The New Campaign - Dreams

The First Dream, a Dream of Flight

The first dream, the oldest dream, the one that reoccurs over and over, is a dream of flight.  You are flying through the air on some great beast.  You feel exultant and triumphant and powerful.  When you told your parents of this dream they looked askance and took you to the elders.  The elders listened to your childish babbling and looked concerned. They would not speak of any meaning and indeed emphatically told you that dreams do not mean anything.  They asked you not to speak of this to the other children as it would frighten them.  You said you would not.  But of course you did.  The dream was so vivid.  So real.  Some were frightened and asked you not to speak of such things.  But three listened and shared that they too had been having similar dreams.

The Second Dream, a Dream of Stone

The second oldest dream is a dream of stone.  You dream of a funny mannikin with thick limbs and coarse features who has twigs for hair.  He, somehow you know the figure is a he, plays in the dirt slowly pushing down with one hand.  He then heaps up a ring of stones around this hole before smoothing the inside of the ring to create a bowl.  He then lines the bottom of the bowl with soil.  He sits back to admire his handiwork.  The bottom of the bowl slowly turns green and you suddenly realize that the mannikin has clouds around his head.  It comes to you that you have just witnessed the creation of the Vale.

When you wake you run to your friends and find they have had the same dream.  It is after this dream that the elders decide to teach you separately from the other children.

The Third Dream, a Dream of Iron

One day when you were all still quite young you were helping clear a field for planting when one of you found an arrow head.  Unlike the birding heads you were familiar with this one featured a broad blade with jagged teeth.  As you squatted around the hole where it had been found you realized that the head was meant to tear flesh as it was pulled out.  The adults frowned when they saw this.  Still the blacksmith made a short shaft for the head and fashioned a gold chain to it.  One of you still wears it around his neck.  That night you dreamed of a cloud of these arrows flying screaming through the air and raining down.  

You woke crying.

The Fourth Dream, a Dream of Dancing

The dream starts in a great hall built of stone and decorated with gold and glass.  At first glance it looks nothing like the buildings you are familiar with from the Vale but after a while you sense that there is some connection.  The hall which is far larger than any building you have ever seen is lit with a soft unfamiliar light that doesn't seem to originate from any source you can detect.  It is filled with your people who are all garbed in beautiful clothes that is far more elaborate than anything you've seen your people wear before.  They dance separately and in pairs and groups to the most beautiful and stirring music you have ever heard.  Your arm is caught up by a laughing girl who spins you into the dancing.  You are flung through the crowd like a leaf in a stream and everyone is laughing and gay.  

But suddenly the dance changes.

You are still in the great hall but the light is different.  You are dancing, not with a laughing partner, but with two swords.  One is long and thin, the other short and thick and you are dancing for survival against a foe you can't quite make out.

You wake drenched in sweat.  

The Fifth Dream, a Dream of Noise

Once again in the great hall you are engulfed in a sea of joyous noise.  Children of both sexes race about you screaming at the top of their lungs wrapped up in some elaborate game.  Musicians practice their instruments, crafters work at benches and groups of women and men sit together and discuss weighty and light matters alike.  You feel comfort and love all around you.  But slowly the atmosphere changes...the light dims.  Was that a cry of pain?  A dropped pan or a clash of swords?  So swiftly passed it's hard to tell.  And then the clash of weapons.  Armoured footsteps against stone and screams of rage and pain surge to a crescendo.  All around you scenes of violence.  Beings that resemble the Eldern but are generally thicker in body and arm, with darker hair.  They even have hair on their faces.  They are battling your people and despite the skill of your warriors their numbers are telling.  The fighting devolves into scenes of horror and acts of brutality against women and children.

You wake screaming.

The Sixth Dream, a Dream of Gods

The world spreads out below you.  You see rivers and forests and settlements.  Armies are on the move wherever you look.  Enormous shadowy figures of great power and beauty seem to be directing the armies.  Every army seems to burn and kill indiscriminately.  The figures laugh.

This dream only happens once.

The Seventh Dream, a Dream of Magic

You are in a classroom.  The priestess, somehow you know that she is a priestess and just what a priestess is, instructs you in the mystery of runes.  She shows you how runic magic is manipulated and what some of the effects are.  It is all very exciting.

After you awake and gather you sit in a circle and concentrate.  And work magic!  The elders and the other adults shake their heads and wonder at what this all foretells.

The Eighth Dream, a Dream of Vengeance

A month after Affrica's funeral you all dream again.  You dream of a tomb high on the walls of the rim where four warriors are entombed.  They lie on stone byres dressed in full armour and equipped with a panoply of weapons.  When you awake you find yourselves half-way up the wall of the rim using hand and toe holds you hadn't known were there.  The four of you agreed to keep climbing and after a long, dangerous climb you found yourself at the mouth of a cave that would be invisible from the ground due to a bulge in the rock.  Inside you found the byres you'd dreamed of.  As you laid a hand on one of the byres consciousness fled.

Last updated March 11, 2011