Dream Sequence 2 recap

Events are presented are in asynchronous order, but all events are categorically organized.
--
Misc.

Geralt, Yaraz Thule, and Reiner the Blade are all awake.
Kortyl Rowanmantle is DEAD.
--
Nobu

Kal informed Nobu of the dreamwalker and of the worldskin being revealed to him, and the commonalities of both visions. He stressed that his is swept up in something far greater than a bounty and told Nobu to have his school ready.

Nobu reassured Kal he would be ready and offered him help. Kal declined for now.

Kal made sure Nobu was informed of the dreamwalking techniques so in the future, once he has mastered them, he can join Kal in the dreamscapes too.
--
Sarth Ogresson

Sarth was sitting on a bench, with a table of pulled pork, buttery mashed potatoes, roouddan and pork pies, and garlic bread absolutely stacked onto plates. It was arranged as if he was involved in an eating contest with no other contestants. Ill defined, blurry people stood around him complimenting him vaguely.

Kal disguised himself as a half-ogre and questioned Sarth on the progress of their investigation. He revealed they didn't know much, and he deferred to Sir Derring's leadership for almost everything. Kal learned their party is heading towards Suzail to talk to house Rowanmantle for more information and not anything else substantial from Sarth.
--
Geraldine Darstan

When Kal arrived in Geraldine's dream, she was falling.

He manipulated the dream to have her fall into the palatial manor house he was in when he visited Yannick Darstan's dream. He successfully disguised himself in dream to appear and behave like Yannick Darstan.

Throughout the conversation, because of his disguise, posturing, and deceit, Kal learned a lot about Geraldine's machinations.

It seems she intends to capture Sonya Rowanmantle to secure a possible heir in the line of succession for the crown of Cormyr. Although not explicitly revealed, this would imply if she were to somehow marry Sonya off, and have the king of Cormyr slain, she could choose a male member of her house to become king. She was derisive and reminded Yannick of "his place".

Geraldine also let slip she was employing Zhentarim mercenaries, and "employing powerful magicians called the Malshapers". The absolute veracity or reality of this situation is up to dispute, although that appears to be how she sees things. She did not seem to know about Kortyl Rowanmantle's possible replacement or death.

It was not revealed if Hisbelda was simply caught in the crossfire, or what Geraldine's intentions with her are, if any.

Geraldine revealed Sonya is to be brought into Suzail by the Zhentarim mercenaries on a false merchant caravan and delivered to her people.
--
Sir Henry Derrings part 1/ Suotma's Intercession

Sir Derrings was bathing in a spring, being fanned by nymphs, with a large city in the distant background. He looked like a big shot. It was only shortly after his arrival, that the dream stopped entirely, as if paused.

A female form, clad in purple robed appeared in front of him. She had no face, only a void where a face would be, with white pinpricks where eyes would be. The hue of the flesh of her hands and feet matched Ronja's skin tone exactly.

She offered her hand and said "Come with me, cultivator-of-dreams. I have much to show you of destiny. There is one whos dream is blocked, but I hold the key. All is not as it seems. Come with me, Kal. You have much to witness."

She informed him she could answer three questions.

Kal's first question was to ask her of her identity.

She replied "Suotma, of the dead world. I am no longer of a body. I persist only here, in vestige. I am unbecome of what I once was, and am now as you see me. I am fluid and alterable; naught but a collection of impulses and memories. Only my mission remains."

His second question was to inquire about her mission.

She informed him her mission was to ensure that the fate of her world and this one were not intertwined. She intends to undo a wrong that caused her to be in the state she is in.

Suotma leads Kal through a dream vortex. She walks calmly through what seems like a windstorm of emotion and idea.

They enter a new dream.

The dream seems hazy, as if it's out of focus. Suotma and Kal arrived, hand-in-hand in an enormous warehouse of some sort, floating above the ground. Twelve foot vats filled with saline-like liquid are arranged in rows on the ground of the warehouse. They are all covered in arcane etchings enscribed into the metal.

Suotma informed Kal they were shrouded from the dreamer, and it would be unwise to interfere, because "He-who-is-not-Kortyl" would notice.

Other than the liquid, many of the vats were filled with female specimens, with needles and tubes protruding from their persons. The tubes appeared to be keeping the women alive, and handling some biological needs. He got the impression they were being harvested for something. They were not visibly pregnant. On the far wall of the warehouse, there is a smaller separate collection of vats filled with orange liquid.

The tubes connecting the vats the captives are in all connect to the far wall. Kal spots the dreamer there. He was a smooth, nude, sexless figure. His skin was gray, his eyes were black. His head was oddly shaped and somewhat lumpy.

The dreamer was sorting through cylinders and inserting them into a magical device connected with a large orange vat. A strange whirring sound was heard, and an expulsion was seen inside the tank. All rather quickly, two components inside the tank combined into what appeared to be some strange hybrid embryo. The orange tanks appeared to be a magical incubator of some kind.

Kal miraculously identified the embryo to be a hybrid of an underdark fey called a Gloura, and an abberation.

Suotma spoke up. "This is where he commits his crimes. He has taken the place of many. This room is a reflection of a situation much more dire, and one which must be rooted out and expelled before what happened to my home happens to yours." She sounds strained and wavering. Her white eyes meet Kal's and she touches his face. "His name is Xestilophon Mixrix. He is a Malshaper." Revealing this information seemed to exert a large amount of effort for the dreamwalker.

Again, miraculously, Kal remembered the Malshapers were a minor cult in the north of Rashemen, thought to have been wiped out years ago. They were said to dabble in magic too dark even for the Thayans to approve, a kind which warped body and soul.

Kal memorized the divine script on the incubation vats, although he could make no sense of it.

Kal's third question for Suotma was on the fate of her world.

Instead of telling him, the dreamwalker showed him.

She showed him devastation similar to his experience in the final dream of the first sequence, although this was not on Toril. It was on a different planet, one with orange skies and gray lakes. All was abberated, from the grasses to the birds to the people and so forth. They floated above a great wasp-hive of a city, and an enormous cyst-meteor was cratered off in the distance. It pulsed with malice.

Suotma indicated this would be the fate of Toril if Kal is to do nothing. She referred to him with odd titles. They were "Kal-of-dreams", and "He-who-is-destined". Oddly, the latter fit very well with how the entity from the previous dream referred to him.
--
Sir Henry Derrings part 2

Kal returned to Sir Derrings' dream.

The dreamwalker was gone and time returned to normal in her absence.

Kal snuck next to Sir Derrings, first as a snake, and then as himself, with his usual appearance.

Sir Derrings was surprised at his arrival, although not disturbed.

Kal asked about their party's intention and progress. Sir Derrings informed him they were headed to Suzail to speak with house Rowanmantle on the nature of the bounty, and do some forensic work in the area. It seemed like a better place to start, since Easting was a bust for them.

Sir Derrings told Kal he can call him Henry.

Unaware of the events truly unfolding around him, he seemed at ease.
--
Taatha

The stage was set in a small, dingy room in a Thayan hovel.

Kal identified the hovel as typical of a Thayan peasant.

A younger Taatha, around nine years old, with a shaved head and without tattoos, was strapped into a modified desk. Her arms were strapped into the armrests by leather straps and it appeared she could not move. A peasant man, who appeared to be her father was gesturing to a blackboard with a switch. The blackboard read:

1: I will obey my betters.
2: I will be silent unless I am asked to speak.
3: I will obey the law of the circle. My first allegiance is to the Zulkir, second to my circle, third to my father.
4: I will not steal.
5: I will live honorably, and lead as an example when it is my time to lead.
6: I will not kill unless it is the will of the Zulkir.
7: I will honor my house and my father.
8: I will undermine and destroy the enemies of Thay.
9: I will give my life to my country when I am called upon without hesitation.
10: I will master my school of magic and be a paragon in my art, to the absolute limit of my abilities.

Kal memorized the list.

Kal recognized the title Zulkir as the paramount title of Thay, being an emperor-equivalent title in other cultures. Specifically, a king-of-king titles relegated to Thayans exclusively.

Kal remembered the current and sole Zulkir of Thay is a necromancy circle human lich named Szass Tam. This was not always the case, as in the past Thay was ruled by a council of Zulkirs, however, after Szass Tam's takeover, there are many council masters, but only one Zulkir.

The man cruelly disciplined young Taatha, slapping her knuckles until they were bleeding with the switch. He indicated she insulted a circle master and talked out of turn, violating rules 1, 2, 3 and 7. He was very angry at her and viciously disciplining her. Taatha was silently crying, but did not shout out loud at the treatment, indicating without a doubt she had endured many of these punishments before.

Kal left the dream, and revisited Taatha later.

On his return, he altered the dream to replicate the state of their party's camp to the best of his ability. It seemed to convince Taatha.

He successfully and easily posed as Reiner, a man he met before.

Taatha returned to her present day self, but was shaken and surprised by the scene and aftermath of the trauma dream she was experiencing.

Kal found out their party's location, progress, and intention. They are heading to Suzail, and intent to question house Rowanmantle on more details on the bounty and background of the case.

Taatha specifies it has been uneventful and seems ordinary. She misinterprets Kal/Reiner's conversation as flirting, and relates to how she previously declined his advances.

Kal offered Taatha a book he fabricated in the dream, containing a full case of the material he has been able to uncover including house Darstan's involvement and crimes, the Zhentarim, the limited information about the Malshapers, and the portends he has been shown in dream by Suotma and the entity inhabiting the dream of the purple man.

She read the book and questioned him on it, seeming extremely skeptical, almost like it was a joke. He maintained he is serious, and she should remember this.

Taatha proposed an agreement. IF they found evidence any of these claims could be true in Suzail, she would humor him and investigate further. Kal agreed.

Kal informed Taatha that Geraldine Darstan revealed Sonya is to be brought into Suzail by the Zhentarim mercenaries on a false merchant caravan and delivered to her people.

Kal revealed to Taatha she was dreaming and left.
--
Pan Bi Azhmed

Kal entered the dream of the tax collector, in the laughing ox tavern in Iriaebor. The tavern is a real tavern, on the edge of Iriaebor, where the higher castes of Zhentarim mingle with travelers and visitors. It is a "party tavern", and one Pan Bi Azhmed clearly had a positive impression of.

The tax collector was speaking with a dream-woman who was in to him. He drugged her drink when she was looking away. Kal was unable to identify the drug used.

Kal approached him as a 30 year-old Witold and made him feel very uneasy. Pan felt the deja-vu mirroring the events of the present when Kal offered him a lucrative position as a tax collector in Easting. He played along, although his realization and discomfort were obvious.

Kal got the man's name, Pan Bi Azhmed.

The scene changed to the tax collector's flat in the Easting barracks. Kal knocked on the door.

Pan answered in his underwear.

Kal posed as a low-ranking Zhentarim guard. He deftly bluffed his way into having Pan reveal the details of the kidnapping, and how he in fact was heavily involved in the kidnapping. During the conversation, Pan mentioned he and others were hired by house Darstan to kidnap her. They were involved with the goblins, and the plant of men in the retinue of house Rowanmantle. They were responsible for the poisoning and kidnapping of Hisbelda.

Pan revealed the plan for Hisbelda was to hold her in Zhentil Keep until "this bad business has concluded" and then ransom her later.

Pan revealed Witold knew of the kidnapping, but was not privy to much information, and "should not be".

Kal made an exit without tipping Pan off to his identity or the consequences of what he revealed.
--
Hisbelda Rowanmantle

Upon arrival, Kal recognized the dream was fuzzy and indistinct, as if the dreamer was unconscious or heavily drugged.

Hisbelda was relegated to a small dingy room, holding her dead baby upon Kal's arrival. The baby disappeared and she was being dragged by shadowy hands through a limitless hallway.

He altered the dream to be over a peaceful body of water which they were standing on, with clear skies.

Hisbelda was very much shaken by the ordeal. Despite her circumstances, she seemed to have a moderate presence of mind.

Hisbelda is a beautiful red-haired woman not a day older than Kal. She is quite young to be in the position she is in.

Kal reassured her, and asked to be briefed on the events of her ordeal from her perspective.

Hisbelda relayed that she was involved with Kortyl informally at first, as his "woman", or mistress. They had a child, and she asked him to marry her. He accepted and legitimized their child, Sonya, as his child. Shortly after she gave birth and he legitimized Sonya as his heir, he began acting distant and "not like himself". He wasn't loving or caring like he used to be, and barely spent time with her.

He sent her away as a diplomatic envoy to the Zhentarim. This decision was very out of character for Kortyl, and made almost no sense generally, as their wedding was to be very soon.

Hisbelda agreed, but took Sonya with her. On her way back from the diplomatic meeting, in Easting, she woke up to the sound of her entourage involved in a "scuffle". One of the men appeared to be acting lethargic, as if drugged or poisoned, and was in combat with another of her guard.

Having a bit of good sense, Hisbelda fled. She was captured by goblins and kept in the cage the party found previously. She was sold to men wearing Zhentarim uniforms, and separated from her baby. She has not been treated well in their care. She has been beaten, r4ped and barely fed.

She remembered little else.

Kal requested she remember all that is possible during her imprisonment, and provide those details to him when she can "at midnight, if possible".

Hisbelda seemed to draw the conclusion that Kortyl did not try to have her killed and Sonya taken away, as she feared. She was somewhat relieved by this, but unsure of what to make of the rest of the information she was presented. It was some solace, at least.

Kal did not reveal Kortyl Rowanmantle is dead or much else of any import.