Planewalkers Campaign Dreamland [10:00 PM 06/06/04 GMT]
b PLANEWALKERS CAMPAIGN DREAMLAND b br b by Arawen original story by Eric Noah b b i The party must travel into the dreams of a young coma bound boy whose dreamscape is growing into a full fledged universe and find a way to return his soul to the real world i b The Planewalkers Campaign combines a traditional fantasy setting the world of Castellar a vast declining Empire on the verge of civil war and the AD D Planescape setting Within the story characters from Castellar will discover the existence power and features of the planes of existence beyond the Earth and how they affect the destiny of the Castellar Empire The Planewalkers Campaign emphasizes roleplay and creative play in the style of pen and paper D D DM involvement is extensive The style is freeform with no scripted NPC conversations Planewalkers will meet every other Sunday at this time Most likely it will take four sessions to finish this adventure HotU SoU CEP a MB and MB hak pak are required b The Mission b Simon seems to be a typical eleven year old boy He loves his mother he plays outside and occasionally gets hurt he attends a school run by a local church in his hometown of Castellar City he has hopes fears and dreams And while some might see the deck as stacked against him he s got no father around he and his mother are poor he s rather small for his age he also has a number of things going for him he s bright mature and has a vivid imagination Simon s mother calls him a deep one someone who is thoughtful aware of what is going on around him slow to anger and very much in touch with his own feelings In the past year Simon has noticed some changes in himself besides the usual growing up changes His dreams have begun to manifest themselves very vividly almost taking on a life of their own They ve grown clearer easier to remember and are filled with rich colors and detail And they ve grown longer too some seeming to last from the first moment of sleep until his mother roused him in the morning It wasn t too long before Simon was convinced that his dreamworld was as real as the world of the awake Not that all of the dreams were good ones though far from it Many of his dreams featured horrid monsters or twisted and brutal parodies of his mother or schoolmates But for every nightmare it seemed Simon was also blessed with a good dream a re enactment of a faerie story he d heard from a bard or a fantasy in which the normally frail Simon was a robust knight in polished mail Many of his dreams good and bad featured his father who died when Simon was nine The boy still has clear memories of his father strapping on a sword and kissing his mother good bye that was the last time anyone saw him Simon s mother insisted he was killed in a war or crusade of some sort but Simon occasionally wondered if he hadn t just left them In dreamland Simon s dad played many roles sometimes his father was a gigantic hero other times he was a nasty cruel tyrant and in still others he was an animate rotting corpse While Simon was a little afraid of his new vivid dreams he was also intrigued And in order to continue his nightly adventures he felt it necessary to keep this new dimension of his life a secret from his mother Two weeks ago Simon s mother noticed it was becoming harder and harder to get Simon awake and ready for classes For the next week Simon spent the better part of each day in a daze unable to pay attention to folk around him barely able to eat Then one morning last week Simon s mother was unable to wake him She contacted clerics and doctors from her town but to no avail No one could rouse him or explain why he slept Just as she began to despair of any cure Azir a mentalist from a nearby city came to call at the request of a colleague in town After a few hours in a deep trance he was certain that Simon was trapped in his dreamworld and needed a guide to rescue him If the mentalist explained they could find someone brave enough to enter a boy s dreams Azir himself would provide the gateway between Simon s dreamworld and reality You are close friends of Keryn When you learn of his illness you proceed to his home to investigate and the adventure begins Kerynn Simon s mother is a tall blond woman who looks older than she probably is Her eyes are bloodshot and weary looking As she leads you out of the cold night air into the small clean house she turns to you I m pleased you agreed to help us I can t say I ve much hope though So many others have tried and failed You and Azir are my last chance Simon s last chance Simon s room is tiny but decorated brightly In one corner slouches as if in a drunken stupor a rag doll in a suit of armor made from scrap metal A small wooden shelf is crammed with old tattered storybooks You can make out some of the titles Dirk Steals a Sting The Legend of Avariel Seven Kuo Toan Brothers Animal Fables Tacked to a wall is a charcoal drawing of a handsome man brandishing a sword That s Simon s father He drew it from memory Kerynn looks as if she might weep Gods I can barely remember what he looked like half the time and he only died two years ago But Simon s got a good memory and a lot of talent I only hope Her eyes glisten and she turns away quickly In the center of the room is a bed piled thick with quilts and nestled within is a good looking straw haired boy of about eleven in a deep sleep A gaunt dusky skinned man with sparkling black eyes sits cross legged on the floor next to the bed He speaks in an accent that is as foreign as the turban wrapped around his head Time is short We must discuss the situation immediately if Simon s life is to be saved He looks very grim It may already be too late The mentalist introduces himself and gets right to business Between the two of them Azir and Kerynn can relate the information about Simon s strange sleep patterns over the past two weeks Azir has further information which should be read or paraphrased Much of what I am about to tell you must be accepted on faith I know that the powers of the minds are not as commonplace as those of wizards magic or priests prayers but I assure you they are real and in this case much more pertinent because this young boy possesses a great deal of natural or wild mental talent It is this talent which is at the root of his condition If he is cured he could go on to be one of the most powerful mentalists ever known When a normal person sleeps he often dreams For most of us these dreams are memories of things of the past visions of present worries or images of future aspirations or fears Without dreams we would quickly go insane To put it simply Simon is stranded in his dreams I have voyaged a short ways into his psyche and know this to be true Simon s dreams are not merely insubstantial hazy visions they have actually coalesced into a semi tangible realm I believe that Simon will eventually be able to physically enter his dreamworld and use it to travel great distances once he has control of what happens there But for now it is as if his very dreams and nightmares have come to life for him Simon is physically still with us His body rests in this very room Only his spirit has made this voyage into the world of his dreams His spirit must be rescued I have a skill which will allow you to physically enter Simon s dreamworld Once you are there I will act as the bridge between this world and his I will need to spend all of my concentration on keeping that bridge intact Once you are in you will be on your own
