Recall that last time, our pupper (and one cat) protagonists were investigating the sudden changes in personality of five other folks. They'd stashed most of them in a Temple to Man: their Pioneer Guild supervisor, Bivi Affenpinscher; Inquisitor Ruby Labrador; cat diplomat Marshmallow von Mau; and the goddamn Princess of Pugmire Yosha Pug. But they still weren't sure what was causing the problem.
Peppa Papillion was working on creating a Hallow at the Pioneer's Guild (I know we said she was doing that last time, but her player got stuck fighting the Wombat Men of Venus or something and couldn't make it), so the other four reconvened to talk about this. Gelert Sausagedog might seem like a truly rough-and-tumble sort of rogue, but he's remarkably well-read, and notes that this isn't really possession per se. Possession wouldn't survive being in a Hallowed space, not without some dramatic responses. No, this is more like an infection of a mental sort...and the Nagayaga does like to communicate via dreams, doesn't it?
Petunia Pibble goes off to hit the books and see if she can learn a little more, while Sausagedog suggests they drop in on a friend of his who services the Doberman estate. They find him at a seedy little bar in Riverwall called the Blushing Blossom, and talk with him over a couple of pints. Viveka Doberman has been really contented of late, and he notes that she's been sleeping a lot, too, but then wakes and acts happy and rested.
Petunia, meanwhile, learns that communication via dreams, and indeed direct mental communication, isn't something that's common in cat or dog magic. However, rodents are rumored to have a much more reliable grasp of this so-called "psychic" art. And as it turns out, Petunia knows a rat named Schelemeus who works down by the docks! She goes to the Blossom and grabs the others, and they head to the docks - still a seedy bit of Pugmire - to find him.
Other than a couple of dogs recognizing Dire Newfoundland and trying to pick a fight (Dire remains the bigger dog, literally, and advises these two to let Man into their hearts; Petunia says she wishes Peppa could have seen that), they don't have any real problems. They find Schelly and Petunia asks him whether he knows anyone who could help with this problem, and he says that he does know a guy, he's a little sketchy, but he's real good at this "pyschic" stuff. He says he'll send the dogs a message at Granny Sue's, and they head off to get some rest, figuring they'll hit up Granny Sue's tomorrow.
And indeed, tomorrow, they first decide to stop by the temple and visit the folks who are hiding out. They find Bivi in the main body of the temple, sitting in a pew. They ask after him, and he says he's doing all right, but had a bad dream. Hobbes von Shadow asks about it the dream - having read the works of Sigmund Fuzz, he's got some training in interpreting dreams - and Bivi says that in his dream he was in a long corridor, trying to get to the end, but as he walked he felt something slowing him and he was powerless to stop it. The dogs talk with Ruby and find that she had similarly frustrating dreams, and find Yosha still asleep. They wake her ("YIP!") and she says that, she, too, had dreams in which she was trying to get somewhere but couldn't (I do not remember the specifics I gave as her dream).
The Pioneers give the folks breakfast pies from Granny Sue's, and ask about Marshmallow. Brother Darius German says that he went out for a walk a little while ago, and the Pioneers get a sinking feeling that these dreams might have been bait to lure these folks out of the shelter of the Hallow. They head out into the streets, and Sausagedog hears a clanking sound. Looking over into an alley, he sees a metal cable disappearing around a corner.
He races over and sees a mass of writing, metal tendrils wrapped around a struggle figure. The figure reaches out with a white paw and from within, Sausagedog hears "HELP ME!" He chops at the thing with his hand ax and Petunia unleashes a barrage of Seeking Stingers at it...but Dire notices three more of these tendril-masses climbing over roofs and heading for the temple. He remembers well that these things are called "etherkesh," and they are servants of the Nagayaga.
Dire runs past them and blocks the door to the temple. Hobbes takes off his glasses, doffs his cardigan, and punches one of them hard enough to dent steel! Two of them charge at Dire, but one just climbs up onto the roof. Hobbes wiggles his butt and leaps into the air, landing on the roof, and squares off against the thing.
One of the others slips past Dire into the Temple, but he figures between Yosha and Ruby they can probably handle one. He clonks the one in front of him with his hammer, and it whips him with its tentacles. The one holding on to Marshmallow falls to Petunia's magic, and disgorges Marshmallow ("ow"). He's a bit scorched, but seems mostly unharmed, so Petunia and Sausagedog run to help the others.
Hobbes pummels the one on the roof into limp metal noodles, and then lands next to the one fighting Dire. He, Hobbes, and Sausagedog finish it off fairly quickly, and pull Marshmallow back inside. The last etherkesh has already dead; Ruby stands over it with a mace and Yosha is nearby brandishing her arcane focus (Bivi is hiding under a pew).
Ruby goes to work healing Marshmallow and he admits that he took a walk to clear his head. He was having dreams, you see...
The Pioneers take a little rest, and then head to Granny Sue's to await word from this mysterious mouse. They aren't there long when a messenger shows up and hands them a scroll. It contains a set of directions, but they pretty much need to be followed to make any sense. The Pioneers get their stuff together and head out!
The directions take them to a cheese shop, but when they go in, there's no cheese in evidence. A mouse behind the counter asks what they're looking for, and Petunia shows him the scroll. He sighs and hands her a wrapped package containing a lovely bit of cheese and a note. It says "Enjoy the cheese, then come into the building across the street."
They all take a bit of the cheese (and it's very good), and then go across the street. There's a sign on the door that just says "NO," but they figure they're allowed, so they enter. A mouse sits behind a table covered in weird sigils and implements, dice, a dagger stuck into it, and suchlike. He immediately hands them each a vial and tells them to drink it. ("What's this?" "The antidote." "For?" "The cheese.")
They drink the vials, and the mouse, who says his name is "Not" ("with a K?" "I don't know, I can't heard the K") listens to their problem. He says that the Nagayaga is a creature of dreams, and has left eggs in the dreams of these people. If the eggs hatch, there are snakes, and then the snakes feed on each other until only one, the Nagayaga, is left. If they are to kill the Nagayaga for good, they must enter the dreams, smash the eggs, kill the snakes, give the Nagayaga nowhere to hide.
How to do that? Not says that he can help someone enter dreams, but doing it to multiple people at once is beyond his skill...unless those people were linked mentally. He knows that a cat minister, a very powerful one, could do that, but he doesn't know anyone in Pugmire like that. Hobbes says he might, however, or at least someone he could ask.
Not says that they don't necessarily need to be in close proximity to the dreamer (dreams, after all, don't take place in physical space), but he'd need something intimate belonging to said dreamer or to know them well, and of course you'd need to make sure they stay asleep. Getting four of the dreamers to cooperate won't be hard, but what about Viveka? And what about keeping the physical bodies safe while they're dreaming?
In the end, the Pioneers decide that maybe they could have Boomer meet them halfway from Houndton, and have him and his family guard them while they go dream-exploring. If they take care of Ruby, Bivi, Marshmallow, and Yosha, the last dreams they'll need to cleanse will be Viveka, and they can deal with that when they get to it.
Not hands Petunia a card of plastic with a shiny metallic square on it, and a metal box with a slot. Insert the card into the slot when they're ready, he says, and he'll know and scamper to find them, but don't waste it, because it only works once. They'll need it to get his attention, he says, because when he doesn't want to be found, no one can find him, not a dog, a cat, a snake, a bird...Not Even a mouse. (Petunia keeps the card, but hands the reader to Dire to put in his bag of holding, just to be on the safe side.)
The dogs' vision blurs and they heard a buzzy sound, and when it clears, Not has gone. The Pioneers head back out to find Peppa and start preparing their dream-jaunts.
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