New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2018, 04-02

The Dark Tower – Jake’s Drawing

I am in a forest. I am with a couple of other people. I am Arya. I am with two boys, although they look to be a bit older than I think I am. One of them I know as Gendry, the other one goes by unlikely name of Hot Pie. We are traveling through a forest, it is daytime out but underneath all of the trees it is somewhat dark. We seem to be having a disagreement about where we should be going. We finally decide to check on the road and see which way it is going. We have been avoiding the road to try to avoid trouble. We aren’t sure if someone might be after us. As we get closer to the road, we hear the sound of horses on it. We do not want to be seen. I look around and I see what looks like an abandoned house. That should be a good place to hide out. I tell the others that, but they don’t seem to believe me. Hot Pie seems to think he would be better off up a tree. Gendry looks up and decides that isn’t a good plan, so he finally decides to follow me to the house.

Gendry and I sneak in through a broken door on the back. Gendry wants to know what we should do if the people on the road spot Hot Pie. I am not sure how to respond to that. I tell Gendry that maybe we can find some food left in the house. Gendry goes into what looks like it used to be a kitchen and starts looking through cabinets. I go through a different door and find what looks like once was a living room. I feel something land of my head. I reach up to get it off, and I discovered that it is a mutant tarantula that is about the size of a softball. I don’t get easily freaked out by spiders, but this one seems especially gross. I threw it to the ground in repulsion. I look around and see more of the spiders crawling along the floor and on the ceiling. I turn around and go back the way I came. I don’t know if those spiders might be venomous, so I don’t want to get bit. I go back into the kitchen where Gendry went.

I have found the kitchen again, but Gendry is nowhere to be seen. I wonder where he could’ve gone? I look around the kitchen and then I go into the next room to see if Gendry continued exploring. I enter and I find a boy, but it is not Gendry. It is a young boy, he looks younger than Gendry. The boy stops short when he sees, and he asks who I am? I am not sure how to answer that. The boy says he hadn’t expected to find anyone else here. When I don’t respond, he says his name is Jake. I blurt out, are you there Jake looking for Roland of Gilead? He says yes, how did I know that? I look at my reflection in a dirty glass case. I am definitely still Arya. I tell Jake that I don’t think I’m really supposed to be here, but I will help if I can. I tell him my name is Arya since I figure he won’t know that name anyhow. We continue looking through the house. Jake is looking for a locked door which he has a key.

A man enters from another room. He looks familiar, I realize that it is MoSh. He says we don’t want to go into the room he just left, it’s full of venomous snakes. Jake seems quite surprised at the situation, he hadn’t expected to find anyone here and it’s turning into a crowd. We continue down the hall and go through a door at the end of it. That door leads into a very large room. Just this room is larger than the abandoned house I walked into as Arya. It looks like it might be a ball room. There is a somewhat creepy wallpaper on all the walls of elves dancing. They may have been intended to be cute, but they’re really more disturbing. We cross the room to a pair of double doors on the other side. These doors lead to another hallway. At the end of the hall is a door with a bright shiny lock panel on it. Jake is certain that is the door he has the key for.

As we enter the hallway, there is a loud noise behind us. We all turn around in time to see some kind of monster emerging from the wall. The wall itself seems to of come to life and it is now met a more for sizing into a strange creature. That’s strange creature looks a bit like an evil clown. There is an elf still on its forehead that seems to be actually dancing now. MoSh tells Jake to focus on getting through that door, we can keep the monster back. I wonder if he knows who I am? Apparently he seems to. The monster is now itself across the room on one huge malformed arm. MoSh has a pair guns look like Roland’s from the Dark Tower. I check my possessions and find out I have a sword. I hear Jake drop a curse and turned to look. Jake is now on the floor peering through a crack. I am about to ask what happened, but MoSh and I get distracted right away. The monster is throwing things at us. It is throwing debris in our direction. MoShs guns are firing small explosive rounds. Those are able to knock the flying junk right out of the air.

A second arm is coming out of the floor right next to me. I turn the sword on it and all of the fingers off. I hazard to look back and I see that Jake talking on one of the boards in the floor then he suddenly stops and switches to the one next to it that Bork comes up easily. Jay reaches through and grabs. Apparently he dropped it. Now that he has the key again, Jake is down the hall and shoves the key into the lock on the door. The door swings open, and on the other side of the door there is only solid ground. MoSh tells me to look out, and I realized I cut hand has reformed and is reaching for me again. I use my sword and once again off all the fingers. I think that is pissing the thing off. I glance back down the hall and I see that the door is open now. Roland is coming through, though he briefly pauses when he sees MoSh and me. He motions to us to come and stay low. Both MoSh and I head down the hall, ducking low. Roland says to let it go now, and it looks like he throws something big and invisible down the hall. I feel the wind it passing over my head and it crashes directly into the monster coming into the hall behind us. Roland helps Jake climb through / up out of the door, then he looks at me but I just levitate through the door. MoSh is close behind me.

Once we are all out the door slams shut behind us. The door was in the ground, which explains the confusion of direction as I came through. One minute I was floating forward and then I was hovering over the ground at a weird angle… It is also raining quite hard and the entire area is covered in mud. I see there is a circle of stones standing around us that looks like a smaller version of Stonehenge. The door we just came through dissolves into a drawing in the mud which washes out in the rain. But Jake has been brought through safely. Roland looks at MoSh and then at me. He says he hadn’t been expecting Jake to have a friend there… I am thinking of telling him who I am but before I can I see everything getting weird, like a scene in Assassin’s Creed. The scene falls apart and then reforms into the house I had been in with Gendry. Gendry comes through a door and asks where I disappeared to. I tell him I was looking through the house. Gendry says the horse riders have passed by and not noticed any of us, even that idiot Hot Pie perched in his tree. I follow Gendry back outside and then I wake up.

2017, 10-25

Game of Dreams – House of Fire

Arya: I am in a bed inside a room made of stone. I am Arya. I hear a sound. At first I think it is a wolf howling, but then I realize it is a horn blowing. And I immediately know it is a signal of danger. Everyone is scrambling to get out of their beds and get their clothes on and grab whatever weapons they can find. I climb up to the battlements of this fortress along with several other people. The man who is the leader of our group is already there. His name is Yarin. As I look out over the village, I see most of it is on fire. I wonder what the point of that is? A group of soldiers comes riding up to the gate. The one that appears to be their leader commands us to open it. Yarin says that none of the villagers are here. He says that the only ones here are members of the Knight’s Watch and we take no part in their war. That doesn’t seem to matter to that guy below. He says open in the name of the king. Yarin says we don’t recognize any king. We are all with the Kight’s Watch. Mostly children. The guy down below says children died the same as anyone else. I am thinking to call him a cowardly asshole, but I keep my mouth shut. It is clear that these enemies, who are flying the Lannister banner, do not give a shit who we are. They just want to kill people. The leader down below gives the command that they should storm the walls.

It is at this point that a strange cloaked figure stepped out from the side. It is a woman, dressed in white robes. She looks like she is from Assassin’s Creed. She tells the soldiers that they will have to get past her before they can assault the walls. They find this amusing. I realize that that woman down there is me. After a brief exchange between the enemy leader and me, there is a short fight. I watch myself easily dispatch three soldiers that come forward to kill me. This is really kind of interesting. I don’t normally get to watch myself being a badass. The enemy leader asks me if she really thinks she can take on all of them by herself? That’s when Altaïr shows up. He says I don’t have to face them alone. I am thinking I will watch the fight, but Yarin doesn’t seem to like that idea. He says that it’s only a matter time before they get past those two weirdos, and truth be told, we really don’t have a chance against all those soldiers. He says Gendry and I should run. He says to take as many of the others as we can. I am thinking there is no need for that, but then I remembered that the barn is most likely still on fire. I have to get the three prisoners out of there, and as many animals as I can rescue. I follow Gendry out towards the barn inside the fortress, that is where they keep the animals when they have to hide up in the fortress. And it is on fire.

There is a little girl with us that seems to cry all the time. Gendry scoops her up in one arm. He has no trouble carrying her. We get into the barn, I hear the animals around panicking. I also hear the prisoners trying to break free. Gendry and Hot Pie have opened a trap door in the floor. They tell me to hurry up and come along. I’m not ready to go. I ask where they left the axe that they were using to chop wood? They tell me it’s outside. I told him to go ahead, I will catch up. They disappear through the hole. I hear a lot of noise right now, both humans and other animals are panicking. Since no one can see me, are use telekinetic energy to blast out a couple of large holes in the walls. This allows for donkeys and horses and some other barnyard animals to escape. But the prisoners will need some help. I run outside and quickly grab the axe. I run back into the barn weaving around horses and donkeys as they run for safety. The smoke inside is thick. It’s hard to breathe. I follow the sound of the prisoners calling out. When I get close enough I throw the axe up to one of them. I can’t even tell which one it is. I figure they can free themselves with that.

Now I see I could be in trouble. This barn is completely engulfed in flames all around me. I know I can’t make it back out of the barn before it collapses, so I dive for the trap door opening that Gendry and Hot Pie used. I just barely get through the trap door when I hear a loud crash behind me. I face plant in the mud but I don’t mind. At first I thought the barn had collapsed completely, but I guess that hadn’t quite happened yet. Because I have only gone a few feet before there is an even louder crash behind me, followed by a cloud of dust and smoke. The dust and smoke make it hard to breathe. But it soon passes. There’s no way I’m going to be able to go back the way I just came. The dust has settled enough that I can continue going through the tunnel. But I don’t get very far before I wake up.

2017, 10-16

Game of Dreams – Faceoff at the Inn

I am riding on a donkey with other people. There are two wagons in our group. Not far up ahead I see an inn. The man in charge, Yarin, says we can afford hot meal and they also have a bath house, so if any of us would like to bathe we can do that, too. The horses and donkeys are taken away to be given food and water, and most everyone else heads into the Inn. A cloaked man stays outside in one of the wagons, and the three chained man stay in the other. The food is quite good. It looks like some kind of pot pie. They’re also baked apples. The ale is pretty good, though it’s not my favorite. I eat while everyone around me is talking and telling stories. One person has a story of a giant wolf that came into a town and stole a baby from its mother‘s arms to eat it. Wolves don’t eat babies! I tell them that. One of them asked me what I know about wolves. I say I know as much as anyone around here. At this point Yarin for some reason grabs my arm. He tells everyone there not to pay any attention to me, I’m just a stupid boy. Yarin takes me out in front of the inn, and he tells me to go make sure that the animals are being cared for. I tell him I’ve had enough of that crowd anyhow.

I am walking past the wagons when one of the chained men tries to get my attention. He talks about himself in the third person, referring to himself as a man. He displays that his tankard is empty and says he still thirsty. He wants me to go get him some more ale. The other two with him are rude. One is fat and bald. He doesn’t talk. He does hiss. He has really sharp teeth. The other guy there has no nose. I immediately start thinking of him as Voldemort from Harry Potter. He is yelling at me, he throws his empty tankard at me, but I dodge it. The decent one of them tells me his name is Jaqen H'ghar. He apologizes for the others, “A man does not choose his companions in the dungeons. So a man must apologize for his companions.“ Voldemort tells me to come closer. I have no desire to get any closer to his ugly face. I focus my response on the nice one. I tell Jaqen H'ghar that I will talk to someone about getting him more ale. He responds with, “A man would be grateful.“ I am about to keep going when I see another of our group out there. It is a boy who everyone calls The Bull. He asks what I’m doing? I’m about to answer when I see The Bull staring behind me.

When I look behind me, I see that there are gold cloaks coming. Those are the queen’s guards. They must be after Arya. I pull The Bull behind a hedge where we won’t be seen. He seems confused by this. We watch as the leader of the gold cloaks comes up and confronts Yarin. He says they are there to collect one boy. He says they have a warrant issued by the queen. Yarin is not quick to cooperate. He says all of the boys with him are now in the Knight’s Watch. He says whatever we’ve all done in our past is now irrelevant. Yarin says that there are laws about such things. The gold cloak pulls out a sword and declares that it is his law. Yarin says that’s no law, that’s a sword. He’s got one too. He draws his sword. The gold cloak says he has five soldiers with him. Yarin reports that he’s got 30. So the two of them are facing off against each other like a couple of dogs fighting for dominance. It wouldn’t have surprised me to hear them start growling at each other. The gold cloak says that the people Yarin has with him are green boys, not worthy to fight. He says if they’re going to fight, who is first?

The goal cloak no doubt expected to be answered with silence, but he gets immediate responses. A couple men sitting outside the inn stand up and announce they will fight. They all have weapons. One guy was just coming out of the bathhouse with his clothes in a bundle in his arms. He drops everything except for his dagger, and announces he will fight. Apparently he intends to fight naked. Even one jerk, we’ve been calling Hot Pie, picks up a large rock and looks like he’s ready to brain someone with it. The strange cloaked figure in the back of the wagon gets out and just stand there and watches. Jaqen H'ghar says, “A man would fight if he was free and had a weapon.” I decide not to hide while everyone else is preparing to fight. So I come out in the open, and I draw my sword which is called Needle. The gold cloak calls all of us little girls, and tells us to put the weapons down. While he’s looking at me, he has given Yarin the perfect opening. The next thing I know he’s got his sword at the gold cloak’s throat. He makes a few threats, makes the guy drop his sword, and then swatted horse on the behind making him run away. The other gold cloaks follow.

With the threat passed I look over and see the strange cloaked guy get back in the wagon. Apparently he was only going to act if it was absolutely necessary. Or maybe he’s a chicken wuss. I don’t really know. Yarin is quite annoyed at us all. He says that if we think will make it to the wall without more trouble then we must be idiots. He says he will tell us all this right now. If they come back, and there is fighting, we need to hightail it for the wall and not look back. He is talking mainly to both me and The Bull. I’m wondering why they want to capture The Bull. I ask him what his name is, and he says it’s Gendry. I don’t know why the queen would want him, he’s just a bastard. A blacksmiths bastard. We get ready to move out that same night, we want to put some distance between us and the gold cloaks in case they come back. It is here that I wake up.

2017, 10-12

Game of Dreams – Eddard’s Escape

Eddard - I am seated in the back of a wagon. I can’t see where I am, but I feel it is important that I stay hidden. There are people that want my head on a pike. There is a bit of tension as the wagon goes out the main gate of the city. But the man in charge seems to know one of the guards, and they let us through. After we have gone a little ways, I think it must be safe to at least look out. I pull the tarp back at a corner so that I can peek out. There are quite a few people here with us. In another wagon I see that there are three men chained up. Those ones must be criminals from the worst part dungeons. Of course they consider me a criminal too. They think I committed treason, and I even confessed to it in order to avoid execution. That’s not really what I wanted to do, but Eddard went ahead and did it anyways. At that point, Joffrey said he wanted my head. Or he would’ve said that if it hadn’t been for the fact he had some kind of fit. He dropped his pants and started making the sounds of barnyard animals. It was amusing. Then the queen came over and said I had confessed as agreed so I would now be allowed to take the black. So here I am, on my way north to the wall. I guess I should just be glad I wasn’t beheaded.

As I am looking out of the wagon I see that a couple of the boys are picking on a smaller boy. I am thinking that is not fair. They shouldn’t be allowed to do that. They’re calling him lumpy head and saying they want him to hand over a sword he has. But I know that I’m not supposed to be seen, so I just keep watching for a bit longer. Two the boys mock the smaller boy. One of them says the small boy stole his sword so there would be nothing wrong with them stealing it from him because it’s not really his. They start saying they are going to steal his sword. I am thinking that I now can no longer refrain from taking action, however, when one of the boys rides his donkey up beside the smaller boy the small boy pulls out a wooden sword and smacks the donkey’s behind. The donkey bucks the jerk off. The smaller boy jumps off of his donkey and proceeds to kick the other boy’s ass. They won’t underestimate him for being small again.

So since I don’t actually have to do anything, I watch for a bit longer until the man in charge, a soldier of the black named Yarin, comes and breaks up the fight. It wasn’t really much of a fight. The smaller boy was beating the bigger one completely into submission. That was rather amusing. Because even when the bigger boy tried to play dirty and strike from behind, another boy that they have been calling The Bull warned small boy of the attack before it got off. He got his butt kicked some more. This is when Yarin breaks up the fight and then takes a small boy off to the side, probably for disciplinary action. Either that or to praise his sort play. The other boy is clearly in pain, but alive. I sit back down in the wagon, and I just relax there until I wake up.

2017, 10-12

Game of Dreams – Execution Cancelled

Arya - I am on the streets of a city that looks like something out of an RPG. I look around, and I see lots of people. No one really seems to notice me. I smell something yummy. I follow my nose to see what it is. On the main street I see a man with a cart, and he is selling looks like mini pies. Those look delicious. My stomach is growling. I am wondering if I could possibly get one. It feels like I haven’t eaten since forever. I go over towards the cart and I walk up and start looking at the pies. The man who is pushing the cart looks like he is not pleased to see me. Probably because I look like a street rat with no money. I say I would like to buy a pie. He says that will be three coppers. Doesn’t sound like much. I reach into my pocket to see if I can find any money. I find none. I mutter a rhyme like they used in the Pierce Anthony books. “This isn’t funny, give me some money.” Then find the coins that I need. I hand the coins to the man, who looks quite surprised. He then lets me choose a pie. I choose an apple cinnamon one. He continues on down the road to sell more pies.

I have nothing to my pie with, so I start eating with my hands. That’s kind of gross because they’re kind of dirty. But the pie is way past delicious. So before long I completely forget about my dirty hands as I wolf down that pie. I am thinking I need to get out of the city. I am wondering if there’s any way to do that. I am thinking the main gate will be guarded, they are looking for me. I wander for a while, not sure where to go. Then I see there are people moving through the streets to the sound of a bell. I wonder what is happening. I go with everyone to see what is going on. Everyone is gathering around a large building that appears to be some kind of church. There are people up at the entrance to the church where there is a large patio area. One is the queen. I hate her. One is the king. I have hated him since he was a prince. I also see my sister. And soon a couple of guards come out with my father. My father doesn’t look too good, but he is able to walk on his own. I see that the cast on his leg is gone now. His leg had been broken, but now I remember healing it for him.

Prince, no King, Joffrey starts talking. He says that my father has been found guilty of treason. I guess they have something on him, because my father confessed primes I know he never committed. And then Joffrey says that his mother and his future queen want him to be merciful and let my father take the black. He then says that it’s just because we they have the soft hearts of women. I know what comes next. I focus all of my intent on Joffrey now. I focus on my telepathic abilities, which have proven to work here before. The message I sent to Joffrey is that he should bray like a donkey. I don’t have time to come up with anything better right now. Joffrey motions to the executioner, Sir Ilyn Payne, who comes over closer to him. Joffrey looks him right in the face and brace like a donkey. Everyone turns to stare at Joffrey now. Payne has the weirdest look on his face. Joffrey tries to compose himself again. I send another strong message. Drop your pants. Joffrey says that what he had been trying to say was… then he pulls down his pants. The entire gathering area is filled with people now, and many of them are laughing, some of them are making concerned sounds. No one knows what’s going on. Joffrey has turned beet red. He looks over at the queen, as if looking for help. He looks like he might cry. He reaches down and pull his pants up, looking very confused, looking around as if someone is going to come out and attack him. He has just got his pants pulled back up when I tell him to drop his pants again and snort like a pig. I have already gotten access to his mind now, and he quickly complies.

One of Joffrey’s guards, the one no one as The Hound, goes over to him. He helps Joffrey pulled his pants up yet again, and then hurries him into the church. The laughter is deafening. I almost can’t hear what the queen says when she comes over to speak. But finally she is able to make herself heard. She says that what His Grace was trying to say is that Lord Edward Stark has agreed to confess his crimes and take the black. She says hopefully he shows more loyalty to his brothers on the wall then he has to his king. She doesn’t seem to have anything to say about Joffrey‘s behavior. A lot of people are trying to ask. What’s wrong with Jeffrey? I am still watching when someone reaches from behind me and grabs me. I think I might struggle, but his hold is pretty tight. He is whispering something in my ear, and calling me a boy. I’m not a boy. For a brief instant I think he wants to kill me. But then he just starts giving me a bad haircut. He says that we are headed out for the wall tonight. And I better be ready, boy.