Lockhart, the doomed dreamer (ENF/ENM Nightmare)

Finding Lockhart was always a bit of a hassle for Jervale... after all, the other challengers mostly stuck to some sort of pattern (or liked to lay around in one place for hours on end, in Lanus' case). As for Lockhart, she was an eternal sleep-walker, and her dreams seemed to take her all over the tower in random fashion. There was no telling where she'd pop up or when. He'd even been surprised to find her walking about the roof of the tower at one point, after which one of the others had installed a guard rail there.

This time, she was found in the kitchen, sleep-eating again. She slathered honey mustard onto a sandwich with a dopey smile spread across her somewhat round face and a string of drool hanging down her chin. Her outfit was that of a woman of adventure: a brown safari cap, matching gloves and boots of thick leather, and a sleeveless top with brown shorts down to her knees. A leather whip hung from her waist. Perhaps she fancied herself a second coming of Mr. Jones? Whatever the case, she had the clothes for it, but not the body; she's especially chubby in the thighs and buttocks, as well as a bit over-encumbered in the bosom and belly, giving her a somewhat soft, rotund profile overall. Her long, brunette hair stood eternally tied in single, middle-oriented ponytail, hanging down to just below her lower back. At any rate, whatever she'd thought of herself when she was awake, she wasn't the type they'd cast in adventure movies. The only signs of her demon persona were the ghost-like wisps that follow her around and the way she was always sticking her arms out like a zombie.

Jervale watched her fixing that stupid sandwich, which was now positively dripping with honey mustard, and spoke to himself spitefully.

"The curses that consume all of our lives here take their tolls mentally and, some might say, warp our characters, but that glimmer of hope that we may one day find some reason to live again sustains demons such as myself. Lockhart, on the other hand, may be among the most thoroughly doomed by her curse, given that it offers her no chance to regather her senses and redeem herself. The woman was once a great explorer and scholar; she came here seeking not just the treasure, but also, the alien lifeforms known as demons. However, when she got here, I could tell she was disappointed; her imagination was loftier than any ridiculous trap or opponent I could produce to challenge her.

That, frankly, infuriated the hell out of me, given that my quirky, incomprehensible imagination is one of my charm points, so I decided in a moment of bitterness that if she liked her dreams so much, she might as well just live there. I bestowed upon Ms. Lockhart the Curse of Dreaming. In hindsight, I overdid it a tad. While my intention was to cause her to become stuck shifting between a disturbing state of nightmares and the waking world, she seems pretty much frozen in the dream state. At first, they were all awful nightmares, but she seems to have mastered the curse somewhat so that she now experiences only happy dreams. I draw this conclusion only from her pleased expression... annoyingly, none of us have the ability to see whatever it is she's dreaming.

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a curse if it didn't also affect the challengers. Anyone, demon or challenger, who gets within a certain range of Ms. Lockhart will be thrust into the same dream world she inhabits. While their body continues to act as though they were sleepwalking, they will enter a world that can only be described as a nightmare. They're joined there by Lockhart, who is blissfully in control of whatever happens to her, by contrast. It's the nightmare material stuff you're probably thinking of: the victim overslept for a test. They forgot to put their pants on in the morning. They got locked out of their dorm room naked. I'd say these dreams really default towards the latter... It may sound pedestrian, but listen, when you're a legendary hero or a gang boss- or whatever- there are just certain places where you don't want to be caught standing around in the nude. Lockhart's curse has a way of projecting people into those places, utilizing their worst imaginations. The victims generally haven't mastered their dreams in the same way she has, meaning that the nightmare will seem vividly real and uncontrollable- a prison created of their own psyche in which they are humiliated and tormented in front of those who hold them in a position of esteem.

In the end, they'll generally leave the tower trapped in the illusion and mortified, until waking up nude in some public place later. It's quite the one-two punch.

This has happened to me a time or two. It's all the more reason for me to lock this room's door and rarely step outside..."