MISSION: THE SLEEPER

[ximilian]

● ● ● M I S S I O N   3 . 1

INTRO • MAY ALL YOUR BACON BURN • IF YOU HAVE A DREAM DON'T WAIT • FYI

// INTRO. beam us down!  

It’ll be during the early hours in the morning when the communications device pings the Orbers in the midst of whatever you may be doing: whether it’s sleeping in, having a leisurely breakfast, or being deep into whatever task it is you’ve planned for the day. Viveca’s familiar voice filters through, a cheerful interruption.

// VIVECA.AI

Hi everyone. We’ve got your next mission ready, but I was asked to give you the file a little bit in advance so you could prepare better… so here it is. I don’t think I can delay the teleportation machine more than a day, so early tomorrow morning it’ll be time to go. The situation in Kilnan is a little strange, so I’ve prepared an antidote for you just in case. Pick yours up from the infirmary before you get going. It’ll only work once, so be careful. The orb is somewhere in the castle… I trust you’ll find it. Good luck.

Without any further fanfare, the comms go silent and you’re left with a new mission file and some rather concerning information within the report about a sleeping sickness. But instead of the immediate departure like you might be used to, you’ve been given the day to rest up and prepare for the trip down. So pack your things, grab the antidote, maybe enjoy a hot shower and a good night’s sleep … or if you’re not the sleeping kind, find a good song to jam to and get you motivated for what’s to come.

The next morning before most of your alarms will go off, the teleportation machine will hum to life, crackling with stored energy. Those who have been here for longer might notice this difference and what Viveca had meant when she said she didn’t think she “could delay it for more than a day”. As soon as you’ve been gathered together, you’ll feel the pull — and a tug that removes you from the station.

For what might seem like an agonizingly long moment, you simply hang there in stasis, white light surrounding you accompanied by a strange, ethereal chorus that whispers in your ear, informing you of the goal currently set before you and the cost to achieve it, as well as the exchange for its power —

But before you can venture to open your mouth and respond, the light around you materializes into a fog of cool, damp cloud cover. The moment your feet touch solid ground and the fog parts as you move through it, you’ll see a marble road ahead.

Welcome to the country of Kilnan, Orbers.

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// PART I.MAY ALL YOUR BACON BURN  

Around you, the courtyard of the Crystalline Palace opens up — white marble pavement, extravagant sculptures half-covered in moss, and fountains that have long since dried up — its splendor abandoned and left for time to neglect like a long forgotten secret.

If you look behind you, you’ll see nothing but clouds; and underneath you is mostly open sky. Faintly (if you really squint), you might be able to make out the grassy earth somewhere below the clouds but the distance seems a little treacherous to even consider taking your chance to get there. As such, the only way is forward — up the wide steps and through the imposing, but majestic, double doors of the castle.

1.0   Once inside, a seemingly empty castle greets you. There are no servants rushing to greet you, no hustle and bustle that you'd expect from a castle this size... just silence.

You’ll find yourself standing in the middle of a grand foyer. Daylight filters in through tall windows framed with long flowing curtains that seem to sway just a little, even though the casements are clearly shut. Further in, you’ll notice multiple staircases leading you to the upper floors, some of them straight, and some of them curved, while others wind upwards in a seemingly endless direction towards one of the towers. Most of these stairways will appear to be your regular run-of-the-mill means of egress, but the moment you turn away and look back to where you’d just come from, you might notice that the stairs have disappeared … only to be right in front of you when you glance back. Another set of stairs may take you in one direction, but try and retread your path and you’ll find the very same staircase you’d just used will take you somewhere completely different.

These stairs might be playing tricks on you, or maybe you need to get your eyes checked.

From the foyer, hallways appear to sprawl in all directions of the wind, some of them lined with paintings from a very deft hand (or hands). Walk along and peer at one of these incredibly detailed depictions of vibrant rich cities, lush idyllic countrysides, alluring, well-manicured gardens and find that all of them seem so incredibly lifelike — almost uncannily so. If you study one for too long, you’ll find yourself losing focus of the world around you, only seeing the painting that beckons you forward … and helpless to resist, you take a step forward and wind up within the world of the painting. Is it as beautiful as it seemed from its frame? Of course it is. Just look at that colour! Feel that breeze! Take a deep breath of the air around you. But remember that you probably can’t stay here forever; you have to get back. And the way to the castle is … somewhere here. You just have to find it.

2.0   Inside the castle, your task is clear: find the orb.. and for some of you, perhaps try and look for the people sent to the castle before you. To do that, you’ll need to search through the different rooms and accompanying towers… but the moment that you try to, it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary castle and the rooms are not exactly just rooms either. Some have stark differences in scale: in one room you enter, all the furniture within appears to be made for giants; while in another room, everything has been shrunk down to its miniature.

Further still, another room will appear to be deceptively normal… but the moment you step past the threshold, the door will lock shut behind you and then fade into the wall like it’d never been there at all. You only have one clear objective then: search through the room for a way to get out… or make yourself a way out.

3.0   When you enter this next room, you find yourself having to pause to take it all in, it’s so incredible that you can barely believe your eyes: whatever this room holds within seems to cater specifically to your individual interests and desires like it sees into your soul. It might offer rare books to those interested in knowledge, the best entertainment for those who seek self-indulgence, decadent foods you’ve always wanted to try for those with a discerning palate. What a wonderful time! So wonderful, in fact, that it’s too easy for you to forget the passing of time … what was it you were doing before? Nothing important, surely. Right?

4.0   There are rooms that don’t even seem like rooms at all once you’ve entered them: you open a green painted door and instead of the marble floors, you step right into a hedge maze. When you turn to glance over your shoulder, you’ll find that the door has vanished, and your hand lingering on the door knob is now clutching at a cluster of prickly foliage. With nowhere else to go but to brave the labyrinth, you move forward. The path you take will twist and wind until you realize that the best-case scenario here is coming face-to-face with a deadend rather than the other delights that the maze holds in store. One end greets you with a particularly angry tree, hell-bent on wiping you off the face of this plane; at another turn, a creature that looks suspiciously like a Sphinx, sitting on her hind legs and blocking the way, might ask you a riddle in exchange for passage; and there is always a chance that the right-hook you take will pull you through a cloud of deceptively beautiful fluttering dots of lights that whisper to you with the voices of people long-dead before you.

5.0   Another room will pull you — quite literally — into the eye of a storm. Hail and rain pours down, drenching you immediately, while lightning flashes in the open sky — it almost looks like the countryside you saw beneath the castle, but that couldn’t be, right? You don’t remember leaving the castle… And more importantly — the rain really is coming down, and that lightning is striking dangerously close. It might be wise to find some temporary shelter, perhaps a little cottage to hide in, or at the very least, get to that overturned hay cart and hide beneath it — and wait for a chance to find your way back to the exit door … wherever (or whenever) it may appear.

6.0   Not all of the castle will be entirely strange, however; there, too, are regular, non-eventful rooms scattered within. A large dining room with the table set for one, a thin layer of dust collecting over the silverware, for instance; a library filled with old tomes and scrolls that don’t appear to have been touched in years; a storage room full of strange items; and, if you make it into the cellar, you’ll find the kitchen, its food storage still robust despite the fact that some of the meat has begun to gather mold, and some of the vegetables have darkened and gone a little mushy. On the layer of dust settled over the floor, there is exactly one set of footprints, perhaps smaller than you’d think, but even those seem at least a number of weeks old.

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// PART II.IF YOU HAVE A DREAM DON'T WAIT  

It’s almost too easy to become distracted by all of the strange happenings within the castle, easy enough to forget about the sickness you’ve been warned about — and perhaps, with so far there having been no sight of anyone actually affected by it, it’s easy enough to think that there might have been a mistake or a misunderstanding. But the longer you spend within these beautiful white stone walls, you become aware of a whisper: quiet at first, the barely-there breath of a language you know you understand and yet you still can’t quite grasp it, the meaning frustratingly close to the edge of your consciousness. And the more you try to touch those not-words and too-light-whispers, you feel a little dizzy before the world around you suddenly changes.

7.0   At first you think you’ve simply fallen into another room, just another hidden trap-door or painting you’d stepped into. So perhaps you don’t even realize that you’ve fallen under a spell at all when everything around you is just … dark. Beneath your feet, if you focus your gaze, is a still surface of a black lake glinting — and yet you are not sinking. Every step that you take forward creates a little ripple across the glassy surface. As your eyes adjust, so do your surroundings begin to take shape. It will be different for everyone, this dreamscape morphing and melding into a scene (an island, a meadow, a small patch of forest, or will it remain the lake?) or setting that reflects you — it’s where your soul feels most at ease … for now.

8.0   As expected, the dreamscape does not stay still for long. The more time you spend here, the more it seems to draw inspiration from your memories. Suddenly you find everything around you materializing into solid form, the experience being dragged from the depths of your mind into manifesting a vivid study in touch and sight and smell and sound. It’s something you’ve already been through before, but whether you like it or not, this memory is being replayed around you and now you’re the observer … you and the lucky (or unlucky) person who has entered this memory with you.

Do you stay, or do you try to run from it?

9.0   The stronger the memory, the stronger its effect on you: the heaviest memories, whether they’re happy ones or sad ones, may latch onto your subconscious so tightly that it pulls you right into the memory itself.

Just as these dreams often do, it’s hard to tell whether this is made up or reality itself — perhaps you remember that this has happened before and you’ll try to change the course of events. Or perhaps you think you’re living this memory for the first time. Whatever it might be, you find yourself fully convinced of its authenticity … but the power of belief is a dangerous thing. Beware that the injuries sustained in this state will become real, visible to those who might be observing this — and observing you — from the outside. (You know the line: if you die in the game, you die in real life.)

NOTE: These strong memories might also draw you into them as yourself from that time, so someone wandering into this re-lived memory might find you there as a child, a teenager, a young adult, or perhaps someone with the same or a different face — whatever you were at the time of the memory.

10.0   Once you become aware of these memories, you may push them away or will them to stop. The moment that you do, the dreamscape will immediately shift to become its unaltered state once more. The other way to escape these memories is to leave. At the edge of your dreamscape, you will find that the air shifts and shimmers just a little differently than the rest of this space … and once you get close enough, the doorway will open to let you out of your dreamscape and into someone else’s like a chain of several small links. If your dreams are more akin to nightmares, perhaps you enter the door willingly. But just as likely, you might simply get too close and are sucked into the passageway.

And you never know just whose dream you end up in next …

The only way to leave the dreamscape is by being woken up by someone administering the antidote to you, and it will only work once. So if you fall back asleep, remember — if it takes you in again, you will remain under this sleeping spell, unable to wake … at least until the cause of the sickness has been found.

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F Y I

• The events in this log take place during the month of November.

• If you have questions about any of the prompts or the mission in general, please direct them HERE.

• To submit a search request regarding exploring a specific place during any of the prompts, please do so HERE.

• Voting for how the characters will get the orb will go up November 22. Though voting will be done in an OOC post, it is an IC vote in the sense that you should pick a choice your character would ICly make. What the characters choose to do will determine the conclusion of the mission.

• And finally, have a soundtrack for this log! ♪ ♪ ♪

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Comments

search requests

[ximilian]

Exploring the castle? Poking around for information? Tell us what your character is doing to gather information and we'll let you know what they happen to find out.

As there is only the castle to search, each character is limited to one search request. If you are unsure how search requests work, please read this mini-faq on search requests.

[business]

"On the layer of dust settled over the floor, there is exactly one set of footprints, perhaps smaller than you’d think, but even those seem at least a number of weeks old."

rhys, if at all possible, would like to try and track those footprints and see where they disappear off to. if the trail goes cold, are there other tracks he might be able to find of a similar size around the castle? basically if there is or was anything living in the castle, he wants to try and find them.
EDIT for clarity, rhys wants to see if he can find any unconscious persons and wake them up with his mind powers — obviously costing himself the spell, but in such a case he'll be teaming up with alina starkov, who can interrogate them while rhys is unconscious. that's if he can find anyone, ofc.

[ximilian]

Hello! Just to clarify — Rhys will only be able to search either the footprints in the kitchen, or look for signs of people in a specific place in the castle. To search the entire castle for footprints is too large of a search request. Do you want him to follow the footprints in the kitchen, or look elsewhere?

[majorbiotic]

Time to snoop in the library! IDK how much of this I can lump into a search request so I'm just gonna roll the dice here.

1. How big is the library? Like how much of it would Kaidan be able to look through if he dedicated a few good hours to it?
2. What kind of stuff will he find by picking through the books and scrolls? Will he be able to read them, are there going to be magical book shenanigans, that kind of thing?
3. What does the library look like, aesthetically? Any statues or interesting decorations he should take note of?

Edit! The Darkling is teaming up with him on the search. He can make his shadows search for hidden rooms/moveable bookshelves so if that results in anything, let us know!

[ximilian]

1 + 3. The library looks more or less like this — marble floors, large bookcases that line the walls, several rooms connected to each other, paintings on the ceilings, all covered in dust. Between the two of them, Kaidan and the Darkling would be able to make it through about one room in a couple of hours.

2. The books and scrolls span across a variety of topics, from general history of Kilnan, to magic theory, to alchemy, to gardening, to the basics of knitting. The history of Kilnan reveals that the country is governed from a city called Amdorf, with Queen Ingria as the current monarch. The most prestigious magic academy, Vealora Institute of Magics, is also located in Amdorf. The history book also lists a number of conflicts between Kilnan and its neighbouring countries, and mentions a world war between the countries of the continent that ended two years before the book was written. Kilnan is listed on the side of the winning alliance, and a sentence that begins "A large role in the war and its conclusion is attributed to the royal sorcerers of the countries of Toumans and Kilnan" has its ending missing, covered with what seems to be a splotch of ink.

The Darkling's use of his shadows will, in turn, find that one bookcase can be moved to the side, to reveal a little hidden alcove. In the alcove, there seems to be a pillow and some blankets, as well as a magical light that still burns light green. On the floor, there are papers and scrolls scattered around, all written on by the same hand — all contain descriptions of spells, hybrids of arcane magic with illusions. The diagrams and spell forms written are all highly detailed and difficult for anyone not trained in the arcane arts to understand.

Team Search!

[spacedisaster]

Peter has learned that searches are more successful when there's more than one person involved. Some friends and him are going to check the storage room with strange items. He's teaming up with Finn, Daisy Johnson, and Clarke Griffin, and they have some skills that might help the search:

Finn has the Force and can Sense Things™ and get Feelings. He's he's been training with some others who also have special abilities (Sabriel, Blue...) to get stronger. Being an ex-stormtrooper, he knows how to raid a room.

Daisy can sense/control the vibrations in everything, so she could use her powers to try and find if there's anything hidden in the storage room, like hidden doors.

Clarke has medical skills and art skills. She is bringing her sketchbook to the mission, and by drawing in it she will be trying to see if she notices any differences with the rooms/pathways.

Peter was a scavenger and thief, he's pretty good at puzzles and finding ways to open things that want to remain unopened. He's going to look at every nook and cranny, even behind paintings, and generally be very 👀 at everything (unless they suspect it might be cursed) to see if there's anything that could clue them in what caused the sleeping disease or where the Wizard could be. Plus, he wants to see if he can find any useful item.

And their questions:

1. Can magic or strange activity be detected in the room?
2. How big is the place? Do part of it change when chars aren't looking, like it happens when the stairways and some rooms?
3. If they knock on the walls, could any of them sound hollow, as if there were a hidden room/passage/something behind them?
4. Is anything in the room alive? And if yes, it's noticeable, or we're talking about things like mimics?
5. Are there any labels or visible names etched into any of the items? Like whom they might belong to, or what are they about?

[ximilian]

1. Yes, Finn would definitely be able to sense that not only is the entire room magic, it contains several items that are magical in nature, as well.

2. The room's size is hard to define: at first glance, it seems like a regular large storage room, but as the team make it further in, they see it somehow seems to go on... and on... and on. It's as if the walls are shifting further back without looking like they're moving at all. Daisy won't be able to sense any vibrations for this, indicating that magic is at play, but Finn would get a Feeling™ any time the room becomes larger.

3. None of the walls sound hollow, but as they walk on the floor, Clarke will find that one particular spot seems to make a different sound from the rest. As she calls Peter to help, he'll figure out that it's a trap door, one that requires a specific set of taps to spring open. Once they get it to open, they'll find a ladder that leads down to a moat... that doesn't seem to be anywhere in the castle. In fact, as they look around, where it was the middle of the day in the castle, it seems to be night wherever they are now. On the moat, there's a glass jar of what seems to be... fish food?

4. There's nothing alive that's immediately noticeable; however, when Daisy picks up a beautiful, blue satin cloak, the cloak suddenly starts struggling against her grip and trying to escape. Similarly, there's a jewelry box that every time Peter tries to open it slams its lid shut, each time a little more forcefully.

5. There's a desk near one of the walls, and as Clarke opens one of its drawers, she'll find that it is full of medals — all read a variety of the same: Awarded for exceptional valour to Remi d'Arbes, On the Day of our Victory, to our Saviour Remi d'Arbes, and so on. All medals are stuffed into the drawer without much care for how they're in.

As Finn walks past a pile of what seem to be carpets, he senses something that he thinks is familiar. As he digs into the carpet pile, he'll find underneath a box. It is lined with dark green velvet, and has inside the empty slot for a large amulet that's been set in a chain. With it, there's a note that reads, Hope this is to your liking and fits the object in question. And don't worry about the cost, it's my honour to help someone who's done so much to help us. -- Grant.

[blackfire]

hello mods! some hilarity for you: i opened all the soundtrack links at once and all the music started playing simultaneously. that was a confusing few seconds.

this is babby's first time doing one of these so hopefully i did it right but if it needs any changes lmk! i'm currently thinking he'll be off on his own for this bit but i'm also totally open to involving others if it looks like a good opportunity to bring folks along!

re: 5.0 - supposing that Itachi is able to get to one of these little cottages, (he's notoriously good at surviving lightning...) he's going to want to look through the cottage for clues about What's Going On (he's also going to try various illusion releases to see if it's something messing with his brain, but I'm already assuming that won't work!)

He's also going to be way more focused on exploring/finding information out than getting back to the castle because, idk, #ninjathings.

In terms of his abilities/skills he'll be using: spy investigation shit! ninja analytics! chakra sensing! /probably also the sharingan and mangekyō sharingan to see if there's anything Lurking beyond the realm of normal human senses (though I'm not sure how being able to see chakra/things in other planes of existence would translate here in terms of 'what are these powers and how can they work', i'm kind of assuming it's similar to the force in terms of life essence/etc) and maybe illusion dispersal? and if that lightning tries to @ him he's gonna susano'o that bitch.

His priorities are going to be:

  ‣ Is there any indication who the cottage belongs to and their fate?
  ‣ If unoccupied, what signs might there be as to how recently it was left?
  ‣ He'll probably poke around for false walls/floors/drawers in any desks, just in case. you know, the usual suspects!

[ximilian]

Oh no the cacophony..... rip.

To the best of his ability, Itachi can determine that what he is seeing and experiencing is somehow reality instead of illusion — but if he explores the area around the cottage, he will find that if he walks far enough, something starts messing with his perception of things, almost as if there's a barrier of sorts separating this particular area from whatever might surround it. This is where his Illusion Senses would start to go off; instead of the area being illusion, it seems that a powerful illusion conceals it from its surroundings.

As for the cottage, as soon as Itachi enters it, he'll find that it is not unoccupied: in a corner of the room, a man wearing a soldier's uniform is sitting down, seeming like he may have huddled there for warmth... yet now, he breathes steadily, eyes closed.

Aside from the man, though, it doesn't seem like there's much in the cottage: two small rooms, one of them containing a bed that's been neatly done and not slept on for possibly months; in the larger room, there's a little kitchen corner with a few pots and pans hanging over a stove. In the middle of the room there's a table, two chairs around it, and scattered on it, there are papers — magic theory, by the looks of it, with questions written by one hand and answers with another. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be anything of note in the cottage.

[shadysided]

Ziggy is gonna focus her efforts kind of accidentally, after getting stuck in the hedge maze; she'll especially be interested in those dots of lights that whisper, trying to listen in on what they're saying. Maybe they'll have some insight, being disembodied little lights floating around the place.

Otherwise, just gonna huff around the hedge maze tiredly until she can taste freedom. 😌

[ximilian]

As Ziggy weaves her way through the maze, she'll wind up at a particularly Happenin' (tm) dead end. A jukebox sits nestled against the grass, and once activated will light up this very small, isolated area with disco ball lights, and Ziggy's favourite song.

Once the music stops and the dead-end goes, well, dead, Ziggy might over hear the little lights whisper in voices of her loved ones. If she refuses to listen to these very familiar whispers, the dots of light will start to whisper amongst themselves, things like: 'Why isn't she falling for this?' and 'We need to amp up our game if we want to protect the Master and the Little Lady', along with a whispering chorus of agreements: 'Yes! We need to do our part!' 'Yes — do our part!' Hmm! 🤔

[laviny]

Yelena, Sam and Gamora are going to want to approach the Sphinx! They will use Redwing to help navigate the maze and get them there.

Their #1 priority will to be to get past her, so what would that entail (I assume a riddle or something, but anything else?) and what would they find out if they're successful?

And also, this is 2nd priority, but just in case...can they engage the Sphinx in conversation/ask her questions? Or would that be impossible/a separate search request?

If it is possible, here are some things they want to ask:

1.) Where/How can they find Remi?
2.) What is causing the sleeping sickness?
3.) Does she know anything about the orb?

If it's not possible, then that's cool, they will focus on just figuring out what's behind her.

[ximilian]

The Sphinx regards them all coolly, and as they try and ask her questions, she speaks, her voice a low, clear rumble.

"Answer my riddle first. If you prove yourselves, we shall speak. If not... I suggest you make yourselves scarce."

The riddle that she asks goes as follows:

Aah, I rule
Over this land one day
Aah, I lure
You into this maze
To protect what matters most.
Can you rearrange your priorities
To solve what matters most?

In order to proceed with the Sphinx, Yelena, Sam and Gamora need to answer this riddle correctly. What do they answer?

(HINT: The riddle tells you what to do — just find the right part(s) there to do it with. It also tells you what the answer is, in the Sphinx's mind. Some other search requests may help you with this!)

[attackbrows]

The Doctor (12), Peter Parker, Megatron, R0-GR, and L3-37 will investigate the hedge maze. Specifically, they want to approach this one angry tree.

Megatron and The Doctor are more or less the non-violent diplomats of the group. Even though this tree will be hell-bent on wiping them off, these two are (very) old stubborn fools. Their objective is not to cause any harm but rather learn:

1.) What is ailing the tree?
2.) Why is it so important that the country’s people sleep?

All the while, if their distraction efforts work, is there anything Peter, R0-GR and L3-37 might find around the perimeter of the tree that might present:

1.) Clues of the orb’s location (whether it be an item or something etched into the tree)
2.) A key that perhaps unlocks a different part of the castle.
3.) Perhaps a lost country person who also got stuck inside the maze and failed to make it out.

[ximilian]

The group might find that the tree is simply just a tree ... well, mostly.

1) If the team manage to linger around its trunk without being swatted away and flung into the next hedge over, they might feel thoughts being pushed against their consciousness. These thoughts generally brand the Orbers as intruders; they aren't wanted, this is their castle, and the Master doesn't like visitors, so it's up to the entities on the grounds to protect their Master and his interests.

2) Asking about the country's people sleeping won't garner any results — well, except for another swatting branch at the face. The tree doesn't know about the country's people and would really like you to leave now.

3) As a result there are no direct answers to the orb's location on or around the tree, however —

4) If they continue to do a little snooping, they might find another entrance from this room that leads them back into the castle, and towards a set of long-abandoned stairs (covered in a layer of thick dust) that ends with a closed door.

Opening the door will lead them into a boudoir that might have once belonged to a woman with a title and some authority. Expensive jewelry lies neglected on the vanity, and an old novel (a romance) is left on the bedside table with a pair of ornate spectacles. This room, too, is covered in thick dust — noticeably thicker than anywhere else in the castle. It's clear to the team that it's been many, many years since anyone has ventured to this space.

5) No indication of any lost country person will be found.

[winscenario]

Jim Kirk, Rosinante Donquixote, Andromache, Clara Oswald, Erik Stevens and Soldier Blue will come together as a group to search through the dreamscapes while they're all trapped together in their sleep. As they find each other in the dreams they walk through, they'll take advantage of the fact that they're a relatively bigger team to spread out and explore whatever dreams and memories they end up in.

Primarily, they will be looking for any specific patterns, things that might be constant or repeat themselves on all dreamscapes: whether it's a word, a phenomenon, an object, a piece of information, even a face that's always the same. They will collect any potentially relevant intel, and if there should be any clues scattered for them to follow within any specific dreamscape, they will.

Secondly, they will attempt to find any natives within the dreamscapes, should they walk into a memory that belongs to said natives. If so, they will attempt to engage in a conversation, to try and obtain more information about what's happening, and particularly about any knowledge they might have about an object that could be the orb that they are looking for.

[ximilian]

As they explore all the different dreamscapes, the team will find that there is nothing consistent — nothing that is the same, no pattern... every dreamscape truly fashions itself after the individual who is dreaming.

However, all of them wander into memories that seem to belong to different natives.

Blue and Rosinante walk into a large, beautiful castle — even larger and more beautiful than the Crystalline Palace. The scene he walks into takes place in the throne room. Upon the throne, a woman sits, her eyes upon the man standing in front of the throne. Guards stand next to the throne, and they can guess that the memory belongs to one of them.

"Remi d'Arbes, the Royal Sorcerer of Kilnan, I hereby name you the commander of our army," the queen says, calm and serene. The man — Remi — is anything but, though; eyes blazing, he glares at the woman.

"Cut the shit, Ingria! You know how I feel about this! You have an army, you have the Institute's special forces — you don't need me. I refuse. Get someone else to fight your wars for you."

A deadly hush falls over the room; the guards shuffle, looking at each other, unsure of what to do. But Queen Ingria smiles.

"You are an inch away from treason, brother dear. And wrong, at that — I do need you. You know as well as I do that no one has magic like yours... well. Almost no one. Should I make her fight, instead? Perhaps I shall. A princess should defend her country, too."

In the middle of the room, the air around Remi lights up. Bright magic pours out of him, swirling around him as if alive.

"You leave her out of this. You would use everything as a pawn, even your own daughter. After the war is over, I want nothing to do with you or this country."

Magic still crackling around him, Remi turns on his heels and starts marching out of the room. Ingria, still smiling, calls out to the soldiers around the room, with a tone of steel:

"Salute your commander! You shall all report to him starting tomorrow."

As the scene fades away, something happens with the dreamscape — instead of being able to jolt the soldier who the memory belongs to out of it, the dream seems to become aware of intruders and both Blue and Rosinante feel the dreamscape shift... and then they are rudely booted out of it, and back to their own dreamscapes.

The same happens with Erik and Jim, after they have witnessed another scene that seems to belong to a soldier. In the memory, Ingria and Remi walk on the hallway of the royal palace and soldiers posted in front of Ingria's personal quarters end up the unwitting witnesses to yet another argument.

"It's your fault she's like that," Ingria says with the tone of someone who has said this same thing a thousand times before. "Why shouldn't I make use of her skills? I am enrolling her in the Institute's armed division as soon as the war is over."

"Why shouldn't you — are you crazy? She's your daughter, that's why! And besides, what I did was save her life! How many times do we have to have this conversation?" Remi sighs, running his hand through his hair. "You know she would have died as an infant if I had done nothing. That the spell's side effect gave her arcane abilities was never my intention. But back to your insanity... Aureliah doesn't want to fight. You know that. Don't force her into it."

"I'm a queen first, mother second," Ingria answers, tone even. "The country's best comes first."

"It always does, with you."

With that bitter statement, Remi walks away, and the dreamscape shifts, blending with another scene. It shows them the outside of the castle: signs of battle are everywhere, and the air is heavy with the scent of ozone. Some soldiers are still standing; one of them is clearly the same as in the previous scene, making it clear who the memories belong to. On the battlefield, Remi stands with five others dressed in the traditional robes of sorcerers. All have strange weapons in their hands: one has a blade made of pure white energy, another holds a bow where the string vibrates with purple, lightning-like power.

"Good job, everyone. You've done well," Remi says, giving a faint smile to his team of sorcerers.

He shifts to pick something up from his pocket — a green jewel. Looking at it, he seems to listen to something and then nods.

"Yes, Phyllie, go ahead. As agreed. Make them forget."

Alarm flashes on the faces of the five, and Remi looks at each in turn, eyes regretful.

"I can't let you remember how to do this. This knowledge will not pass on. If someone else were to learn the theory... it would be far too dangerous. Now... forget."

A green glow grows, and grows, until all Jim and Erik can see is the bright, bright green —

and then they are booted back to their own dreamscapes.

Meanwhile, Andy and Clara find themselves walking into a different dreamscape. For a moment, they think they are back at the castle, that someone has woken them — but instead, the room around them shifts and starts showing a memory.

"See, this is where you went wrong. You drew this line horizontally and not vertically." Remi, sitting around a table, speaks to a red-haired teenager who sits across from him.

"I see..." Aureliah answers, and quickly picks up a pen to make the necessary corrections.

"Good. I think we're done for today. You know the deal — don't tell your mother I was here. I'm still not talking to her." Remi pushes the chair back, preparing to leave, but as he does, Aureliah jumps up as well and quickly rounds the table, grabbing his sleeve.

"Please, Uncle, don't go! Don't... Mother said she — that she's sending me... to the Institute. Please, don't make me go! You can't! You know she wants me to become the next commander, but I don't want to hurt anyone!"

Remi, listening to his niece with growing alarm, curses softly under his breath.

"Ingria... is there no low you won't stoop to?" And then louder, he says, "What do you want me to do, Li-li? I've tried talking to her before, and she's never once listened."

Aureliah takes a deep breath. "Take me with you! To your castle. You can keep me safe, right? You told me during the war... that if we lost, you'd take me there and no one would get to us. Were you lying?"

For a long moment, Remi seems torn in two, gritting his teeth. Then —

"No. No, I wasn't. Quick, get your things. The sooner we're gone, the better."

Aureliah squeals and throws her arms around her uncle... and the room shifts once more, as if a spell falls away.

Instead, Andy and Clara are left with a room that once more looks like it could be in the castle — and the very same girl from the dream, perhaps a year or two older now, staring at them.

"Who are you?" she asks, eyes wide and panicked. "You don't belong! Leave me alone!! I won't go back!" A bright blue energy gathers around her, and before either woman has a chance to do much of anything, it blasts straight at them... throwing them out of this particular dreamscape, and into those of others'.

Re: search requests

[bindsthedead]

Sabriel's going to head to the library to try to decipher the papers Kaidan and the Darkling found using her own magical training, using any relevant texts she can find in the library if needed to supplement things.

What will she be able to make of the papers?

[ximilian]

Sabriel, armed with her own extensive knowledge and theoretical books of arcane magic she can find in the library, will be able to determine the following:

- Everything written down has to do with arcane energy, and even to Sabriel the theories and spells written down are highly advanced — whoever has written them is clearly some kind of a prodigy.

- As far as Sabriel can understand, the spells and diagrams center around the possibility of combining illusionary spells with arcane energy to fool even the fabric of time and space between worlds, and between the animate and inanimate. There are theories of manipulating inanimate matter to let it become self-aware, and a particularly complex piece of writing on the specifics of ripping through the energies separating worlds from one another.

- Some papers are written in specific code that only breaks if you can break the illusion set upon them. If Sabriel manages to do so, she will find a list applications of arcane energy to warfare, though notably there are no actual descriptions of how to do it — simply that specific uses are possible. Similarly, there is a list of strangely named materia and items, and after each one in parenthesis is a name, accompanied by the words "World 1", "World 2" and so on.

[kovach]

kovacs is going to be snooping around the dining room, his attention caught by the solitary table arrangement. his envoy instincts have him very inclined towards perceiving smaller details so he'd pay close attention to the arrangement of things in the room, placement of items, things seeming out of place, etc. if there's dust on the silverware, he'd also be paying attention to the accumulation of more/less dust in some places over others. what sort of things might he come across?

[aurable]

In a perfect storm of some bad timing Drift, Dean Winchester Hermann Gottlieb, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, and Yzak Joule find themselves in a room reflecting a desire of one person—— Drift. The room itself manifests as the bridge of the massive space ship, the Lost Light now scaled down to better suit its target and incidental interlopers. Overcome by the illusion, Drift is frantically trying to "make the ship work." Either to get its core functions up and running, or to just open the doors out of the bridge which are sealed shut with no obvious means of opening them.

Cooler heads prevail, and the group quickly concludes that Drift needs to snap out of it, and they need to find a way out. The brain trust of Bones Yzak and Hermann determine that if the illusion is so perfect, why not try to use the use room as the bridge of a hyper-advanced bridge of a space ship that it appears? The...less erudite members of their party (not naming names, but it's Dean) think that a good offense is a solid defense and starts trying to trash the place.

During all this, some mission-critical questions get asked:

1) Can they use or even force the scanners and tech on the ship to get information on the castle itself working under the assumption the room shows you what you desire, and they all unanimously desire to know what the hell is going on.
2) "Guys, bear with me, can we hit the gas and drive the room?"

As this five-man production of the Three Stooges plays out, their objective becomes clear:

1) Was this room in particular designed with anyone specific in mind?
2) How does this relate to the sleeping sickness?
3) Why is the castle trapping them?

[savingthrows]

Who: Eleven, Bucky - Assistance/Items provided by Team Storage Room

What: Eleven is intending to use her mind void (link to her Info Page, see "Abilities" section for details) to locate Remi's body. Bucky is on standby with her physical body, and to go on the move with her should the search be successful.

How: Team Storage Room is graciously providing/loaning the following items: The medals, the cloak, the empty orb box and included note. Eleven can find people without difficulty if she knows them - if they're unfamiliar to her, she can increase her chances of success via knowing the name (Remi's name is known), using a picture (unavailable) and/or an anchor item, ideally a personal belonging (see items provided to her). She will find a quiet corner in the entrance hallways where she sits on the floor with Bucky ensuring others leave her alone, blindfold herself, and use her walkie talkie to provide static sounds/white noise, which allow her to gain enough concentration to enter the Void and cast her mind out in the hopes of finding Remi's body - or whatever else the provided items or properties of the castle might lead/pull her towards.

Notes: Eleven has been seen to be able to find bodies even when the person is no longer alive, and canonically across different worlds/dimensions (she finds Will as well as Barb's corpse while they are in the Upside Down) with no canonical maximum range (her powers were intended to be used to spy on Russians, so definitely reach across the globe). This of course is 100% at the discretion of the mods to decide if in the context of this search, her powers function as they do in canon or are hindered, I'm just listing this in case any of those questions would otherwise come up. Canonically, things that have telepathic powers or other connections to different dimensions and the mind can theoretically find their way either into Eleven's mind (the Mindflayer) or at least partially manifest and be interacted with (the gate to the Upside Down). When successfully locating someone, Eleven typically sees their body, hears them if they're speaking, and gains an understanding of their location/surroundings. She is typically completely invisible to them, unless they have similar powers and can become aware of her presence. Canonically, not even the Mindflayer has been able to fully block her ability to spy on it, although it was able to use the Mind Void against her after becoming aware of her presence. Again, the extent to which something in the castle would circumvent that is fully at mod discretion and I'm happy to go with however you want to scale her powers here. And of couse, she can reach out to them to force contact, which has the risk of her getting pulled into their mind/dream/memories. While doing this, she remains physically present and alert where her body is, allowing her to share what she learns with whoever is in earshot, as well as hear what they are saying, and of course pull off the blindfold to force herself out of the mind void if necessary. If due to the nature of the items used, she is unable to locate Remi, I'm happy to trust the mods with what else she might be able to unearth.

this is not my proudest search request...

[groupiedrifter]

[Well, after being told to do something absolutely ridiculous after doing something absolutely ridiculous, Newt figures he's got nothing much else to do and lose at this point but to try and reach out to the castle, huh? He's never heard of a sentient building before, so this is new and cool territory! But how to actually reach the castle...? He imagines maybe it's always watching? God, he has no clue. But he takes a page from the Ximilia, and figures maybe he can interact the same way he's interacted with the Commander (aka Not Dennis Hopper):

Letters!

Operation Castle Penpal, commence.

(He says, into his small recorder.)

He will write the castle a letter, and attempt to leave it in multiple places beside some blank paper and a pencil, hoping for the best. Maybe even leave the room and return. Totally gonna try this in the desire rooms and maybe the hedge maze area, and if none of those work he'll just stick it to a wall somewhere and give up. Anyway!

The letter is as follows:]

DEAR CASTLE,

Sorry for my chicken-scratch writing, I'm a doctor and we're notoriously bad at handwriting (well, my pal Hermann is a great writer, but he's an outlier and should not be counted). Firstly, I wanted to reach out and see if there was anything you could do to help us out with the orb issue? My pal Finn spoke to you recently! He's a pretty cool guy, huh? Real sweet, real cute. Total hero material. Anyway, we're all here to help undo the mess the orb made, which I think your Master's really gonna want after this whole mess got out of hand. Anything you, personally, as a big cool sentient castle can do to help us help you?

If not that's cool. It's just that I'm the science guy, you know? I can't do magic, so I'm feeling pretty powerless to help sometimes. I can sort of support our local doctor with people who fall into the magical sleep, but that's about it. So if there's anything I can do, let me know! I'll do whatever you think's gonna help.

Also, secondly, very importantly, I wanted to apologize for taking a bath in that big awesome sink in your kitchen area. I didn't know where to find a shower at the time, so I'm sorry if you had to witness me in my underoos. Daisy did join me, but it totally was all my idea, I'll take the fall.

I've been told it's customary to ask for your hand in marriage for the incident, so please circle 'yes' or 'no', no rush, don't worry about hurting my feelings, you're a strong independent castle, do your own thing:

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

YES / NO

(and if no, are you in love with another castle? tell me all about this other castle)

LOVE AND METAPHORICAL HUGS

(UNLESS HUGGING YOUR WALL COUNTS? I CAN HUG THE WALL IF YOU NEED ONE?),

NEWT

[endlessflask]

Is there a chance that there might be anything hidden in one of the books at the library, like a note/map/money/picture/etc? And if there is, could that thing be found by using a locating spell or simply by chance?

Re: search requests

[egraegis]

Apologies for the belatedness of this ask, or if it's come up elsewhere already. I had a look-through but I could certainly have missed it.

Athrun will be looking through the library for books related to technology and the fusion of tech with magic (magitek if you will). Small scale or large, anything would be good- it's more the theory and general practice that is of interest since magic is mostly out of his league, but he's all for collaboration and he knows magic-types. Something he could use as a baseline for learning. Anything along those lines to be pilfered?