Awful Nightmares

From Under The Blankets

"Dreams are the only place where a locked door can remember being open, the dead can forget they have died, and somehow none of it feels strange until morning."

— Dr. Alistair Vey, On the Architecture of Dreams

Nightmares are more than unpleasant dreams. They linger long after waking, leaving behind unease that reason struggles to explain. Some are born from fear, grief, guilt, or memory. Others may be shaped by curses, supernatural influence, or forces that reach into a sleeper's mind from beyond the waking world.
The nightmares on this table are intentionally open to interpretation. A result might be nothing more than a restless night's sleep, a symbolic expression of a character's anxieties, or a genuine warning of dangers yet to come. Whether a nightmare carries hidden meaning or is simply the mind wrestling with its own fears is entirely up to the DM.
This table exists to answer a familiar question at the table: "What terrible dream did I have?" Rather than inventing a nightmare from scratch, the DM or player can roll for inspiration and build upon the result if desired.
Most nightmares have no lasting significance beyond an uneasy morning. Others may foreshadow future events, reveal forgotten truths, or hint at unseen forces working behind the scenes. A horrifying vision might ultimately prove meaningless, while an apparently mundane nightmare may later reveal itself to have been painfully accurate.
Use these nightmares as lightly or as heavily as suits your campaign. Sometimes a nightmare is simply the mind finding new ways to frighten itself. Sometimes it is the first whisper of something that should have remained asleep.

d100	Awful Nightmare
1	You ran as fast as you could, but something behind you never fell farther away.
2	Everyone you loved looked at you with fear instead of recognition.
3	Your voice vanished the moment you tried to scream.
4	You watched the sun go out.
5	Every door you opened revealed another coffin.
6	Your reflection smiled while you cried.
7	You buried someone you loved, only for them to knock from inside the grave.
8	You wandered a city where every building was abandoned moments before you arrived.
9	You could hear someone calling for help but could never find them.
10	A forest slowly closed around you until there was no path left.
11	Your hands dissolved into black sand.
12	Everyone around you slowly turned to stone while begging you to help them.
13	A faceless child asked why you had abandoned them.
14	The stars disappeared one by one until the sky became completely empty.
15	You stood trial for a crime no one would explain.
16	Something enormous passed beneath the ground with you standing above it.
17	Every mirror reflected your corpse instead of your face.
18	A loved one warned you not to trust yourself.
19	Every candle went out at once, leaving only darkness.
20	You climbed a tower whose stairs slowly crumbled beneath your feet.
21	Every person you met had empty eye sockets.
22	You woke up inside the dream only to realize you were still dreaming.
23	Your shadow slowly peeled itself off the ground and walked away.
24	The ocean rose without a single wave or sound.
25	You found your own gravestone, polished and well maintained.
26	Every road led back to the same ruined house.
27	Someone whispered your name from inside the walls.
28	Your teeth fell out one by one into your hands.
29	Every clock stopped the instant you looked at it.
30	A crowd silently watched as you forgot how to walk.
31	You were trapped beneath clear ice, watching people pass overhead.
32	Every page of a book described your final day.
33	You forgot the faces of everyone you had ever known.
34	A giant eye opened beneath the sea.
35	Your footsteps filled with blood instead of water after the rain.
36	A loved one begged you not to open a certain door. You opened it anyway.
37	Your hands were covered in blood, but you couldn't remember why.
38	You watched a mountain slowly collapse onto a town.
39	Every bird fell from the sky at the same moment.
40	Someone thanked you for causing the end of the world.
41	You wandered an endless hallway lined with locked nursery doors.
42	Your heartbeat became louder than every other sound.
43	The moon cracked open and something looked out.
44	You found your home completely empty except for one burning candle.
45	Every statue slowly turned to watch you.
46	You could not remember your own name no matter how hard you tried.
47	A bridge collapsed just before you reached the other side.
48	Your childhood home was underwater, yet someone waved to you from inside.
49	Every tree in a forest had a human face.
50	You watched yourself sleeping from the corner of the room.
51	A bell rang somewhere beneath the earth.
52	The sky was covered with hundreds of unmoving ravens.
53	Every path ended at the edge of a bottomless pit.
54	Someone handed you a sealed letter that contained only your date of death.
55	You discovered everyone else's mouths had been sewn shut.
56	Your footsteps echoed several seconds before you took them.
57	A loved one slowly faded away while holding your hand.
58	Every window looked into the same dark room.
59	A black river carried thousands of extinguished candles.
60	You climbed into bed only to find someone already sleeping there.
61	Every portrait in a castle was missing one person. You.
62	You reached for a friend's hand, but they vanished before you touched them.
63	The walls of your home slowly leaned inward.
64	You found an empty cradle gently rocking by itself.
65	Every road sign pointed toward the same place, simply labeled "Home."
66	You heard footsteps following you that stopped whenever you turned around.
67	A tree grew from the center of your chest.
68	Every candle flame burned black.
69	You found a room filled with clocks, each counting down to a different moment.
70	The stars spelled your name before going dark.
71	You looked into a well and saw yourself looking back from far below.
72	Every person you passed apologized without explaining why.
73	Your home had no doors or windows, only walls.
74	You held someone's hand until you realized it wasn't attached to anyone.
75	The ground beneath your feet became soft like flesh.
76	You found every page of your journal already filled with tomorrow's regrets.
77	A child asked if you remembered how everything ended.
78	Every star slowly blinked like an eye.
79	You crossed a battlefield where every fallen soldier wore your face.
80	Your own heartbeat answered when you called out.
81	Every bell in the world rang at once, then silence followed.
82	You watched someone erase your memories one by one from a book.
83	The shadows in a room slowly gathered into a single shape.
84	You stood alone while everyone else fled from something behind you.
85	Every mirror in a house shattered at the same instant.
86	A crown was forced onto your head while unseen voices cheered.
87	You opened your mouth and black feathers spilled out.
88	You stood in a graveyard where every gravestone bore your name in a different handwriting.
89	You reached the top of a staircase only to find the world below had vanished.
90	A stranger insisted they had been wearing your face for years.
91	The sea receded, revealing countless hands reaching upward from the sand.
92	Every child you passed stopped playing to stare silently at you.
93	You found your bed in the middle of a vast, empty field.
94	Someone gently tucked you into a coffin and wished you pleasant dreams.
95	You wandered through an endless rain where every drop whispered your secrets.
96	A door opened by itself, revealing the room you had just left.
97	You watched the last light in the world slowly fade away.
98	You heard laughter coming from beneath your own feet.
99	You woke in your own bed, but everyone insisted you had died years ago.
100	You finally escaped the nightmare, only to hear a calm voice say, "We'll continue tomorrow night."

"I once dreamed I spent a lifetime escaping something that never showed its face. When I awoke, I could remember every moment of the fear... but not why I had been afraid."

— From The Ninth Night, Act II, Scene V