Looking for Dreamlands advice

[Mapleaxe]

Hey there -- looking for some advice. In the near future, the PCs in my long running campaign (currently 7th level) are going to be physically going into the Dreamlands via a magic gate (as opposed to the usual method of going there while you get your zzzs or via occult ritual). As I plan this adventure, I have two things I'm trying to figure out:
1) What to do about treasure they pick up in the Dreamlands once they return to the material plane? Should it go poof like they would if they were standard dreamers? If I go that route, how do I avoid demoralizing the players when their booty disappears on them or leave them significantly behind on equipment? Should I give them fantastical treasure in the Dreamlamds that becomes more mundane (but level appropriate) when they return?
2) I'm trying to figure out ways to make the Dreamlands more "dream-like" to differentiate them for characters who are porting in from Golarion -- otherwise they're just characters going from one fantasy world to another. Some ideas I currently have:
-Encountering "dopelgangers" of NPCs they know in the waking world
-The unless there's a specific reason to the contrary, the weather is always perfect.
-Uneventful travel passes instantaneously with the characters only having a general memory of the travel.
-Use of impossible feats as described in the Dimension of Dreams/Dreamlands entry in the Planar Adventures book.
Any other ideas or feedback on these ideas?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Metaphors are a nice touch in the Dreamlands. Things aren't always exact in dreams. Rather than giving a PC a magic hammer, perhaps their breath deals damage like the weapon. Then, when the PC returns to the waking world they have in their possession a magic hammer, level appropriate.

Make sure to get weird. One minute the PCs are battling in an open field; the next they step sideways, into a plaza surrounding a beautiful fountain. Now they're inside the water of the fountain, dancing upon the spray.

Since things aren't always what they seem, get as trippy as you want to. Monsters don't so much move from space to space as dissolve and reappear over and over in a strobing effect, yet somehow the PC's AoO still finds them (no blur effect). Interludes of NPCs or objects entering a scene seemingly at random, then disappearing. Backwards music, candles that generate rainbows, candy stalk legs on great birds that issue deep, rumbling chants.

[Andostre]

If there's a nightmare component to this dream adventure, add personal touches, such as monsters turn into the corpses of people they know when they die. I also like the doppelganger idea above.

You know the dreaming experiences where you're having a bad dream, and something is chasing you, but you just can't move at all? Or you can flee, but it's inexplicably slow? Ooh! You can create a random dream-world effects table, and those can be two of the random effects. Another effect could be not being able to control your own movement or speech. Another could be being able to jump very high. (Maybe that last one is something only I remember from dreams?)

Include things that you may know of (or can conceivably insert) from the character's childhoods, even if it's not added in a sinister way. Like suddenly a childhood pet is there. Or a childhood friend that you haven't seen in years. Or a long-deceased favorite horse appears to offer advice.

Another dream trope is the concept of waking up from a dream and not knowing if you're still dreaming or not.

If you have a boss battle at the end, you could suddenly make it so that any spells or feats cast actually act like their mythic counterparts.

[Andostre]

Regarding the loot concern, any currency they find appears as useless items such as handfuls of tree bark carried in coin purses or worn jewelry as weird little dried animal corpses. But any that make it out of the dream world come out as actual currency or valuable jewelry.

Magic items could be powerful or symbolic items in the dream world, but once the PCs are back, you could make them less powerful, but also unique and thematic. For example, maybe a magic weapon that they acquire in the dream translates in the real world as the same base type of weapon, but it's a thundering weapon during the day but a ghost touch weapon at night. Or a weapon that grants speak with dead if it lands the killing blow. The idea is that you can get crazy in the dream world, and then scale the items down for the return to the waking world, but the uniqueness of the items will counter any demoralization you're worried about.

[Pizza Lord]

You could have any items brought out by a character fade over time as the dream and its connection fades. Things that the player leaves, drops, or tries to give away fade immediately without their contact or presence (so trying to buy something with 'dream gold' won't work.
But things like weapons or magic items might last a few days (unless used, like a potion or scroll). Maybe it requires a Will save every day (DC 15 + 1 per day) or the item fades away.

Or maybe they just lose effectiveness, becoming slowly like quasi real items that deal less and less real damage or have less effect over time.