New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

03/03/13

Into the Thinny
I am in a place I don't recognize. I look around and I see I'm not alone there. Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain are there with me. I'm having a Dark Tower dream. Roland is not exactly with us. He is staring into a glowing pink ball and looks completely zoned out. I recognize what is happening just as Alain punches Roland in the face. Roland drops the glowing orb and falls over backwards. Alain catches the orb. For a minute I think he's going to zone out, but he puts it in a bag and the light goes out. The others say we have to get moving if we're going to blow up those tankers. I am thinking MoSh would want to be here... so I focus on a portal to find him. A portal opens but then I realize he is right beside me. Why didn't I see him before? There are some guards on the tankers who are quite surprised when we go charging through their line, apparently no one has any interest in stealth this time. Alain is shooting with a machine gun, perforating all the tankers and spilling oil all over the place. Cuthbert fires burning fireworks into the oil puddles. Roland, MoSh, and I are covering them so they don't get shot while doing that. For some reason I have a crossbow instead of a gun, but it serves the purpose just fine as I take down an enemy as he is aiming at Cuthbert. Then the explosions come. One tanker after another. The enemies have made the mistake of keeping them too close. They probably figured it would be easier to defend, but they are so close that one explosion sets off the next one. Only one tanker fails to ignite. I use a fire spell to set it ablaze. There is chaos, but the enemies are regrouping. Roland is leading everyone away, I grab a horse and follow. All of the enemies are following us towards what I remember is a box canyon and a thinny. A thin spot between worlds. To enter a thinny is to die. I look at the enemies following us on horseback and think the horses don't deserve to die like that. Maybe I can save some horses. Roland dismounts, and the rest of us do, too. We enter the canyon on foot. Roland is staying behind to light the brush on fire to trap the enemies with the thinny. I want to save some horses.

I ask MoSh to help me save horses. He agrees. I tell him I'll open an exit portal and only riderless horses are to pass through. We all head towards the place where we can climb out of the canyon. MoSh and I break off, however. We head towards the thinny. I hear the sound of the thinny but it doesn't seem as bad as the books described it. Apparently that's not true for Cuthbert and Alain. They are staring at the thinny. I see smoke from the mouth of the canyon and I hear horses coming. Roland arrives and sees Cuthbert and Alain approaching the thinny. He fires two shots over their heads to wake them from their trances. He calls everyone over to where we climb out. I tell him to go ahead, MoSh and I will catch up. He seems hesitant. I tell him we're from the other side if a thinny... we'll be fine. They head up the steep rock wall. Horses are panicking and throwing their riders. I open a portal in front of a panicking horse. The horse goes through. Most of the horses are going the wrong way. I wonder how I can redirect the horses to the portal without having everyone get out. A couple of riderless horses find their way to the portal. I mount a riderless horse and head around, getting other horses to follow. I see MoSh doing the same. We manage to gather a small herd. I see people running around in blind panic. Others seem to be in a trance, gazing into the thinny. MoSh and I get the horses through the portal. The thinny is growing. I think there is no way we have gotten all of the horses. Roland is calling to us to come quickly. MoSh and I climb up the rock after the others. We reach the top of the cliff. Roland is yelling like crazy. Telling everyone to move for their father's sake. He tears the wizard glass away from Alain and opens the bag, and pulls out the glowing pink orb.

He looks into the orb, screaming "NO!" over and over again. He then finally stops. He looks at the orb and then at me, then back at the orb again. He has a look of disbelief on his face. He asks how that can be... then tells me I have to get going for my father's sake, he doesn't know how I do it, but I am in two places at once. Or maybe the orb is lying... but it can't lie... but it can mislead. That means maybe it hasn't happened yet. Maybe there's still time... But it looks like I have to do it... so go before it's too late. I remember he is probably talking about saving Susan. I thought I had already done that... maybe not good enough. I tell Roland I will get her to safety. Roland says he will have to be gone, he tells me to please make sure Susan is safe. He says he would wait for her forever, but his destiny lies elsewhere. I am not sure what he is talking about, but I figure I had better get to Susan if the wizard glass has already shown me rescuing her.

Charyou Tree
I am in what looks like a town out of a western movie. It is dark out, and the moon is full and shining brightly. There are people standing around and yelling. There is a cart being pulled down the street. Everyone is throwing stuff at the cart and yelling charyou tree. There is a corpse driving the cart, or a woman who looks like a corpse. That is Rhea, the witch who had the wizard's glass for too long. There is a woman standing in the back of the cart, her hands are tied in front of her. That's Susan Delgado.

They're taking her to the bonfire to burn her. That was what Roland had been looking at in my previous dream. I wonder how I can manage to stop it. I wonder what Roland has already seen in the wizard glass. The cart passes by me and the crowd falls in behind it, yelling and throwing things at it. I follow after the cart and the crowds, everyone is still chanting charyou tree. The cart pulls ahead of the crowd, pulling ahead to where the bonfire is set up with stuffy guy dummies all over it. They're carrying Susan to the pile, throwing her on it. A woman is yelling at her, calling her a whore. They have torches. They're about to light the fire. I wonder how everyone got filled with so much hate. I know for a fact that isn't their natural state. Maybe it's something Rhea did to them... and maybe I can fix it. I use a song spell to try to drain it away... and distract everyone from the burning at the same time. I use the song Touch My Heart from the Devil Hunter soundtrack, focusing it on spreading positive energy through everyone. The song plays out loudly in the night, and it does get everyone's attention. I go over and get between the people with the torches and Susan. Susan's aunt Cordelia seems more resistant to the positive energy than the others. While most everyone is looking rather disoriented she is still trying to urge them on. So I focus the energy of the song on her specifically. Soon everyone has stopped chanting, the only one who still wants to burn Susan is Rhea. I direct the final part of the song at Rhea, I wonder if it could be the energy from the wizard's glass that is making her behave as she is. When the positive energy surrounds Rhea, however, she just gets more angry. When the song is over everyone is looking disoriented. Someone finally speaks up. It is a man who says the witch has been using them. Now people are getting mad at Rhea. I untie Susan, who seems more concerned about Roland than herself. I wonder what effect this will have on the story... Rhea is calling curses at everyone, but has become more concerned with getting out of there. She steers the horse and cart around and rides through the crowd.

The people scatter to clear the path before they get run down. Rhea disappears down the street, still yelling curses. People are starting to talk to each other now, they are talking about a witch that is more powerful than Rhea, some are worried about Rhea's curses. I tell one of those people that the positive energy from my song will keep the curses away. I'm not sure how I know this, but it sounds true. Susan is thanking me for saving her, she wants to go meet up with Roland. I'm not sure what to tell her about that, since it seemed to me Roland had already chosen his quest for the tower over a life with Susan. I walk with Susan through the crowd. None of them can look her in the eye, some of them are murmuring apologies, Cordelia is beside herself trying to apologize… she says the witch Rhea had used them all, and she can't believe what they had been about to do… Susan isn't paying much attention to her aunt, she wants to go to Roland. She says she knows where Roland will be, she will go meet him there. Him and Sheemie, they'll all get away together. Susan and I are now clear of the crowd. I wonder what to do now, but it isn't up to me, I wake up.