Chapter 1.2: Dreams of Adventure

Strachomir waltzes up to the table Tsem and Eustace are at in the student union building. Red hair and tall shoulders visible from half the room away. "There's a group of monster hunters on campus!" he sings in lieu of greeting as he slides into the booth next to Eustace.

Cassidy is not far behind. Her gait is determined, but insufficient to keep up with Scratch's long legs. "Is that why you were being creepy at them? How could you tell?"

"Vibes." Scratch answers.

"That's not an answer." Cassidy shoots back.

"Well, that's because you suck at vibes." He tells her.

Eustace flicks Scratch's arm. "Do you think they're here about the thing yesterday?"

"Prolly." Scratch shrugs. "They were headed in the direction of the psych building. Why? You want to stop investigating just because some 'adults' are on the case too?" He air quotes adults.

"It's not like we even have any leads." Eustace says.

"Sure we do! Last night we found out that the shuffle jumper shuffles dreams too, aaaannd Sam's a dreamer! Bam! Lead!" Scratch props his chin on his hands and turns his expectant grin to Tsem.

Tsem experiences tightness spreading across their lips. A reflexive grimace. Leave it to Scratch to turn an unnervingly concerning, potentially dangerous situation into a joke; at our expense. They sigh with the weighted defeat of a disappointed parent.

"Scratch, from what little you know of dreamscapes, even you should recognize the severity of this situation. Whoever... whatever, is capable of such a feat, both in and out of dreams, is not to be trifled with."

Tsem's eyes briefly wander aside. A thought just occurring to them. Silently ruminating on a realization that, even that which they feared most, remains confined to dreams alone. How can one so easily travel the threads of minds... especially those in conscious states?

"These monster hunters, describe them. Any insignias, cohesive attire, 'dream mage vibes'? We need to know if they'll be a help or a hindrance. Most are not prepared for such an entity." Especially ones with hostile intent.

"No cohesive attire besides grey long-sleeves peeking out from under their clothes. One had a wizard vibe." Scratch says, patting Eustace on the head. "Or a demon vibe. It was hard to tell. Are there demon wizards?"

"Possibly?" Eustace says. "None that my family associate with. And the Council wouldn't be keen on a demon possessing a wizard. But that doesn't mean they don't exist."

"Anyway, that's one" Scratch ticks off his fingers. "One was packing heat. One was stepping on my turf. And the last one... I didn't get a good look at; I was distracted by coming up with a good response to the one stepping on my turf. I think that one mostly had listener vibes? Wizard was flat-out wearing a fancy Jedi robe, the other three were dressed more normally."

The bustle of the student union building seems to flow in a wide bubble around the group's table. As is usual when the group starts talking about "spooky shit" (as Scratch calls it.)

The faint traces of the tightness in Tsem's face soften slightly. "Experienced at least. Likely not in this, but that remains to be seen."

Tsem notices a distracting, yet rhythmic, drumming. Only to find that the source originates from their own fingers clacking across the tabletop. A now ingrained habit they picked up from imitating the mannerisms of other students.

"Okay. I'm wondering if they're here on their own accord. If so, they may have a method of detecting magical tomfoolery of this calibre. Not that we need it.." *We can handle that part. * "..but it would point to them at least knowing what they're getting into..." Tsem's face scrunched slightly. "Alternatively, if someone brought them in, they may not want a group of students meddling around with the situation. Either way, there's too much for us to learn from this.." Tsem turns their gaze towards Scratch. "..'shuffle jumper', to not investigate it ourselves".

With a measured glance around the room, Tsem whispers. "Perhaps, we should find out more about who they are. Discretely."

Scratch grins wider.

"You're saying we should spy on the monster hunters." Cassidy states, frowning. "Or... would there be any information online about them you think?" She starts googling the second she asks the question.

Eustace answers, "No, these things are usually done by word of mouth and favor trading." He has the most experience of the group in the way that supernatural businesses are conducted, hailing from a long line of wizards and golem makers.

"I agree with Sam, spying is obviously our best option!" Scratch chimes in, like there was any doubt what his opinion would be.

"I have fixed up my cat golem since last time..." Eustace tentatively proposes.

"Aw hell yeah! Rocky!"

"Though the wizard might detect him. So Rocky might not be the most discrete here." Eustace grounds Scratch's excitement.

"I could tail them." Scratch says.

"You've already intoned creepy things at them." Cassidy objects.

"Sam could tail them." Scratch amends. "Sam's got a better notice-me-not than I do."

"A skill which somehow fails to evade your notice." Tsem retorts. "You are, however, correct. We should have the capability to investigate them without notice. Curiosity may have killed Rocky, but has yet to slay us." With an elephant sized asterisk on the 'yet'.

They breathe in, perking up ever so slightly. "So, did either of you catch where they were headed?"

"Towards the social science buildings, it looked like." Cassidy says.

Before Cassidy could finish the last part of her sentence, Tsem was already taking strides in the direction of the social sciences buildings. Turning their head slightly as they walked. "Time wastes those who waste it." Followed up with a wink, knowing full well that none of them would actually see it. Never hurts to practice.

Please roll notice. Example: /swroll trait:d8 wild_die:Yes comment:Notice the agents

Notice the agents: [6, 2] Result: Success! 🎯

The rest of the gang follow. Tsem, being in the lead, catches sight of the hunters just as they enter the psychology building. The wizard’s ornate red and gold robes are quite eye-catching.

By the time Tsem and friends reach the west entryway doors, however, the hunter team they’re hunting is nowhere to be found. There are a limited number of directions they could have gone: north wing, south wing, stairs up, the big lecture hall, and through the east doors opposite the ones just entered.

"Hmmmph..". Tsem sighs out in frustration. "There's too many possibilities, if we check them one by one we might miss them." Tsem begins stroking their chin, lost in thought. "That aside, the lecture hall should be an easy check."

Tsem straightens with renewed vigor. "Eustace. Is Rocky feeling up for a scout of the furthest wings? Might save us some time."

“He’s back at the dorm. I’d have to go back and prep him. It’s not going to be the fastest.” Eustace says.

No weird monster hunting agents in the lecture hall. Thankfully, there’s enough other students milling about the building that you are unlikely to catch suspicion even if you blatantly look like you are searching for someone. Students look lost all the time.

"Shame." Tsem responds. "Wait—I have an idea. Students come in and out of this building from all over the place. One of them is likely to have noticed a wizard in ornate attire.." Pausing in contemplation, they add. "..might still be on their mind if we're lucky."

Tsem examines the room for students that look like they might have seen something.: [8 💥 3 = 11, 1] Result: Success with 1 raise! 🎯🎯

Oh yeah, there are two girls chatting about the very distinctive wizard robes and trying to guess which culture they’re from.

When asked, they can tell you that the LARPers (“I don’t think they were LARPers.”) split into two groups and went down the north and south hallways.

"Alright. Thank you kindly." Tsem gives brief nod of thanks to the students.

Turning back to the group, they tilt their head in the direction of the north hallway.

The other three follow Tsem’s lead. Cassidy looking way too furtive, but Scratch and Eustace have long since mastered the skill of being inconspicuous and looking like they belong, casually checking into the classrooms as they go.

No monster hunters are on the first floor, but on the second floor someone has busted open an electronic lock on one of the labs.

Tsem catches something out of the corner of their eye. An electronic lock face, left dangling. Limp and exposed, its circuitry left gutted. Disembowelled.

Welp, that seems suspicious. In reaction, Tsem instinctively redistributes their weight to the balls of their feet; lowering their centre of gravity, their voice following suit. “heads up. break in. possible trouble.” In a calm, coordinated motion, they point in the direction of the intruded door, simultaneously pressing the index finger of their other hand on their lips.

Given recent circumstances, there may be magic involved. We should be careful.

Tsem approaches the door. Calming their breath, they enter a lucid meditative state, slowly becoming hyper-aware of the flows and ripples of magical energy around them. Well, even if there is magic, we obviously have to go in.

Scratch follows Tsem. Eustace directs Cassidy to act as a lookout in one direction while he goes to watch the other.

Tsem can see Scratch's aura anneal and loosen the rigidity of the world, letting in a fraction more dream into this structured Age. This is a usual thing his aura does, but it does make it harder to sense what is in the room without looking in with physical eyes.

Inside the room, there's two men looking through papers on desks and in cabinets, there's also--

"What is that?" Scratch hisses. "What the fuck? What is that?"

-- a brightly lit mirror-tiled cell containing a teen boy.

Scratch is staring wide-eyed at the boy inside the cell.

Roll stealth (Chapter 1.3: Results )

Tsem covertly repositions themself to observe the boy more closely...: [5, 6 💥 6 💥 2 = 14] Result: Success with 2 raises! 🎯🎯🎯

The boy in the cell is... a hole. Punched straight through the structure of this Age and connected to a nightmare on the other side. It's a rend, a snag waiting to happen. Razor threads held taut and ready to rip in to the tapestry of the world, held back from doing so by the thinnest gossamer coating. Supercritical water holding back from icing over by sheer assertion that it is still water.

"Is that a fucking Unseelie?!" Scratch mutters, just barely quiet enough. His hackles are raised, and his aura is inspiring the hair on the back of Tsem's neck to stand on end too. There is an awful autumnal anticipation in the air.

One of the men looking through the files looks up and glances around the room. Tsem is able to slip back from the door and haul Scratch back too to evade notice.

Tsem recalls what he remembers of Unseelies from the D'ni...: [1, 2] Result: Failure ❌

Tsem doesn't remember all that much. The term is vaguely familiar, like maybe it is one of the poetic terms for nightmares? That would fit with the horrifying dark diamond hole over there.

Tsem feels a slight dryness in their mouth, constricting in their throat. Nightmares. Fucking nightmares. They knew all to well, first hand even, that some nightmares you can't escape from. Let's just hope this isn't one of those.

Peering around the corner, gaze intently focused, Tsem breaks the silence. "Whatever it is, they seem to know somethi—wait." They spot one of the men exciting the room, attempting to undue the damage to the lock. "You guys head back the other way. I've got an idea."

With the disappointed tiredness of a student fed up with attending lectures, Tsem strides down the hallway. Towards the door. Towards the man.

Pretending to be unaware of their surroundings Tsem bumps into the man on his way past...: [2, 2]+1 Result: Failure ❌

Using a bennie.: [4, 2]+1 Result: Success! 🎯

The three freshmen retreat down the hall, but don't leave audible range.

Tsem succeeds in swiping Alric's pencil

After a bit of a detour, the gang notices Tsem jauntily strolling down the hallway to catch up. Rhythmically throwing a thin stick-like object in to a spin, catching it, and flicking it to their other hand, only for it to follow suit. Under the decrepit, ill-maintained school lighting, one can only notice ever-changing sparkles of reflection as the mysterious dark object goes up, and down, up, and down.

"Guess what I have." Tsem calls out.

"Strachomir, calm down." Eustace is saying.

Scratch is pacing, not calming down. "We need to do something about it, Eu. It's not right, it's deeply wrong in a way I just can't... If one of them found out I wouldn't put it past them to wreck the whole school." There's a manic glint in his eyes and a charge to the air. "And if the researchers think they can get away with this-"

He's cut off by Eustace calmly folding him into an embrace that is half bear-hug and half head-lock. The charge in the air vanishes. "What do you have?" Eustace asks Tsem.

Scratch wriggles free, Eustace lets him.

"I may have nabbed this pencil off of one of those men, whilst they were performing some... likely unauthorized maintenance, on the electronic lock." Tsem spins the object in the air once more.

"Now. Let's find out some much needed information!"

Tsem seems to concentrate on the pencil, attempting to sense faint traces of contact with other minds: [8 💥 1 = 9, 4] Result: Success with 1 raise! 🎯🎯

One echo in the pencil is particularly strong: an interaction with a magician and an investigator.

Once upon a time, probably last week, a magician was scribbling away with this pencil, as one should do when one has a pencil as nice and sparkly as this one. Some buy novelty pencils like this one to decorate their desks, and others buy them to give to children, but the magician bought this one to use herself because she likes glittery black things and old-fashioned wooden pencils.

As she was writing notes about the credibility of supposed interactions between magnets and moonlight, an investigator entered the magician's small library and started pulling a great many books from the shelves.

"What do you seek?" the magician asks. The pencil is also well suited for the purpose of gesturing to books and bookish investigators. The pencil has written the notes on many of the books the investigator holds.

"I have so many questions!" The investigator cries.

"I have so many answers!" The magician laughs back with a twirl of her pencil.

The investigator eagerly asks, "Where do I start learning magic?"

"Dresden's Filed Rotes for wizard magic and Yeesha's A Journal of a Dreamstrider for dream magic, and folklore for hints of everything else." The magician says. The pencil does not remember the notes for those books, as those where annotated before it was sharpened.

"What makes you a magician and not a mage?" asks the investigator.

The magician twirls her pencil-- a pencil so much like a wand with it's black body and white eraser cap. "The difference is found in the Core Concepts and Paths, like all things. Mine is the Path of using the Arts of Perception others use to beguile and fraud to expose the frauds." The magician answers. And as she does, she uses her Art to direct his attention away from her swapping this pencil with his own.

The investigator only notices the swap minutes later.

They speak of magic and minds until the magician returns to her work, and the investigator leaves, each having gained a new friend and a new pencil.

The End.

(Tsem may know that Yeesha is a D'ni name and Dreamstrider is a common descriptor given to the D'ni dream mages by outsiders.)

The realization hits Tsem in the face, and in reflexive response, a smirk wriggles around the edge of their lips. A Journal of a—Dreamstrider. We should do whatever must be done to get our hands on that book. I wonder if this 'Yeesha' is still around, or if they know about my… eh, no one should know. I haven't told anyone. Regardless, we need to find a way to convince the others that this is important.

"We lucked out. The history of this pencil holds more value than we'd originally assumed." A black tube idly rotates in a glistening, stochastic, sparkling fashion. "Apart from the fact that this is fun to play with, we now know three things." Tsem observes the group to ensure they have their attention, Scratch especially so.

"One. The man we bumped into is likely investigating the same thing we are." Perhaps, part of that monster hunter group. "Two. He knows basically nothing about magic." And with that tendrilous nightmare in there, is most certainly not a good thing. "And three, whatever institution these people are from have good resources, on dream magic." Tsem glances at Eustace. "...and wizardry."

"Scratch, did any of those two men look like they were from that group you saw earlier?"

“Yeah, those are them. Both are.” Scratch says.

Cassidy frowns. “Wait, how did you figure that out? You didn’t do any of the…” she waves her hands.

“Somatic components?” Eustace guesses.

“Yes, or anything else. She just looked at it.”

Eustace nods. “Sam wasn’t using a rote. They were doing magic some other way, like when Scratch goes goblin mode.”

“I’m not a goblin.” Scratch mutters. But his attention is still more on the thing in the lab than this conversation.

Cassidy and Eustace launch into a mini discussion of Cassidy trying to fit this new observation into her model.

“Put briefly, my magic is the art of directing your mind, reconciling your identity with that of others, engaging in a war with the self, awareness of what is and what is not, mental clarity… magic.” Tsem looks around expectantly. “The art of dream magic.” Tsem flails their hand around in amusement. They had a habit of making using obscure wordplay to keep themselves entertained; a habit gone much unappreciated by others around them.

They continue. “So then, if those two are part of the group, then the others must be nearby. My impression so far is that they have less of an idea of what's going on than we do.” Tsem attempts to put a commanding air into their voice. “Scratch, now that we've gotten a better look at them. Do you think you could call one of your contacts? Figure out where they're from, what their objective here is.”

"I mean, I do have a half-brother who has a monster hunter PI gig, but it's been a while since I heard from him. I can try to see if I can track down some of his old connections." Scratch thinks it will take some time, but he's good at persistence hunting.

"Give me a couple hours, and I might have something." Scratch says. He starts to walk off.

"We have physics class at 2." Eustace calls after him.

"Yeah, well, I laugh in the face of physics." Scratch says, more out of a reflexive impulse to banter than paying attention to the words being said.

Eustace strides after him. "We'll call you if we have any leads, but we do have class soon." He tells Tsem.

Cassidy remains. "I don't have another class today. Though I do have homework. What else do we have to do?"

"Until we get more information, I'm afraid there not much more to follow up on. Better you finish up your homework, and we catch up when we hear back from those two." Tsem looks over in the direction of Eutace and Sratch, appearing to watch them leave. Only with his thoughts occupied by something else.

Cassidy nods and likewise leaves.

Suddenly realizing they're now alone, Tsem darts off towards the nearest student hot desk computer. We need to find out as much as we can about this Yeesha and, ideally, get a hold of a copy of that book. As much as they hated the mindless chatter of students procrastinating their responsibilities, the unsolicited distraction of obnoxious laughter, and the scattered remains of animalistically devoured meal deals, it was easier to access the school library's resources through the school's local intranet.

"So." Tsem mutters to themselves. "Let's see.. " Still not yet entirely familiar with the orthographical interfaces of this world, they found the process of using computers labouringly slow.

A. Space. J. O. R. U. Whoops. BACKSPACE. BACKSPACE. U. R. N. A. L. Space. O. F...

Roll electronics & hacking for unskilled google-fu to find an obscure tome

It takes time, but Tsem has time.

The "I'm feeling lucky" button does bring up a Goodreads article on a book... it unfortunately appears to be a fiction book about dream espionage and romance... and not penned by Yeesha. Rerolling the "I'm feeling lucky" dice brings up a potion that would allow one to travel through dreams, but context clues indicate that this document is just describing an element of a computer story.

After many minutes more of iterations, the student at the next terminal over feels increasingly more sympathetic distress at Tsem's painful search. "Hey man, if you're looking for a book there's a better website to search on than just google. May I?" He motions for Tsem to hand him the keyboard, then navigates to the school's dedicated rare book catalogue. "Title? Author?" He enters the info when Tsem provides it. The first result here is, in fact, A Journal of a Dreamstrider by Yeesha. "And there you go." The student turns back to his own computer, resuming his own citation hunt.

The book is possibly misclassified as fiction. The blurb given reads,

Embark on a captivating journey through the Art of dreamstriding in "A Journal of a Dreamstrider" by Yeesha. Written as a first-person chronicle of a dream walker, Yeesha explores other Ages through dreams, offering poetic musings on metaphysics that blur the lines between reality and imagination. Delve into the veiled mysteries of the human psyche, as Yeesha's introspection and profound encounters shape a connection with the boundless realm of dreams. This enchanting account unveils the interconnectedness of all things, inviting readers to embrace their own inner dreamstrider and contemplate the deeper meaning of existence. In this symphony of prose, dreams and metaphysical ponderings harmonize, creating a mesmerizing portrait of a universe both magical and profound.

Unfortunately, there is not a copy available in the school library.

But there is a copy available at a nearby bookstore, Bright Books.

Tsem swivels in the direction of the student. "Thank you dearly, we're off to find a book." Good ol' paper.

As Tsem sets off, the student pays him no mind, focused instead on deciphering an excruciatingly long list of esoterically formatted references. Rounding a few corners, Tsem evades the sweet smell of black ink and ozone, a scent now replaced with the faint aromatic sweetness of parchment. Here we are, Bright Books.

Tsem became pinched by excitement, a feeling tapered with a sprinkle of trepidation. They never looked forward to navigating organized isles of products. They'd often find themselves shopping for one item, doing five circuits around the store, only to find, fifteen minutes later, that the item was at the entrance. Maybe it's best to ask.

Striding up to the nearest person who looked like they worked there, Tsem made a start. "Ahem. Excuse me…"

The bookstore is only a short walk from campus. (Though it is Tsem’s first instinct, they can’t transition to other places the way than can while in dream worlds. The borders of this world are too tight to stride from one location to another with simply a thought.) The short walk is boring, so the journey slips through their mind like a brief montage.

———

Continued here: Chapter 1.6: Bright Books

The man behind the desk straightens, tucking a bookmark from the counter into his book and smiling at Tsem. "Welcome. You look like someone on a mission," his voice is friendly. "Are you looking for something in particular, or for someone particular?"

"I am indeed. A bit of both." Tsem responds with a sly smile. "The something, a book. A Jounal of a Dreamstrider. The someone, the author, Yeesha. If you have anything else about them, that would be even better."