A Common Scenario

That day, the conditions inside the club were so clear and cool, so conducive to the state between sleep and waking, that the members were able to persuade Gorilla Mage Honorius to tell them a tale about how he learned his gorilla magic.
"I was attending a function in Farther Deul some years back, and I hope you don't want to know its purpose or the host, because I have entirely forgotten. What I remember is that it was a masked affair, and a man wearing a gorilla mask coughed on me. Rude, but I didn't dwell on that. I also didn't worry about the dreams and visions I had afterwards, because everyone has one or two of those, but after a week of it I lost my indifference.
"I asked advice from the learned there. A sage told me I would never find out who the man was or what my dreams meant, but also that I needed to find the Gorilla Pillar if I wanted them to stop. Have any of you heard of it? I hadn't. It turned out to be a place far beyond Farther Deul's borders. The dangers might have dissuaded anyone with sense, but I was young, and I wanted my dreams back.
"I hired men and made the journey. We passed cities, then towns, then villages, then huts of hermits and sages. Those ended, too. We were assaulted by the birds that hunt cameleopards, for they had little prey left, but I thrashed them. We encountered the Eight-Finger Men as well. After some roughhousing, we understood each other. I had to sniff out Chameleon Mage Waltherius and give him a beating when he tried to make mischief."
"No hard feelings, I hope," Waltherius said.
"None at all. I'm sure all those trials had a meaning. At least we came to the Gorilla Pillar, so named from the gorilla statue atop it. I sat under it and meditated for two days and three nights, and when I stood I knew the fundamentals of gorilla magic. That was only the start, but all of you understand that well." The other members all nodded and thanked him for the story.
Finis