Part 3B - Der Tempel von Kadatheron (Max and Karl)

[SunlessNick]

"You're dreamers? Why even come here at all? You've already taken everything from us!"

[Mr. Handy]

"We've taken nothing from you but our friend that you took from us first," says Max. "And these shawls, which we will gladly return when we leave. I think I see what the confusion is here. You think that all dreamers are the same. Nothing could be further than the truth. We have only just come to Kadatheron to seek your wisdom. Whatever group of dreamers has plundered you, we have nothing to do with them. Our friend said you asked him if he worked for someone named Meyernick. I have not heard the name before, but it does sound like it comes from our home. If he and his people have stolen your cylinders and other valuables, we may be your only chance of getting them back. Who else can match the power of dreamers but other dreamers?"

[SunlessNick]

"They have not been stolen," the priest says. "They have been destroyed. They held the wisdom the Great Ones and the Dreamlands, but now they are blank stone. Even we cannot recall anything that was written upon them."

One of the Dotherites sags against the shelves. "This is the fate of our city. It is lost, and we know not how."

[Mr. Handy]

"I suspect Meyernick and his ilk are responsible for that as well," says Max. "Perhaps what one dreamer has done, another dreamer can undo. We could try to undo the erasure of the cylinders and of your memories of them. I cannot guarantee success, but it is worth the attempt. We did see blank cylinders in one of the buildings, but we did not understand them until now. One of the priests also found us there. I knocked him out and bound him, but he is otherwise unharmed. We can release him when we go there. We also knocked out another priest who had the key to release our friend. He will recover as well. We have killed nobody here."

[SunlessNick]

The priest seems somewhat taken aback by these admissions, but the double revelation of you having beaten up some of his fellows but not killed them does seem to put him off trying to oppose you.

"If you sincere," he asks, "then you would not object to us joining my fellows, so that I am not alone with you?"

"So that you outnumber us once more?" Helmut counters.

[Mr. Handy]

"Let us try to the restore the cylinders before we do anything else," says Max. "We can untie the priest in that building and explain matters to him while we're there. Then you will not be alone with us, but there will still be more of us than there are of you."

[SunlessNick]

The priest seems hesitant, but he doesn't have many options if he wants to not go along with you. "Very well, he says. My name is Teros." (As Karl noted earlier, the Dotherites do not introduce themselves in return, which doesn't seem to surprise Teros at all).

Teros seems a little twitchy on the walk to back to the cylinder all, presumably debating whether to try calling for help, but in the end he doesn't.

The other priest is still where you left him, unconscious. Once roused his eyes widen at the sight of you - Teros intervenes - "We have come to... an accord. They know our secret, and have promised to try undo what was done to the cylinders. In return I have promised not to alert anyone to their presence."

[Mr. Handy]

Max gives the other priest the same explanation. "Let's go to the blank cylinders," he says. "We'll do our best to restore them, but that may be beyond our abilities. We shall try, however."

[SunlessNick]

For one thing, you don't know what the cylinders are supposed to say - you're trying to reverse a change you haven't seen. Still, the two priests lead you back into the cylinder chamber and remain quiet as you try.

OOC,Karl's Dreamshaping is 14, Max and Helmut's are both 10. Since you're all trying the same thing, I'll total it up. Rolled 1D100: 31.

With a grinding sound, the nearest few cylinders begin rotating - as new portions of their surfaces enter your field of view, you see images carved upon them - until they've turned through 360 degrees and are completely covered. With a cry, the two priests rush forward and begin examining them.

OOC,Rolling again: 71.

You're unable to maintain the effect further. The cylinders you've changed keep rotating, and maintain their images, but the rest remain still and blank.

Teros turns to you. "I... remember now. I remember what these should have held... but they are different. I am not sure what that means."

The affected cylinders show two kinds of image predominantly. Some are cities and villages - you recognise Hlanith, and Thraa, which you passed through on the way here - along with others that are unfamiliar (though Karl thinks one looks faintly familiar from the journal he studied in the library in Berlin). The others are visceral, realistic scenes of warfare and brutality, ranging from Mediaeval in character to depictions reminiscent of WWI - something both Max and Karl are familiar with.

One of the latter shows a sacked and destroyed city, torn apart by bombs. One of the Dotherites places his hand on it before sinking to his knees. "This is Dother," he says. "If this is the truth, there can be no return."

[Mr. Handy]

"It looks like a scene from our world," says Max. "There was a war there, some years ago. I fought in it. These other dreamers must have brought weapons from our world into yours. Their only limit would be their imagination. Your world would have no defense against them. Meyernick and his followers must be stopped."

[SunlessNick]

"To what end would they wreak such destruction?" the other priest says, staring at the transformed pillars. "The Dreamlands are a balm for most who come here from you world."

"It has not been a balm for us," Helmut says. "These two fellows" - he indicates the Dotherites - "abducted a woman to bring here. Only when that failed did they ask for aid. Perhaps this Meyernick was treated similarly."

[Mr. Handy]

"They may also seek to conquer this world," says Max. "With flying machines, panzers, and artillery, who could hope to stand against him? I don't know the man, so I don't know what motivates Meyernick, but he may have been in the war too. Some men came back...different. Harder. Mad, sometimes. That loudmouth Hitler is one of that type. Again, we don't know yet. We'll have to find out what we can about him in order to stop him. Killing him in this world won't stop him. Dreamers who die in this world just come back. We may ultimately have to deal with him in our world."

[SunlessNick]

"Where would we begin to search for him?" Helmut asks.

[Mr. Handy]

"Back in Hlanith," says Max. "Dreamers from Berlin go there first, it seems, and they tend to stick out. In Berlin, he'd be one man among a million, but for his name."

[SunlessNick]

"We have provisions for a return voyage," one of the Dotherites says.

"And we can tell the city guard not to trouble you further," Teros says.

"Gut," Helmut adds. "I would be away from this city as soon as possible."

[Mr. Handy]

"Ja, let us go back to Hlanith," says Max.

[HoneyDog]

"Let's try to find Herr Alex" says Karl.

[SunlessNick]

Departure from Kadatheron goes smoothly - after a word from the temple priests, the city authorities go from trying to capture you to being keen to see you go.

It's up to you whether you tell Laigan and his fellows what you found out.

The voyage back down the river back to Thraa brings a disquieting sequel to the vision of Dother you restored to the cylinders: the farms and villages you saw on the way to the way up are now ruins bearing the marks of bullets and bombs. There had been no rumour of this on the docks before you left, and indeed the damage looks to be years old, despite you having seen differently only days before.

Plumes of sand on the horizon seem to mark the presence of some sort of life in the desert, but whatever it is does not approach the river.

[Mr. Handy]

"Could they have the power to change this world's history?" wonders Max aloud. "It certainly looks that way, and why wouldn't they be able to do it, if they can imagine it? Maybe we can restore it with the same power, if we work together. We remember how these places were before."

OOC, I would like to tell [b]Laigan[/b] and the other scholars, though I'll discuss it with [b]Karl[/b] and [b]Helmut[/b] first to see if it's okay with them.

[SunlessNick]

OOC,Hemlut is ok with telling Laigan - the scholars helped you get him out of there, and the priests would probably prefer it if you didn't, which is a plus in his eyes.

In response to Max's suggestion, he says, "When you changed the character of the bar on our first night here - well, our first conscious night - most of the patrons acted as if nothing had happened. The priests claim to have forgotten most of what was on their cylinders, and the Dotherites seem to barely remember their city. From the data we have, it would appear this world is malleable enough that even if we cannot change the past, we could make changes indistinguishable from doing so."