The antlered wraith at the edge of every dream
An antlered shadow that hunts the spaces between sleep and waking, its clawed, raw-skinned hands carving themselves into the world. It keeps the loop turning and the dreamer dreaming. It answers only to the Tupperware.
| Type | Role | Master | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wraith | Keeper of the dream-loop | [[Zen au Kouréas | Zen]] |
Overview
The Dreamweaver is an antlered wraith with clawed, “too-much-eczema” hands — raw and ruined — that serves as the keeper of the dream-loop trapping TBD’s sleeping mind at the Magus Battle of the Bands. For most of the chapter it was glimpsed only in the periphery: an image carved into tables, a clawed hand reaching out from under a bed, an antlered silhouette at the corner of the eye.
It is not the apex of its own scheme. The Dreamweaver serves a higher master, Zen — the figure LaDonna names “the Tupperware” in her seven-layer-bean-dip metaphor for the villain hierarchy. Its goal is TBD’s forbidden Chronomancy spellbook, and it was willing to bend the entire dream-loop toward acquiring it.
Across the dream it acted with cruel theatricality: it trapped Michael Jackson inside a mirror and stalked TBD across the Swollen Wastes. Wolfgang summoned it via the Dreamcatcher and delivered the sleeping TBD to it in a bargain, making the wraith the dark engine at the center of the chapter.
Story
Arc
- First clearly seen as an antlered shadow in Ch 2.3.
- Identity and intent assembled in pieces across Ch 2.5, Ch 2.6, Ch 2.7, and Ch 2.8 — its service to Zen and its hunger for the Chronomancy book.
- Wolfgang summoned it via the Dreamcatcher and handed over the sleeping TBD in a bargain (revealed Ch 2.8).
- Captured in the Dreamcatcher, then escaped, and was finally destroyed in Ch 2.9 when Xeros rebounded its own spell (“you used my mom”).
Appearances
- 241219-ch2.3 (⏱ 03:03:09) — A shadowy, mysterious figure with giant antlers glimpsed in the vision that flashes before the party when the scroll’s rune flares, tied to dark woods and scrolls of strange symbols. (Logged as “The Antlered Figure.”)
- 250604-ch3.2 (⏱ 01:40:53) — Magic item stolen from TBD by the tavern thief
- 251009-ch3.7 (⏱ 04:19:37) — A creature TBD recognizes from the illustration on the dropped page; determined to be merely another of its kind, related to but not the specific Dreamweaver the party previously fought.
- 250103-ch2.4 (⏱ 03:51:01:10) — A dreamcatcher-like necklace worn by Wolfgang that he quickly conceals when Basil notices it; likely tied to the dream-loop mystery.
- 250303-ch2.7 (⏱ 00:07:43) — The antlered entity orchestrating the dream loop; Wolfgang and LaDonna serve it, and it is after the book of Chronomancy that TBD found. It in turn serves a still more powerful unknown force.
- 250314-ch2.8 (⏱ 00:07:10) — A wraith-like entity with giant antlers and clawed hands that trapped TBD and the whole fairgrounds in the dream loop. It seeks the forbidden spellbook of chronomancy and is summoned via a dreamcatcher strummed like a harp.
- 250412-ch2.9 (⏱ 00:17:26:17) — A horned demon of nightmares summoned by the dreamcatcher, working for Xen. It fuses with Wolfgang, later attacks the party with nightmare/psychic magic in the Magus gymnasium, and is destroyed by Xeros’s Moontouch rapier and a chronomancy counterspell.