Ripples, .Game, The Paladin

The first dream of the evening, that I remember, took place in my parent’s garage. N and I were visiting when I began to see softball sized ripples every few feet. It was as though the dream had slipped into a sort of 3-D screen saver. I could tell I was disturbing N by telling her about them. Mom, on the other hand, seemed to be aware of them also. Dad said he couldn’t see them either, but apparently Mom being calm about it was enough for him.

I finally found one near the potting bench and bent over to touch it. There was a kind of electric shock, a shifting of my point of view, and suddenly I was lying on the ground between the garage and the driveway, acutely aware of the tar filled gap between the two slabs, and the spittle dripping out of my mouth. I was face down, frozen and completely unable to move or respond to N’s attempts to revive me.

Dad went in to call an ambulance, Mom tried to calm N down by telling her that I was just dreaming and would eventually return to this reality when I woke up in the other world.

I wanted to wake up there, but could feel myself dreaming and in bed. I could even tell N was next to me and one of the cats was draped across my legs. I knew I was in two places a once, with the same certainty that I know I just mistyped and backspaced to correct it.  Imagine if I had these experiences while waking, or, perhaps I did have this… Ok. I’m done with this one.

I read somewhere that having too much of the B vitamins can cause this sort of hyper realistic dream experience, and may cause night terrors, or at least make them more vivid. If anyone tries an experiment with this, let me know.

Dreamed I was at a .Game event, at the player's bench, which was much like a shooting bench at a pistol range, only higher tech, before diving in to: the Paladin, my character in a massively multiplayer online game. It was full immersion, 3-D, almost, but not quite living the role. I had a shiny sword and armor, and not a lot else. I met a group that needed a living tank to help them make their way through a citadel full of the undead. We made our way across the plains into a bunch of nearby ruins. We seemed to be the only group headed into the ruins at this time. This made my companions very happy, more loot for them. Eventually we made our way into a small chapel, and the rest of the group didn’t want to go in as the altar at the far end seemed to still be active. There was a lot of undead roaming around and it looked like a couple of necromancers and their henchmen.

A glowing title appeared in front of me: The Gauntlet. I don’t slay the living, but am mercilessly violent to the undead. I make my way from the back of the chapel to the altar, slaying the mindless undead and turning others. I use my sword on the squishy ones and the shield on the dry ones. Both are very effective, but I find that I am tiring.

 I also find a couple of minions of the necromancers, but only subdue them and toss them out as prisoners. When I make my way back to the altar, the necromancer in charge of this carnage is a lovely woman. She wears a great outfit, black leather armor and purple and gold satin sleeves and leggings; it went well with her long dark hair and pasty white complexion.  Her bright red lips were full and glistening. Despite her being nicely shaped I know that evil can reside in a pretty package. I am about to thrash her soundly, when I notice the altar is still dedicated to my deity, and still powered. The necromancer explains that the spirits bound into the dead here are volunteers, willing to help further the cause of reclaiming this keep, not the evil pawns of the underworld.

Being a rather simple paladin, I am not really seeing the difference. But she shows me that the undead I destroyed and turned, were indeed evil, and the minions, who I though were alive, were really spirit beings, another form of the dead, who went along with being captured so as not to disturb my otherwise stellar performance on clearing the temple, and thank you very much, smooch, saving me!

Ok. Now I was really confused, as a character. So I goes back and convince my party that the necromancer is on our side, and we should let her minions go. If she hadn’t allowed my companions to loot the zombies and skeletons, I don’t think she would have gotten away with it.

The Party, on the way back with our loot, picked on me about being the victim of an obvious charm spell. I disagreed, pointing out the shiny altar as proof of her veracity. I find a short elf looking girl has her hands around my belt, a pick pocket! From my own party. I tie her hands up with her own undergarment (after delivering an atomic wedgie that rips said undergarment free.) She complains bitterly about how that is un-paladin like, especially laughing at her afterwards. I tell her sacrifices must sometimes be made.

Upon hearing her sad tale of woe I agree to trade everything in my pouch for her magic dagger, which she "never uses as she is not ever in combat.”

She is quite miffed when it turns out my vow of poverty means that my paladin’s pouch only contains four and a half crowns, and a half dozen blueberry waffles. Later, we trade back, making friends in the process. She decides that, maybe, a Paladin is not entirely humorless and a stick in the mud.  I return her now repaired undergarment, having sewed it back together myself with a repair cantrip. This caused much ribbing from the rest of the group. They invite me to come play again with them next Thursday night.  Hopefully I will. I had a great deal of fun.

I found myself back at the (now a) dream console, there is a row of black buttons with a white line just inside the border with white text, the one I click on says "Multiple Entries," It seems to wake me up with pretty clear memories of what I’d just dreamed. I wish remembering dreams was always this easy.

 

Ad astra per technica,

FF