In the short story "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," H.P. Lovecraft's seventh published work, the author examines the case of an incarcerated man who appears to suffer from multiple personalities. There are any number of things that could be put into game terms here, to include degenerate hillbilly Joe Slater, the "luminous thing" from another plane of existence that has possessed him, or the narrator himself. None of these, however, seems entirely satisfactory for various reasons. We are overdue for a device of some sort, however, so I have decided to write up the apparatus the narrator uses to observe the other wordlydreams of Slater. In D&D terms, this is the sort of device that might be created by a certain ilk of Wizard, specialized Gnome tinkerer, or even an Alchemist.
Dream Radio
This device consists of two headbands, one a transmitter and the other a receiver, each set with various wires, crystals, and metal components. If someone wears the receiver headband, they will be able to perceive the dreams of a sleeping person wearing the transmitter headband (there is no effect if the person wearing the transmitter is not asleep or is a creature incapable of sleep, such as an Elf). This effect functions like the spell
Detect Thoughts and can be used at will by a spellcaster of at least 3rd level of ability. Other characters can attempt to utilize the
Dream Radio with the "emulate a class feature" function of the skill Use Magic Device (which can be attempted untrained for these purposes). If such an attempt is unsuccessful it cannot be attempted again for at least a day. Each successful use, however, will allow the device to function for 1 minute, and users receive a +5 bonus on subjects upon whom they have successfully used it at least once.
Moderate divination; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, Detect Thoughts; Price 9,000 gp.
