Environment

Special abilities

Magic vision 5 | Damage to incorporeals 1 | Flying 25

From a distance you can easily mistake a nightmare for a noble horse: it has an anthracite-black coat, a proud head and a thick mane. Up close, however, it radiates the heat that burns within it. It shows in full when the nightmare runs or fights – smoke rises from its nostrils, its horseshoes and mane glow with a dark flame and fire lashes from its mouth.

Nightmares inhabit the Interface, usually on the border between the Twilight and the Darkness. They live in herds led by a strong stallion, and over short distances they communicate by telepathy. They feed on mana, which they can track down much like mana crystals. When they do not have enough of it, they drain it from sleeping beings, and since that is hard to do in the Interface, they set out to the True World for food. They pass between the worlds where the divide is thin: at places where something terrible happened, at magical intersections and at magical places. The draining of mana causes people restless sleep, from which they wake up weakened, sweaty and frightened.

A nightmare can also serve as a mount, but an ordinary mortal will not ride one: he would have to endure the fire that burns within it and be a superb rider, because not even the wildest stallion can match an old nightmare mare. A gift of blood is said to help, with which the rider tames it at least a little. Usually, however, only the powerful inhabitants of the Interface saddle them.

Combat

In combat a nightmare matches the best warhorse, and in addition it flies and breathes fire. It can send visions to waking people and beguile them, and it can drain mana directly from characters with active magic.