Vision in the Night

Your group stands on a mountain together, facing out toward the sea. It is the middle of the day, and sprawling out below you are İzmir and--in the distance--Point of Origin and then the ocean. Birds are singing around you, and there's not a black or carnivorous tree to be seen.

Visions flash before you. A group of Duergar toasting their success in taking over an abandoned mine from a group of kobolds. A giant tree, sitting in the center of a dying town, shrouded in mists. A young silver dragon, its scales gleaming in the sun. A painting of a wolf, running through a field hanging on the wall of a castle. A female ranger, emulating the predatory aspects of nature, stalking her human prey in a most dangerous game. An orc shaman, casting bone lots to read the future. Paladins you don't know sitting around playing dice in a tavern one evening, talking about what other good deeds they may perform after having saved the tanner's daughter.

The visions fade.

Darkness sweeps across the landscape, cloaking the once bright world. No natural darkness, the noonday sun is swept away as the darkness speeds along the ground until all that is left is the faint outline of a ring of fire in the sky. The stars are visible overhead, but their visibility is muted, less than they would be in a natural night.

The smell of salt water washes over everything, and a deep sound can be heard echoing off of the mountains. Similar to a whale but deeper, darker, more sinister. The sound causes the very mountains to shake, stirring the things that live there.

Dark things. Ugly things. Unwholesome things.

Trees--once healthy--twist and turn black and decrepit overnight, their leaves blowing away with even a slight breeze. Shadows and undead come up from the depths of the earth.

The visions return. Flashes of clarity in a sea of confusion.

The last remaining inhabitants of a town being caught as the ground beneath them wells up with thorny, bloodsucking vines--hapless bystanders or, perhaps, sacrifices to keep a tree from interfering with a plan. Their screams can be heard for miles, but there is no one around.

A pack of wolves fleeing.... something. Sounds not unlike those made by a dolphin can be heard in the distance.

A painting of a creature too horrific to exist, with tentacles, a beak, and an exposed brain.

An adult dragon, once silver, now grey in color... the last of its life fading out of its eyes.

A duergar's face as he stabs his compatriot in the stomach, all trace of humanity, of sanity, drained from his eyes. The smell of fear and piss thick in the air. A dark shadow flickers in the background.

The paladins standing up in the middle of the night, a blank look in their face, their souls sucked away. Leaving without bothering to get dressed, without alerting anyone--apparently transparent to the surrounding townspeople.

The shaman, lying by the side of the road, all signs of life faded from his eyes. People shuffling by, without a single spark of humanity in them, not even noticing.

The ranger, running for her life as if all of the demons in the multiverse were chasing her. Her face streaked with blood.



The visions fade again. You wake up around noon, drenched in cold sweat.