Main Villains for Spelljammer: Suggestions?

[Malimar]

So I'm running a Spelljammer game in Pathfinder. The main villains of the campaign have yet to be directly revealed, although their vessels and minions have been encountered once or twice.

So I'd like to harness the Playground's knowledge and brainstorming powers to nail down what, exactly, the villains of this campaign are.

Here's what the players know about the creatures:

They fly around in disc-shaped vessels that leave a trail of thick black smog everywhere they go -- this smog is why the party hasn't gotten a great look at the creatures so far
They might be, but are not necessarily, roughly humanoid in form, though they may also have tentacles
Their modus operandi is to come to a place, hover over the center of town, and start playing music. This music fascinates, except it also draws people to walk towards the vessel, where they are abducted
When threatened, the vessel releases a Chaos Beast. If the chaos beast is defeated, the vessel flees


(In the unlikely event that any of my Spelljammer players are reading, do please stop reading now.)

I haven't established why they're abducting commoners. Originally I intended for the monsters to be transforming them into more monsters, but then I had the idea that they might be using them to power some manner of superweapon, perhaps one intended to shatter crystal spheres (to what purpose, though? They've been established as being able to pass in and out of crystal spheres just like regular spelljammers. Perhaps shattering a crystal sphere destroys the world within, and doing this to worlds would benefit them in some way).

If pursued, the ship may release enslaved Nightmares, Manticores, Elder Things, or Chupacabras. If chased more, it will retreat into a sort of acidic liquid nebula, into which the party's spelljammer will be unable to follow without some upgrades. Once they get these upgrades, they'll be able to pursue the villains into the nebula, where they will discover just what they're dealing with.

They'll be somewhere in the 7-9 level range at that point, so the basic form of the villain should be around that CR, though templates and class levels and alternate versions can bring them up as needed beyond that.

My inspirations so far have been the Borg from Star Trek, a dream one of my players had involving "undead steampunk vikings", the reavers from Firefly, the Wraith from Stargate: Atlantis, and Davy Jones's crew from Pirates of the Caribbean. The steampunk bit in particular is something I want to use, because Spelljammer, though I'm leaning more towards steampunk aberrations than steampunk undead.

I'm half-inclined to just convert over Mind Flayers of Thoon from MMV, but I kind of use them too much already. And anyway mind flayers have a different ecological niche in Spelljammer than they do in most settings, so MFoT might not fit so well. But they've got kind of the vibe I'm looking for.

So: does any of this conjure up in your minds any suggestions for monsters or templates or monster+template combinations? I'm open to adapting 3.0, 3.5, third-party material, or even earlier stuff if I can.

[afroakuma]

One thought that comes to mind - what about some mutated form of adult voor? (http://www.lomion.de/cmm/voorlarv.php) They could be abducting people to try and determine what it is about ceremorphosis that allowed the mind flayers to beat them to near-extinction so long ago. They've got the sort of Borg + aberration thing going on.

[Abd al-Azrad]

I've loved the Khen-Zai (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Ethergaunt_%283.5e_Race%29), or Ethergaunts, from 3.5 Fiend Folio as an "alien horror" species. Awful nasty critters - beings with mere facial features too horrid to comprehend, beings driven by cold, Dalek-like hatred to wipe all traces of Gods themselves from existence, and subjugate all other mortal races under their control.

That said, the Mi-go (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/bestiary/monster-listings/plants/mi-go) are probably your best bet for a Pathfinder race that fills these needs. The starfaring mad scientists from Lovecraftian mythology, they roam the stars, capturing and eviscerating lesser species to suit their unfathomable drive for dark knowledge, while issuing hideous worship to the vile Gods from an earlier age, before the Universe developed a saner, more ordered pantheon.

[DrKerosene]

The music and Chaos Beast parts made me think of the Reigar, maybe having been mutated (templated) to a less humanoid form? The smoke could be them being subtle or trying to hide their natural tendency to be fabulous? I'm inclined to vote for Ethergaunts, humanoid form is a bit boring.

http://lost.spelljammer.org/ShatteredFractine/critters/monsters/reigar.html

[Mnemnosyne]

Consider that the idea of destroying a crystal sphere is...I'm not sure if it's unprecedented or not, but I cannot remember any definite mention of one of them ever even being damaged. I seem to remember there might have been rumors that one was damaged or something, perhaps as a plot hook in one of the spelljammer books. Not that it's not a potentially interesting idea, it's just...that seems like something way above the pay grade of a CR 7-9. And you would need to consider all the ramifications of there even potentially being a weapon that can do this. The gods themselves, all of them, would be strongly opposed to such beings, since they have no power in the phlogiston, and if you destroy crystal spheres, all that's left is phlogiston on the Prime. There's also a lot of other political consequences and such to consider, etc.

If done well it could be a really awesome idea though. Don't let it dissuade you from doing it at all, just keep in mind there is a lot to consider when we're talking something of such proportions.

An interesting plot hook I might suggest if you decide to go the route of destroying crystal spheres is: what if they found a way to destroy the crystal sphere but not the worlds inside? The destruction of the crystal sphere releases the worlds into the phlogiston, cutting them off from the touch of the gods; therefore, the creatures doing this may have an agenda to destroy the gods, or simply believe mortals are better off without divine interference. I would say it becomes more interesting if the worlds aren't actually destroyed, and instead it wreaks unprecedented changes.

[Extra Anchovies]

Since this is pathfinder... maybe goblins, refluffed as the Grox from Spore? Could make for a fun time, if your game isn't overly serious (it's spelljammer, so I'm assuming it's not).

[afroakuma]

Consider that the idea of destroying a crystal sphere is

Ludicrous. Even the gods can't scratch them.


I cannot remember any definite mention of one of them ever even being damaged.

Canonically there's one broken sphere. It's called "the Broken Sphere." How it was broken is unknown, save that it doesn't look like the kind of thing that was done with any sort of force or method behind it.


The destruction of the crystal sphere releases the worlds into the phlogiston

Which would mean they're forbidden from using fire of any kind and when the air runs out everything will succumb to phlogiston "preservation."

[Malimar]

Interesting suggestions so far! I'm particularly liking the ethergaunt so far, though I'll be looking more into all of them. (The Alien Biology thing in particular could explain the black smog their vessels emit and/or the acidic fluid space to which they're delivering their abductees, though it would mean the ethergaunts are from somewhere other than any sphere's Ethereal Plane.)



Consider that the idea of destroying a crystal sphere is
Ludicrous. Even the gods can't scratch them.

Hmm, yes, that was me succumbing to my unfortunate tendency to make things too huge.

My next instinct is they're trying to amass the power to destroy a crystal sphere, but that it's not actually possible. But, as revelations go, "the villain's plan is impossible and your interference is unnecessary" is rather an anticlimax.

These particular PCs will still want to free the slaves and stop more from being taken, because they're goodly hero types, which might be enough and I might not need to bring anything of cosmic significance into it at all.

I suppose I could imply that the foes are working with prodigiously massive amounts of power, without specifying what they intend to do with that power. Though I don't know if I can pull that off compellingly. Maybe I'll just do the thing where I let my players speculate until they hit upon a plan I like, and go with that, that usually works really well.

[afroakuma]

I suppose I could imply that the foes are working with prodigiously massive amounts of power, without specifying what they intend to do with that power. Though I don't know if I can pull that off compellingly. Maybe I'll just do the thing where I let my players speculate until they hit upon a plan I like, and go with that, that usually works really well.

There's a story on the official Spelljammer fansite that I've always enjoyed immensely regarding the secret origin of the dreaded Witchlight Marauders. Perhaps they have rediscovered the process (or at least believe they have).

[DrKerosene]

There's a story on the official Spelljammer fansite that I've always enjoyed immensely regarding the secret origin of the dreaded Witchlight Marauders.is that the one with Orc Shamans?


There was a Dragon Magazine about the Spellweavers being from an alternate Prime, and they're basically collecting pieces of a fragmented spell (actually rocks, I think). The spell is supposed to turn back time to before a Cataclysm (which was the last time they used the spell, and they destroyed their entire society). I think the spell rock pieces had musical properties.

I'm not sure if the last part was my own headcannon for my own campaign.

Anyways, maybe some of the spell rock fragments have broken down enough they've been absorbed by living creatures and the music played by the saucers is like a resonance call or something?

Something, something, Green Star Adept and Bard refluffing?