Harmony Session 31: A Dream of Gates

We last left The Suckhole Six about 60 feet underground in the Woodsmen's Garage. The group had decided to dedicate the time they had here to repairing an Everskiff, a Varduran vehicle that hovered along the latent energies of The Evervoice. Azarki helped the project with some appropriate applications of guidance, Malachai fashioned some makeshift bongos with which he channeled the worksong assistance of The Evervoice, Zoran helped with his proficiency in smith's tools, while Gorr "just helped" and Enno shit his pants.   It took the Six a whole tenday to get the skiff up and running, but with their combined efforts, The Ashblaster hummed to life with a chorus of radiant song, forever changing their exploration of Vardura.   Additionally, power had finally creept back into the garage after Enoch's explosive "incident" with the Evervoice. The broken and deactivated Woodsmen remained inert, but the elevator and lights were operational. To celebrate, the Suckhole Six decided to take a little trip together on Gorr's starberries.  

Places Elsewhere

  When dusk fell, Gorr immediately noticed the difference in his starberry experiences. While his friends bumbled their way through their first time, Gorr studied the connectivity the starberries commanded. It seemed like the currents of the Evervoice that had been ripped away a tenday ago were now thriving and flowed over everyone like waves from an impossible ocean. Gorr felt very close to the experience of his first time and realized that the more people that imbibed the starberries, the more powerful the experience became. What would come with dream Gorr could only guess.   Sleep (or something like it) finally took them. Gorr watched the stars open wide and swallow them whole.   It took only a moment that felt like eternity for the Six to realize themselves in this pitch-black dreamspace. Part will, part subconscious, part starberry, each of the Six appeared changed, their dream forms impossible to hold in any other space. Malachai became a vast field of corn, his face peering out from thousands of cornstalks that both stretched to infinity and were contained within the black dream space. Zoran became 300 feet tall and rippled with muscles on muscles, the glowing runes of his people carved all over his body. Azarki appeared sharklike and fierce, not unlike a Selachii with the sigils of the various gods of the Bari Pantheon tattoed across his skin. Gorr himself took the form of a firbolg and looked astonishingly like Shogo vu Chullat, or at least related. Enoch looked very much like himself, but adorned with all manner of archanical upgrades and prosthetics in an attempt at flesh-machine ascension.   The Six barely had a moment to understand their perceptions of each other before a large stone portal appeared in the darkness. It was similar to the gates they had before encountered, but with slight changes that the Six would come to understand were personalized to each of them.   Gorr - The Herald of Gorr       Azarki - The Aftership       Malachai - Mosswater Memories       Enno - The Starmap       Zoran - Battle's Peak       Enoch - Time's Apprentice      

The Gift Horse's Mouth

  Enoch watched each of his friends step through the portal with almost no hesitation, but he did not follow suit. There was something off about this. Enoch suspected that each of them were being shown different portals, things they might want. It felt like a trick. Instead of going through his very tempting portal, Enoch took in the rest of the supposedly empty black space. Behind him and opposite the portal, Enoch could barely make out the shape of something made of blocky stone and soil. He approached and a strange entryway came into focus. It looked like an abandoned mine shaft halfway boarded up and blocked by barricades and warning signs in all languages suggesting that strangers "KEEP OUT".   Enoch rejected the advice and began to climb over the barricades and into the dark empty within the void.   Zoran stood there in the black, all 300 feet of him, and couldn't decide what to do. The temptation of the portal was almost too much to resist for the big man's broken brain, but the wise words of Enoch (and perhaps fear of gates) convinced him otherwise. He turned from his offering and followed Enoch into the mine.   On the other side was a universe of stars and nebula moving across the sky in a colorful weave. Before them, transparent stones made a broken path across a black expanse and into another doorway. This one was bright with an undefinable golden glow beaming out the entry. Enoch began to traverse the space with a liberal application of misty step while Zoran leapt over the black voids with a warrior's courage. About halfway across though, shapes began to emerge from the stars as if from water. Night scavvers, massive fishlike hunters of voidspace, attacked the two to prevent their crossing.   The creatures were fast and ferocious, chomping into Enoch and Zoran with razor sharp teeth. Zoran attempted to pull as many to him as he could to help Enoch get away, but it would prove his downfall. As Enoch crossed the last expanse of the broken roadway and threw himself through the golden gate, Zoran's body was torn asunder by the vicious scavvers and devoured.   Bloodied and battered, Enoch emerged on the other side into an enclosed square room. Rotten wooden steps spiraled out from the doorway and down into a room-sized pool of viscous green sludge. Enoch could see the dim outline of the stairs circling down through the goo until they disappeared in its depths. Before he could understand what was happening, the room and the dream broke apart around him.  

A New Day

  The Suckhole Six the awoke from their starberry trip and discussed their experiences. Gorr was eager to share what he learned with Shogo, especially about Hama and the strange space Enoch had found. What was that place? Why was it there? Where did it lead? These were questions only further exploration of the starberries would reveal, but it seemed the Six were not exactly encouraged by their experiences to try again. After all, Enoch, Azarki, and Zoran each bore the wounds of their violent encounters, though Zoran was in one albeit very bloody piece.   The Six resolved to take one more day in the garage before taking the Ashblaster up and continuing their exploration.