I Walk in Dreams -- An Esoteric Journey Quest

"I do seek the truth," you say. "I'm just unsure of the best means to do so. I'd like to talk about it with you, if that's fine."

Her face lights up -- again, more literally than you are used to. "Certainly! By all means, let us exchange questions and insights and grow together. I'm afraid I have no hospitality to offer you, but come and have a seat beneath the tree with me. I am Inanna."

You note the mythic provenance of her name as you lower yourself to the ground, but it's fairly common for esoteric practitioners to use chosen names in occult contexts, generally laden with some sort of symbolic meaning. Or maybe that's literally her normal everyday name, you're pretty sure some people are just called that. It's not like you have any room to throw stones. "Ash. Thank you." You settle into position as comfortably as you can make yourself, rather than a meditative position like hers. "So. Inanna. You've been doing the contemplative thing for a while, I take it?"

She nods. "Many years. First in the outside world, and then, when I learned the path here, the inner world."

You watch as she breathes deeply, her posture immaculate and serene even in the midst of a casual conversation. "So, you believe that by turning inward and contemplating, you can find the ultimate truth?"

Her eyes meet yours, clear and unwavering. "Yes. Through contemplation and the repetition of mantras, I quiet the mind and connect with the cosmic truth. It is in the stillness that I find clarity, and perceive the shape of further mantras that connect to deeper truths. And so I progress."

You lean back on your hands, feeling the dry dust beneath your palms. "I get that. But... you spoke in mathematical terms earlier, calling those intermediate results lemmas, so I'll make a mathematical analogy and you can tell me if I'm saying something stupid. Have you considered that grand cosmic truth might be fractal in nature? Small, beautiful truths self-similar to the capital-T Truth."

Inanna tilts her head slightly. "You speak of a path of experience."

"Sure," you say, thinking for a moment. "Have you ever watched a sunset and felt like the world was telling you a secret? Or seen a piece of art that was expressing something that you've never had words for but have felt all your life? And action is part of it too: when you know how to do something, really understand it down to the bedrock, you don't need to think about it. You just do it, and for me at least it feels like touching on something eternal and true, because you've perceived the underlying shape of the world and responded accordingly."

She closes her eyes, as if trying to absorb your thoughts. "I understand what you mean. But I've never been able to hold onto them to my satisfaction, the way I can hold onto a new mantra I've found. You find lasting value in them despite that?"

"Maybe holding onto them is impossible," you admit. "And I'm not saying I go through life finding wonder and glory in everything. A lot of stuff is stupid and useless; for every transcendent moment there are a million meaningless ones with no value. But..." you shrug helplessly. "I've got to see stuff, and do stuff. When I learned about the inner world, as you call it, I couldn't be content to sit still and think about it. I needed to go get my teeth into it, and I started my Ascent possibly foolishly quickly."

Inanna's eyes open, and she smiles broadly at you. "You noticed something valuable and you seized it with both hands. A most admirable attitude towards that which is sacred." She hums for a moment. "There is much that is banal within the contemplative life as well. Many hours where insight cannot be found, and every time the conscious mind rises to reflect, one feels quite dull and stupid. But those times when the soul alights on something, and a new sliver of enlightenment is there to be grasped..."

You get it. You grin at each other, and continue in this vein for some time. She's never going to make a stylite out of you; you're never going to make an adventurer out of her. But by the time you rise to your feet to depart, you think you've made friends of each other. You ask for her email address, but she demurs, saying that in the non-meditative time she spends in the waking world she has better things to do than look at screens, and you have to admit that you see her point. But she does give you her actual address, so you can send physical mail like it's two hundred years ago and telecommunications aren't a thing.

Honestly? You're into it. You make a mental note to get a fountain pen and some appropriate ink so you can write longhand without your hand cramping up and, more importantly, with flair. You've heard fountain pen writing is a skill, and you're interested in picking it up and seeing if you find there another little pointer to enlightenment.

---

I THE MAGICIAN

You walk along the trail, feeling pretty good. After some winding around rocks and scraggly trees, and then a moderately terrifying segment where the way narrowed at the edge of a cliff, things flattened out and became easier. You now have a straight shot through a little gently-sloping gully, and then it looks like the path beyond that is fairly straightforward. The vibes are great, you think to yourself, and then instinct sends you diving to the ground as a rock crashes against the gully wall where your head had been.

You're under attack.

You roll behind the largest rock you can see nearby for cover, getting into a crouch. You bit your tongue in the fall, and the inescapable taste of blood is somehow more distracting than the pain, but you push it away and focus your power. Earth to steady you, air to speed you -- holding the opposed forces in balance once would have taken all your concentration, but now it falls into place with ease, and as the magic settles into place you run, speeding out of the gully and away from your assailant.

Only to come up short when stone slides out of the ground, sealing your escape away. You turn away, heading back for cover, and narrowly avoid planting your foot into a disguised spell diagram.

This isn't just an opportunistic strike. You've been ambushed in a prepared killzone. Hunted.

Blades rain from the sky, and in desperation you press yourself against the gully wall and ask the rock to shelter you. It shapes itself around you, forming a small hollow with an overhang, and you are safe there for a moment but know it cannot last. You scan the area with your spiritual senses, trying to find the monstrosity that assails you...

Horror grips your soul. There's another human nearby. They're coming into danger unawares. You have to warn them -- and, maybe, they'll be able to help you?

You burst out of your shelter, running up the slope. You see a figure in the distance, coming this way. You raise your hands and shout, the wind carrying your voice: "Dream-entity! Dangerous! Look out!"

They raise their own hands, and you have a moment to think yourself saved, that another wise-dreamer is here to fight by your side, and then a gout of flame billows forth. At you. And that would have been the end, but part of you was on guard, and that part raises a wall of ice in a barest instant. Yet that still isn't enough to save you from the heat, as your own defense vaporizes and the steam scalds you.

Still, through the pain you have the presence of mind to try subterfuge. With an incantation and a strain of spiritual effort, you seemingly vanish, blending yourself into the billowing clouds and hopefully buying yourself a moment to think. Your horror has faded, transmuted to rage. Another human is attacking you like this. Another occultist; a fellow wise-dreamer who has betrayed everything that means, who has rejected the fraternity that unites initiates of the hidden world. You remember, too late, Idra's warning of some days ago, that attacks had happened; it seems like the stories were true. You'll be sure to tell her, if you make it out of here.

Your assailant stalks forward. He is a handsome man. Your age, perhaps a bit older, perhaps a bit younger. The sort of person you wouldn't think twice about seeing in your day-to-day life. But his face is twisted into a mask of fury, and his eyes glimmer.

"I know you're there," he says, turning this way and that. "Hiding like a coward. Come out and face me. You think yourself worthy enough for the Ascent, don't you? Come out. Test yourself, and we'll see who the worthy one is."

There is tremendous bitterness in his voice, but you can't think about that right now. Your illusion will fade in moments, and you need to decide on a course of action.


Claim Victory

[] Call upon weapons and tools, arts and sciences, that are the equal of his own in battle.
-[] Write-in spent resources totaling four Swords Power, plus one additional Swords Power for each Triumphant Initiation you have

[] Reveal higher occult secrets, beyond even his own knowledge, which he cannot resist.
-[] Write-in spent resources totaling four Wands Power, plus one additional Wands Power for each Triumphant Initiation you have

Accept Defeat

[] You escape, but are scarred. You cannot remain as you were. Lose the Ace associated with your Aspiration. Immediately write a new Aspiration, associated with a different Ace still in your Pneuma.
-[] Write-in a new Aspiration, which must begin "I aspire to" and be associated with Swords, Pentacles, or Cups

[] End the quest in Tormented Finale: At the Hands of an Enemy.

If you won:

• Gain one Triumphant Initiation.
• If you have at least two Triumphant Initiations, search the Unseen for the winner of the [GLORY] vote and shuffle it into the Ascent Deck.

[][GLORY] VI The Lovers
[][GLORY] X Wheel of Fortune
[][GLORY] XX Judgement

Win or lose:

• Lose this card.
• Immediately end the Night.

---

Decks and Resources: Character Sheet
Night-specific information: 4/max 6 Explorations, Swords Aura

Well, you've seen three perils in four nights. On the one hand, moderate oof. On the other, you now have several datapoints to learn from about how they work, and how many more can there be, anyway?