Around late 27 January, Yennefer, Eleven and Moiraine are approached by a bright, if wild-eyed Zenobius, who appears in a rare state cohesion. He says they want their yearly ablutions, pointing to the large wooden baths he is struggling to carry, alongside salts, incense and other bathing instruments. He requests help with the proceedings, and lures the trio up to the 11th floor, where he offers his palm to the mechanical device and gains entry to the great Sleepers’ hall. He takes the three within.
There, Zenobius begins to reverently toil around each of the Sleepers. With the trio’s help, he lifts and deposits some of the Sleepers in the tubs and shows them how to carry out the washing, murmuring to the Sleepers that they are too stubborn, hasty and proud.
As they attend the bathing, each member of the trio will be suddenly grasped by a Sleeper and will succumb into an immediate sleep. They become spectators of what appears to be the memory-dreams of several Sleepers — flashed, violent glimpses, often incoherent.
They can witness as follows:
■ Yennefer: memory 1: a vibrantly red sunset through an open window on the ground floor — the collapsed viewer drags his bloodied arm to his chest, showing bites and scratches; memory 2: a woman of the Sleepers sees her reflection in several large round mirrors in the 10th floor hall; she pushes her short hair out of her face — her reflection in the mirror before her does exactly the same, while in one of the mirrors the reflection moves significantly more slowly, in another reflection she lacks the hand, in a third she is bald, in the fourth her hair is luscious, beautiful and long, and in the sixth, the hand of her reflection reaches physically out from the mirror to touch her hair.
■ Eleven: memory 1: feet, rushing down the stairwell, to an explosion of violence behind the viewer, just as he slips down; struck, he turns his head to see undead pursuers and scrambles up; memory 2: a hidden viewer peers through a cracked door into the discussion hall, where two other Sleepers gift a third man a white, better decorated version of their grey uniform coats; he hesitates to accept it, until one of the Sleepers says, ‘He resigned. Take us to the new era.’
■ Moiraine: memory 1: eight of the Sleepers and the viewer laugh as a man sheepishly reveals his dreadful haircut — screams erupt from higher up, and a woman running down the stairs tells the group to flee; memory 2: the viewer nudges a young man forward in the queue of at least half a dozen others, who are lined up to speak to a vast, dark mirror on the 10th floor. The young man nearest to the mirror excitedly murmurs something. Moments later, he bursts into a howling fit of panic at whatever he sees within.
■ Communally (the trio members can see each other as present in the dream memory, but cannot be seen by anyone else in the memory): memory 1: a very large group, including nine of the Sleepers and a more upbeat Zenobius, celebrates with drink in the Sleeper’s hall; the bright light peering in suggests the time is late morning or midday; memory 2: the same hall, its celebratory ornaments tattered, and the hour late evening; the viewer sees a woman’s hands, cut on the large piece of mirror glass she is still holding; ahead of her, nine Sleepers appear battered, anxious but resigned.
The trio can awaken by either:
■ Traversing into the dream of another random (regularly) sleeping party member and persuading that person to wake up, which will in turn wake up their ‘visitor’ in the Sleepers’ hall. The character would not be able to choose whose dream they visit. Please find a volunteer whose dream you can invade on your own!
■ Throwing themselves off of the dream-tower’s balconies — note that they would never die, but jolt awake. The compulsion to fling oneself from the tower starts to grow, the longer they spend in the dream.
Each of our fine adventurers wakes somehow knowing:
■ Yennefer: The Sleepers cannot ever wake.
■ Eleven: The Sleepers relieve their memories each night, to endless suffering.
■ Moiraine: The Sleepers beg to die.
Zenobius has already fled the halls, by the time the triad wakes. He has completely forgotten the episode, if he is asked about it later.
Yennefer, Eleven and Moiraine wake with a dark, gunmetal silver mark not unlike an ache-less burn print on their limbs, in the shape of the hand of the Sleeper who touched them. The mark remains until they leave Ellethia.
Note: once Moiraine, Eleven and Yennefer leave the 11th floor hall, they need to speak a wish to get back in, just as everyone else. Please try to share the dream memory info with the broader group.
Will one or all of the three euthanise the Sleepers?
( You can, of course, coerce someone else to help with the bloody cause. )
YENNEFER, ELEVEN AND MOIRAINE
Around late 27 January, Yennefer, Eleven and Moiraine are approached by a bright, if wild-eyed Zenobius, who appears in a rare state cohesion. He says they want their yearly ablutions, pointing to the large wooden baths he is struggling to carry, alongside salts, incense and other bathing instruments. He requests help with the proceedings, and lures the trio up to the 11th floor, where he offers his palm to the mechanical device and gains entry to the great Sleepers’ hall. He takes the three within.
There, Zenobius begins to reverently toil around each of the Sleepers. With the trio’s help, he lifts and deposits some of the Sleepers in the tubs and shows them how to carry out the washing, murmuring to the Sleepers that they are too stubborn, hasty and proud.
As they attend the bathing, each member of the trio will be suddenly grasped by a Sleeper and will succumb into an immediate sleep. They become spectators of what appears to be the memory-dreams of several Sleepers — flashed, violent glimpses, often incoherent.
They can witness as follows:
■ Eleven: memory 1: feet, rushing down the stairwell, to an explosion of violence behind the viewer, just as he slips down; struck, he turns his head to see undead pursuers and scrambles up; memory 2: a hidden viewer peers through a cracked door into the discussion hall, where two other Sleepers gift a third man a white, better decorated version of their grey uniform coats; he hesitates to accept it, until one of the Sleepers says, ‘He resigned. Take us to the new era.’
■ Moiraine: memory 1: eight of the Sleepers and the viewer laugh as a man sheepishly reveals his dreadful haircut — screams erupt from higher up, and a woman running down the stairs tells the group to flee; memory 2: the viewer nudges a young man forward in the queue of at least half a dozen others, who are lined up to speak to a vast, dark mirror on the 10th floor. The young man nearest to the mirror excitedly murmurs something. Moments later, he bursts into a howling fit of panic at whatever he sees within.
■ Communally (the trio members can see each other as present in the dream memory, but cannot be seen by anyone else in the memory): memory 1: a very large group, including nine of the Sleepers and a more upbeat Zenobius, celebrates with drink in the Sleeper’s hall; the bright light peering in suggests the time is late morning or midday; memory 2: the same hall, its celebratory ornaments tattered, and the hour late evening; the viewer sees a woman’s hands, cut on the large piece of mirror glass she is still holding; ahead of her, nine Sleepers appear battered, anxious but resigned.
The trio can awaken by either:
■ Throwing themselves off of the dream-tower’s balconies — note that they would never die, but jolt awake. The compulsion to fling oneself from the tower starts to grow, the longer they spend in the dream.
Each of our fine adventurers wakes somehow knowing:
■ Eleven: The Sleepers relieve their memories each night, to endless suffering.
■ Moiraine: The Sleepers beg to die.
Zenobius has already fled the halls, by the time the triad wakes. He has completely forgotten the episode, if he is asked about it later.
Yennefer, Eleven and Moiraine wake with a dark, gunmetal silver mark not unlike an ache-less burn print on their limbs, in the shape of the hand of the Sleeper who touched them. The mark remains until they leave Ellethia.
Note: once Moiraine, Eleven and Yennefer leave the 11th floor hall, they need to speak a wish to get back in, just as everyone else. Please try to share the dream memory info with the broader group.
( You can, of course, coerce someone else to help with the bloody cause. )