Perchance to Dream
| Perchance to Dream | |||||||||
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| ShadowHaven | |||||||||
| Mara |
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Summary
Mara undertakes a metaplanar quest, learning to meld herself with summoned spirits and attempting to repair bridges with Spirits of Man.
Background
Ten years ago, Mara had an issue with the land she had bonded with. Pollutants from Sumitomo Chemicals had made their way into a small stream that went through her 'domain'. Her solution was to manipulate a city inspector that she was friends with to carry a bomb onto the offending property. The explosives went off as planned, however Dave was caught in the explosion. His constant companion, a Spirit of Man he called Mortimer, was not happy about this and marked her so that all of his kind would know her.
Skipping to present day, Mara has started working in the shadows and has recently purchased materials for a magical lodge. She's putting the various tomes and objects in place, with the help of a guidance spirit. As the evening winds down, she makes herself comfortable in a chair in the hidden room and eventually falls asleep.
The Meet
She has a familiar dream - something of a utopia that she's bonded to and presumably in charge of, with a few others living there. The guidance spirit appears and as Mara approaches it whisks off, leading her toward a stream, then a drainage pipe. Beyond the drainage pipe are two figures. When she approaches them an explosion rips through the air and she takes cover behind a vehicle that appears through dream magic. Looking back toward them, she realizes that it was Dave and his spirit, Mortimer.
The spirit pulls himself back together and then rips open the fabric of dream reality revealing a stair case that he descends. Mara follows and meets the Dweller in a dark cave. The Dweller has taken the form of half exploded Dave. The question of how she feels about what she did hangs in the air. She regrets that Dave came to harm, but there is always collateral. The explosion lead to relief for her neighborhood. Then Dweller Dave grew an Elven ear and Mara instantly felt more guilt.
While this was happening a table appeared with supplies; a robe, skin with wine, skin with water, hard bread, dried meat and a knife. With the question posed, but not fully answered, Mara takes the supplies, as another stairway appears winding down.
The Plan
Mara knows that she's here to face what she did to Dave and Mortimer. The only way to resolve things is to move forward. So she follows the path, taking the offered supplies, and descends the stairs to the metaplane of Man (or Spirits of Man).
The Run
Descending the stairs, her Guidance spirit is with her, as they move down, the spirit flows into her so the two occupy the same body. The stairs lead out of a tree in a forest. The forest is varied in flora and fauna, not cohering to any representation of an existing forest on the physical plane. She finds a path and some evidence that someone preceded her on it, so she follows.
Encounters
She has several encounters with spirits on the metaplane. Her strategy is to avoid antagonizing them as she knows she's not a great fighter on the astral. This doesn't save her from ruffling some feathers, though.
Goblin Guys
Leaving the main trail, she follows the signs and scent of smoke to find a small encampment. Small goblin-esque spirits with exaggerated features appear to live there. They have a small creature roasting on a spit and at first don't notice her. She spots another small spirit in the jaws of a small trap which they are currently ignoring. Seeing that they already have enough to feed themselves she moves to free the creature. When she's finally spotted, the Goblins irked as she lets their food go.
Mara calmly explains that they have enough already, and that when they need more they are perfectly capable of trapping another. In the end she's able to convince them that this is reasonable enough. She offers a half loaf of bread as a peace offering and notices that they are visibly apprehensive of her left hand. To them it looks necrotic (as in dying flesh not necro-magic). To her it looks red and irritated.