The Spirit is Willing
This is a companion piece to The Flesh Is Weak, the dungeon I posted two days ago about a dying wizard prompted by the experience of sitting with my grandmother as she dies.
She still isn’t dead yet, but will be soon and she’s in a different place and I guess I have more to say about it. She’s been in a state of what appears from the outside to be sleeping since some time yesterday. No longer restless or really responsive at all, just the sound of her breathing as we sit with her, sometimes a bit rattly, but largely peaceful.
This is a more peaceful version of the same dungeon conjured by what remains of the good in the wizard. Every 10 minutes of game time there is a 2-in-6 chance reality warps to this. While in this reality, there is a 3-in-6 chance every 10 minutes it warps back to the other. The physical reality remains the same, but it manifests differently in this vision.
In A Tower In the Woods a Wizard is Resting
The darkness of the tower warbles and brightens irregularly, like sticking your head underwater and seeing clearly what was blurry from the surface. Everything lightens. As your eyes adjust to the brightness you see everything is clean and organized, smells of fresh flowers and bread, and a harp plays gently in the background.
All rooms are mechanically identical but appear different as noted below.
Encounters and Creatures
All encounters remain the same and are discordant and disconcerting when viewed through this version of reality.
House goblins appear as friendly forest animals walking on their back legs and wearing crisp white aprons; foxes, raccoons, badgers, and beavers shuffle about their business.
Wizards apprentice ghosts appear as living human students of the Wizard walking into the room for a task.
Room 1
Neat stacks of chests and bags around entryway. A human in a robe silently takes inventory on a paper with a quill pen. Will not respond to others in the room.
Room 2
The wizard, wrinkly beyond belief, lays peacefully in a bed in the center of the room wearing a white robe. His eyes appear partially open like slits. He breaths slowly and irregularly, his mouth constantly open, lips curling over teeth, occasionally a faint gurgling rattle in the back of his throat. He does not move or respond to external stimuli. 2-in-6 chance every 10 minutes animal servants come in to reposition him, check his bedclothes, or swab water in his cheek.
Room 3
Appears the same but is clean and brightly lit and with clearer instructions posted about the danger of handling the jars without gloves.
Room 4
Bustling kitchen with animals whistling happily as they busily work. No meat is served, only an array of fruits and vegetables prepared in interesting ways.
Room 5
Well organized library with floor to ceiling shelves stacked with books. Book on pedestal is under a glass case to prevent misuse. All searching takes half the time given the organization in this version of the room.
Room 6
Identical to other version, seemingly immune to the illusion.