Chapter 3.6: Interlude

An indeterminate amount of time passes with the PCs unconscious to the point of death.

---

After a period of long and troubled dreams interspersed with stretches of the oblivion of deepest sleep, each PC experiences the following in series:

Aanbo dreamt of the cult controlling Orlane. In his dream, he defeated the goblins, then continued through another door, where he confronted the priestess. Beating her down, he took her back to the village, where he exposed her perfidy to the populace. Stoking them into righteous wrath, they put her on trial, and sentenced her to death. They set her on fire, and as she burned, a mask gave way revealing that she was actually Foonbo. The villagers danced around the pyre as his Earthshaker brother burned. Aanbo gradually returns to aching consciousness. The smell around him is appalling, his body aching from crusted sword wounds. His limbs are heavy and dull from blood loss, so that he can hardly feel the heavy cords holding his body completely immobile. In the dark, he can see a large pair of eyes staring deeply into his own.

---

Chase dreams of his time back at Agaden Reach. But this time events go differently. This time there is a trial; Chase presents his evidence to the Council, and they find Joseph guilty of treason. After Joseph's execution, Chase receives a secret message from King George, congratulating him on his cleverness in redirecting the Council away from Chase's own collaboration with the enemy... Chase awakens from a feeling of being buried alive to something nearly as intolerable: he is in complete darkness, wrapped so tightly that he cannot move. Weak from hunger and blood loss, he nevertheless starts and struggles to no avail. "Shhhhh....." comes a soft voice right in front of him, wafting foul breath over his face just beyond the reach of his head-butt. A reptile stink is very strong.

---

Eugenios recognizes the predicament he's in as soon as he comes awake. How many times has he been on the other side of this scenario, watching a suspect struggle futilely against his captivity? The Special Investigator sighs, preparing himself for the inevitable torture, questioning, or both. He wracks his brain, looking for some advantage, some angle to get his captives to keep him alive for just a moment longer. He opens his eyes and sees the huge eyes looking deep into his own...

---

Ferranzo struggles awake from a dream of wandering from house to house in Glaive's Point, looking for Lindun. The village is on fire and there are dead bodies everywhere, all with Arya's staring dead eyes. Countless bodies, but none of them are Lindun. He feels someone standing right behind him, and as he turns, the bard wakes sweating, alone, in noisome darkness. A heavy weight is on his chest and limbs, holding him down. He feels a strong presence in his mind.

---

Myrtha was back in Three Elms Crossing, wearing a beautiful dress her mother had sewn for her. Elber took her by the hand and danced with her at the Spring Festival, and she closed her eyes as he brushed back her long black hair and bent down to kiss her for the first time. But when Myrtha opened her eyes, Elber was a rotting corpse. She recoiled, grabbed up the smith's hammer, and struck him again and again until he stopped moving. But when she stopped, everyone at the dance started screaming, pointing at the Valorous Maiden covered in brains and blood in her pretty dress. As she started fighting the ungrateful villagers, Myrtha woke up completely immobilized, a heavy weight holding her down. Recognizing that she'd come awake from her nightmare, she tried to shout for her companions, but the bonds holding her tightened, crushing the breath out of her. Suffocating, she felt an intrusion in her mind...

"Tssk." the voice behind the eyes is annoyed. It is the last thing that Aanbo hears before he hears the cracking of his bones. Then the pain grows so great that everything goes dark once again.

Chase hears the Voice again, but this time he can feel the deep, abiding love behind the words. "Welcome, Chase." He tries to speak in response, but there's something wrong with his lungs, and he can't take a deep enough breath: he ends up coughing instead. "I know, I know." the Voice responds, infinitely patient and supremely understanding.

Eugenios is baffled. There is no questioning, and barely any sound, just a light probing of his mind that is gone almost before he's aware of it. He tries to look around, but his head is bound like the rest of him. His eyes are the only things that can move, and they roll around, looking for information. He can just make out what appears to be the top of a column. An unfamiliar voice is speaking somewhere off to one side, out of his field of vision: "No, Lady, I have not met this one, but I tell you that he will not join us." As the bonds loosen, Eugenios feels a painful tingling as the blood begins to flow back to his extremities. He hears the scuff of a footstep behind him, but then everything goes black once more. Eugenios does not wake again.

Ferranzo's despair is replaced with certainty and a sense of rightness. It is such a relief from doubt and fear and worry that the bard laughs out loud as the weight of the world is lifted from him. "Isn't it good, my son?" a Voice whispers in his ear. And it IS. Everything is good, for She is here with him!

"Myrtha, Myrtha..." the Voice trills from the darkness, and it is mother and sister to her both. Freed from her bonds, Myrtha falls to her knees, not because she can't see or because her limbs have fallen asleep (though both those things are true), but as a gesture of profound devotion. She shivers with delight as the Voice addresses her again, so very kindly. "No, no, my child. Rise, and take your place at my side. There is much work to be done still for skilled hands like yours..."

This ends the journey for this group of Dungeon Busters.

The adventure will continue will the next party in Chapter 4.