Ok - I can see how that could cover what Braga talks about - they are after all still exiles, so whether through Thoth-Amon’s actions (or Nyal’s), they could have been made to walk through an ‘unnatural’ route. Still not convinced that explains Conan. But then, I’m not convinced any explanation really explains Conan’s presence all that well - it always feels like one of the bigger holes in CE ‘canon’ - but then his presence may be more for ‘recognition value’ from a game perspective, than something that was ever fully fleshed out even in the minds of the story developers…
Interesting to read Haunter in the Dark, I appreciate the link to the full story (rather than just an extract) - for some reason, Lovecraft has always been the one of the three (REH, Lovecraft and CAS) that least interested me - just a personal taste thing I guess, certainly nothing I can specifically point to - but I really should still get round to reading a bit more of his stuff (if only for the ‘connected mythos’ element). Certainly, it seems pretty clear it is the same Shining Trapezohedron. I’m not so sure the story makes 100% clear that Blake is walking into the dreamlands - seems more like he is sleep-walking to a corrupted church in the physical world, but maybe that’s just my interpretation. Either way - ‘walking into dream’ is a concept that has never bothered me - it fits well enough with so many fantasy and mystical traditions, and I see no reason that REH woudn’t have at least considered it possible (within the ‘rules’ of his universe).
Going completely speculative here - I guess there’s an interesting possible way to explain Conan’s presence - the Exiles might have been physically gathered into a dream realm, but that doesn’t mean that Conan couldn’t have dreamed his way there. That would cover the problems with his own timeline, and could explain his 10 million HP (can’t ‘kill’ someone that isn’t really there). Of course, he wouldn’t seem ‘asleep’ to the Exiles because he would be in their reality - just his route in (and out) might be different if he is not truly physically present. Not sure what difference it makes (and, as noted earlier, he’s probably just there because the devs wanted him to be…), but it’s an interesting idea.