After the awakening of Pandemonium, most assumed that equilibrium had
been restored to the Dreamrealm. Yet for months, strange nightmares had
plagued the sleep of Achaeans throughout the realm. Many awakened from
their slumber, covered in cold sweat and trembling, their minds awhirl
in a dizzying, terrifying maelstrom of fires and floods, of
disfigurement and disease, of unnatural earthquakes and bone-chilling
blizzards. Some dreamt of a woman of flame-coloured hair and
needle-sharp teeth. A few dreamt of yet another figure: a woman shrouded
in bluish-grey mists, surrounded in an aura of palpable sorrow.
Dreamseers called her by the name "Nomku," but aside from her name, they
knew no more. It was not long until the dreams proved prophetic, as
disaster after disaster struck Sapience in ways that the observant
amongst the populace recognised as echoes of the recent nightmares:

A leper from the colony on the isle of Polyargos snuck himself onto the
ferry to the Aalen, convinced from his dreams that with ingredients he
could only procure upon the mainland, he could cure himself of his
terrible ailment. His attempted cure backfired, however, creating a more
contagious and necrotic strain. Fleeing to Cyrene, the disease-crazed
leper attacked and infected several Cyrenian guards with the new strain
of leprosy before succumbing to death. With the help of several
adventurers and the druids Ranthal and Seasone, the guards were
eventually cured.

In Jaru, massive unnatural tsunamis slammed down upon the normally
peaceful port town, washing in sea monsters from the deep. While a task
force of adventurers commanded by Silas Maynard of Shallam battled the
terrible monsters on behalf of the Jaruvians, giant waves continued to
smite the town like watery hammers from the ocean. Only after Kamaleah
Devi, a devotee of the Neraeos, performed a ritual to honour the God of
the Oceans, did the tsunamis end. The ritual, however, ended in the
unsettling disappearance of a fisherman who had been heard complaining
of strange dreams haunting his slumber. Many suspected that the
fisherman had, in a somnambulistic state, been catching merfolk in his
nets and slaughtering them for fish-meat to sell to the locals, and the
tsunamis had come as retribution for the grave trespass against the
children of the Seas.

Further north, the merchant town of Delos was struck by a separate
watery threat. Driven mad by some strange and malignant power, Zaphar,
the Old Man of the River, demanded that Delos pay tribute to him. When
they refused to do so, the river spirit sent a powerful flood crashing
down upon the town, reducing it to water-logged ruins. After the deed,
Zaphar regained his sanity and lamented his actions, speaking of a
shrouded woman who had appeared in his dreams, shrouded by blue mists
and accompanied by strange spirits who hid their faces. It was she, he
declared, who had turned his mind to madness and destruction. As a
benevolent gesture to a town known for its industriousness, the god
Phaestus sent the mechanical automatons from his temple to assist in the
reconstruction of Delos, and they made swift work of the repairs.

These and other dream-foreshadowed calamities rained down within a short
span of time, seemingly never-ending. The flame-haired woman of whom
some dreamt was recognised as Enheduanna, the once-Aldar warrioress in
the service of Babel. Some speculated that it was she who was the force
behind the recent events. Yet, despite the demise of Enheduanna, the
nightmares did not cease, and the role of the woman shrouded in
bluish-grey mists remained a mystery.

Penned by My hand on the 15th of Phaestian, in the year 481 AF.