FireCat5's Dragon of Icespire Peak

You wake up in darkness. Even your dwarven eyes fail to see here. "You've gotten used to the outside world, ah? L'me shows ya then." The voice is strange. Familiar, yet new. You feel someone putting a hand over your eyes and, as they remove it, you suddenly find yourself underground, but you can see as you always have. In front of you stands a male Dwarf which you have never seen before. "Long time no see. You probably don't remember me, but I remember when you were born. Little Barthri, ah yes." Before you can react, the dwarf picks a pickaxe almost his own size and smacks it at the wall next to you. For the first moment, nothing happens. Then, suddenly, the wall is gone. "Beautiful, innit? The outside." The sunlight from outside is blinding at first, even though the mountain casts its shadow on the valley in front of you.
When you can finally open your eyes and look at the valley, all you see is grass, but that quickly changes. In front of your eyes, the forest grows from mere grass into tall trees, within a few seconds. "I feel tired." The voice changed, as someone almost falls near you, leaning on your shoulder to support them. "It's not easy, you know? You care for the trees and animals in the forest, but there's little time to take care of yourself. How about you, do you take care of something else?" The one leaning on you is Dis, and she does look tired as if she hadn't slept much for a few nights. Her eyes are closed as her breathing relaxes. Maybe she fell asleep? Her face is smudged with mud and her hair has some branches stuck in it. She doesn't look like she had herself cleaned lately, but at least she doesn't smell bad. A sweet, sharp smell. Like the smell of a birch tree's branch when you break it. 
Suddenly, a few rocks fall from above you, and you instinctively raise your shield to protect the dwarf near you, which you notice is now Thenmer. The rocks clank and bounce off the hard shield. "Thanks, I don't like getting buried under rocks." Says Thenmer.

Suddenly, the trees in the forest begin to wither and die. Birds start flying up from the trees but they fall down midway, dead. "You must get inside, young Barthri! Revenge on the monster is not in today's tasks!" The first dwarf speaks from your left. "No! The forest I worked so hard and cared for! Stop it!" Dis speaks from your right. A large green figure rises from the forest - a dragon. It swiftly flies towards you and snatches Thenmer away. "Help me, friend! Don't let it have me!"

Then, time slows down as the dragon flies up so slow it looks like it's swimming in honey. "What do you fight for, Barthrum?" The three ask you together (at the same time, not one word each). "What do you cherish above all else?" 

(In case it wasn't clear, you're dreaming. You can be more expressive and act as you wish. Don't feel limited. This is meant to help you find your Sacred Oath, but remember that all options are allowed, not just the heavily-hinted-at-three here.)

'Walking is so hard, I should get off the ground.' You think for yourself. Suddenly, you rise above the ground with two transparent wings. You look at the bottle of human-made wine in your hand. 'What have I been drinking?' You ask yourself. You toss the bottle on the ground where it smashes to bits. The purple liquid suddenly reminds you of the purple mushrooms in Gnomengade, and you almost puke. 
You can hear a loud buzz behind you, and you turn to see countless bees carrying a single bottle of what looks like the finest mead you have ever seen. You find that your wings are strong enough to lift you after them as you follow the bees up into the sky. The bees don't come to you, however, and instead, fly away. You chase them to get that fine mead - you won't be able to forgive yourself if you don't get a taste. As time passes and you get used to your wings, you start to notice that the bees are... maintaining a certain distance from you. Whether you speed up or slow down, the distance is always the same. Are they mocking you? Perhaps they are leading you?
The bees start to get tired and begin to descend. It's your moment, your chance. You dart forward, flapping your wings as hard as you can, and you manage to catch-on midway to the ground. Unfortunately, you can't slow down fast enough, and you are going to hit the cloud of bees. You close your eyes and shield your face with one hand while the other reaches for the mead.
When you open your eyes, the bottle of mead is in your hand, but the bees are gone. No. You look down and see them sleeping in every fold of your clothes. You have become their hive. You gradually slow down until you land on the ground. It is firm and solid, ready to catch you if you lose your balance from drinking too much mead. You pop the cork-cap off with a satisfying sound of a first-time-opened bottle and tip your head back and close your eyes. You raise your hand and let the mead run down your throat, savouring the taste of... butter? You open your eyes to find yourself holding a skull made of butter. No, it's not a skill, it's a head. And it's no longer butter, but a real head, bleeding from the neck that looks like it was cut with a not-so-sharp weapon. You hold the head from its long black hairs and the head turns to you, revealing a familiar face. "Where in the pigs' poop have you been? Your bees made so much noise that all the orcs came to shut them up! And now what? My ranch is ransacked, my workers dead and all my livestock escaped. Petunia! My precious cow! She's gone now! And me? I'm a pigging talking head with no body! I thought you hated orcs, but what does hate matter if you do nothing worth mentioning? They ruined your place, they ruined mine and they'll ruin everything else. All the while you're drinking mead! Look! They're right there!"

The head is right. To your left, you can see a dozen orcs drinking mead - the mead you thought you had in your hand. Two goblins run out of the ruined building behind them with skull-shaped butter in their hands. "Look what we found!" They speak directly to you. The skull is not just a skull, you know, it's your skull. As rage begin to fill you, the bees in your clothes awaken and fly frantically. They begin to group together, forming... a Warhammer. You grasp the Warhammer in your hands but the orcs and goblins laugh at you. "Fourteen of us and only one of you, what can you possibly do?" 

(In case it wasn't clear, you're dreaming. You can be more expressive and act as you wish. Don't feel limited. Try to aim for the benefits of your level-up though.)

You're buried under rocks. You can't move a muscle, except your right pinky. What can you do? This is not right. This doesn't make any sense. No sense at all. "THIS IS NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE!" You shout, and all the rocks catapult away from you.
You find yourself in an unfamiliar place. Everything is strange here. No, that's not it. Everything makes sense here. Nobody acts unpredictably or illogically. The leaves fall in a specific pattern and the birds sing the same melody over and over, a perfect harmonic sound that could be perfectly calculated and analyzed in order to understand why it sounds so well. 

Suddenly, a shadow is cast above you, and you see the white dragon above you. "I found you, my prey!" The dissonant voice breaks the order and the dragon spits something your way. It is a huge shard of ice, falling from above directly towards you. You react on time and move away, but you don't expect what's coming after. The shard explodes on contact and shatters into countless tiny fragments which instantly cool the air, way below water's freezing temperature. You'll freeze if you do nothing about it. You try to use your warm spell, the Fire Bolt, but it is too precise. It creates a tiny warm hole in a large cloud of freezing mist. You need to heat yourself up quickly. Perhaps... the idea you thought on before... maybe your magic can be altered. The waterfall is just a metaphor, after all. You prepare to shock yourself with a spell that attracts itself to your Scale Mail, but then change its effect on your world. Yes, it is your world. Here, everything makes sense the way you want it to. The lightning arcs from your hand suddenly turn into a warm fire that warms you. It doesn't warm only you, however. As the air around you heats up, the mist around you disappears. If the dragon sees you now, it will most likely attack again. How many times can you avoid the attack? You need to make sure it doesn't see you. Doesn't... see you... While the other hand is still heating you up, you quickly use the other hand to cast a different spell at the same time. Not only you're using both hands to shape your world into your will, but you're also doing that with two different effects!

The mist disappears, but so do you. The dragon looks confused and flies down to the ground where it begins to search for you. Passing right next to you, but doesn't feel you, it has its back turned to you. Here, in your world, you can probably end the monster's life before it ends yours. Will you do it? And, now that you understand you're not bound by any laws, how will you do it?

(In case it wasn't clear, you're dreaming. You can be more expressive and act as you wish. Don't feel limited. Try to aim for the benefits of your level-up though.)

Barthrum bursts into movement. He quickly says to the first dwarf, "Even if revenge is not today then I need to do something." He jumps out of the hole in the wall and reaches out to two fallen birds nearby, hoping to put a little life back into them by the healing power in his hands. While doing so he tracks the flight of the dragon and calls out to Thenmer, "Leave me breadcrumbs, I am coming after you! Stay alive!"

Barthrum stands up from the birds, quickly tightens his belts and buckles, waves to whoever might still be watching from the hole in the wall and starts running after the dragon. He doesn't rush, but keeps deliberately slow pace to warm up his body to what might be a very very long path.

( after much deliberation it feels like the Oath of Glory would most fit the character. )

It takes a bit more than expected to heal the birds, as the poison affecting them is quite strong. Despite that, you manage to bring them back to life. Time goes back to its normal speed and the dragon flies above the mountain, gone. Suddenly, you feel sick. For going down from the mountain into the poisoned forest, you caught its disease. You fall down on your knees, breathing is hard. Your head is burning with fever, and you cough blood.
Then, something lands on you. It is wet, white, and smells horrible. From above you, Dis sits on one of the birds who are both now large enough to carry her. "Go! Save your friend!" There are tears in her eyes, you can see, but she smiles. "Don't let sickness stop you from saving your friend! Be my glorious hero!" You no longer feel sick. Whether or not it was the bird poop, you are no longer weak and your forehead isn't burning. Instead, you feel strong. You begin to run, slowly at first. Your body warms up and you increase your speed, but even when you reach what should be your fastest run, you're still not done. You continue to increase your speed. Each step you take now carries you ten feet farther than usual. The birds fly above you, leading the way towards the dragon.

For a full day you run, and yet you don't feel tired. You said that you'll save Thenmer, so now you're obliged to do it. You run and you run, your body honed to its full potential allowing you to overcome the challenge. Night falls and you continue to run, the birds still leading the way. Near midnight, when it's coldest and darkest, you can see the dragon's figure from afar. Slowly, you catch up to it. When morning comes, you finally reach it. The dragon is cornered against a mountain so tall it pierces beyond the clouds, into the sky and farther than you can see. The dragon inhales, its belly growing larger and larger, and it exhales small green particles that surround you. You try to hold your breath for a while, but eventually, you gasp for air and inhale the green particles. The green dragon crudely laughs but... you feel nothing special. The dragon looks at you, confused, frightened, perhaps. "Step away or I will eat your friend!" A raspy voice calls out from the dragon's mouth. It begins to raise Thenmer towards its mouth while opening its jaw large enough that the dragon could probably swallow him whole.

What do you do now? Remember that it's a dream, you can act without regarding the 5e mechanical rules (although your actions do have a meaning!).

Dolgrim grabs the hammer, to his surprise the shaft seems solid enough to hold. He screams in rage and charges the closest orc. He swings his hammer with all the strength he can muster. The hammer is solid as it hits the orcs head, a piece of fang flies away from the orc as he grunts in pain, suddenly the hammer turns back into swarm and covers the orc who lets out a terrible scream. Seeing this the other orcs freeze in fear as the hammer swarm reforms back into the hammer. With another few swings, Dolgrim manages to kill a few goblins. Seeing their brethren fall, the remaining orcs and goblins realize what's happening and charge Dolgrim. He tries to parry the blows and manages to hit a few more enemies, but soon he becomes overwhelmed. The hammer dissolves again and lifts Dolgrim in the air and takes him to a dead human body. Deep inside, Dolgrim knows it belongs to Al.

He winks at Thenmer and says, "Give me a minute. Trust me" and he casts banishment on Thenmer. He then doesn't really move, just observes the dragon.

"Are you sure you are real? You couldn't fly away from a dwarf. Your breath does nothing and you have nothing in your hands to threaten me with."

He does not draw a blade, he does not act threateningly.

"Or am I real? Was the other dwarf real? Is the mountain real? Are you fighting ghosts?"

Barthrum takes a step back and says, "If I ever see you or hear of you ever again, I will hunt you down and it make things very real. Go now before I change my mind!" He surely feels like a living legend at that moment.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Daran tells you. You look back and you find yourself now in Daran's orchard. "Look at this tree, I've cared for it for many years now." He runs his hand over the trunk of the apple tree, through the branches and to the leaves and fruits. "Macoun. These apples are ready in the early autumn." He picks the apple and throws it to you. "Come on, bite it. Tastes good, doesn't it?" It does. "I wouldn't want anyone ruining my trees. Of course, I already have what it takes to defend my apples. Do you?" 

The apple suddenly turns into bees, and the bees fly up and block your sight for a moment. When they pass, you're now in a different place, a familiar place. It is ruins of a wooden building, or ashes of it if the details are important. Several broken pots lie between the ashes, and the smell of burnt honey stings your nose. "Of course, I already have what it takes to defend my apples. Do you?" The voice rings once again. "Come on, what are you waiting for? You will die if you keep standing like that!" The voice behind you belongs to Al. This time, his head is still connected to his body, but he lies on the ground with a large battleaxe sunk into his chest, held by an orc. The trees behind the orc grow quickly but to the sides rather than upwards. They become so tight that they merge into one wall. Suddenly, your old house lies behind the orc. The orc grins and raises his axe, which is now on fire, but the fire doesn't seem to harm the orc. "Watch, this is going to be FUN!" He tells you and begins to laugh. He begins to approach the house with the flaming axe. The bees under your clothes begin to flounce and fly around you, urging you to move. The hive is inside, you remember, the one that produces the finest honey is inside the house. The bees know how much you appreciate it, but the orc grows larger and larger, or maybe you're growing smaller and smaller, it's not clear, but the axe is now your own size, and the flames so hot they burn the grass even though the axe is a few centimetres above the ground.

The dragon is afraid. This dwarf in front of him survives his greatest weapon and made his prey disappear. He managed to outrun him and get him cornered. The dragon tries to flee upwards but begins to dissipate with a high-pitched shriek. A moment passes and Thenmer reappears, in the air where the dragon held him. He begins to fall, and you rush to catch him, but Thenmer suddenly speaks: "Your glory is meaningless if nobody could witness it!" He then spins around and falls directly on you.

The ground under you shatters and you fall through it. "FOR GLORY! FOR SHAME! TWO PATHS LAY IN FRONT OF YOU. WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?" An unrecognisable voice calls. It sounds like the combination of countless other voices - Humane, Dwarven, Females' and Males'. 

You wake up with the sensation of falling. This time, you are on your bed in Thenmer's house. You're sure of it. You check around you, and everything seems normal. It is still dark outside, but the sky is grey. The nautical dawn kind of grey. When you look the other way, you can see a sliver of light on the horizon. The sun is going to shine.

(You can post your immediate actions, no longer in a dream though, so no Banishments. Do you wake Thenmer up or not? Either way, since you progressed faster than the others, you'll have to wait a bit until their dreams are also over. On the other hand, congratulations! You are now level 3. Other than extra HP, and spell slot, you gain the Divine Health feature, granted for caring for the birds. From your Sacred Oath, however, you only gain the Peerless Athlete feature. You don't have to RP learning the other things, but you are delayed until you prove that your oath is true not only in words but deeds as well. Actions over Words, after all.)

He wakes up and looks around. Takes a few deep breaths and whispers to himself, "For glory."

He gets up and starts preparing a quick breakfast, not being particularly quiet while doing so. Maybe even half-accidentally bumping a mug against the kettle to wake up Thenmer.

Thenmer looks at the dragon. It has not seem him or his friends, it cannot see them. So he watches the dragon, it is dangerous, destructive and yet he is drawn by its terrifying beauty

It is a shame to kill such at thing and yet he knows it will kill so many if he does not. The small lighting he called before will not do now, he needs far more power. His friends need far more power.

He looks at his friends and he looks at himself. Their bodies like clockwork, his body like an intensely complex clockwork of soft tissues and organs. He reaches out in his dream and tweaks the clockwork mechanism, makes them stronger.

The he looks at the dragon. He spreads his hands and he imagines the little lightning he did before but he imagines it as the great torrent of the waterfall. The lightning leaps out and arcs onto the dragon. He realises now that all elements are the same, he twists something in his mind and the spear of lightning becomes a pilum of flame blasting into the dragon.

Dolgrim runs towards the orc and as he gets closer he gets smaller. When he finally reaches the orc he is as small as a bee... no he is a bee!. With all his fury he tires to bite the orc, but he doesn't even notice it. He tries to bite him a few time more even much effect, finally a realization comes to Dolgrim's mind. He spreads his wing and flies. He makes a few circles around the orc and finally decodes to stop at the height of the orcs head. There he stops for a while and just hovers, waiting for the right opportunity. When the right time comes and the orc open his mouth, Dolgrim dashes forward and flies right inside and stings the orc in the back of the tongue. The orc gasps and curses. When Dolgrim tries to fly away, he feels his life abandoning him until he finally... awakens.