A peek at the Dream

Not many people get to see the Emerald Dream. Or at least, not with their waking eyes or with a capacity to truly remember it. I remember reading that a few adventurers were briefly sent into it to retrieve some items for powerful entities like Keeper Remulos but most of us, underpowered mortals can only dream of seeing it, no pun intended. So when I got the chance to take a peek at its true form I jumped at the occasion, even though I knew I was getting into a combat situation. The fabled Emerald Dream is one of the legendary places that you hear stories about. There are even various theories about its true purpose. Some say it’s a Titanic blueprint, and even that one causes certain confusion. Is it a blueprint to be used in case of reorigination, or is it just an old plan that is no longer relevant with the world’s original ordering completed?

Whichever is the case, the boss called a small group yesterday and asked us to go into the Dream with a relief mission. Huntress Swiftriver, a night elf tangentially related to our Tower, crossed into the Emerald Dream via the tree portal near our headquarters a few days ago. They were looking for a group of people who got kidnapped there earlier on by a faction of spirits known as “the Wild Hunt”. We have stories of them in Uldum, but rarely they amount to more than ominous harbingers of bad luck. It doesn’t matter anyway because her business inside was done – the people she went to rescue were already converted into members of the Wild Hunt and she and her soldiers wanted out. The problem was, the local satyrs sensed their approach and blockaded the portal on the Dream side. The huntress was looking for relief, and our boss promised to help in exchange for exclusive deals with Darnassus.

Before we went through, I thought we needed some surprise. The satyrs would probably be guarding the spot right outside the gate, right where we would come out. So I got Balerok to throw some bombs before our approach, to clean out the satyrs closest to the portal. So we threw the bombs, waited a moment and went through. Thankfully, three satyrs got killed by the explosions and their bodies were lying at the feet of strange thorny plants. I had seen similar plants before only woven by quilboar thornweavers and it seems the satyrs either originated or picked up the practice. Unfortunately, there were four more satyrs guarding the gate, all very frustrated at what we just did.

Some mention of the surroundings, which I came for, is necessary. The area immediately surrounding the other side of the portal is strangely reminiscent of the Spires of Arak, but greener – the kind of green you’d see in Terokkar Forest. I’m told this area of the Dream is called Ravenwood because of the involvement of the arakkoa raven god, Anzu, and his worshipers. Emerald Dream is highly malleable, when you know what you’re doing, and the heavy presence of arakkoa dreamforms in this area altered it. The area became a mix of two places the arakkoa thought of as home the most – Terokkar and Arak. In the end, it was far less weirder than I expected. Well, some of the trees were floating a few inches off the ground, but that’s the weirdest part.

Going back to the satyrs, there was four of them and all very angry. Two of them, both male, charged in at us, while one of the females disappeared and the other started casting. I’ve never seen a female satyr before. I don’t know if they’re exclusive to the Emerald Dream, but many speculate they don’t exist. I know now they were wrong, as I was nearly wounded by one of them. Zovaar managed to concentrate on himself the attacks of the two melee satyrs. Aeresham was trying to control their thorns from what I’ve seen, with much trouble. Izzik took on the caster and the two started throwing spells at each other. Meanwhile, Balerok was shooting around with this strange pistol of his and I… hanged back in case the group needed support.

Before long, Balerok started flailing around and stumbled upon the rogue who was preparing to attack Zovaar from behind. The rogue, as they tend to do, slashed at him, which caused much complaining and prompted me to cast a power shield from a scroll. Just in time too, as a rain of arrows descended on the battlefield from an unknown source, hitting some of the satyrs. The situation quickly started turning to our side. Soon, Aeresham got one of the males tied up with vine and Balerok threw some kind of dust at the rogue and disoriented her. The caster then cast a patch of thorns under our feet, which I think hurt her comrades more than us. Then, she got hit by another arrow and the satyrs began to scatter. One collapsed in pain, another ran off only to be stabbed through the throat by a night elf, and the rogue fell to her knees and begged for mercy.

This is when the night elves appeared, headed by Huntress Swiftriver. Of course, she was very grateful for our help and just wanted to finish the two still-living satyrs but we wanted to take them with us. This is when the rogue tried to escape, only to get shot down by Zovaar, answering the question of her fate. Swiftriver saluted and left the Dream and we were left to carry the dying satyr out with us. We put him in the dungeon and got Mehrzad to patch him up a bit. Boss thinks he’s going to learn more about the situation in the Dream from the satyr, but I’m not certain of how much use it will be to us. Either way, it was my first, brief look at this otherworldly dimension. I hope to see more of it one day, in less lethal circumstances.