Entering Physically
While it may seem strange for someone who is awake to enter a region known as the Dreamlands, there are a great number of examples of such physical doorways. The most numerous of these are the burrows dug by ghouls into almost every cemetery around the globe. Old graves, forgotten mausoleums, and ancient crypts are often the haunts of these creatures, whose disturbing dietary preferences bring them to the Waking World each night. Their tunnel-like burrows will eventually lead any investigator brave enough to crawl through them into that region of the Dreamlands’ Underworld which the ghouls inhabit.
Another known point of physical entry into the Dreamlands is found in the Enchanted Wood, which touches
the world of men in two places, though Lovecraft states “it would be disastrous to say where.” The sites of these crossovers are up to the keeper—the Black Forest in Germany, the California redwoods, Transylvania, or Roanoke Island in North Carolina are likely spots.
One area of the Dreamlands which is known to extend into the Waking World is the dreaded plateau of Leng. It infringes upon Central Asia, and it also lies deep in the interior of the Antarctic. Part of it may rest beneath upstate New York. The Mad Arab Abd al-Azrad mentions Leng as a place where myriad realities come together. Those who are fortunate enough to find Leng may stumble into the Dreamlands by accident, or they may find an actual doorway. The exact details of entering the Dreamlands via this route are left to the keeper.
It is equally dangerous to enter the Dreamlands via the Vaults of Zin, which are known to cover a large area deep under the surface of the Dreamlands. In the Waking World, the Vaults of Zin lie beneath the subterranean ruins of the largest city in the redlitten realm of Yoth, which in turn lies beneath the underground realm of K’n-Yan, which can be accessed through the curious earthen mounds in western Oklahoma.
Mt. Voormithadreth once stood on the ancient continent of Hyperborea, in what is now Greenland. It contains the underground lair of Atlach-Nacha. Here the spider-being spins a great web-bridge across a deep chasm. It is rumored that on the day that Atlach-Nacha completes its bridge the world will come to an end. This bridge in fact spans the nether region between the Waking World and the Dreamlands, and when completed it will serve as a gateway for the creatures of nightmare to enter our world. Even though incomplete, this bridge could also serve as a means of physically entering the Dreamlands. Once beyond this nether region and into the Dreamlands it is left up to the keeper to determine exactly where investigators would emerge.
The most obscure of all these physical gateways, for it is written of in no tome or scroll, is perhaps the safest one to enter by— and it is not hidden or lost at all. High above the ancient town of Kingsport there stands the strange high house in the mist. From here, on fog-shrouded nights, when it seems as if the house rests upon the clouds themselves, the lone occupant of the House can enter the Dreamlands. Only the Terrible Old Man, who resides in Kingsport proper, and Thomas Olney, who once visited the house, know of this gateway.
It should be noted here that although these physical doorways do exist, they are neither easy to locate nor safe to attempt to use. Who can say how a ghoul would react to investigators digging through his burrows? What threats lie in the heart of Leng? Who knows if Atlach-Nacha is once again hungry?
There are also artifacts which make it easy to physically travel between the Dreamlands and the Waking World.
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