Harvesting Dreams & Nightmares, & Fungal Flames

Summary of Events (10/12/2025):

In the twisted laboratories beneath a corrupted manor… Where dreams are stolen and crystallized torment awaits… our heros confronted a Harvester of Nightmares summoned from the Dreamlands and bound to Dr. Ritalsin’s dark purpose. Our heroes fought it across two chambers as it tried to flee into the shadows.

But Charles channeled Sarenrae’s Divine Armageddon, calling down radiant judgment that shredded the shadow wraith with devastating void damage. HIM delivered the final blow, condemning the creature’s essence to the void for eternity. Yet victory came with a price – the nightmare’s dying curse left Mutu convulsing with psychic damage as Geist complained about gears popping loose within into Mutu’s chassis. Beyond the battle, our heroes found a forgotten coat room containing magical artifacts: a Cloak of Illusions, a Cloak of Repute (Greater), and an Amulet of the Resting Sentinel that shields against void energy.

Returning to the torture chamber, they discovered Dr. Riddleson’s true purpose – twelve crystal cylinders lining the southern wall, each a prison for harvested dreams and nightmares. Three still glowed with captured essence: Subject 23 (a street urchin whose purple mist formed a screaming child’s face), Rashfen (dark memories of impossible spaces), and Madame Corvine von Elsweld (memories of elaborate balls twisted into plague-filled nightmares). Dr.

Riddleson’s journal revealed his terrible discovery: “Gossamer energy can be separated into light and dark variants. The negative gossamer extracted from Constantine can manifest as actual constructs that have effect on the waking world.” Disaster struck when Mutu gathered the cylinders together. One had been damaged in battle, and it began vibrating violently, spreading resonating energy in a cascading feedback loop. The cylinders exploded one by one, releasing waves of psychic energy that sought new hosts.

Nightmare tendrils lashed out, psychic detonations dealt massive mental damage, and a shadowy duplicate of Diana manifested to attack the party. The heroes scrambled desperately to contain the disaster through occult knowledge and divine wards. After multiple failed attempts and Diana’s duplicate striking with ethereal claws, they finally succeeded – Kiren stabilized several cylinders, Charles created wards of holy light, and Mutu wrapped the final crystals in paper covered with divine symbols. When the last cylinder stopped vibrating, the stolen dreams dissipated harmlessly back into the Dreamlands.

Following construction plans through a secret tunnel, our heroes discovered the final unexplored section – a chamber carpeted with fungal growth where squat mushroom creatures trudged on three root-like legs through phosphorescent darkness. Charles’s fireball engulfed the chamber, igniting the flammable fungal creatures instantly. Diana’s Eruption of Hail Mountain dealt devastating fire damage, permanently blinding one creature. Kiren’s Reversing Charge carved through charred flesh for 80 points before she teleported to safety.

Mutu’s blessed hot knife cleaved through two creatures in rapid succession, and HIM’s spectral claws pulverized the last abomination. Within a ten-foot pit beneath the fungal carpet, Mutu discovered a jade hairpin carved as a multi-armed creature – a magical artifact that renders enemies off-guard, perfect for Kiren’s ambush tactics. Our heroes had explored every chamber on Dr. Riddleson’s construction plans.

Constantine the Mime had been sent to the surface. Heinrich the Mad Merchant slumbered peacefully in his cell, dreaming pleasant dreams. The Temple of Pharasma awaited to heal minds broken by dream harvesting. But somewhere beyond, Dr.

Riddleson remained at large – presumably fled to the Crown of the World and his obsession with the Nameless Spires and Ossoyo the Black Frost Whale. The flames die down, the crystals fall silent, and our heroes stand victorious among the ashes of corruption… The laboratory is cleansed, but the true architect of these horrors remains free…