Correspondence 1: Outpost Dreams
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Ms. Redfang,
You have requested an account of our adventures. Rhonaat Kimbatuul and I set out to investigate the reports of vivid unsettling dreams experienced by soldiers of the Garrod Outpost. A strange pairing to be sure, this Dragonborn and I, but I tend to avoid people and people try to avoid Rhonaat so it makes an odd sort of sense. Many thought it foolish for just the two of us to embark, so your kinswoman foisted a construct upon us that she believed would be beneficial to our chances of success. It is a large clunking sort of thing. I had doubts.
Regardless, we set out for the outpost. Two days of uneventful travel found us reaching the soldiers’ stronghold at dusk. To my surprise, the construct did not make as much noise as one would think and kept pace with us on our journey. The soldiers of the outpost reminded me of the undead. They shambled about their duties with the dull and lifeless quality of extreme fatigue. Whatever the nature of these dreams, it is evident that they were taking a toll. Rhonaat and I were met by the Dwarf commander who filled us in on the events of the past few weeks.
Every single person stationed at Garrod had the same dream (albeit with minute variations). It plagued them every night they attempted sleep, so much so, that orders had to be given to ensure the soldiers took some form of rest. Rhonaat suggested that we try to experience the dream ourselves to see what we were up against. He took a place in the barracks while I stationed myself in the watchtower. Night came, and so did the dream.
A cavernous darkness. Intractable fear. Faint illumination from phosphorescent fungi on the floor of what I presumed was a cave. And a pair of glowing red eyes. Instinct screamed at me to run but it was like moving through molasses. I could not escape. I came out of my trance, heart pounding and eyes darting wildly. Then I noticed it. A faint dust hung in the air all around the outpost, visible in the torchlight. Terror gave way to curiosity and I hurried to tell Rhonaat about the dust. He had a dream, twin to my own, and when I described what was floating all around us he was able to see it as well. We determined that it was being blown into the outpost by the wind. Questioning another Dwarf turned up that this dust was not a normal occurrence so we decided to follow it back to its source.
At midday we heard distressed noises coming from a small depression in the ground. Several undead had upended a cart and were attempting to beat it apart in an effort to reach the source of the sound. I began picking off the zombies with my longbow and arrows. Rhonaat walked calmly toward the enemy in an effort to distract them from me, but it proved unnecessary. They were solely occupied with the destruction of the cart in an attempt to reach what lay in the depression beyond. The construct clomped down the hill after Rhonaat.
When he did engage the enemy, only two of the zombies seemed concerned. Rhonaat fought well but I was too far away to render aid when he was struck. I thought he would surely be overwhelmed, but the Dragonborn opened his mouth and dispatched a good number of the zombies with…lightning. Even the construct proved useful in destroying an enemy. When the skirmish was over, three little creatures climbed to the edge of the hole. Rhonaat spoke to them in a language I did not understand, but I understood the response. They were speaking inside of our minds.
These little beings resembled the mushrooms from the dream. They had been afraid and asking for help by sending out spores on the wind. When asked if they could stop now that they were safe, they became agitated and replied that there was another of their kind, a child, trapped in a different cave by the undead. Rhonaat was of the opinion that we should help them recover this child. I suspect his motivations stemmed from an emotional response and a desire to render aid but the logic was sound. Helping the fungi would stop the dreams. It turns out that they could not endure sun exposure so we built a canopy of sorts and had the construct carry it to shade them while they led us to our next destination.
It proved to be a much larger hole in the ground. An entrance to a massive cave. The shuffling and moaning sounds of an untold number of undead drifted from the opening.