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dailyadventureprompts · 4 months

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Hey Dapper! As an avid follower of- and equally avid inspiration-taker from your work, first of all, thank you for the work you've put into all this. It is a treasure-trove of knowledge and inspiration that has certainly made me very happy. Can I ask for your thoughts on Tharizdun? I've been trying to form a concept of it for in my own world, but I've had little success.

Monsters Reimagined: Tharizdun, the Whisperer in Darkness

Being the default "god of madness" Tharizdun brings together two of my enduring gripes with d&d: gods that no one would actually worship and the enduring legacy of depicting people with mental illness as dangerous lunatics devoid of empathy and reason.

As he currently exists in the DM's toolbox, the whole point of including Tharizdun in your campaign is to act as the powersource behind whichever final fantasy style endboss wants to start the apocalypse before unleashing a mass of offband lovecraftian tentacles. Derivative, trite, his singular desire to inspire others to end the world is MCU levels of failing to give villains proper motivations.

We can do better

TLDR: Far In the wildest depths of the astral sea the ur-god Tharizdun is formless and thoughtless, yet dreaming. Resembling nothing so much as a cosmic nebula of oily clouds, a vast and shapeless expanse of churning primordial chaos that pulses with synapses of psychic lighting containing a consciousness older than time itself. Like a sleeper beset with sleep paralysis the chained oblivion thrashes against a reality it can only barely perceive, sending shockwaves of destruction across the cosmos.

While scholars of all worlds debate the true origins and nature of Tharizdun they can agree on two things:

It is more powerful than all the pantheons of creation, and it is terrified.

Inspiration: I wasn't originally going to do a whole monsters reimagined on Tharizdun, instead simply gesturing on what Matt Mercer has done with the deity (using the roiling chaos as a throughline for much of his Exandrian worldbuilding) and leaving it at that.

Around the same time I got this ask though I was considering doing my own take on Azathoth, the so called "blind idiot god" of the lovecraft mythos, inspiration struck and I decided to alloy the two concepts into what I think is a stronger whole. There's a lot of overlap in the two formless horrors, partly due to Tharizdun being a d&d's attempt to dip its toe into eldritch horror, without quite understanding the thematic framework involved.

Like many other things ( Minorities, the sea, decay, air conditioning) Lovecraft was terrified of objective reality. This might sound like a joke, but fundamental to his mythos is the fear that earth and the white men that lived upon it were not the centre of the universe created by a loving god. Lovecraft lived in increasingly scientific times and the science supported the idea of a universe in which humanity's existence was the meaningless product of random chance. Azathoth was this anxiety embodied in its most extreme scale: the capital G god of the universe which sat in the middle of all creation that was not only uncaring towards humanity (as many of Lovecraft's creations were) but the embodiment of ultimate unthinking chaos.

Trying to port Azathoth (and most of the other lovecrafitan pantheon) doesn't work because the conceits of the genre fundamentally clash. D&D DOES propose a moral universe, and goes out of its way to simplify morality down to such a cartoonish level that it has objective answers. In Lovecraft the horror comes from the fact that the cultists and their fucked up alien gods exist, where as the moral christian god doesn't... in d&d there's no reason for the cultists to worship the fucked up alien gods because the regular gods are both existent and quite nice.

The default d&d cosmology has multiple infinite voids of chaos including limbo, the abyss, and the far realm. I've already given my take on one of these, but I wanted an alternative for the origins of the weird that wasn't specifically focused on entropic decay.

There's a fascinating (and very depressing) history over the term hysteria and the connotations of mental crisis with feminine fragility. The word itself comes from the greek word for womb and there's something about the idea of "primal birthing chaos" that's worth playing with insofar as it makes weird rightoids Jordan Peterson deeply afraid.

Taking these thoughts as well as my earlier gripes in mind, its going to take a bit of an overhaul to make Tharizdun/Azathoth as a credible antagonistic force for a campaign. Also, this might be my own bias as an author showing through here but I don't go in for the lovecrafitan "truths too terrible to be understood". I think the universe is a fundamentally knowable place and if things exist outside our means of perceiving them then we'll just bullrush through and work out a temporary explanation on our way.

Here's my Fix/Pitch: Both Tharizdun and Azathoth are supposed to represent primordial chaos and formless madness. D&D's less than stellar history with mental health issues aside, we know that "madness" isn't evil and it isn't the antithetical opposite of order: It's flawed reason, it's an inability to comprehend, and it's deeply scary for those going through it.

THAT ended up reminding me of a famous quote from lovecraft himself; "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown".

What if we make THAT FEAR into the god? Imagine the panicked sensation of being woken from the deepest slumber by a sudden noise, the door opening or a loud bang going off somewhere on your street..... the phantom horror of something touching you, crawling over you in the middle of the night before you have any of your senses or reason or memory to tell you that it's just your partner or your pet or your own bed sheets. That's the stuff sleep paralysis is made of and it's been haunting us humans since the dawn of time. It's also the same horror of being born, of being a non-thing and then coming into existence in fits and starts without any understanding of the world that you're now

Now imagine there's something out there in the astral sea, the plane of dreams and thoughts... powerful beyond all imagining but created without the ability to ever fully wake up. It is stuck in that first moment of existence because it may well have been the first thing to ever exist and it's been trapped in the shapeless nightmare of an infant since the dawn of time

THAT is how you make a god about the horror of the unknown. A god that is antagonistic to us because it is sacred of us, and it is scared because it has no way of knowing us, knowing the reality it inhabits beyond its own fear.

Adventure Hooks:

The greatest threat Tharizdun presents to most beings in the universe is having a nightmare about them. Through the inexplicable paths of sleep an individual's mind may find themselves connected to the entity's own... receiving terrible visions as the thinking clouds of Tharizdun's body churn in a variable brainstorm. Some aspect of this communion will be twisted into something terrible, birthed into the cosmos with the same shrieking fear and confusion that inspired its creation. Some desperate few seek out this communion, thinking in their hubris that they can give shape to Tharizdun's creation, that the terror beyond time suffers collaborators or requests. (Yes, I'm yoinking the dream-spawning ability of beholders. They were already weird enough before they started getting involved with dream stuff)

Despite being a living entity, Tharizdun is also a place, a plane unto itself streaking through the multiverse like a collossal ameoba through the primordial soup. There are landscapes within the god, whole continents that form and erode through seasons of surreality as the paroxyc titan dreams them into being. One can create portals into these landscapes, even fly a jammership across them, but the act of doing so invites an even more chaotic backlash than visiting the chained oblivion in dreams, letting its terror leak out into the waking worlds.

The name "chained oblivion" dates back to an eon when forces of celestial order attempted to keep Tharizdun contained in the hopes of preventing the escape of its creations or its contact with other minds. This period of the multiverse oft refereed to as the "Time of Quiet" sadly came to an end when the entity's bindings were shattered by a collective of villains and horrors today refereed to as the "Court of Fools" or "Troupe of the Final Void". The Troupe are a motley bunch, unable to agree on a theology but all wanting to pick at the slumbering titan like it was a scab on the skin of heaven. Some serenade Tharzidun with cacophonous music, others hurl saints and sacrifices into its body, some worship or hunt the god's offspring while others stab it with cosmic pokers, just to get a reaction. They want to wake the chained oblivion and don't care how much of the multiverse they have to burn to do it.

Like a mollusc producing pearls as a means of containing an irritating bit of grit, Tharizdun's roiling cosmic body will occasionally spit out an entire world or strange demiplanes as a means of dislodging something it could not pallet. While this has been the genesis of many realms both beautiful and terrible throughout the astral timeline, of late all these worlds worth taking have been colonized by the Troupe. Woe and pity to any mortal who calls such a world home, ruled over by tyrants who care only for destruction, unaware of a cosmos not coloured by Tharizdun's wake.

Titles: The chained oblivion, the spiraling titan, sire of stars, the Paroxsmal god, Lord of all Hysterics.

Signs: Stormclouds that look oily and churn with otherworldly light, formless nightmares and pervasive sleep paralysis, mass delusion, darkness that echoes with the god's muttering and the sound of distant flutes.

Worshippers: Ad hoc worship of Tharizdun tends to congregate around those who have received unwanted visions of the chained oblivion, as the harrowing experiance often bestows those that suffer it with an otherworldy weight to their words, to say nothing of occasional psychic powers. Many abberations likewise pay heed to the chained oblivion, either for directly giving them life or for its great and insuppressable power. Among these include Grell who refer to Tharizdun as "storm mother", The nightmarish Quori follow in the wake of the god's psychic emanations and make up a large faction of the court of fools, and the Kaorti, terrifying mage-things remade by exposure to the spiralling titan's heart who claim to be heralds for the entity.

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#monsters reimagined #outergod #tharizdun #lovecraftian #outer spheres #astral #kaorti #quori #far realm #planescape #spelljammer

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chronivore · 5 months

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Kaorti

#kaorti #fantasy art #dungeons & dragons

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thirdtofifth · 1 year

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Kaorti Medium aberration, neutral evil Armor Class 16 (resin armor) Hit Points 27 (6d8) Speed 30 ft. Str 7, Dex 14, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 16 Damage Immunities poison Damage Resistances psychic Condition Immunities poisoned Senses darkvision 60 ft. passive Perception 10 Languages Common, Sylvan Challenge 1 (200 XP) Material Incongruity. Every hour the kaorti is on the Material Plane and not encased in its resin armor, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion. Vile Transformation. A kaorti can spend 8 hours with its jaws locked onto the body of an unconscious creature that isn't a construct or undead. If it does, at the end of that time, the creature is transformed into a kaorti (if it was a humanoid) or into a thrall of the kaorti who created it (if it wasn't a humanoid). A thrall of a kaorti retains its normal statistics, except that its Intelligence becomes 1, it becomes an aberration, and it obeys the kaorti's verbal commands. Innate Spellcasting. The kaorti's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). The kaorti can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: At will: ray of enfeeblement 1/day each: color spray, disguise self, feather fall, spider climb Actions Multiattack. The kaorti makes two melee attacks or two ranged attacks. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) psychic damage. Dart. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) psychic damage. Ribbon Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) psychic damage.

The remnants of wizards who long ago sought to push beyond the boundaries of the multiverse, kaorti are the twisted result of those ancient pioneers. Able only to tolerate the fundamental differences between Far Realm and Material Plane by encasing themselves in cysts, these creatures cannot survive for long outside the protective resin casings they create for themselves. Now they live in remote fortresses and monasteries, entirely driven by the unending need to corrupt as much of the Material Plane as they can, so as to consume it for the Far Realm. They can be found in “cysts” of up to five dozen. The average kaorti stands 7 feet tall yet weighs a mere 100 lbs.

Originally from the Fiend Folio.

#thirdtofifth aberration #thirdtofifth CR 1 #d&d #dnd #dnd 3.5 #dnd 5e #d&d 3.5 #dungeons and dragons #d&d homebrew #d&d monster #far realm

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lanaevyssmoved · 5 months

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OC questions tag meme!

THANK YOU FOR TAGGING ME @hibernationsuit mwah mwah

i'm doing it for afhiri, candor and cirok!! it's undercut because its long ^_^

Name:

afhiri, but if performing will tell people their name is gift ^_^ afhiri does have a surname i just haven't decided what it is yet because it's almost better to me if no one ever finds out. even me candor's actual name is raguel, but chose the virtue name candor for itself! this was with intent for when it introduced itself to afhiri, but it completely failed when he realised afhiri doesn't know what candour means :D cirok is a name that they picked themselves after his failed transformation into a kaorti and became a rivener! it's actual name is long lost, and no one will ever learn it

Nickname(s):

afhiri has the nicknames hiri and iri, and various pet names from their various partners. "sweet clown" and "my favourite bard" are used often by gale! a fun fact is gale will give afhiri moon and star related names, and candor will give afhiri sun related names! candor is called candy by afhiri, and they'll tease it with lots of "you're so sweet! like candy!" hehehe... the torment melts the heart of even the most honourable of angels cirok is called cir by afhiri but other than that their name doesn't actually get used often, since it only really interacts with afhiri and gale. gale calls cirok "it" a lot, and "phantom", using cirok mostly when afhiri pouts at him. it sounds mean but cirok doesn't mind and sometimes prefers the depersonalisation of it

Gender:

afhiri is intersex and was raised to be a boy from birth, however they developed to look more like a girl, causing a lot of inner turmoil and conflict. afhiri is transfem and nonbinary. they also take testosterone to feel closer to their masculinity. she/they pronouns! candor is quite literally a sexless solar angel, but is maculine in appearence and presentation. calling candor a man in any form would be incorrect. he/it/they pronouns! cirok is nonbinary. don't ask whats under its clothes... vaguely gestures to the fact it's a failed kaorti transformation. it/they with heavy preference for it/its.

Star sign:

this is a little difficult because realms lore has changed on this a lot, if i'm correct in my information. from people being blessed by stars or entire consellations to each month actually having a sign in more recent lore. here is a link anyone doing this for realms ocs (like bg3 ocs) can use to figure this out! the lore on stars and consellations in the realms is spotty at best, but this could be helpful if you wanna go that route!

afhiri was born in the month of kythorn, at the height of summer. her sign is the moth! uh.. candor wasn't born like that and cirok experienced literal rebirth so like. i can only answer this for afhiri LSKDJFDSF

Height:

i added gale because gale kisses afhiri and cirok hehehe

Orientation:

afhiri is polyam and bisexual ^_^ candor is yknow an angel so doesn't really subscribe to this but would be polyam and pansexual if. it did subscribe to labels at all cirok is [waves hands about] queer

Nationality/Ethnicity:

afhiri is baldurian and from the lower city in a poor district. baby is a tiefling! candor is a solar from the upper planes! candor originally called the chronias layer of mount celestia its home but upon agreeing to serve lathander moved to the realm morninglory in elysium. candor spends a few decades on toril, but eventually returns to morninglory where they stay for eternity cirok is a rivener, and what it was before this is lost to time, and you're not going to get an answer out of them. but if you were able to get a good look, you'd assume cirok is maybe a human or a half elf. cirok stays in waterdeep with afhiri and gale post-game but where cirok was before is anyones guess!

Favourite fruit:

afhiri likes sweet fruits best of all, like berries, melons and mangoes! candor doesn't eat.......... cirok doesn't eat either...............

Favourite season:

afhiri likes it warm and loves nature, flowers, greenery, so late spring and summer are the best! candor likes the summer because of the long days and warm sun ^_^ cirok uh. is not gonna answer this question if you ask and it doesn't have one.......

Favourite flower:

afhiri loves all flowers but most especially simple flowers like daisies! if afhiri sees a field of daisies you have LOST her candor likes sunflowers and roses.. obviously cirok doesn't like flowers dlfkgfdglkdfgdfg

Favourite scent:

afhiri likes natural smells over perfumey ones that usually make them sneeze dfklgjdfgd so you're gonna see afhiri sniffing flowers and the fresh air and avoiding people wearing scents candor probably got some. angel advanced sniffer shit going on. so i assume candor can smell the universe and stuff. so lets just say whatever the sun smells like and leave it there so i don't have to unpack this cirok doesn't have a favourite scent are you seeing a pattern here :)

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate:

HOT CHOCOLATE FOR AFHIRI PLEASE. sometimes gale makes them mochas. ^_^ candor doesn't drink! :) but would like tea fdl;kgdf cirok doesn't drink either..!! ahh!!! but would drink coffee. gods

Average hours of sleep:

afhiri doesn't actually sleep for very long, always jolting themselves awake in the early hours, likely due to having to always be up early before leaving their family home. candor doesn't sleep!!! cirok doesn't sleep!!!!!!!!

Dog or cat person:

afhiri is a both person and has the matched energies of a hyper dog and a zoomies cat candor loves all things on toril equally :) except the evil things :) cirok actually likes tara!!! cat person!!!!

Dream trip:

you're not gonna get a proper answer out of afhiri here it would just be "ANYWHERE! EVERYWHERE! LETS GO!" afhiri just wants to adventure and explore and see shit man. easy to please ultimately candor....... god ok i have to be honest candors dream trip would be leading afhiri to morninglory to spend the rest of eternity there with it. which means afhiri is dead cirok doesnt have one....... for gods sake cirok

Favourite fictional character:

afhiri has never read a book. we don't have television here. afhiri doesn't KNOW any fictional characters. but afhiri also has issues with knowing what is and isn't real and would answer this question in a completely incorrect way. afhiri would say the emperor is their favourite fictional character :) because the emperor lives in the prism :) for fuck sake afhiri candor.. doesn't have one..... candor is not one for whimsy like this... DO I HAVE TO SAY IT

Number of blankets they sleep with:

afhiri has one blanket and it's whoever is sleeping in bed with them..... other than that afhiri is going to kick that shit off in their sleep because they fidget like hell unless there's the weight of someone else holding them down. weight blanket person candor DOESN'T SLEEEPPP CIROK DOESN'T SL PEPEEPEP

Random fact:

afhiri has 6 fingers on each hand :)

candor spent so long flying around and simply floating that when entering self imposed exile and disguising itself as a tiefling it had to figure out how to walk :D

cirok has to spend many hours a day caring for its resin. its a super delicate task that cannot be interrupted. without this resin cirok will die in torils atmosphere :).........

TAGS!!!!!!!!!!

@ancientsigil @gwynbleidd @grymforge @euryalex @courierseis @kelemvorr @dandeyrain @dekarios @enverflymm @lord-woolsley @bootheminiaturegiantspacehamster @captaintiny @dameaylin @masckarlach @haarlep @sovereign-spaw @johnnystorm @maxthetruman @princeofhags and anyone else who wants to do it consider urself tagged by me ^_^!!

#fray.txt #oc afhiri #oc candor #oc cirok #THANK YOU FOR TAGGING MEEEEEEEEEE

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dekarios · 15 days

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WAIT I'M BACK if i can be greedy: 2, 17, 45 for Cirok?

2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

i genuinely cannot see cirok ever referring to someone as friend or saying the word. i just can't SDFDSFS ..... cirok is completely emotionally distant and closed off, coming across as immensely cold and even heartless. as uncaring and unloving entirely. cirok doesn't have friends . (afhiri would disagree but i digress)

17. What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

cirok is head 2 toe covered . entirely. there is zero skin visibility. not even its face. u cant peak even a tiny bit of wrist between coat and glove there's just. nothin . so everyones first notice is likely just the mask . the completely blank mask thats got em wondering.. how does cirok see ? cirok would see itself in the mirror without all the shit tho. so ciroks first notice would be the resin, the state its in, if its in need of maint.. and then how its body and face have changed from the failed transformation to kaorti. which is kind of intense . not kind of .very intense. cirok doesnt Look like anything that exists . <3

45. What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

i don't think cirok Hates anything . that would imply it cares about things enough to hate. but cirok is IMMENSELY irritated and annoyed by afhiri's existence ... afhiri playing the flute, afhiri singing, afhiris boots clicking as she walks, her constant humming, the way she sits so improperly, how she pulls faces at it, the way her tail sways, how she dances to no music. ........ and most important how she will not shut up and leave it alone !!! can u see :) can u see the vision ... :) hehe

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

#fray.txt #ask #rinedin #oc cirok #TGANK U i dont think anyones ever directly asked about cirok before...

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wetbloodworm · 10 months

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i’m looking up info about the far realm again because this is My Thing now with zenith’s whole situation and there is tragically not as much info about it as i would like. anyway a couple things

Water turns to fire just as soon as you might realize it was a tree all along.

i just like that line lmao

Those that have traveled to Limbo can attest that even Limbo can be controlled and shaped, that a being of suitable willpower can force it under their control and survive. In the Outside, there is no control, there is only corruption. The longer one spends in that realm, the more it changes them, the more it haunts them, the more they wish to spread it’s corruption to the multiverse and swallow it up in the madness.

okay see this is interesting, this concept of things from the far realm/influenced by the far realm feeling a compulsion to spread it. and i hadn’t specifically thought of it as a corruption before? like that makes sense, you can get a magic subclass (a couple of them) just by having some contact with the far realm or something from it, people have gone crazy just looking into it, there’s a general repeating thread of ‘be careful being in/looking at/thinking about the far realm for too long!’.

so like, the far realm as a thing that corrupts outsiders (not to be confused with Outsiders) makes sense even if i hadn’t put it into words like that. but i especially hadn’t thought of like, there being an either active or unconscious desire to spread that corruption. but there are the kaorti, who were wizards from the material plane who were corrupted/transformed into monsters after entering the far realm. who mostly forgot who they were but felt a pull to the material plane, and then an intense urge to change it into something more like the far realm since they can no longer exist in it and want to make it more hospitable to them.

so like, okay, i don’t know how much i want to subscribe to this idea, but it IS interesting and if i adopt it, it adds another layer to zenith’s whole deal that i at least want to think about. his conscious intentions are mostly neutral, zenith just thinks the material plane is cool and wants to see more of it and learn and have fun and have easier access to the prey that lives there, but the idea of there being an unconscious reason for this pull is? kinda neat?? he doesn’t WANT to change the material plane, he likes it the way it is, but the thought that he might change it at least a little just by existing in it is fun.

my instinct is that zenith poses less of a threat to the material plane re: spreading the corruption in his split state. not ZERO threat, but packaging him up in a somewhat human container and keeping the rest of him back in the Outside minimizes the effect. no one’s going to become an aberrant mind sorcerer or break their brain hanging out with him for extended periods of time, but there might be just like. just a LITTLE fuckery. might not even notice it, it’s fine. it’s just that it’s a somewhat human container created by far realm magic being piloted by a far realm mind. do also like the idea of the space in the woods where he manifested being just like... a little bit thinner, when it comes to the barrier between the two planes. either it was like that originally and that’s how zenith wriggled part of himself through, or he just clawed through a space partially at random and left a mark.

bringing his full self into the material plane, however, feels like it’d be more of a threat, either when the bodies are separate but both there or when he merges the two. the good thing is that the way he’s built and the way he thinks and operates is Mostly Comprehensible to the material mind, as alien as he is he has understandable motives and makes enough sense to just like, conceive of, that he’s probably not going to break brains (though the vantablack look is rough to perceive, just not THAT bad). but his magic and his essence and what all is inherently Him still having an effect on the world around him is a fun thought, and it getting worse when All Of Him is there is. also fun. again, another layer to his drive to get ALL of him into the material plane. like consciously it’s ‘i don’t like not being at full power or being in two places at once’, but there could be the unconscious layer of him having that innate urge to corrupt.

again i’m not set on this but like. it’s interesting!

#zenith tag

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miyanagateru · 8 months

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i almost wish my character would die so i could roll up a new one that isnt doing one trillion nat attacks per turn, just because dm gave the thumbs up to that stupid ass serrated and laminated shit and fucking kaorti resin

#machine dreams #the crits..............

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another-rpg-sideblog · 3 years

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Monster: Kaorti by StoneStrix on imgur

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #monsters #far realm

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aboleth-eye · 5 years

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what are your thoughts on aberrations? personally i love them IF they're in a proper setting. for example, the far realm is little by little 'leaking' in a way into a nearby settlement. things wilt and morph. voices are heard, and the usual stuff. i find the concept interesting and fun when done properly! like a sort of strange thing to freshen up a predictable world, in a way. random chaos can be a nice spice of life

Aberrations are one of my favorite monster types! One of my favorite D&D books, that subsequently inspired the majority of my longest running campaign, is Lords of Madness. The idea that the Far Realm exists within the planes of Dungeons & Dragons is truly a horrific thought, especially since there is no way to retain your sanity if you’re foolish enough to go there.

There are aberrations for every niche and need for a Dungeon Master:

Want some arcane experiments of some forgotten mage tower set on the loose? Go with Gibbering Mouthers to really spice up the encounter!

Want a mastermind behind an organ trafficking and kidnapping black market? Mind Flayers are the classic way to go. However, you could also easily make the operation a mercantile Neogi outpost in disguise.

Need a big bad dungeon lord who rules a treasure-filled labyrinth? Why not go with the Beholder or a Grell? Pepper in some Grick and Cildabrin to foreshadow their abhorrent masters.

Want a shadowy menace in the urban jungle? Try the Choker, or my favorite the Vivisector?

How about a UFO sighting that results in an eldritch invasion? The Kaorti and their monsters are an excellent hook.

The Deep is also a great way to pepper in these creatures? No aquatic horror setting is complete without the Chuul, Skum or even the swamp-loving Ahuizotl and Catoblepas!

And what about those cults? Cults can easily be built around powerful aberrations like Aboleths, Illithid Elder Brains, or even the serpentine Naga! Some gods like Lolth even create their own aberrations to serve them--such as Lolth’s failed servants, the Driders.

Aberrations are awesome, and the Far Realm as a place where the abhorrent just “happens” is terrifying in of itself. The plane even infects the Material Plane, resulting in Pseudonatural creatures and the maddened Alienists they serve (the mages themselves lost to siren song of planar madness). Even the monsters of the Far Realm--what would be mere beasts on our plane--have invaded, with the hordes of the Illithidae.

As you can tell, I’m a big D&D 3.5 person--where I think the lore was really solid. I’m not too familiar with any other edition’s versions of the Far Realm, or the attitudes each has towards Aberrations. But I love my squishy, eldritch children!

Thanks so much for the ask!! Everyone is welcome to submit questions at any time, and Fridays are where I’ll take a ton of requests!

Happy Halloween by the way!

-- Aboleth-Eye 10/25/19

#aboleth eye #aberration #d&d resources #d&d ask #dm resources #tabletop games #tabletop resources #d&d monsters #dungeon master

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talenlee · 5 years

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3.5 Memories: The Kaorti

Now, while I may be on the record saying that Dungeons & Dragons can do horror scenarios, doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with the way that the default books angled towards horror. One can point to the ‘mature’ Book of Vile Darkness (more like vile dorkness, boom, gottem) that tries to be shocking and edgy and it’s just kind of insulting and basic. But the BoVD wasn’t the only book of its type…

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#D&D #D&D 3.5

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thecreaturecodex · 6 years

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Rukanyr

[I was never too fond of the kaorti, Wizards’ attempt to make a “githyanki for the Far Realm”, but their minion beasts were pretty neat. I used these in a game as the tools of a cult of Hastur-worshipping kuo-toa.]

Rukanyr This hideous creature vaguely resembles a scorpion with a single lidless eye and three bulbous pods with a circular rasping mouth in place of its pincers. A dozen clawed arms grow from along its back and sides, lashing frantically at the air around it. Its tail is held over its head, ending in an enormous spiked ball.

Rukanyrs are one of the creations of the Dominion of the Black, supporting their destructive armies as living siege weapons. The creatures are sometimes called “siege scorpions” for that reason, but their anatomy is a warped parody of a real scorpion. The creatures are barely sapient, but have an inborn instinct to destroy structures of metal and stone—they thus typically leave the more organic architecture of the Dominion alone in their rampages.

A rukanyr has no society or ecology to speak of, existing only to kill and destroy in the service of an alien power. They feed themselves on anything they can fit into their mouths, gaining nutrient from the rubble they leave in their wake as well as corpses. They occasionally slip the bonds of their masters, usually by accident more than intent, and live as wild predators in this case. Rukanyrs reproduce by budding when induces by specific enzymes produced in brain collector laboratories—whether they can make more of themselves alone is unknown. They are immortal unless slain, capable of surviving for hundreds or thousands of years.

Rukanyr CR 10 XP 9,600 CE Huge aberration Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +15, tremorsense 30 ft. Aura snapping claws (10 ft., DC 17, 2d6+6 damage) Defense AC 25, touch 8, flat-footed 25 (-2 size, +17 natural) hp 127 (15d8+60); fast healing 5 Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +11Immune sonic; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10 Defensive Abilities twisting plates Offense Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee slam +15 (3d6+9), 3 bites +15 (1d8+6 plus poison) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks living siege engine, powerful blows (slam), sonic drill Statistics Str 22, Dex 11, Con 19, Int 4, Wis 15, Cha 4 Base Atk +11; CMB +19 (+21 bull rush, +23 sunder); CMD 29 (31 vs. bull rush, sunder, 41 vs. trip) Feats Great Fortitude, Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Step Up, Vital Strike Skills Climb +22, Perception +15 Languages Aklo (cannot speak) Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary or siege (2-10) Treasure none Special Abilities Aura of Snapping Claws (Ex) Although the arms of a rukanyr are not coordinated enough to make direct attacks, their flailing claws are still hazardous. Any creature within a rukanyr’s reach must succeed a DC 17 Reflex save every round or take 2d6+6 points of slashing and piercing damage. The save DC is Reflex based. Living Siege Engine (Ex) A rukanyr deals double damage with its natural weapons against unattended inanimate objects. Poison (Ex) Injury—bite; save Fort DC 21; effect 1d3 Dex; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; cure 2 saves. The save DC is Constitution based. Sonic Drill (Su) As a standard action, a rukanyr can create a powerful blast of sonic energy. All creatures within 30 feet must succeed a DC 21 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1 round. The rukanyr focuses its blast on a single creature or object, which takes 12d8 points of sonic damage. A living creature or attended object can halve the damage with a successful DC 21 Fortitude save. A rukanyr can use this ability three times a day. This is a sonic effect, and the save DC is Constitution based. Twisting Plates (Ex) A rukanyr struck by a melee weapon may make a combat maneuver check to disarm its opponent of that weapon as an immediate action.

#rukanyr #siege scorpion #D&D #pathfinder rpg #wayne reynolds #dominion of the black

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dailyadventureprompts · 2 years

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Dungeon: The Rot of the Jaw

The long abandoned remnants of a spelljamming warship have come to rest in a sunken cavern, leaking all manner of alien oddness into the wilds that has now begun to reach up to the party’s homeland. Though the potential savlage from this ship is great so too is the danger lurking within, both in the form of the ship’s ancient defences and the secret they have stayed online to protect.

Hooks:

Under the protection and benefit of the crown, an esoteric group of monks in the high hills are known for keeping an artifact known as “the verdant bed” a sarcophagus like device rumoured to be able to cure any illness. Known for charging exorbitant prices for access to the bed, the monks have recently closed their doors to even the most giving of petitioners, leaving a wealthy merchant and his increasingly ill husband in a lurch. Desperate for answers if not solutions, the merchant is willing to pay the party to sneak into the abbey and discover what the monks are hiding.

Something, as it turns out, is deathly wrong with the bed. Where once it sapped away sickness leaving behind only a coating of crumbling green lichen on those it healed, the bed now overflows with a russet mold that is slowly overtaking the abbey and all within. Worse yet, the mold is producing crude huamnoid fungus monsters that seem mindlessly intent on feeding more people to the bed and spreading thier blight. The monks have them barricaded to a specific section of the abbey for now, but give it to the heroes to blunder in and unleash the mould upon the populace.

The bed is but one of many wondrous devices Scattered about the realm are wondrous devices scattered around the realm with uncertain origins: magical cannons that can shoot dragons out of the sky, person sized fabric cocoons that can send a dreaming individual’s perceptions to far off places in just a blink, all held by covetous hands. To find a means of repairing the bed, its up to the players ( and some helpful archives staff) to research where these devices came from, and to discover that their source is deep underground in some forboding place called “ the hollow”

Background: Though it exists in a sorry state today, the vessel known as the Mandible of Hydax (crude translation) was once a force to be reckoned with, its living stone hull quarried from the body of a fossilized god, bristling with weapons under the direction of a gith warlord who was the terror of the astral sea

Hydax was just as fearsome as her ship, a self styled “tyrant for hire”, she, her mercenary crew, and her warship would contract out for any body of extradimensional oligarchs who didn’t have the strength to put a boot to the neck of their lessers, breaking strikes, defeating rebellions, and ensuring the peasants kept doing their job. This was until Hydax was hired to go after who she and her superiors thought was merely a unusually fucked up spellcaster but was in fact a Kaorti, an emissary of the far realm possessed of terrifying, reality warping powers. Hydax managed to get her quarry in a cage, and was just in the process of finding a nice void rift to throw the bastard into when the Kaotri ripped them from the astral sea, overriding the ship’s spelljamming helm and throwing them at the nearest material plane ( the party’s home) with enough force to bury the ship beneath the skin of the world like shrapnel.

Challenges & Complications:

The subterranean path required to reach the Mandible are a hazard unto themselves, with many requiring perilous detours to avoid cave ins and other geological instabilities caused by the ship’s impact. The inhabitants are likewise dangerous, including more than one band of cave-things wielding weapons salvaged from the gith crew or the Mandible itself.

Hydax’s ship contains all manner of wonders and dangers, raging from an arsenal of unearthly weapons and other memorabilia to an archive of (centuries out of date) information regarding the goings on of many alien worlds. Perhaps most valuable of all is the ship’s spelljamming helm, which could be refitted into a new vessel to allow the party to explore the stars. Removing it however may trigger any number of defences, ranging from malfunctioning constructs to a curse from the long dead captain, wraith against any who would loot her prized ship.

The Kaorti, for its part, is still stuck within its cage at the heart of the ship, unable to break the seals that hold it there trapped and undying. It has instead flung its consciousness out into the surrounding caves, directing the unwitting inhabitants to act as its guards and search witlessly for a means to free it. The party will be better tools by far, and the ghostly presence of the aberrant mage will pretend to be a malfunctioning ship AI, seeming to help them with their goal while leading them to free it.

#dungeon #cave #undead #spelljammer #stealth #theif #Merchant #patron #Cleric #aberration #kaorti #far realm #astral #treasure hunt #seeking healing #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #5e

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thirdtofifth · 1 year

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Could you do the Kaorti? I love their vibe and origin!

I really like these Far Realm creatures so I will definitely give a shot at converting them.

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lanaevyssmoved · 5 months

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i know i made cirok physical ordinary already beyond the resin but then i had disturbing thoughts about the failed kaorti transformation changing its physical form more than i originally thought. kaorti are usually 7ft and are very lanky and thin with long limbs. what if i fuck cirok up more

#fray.txt #i had cirok as quite short and still retaining much of its pre transformation form but. but

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brazenautomaton · 7 years

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Digging your notes on alternate Deathclaw flavors, though I do think at least one of those could use chameleon-style eyes (independent precision targeting, baby) and tongues (the better to snag your ass-or gun-at 15 paces). That, and damn do you have a point about D&D overloading its setting(s) with Viral Conversion Menaces. Are we figuring that anything lighter than a small bison usually ain't worth the effort for T parabellum?

I’m not sure that independent precision targeting would be useful for any of the Deathclaw variants, because they are melee fighters. However, chameleon eyes are cool, so I’m going to allow it anyway. Long tongues for grabbing would fit with @machine-elf-paladin‘s idea of Tarrasqis Captator, designed to be an assassin that debilitates and eliminates specific targets, that kind of thing works for an animal you expect to be confronting its opponents while isolated and not on the battlefield. And T. Parabellum, yeah, it would only bother with animals significantly larger than humans. I’m thinking it eats brahmin, radscorpions, and yao guai for meat, and chomps the tops off of trees as a vegetable side. Humans are way too fast and squirmy for too little meat.

D&D: yeah, it’s a well that people keep going to because it’s super dark and scary etc, but it’s WAY overplayed. And I wasn’t even listing off things like kaorti or mind flayers, which ALSO reproduce by killing/converting humanoids, but at least have the decency to require a long, involved process to do it instead of “kill them” or “hit them with a single attack”.

Honestly, though, D&D wasn’t the worst about it. That honor has to go to Deadlands. Deadlands is set in a world like our own was in the 1870s, and has a ridiculous proportion of its monsters either turn humans into more of them, or reproduce by killing humans, or sustain their continued existence by killing humans. I remember the “Great Maze” sourcebook detailed, out of like five total monsters at the end, two totally unrelated types of critter that turn you into one of them if they damage you (one of whom does it in the span of seconds) just in coastal California alone. Evil scarecrows, a starter-level monster if ever there was one, need to kill humans to reproduce. Night horrors cannot be harmed except by magic, which almost nobody has, and turns everyone it kills into a night haunt, which also can’t be harmed except by magic, and who also feed on human souls to sustain themselves. Braincrawlers, cankers, flesh jackets, prairie ticks, and Texas tummy twisters are all creatures that parasitize human beings to take over their bodies and all of them are in the core GM’s guide. That isn’t exactly “kills people to reproduce” but it’s the same wheelhouse.

And then they say that the supernatural is still kept almost completely secret and almost nobody knows about the existence of monsters and magic, despite every single area they have ever detailed being fucking crawling with them and every event that happens deeply influenced by them. No, god damn it, these are not compatible! Either people know monsters exist or the monsters cannot possibly be killing enough people to sustain themselves! Your game is explicitly set in an area where there is not an organization powerful enough to stop monsters or their knowledge from spreading!

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