October 8, 2012 - The Dreamlands

184

Virginia is… an interesting girl. Not what I expected from someone who’s so young.

Teleported inside her room at 9, because using doors takes effort. She didn’t notice me at first. Watched her run to the window, look out, run to a mirror and brush her hair, back to the window, straightened a picture on the wall, back to the window, grabbed stray clothes off the floor and tossed them into the closet, back to the window….

“Ahem.” She jumped. Not as much as I’d hoped. But it was satisfying nonetheless.

“Alright Virginia, what is it you wanted to say to me?”

She didn’t answer. Sat down at the edge of her bed and stared at me. I was surprised by how intense that stare was.

“You’re clumsier than I thought you’d be.”

“What?”

“You practically tripped over yourself when my dad threw you out. And then you did trip after flailing around when I threw a marble at you.” Um… okay I may have skimmed over some details about that in my last post…. “That’s not the type of behavior I expected from someone who some of the people in the Order described as ‘Dancing Death.’ At least Grendel isn’t lying when he says you’re pretty.”

…. What. What was going on, why was it feeling like I’d already lost complete control of this conversation after just a few sentences. Had think of something to say fast.

“How do you know about Grendel?”

She arched an eyebrow. “Everyone who goes into the Dreamlands knows who Grendel is. He’s the reason the Dreamlands are still around.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She cocked her head to the side. “How much do you know about the Dreamlands?”

“Well I read Randolph Carter’s journal, and I went there once in ’86….”

She laughed. “Wow. Wow. You realize that’s over 2,500 years in the Dreamlands, right?”

…. Wow. No, I hadn’t. I remembered Dan telling me that an hour in the real world was a week in the Dreamlands, but I’d never thought to do the math….

My shock was fairly apparent. “Things have changed a bit since you last visited,” Virginia said.

“… Alright, that’s just going to add to the long list of questions I was planning to ask you. But first, I’d like to get into the Dreamlands, so I can actually see what’s being talked about. I need you to enter it first; if you go in, I can follow.”

“So just like Grendel then?”

“Yes just like-wait how do you know-”

Her smile cut me off. It was far too clever than any child’s smile had right to be. “Let me see if I understand you. You want me, a poor defenseless little girl, to go to sleep while being watched by a complete stranger?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Try anything and I’ll break both your kneecaps.” Then, without any consideration to comfort, she fell across her bed. The speed at which she fell asleep caught me off guard; I almost missed the timelines shifting into the Dreamlands. Tossed myself into them before they could change back, and suddenly I was in the Enchanted Wood. It looked… mostly the same. Same ash covered ground, same charred black trees. Except now the trees had grown leaves, each as black as their bark. And rising above all the other trees was a single, immense tree that stretched past the clouds….

“We should get out of here. This isn’t a safe place to stay.” Some strange woman was talking to me oh wait shit was that Virginia?

I know people look different in the Dreamlands, but this was… I mean… she…

She’s underage in the real world she’s underage in the real world she’s underage in the real world she’s underage in the real world she’s underage in the real world she’s underage in the real world….

“Are you going to stare at me like that this entire time?”

“… Yes.”

“Fine. Just walk while you do. We need to get to the town of Ulthar as soon as possible. I don’t like getting caught out in the open.”

“What about Dylath-Leen?”

“Dylath-Leen is gone. The inhabitants were flayed alive by the Wooden Girl and then slowly murdered by the Plague Doctor. Hlanith, Ilarnek, Ooth-Nargai, Iganok, are all gone as well. Every city except Ulthar is gone. Now start walking; the trees are listening.”

She didn’t talk until we were out of the woods, and into an open field. “Alright. From here it should only take a few hours to reach Ulthar.”

“Just a few hours of walking? Is it really that close?”

She had that smile again. “Who said anything about walking?” The ground rose up behind her, and shaped itself into a wheeled platform with two seats on it. “Skilled Dreamers can manipulate their surroundings here. And I just happen to be a very skilled Dreamer. Get in. We can talk while we ride.”

Well I didn’t see that coming. With some uncertainty, I got into one of the seats. And then the platform began to move forward; not extremely fast, but much faster than we’d be going on foot. “Now what are those questions you wanted to ask?”

“Most importantly? What the hell Grendel and the Esoteric Order of Dagon are doing here. I’ve been trying to figure out what Grendel’s up to for a long time now, and all I’ve been able to get is that he’s got some kind of plan involving summoning gods and I’m still not entirely sure how that connects with all of this.”

“I don’t know anything about summoning, but their goal here is just to keep the Fears from completely destroying the place.”

“How strong is their presence?”

“Let me put it like this. There are less than 300 humans left in the Dreamlands. Only a dozen of us aren’t members of the Order. These days, unless you’re a strong enough Dreamer to hold your own, you either join the Order or die.”

“Has it really gotten that bad?”

“It’s always been bad. The only difference is now the Fears are running out of people to kill here.”

“What about Grendel? You talked like you know him.”

“Kind of. I’ve talked with him occasionally, whenever I’ve had to work with the Order. Creepy guy. Likes to talk too much. But he’s the only person capable of holding the Fears back.”

The landscape of the Dreamlands seemed even more colorless than my previous visit. The grass had only the slightest tinge of green in it, and the sky was almost completely grey. And no matter where we traveled, I could always hear the faint sound of carnival music.

“So what is it that you’ve heard about me from the Order?” I asked.

“A lot of stuff. Most of it rumor. Something about you being Grendel’s sister, or girlfriend, or both….”

“No. I am neither of those things.”

“Really? Well, forget those rumors then. I do know that you’re a time traveler like him. And from what everyone says, you seem to run around trying to be a hero, which has put you in conflict with the Order on occasion. I hear a lot about what they call the ‘Battle of the Jersey Dockyard’ from ’96. The survivors from it treat you like a legend.”

“… Yeah that hasn’t happened to me yet.”

“Then you can ask the survivors for tips for when it does happen.”

Ulthar was coming up. The town looked like a fortress. Tall walls surrounded by trenches and barbed wire, with gun emplacements and artillery pieces. Not sure what they thought that was going to do against the Fears, but it looked impressive.

Hanging on either side of the town’s fortified gate were two read banners, each emblazoned with a five pointed star containing a burning eye in the center. Guarding the gate were several men in military camo, wearing red armbands with the same star symbol.

“Hey Virginia!” One called to us. “What brings you here tonight?”

“Found a new friend. Her name’s I-330. Perhaps you’ve heard of her?”

“Seriously? No way! The boss will want to hear this!”

“Yeah well too bad tell him I saw her first! Now open up the gate!”

They did so, and we got out of our chairs and walked inside. The town looked as military as its defenses implied. Every building had a purpose, and was built to withstand attack. The few people I saw out were all armed, and looked constantly on guard. Saw a few night gaunts flying around, some ghouls, and several other creatures I’d never seen before, all walking the streets. It looked like how I would have imagined a city under siege.

“Now that we’re inside, what are you going to do?” Virginia asked.

“I… um… don’t know. I thought I was going to find some kind of evil plot going on here, but I’m not seeing any of that…. Maybe if I investigate….”

Virginia called to a soldier walking by. “Hey Mike, what is it you people are doing in this town again?”

“What? Come on, Virginia, you already know that.” He answered. “Grendel says we need to keep a foothold in the Dreamlands, or the whole place will fall to the Fears and they’ll tear it all apart.”

“Anything else? Any secondary objectives or missions here?”

“Not that I know of. You’d have to ask the boss.”

Virginia turned back to me. “Ta-da. Investigating, check. Now what?”

“We… um…”

“You’re starting to make me think you came here without a clear goal or plan in mind.”

“Of course I’ve got those! I’m here to… I have to….”

“Why are you so determined to stop Grendel?”

“He’s trying to summon ancient godlike monsters so he can lead them in revolution against the Fears and seize control of the world!”

“And is that really a bad thing?”

For a moment, I was speechless. “Of course it’s a bad thing! They’re monsters!”

“And the Fears aren’t?” He voice sounded so… old. Old and tired. “Have you seen it when they take an interest in someone? When they slowly break a person’s will, turning their lives into an unending hell? Have you watched people lying on the streets, covered in dozens of blisters and rashes from all the diseases the Plague Doctor has given them, unable to even moan in pain? Or a woman shredded into thin strips by the Smiling Man? I don’t know about these ancient monsters of yours. And Grendel’s too much of a nut for me to trust him or his plans. But after spending centuries in the Dreamlands, watching them massacre town after town just for their amusement, letting some other monsters take care of the Fears sounds like a nice idea to me.”

I had no answer to that. Why was I so determined to stop Grendel? Yes, he’s an insane murdering psychopath. But I can’t say the Fears are much better. Should I focus on them instead? But I know what I read about the old gods; they were creatures which would have destroyed the planet out of sheer apathy. Are they any better?

I was going to get my answer soon. As I stood there, silent, a blank faced man approached and, in complete monotone, told me that Grendel was waiting for me in his hall.

But I’m not saying a word about what happened there until I have had several drinks in me.

I-330