And we all lived happily ever after.Probably says something about my life that three crisis-free days feels like a fairytale-ending. Can't possibly last, of course.
Got the bariaur to heal Kanton (producing, after much fanfare, those berries), and Kanton fixed everybody up. Seems to have learned some new tricks for that.
Have not told others about gems from Senet. Probably should... but they're so sparkly! The little red one is just beautiful - glows in the sun. Nobody else would get it. Cedar found a gorgeous one on one of the mages and prevailing opinion was "it's a rock". So they're letting me hold on to that one too. Sparkly!
Usual debate over next step - got people to agree that we had won ourselves some breathing room and that Siarrah, once sorted out, probably our best tool against dragons anyways. Siarrah, not surprisingly, was eager to go home, and agreed that visiting Tor's Cloud might help her sort things out. Saw her conjure up a mist - she says she gets a "stretchy feeling". Everyone a little nervous that her next "stretch" will have scales and breathe lightning. Think she's making progress accepting stuff though.
So, got back to the Coags uneventfully - tried to avoid telling Missus Coag we think her daughter might turn into a dragon. Lots of happy little kids. Bah. Took Siarrah to Tor's Cloud. Obviously unnerved that her pretendings as a kid seem to have come from real memories. That whole "everything you thought you knew about your life was wrong" thing always a bit unfortunate.
Decided to spend the night - very nice to sleep properly underground again! Took some time to investigate Senet's cloak (had figured he was using magic somehow, that turned out to be it). Couldn't make a damn sense of the thing though. Tried doing stuff, but just felt normal. Everyone seemed to consider this high comedy (perhaps because cloak sized for tall human with too many arms) - bet they won't laugh if I can get it working.
And then - woke up in dream. Was very annoyed - thought we killed all those guys. But decided to go with it in case it turned out to be important - everybody else would probably decide to assault the heavily-guarded fortress or something if I wasn't there to knock some sense into 'em. Furnishings in dream-Tor's Cloud all different - like they were when previous occupant lived here, perhaps. Siarrah, sounding like little girl, behind door. And then, who comes up but Senet?
Obviously not *Senet*, of course. He fell to Barg's axe and his neck fell to mine. And so far just seems to be replaying "Senet's Greatest Hits". So, think - we're in a dream. He's somebody's nightmare. Whose? Don't think any of us have lingering fear of him. So whose then? Well, whose dream are we in? Only Siarrah could have seen a Tor's Cloud that looks like this; Siarrah was very afraid of Senet. And Siarrah the one with inner stuff to resolve and such... this part of herself made her a target, she's afraid of losing herself and the life she knows when everything she loves goes down the dragon track [1]. So dream-Senet's gotta be her nightmare, both him and what he might provoke in her.
So what does that mean? Should we try to keep "him" away from her in the dream, or even wake her up? Or does she need to confront "him" to come to terms with stuff? How the grep should I know, I'm just a dwarf. She'll have to face stuff eventually, but push too hard and we end up with a traumatized dragon. Almost wish we had gone back into the valley and had a nice, simple melee instead...