The Great Sleep Location

[sodder]

The Great Sleep

The Great Sleep was introduced during the July 2019 Event. It became a permanent feature of the game that characters can access at any time. The only exception to this is if another game event specifically states that the Great Sleep has been made inaccessible. Characters never need to experience the Great Sleep if you do not want them to. This location for the game is completely optional to experience.

Characters cannot technically die in the Great Sleep, but they can still die in Deerington. Please tag content accordingly! And if your character does die in Deerington, make sure to fill out a Death Certificate.

CW: All applicable content warning will be detailed in the content warning section.

Content Warnings
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Information

Content Warnings For Location

For the Entire Great Sleep Setting

➟ Potential Heavy Fourth Wall Breaking
➟ Lack of appetite/lack of need to eat/drink
➟ Potential spoilers for various canons
➟ Potential body horror via injuries/inability to dream
➟ Surrealistic horrors
➟ Forced sleep/shifting between realities (note: characters can technically avoid going to the Great Sleep/ falling asleep)

Part One: The Great Sleep

➟ Potential claustrophobic situation
➟ Waking up in graves

Part One: The Road is Long and Treacherous

➟ Giant worm-like monsters (pic included)
➟ Monster violence/gore
➟ Potential to be eaten
➟ Potential car crashes

Part One: Into the Eye of the Storm

➟ Natural disaster weather via sandstorm + thunderstorm
➟ Potential injury from debris/burning/electrocution
➟ Potential car crashes

Part Two: All Sections

➟ Fourth Wall Breaking
➟ Potential canonical violence/monsters/situations
➟ Potential spoilers for canons
➟ Potential positive or negative distortion of canon worlds/memories

"Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone."

THE GREAT SLEEP

You can feel the difference in falling asleep at once. It seems to happen the moment you put your head down and that deep exhaust waves over you. Even those who often struggle with falling asleep and staying asleep find themselves sinking easier into this sleep. Maybe it happens in your bed, maybe it happens in the middle of the street. All of a sudden, you're just way too tired.

The next few seconds, or maybe it's minutes, maybe it's hours, go black, and then when you open your eyes, the first thing you notice is a gentle weight on them.

There is a dull GOLDEN DRACHMA placed over each eye you have. They're simple enough to take off. Maybe you toss them aside, or maybe you think to keep them somewhere on your person.

After that, you take in your surroundings and on all four sides of you is nothing but dark red earth.

Some people might be more fortunate than others. Above them they might see the soft, hazy pale blue skies with six feet of earth surrounding them. It might be a little tricky crawling out of six feet of earth, but if your luck is keeping up with you, you might be able to find some rocks or roots as foot holds- or someone walking by might be able to help you out!

Other people might be a lot worse off. They might be stuck in a wooden coffin buried under the ground. Oh boy. Hopefully you're either really good at punching things or have some good vocals on you to scream for help.

Once you get out, you'll realize you're in a massive cemetery and it sure isn't the one from Deerington. The grass here is gray and white and soft as silk to the touch. To those who have died in Deerington before, this might feel and seem extremely familiar. A few trees are scattered throughout the gravestones, all looking as if they were crafted from onyx right down to their leaves. Though the grass is blowing back and forth, you can feel no wind, nor hear any.

But there are other things to pay attention to.

Such as the gravestone sitting at the head of your own grave.

Unsurprisingly, your name is written into the face of the gravestone- but there are no dates. There may however be quotes or sayings beneath character names. Gravestones near yours will show the names of people you know from your home world, but if you wander further, you will find clusters of names of people you don't know, or people you know specifically from Deerington.

But more importantly, and perhaps more immediately, are the two black deer standing guard on either side of your gravestone.

These deer have gifts for you.

The Deer on the Right: A net of spiderweb stretches back and forth among the deer's antlers. In the center of it is an DREAM WEAPON

The Deer on the Left: Woven with golden string among the antlers hangs a DREAM CATCHER with a base made out of antler. Every character only has one dream catcher.

Both Deer: Once you choose to accept both of these gifts, the deer will bring their antlers together. The antlers will glow white before your tattoo starts to hum with energy. Faint traces of power flow between their antlers and your tattoo, and then with a loud POP! the light manifests above you and out of it comes your personal SUMMONING WHISTLE.

Important Information:

1. To those who have retrieved dream catchers before in prior events will find that their dream catcher from the normal Deerington will be in the antlers. They will not get a new one. However, their dream catcher will be updated with the new abilities found in this event.

You do not HAVE to take any of the gifts offered to you whether it be the coins, weapons, dream catchers, or the dream guides, but it certainly will make your life easier. If your character initially doesn't take these things, they will still be offered if they decide to go back to reclaim them.

2. Caskets can be as easy or difficult to get out of as you want.

3. The arrangement of how characters are buried next to one another within canon spaces can be any way you want. Maybe your character is next to their family- or maybe they're next to their enemy!

THE BLACK DOG MOTEL

The sky above is that hazy twilight blue, with a hint of pink and purples at the edge of the horizon, and wherever you are, it sure isn't Deerington anymore. Or at least not how you remembered it anyway. You can see faint trails of light stretching out into the horizon and dipping down far away- surely those are the pathways? They just...seem so far away.

You soon realize there is an end to the cemetery after all. The white and gray grass begins to shorten and clump together, and finally you're walking on baked red ground that looks a bit like it belongs somewhere in Arizona deserts more than northern Maine.

There are only two things in the immediate vicinity you notice: a large gray building with a glowing neon sign that says "THE BLACK DOG MOTEL" complete with a neon two-headed dog.

Opposite of the building is a massive parking lot, and in that parking lot seems to be just about every kind of 1-8 person vehicle available. There seems to be hover boards, motorcycles, and every kind of regular car you'd expect to find. Hell, there's even some tanks and service trucks. There are no active flight-ready vehicles. The hover vehicles all only glide a foot or two off the ground, which might be better than nothing, but sadly there's no jets on this lot. But boy, there are a lot of vehicles to pick from, so maybe it isn't so bad.

What there seems to be a huge lack of is people. You can't see Wastes anywhere nor Townsfolk. The only people who seem to be around are...other Sleepers.

Maybe there are people to find in the motel? Walk inside and you are greeted by, somehow unsurprisingly, a large, two-headed black dog.

The dog is roughly the size of one of those pick-up trucks you saw outside. It's completely motionless. No one else seems to be around but the dog. So...try to talk to it?

Talking to it, petting it, any sort of positive interaction with the dog will result in both heads opening their mouths and sticking out bright blue tongues and in the middle of each tongue is a key. One has a tag attached to it with a motel number stamped on it, and the other looks like it belongs to one of the vehicles outside.

All of the motel rooms are...underwhelming, frankly. They look worn down and a little seedy. What do you expect from a roadside motel in the middle of dreamscape hell? A four star luxury suite? Yeah, right! Oh well, might as well check out the amenities. Which thankfully there are. In every closet is a set of sturdy, desert-hardy looking clothing along with a pack of potentially useful survival gear. The gear varies from pack to pack: you might have flares and first aid kits while other packs might have ice picks and winter gloves-- not exactly what you'd want in a desert. But who knows? Maybe there's more to the desert than meets the eye. Might as well grab the pack anyway.

Important Notes:

1. You can only access the motel rooms or one of the vehicles if you have a set of keys. You will need to get new keys each time you return to the Great Sleep.

2. The dogs are inconsistent with how they give out the keys. If two people approach them, they might only give them one car and one hotel room to share. Alternatively they might give them each a set of keys- this is entirely up to you to decide!

3. Motel rooms have either one king bed or two queens. They also all have a shower with hygienic supplies at the ready.

4. Cars can be destroyed but they are sturdier than regular cars. They also do not need gas, but if parts fall off you'll have to do repairs. You cannot take the cars with you out of the Great Sleep.

Your car key will match a specific vehicle out in the lot. Maybe you get the same car every time, or maybe you get different ones each time you visit the Great Sleep.

Cars do not start without their keys. You can't rig ones you don't have a key for to start even if you have some skill with making a car work without keys.

5. Every bag is the same size as an average hiking backpack and all of them are stocked to the brim.

THE ROAD IS LONG & TREACHEROUS

Stretching out well beyond the Black Dog Motel and the cemetery is nothing but miles and miles of rolling desert dunes. All across the sky out above the desert are what look like thick glowing paths of light that don't seem to have any beginning over the Black Dog Motel, but do seem to touch down somewhere on the horizon. Those have to be the paths that Sodder was talking about, right?

Well it's a good thing the Black Dog Motel offers all of those cars because it looks like you're going to need them. Or maybe you prefer walking the entire way there. Maybe you didn't even bother with the motel.

Besides, the way to the west of the horizon looks pretty clear-skied. The way to the east of the horizon...You can see dark, angry red clouds and even see purple lightning shooting around. Even from the Black Dog Motel you can hear the thunder rolling towards you. Sure, there's some pathways of light heading out over where that storm cloud is, but hey. You're no idiot! Storms are dangerous.

Who wouldn't choose the clear path?

So you choose the clear path. And it doesn't seem so bad. The heat is a bit stifling and oppressive and sand gets just about everywhere you'd never want it. And you can even see that the pathways are getting closer too. You are making distance.

You're just not making distance alone.

Maybe you don't really notice how some of the dunes in the distance seem to abruptly shift and slide. Or maybe you do notice how suddenly it looks like some of the sand is rippling like something just slid by beneath the surface.

You might get lucky and get a pathway before it is too late.

Or maybe you get the exact opposite of lucky.

The sand worms are violent hunters, and they are behemoths. They would have never been able to fit in Deerington because they would of just destroyed half of it in one swoop- but this isn't Deerington.

Some, the babies, are about the size of a school bus, which isn't too bad if you think about it. If you think really, really hard about it.

But others? Others are big enough that you're lucky if you're the size of their eyes. They are completely blind, but they seem to be able to locate people just fine through sound and by the heat of someone's body. If you slick yourself in mud (which, if your bag had water in it, you realize you can now use) or maybe you're a species that isn't particularly warm to begin with.

Laying down and being quiet might work too, since the less you move, the less energy and heat you give off. There's boulders everywhere, and hiding behind them isn't such a bad option. Some of them even have nooks and crannies and you can slip inside and stay out of sight from a worm and wait til it goes by.

But if you decide to fight one of these guys? It's gonna be hard. They are about as difficult to deal with as they look. Yet at the end of the day, they're just really big and really aggressive monsters. The only good thing is they do hunt individually, so you'll never have more than one attack you at a time...Of course unless someone is running from one and brings another one to you. Then you're gonna have a bad time.

Their back is covered in a rock-hard shell-like skin. If you get a shot between the shells, you're good to go, but you're better off aiming for their underside. The underside is soft, vulnerable skin that you can stab and shoot at. But you're gonna want to focus on one spot- it's still thick skin.

Their mouths are a vulnerable spot too, but getting close is risky, since they're gonna try and bite at you instantly and uh- getting bit by one of these things isn't gonna be easy to survive. Some might just scoop you up and swallow you whole -and that actually isn't as bad as it sounds. They're a pretty regular beast from the inside, and that means you can....claw your way out. Which is a good and effective way to kill them.

These are flesh and blood creatures which means at the end of the day they have similar vulnerabilities as any other flesh and blood creature. Get the head off, it'll die. Destroy the heart- it'll die. Make it explode? It'll die. There's plenty of ways to kill them, you just gotta be a good fighter about it. Even an ordinary human could take one down...If they're fast and smart enough about it.

Sand worms can be outrun for a little bit, but they're faster than the average person so they'll catch up fast. They can be distracted by fire and bombs so that's an option- and if you have a car? You'll be able to outrun them even more effectively. But they're strong enough that if your car stalls? They can flip it and rip it open.

Good luck and godspeed.

INTO THE EYE OF THE STORM

So you choose to go to the east of the horizon where the angry red storm clouds are gathering instead. Maybe you're trusting your gut instincts or something Sodder told you. Or maybe you just see those monster worms on the clear path from the get-go and notice how not a single one of them seem to be out by the storm. Maybe that should be a little concerning, but have you got much of a choice?

Head for the storm clouds.

As you approach, the desert is flat and smooth, but the closer you get to the storm, the more wind picks up and you better pray your car has windows or that you have your face covered. Sand begins to whip everywhere, and oh- oh no.

You hadn't seen how bad the storm was at first.

It isn't just clouds up in the sky. The wind had started up an entire full-scale sandstorm, rolling in at you from the ground all the way up into those red clouds. You could maybe head back for the Black Dog Motel. It might be the safer option.

Or maybe you decide to say 'fuck it' and go in guns blazing. Not that bullets can do anything against a sandstorm.

When the sandstorm hits you, it's like hitting a wall of scalding heat and wind. The sand blowing in your face feels more like burning needles than sand. If you don't properly cover your eyes, you might suffer from temporary or permanent sight loss to varying degrees. Thunder smashes up ahead, cracks of purple lightning bursting constantly. Debris is flying everywhere. Maybe it's from people who were less fortunate, their car doors flying every which way, or maybe it's just rocks. It's hellish terrain and while you're luckiest if you have a car, it's survivable if you've only come as yourself. The sand is unforgiving, it takes all your strength to push into the wind.

But there are places to take shelter. Every now and then you see large boulders jutting out, and if you explore them, you will find that many of these boulders have a small opening you can get inside of. Inside the boulder is smooth. You can take shelter there and rest, catch your breath.

However bad this storm is, however long it might feel like it takes you to get anywhere, it surprisingly doesn't take you that long to get through it.

It's only thirty minutes by car, and an hour or two by foot- depending on the person. Granted, it's hard and hellish, but the moment you manage to keep on going, you just hit a wall of softer sand and then suddenly you're out of the storm.

The desert surrounding you beyond the storm is beautiful. The ground is smooth black shale, with only sweeps of sand that get blown back and forth over it occasionally. And the storm and shale both seem to keep the sand worms far, far away.

And up ahead, you see the pathways touching down. You made it.

Now all you have to do is pick what path you want to go to.

Pathways and Imitations

WALK INTO THE LIGHT

There are two types of pathways in the Great Sleep. You can see the vague shape of dark ones...and light ones.

The lights ones are glowing, gentle looking, flickering at the edges and when you near them, they smell like home. A warm breezes washes over your face and you can smell, perhaps, what your favorite meal was that your mother cooked you on days you weren't feeling so good.

The dream catcher reflects this pathway, and if you should touch the string on the dream catcher that represents whatever path you're about to take, you'll feel a sharp jolt of pain shoot through your finger. Youch! It isn't much worse than a paper cut or a little shock of electricity, but that was surprising.

You might as well take the path. You're here anyway, aren't you?

Walk into the light.

It consumes you at once, and all around you the world splits open in color and sound and noise. Reality rushes by you, and it's hard to focus, but you must concentrate on the white path just under your feet. Sharp images of worlds you may or may not recognize seem to whirl around you, and if you reach out to touch them, you get a near crippling pain in your arms and legs. Looks like touching isn't an option. Your dream guide will seem reluctant to go further, and it will seem intent on keeping you from interacting with that warping reality around you. It's on the defense.

There's a white halo at the end of the path, and when you step through...

The world goes crooked.

WALK INTO THE DARK

There are two types of pathways in the Great Sleep. You can see the vague shape of light ones...and dark ones.

The dark ones arch up into the sky, unlike the light ones, and seem to crackle. The vague sound of breaking glass echoes dully around them, and when you step near to their beginnings, you get a whiff of decay and foul poison. It's enough to make anyone gag and make one's eyes sting. The path seems to drip black, potentially even dripping onto you, but touching that black liquid will reveal it's nothing more than ink.

When you look to the path as it might be shown on your dream catcher, you will discover that when you touch it, your body will temporarily feel a wash of comfort and relaxation. It will feel like every tense muscle in your body was miraculously rubbed out. Of course the feeling goes away once you take your finger off the dark path on your dream catcher.

Step into the path, and the world goes pitch black around you, quieter and more hollow than you've ever known it. Except your dream guide seems steady and calm, leading a few paces ahead of you, occasionally stopping to look back.

Up ahead, there's a dark gray shape that looks vaguely like a door. Once you approach it, it looks like a gray wall of fog just rolling steadily. Step through it and...

The world opens up wide and beautiful.

Where the Paths Lead

They lead, quite simply, to your various characters' home worlds. Except not quite so simple.

These home worlds will feel mostly right to the natives who explore them but it will feel like something is off just a little bit.

Any people there seem to be a little faded, not quite fully there, and while they might respond to your character talking to them, their reactions will be delayed, and they will either say things your character remembers them saying or things they would expect them to say. It isn't authentic conversation. It feels vacant, somehow. Even if you try to introduce the image of your mom to your new Deerington Friends, she won't seem to really react beyond generic responses.

But hey, you can walk into a path that opens up into your childhood bedroom or your old palace. So that's neat, right? And the world will feel real. You can pick up your old stuffed animals and they will smell and feel the same as always- though you can't bring anything out of these imitation worlds. Try and they turn to golden dust on the way out.

In any case, these aren't exactly memories. They're how your world was how you remember it, certainly, but there aren't memories on endless repeat.

These imitation worlds will respond directly to the people exploring them. If it is a character's native world, they might start to remember something and that memory might begin to play itself out where they are.

Alternatively, characters might influence the imitation worlds through intense emotions like anxiety or joy- and this can distort the world and make it a surreal heaven or a complete nightmare.

And the worst part?

Everything that happens in these imitation home worlds can directly impact your character...and anyone with them. Meaning if you're remembering the monster who you had to fight against back home, and that monster is in front of you? It isn't just a memory you're watching. That monster is going to turn on your character and attack them with the full power that they had back home. And you can choose to escape them by leaving through the pathway, or you have to be stuck fighting them off.

These "memories" or dreams or nightmares can hurt you badly. The only good thing is, for now, they don't seem able to escape from their imitation home worlds, so you don't need to worry about accidentally luring Cthulu out into Deerington.

Dark pathways lead to positive dreams/memories while light pathways lead to nightmares/negative memories.

You can really play with this as flexibly as you want! You can get extremely surreal since, technically, the world presented through the pathways is a surrealistic extension of your character's understanding of their own world. That can be easily warped by their emotions or kept steady.

Worlds can also remain completely untouched by your character if you just wish to navigate canonical worlds whether calmly or violently.

You can go as extreme as you want because whatever happens in these imitation home worlds can really only impact the characters experiencing them - it won't impact the game or the setting of Deerington itself.

Important Notes on Both Paths:

1. Characters can completely ignore any and all paths. They can just choose to explore the general Great Sleep.

2. The pathways are visible from the cemetery and the Black Dog Motel, but only accessible once you have ventured out to the desert in some way. You can choose how quickly they can find these paths.

Characters can use the paths to escape the sand worms.

3. To leave an imitation home world, you can just use your dream catcher and it will lead you back to the path's opening and you can take the path all the way back out.

An alternate way to leave the home world is to "die" in it or force yourself to wake up back in Deerington with the dream catcher.

4. You could wind up in a character's home world that you aren't even with! For example, you might accidentally wind up in the Pokemon world even if you don't have anyone from Pokemon in your party. Chances are more likely that you'll wind up in your character's home world though.

5. Characters can see versions of themselves or other taken characters from Deerington in these imitation homeworlds. However these imitation versions of taken characters will be extremely glitchy to the point where you can't communicate with them at all nor interact with your character. They will only be performing some repeat action somewhere in the imitation home world. You will only be able to recognize them.

6. Since this is technically about dreaming, you could spend indefinite time in these imitation home worlds. You could technically even grow old in them. However, the moment you walk back onto the path, you'll realize that only a couple of minutes have passed by the time you get back out into the Great Sleep. Time works completely different in the imitation home worlds.

However, the longer you spend in the imitation home worlds, the more weak you will begin to feel. You'll maybe start to feel sluggish and like you can't quite talk or see the right way anymore. All of your senses will begin to fade you, and you'll become easily confused. This can happen as quickly or slowly as you want it to. Dream Guides or other characters can help get characters in this state out of imitation home worlds.

7. Only characters in their native worlds can accidentally influence a memory to manifest in the world. You can't go into another person's imitation home world and experience your own memories from your own canon. You have to be in the imitation world that matches your canon world.

Information About the Great Sleep

Welcome to the Great Sleep, Sleepers. I don't think we're in Maine anymore, Cujo.

Don't worry if you feel overwhelmed: this is a permanent part of the game!

That means that if you don't have time to explore everything in here this month, your characters will be able to access various parts of it throughout the rest of the game's running! The only exception will be if any specific events temporarily shut down the Great Sleep in which case we will always give a substantial warning ahead of time. At that point nothing will happen to the Great Sleep itself- characters will just be temporarily unable to access it.

This introduction serves as a quick and easy guide to the basic things about how this place functions overall. All of these apply to both the characters' experiences in the Great Sleep as well as in their imitation home worlds that the paths lead to.

Regular needs of characters in the Great Sleep

While in the Great Sleep, people do not need to eat or drink or go to the bathroom. If your character requires blood/sunlight/oil or any other sort of dietary need, they will also not require that in the Great Sleep.

They do not feel hunger or thirst either.

They do, however, still feel exhaust and pain and general wear and tear of travel. Characters will still have to rest and sleep in the Great Sleep.

Characters who are in the Great Sleep no longer feel the effect of Sodder's attempt to make everyone sleepy. Your character will always wake up in the Great Sleep with perfect energy to begin with. And once they sleep and rest, they will have properly renewed energy.

Injuries and Dying in the Great Sleep

Characters can still be injured in the Great Sleep and all characters, even those who do not usually feel pain, will feel pain from any sustained injuries.

Normal character abilities that protect them from certain injuries/poisons will apply as usual in the Great Sleep. Those characters will still only be in danger of whatever they are usually in danger of as stated on their applications.

All injuries sustained in the Great Sleep are kept only in the Great Sleep: when a character wakes up, their bodies in Deerington will be perfectly fine. They will, however, feel the ghost of those injuries for a while after. This can range in severity. Those who lose a lot of blood might still feel queasy from it for a few days, or maybe those who broke their arm might struggle with using it for a few days even if it seems perfectly functional otherwise.

Death is another matter altogether.

Unlike Deerington, characters cannot die in the Great Sleep by the traditional sense. This applies to all characters regardless of their normal mortality. That's right- even your perfectly ordinary human character can't die in the Great Sleep.

This temporary immortality comes with a catch though.

There are only two ways characters can "die" in the Great Sleep:

1. If they sustain a fatal injury of some sort, they simply wake up with a start where they fell asleep back in Deerington. They might be covered in sweat and feel a deep body ache, but that will soon go away.

2. If they sustain a fatal injury, they simply just...Don't die. All pain leaves their bodies, but they will have to walk around with that injury. Maybe they have to carry their own decapitated head so they can see around and talk still, or maybe they'll just have to duct tape their organs back inside so they don't trip over them. Anyone in this state will be a little zombie-like in the fact that they will be sluggish and a bit more delaying than how they would normally be.

After this, they can't feel pain whatsoever. They do, however, feel extremely cold. This state of death only lasts as long as they are in the Great Sleep. Once they wake up back in Deerington, they will find that they are perfectly fine and not dead- but boy, they will stay extremely cold and a bit sluggish for a few days after waking up.

A character's body will remain completely unharmed in Deerington where they are asleep. A deer will stand vigil and keep away any monsters or potential threats. This deer will stand by over their bed or outside of their homes.

How powers work with the Great Sleep

All character abilities will be accessible as usual in the Great Sleep. They will have the same nerfs as they do in Deerington however characters who suffer from unstable abilities will find that their abilities are actually more stable/consistent in the Great Sleep. You can choose how much more stable/consistent.

Characters who require items for certain abilities will either find that specific item as their dream weapon or might be lucky and find some of those items in the bag they can find in the Black Dog Motel rooms.

What can be brought in and out of the Great Sleep

The only things that can be brought in and out of the Great Sleep from Deerington consciously would be the drachma and the summoning whistle.

The Fluid can only be brought with you into the Great Sleep if you are wearing it around your wrist- otherwise it will be left back in Deerington. The Fluid works in the Great Sleep, but it does break up easily and it might be a little hard to communicate with it.

Dream catchers will appear automatically when you get to the Great Sleep. Dream weapons will also appear automatically when you get to the Great Sleep, but they cannot be removed from the Great Sleep.

You cannot bring vehicles or weapons or any sort of survival gear into the Great Sleep with you. When your character wakes up in the Great Sleep, they will automatically be wearing an ideal outfit for traveling and, at the most, they might have important but ultimately ineffective artifacts on them such as wedding rings, a necklace, or minor things like that. Otherwise, even if your character tried to bring a bazooka to the Great Sleep, it just wouldn't happen. You only get the dream weapon to defend yourself with- and that stays in the Great Sleep.

How to get to the Great Sleep willingly and how to get out of the Great Sleep

The dream catcher is your key here.

Whenever characters have a dream catcher, all they need to do is hold it and state that they want to go to the Great Sleep. Careful though: the moment you say this, everything that happens after will happen fast so it's usually a good idea to make sure you're already laying down.

The dream catcher will glow golden, and a fine golden dust will burst out of it and straight into your eyes. It's completely painless, and almost as soon as it happens, you're fast asleep and waking up in the Great Sleep.

Anyone who is in the Great Sleep, their body back in Deerington will be glowing a soft gold, and a fine golden sand will be floating over their body. The dream catcher they used will be suspended above them, swinging around and around. Different strings will light up on the dream catcher to vaguely show where the character is moving in the Great Sleep.

To get from the Great Sleep and back to Deerington, you can die or you can pick up your dream catcher and ask, in any way, to be brought back to Deerington (whether it's a "bring me back home" or "get me the fuck out of here!").

This time it is you who glows gold, not the dream catcher, and your body will vanish into sand and be sucked back into the dream catcher (not that you will feel or see any of this- but someone watching you would!) and you will then wake up wherever you had fallen asleep. Pretty neat huh!

Limitations/Consequences on going to the Great Sleep

Everyone can only go to the Great Sleep once in 24 hours. However, you can spend a very long time at the Great Sleep, so once you are there you might as well make the most out of it!

If, in the future beyond this event, you want to go to the Great Sleep with a new character who doesn't have a dream catcher yet, all you need to do is have your character use their own dream catcher, stand next to the new character, and state that you both want to go to the Great Sleep.

The new character will then be able to get their own dream catcher and use it accordingly in the future.

On Dream Confusion:

If your character goes to the Great Sleep every single day, or too often (multiple times a week+), they will begin to blur realities and forget what's real and what isn't. They will fall into a bit of a chaotic psychosis state where they see things that aren't actually there, feel like they might actually be back home despite their surroundings telling them otherwise, and they won't seem to understand other people telling them what is or isn't real. Dream Confusion is a very real thing, and it can get severe enough that a character can completely lose their mind.

They will also have a bad habit of sneezing golden sand from their mouths and noses a lot. Which at first it isn't so bad, but it can lead to bloody noses and throats if it's bad enough.

Characters who experience Dream Confusion can be helped psychologically through patient magic, spells, regular (but strong) medication, or if they just don't touch their dream catcher for a few weeks. Eventually they will come back to themselves - so make sure you don't get too obsessed with using the dream catcher.

Your best bet to avoid getting Dream Confusion and being able to explore the Great Sleep often is to make a schedule. Even if you do it twice in a row, that's fine, but maybe make sure to have a four or five day break. Everyone's body and mind is different, so each schedule will be a little different.

How it feels to wake up from the Great Sleep

If you wake up without injuries or a fatal wound of some sort, you will wake up with a surprising amount of energy but your body itself will feel drained for a while. The more you do in the Great Sleep, the more exhausted your body will feel.

You will also be starving. And you might need to pee real bad. Sorry about that.

If you have any specific questions about the Great Sleep please ask here.