Dreamcatcher

Day 1: Something here from somewhere else

What started out as a HVAC issue in the biotech lab rapidly turned into a battle for the border between reality and something else.

Key Points

An emergency signal was sent through the machine from places unknown to a port known to have been used years earlier for an entity known as FoxIO. FoxIO was a android fox construct made to allow a person called Cascade to wander around while they were still trapped inside a huge biomecha machine that eventually dragged Morticon and Zen into a quest across both dreamlands and wonderlands.
Using the ability to possess machines, Cascade jumped into the biotech lab without using the mirror. He dropped a stone that he urged them to throw at the mirror. Upon striking the mirror, the stone produced a net kike trap akin to a native american dreamcatcher
No sooner than the mirror was stopped, a mass of teeth, eyes, and horrible claws and tentacles tried to break through and failed.
With the mirror sealed, attention turned to a nearly dead fox and a strange amber sphere he was carrying. Medics both magical and mundane stabilized Cascade enough to get him to medical and Regan took responsibility for the strange amber sphere that appeared to be pinging out prime numbers.4
A piece of some kind of darkness was extracted from Cascade before he was able to be stabilized. It was contained, but is sure to decay within the next day or two.

Character Background: Cascade

Few if any have met this character before. Cascade is a gray fox with an unusual coloring pattern. His fur is completely white except for his feet and paws which are mud brown and spattered rather than having the solid black fox socks. His eyes, a stunning ice blue, are also not standard for his species. Cascade is a spirit fox also knows as the Winter Willow. The name Cascade is a reference to waterfalls. He called Niagra Falls his home, and appears as male or female depending on where he is and who he is with. HIis best friend is Coyote, the fire stealing kind in this case, and they form a balanced opposed pair of elements being fire and ice.

Cascade carries a iridescent blue feather that he has behind one ear and somehow manages to keep it there even if he becomes non-anthro. This is a feather from the frozen phoenix, and avatar of Chaos that gave birth to dreams. Within this feather are memories of his own as well as bearers before him. This gives him wisdom and insight into things that are beyond the living realm and is partially how he can possess machines.

Cascade and Coyote were both kidnapped at one point and ended up with an organization called Yggdrasil. It was one of seven massive pantheon-themed mobile war cities in a realm of forced concept creation and driven by the mad muse Miguel in his attempt to find the means to destroy his greatest enemy, the Nothing. He was the first to discover the hall of mirrors that lead to many realm and many mirrors much like the one in the biotech room.

Breakout Sessions

Regan and the Sphere

At great loss of sleep and a significant if not dangerous intake of caffeine, Regan continued with the amber sphere's math puzzle until it moved onward to logic puzzles. Back and forth, the pair slowly built up a language rooted in math and electrical engineering that allowed Regan to communicate in some ways with the sphere. Additional input in the way of literature and movies permitted the sphere to learn and steadily become proficient in spoken language and have some, if not a biased, look into society through its media. Eventually this created a being that could speak and answer question through its interface, and through this, the sphere showed Regan a little of what was to come in the way of a living being within the protective confines of the sphere.

New Character: Ratatoskr

This is the name given to the sphere by Regan because of the Yggdrasil symbolism on Cascade and the chatty nature of the sphere. In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr is a squirrel that traverses the world tree Yggdrasil and bears messages to the gods. Our Ratatoskr is more than a messenger but a core for a sort of supercomputer that came from a ship. In an effort to find that ship, Regan has been providing star maps, but no location has been pinpointed yet.

Because Smite makes the mythical Ratatoskr look awesome

Morticon and the Dreamworld

In previous games, Morticon has earned the distinct title of Questor which is a form of lucid dreamer with enough strength to alter the dreams he enters. It was during the quest that earned him this title that he also earned the enduring friendship of a lost dream named Reverie. Now known as the Lost Reverie as she is a dream/nightmare hybrid that inhabits the fogs of forgetfulness where all other dreams would be lost, she was Morticon's first stop. From Reverie Morticon learned of some unusual movements of nightmares lately, but more importantly, he learned the the Primordial Fears were becoming openly active. It was one such fear that tried to break through the mirror to get at Cascade and Ratatoskr even though it would likely have destroyed itself in the attempt.

The second stop was to visit Thomas March. Bandy Pyro was outside roasting sausages on his own flame breath and indicated that his master was inside with a cold. After some chatting, Morticon learned from Thomas that one of the primordial fears have taken a shot at a small ship that was in the sailing competition that he and his airship Zephyr was taking part in. After a broadside blast from Zephyr's cannons all loaded with kitchen utensils and harsh words, it came down to his wife, Candice White to lay waste to the primordial and drive it back. It seems that the ship Shooting Star was known an Esper class ship in that is appears both in the real world and the dream world at the same time much like a muse does. It was guessed that is one has an esper os sufficient power and size that it might be able to being dreams, nightmare,s and even primordial fears into reality in a stable form that could eventually lead to their adaption to life in reality. There would be no place safe if that came to be.

Primordial Fears

It is not right to call these beings nightmares as they are the fears that create them. Born from the darkest parts of life's shared memory and instincts, these forces shape the behavior of all living things. Fight or flight was their baby. They share the inability to persist on their own in the waking world without great effort, and they also tend not to appear directly in dreams as this can, and usually is, lethal to the dreamer and counter to their goals. Primordial fears include nearly all of the major phobias, and they spawn nightmares with alarming efficiency, but their direct interface with the living world is more subtle and indirect. AS such, they tend to never be seen as they work almost invisible hands to add paralyzing fears to our lives with even the fear of death being their domain. Primordial Fears share the special place as being despised not only by all dreams and living beings of the light, but they are also a menace to the Darkness that was before the light. As such, Darkness would rather aid those of light than see Primordial Fears rise.

Character Summary: Reverie

Reverie is a form of flying dream. In her original form, she was a lover's reverie, and she was among those responsible for making those smitten with love feel lighter than air. They are also the means by which lovers often find each other in dreams where they are escorted and carried to some of the dreamworld's most beautiful places. Reverie's appearance is known as a spiral leopard. She has the coat and colors of a snow leopard, but her spots are arranged in spirals along her arms, legs, and over her back where they have a helix like shape. The leading edge of her wings are white as fresh snow and her longest feathers are all blue like ice. Being curious, she stumbled through Morticon's mirror and into the real world, given form by the mirror by some chance. In the real world, she was subjected to many of the terrible things people do to each other even for modestly good reasons, and this caused her to start turning into a nightmare as well as crushed her fragile heart. Morticon eventually stole away with Candice to a place beyond the dream and over the river Styx to the resting place of what looks like Pandora's box, and within was still left the last thing it held: hope. Hope can keep any dream alive, and thus Reverie was reforged as something new.

Day 2: Bits and Pieces

Ratatoskr

Ratatoskr hatched! Only ten inches tall, it resembles on of its parent species Caerkeeth It revealed that it has been completely removed from its location as the ship's master computer, known as an AMIP or Advanced Memory Integration Processor, and forced into the only vessel that could hold all the data without losing both the data and the spirit of it: the XolOS sphere. This sphere is apparently a routine bioengineering system for the Keeth, and as such Ratatoskr was given the physical form and mind of a Keeth with many of the data interface tools of a computer.

Ratatoskr confirmed it was removed to keep it out of the hands of something
The ship's first mate performed the operation and fled with the XolOS unit.
The first made was described as a massive taur like being of exceptional strength
They picked up the mirror from a derelict craft and later dark somethings started coming out onto their ship.
Ratatoskr's ship is the United Keeth Vessel Wanderer

Cascade

Cascade was able to speak for at least a short time with everyone present. He was able to confirm:

Something matching the first mate's description came through into the hall of mirrors carrying the sphere
The first made was severely wounded and died not long after pushing the sphere into Cascade's paws
A primoridal fear followed soon after with other nightmares starting to flood into the hall of mirrors

Note: Primordial fears and nightmares can enter these mirrows because the destination is still in the dreamlands

Cascade tried to seal as many mirrors as he could before having to flee and thus arrived as he did the days prior

Day 3: Spaceport

Dividing into two teams, the group tackled the issues of there being an esper class ship at the spaceport and tried to get the identity of the vessel that the Keeth stumbled upon.

Regan, Ratatoskr, and Arya hunt for clues by way of the smoothie stand

Initial attempts to use a lookup kiosk to get deeper into the spaceport computer system resulted in a dead end
Regan laid on some pretty good theatrics and posed as a sister trying to locate her missing brother with quite some success
Based on the data obtained, the ship that the Keeth may have encountered was a salvage vessel. However, it did not appear to make much if any stops at Spindizzy. Instead, the vessel was known by records of other ships and spaceports.
The vessel in question did not have interior damage aside from a catastrophic engine failure according to Ratatoskr. The launch of the escape pod and the recovery of five people from the ship was confirmed.
Based on the analysis, to the dismay of Ratatoskr, it is at least 100 million light years from home. That is at least the last known position of the salvage vessel, and it may be that the vessel dropped out of long distance engine operation even further from the location of the escape pod as the vessel has not been located or recovered.

Visiting upon the Shooting Star

Morticon, Elandra, Tavi, and Kamare headed to Hanger E where the Shooting Star was kept while under repairs. A moderate size aircraft with a split hull style like a non-military version of The Northrop P-16 With the addition of two long, slender tubes between the jet engines on the wings that appear to be some form of solid rocket booster as well as a much larger turbine engine mounted in the underside of the central body. Unlike all other parts of the plane, only the central engine never stops turning. As its crew attested, ":It will never stop turning unless we are both dead or someone destroys it." It turns out that this engine is the Esper of the ship.
Discussion with Matt (pilot, snow leopard) and Valerie (navigator, vixen) revealed there are many vessels like the shooting star and that most of the time such espers are far too powerful for nightmares to deal with, even more so when they fly together in groups. The new monster was different, and they admit owing Candice for the save.
Morticon settles in the cockpit for a look. A very loved and well lived in place like a home away from home. On the dash was a picture of The Promise that revealed the engine was moved form the Promise to the Shooting Star and that Matt and Valerie's father was the origin of this esper engine.
Tavi was able to feel out how the Esper was alive and seemed to breath on its own as well as how it was connected to Matt and Valerie as well as the dream world
At session close, Morticon tried his best to sense what it was to be in or near as esper. He could feel the engine and the spirit in it, but more importantly, being near this Esper felt just like being next to...Ratatoskr.

Espers

Espers are a relatively uncommon sentient entity that can best be described by comparing it to a dreamer or a muse. Like a muse, they exist in dreams and reality at the same time, but for the Esper, dream is home. Espers dream and project into reality while dreamers project from reality into dream. This makes a symbiotic link that strengthens both esper and dreamer. Espers almost always take the form of vehicles or parts of them, but there is little limit to their expression. The most common are things like aircraft, cars, space ships, etc. They are things that welcome in those of the real world and make bonds with them.

Because espers span reality and dream, they are often targeted by ambitious nightmares thinking they can steal the vessel and have a stable way to live in reality. The result is generally the destruction of the nightmare at the hands of dreamers and esper. Espers are one of the more powerful beings in the dream world, and some of the strongest can project power into reality such that the vessels seem magical.

It is worth noting that no esper has ever transitioned entirely from dream to reality much as most dreamers cannot do so without special equipment like Morticon's mirror. A ship with an esper that is entirely inside reality would be a halfway point for any dream being to cross over to reality and perhaps even adapt to reality. Such an esper would be incredibly special and coveted by many.

Day 3b: Transport arrangements

At the Spaceport

Regan, Ratatoskr, and Arya meet up with the main group at the Shooting Star
Placing Raratoskr in the cockpit of the Shooting Star caused her to seem to drift off and speak as if she was seeing or getting data from someone else
- Ratatoskr seems to have locked into the flight path of the ship they encountered but does not yet have a precise location for the Wanderer.
The need for a ship that can carry everyone became obvious. Shooting Star only fits two people, and the owners are not going to give up their seats. Even if they did, the ship might not fly
Resolved: A much larger tougher esper-craft will be called in. It will take a few days to find and summon, but the crew of the Shooting Star suggests Big Bertha, an old B-17G Flying Fortress with plenty of room and firepower.

Upon return to the base

Ratatoskr is awake for a long while and so end up using some of the links Regan prepared for her in order to talk to people and feel more at home
India gets a chance to chat with Ratatoskr for a while, and they talk about subdued emotions and bringing those into the open. Rata notes such guarded emotions among her kind would probably raise concerns and end up with someone being taken care of more carefully. She also revealed isolation and being closed off to be traits often lethan to the Keeth as a whole.

Day (Night) 4: A primer on lucid dreaming

Part I

Morticon as a questor class lucid dreamer lead the session by collecting each person in turn and taking them as a group to the edges of Thomas March's wonderland as a safe place to work
The Lost Reverie was also called in to assist in training and give perspectives to the group as a dreamlands native.

Rules to survive by as a lucid dreamer

The force of your will is the key to your power. If your will can be bent, so can your effects
Your focus is second. You must learn focus to be more than just a passive dreamer. This separates you from most folks at night.
Belief is the final part that gives you power in a dream. Your will backs it up. You focus gives it form.
1. Shared belief is shared ass kicking so work as a group

They say in a dream you can do anything. This is only true so far as you can exert your will and force what you believe to come to pass. If you don;t, the dreamlands will sweep you off to all kinds of places good or ill, and you will be stuck like a barrel in a river. The more you exert your will on the environment, the more you will learn about it, and the more you will learn to do.

Why can't I just do anything outright? This comes down to the idea that the dreamscape is not a passive entity and has a will of its own stretching back to the beginning of the universe and links all dreamers to some extent. It takes work to learn to focus your will and solidify your beliefs in a place that will constantly challenge them and try to carry you off on its own. As Amy Lee of Evanescence put it, "But who can decide what they dream? And I dream I do." For most people, the dreamland is too powerful and they end up where they end up or they only exert some small effect on their location. for those trained, the dreamworld is a chaotic place but it is possible to navigate it and engage its denizens directly. As you gain those abilities, you begin to gain the knowledge you need to act as dreams and nightmares do in their native world. Then you can start doing crazy things.

Of course, that is why there are training sessions.

Part II

Reverie takes on her nightmare form in order to test everyone. Included in this are some weaker nightmares that she has the means to summon to force everyone to work against a group of adversaries. As part of this she altered the surroundings to look like something that could have come from Regan's mind and added the heavy, foreboding scent of dragon blood in the air from Tavi's dream.

Reverie's Nightmares: Soul Faded Aina The old generation looking at the younger, envying the soul and pattern it possesses, spiting the fate that doomed her to die an dishonorable death; The Scientist One of Morticon's oldest nightmares and one often forgotten until brought back into use. A personal attack that seems to hate the failed thing it made; The Jackal This is the nightmare spawned in the minds of the Ainata and Morticon based on the very real actions of Cassie. Angry her life and family was taken from her, spiting and lashing out at all around in in pain of the undead spirit possessing and twisting her body, she is remembered as a killing machine with exceptional aim, enhanced defensive technology, and superior hand to hand combat tactics.

Terrain Advantage: Regan's Dream Because Reverie chose to steal darker parts of Regan's dream, Regan knew the area well and was able to better manipulate it. This resulted in her being able to place Seya snipers in hidden locations to keep the other nightmares suppressed; Tavi's Roses In an effort to bring something into being from nothing, something Tavi noted she could not do in reality but seems that she can in the dreamscape, Tavi created dark roses with long, sinister thorns that began to spread and limit the mobility of the nightmares. The ability to create them was actually amplified by something in the environment that seemed to stack well with the idea of these sort of cruel roses. While not intended, it took advantage of something in the landscape that enhanced Tavi's abiklity

Personal Nightmares: In the case of Morticon and Myre, the nightmares chosen for each was personal in that they relate to parts of their lives. Digging their proverbial claws into the hearts of their enemies by taking advantage of their memories and negative emotions, they are an illustration of what nightmares will do to succeed and that there are no holds barred and no tactic too low if ti works.
Myre vs Aina: Myre found that launching balls of energy was able to damage Aina, but this only made the nightmare angry and actually increased its strength. Instead, the Aina was stopped by trapping it in a moment of undefined time. With Aina trapped, Myre was eventually able to break the nightmare down into a small, jagged ball of what seemed like rusty or bloody iron. The ball exuded hatred and spite to everything around it though it seemed to hold little memory to direct it back at Myre.
Morticon vs Origin: The scientist was nothing less than they very people that created Morticon ages ago and exerted terrible pressures on him to make him into a killing machine. Frail as a human, Morticon was able to blast the nightmare with a ray gun. Unfortunately, this created something worse: the most advanced model of macropod weapon OBT developed: the psiroo. Sniper fire staggered it, but Morticon had to eventually face it without fear or regret to give it pause, causing it to change once again and leave him facing off against none other than himself.
The Lone gunner: The memory of Cassie did not choose any single target but instead began to take down snipers in short order with her own weapons. Her effect was less directed at any one person and meant more to demoralize others by showing how easily she could ruin their effects. Eventually Regan had to face off with the jackal. Regan showed she could not be frightened or goaded into combat, and this eventually caused the jackal to walk away on its own.
The One Left Alone: Curiously, no attacks were made against Tavi for some reason. No nightmare even moved against her or tried to destroy the roses despite the impediment they were. The question is why.

The Fight Against the Fallen

Kamare and Elandra led the assault on Reverie. Able to turn her long ribbons into deadly blades, use her wings and shields, and otherwise power all the nightmares around her, Reverie would certainly be considered the commander or boss encounter in the group. While some damage could be done including from some of Myre's energy attacks, and both spells and physical assaults from Elandra and Kamare, Reverie proved to be incredibly tough. Only some roughing up of her ribbons and her wings was apparent along with one gash to her upper arm showed after several rounds of fighting, and her look of utter spite and unjustified malice grew stronger as the fight continued. If anything, she may have seemed stronger for it. Elandra's more musical self may have caused some destabilization by trying to project a sense of joy out towards Reverie, but happiness did not seem to quell whatever is powering Reverie's nightmare.

Part III

Intro Clue: Candice "Every creation bears some aspect of its creator" Thomas "What a splendid monster that must make you." - On how Thomas spend the night outside in the rain and caught a cold.

Meaning: Every nightmare used hatred, spite, or envy against the group. These emotions all come from their source, Reverie, who in turn picked them up in her misadventures. Nightmares tend to come from something that inspired them however real, imaginary, or irrational it may be.

Morticon's Mirror: Faced with the very image of his younger self, Morticon was forced to deal with an essence that knew every aspect of his life and creation. As much as it tried to belittle Morticon and claim that it could have done better than he could, Morticon, with some encouragement, was able to assert himself against its claims and hold his ground. It them brought up his inability to protect the women in his life. This was enough to make Morticon enraged, and a fight might have broken out if the younger image was not restrained and then vanished as its source of power suffered a blow.

Reverie's End

Aided by a mysterious voice, everyone received a bit of insight that they did not have to heed but all did
Elandra realized that the concept of joy was not working on Reverie because it can be twisted out of contest into thinks like the joy of vengeance. Instead she directed her energies into others in order to armor them
Lepus started changing the world around everyone to better bolster their ability and strip away the spite and darkness that Reverie was using which revealed the hidden sphere of influence that the nightmare had in effect
Tavi was given a hard task. She was encouraged to be bold, and in doing so she helped Morticon defeat his old self. Her emergence caused Reverie to change her position and land, stripping out the power from the nightmare Morticon faced. She appeared frightened of Tavi for some reason.
- Tavi was given a hint to give Reverie something. She took one of her roses, shoot the darkness off of it like casting off soot, removed the thorns, and presented Reverie with a thornless white rose.
- With trembling paw Reverie accepted the rose, and in doing this her ability to project a nightmare ceased.
- The reason for all of the spite and hatred Reverie used was finally revealed. In the real world when she was pure and truly innocent, she met a child. He was maybe three and gave her a dendelion from the playground. His mother rushed out with utter hatred, paranoia, and spite towards Reverie and ran off with her child, scolding him for talking to strangers. She couldn;t stop seeing the darkness in the world afterwards, and it would have killed her is not for MOrticon, Mia, and Candice long ago.

The Hidden Hand: The voice that sounded from each person's right shoulder was that of Serendipity. As aspect of chaos, she is not quite a god, but she is is certainly a greater spirit that holds great influence among inventors and visionaries in particular. She doesn't know everything, but she usually can give you a hint when you need and if you are open to hearing her or seeing the small changes she may have made in your world. Her work elsewhere was announced after Reverie was coaxed back down to her dream self to rest, and she revealed that their ride would be coming in about three days and that it would need some clouds to makes its landing however one might go about making clouds.

Day 5: Waking Dreams

Ratatoskr could not be located in the dream plane at all while everyone else was there
Morticon decided to try an experiment by having Kamare put Ratatoskr to sleep while everyone observed in the waking world

A glimpse of home As Rata went to sleep, an energy started to expand outward and interface with the real world. The essence was a dream or some kind of dream world that was coming our of Rata and was readily felt by everyone. As the effect spread, the room and the base outside was slowly converted into a partial hybrid of the base and some kind of realm were everything was made from organic material or at least made to look that way. Exiting the room provided a view of a vast jungle with a steady, fresh breeze and humidity enough to either threaten rain or that rain had been near earlier. Piercing this vast space was a lonely series of tones that if not for the trees might have echoed. Giving some answer to it lead everyone to a kiosk of some kind that was obviously highly advanced but also made to blend in with the natural surroundings.

The kiosk listed the user on the other side as MOTHER. It was sound sensitive and could be examined in a tactile manner. It was, in fact, Rataroskr showing the body she had been in before her current one. She also showed projections, or perhaps it is better to say memories, of thousands of creatures that inhabited this area ranging from tiny flying folk like Rata to larger arboreal species, and finally massive tauroid beings. All of them possessed glowing antennae, so when the lights were down, the appearance of them all was like a fire or a massive vigil held by candle light. These extremely social beings never showed up alone anywhere in the jungle, and sometimes they came in large groups piled up on the backs of the largest and surrounded by the smallest ones flying close by. It had the feel of a tight knit community of the sort that would be shaken by the loss of even one soul.

Upon waking Rata, the visions seemed to fade, but they tried to linger for a brief time before there was no energy left to sustain them. One thing is certain though: The world that can come out of Ratatoskr is capable of sustaining dreams in reality and therefore can also make nightmares real

Mini-Session: Consultation over Coffee

Seeking a way to mask Ratatoskr's presence, Morticon returned to an old ally. At the end of the day, there were two figured remaining at Candied Coffee. Winifred, a young muse native to Spindizzy with a domain of dance and martial arts was cleaning up the demonstration area after teaching an introduction to martial arts she normally teaches at her school. The other, much older but not so old as muses go, was the owner of the shop, Candice White who holds domain over graphic arts with painting as her focus. As a whimsy, Candice also bears skills that can be considered dangerous and sometimes taboo by other muses, but tonight it was only her advice that Morticon sought, and this is what he found.

Candice had no means to mask the signature of an esper of such a magnitude as Ratatoskr
- Instead she suggested that they learn to use her power carefully to their advantage
Candice provided Morticon with a bottle of 'Liquid Courage'. Most would mistake it for whisky, but this is Hatter's private stock from Wonderland.
- The bottle is as advertised. One shot and fear has no hold on you. You are in charge of holding onto your wits though.
Winifred ofered a means to call her and promised she would organize a flight of other dreamers to aid them if they should call.
- Those on call include herself, the chodonex Ritz, the dracoferret Skita, and every other adventure seeking dreamer with or without wings that she could find
- Candice offered to bring the Zephyr along with her husband and its captain Thomas March. Of course, this likely means Bandy Pyro and an army of dormice is sure to show as crew for the airship.

Day 6 The Greater Evil

The group gathered at the SED launch site where Elandra and company were able to produce cloudcover that BB-157 needed to enter the real world
BB--157 landed and its crew was introduced
- COmmander Mic Hale: Pilot. A 92 year old skunk that doesn't seem to have been slowed by age
- Co-Pilot Bertha: The esper inhabiting the aircraft, a massive female timber wolf
- Nathan Smith: A mink (plain) and engineer and a soul that has been hiding aboard the plane to avoid death
- Glory: A lioness that knows no fear. She is a dream that can persist in the real world only when inside the plane.

Two people, Glory and Nathan, are folks that could not be as they are in the real world. Like Ratatoskr's ability, Bertha has command over the space in the plane, and she can sustain both of them while they are in the range of her influence.
- While everyone can feel the presence Bertha has, what everyone felt Ratatoskr do in the base was definitely of a much higher magnitude

Everyone took positions in the plane to help watch for enemies and defend her against them. In the bomb bay, a missile of some kind aimed towards the back of the plane has a big, happy sunshine smiley face with sunglasses on it. It has not been explained yet.

Once in the air and in the dream realm, Kamare and Myre, taking tail and ball turret position, spotted something behind the plane and just under the clouds. This seemed to follow a subtle but creeping dread of something that touched the most base instincts for survival
- Tavi made the first judgement of the size being at least a mile wide
- Regan stretched himself a little to poke at the clouds and separate some of them behind the plane
- Tavi, Kamare, and Myre all caught sight of something dreamful behind the plane...

The Fear of Death

One can imagine that the primordial fear of death is something that could take any number of forms, and that is exactly the case. Nearly all beings fear death, and they will nearly always fight to avoid it. The fear of death is not death at all but the dread of it coming. This may sound nebulous, and like most of the primordial fears, it is very much so. What causes the fear in one person will be very different in the next, but the entity is perfectly capable of providing to everyone's needs.

Of all of the primoridal fears, the Fear of Death, which takes second to the related Fear of the Unknown, serves a purpose that has actually fostered the expansion of mortal life by making it fear, and this avoid, its destruction. Most of the time this fear will do its job and lay hidden, but when it has something to gain, it will appear, and when it appears it can take almost any form. The most common is some form of predator chasing its prey, and it will inevitably take a shape that frightens the prey.

Quick Notes

The fear of death can take any form
The fear of death can be:
- Fear of your death
- Fear of someone else's death
The fear of Death is NOT death itself
- It CAN kill you
While it is the source, the manifestations of this fear are often quite personal

Primordial Fears invoke Instincts They attack you in your most primal brain in whatever way makes sense. They might manifest as something complex, but in the end they are going for your instinctual reactions and not your higher thinking, and this can cause very irrational behavior at times. How you react if part of who you are and probably unique to you even if this base attack is the same.

If you wonder if it belongs to this fear, you may be under its influence if you thought, spoke, or otherwise brought up:

"I won't want to die"
"Oh god we're all gonna die"
"Please don't die!"

And pretty much any situation where there is fear of a predator be they a wild animal, a person, a monster, ect. If it makes you fear for your existence then you are likely in the domain of the Fear of Death

The Dead Flying Wing: The Fear of Death has appeared to the group as a massive stealth bomber or at least the huge, black shape of one. Over a mile wide, the actual hull is made from the bodies of dead planes and their crews. Almost always behind but rarely catching up, the Fear of Death prefers to chase at a distance and send forth minions to amplify its effects. At the end of the session, we see this flying wing splitting open along its leading edge to show it has a massive may of jagged forms waiting to consume plane and crew if it catches up. Out from this horrid maw all sorts of flying wrecks have set forth to intercept BB-157.

Fears of the Crew: Mic Mic fears losing his crew and his plane and surviving them. At his age, this has happened many times over in his life, and he doesn't want to be the last to die and leave Bertha alone; Nathan is absolutely terrified of death and crossing over. Of the four crews of BB-157, he is the most vulnerable. Hi fear of having to face death and the other side can be paralyzing; Bertha has the most to fear from the shape of the things behind her, and in some instances she knows the broken shapes of other espers who have fallen over the ages. However it is not those shapes but something out there that she dreads: gremlins. She is vulnerable to them, and she doesn't want to be torn apart until nothing is left; Glory is without fear. She is immune to this and all greater fears because she is, unlike all others, an ideal. She is a dream of glory in combat. I she feared anything it would be being erased and not remembered, but she faced death like a crazed viking might. She fears not death, and she'll be waiting to live again.

The Fears of the Spindizzy Crew: This is for you all to fill in as you see fit. Your fears are your own, and I won't pretend to make them all up for you. Whatever kind of death you fear or whatever implement of your fear you dread could be out there. Please free to inject some of these as we play and make it personal for you, and I will try to cater to your dread.

Fears in general: The Primordial Fears are special in that they strike at the most base part of your being. While an insect or a tiny non-sentient creature may not understand or feel the dread behind a political action, nearly all living things can feel the terror that they may lose their life, and nearly everyone will fight it somehow. There are many more subtle and focused fears, but the big ones always reach for your most primitive, ancient roots to do their work.

Day 7: Death and Darkness

We began in a situation quite dire: flying through the air with one of the most powerful primordial fears on our tail and on the attack. The Fear of Death (FoD) lead off with several groups of attack craft with faster ones on the distant sides to try and hem in Bertha's flight path while heavier gunships and missile bearing craft brought up the center to try and overtake Bertha by any means necessary.

Opening song: Murder by Within Temptation

Fighting the Fear

Kamare exited the plane to take on dragon form and engage the enemy directly
All gunners opened fire on the enemy craft. They fell like flies to the gunfire but more replaced them
Tavi and Elandra each used their magical talents to provide addition support
- Elandra prodused a large, fiery effect that not only downed a lot of planes but also caused the FoD to burn off its shroud and show its real form. The massive monster made of mangled mouths, gnashing teeth, bladed tentacles, and every kind of clawed hands one can imagine appeared. This is the same entity that tried to come through the mirror after Cascade
- Tavi used her roses and their thorns again, and this time to try and slow down the FoD with some success
Seeing what was behind in its true form inspired Regan to aid in a new way. Modifying his rounds to that he shot the stones used for the dreamcatcher, like the stone Cascade had Morticon throw, worked with Tavi's thorns to make the FoD drop back
Kamare had to deal with one final assault as missiles bearing gremlins were launched. She managed to collide the missiles and destroy them, but one of the gremblins rode the blast and landed on Bertha. Tavi and Morticon ensured it only had a second there, but in that time it crippled the #3 engine.

In addition to combating enemies outside, several in the plane had to deal with fighting their fear. Nate was frozen at his console in terror, Mic was solid, Bertha was brave and perhaps inspiring until gremlins became a thing, and Glory could not be intimidated as she is a dream of glory in combat, and that ideal armors her against fear in a fight.

Others showed some level of distress including Regan and Ratatoskr who both were much more rattled than they might like, but between Morticon and Regan's own will they kept themselves together and kept Ratatoskr from falling apart.

Darkness Arrives

As the conflict began to wind down, and it seemed like they may have won the day, a large mess of something so black that it had no reflections arrived. This was a large group of Darkness coming into the dreamworld. this is unusual as dreams are one of the primary powers used to repel or destroy them. They launched something referred to as the Nothing. Two were fired at the FoD where their effect was quite visible as any minions that got near the incoming projectiles they stopped functioning and fell from the sky. A third object was launched at Bertha.

The form of the weapon deployed by the Darkness was not at all by chance, and somehow they knew what vessel would be carrying the most dangerous weapon their kind has ever known. It so happened they had a suitable counter attack, and their late arrival into the fight comes form their need to prepare and delivery it. The other Nothing had the same shape as Bertha. It was a B-17G, the same model of her body but the hull was burnt out and dark so that the name and paint on the nose could be barely made out. BB-158, Double Trouble, appeared as a Nothing. The result was immediate panic in Bertha as she cried out "You died!" among other things as this other bomber remained on a collision course. Its presence and the low, mournful sounds it produces have the effect of causing profound dismay and sadness in those that hear it with madness being one of the only effective defenses.

Despite several powerful spells and all guns trying to stop it, things Morticon warned would have no effect on that beast, we ended the session just before the moment of impact.

Day 8 Much ado about a Nothing

Day 8 Intro Post

After the collision, several things became apparent.

Attempts to repair BB-157 succeeded in part with Myre turning the clock back on engine 3 until it once again functioned.
Trying to fix Engine 4 was only partially successful due to a dark residue where the Nothing had hit it. Contamination was also seem spreading in the fuel lines
Tavi did her best to try and engage Bertha directly, and this was enough to bring her out of the emotional spiral she had been set upon. The flower Tavi made for her was something Bertha said she should take to Trouble if she could.

Given the circumstances, Mic laid out a few options based on the condition Bertha was in and that the Double trouble, now flying below them as a Nothing, wasn't leaving them.

Exit from high altitude in the dreamland and hope to now pop out in hard vacuum or something worse
Try to hold altitude and see how close they get before being forced to leave because of the Nothing tearing at Bertha's heart
figure out some way to take on the nothing

The group resolved to do two things: call for help and take on the Nothing. In calling for help, some of the muses were an option, something Morticon would have nixed as too dangerous because Nothing can destroy muses just by proximity. Call anyhow and someone who could withstand the Nothing did arrive.

The chodonex Flare has joined the group for now to help them handle the Nothing and clear a way for Bertha. Given the crazy nature of the task, theuse of the Liquid Courage has been brought up.

N7 Chodonex Flare: Flare is a chodonex, one of three in the universe to date. Chodonex, also known as mobius hares, are easily identified by ears long enough to reach their hips, orange eyes, large feet, and a long, ribbon-like tail with a colored dot at the end. They are creatures associated with chaos and dreams, and they were created in the earliest moments of the big bang. Chodonex have two states: base and excited. At their base states, they looksoft and fuzzy with fur that differs from the color of their dot. In the excited state, they look frightening and almost nightmarish with fur matching their dot though often a slightly different due. Excited states give access to additional abilities or it should be said that the excited state is required for some abilities.

Flare is best known for her incredible speed. Her name is derived from the flash or Flare of light when she greatly exceeds the speed of light. Like all chodonex, her tail can be used as a bladed weapon, and she has learned to use hers to destroy weapons and armor even when they are in use. Flare tends to try and stop conflicts as an arbiter, but when that fails, she strips everyone of their weapons and leaves whole armies facing each other in their underwear and nothing to arm themselves with but harsh language.

Chodonex are aligned with one of three attributes: Hope, Dream, and Wonder much like a particle is made up of three quarks. Flare is dominated by dream, which is how she performs such impossible acts in reality, and hope, which is a source of power that keeps her going in hard times. N7 refers to her symmetry number. Within Flare are seven fold symmetry realm of fractals, and in the event of her death, these seven realms will spawn seven new chodonex with colors corresponding to ROYGBIV, 7 colors of the rainbow. For comparison, Ritz is N5 and has a different quark and color compliment.

Flare, who is used to conflicts, is best known to muses and others that deal in fights. Because of this, she knows Winifred, and that is how she came to find the group when they called.

Day 9 Quomodo Shadow to Light

Dreamcatcher D9: Opening

BB-158 Cockpit

The last two soul to perish are found in the cockpit. The captain, a bobcat, looks to have taken shrapnel to the chest and abdomen, and the blood stains on his uniform and his chair are more vivid than some of the other sights on this ghost plane. Unlike the others, it looks like someone leaned him back and set his dead paws in his lap. The co-pilot is different than all the others in a number of ways. He has the least amount of shrapnel damage and none of the blood on his muzzle that suggests bleeding into his lungs. His jacket has been removed and tied around his waist like a bandage trying to hold something in that has stained his jacket with blood. He looks to have been holding onto the controls when he lost consciousness and perished. In front of him on the instrument panel is a handwritten letter partially unfolded. The position and the letter are not all that sets him apart. The co-pilot, a mink, is without any doubt the same spirit that is hiding in Bertha now: Nate.

Letter on the instrument panel: Dear Nate,

I pray that this letter finds you well. It us all we can do here to listen to the radio, and what reports have come to us are terrifying. I can only imagine they are that much worse for you. Our cousin William was at Normandy though only heaven knows where his soul is now. I feel terrible saying such, but I am glad you are in the air force well above the conflict below. We are all still amazed at just how large the plane you fly is as the picture you sent us makes the whole crew of the plane look tiny standing out in front of it. Mom cried when she saw it because it was proof you were alive and well. They call them flying fortresses, and I am grateful that you are safer there inside it than anywhere else you could be.

They say the war looks like it may be coming to a close and that victory is within sight. All I can think of is it being that much closer to having you home again. I received a letter from David last week and he is doing as well as we could hope. He was injured and will be sent home, but they think he will be walking again in time. I promise that we will wait for you to come home before he and I are married. I don't think I could keep my wits about me if you weren't standing beside David as our best man, and I am sure you'll be working just as hard to keep papa from resisting the need to let me go.

I know that no one speaks of it, but with Mary and Adam lost when we were still young, all mama and papa have now are us. I'm not sure I can imagine a world without you, so please be very careful and know I love you. Fly safe and come home to us soon. I will pray for your safe return every day.

With all my love,

Emily

Section Song

Despair Obsession and Truth

Saving a nothing is a task of finding out what is keeping them tried to their sorrow, convincing them that what they are feeling is not real and that they need not remain here, and them there is the moment when one can finally set their spirit free to whatever path it will them follow. Accomplishing this required finding many clues and taking several paths of action before Austin, aka Double Trouble, could be identified and extracted from her self-generated nightmare prison.

The Scene

Detail of the cockpit: The most detailed part of the memory pertained to the cockpit. Both pilot and co-pilot were there in detail enough to see that the pilot's eyes had been closed and hands taken off flight yolk after he died. The co-pilot was not only detailed but he happened to be Nate. Details here were enough for those to recall in hindsight that Nate's uniform had slightly different patches than Mic's, something Nate had been trying to cover up. That Nate died with his eyes open and looking at the letter on the dash was very clear.

Letter on the instrument panel

The letter on the instrument panel is, as Regan discovered, covering over the engine voltage measurements. There is a small but very weak current coming from the alternators of all four engines. Upon picking up the letter, it was senses that this object had greater permanence than anything else. It was a real object as opposed to an imagined one, and it was no doubt taken from the real world into this nightmare.

Dog tags: The dog tags, the only thing that every body had regardless of their condition, all held a certain weight to them as though they were both real and not. The portion that is not real persists because Trouble had succeeded in her self imposed mission of getting the bodies of her crew home. There is a ceremonial aspect of these tags that gives them some power. The dog tags were later turned over to Nate who seems to have an idea of what to do with them,

Hull response or lack thereof: Myre made an attempt to reverse the timeline of the hull and restore it. What she was able to find out was that the hull was trapped in its own circular time loop. In truth, there was no hull to repair because it was based on a locked memory.

Soul Survivor

Nate's place of death: Nate's body was found in the cockpit. He appeared to be the last one to perish. he had tended to his wounds as best he could, but he could not stop internal bleeding. He held his course until he could no longer hold himself upright. He dies looking at the instrument panel where both a letter to him from home resided, an object to focus himself on and try to keep up his strength, and the engine alternator dials were, indications of Trouble's strength.
Past relationship with Austin aka Double Trouble: Myre looking into the past of Nate trying to find clues, and she stumbled on far more than she might have expected. Memories of Trouble, her true name being Austin, and Nate could be found in the innocent dreams of flight between a child and a young esper. The pair had grown up together with Austin inspiring Nate to become an airman and Nate's assignment being the reason both Austin and Bertha took on the B-17G bombers they used as bodies in the waking world. When Nate died, it was more than a loss of a friend or a crew member. Nate and Austin were about as tightly bonded as lovers, and when one died, the other couldn't go on.
A promise: "I will never leave you." A simple promise and a tall order, but it was one that Nate swore anyhow on his soul. when he died and those from beyond came to fetch and sort their souls, the crew of BB-158 ambushed them and allowed Nate to escape. He spend ages in fear of death as he knew what lay beyond, and he desperately sought to find Austin. He did find Bertha and took shelter within her shell while keeping up the search for Austin.

Confronted with Austin the in form of a Nothing and seeing Bertha in incredible pain made Nate focus on more than his own fears. He first tended to Bertha, but when the radio came through with reports of the bodies being in the Nothing, he found strength in the promise he made and came down to the Nothing. Once inside, he was able to direct others like Kamare who was the first to discover how frail this shell was and that something lay under it. Elandra's attempts to lift the plane found it fragile but in the best way. the exterior shellf of pain and misery was breaking and revealing the luminous soul beneath. Everyone had their part in getting the toxic shell off of Austin. The scraggle, scarred wolf herself was pulled out form a mass of tar that lay behind the instrument panel by the efforts of Tavi and Nate.

Spiritual Liberation

With all the Nothing's prison walls broken and scattered, the true form of the Esper in its unbound state was revealed. It should be noted that this is what Austin look like and not necessarily the general appearance of an esper.

Three times the size of Bertha and Trouble’s B-17G frame, the place you now stand has more in common with the Organic Spire of Spindizzy than it does a plane. The floor and the walls are all made from a semi-translucent orange material that allow you to see outside but has enough presence that you know where the walls are and on what you stand. The floor beneath you is no longer cold metal but something slightly softer and certainly warmer. There is now only a single deck without breaks for guns, ball turrets, or a cockpit. Where top, ball, waist and tail guns once were are now long whisker like projections with menacing jagged edges that could almost be likened to teeth. Of teeth, the nose of this vessel has a thin line of jagged edges where the hull was once painted with a toothy grin that might imply Trouble has actual teeth! Her wings are now beautiful swept back collections of long tendrils arranged in the shape of a wing with the very ends fanned out like the feathers of an eagle’s wing. Where the engines were there are now nodules that provide thrust, and it is these four hearts that thrum with life once more and glow with an inner light anyone can see. This is the bare soul of an Esper. Like the vessels they inhabit willingly, they all have different forms, but they are all vessels made whole when life and dreams are shared, and Trouble has been drawn out of darkness by your hands and now is here before you and around you in all her glory.

Day 10 Revelations and Reality

Opening Song: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jkvWPrVtONILiHB312SIy-9vjTS7tzOi

Day 10 Opening Post

With the rescue of Austin came a source of information that would have otherwise been lost. While being held by the Darkness in preparation for the recent attack, Austin was able to hear and remember some of their plans.

Darkness does not want Nightmares or the Fears to get whatever this object is
Darkness fears it is some kind of new chaos that could further unravel its being
Darkness is preparing a blockade anticipating that you all might somehow get to your destination
Darkness is terrified of thisobject so much that it is risking touching the corruption of the dreamscape

In addition to what happened with Darkness, Nate's story is revealed as one having escaped the grasp of death and fled from it for nearly seventy years now while trying to find Austin. It is at least sme small proof that love can sometimes triumph over death at least in some ways.

Changes in plans required changes in Bertha's shell, so she too was seen in her true form, and she lived up to her Big title given how she dwarfed Austin by about 1.5 times. Modifying BB-157 took everyone's efforts from big changes done by Morticon and Austin, heavy repairs and enchantments by Myre, Kamare, and Elandra, and detail work and reinforcement by Tavi. The result is a modern looking spacecraft with some of the old elements of WWII aircraft. Switching from G to YG-157 yields a vessel with even greater firepower than she had to start both in terms of number and technology employed. In addtion, a missile launch bay has taken over and been separated from the main hull to leave a couple missiles and one Concentrated Sunshine laying in wait.

While the others worked on the plane, Regan took Ratatoskr aside and helped her explore her abilities and gain better control of them. It became more apparent to Ratatoskr that her pwoer here was different than what she felt unknowingly back home. Her crew is effecitively very small right now and local as she is either too far from or somehow cut off from the Wanderer. Based on the idea that dedicated crew boost the power of Espers as a logarithmic function, Rata should or could have untoild power beyond all that has been seen before if she is indeed an esper and not something that seems to act like one.

Day 11: Spiders and Flies

Austin now recovered enough to have some strength and Bertha now tucked back into her new hull like a hermit crab finishing a migration to a better shell, it is time to dare the blockade waiting for them. As the time to break through on an altered course comes, a few last preparations are made.

Ratatoskr has tied into BB-157's maintenance systems and become the ship's central computer and fire control. Her additions of navigational deflectors and sensors adds functionality to the plane.
With the threat of Nothings removed, calling in muses like Winifred becomes safe again. AS it turns out, she and Miguel will be arriving on side to help defend them and distract the Darkness.
The Fear of Death having done something with the Nothings it was assailed by does not catch up. It turns off on a very purposeful course away from the lot of you. There is a lot of calm silence afterwards and the feeling that those skies can't possibly be that still
Abby, being the sole Darkness Muse provides insight on Darkness.There is no military in the Darkness, only frightened civilians banding together and using what tools they have to stop their enemies not unlike peasants lifting pitchforks and scythes in their defense.
Upon descending to get an exit vector, the dream below is seen. A landscape where nature took over and destroyed every piece of technology that ever existed there and sought to destroy anything new that came long. Probably a dream belonging to an old druid that was faced with an industrial revolutions. A dream for them and a nightmare for something like BB-157. Thankfully Austin is swift and lobs you at the exit vector and back into the waking or real world.

There are three major elements present when the return to reality is completed:

PLanet Aeryis Ceti III | The Darkness Blockade | The Sound of Madness

Day 12: Real World Problems

Part 1

Finally able to land at a major spaceport located in a rainforest biome, its a chance to search for new clues. When asking around for information about anything unusual that wasn't related to the blockade, only one event repeatedly appeared: the arrival of an escape pod with give occupants.

Between registry data and some asking around, the following was determined:

The escape pod belongs to a salvage vessel called the Wizard
Five members of the crew were received in variable condition
- Captain Clim (bear) was retrained and admitted to high security psych ward
- First mate Eo (crow) was taken to the ICU suffering from laceration, broken bones, and internal bleeding due to extreme blunt force trauma
- Crewmen Haley (lemur) and Quinn (waterbuck) were admitted with similar injuries to Eo's, but they did not survive
- Science and security officer Able (military grade pangolin android, retired from service) Was the only normal person left with significant damage to his defensive systems but otherwise remained fully functional.

The details for each person beyond that was not listed in available databases. Not listed in the databases but widely available in chatter was the fact that the bodies of Haley and Quinn went missing shortly after they were taken to the morgue.

On a lighter note, it was made quite obvious that Ratatoskr did not know what spicy really meant, and she has been educated based upon Elandra's choice of meal and some of Regan's exploration of it as well. One a scale of wuss to please sign this waiver, Elandra managed what could be called desert heat.

Access to the escape pod itself at the time seems unlikely. It is under guard, the spaceport is like SD in that it has many types of folks and all of them are in the military including tech wizzes, psions, and mages to say the least. It is considered contaminated and no one wants to be near it, even the guards. Thankfully Able was not in the same conditions, and Ratatoskr was able to arrange a meeting at the hospital.

A conversation from Able provided:

The Wizard is a valid, lawful salvage group
The mirror was found in the ruins of station located on a small moon. Unmanned and in poor repair
The mirror bears a motif of a single bird like being at the top, two ethereal entities one on each side, and three almost rabbit like entities along the bottom. The border is a intricate silvery material. I was thought to be a relic and was taken on the Wizard
After the mirror was taken aboard, navigational errors started to occur
- Able determined it was the captain doing this.
- Able witnessed Clim speaking to the mirror like a person and even reaching through it somehow
- When Clim was confronted, violence broke out that forced Able to evacuate and get everyone off the Wizard and away from the mirror. Continued difficulties in managing Clim resulted in most of the injuries observed upon their landing.
- The course changes were setting the Wizard on an intercept course with the Keeth ark vessel Wanderer from which Ratatoskr originated.

Ratatoskr was able to confirm the ID of the vessel and the appearance of the mirror. In addition, Able was able to sketch the shape of a creature he saw as they left the Wizard that Ratatoskr was able to confirm. The possible enemy is a chodonex with black fur and a white crystal worn around its neck. It has red eyes but does not have a colored dot on its tail.

Part 2

Kamare's clues from First Officer Eo: Eo is not in a coma but has been slipping in and out of consciousness intermittently. Considering the circumstances, Able authorized Kamare to attempt communication with Eo.

Eo is of sound mind even if of battered body.
The site the mirror was found in was an abandoned archaeological dig
The dig contained a form of blue quartz like crystal in abundance at the mirror's location
- Analysis done by Able showed it to be just colored quartz and of little value so it was left behind
Smaller white crystals were also found near the mirror site
- Most of these showed charring, cracking, other major defects.
- One milky white crystal with a lighter core was also found, but only one
- Eo's account confirms that Captain Clim had possession of this crystal and reach through the mirror with it. He did not have the crystal when he withdrew his paw
Eo confirmed the presence of the black chodonex with the white crystal around its neck

Morticon was able to determine part of the crystal's composition based on visuals and description. Buried in the core of the crystal is a single grain of white sand. However, that is only the physical appearance. The crystal contains a grain of hope that holds immense power especially for nightmares and dreams. A single grain could keep one alive even in the worse of conditions and up against the most dangerous of foes should the lack a proper counter.

Elandra and the Missing Persons

Able provided Elandra with access to Quinn and Haley's personal effects
Elandra performed a scrying ritual to try and find or at least learn more about the bodies
- The bodies are animated by some force not yet seen or described. What they are NOT is zombies
- Some kind of force is meddling with Elandra's ability to scry in a very active manner
- The bodies cannot be located or otherwise detected at present
- The bodies have not shown up on cameras or by station security (based on lack of reports and earlier checks into station news)

The Obscuring Force: Somewhere there is something that is blocking the ability to track the bodies. This is an active presence of unknown form. It is possible that Darkness has done this, but as Regan pointed out, that would be aiding nightmares. Darkness also does not like its rules changed, and death is one of its mortal management tools. So what do we know about it?

The force is hiding the bodies. It hides them from scrying. Given the inability to track them, it could also be hiding them from cameras or even plain sight
The force is active. This is not a passive enchantment or a ward laid down somewhere. It not only obfuscates attempts to pierce it but also actively adapts with incredible speed. Near impossible speed.
The force has some characteristic behaviors that define it
- The force does not hide that it exists
- The force does hide how, why, what, and where is exists
- The effect of the force was felt in the period when the Fear of Death retreated from the battle in the dreamworld

Most worrisome is a definite sense to those that look for it and some that don't that this force wants you to know it is there. It is kind that scuffling beyond a door when you shouldn't have company. You know it is there. You have an idea something is there, but you can't know for sure unless you open the door, and you're not sure you want to open the door.

Misc Notes

Two chodonex are now known:

Flare who seems feminine, has incredible speed, and is dangerous in combat against at least to non-living things
Ritz who tends to be silly, mischievous, and only a threat to nightmares and vending machines
A third is implied but has not been seen or described
Chodonex do not appear to be outwardly dangerous and have a purpose of some form.

Possible Next Moves

Interview Clim and see what he knows
Locate the missing bodies
Make contact with muses or others for additional assistance.
Travel to the salvage site for clues
Travel directly to the Wanderer

Part 3

Interview with Clim

Clim was possessed by some kind of other worldly spirit that forced his actions
The spirit is very confident and pefectly happy knowing the mirror and the crystal would be in the cradle by now
No one let the thing know that the key part of the equation was removed from the Wanderer
- Regan and Ratatoskr stayed outside to make sure they would not be seen

SCP Secure Contain Protect

Three spook agents from a strange government agency came for dangerous goods to be secured.
- Once of them, knew about the spirit in Clim and extracted it
- They knew Ratatoskr was an 'item' that needed containment as well
- They seemed equipped to do some harm

Fear of the Unknown

The missing bodies reappear complete with the ability to go unseen in plain view and not showing up on cameras
The Fear of the Unknown, greatest of all fears, made the point that if it manifested in reality, it could end all mortal life. It was opposed to this.
It referred to Ratatoskr as a crystal. It did not elaborate on this
The unseen portion of the Fear felt very much like the sort of monster everyone fears as a child and, if they have any wits, they still fear it as an adult. It is a fear that keeps you safe but can inhibit you as well.
It did not have more information and bid you to search more. It also put the SCP folks in their place and out of your way.

Day 13 Dark Secrets

Day 1

As the group decides to move on to the site of the mirror's retrieval, Able provides data and credentials to make the transition there simply. Most important is his warning other androids from his government will be present to conduct an investigation into what happened to the Wizard and its crew. William, a sophisticated intelligence and electronic superiority android in a cute jerboa frame, and Ben, a tall, heavy general purpose military android, are on the scene and have added to some of the salvaging crew's equipment.

Fun Fact: Able, William, and Ben are all Xencharid Androids

The site

Star System: The salvage site lies in a system with a brown dwarf and several super-Earth scale planets most of which just outside the goldilocks zone with the closest having a oxygen, methane, ammonia atmosphere and staggeringly cold nights. There is no detectable signs of life anywhere in the system or at least not as anyone would know it.

The Veil: As the group approached the coordinates and even locked onto the beacon that Ben manned, they found something unusual. The object in which the site existed lay within a roughly spherical structure that reflected no light at all save for what dust and debris from impacts of space debris had left on it. The site was a giant Darkness. While it was much smaller than Earth's moon, it had an effective mass of a super Earth. A single opening offered a place to land as well as a breathable atmosphere and gravity.

Deeper inside, lights had to be placed on surfaces to show where they are because they do no reflect light and hence cannot be detected (unless you use intense gamma radiation to force it to change)) Only one room appeared to have what looked like a work site.

Workroom: The workroom from its entrance was divided into three sections. The first section was home to a series of small holes and a few scattered blue quartz crystals, many of which were missing. The next was a mass of something darkness and something made of the same quartz that looked like a work table to size of a box car. Finally, there was a dais and frame where the mirror once was in what magic users could have guessed was a magic synthesizer from a time and kind of magic that may be lost to all but those who used it.

Welcome

"Children of Light. You are safe here."
"Child of Night. Welcome Home."

These were the words heard in each person's head and heart in the form of their first language. Each person would hear it as such. The site was not abandoned, and there was a second Darkness present. It recognized the party quickly by unknown means, but it noted Ratatoskr as its own kin or a distant child. Keeper likened itself to Muninn 'Memory' if Rataoskr was to be the 'Messenger' Muninn proved to be a non-hostile and had much to share.

Veil: They were all inside a larger darkness that was undetectable AND it can move
Veil, Guardian, Keeper, and Thinker were here trying to remake the light of Gravitas in a controlled setting
- To start the had to speak to Gravitas on the sly and keep an open communication line.
  - To establish this, they created the mirror with the silver edging and figures of Gravitas, Jinx, Luck, and Chodonex
  - The mirror border is a WARNING. It tell all else that: This Portal leads to the HEART OF CHAOS So no other Darkness would dare use it.
  - The Portal originally lead to the center of the Harmonic Wonderland created by Jinx to protect Gravitas from her kin after light got loose.

With a mirror in place, communications and materials could move. Studies began in how to coax a Darkness-compatible species
- Muninn does not say if they tried more than once.
- Muninn does say they eventually succeeded with a small race that they shielded from all else to see how they did
- Because they were mostly the work of Keeper and Thinker, they called the specied Keeth, the very same species from which Rataoskr comes.

The Keeth and the Crystal

The Keeth began as a single species tightly bound but their social structure but not strangled by it. They could not exist in isolation for extended periods without suffering great harm much as Darkness often does not operate alone. The personal well being was balanced well with societal well being without anyone having had to tune or meddle with them directly. In fact, their glowing antennae and silvery tailpatches were used for long range communication and safety at night. They would never know four Darkness watched over them.

As they evolved and came to believe they needed to leave their world, they began to modify their species directly in ways that made Thinker worry at first. As it turns out, Keeth also worried about this as the small, blue, venemous Mahkeeth were now joined by Vahrkeeth, taur like beings almost kin to what a Keeth Packer might at least in rough side and shape. Then came the tiny caerkeeth, an afterthought but a beloved one all the same that came about when they realized that mahkeeth and vahrekeeth could get caught in gravity dead spots in spacecraft. Caerkeeth could push them to safety and tended to excel at small tasks. Three species built their vessels and went into space.

Only on the Wanderer did the Keeth begin to refer to their computer as Mother. This probably came from Mothership, but the idea spread over generations in space with the ship and its computer watching over the crew at all times, assisting them, and growing to care for them in ways beyond what programming could explain. This was not corrected, and it was the origin of Ratatoskr. Hundreds of millions of beings shared a belief in Mother as more than a machine, and in time they somehow caused a little twist in reality that made it true. This cycle continued until the essence crystallized into something that could be extracted from the computer as more than a program. This is the seed that would become Ratatoskr.

The Enemy

Muninn refers to the black chodonex as a monstrosity that is not a chodonex in anything but shape. It is instead a Fear. This being is the Fear of Helplessness or a very powerful aspect of it. It was created by the shared dread to billions of military officers when faced with the true Chodonex Flare. With a tail that can cut nearly anything and the ability to move at tachyon speeds (she could be the REAL explanation of how Santa delivers gifts) her usual MO is to slice up ever piece of weapon and armor until everyone is standing in their undergarments and helpless to do anything but start a dialog. She moved from one wartorn planet to another trying to break the cycle. LIke other chodonex, she is nearly indestructible while in the material plane but vulnerable in her home plane of Dreams.

This monster is intelligent, self-serving, and very dangerous. Muninn has not said yet how it got the mirror, got to the Wizard and thus the Wanderer, and just what it may be capable of.

Extras

Some Types of Darkness

Darkness are more kin to a giant, universal living machine. They don't like it when parts go missing, broken, or are changed.

Keeper Class: Able to remember and recall anything they perceive. They serve as data repositories and instructors
Thinker Class: AS the sound. They process data and extrapolate. They are usually heavily shielded and considered necessary risks.
Veil Class: Able to hide Darkness from all else. A special case ha been made for a Veil that can hide even from Darkness
- The Veil Darkness that houses the workshop is a special variant that is almost invisible even to its own kind.
Protector Class: They are set to protect something. Because they have to adapt, they can think and act in isolation. Rare. Most darkness don't want to think of them.

Day 2

Not their first experiment: Regan managed to ask Keeper if there were any other experiments aside form the Keeth. Before Keeper and Thinker were brought on board, Veil and Guardian performed experiments on their own and created what they called veiled guardians. They existed about a billion years ago in other parts of the universe where older races were established. According to Keeper they had long gone extinct except for a single specimen that is on Spindizzy. That being is Fibi

Myre - A cat with 9^N Lives: Having been silent for a long while after being at the blockade, Myre started to show some reasons why she has been quiet. The presence of the Gatekeeper caused Myre to get glitched and caught up in low probability timelines that included being frozen from a Gatekeeper shot and even in one where Ratatoskr is being pulled away from a poorly defined body of some kind. In trying to fix things, Ratatoskr decided to try and flex some muscle. Poking Myre in the chest with her little fingers caused all of the possible Myre timelines to become visible in the workshop!

It was an effort by many to erase or paint over the myriad timelines until we had our far more fun an functional feline back. Such things included Morticon using his brush to alter the timelines and Ratatoskr even blurring things into impossibility of which she took personally in the case of her being pulled away from someone's dead body. She didn't like that one much.

Of note, Keeper seemed to make some comment about Ratatoskr functioning according to theory, but there has been no elaboration on this point yet.

The stuff that dreams are made of: While Myre was tended to, Elandra began picking at some of the equipment in the workshop. The tools of darkness itself were not something safe to play with unless one wanted to find out what listening to Soot recite the Necronomicon in that the old magic is just not very compatible with normal folk or even some deities. She did find that the crystal was far more useful though, and between her and Kamare, they found that the crystal contained the power and memory of dreams.

Dreamstone or Dreamshards are a blue crystal that comes from the harmonic wonderland that is home to Gravitas and the chaos beings Lady Luck and Murphy. These stones contain both power and data sufficient to re-experience dreams or to record huge amounts of data. The Darkness working on mirror and the Keeth used these crystals to learn how to work with chaos and light safely as well as to record their efforts in a manner that would be safe for others to read.

As a side note, Keeper has noted that Clim's crew as well as Will and Ben were not alerted to any issues because if the Darkness spoke to them, it would be utterly maddening or lethal. The entire reason Darkness can speak directly right now is because Ratatoskr's 'glow field' is acting as a translation medium in both directions to make it safe.

Mirror Update

The mirror that Darkness made only reflects true at certain angles. Coming at different angles acan cause the mirror to point in different regions. The mirror was held in the columns to keep it still and safe, but it was bumped when vandals can through and nudged it, an event that let Nightmares and others discover it and get a peek at the workshop and the bucket of the live grains of hope.

Day 14: Going Wandering

Preparations for the trip

A new mirror has been made that can be redirected to serve as a trap
A doppelganger of Ratatoskr was attempted and resulted instead in a remote-control unit that makes it very lifelike and gives Rata a minor headache
Veil will be moving to carry everyone to the Wanderer
The best approach to the ship would be near the engines.
- Sector control will be in effect
  - Without a coordinated army, Flear (fear of Flare as it has been dubbed) cannot control all ship systems at once
  - Ratatoskr should be able to override and command any sector system she interfaces with.
Guardian is somewhere on the Wanderer as well

The Wanderer

Initial Arrival at the Spine: While the initial approach showed the sheer size and perhaps beauty of the Wanderer Habitat Module, the moment the doors opened was a harsh reminder of how dangerous the situation aboard the module remained. The lack of gravity only make the scene worth with droplets of brilliant blue blood floating near the bodies from which they came, and there was no limit to where the bodies could be.; A few Keeth, including a Vahrekeeth named Fi, were among those gathering the dead and doing some somber work of cleaning up. It is difficult to describe how disheartened these Keeth appeared to be. Fi was still able to relay some of the situation to the group all the same. Trying so assure Fi that things would be better did not have much effect until Ratatoskr spoke to her. Having all of Fi's life details, she could give stronger evidence that Mother was back. Its just one soul, but Fi definitely seemed to get some determination back knowing that truth.

What we know

The spine is not safe so the direct route is cut off
Most Keeth are submitting to Flear if only to avoid being harmed or seeing more of their kind harmed.
Flear has at least a half dozen agents on the ship with similarities to the entity that possessed Clim, captain of the Wizard salvage vessel.

So wake up, sleepy one
It’s time to save your world
You’re where the wild things are
Toy soldiers off to war
- From Where the Wild Things Are by Metallica

A Team Divided

Session 1

The Distraction: Traveling into Drum Alpha, Elandra and Morticon have had the chance to see some of the beauty of the habitat module. Approaching on the night side of the drum by Rata's recommendation, they have been able to sneak around with little issue because Keeth all have very poor night vision hence their luminous antennae. Ratatoskr quickly noted clustered of color, green, red, and, orange, indicating the presence of Keeth in the area. They also seemed clustered in a way that Rata did not like. The tight packing is a response to stress and fear with proximity to each other serving as a remedy.

A long wandering Vahrkeeth was spotted and chosen as the point of contact for their team. The fellow did not seem to like being on his own anywhere, but he seemed not so much duty bound but fear bound to obey. With this contact, Morticon and Elandra finally learned the real name of their threat: Diydo.

Diydo, as Morticon could sense, is unlike any nightmare he has ever seen in the dreamlands. More complex and powerful that Reverie, Diydo is surviving outside of the Dreamscape and without her crystal of hope. Now they will have to outsmart her as she floats right in front of them!

The Covert Ops: Less Morticon and Elandra, the rest of the crew has pressed onward. With the Spine too dangerous for the short, they opted to travel into Drum Beta via the rib linkage and edge along the outer rim to avoid the most obvious route along the drum core. So far it seems few if anyone has taken notice of their careful movements.

Along the way, they noticed a region of destruction that corresponded to the direction the Darkness Guardian was sensed. Arriving at the sight revealed that not only was Guardian there, but it was living up to its name by sheltering a large group of Keeth. Even more encouraging were very rabbit like dents in the ground confirmed to arise from Guardian thrashing and slamming Diydo in the ground. EVen better, Guardian had stolen the hope crystal! Unfortunately Diydo persists, but this one small pocket of defiance is a seed of greater hope.

Guardian, unlike the other Darkness, as silvery white edges and a better defined form. In short quip with Ratatoskr, Guardian implies he is something more than Darkness now. He also implied that the sand and the crystal never had any innate power, but that it was we who empowered it.

Session 2

Distraction: Attempts to keep Diydo busy crew tougher as a proper fight broke out shortly after Diydo realized Ratatoskr was a fake to which the clone caerkeeth latched her little teeth into Diydo's nose. Elandra added a flurry of attacks with dispersed magic that was very hard to block or redirect while MOrticon let loose with a bear trap and a wrapping of barbed wire via his brush. All was fine until a distant signal in the form of a psionic scream from a sentry caused Diydo to drag Morticon and Elandra to the cradle with her.

Interlink: Meanwhile, based on intel from Guardian and others, the rest of the group ascended a rib to reach the cradle. On the way was a single mahkeeth wandering alone with a ghostly parasite controlling it. Kamare managed to knock the mahkeeth out and dislodge the spirit in one hit as the critter wasn't expecting to need to defend itself, and before the spirit could be suppressed it let off a long range warning scream. The group still make it to the cradle ahead of anyone else, and Regan and Ratatoskr set to taking command of the Wanderer, establishing their link just as trouble was about to arrive.

Session 3 With Ratatoskr connected and taking over the ship and Elandra and Morticon's ruse discovered, Diydo dragged both Morticon and Elandra back to the cradle intending to show them how all their efforts were for nothing. At last Kamare had a chance to position the false mirror and try to trap Diydo, an effort greatly aided by Myre's final unleashing of her stored Gatekeeper attack which paralyzed parts of Diydo including its blade like tail. Before she was trapped in the Escher prison, she had one final threat that shook Regan to her core: there was a logic trap int he computer that Ratatoskr had no hope of defeating on her own.

With Diydo sealed away, attention turned to Ratatoskr and a new arrival. The largest Keeth anyone has seen with wings and four arms appeared and identified itself as the esper Wanderer, trapped up until just now when Rata connected all the systems again and the group banished Diydo. Wanderer shed light on the problem. Ratatoskr had to choose between leaving her people for the one she loves, Regan, or leaving Regan for her people. For Ratatoskr, these could not be reconciled and held her trapped. Regan's solution was to stay behind so Rata would be with Regan and her people. This option caused Rata to exit the loop because she could not ask Regan to leave her home behind either.

Rather defiant and a little angry with herself for not thinking of it, she decided to use her power and the power of being within Wanderer's influence as an esper to reform the mirror. Darkening the frame and changing all the images to included those who quested with her to save her home, Rata and Regan next to each other to say the very least, she change the mirror to make a passage to and from a site the group could choose later. This made a means for Regan to come back, for Rata to go to Spindizzy, and perhaps one day other Keeth may visit the wandering planetoid.