The Dreamlands is a difficult place to
pin down. Reality shifts and ebbs there and it is only by repetition and
reinforcement that things begin to solidify and become ‘real’. That so much of
Earth’s Dreamlands has been codified and recorded, is a tribute to eons of
Dreamers and their collective experiences far from the Waking World.
Part of this process, importantly, is the
recording of knowledge in books or other formats. The scribbling and garbled
half-memories of tortured Dreamers – poets, authors, visionaries – are often
disregarded as the rantings of troubled minds in the Real World; writings
penned within the Dreamlands are a much more serious affair. In some ways, when
a Dreamer writes within a Dream, that act makes the substance of the Dreamlands
that much more real and thus, the writings and texts of the Dreamlands are rare
and treasured things indeed.
These books have the usual benefits of
works of this nature – spells, increases to Cthulhu
Mythos skills and knowledge of things arcane. As well, they grant bonuses
to specific skills used within the Dreamlands viz. Dreaming and Dream Lore:
Dreaming is a skill which every Investigator
gains upon first entering the Dreamlands. It is equal to the Dreamer’s POW
score. It is used to shape and navigate the realms of Dream.
Dream Lore starts at a level equal to half the
Investigator’s Cthulhu Mythos score
rounded down. It increases at a rate of 1 point for every 2 Cthulhu Mythos points gained from then
on. Dreamers use this skill to ascertain the nature of elements within the
dreamscape, to identify creatures, entities and places much as the Cthulhu Mythos skill is used to identify
and understand Mythos activity.
Whilst information to be gained from
Dreamlands sources is always credible and well-founded, spells are a different
matter entirely. Consensual recollections occasionally recall certain specific
spells contained within Dreamlands books; other potential spells are more
nebulous. Sometimes quite different spells are contained within a text,
depending upon the reader. For this reason, the spell lists hereafter are not
cut and dried, and the Keeper is urged to fill in the gaps as they see fit and
to suit their campaign. Another point to consider is that, for the most part,
the spells to be found within a Dreamlands work are those which will only
function within the dreamscape and these will often not be available to the
Investigator in the Waking World.
Technologically, the Dreamlands are far behind
the Waking World and often, texts are quite primitive in terms of how they are
bound, preserved and maintained. Exotic materials and casings are almost de rigueur as far as the presentation of
these texts is concerned. Many of these works are written in strange languages
with bizarre alphabets which shift and change depending upon the reader; others
are written in a format known as ‘Dreamlands Glyphs’ a writing style that is
yet to be understood by those in the Waking World.
Finally, this list is not exhaustive, nor
even fixed: in time, some of these works may fade from the consensus reality
and become lost; meanwhile other tomes will appear and gain more solidity as
Dreamers seek them out. As well, there are many sentient races within the Lands
of Dream which each have their own knowledge and lore: these too, may have
books wherein their own mysteries are hidden...
*****
Dreamlands
Glyphs
These hieroglyphs are incredibly
problematic and difficult to quantify. To begin with, descriptions of them vary
so wildly that it is hard to reconcile a definitive style or form: some texts
read left to right, others right to left, or from the top to the bottom of the
page; some characters are described as ‘block-like’; others are ‘flowing’.
Colour seems to be associated with meaning in some cases and in others the
letters seem not to be ‘fixed’ to the page at all. Most frustrating, such a
diverse range of descriptions can sometimes be related by several different
readers of the very same book!
The simpliest rationalisation is this:
just as in normal nighttime dreams, words cannot be read, since the dreamstate
comes not from the part of the brain which organises such higher intellectual
activity, the Dreamlands reality presents information to the Dreamer in a form
which meets their expectations. If the information is of a mystical, difficult
or secretive nature, the letters on the page or wall or stone may seem
incredibly abstruse, even moving across the surface; if the text is trivial,
then the Dreamer will read it easily, even if it is not a language or alphabet
with which they are familiar. The difficulty seems to equal the reward and
attempting to read a Dreamlands text may even include a sense of having studied
for an extended period when in fact, no time has passed at all.
In time, like most Dreamlands concepts,
repetition and reiteration produces a consensus in the Dreamers’ minds and
features of that reality become ‘fixed’, gaining a sense of solidity: such
things as cities and certain personalities thus become real in the context of
the Dreamlands and the same things and qualities are experienced by all who
encounter them. So too, in time, certain alphabets and languages extant in the
Dreamlands may become grounded and might one day be studied in the Waking World.
Difficulty: Extreme: Quartered Idea Roll, or Dream Lore
Roll
Works in this Language: Dreamlands
Necronomicon (+0%); Book of Barzai;
Fourth Book of D’Harsis; The Scriptures of Klek; The Testament of Lothron; The
Tome of the Masked One (each 25%)
‘Rosetta
Stones’: Not Applicable
*****
Dreamlands
Texts:
The Annals of Leng
Not a text as such, the Annals are a massive series of frescoes
attached to the walls of an ancient ruined building atop the eponymous,
cacodaemonic Plateau; the exact location cannot be pinned down more exactly
than this. Finding the Annals is one
thing; staying with them long enough to obtain any benefit is another: Leng is
not a place to which one travels lightly. It’s possible that the narrative
power and potency of the works was once more powerful than at present; the
ruinous state of habitation atop the Plateau has effaced much that was once
meaningful here.
None; unknown Lengite artist; Leng; 1/1d4 Sanity
loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; Dream Lore +5 percentiles; 1 week
to study and comprehend
Spells: None
Book of Barzai
Guarded by the venerable Atal of Ulthar,
this work is the grimoire and assembled wisdom of his teacher, Barzai the Wise,
high priest of Ulthar, who vanished after daring to gaze upon the faces of the
gods themselves by climbing to the rarefied heights of Mount Hatheg-Kla. In
this, his last act, he might possibly be deemed not so wise.
The Book,
when encountered, always impresses the finder with its aura of sanctity and the
purity of the materials from which it is made. Its contents concern themselves
mainly with the nature and rituals of the gods, both of the Earth and its
Dreamlands.
Dreamlands Glyphs; Barzai The Wise; Ulthar; 1/1d3
Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentiles; Dream Lore +2
percentiles; 6 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: Contact or Call
Deity spells only
The Book of Black Stones
An ugly book constructed from slices of
metallic ore-bearing rock, hasped by metal bands. This is a textbook for the
sadistic expressions of Moonbeast artistry; the words and images contained
within its black depths are unwholesome and not good to look upon. It is also
huge and very heavy, built for the perusal of its makers and their kin, so human
readers should bear this in mind before seeking it out.
The Moonbeast tongue; unknown Moonbeast scribes;
Dreamlands Moon; 1d4/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles;
Dream Lore +10 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend
Spells: Contact
Nyarlathotep; Curse of Darkness;
plus four other Dreamlands spells of the Keeper’s choice
The Brick Cylinders of Kadatheron
“It
is written on the Brick Cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib were in
hue as green as the lake and the mists that rose above it; that they had
bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips and curious ears and were without
voice...they worshipped a sea-green stone idol chiselled in the likeness of
Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced horribly when the moon
was gibbous.”
H. P. Lovecraft, “The
Doom that came to Sarnath”
These are seven artefacts brought out of
the Middle East by a Mr Angstrom. The text inscribed upon them details –
amongst other things - the doom that came to Sarnath and the fate of the City
of Ib and its occupants. It is only through the efforts of Gordon Walmsley and
his “Notes on Deciphering Codes,
Cryptograms and Ancient Inscriptions” that the translation of the text was
at all possible; but even then the language is so archaic that few academics
can read the contents of the work. There are two copies of these cylinders and
it is a constant argument as to which one is the original and which one is the
edited (and therefore, better) example. One copy is in the British Museum; the
other is in the Dreamlands city of Kadatheron: it is easily determined that the
cross-dimensional academic debate is restricted to only a very few individuals.
The height of the combined stack of Cylinders
is 15 feet tall; they are three feet in diameter and made from interlocking disks of
fired terracotta clay; each one is also centrally-pierced, suggesting that they
were formed around wooden poles which burnt away in the firing process. The
hieroglyphs upon each Cylinder’s
surface were impressed into the damp clay before firing, possibly using a
series of carved wooden stamps. The writing moves in a continuous line
spiralling counter-clockwise around each Cylinder,
from the bottom to the top. The text states that the Cylinders were made in the city-state of Kadatheron which straddles
the River Ai in the land of Mnar; the location of this kingdom is currently
unknown, although it is posited that it exists in Earth’s Dreamlands and that
it can be accessed via interstitial gates located in Saudi Arabia.
The text deals with the fates of the
cities of Ib and Sarnath, at the will of the Great Old One Bokrug, the history
of Mnar, the nature of the Sarnath-sigil and the history of the expedition of
the wizard Ilathos to see the “High Priest Who Is Not To Be Named” on the
Plateau of Leng: in both versions of the Cylinders,
the climax of this meeting has been effaced.
Both the Waking World and Dreamlands
versions of this work contain the spell for contacting the Great Old One,
Bokrug; however, in the Waking World, this spell does not function.
(Source: H. P. Lovecraft, “The Doom that came to Sarnath”)
‘The Language of Mnar’; Authorship unknown; Date
unknown; 1/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; Dream Lore
+5 percentiles; 24 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “Sarnath-sigil” (Elder Sign); “Speak with the Doombringer” (Contact Bokrug); other Dreamlands spells as the Keeper desires,
taking note that such spells do not function in the Waking World.
The Dreamlands Necronomicon
“...from
the space which is not space, into any time when the Words are spoken, can the
holder of the Knowledge summon The Black, blood of YibbTstll, that which liveth
apart from him and eateth souls, that which smothers and is called Drowner.
Only in water can one escape the drowning; that which is in water drowneth
not...”
-Brian
Lumley, “The Caller
of The Black”
The origin of this version of the Blasted
Tome of the Mad Arab is uncertain. It may be that consensual Dreaming has
caused it to manifest beyond the Veil of Sleep; alternatively, Abdul Alhazred
himself may have been potent enough a Dreamer that he compiled a Dreamlands
version of his dread grimoire whilst travelling there.
Whatever the answer to this mystery, the
book remains a deadly work indeed and, as always, must be approached carefully.
Dreamlands Glyphs; Abdul Alhazred; unknown;
1D10/2D10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +18 percentiles; Dream Lore
+15 percentiles; 68 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Any Waking World or Dreamlands spells,
as the Keeper desires.
Fourth Book of D’Harsis
Consensual Dreaming means that books of
Mythos lore which have their origins in the Waking World, are sometimes to be
encountered in the Dreamlands. This is true of the Necronomicon, the Pnakotic
Manuscripts and The Seven Cryptical
Books of Hsan, among others. In the case of the Brick Cylinders of Kadatheron (see above), this is an example of
the reverse, a Dreamlands book travelling across the veil into the Waking
World, although no-one is sure exactly how this was accomplished. The Books of D’Harsis are possibly another
case in point.
The assumption is that there are three
early tomes in sequence before the Fourth
Book of D’Harsis; however, this fact remains to be verified. There are
rumours that the Dreamlands’ “Man in the Moon”, a terrible entity of great
power, has a complete set, but this will remain a rumour until a
non-threatening contact and leave-taking with this person can be effected.
The hallmark of a Dreamlands text
trespassing into the Waking World is often the presence of Dreamlands spells
which, of course, do not work. Such tomes are usually accompanied by
disappointed reports and assessments of their being of little value to the
practising mage. In this instance, the reverse is true: the Waking World
version of the Fourth Book of D’Harsis is much sought-after for its black
capabilities, while the Dreamlands iteration is relatively benign in its scope.
The only real point of reference between them is that they are both exceedingly
rare.
Dreamlands Glyphs; D’Harsis; unknown; 0/0 Sanity
loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; Dream Lore +5 percentiles;
60 week to study and comprehend
Spells: Create
Barrier of Naach-Tith; plus
any other Dreamlands spells of the Keeper’s choice
The Ghoul’s Manuscript
The Ghoul’s Manuscript is a handwritten text usually found bound in human
or ghoul skin. Its contents are concerned primarily with the entity known as
Mordiggian, ‘the Charnel God’, its cult and ritual practises. The text is found
wherever ghouls abound or wherever human worship of that Great Old One occurs,
although this is generally limited at this time: Mordiggian is prophesied to
become the patron deity of the city Zul-Bha-Sair, on the lost continent of
Zothique, in the far future. The text is frequently encountered in Earth’s
Dreamlands.
A horrible
side-effect of reading this work is that the reader slowly begins to transform
into a ghoul. Every week that the reader spends examining the text, they must
roll their POW or less on d100: if they fail, they begin the relentless and
unstoppable transformation. Each week thereafter, the victim permanently loses
1 point of APP and 1d10 points of SAN until, at 0 APP, they become a ghoul. If
they lose all their SAN or otherwise go insane, they run off into the night and
join other ghouls in their despicable dwellings. If somehow, the victim retains
their sanity, they may continue to dwell amongst other humans, although their
horrid appearance will immediately identify them as anything but. As well, they
must begin to feed as other ghouls do, or else die of starvation. Without an
effective means of hiding the transformation and its effects, the victim will
become a manifest danger to their friends and associates.
Merely
skimming the text has no chance of starting the transformation; a subsequent
skim through the work however, has a 10% chance of starting the metamorphosis
in the one so doing, with a failed POW roll; this chance increases by 10% for
each subsequent skimming by that reader.
Sub-literate
English; unknown; the Vaults of Zin; Sanity Loss: 1d2/1d8; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; average 6 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: Call/Dismiss Mordiggian;
Contact Ghouls; also,
0-3 of the following (roll 1d4): Cloud
Memory; Consume Likeness; Enthrall Victim
The Scriptures of Klek
“And in these forbidden delvings he found
again the spell that was lost with primal Ib, whereby men are transformed into
spiders with maimed and broken legs; and how to invoke the dead, which is
perilous, and how to clothe in flesh the spirits of them that never lived,
which is infinitely worse...”
-Gary Myers, The House of the Worm: “Yohk
the Necromancer”
Last seen in the town of Vornai, the
current whereabouts of this tome are unknown. Penned upon the blasted slopes of
the Plateau of Leng, this book is clad in the skin of some unknown monstrous
beast and is stitched together with the silk of spiders.
Dreamlands Glyphs; Klek; Leng; 1d3/1d6 Sanity loss;
Cthulhu Mythos +7 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: At least 6 Dreamlands spells
The Synarchobiblaron
The jury is still out on whether or not
this is actually a book at all.
Many Dreamers have tried to find this
work and many claim to have done so; that being said, no two versions of this
quest have been the same in content, although every single journey has taken six weeks to accomplish! Each time
the Dreamer finds the book, remarkably it is written in a language which is
simplicity itself for them to read and comprehend. At the end of each story,
the book vanishes, or is lost mysteriously, its purpose fulfilled.
In all likelihood, this text is a journey
in and of itself. Once a Dreamer sets out to find the wondrous “Synarchobiblaron”,
they set in motion a learning voyage filled with symbolic meaning and
instructive encounters, which – six weeks later – brings them to the object of
their quest. This is, in fact, a spirit quest, made real: the result of a
puissant magical spell from some unknown ancient sorcerer.
(The Keeper should tailor the journey as
a mini-adventure for the Dreamer, with encounters and obstacles commensurate
with the rewards gained from the “book”. Note that, while on the journey, any
SAN points lost due specifically to
Mythos activity, automatically add +1 to the Dreamer’s Cthulhu Mythos skill up to a limit of 8 points, reflecting the Cthulhu Mythos benefit of reading the “text”.)
All languages; an unknown sorcerer; unknown;
1d3/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 6 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: None
The Testament of Lothron
Compiled by Atal of Ulthar, the high
priest of the Elder Gods of that city, this is the record of the exploits of an
ancient and remarkable Dreamer named Lothron. It is held by the temple servitors
of Ulthar and may be examined upon request in exchange for a period of service
to the temple
Dreamlands Glyphs; Atal of Ulthar; Ulthar; 1d4/1d8
Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; Dream Lore +2
percentiles; 60 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None
The Tome of the Masked One
The evil work was rumoured to have been
penned by the blasphemous priest hidden behind the yellow silk mask which
dwells in a ruined monastery atop the Plateau of Leng above the Tcho-tcho
enclave of Lelag-Leng. It is bound in the skin of an unknown creature and
written in a disturbing ink, derived from the ichor of, possibly, the same
beast. The book contains the history of the monastery, a detailed outline of
the rituals practised therein and many useful pieces of information regarding
Chaughnar Faugn, Nyogtha, the Men of Leng, Moonbeasts, the Pharos of Leng,
Shantaks and the race of Tcho-tcho. It is unknown if there is more than one
copy of the Tome; however, since the
masked priest is rumoured to be an avatar of Nyarlathotep, this book may simply
be a lure to attract intrepid searchers after strange truths...
Dreamlands Glyphs; ‘The High Priest Not To Be
Described’; Ruined Monastery of Leng; 1d8/2d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+10 percentiles; Dream Lore +8 percentiles; 60 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: All Dreamlands spells including,
especially: Contact Moonbeast; Contact
Man of Leng; Contact Tcho-tcho; Summon/Bind Shantak
In the 1830s, a small cult of Dreamers
based in Leshay County, Kentucky, pierced the veil to the Worlds of Dream and
managed to return with a copy of this book. Unfortunately, their activities
unleashed a horrific series of events in that location and they were forced to
flee into the Dreamlands, leaving their copy of the Tome behind them. This copy suffered terribly during the
cleaning-up of the cult’s mess and it is a shadow of its former, pernicious
self.
The original text is still present but
marred and illegible: the process of having travelled into the Waking World has
had a strange effect upon the Glyphs and those who study them must make a CON x
3 roll or suffer blinding headaches for 2d12-CON hours. Most of the useful
material can be gained from the marginal notations of the former owners who
have turned the text into rough English: here too, there are problems, however.
Much of this translation is in ink which has run badly and even the legible
bits comprise a type of shorthand reference which is hard to penetrate. Still
there are some benefits for persistent Investigators.
(Source: Jeff Moeller, Mortal Coils: “Nightcap”)
Dreamlands Glyphs with English marginal notations;
‘The High Priest Not To Be Described’ and an unknown translator; Heighton,
Kentucky, 1830s; 1d3/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; Dream
Lore +4 percentiles; 8-24 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Roll INT
x 3 to discern the following: Contact
Moon Beast; Seraph’s Glory; Spiral of Suth (these last two spells only work
in the Dreamlands)
The ‘Ygiroth Inscription
The peoples of ‘Ygiroth were reckoned to
be primitive and decadent in the extreme; that being said, their language and
what remains of their art is subtle and complex: even now, only very few of the
most erudite wizards are able to read the scraps of text remaining in their
tongue.
Strange then that one of the most famous
works of this benighted race is written in the complex and insidious Aklo
language; and yet this is probably a clue as to the material’s origin: Aklo is
known to be the tongue which demonic beings often choose to impart their wisdom
to mortal summoners.
The ‘Ygiroth mind was traditionally an
unclean one; Aklo operates to open the reader’s, or listener’s, mind to the
transmitted information: thus the work is a mental gateway to the unbridled excesses
of ‘Ygirothian thought.
It is rumoured that the inscription
contains only one spell; a spell so incredible and so awful that, despite the
fact that many powerful Dreamers have encountered it, none have chosen to cast
it...let alone divulge its secrets.
Aklo; primitive scribes of ‘Ygiroth; ‘Ygiroth;
1d8/2d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 12 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: One spell of great power...
*****
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