The Purple Lotus of Kadath

The Dimension of Dreams (aka “The Dreamlands”) is an unaligned plane of existence laying just outside the Ethereal Plane, often abutted by the Dimension of Time.

As a mortal sleeps, its monadic soul withdraws from the physical body to manifest in the Dimension of Dreams. This dream avatar is known as the lucid body, and can take a variety of forms based on the dreamer’s subconsciousness.

The minds of the countless dreamers of the Material Plane brush up against the Ethereal Plane, bubbling forth ephemeral demiplanes in which the dreamers’ lucid bodies experience fantastic adventures inspired by their own unconscious minds.

Essentially, each dreamer creates their own demiplane within the Dimension of Dreams in which they experience these adventures. A plane within a plane.

Experience in a dreamscape is usually a private affair.

Rare spells, magic items, and other abilities allow creatures to enter and share another creature’s dream demiplane for a short amount of time.

While these secondary dreamers can interact with the highly morphic qualities of the plane, with the primary dreamer, and with each other, the existence of the demiplane is still contingent on a single primary dreamer.

When the primary dreamer awakens, the demiplane pops out of existence, causing any other dreamers to continue dreaming—shunted into a dreamscape of their own creation—or to wake up.

A lucid body is not the only way to enter a dream, however, and considerable danger faces the explorer who enters the Dimension of Dreams in his physical body. While a dreamer is physically unharmed by the dreams he has—those who travel the dreamlands in a physical body are, in fact, harmed by the fantastic and impossible things they find there.

Regular methods of planar travel, such as a plane shift spell, do not offer transit to the dream world. Only specialized means such as those offered by occult practitioners—psychics, mesmerists, and the like—offer a means to travel to the dreamlands in a physical body.

Although most dreamscapes are ephemeral, fading when the sleeper awakens, particularly potent dreamscapes, bolstered by recurrence or by the shared subconscious of numerous dreamers, sometimes last forever. Among the most formidable and permanent regions of the Dimension of Dreams is the bizarre realm of Leng, where near-human denizens sail ethereal seas in black-hulled ships packed with slaves bound for the dark markets of the multiverse.

The Plateau of Leng is believed to be either a pocket within the Dimension of Dreams or accessible through it. It is a dry desert littered with ruins. The greatest of these ruins is the abandoned city of Sarkomand, the original home of the denizens of Leng. The most powerful being in Leng, perhaps its ruler, is the mysterious yellow-clad High-Priest Not to be Described, who presides over the plateau’s culture of blood sacrifice. The fabled city of unknown Kadath, while not itself in Leng, can be reached through that dimension.

The black ships of the Denizens of Leng can sometimes be found in the harbor of Tarsas, where they have dark dealings with slave traders there. It may be possible to strike a bargain with them to gain access to Leng. But such a bargain is sure to be dark and unsavory.

Kadath is a city on the Plateau of Leng. It was once the home of gods, but has been abandoned by them and is now only a shadow of its former self.

Kadath lies deep in the mountains that surround the Plateau of Leng, in its own pocket dimension.

According to the ravings of the mad prophet Kalil Tabrasi who wrote on the subject:
To enter unknown Kadath, one must first cross the Cold Wastes of the Plateau of Leng. Then they must travel through the mountains that surround the Plateau, through the Spider Vales, until they reach the Windswept Ridge. From there, they can travel down into the Valley of Obsidian and solicit a great Shantak to take them to City of the Lost Gods.

Surm’s Notes

Campaign of the Month: September 2018

Shadows of the Rift