Say you ate an aboleth...

[Nibbens]

So I threw my PCs up against an aboleth, and my ratfolk druid decided to cook and eat it... All of it. Nothing went to waste.

I could just let this go without incident, but where's the fun in that?

What boon/hinderance would you give a player who ate one of the oldest living beings in all of Golarian? (well, now it's dead, but you get the idea.)

[Geddy2112]

You could assume that the waterbreathing/dependence could be spread, if you undercooked it or did not wash the slime coat off.

[Gildedragon]

Some mild telepathy? A couple powerpoints?

[AmberVael]

So, there are some fun bits and pieces to be found about aboleth anatomy in Lords of Madness. Among other things, they don't actually have skin. They have mucus. Really thick, super gelid mucus. And, as far as I can tell, its just a slightly different version of the mucus used in their cloud attack, or the slime used in their tentacles. So, if you were to eat all the skin, its quite likely you could get some of the effects of aboleth slime and/or mucus.

In addition, aboleth's have a great deal of psychic power within them, largely concentrated in their brain, but also latent in their skin. Its entirely possible that some of this could have interesting effects, whether beneficial (conferring some of that psychic energy temporarily or permanently), or negative (congrats, you just ate something that's going to affect your mind in ways that its not trained to handle, have fun with hallucinations or maybe insanity).

Lastly, and here's an option I think is fun, aboleths have a section of their brain devoted to racial memory. They don't just remember their lives, they remember all their ancestors lives, going back and back and back to the very beginning of time. Its not easy to process even for them, it takes time and effort to sort through it all. Having a little bit of ancestral memory pass along could be all kinds of fun. Think Avatar, except instead of remembering your own past lives, you remember the past lives of a hostile, completely alien race that experiences sensations you're not equipped to handle.

[Ssalarn]

So I threw my PCs up against an aboleth, and my ratfolk druid decided to cook and eat it... All of it. Nothing went to waste.

I could just let this go without incident, but where's the fun in that?

What boon/hinderance would you give a player who ate one of the oldest living beings in all of Golarian? (well, now it's dead, but you get the idea.)

It depends. Aboleth are a lot like blowfish; if properly prepared, they're basically extremely delicious and relatively non-harmful. As long as he boiled the mucus off in an herb rich sauce and diced the gristle down into fine pieces to serve in takoyaki style food balls, everything should be fine. You've really got to be careful with that mucus though, mess that up, and suddenly everyone who has a bite is in for a very bad day.

What was the player's Profession (cook) check?

[Psyren]

The question is, what's the outcome you're hoping for? Are you trying to discourage him from doing this in the future? Do you just want a brief laugh, like having his character loudly fart glitter for a while? Do you want this to become a dramatic plothook, like he becomes infected with something exotic and the party has to divert from their main objective to save him? What are you going for?

[inuyasha]

I think the Book of Vile Darkness had something for this, a disease called Blue Guts that humanoids got whenever they ate something icky like aboleth.

[Clistenes]

Lastly, and here's an option I think is fun, aboleths have a section of their brain devoted to racial memory. They don't just remember their lives, they remember all their ancestors lives, going back and back and back to the very beginning of time. Its not easy to process even for them, it takes time and effort to sort through it all. Having a little bit of ancestral memory pass along could be all kinds of fun. Think Avatar, except instead of remembering your own past lives, you remember the past lives of a hostile, completely alien race that experiences sensations you're not equipped to handle.

Damn, now I want to eat an aboleth's brain...

Is there any information anywhere about how to steal a creature's memories eating their brains? Because I am thinking of creating a character (Archivist, maybe?) who is an Aboleth hunter who kills them for their brains...

[ExLibrisMortis]

Damn, now I want to eat an aboleth's brain...

Is there any information anywhere about how stealing creature's memories eating their brains? Because I am thinking of creating a character (Archivist, maybe?) who is an Aboleth hunter who kills them for their brains...
That's illithids you're thinking of, they eat brains and savour the memories. Illithids hunting aboleth is curiously appropriate, as illithids are the only thing aboleth fear (illithid are not present in aboleth racial memory, on account of them being from the future, and all). The 3.5 PrC Illithid Savant allows you to extract skill ranks and class abilities from the brains you eat. I believe the illithid fluff suggests you could even make a Perform (Eat Brains) check, to make money, as part of this, provided you have an illithid audience.

[Toilet Cobra]

I would say "He deforms into a twisted ratfolk" but...

Aboleths have, among other startling traits, a racial memory that goes back unbroken to their original forebears. Since he went ahead and ate the whole brain, perhaps he could be blessed/tormented with visions of the distant past and strange bursts of archaic knowledge.

Or perhaps he starts venting ooze everywhere like any land-bound aboleth. Also good.

[DrMotives]

The racial memory thing leaps out at everyone, doesn't it? A good bet your ratfolk druid is now a prophet of the Elder Gods. He can blurt out horrible cosmic truths at inopportune times. Although anything like that would get old quick from the PCs perspective, so make an out before it drags on too long. The other thing is maybe, despite the cooking, is possibly the druid is now pregnant. Gets real sick, vomits up a tadpole? fry? hachling? Whatever you call an immature aboleth spawn.

[Nibbens]

Wow. Okay, I'll try to get to everyone's questions/suggestions, and couple the ones that are similar. Thanks for the responses! :D


Anything to do with waterbreathing/dependence.


The water breathing aspect, I'm not totally against. But the dependance would be more of a hinderance than I'm willing to throw on him.


Some mild telepathy? A couple powerpoints?

I'm not opposed to this at all. Any suggestions (as I've not fully dived into the powerpoint/psionics stuff yet)?


Anything to do with the slime ability

I would want this to be a temporary thing - make him sick (lower his con score for a bit). Although, I might affect him with slime just to draw attention to his change as it were.


Anything to do with racial memory:

Now this, I can get behind! The player's father was a fortune teller/seer back in his rat warren before he died, so this could be fun.


What was the player's Profession (cook) check?

The PC was not rushed, and even stated that he took his time being careful/respectful with it - so I'd say that he took a 20 in doing what he was doing. Regardless of that, he has no on sheet points in profession or craft cooking.


The question is, what's the outcome you're hoping for? Are you trying to discourage him from doing this in the future? Do you just want a brief laugh, like having his character loudly fart glitter for a while? Do you want this to become a dramatic plothook, like he becomes infected with something exotic and the party has to divert from their main objective to save him? What are you going for?

A1) Ultimately, I'm thinking a small boon or a medium boon with a small hinderance. A2) Nah, He did this as a "his druid believes that nature is sacred, and that anything that lived as long as aboleths do should be treated with respect devoted to elders. He consumed the fish thinking that if he did he would "gain some spiritual power" from the act. He's not looking for an on paper or in story bonus, but I thought I might throw one his way anyway - for just the roleplay. A3) No. A4) No, although small hinderances might be fun to work with - nothing major or diverting. A5) see A1.


Aboleths have, among other startling traits, a racial memory that goes back unbroken to their original forebears. Since he went ahead and ate the whole brain, perhaps he could be blessed/tormented with visions of the distant past and strange bursts of archaic knowledge.

I like this, considering the PCs backstory. but....


The racial memory thing leaps out at everyone, doesn't it? A good bet your ratfolk druid is now a prophet of the Elder Gods. He can blurt out horrible cosmic truths at inopportune times. Although anything like that would get old quick from the PCs perspective, so make an out before it drags on too long. The other thing is maybe, despite the cooking, is possibly the druid is now pregnant. Gets real sick, vomits up a tadpole? fry? hachling? Whatever you call an immature aboleth spawn.

Like I said, I'm down with visions of the future and such, but I already have one PC who is "infected" or at least playing an unwilling host to a spirit from the Dark Tapestry anyway - and is already getting strange knowledge from the past and such. I'd rather not step on another players toes by having two player concepts that are relatively similar. And vomiting up an aboleth tadpole... hmmm.... Interesting. lol.

[ZeroiaSD]

I'd go with the "gets some really weird dreams with flashback-memories of prior times like Azlant or other past eras." Maybe put in some plot hooks?

[Clistenes]

That's illithids you're thinking of, they eat brains and savour the memories. Illithids hunting aboleth is curiously appropriate, as illithids are the only thing aboleth fear (illithid are not present in aboleth racial memory, on account of them being from the future, and all). The 3.5 PrC Illithid Savant allows you to extract skill ranks and class abilities from the brains you eat. I believe the illithid fluff suggests you could even make a Perform (Eat Brains) check, to make money, as part of this, provided you have an illithid audience.

Well, using Shapechange to become an Minflayer and eat the Aboleth's brain is an option, but I was thinking of something I could try before level 17...

[Florian]

I could just let this go without incident, but where's the fun in that? )

Vanquishing it should be fun enough.

[Janthkin]

Like I said, I'm down with visions of the future and such, but I already have one PC who is "infected" or at least playing an unwilling host to a spirit from the Dark Tapestry anyway - and is already getting strange knowledge from the past and such. I'd rather not step on another players toes by having two player concepts that are relatively similar. The nice thing about prophecy is that it's generally ambiguous enough to support multiple outcomes. The workload on you would increase, but think of the fun of giving two very conflicting "prophecies" to these two PCs, and let them start sorting out how both could be true.

Aboleths have racial memory; memories are shaped by the perceptions and beliefs of the person who experienced them, as they were at the time.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Well, using Shapechange to become an Minflayer and eat the Aboleth's brain is an option, but I was thinking of something I could try before level 17...
Polymorph any object and one to five levels in the PrC will do, because the actual eating of the brain does not require any special abilities (you don't need shapechange to qualify, just the mind flayer type/species). ECL 8 minimum, though if you can get past the 10-rank k(arcana) requirement (and buy a PAO scroll, costs 3000 gp, permanent duration if you have 19+ int), that could be lower.

However, I don't really have anything lower than ECL 8, sadly. Maybe you could reflavour an erudite (learn spells by extracting them from your dying victim's brains)?

[Gildedragon]

So you like the racial memory thing. Let's go with that.
The basic mechanical way it would manifest is a bonus to knowledge checks, linguistics, and UMD for ancient magical items. Let's say a +2. Let's make it a profane or racial bonus.
This is pretty strong because of how many skills involved, so let's have it have a drawback:
a) unreliable activation: 10-25% chance of working
b) activation drawback: 25-50% chance of giving PC a negative condition: sickened, stunned, or frightened would be thematically adequate
c) skill based activation: needs to do an autohypnosis or concentration check to activate the boon for X minutes
d) general misfortune: PC is plagued with too-vivid dreams and nightmares, needs to succeed on a will or fort save to sleep.
OR PC is randomly besieged by visions and needs to Concentrate for spellcasting DC: 10+Spell Level
OR the visions hamper their perception of the world, hallucinations make knowing what is present or past more difficult. -2 to -5 to perception, stealth, and diplomacy

[Clistenes]

Polymorph any object and one to five levels in the PrC will do, because the actual eating of the brain does not require any special abilities (you don't need shapechange to qualify, just the mind flayer type/species). ECL 8 minimum, though if you can get past the 10-rank k(arcana) requirement (and buy a PAO scroll, costs 3000 gp, permanent duration if you have 19+ int), that could be lower.

However, I don't really have anything lower than ECL 8, sadly. Maybe you could reflavour an erudite (learn spells by extracting them from your dying victim's brains)?

I guess the easiest way would be a custom spell. It shoudn't be too high level, since it wouldn't give you mechanical advantages, and you have to kill the creature you want to gain knowledge from before using the spell.

[Cirrylius]

Is there any information anywhere about how stealing creature's memories eating their brains? Because I am thinking of creating a character (Archivist, maybe?) who is an Aboleth hunter who kills them for their brains...
This is almost exactly what my current character does. Our campaign is coming to a head as we deal with readily slavable dragons that were ancient when they were trapped, thousands of years ago. He plans to ingratiate himself to schmooze as much lost history out of them as possible, but there's always Absorb Mind to deal with resistance.

[Clistenes]

This is almost exactly what my current character does. Our campaign is coming to a head as we deal with readily slavable dragons that were ancient when they were trapped, thousands of years ago. He plans to ingratiate himself to schmooze as much lost history out of them as possible, but there's always Absorb Memory to deal with resistance.

Thank you. That spell is exactly what I was looking for... (http://alcyius.com/dndtools/spells/book-of-vile-darkness--37/absorb-mind--151/index.html)

[Coidzor]

I'm liking a combination of prophetic visions of the past that ominously portent the future while tripping balls and getting sick as a dog and oozing mucus and slime, impossibly, from body parts that can't ooze anything.

And then at the end the impossible pregnancy is over and a half-aboleth rat with all the memories and skills of the druid and the aboleth scarpers off to become a recurring red herring.

Maybe the experience permanently blesses him with a power point reservoir equal to 1d4+Wis or Con and the psionic subtype. Or the Wild Talent feat which can be improved to Hidden Talent potentially.

[Incorrect]

If he can see in to the aboleths racial memory, he can potentially uncover all of their secrets.
A nearby aboleth might seek to control or destroy him.

But he should probably also get really, really sick..

[Bobby Baratheon]

Heck, you could even make it a full blown peyote-style vision quest after a while, and do a small sidequest from it. Maybe he can glean enough to find some old treasure or secret stash the aboleth had hidden somewhere?

[LoyalPaladin]

Aboleths have, among other startling traits, a racial memory that goes back unbroken to their original forebears. Since he went ahead and ate the whole brain, perhaps he could be blessed/tormented with visions of the distant past and strange bursts of archaic knowledge.
If we're going for the "fun-vee", I say make it like a really cool trait.

Bonuses:
+4 insight bonus on all Knowledge checks. (Not incredibly game breaking?)
Water Breathing

Drawback:
Must spend an 6hr/week submerged in water or begin taking negatives to Con every hour. (Scary, but totally avoidable.

[Telonius]

I'd give him the Aberration Blood feat as a bonus, just for the sheer audacity of eating the thing.

[Bohandas]

Disease. Possibly blueguts.