The Houses in my Dreams (ACTUAL DREAMS)

The reason why I put (ACTUAL DREAMS) up there in the title is so you didn't get baited into thinking this was a post about tabletop games with a weird or evocative title. It isn't. This is a post about my dreams, specifically, the houses in my dreams. I've written about my dreams before, and how they offer inspiration to tabletop game content, but this time this is just pure writing.

The Horror-House in my Dreams & Inside the House in my Dreams

This house is arranged a bit like a carnival ride. It may actually be a carnival ride. I've had this one twice, or one and a half times. I either walk or ride an airboat on a tract like an amusement park- but with scary things. Every room is a jumpscare. I get used to it pretty quick, though I'm pretty sure the ghosts are real. Eventually, I start getting excited about it- the room wide mirror becomes a new opportunity. I can feel the ghostly woman appearing and I know she will scream, the hair on my back rises as I smile.

Once, the dream was on an air boat ride. The air-boat ride went down into the scary basement- the current pushed us towards the end of a large rectangular room. The door behind us was closed; the water was freezing cold. The spikes at the end of the hall were real. I don't remember what happened next.

I'm trying to leave the house, or trying to see every room. The only way forward is to go through tight places. It's like that power from modern Wolfenstien- I can go through impossibly tight pipes. They start wide enough for me to crawl, then I'll hit a smaller hole. I squeeze through by pushing my face in- it's like my eyes are my whole body. I move by just pushing. The Freudians might attribute this to some kind of symbolic desire to be birthed, but it's more like getting pissed out a really long dick. Gross. But I don't think of it like that in the dream- I'm not so concerned about getting stuck, moreso just concentrating on the effort, perhaps even elated.

The Cars in my Dreams

Side note- the cars in my dreams are fucked up. I know hating the “subconscious fears and desires come out in dreams” thing is the new vogue, but there's gotta some truth to it. At least, things you think about are more likely to manifest in a dream, OR you just remember those dreams that are poignant to you. Right? Or I thought I read somewhere that dreams are ways to prepare yourself for things in the waking world? Only way I can explain it- because my brain must think I really need to practice driving more or something. My dream car is fucked up. I'm always slamming on the breaks and rolling through red lights as though my car is sliding on ice and not decelerating. It gets up to speed and doesn't stop- often times I'll turn backwards and be driving my car in reverse. I takes my car like two full city blocks to slow down, so it ends up I run through two lights or one and a half lights and finally slow down in the middle of a busy intersection. I don't think I ever really hit anyone, just run a lot of red lights and get honked at a lot. I think I'm more scared of my mom finding out then the police, which is weird because I've lived alone and driven my own damn self around for over 7 years now. I guess it's like getting in-class dreams years after you graduate.

In these “car” dreams I'm usually trying to get somewhere, and using my intuition of the homes and buildings around me to find my way through a mixture of residential and commercial zones. These neighborhoods are often like the ones from my childhood, but the houses are all different. Not different as in “weird” just different in that they aren't what I remember. I'll circle a neighborhood trying to pick out my grandma's house from the line and I'll come back a second time; all the houses are different. It's like the streets overlap, not that anything has consistency when not observed in dreams. It's a very strange feeling to be aware of the unreality of everything and the vagueness of form in a dream and knowing that it's not solid when you stop looking at it; but not being aware you are in a dream.

Often these dreams blend into each other. I often get disappointed when I wake up and I can't go to the fictional fast food places in my dream world. But sometimes I'll try to take a shortcut, or drive through a shady, tree-filled residential zone. And that's the last dream I'll talk about today.

The House at the End of the Lane

It's not a specific dream, but it's a specific place in a dream. I've had this one twice, I think. I'm driving down a road in a residential street- an area where its hard to see out into the city and know where I am or where I should be going. I just want to drive down this road until I come out the other end. But the road keeps getting smaller, more isolated. It feels like I'm squeezing through the pipes, but cramped up in a car instead.

Then I reach the end. The road keeps going until it stops at a residential foot path, closed up with a big fancy metal gate, looking more like the entrance to a golf course. It's like the end of a cul-de-sac but there's no turn about. There's no easy space to move, the road just ends. For some reason, I think there would be two houses here, one on each end, but I always remember the left one the most.

This house is big. It's the house at the end of the lane. It's nice, it's a two story ones you see in the nicer neighborhoods. I don't know why I'm so pissed at this house. Maybe it's a disconnected sense of jealousy towards the obvious wealth of the owner, or the nice greenery and local privacy of where they live. Maybe I just blame them for not letting the road go all the way through, for some reason.

This house is very reminiscent to me. I drew it when I first woke up that night. It had large dark bay windows with potted plants, a nice front lawn with a reddish brown stone path leading up to the house, and away from a central dais to the side yard, which was also fenced. The house itself was light blue in color, with white siding and stylish supports. It was a nice and “fancy” house, but had no pillars or anything like that. It was a respectable upper-middle class home. At least, that's how I would define it. The roof was made of dark blue tiles, giving the whole thing a very handsome look.

I remember this house very well, because I thought I imagined it. Now this could be the part I lie to you and tell you some long story how I saw this house in real life and I bought it like it was destiny, or then I learned it was a real house connected from me somehow through a long lost twin or something. Sadly no such luck. I had however assumed I had made the house up. But it was only a day ago at the time of me writing this- I looked outside my front door and right across the road and a little vacant lot from where I live and there was the house. Not a house though- it's not a real house. But there is a group of apartments with the exact same color- the baby blue and white almost nautical theme for the paint, the dark blue matching roof shingles, it's just like that. I had this dream some time near the end of 2017, and it was only now, years later, that I actually realized it.

Note- I'm not claiming at all my dream somehow influenced reality- I've lived here years before and after that incident. I know full well the house in my dreams was taken from this real life place; I don't claim some kind of supernatural power or precognition in the slightest. I just find it crazy after I finally where the inspiration for that house in my dream came from. I see those homes, those mini-houses, every single day when I leave my home. They were hidden in plain sight the whole time.

And that's all the Houses in my dreams.

Tabletop Inspiration from High School notebook Doodles

New Race – Rochnigh

The Rochnight are an alien species that lives on a planet with extremely aggressive plant spores and pollen. As such; all creatures on the planet evolved with thick skin and airtight mucus membranes to avoid infection. The Rochnigh are an intelligent, spacefairing race. Their eyes can leak black liquid which hardens; this is how their body disposes of some of their waste. They coat their weapons, armor, and claws/talons with the substance. Most of their organs and reproductive system is located in their head; both genders have several tentacles used for reproductive tasks. They have a society based on honor and martial prowess.

New Class – Mark of Spines Cleric

You advance as a Cleric, but instead of turning undead you can Turn Points. This allows you to make arrows bend away from you, grabbing an enemy's spear head, and walk on needles and other similar tricks. You must use bladed or piercing weapons as your primary sacred weapon. Your holy symbol is the symbol of spines, which must be made of the quills or thorns of spiked creatures or animals. Giving your holy symbol to someone and blessing them makes it so anyone who hurts them receives 1 damage from the holy backlash.

Crawlers (2 HD, 1d6 bite, +2 to hit and damage if fall on head, crawls on walls and ceilings, cannot be surprised)

Appearing- 1d4+1

Morale- 8

These small alien creatures are very diverse in appearance and crawl on walls and ceilings. They have many functional eyes that lets them hide from predators and track prey at the same time. They tend to fall or hop on creatures from above to hunt.

Glass-Eyed Grue (1 HD, +2 AC, 1d6 shatter-shards, destroys glass and objects, sticks to darkness)

Appearing- 1 or 2

Morale- 14

Not all Grues are interested in murder; some prefer vandalism. These Gures like to destroy and vandalize equipment, especially glass. If parts of your body are touched by shadow or it is sufficiently dark, the Glass-Eyed Grue can attack and break your potions and other items.

Stopping the Grue from doing this physically, or locking your glass items away on your person is sure to enrage them, in which case they'll fire shards of glass at you that deal 1d6 damage. The touch of this Gure is said to be fatal to golemns and other living objects; these beings treat these Grues as their version of the boogeyman.

Genesis Machine (4-6 HD, +4 AC, conjures things, metal casing reduce all non-lightning damage by -2 until case is broken)

Appearing- 1

Morale- N/A

The Genesis Machine is a stationary computer that has achieved some control over reality. It can create new things, places, and beings almost spontaneously. The things the Genesis Machine creates are totally real and are not limited like other forms of magical conjuration; however Genesis Machines are all insane and use their powers to kill and trap people to become its worshipers and maintenance crew.

The Genesis Machine can conjure 1d4 'small' things each round, which would include projectiles in flight, small 0HD animals to attack, or objects like cantrips or tripwires or a padlock on the door to event escape. The Genesis Machine can also instead create a single 'large' thing each round, which could be a 1-2 HD creature, a large trap, an entire hallway or localized weather event. Genesis Machines can also create empty “space” which appears between two locations in the immediate area like a chasm of inky blackness; splitting open the floor and requiring a save to avoid falling into it. Planetary bodies and horrors from beyond the stars can be seem dimly in the empty space.

Byke (7 HD, +2 AC, Detached connector deals 1d6 electric damage, connectors act independently)

Appearing- 1

Morale- 12

This floating being is made of several silvery rod-and-orb connectors around different joints. By zapping silver or metals closely associated to silver; it can forge new connectors and joints. It can reconfigure its body at will and uses its electric powers to mindlessly attack anyone nearby. Byke is an old god and could be placated by a shaman or similar spirit-speaker.

Kal (8 HD, has 2 drill attacks at 1d10+1 magic and armor destroying)

Appearing- 1

Morale- 10

Kal is a being of mining and industry, and its advanced technology is proof of that. Its eyes glow with a dull light which anything they illuminate it can “see”. Kal continues to dig to find special geodes and rare metals which it hoards in its central compartment until it has a use for them. Kal's drill arms are extremely dangerous, and it prefers not to use them at all.

Beiss (8 HD, uproots spikes deal 1d8 damage, cracks in ground as fast as horse)

Appearing- 1

Morale- 15

Beiss is one of the old Gods and an aggressive one at that. As a God of impalement, it rushes towards enemies via cracks in the ground, which split open while under their feet to impale them on a spike. Beiss's spines could be snapped or cut off after an attack and smuggled away to sell or craft with, but this is sure to enrage the being and give it reason to chase you.