Journey into Hione's Mind

Journey into Hione's Mindscape

A Treatise on Divine Love & Why the Menagerie Must Be Stopped!

We traveled into the Mindscape of Hione, whereupon we came across a vibrant arboreal forest and a manifestation of Hione named Harry -- busy carving poorly penned poetry into every tree in the forest simultaneously. We would later learn the subject was the goddess Danu. Harry attempted to force us to leave but, despite multiple casualties, I stood my ground and learned of Hione's infatuation with the nature deity.

The mindscape allowed us to perform extraordinary feats of physical and arcane prowess, our forms matching out perception of ourselves in the mind's eye. We were drawn even farther when a flash of blonde, with a green robe billowing, and just the peek of a naked calf. We lost her at a river crossing and were moved to a snowy mountain pass. Once again, we met with Harry, but this time he was the size of a mountain, and he was sculpting the mountain side into Danu's calf.

After a harrowing encounter scaling the pass with yetis on the mountain, we were thrust into a dungeon to attempt to "impress" Danu. After a series of mind-boggling trials testing both wits and might, we met Danu herself, and conversations of feelings and relations ensued.

She expressed her displeasure with the menagerie as it stands, how animals are being forced into enclosures and trapped against their will. She spoke of how she held no interest in Hione as a romantic companion. Most importantly, though, she told us of her desire to carry the child of Carrunos. Hione's love is not reciprocated and Danu will not be happy with the gross mistreatment of the many creatures held captive in the Menagerie.

Think Clearly Adventurers! -- Tenacity, Order of the Wyvern

Danu’s Dream

Or, How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the animal-riders

After the outcome of Hione’s dream, Whiggam has determined that it is a matter of the utmost emergency to further investigate Danu’s state of mind, particularly as regards to Carrunos and Hione and potential relationships with either (or both!). However, given that Hunters’ Hall has been completely exhausted through the efforts of collecting the Menagerie, the only available team is from the Junior Adventurer’s Guild of Whiggam. Henceforth they shall be dispatched to Danu’s dream, though the precise instructions they are to be given are a matter of the utmost delicacy.

-- Memo to JAG Corps Directorate

“Dang man, so we were like, sent into a dream! A dream! Not just that, but a goddess’ dream!

“They told us to do whatever we could for her, and get this, all she wanted was to find her stinkin’ boyfriend. Or somethin’. She says he’s missing or avoiding her, or whatever. It’s Carrunos, though, so the only way to find him was gonna be to ask the animals.

IMG_1513“We started with the Wolves. Seriously, wolves are awesome, and I totally want to be a wolf rider! They said we couldn’t ride 'em unless we go on the Great Hunt, in three days under the full moon. Like, seriously? We’re on a calendar?

“Whatever. It was like, not a happening place, so we went to check out the lions. And the King of the Lions would only talk if one of us defeated his Champion in single combat! Ohhhh, yeaaaah, baby! That dummy really tried to do it himself, but we pumped our guy six ways from Tuesday and took that so-called ‘Champion’ down! Not just down but WAY down! Subterranean, baby!

“Well... it sorta turned out he was like, the king’s son. So we healed him right back up. Maybe he’ll practice next time. Anyway, the king was so impressed, he told us that Carrunos was hiding ‘cause he has a secret. But His Lion-ish-ness said it wasn’t his secret to share, and we had to ask the other animals.

“So we skipped out on that dude and tried the Queen of the Snakes. The lions gave us a ride, except they wouldn’t go near the snakes ‘cause they were all stuck in the mud. Derpy jumped in, but it seemed pretty gross to me. I mean, they were so dirty, I didn't even ask for a ride! I guess they snakes didn’t like it much either, ‘cause they told Derpy they wanted to sun themselves on dry ground. We told ‘em — easy, peasy — go there! But they said the Pigs were there first.

“Well, duh, everyone knows pigs want MUD, not dry ground. We we told ‘em to switch. They just said the Prarie Dogs were in the way. Seriously? We went and told the Prarie dogs to get their butts underground, but they’ll all like, ‘wah, wah, there are monsters in our homes!’

“Dang, man, we’re, like, ADVENTURERS! We went and whooped some monster butt! There was a dragon blocking the entrance (we blinded him and used a nearby hurricane to toss his butt out of the way), some trolls (do you know if you burn ‘em to the ground, you get a lot of whining trolls and then some Troll Dust?), a few Giant Scorpions (which make darn good Poison Javelins when all is said and done), and some Hook Horrors (you know a Poison Javelin can chuck one of those bad boys straight into the Abyss?). Come on, man, give us a CHALLENGE!

“All right, so... we moved the Prairie Dogs back underground, swapped the Pigs and Snakes, and by then the Full Moon rose and it was time for the Great Hunt. Well, you ain’t seen no Hunters like US! By the time we were done, the trees were chuckin’ the prey our way. We had to let ‘em loose first, just so the Wolves wouldn’t be bored.

“Anyhoo, Long Story Short, we impressed the King of Wolves. When he said he’d answer a question, we asked for Carrunos’ secret.

“And GET THIS! He just up and turns into Carrunos.

“You see it right? Wolf — Man — Full Moon. Holy guacamole, dude, CARRUNOS IS A WEREWOLF!

“No wonder he’s keeping a secret. He begged us not to tell Danu. We hemmed. We hawed. We voted. We voted FIVE to FIVE, and had to dice off to decide. The dice said... keep the secret.

“But dude, it was DANU’S DREAM. So what are the odds she doesn’t know now?”

-- Respectfully Submitted, Ella Dragonborn Secretary-in-Training Whiggam Junior Adventurer’s Guild

Finding the cure

...After finding out what losing control under the Full Moon really means

My party sought a way to convince Carrunos to have a child with Danu, but when we came face to face with him, he asked us a favor. Saying that he was expecting us. He asked us to take care of the Orcs who plagued his lands. We complied and went after the Orcs.

Upon finding the Orcs, they attacked the party. As we began to fight, suddenly we all gained Barbarian rage. Except this rage was overwhelmingly bloodthirsty. We ripped apart the Orcs, and when a Half-Orc came out to surrender, we ripped him apart as well, without any control.

Suddenly, we faded back to being in front of Carrunos, and he told us that that uncontrollable urge, that because he was a werewolf and had that uncontrollable attribute to him, that he would never have a child. He would never force such a curse upon his child.

We offer to find a way to cure him, and his information lead us to go to the Temple of Time Reversal, traveling back to long ago, eventually coming to a large library. (Likely the Grand Tory Library).

Upon going inside, we came face to face with the human form of the god Hione, Harry. He assisted us in finding the book for which we sought, but upon finding it, we could not comprehend its words.

Harry, on the other hand, could and was enthralled by the new information that he had not been aware of: How to cure born lycanthropy.

The party was able to bring out both his emotional and logical side, with his human form saying that of course he would end up helping his beloved even if she was in love with someone else. We used complete hypotheticals in order to not seem too suspicious.

We traveled back to the present and went into Hione’s mind. He greeted us and we spoke with him. Not letting him in on the fact that we went to the past and met him, but were able to bring up the lycanthropy issue and imply that he might be able to assist. Eventually, he would concede and tell us to contact Carrunos and tell him to come see Hione. The problem is... upon investigating, we could tell that Hione was ‘pleased’ by something in this moment. Whether it was because he was happy to help Danu by helping her lover, or because he was happy that he was in control of her happiness is unknown.

-- Virago, Order of the Wyvern

Epilogue

On the difference between Knowledge and Wisdom

Though the party was concerned, some days later, Danu and Carrunos could again be found in close company, the issues between them apparently resolved.

The only strange thing was Hione's behavior at the Judging of the Menagerie. He seemed tense, worried about who might be observing. And the moment that Aerlon White-Eyes was elevated to become Hione, Harry (the former holder of the office) fled with all available haste.

Why might that be?

Some months later... say, about nine... All the beasts of the land flew into a terrible rage. At the same time, it became very, very dangerous to be a librarian.

It would seem that the former Hione did not actually CURE Carrunos' lycanthropy, but simply relieved the symptoms, TRICKING him into believing he was cured. That lasted until a week or two after the birth of his child, the first time the Full Moon brought out the uncontrollable Blood Rage in the child.

Nobody knows what became of Harry... which is to say that one way or another, he's never been seen again. Perhaps he's living out his mortal life in the dusty basement of some library or other, safely out of the reach of natural beasts. (Not to say that he showed that much wisdom any time recently. But perhaps.)

In any case, there are two silver linings to the matter.

One is that time will show Carrunos rising to the challenge he hoped so desperately to avoid, bettering himself in the process -- a feat that poor Harry never managed.

The other is that the new Hione has all the knowledge of his predecessor, and seems much more favorably inclined toward his colleagues.

My thanks to all the players who brought this story to life -- without you, it was just words on a page. :)