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3rd Movement - Dreaming

Adapted from forum discussions with Josh.

In the deep south the world is less real than up north. Dream and reality mix up and entangle so that sometimes you don’t know whether you’re dreaming or awake. The Vulflanders have shamans who can walk through the dream and distinguish what is not real.

Vulfen do not have shamans, but they do respect the power of dreams. Insofar as they have religion, it is based on the prophetic dream: when all the Vulfen dream together and in one dream, that dream is then known to be true for them all.

Dreams of Power

Reality on the southern glaciers is sometimes mutable, strange sights are seen. Green forests and weird beasts may be encountered, things of other words. This is because of the SOFT PLACES, areas that have yet not been perceived enough to separate the real from the imaginary. Dream shamans sometimes seek these soft places because of the power it gives to their dreaming; others dread them for the illusionary dangers they may contain.

The southern aurora is connected to the power of dreams: it is said that dreams seen under the twisting polar lights contain great truths about the future. Such dreams, when they happen, are thought powerful divination that may come to anybody. Seeking the services of a dream shaman is considered most prudent in these cases so as to find out what the dream signifies.

Aside from dreams of divination, there are dream visitations from totemic animals and other dream spirits. Vulfen do not have these dreams, as they do not have totemic animals. Humans take these dreams most seriously, however.

The last type of powerful dream is the LUCID dream. These are especially important for dream shamans, as they can only make purposeful choices in these kinds of dreams. A dreamer will not normally realize that he is dreaming, but in a lucid dream he does. The dream shaman has usually trained to enter a lucid state during his dream; a layman will only enter a lucid dream accidentally or when provoked by a dream shaman.

Dreamwalking

Other dreams are like recorded plays and can’t be influenced while they are running, but lucid dreams are different: they happen in an interactive environment, the dreaming of the individual dreamer. Because the lucid dreamer is aware and in control of himself, normal scenes may be framed within the dream.

A character enters a lucid dream by making a DREAM-TELLING (R) Ability check while asleep. The check result gives the maximum number of scenes that the dream lasts before the character wakes up. A dream may also become lucid when a lucid dreamwalker first enters it or interacts directly with the dreamer; in this case a REACT (I) check may be used instead.

A dreamwalker is a character that can move from his own dream to another’s using the SECRET OF DREAMWALKING. A lucid dreamwalker may interact with a non-lucid dreamer in the dreamer’s dream; however, non-lucid dreamers may only make Passive Ability checks, and they can’t realize that the things and events in the dream are not real.

Once a lucid dreamer is present, he may opt to shape a dream freely, or act within the dream, possibly making Ability checks. A DREAM-TELLING (R) check may be required to make complex changes or make emotionally powerful changes without waking the dreamer up. Social interaction is possible in a dream almost normally, but any action that would cause Harm, refresh Pools or otherwise affect the dreamer mechanically will wake the dreamer instead. Secrets can and will change this; Vulflanders fear nothing as much as a dream shaman turned into an enemy, as a non-lucid layman is all but helpless against a phantasmal killer within his own dream; horrible nightmares are the least danger, many enemies of dream shamans are found under their own furs in the morning, frozen to death as if they’d spent the night naked on the glacier.

A lucid dreamer may awake accidentally just like a non-lucid dreamer would, but only within his own dream. Within another’s dream he will only wake with a DREAM-TELLING (R) check, when his dreamtime runs out or when the other dreamer wakes, which wakes up everybody visiting that dream.

Aside from the above, dream scenes may be played the same as any scene. However, circumstantial penalty dice work differently within a dream: the Story Guide may assign up to five penalty or bonus dice to individual checks; he is encouraged to make these decisions according to seemingly arbitrary criteria that hide a poetic logic. Different things are feasible in a dream than would be in reality.

Dream Modes The Pool costs of the various dream shaman Secrets are given in generic Pool points, but the actual Pool used is not arbitrary: the current MODE of the dream determines which Pool the shaman needs to use to activate his magic.

Each dream scene always starts with a mode that accords with the largest current Pool of the dreaming character. A dreamer may switch the mode by making an Ability check: the mode always accords with the last Ability checked in the dream scene, but only if it is stronger than the last mode-change. DREAM-TELLING (R) does not count; in fact, the associated Pool of the DREAM-TELLING Ability itself switches with the mode when the character is dreaming.

Non-dreaming Secrets, when used within dream, are affected by the mode as well: when a character pays points from any Pool, all but one of those points come out of the current mode Pool instead. A payment of three VIGOR during a REASON mode would turn into 2 REASON and 1 VIGOR, for example.

Running out of the mode Pool wakes the dreamer up immediately, provided that they can.

Dream Spirits

Spirits are powerful dreams that do not dissolve when the morning comes. Instead, they escape to the soft places to wait out the day. Some, such as totem spirits, are ancient, powerful and wise, rarely coming out of the soft places. Others are fearsome and hungry, such as the wendigo.

Spirits are just like lucid dreamers (in fact, lucid dreamers are like spirits, except that they have a body to return to) when it comes to moving through dreams, interacting with dreamers and so on and so forth. It is far from unknown for a dream shaman to forge relationships with spirits.

A dream spirit newly summoned has Advances equal to triple the success level of the Ability check used to summon it, distributed in half by the player of the dream shaman and half by the Story Guide. Dream spirits may be very imaginative in their composition, built out of dream logic. Free spirits of course may have whatever statistics the Story Guide finds best. Dream spirits encountered in the real world have their strength reduced: halve their Pools and reduce Ability levels by one.

Dream spirits encountered during the day are also fragile: anybody who has a reason to suspect may make a REACT (I) check to recognize the creature for a dream and dissolve it. For this reason dream spirits almost never make an appearance outside the soft places and dreams.

Dream items brought out into the world follow similar rules: their quality drops by one, and a successful disbelief causes the item to disappear. For this reason a dream shaman might make his dream equipment seem mundane, so as to avoid disbelief

Soft Places

Soft places are powerful because they are half-dream themselves. Entering a soft place is like entering a true dream space from the SECRET OF TRUE DREAM: the place has a mode, DREAM-TELLING (R) and dream shamanism Secrets work normally and so on. However, a person entering a soft place in waking life is really there: anything that happens to him is real.

Pure soft places have a direct connection to dreaming: there is nothing preventing a real being from moving into the dream or a dream spirit or item from becoming real in a soft place, provided they know how to dreamwalk and know of the soft place. A person going bodily into the dream cannot awaken accidentally or by force; they are like a dream spirit. A person who comes out of a soft place into the world during a dream endangers his original body most gravely; he also loses one level from all of his Abilities and half of his Pools until he returns to the dreaming and/or his own body.

Most soft places are actually in the process of hardening, so they are not so pure anymore: in these places circumstance penalties may be suffered, manifesting spirits may be even weaker, going into the dream bodily may not work at all and the power of dream is otherwise limited. Dream shamans both fear and covet pure dreaming places for their great power.

Species Dreams

The dream landscape is different for the different peoples of Near. Individual dreams are greatly influenced by personal experiences and cultural background, which often allows a dream shaman perceiving the dream to learn much about the person himself. However, this is nothing compared to the differences between the dreams of the races: a dream shaman may take a great risk by going into the dreams of people they do not understand.

Human dreams are the default described earlier; they are colorful and varied in properties, reflecting the person of the dreamer. The large circumstance penalty range makes the dreams whimsical and chaotic if one does not solve the dream logic the Story Guide uses in assigning the dice.

Elves do not dream, for they consider the world itself the dream. This does not mean that they are completely unaffected by the dream world; auroras interfere with Elven auras and soft places sometimes seem more real to them than reality does.

Goblin dreams are largely inherited; they dream of things their ancestors did and felt, not of imaginary things. The goblin himself is usually encountered in the shape of one of his ancestors in the dream. Goblins might well learn important things from these dreams, if they realize their significance.

Dwarven dreams are utopian: they almost always concern the ultimate success of the individual dwarf’s purpose. There are no circumstance penalties in dwarven dreams, and in fact using any bonus or penalty dice carries an additional surcharge of one associated Pool point. Giant dreams are slow and calm, with no loud sounds.

Giants themselves are humans in their dreams, and part of society. Visiting dreamwalkers are usually insubstantial on-lookers, unless they manage to materialize somehow.

Beastkin, such as ratkin or Vulfen, all have similar dreams. Beastkin in dream take the shape of a pure animal, albeit they may still speak if they want to. Humanite dreamwalkers in beastkin dreams lose their own nature, instead becoming like a beastkin most reflecting their inner spirit (SG choice); this may be an existing kin, or one that is only real in dreams. Otherwise beastkin dreams are relatively mundane, following rules from reality.

Soft Places and other ”neutral” dream territory might be considered in this context as well. They are, perhaps surprisingly, very life-like, and have no special rules to them. Of course, unearthly things may still be encountered just the same. Sometimes a soft place takes on the qualities of the dreams of their residents, though, if people live in them.

Abilities - Dreaming

Dream-telling (R)
This Ability is used to explain what dreams mean and distinguishing prophetic or sent dreams from idle fantasies. A character may enter a LUCID dream with a successful check while sleeping. Other uses are remembering dreams and distinguishing dreams from reality. This Ability may well replace PRAY (V) for the SECRET OF PROPHECY.
Possession (V)
A spirit can possess another with this Ability through their dream. A receptive target can be possessed in reality as well.

Secrets - Dreaming

Secret of Dreamwalking
The character can leave a dream and enter another, but only if he is lucid and the target is sleeping as well. The character in whose dream he starts in (probably himself on the night’s first walk) has to know the target character, and he may suffer conditional penalties for distance. The target may RESIST (R) reflexively, in which case a DREAM-TELLING (R) check is needed. The dreamwalker can take other dreamers with him, although those may resist as well.
Cost: 1 POOL per traveler
Secret of Nightmare
The character’s actions in a non-lucid dreamer’s dream may cause Harm or burn Pool points from the target: one point from a chosen Pool may be taken with a successful Ability check. Dream Harm is similar to normal, except that only the highest inflicted level counts; it becomes real Harm come morn. This Secret may affect a lucid dreamer as well, but only if he opts to not wake up. A non-lucid dreamer may wake up as well, but only after a successful RESIST (R) check.
Cost: 1 POOL per Ability check.
Requirement: SECRET OF DREAMWALKING
Secret of Dream Visitation
The character may refresh Pools and heal emotional Harm within a dream, and otherwise have positive mechanical interactions with others. Unwilling participants can opt out akin to the SECRET OF NIGHTMARE. Non-lucid dreamers remember a dream visitation vividly, unless made to forget.
Cost: 1 POOL per scene per person present.
Requirement: SECRET OF DREAMWALKING
Secret of True Dream
The character may define a dream space within which events are real and consequences follow dreamers into reality. Injuries, healing, learning, sex, even death – all become real for everybody in the true dream space. All interactions are possible just like they would be in reality. Characters may enter and leave the true dream by dreamwalking or getting out of the defined space otherwise. Waking up within the true dream is impossible; only waning of the place or getting out ends the dream.
Cost: 2 POOL per person present at creation.
Requirement: SECRET OF NIGHTMARE or SECRET OF DREAM VISITATION.
Secret of Dream Conditioning
The character knows how to shape the dreams of another person to control their actions in their waking moments. A conditioning attempt is made by shaping the dreams of the target and making an Effect out of the Ability check; if the target later encounters the situation described in the Effect, he has to immediately win the Effect with a RESIST (R) check to avoid acting according to his conditioning.
Cost: As normal for Effects.
Requirement: SECRET OF NIGHTMARE or SECRET OF DREAM VISITATION.
Secret of Imagination
Normally characters acting within dreams need specific, appropriate Abilities to their conditions. Thus a character flying in a dream might need a FLYING Ability of some sort, for example. With this Secret the character can replace any Abilities needed within a dream with artistic Abilities, such as STORY-TELL (R) or CRAFTWORK (I). This even works for DREAM-TELLING (R) when used to shape dreams directly (but not for dreamwalking or other non-shaping activities).
Cost: 1 POOL per check.
Secret of Mode Shift
A particularly sensitive dreamer may have the initiative in this manner: the character may force a dream’s mode to shift by bidding Pool. The mode may still shift out from under him, but he can pay to have to change back. Using this Secret clears any prior checks to change the mode, so any Ability check at all changes the mode easily again.
Cost: 1 POOL appropriate to the shift.
Secret of Dream Summoning
The character can attract or newly shape dream spirits while lucid. A successful DREAM-TELLING (R) check is required. If creating a dream item, handle it like equipment created with the SECRET OF CREATION, except for the cost and the fact that dream items do not need to be mundane. Summoned spirits are not necessarily friendly, and have to be controlled in some other way.
Cost: 3 POOL
Secret of Soft Place (specify)
The character knows of a soft place; these are by definition secret and secluded, as an oft-visited place soon hardens. The player may choose to have the place require a LOCAL (R) check or other travel Abilities to reach it, but then he has to live with those limitations himself as well.
Secret of Hibernation
The character can sleep for unnaturally long periods of time, up to his DREAMTELLING (R) check in days at once. This sleep protects him from moderately low temperatures, bad air and lack of water. Lucid dreams in this state are not limited in length.
Cost: 1 VIGOR
Secret of Hypnos
The character has conditioned himself to fall to sleep immediately with a DREAMTELLING (R) check. He cannot be awakened before he himself wills it. What’s more, his environment can become a temporary soft place for as long as he remains asleep.
Cost: 1 POOL to create a soft place, +1 per awake person in the place. Double the cost to manifest the soft place immediately.
Requirement: SECRET OF TRUE DREAM

Keys - Dreaming

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