Did they experience everything in the illusion, or was it dreamlike?

[Gift Jeraff]

So did they actually experience all those months/years (sped up to fit in a few hours), or was it like a dream and it skipped around, some things are blurred, etc.?

[Muenster Man]

Tough to say but I think it was more dreamlike, with the only two in-depth experiences being the fight with Xykon and the wedding. They only broke out of the illusion once Elan recognized major incongruities during the wedding, but if they had actually experienced all that time in between instead of glazing over it they likely would have recognized it long before.

But then again it's magic, so trying to draw logic from it is usually difficult. If they really did experience all that time, Roy, Haley, and Elan could make a strong case for gaining XP for months/years of next-to-real plot resolution and accomplishments.

[Paisley]

I'm definitely leaning toward the latter. It's an astoundingly quick recovery, otherwise. If I'd just found out the last few months/years of my life was a lie, I certainly wouldn't shake it off as easily as they did.

On one hand, they're adventurers. They've spent so much time exposed to magic, mind-shattering revelations, and general weirdness that they've probably developed a pretty strong tolerance to it. On the other hand, casually abandoning what potentially amounts to years of your life skirts really close to "creepily robotic" territory.

[BroomGuys]

In particular, the fact that so many significant events passed by in the illusion world in the space of a few hours of real time suggests that they were in a dreamlike mental state. It really makes sense: when you're dreaming, you believe everything that's going on, often including some very ridiculous things, until you either hear your alarm clock or notice "wait, I decided to turn into a flying walrus and it actually worked?!"

(Yes, that happened in one of my dreams)

[Jay R]

First of all, let's recognize the obvious truth: no, they did not experience everything in the illusion. They didn't experience *any* of it. It's an illusion.

So the question is whether or not they dreamed every detail of a few months, within a few hours. Unless the illusion vastly increases their mental capacity, I don't see how that's possible.

Furthermore, if the illusion is that they get everything they desire in life, it wouldn't show them, for instance, a long walk back to the city, or dealing with Tarquin's guards again, since they don't desire those things.

[Forbiddenwar]

If they experienced it, they would have gotten experience from it. Which would have been completely broken.

[NerdyKris]

They most certainly "experienced" it. Saying they didn't experience anything at all is silly. That's like saying you didn't experience a book or a movie because it's "not really happening". You're watching it an forming a memory.

I don't think they experienced a year or more of events. I think it was dream like. But saying "they didn't experience anything" is a bit ridiculous, as they clearly remembered the gist of the events after breaking out.

[Jay R]

They most certainly "experienced" it. Saying they didn't experience anything at all is silly. That's like saying you didn't experience a book or a movie because it's "not really happening". You're watching it an forming a memory.

When I watch a musketeer movie, I do not experience a sword fight; I watch one and form a memory of watching one. When I read a novel about space flight, I might learn many things about it, but I do not experience weightlessness.


I don't think they experienced a year or more of events. I think it was dream like. But saying "they didn't experience anything" is a bit ridiculous, as they clearly remembered the gist of the events after breaking out.

I remember the gist of the the sword fight and the scene of weightlessness in space, too. But I didn't experience them.

But I think we merely disagree about what the word "experience" means. Being in a swordfight is not the same experience as watching one on TV.