Your party makes camp another night with Shem, affording the Gravediggers with magical healing and another night of rest to get their wounded back on their feet. That night, you dream...
You find yourself in an oppressively dark, dank, earthen chamber which reeks of mold and rot; perhaps some sort of cellar? You can hear shuffling and growling from somewhere nearby, and as your eyes slowly adjust you make out that the walls of the chamber are lined with cages, dozens if not hundreds of them, each holding a bird of a different breed and color. Pacing in front of the cages are mangy, feral-looking dogs, who occasionally growl and bare teeth at the captured birds.
You see a dim light coming from down a corridor and move to investigate. The light is a murky green, and casts strange shadows down the narrow tunnel you find yourself walking through. Crunching comes from underfoot, and you stoop to see the floor is littered with the bones of countless birds. In short order you arrive in a flagstone chamber dominated by a large block of ice at its center. The light that led you here is coming from inside the block, and looking at it so closely nearly makes you sick.
Before you can investigate further, raucous barking sounds in the tunnel behind you, and you turn to see the pack of dogs charging towards you. You back away in fear as the dogs run into the room, only to stare in horrified fascination as the canines' fur and flesh seem to melt from their bodies, sloughing off of skeletons which proceed another step or two before tumbling apart, scattering across the floor at your feet.
Looking down at the bones, you notice that your own feathers seem to be falling off, drifting gently down off your body in greater and greater numbers. Behind you the light has grown much brighter, and as you turn you can feel your own flesh turn to jelly before it begins dripping in spatters and chunks to the floor. The last thing you see before your eyes melt from their sockets is that inside the block of ice, within that putrid light, something moves...
... and you awake to screaming.
9th World -- Andrew Chocobo (2 posts)
thread created on 8/13/13 at 23:10
Andrew Chocobo - Driftwood dream
Andrew Chocobo
,
8/13/13 23:10
Driftwood dream
,
2/4/14 21:28
The final night in Driftwood-on-the-Sea, Andrew Chocobo retires early after a day of shopping and drying waterlogged parchment. Drifting off to sleep, he dreams...
...of a flagstone chamber dominated by a large block of ice at its center. The green light that led him here is coming from inside the block, and looking at it so closely nearly makes him sick.
Before he can investigate further, raucous barking sounds in the tunnel behind him, and he turns to see the pack of dogs charging towards him. Backing away in fear as the dogs run into the room, he stares in horrified fascination as the canines' fur and flesh seem to melt from their bodies, sloughing off of skeletons which proceed another step or two before tumbling apart, scattering across the floor at his feet.
Looking down at the bones, he quickly prepares a bomb from his belt and hurls it at the block of ice as it begins to move, the explosion of alchemical fire setting the thing ablaze. "You lied to me, Xenophontos! You lied!" it screams as it stumbles about the chamber before collapsing into a pool of smoking slop.
Exiting the chamber through another tunnel on its far side, he finds himself in a sparse mountain glade filled with strange creatures. A dove bound in fine golden chains sits atop a guillotine. A spider rushes about the perimeter of a web, mending it at the buzzing command of the fly at its center. An ancient sow, bloated and decrepit, stands supported by bales of fresh hay and its own filth. A dragon wrapped about a priceless gem eats its own tail. A large-pawed puppy plays amidst a group of lean, snapping wolves.
High above all these stands a weathered marble throne, upon which perches the blind tengu soothsayer. He gyrates through an unsettling dance to some unheard music while speaking with strange cadence in an incomprehensible tongue, and a great black bird wheels in the dome of the sky over his head.
The lower figures take notice of Chocobo and turn to regard him. The dove beckons with a loose chain ending in a delicate manacle; the fly pauses to peer at the alchemist while it rubs its front 'hands' over one another, the spider regarding him as well in the lapse of the imperious insect's commands; the sow turns its vacant gaze in his direction as it chews fresh cud; the dragon fixes a single terrible eye upon him as it gnaws its way further along its own body, tendrils of smoke twisting and curling from it's nostrils; the pup squats down playfully with wagging tail while the wolves look on through narrowed eyes. All fall silent save for the mad, incoherent cant of the nameless prophet above, as if they are waiting for some action on Andrew's part.
Shuffling his feet, Mr. Chocobo nervously clears his throat, desperately trying to think of something to say. Glancing upwards he sees that other shapes have joined the large bird in the sky, and it occurs to him that the soothsayer isn't strictly speaking nonsense, but rather is speaking backwards. As Andrew strains to try and make out the words, the strange menagerie around him starts back into action, barking, buzzing, and cooing such that it is impossible to make out the blind prophet's speech. All he is able to catch is a single word that seems to keep coming up again and again: "Obocoach..."
...and he wakes to the morning sun in his window and the smell of seawater in the air. Readying himself for the trip back to the Observatory, the dream does not fade from his memory as dreams often do, and he ponders whether it has more of gravy or of grave about it.
...of a flagstone chamber dominated by a large block of ice at its center. The green light that led him here is coming from inside the block, and looking at it so closely nearly makes him sick.
Before he can investigate further, raucous barking sounds in the tunnel behind him, and he turns to see the pack of dogs charging towards him. Backing away in fear as the dogs run into the room, he stares in horrified fascination as the canines' fur and flesh seem to melt from their bodies, sloughing off of skeletons which proceed another step or two before tumbling apart, scattering across the floor at his feet.
Looking down at the bones, he quickly prepares a bomb from his belt and hurls it at the block of ice as it begins to move, the explosion of alchemical fire setting the thing ablaze. "You lied to me, Xenophontos! You lied!" it screams as it stumbles about the chamber before collapsing into a pool of smoking slop.
Exiting the chamber through another tunnel on its far side, he finds himself in a sparse mountain glade filled with strange creatures. A dove bound in fine golden chains sits atop a guillotine. A spider rushes about the perimeter of a web, mending it at the buzzing command of the fly at its center. An ancient sow, bloated and decrepit, stands supported by bales of fresh hay and its own filth. A dragon wrapped about a priceless gem eats its own tail. A large-pawed puppy plays amidst a group of lean, snapping wolves.
High above all these stands a weathered marble throne, upon which perches the blind tengu soothsayer. He gyrates through an unsettling dance to some unheard music while speaking with strange cadence in an incomprehensible tongue, and a great black bird wheels in the dome of the sky over his head.
The lower figures take notice of Chocobo and turn to regard him. The dove beckons with a loose chain ending in a delicate manacle; the fly pauses to peer at the alchemist while it rubs its front 'hands' over one another, the spider regarding him as well in the lapse of the imperious insect's commands; the sow turns its vacant gaze in his direction as it chews fresh cud; the dragon fixes a single terrible eye upon him as it gnaws its way further along its own body, tendrils of smoke twisting and curling from it's nostrils; the pup squats down playfully with wagging tail while the wolves look on through narrowed eyes. All fall silent save for the mad, incoherent cant of the nameless prophet above, as if they are waiting for some action on Andrew's part.
Shuffling his feet, Mr. Chocobo nervously clears his throat, desperately trying to think of something to say. Glancing upwards he sees that other shapes have joined the large bird in the sky, and it occurs to him that the soothsayer isn't strictly speaking nonsense, but rather is speaking backwards. As Andrew strains to try and make out the words, the strange menagerie around him starts back into action, barking, buzzing, and cooing such that it is impossible to make out the blind prophet's speech. All he is able to catch is a single word that seems to keep coming up again and again: "Obocoach..."
...and he wakes to the morning sun in his window and the smell of seawater in the air. Readying himself for the trip back to the Observatory, the dream does not fade from his memory as dreams often do, and he ponders whether it has more of gravy or of grave about it.
Edited by: 9thdm on 2/4/14