by Kyle Johnson
Difficulty: B
Reward: 3,000 XP, 50 gold, increased reputation with the Stronghold of Eredain, increased reputation in elven lands.
Additional Reward: Any Wizard that completes this Quest may petition for access to the House of Stars.
Failure Condition: Fail to uncover the cause of the Shadowborn gathering within 14 days.
Failure Penalty: Decreased reputation in elven lands, ???
Shareable Quest: This Quest may be shared with others. Participants will receive rewards commensurate with their participation.
Do you accept? (Yes/No)
Aranos closed out the notification without making a selection; he wasn’t sure if choosing ‘No’ would prohibit him from sharing the Quest out. The reward seemed small at first, but he considered Ruehnar’s words and understood. It sounded like the other Houses would probably be offering a similar Quest, probably with comparable rewards, and while a reward of 3,000 XP wasn’t even enough for most of the Travelers to level up at this point, a reward of 12,000 XP would probably give them at least two levels. Granted, it looked like not all of them would receive that full reward, but even half of that would probably bump them up a level. Plus, he’d found that most Quests had little extra ways to get more XP and greater rewards if you just looked hard enough for them; that was something he’d have to make sure he shared with the Travelers. There was always more beneath the surface in these Quests.
“That’s perfect, sir. Thank you very much.” As he read over the Quest, though, he frowned. “Sir, can I ask you a favor? You once told me that every Quest started here, in the Library…”
Ruehnar sighed. “I wondered if you would consider that,” he said a bit tiredly. “Yes, you may tell the Traveler Wizards that they may use this Library, under the following restrictions. First, they must treat this House and all members within with the utmost respect. Any unruliness or aggression, and they may consider themselves lucky if I merely slay them and send them to be reborn.
“Second, they may only use the Library for the purposes of this Quest. If they stray and seek out materials for their own gain, assure them that I will know instantly, and they will be exiled from this Library and may not later petition for entry into the House of Stars.
“Third, they may avail themselves of no other benefits of this House until they have earned those through completion of this Quest. Do my restrictions seem fair?”
“More than fair, sir, and I’ll make sure they know the consequences.”
“And if they hear your words but choose to ignore them, Lord Evenshade?” Ruehnar asked calmly. “What would you have us do, then?”
“Then they’ve earned whatever consequence you decide to give them, as far as I’m concerned,” the Sorcerer replied, his voice hardening. “I trust you, sir. If you say they stepped over the line, then they stepped over the line. At least, so long as you’re the one saying that.”
As he spoke, his thoughts turned to Master Rychell, whose only son had been slaughtered by a Traveler for absolutely no reason. Unfortunately, Aranos knew that some players were like that; they only saw NPCs as a source of extra gold and XP, either by granting Quests or in their deaths. Be that as it may, Rychell was left with an apparent dislike for all Travelers – not that Aranos could really blame him – and if he were the one accusing the players of some sort of misbehavior, Aranos would have been immediately suspicious. Ruehnar, though, had earned Aranos’ respect, and he would take the old elf at his word.
“A wise addition to your words,” Ruehnar replied drily. “Is that the favor you were requesting? If so, I commend you on your prescience.”
“Um, no sir,” Aranos said quickly. “One of the aspects I’m working on unlocking requires the Skill Elven Lore. I was wondering…”
“Ah, the Mind aspect,” Ruehnar interrupted. “A choice I would not have expected from you, if I may be so bold. It demands subtlety, patience, and tends to be unreliable at best. I presumed that you would prefer Spatial or Nature, as these are more direct and better suited for the types of combat you seem to find yourself in.”
“Well, I’m hoping to unlock more than one of them,” the Sorcerer hedged. “I can see how Mind mana could be really useful if you wanted to deal with someone quietly without hurting them.”
“The use of Mind Spells on others is always damaging, Lord Evenshade, no matter how skilled the practitioner. Our minds are filled with flows of this energy, all woven in specific patterns that make us who we are. Disturbances to those patterns – even the most subtle – will leave lasting damage and mental scars that are long in healing. It is magic best used sparingly and only with great knowledge.”
The ancient elf paused, considering. “To that end, I believe I have what you seek.” The elf reached over to a nearby shelf and produced a heavy tome that Aranos swore hadn’t been there a moment ago. The librarian handed the book to Aranos.
“If I am not mistaken, your previous studies should have granted you the Novice rank of this Skill, albeit undoubtedly Untrained, correct? This work will take you far into the Adept ranks, should you study it carefully; it is not merely a history of elves, but a treatise of our culture, tendencies, belief systems, and so on. With it, you may be able to minimize the damage you can inflict with Spells of the mind, which is surely the goal of any practitioner. Take it with you, but care for it well and return it when you are once again in elven lands.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aranos said, carefully taking the book and stowing it in his Storage Bag. “But – that book wasn’t just sitting right there, was it?”
“You have not yet taken my words to heart, it seems,” the old man chuckled. “Within my Library, I know all that occurs and can be anywhere I must, even if that means being in more than one place at a time.” When Aranos looked confused, the elf shook his head. “You may one day understand these things, Aranos, but today is not likely that day. Simply accept that there is little that is beyond me in this Library.
“Now, go and pass the message to your Traveler companions, and we will see if they are as clever at solving riddles as you are.” The elf stepped around a shelf of books and vanished, leaving Aranos to find his way back through the stacks. It took him several minutes – and numerous wrong turns – but eventually, Aranos headed out of the Library and back through the House of Stars until he reached the portal back to Eredain.
From there, the Sorcerer walked to the House of the Moon, where the High Dreamer awaited him. The House was dimly lit with silvery globes of light that vaguely resembled moonlight. Vaporous mists filled the air, laced with soporific herbs designed to calm the emotions and relax the minds of all within. His Herbalism Skill rendered him immune to such effects, but the last time she’d been here, Geltheriel had nearly fallen asleep from the strong fumes. Only his giving her some strong stimulants had allowed her to fight off the effects of the mist, and since then, she’d refused to return. While the stimulants had worked, they also apparently tasted “like an uruk’s codpiece”, whatever that meant.
As always, Aranos was greeted by a cloaked and cowled figure of indeterminate age and gender. None of the members of the House, save the High Dreamer himself, had ever revealed their faces to Aranos, and he doubted they ever would. Members of the House of the Moon were supposed to give up their ties to their old lives and were never addressed by name, nor were they allowed to show their faces. The idea was that by suppressing their individuality, the Diviners of the House made themselves far more trustworthy and less likely to bias their divinations. In practice, Aranos wasn’t sure how effective the practice was. After all, one member’s attempt to swindle Aranos out of his unique Traveler memories had led to the pair being attacked by the dark god Morx – or an avatar of that god, Aranos corrected mentally – which had then led to the lessons Aranos was receiving now.
The cowled figure took Aranos back to the High Dreamer’s room, leaving Aranos to step through an inky, black portal. That portal led to a large, round room filled to capacity with
pillows, cushions, and blankets. At first, Aranos had wondered why the Dreamer would have so many pillows scattered about, but spending time in the Realm of Dreams daily had taught him how important it was to make sure your physical body was comfortable. He’d woken up after their first foray so stiff and sore that it took him almost a half hour to be able to stand up straight.
“Welcome, Lord Evenshade,” the High Dreamer spoke in his melodious voice. “Are you prepared for our journey into the dreamscape today?”
“Into the dreamscape?” Aranos repeated, frowning. So far, the High Dreamer hadn’t let him enter the Realm of Dreams himself; he’d only been brought into the dream world and carried along by the High Dreamer. They’d done all their practicing, instead, in a simulated dream world the High Dreamer possessed.
“You are close to achieving your goal and completing your Quest with me,” the High Dreamer replied. “However, you are not so close that we can reach it through more practice today. We will instead venture into the Realm of Dreams, where I will challenge your mind and will in a series of tests. You may still not reach the level you seek, and if this is so, you must decide what you will do.”
Aranos nodded, but he felt a brief spike of fear as he thought about his misadventures in the dreamscape. The avatar of Morx had sensed his presence and tried to trap him in the dreamworld, and although he’d managed to escape, he didn’t imagine the god would allow that to happen again. Morx had underestimated Aranos the first time; Aranos couldn’t count on that occurring twice.
“Be at ease,” the High Dreamer said reassuringly. “I will be present at all times; should the shield you build to protect yourself falter, I will take it up instantly, and we will return to the Dreamstone. There is no need to fear, and indeed, your fear will be a lodestone for those terrors that lurk in the dreamscape. Stop and calm yourself before we continue.”
Aranos complied, settling on the pillows into a comfortable position. The various cushions offered differing levels of support and softness, and Aranos took some time to make sure that he had the pillows arranged exactly as he liked them. He closed his eyes and began some deep breathing exercises the High Dreamer had taught him, clearing his mind and ridding himself of his emotions. Feeling strong emotion in the dreamscape, he’d learned, was like holding up a flashing sign saying, “Aranos is here!” It made his presence visible to far too many nightmares and terrors that hunted the dream world.
Once his thoughts were clear, he felt a gentle brush against the barriers of his mind as the High Dreamer reached out to guide him into sleep. That was a downside to his Herbalism Skill: while it kept him from being overcome by the vapors in this place, it also kept those same vapors from lulling him to sleep. The High Dreamer could help him to sleep, but that ability only worked on a willing creature, so Aranos had to allow the Dreamer’s gentle probe to access his mind.
The Sorcerer lowered his mental barriers for the briefest of instants. Immediately, he found himself standing in a world of swirling, white mists and soft, gentle light that seemed to come from everywhere at once. He recognized this as the Dreamstone, a gateway between the Realm of Dreams and Ka, and he glanced to the side to see the High Dreamer’s cowled form standing beside him.
“When you are ready, my student, enter the dreamscape,” the figure spoke, its voice seeming to resonate from everywhere at once.
Aranos took a deep breath and closed his eyes once more, willing himself to leave the Dreamstone and enter the Realm of Dreams. He opened his eyes, and instantly, his senses were assaulted by a maddening cacophony of images. Visions he didn’t understand filled his eyes, while voices he couldn’t comprehend echoed in his ears. A thousand scents swirled in his nose, and he felt the touch of clammy skin and burning sand at the same instant. He spun in every direction without moving as the chaos of the dreamscape washed over him, trying to tear his mind apart.
Aranos focused his thoughts, starting by deciding on a direction that would be ‘down’. He willed gravity to manifest itself, and instantly, the maddening spinning stopped, his body orienting in the chaos. The last time he was here, he’d created a wide, forest glen as a safe space, a place outside of the chaos of the dreams, but that had been a mistake. That island of solidity was a beacon to anyone who knew what to look for in this realm, and it screamed his presence. Still, his mind wouldn’t hold out indefinitely against the torrent of sensations he was experiencing; already, he felt a swirl of nausea rush through him, and a dull ache was beginning to grow in the back of his head.
He reached out with his will to the nearby dreams, pushing them back to arm’s length and holding them there, away from his dream body. The flood of sensation stilled at once, and he let out a sigh of relief as his senses returned to normal. Using his training, Aranos forged a reflection of the dreams nearest him, fashioning those images into a wall to hold the madness at bay. It took him less than a minute; here, in this realm, almost anything was possible if you could will it to happen. Willpower reigned in this place, not magic or muscle.
“Very well done,” the High Dreamer’s voice sounded from all around Aranos. “I can hardly feel your presence at all, and were I slightly more distant, I doubt I would feel even that. Your barrier is respectable, my student. Now, let us see how it fares during a Dreamwalk.
“Here is your first test,” the voice continued. As it spoke, Aranos gained a sudden mental image of a female elf, tall, blonde-haired, with a squarish jaw and large, almost liquid eyes. He felt the woman’s presence acutely, could sense the hardness of the shell she’d built to mask the gentle core beneath.
“Find this woman,” the elf instructed. “I will answer no questions; you must use the information I have given you, which should be sufficient.”
Aranos nodded and recalled the mental image of the woman. He concentrated on it, trying to capture the feeling of her as much as possible, then willed her to appear before him. The dreamscape around him stuttered, shifted, and began to slide past. It moved slowly at first, but as he bent his will to the task, his mental image of the woman solidified, and the maelstrom swept past with ever-increasing speed. As his tiny island of stability slid through the dreamscape, the reflected images about him shifted to match the flickering visions they passed. It took a tiny amount of his focus to keep grabbing images and mirroring them in his barrier, but it was necessary. If he’d held the same images the whole time, that mote of order would have declared his presence as loudly as his original island had.
Time was mostly meaningless in the dreamscape, as was distance. How long it would take to reach his destination was a matter of his Willpower and Wisdom Stats; it could be as little as a minute or as long as an hour. He kept his focus on the mental image he held and forced himself to be patient; frustration or irritation would just make the trip take longer and would display his presence.
Fortunately, the High Dreamer had apparently chosen a target that was at least within the Elven Realms, since Aranos’ clock told him they’d been traveling for less than 10 minutes before the dreamscape started to slow, eventually stilling entirely. Aranos pushed out his safe space a few feet before him and willed the woman to appear. A moment later, the figure of the tall, blonde elf stepped out of the maelstrom and stood a bit haughtily before Aranos.
“Why have you sought me out, aleen?” the woman asked, her mouth very close to a sneer. “Who are you to travel the dreamscape so?”
“He is my student, Sunderer,” the High Dreamer’s voice rang out all around them. “As you know, you are usually the target of the first serious journey I ask them to make.”
The woman grunted. “Forgive me, High Dreamer,” she said tersely. “This one appears different from the others; I believe this is the first time I have seen one of your students’ faces.”
“And it will likely be the last time, as Lord Evenshade is a special case. In any case, please release her, my student, so she can return to her own mind.”
Aranos complied, and the image of the woman vanished back i
nto the sea of chaos. “Her own mind?” he asked curiously. “Did I just pull her mind out of her body for a moment? Does that mean that when I talk to someone who’s not sleeping, their body is frozen? What if I did that to someone in combat…”
The High Dreamer’s voice chuckled all around him. “Have no fears of that, my student. When you speak in the Dreamscape, what you see is but a small part of your target’s mind, that part that exists in dreams. To the Sunderer, that encounter is something she now remembers as one recalls a vivid dream, one that fades only very slowly over time. Her waking mind was not aware of your conversation at all.”
Aranos frowned; he wondered how the AIs were handling that for his conversations with Phil. Obviously, they couldn’t split off part of a player’s mind and have it exist separately from them, which meant that Phil could only exist in one place at a time…
“When you and Phil are talking, we puppet his body in game,” Veronica’s voice explained. “To be honest, that’s part of how long it takes you to reach him; we have to make sure that you don’t try to pull him away in the middle of combat, or in some other important situation. When he’s just walking along with his party, though, we’ve learned his mannerisms well enough to make his responses believable without saying important. It’s not easy, and it’s one reason we made Dreamer a Restricted Class.”
Aranos wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea that Phil’s body was being controlled by an AI, even temporarily, but he reminded himself that it wasn’t really Phil’s body. It was a digital construct, and the AIs ran it all the time anyway. Phil’s mind might give them directions, but it was the AIs who actually made the body move, talk, cast Spells, etc. He supposed it was a lot better than the AIs trying to split Phil’s mind into two separate personalities, after all.
“Here is your next test,” the High Dreamer spoke, interrupting Aranos’ thoughts. “Locate this individual for me, my student.” Aranos instantly got a mental impression of a large human, but this sense was far less clear. He concentrated on it, trying to pick out salient images or traits, but the Dreamer simply hadn’t given him enough information to make out those sorts of details. Still, he knew that the Dreamer wouldn’t have set him an impossible task, so there had to be a way to gain a sense of this human, somehow.
