It almost might have been any other day in the Dreamlands, until Ricki Carter decided to follow in her family member Randolph Carter's footsteps. She had read his journals from the last years of his life repeatedly, especially those about his adventures in the Dreamlands. She had taken his written warnings, especially about Kadath, to heart for years. Until that day.
The visions Randolph wrote about – of the shimmering golden city that had been Boston the entire time – started bothering Ricki as well. It continued until she started awake in bed every morning, feeling as if something was out of place. After the seventh time, she finally prayed to the gods of the Dreamlands to allow her to follow Randolph's footsteps to Kadath right before she went to bed. And, it happened quite literally and quite unexpectedly.
When she ended up in the Dreamlands, she was in the Enchanted Woods, exactly where Randolph's own Dream-Quest began. She then decided to just follow in his footsteps and do what he did, if she had to. She went from the Enchanted Woods to Ulthar, and from Ulthar to Dylath-Leen. In Dylath-Leen, she got very close to repeating Randolph's mistake with the traders, but managed to avoid it at the last second. She followed his path to Oriab, climbed Ngranek to see the face on the mountain for herself, and unfortunately had Randolph's misfortune to end up in the Valley of Pnath.
The ghouls luckily were also very helpful, although one – that Ricki later identified as Richard Pickman thanks to Randolph's description – muttered about stupid Dreamers that repeated others' mistakes and wasn't impressed when she said she was related to Randolph. She then reluctantly followed the same path, through the trapdoor to the Enchanted Woods in the Tower of Koth. She went through Ulthar again, from where she went to Thran and then to Celephaïs, although she tried her best to avoid Kuranes. Then Ricki took a page out of Randolph's book and pretended that she wanted to work in the quarries, and let history repeat itself for the second time.
But it was when she finally arrived at Kadath that her experience dramatically and unexpectedly diverted from Randolph's. One moment she was walking through the empty halls and the next she started awake in a bed. But she could clearly see that she was still in the Dreamlands, because a man that looked rather like the pharaohs of old was leaning against the wall close to the door. It took her a few minutes to figure out who he was, but her blood became ice in her veins when she realised who it was: Nyarlathotep. His facial expression implied that he took pleasure out of her fear, and he took his time to explain to her why he wouldn't let her go; that she would go to Kadath every time she entered the Dreamlands, whether she wanted to or not.
This was months and months ago now, and Ricki gradually got used to the routine. Every evening, without fail, she ended up in Kadath the second she fell asleep. It gradually started driving her insane, because she started missing Ulthar and its many cats. But even that stopped when she realised she didn't have a chance to go back there. Not until she did what Randolph didn't want to do: find a pathway for Nyarlathotep to enter the golden city.
And she did it; she found the pathway, after months of research and failed attempts. The only thing she hoped for was that everyone would forgive her.