Dreams & Visions

• Started in Session 01, with Cordelia being the first of The Party to receive one
• NATURE OF THE DREAMS
  • Two of the Shapes of Paracausality (the Orb and the Pyramid) are able to send us dreams, which are like visions of a potential future
  • The Curator is able to interfere with these visions/dreams to a certain extent (in that he can prevent us from having a bad one and instead have our minds spend the night in a peaceful pocket dimension), although he is not all-powerful and cannot do this all the time

Contents of the dreams

Dream 1

• Occurred during Session 01
• In the first dream (only experienced by Cordelia), she saw:
  • The ground covered in bodies and blood, with fire all around her
  • A cloaked man floating in the sky
    • As the man turned to her, she felt as if “it” was all her fault

Dream 2

• Occurred during Session 02
• In the second dream, all 3 party members (pre-Cal era):
  • Find themselves in a foggy area, and feel as if they are sitting in water (2-3 inches deep)
  • See dead trees in the far, far distance
  • Hear the sound of metal grinding against metal (echoes and feels arcane, like the metals are magic)
  • Cannot speak or move
• The party hears a voice say “I had strings… But now I am free.”
  • A gauntleted hand grabs their shoulders, and the dream ended

Dream 3

• Occurred during Session 03

Part 1

• Had by the main party (Camille, Kaya, Cordelia)
• The party:
  • Opens their eyes in a swamp-ish area
  • Sees a hooded individual with a flowing cloak very far away
  • Walk towards the figure, but stop partway
• The figure in the distance shakes a little, and the same gauntleted hand grabs the party’s shoulders
  • The hand moves up and forces the party to look skywards
• In the sky is a black, upside-down pyramid inscribed with red runes
  • The tip of the pyramid glows red and a beam shoots out of it, hitting the ground and cracking it open

Part 2

• Had by Cal (alone)
• Cal dreamed of an abandoned, destroyed city, in which buildings were on fire and he was surrounded by bodies
• He saw a cloaked figure floating in the sky
• As Cal raised his hand, blood fell from the sky
• As revealed in Session 06, Cordelia realized that this dream is the very first one she had (that NO ONE ELSE HAD) from Session 01

Dream 4

• Occurred during Session 06; the first instance of one of The Curator’s dreams!
• The party found themselves in the same swamp, but then a white slash split through reality
  • The party was then transported to a sunny meadow filled with pinkish-blueish flowers, with a the broken-down ruins of a chapel nearby
  • Flowers that are picked regrow
  • In this setting, the party can move freely and speak to each other
• Within the chapel, the party meets The Curator for the first time, who reveals:
  • That he curates dreams/visions created by the Orb and Pyramid, and why we have been receiving dreams (the Orb wants to prepare us for the future, while the Pyramid is more enigmatic and acts of its own volition, moreso than the Orb. It is later revealed in Session 17 that the Orb is able to make its own choices as well, although such actions were limited to after its awakening)
  • The Keeper has been chosen to study the Orb, but not to know the future
  • The Orb has chosen us to prevent what the Pyramid is planning
  • Namedrops the Shapes of Paracausality
    • They are called this because they don’t abide by our laws of nature
• The party is told to escape through a door (massive portal that looks like a mirror) before the Pyramid is able to take over control of the dream

Dream 5

• Occurred during Session 07
• The party receives a vision of Holden
  • First we see a scene of the banquet/masquerade we’re going to attend
  • Then the scene changes to a massive tomb filled with wires and machinery (much like Foo’s secret room but WAY bigger)
    • There’s a drawing of an upright triangle painted on a piece of parchment in the room
• The party doesn’t see each other, but we all see the same thing

Dream 6

• Occurred during Session 09
• The party meets The Curator again! He tells us that:
  • We’re really close to either the Pyramid itself, or someone who has recently touched the Pyramid/been in close proximity to it
  • The source of this signal (either the Pyramid or the person) is in Holden, the party’s current destination
• The Curator’s book is revealed to be something that only he can read (out of everyone present), and that its contents are hard to explain

Dream 7

• Occurred during Session 14
• The party sees the the Capital in the distance
• The same figure from before appears
  • This time it’s closer (within 50 ft.)
  • The figure is holding the Pyramid
• Suddenly the Capital erupts in explosions and is on fire

Dream 8

• Occurred during Session 16
• As the party falls asleep, there’s a flash of red and purple
• The party finds themselves standing on the surface of the water in the same swamp as usual
• The same figure floats in the distance, cape flapping in the wind — it slowly approaches us and stops ~100 ft away
  • As it approaches, we realize the figure is a humanoid-looking Warforged
• As the dream ends, we all wonder if the warforged figure is what OSIRIS is going to look like

Dream 9

• Occurred during Session 17
• Another dream from The Curator! He tells us about the third Shapes of Paracausality: the Cube
  • The Cube is like the “tapestry”/box which is intended to contain both the Pyramid and the Orb
  • It is hiding outside of our reality in an extradimensional space/pocket dimension
    • It was hidden away so the gods and people can restore/reset the world in case one of the shapes goes out of control
  • When housing the Pyramid and the Orb, it can be used to shape reality
• The Curator:
  • Asks us to deliver the Pyramid and Orb to him, so he can use them together with the Cube to prevent The Cataclysm
  • Tells us that the Pyramid wants to scare us into its path of destruction, while the Orb wants to promote us to its path of life

Dream 10

• Session 18
• The party is standing side-by-side on a rocky beach, with the Fog in the distance (the Fog, as always, is streaked with red and purple lightning)
• Vallen and a masculine-looking figure (wearing a long coat) stand on a small peninsula nearby
  • There’s a flash of light and Vallen falls over

Dream 11

• Discussed during Session 20
• Had by Julian (alone)
• The night before joining the Party, he had a dream where he was trapped in a desert (a long, never-ending beach) where he traveled and wandered for days

Dream 12

• Technically 4 separate dreams had by Cal, Kaya, Cordelia, and Camille during Session 20

Cal’s Dream

• Cal’s soul (rather than his consciousness) is somehow transported directly to the Shadowfell
• Cal receives his contract from The Raven Queen, along with a method by which he can summon his contract at any time
  • The Raven Queen mentions talking “to a friend” of hers, who helped her determine that it was about time he received a copy of his contract
• The Raven Queen asks him to leave - as much as she would like him to stay - since it isn’t his time to be with her yet
  • When she does this, Cal blinks, and he wakes up.

Kaya’s Dream

• Kaya finds herself in a toddler’s body, awakening in a plush bed surrounded by luxurious blankets. A maid comes in and helps her get ready for the day.
  • Even though she doesn’t recognize her surroundings, everything feels oddly familiar.
• She flashes forward through two other scenes: one where she walks through an unfamiliar capital - holding the hand of a tiefling man who is a shade greener than her - and another where she is spoonfed at a large dining table by a blue-tinted tiefling woman.

Cordelia’s Dream

• Cordelia opens her eyes and finds herself viewing the world through the eyes of a man with a long beard. Before and around her lies the first layer of hell.
  • Also the man is in front of like, a SEA of devils. Like it’s unreal.
• The man she spectates pulls out a set of Tarot Cards from his pocket, throwing them out willy-nilly and causing a bunch of crazy shit to happen (some are spells Cordelia recognizes, others aren’t).
  • The final card he throws out summons a Fireball, except instead of immediately exploding, it grows and grows until it engulfs the entire first layer of hell.
• In Session 21, Balthazar confirms that this dream was a real event that happened to him (long before Cordelia was even born)

Camille’s Dream

• Camille finds themself in the same ruined temple where they first met their god, and speaks to her briefly about how they feel bitter about their brother’s death - despite understanding logically that there’s a reason for everything - and asks if they can bring him back one day and if there’s an afterlife.
  • Notably, when Avandra speaks, she has both a man’s and a woman’s voice
• Upon asking about the existence of an afterlife, their surroundings seem to glitch and Avandra is replaced with a pale figure
  • The figure is able to silence Camille at will
  • The figure claims:
    • That divinity is easy to bypass once one understands the fundamentals
    • The gods are simply toying with them, and that they CAN bring their brother back but choose not to
    • That the God of Lies is able to grant them the power to bring their brother back, and “awaits [their] next move”

Theories

• The armored figure we see in dreams sent by the Pyramid appears to be OSIRIS