Introduction
Now we slumber and drift back into the Ulla Machok, the Plane of Dreams. This part continues providing descriptions for key locations, in this case locations E-J. This time we have bizarre psychic vortexes, a toxic city and a pleasure isle amongst others. Descriptions, flavour and other information are provided to help you weave them into your adventures. I am working through the 45+ map locations in alphabetical order so if you’re intrigued about Zhozhin Looms on the map, you’ll have to wait a little bit… A map of the dreamscape is provided but feel free to alter it or come up with your own. The locations in the dreamscape do not have to maintain fixed relations to each other.
As per the previous entries in this series, there is a distinction drawn between entering the plane through dreams and physically entering the plane. Some elements apply more to one rather than the other but you can also make your own judgements. A variety of texts on dreams and other inspiration have been added to Personal Appendix N.
The other parts of the articles relating to the dreamscape are listed below and will be linked when they are complete:
- Part 1 – Background and Entrances
- Part 2 – Adventuring
- Part 3 – Journeys, Environs and Hazards
- Part 4 – Map and Regions
- Part 5 – Key Locations: A-D, E-J, K-S, T-Z
- Part 6 – Inhabitants
- Part 7 – Items and Objects
- Part 8 – Appendix of useful tables
Map of the Dreamscape
Each location is colour coded to the region it resides within. At the end of each entry, the routes that connect to other locations are provided. The numbers that follow these onward destinations represent the Duration and Danger rating of the route, e.g. (1)| [5] means a short route that is high danger. My travel rules that use these values will be outlined in another post. For now, simply consider them values that run from 1-6 and consider simply making random encounters appropriately difficult.
Locations [E-J]
Expanse of Adshaminath
Region: Pilgrim Paths
The broad lands of Adshaminath mark the most common transition between the Fae Coast, Pilgrim Paths and the Bandren Range. As a result, the land’s nominal ‘ownership’ is disputed by the Dream Court, Cult of the King and the Bandren. Low level confrontations between the factions are common. Pilgrims and trade caravans are alternately preyed on by Bandren and Hsiun rangers or protected and taxed by the Cult. Meanwhile, the Dream Court tends to side with whoever currently has the upper hand whilst avoiding direct conflict with either. Of late, there have been signs that someone is directing disruptions to each side, testing their boundaries whilst provoking tensions. The Golden Thatch, a powerful fae artefact, has been purloined from a heavily guarded caravan. As a result, old prophecies of the Manithat are being whispered again. It remains to be seen whether the invisible hand is ‘the warlord who will re-flow the River of Fate and re-found the Blue Olive Assembly’.
Ancient paths and roadways wind through a flat land that is mildly unstable at the best of times. It is wracked by regular, low-level Dreamquakes that twist and shift the topology. The background level of instability has also pushed up several great volcanos that pockmark the land. These lonely mounts on the plain periodically spew emerald streams of warping ash into the air. Floating, molten stratus clouds of shining glass reflect the light in a dazzling kaleidoscope.
| d6 | The ground in front of you |
|---|---|
| 1 | Vast salt flats, white and sheer. Boots and equipment are quickly encrusted and corroded. |
| 2 | Shimmering glass, smooth and slippery. Occasional clear patches reveal faces and plants underneath. |
| 3 | Perfectly uniform grass swaying gently. Every tiny flower an exact replica of the last. |
| 4 | An ocean a foot deep. Tufts of greenery float on the surface. Bizarre trees occasionally jut out like significant landmarks. |
| 5 | A frozen lake, cracked and creaking. Jets of ice water spray upwards filling the air with freezing water. |
| 6 | Clusters of jagged rocks jut out from bright red clay. |
| 7 | The ground is encrusted with a shallow, viscous slime that makes movement laborious. |
| 8 | Rainbow sands blow back and forth creating new colours with every gust. |
Flavour: Winding roads, emerald light, strange shifting flat lands and rumbles from the earth.
Dangers: Vicious bandits inhabit the area hoping to line their pockets with the travel money of pilgrims and traders. The dreamquakes provide food for feral Dream Elementals who consume the raw dreamweave left behind.
Inhabitants: Pilgrims passing through, trade caravans, knights of the Cult of the King and their outposts. The native Umur people are sparse, militarily weak and resent all sides equally.
NPC: Dulus Moll, wizened mercenary, protects traders and pilgrims alike for a fee. They have information on a rich, ruined fort, abandoned by the Cult of the King under unknown circumstances. They are seeking a map of buried goods from a raided caravan.
Onward Transit: Dornilathat [3] | (3), Plains of Kermesan [4] | (4), Vanikarukam [2] | (3).
Fields of Memory
Region: Realms of Reverie
Prophecies blow out from the dreamscape and memories blow in. Recollections collect in heavy clouds and burst into nostalgia inducing rain that feeds the Fields of Memory. This is a land of soft colour, hazy vision and air suffused with wistful scents. Weak memories latch onto each other to form a vague tableaux that stretches for miles. Ghostly city streets in the middle of forests, eternal wars raging in cloud formations, plants growing in the shape of important events or a thousand lost homes collected in frozen villages of mismatched architecture. The energies of the Fields of Memory allow one to relive elements from your past, although many who do become lost in themselves. Here, great dreamers pull memories from slumbering creatures whilst the greatest plunder fragments of the past left behind by the dead. Titanic and unruly memories of the gods have been unearthed here, each more valuable than gold to historians and religious sects.
Powerful personal or collective memories crystallise in the clouds, forming small, ornate and stone-like seeds. Dropping from the sky, they are collected by the Remini, who use them in their strange botany and horticultures. Those who seek a gardened memory must first seek the Remini who has he seed or has tended it. However, some Remini harvest such memories for resources, plundering valuable materials from the past. The eerie Remini structures built from such materials exude faint, broken strands of memories that trigger flashing ethereal afterimages. Not all memories fall into the hands of the Remini. Memory Collectors compete with them for the choicest reminiscences. This disparate group of creatures covet memories for their own personal desires. Some are honourable guardians who harvest history for great annals, others are covetous monstrosities who collect and guard memories like dragons do their hoards. Some even lure unwary travellers to the fields to steal memories directly from their minds. Whilst many memories fall into the hands of Remini and Collectors, in some places memories grow wild, dangerous and intermix in disturbing ways.
| d6 | Form of Memory Manifestation |
|---|---|
| 1 | The local flora has been shaped, trimmed and tended into a tableaux that slowly re-enacts the events. |
| 2 | Hazy and indistinct, perhaps in the process of becoming or being forgotten. It may be being consumed by a stronger memory or being fed upon by a creature. |
| 3 | A vivid, reconstruction almost indistinguishable from the original events and deeply affecting to those who experienced them. Once the boundary is crossed one may feel they have left the plane of dreams entirely. |
| 4 | The memory is twisted and morphed in bizarre ways. The participants are replaced with others, a location from another time or event is featured heavily, size, proportion, linearity are all wrong. |
| 5 | Two memories have collided to create a bizarre fused memory with aspects of both. Two separate but similar events may be compressed into one. |
| 6 | The memory is factually inaccurate and has minor or wild distortions caused by egocentrism of the dreamer. A minor figure in historical events is elevated to a central player. |
Flavour: Towering sculptures, portals and buildings made from or to access memories. Plant nurseries and fields where memories slowly form into physical locations. Hazy locales of the past, guarded fortresses and lairs house curated collections of memories.
Dangers: Becoming trapped in good memories or terrorised by bad ones. Powerful cultural memories pull in all who venture near them. Chances of becoming wanderlost are increased. Hollows, dangerous creatures whose memories have been taken or lost.
Inhabitants: Except for the Remini, there are few native inhabitants. However, various creatures have set up communities in some of the larger manifested memories. Many dreamers, travellers and knowledge seekers end up here. Some sentient and often dangerous creatures fed on memories or prey on travellers.
NPC: The Historian, faceless, timeless, guide. Believed by some to be an Archepton. Appears in the traditional garb of one of the PC’s ancestors. Offers lessons and tours through Fields, the past and memory. May wish to harvest the delicious memories of the party for their personal collection. Currently seeking a particularly vital memory that is guarded by a dangerous beast.
Onward Transit: Meathabher [4] | (4), The Prophel [3] | (5), Soft Estate [2] | (3).
Flanriene
Region: Draconic Bleed
At the edge of the toxic Almauvre Wastes and the shifting Sea of Vicissitudes rises Flanriene, the city of sickness. Fever dream farmers feed a town grown fat on disease, weird elixirs and piracy. A wide, strong strand of the Andavalach cuts a broad moat, broached by gnarled and ancient drawbridges. The river flows out to the Sea of Vicissitudes via docks and harbour that berth ships of pirates, privateers and traders. Flanriene’s elegantly carved city walls rise high out of the river, a single, immaculate piece of grey stone. They hint at a previously more refined era now buried under lichen and slime. A disgusting film exudes from the stonework, flows onto the river’s surface and soaks into the landscape beyond. On the riverbanks are toxic towns, villages and endless cemeteries slowly swallowed and corrupted. Within the walls, noxious fumes and miasmas, pools of acrid filth and hot, cloying rain saturate the streets and alleys. Canals dissect the city keeping apart putrid peasantry and corrupt, decadent nobles, their parties and court. Markets sick with oily smells ply cures and causes of all diseases known and unknown. Vibrant cafes serve strange brews and offer fever inducing tinctures said to reveal deep truths, as well as hedonistic escapism. Everything here is in the process of dying, from rotten cobbles to skeletal pigeons. During important holidays, elaborate funeral processions fill the streets with hundreds of blue caskets. Beneath the streets, tunnels and sewers older than material mountains conceal things best left undisturbed.
Flanriene was once ruled by the Court of Egwa, noble warriors who quested for sacred weapons and never to returned. Peasant whispers say that one day they will return to save them from their plight. In their long absence, Flanriene fell to politics, infighting and disrepute. When the dust cleared, Madame Bleak, a dangerous noble doctor had asserted her rule through political wrangling and poison. Under her are a ruling class of sailor knights. These nobles rule the farmers who tend the outlying wastes for toxic substances and solid fragments of corrupt dreams. Various brotherhoods such as the Leech Farmers Guild and Alchemists of Blue Sepsis are also powerful. Despite the general air of decay, heed is still paid to the ancient chivalric codes of the region. Small, symbolic forces of questing knights are still sent to the astral plane, to serve under Stradj and defeat his enemies. Embassies and badly maintained portals to other great polities are also maintained in the city. However, being posted here is often considered a punishment.
Flavour: Decaying grandeur, courts, nobles and knights. Filth, bristling trade and fetid air.
Dangers: Those not native to the city are likely to fall ill in its surrounds. Traders will happily ply cures for this that may improve or make worse the symptoms.
Inhabitants: Creatures from all of the planes come here for trade, sometimes to reacquire stolen merchandise. Many noble houses are predominantly Kadalaki whilst guilds and peasants are often Kanvupalka. However, the lines are not clean cut and many other creatures have dwelled here for generations. Wanderlost servants of the Divordail, gods of disease, are a common sight.
NPC: Naxo Maklorak, Kanvupalka Doctor and guild head, can offer powerful enhancements and cures for magical afflictions. He wishes to usurp Madame Bleak, despite fawning servitude. His experiments in flesh golems are beginning to bear dangerous fruit but he requires the blood of a divine entity and a nightmare to finish them off.
Onward Transit: Almauvre Wastes [1] | (3), Scouecelle [4] | (2), Sea of Vicissitudes [1] | (2), Shattered Expanse [2] | (4).
Fortress of Flesh
Region: Nightmare Nests (east)
The inhabitants of Cholthan Karashast made a grave error. They sought to unlock the secrets of rebirth but instead gave birth to ruin. In a deep valley they founded a citadel, its true name long lost to time. There, dreamers, magi, bards and sages dedicated themselves to accessing, exploring and harnessing the nearby Plane of Flesh. Initial successes, corrupted by the Black Sun, gradually begot madness and mutation. Latent, unformed energies of semi-conscious flesh reached across the planar bridge. Tendrils screeched out for consciousness and punched through the skin of the Dreamscape like a hernia. As one, the citadel’s bards began to uncontrollably wail the song of the pain before life, the ‘Tosku-nat-moro’. The citadel was twisted, reshaped and reborn as a living mass of flesh and stone. So it began its slow slither across the land, its great gates become gargantuan teeth devouring all before it. Of late, sages from Alvathakparui note a purposeful air to its travels. Alarmists among them say the Fortress has caught the scent of dead god flesh under the Draconic Bleed and worry what will happen if it finds it.
Few return from tracking the Fortress’s effluvial trail and reports of its current shape vary wildly: great towers that protrude like antlers, masses of misshapen tentacles probing the landscape, giant mouths billowing clouds of acidic air, a hundred small fortresses moving as one gestalt entity. Some forms of the fortress recur in descriptions, such as its ‘calm’ state, a beautiful, ribbed temple of glistening ivory. Fragments of the fortress can sheer off and some survive the experience. These become progeny outposts or mutant creatures left in the wake of its travel. The approach of the Fortress is marked by the low thumping of its tumorous heart. The heart encases a warded prison for the so-called ‘Forbidden Ancestors’ of Cholthan Karashast. Those who were barred from re-incarnation due to terrible, unknown crimes. Their will to life was partly responsible for the Fortress’ transformation, although many were consumed by the newborn fortress’s hungry consciousness.
Flavour: Raw and terrifying, warped flesh. Rude mockeries of architecture and corrupt evolution. The smells of life and trails of blood and ruin.
Dangers: Digestive vapours, mutating miasmas and crazed Flesh Elementals. Warped conglomerations of flesh, chitin and bone are birthed around the fortress when seeds of imagination attract elemental energy.
Inhabitants: Products of terrifying nightmares about the inadequacies of mortal flesh. Surveyors from Flanriene monitor, take test subjects and materials or perform experiments. Tumorous priests attempt rituals of binding whilst losing their identities.
NPC: Fing Urkarn, Stacian Fleshcrafter, sole survivor of an expedition to retrieve a sample of the fortress’ heart. Wildly mutated and seeking to heal his body but his fleshcraft is inadequate. Has knowledge of the fortress and wishes to complete the task despite not wishing to return there.
Onward Transit: Choltan Karashast [1] | (5), The Horror [4] | (6), The Plane of Flesh via bloody, bone portals that change, cut and rend those who travel through them.
The Glass Temple
Region: Bandren Range
Nestled in the wide landscapes of the Bandren Range, surrounded by transitory communes and collectives, lies a shining temple. This is no shrine to the gods but rather a place where art is sacred. Artists, aesthetes, dilettantes and connoisseurs are drawn into the orbit of this glittering, stained glass majesty like moths to a flame. The building itself is a curving, bulging incalmo structure of domes, tubes and spheres. Murrine patterns decorate its outer surface, wild twisting, geometric shapes in colours not seen in the mortal plane. On the outside, it is no bigger than a castle but inside it is impossibly expansive. Each segment of the temple contains more segments like bubbles inside bubbles. When one moves between them, space shifts, contracts and expands. Inside always larger than outside.
The temple houses a myriad of craftsmen and creatives who form new and outrageous arts. The ‘Great Discourse‘ is everything and each new work responds to or reacts against those that preceded it. In some quarters, artists freely intermingle and collaborate whilst in others ornate guilds compete and clash sometimes in bloody conflict. Also present are observers and traders who come to the temple seeking experiences and purchases. In some districts, dangerous Oneiric Collectors and patrons wield absolute authority. Art Gluttons make threats or pay high prices to obtain and consume unseen, unique works. Monstrous but generous Patroni subsidise and sponsor armies of slavish workers, often weaponising their output against their competitors. Art Gluttons and Patroni alike seek to outdo the ravenous fancies and endless collections of the Lord of Art himself. Meanwhile, the Lord’s previously most favoured and talented beneficiary, The Chroman, has broken free of his control and tries to usurp his dominance.
In the Glass Temple there are sections for every pursuit. Trends form and are subverted and countered, garish patterns countered vie against minimalist one-dimensional points and single utterance poetry. The following tables may help you create current artworks and movements.
| d6 | Art Movements |
|---|---|
| 1 | Collaborative Wars – Everyone competes to collaborate with everyone else. All seek to make the most complete and all encompassing works of art. Artists auction themselves, kidnappings are rife and benefactors seek to put together super groups. |
| 2 | Still Life Speaks – Living sculptures, diorama and portraits recount strange elliptical poems and clangorous lieder. Unstable and dangerous should they escape, they are encased in magical fields that stop them deciding for themselves what to utter. Clues to the meaning of their garbled fragments of verse are held in gold boxes only purchasable by the wealthy. |
| 3 | Not-So-Brutalists – Austere, minimalist and aloof violence is perpetrated on the self and others. The process is documented through complimentary art. There are great happenings wherein many are pinned down and have toenails trimmed, people pluck out single hairs or pinch themselves a bit. |
| 4 | Obscurists – Art must remain hidden or exist only in written instructions. Once found or performed the work loses its value. Competing artists seek to discover and perform the works of their rivals. Maps to works are sold to collectors and kept in vaults. |
| 5 | Normalia – Plays performed in public never sure whether you witnessed one or not. As a result, crime and other problems are masked. Artworks are hidden in plain sight and everyday objects are sold or collected by mistake. |
| 6 | Time Winders – Historical songs, poems and plays are performed backwards and forwards simultaneously by competing performers. Time in the vicinity speeds up or slows down. Sometimes, time runs in reverse which causes confusion about whether anyone saw anything at all. |
| 7 | Cacophonites – Music so discordant and clamorous that ears bleed and ecstatic states are achieved. Visual arts so disturbing to the eye that viewers go temporarily blind or see the works for hours after they look away. |
| 8 | Copy Cats – Every art work a copy of another with a slight, minor variation. The original is sought out. The copies gradually evolve away from it to what some believe will be the ultimate work that ends the movement. |
| 9 | Anti-glass Revolution – Destruction of parts of the Temple is followed with rebuilding in other materials. Wild architecture and decoration flourish in new styles. This is opposed by the Restorers who fight bloody a bloody conflict to return the temple to its original state. |
| 10 | Symbiotic Post-Persons – People conjure and fuse, dreams, nightmares and outsiders to their bodies in an effort to become post-humanoid. Their minds often do not survive intact. Symbiotic body art is all the rage. |
Artform Generator
| d6 | Variable | Variable | Variable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sculpture / Ceramics | Personal / Emotional | Body / Blood / Love / Lust |
| 2 | Literature / prose / poetry | Figurative / Illustrative | Pastoral / Scenic / Idyllic / Traditional |
| 3 | Cooking / Handicraft | Minimalist / Maximalist / Fusion | Alchemy / Magic / The Divine |
| 4 | Painting / Drawing / Calligraphy | Political / Confrontational / Discordant / Clashing | Makes you feel: ill / elated / content / depressed / invigorated / contemplative / confused |
| 5 | Theatre / Performance / Dance / Music | Conceptual / Cerebral | Exuberant constantly changing components, evolving, never fixed, process in action |
| 6 | Multidisciplinary – Roll multiple times and combine the results. | Symbolic / Impressionistic / Abstract | Focused on the past or future and old or futuristic techniques |
Flavour: Everything juxtaposed – vivid colour meets drab shades, high concepts beside immediacy. Cafes, bars, art and auction houses, bustling, barely contained life.
Dangers: Enchanting song, verse and fine arts can beguile the mind. Work created in the Glass Temple is not allowed to leave. The Oneiric Collectors ensure their prizes are kept here. Effects of willpool and wanderlost are heightened.
Inhabitants: All types of creatives from many different peoples. Collectors, critics, gawkers, patrons, investors and the lost.
NPC: Drazhaka Krundin, wild dwarven artist and bard. She heard a great song and glimpsed an indescribable sculpture in a dream. Arriving via a dreamsong she seeks the song to unite her people against a great threat. Unfortunately, she has gone a little crazy and fallen in with a bad lot.
Onward Transit: Plains of Kermesan [4] | (2), The Soft Estate [3] | (4).
The Glooming and the Horror
Region: Nightmare Nests
These nightmarish wastes fragment the wills and flesh of those unfortunate enough to pass through them. Dark psychic threads collect in a tarry soup under light that withers rather than grows. Here even fiends fear to tread. Even those who inhabit the rest of the Nightmare Nests avoid these masterless and cruel realms. Souls who become lost or die here are doomed to become predatory forces corrupted and reborn by swirling energies of the Black Sun. Some of the most ancient Kabuselbs can be found here, growing fat and powerful on the fetid psychic soup. Whilst mostly alike, the Glooming and the Horror are born and populated by different nightmare states.
The Glooming
Morose baleful dreams of loss, regret and anguish carve curving, hollow hillsides, poison the ground like acid rain and birth wistful shades that prey on the unwary. Unassailable mountains, bottomless caverns, beautiful forests that whither upon approach. Gloom Storms bring sorrowful rains that sap the will. Those unable to avoid them may find their body become a seed bed for Vile Grass. Mirages are common but do not always fade away, instead slowly contorting into hideous parodies. As a result, the ability to tell the true nature of things is much prized by those who live in or travel through this realm. Misery-Maws, and other creatures who prey on the material, fight to control areas where the border to that plane is thin. The few humanoid outposts that are present are filled with emotionally hardened and cold peoples.
The Horror
Extremely dangerous and terrifying beasts stalk the land with impunity. Fear Bogs miles wide are interspersed with rude shacks made of bone. Places of rest burst into flames or collapse, everything feels like a trap. Pools of water bring snarling dead bodies and drown with a single touch of the skin. Tornados and storms hover at the edge of the horizon, constantly threatening to destroy. Hunting packs stalk travellers waiting for an opportunity to strike. Despite this, some safe spaces dot the landscape where strong magic, holy residues or the last kernels of bravery have sterilised the landscape. Many of these are fought over by embittered or psychotic survivors. Rumour has it that, at the centre of the Horror rules a lord of terror known as the Black Toothed Man. This shape-shifter may be a conglomeration of nightmare energies or the original source for them. All who speak of him simply state that you should pray not to meet him.
Those who traverse these lands swear by fetishes, wards and superstitions to keep them safe. Examples provided below may be prove to be false.
| d6 | Esoteric Protective Knowledge |
|---|---|
| 1 | Do not eat bird meat while in the realm. |
| 2 | Do not kill a snake, no matter how it threatens you. |
| 3 | Pick not red flowers that bloom on a withered tree. |
| 4 | Ride not a beast for travel or safety. |
| 5 | Do not break an object when the light is dim. |
| 6 | Do not eat fruit, do not wear red. |
Unusual curses and afflictions are rife in these realms. Whilst they can often be resisted by force of will, they may also strike unawares or result from poor levels of caution. Some may only be temporary.
| d6 | Curses |
|---|---|
| 1 | A limb, or a portion of one, goes missing. |
| 2 | A commonly used or much needed item has disappeared. |
| 3 | Saturated in a bad smell. Off putting to others but attractive to dangers. |
| 4 | Sickness, fever or weakenss that is incurable by conventional medicines. |
| 5 | Loss of low level spell slots, reduction of maximum HP or depletion of other physical / mental resources. |
| 6 | Assailed by the voices of those you respect telling you that you are inadequate. This requires great focus to abate, which disrupts concentration and accuracy. |
Flavour: Broken, cracked and twisted lands, winds that bring screams and pain.
Dangers (The Glooming): Upon first entry and at the end of each day, a PC must make a Wisdom save. On failure, they lose half their remaining hit dice rounding down. If they have no remaining hit dice their hit point maximum is halved until they exit. These effects are undone upon taking a long rest in a safe haven.
Dangers (The Horror): To enter the Horror, a PC must make a Wisdom save or refuse to enter for 24 hours. At the end of each day spent in the horror a PC must make this save again. Failure results in a cumulative -1 to wisdom saves.
Inhabitants: All manner of nightmares and nightmarish creatures reside here. Some are made manifest from those who pass through for instance, particularly difficult creatures the party has fought may reappear here.
NPC: Eclinaz the Woundbringer, wanderlost devil, is lost here. They were sent to retrieve a sample of the Stuff of Fear but gradually became trapped in a never ending cycle of fear and pain.
Onward Transit (The Glooming): Crystal Fortress of Light [3] | (4), Grey Fields [3] | (5), Vastroykan [4] | (5).
Onward Transit (The Horror): Absent Fort [1] | (6), The Fortress of Flesh [3] | (6).
The Grey Fields
Region: Nightmare Nests (west)
Vast rolling hills bleached of colour encircle desolate salt flats. Scattered across the hilltops are austere military outposts, the flats at their feet strewn with the detritus of immemorial aeons of war. In the skies above, floating platonic solids form, collide, shatter and merge into new and confusing shapes. Sorcerers pull these shapes down with dangerous rituals, where the vertices touch the earth soldiers grow like grain. The Grey Fields facilitate trade between The Great Vaults and Vastroykan but provide transit to many other areas. The outer edges are relatively safe for caravans, as long as they pay their dues, but the no-mans land in the middle is another matter. The Dialectic War fought amongst the Achromic Knights has raged in the Grey Fields for an eternity. Warriors clad in black and white clash arms in an unending stalemate, each convinced that disaster will fall if they submit to the other. Factions form in opposition to each other and draw up battle lines. One fights the Many, Questions fight Answers and the armies of Night and Day briefly clash at twilight and sunrise. Allegiances are made and nearly as frequently broken in part because communication lines are easily frayed.
Legend links the Grey Fields to the Greybleak Towers of the Desert of the Dreamless. The endless chess game in the fields a preparation for a greater war to come. The Achromic Knights true purpose may be known only to their leaders and the divine emissaries in their courts. Very few places attract representatives of the Bridgewalker gods such as Stradj, Vograh and Entropy. Despite the constance of the Dialectic war, the Achromic Knights also believe the nightmares, the misbegotten must be held at bay. As a result, the Grey Fields provide a barrier that prevents Nightmare Nest incursions from reaching the Deep Mountain Sculpts. However, the Grey Fields constantly threaten to expand, leaking their bleached greyscale into adjacent areas via psychic emanation, subsidence and the parasitic polyhedral worm.
Flavour: Greyscale flats and hills. Fields of shattered armour and war machiens, encrusted salt, skies crackling with magic.
Dangers: Creatures not acclimatised to the Grey Fields have difficulty discerning detail, all Perception checks that rely on sight are made with disadvantage. Travellers may be caught between warring sides.
Inhabitants: New comers are instantly recognised by their non-monochromatic hues. Those who spend too much time in the grey fields are eventually drained of all colour. The knights are not beyond hiring mercenaries, which brings peoples from far afield into the fields. Traders, tradeposts and caravans are common.
NPC: Tolmakda Erunite III, erudite procurer of the Vastroykan Court, seeks a rare colour growth in the Grey Fields to return to his masters. These unusual occurrences resist the powers of the fields but are jealously fought over by the forces within.
Onward Transit: Amaranthine Caverns [4] | (5), Desert of the Dreamless [2] | (4), The Glooming [3] | (5), Great Vaults [3] | (3), Mirror Mound [5] | (4).
Great Vaults of Den-Klenask Gor-Ven-Turask
Region: Deep Mountain Sculpts
Miles of architectural marvels expand in all directions. District upon district of soaring walls, spiralling walkways, glistening windows, madness and beauty. The sheer power of theses structures pulls the plane upwards, curving like an arch into and over the sky. As a result, visiting the vaults is geographically confusing and often a nauseating experience. Inside of the Vaults, the impression is of an enormous dome, its curved ceiling covered in giant stalactites of gravity defying buildings. Great blackstone edifices reach high and plum deep, piercing the ceiling and firmament. In the centre, is the Stone Observatory a gargantuan structure that pierces to the sky beyond. Deep in the earth below, there lies a replica of the cosmos. A hidden, glistening, artificial sky, each star a shadow diamond, glistening in a sky of shining platinum.
As the Golvor, the deep dwarves, delved further into the earth they became estranged from their dwarvish kin. Some sought the ‘great truth’ in the heart of the earth but others paused to slumber, contemplate and await a sign to come. Eventually, the Queen-Priest and dreamer, Den-Klenask received a vision: a land of unimaginable riches with earth so strong it could bear the greatest of all Vaults. Her people must go there and build a new home. So they named her: ‘Gor-Ven-Turask’, ‘seer of great truth’ in their ancient tongue, and travelled to the figmentary plane. Some say Den-Klenask still lies in torpor beneath the vaults, her silent will made manifest above. Layer upon layer of dwarvish and other craft, a great undertaking across generations, millennia of styles sitting side-by-side, the Great Vaults of Den-Klenask Gor-Ven-Turask.
Flavour: Sounds of construction, religious in fervour and dedication, bustling metropolis, beautiful stonework and crafts, dream tourism.
Dangers: Inhabitants are safe from wanderlost in the vaults but may suffer from Vaults Syndrome. This disease takes two forms – overwhelming disorientation and vertigo or fanatic dedication to the vaults’ construction. Wilderness dwellers and dwarves are particularly susceptible. Those at loose ends may find themselves press-ganged into work teams.
Inhabitants: Vast armies of Golvor and other dwarves toil to increase the ever expanding metropolis. Traders from the material plane come to make vast sums selling materials that are rare on the dreamscape. Skilled craftsmen from all over the planes are paid or kidnapped to contribute. The vaults themselves attract many pilgrims.
NPC: Bloodwing, a demon craftsman, is trapped working on giant gates made from fiendish metals. He whispers temptations and rewards to those who would free him. He may trade freedom for his Firesteel Hammer.
Onward Transit: Amaranthine Caverns [3] | (3), Black Sun Seams [1] | (2), Grey Fields [3] | (3), The Gyre [4] | (3), Mirror Mound [3] | (4).
Grorn Wound
Region: Pilgrim Paths
A monument to and the reason for the collapse of a civilisation, the ruined realm of a fractured people. A sundered valley produced by feverous mining during the golden age of the Grorn. The giant men were effective miners and searched hard for a deep seam of Shadow Diamonds. The wound they left behind is incredibly deep. It plunges for miles down, down from the surrounding peaks and hills. Wounded, cracked cliffs, stepped slopes and winding stone paths lead to the cursed valley floor. At the bottom, light is scarce, the ground is riven with all manner of crevasses and dangerous dream matter vents into the air. The warping sighs of the earth bring up minerals, change and mutation. Over time, many Grorn were warped by these forces and by close contact with Shadow Diamonds. Now referred to as the ‘afflicted’, these Grorn were overcome by avarice and hate. The golden civilisation was cleft in two.
Many remnants of the Grorn golden age are visible in the walls and floors of the valley. Ruined, gigantic structures and enormous fallen statues carved directly from the upturned earth. Those erected by afflicted Grorn are often of a cursed, shadowy aspect and painful to gaze upon. One of the only intact areas is the central conurbation known as The Last Mine. It is now inhabited by an unusually unified group of afflicted Grorn. Just distant from the river that flows though the valley, brave traders sometimes glimpse it and the fiery smoke churned from its vast chimneys. Some claim to have traded with the Mine’s inhabitants but such tales are treated with healthy scepticism. For their part, many regular Grorn have abandoned their ancestral homes. However, some take up residence in vast caves carved into the valley walls. On clear days, of which there are few, you may also glimpse a city in the clouds that hangs between the mountain peaks.
Flavour: Torn mountain sides, ever growing darkness deeper into the gorge, howls and the clank of gigantic pickaxes, strange, mutated and hungry plant life.
Dangers: Travelling around the sides of the Wound is common but these areas are also prone to landslides. Afflicted Grorn do not limit their plunder to the valley floor. If you are lucky they will everything you own and only half your lives.
Inhabitants: Grorn and Afflicted Grorn. Many prospectors and treasure hunters come here seeking plunder or mineral seams. Many regret their choice.
NPC: Windercap, fae raconteur, claims to have a device that will deter afflicted Grorn and allow exploration of the deep wound. They can loan it for a price.
Onward Transit: Black Sun Seams [2] | (4), Ruins of Teth [4] | (4).
Guardian Fields
Region: Realms of Reverie
The maze-like path to the Inscape is lined with abandoned pilgrimages. Giant statutes of hooded, armoured guards line the routes to the dreamscape’s heart. Near Dornilathat, these guardians stand watch alone but further out the land becomes thick with them. Eventually, one will reach a maze like expanse. Some paths are hundreds of meters wide whilst others are narrow corridors. Within, settlements exist too and provide way-stations for pilgrims or mark journey’s end for those who can travel no more. Of these settlements, the most famous is probably Minashe. This bustling town claims to be the final settlement before the Inscape. Most who pass out its gates never return, so its position is hard to dispute. Those who have ventured beyond claim the guardians take on a different aspect there. They say that beyond Minashe are statues of men, elves, ogres, fey and all manner of other creatures. Each guardian’s face unique but all wear conical helms and the same highly decorated mail. Pilgrim tales say that these statues are those who failed the three tests to pass into the Inscape and thus were doomed to guard it.
Despite the name, the guardians do not abate danger. Wealthy pilgrims hire experienced protectors to ease their passage but the poor must fend for themselves. Monsters and illusory tests are common and claim many. The ever changing routes through the fields also lead to many becoming lost and running out of provisions. There are also other less scrupulous travellers. Finally, many wanderlost walk the paths seeking commune, dissolution of the self and oneness with the dreamweave. Some of them know not what they do.
| d6 | Challenges |
|---|---|
| 1 | A mock battle against foes once defeated and now returned with greater strength. |
| 2 | Tests of strength and skill that are physically dangerous and mentally confusing. Feathers as heavy as lead, water that resists sinking, ice that burns and grasps like mud. |
| 3 | Tests of willpower and willpool. The creation of wondrous manifestations or the performance of an epic drama. |
| 4 | Confrontation with past selves, wronged acquaintances and previous mistakes. |
| 5 | Presentation of offerings or a sacrifice of power. The creation of great artistic works. |
| 6 | Transported out of the dreamscape, returned to the guardian fields once their quest is complete. |
Flavour: Ever increasing claustrophobia and disorientation. The feeling of being watched, the chants of lost pilgrims and the scent of poppies.
Dangers: The primary danger is becoming lost or ending up where you started. Beyond this, monsters and dangerous groups of lost or desperate pilgrims. The unpredictable behaviour of powerful wanderlost creatures.
Inhabitants: Primarily pilgrims and wanderlost, some grorn and other peoples also reside here.
NPC: Moriz Qadan, human bodyguard, is marooned in Minashe. They came with Lady Hjamahz but chickened out from progressing further. A returned pilgrim claims that their mistress is turned to stone near the entrance to the Inscape. They seek to return her to life and then to escape this cursed plane.
Onward Transit: Dornilathat [1] | (1), The Inscape [n/a] | (6).
The Gyre
Region: Deep Mountain Sculpts
A gargantuan maelstrom of thought, swirling, twisting and burrowing through the earth and sky. Within, magic, gravity, time and all that is constant can quickly change. In the Gyre, anything can be found and anything can be lost. Above, fragmented imitations of other planes hover in the sky, slowly circling the gyre like a fractured cosmological model. The centre of the Gyre is a malformed, unexplored, raging torrent of change, that few have dared to explore. Even the so-called ‘calm-rings’ close to the edge are battered by Unstorms, Scenic Winds, Dreamquakes and other calamities. Luckily, further from the Gyre’s heart, these are often limited to small, tempestuous areas and pass relatively quickly. As a result, the few locals who inhabit the calm-rings generally learn to read the signs and live nomadic lifestyles. Unfortunately, the instability of the Gyre can still result in temporary expansions and contractions. The violent central energies rush out in a wild tide and wind that swallows and changes. When the Gyre recedes once more, swallowed periphery dwellers, landscapes and optimistic settlements may have vanished, been replaced or reappear wondrously, terribly changed. It is commonly believed that these tidal pulses are often the result of chaos in the mortal plane, making knowledge of current events on the material a valuable commodity.
Numerous items are constantly churned to the surface by the Gyre’s eddies. Colliding and mixing energies produce weird and unique substances not found elsewhere. These are often highly sought after by those interested in specialist or arcane arts. As a result, scavengers sift the wreckage of the landscape for valuable bounties. Some have been lucky or tough enough to build considerable wealth from their enterprises but generally it is a dangerous profession. A lucky few possess Stability Spheres that prevent being absorbed or changed by the wild forces at play. They also allow for travel into the deeper tides of the maelstrom. Some more powerful spheres are imbedded into Gyre Trawlers, large magically protected transport vehicles. Those strong of will or magic can enter and exit the gyre moving between planes and places unknown.
| d6 | When the tide goes out the Gyre leaves behind… |
|---|---|
| 1 | A valuable item embedded in the skull of a ferocious animal driven mad with rage. The creature has the abilities of the item. |
| 2 | Several hundred huge Grorn eyeballs turned into a translucent material that is harder than steel. They swivel and gaze at the PCs. |
| 3 | Hundreds of mundane household implements: pots, pans, knives, forks, chopsticks, plates etc. Some are miniature, no bigger than grains of rice, others are enormous, as big as an elephant. |
| 4 | Hundreds of loose pages of a play entitled: Jolesta’s Voyage, The 1000 Secrets of Mallana, The Duck and the Fletcher. The text was thought lost and is an important work. |
| 5 | Squirrels…bloody millions of them. |
| 6 | Thousands of statues that resemble the loved ones of party members. Each has a 1/20 chance of containing an inset valuable gem. Removing the gem will cause the statue to collapse and a shriek of pain that resembles the person’s voice. |
| 7 | A very confused devil or demon buried up to its neck and unable to escape. It is letting out a constant stream of curses in many different languages. |
| 8 | A large model of the cosmos wherein the sun is a trapped fire elemental and the planets are formed from earth, air and water elementals. The spirits of other planar creatures are also held captive, one for each of the planes. |
| 9 | Half of a great coliseum or theatre in which a play was being performed. All of the actors and the audience are frozen still and may shatter when touched. |
| 10 | The giant wing of a dragon, half buried. If dug out, the wing is attached to a strange flying contraption that is nearly but not quite beyond repair. |
| 11 | Two armies engaged in a brutal fight to the death, neither side willing to give any quarter. They seem entirely unaware of their surroundings. |
| 12 | Thousands of treasure chests, cupboards, boxes and barrels dot the landscape. One is a mimic who has swallowed a giant uncut diamond. The others, when opened, turn into ethereal plays of old memories, explosions of acid, emit gases of serene contentment, contain a baby with red eyes with a symbol in an ancient language around its neck, a living replica of a childhood friend made of wood, emit a thrumming resonance that attracts danger. |
Flavour: Random storms, blistering rain and howling wind. Constantly shifting landscapes, weird topologies and lifeforms.
Dangers: Due to the instabilities around the Gyre the effects of Willpool are enhanced. Also, Effects of the Plane change regularly. Landscape Quirks and Travel Hazards are common. Creatures in the vicinity are generally mutated, dangerous and driven mad by the powerful eddies. Elementals of Impermanence are unpredictable at best. The Giant Gyre Whelk is generally not dangerous but under certain tidal conditions or having consumed dangerous detritus it can become predatory. Dreamselves killed in the gyre may find themselves estranged from their bodies, their spirits lost in inter-planar space.
Inhabitants: Combers who sift through the exuded detritus. Many strange creatures inhabit the Gyre and its vicinity, some extra-planar. Whether the product of wild dreams or creatures from other worlds and realities is unknown. The border to the Gyre is patrolled and monitored by surveyors from the Great Vaults. Emissaries of the Seven Palaces are also occasionally sighted.
NPC: Haeno Jizu, gnarled prospector, her body is warped and unusual. One arm is like a crab’s claw, her eyes are made of fire, she has one gnarled wing made from paper with constantly changing verse written onto it. Bandits have stolen her latest haul and murdered her Gyre Whelk herd.
Onward Transit: Black Sun Seams [3] | (3), Great Vaults [4] | (3), Seven Palaces [4] | (3), Places Unknown via carefully selected currents and flows.
The Horror
Region: Nightmare Nests (east)
– see the Despair
Hsiun
Region: Bandren Range
Hsiun, a single word for a land, a people and their capital. This is a place of wide glacial plains, frozen peaks and enormous nunataks poking up through the frozen earth. The snow and ice lies not like that of the material plane. Instead, it provides a stable and fertile ground for all manner of bizarre life. Wide scrublands, dense purple bracken forests and miles of frost-grass provide good grazing land that brings wealth to the land. However, tempestuous ice-fires periodically cleanse and reset the lower landscapes while lateral-avalanches and newly formed crevasses reshape its topology. As a result, the safest and most stable areas are the massive flat-topped mountains. These are exclusively inhabited by the masters of this land, the enigmatic Hsiun for whom the peaks are sacred. The sheer sides of their mountain retreats make scaling them nigh on impossible. Those who attempt to fly to their summits find themselves confronted with ever increasing heights without end. Whether this is a magically charm or an inherent quirk of the land is not well understood. Instead, the Hsiun arrive and leave via their Sky-Eye Balloons, mysterious living airships. The balloons also facilitate trade across the dreamscape and allow for monitoring the peasants who toil the land and the mercenaries who keep them in line.
The capital city of Hsiun lies on the highest of the flat mountains, its summit obscured by thick, colourful clouds. From above, the Hsiun guards use their Filtric Lenses to pierce the clouds and keep watch on the plains below. From the ground few signs of the intense civilisation above are visible. A small outpost at the base loads goods onto platforms that haul goods up the mountainside. Heavy palisades around the depots, mercenaries and mages keep the goods safe from prowling Yaor, Vierbeasts and raiders. Flotillas of flying ships, peasant tax collectors and caravans deposit goods before wandering back on their way. Many goods also flow out of hte region: animals to Wylderhalt, foodstuffs to the Idle Isle and mysterious sealed chests to Witch of the Wolde. Outsiders are rarely allowed within and all have remarked on an inner district that remained off limits. Vast walls too high to see and gates of glistening ivory and bronze prevented any from accessing the city’s centre. Allegedly, hidden from sight is a hole that goes deep into the earth, and is the source of the Sky-Eyes themselves. Less credible tales also claim that the Hsiun have mined wholly through the dreamscape to another plane suspended beneath it.
Flavour: Endless flats of snow interspersed with high mountains and brisk winds.
Dangers: The lower landscape is prone to dangerous weather and geology. Whilst attempts are made to keep more dangerous predators away from Hsiun holdings outside these territories one should maintain protection. The internal and inscrutable politics of the Hsiun themselves provide dangers to any operating in their lands.
Inhabitants: The aloof Hsiun themselves. Thousands of serfs toil the land, as well as various migratory peoples who avoid the Hsiun’s oversight. Emissaries from across the dreamscape, caravans bringing trade and Bandren staking territorial claims or simply raiding.
NPC: Tson Crekssi Ja, embittered and exiled Hsiun merchant. Tson has been stripped of their crest and forbidden from accessing the cities. They seek revenge upon their rivals and are willing to pay handsomely.
Onward Transit: The Soft Estate [4] | (3), Wylderhalt [3] | (2).
The Idle Isle
Region: Fae Coast
Surrounded by calmer streams of the Sea of Emotion lies an isle of rest and revelry. The Idle Isle is a safe house on the waves and a place where alliances are forged through discourse and wine. It also serves as a stopping point before and after the dangerous hunting pursuits at Wylderhalt. Open to all-comers, the island houses the pleasure palaces, gardens and games of the Fae Courts. Nobles, notables and dignitaries, the wealthy and the influential pass in and out through the Island’s jewelled harbour. Giant pleasure barges moor or lazily circle the island. Each ship is unique and many are designed in tribute to the nature and environs of a specific plane. On the island itself, are the Houses of Respite. These living palaces are grown from magical fauna, coaxed and shaped through fay magics into ornate shapes. Inside each, all manner of past-times and vices can be explored. Around the houses lie vast and verdant gardens, which float above and rest on one another like ornate layers of a cake. The highest gardens are off limits to all but the most discerning, powerful and wealthy dreamers.
Many rich and powerful Archfey sojourn on the Idle Isle, coming for the unique pursuits or to escape the machinations of their regular existence. However, intrigues are still common and some ‘misadventures’ provoke suspicious whispers. Such incidents shake the tenuous control over the island exerted by the stewards of the Dream Court. The size of the isle itself fluctuates in relation to the influence of the Court of Dreams. At its previous height, it was over a hundred miles across but now has waned to a more modest size. By tradition, the coastline and routes to the isle are protected by the Court of Waves. The vast wealth accrued on the isle facilitates an inflow of services, servants, substances and sustenance. Of late however, some traders and visitors have fallen victim to shadowy pirates. Seditious voices claim that the Court of Waves seeks to destabilise the Dream Court’s prize and power.
| d6 | In vogue past-times |
|---|---|
| 1 | A new potion, poultice, tincture or drug keeps revellers amused. It may be addictive or not but it is too early to tell. Its effects are manageable in small doses but larger ones are problematic. The supply is tightly controlled by the Dream Court. No-one knows how it is made. |
| 2 | Ornate and elaborate ritual ceremonies in which all manner of vices are pursued. Grand balls which involve dancing, fancy dress, costumes and performances. |
| 3 | Appreciation of nature, long walks, vivid gardens, elaborate arboreal sculptures, animal watching. |
| 4 | Planar plenty, the appreciation and acquisition of food and drink from all over the planes. |
| 5 | Games of all kinds, from simple board games to elaborate and endless games of strategy. These are mixed with ritualised combats, jousting and other pursuits. Gambling on outcomes is encouraged and kingdoms have changed hands. |
| 6 | Unusual baths, pampering and treatments paired with brutal blood sports for the amusement of the onlookers. |
Flavour: Decadence, everything curated, beautiful gardens, the smells of spring and luscious foods, music and games, public and private indulgence.
Dangers: Politics occasionally bubbles over into plausibly deniable violence. Otherwise, the only dangers to patrons are self inflicted. Despite the assurances against Wanderlost the pleasures of the isle can also claim the attention of visitors.
Inhabitants: Various Fae creatures are employed here to support the guests. The few native inhabitants have been pushed to the periphery supporting themselves with fishing and sparse arable land. Wealthy wanderlost scions are sometimes sojourned here to recuperate. Troupes of Fools and other performers reside on the isle for seasons.
NPC: Rettlecap Inkhorn, Fae Keeper of the Purse and liaison, a recent murder of a minor Archfey is suspicious. Rettlecap wants it investigated, quietly and without any obvious involvement of the Dream Court. He and they hope to gain some useful information for blackmail.
Onward Transit: Sea of Emotion [2] | (2), Wylderhalt [3] | (2).
Isles of the Nine Immortals
Region: Realms of Reverie
At the far edge of the Sea of Vicissitudes, rests an ancient archipelago. The sea is calm and austere, the sky hard and blue-grey like lustrous slate. The grand sea homes of the Immortals are mixed in among over a hundred relatively insignificant isles. These enigmatic elders are sought out for advice, power, tangible and intangible boons. However, finding an Immortal’s isle is no easy feat, to say nothing of gaining an audience or receiving what you seek. The islands in the archipelago shift through unseen forces so mapping is difficult and navigators are expensive. In addition, the immortals change frequently in aspect and isle, whilst imposters also lay claim to their lineage. This has provoked much discourse in esoteric circles about whether there are truly only nine immortals. Oneiromancers engage in heated debates over dream tales, descriptions and names of the immortals in many tongues to decide whether a true isle was visited and which immortal was encountered. The gods keep quiet on such matters, if they even know the truth. Yet they still send their servants to petition the masters of the isles.
There are many contradictory myths and legends on the origins of the immortals and their isles:
- Here since the beginning / Gained long lives but were born as mortals.
- Always in the dreamscape / Washed up here by tidal mixing from the Astral and Inscape.
- The same as they’ve ever been / Refreshed by new dreamers assuming their mantles.
- Mortals who achieve immortality feeds the isles / Unlucky immortals merge, losing themselves and their identity.
- The Isles were given to them by the gods / The immortals were gods before the gods were born.
There are a great variety of descriptions of immortals, isles, challenges overcome to meet them. Provided below are some examples.
| d6 | Immortal’s Identifying Feature | Island’s Feature |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carries a Lute, Huqin, Dulcimer or other stringed instrument but refuses to play it. They will play only when the world is ending. | The island is tiny and entirely covered by one plant or plant species, one structure or type of structure or is populated by one species of animal. |
| 2 | Carries a large Chrysanthemum that they hold as a parasol. Flowers sprout from where they walk. | Hundreds of devoted servants wearing: wide brimmed hats, sparse animal hide clothing, austere military garb, religious robes, nightmarish costumes. |
| 3 | Sparsely clothed and carrying a fishing net and cooking pot. Concerned with the mundane as metaphor for the profound. | Space distends and contracts, you might walk around the island’s edge for eternity or cross it in mere minutes. The immortal understands and can control this feature. |
| 4 | Drenched in blood, matted hair and carrying a broken weapon. | A beautiful garden containing plant life and animals from all material and planar biomes. The garden is well tended but dangerous. Upset may be caused by harvesting or killing even in self-defence. |
| 5 | Bears a crown of stone and wears a ring of entwined ivy. | The island is beset by unique weather fronts entirely removed from the surrounding ocean. Time is kept by an enormous clock at the island’s centre, which is visible from every point. When the hour changes, so does the weather. |
| 6 | The ‘cursed’ immortal. Always alone and suffering. Many wounds seep through a myriad of bandages, their body a mess of scars. | All of the animals and plants can talk but humanoid inhabitants are mute. They work together to build towering mega-structures that serve the Immortal’s ideals. |
| 7 | Wearing a bandage across their eyes, they see through prophecy and magic rather than the eyes of mortals. | A flat landscape at the centre of which is a deep chasm plunging down into the earth. Water flows in from the coast and plunges into this central hole. Strange fish swim up out of the depths like flying salmon. They are caught and sold by fisherman who dare not descend into the pit. |
| 8 | Always conceals their hands in gloves pockets or similar. | The isle can only be accessed in the dream of an individual, living mortal. You must travel inside their mind and unlock a door. The isle itself mimics the mortal’s home but at massive scale. |
| 9 | Possesses a thousand alchemical vials of unusual substances, a pestel and mortar. All are carried on the back of a tiger or other large predator. | Dangerous storms and giant sea monsters surround the island. Once ashore, you are met with a beautiful paradise. Give in not to temptation. |
| 10 | The Immortal appears like one the PCs but aged to within a hair’s breadth of death. They bear a walking stick of pure obsidian. | Everything on the island is different shades of one colour. The inhabitants are golems and machines. |
| d6 | Gaining an Audience |
|---|---|
| 1 | Audiences are booked weeks, months, centuries in advance. Huge queues stretch along the island and out into the surrounding sea. Fleets of traders swap, barter and sell appointments, facilitating an entire economy pegged to position in line. Specialists sell close appointments at opportune times, never intending to gain an audience themselves. |
| 2 | Trial by art or by combat. Three increasingly difficult challenges of creation or destruction must be completed. The last of which, appears impossible but there is always a trick to unravel it. |
| 3 | In the way is a maze filled with a wild variety of challenges. Some have been lost there for decades. You can buy insurance at the entrance, teams of explorers will find you and return you to the entrance. Some of these previously gained audience but the maze shifts and changes periodically. |
| 4 | The isle only appears during specific astrological conjunctions. These are hard to predict and irregular. Light of the Black Sun and Bright Moon must be directed onto a mirrored structure at the island’s centre. Each giant lens that must be moved is protected by a puzzle, servant who requires service or a great beast. |
| 5 | A sacrifice must be made or gifts brought: rare animals, odd plants, rare crafts or items. |
| 6 | The immortal lives on the material and dreamscape simultaneously. Two different homes and two different appearances. Both versions of the immortal must be placated in turn. At which point, the two will merge into one being, as will their homes. |
Flavour: Stretched out archipelago, bristling waves, clear waters, fog, hundreds of ships.
Dangers: Getting lost is easy, the changing arrangment of islands can confound sailors. Pirates from Flanriene, sea creatures, shipwrecks and the immortals’ stern guards.
Inhabitants: Creatures from all over the dreamscape. Some inhabitants of Immortal’s Isles appear to serve them or may be bewitched by close contact. Divine creatures come on errands for their gods.
NPC: Usa Sing, sea worn navigator for hire, previously gained a boon of her own ship after being wrecked on an immortal’s isle by pirates. Resides in the port of Luai where she hides from her creditors.
Onward Transit: Court of Menlin [1] | (3), Scouecelle [3] | (3), Sea of Vicissitudes [1] | (4).
Conclusion
So that brings us up to half way through all the locations in the Dreamscape. Some of the ideas were a little wacko so it was a bit impossible to find art that captured them for me. Hopefully you can still imagine or picture the locations anyway from the descriptions. I will probably take a break from these for now and do some other Dreamscape stuff. I think this will stop me getting burned out by rattling through the locations. I hope you are enjoying this series and apologies for the lateness of this entry. Let me know if you are enjoying them or how you have used them in your games, I always enjoy hearing about it!