Aporeu chronicles Issue 345: Mindscape IV
Stories from the adventurers
This issue
Once again the mysterious figure abducts some adventurers to serve as his playthings. At least it sounds like they had fun? Still, one might worry when our city’s supposed protectors are so easily toyed with.Mindscape IV
Are you mindstrong? Can you think your way out of dangerous situations? Prove it.Adeia
Well... I guess that happened. I’ve seen some weird things. But this, this was something else.Oh and hey there, Adeia here again. Got a new story for you. So sit down and relax. Luckily I wasn’t alone. I was accompanied by Florence and his noble steed Ferian and Salinx. I had met Florence just a short while ago, we had fought together in the arena. As far as I know he’s a capable fighter. I hadn’t seen Salinx in quite some time. It was good to see him again. Although I totally forgot to ask him about Declan. Need to remember to ask about that next time. But I’m getting distracted. Back to the topic at hand. We gathered at the guild hall like we always do. Then things got weird. We started walking outside and suddenly the world around us changed. The scenery looked like it was covered in shadows, the people around us were distorted, it was disturbing... I was afraid Nox had been trapped in this crazy place. He even appeared for a brief moment, but then vanished again. Before I could act, a rift appeared in front of us and scary tentacles appeared from it. First these tentacles grabbed Florence and Ferian. I saw how they dragged them inside the rift. Soon after this they got a hold of Salinx. Running seemed pointless, so I jumped in after them. We were greeted by a mysterious cloaked stranger. He told us we were chosen by him, he (I think it’s an he) told us to be entertaining. I tried to be polite but I think it didn’t really care about that kind of entertainment. Because we suddenly found ourselves on a snowy mountaintop and it was cold, so cold! We huddled up in a cave together. With Ferian being the main heat source. My Prestidigitation spell helped a little but it was still cold. We discussed our options and I don’t really remember how but I was thinking about puppies, rainbows and kittens and then poof there were puppies. The puppies were so cute and warm and fluffy. They were even helpful when I realised I had winter clothes with me. As they acted like a screen so I could change. Me and Salinx talked a bit about our recent potion making experiences, while Florence went outside to look around. A few moments passed until me and Salinx heard a shout coming from outside. We hurried out of the cave and saw Florence gliding down the mountain on some sort of shield. I gave Salinx some of my clothes for extra warmth while we watched how Florence faced the mountain’s descent. He did pretty well for the longest time.
Unfortunately he hit something and started tumbling down like a ragdoll. I tried to think of a way to make a soft landing for Florence. I imagined a huge pile of fluffy snow on the bottom of the mountain instead of the ravine Florence was racing towards. But it didn’t seem to work. There was a fog rising now though. So that’s something. Salinx had gotten himself a shield as well. I swear he didn’t have one before. But he jumped on the shield and went after Florence. And Salinx looked like a pro doing it. Maybe he had done this before? It looked like he was in total control. In the meantime I tried to get Ferian to come with me, but let’s just say me and Ferian need some more bonding time. I don’t know what happened but at some point during our negotiations Ferian just darted off towards Florence. Don’t think I did anything, but he went the right direction. So fine with me.
Then I needed a way to get down as well. I never held a shield in my life. Certainly wasn’t going to ride one down a mountain. I did however study the spell Fly and knew how the mechanics worked. So I imagined myself being able to fly. And what d'ya know. I was flying! I soared through the sky. Feeling the wind through my hair it was amazing! But there was also still a Florence rolling down the mountain towards a foggy cloud. With probably a ravine or something in there somewhere. So no time to enjoy the flying. Just rushing down to hopefully save Florence. But we were too late. Because Salinx and I saw Florence fall into the fogged area, which previously had been a ravine.
I was relieved when I heard a crashing sound and some screams. Florence had survived somehow. But the screams indicated that something was still wrong. We approached carefully and discovered that Florence was fighting with a very large fluffy ice creature bear... something with horns. (Apparently it’s called a Yeti.) We started to fight the Yeti. I did try to communicate with it but it did not seem to understand me. It had some sort of paralyzing gaze, which made me plummet face first into the snow because I was still flying. The fight went on for a while before it finally captured Florence and dragged it further into the fog. Luckily me and Salinx were able to follow its trail and we found its lair. It was roasting Florence on a literal spit. It was a very strange sight to behold. But once we had a clear view we finally defeated the Yeti, by electrocuting his snowballs. We saved Florence and we won... or something.
The mission was over. The mysterious figure was pleased and we were sent back to Arnheim. And there was a puppy with a magical bag in his mouth. Salinx got the bag, but I got the puppy! His name’s Pip, short for Pippin, and he’s so cute!
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