dream 3-3-19

I'm touring a world.  It's a promotional thing by that world's government, to try to encourage people to travel around.  I'm a fairly old dude, well-practiced in magic to the point that I don't even need to bother with gesture, incantation, etc—except to point and say the name of the spell.

I'm on this tour because I was randomly selected, and accepted because I used to be able to afford such travel.  It was very nostalgic, but also refreshing for me to go to the places I'd gone before, even if I couldn't wander off the beaten path (the government tours were very restricting on what you could and could not do).

We were at a place where, at certain times of the day, you could hear very quiet opera music coming from some old ruins.  I remember back when I helped the rats to pick a spot for their operas, and how that place had excellent acoustics.  I couldn't go to find the rat king, because of the limits, but I remembered him as being fat, a simple, happy, and caring.

That night, I rested in a hostel with the rest of the traveling party.  I couldn't hear it anymore due to the noise in the hostel (which was three stories tall and resembled a large but kind of unkept-up YMCA).

So, I didn't know it, but the rat opera music stopped suddenly.  In-dream me couldn't see it, but a large being emerged from the shadows, muffling the sound from the back of the ruins, and first ate the guard rat on top of the forward wall, and then pulled up on the cord to bring up the director and the singer, who were connected by a little corded headset (so she wouldn't forget her lines).  It ate them off of the cord, then put it back down and waded forward through the water, not disturbing the water at all.

I woke to a bunch of people freaking out about how their shadows were eating their food.  I hurried to my feet in time to see that the ones freaking out had _black_ shadows.

Shadow Stalkers.

They'd die or move on in strong enough light.  I grabbed a bag of clementines near me and cast light on each, then handed them to my companions with instructions to light up the shadows.  I then grabbed my wand (an industrial stick-like thing with a pointed end that looked like it was made on a lathe, with all the visible rings from being turned).  I cast light on the tip of my wand, since it wouldn't decay after being used as such like the clementines would.  I cast it multiple times to increase the brightness, and as the Stalkers saw me coming, they fled, eventually joining together so densely they started to bubble in one person's shadow.  I came closer and they started to flee.

I cast 'stop movement'.  My light spell ended, and as I walked closer to the bound Stalker-collective, I cast more spells, realizing they were not a living being, but technically an 'item'.

"Soul-bind! To me!"

Those who understood what that meant were shocked that I'd put myself in danger, and tried to get me to stop it, but I kept on.

"Stop Hunger!  Stop Thirst!  Poison!"

In time, the Stalkers would either starve and die, or slowly take me over, which would surely kill them, too.  We would die together.

What I didn't realize was that we could also _live_ together.  Eternal.  They melded with my soul and turned my hair and skin darker, and changed the color of my eyes.  I stopped eating and drinking unless reminded, and had to take medication daily to keep from suffering too much from the poison I inflicted on us both.

Be wary when casting 'Soul-bind' on items.  The effects are permanent and unpredictable, especially if the item is incorporeal.  Upside is, it's quite handy to be able to reach something across the room without having to get up, and the hivemind means that I notice much more about my surroundings.