall we do with the serpent, Your Highness?" asked Alewyth."Hmmm," thought the Princess of Dreams for a moment.  Then she turned and pointed to the ground, where she caused a glass-walled cage to appear.  "Put it in here," she said, raising the hinged lid.  Wakuren dropped the hypnalis viper into the cage and Princess Caroline promised Chrysos he and the Council could have it for study.The five moogle guides fluttered forward, a large cake held between them as they flapped their little bat-wings in unison.  It was a very nice-looking cake, dripping with frosting flowers on the top and sides - and then it started warping and shifting, as if there were something inside trying to get out."Uh oh, kupo!" called out Doc, as an explosion of spiders erupted from the cake, coating the moogles in wriggling bodies and causing them to drop the cake to the floor of the amphitheater.  But the weirdest thing of all was the fact that the five moogles all seemed to be giggling, even as they frantically brushed the tiny spiders from their kittenish fur, causing them to fall to the ground and scatter in all directions.  It didn't take long for any of the spectators to realize it wasn't the moogles who were giggling - in rather high-pitched tones, even for them - but the numerous spiders making up the swarms skittering in all directions.The spiders all had clown faces on their abdomens and, seeing this, Princess Caroline erupted in a shrill shriek of terror even though they were still dozens of feet away from her - clown spiders were her one real phobia.The five moogles involuntarily flew backwards from the dropped cake, still brushing tiny clown spiders from their fur and shuddering in revulsion.  As Mr. and Mrs. Toad took up defensive positions, positioning themselves between the Princess and the clown spider swarms, Thurloe cast a chain lightning spell at the clump closest to the Princess and the electricity arced in all directions, destroying each and every clown spider that had emerged from the fallen cake.  Xandro had run over to protect the Princess as well, and he started up the song of inspirational courage for good measure.But then another group of swarms emerged from the smashed cake, skittering off in four different directions, one swarm heading directly for the Princess.Wakuren cast an air walk spell on himself and stepped off the ground, standing on nothing.  Alewyth shifted over by Xandro, putting herself and her dwarven warhammer Sjondra on the line of defense.  At Thurloe's shouted suggestion, Zander activated his magic headband and granted himself true seeing.  "There's an invisible spellcaster around here!" the spellsword called, but try as he might, the elf couldn't see anyone who wasn't there, even with the benefit of his headband's magically-enhanced visual abilities.  He also checked out the Princess, the two toads, and the six moogles - all were what they seemed to be.  He stepped to the side so he could look up at the dragons in their dream-windows, but they were all in place - and Zander could see them all in their true, draconic forms, dragons of every possible color or metallic hue.Swearing that none of this made sense, Thurloe cast a fireball spell at the swarms, burning up quite a few members of this second wave of tittering clown spiders.  Then Wakuren cast a whirlwind spell - he hadn't had one prepared, and had to do some frantic lucid dreaming to successfully swap it out with another of his spells - which caused the remaining spiders and the cake from which they had sprung to get swept up in the spiraling blasts of air.  Alewyth cast an empowered flame strike spell down upon the flying cake, just to be sure - and the effect wasn't at all what she had hoped; rather than destroying the cake and preventing anything else from exiting, she opened wide the extradimensional rift inside the cake from which the clown spiders were emerging, and sent twice as many clown spiders as they'd already killed flying out in all directions, forming a ring around the whirlwind spell effect (which had basically just become a clown spider distribution device)."Sorry, everyone!" the dwarf priestess called, aghast that she's just made matters worse.  The toads' tongues darted out and gobbled up any clown spiders getting too close, while Princess Caroline stood rooted in fear and continued her high-pitched screaming."I've got these!" Zander called, casting another chain lightning spell that picked off the individual swarms and burned them to a crisp.  But then the next wave approached, and in many ways this wave was even worse.Each of the tiny clown spiders erupting from the cake had been about the size of the nail on a pinky finger.  But the six that approached from the front of the amphitheater were the size of the first batch the heroes had ever encountered, back when they had rescued Princess Caroline, then only six years old, from the dream coma induced by the Nightmare King - on the orders of the old Queen of Dreams.  These were each the size of a heavy warhorse, and they cackled with glee as they skittered up to the ruins in a wide line.  Arachnoid mandibles and envenomed fangs bit at each of the heroes but Xandro, who was back with the Princess and the farthest away from their approach.  Fortunately, the venom did them no harm - could not, in fact, due to the fact the five dreamwalkers had all dined upon Alewyth's ritual heroes' feast spell for breakfast, rendering them immune to all poisons.Thurloe cast a fireball spell behind the line of full-sized clown spiders, engulfing three of them in the middle of their ranks.  Each was burned by the spell, but neither of the three perished from the attack.  Xandro reactivated his ring of invisibility and crept forward, lute now silent and replaced with Deathwhisper in his hand.  Wakuren attacked the nearest of the clown spiders with his shield, while Mr. and Mrs. Toad sprang forward and bit at the offending arachnid menace.  Alewyth swung Sjondra in a mighty arc, crushing the cephalothoraxes of two in rapid succession, slaying them instantly.  Zander stepped away from the clown spiders and cast another polymorph any object at Mr. Toad, increasing his size fourfold in all directions, making him a true spider-eating menace; he took on two of the cackling arachnids all by himself.It seemed like the heroes would soon have this most recent wave of clown spiders under control.  Naturally, that's when the next wave approached, this time from the opposite direction - behind the amphitheater, ducking under the rows of dream-windows through which the various dragons were watching in horror.  This one was a true nightmare of a clown spider, the leg span of its eight spindly limbs easily a good 40 feet or so.  It laughed in a booming voice that promised a world of pain - and it was headed directly for the Princess of Dreams.As Mr. Toad and Alewyth found themselves under coordinated attack by the four remaining horse-sized spiders, Thurloe saw the approaching monstrosity and raced over to touch Princess Caroline, casting a displacement spell upon her.  She instantly seemed to jostle about, although in reality she was still frozen in fear; the spell just hid her true location by a foot or so.  Xandro, seeing the smaller clown spiders were well in hand, reversed direction and started running up the incline to the back of the ruined amphitheater, the better to get in a surprise attack upon the unsuspecting colossal clown spider, who he hoped was no better at detecting invisible foes than were his smaller compadres.Wakuren cast a holy aura spell on the group, catching everyone but Xandro - who was, unfortunately, out of range - in its protective aura.  As Mr. Toad and his much smaller wife continued fending off the smaller clown spiders, Alewyth hurriedly cast a hold monster spell at the giant arachnid now almost at the back of the amphitheater, blocked from Princess Caroline by nothing more than a 10-foot wall not even half the height of one of its legs.  But the spell had no effect, and the spider continued its advance.  Zander cast an energy drain spell on the giant spider and this did have an effect, but it too failed to prevent its continued approach.  It bent forward over the back wall of the amphitheater and bit down at the Princess of Dreams with a pair of massive mandibles dripping venom.  She was not under the effects of a heroes' feast spell, so the venom would have had some truly nasty effects upon her small body - had she actually have been there where the clown spider bit; by the grace of Thurloe's displacement spell, the spider's bite missed her completely.Then Xandro and Thurloe went at the colossal menace with their respective blades, the rogue's attacks powered by the element of surprise and the spellsword's fueled by extra strength from his torc of the titans, and as weakened as it had been from Zander's spell, they managed to kill it between the two of them.Unfortunately, this was not the end of the threat from the colossal clown spider.  Upon its death, it deflated like a balloon, and from its discarded carcass came a reptilian form with scales the color of blood.  It spread its ruby wings to free itself from the clown spider skin, then roared its defiance.  "Allow a human child to rule the Dreamlands?" scoffed the red dragon.  "Foolishness!  She's not the only one capable of altering the Dreamlands as she sees fit - as evidenced by my addition of the clown spiders to her ridiculous ceremony!  I will slay the upstart brat and her dreamwalker protectors and take over the leadership of the Dreamlands myself!  Hellflame shall be the new Queen of Dreams!"Xandro dropped immediately to the ground, activated his ring, and rolled to the side - now, hopefully, the red dragon wouldn't know his exact location.  Wakuren reached out to Princess Caroline and cast a gaseous form spell on her, turning her body into vapors.  (It not only made her almost impossible to hurt, but also stopped her incessant shrieking - nobody could scream quite like a seven-year-old girl!)  The half-orc then resumed his mummy form, for it increased the power of his spells to do so.  As Mr. Toad polished off the rest of the clown spiders, Alewyth cast a summoning spell and an elder earth elemental rose up from the ground behind Hellflame, smashing at her back with a boulder-sized fist made of solid rock.  Xandro popped back into visibility as he stabbed Deathwhisper deep into the dragon's side, all the way to the hilt.Zander pulled power from his metamagic rod and his ring of mystic lightning and sent a maximized chain lightning spell at Hellflame, causing electricity to spark all along her scaled body.  The red dragon roared in pain, and a wide gout of flame erupted from her mouth, engulfing Alewyth and Wakuren and outright slaying Mr. Toad and Zander Quilson.  (Fortunately, as this was the Dreamlands, the only effect of "killing" the elf's dream-form was to send Zander sitting upright in bed, sweat dripping from his brow, as he woke up abruptly with his heart pounding in his chest.)  The flames passed right through Princess Caroline's vaporous form, and she drifted slowly to Mr. Toad, first to see if he was alright and then to cry over his slain body.  Mrs. Toad, the former Darling Darlene Dumpling, hopped over to give the Princess what comfort she could.Wakuren had been hurt the most by the dragon's fiery breath weapon - one of the main vulnerabilities of a mummy's form - and so Thurloe cast a protection from fire spell on the half-orc.  Xandro continued his attacks with Deathwhisper, as Wakuren air walked up to Hellflame and cast a bestow curse spell on her - which sadly was unable to overcome the dragon's innate resistance to spell energy.Alewyth activated her butterfly brooch again and flew up to strike Hellflame with Sjondra, while her elder earth elemental continued its attacks from behind the great, winged reptile.Back in the Waking World, Zander called Petey over to him.  "Quick!" he called, "stab me with your tail-stinger!"  The little reptile hurried to comply, then watched in confusion as nothing happened.  "Crap!" the elf exploded, just now recalling the heroes' feast he'd eaten that morning, which made him immune even to his pseudodragon's sleep-inducing venom.  He fell back onto his bed and did his best to calm himself, using the techniques he'd learned from Mogo to fall back asleep with record speed, so he could get back to the battle going on in the Dreamlands without him.Hellflame snapped her jaws at Wakuren, holding onto him long enough for her to rake her front claws across his bandaged body.  Her wings slashed out to the sides, one catching Xandro and the other slamming into the elemental, who also got the brunt of her tail-slam attack.  Then Thurloe looked up at the towering dragon and centered a solid fog spell right between her eyes.  A ball of thick fog surrounded the majority of the dragon, who, despite her strength, made slow going in extricating herself from the thick, clinging vapors.  She could easily get out of the spell's area of effect, but not anytime soon - and she was effectively blind in the meantime!Xandro kept up the rapier stabs into her side as Wakuren cast a chain lightning spell directly into her broad chest.  Alewyth swung Sjondra into the base of her tail along the spine, as that part was readily visible outside the solid fog spell effect.  And the elder earth elemental continued pounding her right side with its boulder-fists, cracking and probably breaking a few ribs.Furious, Hellflame forced herself forward, trying to escape the fog cloud, while those around her kept up their attacks.  She, in turn, couldn't see them to retaliate, although the earth elemental was simply too big for her to miss with her lashing tail.Thurloe cast dimension door to get over to her right flank, between her two legs where he was out of the way of the elemental's attacks and yet could bring his bastard sword to bear.  Xandro continued stabbing her with Deathwhisper, glad that the fog cloud had her head trapped so she couldn't quickly spin his way and bite him in half.  Wakuren continued slamming her with his shield of Cal, once again channeling the smiting energy of the God of Air through it.  And Alewyth continued her own aerial attacks with Sjondra, while her summoned rock-creature continued pounding her with its massive fists of stone.  Eventually, Zander managed to fall back asleep and he popped back onto the battlefield; taking a look at the current situation, he cast an energy drain spell at Hellflame, weakening her even further.  But the red dragon continued pushing her way through the fog cloud spell, and already the elf sorcerer could make out a slight reddish hue and general shape of her head as it approached the cloud's outer edges - in a mere few seconds she would once again be free!  But the combined efforts of those surrounding her finally took her down with not a moment to spare: she burst her head out of the fog cloud, looked about ready to spew forth another gout of flame, but then collapsed onto the back of the amphitheater, slain by the combined efforts of her foes."You realize," pointed out Wakuren, "that this simply means she's woken up back on the Material Plane - and she's not going to be too pleased with any of us!""We will take care of her," promised Chrysos from one of the floating dream-windows.  "We'll send a team of allied dragons to deal with her on a permanent basis."With the battle now - finally - at an end, Princess Caroline deactivated the gaseous form spell and returned to solid form - or what passed for it in the Dreamlands.  She placed a hand on Mr. Toad's unmoving corpse and woke him back up to life; as he was nothing but a dream-image the Princess had conjured up to keep her company in the Dreamlands (the real Mr. Toad was a stuffed animal she'd had since she was little and Mrs. Toad was simply a figment of her active imagination, desiring her friend to have a loyal wife), there was no consciousness on the Material Plane involved.  And then, calling Mrs. Toad over to the two, she concentrated on the two amphibians and caused their bodies to change, taking on a humanoid build and becoming the size of a human adult.  "You might look like frowny frogs this way," the Princess declared (using her term for bullywugs), "but it'll be easier for you to be my bodyguards this way!"  And with another thought, she decked the two upright toads in battle armor and longspears - while keeping Mrs. Toad's trademark long eyelashes."Thank you all for saving us!" the Princess of Dreams declared to the group at large.  "That stupid red dragon shouldn't have done that...but maybe she kind of has a point."  She raised her arms to her sides and said, "Just look at me - I may be part of the Royal Family of Armaturia, but I'm still only seven.  I guess I can see why some people would want to treat me like a kid."Then, with a determined look on her young face, Princess Caroline suddenly began to grow taller.  As she did so, her face began to age, and her figure developed to that of a young woman in her twenties.  Her gown grew along with her, and her child's tiara grew into a delicate crown.  Alewyth recalled a painting she'd seen in the Royal Palace while they'd been there; the older-looking Princess Caroline now bore a striking resemblance to her deceased mother."There!" the Princess declared.  "What's the point of being able to shape dreams if I can't do the same to myself?  Mr. Toad, what do you think?"Mr. Toad's eyes bulged out, but then they always did that.Later that evening, the Princess of Dreams hosted the five dreamwalkers back in the throne room of the old Queen of Dreams.  "I guess I have to get used to this place," she sighed.  "At first, I didn't want to use anything that had belonged to the old Queen, but then I realized that was just silly.  She's gone now, and there's no point in her old stuff going to waste."She indicated a side room just off the throne room.  "For example," she said, "the Communications Room, where you were able to contact the moogles through your dreamstones.  I've figured out how to get that back up and working.  And I also worked out how to power your dreamstone items, so when you get back to the Waking World, you'll find out your items are even more powerful than they ever were before.  And Xandro?  You might as well move your dreamstone from your lute onto your sword - I'm sure you'll use that a lot more than you do your musical instrument."The Princess of Dreams looked incredibly pleased with herself.  "I may only be seven years old," she declared, "but that doesn't mean I can't do stuff!" - - - The players were all very pleased when I passed out the new equipment sheets with the details of their upgraded items; normally, in a Dreamlands adventure, there's no treasure at all, so this was an unexpected bonus.  The weapons (the shield of Cal, Sjondra, Deathwhisper, and Spellslicer) have their old dreamstone powers back in place, plus are all now "+5" weapons, while Zander's jade cooshee figurine of wondrous power can now turn into a living cooshee (like before) or a dire cooshee - and can fly.  I think Joe's eager to take the dire cooshee out for a test drive. - - - T-shirt worn: My Einstein shirt, where the smoke from his pipe turns into galaxies - my go-to shirt for adventures in the Dreamlands.  As this was the last time we'd be visiting the Dreamlands in this campaign, it seemed especially appropriate.</blockquote>

Verification