Ever Dream
After leaving the tunnels behind, we headed toward a hill on the far side of the region. Chin Chin, our sorcerer with an unfortunate sense for “cozy places,” found us a quiet glade to spend the night. It wasn’t the worst campsite we’ve had. That honor still belongs to Utai’s idea of “sleeping inside a hollow log because it’s nature’s bed.”
We set up watches—two hours each: Utai first, then me, Olga, and finally Chin Chin. During my shift, the woods lit up with faint floating lights in the distance. Will-o’-the-Wisps. Dangerous little bastards if you get too close or provoke them. Pretty, sure, but so are traps. I kept my distance, finished my watch, woke Olga, and went to sleep. Or tried to.
Later that night Chin Chin woke the whole camp up, panicked. He’d spotted a golden potato—yes, a potato —glowing in the dark. And of course, he tried to touch it. The moment he reached for it, it vanished, our fire snuffed out, and distant laughter echoed through the trees. Perfect. Just perfect.
Turns out Utai had eaten some of the black mushrooms we’d found earlier while on watch. Apparently they help you see in the dark and stay alert, but they’re also lethal if you’re unlucky. He could’ve died and left me defending a sorcerer and a druid alone in the woods. Brilliant. In the morning he was sore, exhausted, and sunlight bothered him. Served him right. (He actually had full-on exhaustion—he looked like a kicked donkey.)
Chin took the lead as we continued toward the hill. The path was rough, circling nearly the entire thing, but we made it to the top eventually. I copied down the runes Worlis told us about, and after some typical magical nonsense involving sulfur and a statue, half our path vanished. Chin sensed magic at work—no surprise—and managed to retrace our steps without killing us. Utai still looked miserable, so Chin and Olga insisted he take some medicine Yann had given them—a cure called Gebruche. Utai resisted. Wisely. But they pushed him, and he caved. The results? Utai violently unloaded everything he’d eaten for two days directly onto Chin. It was entertaining. Awful. And smelled like death. Not in that order. Olga then used magic to help him recover, because apparently spewing his soul out wasn’t enough.
After resting, we continued on and spotted a strange humanoid figure—almost like a walking brush—with an animal skull for a helmet. It stared at us, then bolted into the woods. None of us felt brave enough to ask questions.
Hours later we found a clearing with a large stone table. On it sat an empty bone cage, humming with odd energy. Birds were singing from above, but the moment Chin opened the cage, they fell silent. Inside sat a Drift Globe—shiny, harmless, and apparently irresistible to birds and… well… Chin. Olga was in awe of the cage, naturally. Anything involving feathers, hoots, or flying things is her weakness. Eventually we made it back to the village. Me and my boy Utai went straight to the tavern—food and sleep were all I wanted. Chin and Olga went to Yann’s. Hopefully to not poison themselves.
The next morning, I woke up exhausted. I’d had a dream—a bizarre mess of flashes from my past life mixed with warped limbs and wrong shapes. Then a giant white featureless face appeared, speaking nonsense I couldn’t understand. The floor was black-and-white marble. Everything felt cold. The worst part? Everyone in Rubury had the same dream. Everyone except Chin Chin, whose dream-face was apparently vomiting green liquid. Typical.
We went to see Worlis. He looked exhausted too, we let him know about our findings and he translated the scripture from the tomb: “Mehen Amash” means “Rage Scar.” When we told him about everything on our way back — the skull-headed humanoid on the road, and the bone cage in the clearing — he recognized those specific events as the kinds of “challenges” that the Children of the Forest are known to put people through. The Children of the Forest, he said, are usually humanoid beings wearing random animal skulls as helmets. Which lined up perfectly with the creature we saw bolting into the woods. Worlis then asked us to gather Golcirne, a plant worth five gold pieces each. Yann usually collected it, but he was terrified of the spiders in the area.
Naturally, after that we had to visit the ever-annoying Yann. He looked tired too. He informed us that the black mushrooms Utai had eaten were Centa —great for darkvision and alertness, dangerous in large amounts. Gebruche, the cure he gave Utai, was indeed correct—except it should’ve been brewed into tea instead of chewed raw. Chin and Olga… gave it to him like candy. Idiots. My idiots, but still idiots. Yann also told us that Golcirne grows in areas populated by giant spiders. He asked us to collect Makabat too—a root found in a nearby cave full of even bigger spiders. Worth a few gold each. Fine.
After we escaped Yann’s mildew-scented shack, we visited the woodsman, who told us about the Miller’s Curse. There’s a mill nearby that runs perfectly, but nobody knows who the miller is. People forget him after using the mill. If he doesn’t give permission, you get cursed—your hands shake at the worst possible moments. We tried finding him. I staked out the place while the rest knocked. Nothing. Either he wasn’t home or he was watching us right then.
Back in town we found Breyla waiting with another woman—Eyla, a stranger in these parts. She needed our help regarding the dreams.
As if one nightmare wasn’t enough.