Dreamlands
The Dreamlands, also known as the "Dimension of Dreams", is a dimension which overlays the Ethereal Plane, created and maintained directly by the dreams of sleepers on the Material Plane. It consists of a finite, relatively stable core, surrounded by countless ephemeral dreamscapes.
The Fellowship of the Sun recently learned from the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye that a cell of the Whispering Way maybe operating within the Dreamlands and that the Whispering Tyrant might be attempting to escape to there as well.
Ulthar is an ancient town located within the Dreamlands. It is best known for its cats which are intelligent and can communicate with humans that speak their language. No man in Ulthar may kill a cat. This law was introduced after a strange event that once took place in Ulthar. There was an aged couple who nursed an inveterate hatred of cats and killed all they could. The Ultharians lamented this slaughter, but were so mild-mannered they didn't dare confront the assassins.
One day a caravan of southern wanderers arrived to town. Among them was an orphan boy, Menes, whose only comfort was a black kitten. The kitten disappeared, and townsfolk told Menes about the aged couple. The boy invoked a prayer before leaving town that caused the local felines to swarm the cat-killers' house and devour them. Upon witnessing the result, the local politicians passed a law forbidding the killing of cats.
These hideous creatures, also known as "Charnel Hunters", or just "Hunters", stand 16 feet tall and weigh probably 2,000 pounds. The monsters' most horrid feature is their barrel-shaped head, which splits vertically to reveal numerous rows of sharp, yellow teeth and an open throat. Its eyes on either side of its head-jaw are small but keen. Bony ridges protect their eyes from the frantic flailing of its prey, as they prefer meals of raw and writhing meat over fungi and molds. They grip said prey with powerful arms that split at the elbow into a pair of forearms, giving it four clawed paws. These monstrous brutes are covered with shaggy black fur, often crusted with blood and gore.
Leng ghouls are the ghouls of the nightmare Plateau of Leng, more powerful, intelligent, and erudite than their cousins dwelling in the Material Plane. Unlike common ghouls, Leng ghouls have a canine snout and hoofed feet. Most Leng ghouls venerate the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones.
Geography
The Dreamlands consists of a finite, relatively stable core, which is formed from slumbering desires and the dreams of especially powerful entities, like the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones. Surrounding the core is a foam of transient dreamscapes, each the dream of an individual sleeping mortal, constantly forming and evaporating when someone goes to sleep or awakens. A dreamer that enters the Dreamlands' core for the first time descends a spiral staircase and will eventually emerge from the side of a great tree into the Enchanted Wood. The Dreamlands are for the most part a mirror-image of our waking universe, having, as far as can be determined, the same planets, stars, and other cosmic geographical features. However, there are numerous races, civilizations, and beings existing in the Dreamlands that do not exist in the waking universe.
Locations
Seventy Steps of Lighter Slumber
If the dreamer wishes to enter the Dreamlands, he must somehow find an unusual flight of descending stairs in a conventional dream. The appearance of these stairs is unique to each dreamer and will look different from each individual's description. These are known as the Seventy Steps to Lighter Slumber. They symbolize the descent of the dreamer from somnolence to deeper sleep. If he goes down, he arrives to the Dreamlands gateway known as the Cavern of Flame.Cavern of Flame
It is here, it is believed, where the dreamer must pass some sort of test before they are allowed further on. However if they do pass, they are allowed to prepare for the journey ahead and may descend down the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber.Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber
These many hundreds of steps symbolize the dreamer slipping further into sleep and have a universal appearance as compared to their Lighter Slumber counterparts. Eventually the stairs emerge from a massive tree and into the Enchanted Wood.Enchanted Wood
The Enchanted Wood large, very old and very dense forest located within the Dreamlands. Giant oaks grow there, the crowns of which combine to form an unbroken canopy that closes off the sky. Their deeply gnarled bark, thick and strong as steel plate armor, is covered with bracket fungi that glow a weird, eldritch green, creating an environment as dim as twilight. Despite its name, the Enchanted Wood is rather dangerous place, but if a dreamer stays on the path and does not listen to the noises and voices around him, he can traverse the Woods unharmed.Leng
The Plateau of Leng is a distant, ill-understood demiplane of nightmares that exists beyond the Dreamlands, where nightmares overlap into a strange reality spawned by the dreams of primordial gods of the Dark Tapestry. Two staircases are said descend from here into the cyclopean Underworld.Ulthar
Underworld
The Underworld is a subterranean region that runs beneath the whole of the Dreamlands. Its principle inhabitants are ghouls, who can physically enter the Waking World through crypts. The Underworld is also home to the gugs, monstrous giants banished from the surface for untold blasphemies, and who are locked in war against Leng ghouls.
Creatures
Dreamlands Cats
Cats in the Dreamlands are intelligent and can communicate with humans that speak their language. They are able to freely pass physically from the waking world to the Dreamlands and back again. It's suggested that maybe the cats have dreamed up the waking world and what we believe to be reality is the Dreamlands of the cats.Gugs
Leng Ghouls
(main article Ghoul)