The Dream Shoals of Lex Tetrax
Venturing Through Chaos into the Realm of Dreams
General Summary
It is February 18th, 1000 PCE. You have not had a long rest since you slept in the Chamber of the Achieved Ones.
The Party negotiated with Husani to secure the safety of himself and Tryphenia, and, in exchange, he taught the PCs the secrets of the Dreamwalk ritual. They used this ritual to enter the Dream Curse (Dream Vault) of Lex Tetrax and attempt to recover their lost comrade, Anzar Cerdan.
Within the Dream Vault, they encountered an Edrolim priest damned to live within the cursed dreamscape for centuries.
The Party negotiated with Husani to secure the safety of himself and Tryphenia, and, in exchange, he taught the PCs the secrets of the Dreamwalk ritual. They used this ritual to enter the Dream Curse (Dream Vault) of Lex Tetrax and attempt to recover their lost comrade, Anzar Cerdan.
Within the Dream Vault, they encountered an Edrolim priest damned to live within the cursed dreamscape for centuries.
Recovery and Negotiation
The party recovered from their battle with the void acolytes and revived Husani for a negotiation about passage to the Dreamscape. Marsala expended a use of energy channeling and the party took a short rest before Edmund and Zen conducted the negotiations.
Husani agreed to help the Party make a return trip to save Anzar Cerdan from the Lex Tetrax dream curse in exchange for his own and Tryphenia’s safety. He also demonstrated for Zen the means to cause somatic effects (hauntings) in Material Reality from the Dreamscape. The Party will use this method to signal when they have made contact with Anzar and are ready to be awakened from the sleep curse. Marsala will wait for the signal in Material Reality. Zen also took careful note of the Dream Curse Ritual and he is now able to replicate it to make a return trip to the Nightmares of Lex Tetrax again (provided a source of Lex Tetrax’s blood is available to use as a material component).
Husani agreed to help the Party make a return trip to save Anzar Cerdan from the Lex Tetrax dream curse in exchange for his own and Tryphenia’s safety. He also demonstrated for Zen the means to cause somatic effects (hauntings) in Material Reality from the Dreamscape. The Party will use this method to signal when they have made contact with Anzar and are ready to be awakened from the sleep curse. Marsala will wait for the signal in Material Reality. Zen also took careful note of the Dream Curse Ritual and he is now able to replicate it to make a return trip to the Nightmares of Lex Tetrax again (provided a source of Lex Tetrax’s blood is available to use as a material component).
Dream Curse/Quest
The Party drank the last of the Achieved Ones’ blood offering and fell into the dream curse. Feeling new bodies forming around them from the scattered primordial elements, the PCs experienced their consciousness moving through the Outer Plane of Night and Chaos towards the dream shoals of Lex Tetrax. The dream realm itself was a localized thought construct made of elemental matter drawn together by the subconscious mind of its dreamer. The content of the dream turned out to be a time-displaced replica of the Moon Vault, resembling Lex Tetrax’s own memory of the place prior to his defeat at the hands of the Edrolim.
Descending into Lex Tetrax’s “dream vault,” the Party encountered a variety of spectral figures, human beings as well as sentient bio-engineered animals. These appeared as ghostly apparitions following repetitive and mundane routines. The party found that these dream figures, mere figments based upon the memories of a mad god, could not be interacted with.
Descending into Lex Tetrax’s “dream vault,” the Party encountered a variety of spectral figures, human beings as well as sentient bio-engineered animals. These appeared as ghostly apparitions following repetitive and mundane routines. The party found that these dream figures, mere figments based upon the memories of a mad god, could not be interacted with.
Place of Six Caves
There were other apparitions. In the Place of Six Caves (entryway), the party saw computer screens depicting six maps of unknown geographic locations:
Jayne perceived feelings of recognition when he looked at the sword, and he could recall two of the six locations, Urra Mountain (York) and Kandel Mountain (Schwarzwald). He felt fleeting sensations of familiarity, particularity related to Mount Urra and County York, and experienced memories of sprawling habitations hidden within the hollows of both mountains.
- Atago
- Alexandria
- Kiev
- Kandel
- Urra
- Zoroaster
Jayne perceived feelings of recognition when he looked at the sword, and he could recall two of the six locations, Urra Mountain (York) and Kandel Mountain (Schwarzwald). He felt fleeting sensations of familiarity, particularity related to Mount Urra and County York, and experienced memories of sprawling habitations hidden within the hollows of both mountains.
Spring of Mental Power
The Party found a Spring of Mental Power. Husani explained that it could be used to awaken psychic power, but had potentially damaging mental side effects. Zen and Rob used the spring to recover some of their power points and a few of the PCs filled flasks with the water.
Library of Lost Temples
The PCs also came across an intact memory-room, depicting a Moon Vault chamber that had been littered with broken pillars and statues back in Material Reality. Here in the “dream vault,” however, the room and its contents were whole, including a spectral library of scrolls and codexes related to the research of lost Precursor temples (places of worship and veneration raised in the Late Precursor Age of Poisoned Sea and Sky). The party found that the intact statues depicted divinities associated with a variety of these ancient cults, including the following motifs:
- Bull
- Coyote
- Crab-headed god
- Alligator-headed god
- Eagle Warrior (identified as the Thunderbird, messenger of the Sun God)
- Jaguar
Sabra
Within the dream room corresponding with Ogdramaun’s lair (giant snail-guy water room), the Party encountered Sabra the Soul Taker. He was unresponsive, surrounded by skeletons arranged in upright seated positions, and manifesting a weird protective charm, which the PCs mistook for a hostile act. When Jayne and Math were mentally harmed by unearthly whispers coming from Sabra’s vicinity, the Party started attacking him.
Zen noticed that the mouths of the skeletons were moving and used far hand to knock one of them over. Jayne and Math tried to get out of the area of effect by falling backwards into the moat, but found the haunting voices, uttering words of unspeakable evil and depravity, pursued them and continued tormenting their sanity. The rest of the PCs followed Zen’s lead and disturbed the other skeletons until the effects of the haunting finally dissipated, freeing Sabra from his voluntary mental banishment.
Zen noticed that the mouths of the skeletons were moving and used far hand to knock one of them over. Jayne and Math tried to get out of the area of effect by falling backwards into the moat, but found the haunting voices, uttering words of unspeakable evil and depravity, pursued them and continued tormenting their sanity. The rest of the PCs followed Zen’s lead and disturbed the other skeletons until the effects of the haunting finally dissipated, freeing Sabra from his voluntary mental banishment.
Madness
Math showed no immediate effects of his exposure to the Whispers of the Void, but Jayne suddenly became afflicted with a crippling state of mental confusion that made conventional speech impossible. The foul whispers so preoccupied Jayne’s thoughts that their unspeakable wickedness interrupted nearly all attempts at cognition or communication.
The Party realized that Sabra was the Edrolim that Xennixi had told them of, the man that had been lost in the Dreamscape trying to save his lover from the curse of Lex Tetrax. Sabra shared his knowledge with the PCs (about the Soul Shroud, the Edrolim, the Void, the Moon Blade, the Great Eclipse, Valoran the Slayer, the search for the Seven Sword, etc.) and agreed to help them rescue Anzar. In return, the Party offered to use his artifact, the Soul Shroud, to take Sabra’s disembodied soul out of the Dreamscape and back to Material Reality so that it might eventually migrate to the restful Lands of the Dead.
Sabra used his shaman magic to temporarily relieve Jayne’s mental confusion (psychic surgery, -10 to DC of a greater madness, -1 to sanity damage) and start tracking Anzar’s location in the dream vault (divination to discern Anzar’s location).
The Party realized that Sabra was the Edrolim that Xennixi had told them of, the man that had been lost in the Dreamscape trying to save his lover from the curse of Lex Tetrax. Sabra shared his knowledge with the PCs (about the Soul Shroud, the Edrolim, the Void, the Moon Blade, the Great Eclipse, Valoran the Slayer, the search for the Seven Sword, etc.) and agreed to help them rescue Anzar. In return, the Party offered to use his artifact, the Soul Shroud, to take Sabra’s disembodied soul out of the Dreamscape and back to Material Reality so that it might eventually migrate to the restful Lands of the Dead.
Sabra used his shaman magic to temporarily relieve Jayne’s mental confusion (psychic surgery, -10 to DC of a greater madness, -1 to sanity damage) and start tracking Anzar’s location in the dream vault (divination to discern Anzar’s location).
Ancient Reactor
The Party followed Sabra’s lead and came upon a conduit chamber containing a spectral control module for operating a fission reactor. Realizing that the spectral apparition of the reactor showed signs of an eventual meltdown, Everest deduced that the “soul sickness” flooding the Moon Vault must have been the result of this inevitable meltdown event.
The Party decided to try to prevent the meltdown. Using prophetic powers to enhance his abilities, Zen put his dream haunt training to work and reached out across Lex Tetrax’s dreamscape in an attempt to touch the distant local space/time represented in the dream apparition. His hands, turning diaphanous, successfully grasped the spectral controls. With Everest’s instructions, Zen manipulated the user interface and completed the operations necessary to engage the reactor’s control rods and forestall the melting breach of the generator’s fuel rods. The Party expect to return to Material Reality and find the Moon Vault no longer inundated with radiation.
Next session the search for Anzar continues.
The Party decided to try to prevent the meltdown. Using prophetic powers to enhance his abilities, Zen put his dream haunt training to work and reached out across Lex Tetrax’s dreamscape in an attempt to touch the distant local space/time represented in the dream apparition. His hands, turning diaphanous, successfully grasped the spectral controls. With Everest’s instructions, Zen manipulated the user interface and completed the operations necessary to engage the reactor’s control rods and forestall the melting breach of the generator’s fuel rods. The Party expect to return to Material Reality and find the Moon Vault no longer inundated with radiation.
Next session the search for Anzar continues.
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