(City on Fire) Sparks

[Saber Sloth]

Push through she did, heat-fire-steam meets her but no pain, flexing her Wyrd she presses the boiling water and steam into something more than a foothold and steps through.

Vincent waring against instinct runs towards the fire and smoke, and not to chase after the fleeing prey animals. Like Sera, he meets the foothold, twisted and tied with their Pledge and exercises his own will opening the door, and steps through.


Jasper arriving hours late, but attempting to keep his excitement in check - knowing it wasn't going to serve in the need to find sleep, which he does, lading softly, gently into his field, it's not long however and the wolfhound smells smoke curling distance his fields ablaze. Jasper, mind focused, knows deep in his bones that this is what the Pledge had done, a foothold, a passage, a Gate. Moving closer to the smoldering grass and smoking clouds, it's like the Gate wants to form, and with determination-skill-thought, it does, and between one breath and the next Jasper rockets forward into a roaring hellscape of an inferno.

And in that dream logic seconds-minutes-hours later he's joined by Sera and Vincent.

This is definately Gabby's dream, but with a quick glance they do not see her. They just see rusted and charred black buildings spearing towards the sky, which is a red-black spiral of restless turning clouds. The buildings are blackened monoliths of a monotonous sameness, or once gorgeous stone architecture with warped and melted coloured glass broken from the warped window frames, frozen and hanging in the moment of combustion. There's years of debris littering the ground, and there are chunks of street pulled up and cracked, creaking small hills and large mountains of blackened asphalt and the stink of tar.

It might take a bit to search through all of this to find one waitress.

Currently the Dream Intensity is 5! Remember folks your Health in the Dreams is your WP. You can spend WP for things, but that will be the rounded modified WP, and your WP/Health will be total WP. (Just wanted to say it to make sure there's no misunderstandings)

If you want to start with Analyzing the Dream that would be Wits+Empathy-Intensity, or if you want to do something else let me know, but wits, empathy, wyrd with the -5 for intensitiy will be the primary things called for rolls right now

[Vincent Black]

As Vincent sees the dream, he is struck by the melody of the song Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. As he sees the others and begins to look around, he knows it is going to be a difficult task to find Gabby, as for what they are going to do once they find her, well they will have to wait until that moment comes.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-09-20 15:15:32	Vincent Black rolls 1 to Analyze Dream (Wits2+Empathy0) - Intensity5 (10 Again, Chance)	9	failure

[Seraphina]

This was a powerful Dream, and she hasn’t been in once with such intensity in some time.

Standing beside Vincent, and now Jasper, she takes in the scene for a moment. Gabby was truly haunted by this, and it was strong.

She could just attempt to find Gabby, try to shift through the rubble and fire, hoping she found her quickly. Or she could try and Scour it, make it a bit less, well, harsh, and maybe make finding the girl easier. She’d seen Rhodes do it plenty of times, and had even done it a handful of times herself. But he had always been the expert, the one she counted on to handle that.

As she reaches out, remembering what she had used before, she feels…nothing.

“Shit.” She mutters under her breath. This was not going to be as easy as she thought, and would take more of her skills.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-09-20 16:35:14	Seraphina rolls 5 to Scour The Dream(Wits+Emp+Wyrd)-5 Intensity (10 Again)	5, 2, 7, 2, 3	failure

Sera attempts to Scour the Dream to lower the Intensity. As per the Primer, it was wits+empathy+Wyrd minus the Dream Intensity.

[Jasper]

Jasper senses the other two arrive at Gabby's dream, staring down at the dream while they currently remain incorporeal. He watches the fires burn, almost feeling the heat rolling off of it, of everything. He hears the whispered word from Sera and 'turns' his gaze towards her. "What?" he asks his Queen. "I've not had a lot of experience doing this.. Usually would just visit Flick's and Mara's from time to time but it was never like this... Never this... intense. How do we get to her?"

[Saber Sloth]

That was the question, wasn't it? This Dream-nightmare hellscape was as solid and real as Dreams could get, it's defiance in the face of Sera's indominable will to Scour the Dream and lighten the heavy omnipresent force pressing against them, making them sweat from the heat, and almost choke from the smoke.

Nothing changes, and no magical path opens to lead them with flashing lights to Gabby.

They would have to force the Dream to change, to obey. Or, they could do this the old fashion way.

Y'all still have the above Dream options to choose from, or you could move from this starting point and try and find Gabby without altering the Dream if you want to do that please give me a Perception (remember Clarity!) and a Wits+Wyrd -5

[Vincent Black]

Vincent realized it is going to be a very difficult venture. "So what do we want to do, Sera this is your expertise where do you think we should head to."

Vincent was now not feeling so sure about how he wanted to proceed so he would take Seraphina lead.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-09-26 09:13:08	Vincent Black rolls 5 to Perception (Wits2 + Composure3) (10 Again)	6, 9, 4, 9, 8	3 successes

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-09-26 09:14:39	Wits2 + Wyrd3 - 5 rolls 1 to do something insignificant (10 Again, Chance)	9	failure

[Seraphina]

Eyes still studying the Dream in front of them, “It’s being difficult.” Sighing, “The Dream is particularly strong, and it’s going to fight us every step of the way. Making it very difficult to change it, which makes it hard to help Gabby.” Rhodes was always better at explaining these things. “If we can lower it, it will make it easier to not only find Gabby, but help her. Though it is a double-edged sword, lowering it too much we risk breaking the Dream. And we only have one shot at this.” The Pledge only let them do this once.

“But, we can still try and find her, it’s just the Dream is going to push back each step of the way.” So, a lot of work with hope they are successful.

“If we can’t lower the power of the Dream, we’re going to have to fight it to find her. Pretty much the old-fashioned way, searching for her.” Not ideal in her mind. “I’m going to try and lower the intensity again, but I have a feeling we’re going in there and searching.”

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-09-26 10:53:53	Seraphina rolls 5 to Scour The Dream(Wits+Emp+Wyrd)-5 Intensity (10 Again)	7, 5, 4, 8, 1	1 success

[Saber Sloth]

Sera explains, even as her skill and will gently, ever so gently loosen the iron tight hold the Dream has upon itself.

Vincent almost misses it as the Dream's heat is less hot, the smoke a little less choking, the edges growing in watercolour, and loosing their obsidian sharps. But he does see it. A spark of colour, a leading flag, Gabby's apron, trapped by some of the debris, it wasn't Gabby, but it was a direction to search.

Dream Intensity is now 4
And the previous options of what to do are still available

[Vincent Black]

Vincent spots the apron or was it a flag, either way he notices it and gets the feeling that is the direction they should head. "Hey Sera, I think we should head that way, I think that is her apron there in the distance." As he points to the apron/flag in the distance.

[Seraphina]

There!

It was small, but it was significant to her. A slight, small loosen on the Dream, and the Nix smiles. See, she still had it. But she needed to continue to chip away at it. It was still high and it would still hinder them.

Hearing her name, she looks to Vincent, following to where he pointed. “Good eye! I agree, lets start heading that way and I’m going to try and weaken the Dream again, I got it to budge, but only slightly. I’ll follow you.” And she will, but she will also reach into the Skein once again, seeking to loosen that hold a bit more, just a bit more. She didn’t want to break the Dream, because that was a whole host of problems, but just a bit weaker.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-10-05 14:48:47	Seraphina rolls 6 to Scour The Dream(Wits+Emp+Wyrd)-4 Intensity (10 Again)	7, 1, 10, 3, 4, 10, 7, 3	2 successes