Episode 185 - A Very Wonderful Nightmare

## Synopsis

The students returned to their dormitories to find the doors locked. Serinepth suggested they check out the Dining Hall, while Winsler thought they could build an igloo out of the snowbanks around campus.

In the end they decided to go to the Hall of Voyages and use its teleportation circles. The door there was also locked; Mira immediately looked at Winsler and Integrity to commit crimes.

As Integrity looked around the campus, she saw thousands upon thousands of blackbirds looking excitedly down on her. She waved at them, and they squawked loudly.

Winsler flipped through his spellbook and found what he was looking for. He told his friends to stand back, and pulled a few sesame seeds from his component pouch. Looking at the wall in front of them, he caused a section of it to vanish, as he cast *Passwall* to completely bypass the door.

They entered the Hall of Voyages, and tried to figure out who wouldn’t be mad at them at that moment in time. Mira wanted to see Delnys, but thought it might be too soon after the Gala. Eventually they decided to visit Artis before he left for the desert.

They walked up the stairs to his teleportation circle, and spoke the password ‘*Fidan*’. Instantly they were transported to Artis’ Cottage.

The students arrived in a frozen forest, and walked to the front door of their mentor’s house. Serinepth knocked on the door, and inside they heard a muffled, “*Who’s there?*”

They heard footsteps approaching the door. Integrity and Winsler hid in preparation to scare their mentor. Integrity faded into the nearby bushes, while Winsler remained very visibly underneath the window. Serinepth and Mira stayed in front of the door.

The door cracked open, Artis peeked outside and saw the students. Immediately he flung the door open and stared at them in shock. Serinepth gestured towards where Integrity and Winsler had hid.

”*Just pretend to be surprised when they jump out.*”

Artis stared at them and asked, “*Why are you here, what happened? Weren’t you supposed to be in Troisle? What happened, why are you back so soon?*”

Mira said, “*Don’t freak out, but we went to the Moon.*”

“*We did go to Troisle first,*” Serinepth explained, “*and then we went to the Moon, and now we’re back.*“

“*Alright, the three of you come inside, please. Come inside, we’ll make some tea and talk over everything.*“

As they talked, Integrity snuck around the side of the house, and snuck in through a window to surprise them when they came inside. As her friends entered she shrieked and attempted to scare them. Artis jumped slightly, before moving to make some tea.

The already sparsely decorated cottage had been packed up, with crates tucked into corners, and artefacts taken from the walls.

”*So you went to the Moon. Please, you need to elaborate a lot more than that. It’s a very alarming thing to say, to just show up very injured on my doorstep when I did not expect you, and to say you’ve been to the Moon*.”

The students have a quick rundown of what happened in Troisle: the tattoos, the catacombs, the Moon labyrinth, the cycle of giants, and finally fighting the corruption.

When Mira mentioned that the corruption was pieces of the Progenitor, Artis looked absolutely horrified. “*What! Do you mean! Little pieces of the Progenitor?!*”

Integrity told him, ”*So the corruption is a part of the Progenitor, and the Progenitor initially wanted me to bring parts of them back to him, but we killed it.*”

Serinepth finished by telling Artis that once they’d defeated the corruption, they had been transported to Wildcliff, and upon finding everything locked up had decided to come to his house.

Artis tried to regain his composure and process this information. Before he could speak again Integrity cut him off.

”*You wanna hear the best gossip, Artis?*”

He crossed his arms and looked at her. ”*Sure. Why not. What’s the best gossip Integrity Idleberry?*”

”*Ok, so, while we were on the moon, we saw that there was an old Isb, and there’s new Isb, and around that are seven planes—which you already know about because I know that you’re not dumb—but basically, there’s an old Isb that no one knows exists, and a replica of it which is where we live right now.*”

Mira confirmed this, and began to explain what they had learned about Sésul’s druidic magic being taken, so their new planet had no natural magic. She also told him about Sésul and Meaphidae being the same goddess.

”*So you learned all of this by going into a catacomb for giants, and then being transported to the moon, yes?*”

”*Yes*.”

Serienepth remembered and mentioned her broken-off engagement, saying they could talk about that later. Integrity told Artis that she had been excommunicated.

Artis sat down, leant against the counter, and asked exactly what they meant. After explaining what happened in the capital, he told her she wasn’t in the Ashuan kingdom, nor would she be at Wildcliff, so she should be safe.

“*This is quite a bit. I’ve been having a very relaxing Winter Break, I visited my in-laws for the first time in years, and now… I’m six days away from leaving, and now you’re telling me all these revelatory pieces of information you’ve learned from the moon, now I’m just finding that I’m at a lack for words for what to say. First and foremost, are you all ok from this?*”

They reassured him that they were ok, and Winsler helped to finish making the tea. They spent the evening with their mentor, filling him in on the details and calming him down.

Artis lay out some bedrolls for them to sleep on, and went to bed much earlier than normal. The students also collapsed and immediately fell asleep.

Serinepth, Winsler, and Mira woke peacefully in the morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. Integrity however woke up as though from a very wonderful nightmare.

She found herself dreaming of the Hatch. All four orbs had been placed in their slots, and a rift of opalescent energy was floating above it. The Progenitor also stood in the room, holding up a crystalline cube. All around them, people in silk robes were dropping to the ground and dying.

She woke in a cold sweat, and joined her friends on the ground.

Artis clinked his glass on the ground. “*I mentioned last night, that I was going on my voyage the day before I think you all return to classes. It does now pain me slightly to leave, when you’ve just had such an experience as you did but—*“

Mira looked over to him. “*Oh, no you should go.”*

”*I will, don’t worry I’m still going. I wanted to—just for safety’s sake—walk you through what my plans are, and my general expectations, ok?*”

As the students agreed to this, he took out a notebook, and turned it to a map of Agiya. It contained many more landmarks, towns, and locations than most other maps, especially to the west of the mountains on the Adriach desert. He traced several lines he had drawn and explained his plans.

He would go from the Hall of Voyages to Bridgefort, where he had a charter ready to go. He would then travel to ‘*Pbltxbp*’, a Flax-Eye Dragonborn village in the north, where he would stay until the end of spring. He explained it was near one of the Sheoran ruins that Fidan had been investigating.

Integrity accidentally let slip that she had been in Fidan’s office, which Artis seemed very hurt by, and made her promise not to go in without his permission.

He continued, saying he would spend some time there before moving to the next place, a Thri-Kreen colony named ‘*Pitchtop Waterbottom*’. It was southeast of another Sheoran ruin, and he planned to stay till mid-summer. After that he would return to Bridgefort, and potentially Wildcliff, to evaluate what he had found before carrying on.

Mira asked that if got into trouble, to let them know with the sending stones. He agreed, and asked that if by chance they found anything that could help his research, to send it to him as well.

Integrity mentioned the connection between Giants and Meaphidae, and he agreed it might be worthwhile looking into before he left. Mira mentioned that she had heard the goddess speak, which Artis thought sounded like a good lead.

He told them that he hoped the start of the year for them would be stress-free, and that they would likely e under the supervision of another mentor. He pleaded for them to not make trouble while he was away, saying it was the greatest thing they could do for him.

With that handled, he told they were free to stay in his house until school began. He said he would be grateful if they helped him packed, but asked that they relax after their ordeal.

Artis left the cottage to retrieve some books from the Archives, leaving the students alone in his house.

Immediately they decided to look in the shed to see what was left behind. As soon as they opened the back door, they realised the forest was absolutely covered in small black birds.

They walked over to the shed, and slid open the door. Once full with clutter and memorabilia, it was now completely empty except for a bookshelf with a few assorted books, and a few walking sticks. There were a few that described the flora in northern Agiya, and also a small, blue, leather-bound book with sparkles down the spine, that Winsler picked up.

The title was written in a script he couldn’t read, but the cover had more sparkles depicting various constellations, and a small clasp to keep it shut. The first page had writing in Undercommon, Celestial, and Common. It read:

”*Artatelios Atlas of Many Worlds, for the Perusal of Any Planar Bound Beings, or Those Engaged With Mass.*”

The table of contents of this spellbook listed six spells, as well as a diagram of how the Astral and Ethereal planes interacted.

The spells listed were:

* *Magnify Gravity*
* *Dimension Door*
* *Gravity Fissure*
* *Plane Shift*
* *Reverse Gravity*
* *Gate*

As the students looked at these spells, they realised that they were all incredibly powerful and definitely not meant for student use. Winsler stuffed it in his bag for later.

Serinepth looked at the walking sticks, one was made of wicker, and one had a deer head carved into the handle. She took the wicker one.

Looking at the empty shed, they tried to figure out how he collected so much stuff, and how he managed to part with it. Winsler suggested part of it could have been Fidan’s; Serinepth thought maybe it was a good sign it was gone, that he was healing. The students hoped he wouldn’t die, feeling slightly bad as most of his problems started when they went to the Hatch.

When Mira mentioned the Hatch, Integrity told her friends about the nightmare she had had. They made sure she was ok, and thanked her for telling them. Serinepth wondered if they could remove the orb’s power from Integrity, as it would be incredibly dangerous to have too many of them in the same place with what they now knew.

Wisnler suggested that in the time they had before school, he could look into the relationship between a warlock and their patron, asking if Integrity still had the pages from the Book of Warlocks. She said she did, and thanked him for the offer.

*”I want to look for more treasure.*” Integrity left the shed.

The students poked through the crates in the cottage, finding nothing of particular interest. Eventually Artis returned, carrying many books in preparation for his trip.