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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 4200788" data-attributes="member: 5203">Both sides moved rapidly toward each other.  The dragon snatched a thick crystal branch off a nearby tree as in ran forward, and flung it at Yuri, who was leading the charge.  The branch caught her mid-leap and sent her crashing to the ground.  While she was still reeling, the dragon focused his power on her, but she just managed to free herself from its psionic power as she felt the flesh on her body begin to pull and tear.    The wyrm launched itself into the air as the others drew closer, circling wide over the tops of the trees.  Those who were able followed it into the sky, Autumn leading the way as Kyle sprouted metallic wings and Arrie focused the power of her psicrown into flight.  Kyle summoned a blade of force which began chasing the dragon through the air, while Arrie and Autumn tried to maneuver to cut off its flight path and the others waited for an opportunity to strike.  Yuri leapt into the air as the dragon passed overhead, but her leap was short by mere inches.  The dragon’s tail whipped out and sent shards of crystal flying toward Lajila and Nidru, who dove to take cover.    Wheeling around, the dragon suddenly twisted in midair and grabbed onto Kyle, squeezing him in a massive claw.  But a second later it was a psionically-enhanced Arrie who was in the dragon’s grip, and she proceeded to slip out of its claws and land a solid blow with Anyweapon.  Unperturbed, the beast flew on, quickly outpacing Arrie, and with a casual flick of a foreclaw send a telekinetic pulse toward Tolly, knocking his soulsteel weapon out of his hand.  It then batted Autumn out of the way as she charged in, and on its next pass around tore into Arrie with teeth and claws.    The Legacy positioned themselves for another pass as the sapphire dragon banked.  Autumn summoned divine power as energy lanced from her eyes, but it reflected off the gem-like scales harmlessly.  A prismatic spray by Kyle was similarly refracted away.  Scowling, Kyle closed his eyes briefly, focusing his mind on recalling the pattern of a spell in his grimoire and forcing it to take shape.  A beam of blue-white energy shot out of the crystal sphere atop his staff, striking the dragon in the head with an ear-splitting crack.  The dragon’s eyes glazed, and it was unable to focus on keeping itself in the air.  The wyrm crashed into the forest, sending shards of crystal flying.  As it crashed, Lajila and Nidru focused their combined wills on summoning a wall of blades in its path, though the dragon managed to avoid the worst of the barrier.    It was the opening they’d waited for, and the Legacy took advantage.  Autumn dove onto the dragon’s back, her falchion digging deep into its scaly hide and sending blood spraying into the air.  Yuri rammed her greatspear into its neck, feeling the satisfying jolt as the end of her spear hit bone.  And Osborn, who had lurked invisibly amidst the trees waiting to get into range, ran forward and placed several daggers in the dragon’s more vulnerable spots.    Roaring with rage, the dragon focused its will, and sent a pulse of psychic power out all around him.  Suddenly everyone in the Legacy felt the agony of the wounds they had just inflicted, while a wave of relief passed over the dragon’s face.  It then vanished, reappearing inside the circle created by the blade barrier, using it as a defense.  Autumn and Kyle flew over the spinning blades, while Arrie moved to pick up Osborn and carry him into battle.  Kyle shot another beam of energy at the dragon, but this one was black as pitch and drew the dragon’s life force away.  Yuri, screaming a battle cry, leapt over the blades, and charged at the dragon.  But its massive claws caught her first, ripping and tearing at the Sargian dragoon.  Knocking her back almost to the blade barrier, the dragon opened its mouth and emitted a blast of deafening sound which enveloped both Yuri and Kyle.  The energy of the dragon’s breath would have torn Yuri apart, if not for a protective spell placed on her earlier, but for the first time the Sargian’s mind came to grips just how terrifying this beast was.  Dropping her spear, she vaulted back over the blades and began to run.    “Damn,” Kyle said, falling back as he saw Yuri run.  With her speed, she could easily get lost in the endless crystal forest, and finding her would be impossible.  He cast a rope trick spell into a clearing just ahead of Yuri, hoping she would seek its shelter.  At the same time, Lajila cast a spell in the same clearing that would ease Yuri’s terror once she reached it, and Nidru brought down the blades separating the Legacy from the dragon.    Snarling, the dragon once again took flight, but this time it did not bank to return to battle, but continued flying straight, away from the battle.  Within moments, its silhouette was no bigger than a sparrow.    “Tell Kristyan we’re coming for him next!” Yuri yelled at the vanishing wyrm.     Everyone gathered at the clearing where Yuri had come to a halt.  “Thanks,” she said to Kyle and Lajila.    The party made use of the rope trick, climbing inside to tend to their wounds in case the dragon returned or any other enemies came by.  Then they backtracked to where the sapphire dragon had emerged from the ground, and found a rough tunnel that led to an underground chamber.  There they discovered a cache of valuables, including a sword and a crystalline structure that Kyle confirmed were charged with psionic power.  There were also several of the large strips of silver dragon flesh in the chamber, heaped in a pile.    “What do you make of this?” Osborn asked.  “Silver dragons serve Feesha.”    “Perhaps they had to kill an existing dragon to create that sapphire beast,” Kyle mused, “or a silver was transformed, and this is the result of a very rapid molting.”    Claiming their reward, the Legacy returned to the surface and began to navigate through the dreamscape again, led by Tolly’s will.  The incline of the land grew gradually steeper, with no apparent peak in sight.  After an hour’s walk, Kyle stopped, and looked around.    “We’re inside a giant egg,” he announced.    This fact soon became apparent to everyone.  The area of Dream they were in had been shaped like a huge egg, with the crystal forest covering the inside of the ‘shell’.  Had they been forced to traverse it as they would land in the real world, it might take them months to circle around to where they had started.    With little choice but to keep going, the Legacy pressed on.  They knew that within the bizarre architecture of the Dream Realm, their journey would lead to a destination, even if none was apparent.  Sure enough, after another hour they began to notice cracks in the shell-like ground under their feet, and a short time later they could actually see a point where the trees ended.    They came to the top of an abrupt cliff face, with the edge dropping down into nothingness.  Hovering in the air all around them, they saw enormous, jagged shards of shell, as though a hole had been broken in the egg… or something had hatched.    “Where now?” Autumn asked.    Tolly scratched at his beard.  “Well, it is a dream, so…”  He walked forward and stepped off the edge of the cliff.    Everyone rushed forward to see Tolly standing there, protruding horizontally from the cliff.  Soon everyone had made the transition, and they were traversing the edge of the eggshell, which was roughly a mile thick.    They came out on an open plain.  The ground appeared soft and cloud-like, though it felt solid.  Rising up out of the clouds in the distance was a palatial structure made entirely of crystal, which flashed and sparkled despite the apparent lack of a light source.  Much closer to the party, a round, table-shaped stone jutted out of the mist.  There were unfamiliar markings on the stone.    As everyone moved toward the stone, Arrie blinked and shook her head.    “What’s wrong?” Autumn asked.    “Nothing.  The glyphs on the stone… they kind of translated themselves in my mind.”  She turned to her friends.  “It’s from Aran.”    They gathered close as Arrie read the message.  “To the Legacy – I’m not in a position where I can offer much help.  However, I can give you a safe place to rest.  Place those items of power that represent you best upon the stone.”    “But do we even have time to rest?” Tolly asked as Arrie finished the translation.    “I doubt that Aran would have offered it otherwise,” Arrie said.  She drew forth Anyweapon, shaping it into a simple longsword, and placed it atop the stone table.  It immediately rose into the air, hovering over the table with the blade pointing down, and the air around them began to shimmer slightly.  Kyle was next, placing his staff on the table.  The staff seemed to shiver slightly at first, reacting to the presence of a psionic item, but soon it rose into the air next to Arrie’s blade.    Autumn drew her falchion Faithful Avenger even as Tolly shaped his soulsteel into a maul and placed it on the stone, followed by Yuri’s greatspear and the Ladtan relic-coin that Osborn carried.  The shimmering in the air intensified as each item was laid down, and as they rose and began to slowly orbit each other, they could see that the world beyond that shimmering was slowing down, until it seemed almost frozen in time.    Arrie reached out and touched the cool surface of the stone.  “I don’t know if you can hear this, Aran,” she said quietly, “but thank you.”</blockquote>

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