Editing Truth Within Nightmares (section)

=== Timed events ===

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{{TErow| 1 |Day 1|Now, I must face [[Sandro]], the [[Necromancer]], who holds the key to the next level of the [[Underworld]].  He's not likely to give it up freely.  [[Sandro]] dwells in a deepest, most vile parts of these caverns.  However, I hear rumors of two lesser [[Demon]] barons who also protect this plane.<p>One good piece of news though - the [[Angel]]s and [[Archangel]]s have decided to join the fight.}}
{{TErow| 4 |Day 4|My dreams have turned to those days when I was rebuilding the glory of my people back before I became the [[Immortal Hero]].  There is nothing like the open road ahead of you and an army rumbling at your back.  Even the smell of hundreds of men, [[Orc]]s, [[Goblin]]s, [[Wolf Raider]]s, and [[Ogre]]s was a comfort compared to the rotten egg stench of these caverns.<p>I belonged to something greater than myself then.  I was doing what was right by unifying my people under one banner so we could win our freedom back from our oppressors. I miss those days.}}
{{TErow| 6 |Day 6|[[Queen Allison]] has now moved into the [[Castle]].  We discussed her participation in the exploration of this level, but I told her I needed someone I could trust to watch the [[Castle]].  I think that convinced her.<p>Surprisingly, she carries herself boldly and proudly even though we're surrounded by the never-fading reek of death.  Most [[Erathia]]n women would've fainted away.  Even more impressive, the men don't seem to resent her presence.  In fact, I think they've developed a newfound respect for their Queen.  Good.}}
{{TErow| 9 |Day 9|In my dreams I think I can still hear the clash of arms as the [[Wizard-Kings]] of [[Bracaduun]] sent their dogs to quell my rebellion.  It was the first time I faced my oppressors in battle, and my army triumphed when all others thought we would fail.  I can still see the look of fear on the faces of the cowardly [[Wizard]]s as we rose up and took back what was ours.<p>My men were a little afraid as well.  They had never known a life without servitude.  But their courage hadn't been bred out of them yet.  They rallied around me.  It was a glorious moment in [[Barbarian]] history, one I shall always remember.}}
{{TErow| 11 |Day 11|I already have the [[Helm of Heavenly Enlightenment]].  Reports have confirmed that the [[Sword of Judgement]] is somewhere on this plane of the [[Underworld]].  It is a powerful weapon for the forces of good and we must find it.  The [[Cleric]]s tell me that combining several other items with the Necklace, the Helm and the Sword will create the [[Angelic Alliance]] - a formidable weapon with the power to not only increase the abilities of its wearer, but also casts [[Prayer]] on any troops that follow him.}}
{{TErow| 14 |Day 14|Tonight's dream turned to the day I first fought beside [[Hardac]].  He was older than me, even had combat experience as a lowly footsoldier in the armies of the [[Wizard-Kings]].  He would soon become a good friend and my most trusted captain.<p>We were fighting against [[Bracaduun]]'s [[Wizard]]s, and the tide of battle had turned against us.  My horse had been cut from underneath me and I was fighting hand-to-hand with [[Golem]]s, [[Gargoyle]]s and [[Wizard]]s.  I saw a pack of [[Gremlin]]s swarm [[Hardac]], yet he stood his ground even with a wound in the side.  He knew he was dead, but refused to retreat.<p>So, I hacked my way through to save his life.  I carried [[Hardac]] back to our healers and returned to the fighting.  Somehow, we pulled off a victory that day, but at a great loss.  Later, [[Hardac]] sought me out and stayed by my side to the end.<p>Only, it wasn't the end either of us expected.}}
{{TErow| 18 |Day 18|These dreams were more like memories, only this time I felt like an observer.  My friendship with [[Hardac]] wasn't born on the battlefield.  It was born during a strategy session that came later.  My bold attacks had won us many victories so far, so as we faced a sizeable combined force of [[Naga]]s and [[Mage]]s, I decided to use the same plan that had worked before.  But [[Hardac]] was the only one courageous enough to tell me I was wrong.<p>"Attack this enemy like that," he said, "and we'll leave most of our army dead on the battlefield - that is, if we win.  Lure the [[Naga]]s out, draw them away from the [[Mage]]s, and then attack."<p>I swallowed my pride and took [[Hardac]]'s advice, and it's a good thing because the very next day we were ambushed and we only survived because we didn't take many losses against the [[Naga]]s.  That's when I knew to always keep [[Hardac]] close.}}
{{TErow| 22 |Day 22|Some nights my dreams are wild and unpredictable.  I see bits and pieces of past battles.  I hear the screams of the dying echoing in my ears.  Then I sit bolt upright in my bed, drenched in a clammy sweat.  Chills run over my skin as the horrifying faces still loom over me.  Sometimes I can make the hideous faces disappear by shaking my head, but each time I close my eyes they return.<p>I don't get much sleep anymore.}}
{{TErow| 27 |Day 27|At first, the dream seemed like one of those distant memories of when I was the [[Barbarian King]], but something was wrong.<p>The bards were vital to the [[Barbarian]] people.  We had been the slaves of the [[Wizard-Kings]] for so long, we forgot who we were.  They were our history.  So, when the bards were captured I knew it was over if they were killed.<p>Yes, I raised a force and broke the wall of [[Kurl]]'s [[Tower]].  We dominated his army - the courtyard was red with the blood of the [[Mage]]s.  I reached [[Kurl]]'s private chambers only to find him cowering there, begging for his life.  And here's where the dream veered from the memory.  Instead of letting him go, I showed him no mercy.  I slaughtered him on the spot because hanging from the trees in [[Kurl]]'s private garden were four figures swaying in the wind.  The bards - dead.<p>Our history was lost - forever changed.  And I was to blame.  I woke up weeping and confused.  It was only a dream, wasn't it?  I remember saving three of the bards.  Our history was still safe.}}
{{TErow| 31 |Day 31|[[Queen Allison]], thankfully, has been staying out of the battlefield as I requested.  She's been a grateful distraction from my disturbing dreams, and she's been managing the more mundane tasks of a leader such as income and resources.<p>I can't shake the feeling that I've met her before.  I noticed it the first time we met, something about her mannerisms, or maybe the way she talks?  Or could it be her fiery red hair?  Sure, it's a popular color among [[Barbarian]]s, but there's no way we could've met - I died before she was born.}}
{{TErow| 35 |Day 35|As I polished my armor this morning, I caught a glimpse of myself in my chestplate.  There are dark rings around my eyes, and I've lost some weight.  No surprise, really, since I've been getting such little sleep lately.  I've been going without, staying up late into the night in order to avoid those haunting dreams.<p>When I sleep, I see memories mixed and distorted with nightmarish possibilities - lies.  Why have I never been plagued by such dreams before?  Is it this place?  And why do they seem more real with each passing day?<p>It's hard sometimes to determine the difference between the waking world and this horrid [[Underworld]].  Today, I fell asleep in the saddle and pictured myself in the [[Mudlands]] conquering those people to make them part of my armies.  The stinging, painful insects, the sticky air, and the stinking vegetation - I was there for as long as my eyes were closed.}}
{{TErow| 39 |Day 39|Again, I dream I am in the swamps, trying to get the natives to join me through the only method they understand - force.<p>I am covered in mud and blood as I walk through the open gates of a [[Fortress]] and stand before the throne of the [[Mudlands]] King, a [[Lizardman]] so gaunt and pale gray that he could only be dead.  Yet, the [[Lizardman]] stands and gestures for me to sit.<p>"It's yours now, [[Tarnum]]," the dead reptile says, "yours to destroy - the throne and my people!  You have won the right."<p>But I shake my head.  I no longer want to sit in it.  And then I open my eyes.  A dream, but I can still smell the rotting vegetation.  I press my fists hard into my temples and begin crying.  Dreams aren't supposed to be like this.}}
{{TErow| 43 |Day 43|I hurt a man last night, quite by accident.  I was dreaming again, of a battle.  Apparently I had been screaming so loud I woke half the camp.  When a young soldier entered my tent to wake me, I drew my sword and slashed at him.  Luckily, the man stepped away - I only gave him a gash on the side and a broken rib.<p>A [[Cleric]] asked me about my dreams, mentioning that I appeared to be getting little sleep.<p>"Sir [[Tarnum]], you are not the only one who has been having trouble at night, although your nightmares seem to be worse than the others," said the [[Cleric]].<p>"Perhaps I have more to dream about," I mumbled.<p>"I can give you a medicine to help you sleep.  It won't help with the dreams, of course, but at least you'll get some rest.  An exhausted leader is a poor one."<p>At this point, I would try anything.}}
{{TErow| 47 |Day 47|I know it's a dream the moment I realize I'm at the front of my Horde, a [[Barbarian]] army unlike any other.  I look to my left, surveying the columns of [[Orc]]s, [[Ogre]]s, [[Goblin]]s, and [[Behemoth]]s.  And above, the brilliant [[Thunderbird]]s soar proudly.  Then I glance to my right and my blood turns to ice.<p>[[Gnoll]]s, [[Lizardmen]], and the other creatures of the [[Mudlands]], all chained together, slaves.  In order to free ourselves I enslaved another innocent people.  Worse yet, they too had suffered greatly at the hands of the [[Wizard]]s and I had simply taken the place of their oppressors.<p>I lower my head, closing my eyes - and then I wake.}}
{{TErow| 51 |Day 51|Another dream.<p>We punched through the [[Wallpeaks]] deep into [[Bracaduun]] territory.  I thought my victory was a certainty.  In my arrogance, I believed I had broken the backs of the [[Wizard]]s.<p>Not so.  The spellcasters brought an avalanche down on the troops I left in the [[Wallpeaks]], then fortified my only route home.  We were trapped!  Our only escape was to the north through a pass into lands where I thought I might gain allies.<p>I had to move quickly, which meant I had to leave many behind, sacrifices to the [[Wizard]]s.  So, I left behind those I had conquered, those I had enslaved.  The people of the [[Mudlands]].  Even when I wake, I feel their cold tongues flickering over the back of my neck.}}
{{TErow| 55 |Day 55|I dream again.<p>After all I had fought for, after all I had lost, the one time I ask for help I am betrayed.  They were [[Barbarian]]s, just like me, but when I asked them to join my army and fight against their oppressors they refused.  They even joined the enemy!  I felt the rage hot beneath my skin like a fire that couldn't be put out no matter how much blood I spilled, no matter how many villages I razed.<p>Then I'm standing alone, here in the [[Underworld]] amid a field of bones, and I can hear the silent screams of every skull.  Screams for help.  Screams of the innocent I killed.<p>I clap my hands over my ears and shout, "I was wrong!  I was wrong!  I'm a killer!"<p>The sound disappears instantly, and sensing that something is wrong, I open my eyes only to stare at the confused and frightened faces of my soldiers.  Oh, great!  Now, I'm sleepwalking too.}}
{{TErow| 60 |Day 60|How can this be?  I don't recall going to sleep, yet I sense I am dreaming again.<p>I ride to the top of a hill to watch my men kill the innocent.<p>Out of all the mayhem, I focus on a single woman with fiery red hair exit a hut as she flees a pair of [[Ogre]]s.  She runs, screams.  I can't see her face, and I know deep in my heart I don't want to see it.<p>Then she falls, turns to face her pursuers.  My sister!  Even though I've never met her, she looks so much like my mother that is must be her.  I raise my hand, open my mouth to shout to the [[Ogre]]s, but it is too late to stop them.<p>And for once I thankfully wake before I witness the murder of my own blood, killed upon my command.<p>I scream, lash out at my tent.  I can't stand these dreams and what they're doing to me.  I don't want to remember the things that I have done!  Before I realize it, I've torn my tent to pieces.  I lash out at any who come near me.<p>"Alone!" I shout.  "Leave me alone!"<p>I'm not sure if I'm talking to my men, or to my dreams.}}
{{TErow| 62 |Day 62|I knew something was wrong when [[Queen Allison]] joined us on the trail, followed immediately by her single frightened escort.  She stared at me from crown to toe and frowned.<p>"I demand to see you privately."<p>I nodded, barely able to stay in my saddle.  I had not slept in two days and had very little rest for weeks before that.  So, we walk out of earshot of my men and my blurred vision clears long enough for me to see that she's angry.<p>"I received word that you have gone mad,"  she said.  "I didn't believe it, but now that I see you...I am taking over your command."<p>Drunk with exhaustion, I forgot my manners and laughed in her face.<p>"It takes more than courage to lead men in to battle, and, woman, you don't know the first thing about fighting.  I'm not about to let all these men die so some royal brat can exercise her dreams of grandeur!  Go stitch a tapestry or something.  Let a real murderer take care of the battles.  It's what I'm good at."<p>I turned my back on her.<p>"How dare you!  This is MY army!  You will do what I say!"<p>[[Allison]] struck me in the back of the head.  It didn't hurt, of course, but it startled me.  Who did she think she was?  Her hand flashed toward my face now, but I caught it, gripped it a little too hard.  I snatched up her free arm as well and shook her.  She needed to learn how utterly weak she was, so I lifted her off her feet with ease.<p>Then she kicked me in the groin.  That ended the struggle.<p>"Never touch me again!"  She bolted away.<p>I waited there, doubled over, for the other [[Knight]]s to collect me for my execution, but that moment never came.}}
{{TErow| 66 |Day 66|[[Queen Allison]] stayed with my unit, to watch over me no doubt.  She's ordered one of the Captains to teach her to use a sword, and she's not a bad student from what I've observed.<p>I try to stay low these days.  I give few orders because I don't want a conflict in the camp.  From what I hear, half the men side with me, and the other half want me dead for touching their Queen.  It's a touchy time.  One wrong move and the men will be fighting each other and our quest here in the Underworld will be over.<p>I think [[Allison]] knows that too, which is why I still have my head.  Perhaps there's more than meets the eye with this woman.}}
{{TErow| 68 |Day 68|I'm sleeping again, and the nightmares have returned, of course.  It's like some twisted maggot has crawled inside my memories and is torturing me with them.<p>Torturing me, especially, with my sister's face.  The bloodthirsty [[Ogre]]s are almost upon her, and this time I know I am not going to wake up.  Just as their clubs are about to smash her head to a pulp, a man on horseback comes out of nowhere.  She's saved!<p>He slays one of the [[Ogre]]s with his first swing, then turns his horse to dodge the attack of the other.  He dispatches this enemy just as easily.  My sister is dragged to her feet and helped onto the horse behind the armored hero.  It's too late to save the rest of the village, so he flees.<p>I am being shown something else, something that can't be my memory or a nightmare, but I know in my bones that it is real.  My sister and the man who rescued her sit beneath a tree together.  This is much later, and my sister's belly is plump with child - his child.  She's happy.  Then the man finally turns in my direction and I can see his face.<p>It's [[Rion Gryphonheart]]!}}
{{TErow| 71 |Day 71|There she is, [[Queen Allison]], dressed in sturdy leathers as she trains.  The red hair, the sharp eyes - they are the same as my mother's, and the same as my sister's.  How could I have missed it?<p>I've assumed some of the details, but a young [[Rion Gryphonheart]] must have saved my sister from my own bloodthirsty armies.  Later, they fell in love and married, and by the time [[Rion Gryphonheart|Gryphonheart]] formed the Kingdom of [[Erathia]] my sister was pregnant with their first child - my niece, [[Allison]].<p>My family!}}
{{TErow| 72 |Day 72|Today, when [[Queen Allison]] prepared for her sword exercises, I approached her and before everyone dropped to one knee.  Bowing my head, I said, "My Queen, I beg your forgiveness.  I have been a fool!"<p>I never once raised my head, but kept my gaze firmly on the ground and tried not to shake noticeably.  I have never bowed to anyone before.<p>"Of course, I forgive you, Sir [[Tarnum]]," she said.  "I acted poorly as well."<p>"No, you were not at fault.  My only excuse is I have not been well."<p>"You appear to be getting more rest.  Good.  This place has disturbed us all, but no one nearly as much as you.  I wonder why?"<p>"Who knows?"  I say.  "Unlucky, I guess."<p>I had more crimes to dream about.}}
{{TErow| 79 |Day 79|The nightmares still visit me at night, but when I wake I find it easier to forget.  They're not showing me anything that I haven't already experienced.  Although, I wonder about the dream that revealed the identity of [[Allison]]'s mother - it hadn't seemed like the rest.<p>But who cares?  I have a family now!  And we're growing close.  I've even taken over as [[Allison]]'s instructor.  If she's going to learn to fight, I'm going to make sure this woman knows how to take care of herself.}}
{{TErow| 85 |Day 85|I've decided not to tell [[Allison]] who I am.<p>There would be too many questions about the past, and I'm afraid if she learns that I used to be the [[Barbarian King]] that she will no longer trust me.  Right now, I need her trust if we're going to survive.<p>I would love to embrace her as my niece.  I ache for it in fact, but that would be wrong, and selfish.  So, I turn my thoughts toward saving her father's soul with a newfound determination.  It's the least I can do.  I owe [[Rion Gryphonheart|Gryphonheart]] a debt for saving my sister's life.}}
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