Nightgaunts

Overview

Every child knows the fear of something in the dark, something that has no face, that tickles rather than scratches, that lifts you from the bed and carries you to a destination you cannot name. Most children outgrow it. Randolph Carter did not, for he had seen the nightgaunts as a boy, and when he later walked the roads of the Dreamlands, he recognized them again.

They serve Nodens, it is said, the grey and hoary lord of the abyss, but they are not kind. They are not merciful. They are the reason sensible dreamers avoid certain cliffs and certain hours.

Description

A nightgaunt is black, smooth, and rubbery, with a barrel-shaped body and vast membranous wings. It has no face, no eyes, no mouth, no nose, only a surface so blank that the mind recoils. They do not speak; they communicate in touches, and the touch that precedes abduction is the tickle, delicate and obscene, that breaks the victim's will to resist.

They are strong. They are silent. They can carry a man across miles of dream-country or, in rare cases, snatch the unwary from the borderland between sleep and waking. The complete absence of features disturbs witnesses more than any grin or glare could accomplish.

Historical Record

Carter's account remains primary: nightgaunts guarding the abyss, ferrying souls, harrying those who approach Kadath without permission. Other dream-travellers confirm the taxonomy. A few waking-world incidents, persons found on rooftops with no memory, persons who refuse ever to sleep with windows open, suggest the boundary is thinner than the rational prefer to believe.

The archive notes that childhood night terrors clustering around 'faceless' figures may constitute a form of racial memory or psychic bleed-through. The theory is disputed. The fear is not.

Archive Notes

Personnel experiencing recurrent dreams of faceless fliers should report to the Dreamlands desk before symptoms worsen. Do not attempt to bargain with Nodens without clearance. If tickled in sleep, wake fully, do not drift. The nightgaunts are not imagination. They are the reason imagination learned to be afraid.