Tide of Shadows

[Academia Nut]

As Fehl crawled out of the grave the mirror seemed to repair itself slightly, causing the shadow Fehl to retreat its hand back through to the other side, but its grin did not abate.

Snapping out of the grave, the chain lunged at Fehl and attempted to wrap around him once more, but it missed striking at him and instead overshot to lay coiled next to him like some faceless, metal snake.

[rhoenix]

Looking at the chain, now coiled up next to him like chain-link snake, Fehl smiled. He had seen how his duplicate had retreated back into the mirror, now that he wasn't helpless.

He felt the eldritch energy within him stirring as he looked at the chain snake. If this was his duplicate's familiar, and if it was a metal familiar...then he knew how to hurt his impostor. His smile widened as a few sparks appeared around his hand, dancing frantically across his skin before savagely punching the coiled chain next to him, electricity bursting as his fist made impact.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The wizard leaned over

"His eyes are not moving, no one in a loose sleep would be this still." the wizard put his mask over his head and spoke the command. A few seconds later he turned back. "No overt magical effects" Then it dawned on him. They were dealing with a god of dreams, and the statue did induce this sleep.

"I am going to enter his mind and see what is going on" he said, worry in his normally cold voice. Not that he particularly cared about the Sleeper, but this could be bad in general.

He put a hand just above Fehl's head and spoke several words

"Eingeweihter, Meinungen, Gedanken, entdeckt"

His eyes glowed yellow for a moment

"Ok, everyone here is a thinking being" he narratted as the continued the spell. "He is of above average intelligence, never would have guessed"

As the spell progressed he felt his mind shut down and cut off in mid sentence "Something is..." and he fell to the floor of the cart with a loud thud in the same deathly sleep as Fehl.

...

He fell through a dark tunnel, it felt very real, he even had that gut-wrenching sensation that came with a long fall. But he knew where he had been a second ago and there was no way he could actually be falling. The same fate that had befallen Fehl had befallen him. This was a supernatural dream. The moment he comprehended that his fall slowed and he soon landed as if on a soft feather bed.

Around him he saw a rather interesting scene unfold. There was Fehl, pulling himself bodily out of his own grave. And there he was again coming out of a mirror. It did not take a genius like Ophidia to realize what was going on.

[Academia Nut]

Fehl's hand struck metal, which was to say he didn't even dent it, but the power flowed through him into the chain, sparking through it, melting metal and popping links where he struck. Still, the thing remained intact and instead of trying to ensnare him again, it struck out like a whip, drawing a small line of blood across Fehl's unarmoured skin.

Then the wizard dropped into the scene.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Fehl was trying the wrong tactic by attacking the chain Ophidia thought. The mirror was the logical target. He did not know if he could access his spells in this dreamscape. But seeing as Fehl could, it stood to reason that he could at least access his arcane power if not speak the words of spells.

He dove into his mind and tapped into his Scintillating Sphere spell, but only partially.

(The following effect conditional on GM approval. It could fizzle)

His hands began to crackle with energy, energy which became lightning, and struck out from his fingers in the guise of a line of biting and snapping electrical snakes toward the mirror.

[Rogue 9]

"Blue blazes," Bartel snarled as Ophidia collapsed over Fehl. He pulled sharply on his mule's reins, bringing the cart to a halt. He leaped over the driver's bench into the bed of the cart and shook them both roughly. "Wake up, damn it!"

[rhoenix]

With a silent roar of pure will, the very air around Fehl seemed to vibrate for a moment. The scratch that drew blood before seemed to close up on itself as if it had never been, as eldritch shimmers began to appear in his right hand and around his torso. Just as suddenly, he stopped yelling, only to glare with a twisted grin at his reflection in the mirror.

Now, his armor from the waking world surrounded him, and his greatsword was balanced on his shoulder, both shimmering slightly.

"Fool. Magic itself is my familiar," he said silently to his fake.

Fehl's left foot stepped back, his stance changing from his usual casual one into one facing the enemy from the side, his right hand holding the handle of the greatsword high up on the handle, the great blade moving easily with his strength. It was extended straight out, his right arm holding the blade aloft and straight, pointed right at the mirror.

"I won't miss," he said, as his left hand trailed through the air behind him, before coming to a rest. All was still for a moment, when suddenly he charged at the mirror with a roar, leaping high into the air as he did.

[LadyTevar]

The two SilverStars had been riding the paladin's warhorse alongside, listening to the conversation in the wagon without speaking. Ceridwen reined Hurin in as Bartel stopped the cart. As Bartel tried to shake the two mages awake, Ceridwen looked instead to the statue, held by the cobra.

"Snake, whatever's happened to your master is that statue's fault. Please drop it over the side of the wagon?" Ceridwen asked politely, dismounting from Hurin and pulling out her pick.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The snake only knew how to speak to his master, he had yet to learn human speech proper. However he knew the Knight was addressing him, and had pointed to the statue, and the ground

Despite the fact that he was naturally dim compared to even the least talented human wizards, sheer exposure to his master had taught him a few things.

If the statue was causing this directly, distance might sever the link. If not... his master would figure out a way to get them out of whatever just happened. He always did.

The snake, rather than dropping the statue, grabbed it in his mouth, and bolted off the side of the wagon and slithered away as fast as he could. He did not want someone else picking this up

(run action away from wagon 80 ft movement)

[LadyTevar]

"Dammit! What is that stupid snake Doing!?"

[Charon]

Eight, while all this chaos occured, simply sat back and watched, a low chuckle coming from deep within the bowels of the creature. Eventually however, the show became boring.

"Cleric, you can heal wounds yes?"

[Academia Nut]

With a great crack the mirror shattered, exploding outward in a blizzard of shining glass shards that flayed skin from flesh and cut through metal as if it weren't there. The chain was swept away into a pile of broken iron links, but both Fehl and Ophidian survived, if greivously wounded. Where the mirror once stood there was a hole in reality itself, the shadow Fehl still standing behind it, untouched by the sword or the explosion.

He started laughing, the first sound in this bizarre dreamscape just as the walls of the room Fehl and Ophidian found themselves in began to crack and break apart like glaciers meeting the ocean in spring time. With a final rumbling fracture, the entire room disintegrated, leaving the two mind lost mages to tumble out into a grey infinity, the shadow Fehl taking flight after them while cackling madly at their stupidity.

A shadow Ophidian joined him shortly after, cackling with joy as the two of them dive bombed their tumbling counterparts, Fehl getting smacked across the arm, withering and atrophying the limb slightly as the strength was sucked from it, but by some fluke Ophidian managed to twist out of the way of his dark clone.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The words Happy Camper did not define what Ophidian was at that moment. At this point he was casting about, desperately trying to figure out the rules for the dreamscape he was in.

Then he remembered. This was still a dreamscape, and in a dreamscape he could control what occurred with sufficient strength of will. He knew that hitting the ground would hurt. A lot. So he didnt want to do that. He forced his will upon the dreamscape and along with Fehl came to land on a featureless plane.

The second thing he did was close his eyes and once against try to exert his will upon the pseudoworld. This time to erect a barrier of force to defend against incorporeal attackers. He did not know what they were trying to do, but it was generally a bad thing to have incorporeal beings touch you.

With a hard and ragged breath, a shimmering bright spherical barrier came into existence around himself, crackling with arcane power.

If his shadow was a true reflection, it might be able to do something with the barrier. If it was not, it had no means of dispelling the barrier, and he would be safe within it still bleeding horribly, but safe.

The stopping of horrible bleeding was next on his list of things to do. He flashed a few symbols with his hands

"vorläufige Lebenskraft"

The bleeding mostly stopped. And what was odd, was that he could still remember the incantation. He grinned widely. The tables just turned.

[rhoenix]

As he fell, and as the echoing laughter of his own voice echoed in his ears, Fehl remembered what he'd read in some finger-waggler's book once: dreams are an artifact of the mind, and could be controlled by the mind.

"Land," he said softly.

His reflexes didn't fail him, allowing him to keep his stance as he was suddenly standing on solid ground again, if grey and featureless. He felt his strength returning, along with his resolve. He looked at his twin, floating ghostly before him, still cackling away.

"I'm going to kill you," Fehl said to his twin flatly. His twin began to solidify, looking somewhat surprised as it happened.

Fehl's left hand traced a few symbols in midair, and he said a few words before pointing right at his twin. "Die," he said, right before swinging his greatsword at his twin as hard as he could, channeling the eldritch energies into his blade as electricity, releasing violently into his twin as his blade made impact.

The twin exploded into a shower of black oil, gently pattering the ground. As he regarded the black droplets, congealing upon the ground, he took a deep breath in reverence, before his familiar smirk returned. He regarded the black droplets around him before speaking in a mocking tone. "Told you there was only room for one of me in this world. Bitch."

[Academia Nut]

Shocked, the twin of Ophidian howled and rushed at Fehl, catching him square in the back, withering muscles along both shoulders, causing Fehl to slump and stumble slightly as the weight upon him from his gear suddenly felt like lead weights.

Meanwhile, the black oil began to grow and expand, each individual drop becoming a dead body, shadowed over. One of the drops grew larger and larger until it formed a great worm-like creature with a face full of waggling tentacles, feasting upon the dead bodies until it looked up and screeched at the intrusion upon its feeding and charged Fehl, it's leading tentacle bouncing off his armour, but just barely.

[rhoenix]

Feeling the shadowy claws tear through his skin and into his very being seemed to rob Fehl of a good deal of the strength of his he valued so much. Even so, he didn't lament it. "Wait your turn," he growled to Ophidian's twin. "You're next."

As he spoke, the shadowy, incorporeal twin of one of his new companions became corporeal, eyes widening behind its shadowy mask as it realized what was about to happen. Fehl smiled coldly in response.

Suddenly, he struck hard at the shadowy twin of the mage, fire bursting from the edge of his sword as it made contact with the mage. It exploded into tiny black oily droplets, raining softly around him.

The growl of the tentacled...thing behind him caused him to turn around, and regard the thing more with a look of annoyance than anything else. He tried to raise his sword one-handed to point at the thing, grumbled as he realized he no longer had the strength to do so, and used both hands then. "Your turn," he said softly, as he regarded the strange figure.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidian had a suspicion. One of Noxeus' themes was dream interpretation. Perhaps this dream had a purpose other than malevolence? He had to figure out what these images were. He closed his eyes and tried to summon the will to cast Detect Undead even though it was not prepared, reasoning that incorporeal beings might be undead. But then Fehl screamed and he was distracted.

He opened his eyes to see one of the shadows, Fehl's twin, in several small pools on the ground, with his twin just finishing up a pass.

"Damn! I missed it!" he swore to himself. But he did notice what came after. The oil drops became dead bodies shadowed over, and one grew into a carrion crawler which was attacking Fehl. That was a secondary concern.

Now that he was specifically looking for this. He realized Noxeus was warning them. Telling them something. The bodies connected figures to the town. The evil twin was made of the bodies, bodies that were..shadowed over. Shadows! The wizard thought in frenzy.

Then he disassociated. He did not fall, the scenery changed around him, suddenly shifting frame of reference to the village. He saw through their eyes. Someone saw a figure in the mist. A shadowy form. There were attacks on villagers. Naturally they turned to their priest for protection, but he was inadequate to the task of turning that many shadows, who seemed to be surrounding the town. Waiting, not attacking. The halflings were killed immediately. Why did they wait at the village? He could see the villagers huddled around their priest, as he counseled them, all the while shadows lurking just inside visual range of the windows and doors. Slowly however, he was driven to madness. His counseling and ministration becoming more and more ineffective. Only enhancing their terror. He saw the priest kill himself, and the villagers scream. The screaming only continued as the shadows closed in around them, and increased with each death. The army of shadows grew.

He scenery changed once more and he once again stood before Fehl just as he destroyed Ophidian's own shadow twin

A thought fluttered through his mind. A thought that filled him with dread.

"They were waiting for the priest to go mad" he said aloud inside the dreamscape, in so far as it could be heard by anyone

He did not know how, they were not intelligent enough to do that on their own. They were being controlled by someone. Someone could create an army this way. Moving from village to village, killing and turning the populations. The bigger the army, the bigger settlements could be taken. The entire region could be besieged by the living dead with little effort after something like this got started. All those books left untended. All of those minds ended. All of that knowledge lost. The very thought of it made the wizard cringe.

There were two ways a dream like this ended. Either the deity released you once you get or die in the dream... or you understand and release yourself.

He closed his eyes and tried the later. It did not function.

He understood, so one of the preconditions had not been met. The last was probably defeating the challenges set before them.

He looked at the carrion crawler, and uttered the words of a spell.

"Vielfache nicht greifbare Kiefer"

He even tried to maximize its effect, but he was too distraught to summon forth the will. Ironic for someone using his mind to essentially solve the dreamscape.

From his hands spang a large disembodied viper-head which latched into the carrion crawler and started to gnaw. Chewing its way through the creature and spattering into its component parts in a shower of little oil dropletts.

[Academia Nut]

Just before it was caught in the snapping jaws and crushed to a pulp, the carrion crawler sent all of its tentacles smacking into Fehl, but only one managed to slip through his defences, filling him with a chilling numb that he managed to shrug off. As Ophidian's spell crushed the foul creature the dreamscape around them shattered, sending them hurtling back into the waking world.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The wizard woke with a start.

"The dream was prophetic, Noxeus is benign. Entire region about to be infected by undead menace. Let me collect my thoughts for a moment and call back my familiar"

A few seconds later, the snake was back, holding the statue.

[rhoenix]

Stretching and yawning comfortably, Fehl smacked his lips a few times, smiling sleepily as he awoke, though smiled much less once he realized that he was bouncing around in a semi-comfortable position at best in a bumpy cart, pulled by a mule.

Giving himself and all his belongings an almost automatic once-over (one got the impression he'd been around roguish types before), he sat up and smiled broadly.

"Yeah," he said, yawning comfortably, as he scratched his side lazily. "That was kinda fun. I don't need to go see a priest when we get back, by the way - unless she's hot, and wearing nothing beneath her robes. In that case, I'll have a discussion with her about the evils of the bottle, complete with examples."

"Oh hey," he said, turning toward the finger-waggler in robes. "Thanks for your help in there. It did speed things up. By the way," he said, turning back toward the front, "where are we?"

[Rogue 9]

Bartel let go of Fehl's shoulders as he jolted awake. "By all the gods, what happened?" He stared at the two of them, dumbfounded, interrupting the spell he'd been about to try. "We're on the road, still not far from the village. You were only out a few minutes."

He then turned to Ophidian. "And what did you just say?" The enormity of the wizard's words cut through the single-mindedness his concern had imposed on him like a knife. "By the Cudgel, how do you know this?"

[Charon]

Eight was slowly putting his sword away again as the wizard began his explanation of what happened.

"Undead menace? Lovely. That might explain a few things, and makes me very happy we burned that town. So can we now head back to town so we can get paid, and then get the hell out of here?"

[LadyTevar]

"One more time... slowly." Ceridwen suggested to Ophidia. "The dream you were sucked into was from Noxeus, and he was warning you?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

The wizard took a heavy breath.

"We were in a dream-scape. You can think of it as a separate plane of existence where dreams happen. But it was not our minds in there, it was our souls. We were confronted by shadow-twins of ourselves. I did not understand the significance Until Fehl destroyed his twin. When that happened, the little droplets of oily liquid that formed as residue transformed into shadows of the dead villagers. When I comprehended that, I had a secondary vision. One of the town in the days prior to the attack. From the time just before the finished their well to the time of their death they were besieged by shadows, organized and with forethought. They huddled into the church for defense and ministration but the priest was not powerful enough to turn them. Rather than attack immiediatly, the shadows stayed back. They were boxing them in until something else occured. They waited for the priest to go mad and hang himself. Once he turned into an Allip, they struck, killing everyone and raising them again as shadows. I dont know what caused him to go mad. Maybe one of you knows more."

He caught his breath, and started again.

"The halflings were destroyed days prior. They made up part of the group of shadows that killed the village. The horrible point is, these Shadows are numerous and organized. That means they re being intelligently controlled. They will move on from town to town, anywhere there is a priest too weak to turn them. Citizens of larger cities will be besieged by shadows, unable to leave and concentrated. With no harvest there is no food. Starvation will ensue. The mice and rats however will multiply, feeding on the untended fields and the corpses of the dead. They will spread disease. This will cause the death of large cities from plague. In the end whoever or whatever is doing this can effectively depopulate the entire region using the dead as his soldiers"

[rhoenix]

Upon hearing the explanation, Fehl shrugged. "Then our task is to eliminate the one who things he's so very clever. Worrying about what he might do is pointless."