03 [video]

[topslug]

Name: Yako Katsuragi (un: katsuragi)
Date: Septeril 1st, after Mhairi & Nessie's address and Sokie's post.
Format: Video

For those who are considering going to Dorchacht: someone brought up the idea of sharing what information we've been able to find out about how the compulsion to obey witches works in the city. From previous experience with these dreams, they don't often represent an accurate version of reality, so we should be cautious in our assumptions of what will actually be there.

From what I was able to find out, the enchantment to force Monsters to obey witches is built into the walls of the city itself -- along with a spell to keep the Cwyld out, though it's not the same as the one used by Aefenglom.

That being said ... if it works the way it does in the dream, then we know there are ways to protect ourselves. The resistance was distributing enchanted paper with runes that can be used to lift the compulsion. The witches were willing to teach me -- I assume I'm not the only one who learned. If there are enough of us willing to work on it, we could work together and take a look at that spell, see if we can strengthen it and distribute those spells to those who can't cast them. We don't have much time before we leave, but I think it's worth trying.

[ She pauses. Up to now, she hasn't looked very uncertain or worried, only concerned, but she's more tentative about what she says next. ]

One more thing ... we may still not know exactly where these dreams come from, or why, but I think it could be just as significant who isn't getting the dreams as much as who is. I spoke to some of the people who live outside Aefenglom's walls earlier last month -- and they told me they didn't experience anything like we did after Litha, that dream with the dragon and red skies.

But people who were infected by the Cwyld -- they did dream about something strange. They said they had the same nightmare of being trapped in darkness, hearing something or someone in pain, and a great heart beating in the distance. And they think they remember seeing some sort of cocoon, like a caterpillar's? It didn't seem like they were in the same place, but their accounts were very similar.

... I don't know if it has any significance, but if you're staying behind, please be careful, too.

[ ooc; Yako's referring to investigation results from here and here respectively, if you were curious. ]

Comments

video

[thisisamazing]

I'm willing to help, with the runes. I remember some of it from the dream. [Hiccup is looking a little sleepless but determined these days.] If we could perfect the spell, maybe it could be enchanted into armor or clothing for our Monsters so the protection would be constant. I'd be willing to work overtime on that until the trip.

[topslug]

Putting it in clothing ... I hadn’t thought of that. But that’s a good idea too, if it can be made to work.

It did seem like the tunes had to be deliberately activated rather than being constantly passively active. I wonder if that was to avoid detection by the local witches, or a limitation imposed by the way the spell around the city was constructed. Either way, we should be careful ... they emphasized maintaining secrecy in the dream.

[thisisamazing]

Who's to say we can't modify the spell, make it active all the time in a single-person radius? That could also help to change it up enough from the runes the resistance were using to keep from casting any suspicion on them, if we mirrorbound put our own signature on it.

voice; Archer

[boneofsword]

Runestones will work better than paper and can be turned into trinkets or jewellery to carry everywhere. You can also swallow it to avoid it being taken away, and the spell should still work. [Archer delivers it rather dryly.]

It seems things are getting serious. Those infected ones— [a pause.] I wonder if they have any dreams when the Cwyld takes control. Do they say anything coherent then?

[topslug]

I suppose swallowing a stone is a better alternative to being forced to do something against your will. Though from experience, something about the size of a glass marble is still doable.

I’m afraid I haven’t had much contact with anyone who’s been that far gone. Maybe someone who works with the Coven’s healers would know, but ... I should ask Miss Nessie about it. It made me wonder if everyone infected by the Cwyld is connected, somehow.

[boneofsword]

Skilled artisans are able to engrave a long sentence onto a bead smaller than your fingernail.

[Not going to ask how she knows it's possible to swallow a marble. Sometimes it's better to not know the details.]

Do you remember screaming flowers from the first dream? They did connect all the Cwylthids in the forest.

voice; un: rowdyraven

[rowdyraven]

You think it'd work?

[He's interested in going, of course. And it's bound to go smoother if he doesn't find himself caught up in compulsion once he's there.]

As for the dreams, that's ah, well it's an avenue worth pursuing, isn't it? Discovering whether there's a pattern. I wasn't involved, myself.

[topslug]

Unless the actual circumstances of the city are different from the dream -- and we can't rule out that they won't be -- in theory, it should. I don't think there's really a foolproof way of going about it.

[ Still, after a moment, she pauses. ]

After seeing what happens to witches who specialize in dreamwalking, to be honest, I'm a little worried about the effects of so many shared dreams on us in the long term.

[rowdyraven]

Fair point. But um, could be worth a go, couldn't it? If you figure something out I might be in need. Completely incapable of casting magic myself, you see.

[Which should make it plain what he is, he supposes. Ah, well. It's time, perhaps, to stop avoiding people, attempting to hide his changes.]

What does happen to witches who specialise in dreamwalking? I can't say I've noticed.

[faithlikeaseed]

From inside experience, [dryly,] if you're not paying any attention to it, compulsions from the spell feel like you thought of them yourself--you're already acting on it before you realize what's happened. It hurts to fight--worse the longer it goes on, like everything in you is being wrung out like a rag.

Far as I could tell, only the latest order you heard was in effect. Keeping someone from talking at all prevented the spell; keeping yourself from hearing 'em--didn't, but made it easier to resist. But I don't know if that goes for all cases; it sounded as if there were ways the Bonds could be bent to make a Monster listen only to one Witch. Similarly, some of 'em might have a way of keeping a Monster from listening to any order that came after theirs--we don't know.

I'm not Bonded myself--so I wouldn't know if that helped or hindered anyone who was, who ran afoul of a Witch with a mind to give orders.

And they've gotten creative about pitting Monsters against each other. A couple of us ran into a Fae who went along with us freeing her and then raised an alarm once we had.

[Then a looong pause.]

The infected folk-- Did they say anything about whether it seemed like what they saw was trapped, or waiting to hatch?

[topslug]

Based on what they were able to tell me, they seemed to have the impression that it was the latter.

[ Troubling, to say the least. ]

But thank you for sharing that information. It sounds like the compulsion has a lot more subtlety than I realized. I'm Bonded, and the connection between us didn't seem to be affected by the dream, but I wasn't doing a lot of testing. [ That is to say, she was a little busy distracting a native witch from punishing her puca at the time. ] It did help me find him when he was in trouble, though, so in that sense it had some use.

From what I overheard, it seemed like the Coven of Dorchacht looks down on the kind of Bonds formed by the witches of Aefenglom, so I can't imagine they're formed the same way. There certainly wasn't the impression that they thought it was a sign of closeness or commitment.

[faithlikeaseed]

Maker's breath. Almost like we've got an Archdemon on our hands. [And wouldn't that be a nasty bit of symmetry--the Cwyld as the Blight and the Cwyltid and Shades as darkspawn digging for their fallen god...

Best not to dwell on that too long.]

No--they're almost surely forced on the Monster of the pair, I'd wager. Unless the poor creatures are so used to the idea a collar's better than hurting those around 'em they fasten those on--themselves--

[Ah. There's that realization he'd been trying to avoid this whole time.] --But either way, I think--we'd do right to be wary that they can force a Bond.

[And that the less well-intentioned in Aefenglom might also have that capacity, but that he does not say.]

video;

[bloodyuseless]

[Mary sure is raising his hand at his watch camera.]

Me, me! I can't do magic. I want some spells!

[topslug]

You're welcome to have them, once we've got them working. It might need some testing first, though.

[bloodyuseless]

Um. [Leeeeaning in now.] I can help test them if you need me to. My body's pretty sturdy.

VIDEO

[starseedling]

[Steven tunes in excitedly, raising a hand to the camera.]

Oh, oh, Yako! Maybe the cocoon was a Fae! I've done that before!

[topslug]

You have?!

[ Yako hasn't been blessed with a moon sighting of Steven at his peak weirdness yet, for better or worse, but... ]

A Fae that the infected would be dreaming about ... I wonder if that's...?

[ It seems crazy to even consider saying it. ]

[starseedling]

Well, technically I've been molting, but it feels basically like a cocoon when I do it. I bet other Fae types would cocoon instead!

And we saw corrupted Fae back in that first dream... maybe it's related?

What do you think?

[She seemed to have something there but then trailed off.]

voice

[belligerentwarrior]

Sure, dreams can lie, but they've usually got roots in something. Whether or not we were lookin' at the surface, or something at works under it's the question.

[But right now, that's not the most interesting bit.]

So the infected dream, too, huh? Rotten luck they've got, having nightmares and the Cwyld. They say if it's just the one dream, in time with ours? Or is that an every night thing?

[topslug]

The dreams we've had seem to all follow a similar logic. At least some part of them has been rooted in reality ... now if only we knew where they came from.

[ Because they must come from somewhere. But for what purpose, and by whom? ]

I only asked about the one night, because I was curious if they could have been the shadow-like beings in that dream ... but I didn't ask if they'd dreamed about this before, or saw anything similar. I'll have to ask the witches who've worked with them longer if anyone's ever brought something like that up before.

[belligerentwarrior]

Well, we know that mostly it's been us Mirrorbound jaunting around in our sleep, even if sometimes the whole city comes along for the ride.

But if the infected are dreamin' too, I'm willing to be that's related to this whole mess.

[wordsinthesoul]

So there was something in those walls after all. I wonder what that enchantment is, exactly- and perhaps if they've woven the two together. [In case, well. Trying to undo one would mean undermining the protection against the Cwyld.]

I'm afraid I might not be able to assist much with the runes themselves, but if I can assist with distributing them, I can do that. Are there other ways we can assist?

[He tilts his head when she speaks about the dreams, with an interested sound.]. That's curious. So one set is connected to those of us newly come…. But they have a different dream? Curious. I wonder if that exists, then.

[topslug]

That seems likely -- or at the very least, it might be powered by the magic of the same leyline under the city, if it works the same way as Aefenglom's Bright Wall does. Not that I know very much about it...

I'm not sure what else we could do to prepare -- it feels like there's so much we don't know, and have no way of finding out until we get there. [ She pauses. ] You mentioned being a fighter before, though, didn't you? I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does...

[ How she trails off speaks for itself, probably. The next topic isn't any more restful, unfortunately. ]

It seemed different from the dreams we've had -- they weren't in a shared environment. But that they saw the same thing on the same night feels like it's too much of a coincidence to dismiss.

[silentsavant]

Only those who were infected by the Cwyld had that dream? Interesting... No doubt there is a connection there. But what?

[topslug]

I wish I knew ... but if I had to guess, maybe it has something to do with the Cwyld's nature itself...?

It's a magical infection, and I don't have much experience with those.