The Nomad Chronicles

I bow to Shadowtech, he throws daggers at me, augmented by TK. I form a TK shield of wind to deflect them. He bows to me, Well done. Now we are going to learn how to slow time.
He says, "and the dream slows down," and he speeds up somehow. "Time dilation equals superspeed." He runs around slapping me. I slow down further, but move quicker, running in circles around him, punching him in the jaw. We stop and bow to each other.
I run into the forest to test my skill. I slow time, "Slow," and a catch a squirrel's nut, then run up the tree, and replace it. I am suddenly exhausted. Shadowtech seems to teleport to me. "Due to the agreed upon rules of the game, I, the Invader god impose these rules upon you: your power is limited. However, with practice your power will increase." He suddenly throws a sword at me. I slow time, and kick it away in midair. We bow to each other, and he vanishes.

I am running across huge boughs of trees and leaping from tree to giant tree in a great forest, wearing my Chaos Assassin gear. I feel like I do this for about half an hour before reaching a certain branch on a certain tree. I stand with my back to the tree, then give the 2-3 knock. A voice in the tree says "Nothing is true." "Everything is permitted," I respond. I am suddenly flipping backwards as a door against my back spins me inside. I tuck and roll, then am suddenly standing before a council of Chaos Assassins. "Welcome to The Tree. Welcome to the Chaos Assassins Guild, Dethgawn of Cardia. Did you come here by Destiny or Free Will?"
"Possibly my destiny was to become a Chaos Assassin ever since I took a Soul Oath to war against the Templars for aeons in a past life 800 years ago. Perhaps, with my Free Will I chose to come here."
The man who asked the question throws a knife, aiming just two inches left of my head. I leap forward, tuck, roll, then jump on to the table, and flip over the man as I unsheath my hidden blade, and place it against his neck as I land. I have twelve weapons pointed at me, throwing knives, mini-bows and arrows, blowguns, short swords, and mini-spears.
Suddenly, the scene morphs, and I am in some strange Hell version of my surroundings. All the assassins are now green demons. Who the hell are you? I shout at the dream. Alter?
"No, Mylynes, a voice answers back. Since I've been gone, I've been training, and I've been increasing in power."
"What are you, some don juan interrupting my dreams?"
"What do you mean? Some creepy ThisMan romancing character?"
I take advantage of his temporary confusion to burst out of the dream.
Mylynes and I are in Outer Space.
"This is something I learned-"
"STOP!" I shout. "I am going to continue my original dream. You can be a character in this game if you want."
Mylynes shrugs.
"You have to limit your abilities. No god-mode."
Mylynes grins deviously, then disappears.
I am suddenly back in The Tree, my knife at the throat of the man who questioned me. Suddenly the Assassins clap, and i release my knife. They suddenly shoot and throw all their weapons at me. I swing my light mail cape around me, knocking all the blades and projectiles to the floor. We all bow, then I toss all the weapons back to the original owners at the same time.
Suddenly, Mylynes sends me some kind of tormenting mind wave, a vision of him incarnating into the world as Baphomet, and building a huge Templar army of worshippers of him in Constantinople.
"I'm here, I'm here... for training..." I grab my head, and feel dizzy, then vomit.
***
I awake in a bed mumbling to myself madly, "Templars march on Cardia... they want the Key of Cardia, but it was stolen 300 years ago, by a Goblin Thief. Fools..."
"Huh? What?" I sit up, asking myself. I feel dizzy and hot. I am soaked in my own sweat. So... thirsty. I drink from a glass on a nightstand. I am in a small room in The Tree. My wife, Winter is wearing all white ninja gear. She is tying a belt on, looking out window, then turns to me.
"Oh, you're awake!" She runs to me, and kisses me. "You've been sleeping five months. This is the second snow of winter.
"I have to go out and patrol the forest now, there is word of spies in the forest. There is food stocked in the cupboard, and a loaf of bread on the table."
She opens the door, and a chill breeze blows in. My sweat feels like ice. She blows me a kiss and leaps off the bough to another one below. The door slams shut, and I sit on the edge of the bed, and wipe my forehead with a towel. I hear a voice in my head: Nomad, what have you been doing for five months?
"Sleeping I guess. Who are you, and how are you in my head?"
"I am Baphomet!"
"Ok, whatever." I take a drink, and throw a log on the fire my wife started on the hearth. I change into some dry clothes, and step outside. The wind is cold, but my training has taught me extreme cold resistance. I pee downwind, then go back inside. I sit down, and eat some of the bread. It's deliciously flavorful. Walnuts and raisins.
"This doesn't feel like a dream."
"That's because it's not," says Baphomet.
"Will you leave me alone? I'm tired."
"Of course you are, you've been poisoned with a demon."
"Damn, you Baphomet."
I stumble to the bed, and pass out.

I am walking in a forest among white bark trees in the autumn. Some leaves are turning yellow. Everything looks so familiar. I look down at my hands. They seem normal, but my RC tattoo on the back of my right hand is missing. Then, it suddenly appears glowing yellow, and winks at me with a silly face. I pinch my nose. I can breathe. I am dreaming. Right! This is... Denn... I am playing Psyblade? I am in my own game? I fall on the ground laughing, and some squirrels scamper around me out of curiosity.
Suddenly, orcs appear, attracted by the sounds, aiming arrows at me. I throw ten knives and kill 8 out of the ten orcs surrounding me. Two more knives kills the two I missed.
I stand up and dust my hands off, then form a mirror in the forest.
I am about my exact size in the physical world, average height, lean, hazel eyes, wearing some simple dark brown almost black clothing. Pants, tunic, cloth boots, cape, cowl, and a cloth over my mouth, so my face is almost completely hidden.
My sisters and brothers in the Guild call me The Mad Devil. I call myself Dethgawn. I began studying the dark arts as a child, sneaking into the basement at night, poring over ancient scrolls.
I return my knives to me telekinetically, like a magnet pulling iron shavings to itself. I replace them, then say to the mirror, "to Cardia." A quaint European town appears with a large clock tower near the center of town. Thatched roofs top the small houses and shops along the cobblestone streets. I walk through the mirror, and it feels like walking through a bubble pane.
Suddenly, I am falling through the sky. I scream in excitement and terror. Am I going to die? I hit the ground. Ow. I stand up. Ok, I'm not dead. Right. This is a dream. But, I can't fly? Oh, I put these limitations on myself. Right, playing that game of Windhovers'.... can't remember the name. That doesn't matter.
Then I hear a familiar voice in my head: Nomad, you are not dreaming, you are incarnating physically in another dimension.
"Right. Ok. That makes it feel more real, but I know it's not true. But, thanks," I reply to the disembodied voice. I look down at my hands. I have a piece of cloth wrapped around the inside of my palms. I wonder why? Oh, right, I have weapons in there: small blades, lockpick, climbing spikes, and brass knuckles. I feel my belt, and my clothes, remembering all the hidden pockets and compartments in my gear. My hands look real. Weird. I pinch my nose. I can't breathe. Ok, so, I'm not dreaming. Ok. Wait, then why I am I some crazed ninja thief in a magical land? I probably just have a cold in Wakeworld, or maybe my physical body is plugging its nose or something. I try to fly. Can't. Well, that's not a very good RC anyway. Man, am I thirsty!

I sit down on the fountain in the center of town. Windhover appears, floating on a hoverboard. There is a dust devil swirling around her. "This is not a dream, Nomad," she says. I feel confused. She laughs, and disappears. I scoop some water out of the fountain with my hand and drink. I feel much better now. I turn to a tavern with large wooden sign above it: Bub's Pub'N'Grub. I walk in through double doors, and sit down at the bar. It looks like and Old Western bar for some reason. I turn to the patrons, and see knights and cowboys mingling with robots and superheroes. Hmm. Interesting.
I order a vegan Shepherd's Pie, and a tall dark beer from a big burly bartender with a barbell mustache. "Are you Bub?" I ask.
"Sure am."
"Lovely pie, lovely beer. Tell me something, Bub, you ever heard of the Seven Keys of Cardia?"
"I probably don't, but I could be inclined to speak with a small bribe, being the unscrupulous man that I am."
I slide over a copper coin.
"Word has it that the Key of the Desert hidden deep within a dead city, a Necropolis beneath the shifting sands."
"Where is this city? When does it appear?"
He coughs loudly, then I slide him over two silver coins.
"The Necropolis is in the dead center of the Desert T'zanha, and after a great winter windstorm, the city will seemingly rise from the depths."
"Aye. One last question, Bub, have you heard where this key is?"
The skeleton of the king of the old city still sits upon his throne. The key should be around his neck, Nomad."
"How did you know my name?"
"Just slide over a gold piece, my lad."
I do, then quickly finish my meal. I order a coffee for the road, and he puts it in a bamboo-like bottle. I step outside into the bright sunlight, and wake up.

I leap out of my physical body in werelion form. There are a circle of Dark Templar wraith surrounding me with glowing red eyes. They say something about wanting to talk, I respond with a mighty roar, grabbing the nearest Templar, and ripping his head off. I drop the body, and smash the head into the skull of the nearest living Templar. I cast a shield of protection over sleeping Winter and a battle ensues. I hear a sound like the ripping open of a mountain, and I see a tear in the fabric of time and space above me, and a portal forms. Raven flies out riding a black winged jaguar. She has two spiraling horns growing out of her head, and she is wielding a black staff with a wooden raven carved on the top. She roars like a lion, lifting her staff to the sky, and a thunderstorm spirals out of the staff. Lightning strikes her staff, and charges it. Raven multiplies into 256 copies of herself and flies around the battlefield attacking the Templars with lightning. Her laughter echoes off the mountains. I run with the speed of electrons ripping limbs off of our enemies.
I hear another strange sound, like an earthquake, and I see Winter rise up, floating in a vertical position, eyes closed. Fairy wings sprout from her back, her eyes pop open and two white light beams shoot out. She grins deviously and says, "I'm a Dark Fairy!" She spins a white staff around, and slams it on the ground. Her pale skin becomes a dark violet, and her irises turn red. She flies madly through the battle, blowing icy bubbles which trap the Templars, and then shrink, crushing them into gooey messes of blood and ectoplasm.
I then hear a rumble, like a sleeping dragon growling. A mountain moves, no, its a great green dragon. "MoSh?"
"Hello brother. Long time no see."
"Looks like you need help."
The Templars attack MoSh, crawling over him like army ants. He roars in anger. I transform into a swarm of flying were-ants, and rip them limb from limb.
The Templars form into a giant wraith, and I continue my swarm attack. MoSh breathes green acid on the creature, melting his armor, Raven shoots lightning at his eyeballs, and the red orbs fall out of his head, and go out. Winter freezes his hands, and they crumble and fall apart. Then a big cat paw comes out of the sky, smashing him like a housecat killing a mouse. Tigress?
"Size is relative," she smiles from the sky.
The battle is over.
A cute litte fox runs to us, and drops strange red gems at our feet. "I stole these from the Templar demons!" he grins.
"Pablo? Thank you, friend!"
"Hmm... We should have these analyzed before we do anything with these," says Raven, putting the gems into glass jars.
"Wow," I say. "Raven, is this real?"
"Of course!" she laughs. I yawn, and everything fades to white.

I am a lion in another Africa, another world. All carnivores are scavengers. I watch an old elephant breathe its last. I run to it, and make sure it's dead. I yowl, calling other carnivores to the dead beast. Hyenas, lions, and vultures come. We share, and devour the flesh in a couple hours. The hyenas and bugs eat the bones. Clean. There is no trace of the elephant.

I gaze up at Humans in small anti-gravity platforms, about 8 feet across, hover low and watch us with a gentle fascination. Their clothing is made from a living moss. They have engineered our genes to be strong, peaceful, and telepathic. They are playing a galactic game in which they improve global ecosystems. The game is practice to become benevolent gods.

i am looking at my left hand. i can fully use it. the curse of Weakness is gone. i can use it normally again. i feel overjoyed. i am in a beautiful meadow. i wake up.

my arm is still semi-paralyzed. FUCK maybe the dream was a good sign

I am meditating on the Mountain in the Biodome.

Bruce Lee appears before me, floating on a cloud. He steps off the cloud, and looks me in the eyes with his steely gaze. I feel overwhelmed with emotion. Bruce punches me in the stomach, and laughs as I go flying back. He rushes at me. I rush at him, then he throws me behind him into a tree. Then a flurry of punches, like a storm, like rain beating the ground, epic Chinese fists are beating my soul.

I grab his right arm, and kick him in the calf. He laughs again.

He asks me so many questions simultaneously, I wonder if its some kind of attack. I feel confused. Bruce raps me on the forehead, and I knock out. I wake up a few seconds later, to bruce lee, standing over me, laughing, offering a hand up.

"when the student is ready. the teacher will appear."

I am crying my eyes out, in bawling convulsively. Where the fuck am I? I a hospice center? Raven is dead on the bed. Who killed her? Wait this is bullshit! Get lucid! dammit. this is not real. but is it? I see this evil demon float up, in a vertical position outside the window. "This is the most real shit, ever, Nomad. We just killed your best friend, and now we are going to see to it, you never make it to your precious Moon, AGAIN!"

I feel a bite in my shoulder, it's a zombie-Raven, no its a goddamn archon-templar-wraith-fucker casting illusion. I roar with an ancient rage from the depths of my being. "This is not real!" I shout. I cough. I am on a warehouse floor. There is no one here with me, no one... but The Scarecrow giggling madly like a small boy burning caterpillars on the sidewalk. damn you, Scarecrow.

I lunge at him, but am weak from the fear drug. I hear a rush of wind. Winter rockets into the warehouse with her fist out, and slams the scarecrow into a wall of the warehouse. She stomps on his throat, and twists. "This is the Dream Plane, so I can kill you, fucker. I declare myself, LUCIDITY!" She rips off Scarecrow's head and a pale gas comes out and dissipates. She cleanses herself and I with pink flame, and kisses me. Then, she wraps her arm around my waist, and points her wand at the sky. We go flying.

I wake up from a nightmare.... cold, I am. in a wet forest? I have just a pair of pants on, no other clothes, no weapons, i feel sick, I try to stand, but collapse and vomit some dark green-black stuff. I feel a burning rage in my soul, and I sense something one the ground, a creeping dark, some kind of carnivorous slime mold crawling up my body, digesting my flesh on contact, i scream in horror, and a thunderclap booms overhead. A portal explodes and Raven flies out riding a winged white tiger. The tiger roars and the ground quakes. Raven raises her staff to the sky, and charges it with lightning. She casts the power transmuting it into violet flame, burning the sentient muck eating me. Raven rushes down to me, as some strange flying crab like parasites latch on to her. She rips them on in a fury, then stands at my back. Two blades come out of her staff, and I see them, the Archons, walking out of the trees which they had possessed, as the trees wilt and die.

"You will all pay," Raven whispers hoarsely. The Archons rush at us with one mind. Raven slams her staff into the ground with a subsonic boom, knocking the demons back. Then, she summons lightning to strike them. She slings me over her shoulder like a backpack, and mounts her Tiger. We ride into the sky. Raven giggles. "I summoned an invisible army of Assassins to take care of them."

She opens a portal and we ride to The Healing Glen of the North. We fall to the ground. Angels come and sing over us. The Frost Giant says we are both sick, and Raven is injured from the battle, she has a dark shard in her right shoulder. The Frost Giant carries me to his cave, and Raven and her tiger walk beside him.

I fall asleep in the cave by the fire. Raven and the Frost Giant are talking about who he is, and where he came from, and the nature of the dream plane as I fall asleep.

***

I awake in my inner world. I see myself as a child playing with raven, playing with Koomo, playing with Michael my spirit guides, and then becoming confused and thinking they are not real. My adult self wants to hug the girl Raven and the child versions of my spirit guides, and say I am sorry for believing that you are imaginary.

I see my child self on display behind glass, like in a strange wax museum. I say, fuck this, break the glass, and take my child self mudsliding down the chocolate volcano. hail eris. mahalo. 23.

*Nightwolf is a young teenage neighbor boy next door that is a lucid dreamer.*


frag


I am on the mountain in the Biodome. I see a huge white wolf, the size of a moose, sitting on a large flat boulder, staring up at the stars.

He turns to me. "Nomad? You look badass. You're a big cat! haha. Can I build a house on the Moon?"

"Do whatever you want, man. There are no rules."

"Yaay!"

Nighwolf's dream guide appears, and opens a portal. Nightwolf whispers to himself, "I'm going in there." He sprouts wings and flies into the portal.

Raven and I are sitting on the bench by the koi pond, watching the fish.

"I can't remember my dreams too well."

"and i can't write too well right now. hmm. i know, how about we engage sense of smell and taste by having a bake-off?"

"yeah!"

raven and I cook on the dream plane, we make kitchens in the biodome outdoors. I make chocolate covered chocolate chip cookies, and raven makes chocolate ice cream sandwiches with chocolate chips dipped in chocolate. Raven wins.

We have an idea to always carry around giant chocolate cakes and cookies in dreams to help us be lucid more.

(abbreviated due to CTS)

I leap out of bed, awake in dreams, a great werelion, Juargawn. there is a disturbance on the dream plane. raven is looking at me, smiling as she leans on her staff. she opens a portal to the moon, and we go to the Biodome. I decide to go to the City of Nothing the city I founded on the Moon, and find in my Temple, the Temple of Nothing, the undead walking. Skeletons, zombies. I slay them with fierceness, but more appear out of the ground; the work of a necromancer.

Damn him, damn him to a thousand hells. I smell him out, aha, there is his, on the hilltop. I cast an Earthquake to shake the undead from the ground, an they rise, an army of rotting evil. The stench, o goddess... I cast the Moon Shield about myself as they hurl body parts at me. i cast a Thunderstorm, and call down lightning which consumes the undead in Holy Fire.

I stare directly into the sun to gain energy, then channel my rage and the power of the Sun into a Rage Blast forcing his body through a thousand portals lined up back to back.

more later if can.

(abridged due to CTs)

i rise up out of bed. raven is waiting for me, along with others. we gear up for battle, moon orcs, the moon tower tribe, lunar wolves, dream warriors, and many allies meet on the moon after raven and i do healing with winter and mosh, tigress, pablo, loaf, and way too many people to name.

i tell them i have called them because the Archons are tormenting my baby niece in her dreams, and the Archons must pay, I shout with the voice of a thousand thunders from my temple ziggurat on the moon. Our allies cheer, and i feel the universe quake at the sound. Selene opens a portal to my sister's house. She and my niece are sleeping, not too well. They are surrounded by astral demons. the demons are blasted by hundreds of rounds of ammunition, magic bolts, and death rays in instants before i can get to them to tear them limb from torso. Raven says she will guard them on the astral, go into the dream plane, and battle there.

I open a portal to the archdemon which must be the head of the operation.

I am in a disgusting creepy castle, but the walls have flesh and blood oozing between the cracks of the stones. this place reeks of evil. i summon a gas mask. smells like rotten flesh. i sneak down a hall, where the stench is stronger. there is an archdemon, by the name of Baby-Eater that lives on the dream plane, and feeds on the terror of babies. this archdemon tormented me for years as a child to the point of madness. The god of nothing has a specially peculiar hatred for this specific creature. I phase through a door, and Baby-Eater is in a big fat chair made of some kind half-dead animal, watching 8 screens of babies' night terrors which his minions create. He is eating something... ew... baby shadows.

Enough. I turn invisible and creep up behind him, plunging a hidden blade into the back of his neck, severing the spinal cord. Then, I summon a battle axe, and cut him in half. I burn myself with orange flame to cleanse, and teleport back to Raven. we are in a huge battle on the astral plane in North America. Zombie-demons are rising out of the ground, Sorna is closing their portals before some get all the way through.

i blow the Conch of Pan, and the Dream Warriors from Planet X arrive and slay with furious anger our slimy foes.

I leave a nice little booby trap for the archons, a changeling, an ice baby to destroy them from the inside out next time they want to torment my niece. hail eris. 23.

raven tells me; you're becoming a better assassin.

i tell raven; you're a badass general.

ramen.

Nomad. Nomad, we are almost there.

Where? Where we used to be. The damn Templars have increased their attacks. They want us all crazy or dead.

Yes, they are trying to divide us, and make our lives hell.

Hold my hand. I don't feel real.

Okay.

abridged due to CTS

I wake up on a cold surface... a cold steel surface, a slab of metal floating... can't... move... I open my eyes... I feel my werelion body, I am strapped down to some kind of table in a cold white room. The straps are... alive?! Some kind of insectoid cyborg GMO parasite slavebot. fuck. They tighten around my wrists like hungry centipedes.

I hear the clack-clack of cyborg astral demons clanking down a hall outside. shit. They are going to dissect my sould.

I struggle, but can't move, can't teleport, can't scream. I can only think of one word to shout in my mind: raven.

I scream Raven's name with all my soul's might, and I feel a dreamquake. A hole is torn open in a wall, and Raven flies into the room riding a winged black panther, as her Shadow Self, Queen of Night all black and spiral horns. She steps off and rips the restraints off me. I try to stand up, and vomit, dizzy. poisoned...? drugged! ..here they come... I barely whisper.

The astral demons clatter down the hall. Right before they open the door, Raven shoots a black fireball at the door, blowing everything on the other side away. She slings me over her back like a baby, and we fly to the Moon.

I fall asleep on her back.

****

I wake up in the Sick Bay. Winter is holding my hand. Raven enters with Washu and Janet.

"Nanomachine infection, astral variety."

I fall asleep.

***

I wake up. MoSh is near me with Asuka. "You're going to be okay, buddy." I vomit on myself. He makes it disappear with magic, and gives me a glass of water to drink. I pass out again.

***

I return to the astral plane. there are demons hovering around the astral bodies of me my honey, and my cat. I sever their heads from their rusty bodies.

***

I am on a battlefield, grieving the loss of my warrior-wife. She hid in my old armor to fight by my side. And now she is dead. I am going to kill them. ALL OF THEM.

***

I am alone with don Juan on a mountain.
Now you are beginning to remember O Padawan, O Sith. Now you must kill me. No. Yes. No, don Juan. I AM IMMORTAL KILL ME NOW. I shove a dagger into his stomach, then his heart, then I slit his throat. He dies, and his body disappears. I vomit and weep. He respawns and laughs at me. I HATE YOU I HATE YOU DON JUAN. GET OUT OF MY DREAMS.

You're in my dream, asshole. Fuck you, I'm Jesus.

***

I am with Carlos Castaneda, Johhny Depp, and HST. We are snorting DMT mixed with mescaline, LSD and datura.