A large earthquake happened in Lostwood that reached Elysium. Illi contacted Lud telepathically and reported."

Illi said to Lud "Do you have any idea what we are dealing with right now?"

Lud sat on the table, confused. He asked Illi "The tremors we felt earlier weren't planned?"

Illi says "No. When we dug deeper into Lostwood's soil, though rich in minerals, something else lives there. Or rather… Sleeps."

Lud says "So something so big that a small movement of it can cause an earthquake exists beneath Lostwood? While I do remember this forest being a battleground where gods fought the abyss, I didn't expect anything to be buried down there."

Illi says "I sent a message to Li, so he should soon be in contact with gods. Hopefully he'll find someone with answers from there."

Lud responds "Great work. And while I doubt I need to say this, the mines are off limits for now."

Illi says "No kidding. I ordered our boys to evacuate the mines the moment tremors happened. Hopefully what the miners told us were just fairy tales so they can slack off, but given that some of our buildings were damaged in that quake, I wouldn't count us to be that lucky."

Lud says "Yes. Let's hope this isn't as bad as it seems. Are you in Elysium right now?"

Illi says "No. I was doing inspections at the mining sites and I am currently working on saving as many miners as I can."

Lud says "Right. Then can you delegate someone to be in charge of rebuilding while you are absent?"

Illi says "I have few people in mind, so don't worry. But we do need hands here as well, so if you could arrange both long ear battalions to come and help us if they aren't busy, that would be bloody fantastic."

Lud responds "I'll get to it. Keep up the good work."

Illi blurts out "How in bloody hell can you call this good work? Kidding. I'm on it."

Lud contacts Elisia and Lych to go and help Illi with his situation and Illi gets one of his people in Elysium to go work on rebuilding the damaged parts of the city.

Some time after, Li contacted Lud and said "We have bad news, my lord. What Mr. Tipten said is unfortunately true. There is a very large creature buried deep beneath Lostwood. It is a remnant of an abyssal creature that the gods didn't manage to kill."

Lud replies "So something so great crawled to the realms when they had their toughest fight. Who did you ask and what did they describe the creature to look like?"

Li answers Lud's query by saying "When I asked Mr. Atkoosa about it, there was a pause and only when I asked further, did he tell me about it. Apparently it was the one and only dragon titan that was brought into existence by Ms. Trixtitkitus. The dragon titan Ru'ugwell followed Maumar into the newly formed abyss and was corrupted by its power. Many creatures were born of its scales inside the abyss and it was Ru'ugwell's broken mind that caused the greatest abyssal invasion in Lutah's history.

Try as they might, the gods couldn't manage to kill Ru'ugwell and they poured a lot of power to bury it in the soil of Lostwood. The reason why it is hard for non Elysians to build anything in here has to do with the countermeasure to ensure Ru'ugwell doesn't wake up and escape. Un'I is the god who poured the most power in containing the dragon titan and she was granted the dreamscape as a gift for her contributions during the war. Now Un'I rests and never shows her face in order to regain as much power as she can in case the dragon titan wakes up."

Lud sighs and says "So we almost accidentally broke a powerful foe from its eternal sleep by accident. Why didn't any god tell us not to dig."

Li says "Mr. Atkoosa claims that he hadn't heard of us digging in Lostwood. He is currently asking the other gods if they knew about it, but that doesn't solve the problem."

Lud says "So we'll have to suspend the mining indefinitely, huh."

Li responds "Most like so. Maybe we can dig only to that level of depth, but in any case, the mining in Lostwood will change drastically."

The day goes on as people gather themselves and rebuild. The saving operation for the trapped miners, while mostly successful, didn't manage to save everybody. The number of miners was about 389 and 312 were found alive or somewhere else safe and sound. 44 were found dead and the rest are missing.

On the city's side, only few people were injured, but the current defenses of the city were dampened by the quake. The security inside the city was working 100% of its capacity during the day as some were made to search for survivors, some were keeping the peace and some were keeping watch for any potential intruders.

At the end of the day, Lud goes to sleep with a lot on his mind. He had a hard time falling asleep, but after a few hours in bed, he managed to fall asleep.

As he was dreaming, he saw a familiar fellow that seemed off from what he was dreaming at that moment. It was Samael.

Samael pulled Lud from the dream and opened a way for Lud to come with him to wander around the dreamworld.

Lud asked curiously "Why did you come for me? Did you need something?"

Samael answered Lud's query by saying "A dream of a powerful dreamer that is best kept dreaming was shaken a while ago. Since you are close to that dreamer's position in the real world, I saw it best to have a chat with you."

Lud guessed "Are you talking about the dragon titan? One of our mines accidentally made contact with him while at work and we are dealing with the aftermath of the tremors he caused."

Samael replied "Yes. The dragon titan Ru'ugwell has been sleeping before I was even born. He was put to sleep in the age only gods and few others are able to remember. For the real world, Ru'ugwell is mostly forgotten thanks to time's natural erosion and the works of Fein. But for us who live in the dreamworld, Ru'ugwell is a very well known figure."

Lud asks "So… since you can visit other people's dreams, does that mean you would be able to visit Ru'ugwell's as well?"

Samael answered "Yes, but doing so is considered a very high taboo amongst us dreamwalkers. Well, intentionally at the very least."

Lud asks "Intentionally? Does that mean that you could unintentionally visit his dream?"

Samael answers "Yes. In fact, his dream is somewhat of a natural phenomenon in the dreamworld. A phenomenon that defiles the dreamscape little by little with the help of the abyss. Our god Un'I fight's this phenomenon each day from her dream within a dream as it encroaches the rest of the dreamscape. Much territory has been lost and there are people who try to help our lady, though as said before, intentionally going to Ru'ugwell's dream isn't exactly encouraged."

Lud asks "So what do you want from me? I mean I am a demigod and all, but I don't think I can just solve your issue here."

Samael looks at the distance of the vast dreamscape before them and says "Even if it only buys our lady a mere moment of rest, I must ask that you help us with the problem."

Lud says "Depends on what I need to do. And isn't Un'I already sleeping even within a dream? No wait, maybe there is a different meaning for the word 'rest' in what you said, so never mind."

Samael says "As Ru'ugwell's dream was shaken, the encroachment of his dream on the dreamscape retreated by great margin. So…"

Lud says "If you are asking us to keep poking the dragon titan, then you are out of your mind. From what I know, he can deal much more damage to the world if he wakes up and I don't want to gamble with something as high as that at stake."

Samael says "I know what I ask is dangerous, but if only every so often, I ask that you would… as you put it… poke at him to give us dreamwalkers some space to breathe."

Lud thinks for a moment and then says "How… dangerous is it to venture in Ru'ugwell's dream?"

Samael says "There is a great risk that those who go there get lost in an eternal state of stillness while still living. Like a black hole that consumes all, but leaves but images of those consumed by the border of it."

Lud asks "So I take it that no one has ever talked to Ru'ugwell in his dream and lived to tell the tale?"

Samael answers "Depending on what you mean when you said 'lived to tell the tale.'"

Lud asks "And what does that mean? Did somebody come back and couldn't tell anyone about it or something?"

Samael answers "There have been few people who claim to have basked in the dragon titan's gaze for a moment and then forget everything else about the world but that mere moment. And not only that, the history of those people got completely erased. Try as they might, not a single memory remained of them after Ru'ugwell's gaze once they returned. The people themselves forget, and the history itself forgets. Like after oriapleater or Fein have their way."

Lud says "Sheesh. No wonder it is a taboo to venture there willingly."

Samael says "Yes. Those who have seen the people that had been under Ru'ugwell's gaze don't always believe the survivors ever being people. As if Ru'ugwell had sent us a mirage of a person to unsettle us."

Lud asks "So how do you know they aren't just that?"

Samael responds by saying "Because our lady told us so. Mad as he is, the Ru'ugwell that Un'I knows isn't capable of planning anything like that. But…"

Lud asks "But?"

Samael continues "Since it has been so long, not even I can fully trust that Un'I knows how Ru'ugwell is now. So much time has passed since he was sealed that we don't know if the madness has evolved or not. And him being the only Grand Duke of the abyss doesn't let me rest easy. Granted, it is an honorary title given by the other four original dukes of the abyss, but still."

Lud says "This is getting weirder and weirder by the second. But a little off track question here, how do you even rest?"

Samael says "We meditate while inside the dreamworld. For me especially, since I'm a reverse dreamer, when I dream as the Samael of the real world, I don't fully rest but still act as if I'm dreaming as any other person. I just have to work hard so that I don't accidentally change the real world in any capacity as a dreamer. Maybe if I didn't concentrate, I could rest even then, but that would be far too dangerous for the people of the real world.

But as for the rest of inhabitants of the dreamworld, they have the option to 'sleep' but they can't dream the way normal people dream. They just end up resting."

Lud says "Right. Interesting. But back to the main topic now, I will consider poking the dragon titan occasionally, but I have to talk with a few people before I fully commit."

Samael shakes Lud's hand in gratitude as he says "Thank you, my friend. That would really give our lady the chance to really rest after so long. Of course, I'll ask our lady about the plan personally as well, I'll tell you later how that conversation goes."

Lud responds "Right." As Samael lets go of his hand, Lud asks "So you can just go talk to a god, just like that, huh."

Samael scratches his head and says "Well our god is a bit different. And we do occasionally visit other god's dreams, but only if we get permission from our lady first."

Lud asks "Do gods' dreams differ from mortal dreams?"

Samael nods and says "Oh quite greatly. They often end up affecting the rest of the dreamscape as well as they dream, but those chances often go back to their original state as how our lady created it."

Lud asks "So there are times when they don't change?"

Samael answers "Yes. It highly depends on how much aether the god in question puts into their dream. Some gods do it more often than others and I hear that it has to do how aware the gods themselves are inside their dreams. If the god is very aware, they don't often use aether at all, but if they are fully engrossed in their dream, they might change vast landscapes in the dreamscape.

This phenomenon is called dreamshaping. Sadly they do occasionally kill dreamwalkers, but it is the natural order of things."

Lud asks "Can you name any gods that cause dreamshaping more often than others?"

Samael puts a hand on his chin and thinks for a moment "Let's see. Harlotte is a very obvious culprit. Werluum, Karen and Leeroy as well. Grey also does so, but she often does so by choice. Jyqbolos does often accidentally create imaginary people for his dream wargames. Ortettia also does more intentional dreamshaping, as does Delir. But besides them, the rest are fairly rare. Was there others? I can't remember, but those were the mentionable ones."

Lud says "I see. Just curious, has there ever been a case where the dragon titan's dream encroached on the place where a god was dreamshaping at the same time?"

Samael responds by saying "Not that I can recall."

Lud says "I see. Then I'm satisfied. What next?"

Samael says "We could… look around the dreamscape now that you entered it fully. You will wake up sooner or later, but at least it could be a memorable experience."

Lud says "Okay. Show the way, my strange angel friend."

Samael laughed a little and off the two went.

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