Nolin's Dreamworld

Bent on a single purpose, the adventurers race through the underdark on the howling arms of a magical wind. They soar through beholder-blasted circular tunnels, down the crumbling rockgrinds of purple worms, between the vast webfields of spiderfolk and into the shadowy confines of forgotten ways. Mile after mile of cave and cavern pass behind them, and ever they delve deeper into the earth. They would be hopelessly lost long ago if it wasn't for Stone Bear's spirit guide Elder giving directions.

Moving at close to sixty miles an hour, the group roars down a bone-dry waterfall and out into a long-deserted settlement. They slow; it is cold here, and dusty structures suddenly loom over them claustrophobically. It's not a pleasant site.

"What used to be here?" asks Nolin. "I don't recognize the architecture, but I hate it already."

"Hard to say," muses Priggle as he twists his misty body. "Nothing I've ever met. Look at what's left of that statuary! It doesn't have any eyes, but it still seems to be staring at us."

Mara purses her lips. "There's still a faint after-image of evil. Whatever lived here was nasty enough to actually stain the buildings they lived in."

"Well, they're gone now," says Stone Bear. "We need to go forward and head down." The group follows the shaman to the lip of a wide stone well in the middle of the grotto. The darkness yawns emptily beneath them, and a fragile bone staircase spirals downwards out of sight.

"A bone stair?" asks Malachite skeptically. "It's not undead, at least." He leans over to look. "It just keeps going. The bone isn't dusty, either. Do we have to go this way?" Stone Bear nods.

"I think I'll fly in mist form instead of walking it, though."

Velendo squints and uses the arcane vision that he permanently bonded to his own eyes with a miracle. "We all will. It's faintly magical, but not a type I recognize. I say we go, but be careful."

Everyone agrees, and the group dissolves back into mist before pouring over the pit's edge and swirling downwards into the darkness. The bone stair is close to a thousand feet deep, and the Defenders eventually waft out of the bottom before racing onwards down a tunnel. It's almost five minutes later before someone notices that Nolin is missing.

* * *

It's a long, slow wakening. Nolin nuzzles his nose into Telay's warm neck, treasuring her scent, and squirms deeper into the comfortable goose-down quilt. Elsewhere in the inn the rest of his friends are probably waking up too, but there's no need to get up until Tao comes and hammers on his door. This is so much better than. . .

Adreneline crashes in like an ocean wave, and Nolin drags the covers off of his sleepily protesting lover as he sits bolt upright in the bed. His green eyes widen as he takes in his surroundings. His old room in the Roaring Manticore, the Defenders' favorite inn back in Rampart? How had he gotten here? Last he remembered he had been. . . had been. . . there had been tunnels, and badness. . .

Bright autumn sunlight shines in from behind the shuttered windows. He can hear geese honking in their flight overhead and homey clattering from the kitchens downstairs. Beside him, Telay squints and brushes auburn hair away from her eyes as she pulls herself gracefully up onto one elbow. She has a long dagger clutched in one hand; not a trusting soul, our Telay. "Nol? What is it?"

Nolin looks down and feels her skin: warm. Not undead at all. "I had something that must have been a terrible dream. But lord, it was so detailed!"

Telay grins sympathetically from within the tangle of bedclothes. "You're probably worried about our upcoming trip to study with the lich Hagiok. It's dangerous, but it will be worth it for the stories we'll get."

That's where I'll get dominated and almost killed, and you're going to get turned into undead. Nolin closes his eyes in pain before opening them to look around suspiciously. He's been to Eversink, and he's been into the underdark, and he's fought ghouls innumerable. . . but suddenly not? He checks; no half-healed scars, no familiar wounds. It feels like someone has loaded him with memories that haven't happened, just like TomTom does to the assassin Brindle in Eversink. . . The bard blinks. But that hasn't happened yet, either!

Confused, he looks down at Telay for support, but she has other things on her mind. He shivers as her hand strokes across his chest. He can feel her skin up against his, warm and smooth, and then the tiefling's sharp teeth nibble one finger. She's still half-asleep, thinks Nolin, but insistent nevertheless. The bard grins. He can panic later, right? His sudden happy laughter fills the space between them, and they celebrate the new morning in the best way they know how.

Downstairs in the Roaring Manticore, Velendo scowls as he sets down his mug of tea. "Where the heck is Nolin? We're meeting with that envoy from Eversink this morning. What's-his-name..."

"Palladio, I think." Mara sits against the wall with her mug of tea resting against her lips, cold eyes fixed on the staircase as she waits for Nolin to come downstairs. "As well as that Eversinkian woman we rescued in Mechanus. Shara."

"Right," says Velendo as he stuffs another cinnamon bun into his mouth. "You'g thinnmk. . ." He swallows. "You'd think he would have smelled the pastries. And these are delicious, Claris!" The gray-eyed pilgrim of Vindus nods her head in thanks as she walks past the table. "Well, we should probably wake Nolin and Telay up before breakfast is all gone. Malachite?" Velendo raises his voice again, and from the kitchen a tall servant leans bashfully out as he wipes his hands on his apron.

"Your holiness?"

"Take these pastries up to Sir Nolin and Mistress Telay, will you? Thanks. There we go, there's a good man." Velendo hands over a tray, and Malachite inclines his body in a half-bow and turns to head up the stairs.

Mara sighs.

"What's wrong, Mara?"

"Oh, Stavros' servant just makes me sad. I heard from my church that he had wanted to be a paladin once, but he didn't have what it takes. Not wise enough, or bright enough, or maybe just too bitter after his family was killed. It's just too bad, is all." Telay's halfling friend Agar pats Mara on the arm even as he blatantly swipes a pastry from her plate.

"It's okay, Mara. Some people are made to be paladins, and some are made to be servants. At least he gets treated well here."

Mara nods at the pastry disappearing down Agar's throat. "I suppose so, Agar. By the way, you do know there are enough of those for everyone, don't you? You don't have to steal off of my plate." Her voice has just a trace of friendly rebuke.

"Not once Nolin wakes up. Besides, they taste better when you filch them." Agar grins and the paladin rolls her eyes when TomTom steals one from Velendo's plate.

Upstairs, Malachite knocks on Nolin's door. "Sir Nolin?"

Something that sounds like a shoe smacks against the wood inches from Malachite's nose, and the servant recoils with a start. "Go away!" hollers Nolin from behind the door. "I'll be down later."

"I'll just. . ." The servant's face flushes with color, and he places the tray of cinnamon buns down on the floor. "I'll just leave these out here." He scurries away down the hall, scandalized by the sounds of merrymaking within. Malachite comes down the stairs just as Tao walks in from outside.

"Is he up?" asks Velendo.

Malachite's tries not to stammer as he beats a retreat to the kitchen. "Yes sir. You could say that. I'm sure he'll be down directly."

"Nolin? What a slug-a-bed." Tao drops into a chair and grabs some breakfast. "I love autumn. Raevynn and I had a nice walk this morning before dawn. I'll miss this when we have to head to Eversink in the spring."

"It will be spring there as well. You'll just have less forest paths and more canals." A man standing behind Tao in the doorway extends his hands outwards in a foreign sign of greeting. "Once again, I am Palladio of House Roaringbrook. I've brought the materials we need to go over before your diplomatic trip."

"Oh, good. The High Magus Arcade Deltarion and his wife Lady Adrianna are outside in the courtyard. Kiri should teleport in any time now. We should be able to start in a few minutes."

"I hope we like Eversink," comments Tao. "It'll be a nice change of pace. I just hope we don't have to get involved with local politics." Everyone agrees.

Fifteen minutes later Nolin makes his grand entrance, a half-eaten cinammon bun in one hand and his lover Telay uncharacteristically holding onto the other. He looks out onto the familiar inn room. They'd burned down this tavern at least twice in the decade before buying it themselves to use as their headquarters. Now many of his old friends were here, even TomTom and Kiri and Arcade. . . the bard shakes his head. This is wrong. He can clearly remember the battle of Mrid, and the recent confrontation with the demigoddess Halcyon, and the death of Imbindarla; there isn't a chance that it was somehow a dream! Worst of all, he remembers that Telay should now be a vampire.

He glances up to see Mara's deep blue eyes boring into him, and Lady Adrianna is staring oddly at Telay. Huh. Odd, but the least of his worries. Pausing on the stairs, Nolin clears his throat melodically. "Good morning, everyone. Does anyone besides myself think that we shouldn't be here?"

Everyone looks at Nolin, and Velendo makes a grumpy noise from deep in his skinny chest. "If you mean 'we should have finished breakfast half an hour ago and gotten to work,' then I'd agree with you. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Malachite comes out of the kitchen. "Sir, can I get you something to eat and drink?"

Nolin's jaw drops. "Malchite," he says evenly, "why are you serving food?" The tall servant looks uncomfortable.

"Because it's my job, sir."

At his side, Telay looks at Nolin oddly. "It's been his job for years. Stavros hired him not long after we first met in Sigil. You know that."

"I do? Sure." Nolin catches her eye, and thinks again how wonderful it is to have her standing at his side. He decides to keep his mouth shut and his eyes open for a few minutes until he can figure out what's going on.

Telay looks at him. "Are you okay?"

He nods. "I think so. I'm sort of in disbelief."

"Nolin, come sit over here." Mara pats the chair next to her and flashes a dazzling smile. Instead Nolin takes a seat across the long table and Telay sits next to him. The tiefling shoots Mara a smug look, and Mara scowls jealously. The bard doesn't notice, and the group begins to discuss future plans for Eversink. Eventually, Nolin changes the subject.

"How about the White Kingdom?"

Putting down a drink, Malachite shivers. "I heard about that, Sir Nolin. I'm glad I won't have to go. Sounds awful."

Telay grins. "It's the curse of being a sensate; I want to go for exactly that reason." Across the table, Mara rolls her eyes.

"Don't put yourself out."

"Heh. You'd like me to not be there, wouldn't you?" Telay leans provocatively over the table. "You'd like that. But it's not going to happen."

"What a. . ." whispers Adrianna, Arcade's wife, to no one in particular. Nolin looks from woman to woman in confusion as awkward silence fills the room.

"Come on, Mara," urges Tao as she grabs the paladin by the arm. "Let's go for a short walk."

"I think so." Mara is clearly offended by something, but Nolin still isn't sure exactly what. Telay gives them a little friendly wave as they go. The door swings shut behind them as everyone else turns to the bard.

"Don't worry, Nolin." Telay stretches, cat-like. "She's just jealous. It happens."

"Jealous? Of what?"

Velendo turns to the bard, hands spread wide as he gesticulates. "You want it out in the open? Fine, because you're being a real jerk to her. Nolin, Mara is jealous of Telay. That's hardly surprising, considering that you seduced her. And now you're throwing Telay in her face."

Nolin's jaw drops. "I did what? I slept with her? I don't remember!"

The beautiful paladin is framed by the window where she's been eavesdropping, her face suffused by fury and hurt. "You don't remember? You don't remember?" Mara leans forward into the room in order to shout into Nolin's face. "Was I so forgettable?"

Telay takes three steps towards her, perhaps to try and calm her down, and Mara punches the tiefling in the face. It turns out that breaking hearts and breaking noses sound about the same.

* * *

The Defenders wind walk back the way they came as quickly as possible, Agar's true seeing scouring the walls for any sign of Nolin. They finally find him near the middle of the bone staircase that spirals dizzily upwards.

"Ye Gods!" yells Agar over the mindlink. "He's here, and he's still in the windwalk's mist form. But he's not conscious."

"What's wrong with him?" asks Mara from the bottom of the stairs.

Agar pauses, trying to steady his voice. "The mist is streaming from his body into the staircase itself. I think. . . I think the stair is trying to eat him."