TEXT: Lords of Gossamer & Shadow 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  by Matt Banach
  
   
   
   
  Rite Publishing Presents: 
   
  Gossamer Worlds: 
  Gossamer Worlds: 
  Gossamer Worlds: 
  Gossamer Worlds:     
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom        
   
   
  Explorer
  Explorer
  Explorer
  Explorer (Author): Matt Banach 
  Seeker
  Seeker
  Seeker
  Seeker    (Editor): Steven D. Russell 
  Searcher
  Searcher
  Searcher
  Searcher (Cover Artist): Trung Ta Ha 
  Trailbl
  Trailbl
  Trailbl
  Trailblaaaazzzzer
  er
  er
  erssss    (Interior Artists): Trung Ta Ha, Liew,  
  Henry Toogood, Malcom McClinton, Vincent Ptitvinc   
  Pioneer
  Pioneer
  Pioneer
  Pioneer (Trade Dress): James “Devin Knight” Hazelett  
  Lost Boy
  Lost Boy
  Lost Boy
  Lost Boy (Layout and Publisher): Steven D. Russell 
   
   
   
   
  Special Thanks to Jason Durall for his help in developing this.  
   
   
   
  Based on Lords of Gossamer & Shadow by Jason Durall 
   
   
   
   
   
  Gossamer Worlds: The Nightmare Kingdom Copyright © 2014 Steven D. Russell All rights reserved. Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Copyright © 2012-2013 Steven D. Russell 
  All rights reserved. Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Diceless by Design Publishing, LLC, and are used under license.  
  See http://Rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1447 for more information on Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing. The Images by Trung Ta Ha on the cover 
  and page 2 and Henry Toogood on pages 5 and 6 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 
  The images on page 4 by Liew and by Vincent Ptitvinc on page 9 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. 
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ 
   
  
  1 
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom
  The Nightmare Kingdom 
   
  “The dirty concrete landing was a 
  gloom of shadows – the nearest two 
  lightbulbs in the industrial-looking 
  stairwell were busted out and dark, 
  even though that's not supposed to 
  happen on the Grand Stair. Something 
  crunched beneath my feet, but it wasn't 
  glass, and I wasn't going to look down. 
  A single bloody hand-print smeared the 
  wall beside the Door, which was 
  covered in chipped black paint... and 
  stood wide open. On the other side of 
  the threshold, dense grey mist swirled, 
  revealing a pair of glowing red eyes. I 
  heard my name being called, faintly, 
  buried 
  somewhere 
  under 
  all 
  that 
  screaming.” - Travelogue 
   
   
  Description
  Description
  Description
  Description    
   
  The Nightmare Kingdom is a living, 
  breathing, waking world of nightmares 
  made 
  manifest 
  in 
  a 
  soul-crushing 
  hellscape dedicated to the provocation, 
  cultivation, and consumption of terror.  
   
  And, 
  no, 
  I'm 
  not 
  being 
  melodramatic. 
   
  First, a bit of conceptual framework: 
  we have always known that the concept 
  of “reality” as applies to the gossamer 
  worlds is... variable, to say the least. 
  Most of us, even high and mighty 
  Gossamer Lords, come to rely upon 
  certain principles: time moves in one 
  direction, mortal lives begin and end, 
  and matter and energy transmute in 
  form but tend not to be created or 
  destroyed. Hence, it is unsettling to 
  experience a world where the laws of 
  reality are so loose that even these most 
  basic precepts do not apply. Aside from 
  being terribly dangerous, this staggering 
  lack of structure calls into question the 
  very nature of existence, with all the 
  philosophical baggage that entails. So, 
  with that shaky foundation in mind, 
  imagine a world where the difference 
  between thought and reality disappears 
  almost entirely – a place where the 
  arrangement of matter, energy, and 
  space-time occurs not according to 
  scientific law but instead by psychic 
  whim. Furthermore, imagine such a 
  world in which fear is the dominant 
  form of psychic energy, more powerful 
  than atomic fission and more pervasive 
  than sunlight, with the very fabric of the 
  realm 
  contracting, 
  expanding, 
  and 
  twisting according to the ebb and flow of 
  terror. Finally, imagining a world with 
  all those lovely qualities, picture it 
  running wild since the dawn of time, 
  stalking the vast gulf of Shadow-space in 
  a never-ending hunt for fear.  
   
  Some make the fatal mistake of 
  thinking the Nightmare Kingdom is “just 
  a dream”, but it surely isn't; the 
  monsters and threats of the Kingdom 
  are very real, and no amount of waking 
  up can cure its harms. 
   
  Ancient, 
  powerful, 
  and 
  ever 
  changing, the Nightmare Kingdom the 
  content of the fears it consumes drives 
  it. Oftentimes this interaction causes the  
  
  2 
   
   
  realm to mimic the appearance of other 
  gossamer worlds down to the smallest 
  detail, either in reflexive response to the 
  fears of its victims, or at the direction of 
  the 
  Kingdom's 
  ruler. 
  Hence, 
  the 
  Kingdom has gone by countless names 
  over the eons, constantly misidentified 
  as a myriad of different worlds. I've 
  heard accounts of the Kingdom guising 
  itself as thousands of different iterations 
  of 
  Earth, 
  as 
  a 
  false 
  version 
  of 
  Shatterlight, as an endless void of 
  infinite 
  vacant 
  space, 
  and 
  even 
  condensing down in its entirety to 
  become a perfect replica of That-Dark-
  Closet-Where-Those-Bad-Things-
  Happened. 
  Historically 
  there 
  are 
  recognizable patterns in the Kingdom's 
  appearance according to the personality 
  and designs of its ruler, but it is 
  important to remember that it could 
  appear to be anywhere. You could be 
  sitting in it right now. 
   
  Another disturbing quality of the 
  Nightmare Kingdom is – it wanders. I'll 
  elaborate by way of metaphor: if the vast 
  nothingness of Shadow is a darkened 
  street, and the gossamer worlds are 
  individual houses on that street, all 
  connected by the paved walkways of the 
  Grand Stair, the Nightmare Kingdom is 
  the insane homicidal drifter skulking 
  through backyards and trying latches. 
  Doors to the Nightmare Kingdom 
  appear 
  and 
  disappear 
  aggressively, 
  
  3 
  commonly appearing in dreadful places 
  and/or 
  near 
  someone 
  experiencing 
  acute fear. The Nightmare Kingdom 
  often lures victims through the Door, or 
  sometimes 
  the 
  Kingdom's 
  frightful 
  boogeymen just pop out for a moment to 
  say 'boo'. The Kingdom has an affinity 
  for bedroom closets, by the way. My own 
  theory regarding this is profoundly 
  heretical: I think the Kingdom is 
  unmoored from any stationary point in 
  the vast gulf of Shadow and thereby has 
  the ability to connect itself directly to 
  other gossamer worlds without crossing 
  the Grand Stair. Other Gossamer Lords 
  assure me I'm wrong, that there must be 
  some other explanation – perhaps the 
  Kingdom has found a niche on the Stair 
  where the hallway between Doors is 
  measured in inches instead of yards, or 
  it is some twisting of the Veil which 
  gives the illusion of a direct connection. 
  Perhaps... but I know what I saw.  
   
  Despite its mercurial nature, it is 
  possible 
  to 
  claim 
  the 
  Nightmare 
  Kingdom as a Domain. Those who have 
  done so in the past were predominantly 
  power-mad Umbra Masters, walking 
  nightmares 
  in 
  their 
  own 
  right: 
  Morpheus, Ikelos, Lady Phrike, The 
  Dark Man, Morgana, Papa Midnight, 
  one of the elder Dwimmerlaik, that guy 
  with nails in his head... the list goes on. 
  They were and are the stuff of legends, 
  boogeymen of the highest order, though 
  the only thing more unsettling than their 
  tenures as overlords of terror is the fact 
  that those tenures ended. While ruling 
  the Nightmare Kingdom provides an 
  unprecedented forum for the indulgence 
  of 
  sadistic 
  fantasy, 
  wielding 
  such 
  unbridled power is terribly taxing, even 
  on the most jaded psyches. As such, 
  while some rulers hold power for 
  millennia – and some for mere days – 
  sovereignty 
  over 
  the 
  Nightmare 
  Kingdom 
  invariably 
  ends 
  in 
  ruin. 
  Personally, I believe the Kingdom has a 
  personality of its own and from time to 
  time will reject its mortal steersman, 
  terminating the relationship in favor of 
  fresh management; maybe the Kingdom 
  grows bored, maybe the ruler doesn't 
  feed it enough... or maybe the most 
  delicious fear of all is the fear of a king. 
   
   
  The Ghoul
  The Ghoul
  The Ghoul
  The Ghoul    
   
  The current master of the Nightmare 
  Kingdom is a gruesome creature known 
  only as “the Ghoul”. Like many Umbra 
  Masters, the Ghoul can assume many 
  different physical incarnations. But, 
  his/her/its most recent appearances 
  have been as either a tall male umbral 
  gaunt-like cyclops, a pallid teenage girl 
  concealed by a tangle of long black hair, 
  or a more monstrous form which I've 
  only heard described as “like an 
  androgynous dog-person in a latex gimp 
  suit, but made of maggots.” Judging by 
  the 
  tableaus 
  of 
  terror 
  the 
  Ghoul 
  commonly concocts, I believe it to be 
  very familiar with 20th century America 
  – though whether it originated from that 
  historical period on a specific gossamer 
  Earth, I do not know. If it was ever 
  human, or anything close to human, 
  those days are long gone. 
  
  4 
  Fully melded with the Nightmare 
  Kingdom, the Ghoul has mastered the 
  very pliable gossamer fabric of the 
  Domain and uses this god-like power to 
  shape and warp reality in a violent orgy 
  of phantasmagorical tableaus, expertly 
  focused on cultivating anxiety, terror, 
  and despair. In other, smaller, words: it 
  really loves scaring the shit out of 
  people, using the most powerful special 
  effects engine in the entire multiverse. 
  While inside the Kingdom, the Ghoul is 
  effectively omniscient and omnipresent, 
  appearing or disappearing at will, 
  though it prefers to act through agents 
  and 
  totems 
  instead 
  of 
  appearing 
  directly. 
   
  For all its power and sadistic 
  indulgence, the Ghoul may not be as 'in 
  control' as the maniacal laughter might 
  lead us to believe. During the last 
  decade, there have been increased 
  sightings of the Ghoul venturing away 
  from the Nightmare Kingdom, lurking in 
  darkened corners of the Grand Stair and 
  paying 
  unwelcome 
  visits 
  to 
  other 
  gossamer 
  worlds. 
  While 
  these 
  excursions could simply be hunting 
  behavior, I have heard several reports 
  that the Ghoul seemed surprisingly 
  reluctant to return home. My own 
  theory is that the Ghoul is secretly 
  looking for a successor, either willing or 
  unwilling. 
   
   
  Master of Terror, Slave to Fear
  Master of Terror, Slave to Fear
  Master of Terror, Slave to Fear
  Master of Terror, Slave to Fear    
   
  The Nightmare Kingdom is much 
  more of a curse than an asset, and 
  “ownership” of that terrible place should 
  shake even the strongest characters to 
  their core, as absolute power corrupts 
  absolutely. Any character who claims the 
  Nightmare Kingdom as a Domain 
  automatically begins drawing mystical 
  sustenance from the fears of others, 
  whether they wish to or not, and it is 
  impossible to taste that dark power 
  without 
  becoming 
  addicted. 
  This 
  process can be slow and insidious, or 
  swift and shocking, but should be 
  inevitable. 
   
  The Nightmare Kingdom can claim a 
  character as its owner against that 
  character's 
  will, 
  at 
  the 
  dramatic 
  discretion of the gamemaster, even if 
  that character does not have a sufficient 
  reserve 
  of 
  advancement 
  points 
  immediately available to purchase the 
  Kingdom as a Domain – they'll pay 
  later, oh yes they will. Such a drastic 
  personal invasion might come after a 
  courting period where the Kingdom 
  victimizes and corrupts the character, 
  breaking down their willpower and 
  acclimating them to the realm's twisted, 
  terror-sucking reality. This event could 
  transform the character into a major 
  villain, and/or begin an epic struggle as 
  the other characters struggle to save 
  their wayward ally from a fate worse 
  than death. 
   
  
  5 
  Typical Denizens
  Typical Denizens
  Typical Denizens
  Typical Denizens    
   
  The Nightmare Kingdom is full of 
  people and personalities, most of who 
  fall into one of two categories: predators 
  and prey. The earnest county sheriff who 
  warns you to forget those lights in the 
  trees, the plucky group of high-schoolers 
  gone out camping on a spooky summer 
  night, or the creepy old fortune teller 
  who keeps muttering about doom, they 
  all share space with vampires, ghosts, 
  and stranger boogeymen who sow and 
  reap fear on behalf of the realm. While 
  the Kingdom and its ruler vastly prefer 
  the taste and potency of fresh fear from 
  other 
  realms 
  and 
  visiting 
  victims 
  therefrom, the ebb and flow of recycled 
  dread amongst the Kingdom's native 
  inhabitants seems to function like some 
  form of profane metaphysical circulatory 
  and 
  digestion 
  system. 
  Hence, 
  the 
  nefarious powers-that-be do seem to 
  have an interest in willing a population 
  into being and terrorizing them, even 
  without an outside audience. I pity those 
  poor folks, and hope for their sake they 
  do not remember their torments from 
  life to life. 
   
  It would be wrong to categorize the 
  inhabitants of the Nightmare Kingdom 
  as mere phantasms; they're not. Every 
  man, woman, child, dog, monster, and 
  specter that exists there truly does exist 
  within the confines of that gossamer 
  reality, albeit sometimes for only brief 
  periods dictated by the cruel whims of 
  the realm and its ruler. Existence in the 
  Nightmare Kingdom is a terrible,  
   
   
                     The Ghoul 
   
  fleeting thing – the Ghoul's complete 
  control of the Kingdom's makeup and 
  time flow allows it to effectively turn 
  back time, recreating the world to 
  perfectly mimic scenes from “the past”, 
  or simply looping events in perfect 
  repetition, trapping residents in a never-
  ending cycle. These temporal illusions 
  don't alter the internal chronology of 
  non-native victims, however, so while 
  the local denizens may seem jog up and 
  down the time stream, reliving their 
  terrible lives over and over, visitors can't 
  actually undo their own pasts. That said, 
  most denizens of the Nightmare Realm 
  are hapless mortals who serve as both 
  audience and backdrop to the realm's 
  regular pageants of horror. 
   
   
   
  
  6 
      
   
  Boogeymen 
   
  Threats
  Threats
  Threats
  Threats    
   
  Boogeymen is a catch-all term for 
  the terrorizing predatory monsters of 
  the Nightmare Kingdom. They come in 
  many forms: vampires, werewolves, 
  ghosts, zombies, serial killers, obsessed 
  psychopaths, vicious wild animals... 
  pretty much any frightening creature 
  imaginable, though the Ghoul tends to 
  prefer 
  the 
  Hollywood 
  classics. 
  Boogeymen are the grim workforce of 
  the Kingdom, tasked with inflicting 
  anguish and sowing terror amongst the 
  prey 
  population 
  and 
  any 
  outsider 
  victims 
  who 
  wander 
  in. 
  When 
  empowered by the Ghoul, boogeymen 
  can even pierce the Veil and venture 
  onto the Grand Stair or into other 
  gossamer 
  worlds 
  for 
  very 
  brief 
  excursions, usually no further than the 
  immediate threshold of a Door. Most 
  boogeymen 
  are 
  no 
  true 
  match 
  a 
  Gossamer Lord once you get past their 
  theatrics, though even the least of them 
  are 
  aggressive, 
  persistent, 
  and 
  increasingly 
  dangerous 
  in 
  greater 
  numbers. Their elite – the master 
  vampire, 
  the 
  risen 
  pharaoh, 
  that 
  unspeakable 
  tentacled 
  behemoth 
  beneath the waves – are true and deadly 
  threats. 
   
  The Man With Red Hands is the 
  greatest of the boogeymen and the 
  Ghoul's chief lieutenant. Immortal and 
  incorporeal, this malevolent demonic 
  spirit affects the physical world by 
  possessing the bodies of others. While 
  the spirit is capable of mimicking a  
  
  7 
  host's reactions and mannerisms, it 
  tends to reveal its presence eventually 
  through its wicked smile – and by 
  coating the host's hands in fresh red 
  blood. 
  This 
  gory 
  motif 
  usually 
  accompanies an act of gut-wrenching 
  violence and/or self-mutilation. Please 
  believe me when I say that there is no 
  greater bastard in all the multiverse than 
  the Man, and should you ever feel the 
  filthy tendrils of his soul seeping into 
  yours, do yourself a favor and put a 
  bullet in your head before its too late. 
   
   
  Notable Locations
  Notable Locations
  Notable Locations
  Notable Locations    
   
  Under the stewardship of the Ghoul, 
  the Nightmare Kingdom tends to default 
  to the appearance of some decade within 
  20th Century America, though more 
  exotic 
  environments 
  and 
  horrific 
  hellscapes readily spawn from seemingly 
  mundane beginnings.  
  Lomax, Maine is a sleepy little town 
  in the backwoods, perpetually stuck in 
  some doldrum-y gap in the late 1950s. 
  The town has seen better days: folks are 
  depressed, the lumber mill dried up 
  after all those accidents, and the only 
  place in town that draws any tourists, is 
  the bed-and-breakfast up on the hill. It 
  used to be a church, and before that is 
  was a mental hospital, and before that it 
  was the home of the eccentric town 
  founder, whose odd religion is best 
  forgotten. The kids in Lomax know that 
  something’s wrong, that there’s a reason 
  why their parents don't want them out 
  after dark. The Door to the Nightmare  
   
  Running Scared
  Running Scared
  Running Scared
  Running Scared    
   
  Fear is power in the Nightmare 
  Kingdom, and adjudicating whether or 
  not a character is 'really scared' enough 
  to be fed upon by the Domain can be 
  subjective, nuanced, and tricky. Here are 
  some options for gamemasters: 
   
  Weakest Link – The first time the 
  Nightmare Kingdom or one of its agents 
  tries to frighten the group, assume that 
  the frightening effect or creature is 
  sufficiently 
  scary 
  to 
  frighten 
  the 
  character with the lowest Psyche. This 
  fear 
  feeds 
  the 
  Kingdom, 
  thereby 
  increasing its ability to frighten such 
  that it can scare the character with the 
  next highest Psyche, and so on. 
   
  By The Numbers – Scaring a 
  character is a test of Psyche. Assume 
  that the following entities have a Psyche 
  equivalent to the following for purposes 
  of this test: Average Boogeyman, Psyche 
  10; Elite Boogeyman, Psyche 25; The 
  Man With Red Hands, Psyche 50; The 
  Ghoul, Psyche 100. The gamemaster can 
  always adjust these figures to fit the 
  power level of the game. 
   
  The Honor System – Just ask each 
  player whether their character is scared 
  (even if the character chooses to act 
  tough), 
  and 
  trust 
  their 
  answer. 
  Gamemasters always reserve the right to 
  call bullshit. 
   
   
  
  8 
  Kingdom in this incarnation opens 
  out of a supply closet into the humble 
  break room of the Lomax County 
  Sheriff's Department. 
  Bad Bad NYC is New York City 
  rotting in the most degraded moments 
  of the 1980s. Urban decay has crept over 
  everything like dirty graffiti, crime runs 
  rampant, 
  and 
  entrenched 
  police 
  corruption ensures that nothing is 
  getting better any time soon. By night, 
  the streets buzz with garish neon, the 
  flickers of burnt-out signs illuminate 
  vampires feeding in the alleys and 
  werewolves howling from the rooftops. 
  Serial killers are more popular than 
  celebrities. Grim vigilantes strive to 
  make a difference and bring justice to 
  the streets, but their brief flashes of 
  tarnished 
  heroism 
  only 
  serve 
  to 
  highlight the fact that the world is going 
  to Hell in a hand basket, and that's 
  exactly what it deserves. The Door to the 
  Nightmare Kingdom in this incarnation 
  opens out of a side door into a filthy 
  alleyway just half a block from Times 
  Square. 
  Tinseltown is Hollywood, California 
  at a height of glitz and glamor in the 
  golden days of the early 1930s. The 
  blockbuster 
  popularity 
  of 
  monster 
  movies such as Dracula, Frankenstein, 
  and The Mummy has flooded film studio 
  coffers to overflowing, drawing swarms 
  of 
  aspiring 
  actors, 
  actresses, 
  and 
  screenwriters to the bright lights of the 
  city where dreams come true. With 
  everything going so well, folks try not to 
  notice when young starlets go missing, 
  or when strange occurrences up in the 
  hills get blamed on wayward special  
   
   
  effects. The Door to the Nightmare 
  Kingdom in this incarnation opens into 
  the dressing room of some A-list starlet 
  at Universal Studios. If you don't mind 
  getting slapped, tell her Johnny Zee says 
  hi. 
   
  Final Thoughts
  Final Thoughts
  Final Thoughts
  Final Thoughts    
  The 
  Nightmare 
  Kingdom 
  is 
  dangerous, powerful, and eternal. No 
  matter how many times we seal it off, or 
  wipe it from the maps, or defeat its 
  unspeakably depraved figurehead, it will 
  return. So the best strategy is to learn to 
  recognize the telltale dread of its 
  illusions, steel your mind against the 
  terrors that await, and run the other 
  way. 
   
  ~ Yaeger Zane 
   
   
   
   
  
  9 
  The Nightmare Kingdom Domain Table
  The Nightmare Kingdom Domain Table
  The Nightmare Kingdom Domain Table
  The Nightmare Kingdom Domain Table    
  Technology 
  Level: 
  Other (varies depending on apparent time period) 
  Magic Level:  
  Known and Believed 
  Security: 
  Guarded [4 Points] (the monsters of nightmare) 
  Type: 
  Primal World [4 Points] 
  Control: 
  Control of Destiny [4 Points] (current owner: The Ghoul) 
  Influence 
  on 
  the Powers: 
  Eidolon – Weak  
  Umbra – Powerful  
  Wrighting – Blocked 
  Special: 
  Terror Incarnate. The owner of the Nightmare Kingdom feeds upon 
  the fear of visitors to the Kingdom, as well as fear experienced in 
  close proximity to (within a few yards of) any Door which leads 
  thereto. The owner may use this psychic sustenance to heal wounds, 
  fuel Powers, bolster Attributes, or divert the fear back into the 
  Nightmare Kingdom itself, shaping the realm and its denizens to suit 
  the victim's darkest fears. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Amber/Lords Of Gossamer And Shadow/Gossamer Worlds/The Nightmare Kingdom.pdf