Suggestions for a Lovcraftian Campaign in 3.5 or PF

[wayfare]

Hey All:

All of this lovecraft talk has inspired me to revisit one of my favorite ideas from years past -- a sci-fi fantasy lovecraft campaign.

I give you...

Starship Cthulhu!!!

Premise: In ages past the Illithid empire stretched across the stars, a vast hegemony that threatened to consume the galaxy. The hegemony was unified by the incaclulable might of

The Consensus,

a network of elder brains that could weild psionic power on a galactic scale. At some point (likely when the slave races earned psionic power), the Consensus was disrupted and the Illithind race fell to internal squabbling. Lacking the most powerful tool in their arsenal, the Illithid were all but wiped out by a coalition of the slave races known as

The Gith

Forced to flee the seat of thier power, one Illithid group managed to spirit away their Elder Brain in a Kraken ship and flee to the stars. Pursued by a detatchment of Gith warriors, the illithid fled for light-years but were eventually surrounded and forced to fight in a little-known star system. Though the gith gave a mighty effort, their corvettes were unable to contest the power of a Kraken ship powered by an elder brain. The detatchment was destroyed, but not before a brave gith captain piloted his corvette straight through the kraken ship at terrific speed.

Sorely wounded, the Kraken ship tumbled from the stars and landed in one of the campaign-world's oceans. The psychic trauma of such a wound sent the Illithid and their Elder brain (who had been psi-linked) into suspended animation, where they lingered for millennia.

In the present day, the Illithid have woken from their long slumber and seek to revive their elder-brain. Over the generations they have been repurposed, given new shapes and abilities to facilitate this grand scheme. Indeed, in its slumber the elder brain warped and twisted the minds of nearby Merfolk, converting them into the savage and powerful Sahaugin. Now the illithid seek to restore the elder brain and rekindle the Illithid empire!

Any suggestions as to the type of monsters I could use? I am aiming for an "Elder Evils" style campaign that takes the characters from 10ish to 20ish. I will gladly re-purpose things, and homebrew is an option.

Thanks for the help!

[killianh]

Anything from Lords of Madness or heroes of horror really.

If they have reconstructed some of the outside forces then you could even have beholders as "biological constructs" under the mind flayer control.

To add a level of madness to this I would suggest Thoon mind flayers mixed into the ranks, as well as some of the minions they get too. You'll have to upgrade some of them, but a few good templates go well with madness to make everything a tad more bizarre. If you really want to make it a bit more lovecraftian make it so the party can only choose NPC classes as base classes (so they're more like the mortals from lovecraft stories rather than epic heroes)

[Andorax]

Do you have access to any of the Eberron materials? The Daelkyr fit right along the lines of what you're discussing...a race of extremely powerful (Aberration equivalent of demon lords) aberrations that are responsible for creating most of the aberration "races". Beholders, illithid, chulls, grells, you name it...they're all made out of Daelkyr experiments and servitors from 'way beyond'.

I could definatlely see drawing on this as a resource. Keep your uber-boss of the elder brain, but make the Daeklyr its principle lieutenents, with the Illithid (and everything else) under them.

Of course, in order to be properly Lovecraftian, you need the PCs to be incidental to battles between multiple cosmic horrors. The Eberron setting also has nightmare creatures known as the Quori. PCs (especially killanh's suggestion of NPC-class PCs) caught in the middle between Daelkyr and Quori would definately have a Lovecraft feel to the campaign.

[wayfare]

Do you have access to any of the Eberron materials? The Daelkyr fit right along the lines of what you're discussing...a race of extremely powerful (Aberration equivalent of demon lords) aberrations that are responsible for creating most of the aberration "races". Beholders, illithid, chulls, grells, you name it...they're all made out of Daelkyr experiments and servitors from 'way beyond'.

I could definatlely see drawing on this as a resource. Keep your uber-boss of the elder brain, but make the Daeklyr its principle lieutenents, with the Illithid (and everything else) under them.

Of course, in order to be properly Lovecraftian, you need the PCs to be incidental to battles between multiple cosmic horrors. The Eberron setting also has nightmare creatures known as the Quori. PCs (especially killanh's suggestion of NPC-class PCs) caught in the middle between Daelkyr and Quori would definately have a Lovecraft feel to the campaign.

Sadly, the Eberron line is one of the few things I am lacking from 3.5. What resources would I need to find most of the info on these guys?

A few possible plot points (criticism welcome and encouraged)

1) The elder-brain is now a "Mother Brain" that requires biomass to create "Cortexseeds" for new elder brains.

2) A subservient race of Illithid that is extensively bio-modded is created (Lets call them Thrax). These guys are grunt troopers that lack most psionics, save for natural aptitude with psychometabolism that allows them to bond the equivalent of small bio-mechs. While controlled by the illithid, they are closer to slaves than allies -- perhaps they can be turned if illithid control over the species is broken?

3) The Sahaugin are also being courted by the Arch-Demon Dagon, who seeks to subvert the Illithid's most trusted allies and perhaps strike at the mother-brain itself? Or perhaps a deadly alliance can be forged between the two?

4) One of the "Cortexseeds" is being transported to an ancient "fissure in the earth" where it will swim to the center of the earth and become a Lavos-like creature that will plague the earth in 1000 years. If the PCs don't stop it, the natural order of the planet will be gradually subourned, and the seeds for a new campaign will be born.

5) A group of illithid saboteurs (sleek illithid who specialize in telepathy and have natural shape-shifting abilities) have inflitrated port cities and are weakening the local defenses. One of the party's allies unexpectedly betrays them, and sends a group of assassins after them if they escape -- suddenly, shape-shifted enemies are all around the PCs.

6) A Thrax Knight outfitted in advanced bio-armor has been dispatched to recover the Annulus, a psionic artifact of great power that the Mother-Brain seeks to possess. Upon recovering the artifact, the psionic domination compelling the Knight is broken, and it wanders off into the wilderness. can the PCs find the creature and wrest from it the secrets ogf the Annulus? Can teh PCs gain a new ally and perhaps a leader for the Thrax? Or will confusion and gene-coded instinct prove to strong and overwhelm the knight?

7) The mother-brain is not attempting to re-create the consensus. Instead, beholding the failure of the previous illithid empire, the mother brain seeks cosmic power and purpose. The "Cortexseeds" are actually more akin to broadcasting towers -- instead of creating a network of minds, the mother brain in constructing amplifiers for her own powers, allowing her to exercise planetary mental control. Once achieved, the mother-brain will ascend to godhood, only to be reborn in perfected corporeal form in 1000 years, when its avatar bursts from the molten heart of th earth.

8) A few gith did survive the attack against the Kraken ship, enough to breed with the humans and create a colony on one of the planets moons. Lacking the technology needed to return to their own system, these gith have kept vigil and send their young adults out as agents upon the earth. When the youngest report the rise of an old threat, some gith wish to resume the old war, others wish to planse hift away from their responsibility, while still others vote for "global sanction".

All of these are just ideas. Any thoughts are welcome!

[AslanCross]

The Voidmind template from Monster Manual III is a template that illithids apply to their thralls to turn them into powerful psi-empowered juggernauts, as well as relay stations for their own psionic powers (the Flayers can use telepathy through the voidmind creatures, as well as actually fire their mind blasts and psionic powers through them).

These could be the basis of your Thrax race. My favorite creature to apply Voidmind to is Trolls. Why? Voidmind grants acid immunity. :smallbiggrin: