Underworld (Dreamlands)

The underworld is a fictional location in the Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. It is described in detail in Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926).

The underworld lies beneath the whole of the Dreamlands and has a few entrances to it in various places. It is dimly lit by a mysterious phosphorescence known as the "death-fire". The underworld is inhabited by a variety of horrors, the most common being the ghouls.

After a moment something about the size of a small horse hopped out into the grey twilight, and Carter turned sick at the aspect of that scabrous and unwholesome beast, whose face is so curiously human despite the absence of a nose, a forehead, and other important particulars.
—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

The ghasts are a race of fearsome that live in the vaults of Zin. They are much larger than a man and have a vaguely human face, albeit missing a nose. Their skin is rough and knotty. Their senses are unusually acute; they can see in the dark and have a strong sense of smell. They hop about on a pair of hooved, kangaroo-like legs, and are swift, strong, and agile. They have also been described as lacking a forehead. Ghasts prefer to dwell in complete darkness and have no tolerance for natural light — sunlight will kill them instantly. Otherwise, the dim, pale glow of the underworld seems to cause them little harm.

The ghasts are aggressive carnivores and often hunt in packs, though they are quick to turn cannibalistic when no game is readily available. They prey mostly on the gugs, but have no qualms about eating other denizens of the underworld. Their method of attack is particularly savage and gruesome, rending and tearing apart their victims with their muzzles, paws, and hoofed feet.

It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the head of the awakened gug sentry, large as a barrel, wabbled into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from the top to the bottom of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally.
—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

...
Wikipedia