Nightmare

**Nightmares**, were fiendish equines named after the terrible dreams suffered by those that encountered them. They were wicked creatures best known for serving as mounts under a variety of malevolent beings throughout the Lower realms.

## Description

Nightmares were seemingly emaciated stallions, approximately 6 feet tall at the shoulders, with night-black coats. On further examination, however, their warhorse-like exterior was revealed to be entirely superficial. They had huge heads, fangs like vipers, and malevolent dark eyes often illuminated by red-hot flames, and they spouted orange fire when their nostrils flared. Wreathed in fire, their manes were wild and their tails unkempt, but they turned to cinders and quickly dispersed upon death.

## Personality

Nightmares were callous and cruel creatures that stalked those they could victimize. They displayed hatred towards all life on the Physical Realm and exhibited an infernal intelligence unseen in true beasts. Rather than simply murder their targets, they used their supernatural powers to strike terror in them first, making them fear for their lives and killing them once they were reduced to panicking wrecks. One of their favorite tricks was to allow their victims one last moment of feeling safe before suddenly reappearing, dashing their last remaining hope, and then striking the killing blow.

## Abilities

The titular power of nightmares was their ability to appear in dreams, either before the victim had encountered them in the flesh in a kind of ill omen or in the minds of survivors after a terrifying attack. They could shift to the astral and ethereal realms, as well as the Shadow Realm, at will, and despite their lack of wings they could magically fly even faster than they ran. Their hooves typically ignited flammable objects and they could leave massive walls of fire in their wake.

## Combat

With tooth and hoof, nightmares savaged most creatures they came across. Beings from the lower realms were typically spared from their fury but other entities weren't so lucky, particularly those from the Physical Realm. They utilized hit-and-run tactics, targeting separated members of groups and blocking off means of escape through fires, speed, and their ability to move between realms. Only skilled riders could properly fight with a nightmare while riding on top of it.

## Society

Nightmares of the Shadow Realm were unique in their tendency to hunt in small, predatory herds similar to wolf packs. They haunted untraveled roads, either in the Shadow Realm or Physical Realm, looking for the rare, night-going wanderers to prey upon. Passages known as "ember ways", so-called because of the smoking hoofprints left behind in the wake of their makers, were regarded as dangerous paths even by the denizens of the Shadow Realm and even during the day.

## Ecology

Nightmares had no actual connection to real horses and were only semi-material beings lacking the need to breathe, although they could become tired. They could easily carry hundreds of pounds and, so long as there was space on their backs, could carry any amount of undead. Up to 120 pounds of gold could be carried to and from the ethereal realm along with their riders.

## Death

Aging nightmares showed gray hairs on their black coats or a hunched posture. When their time of death approached, nightmares made their way to the third layer of the Waste Realm, Pluton, to a spot called the Hill of Bone to die, normally bringing ruin to their former masters in the process.