Posted one day later, on July 29th:

Subj: Mother and child.

Late in the autumn of the year of the eclipse, months after the nightmares had returned to the Dreamrealm, a single nightmare was found wandering the Sangre plains alone, besieged by numerous giant white bats. Those who observed the cloud of bats over the Sangre rushed to investigate the phenomenon, and many were slain by the savage beasts before the object of their pursuit was discovered. Another startling discovery: this nightmare was heavy with foal.

Unsure yet curious of the pregnant nightmare’s significance, various factions worked, sometimes together, sometimes not, to rid the bats attacking her. Success could only be momentary, however, as the bats returned time and time again. The many bat-slayers held the vicious creatures off long enough, however, for one Xellan Shu’in[player] to take the net that had once captured the nychtaur and cast it over the nightmare.

The net metamorphosed into a silvery bridle, settling gently over the pregnant nightmare’s head. Xellan then led the nightmare to a place of relative safety — the inner Temple of the Moon. Many gathered there to help tend to the nightmare and fight off the bats that had tracked her there. They found that the only sustenance she would accept was a particular kind of night-blooming orchid that had begun growing in the Sangre Plains since the advent of perpetual darkness.

The enchanted bridle that tamed the nightmare melted away after a time, its strength spent, though a flash of celestial light returned it, recharged, to the place where the net had been created. Unbridled, the ethereal mare vanished then, only to turn up once more in the Sangre plains. Though those seeking to protect her from the giant bats, or to study her more closely, re-bridled her time and time again, she persistently escaped and returned to the Sangre. Saltaern Sioraiocht, Rikeshar Trismegistus, Skye Anchors-Lucoster, Elizabeth, Jaizsur Ta’sa, Dalavan, Tatina Winterwind-Drac’Kal, Delphinus Windancer, Blujixapug, Thenidiel Shiva-Ar’thela , Tamuril Saralonde, Prue, and Ashira Winterwind-Sparrow [players] were among those most persistent in befriending and tending to the mare over the next several months, as her pregnancy progressed.

Finally one day in the spring of the following year, the nightmare’s self-appointed caretakers received a waking dream. It began as other waking dreams caused by proximity to the nightmare had, though the dreamers were farflung across the continent at the time. This vision was of a strange creature with the face of a beautiful woman with silver eyes, hair falling around her face in tangled locks of blood red. Below the neck, her body was that of a lean black feline, and raven wings jutted from her sleek back.

When the waking dream was described over the telepathic channel of the city of Cyrene, it was a young Druidess named Deevina Nailo[player] who quickly recognised the creature in the dream as a lamassu. Passing through the Northern Ithmia earlier, she had noticed nine lamassus gathered in a single spot, and they had sung to her strangely when she had greeted them, she explained.

Others recognised the creature in the dreams also, and before long, a sizeable crowd had gathered in the Northern Ithmia. As Deevina had noticed earlier, the lamassus were singing strangely. When Prue brought
the bridled nightmare to the lamassus, they greeted the mare with reverence, calling her the ‘blessed mother’. They led the group then to a cave nearby, and pushing on a slab of stone across the ground, revealed a hidden underground passage.

Though the lamassus warned bluntly of danger below, many of the intrepid adventurers dashed eagerly into the passage, keen to find where it led. This turned out to be a mistake: where it led was straight into a tunnel teeming with ravenous undead! Kinds of ghouls, zombies, phantoms, and revenants unseen since a raid by Slith’s [NPC - exiled Prince of the Undead] forces on the city of Shallam long ago swarmed the length of the passageway. It was only with much courage and sheer, organised numbers that the undead were overcome, and the underground tunnel cleared.

At the end of the tunnel was a panel in the ceiling that when pushed aside, opened into the reception hall of the planetarium built by Tavarius, long inaccessible. After much time and investigation, in the library of the planetarium was found yet another secret panel. The panel led into a vast underground cave. The lamassus’ cryptic song, if deciphered, would have revealed the entrance to the cave much sooner, but alas, it was never truly solved. Instead, Kuntar Semshan[player] serendipitously stumbled into the cave after others had unknowingly triggered the correct hidden mechanisms elsewhere.

Within the cave was a surprising find — the young Oracle of the Mannaseh, Apollonia[NPC], who had been missing since even before the eclipse. Tragically, she was unconscious, beaten and bloodied and bound. Even worse, it appeared that whoever had kidnapped her wanted to make certain she would be silenced: Apollonia’s tongue had been removed.

Though many attempted to revive Apollonia, she was deep in a coma until the nightmare was led into the cave. The mare was able to revive the girl, at the cost of a portion of her own ephemeral strength. Immediately after, the nightmare collapsed heavily onto her side, gasping, her abdomen contracting and expanding rapidly. The lamassus loped swiftly to surround her on all sides, the nine strange midwives concealing her from view as the birthing began.

When finally the lamassus moved aside, a small black foal was nestled at the mother’s side. The mother nightmare nuzzled her foal lovingly with the last of her strength. Then, all strength spent, her head fell with a
terrible thud to the ground, the light behind her eyes snuffed out. Her body began to blur, becoming a hazy and undefined black mist. Then even that faded, and she was gone, leaving only the nightmare foal curled
alone upon the ground.