| Class: | Bizarre beast; parasitic arthropod vermin |
| Hab: | Wherever Folk dream, civilized or no |
| Fre: | Rare |
| Num: | 1-4 per passerby; may be innumerable in thicket, tapestries, etc. |
| Lair: | 95% |
| Size: | ½" or less |
| Move: | Slow crawl but springs 1 yard |
| Def: | Wee, hard, sets under skin |
| Att: | Insidious dream influencing |
| Int: | None |
| Spec: | Influences dreams |
| Posns: | None |
The dream tick is about the size of a thumbnail. While its usual move is a slow crawl, it can leap up to a yard, onto a passing potential host or away if caught. It usually burrows under the skin at the base of the scalp, hidden under the hairline. Bald Folk are relatively immune to dream ticks, as the tick remains easy to see where there is no hair to hide under. While its physical body is quite mundane, the dream tick's effect, achieved by tapping directly in to its host's psyche, it anything but.
Despite its lack of intelligence, the dream tick psychically reads its host's subconscious needs and desires and uses the images gained to influence the host's dreams. The tick is equally able to influence both normal dreams and Dreamland manifestations.
As the tick feeds off of the psychic energies of the situations, its efforts are directed toward maximizing the emotional weight of the dreams. The effect of the tick is to make the dreams more vivid, the settings more exotic, the adventures experienced more wild. This means, effectively, that the host becomes the protagonist of ever more exhilarating adventures - exhilarating and dangerous. Any sort of lures may be used to induce the host to return to the dreams again and again, from relatives to be rescued to loves to be perused. These lures may not always be obvious; an architect might have dreams set in the midst of endless cities of incredible buildings, where the ultimate inspiration is always just around the corner, while a lawyer might dream of adventures where the laws of corrupt overlords must be broken by valiant pirate-advocates.
Dream ticks may be used as a means of accessing the Dreamlands. Experience gained during a vivid dream, whether in the Dreamlands or no, may well translate in to real experience, although completely new skills cannot be learned, unless the dreamer has access to the appropriate knowledge.
When the dreams become real enough for experience to be gained from them, damage sustained during the dreams begins to evidence itself on the sleeper's psyche - and sometimes the body as well. The damage may be subtle, easily dismissed or credited to more mundane causes, but eventually the psychic wounds become as blunt as any physically inflicted injury. Death during a vivid dream may result in a heart attack, or the soul may simply slip away, leaving the uninhabited body in a coma. Such a living corpse may not remain inhabited long…
Group dreams are quite possible. These generally begin when several Folk, ridden by dream ticks, sleep near one another. As psychic bonds develop between them, the may sleep at ever greater distances yet remain in contact through their dreams. Those with strong psychic bonds, such as siblings or bonded couples, may travel to different worlds or planes of existence and yet meet in their dreams. There are even reports, abet not properly documented, of such bonds continuing beyond death.
That is quite a powerful effect for a wee little brainless bloodsucking arthropod vermin.
The dream tick is but one of three so-called "dream riders." The other two are Daydreams and Dream Spiders, or Psychic Spinners, which also SEE.
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