fluke1993
2013-05-03, 12:11 AM
Reading through that "Let's blow up The Moon" thread led me to this:
Demonic_Spoon
Method #2: Global Flooding
Method #2: Global Flooding
Spoiler
The Aboleths have been saving up Aboleth Mucus for a century or so and now have extremely large stockpiles, large enough to flood entire caverns of the underdark. They then proceed to do just that, flooding the caverns containing the cities of their greatest rivals, the illithids and the drow. Most illithid and drow cities are completely decimated, the inhabitants suffocating to death. Those few who survive and those cities that were not flooded are quickly assaulted by the combined might of the entire Aboleth civilization, the remaining species of both races becoming loyal slaves to their aboleth masters thanks to the Aboleth enslave ability. With their place as undisputed masters of the Underdark now established, the Aboleth turn their malevont gazes to the horridly dry surface world.
They come up with a plan, a plan so bogglingly long term that only a Aboleth mind could have come up with it. Phychically reforming any suitably powerful slaves into dedicated crafters, they then cast Eternity of Torture on some of the less powerful slaves, and attach Pain Extractors to them. With a endless supply of liquid pain now established, the Abloleths start to mass produce Decanters of Endless Water, making hundreds or possibly even thousands of Decanters per year. After about a century of dedicated production they start emplacing these bottles on the seafloor of the oceans of the world, especially in the various deep sea trenches, protecting them from divination through permenanced Mage's Private Sanctums. All the decanters are of course set to Geyser.
The Aboleths continue production and continue emplacing Decanters in various locations throughout the world. The terrestrial civilizations of the world eventually start noticing a rise in sea levels and start to investigate, but all they discover are bizarre reports that the Underdark has been completely flooded. Any investigators who get close to the truth are enslaved by the aboleths and set to producing even more decanters.
Meanwhile those Aboleths not involved in the Decanter Project have been busy conquering and enslaving the other aquatic races of the world, bringing them into the Aboleth fold and adding more crafters to help with the Decanter Project. Certain of these new slaves were however utilized to maintain a image of normalcy underwater, fooling the surfacers about the true state of underwater matters.
This all continues for another few decades, with the surface civilizations becoming more and more frantic, until the coastal civilizations eventually start devoting the majority of their resources to the dilemma facing them. By now great batteries of decanters have been set up underwater. Before the surface civilizations discover the entirety of the disaster facing them, undercover Aboleth slaves infiltrate the surface world and emplace batteries of up to a hundred decanters in many of the major cities of the surface world. One fateful day they are all activate. Cities for the most part being built in low depressions in the land surrounding rivers, many of them are quickly flooded, killing many and causing much disruption. The surfacers now know that what they face is not just a natural phenomenon however but another group bent on their destruction. They soon discover the scale of the problem facing them launch a desperate attack against the Aboleths. This by large fails however, as the largest part of the Aboleth empire is underwater, and most surface societies are simply not equipped for large scale aquatic military campaigns, and their aquatic allies are already subsumed into the Aboleth empire. The counterattack for the most part fails miserably.
It is at this point that the Aboleths start creating permanenced walls of fire at the polar ice caps, speeding up the flooding progress greatly. More and more decanters are being installed and the surfacers seem helpless to stop the rising tide.
Another decade passes, the sea level is rising by roughly a meter per year now, more decanters having little addition effect on how long it would take to flood the world. Many of the lower lying coastal kingdoms have been completely flooded. Some of the higher lying kingdoms who had been blissfully ignorant of the danger facing them suddenly become very much aware of their approaching doom. But by now it is too late to stop the tide. Too many decanters have been made. To find and deactivate them all would be a almost impossible task without inside knowledge of their placement and a easy means to reach them. All the rulers of the surface world could do was watch their kingdoms being covered by a sea of neverending water.
Eventually all the world is underwater and the Aboleths reign supreme once more, most of the decanters are deactivated, and stored away, in case they may ever be needed again. Airbreathing races not adapted by their tentacled masters to serve their watery needs are but a memory, and the world is once more as it was and should be.
Now assuming our slimy friends pulled this off, what would one have to do in order to run a game in a world ruled by Aboleths as far as balance is concerned?
I'm not overly worried about spells, those things will still be just as powerful as will this people using them. A few potential things I see being an issue is this, What would one have to change in order to make something like a Halfling or common human workable in this situation. Would years of slavery to aboleths have reduced them all to skum or could we do something like give all races the aquatic sub-type for free and give already aquatic races a bonus feat?
Also can anyone recommend an easy way to handle three dimensional movement? Things I have considered: copious quantities of cubes and using Minecraft as a game board.
I am not partial to either of these solutions. In both of these solutions moving the blocks around could quickly become a hassle. If I go the Minecraft route, DMing combat would be significantly slower and not everyone might have it, but it would be a very good visual representation of whats going on.
One last thing, How do you measure distance moved in three directions (left, forward and up for example) as opposed to the traditional two (left and forward)?
Demonic_Spoon
Method #2: Global Flooding
Method #2: Global Flooding
Spoiler
The Aboleths have been saving up Aboleth Mucus for a century or so and now have extremely large stockpiles, large enough to flood entire caverns of the underdark. They then proceed to do just that, flooding the caverns containing the cities of their greatest rivals, the illithids and the drow. Most illithid and drow cities are completely decimated, the inhabitants suffocating to death. Those few who survive and those cities that were not flooded are quickly assaulted by the combined might of the entire Aboleth civilization, the remaining species of both races becoming loyal slaves to their aboleth masters thanks to the Aboleth enslave ability. With their place as undisputed masters of the Underdark now established, the Aboleth turn their malevont gazes to the horridly dry surface world.
They come up with a plan, a plan so bogglingly long term that only a Aboleth mind could have come up with it. Phychically reforming any suitably powerful slaves into dedicated crafters, they then cast Eternity of Torture on some of the less powerful slaves, and attach Pain Extractors to them. With a endless supply of liquid pain now established, the Abloleths start to mass produce Decanters of Endless Water, making hundreds or possibly even thousands of Decanters per year. After about a century of dedicated production they start emplacing these bottles on the seafloor of the oceans of the world, especially in the various deep sea trenches, protecting them from divination through permenanced Mage's Private Sanctums. All the decanters are of course set to Geyser.
The Aboleths continue production and continue emplacing Decanters in various locations throughout the world. The terrestrial civilizations of the world eventually start noticing a rise in sea levels and start to investigate, but all they discover are bizarre reports that the Underdark has been completely flooded. Any investigators who get close to the truth are enslaved by the aboleths and set to producing even more decanters.
Meanwhile those Aboleths not involved in the Decanter Project have been busy conquering and enslaving the other aquatic races of the world, bringing them into the Aboleth fold and adding more crafters to help with the Decanter Project. Certain of these new slaves were however utilized to maintain a image of normalcy underwater, fooling the surfacers about the true state of underwater matters.
This all continues for another few decades, with the surface civilizations becoming more and more frantic, until the coastal civilizations eventually start devoting the majority of their resources to the dilemma facing them. By now great batteries of decanters have been set up underwater. Before the surface civilizations discover the entirety of the disaster facing them, undercover Aboleth slaves infiltrate the surface world and emplace batteries of up to a hundred decanters in many of the major cities of the surface world. One fateful day they are all activate. Cities for the most part being built in low depressions in the land surrounding rivers, many of them are quickly flooded, killing many and causing much disruption. The surfacers now know that what they face is not just a natural phenomenon however but another group bent on their destruction. They soon discover the scale of the problem facing them launch a desperate attack against the Aboleths. This by large fails however, as the largest part of the Aboleth empire is underwater, and most surface societies are simply not equipped for large scale aquatic military campaigns, and their aquatic allies are already subsumed into the Aboleth empire. The counterattack for the most part fails miserably.
It is at this point that the Aboleths start creating permanenced walls of fire at the polar ice caps, speeding up the flooding progress greatly. More and more decanters are being installed and the surfacers seem helpless to stop the rising tide.
Another decade passes, the sea level is rising by roughly a meter per year now, more decanters having little addition effect on how long it would take to flood the world. Many of the lower lying coastal kingdoms have been completely flooded. Some of the higher lying kingdoms who had been blissfully ignorant of the danger facing them suddenly become very much aware of their approaching doom. But by now it is too late to stop the tide. Too many decanters have been made. To find and deactivate them all would be a almost impossible task without inside knowledge of their placement and a easy means to reach them. All the rulers of the surface world could do was watch their kingdoms being covered by a sea of neverending water.
Eventually all the world is underwater and the Aboleths reign supreme once more, most of the decanters are deactivated, and stored away, in case they may ever be needed again. Airbreathing races not adapted by their tentacled masters to serve their watery needs are but a memory, and the world is once more as it was and should be.
Now assuming our slimy friends pulled this off, what would one have to do in order to run a game in a world ruled by Aboleths as far as balance is concerned?
I'm not overly worried about spells, those things will still be just as powerful as will this people using them. A few potential things I see being an issue is this, What would one have to change in order to make something like a Halfling or common human workable in this situation. Would years of slavery to aboleths have reduced them all to skum or could we do something like give all races the aquatic sub-type for free and give already aquatic races a bonus feat?
Also can anyone recommend an easy way to handle three dimensional movement? Things I have considered: copious quantities of cubes and using Minecraft as a game board.
I am not partial to either of these solutions. In both of these solutions moving the blocks around could quickly become a hassle. If I go the Minecraft route, DMing combat would be significantly slower and not everyone might have it, but it would be a very good visual representation of whats going on.
One last thing, How do you measure distance moved in three directions (left, forward and up for example) as opposed to the traditional two (left and forward)?