New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

04/16/13

Field of Dreams
I am lying on a blanket in a green field, I have just entered a WILD. The field is a very nice place, and a gentle breeze is blowing across the grass. I see I am alone in the field. I try to get up but there seems to be something holding me down. I can't move. I wonder if I am experiencing sleep paralysis. That seems odd, I haven't had a problem with that in the past. I try again to get up, but when I find I can't move, I decide to let myself relax and enjoy the feel of the soft grass beneath me and the gentle breeze blowing over me.

But I feel like I'm not alone… so I don't want to stay still. I look around and I don't see anyone. But I feel them there. I lie back in the grass and try to feel who might be around me. I sense hostile intent. I don't like the idea of being in sleep paralysis and surrounded by enemies. So I focus on the song Dark Power of Abyss and try to do an Immortal Fire. The spell goes off, though it isn't as powerful as it usually is since I can't move. What it does do is break my sleep paralysis so I can get up. I look around and I don't see anyone, there is no sign that there was anyone there at all. I focus on opening a portal to the moon, I remember plans to continue healing. A portal opens and I go through to the balancing pools. When I get there I see that Nomad is already there, as is Winter. I go over to Winter and focus healing energy through her, hoping to keep her fibromyalgia under control. I direct healing energy to Nomad's foot to get rid of the remnants of the sores he has there. After that is done I sink into the balancing pools. It is very relaxing. I sink into the warm water and fall asleep in the dream. 

The Goblin King
I am with a group of other people at the entrance to a castle. I recognize the people I am with. Nomad, Spike, Bakura, Altaïr are all there. What I notice is that while I recognize them all, everyone looks like a Templar. I look like a Templar. I wonder why we are all dressed as Templars. Templars are a dream sign, so I do a reality check and become fully lucid. There is a group of Templars going into the castle, and we go into the castle with that group. No one notices us there and the gates close behind us. Nomad says we have to find out where the Goblin King is being held. I look around for some sign that might tell me where he might be. I see one door that has a couple Templar guards on each side of it. I wonder if that might be where we need to go. It doesn't look like they're even letting Templars through the door. I get over closer to them and notice they are watching me closely. I focus on reading them telepathically. The door does indeed lead to a dungeon, and that is where the Goblin King is locked up. They are under orders to keep everyone out except for a select few Templars. It also appears that the guards are under orders to kill the prisoner if there is any sign of a rescue attempt. I move on before anyone becomes too suspicious. I tell the others I know where the Goblin King is being held. I am thinking one of us will have to disguise ourselves as a specific Templar when I see someone approaching the door. I pull invisibility cloaks from my pockets and pass them around, we slip through the door behind the Templar guard that they allow through. On the way down to the dungeon Altaïr takes out the single Templar, who has a key to the lower areas. The dungeon is empty except for the Goblin King and a couple more Templars guarding his cell.

Nomad takes out one of the guards and Spike takes out the other. Inside the cell we find there is a goblin chained to the far wall, he looks very cranky. After letting him know who we are we try to unlock the chains, but the key doesn't fit. I use the Harry Potter unlock spell alohamora to open the locks and free the prisoner. He is clearly not in the mood to make a stealthy exit… he charges out of the room like he thinks he can take on every Templar in the place by himself. We follow him out of the dungeon and get to the main level of the castle just as he is bursting through the door into the main courtyard. Nomad fires off a flare, no doubt indicating it is ok to make a move now. I hear a commotion from outside the castle, it sounds like there is an army attacking the castle. The Goblin King is under attack, though no one is attacking the rest of us since we still look like Templars. I use Battery and call down lightning to strike Templars as they attack the Goblin King. No one seems to know exactly where the lightning is coming from. They notice when it appears several Templars are helping the Goblin King, however. Something is smashing at the main gate of the castle. Nomad gets over near the gate and pulls the lever that opens it, allowing a swarm of goblins into the castle. Now everything is chaos. I make sure to switch back to my usual Assassin robes, I don't want to be a target for the goblins. I use the song Damage, Inc. to call fireballs to hit Templars. The fight doesn't take long before the entire place is overrun by goblins. I see a portal in the back of the castle with the last few Templars retreating through it. The portal closes just before the goblins reach it. I am thinking that must be the last of them, and it is here I wake.

03/28/13

Back to the Night
I am with some other people in a barren place, there is no sign of life anywhere near us. I look around and see who is with me. It looks like a quest group from DDO. I am dressed like a paladin in black armor with a large sword, Nomad is decked out in black armor and has a big axe… There are other people there, too, I see someone who is a humanoid fox. I think it must be Pablo. I see him as his long fluffy tail disappears down into a cave entrance. Others are following. I follow the group, not noticing everyone who is with us. I do catch a glimpse of Spike dressed in leather armor, black leather armor, he is looking HOT!

We all descend into the darkness, into the caves. The caves are like an endless labyrinth of passages. I hear the screams of people being tortured echoing through the passages, screams of pain I wish I could block out of my mind. We explore through the halls and find an area that looks like a prison of some kind. There are cages with people locked up inside, the people aren't all human. In fact I don't think any of them are purely human. I see some centaurs in a cage much too small for them to hardly move,

a tank of foul looking water with merpeople in it, some bird cages with fairies locked inside them. There is a guard pacing down the hallway between the cages, periodically stopping to mock or taunt the prisoners and laugh. The guard looks partly like a demon and partly like a Templar… a Templar bastard… my first thought is to want to get rid of him, but before I do something stupid I see another guard there. If I'd attacked the first one the second one would have sounded an alarm and alerted every Templar in the place. Instead I see the humanoid fox sneak right up behind the Templar guard and snag the keys right off of him without being noticed. Pablo brings the keys back and we start unlocking cages as the guards pass, letting prisoners quietly out. I open a portal to the healing glen, the prisoners go through to safety. This is going smoothly until we reach an area with some giants chained to the walls. The giants aren't content to be silently released. As Nomad unlocks one of them he pulls free and tries to step on one of the demon Templars. An alarm goes off and a fight ensues. The demon Templars are coming from all directions. I am focused on the fight now, using my sword to cut down Templars near me and using Battery by Metallica to call down bolts of lightning on those farther back. We fight to hold off the Templars just long enough to allow the prisoners to be evacuated to the healing glen. Once all the prisoners we have found are free we follow them through the portal, closing it immediately behind us so the Templars can't follow. I look around the healing glen but then I wake.
 
Halls of Healing
I am at the balancing pools on the moon with Nomad. He is relaxing in the water, cleansing some disgusting stuff off of him. I focus healing energy into his foot, focusing on making the healing proceed quickly. I think the problem I have with dream healing is sometimes I quit before the healing is done… so I won't do that this time, keep healing it until it is completely gone. Nomad wants to go somewhere else, says something about Templars wanting to destroy us, have us end up dead, in prison, or in a loony bin… I tell him they can't touch us here in the dream state. He says he hates them for what they've done. I tell him to try not to, I let my hate go too far and I sent people to the Dark Realm, a place no one should ever see. It is poison that will kill us just as surely as direct Templar attacks. He says it is time to go back to the Temple of Angels to be healed. I tell him we could probably both use healing. I open a portal focused on getting to where he wanted to go. On the other side of the portal we are in a temple in the clouds.

There are angels there, they have healing potions. There is someone else there with us, a man who looks to be part bat… a form of batman? He looks familiar, and Nomad clearly knows him, refers to him as Koomo. I try to remember who Koomo is, my mind isn't entirely clear about it, though I am sure we have seen him in dreams before. Koomo is thanking us for helping free his people from some demon wraith. He says he has gifts… for me? I don't feel I have done anything to deserve gifts, but it feels like a bad idea to refuse… he gives me a golden amulet with a dark crystal in it, says it will help keep the dark and light energies balanced. When I touch it, it forms into large raven wings on my back. He also hands me a bracelet, golden with a dark crystal, that transforms into a snake with jet black eyes. He hands me a golden tiara that also has black crystals in it, I feel a bit disoriented when I put it on, he says that is normal, he says something about sonar…

what the tiara has given me is the eagle vision off of the Assassin's Creed games, I can see the auras of people around me, all of them in the area are glowing blue, indicating allies. I find I can will my vision back to normal. I thank Koomo for the gifts, but he says he has one more… but I have to fight him for it. He tells me to fight him. He throws an attack at me, which I dodge before taking to the sky. He is fighting me with a spear. I figure it is a good chance to try out what he just gave me. He attacks with the spear and I use the snake whip to pull it away from him. He dives to the ground, disappearing into a vast labyrinth that seems to radiate darkness. Maybe this is just a test to see if I can use what he gave me… so I activate eagle vision, and I can see him in the dark maze. His aura is now a swirl of blue and gold, indicating he is a target, but still an ally… which seems appropriate to the situation. So I dive into the maze and there is a fight between Zoomo and me, which he finally concedes I have won. I help him up. The spear he has been fighting with turns into a glowing ball of energy, which he says will form into anything I need at the time… armor, weapons… the golden energy flows around and fuses with my Witchblade, the Witchblade bracelet glowing with a golden light. Zoomo says something to Nomad, and I hear him saying something about his planet needing healing. I tell him I would be glad to help with that if I can. He says any healing would be helpful after the damage the demon wraith did during its rule. I make it a plan to do what I can there. We enter a chamber that is very relaxing, that must be one of the healing chambers… I am surrounded by some kind of comfort I can't really describe, and I fall asleep in the dream.
 
World Concert
I am flying in my Fire Valkyrie over a place I don't recognize. I look down and see there are cities down below, I still am not sure where I am, but I have a feeling as to what I need to be doing here. This place has too much negative energy, unstable negative energy, and I am here to help with that. So I broadcast a song out over the cities and mountains, broadcasting it so everyone can hear it. Transmitting through every receiver within range, which is every receiver in the world. I am broadcasting the song Touch My Heart. I follow that song with Liberate by Disturbed, and another anime song, Full Moonlight. The planet wide concert doesn't really take very long, but I can see the positive energy flowing over the surface down below as the healing songs have their intended effect. As the last song finishes I head back out into space, flying out through a solar system I don't recognize before I finally wake up.

03/27/13

Pools of Healing
I am in my room, in bed. Someone is yelling at me. That is all I am aware of at first. Who is it? I open my eyes and see there is a single Templar beside my bed and he seems to be in a bad mood. But I notice he doesn't seem to be sending off the attacks I have come to expect. He is asking questions. He wants to know something. I assume I know what he is talking about, but I assume wrong. I expect he will be wanting to know where I have hidden the thing I stole from them, instead he is asking what I did to someone. The three Templars that went through that portal aren't acting normal at all, what is wrong with them? I am a bit annoyed at this Templar being here yelling at me, my first reaction is to tell him I'll show him what I did to those other three… he falls silent and takes a step back, clearly not liking that idea. My mind clears and I remember that there were three Templars I got pissed at and sent to the Dark Realm. I'm not about to send another one there, but I am glad the idea of it has made him shut up. In fact I remember I had plans to get those three out of the Dark Realm, no one deserves to be left there. But first to the moon. I focus on opening a portal, and it opens right away. The Templar moves away from the portal. I tell him it leads to the balancing pools on the moon, not the Dark Realm… and then I go through the portal. I get to the other side and it is right next to the balancing pools.

Nomad is already in one of the pools and appears to be relaxing. I get into the pool and focus healing energy on his foot where he still has some sores, though the injuries look like they're improving. After doing that I let myself sink through the warm relaxing waters to the bottom of the pool where I am having no difficulty breathing the water. It smells fresh and clean. I am relaxing there as I fall asleep.

Out of the Darkness
I am with Nomad, Link, Altaïr, and Spike. I immediately don't like the place. We are in what looks like an underground hallway, part of a labyrinth perhaps, a long stone corridor that is illuminated only by torches set in the walls. The passage is stiflingly hot, the stone walls are practically too hot to touch. The look of the place isn't what I find worst about it, however. It's the sounds. From seemingly all around come the echoing sounds of people screaming in pain, like someone is being tortured. I wait for a moment for my mind to clear and then I remember I am actually there to get three people out, because this is probably the area of the Dark Realm they have been brought to. I sent them here, I need to get them out. I notice everyone else is wearing black, black versions of the usual Assassin robes, and I realize that is much harder to see against the dark stone than the white ones I have. So I change my white ones to black.

Someone I don't recognize comes down the hall, my first impression is that she is a Templar. But she seems to be helping us… well maybe she would be since the goal is to retrieve three Templars from the Dark Realm. She says she found the way through the labyrinth. There is a torture chamber, she shudders but offers no further description. Another scream of pain echoes through the halls making further description unnecessary. She says there are more than three of them there, she wasn't aware of which ones were the Templars I had sent here and who the others were. I figure it doesn't matter… if they're prisoners here they need to get out. We all follow the woman down some halls to a room of nightmares. I see a sight I am sure I have seen before. A man is naked in a metal cage over a fire, his skin is blistering and cracking as it burns, his face is a mask of pain but he is silent. Nomad says they will see about getting more free before we're discovered, though that probably won't take long. I go over to the man in the cage, he is not even aware of my presence. There is a demon of some kind watching him, completely absorbed by the sight. The demon is not paying any attention to me. The demon looks almost like a human, in fact if I hadn't already known it was a demon I might have thought it was a Templar… but a Templar wouldn't be torturing another Templar, would he? I charge my hidden blade with light energy and sneak up behind the demon, pumping him full of the stuff before he can sound an alarm. I open the cage with the half-dead Templar in it. There were three I sent here… where are the other two? I find the other two near where the first one was. The second one is another man, he is impaled on a pike that is set in fire… burning and impaled… and a demon is watching that. There is a woman in a small pit hogtied and there are bugs all over her, nasty demonic looking things, eating her alive… another demon is observing.

Somewhere around here someone must have gotten some attention, however, as the demons depart their posts and began gathering somewhere. I take that opportunity to get the other two free. I focus healing energy on them, healing up burns, bites, and other injuries, and blocking any pain. I see the others are there, and they have more prisoners with them. They are in an alcove, and I see there are demons searching the place. They seem a bit confused, and not sure where to find the intruders. The rescued prisoners all look like they're still in shock from their experience, they aren't very responsive. Nomad says they need more healing, and opens a portal to the Healing Glen where the crystal golem takes care of those who have been seriously hurt more than just physically. I'm not sure how many prisoners we rescued, though I am sure the three Templars I sent to the Dark Realm are the three I got out. I am thinking there are still more of them back in the prison, more of them that shouldn't be left there… but I'll not be getting them out now, I wake up.

I think for some reason Nomad wanted to fight the Crystal Golem… whatever. I stayed with Spike and contributed my healing energy to his recovery.

I stayed by Spike's side for a while, I had the idea I was going to wake up. Well, this time would no doubt mean I was waking up for real since I have never succeeded in doing two time dilations in one dream before. But hell, there was nothing to lose by trying it again… I wondered exactly how long I could spend in just one dream doing time dilations over and over before I reached the limits of the laws of physics and could go no farther… I wondered if there was a limit other than my own abilities… would trying to dilate time too much create problems? So I focused on using Allura's method of time dilation again. That wasn't working… if anything it seemed to be causing the dream to go more unstable, which was the same thing that had happened last time I had tried to dilate time for a second time in a single dream.

Ok, I would give it one more shot… I put my right hand on the ground and tried to focus on it… my hand looked blurry, I wasn't able to focus on that… so I turned and focused on Spike… he was part of the dream… I could see the rest of the dreamscape… ok, that part was good. Now what, count? Yeah, the next part was to count and focus on each count extending time, I wasn't sure if I would get that right or not, and focusing on everything at once was getting a bit disorienting, which was making the dream slip more. I forced myself to resume my focus, then count, 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… Spike, the healing glen, this minute in waking life stretching out to allow for more minutes of dream to fit into it… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10. I was still crouched on the ground, I could vaguely sense my physical body in bed as I tried to hold onto the dream. I stood up in the glen, trying to get my dream body in a position as different from my physical body as possible… I didn't want to sense my physical body… I heard a voice, please tell me it isn't a waking voice… that some asshole was about to wake me up…

But it was the Crystal Golem, he was coming back to check on Spike, he asked if I was ok, he said I didn't look well. My attention was redirected at the Crystal Golem, and the dream stabilized as I was distracted from the sensation of my physical body. I wasn't sure if that counted as successfully using Walms' method of time dilation or not, since I had been sure I was about to lose the dream until the Crystal Golem had directed my attention back into it… The Crystal Golem was saying Spike would be fine now, but he could not truly be safe until we went back and defeated the Vampire King once and for all. The Vampire King? He had called himself Death… but I really didn't care what the asshole called himself, he would not be going after Spike again. Nomad was with the Crystal Golem, he said he was ready to kick some ass. Our Spike said he would teach that bastard what he could really do. Pablo seemed somewhat hesitant to come, I don't think he liked the idea of fighting Death (which was still how I was thinking of him) again. So this time the Crystal Golem opened a portal and those of us who wanted to fight went through…

On the other side we were in the desert again, I looked around to see who was with us, I saw Nomad, Altaïr, Spike, and Angel with me… where had MoSh gone? Had he woken up? As if reading what I was thinking and knowing who I was looking for, Nomad said MoSh had woken up while we were back in the glen. Damn… that was one fewer people to fight this Vampire King who calls himself Death… I noticed that the midday sun was shining brightly on the land, making everything almost blindingly bright, would that have any effect on Death? If he was actually a vampire, it seemed like it would… but I realized it didn't when the ground shook and he came flying out of it like a bullet, landing on the sand in front of us looking as evil as ever, he was laughing at how we were looking at him, he said of course the sun didn't hurt him, he was Death… the king of the vampires. I said I wasn't amazed that the sun didn't hurt him… what I was amazed at was that I had just discovered a life form that can exist and function without the presence of a brain! That clearly pissed him off a bit, and now more bats poured out of the darkness below and flew right into Death, into his cloak, becoming part of him… there was no doubt about it, this guy was made of bats! As the bats continued to add themselves to him, his power level was increasing and he was also physically growing until he was about 20 feet tall, blood dripping from his fangs, eyes glowing red… um… I wondered if he had actually put any effort into his powers or if he just wanted to look scary.

So the fight started. He unleashed hoards of the bats now, from inside his cloak, they were all glowing with dark energy auras, and those auras made me think of something… Walms might want to kick this guy's ass! So I telepathically tried to contact Walms, I was hoping it wouldn't wake him up as my telepathy has done in the past, I was trying to be careful with it… As I was focusing on contacting Walms, the enemy had grown to about double his original size… more bats had been flooding from the ground and adding themselves to his mass, so now he was about 40 feet tall… I felt a contact of some kind, had I gotten through to Walms? Hopefully I had… I told him that there was an epic fight just starting where I was, so if he wanted in on it, get out here, and there was some yummy dark energy in it for him… the response I felt I was getting was confusion, and a response sounding like, "Who the hell are you?" That took me by surprise, I thought he would have recognized my energy since we've shared several dreams, but whatever… I identified myself as Raven Knight and said there were snacks in the form of dark energy covered bats… and one really big guy that was creating the smaller snacks, he could be dinner. Walms seemed to be about to give me a response… then I lost all contact… he had woken up. Damn! Of course after the confused response I had gotten I was wondering if I had actually gotten through to Walms at all…

So I turned my attention back to Death, he had picked Spike up in one hand and was laughing at him, it seemed he thought none of us could be a considerable threat to him… there were thousands of bats attacking us, so I summoned a natural enemy of the bat… there were large insects in the area that were a lot like praying mantises, and they came and attacked the bats in huge numbers. Nomad had also done a summoning, and a huge flock of black birds dove from the sky and attacked the bats… there was a battle raging in the sky, the other creatures of the desert were just as anxious to banish Death as we were, I'd contacted the insects but I was not exerting any control over them… they were attacking completely of their own free will. Angel was creating walls of white fire that were incinerating the bats on contact, Death was still over there laughing because we were so busy with the bats that we hadn't even gotten close to him…

Well, it was time to change that. The birds and insects were keeping most of the bats busy now, Death was holding Spike up for everyone to see and saying he was just going to have to crush our friend like the gnat he was. That was much easier said than done, however. Out of nowhere Altaïr came from above and literally cut the hand that was holding Spike clean off. Spike, of course, got free easily and jumped up and onto Death's back, quickly striking at the exposed target, tearing into Death's neck and drawing his energy right out. Death was roaring incoherently in pain and rage, trying to reach back and grab Spike… if he was weakened, he would be opened to attack… so I called scarabs, flesh eating beetles, from the ground to cover Death, consuming the flesh right off of him, Nomad was bathing Death in flames at the same time. The scarabs didn't seem to notice the flames, their carapaces were protecting them while Death was being burned. When the scarabs were finished and the flames passed, there was nothing left of Death than a charred skeleton… but he still would not die! He just kept yelling maniacally that he was Death, the Vampire King, and nothing could kill him! He could never die!

Death was trying to crush whoever was at his feet, we all got clear of him, Angel was firing some kind of white light directly into Death's eyes which seemed to be both hurting and blinding him at the same time. While she was doing that a couple of Nomad's ravens swooped down and plucked the eyeballs from their sockets… yuck… and dropped them into the sand, where Death proceeded to step on his own eyes by accident… also yuck… Nomad was blasting Death with what looked like acid, it was smoking and dissolving the bones on contact, Death was screaming something incoherent again… maybe I could hurry his demise along.

There were tiny worms in the desert… worms that fed on the bones of animals that had died in the desert, so I called some of them, basically ringing the dinner bell for them. They came out and burrowed into Death's heel bone, Nomad was giving me a strange look, I said they would infect and consume the bones. Nomad turned into a huge dog and was gnawing on one of Death's bones, an arm bone, while it was still attached. Nomad tore the bone off and ran off a ways and buried it, he seemed to be finding this to be an amusing game.

I saw the signs of the worms spreading out from the place where they had entered, causing a spider web network of cracks to form throughout Death's entire bone structure. The bones crumbled as the bones were consumed, I could understand some of what Death was saying, he was saying this wasn't possible, he was immortal, he was Death, he was the Vampire King… and then he turned to dust and blew away on the desert wind.

There was movement around us, there were still some bats around. We didn't attack them, I figured they were without a leader now and would just return to the safety of the caves. But they were not doing that, instead they gathered around Spike, changed to their vampire forms, and bowed to Spike. They were all hailing him as Spike, the Vampire King. I wasn't sure what had happened, but one of the vampires answered Nomad who also seemed a bit confused. One of the vampires, an attractive female, came over and said the old Vampire King was dead… and the one to have most recently drank of his blood was Spike, so that meant the crown would be passed on to Spike for his part in the demise of the Vampire King Death. The vampires seemed quite pleased to see the last of Death... I looked at Spike, surrounded by his worshippers… he looked a bit awkward there, but wasn't showing it much… He told them they could stop bowing, the sun did seem to be draining their energy, so Spike told them to get back down below before they all burned up.

Spike came over to me and commented that his being the Vampire King was certainly unexpected… he then added that he had already chosen his queen. He kissed me. I felt the dream slipping again. I'm not sure how long I could extend a dream for, but this time I didn't fight it, I was kissing Spike as I woke.

I had said something about checking back on MoSh to see if he wanted to go on an adventure, but I figured I could accomplished another task of the month for Mortal Mist in the process. I would go through a mirror to get back to the biodome!

So with the goal of going through a mirror to get back into the biodome, and thus back to MoSh, I summoned a mirror right in front of Pablo and myself. The mirror was a full body mirror, oval in shape, and it was sitting up off of the ground on a stand. It would easily make a large enough portal for Pablo and me to go through. I am not very familiar with using mirrors for travel, so I tried a couple of times… I tried touching the mirror… it was solid. I then focused on making the surface of the mirror fluid, picturing it as if it weren't solid but instead was the perfectly still surface of a pool of water, so when it was touched it would ripple. I visualized that clearly in my mind and then reached out and touched the mirror again. I got the ripples I was looking for. So now I just had to set the destination. I focused on the portal leading to the hot springs in the biodome. As I was focusing, the mirror changed from a still reflective surface to an actual portal in the mirror… I thought that looked really cool, a wormhole starting at the mirror… so I picked up the Pablo fox, held him close against my body so we wouldn't possibly get separated, and stepped through the mirror into the wormhole.

The ride through the wormhole was a rather wild one, like going on a really intense roller coaster… only much faster than any roller coaster I have ever experienced. The wormhole seemed awfully long considering that the distance between the surface of the moon and the biodome isn't that far… It seemed to me that in that case it was senseless to use a wormhole since it seemed to be taking much longer than just teleporting there or using a normal portal. But whatever, I wasn't in a huge hurry, and the ride was rather fun… or at least I thought it was fun… the fox in my arms looked a little nauseated… and then we finally came out the other side of the portal… and fell down over a desert, I landed on the back of a horse… wtf? I was on Stardust's back, Pablo was clinging to me, no doubt as surprised by this turn of events as I was. I looked around and saw I wasn't alone, Nomad was with us… so was Angel… and MoSh… and Altaïr… Spike… they were also riding horses… and we were being chased by Templars also on horses… what the hell was going on here? I had set a portal to go to the biodome and now I was here…

Ok, while I wasn't sure what was going on or how I had ended up here, it was pretty clear that I would have to fight the Templars… I rode over closer to MoSh and asked him what was going on, had Nomad found him in the biodome? Were Asuka and the kids ok? He gave me a strange look, but I didn't have time to think about that, Templars were shooting arrows at us. I moved away from MoSh and started throwing fireballs at the Templars. Nomad was throwing white blasts of energy, MoSh was throwing what looked like small daggers that were sparking with a green light… We were doing that, then suddenly Angel jumped from her horse, pulled out a couple of short swords, and proceeded to hop from horse to horse, killing the Templar on the back of each horse before moving on. She soon got back to the rest of us and got back on her horse, which had continued running the whole time. I used Battery and called down lightning to strike as many Templars as possible, taking them out while leaving their mounts unharmed. I didn't want to hurt the horses… We rode farther across the desert until we came to an enormous sink hole… we got off our horses to investigate. The horses were getting fatigued, well Stardust wasn't, but the others just had normal horses… I looked and saw the Templars' horses had continued following us even though they had no riders. I focused on teleporting them… not sure where, but I could see that it had lots of green grass and plentiful water… it looked like paradise for horses. All of the horses disappeared, including Stardust.

Nomad was looking down into the sinkhole with obvious interest, he said he wanted to jump in it. I asked why, pointing out we had no idea where it might lead, he said it didn't matter since we were dreaming and could not be hurt. I felt movement under my Assassin's robes, which I was finally able to take the time to notice I had the Assassin's robes on, and I realized Pablo had burrowed down under the robes to where he apparently felt safe… or as safe as possible. All of the others were dressed in Assassin's robes, too. Altaïr commented that not all of them were dreamers, Angel, Spike, and himself were not dreaming… but at the same time he didn't really have any objections to exploring someplace new… he did that all the time. What's the worst that could happen? MoSh said death, Altaïr said no, death is not the worst thing that can happen, some things are much worse than death. Spike said he couldn't die since he was already dead. Nomad had already made up his mind and jumped into the sinkhole, I figured I had better follow him, and everyone else apparently decided to follow the both of us.

The sand was flowing through a hole at the bottom and into a cave underneath, I grabbed onto a ledge with a tendril of Witchblade… and felt claws digging into my stomach as Pablo grabbed onto me with his claws… then some weight hanging off of me as Altaïr had grabbed hold of me… Spike flew over the hole in the ground and landed on solid ground at the opening of a cave. Altaïr jumped to that ledge and also climbed out, Angel floated over there, Nomad and MoSh both flew over and Witchblade pulled me up with the tendril. So now we were all in the entrance of a cave watching sand fall past us just outside the cave… it seemed the sand must eventually stop, there couldn't be an infinite amount of sand… but the only way for us to go was forward.

I took a couple minutes to disengage Pablo's claws from my stomach… ow… and then I set the fox down, he immediately changed into a state that was half human and half fox, looking something like Fox McCloud from the Starfox games. He looked over at me and said he was sorry about the thing with the claws, it had just been an instinctive reaction, I told him not to worry about it as I quickly healed the stinging cuts in my stomach. So the group of us started walking down the passage, through the dark caves, we couldn't see much. We groped along a bit longer, I heard Angel up ahead saying something was hers… it sounded like Gollum talking about the ring of doom, I almost expected her to demand someone give her back her precious. Wtf? I also heard Nomad curse… something was going on around us, I needed to see what. I adjusted my eyesight to see in the dark… I did that a bit too soon, because a blindingly bright light extended from Nomad as he tried to light the area, I couldn't see anything! I heard a commotion all around us, sounded like a lot of bats, he had probably stirred up some sleeping bats… way to go… I finally got my sight back, and the bats weren't running for a darker part of the cave, they were viciously attacking us… scratching and biting… something was odd about their energy. Their energy was off because they weren't typical bats, they were vampire bats… and I don't mean the kind of bat that drinks a small amount of blood and moves on, I meant the type of bat some types of vampire are able to transform into… Nomad formed a shield around all of us just as I was about to use Enter Sandman, I told him to drop it long enough to do the spell… he looked at me strangely, then dropped it, and I activated the spell… the whirlwind of dark and light energy pulled a lot of the bats into it, burning them as it did, and the others headed off in different directions through small passages in the cave.

So now all of us were in the cave alone, we were actually in a small chamber rather than just another extent of cave, and there were many exits from the chamber. The only problem was that most of the exits were much too small for us to fit through, at least too small to fit through in our current forms. Someone asked what had been with those bats… I said those weren't bats, they were vampires, we had somehow wandered into a vampire lair. There were four passages that we were able to fit through. One of those was where we had come from, the other three were new and unexplored. MoSh and Spike went left, Nomad and Angel went right, Altaïr, Pablo, and I went straight. We traveled for a short distance before emerging into a huge chamber, there were platforms hanging precariously over molten magma, it looked like it was a volcano… if it erupted, those platforms were history… but for now it looked like a bad platformer game. There was a man on the highest platform, he was dressed in a dark cloak and completely covered, he was mouthing off about how we had made a big mistake to disturb him… but he had been expecting us.

This is the first time I really noticed that I was alone… Pablo and Altaïr were gone, probably they sensed the hostility in this creature just as I did, and they were getting into a good position to respond to an attack. I saw Nomad and Angel emerge from a cave and onto a platform to my right, Spike and MoSh emerged on my left… all roads lead to this hell hole… The cloaked figure turned around and faced us, he seemed to be looking mostly at me since I was in the middle, and he said he was assuming we had come to get our friend back… he indicated a cage hanging over the tallest platform, there was a man in the cage who looked an awful lot like Spike… but that was impossible, Spike was right here… I looked to my left to reassure myself Spike was still there with MoSh, which he was. I figured the one in the cage must be a twinner… The cloaked figure continued to say he would be glad to let our friend go, after we defeated him. So it was going to be a fight! His loss… or very soon it would be his loss… Nomad wanted to know who the fuck he was, and he just said he was known as Death.

So the fight started then, Death appeared to be made entirely of bats… he grew in size and then released a cloud of bats from his cloak, more bats than could possibly have fit in that cloak, and they all attacked us. I used Enter Sandman again, creating another whirlwind to destroy the bats closest to us… and then they all turned back to their master, re-joining him. I saw Altaïr and Pablo were right behind Death, each of them had a hidden blade stuck into Death's back… He was pissed and in pain, trying to reach back for them, but not getting anywhere… Now everyone there combined out attacks. MoSh was a naga, breathing green flames on the asshole right as Pablo and Altaïr jumped clear… Angel fired a white arrow, Nomad threw something that looked like a spear, Spike popped up right in front of him, which clearly caused him quite a surprise to see Spike healthy and free, and sucked the energy out of him… and then he collapsed and turned to dust. As the dust blew away I could hear Death's voice saying he would never die… for Death is immortal.

I flew over to the cage that the other Spike was in and forced the lock open, then I flew in and landed beside Spike, he looked horrible. He was battered and beaten horribly, parts of his flesh were hanging off in loose chunks… yuck… he looked deader than undead… I got beside him and spoke his name, he weakly looked up at me and managed a small smile. He called me Buffy, and said he knew I would come… the Vampire King had said I wouldn't, he had said no one would care what happened, but he had known all along that I would come. I didn't see the point in arguing that I wasn't Buffy… he needed blood, that much was clear, and a lot more healing than that could do… I commented to Spike that he needed to feed, he said nah… he wasn't hungry… he was being sarcastic… I told him to bite me, and take some of my blood. He said no, with the state he was in he wasn't certain he could stop himself before he took too much. I told him not to worry about that, it was complicated and I would explain later, but I wasn't the Buffy he knows, and there is no way he can kill me here. He looked at me blankly. I repeated to him to not be stubborn, to go ahead and bite me, dammit, and drink some of my blood. He finally did. If I had been a normal human, I think it probably would have killed me… but I also think he could have stopped. He paused a time or two to check on me, and only took more when he realized it had not had any ill effect on me. He finally stopped, he looked some better, but he was still in desperate need of healing. Everyone was there with me now, and I opened a portal to the healing glen…

On the other side we were in the healing glen, I heard the sound of the Crystal Golem approaching, shaking the ground as he approached. He wouldn't be sneaking up on anyone… I called out to him that we'd been in a big fight, and needed his healing! Nomad prepared his weapon… um… why was he going to threaten the Crystal Golem? I told Nomad there was no need to fight here… I thought maybe he had lost lucidity. The Crystal Golem said he would heal Spike… He applied some herbs, did some energy work, and then he and Nomad headed off to do something… I think for some reason Nomad wanted to fight the Crystal Golem… whatever. I stayed with Spike and contributed my healing energy to his recovery.

To be continued…

Note: My plans tonight included having a DDO dream with Tigress, meeting up with Walms so he could play games with L, and meeting up with MoSh to talk to his guide. I have actually been losing motivation to keep trying for a WILD… I decided to take a break and just go to sleep. So I didn't try for or get a WILD.

I was in my house. I was sitting and watching television with my mother. I looked at the show on the screen. It was about these people who had learned the secret to flight. Flight just through the power of their minds. It looked very simple to learn, too. I wondered if I could learn it… I decided I had nothing to lose by trying. I told my mom I was going outside for a bit. She asked me to bring the mail in. I grabbed the remote for our gate and went out. I tested the technique a bit. (No, I don't really remember the technique any more… ) I found I was being able to fly a bit. It could really work! I found that idea amazing! I quickly grabbed the mail… a lot of junk and bills… and took it to my mother. She wasn't impressed by the mail. I told her I was taking a flig… er… walk. She said fine. I went back outside and flew more. I managed to get into the air completely. It worked! I was flying! Yay! (Um… possibly a good time for a RC here? )

I started flying over the desert down below. It was beautiful. Flying felt wonderful. Just as good as it ever had been in dreams. (RC here? ) I was gliding along and I decided to go faster. I flew faster and faster, it was way fun! I finally slowed down. I looked down at the desert below. I saw something strange. There were a lot of cactuses together. It looked really weird. Like the cactuses were forming a building of some kind. I flew down to take a closer look. I had found something interesting… I was looking around the cactus building, looking for some sign of what it was. I found an entrance and looked inside. I then jumped about ten feet in the air as someone behind me spoke.

"You do know you're dreaming," Spike said, "don't you, luv?"

"No! I can fly in my waking life now!" I was so excited to be telling Spike this… so excited to see Spike IWL… Wait a minute… Spike was in the sun! Vampires can't be in the sun! "Spike! You're in the sun! Get into this weird structure of cactuses, into the shade!"

"Come on, luv," Spike said, "You know the sun doesn't affect me any more. It's been forever since that would work. What you need to be understanding is that this is a dream. Go on, do a reality check."

I looked at Spike for a bit more. A reality check? But if this was a dream that would mean I can't really fly… which would suck. But then again it would be a fully lucid dream. Ok. I did a RC and found out I was dreaming.

I looked at Spike for a bit longer. I said the fact it was a dream certainly explained a lot. I had goals to accomplish since this was a dream. First I was going to find Walms. I focused on trying to locate Walms. It felt like he was close. I turned to look into the structure of cactuses. I saw someone in there. I couldn't see him very well… was it Walms? I moved a bit into the cactus structure. The man I saw in there looked at me, fell on his ass, and then disappeared.

"Wait!" I called out too late, the man was already gone. I looked at the spot the man had vanished from, wondering if he might come back. I didn't see any sign of him. Ok… try again… locate Walms. I opened a portal this time and went through it. On the other side I was in someone's bedroom… I could hardly see anything. I felt so disoriented… so dizzy because of my strange lack of sight… and it was so disorienting that I lost the dream and woke.