It is now more than ever that the ability to kill seems as if it could be the difference between success and failure.

The Gathering of the Entranced have been making small steps towards reviving the lethal art of Dreamstrike for some time, and we do not feel that it is out of the question or by any means impossible.

Late last year, an organization known as the Dreamers of Earth and Night began work on a project revolving around this very issue. The project itself had a number of practical uses, one of the goals of which was to learn how to create lesser nightmares, in hopes of unlocking the ability to unleash them to besiege our enemies at our leisure. A goal that was never released to the public, however, was the idea of being able to reproduce the effects of dreamstrike, through a talisman that had no true bearing on it's wielder.

Creation of the Spherical Apparatus: This artifact was created in a series of steps. The creation of the core, the creation of the inner and outer shells, the creation of the various components needed for it to function and the creation of the final product at Starfall's Grand Forge.

Capabilities of the Spherical Apparatus: This artifact is capable of draining, storing, and releasing fairly massive amounts of chaotic energy. The problem is that this artifact is only able to draw chaotic energy from raw sources, and so it is a grueling process which cannot be reproduced in a reliable and consistant manner.

Status of the Spherical Apparatus: This artifact is currently in a highly damaged state. Maal, Selika and a number of others performed an experiment of sorts last month with the hopes of disabling it. It was most definetly disabled, and is in need of some fairly noteworthy repair before it could be put into any sort of practical use.

It is my personal belief, and a widely pondered theory that the way Dreamstrike works, is that the user manages to focus or compress a large amount of chaotic energy, only to force it into the soulsphere of the entity that it is used upon, thus killing them or severing their link to the dreamstate, depending on your persuasion to illumination or freesoulism.

With the capabilities of the Spherical Apparatus as they are, I feel strongly that this talisman and the art of Dreamstrike share many things in common. If we were able to fully decipher the workings of the Spherical Apparatus, we may be able to find a way to reproduce it's capabilities ourselves, without the artifact. Thus, recreating the art of dreamstrike.

With this being said, myself and others will be working to repair the Spherical Apparatus over the coming days. After this is complete, I intend to attempt an experiment with this artifact in hopes of learning the process in which chaotic energy can be released in a manner destructive to only what it is focused upon. If this is successful, I believe that the knowledge of the workings of Dreamstrike will be within our hands. It is this knowledge that will allow us to recreate the art.

Over the years dreamers have fought long and hard for their faiths, their ideals and their existances. Soul Essences have been falling from the sky, the notes that came along with them suggest that these beings are being killed upon their shards of cloudsbreak. We can not unite upon cloudsbreak, we can however unite within the city and combat this threat, or we can simply wait for the inevitable.

The words of Kelenrath state: "Fight and die, or run and die. But perish all!"

Dreamers have fought for many causes over the years, each as noble as the next. However, we continue to turn our backs away from true threats to our existance, and take small measures to ensure our survival. Fighting is clearly no longer enough, it is time to kill to ensure our survival, or simply die.

Many are fervently attempting to defend the houses, this is a very noble effort, but it will not be relevant if we are killed upon our shards as we dream. We must take this step, and revive the art that will allow us to kill them before they are able to do the same to us.

I urge all dreamers of the city to join me in this project. If you will not take this step to preserve your own existance, I will pray that you do not suffer the same fate as the beings whose soul essences have appeared within our city from Cloudsbreak.

The repairing of the Spherical Apparatus was a success, Fiorel and Hannababy applied a protective layer of dreamsoul to the crack that marred the outer-shell, and Hrrum sealed the outer-shell with the proper shielding material. Kaer GeRRoZ created a new prong to replace the broken left prong, and secured it in place. After a few finishing touches, and a few moments to sit after enduring the heat of Starfall's Grand Forge, the repairs were complete.

We decided to get step two out of the way, as it was simply the pre-step for step three. We went to Fayd's Fortress and activated the Spherical Apparatus, as usual, it was extremely difficult to control. A mistake on the part of Hrrum almost cost us all our lives, he tripped and hit the intensity dial, causing a sizable amount of chaotic energy to be absorbed by the prongs, at far too quick a rate, resulting in a discharge into the room. After this, things began to go fairly smoothly, I held the Spherical Apparatus steady, while Folko slowly adjusted the intensity dial. As the intensity increased, a loud whirring sound filled the room and the Spherical Apparatus began to shake and rumble. Finally, it reached it's peak, and absorbed as much energy as the core is capable of holding. When it reached this point, it began to leak chaotic energy into the room, heavily damaging all those who watched. We slowly worked the Spherical Apparatus down, and off completely. It was a success.

Not one minute after we finished draining energy from the chaos pool in Fayd's Fortress, did Tzayak, FoulMoth and Ra-zr rear their ugly heads, and appear directly in the center of the pool. After a lengthy battle, which ended in a loss on the part of the Entranced, we initiated dialogue with Tzayak. We asked if he knew what we had done, and he said "You did nothing!" In retort to that, we demanded that, unless he fears our work, he should let us test it upon him, which he declined to allow. We warned him that his end is coming, and he stated that he is not worried, because "Fools seldom live long, and we should enjoy it while we draw breath."

The next step will be finding a way to trap one of the Kotoke, and testing the Spherical Apparatus on them, in hopes of mapping out the exact frequency and being able to later reproduce it without the instrument. All dreamers are encouraged to aid in this step, your fate is in your own hands.

Menson E. Kabtag
SoulMaster Teacher of the Seventh Sphere
Master of Manipulation
A man you can trust