Whenever enough new folks join the Dreamland RPG Facebook group or Discord server, I’m going to be posting new Dreamland material (the FB and/or Discord folks get to vote on what it is). In celebration of the Facebook reaching 550 folks, here is a brief post on some of the most threatening denizens of Dreamland: abhumans.
In Dreamland there are places, continents wide, where no human being dares set foot. From a distance they look like other inhabited parts of the world: there are houses and huts, temples and palaces, herds and fences and cultivated fields. But if a Dreamlander enters, the inhabitants will swarm them, either butchering them instantly or imprisoning them to await a slow and painful death. These are the realms of the abhumans.
In a world where humans can look many ways, what separates abhumans is their behavior. Abhumans are the incarnation of humanity’s fear and hatred of others. Unlike beasts, they act like people: they raise children, build towns, plant crops and use tools. Many even wear clothes and cook meals. However, they are irredeemably hostile to all the humans of Dreamland, attacking, torturing and usually killing them on sight. All but the most isolated Dreamlanders know to fear them.
Abhumans’ defining trait is that they are always hostile toward humans. When an abhuman sees a human or hears a human voice, they feel overwhelming fear and hatred, which prompt them to attack. Rational arguments, pleas for mercy, and clever fast talk are all useless. Coexistence is impossible: humans must be destroyed, or at best (with certain rare types of abhumans) converted to creatures like themselves.
When left to themselves, abhumans behave like humans, doing all the mundane work necessary to maintain a civilization. Separate groups of abhumans in distant regions, like separate groups of humans, do not have a common culture; in fact, until one abhuman sees another type of abhuman face to face, they do not know whether they will think of them as human (and be compelled to attack and murder them) or think of them as abhuman (and treat them as human beings treat one another, for good or ill).
Abhumans come in many different forms, though all are approximately humanoid. Some are outwardly identical to us, or so similar as to be able to disguise their differences—though restraining their urge to kill humans for such a ruse requires great self-control which most of them do not have. Others look alien or ugly by human standards. Some say that in the distant past, powerful sorcerers transformed abhumans into bestial shapes (lizardlike, snakelike, apelike, etc.), either as punishment for their sins or to give a visual warning to humans of their inner evil.
Abhumans sometimes act as servants for Nightmares, and some of them worship that incarnation of Loathing, the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep. Others, however, worship (or claim to worship) the Great Ones in the same way human beings do. Warring Dreamland cultures sometimes accuse one another of being abhumans, a terrible accusation that leads to the most horrific slaughters, until real abhumans sweep in and destroy both sides.
This blogpost gives example statistics of one type of abhuman: Lengites. Many other types exist, including snakefolk, albans, swinefolk, witchfolk, “lovers” and others. The term abhuman is used only by Dreamland’s human cultures; abhumans have their own words for themselves.
Sample Abhumans: Lengites
Long ago, before even the ancient city of Sarnath rose from the mud, a great human civilization reigned in the far north. On the plateau of Leng and in the port city of Sarkomand these people, whose distinguishing physical traits included small horns and tails and goatlike hooves, built ships and traded with their neighbors. Then something happened, and the people of Leng became no longer human, but creatures of Loathing.
In Dreamland today, long after the forgotten war in which Sarkomand fell, the surviving people of Leng live mostly as herdsfolk and miners on their cold, isolated plateau. They hate humans, though they think of themselves as humans and “normal” humans as monsters, and pray to the gods (including the forbidden god Nyarlathotep) that someday they will reclaim what is theirs and wipe the evil usurpers off the face of the world. Lengites live in a constant state of fear that humans will enslave, torture and kill them, a fear they can only assuage by enslaving, torturing and killing humans first.
Outside of Leng, Lengites sail galleys and build military installations on remote islands. Others go secretly among humans, trading rubies mined in Leng’s mountains, gathering poisons and weapons, and plotting the destruction of humankind. Lengites are rare among abhumans in that the smartest of them can restrain their hatred of humans long enough to go into human cities, to disguise as humans, and even to trade with them. When they are among themselves, they drop the pretense and enslave or kill any nearby humans. However, so great is their self-control that they can delay this gratification, and even parlay with humans if need be.
Typical Lengite (abhuman)
FGT 1D6 SPD 1D6 PER 2+1D6 STB 8+1D6 (special)
- Disguise. Lengites have many more ways of disguising themselves than those noticed by Randolph Carter. A Wisdom (insight) challenge of 1D6 is required to tell a disguised Lengite from a normal human and sense their hostility.
- Narcotic Wine. Lengites can brew powerful liquors. Any dreamer who drinks more than a sip of the Lengites’ special wine will become Exhausted and must make a risky Strength or Wisdom (discipline) challenge (player’s choice) of 1D6+4 or fall unconscious.
- Poison. Lengites frequently use poisoned weapons. If they have time to prepare for an organized attack with poisoned blades, they have +2 FGT. In addition, if a poison-wielding Lengite is defeated in combat by the exact number needed to defeat it, the opponents are poisoned, and must make a risky Strength 1D6+2 challenge or die.
- Consumed by Loathing. Persuasion, Romance and Begging by a human never works on an abhuman; DMs shouldn’t even let players waste their Words on a challenge. In rare cases, Haggling might work, if a dreamer needs to trick them or make a momentary alliance for some common cause (like killing other humans). Such Haggling would be a risky challenge of 1D6+8 or higher, and such agreements are always temporary. Even magic items or wishes can’t make abhumans less hostile to humans; their hate and fear are beyond the power of mortal magic, tied to the Pillar of Loathing itself.
NOTE: Lengites as Humans
Alternately, in your campaign, Lengites could be humans—slightly weird-looking humans, but human just the same. In this case, Lengites aren’t abhuman, and so dreamers can use Persuasion to befriend them (or Romance to flirt with them), and there may be some subcultures of Lengites opposed to the slave-trading, Nyarlathotep-worshipping ones. A player could even choose to play a Lengite as their dream self. This has no special benefits or penalties, but you could spend your bonus skill on the Agility skill (because of your goatlike legs), or your bonus language on the ability to speak Goat or Shantak.