FASA Games, Inc.

Strassa 22:

GM:
Isaac, your dreams the night of the 21st are turbulent, but you've had Horror-touched dreams before, and you would know such if it happened again. This is just ordinary nightmares. You're unable to wake up from them, though, and by the time morning comes, you're sweaty and tangled in the blanket and exhausted, having gotten no real rest.

Isaac:
After the double meditation yesterday, a night of little sleep is exactly what I didn't need. Although it's a little unlike me, I'll lie in my bed for most of the morning trying to get some rest and recover a little bit. When I finally surface I'll get something to eat and find somewhere to sit for a while. It's probably about time I watered that firmweave I got, so I'll spend a little time doing that (I'll have to get some fresh water from somewhere for this, they might have some below deck). I'll catch up on some light reading, not on the journal, that's all tapped out, but on the books I brought with me. I still have my notes that I made when I was reading the journal, the books may not reveal any extra information through cross-checking, but it's still a good idea to brush up on my general creature and horror lore.

GM:
You're on a river. If you need fresh water, drop a bucket on a rope over the side and scoop some up. After that, you get four hours toward your Horrors skill. Somewhere during the morning, Shaliko checks in on you to make sure you're okay, since you are, by your own admission, acting a bit out of character.

GM:
Torana, you've got that same basic dream again. You're a warhorse, being spurred cruelly into battle straight toward a wall of lances. This time, however, you've pulled together enough Willpower that you could try your Dreaming skill.

Torana:
Okay...I know what I want to do, or at least try to do. I know that it isn't really me...I am not now, nor have I ever been, a warhorse. So if I can detach and rise up over what I'm seeing...Try to see who the people are, what they're wearing on both sides of the battle...Maybe get a sense of time. Is this distant past? Far future? Something more current? Do I recognize the area at all? Is the landscape forest, plain, or something else? Try to watch and see just how much I can notice without actually trying to change anything but my own perspective on it. Somehow...I don't think this is the type of dream I could change even if I tried. Now to see if my roll follows along with my plan. Got 16 on the roll. Not bad for a d10!

GM:
The landscape appears to be some kind of fabric, actually. Something woven, that's draped over various types of supports. It gives a bit when you step on it. And now that you're paying attention, you realize that you're not a horse. You have six legs. And then you wake up. Sorry, not going to get more than that with a 16. So what are you doing with your day?

...Fabric? Really? ...Six legs, too. Alright, this is...just nuts. As soon as I wake up I'm going to write all this down, as much detail as I can remember. Then head out to get some breakfast and talk to whoever of our group is present there.

"...Have any of you been having odd dreams or not getting good sleep the past few nights? I think...something strange is going on, but I can't figure out what any of this means." And...I'll explain the dream, let them read what I wrote about it. And mention the dream from the night before, too. "I've had nightmares before, but this just seems...different. It's...I can't place it, but it feels wrong. I don't like it."

Garsevan shakes his head at Torana's description of the dreams. "Screwy," is all he has to say.

Shaliko has been scoping Torana astrally during her exposition. "I don't see any sign of invae infection," he says, "but when Gudrun joins us, she should check you over just to be sure. Can't be too careful with the bugs. They're almost as bad as the Horrors."

Kolbeinn has nothing to contribute to the discussion, but then his Throalic still isn't up to conversational levels. When asked by one of the Sperethiel speakers in the group, he says that he hasn't been having any nightmares he can't directly attribute to the Blood Wood.

As previously mentioned, I'm not even awake for breakfast, and when Shaliko checks on me I'll say to him, "I just had a rough night, that's all. I slept poorly, maybe it's the motion of the boat, I haven't been on one in a while. So I was just trying to catch up on some rest." Once I feel more up to doing things, I'll get up and get dressed, getting a bucket of water from the river to soak the fernweave in. I'll be on deck with my books after that, and I won't start any conversations myself, groggy as I am, but I will be listening to what other people are talking about.

- Isaac

Shaliko's statement is a little surprising and somewhat disconcerting, but...still doesn't feel like that's a likely source of the problem. Of course, I don't know as much about Invae as I probably should. Still...there just isn't much I can do about the dreams, even if I did know what was causing them or what meaning they have. So...just try to shunt it out of my mind for now. Being on the ship is the best time for meditating, since...there's not much else to do, and it's relatively safe. So I'll just meditate on Lion Heart to bring it up to rank 6...as long as nothing comes up in the meantime.

Torana, make a Willpower Test. Meditating is a bit more difficult than you expected.

Isaac, there's not a lot of conversation going on other than Garsevan and Shaliko taking turns working with Kolbeinn on his Throalic. You can get in a few hours of study time on the books you brought along.

20 on the Willpower. But this bothers me even more, now. I can't afford to have things screwing with my concentration...I'm bad enough at that whole 'focus' thing as it is. You know me and cloud kitties. Of course...it could just be paranoia. But I doubt it.

I've been laid off. Until I can find another McJob, or our farm revenues pick up to the point where we can feed our livestock and ourselves, I do not have time for anything that is not revenue producing. This topic is hereby suspended until further notice. Sorry, folks.

Game resumes. No guarantees as to regularity of posts.

Torana: You manage to get through your meditation. It doesn't seem to be so much a matter of focus as a matter of reaching the magic of your Discipline. Seems a bit more distant than it ought to be.

...That can't be anything good. As soon as I'm done with the meditation, I'm going to go to find food and then teammates...Maybe if I'm lucky, both at the same time. I can speak Sperethial just fine, so if I need to translate anything for Kolbeinn I can, but for the sake of the rest I'll mostly use Throalic. "Now I'm SURE something is wrong, but I still don't know what it could be. When I tried to meditate, it was...difficult. Like...I almost couldn't reach the core of 'Beastmaster.' I'm not really sure how to explain, or why it would happen."