GLoG 91

[Recaiden]

"Thank you. We do appreciate your help."
Arlem smiles and takes a step back, waiting for Reelshka. She'll probably have to go look things up.

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

Reelshka returns after a while, a bundle of files in hand.

"Let's see. We have two resident magic-users right now. One is an elf sorceress named Geneviéve. She had an apprentice, Cassandra, but she has since moved out. Then there's... a man, who has forgotten his name. He has a fairly specialized form of magic. But you said the person you're looking for was a woman. Other than that, some people pass through here, looking for help or shelter for a time. One of our members is engaged to a warlock, so she comes by from time to time."

[Recaiden]

"There's no reason she can't be a man now." Arlem replies, laughing. "Forgetting identity would actually explain a lot of her actions."
"But I'll see when we talk to them. I really wouldn't expect her to get engaged to someone, but who can predict love? It could be this occasional warlock."

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

"You can find the man in Maple Cabin, and Geneviéve in her house, which she built here herself," Reelshka says. "Geneviéve might know where Cassandra is right now. As for the warlock, I'll have to speak to her fiancée."

[Recaiden]

"Bless you, Reelshka." That's not just kind words; everything should tend to go her way for a time.
Arlem heads out of the main cabin to look into these leads.

Thrice-Gazer, before we speak to any of these suspects, could you trace the magic any more precisely, determine whether it was practiced at or near specific cabins?
If the demon answers affirmatively, they'll check that first.

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

The demon's form shimmers and wavers for a moment, as it concentrates.

"I cannot. There's a lot of power here, particularly those spirits. It's hard to sieve out a particular kind of it among it all."

[Recaiden]

"You would still recognize the soul if encountered, yes?"
Arlem heads across the camp to the various cabins, looking to meet Genevieve and/or The Nameless Man.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin, Next Night]

This evening, Sophie falls asleep in her old room in Maple Cabin, having prepared to meet the nightmare demon in her own dreamscape.

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin, Different Night

The demon will appear, walking from out of sight somewhere- arriving through a door or behind a wall, if possible. It's entering Sophie's dream, and whilst it can change the dream it has to enter first. The demon is tall and lanky. Its skin is red, marked with spikes, hooks and bony spurs erupting from its skin. Its legs are barbed spikes, with a notable corkscrew swirl to them and it seems to have no trouble balancing despite the points of its feet. It has two arms, each ending with six tentacle-like fingers, with no bones in them. Its head doesn't have much of a face, simply a huge mouth, splinting the head almost in two, filled with sharp teeth. Human-looking teeth grow from its head in place of hair, a mix of canines, incisors, molars and more. There's no nose, eyes or ears on its face, but it does have eyes; six of them, peeking from between the demon's ribs. The eyes are mismatched; all humanoid, but they are different colours and placed differently between the bone hooks and ribs. All the demon wears is a bandoleer of human skin, from which hangs a black dagger with a wavy blade.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin, Different Night]

Sophie's dream appears to be blurred contours of a small town at night. The cobbles are wet and the light of the street lanterns is dim, as if coming from behind dirty glass. The streets wind between residential buildings, lawns, shops and restaurants. There seems to be no end to them, as they fold in on each other and keep twisting back to where the Hunter is waiting for the demon.

The demon will emerge from among trees in the only point of the dream that appears stable and not twisted around itself - a park surrounding a narrow river. Sophie is standing there, in front of a small bridge. She's wearing a leather jacket and old, stained jeans, as well as a backpack and small sack on her chest. The Hunter is holding a shotgun and there's a pistol at her belt. She's looking at the demon with narrowed eyes. This seems to be a different Sophie than the people around her are used to... the tired, hopeless and yet devoted hunter and saviour of monsters from a small French town.

As the demon gets closer to Sophie, another facet of the dream becomes clear - the constant chorus of thousands of voices, at the edge of hearing. They scream, whisper, plead, encourage and lament, but all of it flows together into an incoherent cacophony.

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin, Different Night

"I am in your dream. It is a nice dream. I have seen far worse, without my intervention. I am not sure I like the Chorus, however." With that, NarTheoLoq attempts to mute the chorus, forcing them away or silencing them. If that doesn't work, the demon will be slightly unnerved, but hides it well. It will have to exert its will on Sophie's dream another way if it doesn't work. Just to try to prove to itself that it can. It will start by adding blood and corpses in subtle places of the dreamscape, where Sophie won't notice their arrival.

[Zefir]

Maple Cabin, Different Night

The nameless man will stay close as promised. Not that he assumes he can do much, but it's better then nothing.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin, Different Night]

NarTheoLoq will find the chorus to be entirely unaffected by its power. It's not part of Sophie's dream at all. It's a part of her mind, always there in the background, watching and whispering to her. If anything, the demon's efforts seem to have drawn its attention, though it's hard to tell. It's still incoherent and insane.

"I don't like it either. But it's been a part of me for a long time now. It's imbued me with power and marked me as its own."

If Sophie has noticed the blood and bodies appear, she doesn't show it.

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin, Different Night

And Sophie's just explained why NarTheoLoq doesn't like the voices without necessarily realising it.

NarTheoLoq's own efforts to manipulate Sophie's dreamscape continue, the nice French town gaining an unusual level of vandalism and offensive graffiti, plus the blood and corpses in the shadows.

"Will you release me from Nightmare? Or do you intend to fight me, with those little guns?" The demon's triplicate voice- one deeply masculine, one seductively feminine, and one childishly innocent- is scornful of the guns, though that's because it knows that dreams are symbolic and powered by belief. It hopes that by scorning the guns, it causes Sophie to lose faith in the efficacy, because if that happens they won't be as dangerous.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin, Different Night]

Sophie's eyes pass over the walls, and some of the graffiti peels away, revealing clean walls underneath. NarTheoLoq might also see that the trees behind it are getting closer. Sophie keeps looking at it levelly.

"I have no intention of releasing you, and you'll find me a far harder prey than a defenceless child. I have stood behind those like you and innocents before. And I do it now."

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin, Different Night

NarTheoLoq laughs, its three layered voices mixing harshly. "You know nothing of the child if you think it is innocent. I saw the memories; I counted sixteen. Sixteen people that child led to its family for slaughter. It had no defences, though. I'll grant you that. You have power, for a mortal. I do not wish to challenge you. I think I would win, but... It would weaken me, and I don't want that." The demon thinks it would be better off in the real world, not here. In Dream, Sophie has too many advantages.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin, Different Night]

Sophie's bright blue eyes gleam.

"I know what this child was made to do. And I'm far more qualified than you are to deem her innocence. You're in my territory now, demon. I'm the hunter here, and you're the prey. If you don't want to challenge me, what else will you do?"

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin- Different Night

"Do you, now? It was useful for me. I could flavour its nightmares with memories, and it was not surprised at all the colours inside a mortal's body." NarTheoLoq was surprised at Cheasadh's reaction to the eviscerated bodies. Her memories kicked in, making the internals more realistic than the demon expected. "Know that I remember your face and scent. I shall seek you in the Realm of Life. My name is NarTheoLoq; remember it." Demons gain power through their names; a demon dies only when its name is forgotten. They also gain power through fear, either in their presence or especially if their name inspires it because of their deeds.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin- Different Night]

"You will? Not willing to fight me here, then?" Sophie asks, taking a step forward. The wind picks up and the chorus of the Messengers' voices picks up. Her eyes seem to glow. "Your attempts to scare me haven't been very impressive so far, either. Are you more used to scaring children?"

[Zefir]

[At his Cabin - after Dream]

The nameless man can be found here. He is sitting in his room trying to write down his name. The paper in front of him is white, so it seems it didn't work so far.

[Recaiden]

Arlem knocks on the door, smiling broadly if/when it's answered.
"Hello. Did your name maybe used to be 'Grace'?"
Half of this is just an excuse to get the man out where Thrice-Gazer can see whether or not he has the soul of the fugitive robot-demonbodyswap-marble-woman they're looking for.

While walking up to the door and waiting, Arlem is trying to read the Nameless Man's mind. She's always doing this, the way normal people are always taking in images of what's in front of their eyes. She's just paying more attention this time.

[Morty]

[At his Cabin - after Dream]

Thrice-Gazer would be a being floating in the air behind Arlem. It's short, broad and its only limbs are three tentacles growing out of its lower body. Its head is an oval with no features other than three eyes. It stares at the Nameless Man, trying to recognize his soul. Of course, it's never met him before, but it needs to be sure.

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin- Different Night

"I need to escape Nightmare. Fighting you will weaken me when I cannot afford it. I haven't tried to scare you. I was testing your defences." And not scaring children, scaring people that haven't done as much fighting as Sophie, people for whom violence is a frightening concept. That said, however, two new bodies are added to the dream, both behind Sophie, where she can't see them immediately. One is Trick, decapitated head resting in her hollowed-out belly; the other is Cheasadh, her eyes put out and impaled.

[Zefir]

[At his Cabin - after Dream]

The nameless guys mind is rather blank, just several Letters in differetn shape rush through his mind as he searches again for his name. until suddendly someone knocks.

"Yes?" he asks as he stands up to answer the door.
As he stands at the door and hears that question he isn't sure how to answer.
"Don't know. Maybe it is best you tell me who you are."

Sice I don't really know who they seek for I guess the soul of this amn is not what they look for.

[Recaiden]

"I am Arlem Merisanne, High Priest of Inari and speaker for all the Pantheon. I'm here on behalf of VIGIL, looking for someone. A magic user who's gone missing. And possibly lost their memory. So naturally you came up as a possibility."
She gives the Nameless Man a smile.
"I see that I'm not jogging your memory."
Arlem tries to look deeper into the Man's head, to see if there's memory or identity deeply buried, where he can't remember it himself, but still there. Or if he's completely blank.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin- Different Night]

With a sense of strong psychic pressure, the two bodies will turn into mannequins with expensive, showy clothing, unless NarTheoLoq resists the change. Despite that, Sophie doesn't even glance back at them.

"I think you're bluffing. If you face me in the waking world, you'll have to contend with all my friends, allies and anyone I can muster to fight you. That tells me you're not strong enough to do it, whether here or there."

[At his Cabin - after Dream]

"I don't think this is the soul we seek," Thrice-Gazer says. Its voice seems to reverberate out of its whole body, but no mouth can be seen.

[Earl of Purple]

Main Cabin- Different Night

"Were I to face you in the waking world, I would not be a... Guest to your mind. I would have pick of the terrain, and I would have access to my full abilities. Dreams are shaped by belief, and yours is strong. Very strong." Strong enough that it, combined with a recent long imprisonment, is making NarTheoLoq question his own power. The corpses become mannequins without the demon resisting. "As for allies, why do you believe yourself the only one with access to such? You are not." The demon is bluffing, there. It thinks itself weak; all it once called allies were mostly minions, bullied into service, or equals, partnered with temporarily to defeat a greater threat. Or they were mortal, and have since died.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin- Different Night]

"You've been trapped in the Realm of Nightmare for a while, haven't you? I wonder how many allies you still have, in the waking world," Sophie says. But she doesn't feel up for fighting the demon herself. Resisting him and bullying him into submission is one thing; if it came to an actual fight, the raw power of her conviction might not make up for her lack of experience. "You will leave Cheasadh, and everyone who lives in this place, alone."

[Earl of Purple]

Maple Cabin- Different Night

"It has not been so long, I think. Time flows faster here. And I have told you several times- geography does not map here. I will leave the child alone. I can give little promise about others. It seems unlikely that I shall visit another, however. Everyone dreams, the chances of finding another in this place is slim." He only found Sophie because he'd had mental contact with her whilst he was in Cheasadh's dream.

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin- Different Night]

"Then leave, and hope I never meet you again," Sophie says, hefting her shotgun threateningly. Chasing the demon away is probably the best she can hope for.