This was a dream I had just this morning. I thought it might make an interesting series of books or something, though I'm not certain if it's something I would write. I'm posting it here because it centered on history and ghosts which seemed to scream to me that I had to get Rama to read it. Also, he was actually in the dream I had of it, so maybe he'd get a kick out of his role in it.
Premise: Two people form a team to play the game of Chalice. There may be other teams competing.
Game: Find a Chalice. Once a Chalice is found, decipher the clues-- words and pictures-- on the Chalice to get to the location. The clues will tell you where you need to go to find the treasure. Solving the clues will reward with a windfall of treasure (gold, gems, etc.) There is a time limit. If the time is not met, you will lose your chance at the treasure. Partnerships can be broken and negotiated, so one person can end up with the treasure. NOTE: You only get to keep the treasure if you can manage to take it with you.
Known: The game of Chalice, the time limit, the rumor of treasure being in haunted locations.
Dream: Takes place in my city-- downtown-- and Rama and I end up playing Chalice. I believe we were looking for a Chalice and stole our Chalice from someone else on the street. I'm thinking we're only together because the Chalice game is taking place in my city, and Rama loves history and ghosts and shit and wants a shot at that treasure.
I navigate the map on the Chalice, since I had been exploring this part city the other day and am now familiar with the map on the Chalice. There is at least one other team with a Chalice, but the skinny bitch who's navigating doesn't appear to be from here and doesn't know where she's going. I get a little lost myself and confused and follow her a ways before figuring out where I need to go. We both turn the corner but for whatever reason, the other team does not go to same building I do. I don't know if I tricked them or got there first and thus negated their chance or what. Rama finally joins me-- he was lagging behind, probably just keeping me in sight so I could lead the way. He had tried to help me navigate at first, but I think we started arguing, I told him he didn't know shit, and he let me do my job because I live here and should know the area better.
We enter what appears to be a museum/library sort of thing. I do not know what building this is, and I can't think of anything vaguely like it other than the McNay (Google Image Search for "mcnay"). It looks kinda old, the entrance we use is reminiscent of the Witte Museum (I can't find pictures of the way this looked in my childhood, it's tackier-looking now). We explore the building, trying to make sense of the various clues of the Chalice: there is a picture of some dude, a picture of a column, a simple map of streets that helped us find the location, and various other small pictures. There are also words written on various places of the Chalice to serve as clues.
I don't want to let go of the Chalice and it eventually becomes clear that I want to be certain to get treasure, possibly to rip Rama off of his cut. I tell him clues and show him the Chalice and he figures a few things out. It is apparent that we're making progress, but we're losing time (and sunlight). We look for "the column" but when we're taken to the back of the building, there are several columns bordering a lake/river. I run along the bank, looking at each column. The picture on our Chalice is a detail, not the whole column, and every other column has something intricate. I'm getting frustrated. I keep running and looking and reach the last few columns-- also fountains, which to me, ALL look like they could be the key to the treasure. Time runs out.
Since we lost, we are shown the solution. A woman, who had spoken to us earlier, takes our Chalice and walks us the very last column. She goes through motions of showing us clues on the Chalice: "This person was so-n-so, king of blah blah" a bunch of history-type stuff, and Rama just "ohs" and nods the whole time like he's so damn impressed. She points out commands on the Chalice which were worded cryptically and shows us what we needed to do. Finally she fills the Chalice with water twice and dumps the water into two dishes near the top of the column, which releases the treasure.
Meanwhile, we've-- especially I-- have been getting a creepy feeling this entire time (though I likely placed it in the back of my mind due to greed and the ominousness only occurred to me once I lost the treasure). Something happens and prompts us to run instead. We are warned to get inside the building and stay there.
Apparently-- I want to call him a king though I don't know if he really was one-- haunts this place. All we ever see of him is this large, hideous, red floating eyeball with crap dangling off of it. We all run inside and we're in a room that reminds me of my grandmother's house, but it's part of this estate where the caretakers and cleaning staff live and connected to the rest of the building. In a pool between two of the columns (and in clear view), the eyeballs floats around and consumes some girl-- though I think she was already a spirit so it was either a reenactment or he was reconsuming her. I don't know if this guy only comes out at night, at certain nights, or what. I recall seeing the eyeball (and possibly the girl) in some dungeon we came across when we were still trying to decipher the Chalice.
The guide from earlier tells us about the King and his story. Apparently he was a Bluebeard kinda fellow that would kill chicks (maybe even eat the flesh afterwards). As myself and the staff talk and cower in fear in the room, it occurs to me that Rama's no where to be found. I never find out where he went but I remember being pissed off that he "escaped", so I don't think the ghost got him and nowhere in the dream does anyone believe the ghost got him. (After the dream, it occurred to me that we were all women except for some old butler-type guy-- who was maybe staying there for the sake of one of the other women, so I'm thinking the ghost was only after women and would only go after dudes if they crossed him. I'm thinking dream-Rama realized this and slipped out the backdoor to freedom.)
There are some other young women in the room, including a caretaker's teenage daughter who is especially scared. Something happens, I want to say another woman is being consumed because the eye was kinda stalking us, and one of the caretakers tells me it's my opportunity to escape. I'm wrapped up in a blanket right now and I hesitate because I'm not certain if I should take the blanket with me. (It's a brown blanket I have in my bedroom, I don't know what it's doing in the dream.) The woman runs with me through some catacomb type-thing, and I decided regretfully to leave my blanket behind as she opens a gate and gives me the keyring. I think I asked her "what about you", but she told me to leave and I was pretty scared so I did. The gate leads to an large field where at the end is the exit to the estate.
I run for dear-life and reach a parking lot with a lot of cars lingering. It occurs to me that the keyring she gave me has several car keys on it, and I don't know if these are previous victims or what. I hear noises, like moaning noises from the eyeball or something, so I hustle. I'm getting anxious though because there are so many cars and I know not every key is there, so while I undoubtly have access to several escape vehicles, I don't know which ones. I come across a bunch of boozing, partying teenagers hanging around the cars. They have their own cars, and so I decide I'm going to steal one of their's instead because the keys are still inside and the vehicles are already running. I take a red truck and the teenagers make like they're coming with me to escape also, especially when they hear noises, too (either that or they sensed danger). I stop the truck and wait for them to load into the back, but they're taking too long. In retrospect they were either drunk or high or I don't know what. I leave without them and peel rubber through the dirt path on the field. I don't know if anything is chasing me at this time but it kinda feels like it.
I make it to a building, a small concrete walkway, and a gate with lots of plants around it. I walk on the path and cautiously approach the plants. There's lots of stone around the place, like an intricate little garden. There are two kids playing on the other side, even though it's the dark of night. However, this is still the city downtown at night so you can never be too sure. Beyond the gate is the city again. I don't recall if I used any of the keys or not along the way, but I eventually climb a gate off the estate. I don't know if getting off the estate automatically means I'm safe though I believe it does. The kids kinda wonder what I'm doing here.
The next part is fuzzy, but a cop shows up so something's wrong and I need to get lost and fast. It's difficult to remember what happened next, so I'm speculating a lot of it. I speak with the cop and he lets me go, and says something to the gathering crowd about how he's looking for a woman. I finally get a look at myself.
I think that was the part of the dream where I left as a first-person character and became an omniscent observer. I look like a fat, jolly Hawaiian guy. I don't know if I was always a guy or what, because this is the first time I'm seeing myself. Maybe because I changed pov, I realized the character I was playing was a guy.
For whatever reason, the guy picks up a child. I think the child was either on the run, needed help finding his mom, was abandoned, whatever. That part is unclear. It wasn't pedophilia though. So dude-me helps the kid and goes up the stairs of the nearby building to escape the mob (or find the kid's mom, I don't know). In a fit of weird, at the second story up (it's an open staircase) guy-me opens his vest to one of the people helping the cop down on the street and even though he's wearing a tight black shirt underneath, there are women's breasts under the shirt! EW! So I don't know if I was cursed to be an insane hermaphodite because I escaped or if I was just a manly woman from the beginning. GAH. That's how it ends.
After waking up, it occured to me that the caretaker and everyone else didn't escape with me because they were already dead. The teenagers may have also been dead, too: killed when they trespassed the first time. I don't know if the ordeal with the King would've occurred even if we had won the treasure. Famous past Chalice winners did not usually compete again, so perhaps this is why.
