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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Softwind" data-source="post: 1270917" data-attributes="member: 13893">Dream SequenceYou dream.You are enveloped by a gray mist. Neither light nor dark. There is no sensation of sound, movement, heat or cold. You float. Gradually, you “feel” movement, and the gray lightens. Details resolve. You are above a mountain range, and moving closer rapidly, though there is no fear sensation.You come to a stop a few hundred feet above a forest, surrounded by hills and mountains, with a river flowing through the valley thus formed. For an unknown time, you rest there, watching the wildlife moving. And their movements become faster, as the day turns to night, and then into day again. Faster and faster, the cycle repeats.Only to slow when movement of another kind is seen. Several figures are moving out from under the cover of trees… a small band of rugged individuals, dwarf, gnome, and halfling. They appear to be scouts, each race moving towards their favored locations – into natural caverns for the dwarves, upon the hillsides and hummocks for the gnome, and the halflings – they wander all over the place. Time speeds up again, and you see the rudiments of buildings being erected. Soon, more figures become visible, visible roads emerge, the forest is pushed back from the river and the growing settlements. Then comes a sensation of force, pushing you away from the valley. You feel the need to look away, to let your eyes slide across the valley and into the sky, but you cannot. The pressure increases, pulses, throbs – then fades as your vision dims to the grey again. You hover.Again, you feel movement, and the grey parts before you, as you look upon the valley. With a shock, you realize that this is home! You recognize the settlements, the hills, the mountains that sheltered you as you grew. And you sense, rather than see, a protective arcane force over the area. Before you can puzzle it out, you notice that time seems to have started running backwards. The sun rises in the West, and sets in the East. Faster and fast, the days peel back. Days soon pass in moments. Then weeks. Months. Years. The settlement shrinks. The forest grows back rapidly. The river narrows. Soon, no sign of habitation shows. Time continues to wind backwards, though you know not the span of years that is covered before the sensation ceases. The gray mists obscure details once more, although you know that “below” you, there is still land. When the mists retreat once more, you stifle your cries of shock at the land revealed. It is harsh, cracked, barren. You realize that while the land echoes your own, this wasteland could not be your home. The sun in the sky is not the comfortable yellow you know, but a sickly red, and much larger. Even in this “nowhere” of your dream, you can almost feel the heat of the scarlet orb. You feel yourself descending towards the land below, not slowing even as you approach the scorched earth. At the last moment, your momentum shifts to the side, towards an opening in the hillside. You follow the tunnel, quicker than your own legs would carry you, towards a red glow ahead. The tunnel stretches quite a ways before eventually opening up in a large cavern lit by rivers of glowing material – you know instinctively that it is magma!Beside the flowing river of molten rock are three bands of people. Each group is clustered around a forge, powered by the lava itself. And one group echoes your own race, if only in gross form, with the other two being like unto your companion’s races. (Halfling, dwarf, and gnome) Overseeing these groups is a shadowed figure, whose face is never revealed, even by the light of the molten stone. The figure harangues the slaves (for they all bear chains and manacles) to work harder, in a language you know you have never heard before. Each group appears to fashion a rod of some strange material, and shortly, present these rods to the figure.He claims each part, in evident joy, and proceeds to make what you assume to be, mystic arcane passes over each one, before beginning to join them together. There is a disturbance however, that draws the attention of the figure before the rods can be joined completely.Near the river stands a figure, bathed in a clean golden light, with a commanding presence. Unlike the first one, this figure’s features are visible. It is a dwarf|halfling|gnome! (depending on your race – you view him as kin – but elves, humans, orcs, etc see the race changing moment by moment)There is a confrontation between the masked figure and the illuminated one. The slaves run from the conflict. The masked figure wields his newly-crafted staff, but for naught. He is ultimately overthrown by the brilliant one, although not without difficulty.When the battle ends, the rod is once again in three parts. The cowled figure is beaten, bowed, huddling. You realize then that THIS must be the Master. But you do not know who his victor is. With this thought, the bright figure smiles at you, directly. Whoever it is, knows you are there… And, you think, he is directing your vision. He nods, then turns back to the Master.With arcane gestures, he causes rifts to appear near his four targets – the rod pieces, and the Master. With an unheard shout, the Master is pulled into the void – but not before he casts something of his own. The rifts warp, causing consternation in the face of the Other, and then the Master, and the rod pieces are gone.Your vision dims. When it returns, you are once more over the valley you called home. But now, there is a presence there. Barely awake, but growing in strength as the years stream by, and you again see the places you called home. You watch the events unfold again that lead to the razing of your home. The orcs streaming from the hills, the goblins emerging from caverns, ogres coming from the trees… and something you had not seen before. Gray skinned giants emerging from the hills, to pound the strong walls of Stoneside into so much rubble. Your heart aches, and you cry out to go to your people, to save them…You awake.</blockquote>

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