ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Welcome to the Dreamlands!

The Dreamlands are two Realms joined together in the High Umbra. The Dreamlands proper and the Underworld are partially created by the dreams of gifted Sleepers. To enter the Dreamlands the visitor wanders down the seventy steps of Light Slumber, to the Cavern of Flame, wherein stands guard the priests Nasht and Kaman-Thah and then down the seven hundred steps to the Gate of Deeper Slumber.

The geography of the Dreamlands is not fixed but is always changing and expanding as dreamers create new nations, cities and peoples. However, there are a few more or less fixed points, most predominantly the Enchanted Wood, that is said to impinge on the waking world in some places; Ulthar, the village of cats on the river Skai; Serannian in the sky and Celephais, dreamed brick-by-brick by its king and god, Kuranes. Feel free to alter descriptions in some ways for every visit.

Living things abound in the Dreamlands and vary from the beautiful to the grotesque. Be imaginative and instill a sense of wonder in your players. Cats live almost everywhere, and it is said they are the cats of the mundane world who travel back and forth at night. It is possible to learn their language (in the Dreamlands, at least). They are organized and they might object to a Euthanathos interfering with one of their number.

It is possible to travel into space (or an approximation of it) in the Dreamlands. This can be accomplished with as little as a sailing ship. Let spacefarers beware, however! There are horrors in space, including the toad beasts of the moon, the larvae of the Outer Gods which travel mindlessly and the ultimate center of the universe, the blind idiot Daemon Sultan Azathoth. Space traveling dreamers are known to be driven mad by their journeys.

The Dreamlands have gods (Incarna, actually) who dwell in their onyx castle on the peak of unseen Kadath in the Cold Waste. The gods of the Dreamlands are protected by pacts with the Outer Gods, making it an unwise proposition to attempt anything uncouth or offensive, such as seeking to perceive their appearance.

The Dreamlands also consists of the Underworld, not to be confused with the Shadowlands of Wraith. The Underworld is dark, lit only by strange fungi and death fires. The most famous features of the Underworld are the gray and sinister Peaks of Throk and the Vale of Pnoth where the weird Dholes burrow unseen amid the refuse of the ghouls. There are some openings into the Underworld, but the most fabled one is in fallen Sarkomand, that stood in ruins a million years before the rise of mankind. There the opening to the stairway is guarded by two winged diorite lions. Life exists in the Underworld such as the aforementioned Dholes, who burrow in the Vale of Pnoth, the ghouls (not the thralls of vampires, but a race of corpse-eating, canine, rubbery beings), ghasts, who haunts the Vaults of Zin, beneath even the Underworld and gugs, who worshipped the Outer Gods before their banishment to the Underworld and who are not adverse to snacking on a foolish dreamer.

Axioms of The Dreamlands Proper

Correspondence +2

Travel is easy in the Dreamlands and journeys do not last long. Using Correspondence to spy on the gods, or travel to their abode is very dangerous, however.

Entropy -1

Decay is uncommon but it does occur, as Kuranes saw in his search for fabled Celephais.

Forces 0

Energies behave mostly as they do in the mundane world.

Life +2

Life and living things are a basis for the Dreamlands and affecting them are easier here. However, if using Life to cause damage, all target numbers add +1 difficulty.

Matter +2

Creating things is easier, as skilled dreamers can create almost anything here. "Modern" items have a tendency to get altered to their closest medieval-Renaissance equivalents. A flashlight becomes a lantern, a car becomes a horse cart, etc.

Mind 0

Mind works as usual.

Prime +1

The Dreamlands proper seem to have a somewhat stronger connection to the ocean of Prime that exists beneath all reality.

Spirit +3

Spirit magick is very easy here, but it is quite difficult to travel to the Dreamlands without going through the Chamber of Flames and the Gate of Deeper Slumber. Many of the inhabitants are capable of effects like Spirit magick, at least in summoning spirits.

Time +4

Time seems to go at varying rates in different places. In Celephais the inhabitants do not see any passage of time but live in an endless present. Also, dreamers can spend several months in the Dreamlands — all in a night of dreams.

Axioms of The Underworld

Correspondence -1

Distances seem to shift at the most inopportune moment, as when a mage is trying to outrun a hungry Dhole in the Vale of Pnoth.

Entropy +3

Everything decays here. It is not, however, corrupted by the Wyrm.

Forces -2

Lightless, cold and silent, the Underworld is the anathema of magi who master forces.

Life -1

There are all manner of living things here but they are strange and difficult to fathom.

Matter -1

There is no real creation of matter in the Underworld, merely stuff that is brought by various entities.

Mind -1

The dark chilliness of the Underworld is depressing and visiting mages have been known to go off into Quiet.

Prime -1

The Underworld is more loosely connected to Prime than the Dreamlands themselves.

Spirit +1

Spirits are still quite easy to summon, but they are often malevolent or just strange.

Time 0

Time does not shift detectably in the Underworld.

Recommended Reading

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft (Del Rey)
This 250 page book contains a goldmine of information on the Dreamlands.

H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a Call of Cthulhu Supplement (Chaosium)
This one has maps (if you can make maps of the Dreamlands) and more info on inhabitants, the lands and cities of the Dreamlands.

Creatures of the Dreamlands (Chaosium)
A slim picture book with two dozen or so beasts of the Dreamlands. Each with with a description and some interesting facts, as well as a full-page beautiful painting of the beast in question. May be out of print.