(Broken Cycle) Poisoned Well

[Saber Sloth]

The Dream around them shudders, the glow of the Poison each of them had spotted seems to fade, no longer being fed fresh. Something had changed.

The Poison now, remained within the tubes, and wires, and IVs lines, and from what the others could sense in the certainty of Dream logic the poisonous lines connecting the Dreams and tainting them was drying up. The Poison rent from the fabric of their collective unconsciousness.

The Lost could now Scour the Dream, removing the Dream Poison, root and stem. Only, a sound was growing. A beeping, a thrumming.

"PLeAsE DoN't"

Writ in blood across the white-white hospital tile.

[Seraphina]

She looked at the tubes again, confused. This was not expected, why was the poison drying up? What changed?

Looking to the other two, she shrugs, “Not sure what happened.” Had the Huntsman moved on? Had the poison run its course?

But the blood writing? New. Totally new.

Walking over to it, she looks at it, wondering who wrote it? Was there a Dreamer in here that could communicate? Manifesting within the Dream, she walks to the wall.

Reaching out with a translucent hand, she touches the wall, “Please don’t what? Can you talk with us?” her voice gentle, almost soothing. This didn’t sound like the Huntsman, he seemed the type to just make himself known and attack them. Maybe a victim?

[James Turner]

“Is this the Dreamer? Were the three dreamers brought into a fourths dream? What would happen if we scoured it of the poison? Is there consequences for the dreamer?” There was worry in that normally placid voice, not an overabundance but it was clear the message caused James to hesitate, to use caution. Even if it were true what choice did they have, sacrifice the dreams of the many for the life of one? To give the Others a stronghold in the skein here? Even if it killed the dreamer he didn’t see another way. He was hoping Rhodes had a hail mary if that was the case.

He sighed and knelt, fingers reaching out to touch the tile, to see the blood, to try and feel its connection to the dream and the dreamer to see what he could find out. Just wanting to be sure that anything they did wouldn’t hurt the Dreamer since this wasn’t The Huntsman’s dream, maybe it was the Cult Leaders?

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-02-16 07:02:59	James Turner rolls 10 to Learn about the Dreamer (Wits + Empathy + Wyrd) (10 Again)	2, 5, 6, 6, 9, 8, 2, 6, 8, 4	3 successes

[Rhodes]

Rhodes looked at the tubes and streams, thinking. "Hard to say, from here," He replied to Sera, quietly. "Diverting his energies to other approaches is one possibility. That he has left is another, though all too optimistic for my thinking without proof."

He turns to James. "Everything around us is a construct of a dream, remember. The message is a part of the imagining. If can easily be subconscious, the thought played out here as the torturous actions happened in the Waking." The Dread Lord looks slowly over the whole wall as Sera touches it, seeking answers. "Every person's dream is a world unto itself, a universe of possibility, and though dreamers create the Skein they rarely interact without either talent or direction - those touched by Arcadia are most likely to do so. The dreamers had to be brought together to be within a truly shared dream, though they may not realise each other were true people, manifesting only in sense of deja vu should they ever meet in the waking..." He trailed off, his senses reaching through the dream.

The Flowering buried his hands in his pants pockets. "Without being fed from it's source, the poison becomes a part of the dream like any other, albeit with a more serious nature. Scouring the dream would remove the last traces of it, until someone began creating it again. Otherwise it remains as long as the dream, leaking out into the Skein until it can find a new source, or drying up if not." He begins stretching his hands, dreamstuff spindly forming and coalescing. "Of course, last time, this drew the eyes of the Huntsman back to this dream. I could not complete the Scourging because of his influence." His hands close around cloudy gossamer threads, forming a staff of black wood with a head of intricately carved leaves and spikes. "Therefore, we should be able to complete thew scouring this time. However, no sense acting unprepared...." He rests the staff on the ground.

"If you are both ready?"

Rhodes activates Phantasmal Bastion for Offense.

[Saber Sloth]

The Lost speak, and the words on the tiles warp and shift, running into each other until they're an amorphous blob of redred blood.

PleasepLeasePLeasseplEASEPLeAse

As James focuses, turning his innate skill at knowing others towards the Dreamers....and realizes he knows them. Not intimately, no really, not in the Waking. But he has seen them. Fought them. Three lost souls once bound to those beds, pumped full of Poison. Taken, Dreaming and Waking, forced into new shape. Snarling and howling. Always, always hunting.

He knows, that this is their last link to the Mortal world. To their lves. To their Freedom. Just as he knows this is the last true foothold the Huntsman has. The only way he can drag himself out of the Arcandian Depths.

[Seraphina]

Watching the wall, not turning from it, “I’m not sure. I remember there being three Dreamers, bandaged and bloody, hooked up to these machines.” But were they communicating? It probably wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Finally, she turns to face James, “I honestly don’t know. But whatever it is, it has to be better than being here.” It was a risk.

Eyes look to Rhodes as he explains things. “If they were brought together for this shared Dream, then does it stand to reason that their human bodies are trapped somewhere?” she asks, trying to work it out.

As the staff forms, she realizes it was time. But it felt empty to her, she had failed to save those Dreamers. Who knew where they were or if they were beyond help. And it tore at her. The hesitation was clear, eyes looking for the wall to the tubes then finally down.

When words appeared again, a tear escaped her eye.

Finally, a nod. “Yes. Lets get this done.” Her voice soft.

[James Turner]

Rhodes’ spoke and explained the situation, James think he understood but it didn’t stop the reaching. Didn’t stop the knowing. He shook his head his hand on the floor, feeling the cold linoleum beneath it feeling their desperation, hearing the pleading in his head. He shook his head some more, hand balling into a fist and hitting the tiled floor and hitting it again. “There has to be another way. A way we can untangle their consciousness from the dream? We need to leave them something, some beacon, some hope, some way to find their way back here!” The emotionless, passive tone breaking and replaced with a quiet desperation. He didn’t look up at either of them as they had already done the math. He had too. What’s one life for ten, three for dozens, if not hundreds more that the Huntsman would take in its wake.

“They’re going to be like us, taken, twisted. We might not have done the work but we’re making that choice for them, we’re leaving them to that fate…” He trailed off as he felt his phantasmal stomach lurch and threaten to empty their contents onto the floor, his form softly shaking still unable to find the strength to get to his feet. Fist turning back to a hand and reaching out, trying to hold onto hope. He would try, try to give them something. If they were to pay the price, he would do what he could to make sure they had something to hold onto, even if it was just a memory.

Tears rolled down the Winter Sovereigns cheeks and froze. What was one more sorrow in the end?

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-02-19 06:49:47	James Turner rolls 10 to Know the Dreamer (Wits + Empathy + Wyrd) (10 Again)	6, 9, 1, 5, 6, 10, 10, 5, 3, 9, 8, 5	5 successes

James is just looking for Happy Memories of their lives to seed, give them something to cling onto in the dark if he can.

[Rhodes]

The Dread Lord shakes his head, seemingly unmoved by the shifting images. They were meant to bring fear, but they were meagre, unthreatening to him. He regarded the scene casually. "Not at all. The Dreaming is a different existence. It is easier to bring people together if they are closer, just as we did when we entered the dream, but the Gentry can reach further than we can. The path is longer if the bodies are separate, but far from impossible." He moves over to Sera and offers her a hand. "It is likely they are gone... but they may yet be awake."

He turns to James, indifferent. "You do not understand. Their consciousness is dormant, their subconscious a part of the dream. These words," he waves the staff towards the bloodstains, "are not people, voices, or active thought, unless these are people that might use the dream as we do. What is left is a dreamscape held by Him, or one of them. Any part of them that remains tied here is released when the dream no longer exists. What lingers...." He inhales slowly, as if scenting the air, "is the Fear."

He backs to the centre of the room. "Yes, they are. If they live, they are broken. But this is not our fault, our doing. He did this. We are saving what of them we can. Removing the poison severs his link to them, but they are forever changed. Like us. Better to die than live forever under their their Arcadian 'grace'."

The Dream Lord raises his staff and reaches into the dream around him.

8 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-02-19 08:12:34	Rhodes rolls 14 to Scouring the Dream: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd (10 Again, WillPower)	10, 6, 6, 10, 8, 7, 7, 3, 9, 9, 5, 10, 5, 4, 9, 9, 1	8 successes

[Seraphina]

Walking over, she places a hand on James’s shoulder, “I wish there was.” Her voice soft, laced with pain. She wanted to save the Dreamers as well, wanted to rip them from the Huntsman and give them their lives back. But that was out of their control now.

“This is a fate that has already been decided. They are His now, and we don’t have the power to save them.” Eyes looking down, another tear escaping, “Though I wish we could. No one deserves this. But we can remove this poison, give him one less foot hold to take more.” But it hurt. Damn, it hurt.

She knew what Rhodes said was true, but it didn’t make it easier, “I just wish there was a way for us to bring them some sort of peace.” But she knew, deep down, that they couldn’t. There would be no peace for the Dreamers until they escaped.

She accepts the hand, finding some comfort in it. Her other hand wiping away the tears that had run down her cheeks.

“Perhaps we can create something peaceful here. Take away the hospital room and leave something soothing. Not saying it will bring the Dreamers any peace, but, it might.” Hope. Hope is what fueled her in here. She had to hope there was something, even if it was small, that they could do. “Maybe creating a healing Dream.” Maybe it would give the Dreamers something to hold on to. “I am willing to put in whatever is needed to create a new Dream for them.”

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-02-19 10:15:36	Seraphina rolls 9 to Scourging the Dream(Wits+Emp+Wyrd) (10 Again)	9, 9, 9, 7, 3, 9, 2, 10, 1, 6	5 successes

[Saber Sloth]

The Darkling desperately digs, and with how quickly he does find a memory tieing the three of them together in a sunlit afternoon, he has a feeling like the Hounds are helping him. The memory he find is on of laughter, and joy. James could seed a new Dream, create something warm and safe. For those now Hunter's Hounds to cling to, to point them north, in a hope of Escape.

However, The Dread King, and The Verntal Queen have been here before. Have set to Scour once before and have come face to face with the Huntsman. With their combined focus, the sickly green of the Poison evaporates. Then, in sparks and seconds, so too does the Dream around them. They have but moments to act, if they still wished to change this nightmare into a dreaming beacon of safety for three more Lost Souls....

To keep the Dream stable someone will need to spend 2 Glamour! Spending the Glamour is 1 Action, someone else will need to Shape the new Dream!

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-02-19 11:11:19	Poison rolls 5 to Resisting (10 Again)	8, 6, 7, 1, 4	1 success