The Dream Tormentor

He hides in dark, fraying robes with the hood always up. Wisps of silver hair trail from the shadowed opening, and only his hands show: pale, knotted, more bone than flesh. The robes are spun from dark dreamweaver silk, and dozens of the spider-things crawl over them like living jewelry. He speaks every language he has met in his victims' dreams, in a dry rasp like wind through dead branches that leaves a chill no fire can lift.

He seldom fights hand to hand, though he can punch twice a round for 1d2+3 each. Once every three rounds he can loose dream fire, a crackling green line 5 feet wide and up to 30 feet long. Targets save vs. breath weapon; success halves the 4d10 damage. Failure means full damage, an immediate horror check as buried terrors pour out, and, regardless of that check, -2 on attacks and ability checks for 1d4 rounds.

He shadow walks, entering a deep shadow in his cathedral and emerging from another anywhere in his domain. He senses intruders in his own lair and in those of the other court members, often confronting trespassers at home and slipping through shadows to watch the others' visitors, rarely meddling but drinking in their fear.

Six mighty ennui he calls the Horrors serve him, each tending one of his six permanent dreamscapes so he never runs short of dream images.

He haunts the Mourning Cathedral in the dream city. Its stained glass shows every dreamscape around the ring of dreams as raw, unmasked subconscious, and any other viewer must make a madness check. When a scene moves him he takes up easel and brush to capture it, but he has no imagination or dreams of his own, only borrowed ones he can watch but never join. The paint always turns to blood and bleeds down the canvas, hurling him into a violent rage.

A chamber beside the cathedral's dream altar hosts gatherings of the court of nightmares, whose schedule and business are unknown except that they plot fresh ways to terrify dreamers.

He looks undead but is not, and cannot be turned. Any dream tinged with negative emotion feeds him, unlike his fellow court members with their narrower tastes. He also craves others' creativity, though he cannot use what he takes, which only deepens his frustration.

He can grant the worst nightmares from the web of dreams a body and part of his power, letting them pass the veil of sleep and even stalk the waking world. A night terror may look like anything, from a blade-fingered undead nurse to a strangler with a cord. Each is clever and somewhat independent, choosing its own methods even when assigned a target.

Building one takes a full night, one per night, inside a dreamscape, using a lesser dream spawn called a morph that loses all its own powers and personality. The terror lasts until destroyed. Within the nightmare realm the link lets him watch, summon or command it; beyond the mists he gets only scattered impressions.

Creation costs him hit points that cannot return, even through the web's regeneration, until the next night: 1d8 for a 1-3 HD terror, 2d8 for 4-6 HD, 3d8 for 7-9 HD, 4d8 for 10 HD, the maximum he can make. Each terror carries one weakness drawn from its source nightmare, and what destroys one may not harm another.