Nightmare Fuel

Nightmare Fuel can be found within the swamps of Blotaya as a naturally forming gas. The gas itself isn't harmful, directly, one can breathe it and, in a few hours, be right as rain. But its location combined with its effects is where the danger lies.

Nightmare

It's a slurry made of swamp gas, toad farts, and fly shavings. I know it's not actually made of that, it's just fun to say. What matters to me; I don't want to interact with it ever again.

— Aoax

Follow the Jairoth into the swamp, wade the pitch waters in an effort to follow ghosts. You'll be lost soon enough, the Jairoth full of your soul and you left laggard. You don't know which way you came, all the trees look the same. Snakes and alligators wait for you to step too close. These are not what you should fear.

You travel in what you hope is one direction, if only to get up out of the water. A fog rolls in. That's not it, the fog has been there for a while, you simply noticed it. You have been wading for what feels like hours and you just want to sleep in a warm, dry bead. Maybe you should lie down, to rest your eyes on a stone you found cresting the endless water.

You wake with a start! You've experienced the worst nightmare you had ever in your life. You can't tell if it's cold sweat clinging to your face or the remnants of the swamp water, or the blood from your dream. You slap yourself, afraid of the centipedes crawling on your face that you know aren't there. You stand, short of breath, and panicked in a way you know is unreasonable. You spin, a sound you can't explain startling you. Nothing's there. The swamp is muggy, dark, and quiet... Your nightmare doesn't stop. Dark shadowy creatures with faces of your loved ones emerge from behind trees. You run, slipping and falling into the swamp with a painful splash. You flail, get up, and try your best to wade as fast as you can.

They taunt you, reminding you how you will never amount to anything, a failure in everyone's eyes. The figures are gone, you're running down a hallway. Walls sports paintings unrecognizable and horrible. Your breath becomes difficult and your eyes seem to blink every time you try and comprehend a painting. Your mother calls to you in a voice unrecognizable. You reach out to her, hooks in the shapes of fingers grab your feet, your legs, your sides, your torso, dragging you down into the floor. You scream, not for help but because it is all you can do.

You were never asleep, the rock was never there, only the swamp heavy with nightmare fuel.

Detection

Nightmare fuel is an odorless gaseous substance found on the surface of water. It is heavier than air, creating a blanket that will stir at the slightest bit of movement. Only nightmare detectors will alert you, a requirement for any expedition into swamplands known to produce the substance.

Use in Other Organisms

Any inhalation of the nightmare fuel will cause nightmarish hallucinations. Many creatures still live within it, taking in the substance and converting it to venoms and poison. Most notably, the dreaded Thiron makes use of nightmare fuel and makes it deadly potent.

Fuel

The easiest way of dealing with nightmare fuel is any kind of filter or gas mask. The particles that make up the chemical hoidkaisia are large, so a paper over the mouth will protect you from the effects. This chemical is a fuel for several things.

The first, most obvious to anyone whose been to a surgeon, use is a key enchantment for a sleeping stone. The amethyst and hoidkaisia with a few other enchantments create stones that, when heald, will put the user into a deep, dreamless slumber. The enchantments combine the chemical with the stone and a few other words and magics to create the surgeon's best friend.

But the distillation of the chemical has many other uses, some more nefarious. dream drugs meant to induce vivid and/or lucid dreams are a favorite in the underground dream-sharing ring. Chasing better and better dreams to a ravenous audience has led a few professional dream sharers to dope with dream drugs whose key element is, of course, hoidkaisia. But hoidkaisia induces nightmares, so special enchantments, like with sleep stones, are needed to counteract these effects. The less reputable a dream drug is, the more likely not much care was put into this part and you may end up with vivid and/or lucid nightmares.