Don’t Let the Dreamtaker Orb Fall into the Hands of the Lord of Dead Dreams!

If you have not already gone over to Nerdarchy the Store and picked up the awesome fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons supplement Lord of Dead Dreams I highly recommend doing so. It is full of cool additions to your 5E D&D game. You get a unique ogre magi villain, some new minions to play with, a short adventure and some new magic items to play with in your games. I also recently shared a new creation to enhance the material in the book right here on the website. You can add the dreamt creatures to your game on their own or to bolster the ranks of Jarease’s underlings and help with the supply side of his illicit trade in dream essence. If you’re still craving more, let me add one more powerful magical item for your 5E D&D game — the Dreamtaker Orb.

The ogre magi Jarease revels in ripping the dream essence from mortals as the villain from Lord of Dead Dreams.[Art by Ludovico Tellatin]

Coveted by the Lord of Dead Dreams in 5E D&D

Jarease, the powerful semi divine oni or ogre magi Lord of Dead Dreams himself, loves dreams and all the things he can exploit with it, so imagine a powerful orb that can duplicate many of the same powers and effects. The Dreamtaker Orb comes from the Dream Dimension. It is a plane of its own where reality is as mutable as thought. Very few creatures have the power to reach here through dreams and few travel here magically for fear of being stuck or running into another traveler who decides to change them on a whim.

Beholders, beings of powerful magical essences occasionally find themselves in the Dream Dimension and in their worry and concern for their own loot and territory dream up another beholder and potential rival with the potential to be their own downfall.

Long ago, in ages long gone, a mage of untold power called the Dream Dimension home. They had accomplished all they sought to do in the Waking World and grew bored with the challenges of everyday life. Traversing the planes they found this one set off in an extraplanar corner, lost and forgotten. For decades or more they traveled the endless dreamscape created by the dreams of mortals from all other planes. The mage witnessed horrors dreamed by aberrations, mountains of treasure dreamed by mortals and dragons and countless other things.

When space is endless it is hard to find the exact middle. Who knows for certain exactly how long the mage walked to find the center of this endless plane, but they did. And there the mage found an orb thrumming with power and shimmering in all the colors of the magical spectrum. Intrigued the mage picked up the orb and studied it.

How the orb found its way to the Material Plane after this incident no one is quite sure, but what is known is the orb is made of pure dreams and one such as Jarease would slaughter countless thousands to get his hands on such an item if it were to ever be brought to his attention.

Dreamtaker Orb

Legendary wondrous item, requires attunement

This orb fits casually into your hand regardless of your size. Attuned or not if you look into the orb you will see a random dream of someone sleeping at that time. Roll 1d6 and check the table below to determine the nature of the dreamscape glimpsed within the orb at any given time.

• 1-2: horrible or frightening dream
• 3-4: boring or mundane dream
• 5-6 grand adventure or treasure dream

Powers

While attuned to the dreamtaker orb you can cast the following spells without the need for components.

1/day — Dream, hallucinatory terrain, seeming, weird

2/day — Modify memory

3/day — Major image

If those were not enough the orb is a magical spellcasting focus and if used as such it adds a +3 to the DC of your spells or +3 to hit and damage.

The orb also allows you to alter the dreams of those sleeping nearby. You can choose to effect an area as great as 1 mile radius down to a single room (i.e. 10 feet radius). You choose the type of dream that all sleeping creatures in the area experience.

Boon or Bane. The orb can use the property above to greater effect. Once every seven days the dreams can be more real to those who experience them. If you send a boon to the sleepers whenever they make an attack roll or a saving throw they can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw. If you send a bane to the sleepers whenever they make an attack roll or a saving throw they must roll a d4 and subtract the number rolled from the attack roll or saving throw. In either case the effect end when the target completes its next long rest.

Lastly the dreamtaker orb can be used to siphon the dreams of others and distill it into Dream Essence. This process can be used once a day and takes 1 minute while the target is asleep.

Is this an item you would use in your games? Would you or your players like to get your hands on such an item? It is quite obvious why Jarease would want it, right? The Lord of Dead Dreams along with their onibara and dreamt minions would become a very powerful entity with this legendary magic item in his grasp. Adventurers might even have to travel to the Dream Dimension to confront the wicked ogre magi. If you want to check out our Lord of Dead Dreams book you can do so here. From now until Feb. 2, 2020 you can use the promo code MOUNTUP to get 20% off your entire cart. This includes all our digital products, 3D terrain and minis, pins, patches, plushies and RPG accessories. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: the climax of our Ingest Quest live streamed D&D campaign incorporated elements from Lord of Dead Dreams if you want to see him in action.]

Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay nerdy!