"Hmm? Wha...?" Sam murmured, and various other reluctant, confused sounds as Elthana kicked and dragged him out of sleep.
"Shared dream?" Sam asks, after having her repeat the explanation for at least the third time. "Vin and Neferox?"
"And Neferox is still sleeping??"
"Oh! Oh no!" Sam proclaims as the information finally seems to settle in to his head. He immediately grabs up his backpack, opening it and begins to dig through it. "Good thing you woke me! I have the perfect tool for this exact situation right here in my bag..." Sam pulls out various items, looks at them for a moment and then shoves them back into the bag: A waterskin; a sock; a handle; what appears to be a half eaten bar of soap. None of it seems to be exactly what Sam is looking for though.
"Oh... damn, you know what? I think I left my magical fixit tool back home! Damn it all, what was I thinking?" Sam ma be laying the sarcasm on a bit thick...
"Seriously, woman. What do you want me to do? Kick the dog harder than anyone else has so far?"
Grumpy or not, Sam is awake now so he gets up (with more complaints) and wanders over to take a look at the kid and their dog. After he hears what everyone else has already heard he gives a shrug and looks to Elthana with... Well, with what a shrug would look like if you could do it with your eyes.
"These... mindless ones? The soulless? Whatever you call them... Are they 'cause of this?" Sam asks of the cleric who came to tend to them. "Or can we expect the beast to wake up all normal and mean in the morning, like usual?"
"Only real solution I can think of... I mean besides kicking Neferox, which I assume someone has tried?" Sam pauses and looks around to make sure someone tried to violently wake the beast.... Once he gets an affirmative to that Sam walks over to Vin and gives the boy a wicked slap across the face.
Unarmed Strike Attack: 21 to Hit
Sam does 6 damage standard but would be trying to hold back on the damage. He wants to hurt and startle the boy, not actually damage them. Immediately upon hitting the boy Sam turns to Neferox, both to see if the beast reacts and to defend himself from it if need be...
Gewyn pulls out his birdpipes in a flash and plays a loud note. He stops and repositions his fingers in a peculiar configuration, partially covering several openings in a precise manner. When next he blows through the pipes, it produces a discordant sound between notes. He takes a long look at Nef before glancing at the others, and then dashes off to the edge of the encampment, shouting back, "I'll return shortly!"
Muir looks at Elthana wondering what she will do with the mayhem breaking out. “Perhaps one of us should follow the bard while the other stays to sort out this mess”
The slap leaves a large reddened handprint on Vin's face, as he recoils and Sam turns to observe Neferox, her state remains unchanged, the state of the cleric however becomes more and more irritable, "none of you are helping here, call yourselves champions or whatever, don't wake anyone else! I've already told you what's happening, you sort it out! Here!" With that they throw the cold cloth at Sam and walk back over to their sleeping spot to curl up once more.
Gewyn leaves and can be seen checking around the encampment.
Disappointed that his tactic didn’t work, Sam turns to Vin and apologizes. “Sorry, kid. Thought I could piss Neferox enough to wake him up…”
Sam is about to go on when the cleric interrupts and tries to scold the group and storm off. Sam listens but grabs their shoulder before they can leave.”This is new to us,” Sam explains. “We’re understandably worried. But you can run off if that is what your calling teaches you… but first you’ll answer how this affected the others it happened to. Were they better when they woke? Normal? Or one of those mindless ones?”
Vin doesn't see the slap coming at all. They were just sitting next to Nef petting her and giving her comfort through whatever horror she was suffering. The smack stuns Vin at first. Completely unsure what to even think he's just sitting there stunned as they look back at the big man Sam, questions and worry on their face as they look to him for an explanation.
They seem a bit scared of Sam, like they might get hit again. They seem to take it like they did something wrong or they are not understanding something. They just say to the big man, "I'm sorry... I don't know what to do." They look to Sam for answers and when the cleric reiterates they don't need to do anything Vin seems to withdraw more and turns away from his allies as he just continues to pet Nef. Once the cleric storms off Vin just quietly says "I know I'm a terrible dog owner. That she's my responsibility... I'm trying my best." He's hiding his face but he sounds very pained. Vin just continues to pet her.
Muir continues to watch as Sam slaps Vin "Fine idea Sam. Vin you did nothing wrong. Sam thought it would wake Nef because of your.....connection. This is powerful magic at work. There is a spell cast by druids and bards that cause such nightmares but they have to know the victim. There is typically a message from the messenger in the dream...Are you sure no one spoke to you in the dream Vin? This could be important....The old hag perhaps?
Vin shakes his head no. Still not looking at the others. He says "There was a cackling laughter but no words... I don't know what she's seeing now. I've never seen through her eyes like that... that was new. I'm trying to reach her with my connection. Telling her it's not real... but it's not working.. shes not replying to me. Id go back in to help her if i could."
Elthana retorts to Sam, "Well, sorry to wake you, your majesty, but I wouldn't have wanted to sleep through while one of our group was suffering." and she storms over to where Nef and Vin sit, irritation written all over her face. Still unsure as to what to do, As Gewyn runs off and Muir suggests one follow, she nods to him happy to have a direction, and follows the bard.
Muir looks on concerned to Vin " I would not suggest jumping back in. We don't know the ramifications of your connected dream. Let's do as the cleric says and wait for Nef to wake. I would stand back knowing her......temperment. Perhaps Gewyn and Elthana will have more to tell us if they find the culprit of this." Muir goes and sits down taking a drink of water and having a little snack.
Sam looks to Vin, the hurt and pain and confusion apparent all over the kids face. Sam knows he just made it worse despite his best intentions but he doesn’t know how to make it better… or even explain himself better.
Sam looks to Elthana and sees she too is most displeased with him. Stars and stones, Sam is just pissing off everyone today! Don’t they know the old saying about letting sleeping orcs lie?!?
In a huff of his own now, Sam backs off to a few yards and finds a tree which he can sit against and continue watching the scene.
The cleric, pulls their arm from Sams grasp "those we help need to accept help first, as for the consequences, well like i said before others reported this feeling of being pinned down by some old crone, after they woke, they just feel lethargic, out of energy, not mutated or soulless or anything, it's different. It's happened to a lot of us now." The irritability across their face seems etched in now they turn their scowl away from Sam and look to Neferox once more, "it's never happened to an animal before though, not one that we are aware of."
Muir listens to the cleric clearly displeased with Sam talk about it never happening to an animal. Muir opens his mouth to talk but decides it better to let sleeping dogs lie
Gewyn makes his his way around the outskirts of the encampment, looking this way and that. He eventually stops and holds up his hand mirror, angling it to reveal Elthana a ways behind him. "Hey, you don't have to hang so far back. Come up and join me."He then points it back at himself and adjusts his hair while he waits for Elthana to close the distance.
"Please tell me that you didn't run off over here so you can check your appearance?" Elthana retorts as she catches up with the tiefling. "What are you looking for?"
Gewyn is silent for a moment, then puts his mirror away. "It's tricky to explain, but I have found that I can produce certain tones and sounds that resonate with magical signatures, making them detectable for me. So I was hoping to find some source of what was happening to Nef. No such luck though. I did, however, piece together a theory while I was looking. Come, let's hurry back to the others."
Vin doesn't watch Sam walk off. It seems hard to tell how he reacts to Wlthana sitting next to him but he doesn't push her away or anything. He does look to Muir though. He says "She'd never hurt me on purpose. She's never hurt me before. I believe in her." He seems very shaken and worried as he talks with Muir. The young man adding "If she bites me... its better me then others right? She'll calm down quicker if im right here." Vin forces a smile but it doesn't last. Then he goes back to petting her and waiting for her to awake.
Even as they walk up to the others, Gewyn is explaining to Elthana, "Shionne and I had a private chat earlier tonight as you may have noticed. It ultimately ended in her more or less putting me to sleep, but before that, I was asking her all sorts of questions about her realm. Important information for a storyteller such as myself. Now in the process of my questioning, she mentioned a plane between our world and that of the fae. An ethereal plane sandwiched between two mirrored realities. Now hear me out... I just swept the camp and the surrounding area and could find no evidence or source of the attack anywhere."
"Let me tell you why that's odd." He glances at Elthana. "As I just finished explaining to her, I can make my music resonate with magic in a way that gives me a sense of it. But how can something be assaulting Vin from afar without using magic? I see two possibilities: One, perhaps the paralysis Nef is locked in is the result of some kind of toxin. But it seems far-fetched that everyone would have an identical nightmare as a result, including Vin."
Gewyn stands one foot in front of the other, one arm crossed while the other places a pensive finger on his lips. A theatrical pose for the grand reveal of his theory. "That leaves another possibility in my mind, however. What if..."He uncrosses his arm and places his hand on his hip as he slowly extends his other arm to point dramatically at Nef. "What if the attacker doesn't have to use magic because it isn't attacking from a distance. What if it is right in front of us attacking Nef's vulnerable sleeping form from the ethereal plane?"
Muir listens to Gewyn's theory. It makes sense to him. He has read about these different planes of existence but it was all theory that is until the fey showed up. Gewyn's theory of an ethereal plane is plausible in Muir's mind. He wonder if Shionne or maybe Possibly Arch Druid Goodall has any information about this existence
"I think Gewyn's theory is a plausible one. One that I didn't think of. I thought it was possibly a dream spell being cast but the one casting would have to know all of the victims...which means it would be someone in camp. Your theory seems like a good one. We have much to consider in our next steps if you all agree to them. I know you all have a task to accomplish, but there's much to be done here. I am uncertain what that task entails however, if you stay to defeat these evils, I would be grateful....Perhaps Shionne could provide some answers...I could also contact the Arch Druid to see if we have any information on such things."
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"Hmm? Wha...?" Sam murmured, and various other reluctant, confused sounds as Elthana kicked and dragged him out of sleep.
"Shared dream?" Sam asks, after having her repeat the explanation for at least the third time. "Vin and Neferox?"
"And Neferox is still sleeping??"
"Oh! Oh no!" Sam proclaims as the information finally seems to settle in to his head. He immediately grabs up his backpack, opening it and begins to dig through it. "Good thing you woke me! I have the perfect tool for this exact situation right here in my bag..." Sam pulls out various items, looks at them for a moment and then shoves them back into the bag: A waterskin; a sock; a handle; what appears to be a half eaten bar of soap. None of it seems to be exactly what Sam is looking for though.
"Oh... damn, you know what? I think I left my magical fixit tool back home! Damn it all, what was I thinking?" Sam ma be laying the sarcasm on a bit thick...
"Seriously, woman. What do you want me to do? Kick the dog harder than anyone else has so far?"
Grumpy or not, Sam is awake now so he gets up (with more complaints) and wanders over to take a look at the kid and their dog. After he hears what everyone else has already heard he gives a shrug and looks to Elthana with... Well, with what a shrug would look like if you could do it with your eyes.
"These... mindless ones? The soulless? Whatever you call them... Are they 'cause of this?" Sam asks of the cleric who came to tend to them. "Or can we expect the beast to wake up all normal and mean in the morning, like usual?"
"Only real solution I can think of... I mean besides kicking Neferox, which I assume someone has tried?" Sam pauses and looks around to make sure someone tried to violently wake the beast.... Once he gets an affirmative to that Sam walks over to Vin and gives the boy a wicked slap across the face.
Unarmed Strike Attack: 21 to Hit
Sam does 6 damage standard but would be trying to hold back on the damage. He wants to hurt and startle the boy, not actually damage them. Immediately upon hitting the boy Sam turns to Neferox, both to see if the beast reacts and to defend himself from it if need be...
Gewyn pulls out his birdpipes in a flash and plays a loud note. He stops and repositions his fingers in a peculiar configuration, partially covering several openings in a precise manner. When next he blows through the pipes, it produces a discordant sound between notes. He takes a long look at Nef before glancing at the others, and then dashes off to the edge of the encampment, shouting back, "I'll return shortly!"
Muir looks at Elthana wondering what she will do with the mayhem breaking out. “Perhaps one of us should follow the bard while the other stays to sort out this mess”
The slap leaves a large reddened handprint on Vin's face, as he recoils and Sam turns to observe Neferox, her state remains unchanged, the state of the cleric however becomes more and more irritable, "none of you are helping here, call yourselves champions or whatever, don't wake anyone else! I've already told you what's happening, you sort it out! Here!" With that they throw the cold cloth at Sam and walk back over to their sleeping spot to curl up once more.
Gewyn leaves and can be seen checking around the encampment.
Disappointed that his tactic didn’t work, Sam turns to Vin and apologizes. “Sorry, kid. Thought I could piss Neferox enough to wake him up…”
Sam is about to go on when the cleric interrupts and tries to scold the group and storm off. Sam listens but grabs their shoulder before they can leave.”This is new to us,” Sam explains. “We’re understandably worried. But you can run off if that is what your calling teaches you… but first you’ll answer how this affected the others it happened to. Were they better when they woke? Normal? Or one of those mindless ones?”
Vin doesn't see the slap coming at all. They were just sitting next to Nef petting her and giving her comfort through whatever horror she was suffering. The smack stuns Vin at first. Completely unsure what to even think he's just sitting there stunned as they look back at the big man Sam, questions and worry on their face as they look to him for an explanation.
They seem a bit scared of Sam, like they might get hit again. They seem to take it like they did something wrong or they are not understanding something. They just say to the big man, "I'm sorry... I don't know what to do." They look to Sam for answers and when the cleric reiterates they don't need to do anything Vin seems to withdraw more and turns away from his allies as he just continues to pet Nef. Once the cleric storms off Vin just quietly says "I know I'm a terrible dog owner. That she's my responsibility... I'm trying my best." He's hiding his face but he sounds very pained. Vin just continues to pet her.
Muir continues to watch as Sam slaps Vin "Fine idea Sam. Vin you did nothing wrong. Sam thought it would wake Nef because of your.....connection. This is powerful magic at work. There is a spell cast by druids and bards that cause such nightmares but they have to know the victim. There is typically a message from the messenger in the dream...Are you sure no one spoke to you in the dream Vin? This could be important....The old hag perhaps?
Vin shakes his head no. Still not looking at the others. He says "There was a cackling laughter but no words... I don't know what she's seeing now. I've never seen through her eyes like that... that was new. I'm trying to reach her with my connection. Telling her it's not real... but it's not working.. shes not replying to me. Id go back in to help her if i could."
Elthana retorts to Sam, "Well, sorry to wake you, your majesty, but I wouldn't have wanted to sleep through while one of our group was suffering." and she storms over to where Nef and Vin sit, irritation written all over her face. Still unsure as to what to do, As Gewyn runs off and Muir suggests one follow, she nods to him happy to have a direction, and follows the bard.
Muir looks on concerned to Vin " I would not suggest jumping back in. We don't know the ramifications of your connected dream. Let's do as the cleric says and wait for Nef to wake. I would stand back knowing her......temperment. Perhaps Gewyn and Elthana will have more to tell us if they find the culprit of this." Muir goes and sits down taking a drink of water and having a little snack.
Sam looks to Vin, the hurt and pain and confusion apparent all over the kids face. Sam knows he just made it worse despite his best intentions but he doesn’t know how to make it better… or even explain himself better.
Sam looks to Elthana and sees she too is most displeased with him. Stars and stones, Sam is just pissing off everyone today! Don’t they know the old saying about letting sleeping orcs lie?!?
In a huff of his own now, Sam backs off to a few yards and finds a tree which he can sit against and continue watching the scene.
The cleric, pulls their arm from Sams grasp "those we help need to accept help first, as for the consequences, well like i said before others reported this feeling of being pinned down by some old crone, after they woke, they just feel lethargic, out of energy, not mutated or soulless or anything, it's different. It's happened to a lot of us now." The irritability across their face seems etched in now they turn their scowl away from Sam and look to Neferox once more, "it's never happened to an animal before though, not one that we are aware of."
Muir listens to the cleric clearly displeased with Sam talk about it never happening to an animal. Muir opens his mouth to talk but decides it better to let sleeping dogs lie
Gewyn makes his his way around the outskirts of the encampment, looking this way and that. He eventually stops and holds up his hand mirror, angling it to reveal Elthana a ways behind him. "Hey, you don't have to hang so far back. Come up and join me." He then points it back at himself and adjusts his hair while he waits for Elthana to close the distance.
"Please tell me that you didn't run off over here so you can check your appearance?" Elthana retorts as she catches up with the tiefling. "What are you looking for?"
Gewyn is silent for a moment, then puts his mirror away. "It's tricky to explain, but I have found that I can produce certain tones and sounds that resonate with magical signatures, making them detectable for me. So I was hoping to find some source of what was happening to Nef. No such luck though. I did, however, piece together a theory while I was looking. Come, let's hurry back to the others."
Vin doesn't watch Sam walk off. It seems hard to tell how he reacts to Wlthana sitting next to him but he doesn't push her away or anything. He does look to Muir though. He says "She'd never hurt me on purpose. She's never hurt me before. I believe in her." He seems very shaken and worried as he talks with Muir. The young man adding "If she bites me... its better me then others right? She'll calm down quicker if im right here." Vin forces a smile but it doesn't last. Then he goes back to petting her and waiting for her to awake.
As Gewyn and Elthana head back to the rest, "Hang on, what do you mean you pieced together a theory? What are you talking about?"
Even as they walk up to the others, Gewyn is explaining to Elthana, "Shionne and I had a private chat earlier tonight as you may have noticed. It ultimately ended in her more or less putting me to sleep, but before that, I was asking her all sorts of questions about her realm. Important information for a storyteller such as myself. Now in the process of my questioning, she mentioned a plane between our world and that of the fae. An ethereal plane sandwiched between two mirrored realities. Now hear me out... I just swept the camp and the surrounding area and could find no evidence or source of the attack anywhere."
"Let me tell you why that's odd." He glances at Elthana. "As I just finished explaining to her, I can make my music resonate with magic in a way that gives me a sense of it. But how can something be assaulting Vin from afar without using magic? I see two possibilities: One, perhaps the paralysis Nef is locked in is the result of some kind of toxin. But it seems far-fetched that everyone would have an identical nightmare as a result, including Vin."
Gewyn stands one foot in front of the other, one arm crossed while the other places a pensive finger on his lips. A theatrical pose for the grand reveal of his theory. "That leaves another possibility in my mind, however. What if..." He uncrosses his arm and places his hand on his hip as he slowly extends his other arm to point dramatically at Nef. "What if the attacker doesn't have to use magic because it isn't attacking from a distance. What if it is right in front of us attacking Nef's vulnerable sleeping form from the ethereal plane?"
Muir listens to Gewyn's theory. It makes sense to him. He has read about these different planes of existence but it was all theory that is until the fey showed up. Gewyn's theory of an ethereal plane is plausible in Muir's mind. He wonder if Shionne or maybe Possibly Arch Druid Goodall has any information about this existence
"I think Gewyn's theory is a plausible one. One that I didn't think of. I thought it was possibly a dream spell being cast but the one casting would have to know all of the victims...which means it would be someone in camp. Your theory seems like a good one. We have much to consider in our next steps if you all agree to them. I know you all have a task to accomplish, but there's much to be done here. I am uncertain what that task entails however, if you stay to defeat these evils, I would be grateful....Perhaps Shionne could provide some answers...I could also contact the Arch Druid to see if we have any information on such things."