Notes on the Riddle
The Place of small dreams
It is a place of great power. It lies at the end of a long path called the Wild Run that winds through a dark forest with no name. Deep in the Dreaming it lies, at the edge, near the Far Dreaming. You could get to it by following the path, but you should never step from the path as there are bad things in that forest, things that have crept in from the Far Dreaming, things that can take your mind and turn it into Jello. Well, that's what we knew before the Sundering. Now, well it's anybody's guess as to whether it's still there.
If it is still there then it is a place of great power, to survive that long. It is said that once you're on the path you walk until you honestly think that it leads to nowhere. You walk until you think that you have been misled and that this isn't the path. You walk until you think what if I have the wrong path. Then you step in to a bright place.
It is said that it is always summer in the place of small dreams. It is a place of possibility. No two descriptions of it are alike, but they all have a tree. In the centre of the place of small dreams is a tree. It is a huge tree, bigger than any other tree you'll ever see. It's one of those big old trees that you just want to sit under on a sunny summer afternoon with the butterflies and birds and daydream about what could have been.
It has also been said that it is always winter in the place of small dreams. It is a place of chance. No two tellings are quite the same, but they all have the tree. In the centre of the place of small dreams is a tree. It is a huge tree surrounded by snow. It is black against the full moon and the snow is silver. It is one of those big trees that makes shapes in the night. You just want to stare at it and hope that it doesn't change when you're not looking. You just want to look at it and think about all the things that could have been.
The power of the place of small dreams is to grant wishes. Well
that's what they say anyway. But it doesn't grant just any wish. No,
it is said that the place of small dreams grants the if only
s
and what if
s, all the dreams that could have been. All the
wishes that could almost be true. It's these dreams that the place of
small dreams allows to come true, that's why it's called the place of
small dreams. It lets those small dreams come true because they are so
close to reality, they're the ones with the most power.
Well that's what they say anyway. Myself, I reckon it's all a load of bollocks.
The Story of The Riddle of the Travellers
This riddle was uncovered in 1810. It was written by William Sanderson, a little known poet who achieved almost no acclaim in his lifetime or after his death. He wrote a manuscript called Poems and Riddles of the Silver Path. All of the poems and riddles contained therein, twenty-three in all, are explicitly about the Dreaming.
A look into the history of William Sanderson shows that he was a man born into society. He was not popular with his peers and spent a lot of time travelling in the countryside. he wrote all of the works for Poems and Riddles of the Silver Path after a particularly long stay at a small house in the highlands of Wales. There is no record of what happened to him during that time except the Poems and Riddles. William never attempted to get the Poems and Riddles published, despite the fact that they are clearly his best works.
Poems and Riddles came to the attention of Kithain when Marigold Morningsong, a Pooka, was born to William and his wife Mary. Shortly after Marigold's Saining at age seven, William and Mary died in a tragic boating accident. Marigold found the Poems and Riddles manuscript in a small locked chest in her father's study. Marigold eventually gave the manuscript to the Troll who helped her through her Chrysalis, Daric. He passed them on to the Clurichaun Seamus and they have been with our kind ever since.
And now it is my present to you, Lady Catherine. I have reason to believe that this riddle is of special significance to this Freehold.