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aboleth-eye · 5 years

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didn't think it would be that interesting a question XD, glad for it to be exciting! okay so to sum up. need an idea for interactions. characters, in small village slowly getting all mentally weird and paranoid. need help figuring out why. party, 5. an aboleth contacts them in their dreams, saying it wants to make a deal. kraken nearby and they don't like each other. two big fish in a small pond. only one wants to be there. aboleth wants help getting rid of it. what should i do for personality

Hmmm. If I got this right a kraken and aboleth each have achieved enough power to see one another as rivals–and the aboleth wishes to be the true ruler of their unwillingly shared domain. Interesting. Aboleths are super intimidating to most adventuring parties because of their endless potential to dominate and manipulate, but a kraken is a beast of pure unmatched hunger and fury. I like the idea of their conflicting ideologies, it makes a lot of sense for an aboleth to seek its greatest threat terminated.

Aboleths see most races, and most likely the player characters, as mere insects that can serve their purposes. Both aquatic horrors probably have followings of terrified mortals, but the aboleth knows that the kraken can never be pacified of their malevolent bottomless hunger. Perhaps it believes it must devour the kraken (physically and/or magically) before the terrifying tentacled beast ensnares the aboleth instead?

Here’s a few ideas i had, feel free to use any, some or none: lol

The Aboleth uses dream magic to ensnare the dreaming selves of the players’ most treasured people? It’d be interesting to see an eldritch abomination use nightmare servants (such as night hags, nightmares and the quori) to ensnare mortals outside of the waking hours.

The Aboleth could use illusions to send “messengers” of local gods. The local cleric could have eldritch visions of some “impending catastrophe” (aka the kraken’s inevitable wrath upon the surface), which also sends the adventurers away–leaving the aboleth mage to take over their home without conflict. By the time the adventurers learn of the aboleth’s machinations just before they come to fruition, requiring them to choose between saving their home from an eldritch tyrant or saving the land from a maw of pure destruction.

The Aboleth could be a scientist at heart, seeing to understand the kraken (so they can turn its potential wrath into a projectile catastrophe). However, they dare not approach the target–it would invalidate their observations and is much too dangerous to approach without neutralizing or weakening it. The players could be the unknowing scouting/suicide team, manipulated through the aboleth’s insidious cult into believing themselves heroes “destined to vanquish the great Evil of the Deep”.

Lastly, perhaps the players are sacrificed to the Aboleth. But instead of consuming them, the players are marked with the aboleth’s newest mutative slime and given a task. If they cannot harvest the kraken’s (eye/heart/etc). for the aboleth within a year they will literally dissolve into mindless sacs of flesh. Body horror aplenty and a ticking time bomb as every week the party discovers more and more of their flesh is becoming jellyfish-like and bonelessly translucent.

When you remember that aboleths are more ancient than gods, crueler than devils and more insidious than any shapechanger; any personality archetype they wear turns into pure antagonistic gold. I hope this inspires you, and I can’t wait to see what you create!

– Aboleth-Eye, 3/2/19

#garbage-boy-sass-man #d&d ask #d&d resources #campaign inspiration #dm resources #aboleth eye

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