To Rafa, <"You bear the Voss-knowledge?">

"I do."

Nod. <"Smooth the currents. We enter.">

She has studied this pretty intensively. She knows what to do.

The shaman takes position by Occlus's head, and a pale light envelops them both.

She takes the other position and, presumably, in they go.

The Mystic's role is external, opening the way for the shaman and making sure the patient survives and nothing disrupts the process.

Yep. She watches, and waits.

Occlus twitches and grimaces as though experiencing a nightmare. Ghostly purple flashes of other faces appear and disappear between eyeblinks.

...yeesh. She hopes the Gormak knows what they're doing.

Nothing more distressing happens, so they probably do.

After a while, the glow fades as the Gormak takes a step back from Occlus. She blinks several times and swings her legs over the side, standing up.

"Speak to any of what you saw and your death will be slow. Gormak."

<"Not Voss. Dreams are not shared, dark one.">

...these Gormak look interesting. "Is it done, then?"

Occlus pauses, as though listening for something.

"I believe that it is, yes. I apologize for what distress I may have caused you the past few days. I was not entirely in control of myself."

...what.

"Erm. Apology accepted?"

"Silence in my own mind... I had not realized how much I missed it."

Well, then. "I'm glad it worked."

"Now, I believe there was mention of some dark side entity?"

"Not sure it'd be reasonable to call it 'dark side,' Voss and Gormak don't so much go in for the dichotomy, but we sure do have an evil thing to kill."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Semantics. Where is it?"

She has directions! But presumably they're taking the Gormak somewhere, first?

The Gormak has no interest in approaching the Nightmare Lands, yes.

Fortunately the ship is out of the way enough that they can drop them off without attracting attention.

Onwards to the Nightmare Lands! What a delightful place to spend a vacation, probably.

Not so much, no.

It's quite clear when they get there. Healthy green vegetation changes abruptly to unnatural red and black. Tortured thorny protrusions become the primary ground cover, and the land itself twists and buckles in folds the eye does not want to follow. A pervasive sense of dread imposes itself.