Dreamscape Chapter 2 : A Journey of A Thousand Miles...

I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Here is chapter 2 of Dreamscape. If you haven't read the Prologue and Chapter 1, click here

Enjoy!

                                                                       The story goes on...

Recap

As we last left our motley crew, Pike had a nightmare that could be a vision of a new threat that may be coming or staying at a mysterious emerald castle on the water. Our heroes set off separately to find more information about this castle and perhaps the entity that may have started the trouble...

Pike, Scanlan, Vex, and Vax, made their way to Lady Kima's residence. Vax knocked on the door three times before the huge wooden doors opened. Standing in the entryway was Lady Kima in a long light blue silk dress, that was form fitting to her body. The group was stunned and .rightfully so. She always seemed to have her battle armor on, even at council meetings. Her hair, normally in a long fish tail fashion, is loose. Her hair falls over her shoulders and single local flower is within her hair. The look on the group's face was priceless. Lady Kima was turning a shade of pink as the group keeps on staring at her. Lady Kima wanted the group to say anything than to keep looking at her. The flustered and shock Scanlan couldn't make out any words and the twins Vex and Vax stood as statues. It was up to Pike to speak for the group. Pike asked if Lady Kima had time to talk and Lady Kima made a gesture to her outfit. Pike gulped and apologize for interrupting however it is an important question they must ask.

Lady Kima sighed and asked what this question might be...under one minute. Pike quickly explained her vision and asked if there was a name to the emerald castle she saw. Lady Kima ponders for about a second and said that she heard of something like that in passing with a few of the council members. It seems as if this castle appeared out of nowhere east of here. Pike asked if she heard it was surrounded by a huge lake. Lady Kima shrugs and says that she only heard about the castle in passing and nothing else. However, Lady Kima suggested that a local huntsman came over from the east and is here in town to drop off his bounty. She suggests to Pike that they should start at the Quiet Mountain Tavern. Pike thanked Lady Kima and Lady Kima returned the gesture with a little smile and wave and called out to the departing and wide eyed companions to next time send a messenger before coming into her place of dwelling again.

Meanwhile Tiberius is in the study hall of Graystone Keep, trying to piece together the mysterious dwelling that was known only as the emerald castle. From what he has gathered, the castle lies east of their current standing. He tried looking into the arcane books to see if there was any magical ties to the castle. None were found and so Tiberius kept searching, eventually coming to the conclusion that maybe the castle is depicted in folklore or children stories. He found a book that he hadn't noticed before. Its very large in size and thick with 1000 pages or more. Tiberius knew that reading this will take him all day or all week, depending on if his short attention span could be tamed long enough to read. And since Tiberius can overlook the most simplest of things like looking into the index and see if he could find keywords to find what he's looking for, he spent about two hours searching for the story that would help him. After hour two, he stumbles upon an old nursery rhyme that may hold some answers to the questions the group is having.

As Tiberius was reading away, Keyleth, Grog, and, Percy are at a tavern known as "The Quiet Mountain", questioning about the castle. Well that is to say, that Keyleth and Percy are asking around. Grog is at the bar, drinking what looks like a mug on steroids, as people around him are chanting either his name or the deviation of chug instead of Grog. Grog only converses with things that are a part of his namesake so the questions that he has for anyone around him, is only asked in his mind and even with that may be drowned by the casks of ale. Percy asked many drunkards who only wanted a drink for information and Keyleth was quite....uncomfortable to say the least. Awkward in conversations already she had not been at a bar that was this rowdy before and occasionally she would look over to find Grog, who seems to make himself at home with everyone else. "The Quite Mountain" was not living up to the name and Keyleth wondered if the tavern's name was to convey a sort of irony.

 Suddenly Vex, Vax, Scanlan, and Pike walked in and saw how lively it was. Surely one of these people will have other information. Then they locked eyes with Keyleth and Percy and both groups (except for Grog) convened at a table and started telling the others about what they found. Keyleth and Percy agreed that the bar here is full of drunkards and no one would remember the question that they asked anyway. Pike told Keyleth and Percy about their interesting encounter with Lady Kima and that they only had the direction to base their mystery location and also someone in this bar knows about the castle. Pike looked at her hands, downtrodden that this bar where they needed to find the man, was either too drunk or at another tavern. Grog has no idea of this meeting and continues to drink from this massive mug (he is gong to have the longest pee in history at this point in time).

Then a human man walked away from the spectacle Grog was giving from the bar. He wore big gold armor which looked very nice from afar. However as the twins looked closer, the seemingly gold armor looks dulled. Dents are scattered across his breastplate. On closer inspection, dry blood is smeared all over armor which has made the vibrant gold to a almost ruby color. The smell that is emitting from him seem fresh. Fresh sweat and blood. The human man looks at Vox Machina and Vex asks if they could chat, maybe buy him a drink. The man looked at the group from Vex down, looked at Pike and stopped. His emerald eyes met her blue ones and for only a second, Pike could see a hint of recognition and pity. He nods towards Pike and sat down next to Vex. 

To be continued in Chapter 3.