New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

01/15/14

I am in a city I don't recognize. I look around to see if I can identify it. It looks like a city out of a fantasy RPG such as Skyrim or Oblivion. There are various people walking around and chatting, various races. I spot a couple orcs, several feline kajiit, and a small cluster of argonians among the more human like races. I decide since I know approximately where I am I need to find out why I'm there. In this kind of game one can often find information in a local pub. So I walk down the street, searching for an inn or a pub. I see some other shops. An apothecary, an armor shop, and a weapons shop, and then a pub. The pub is called the Drunken Troll. I know I've never heard of that particular pub in the parts of the games I've played, but that doesn't matter. Things don't always match perfectly. I go into the pub.

Inside the pub it is relatively quiet. It is the middle of the day, and there aren't too many people in there drinking yet. Two khajiit are having an animated conversation in the corner, the merchant at the bar is a nord, and a small group of wood elves seem to be celebrating something at one of the tables in the main sitting area. The nord at the bar looks bored, so I go over to him. He asks what I'll have. He says he is fresh out of nordish ale, his shipment is running late. I wonder if that could lead to a quest. Maybe some bandits are causing trouble or something like that.

I am about to ask something about it when a man enters the room, looking breathless. He is carrying a large crate which he sets on the bar. The nord says never mind... the nordish ale is here. The man who just entered looks like another nord. The delivery man says the merchant isn't going to believe what he just saw outside. The merchant laughs and asks what he saw this time, a khajiit kissing an argonian? The delivery man says nope. He saw the strangest looking miniature khajiit walking down the street talking to this little metal golem. The merchant just gives him a strange look. The delivery man adds that the little golem has wings like a bird of some kind. The merchant starts laughing. The delivery man says he is not into the skooma again, he has given up that stuff. I wonder what he has seen, so I decide to check it out. I get up and head out. The merchant calls after me that he doesn't sell skooma... he runs a reputable establishment! Come back! I tell him I'll probably be back after I check out this miniature khajiit. The merchant says the delivery man is just blowing smoke. The delivery man says he really saw it!

I go outside onto the street. I look up and down the street to see if anything looks strange. I spot what is out of place right away. Walking down the middle of the road are a couple of individuals that I would never have expected to see in a Tamriel type world. Ratchet the lombax and Clank the robot. Wtf? They are looking around in a perplexed manner. I get closer to them and I can hear them talking. Ratchet is asking Clank if he has any idea where they are. Clank says there is no place in his databases that matches this place. Ratchet says an even better question is how did they get here. Clank looks at me strangely. He says he doesn't know that, either, but the locals are staring. Ratchet looks where Clank is looking, at me, and asks if I have never seen a lombax and a robot before. I say not in this dimension. Oh, and by the way, I'm not a local. And I am pretty certain that the people here have never seen either a lombax or a robot. And I am wondering how exactly this has happened... Is someone messing with dimensions again?

A couple of people walk by, talking a bit too loud. One of them says look at the funny little khajiit. An actual khajiit looks at Ratchet and says there is no way that pathetic thing is a khajiit. Ratchet hears that and gives the khajiit a dirty look. Clank puts one hand on Ratchet and says not to start any trouble. The khajiit talks like a typical khajiit, says, "Urj'Jirr thinks that little one has an attitude problem." Ratchet looks around and says Urj'Jirr should say that to him directly instead of getting a pal to say it. The khajiit, Urj'Jirr, says, "Urj'Jirr just did. Urj'Jirr says the little one is not too bright." Now Ratchet just has a confused look on his face. He says there is definitely something wrong with the people here. Urj'Jirr looks annoyed and says, "Maybe Urj'Jirr should teach the strange one some manners." Urj'Jirr's companion takes his arm, however. Ratchet is annoyed again and says, "Well maybe Urj'Jirr should just try it... if HE has the balls!" Urj'Jirr starts to make a move, but his friend restrains him. His friend, an imperial I think, says no... he is absolutely not going to bail Urj'Jirr's ass out of jail again. The friend points at a couple of guards who are now watching us. Urj'Jirr says, "Urj'Jirr thinks the little one got lucky... this time." Urj'Jirr's friend forcibly pulls him away. Ratchet is muttering that he'll show that Urj'Jirr who was lucky... Clank tells Ratchet to calm down, they have to figure out where they are and how to get back home.

I look and make sure Urj'Jirr is really leaving, which he is, though he seems reluctant. He and his friend go into the pub. Great... just what the city needs. A drunk, conceited khajiit looking for a fight. I tell Ratchet and Clank I have no idea how they got here, but I do believe I can help them out with getting home. Clank says that would be very helpful. I focus on opening a portal to get to Ratchet and Clank's home dimension. Nothing happens right away, but I don't have time to focus long before I see a nord dressed in armor coming down the street sounding an alarm. Most everyone is running for shelter. Ratchet and Clank are just watching him, I am there with them wondering what is happening. The guard comes over when he sees we aren't running and says the goblins are attacking, everyone who can't fight needs to seek shelter. Ratchet asks who said he couldn't fight. The guard pauses and then says no one. He says if Ratchet is willing and able to help, any assistance would be appreciated and surely rewarded as well as the guard is quite outnumbered. The guard pauses... then asks if Ratchet is a khajiit... he's never seen a khajiit quite like him. Ratchet says he's a lombax. The guard makes like he knows what that means, moves off a couple steps, then stops and says, "A what?" But Ratchet doesn't notice, he is heading in the direction the guard indicated the goblin attack is in. Clank follows after, jumping up into the air and somehow getting hold on Ratchet's back for a piggy back ride.

I follow Ratchet and Clank down the street. We are going against the flow of the main crowd, but the crowd dwindles soon as we reach the edge of town. There is a wall there, and guards are closing the gate. Ratchet and Clank get through just before the gate closes. I just jump over the wall. The guards stare at that in surprise. I land next to Ratchet and Clank on the other side of the wall. There are large numbers of goblins running at the city. The guards, being quite outnumbered, are trying to hold them back. Most of the fighters are nords, but there are other races mixed in. I wonder if Urj'Jirr might be there somewhere since he had been looking for a fight. The goblins attack everyone equally. They don't care if their target is nord, khajiit, lombax, or robot... The goblins are many but not too bright. Ratchet throws a grenade bomb into a group of goblins. One of them picks it up and seems very interested in it right up to the point where it explodes in his hand and takes him out along with a few goblins right around him. No one pays the explosion much notice, as there are other explosions around caused by mages throwing fireballs. Ratchet jumps into the air, practically flying by using Clank as a jet pack and is dropping more bombs down among the goblins. I see one goblin actually try to eat one of them before it explodes. I form my arm into an Alex Mercer blade and enter into the fray, cutting a path through the attacking goblins.

The fight is pretty chaotic, so I don't see a lot of details of what is going on. But I finally spot that there seems to be one person directing the attack… and for some reason it doesn't surprise me that the person is Robert de Sable. Robert is throwing balls of flaming dark energy at those who are fighting his goblins. He throws a dark fireball at a khajiit who has his back turned. The dark fireball is detonated by an energy blast that I track back to Ratchet's gun. The khajiit notices that and turns on Robert. That is my main target… so I head over there. I get closer and recognize that khajiit… it turns out that Urj'Jirr is there, and is now closing in on Robert de Sable. Robert is more focused on Ratchet right now and not paying any attention to Urj'Jirr. I get close enough for him to hear me. Robert says there is no reason Ratchet has to stay in one piece and prepares to throw a dark energy fire ball. Urj'Jirr is right behind him and says, "Urj'Jirr thinks the goblin lover should pick on someone his own size," and whacks him upside the head with a mace. Urj'Jirr then proceeds to pound Robert repeatedly with his mace. The mace isn't getting past a dark energy shield. Robert is laughing at the khajiit's attacks. He throws a dark energy fireball at Urj'Jirr. I use a biomass shield to block it, more of the blast hits Robert than Urj'Jirr. About three grenades land right in Robert's face and explode. Several arrows stick in Robert's back, I'm not sure where those came from. Yet Robert is still laughing. He says he is much too strong to be killed by such things. An aura of dark energy flames surrounds Robert. A blast of dark energy forces everyone in his near vicinity away from him.

"HEY, ROBERT, YOU CHICKEN-WUSS!" I call out to Robert. He looks over at me and laughs some more. He just cleared the area around him, so I use the opportunity to use a ground spike attack on him from Alex Mercer's arsenal of attacks. Robert teleports over closer to Urj'Jirr, who attacks him immediately. Robert laughs at the khajiit and then says there is chaos here… his work is done. He disappears in a blast of dark energy that throws Urj'Jirr about 20 feet in my direction. " Urj'Jirr says Robert is a coward…" and then calls out, "Come back and fight, coward! Come back and face Urj'Jirr like a warrior instead of hiding like a cave rat!" But Robert doesn't respond. He is gone yet again. I run over to where he disappeared and focus on opening a portal to follow him. A portal opens and I jump through it. He is not getting away this time. Urj'Jirr follows right behind me. Wtf? That's the last thing I needed… some khajiit following me to some random dimension. On the other side I look around a forested landscape. I see no sign of Robert. Urj'Jirr is also looking around in a puzzled manner. Urj'Jirr asks where Robert has gone, then yells out again that Robert should come out and fight. I tell Urj'Jirr that Robert won't be coming out to fight… he really is too much of a coward. I know him well. And now I can't even follow him again, I have to take Urj'Jirr home. In fact, I shouldn't have followed him to begin with… I have to take Ratchet and Clank home.

I curse to myself and open a portal back to the goblin battle. When I get there and Urj'Jirr follows me I see the battle is pretty much over. Without their leader, most of the goblins have turned around and headed back to their caves. Urj'Jirr looks around and then heads over to help out the imperial I saw him with earlier. I look around to see where Ratchet and Clank are. I finally spot them not too far off. I head over in their direction, at least they're ok. So it should be as simple as returning them home. I get over to Ratchet and Clank and tell them I can still get them back home. Clank is wanting to know how they got here in the first place. I tell him someone has been doing that a lot, though I'm not sure what his goal is… still got to find that out… or just take the idiot out… I focus on opening a portal to Ratchet and Clank's home world. A portal opens and I look through into a futuristic looking city. It looks like the right place. Ratchet and Clank finally go through the portal just before everything fades and I wake up.

12/17/11

Oblivion: The Escape
I am in prison. I look around to see where I am. I have no memory of how I got to be there or where I actually am. I finally decide I am in a video game, I am playing Oblivion. Awesome! And it's so realistic. The asshole across the hall starts calling me a harlot or something, and I tell him to shut the fuck up unless he can come over here and say it to my face. He keeps talking, saying I wouldn't be talking like that if there weren't bars between us. I ignore him until I hear him say the guards are coming for me, then I look out again and see the emperor and the blades coming into the dungeon. I get back from the door and wait for them to enter. The emperor comes over to me and says he knows me from a dream. Ooo… sounds kinky… he just gives me a strange look. Then he says today is the day the stars foretold. At the urging of the blades, they leave through a secret passage in my cell. I go back to the cell door and tell the asshole across the hall that I'll be going now, maybe we can meet up for a drink… oh, wait! You didn't get a secret passage opening in your cell, well it sucks to be you!

I follow the secret passage and I reach the next chamber just a couple seconds too late. The emperor and the blades have just disappeared through a door, which is now locked. Apparently they locked it behind them. One of the blades is dead in the room, along with a few cloaked figures. I find a sword there which I take. As I had expected, two very large rats attack me from a collapsed wall, we're talking rats the size of an English Mastiff or a Great Dane. I kill the rats with the sword and then head into the caves beyond the collapsed wall. I find some treasure chests and a skeleton with old leather armor. I take the armor as well as a few lockpicks and some gold I find in the chests. I also find a bow and arrows. I snipe a giant rat in the next room with an arrow before it is even aware of my presence. I continue along the passages, there are more treasure chests, some of which are locked so I pick the locks… I find a zombie eating the flesh off of a dead rat. Apparently deciding I look tastier, the zombie comes at me. I throw fireballs at the zombie and it is incinerated. No body left behind? Where is the mort flesh? Oh, well. A couple chambers later I meet my first goblin who I also take out with an arrow.

After a bit more wandering in the caves I find another collapsed wall that leads back to the castle dungeons. I find the emperor and the blades there, resting up a bit after a fight. The two remaining blades want to kill me, saying I might be working with the enemy. The emperor orders them to stand down. I chat with the emperor for a bit, he seems very certain that he is not going to get out of here alive. I stay with them for now, following them through a few more chambers in the dungeons. I snipe a couple of attackers from the shadows where they lie in wait. We soon come to the last chamber where I know the emperor will get killed, he knows it, too. He gives me the amulet of kings just before he is attacked.

I find I can move this time, though! It's not a cut scene, I can attack the asshole! I attack the asshole attacking the emperor and fight him sword to sword. After a short fight I win. I turn back to the emperor and I see a second attacker standing over the emperor's dead body. Damn… I have never seen a second one! Baurus comes in and says he has failed, then asks about the amulet of kings. I tell him what the emperor said about Jauffre and the one remaining heir. He says to take the amulet and go, so I head into the sewers. I snipe a couple more trolls and rats. I soon find my way out of the sewers and into the wilderness outside of Imperial City. I head straight into the city where I am able to sell a lot of the crap I collected for gold and then get a room for the night. I figure it is a good time to save the game, so I do so and lie down on the bed and fall asleep.

The Lost Caverns of Pennywise
I am in a forest with MoSh and Asuka. I look around to see where we are, but I don't recognize the place. MoSh asks where this lost cavern of… um… this lost cavern of whatever is. I say it's not far off, and I start looking for a cave entrance. We are at the base of a mountain, so I figure it will be easy to find a cave entrance here. When I finally find it I am surprised to see it looks like it is the appropriate size for a hobbit maybe… it is a tiny hole.

To go through it there would be no choice but to get down and crawl through, maybe even wiggle through on my belly. I point at the hole and tell MoSh I thought the entrance was bigger, but maybe it collapsed. MoSh suggests blasting through, but that would destroy too much, might cause more cave-ins. I said it couldn't be that small for far, the caverns themselves are huge. So it must just be for a short way. I crawl into the hole and down the narrow passage. It doesn't seem very short, of course I am unable to move very quickly on my belly. MoSh is behind me, and Asuka is behind him. The hole we are crawling through is lined with mud. It is getting us filthy, but at least there's no chance of getting stuck. I come to a dead end. Shit! We have to back out?! No… there's a stone blocking the passage. I give it a shove and it falls away, dropping about ten feet down to water. We have reached the caverns. I tell MoSh to jump out of the small passage, there's water below. By the rock landing I could tell the water was deep. We jump into the water with a splash and grope blindly until we find the shore.

It is pitch black down here. I use the spell 'lumos' from Harry Potter, somehow without a wand, and the cavern lights up. It is a huge cavern, I see the hole we entered through on a low area of roof over the water. There's definitely no way to go back the way we came! There are several passages exiting the cavern, and since we have no set destination, we just take the closest one. The cave walls are lined with strange drawings and strange writings, images that clearly depict a war going on until it starts raining and then the rain seems to bring peace somehow. A strange creature is blocking our path. It has huge bulbous eyes that seem to glow with a faint white light, he doesn't seem to like the light I am creating, but he also doesn't seem to know where the light is from. The creature looks mean, like a form of mutant goblin, and it snarls at us to prepare to die. I tell him he can't be serious… if he values his own life, he had better back off. We aren't here to kill anyone, but if you force it… The goblin retreats into the darkness. We explore some more, Asuka finds some flowers growing in a small wet area, the flowers glow in the dark. They are quite beautiful. The goblin also returns with several friends and he repeats his threat. I repeat my warning. He attacks. I summon my Witchblade sword and cut him down easily. This gives the other goblins pause, and they retreat quickly into the darkness.

We find the end of the passage blocked by an ornate looking door, a heavy looking wooden door… seems odd… It takes some effort to open the door, as it seems to be on old hinges that don't work too well any more. As the door slides open the ruins of an amazing city are revealed. It looks like something out of ancient Rome or Greece, and I realize my light is no longer needed. The walls and the ceiling of the cavern, as well as much of the floor, are all covered with those glowing flowers. The door, which opened with difficulty, now slams closed behind us all by itself. We set off to explore the place. I am wishing I could somehow get photos of this place back to my waking life… that would be cool. Maybe I can model something like this… but that will take forever! We keep looking around and we soon find a temple in the center of the city. The temple is mostly intact. We go inside and find there is a woman there and the room is full of treasure. She says we should go ahead and take a share of treasure if we wish… but only the worthy will be able to get across the water. There is a pool of water around the platform with the treasure. The pool is radiating pure light energy. MoSh and Asuka go over to look at the treasure.

I am about to join them when I notice laughter, rather disturbing sounding laughter. No one else seems to hear that. I look around for the source of the sound but I don't see anything. The laughter gets louder and sounds creepy. I look towards a dark arch and see glowing silver eyes through it. A clown emerges, the clown looks like Pennywise from the book It by Stephen King. What is he doing here? He disappears through the arch, I follow him, I don't think it is a good idea for Pennywise to be wandering around here. On the other side of the arch is an abandoned carnival, the carnival has a creepy evil atmosphere around it. Pennywise is standing next to one of those wheels where they tie a person to it and another person throws daggers at it, getting the blades as close to the person as possible without cutting them, to demonstrate the thrower's skill and the courage and trust of the person on the wheel.

There is a man tied to the wheel, Pennywise has cut his stomach open and is pulling out the man's intestines and twirling them around a fork like spaghetti. The man is screaming in pain. Pennywise says I should come over and eat some… YUCK! I call my Witchblade sword back and I slice Pennywise in half down the middle. The scene around me melts and I find myself submerged in the strange fluid formed as the scene melts. It is a thick and viscous fluid, impossible to swim in, like mud. I sink underneath the crap but that shouldn't be a problem, I'm dreaming. But I can't breathe… I can't move and I can't breathe. What the fuck?! I decide the only way to get out of there is to go ahead and wake up.

My Virtual World
I am in a place that looks like a video game. There is just something about the place that makes it look like a computer rendering instead of a real physical place, though I'm not entirely sure what that something is. I am designing the place as if I was in a 3D virtual reality design system. I place pieces of geometry to form them into buildings and such, then I choose textures from a menu that pops up in mid air to apply to the buildings… it is really cool. There are a couple people there with me, but they don't seem to be real people. They are actual NPCs I have already designed for the game, and it seems I programmed them well enough that they can now help me with designing the world.

That is awesome. I have to give them explicit instructions, but they are still very helpful. I leave the virtual world for a bit and find out I am at school, at ITT Tech. I wonder when they got such cool equipment in, and why did they have to get it when I am just ready to graduate? My instructor tells me what effect I need to be creating in the virtual world, so I go back in and begin setting that up. It is a lighting effect where the rays of the sun are visible shining through one of the windows of the building. I create the effect without much difficulty. There is another effect I have to do in the same setting. I enter a completely blank void. I pull out what seems like a blanket and throw it out in front of me. It expands to become a copy of the world I just made previously. Now that is a useful feature! I pull my NPCs into the setting again and then I begin adding the details I need to achieve the next effect. My NPCs are getting annoying now, however, they just want to stand around and do nothing while I do all the work.

DDO - In Poisoned Waters
I am in a place that looks a lot like the city of Stormreach from the DDO game, I am in the harbor area. I am not alone there, I see there are two men and a woman there with me. I am instantly aware of who they are, though I do not become aware it is a dream. It is Nomad, MoSh, and Tigress, but I am thinking they are just in a virtual reality version of DDO with me. And the game is completely awesome! I look around at all of the NPCs and the other players, there are actually some of the NPCs with golden chalices floating over their heads indicating they have quests… Tigress heads over to one of them and talks to her. I follow Tigress, Nomad and MoSh come with me. The NPC is telling Tigress how some of the wells in Stormreach had been yielding poisoned water. She says the kobolds are responsible, though no one knows why. The poison is coming from the waterworks.

The four of us go into the waterworks. At first we get attacked by a few kobolds, but there isn't much kobold resistance. Farther down we start seeing a lot of dead kobolds lying about in varying stages of decomposition… yuck. The water smells bad, it is poisoned. Why would kobolds poison their own water supply? We go deeper, and soon we aren't in the waterworks any more, now we are in what looks like mine shafts. Kobolds are digging at the mine, but they pay no attention to us. Most of them look very weary, exhausted even. I see a kobold fall over from exhaustion. A goblin comes and starts poking the kobold with a spear, snarling at it to get up and back to work. It is clear the kobold can't go on any longer. It weakly tries to get up and then collapses again. The kobolds around the fallen one make no move to help, they hardly seem to notice. The goblin kicks the fallen kobold.

Nomad tells the goblin to pick on someone his own size. The goblin notices us for the first time and calls out that there are intruders. Nomad picks the goblin up by the neck in a hand that has grown huge, and snarls at the goblin that he is pathetic for being able to pick on those who can't fight back but he calls for help the instant someone who can fight comes along. He crushes the goblin's neck. More goblins are coming now, so a fight breaks out. I am a paladin, Nomad is a dark knight cutting down goblins with a black sword and drawing their energy into himself, Tigress is a rogue hitting the goblins when they are distracted attacking Nomad, MoSh, and me, MoSh is a monk knocking goblins to the ground with martial arts moves. We fight all the goblins off, but we know the boss is down farther into the dungeon.

The four of us continue down farther, past a lot of kobolds who are working as hard as they can. A couple kobolds pause in their work to look over at us. We get down to the bottom chamber where the kobolds are digging down even farther. There is a really nasty looking goblin there, examining a chunk of metal. He smacks the kobold who presented it to him, saying he would not stand for them bringing him crap like that. He says any fool can see it's the wrong mineral. The kobold is on the ground, begging for mercy. The nasty goblin says mercy is for the weak and kicks the kobold. He then tells the kobold to get back to work and don't bring him any more crap or next time the penalty would be death. The kobold can barely stand, and is moving slowly away. The goblin tells the kobold to move faster or he might change his mind and kill the kobold now. The goblin looks over and finally sees us, and asks who the fuck the three of us are. Three? I notice that the rogue Tigress is not with us. I then spot her in sneak mode over behind the goblin boss. I comment that they are polluting the water, and that has to stop. The goblin laughs and says he doesn't care. That's what he told the kobolds when they bitched about it, and that's what he's telling us. I say I guess that means it's time for him to die, then. He laughs harder. He says his goblins are more than a match for three pathetic humans.

Tigress attacks the goblin boss, which takes him completely by surprise, he spits an obscenity… AAHHH!!! SHIT!!! What the FUCK? We get into a big fight. I am fighting off goblin warriors and throwing out healing spells to allies. I can't see their health bars… so I don't know if they are needing the healing… but I don't want to take any chances. It feels like my supply of mana is limitless, and I credit that to a potion that gives that temporary effect. The goblin army that the boss boasted about proves to not be so tough. Archers are shooting at us from above. Tigress is sneaking around the rim up there and knocking the goblin archers off one by one. On the other side of the room I see a couple goblin archers get attacked by kobolds. It seems some of the more capable kobolds decided to join in the fight. The goblins never had a chance. We wipe out their numbers completely, I see Tigress finish off the boss near the end of the fight. I see Nomad over near the underground stream, he is doing something to clean the pollution from the water. The kobolds keep saying they don't want any trouble, won't attack any people, they just want their home in the waterworks back… I don't see any reason to attack kobolds right now, so instead I heal some of the ones that are more seriously injured. I tell a couple of the kobolds in charge that as long as they're not hostile towards the inhabitants of Stormreach, I certainly have no problem with them. The kobolds say we helped free them, they won't forget that. I'm not really sure that will prove to be true, but Stormreach is used to dealing with kobold problems… and they'll probably be busy for a while cleaning up the mess the goblins made.