This article is part of a series for both the April 2020 RPG Blog Carnival and the 2020 Blogging A to Z Challenge. The featured art, made by Benjamin Hubel, is part of «Exploring Eberron», an upcoming sourcebook by Keith Baker.

Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams, is a plane that humanoids visit when they dream. The plane is also home to the Quori, psychic symbionts with intentions to conquer Eberron. Nowadays, though, the only way to reach Dal Quor from the Material Plane is through the psychic projection of dreaming.

The plane is ringed with dreamscapes — small pockets of psuedo-reality where people’s dreams play out. The plane has subjective directional gravity, is highly morphic and has flowing time (10 minutes on Dal Quor is equivalent to 1 minute on the Material Plane). Being a highly morphic plane, it can be manipulated by either dreamers or the Quori, though the Quori find that manipulation quite easier compared to visitors.

During the Age of Giants, around 40,000 years ago, Dal Quor drew close to Eberron and allowed physical passage between the two planes. The Quori arrived in Xen’drik and entered a war with the Giant inhabitants. Using the magic of the dragons, the Giants irrevocably torn Dal Quor from its rotation in order to stop the invasion, and by doing so, they managed to sever the connection between the two planes.

«Your nightmares are nothing but my dreams of conquest.»

For your campaign

Magnificent domed cities called up from the formless void of dreamstuff spread across the inside of the ring of dreamscapes, allowing the quori who live there easy access to their food supply: the psychic energy of dreaming mortals. Beyond the cities of the quori, a roiling boil of dream-born landscapes melt, burn, grow, and dissolve without any rhyme or reason. The Quori claim the «center» of Dal Quor as theirs, where they rule supreme. Most dreamers, though, never reach the realm of the Dal Quor, and inhabit the fringes of the Realm of Dreams. While there, they may be left alone, or they may be the subject of manipulation from inhabitants of Dal Quor. Tsucora Quoris, a weak, common type of quori that specialize in creating fear and nightmares in mortal dreams, use their fear-inducing psionics and deception skills to manipulate dreamers… but some dreamers are able to manipulate them instead.

New feat: Dementia Summoning

You have learned to control your nightmares while dreaming and use them as fuel when summoning horrific creatures from your own twisted memories of creatures you have slain before and kept deep down in the Dementia space within your subconscious mind.

When casting a summoning spell (including the ones included in the recent Unearthed Arcana article), you choose a nightmarish aspect for the creature that appears (use proper creature’s statistics as modified by this).

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot one level higher, you can choose the same nightmarish aspect as long as it is one that can be chosen twice. If you use a spell slot two levels higher, you can choose any additional nightmarish aspect. You can add an additional nightmarish aspect every two levels higher.

Nightmarish Aspects. You can apply these features to the creature summoned by the spell as long as it is at least of the level indicated in parenthesis.

• Brawn (2nd): The nightmare does an additional +1 point of bludgeoning damage on a successful melee attack. (Multiple selections stack)
• Claws (2nd): The nightmare has razor sharp claws. Damage from these claw attacks is 1d8 + Strength modifier. The claw attacks are considered slashing or piercing weapons. The type is chosen when the nightmare is summoned. (If the nightmare has the extra arms ability, this ability must be chosen twice to affect both sets of arms.)
• Dementia Regeneration (3rd): The nightmare heals 2 hit points each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point.
• Energy Touch (4th): The nightmare’s physical attacks do 1d4 points of energy damage (acid, cold, fire, lightning) in addition to their standard damage. The type of energy is chosen when the nightmare is summoned. (Multiple selections stack and may be of different energy types. You cannot select this ability more than 3 times)
• Extra Arms (5th): The nightmare has an additional set of arms and can make an additional attack with an attack bonus equal to its highest attack bonus -2. This ability cannot be chosen more than once.
• Hardened Carapace (7th): The nightmare’s surface forms hard, armor-like plates. The nightmare gains bludgeoning, slashing or piercing resistance. The type of resistance is chosen when the nightmare is summoned.
• Heavy Armor (8th): The nightmare’s base AC is 15 + Dexterity bonus.
• Improved Fly (5th): The nightmare has physical wings (12-foot wingspan) and a flying speed of 120 feet.
• Improved Swim (5th): nightmare becomes streamlined and shark-like with a large (8-foot-wide) tail. Its speed is 120 feet.
• Natural Armor (4th): The nightmare’s surface forms hard, armor-like plates. The nightmare’s base AC is 12 + Dexterity bonus.
• Poison Touch (6th): The nightmare is covered in a shimmering purple liquid. If the nightmare hits with a melee attack, the target must make an initial Constitution save (using your spellcasting DC) or take 2d6 points of poison damage.
• Reach (6th): The nightmare’s arms elongate, which increases its reach by 5 feet. (If the nightmare has the extra arms ability, this ability must be chosen twice to affect both sets of arms.)
• Rend (7th): A nightmare that hits with its claw attack does an additional 2d6 + its Strength modifier points of damage. (It must also have the claws ability; see entry above.)
• Spiked Armor (3rd): The nightmare’s body is covered in spikes. The spikes allow the nightmare to deal 1d6 points of piercing damage with a movement that ends adjacent to an enemy.
• Tail Slap (6th): The nightmare has a tail and gains one additional slam attack with an attack bonus equal to its highest attack bonus -2, and it deals damage of 2d8 + its Strength modifier (A nightmare cannot have a tail if it has extra arms.)
• Tough (6th): The nightmare receives 20 extra hit points.
• Tougher (8th): The nightmare receives 40 extra hit points.

This is an update to a previous article you can check here. Since I read and saw them in the Magic set «Torment», I was obsessed about them. Have you ever included nightmare horrors in your game?