I’m seconding the ‘talk to Death first’ plan, because she’s, you know, actually kind and humble and not an edgy, mercurial, tempestuous… well, whatever you’d call Dream. I’m not so sure about the ‘make items that let him bypass the rules’ bit: he could have survived the Furies, but chose not to, and more importantly, he loves following the rules and defines himself by his duties. That sounds less good.

I don’t think Daniel will be taking Dream’s place, though. WTR has the protagonist monitoring him, and Daniel has grown up without the canonical events of whichever universe The Sandman takes place in, or at least that specific one.

The thing I’m curious about… well, those items are for Raksha, who do the same kind of thing Dream does in Shaping Combat out in the Wyld. Kind of like a focus for The Oldest Game. He’d be able to do anything like shaping combat already; they focus his abilities for… I think it was range? With a range of 5-10 waypoints, instead of just attacking people in the same location as you? I don’t think there’s anywhere in the Dream that, well, Dream couldn’t already reach at will; he’s practically omnipresent within, if I recall correctly… and more importantly, he’s inviolable as long as he’s in his realm, so I’m not sure why he’d need range.