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View Full Version : What's wrong in Aboleth Town?



LastCenturion
2020-05-11, 03:09 PM
In my new game, I have a port city being invaded/subverted by an aboleth. The players don't know that, and I'm trying to give enough hints that they can sort of see it coming, but I'm not entirely sure how to do it.

Long-term, the aboleth's plans require a lot of souls to be sacrificed in a (doomed) attempt to become on par with the gods. The aboleth, who I have yet to actually name, is planning to sacrifice about 40% of the city's population, ten thousand people. I'm running a little dry on ideas, however, when it comes to the mundane effects on the city that the mass-domination would have.

So far the aboleth has dominated around three thousand people after living in the city for just over a year (I've adjusted its dominations/day number for offscreen NPCs so that I can have a decent chunk of people already controlled), or just under one in eight people. Because the aboleth is smart, and knows how its own abilities work, each of these people is compelled to take a daily walk to within a mile of where the aboleth is positioned, to prevent them from ever slipping away from the aboleth's control. They'll also prioritize differently, not leaving the city and doing their best to maximize their own power at cost of their health or relationships, so that they can help the aboleth capture higher and higher ranking people in the city's government and other power structures, while avoiding events like taking damage that would risk their connection to the aboleth.

I'm not really sure, though, how to provide general hints towards the secret. The characters are all entirely new to the city, so having things be not as they remember them isn't really an option. What sort of things can I include that are awry in a direction that will, at least in retrospect, hint at the nature of what's going on?

Tvtyrant
2020-05-11, 03:46 PM
Have you read Tommyknockers? Half the town is into a big festival or event that is obscurely wrong, the other half look scared and are trying not to get involved. Getting warned by kids to "keep quiet" and other such oddities while the town leaders are erecting the sacrificial altar in the center of the town.

Segev
2020-05-11, 04:45 PM
Assuming the 3000 dominated are not in any particularly unusual demographic weighting towards running the city, the influence will be felt but not enough to truly make people do the "stay quiet and don't admit you notice anything" thing. It'll be somewhere between "Conspiracy Theory folks joke about" and "...but yeah, some people ARE acting weird."

The biggest hint should probably be disappearances, accompanied by rumors of gang activity near the docks. These rumors should clash with fish stories about seeing monsters that barely look like orcs (i.e. skum or chuuls) seen only in silhouette. Kidnappings are on the rise. This is straight-up the Aboleth gathering sacrifices, as well as dragging people in for domination.

Some homeless who died of dehydration, possibly blamed for "seawater madness" or something where they're assumed to have drunk seawater and it sucked the rest of the moisture out of them. Really, they're one or two people who escaped but after their flesh had been altered, and died due to not keeping themselves immersed.

Meanwhile, the gang activity reports have the docks cracking down on "suspicious activity" in the region, whether it's the harbor authority, the harbormaster, or some branch of the constabulary/guard force for the city. Here this crackdown is being headed by the highest-ranking member of that organization that the Aboleth has enslaved. The crackdown enables them to keep anybody who's too good at investigation from snooping around. Framing the party for a kidnapping or murder would not be remiss if they keep investigating there too incautiously.

As the Aboleth's influence spreads, the disappearances seem to level off. In reality, this is a combination of two things: wiping people's memories of those who are still disappearing, and more of them being returned as enslaved minions. So the rumors of disappearances are said to be "overblown" or "old news," since it isn't happening anymore. The PCs noticing somebody missing and the townsfolk asking, "Who?" would be a good way to kick off this particular bit of nighmare fuel.

The Aboleth's plan now should be to work its control up to the top. It has 3000 people out of 40,000; that's a huge number! But with them demographically weighted towards the lower classes and only a scattered influence in the middle class and the constabulary, it wants to get firmer control of the town. So it's trying to get slaves closer and closer to the town rulers.

When it can manage the influence, whether by direct control of planting ideas, that's where this "festival" thing comes in.

Whether it's a new thing the aboleth has designed, or it's a yearly tradition it's planning to hijack, the creature is going to put is thralls in charge of it (by hook or by crook...or by murder). Because it can arrange the mass sacrifice that way. It only needs 1/4 of the town, so any sort of massive catastrophe it can arrange that will suddenly kill a lot of people should get it most of the way there. Poison gas, mucous-filled floodwaters, something that can be unleashed to murderize everyone in the streets at more-or-less once, which it can set up in advance under cover of decorations and the like.

MesiDoomstalker
2020-05-11, 04:49 PM
So the first thing the Aboleth should be doing is isolating his Dominated slaves from the general population. Because a Dominated person is very easy to spot for those trained to do so, and even those untrained can still identify that their dad is acting strangely. So the key thing is identifying anyone a slave interacts with on a daily basis and making sure they are quickly brought under Domination.

What that means is soon, there will be 'Domination Ghettos' in the city. Areas where a huge portion of the population is Dominated as they tended to interact with each other enough to warrant Domination to keep them compliant. What that means for the PC's is that so long as they avoid these ghettos (intentionally or not), the PC's would likely wouldn't notice anything is afoot. At worst there is rumors circulating of people starting to act strange and then disseappering from the public eye. Not full disappearances, just a sudden change of routine after starting to act strangely.

Of course if the PC's do stumble into this ghetto, they should feel immediately out of place. The people move about with purpose but said purpose is never quite apparent. Merchants hawk their wares while staring off into the distance. No one ever buys but yet he still calls out to no one. People move about the street in an almost scripted way; no one seems to run into anyone else by accident. The baker rolls the same piece of dough for hours. Florists water their flower beds full of dead flowers for hours. The PC's very presence should feel like they've stepped onto a stage without their scripts. Interruptions of the 'play' should be met with quickly dismissal of the non-actors (PCs) as they continue on their pre-programmed routine or sudden, universal hostility as all the slaves attempt to coerce (physically or otherwise) the PC's into the Aboleth's clutches.

It should be noted that people who are Dominated do not have outside lives. They eat, they sleep and they follow orders. If not given orders, they sit and do nothing. The Aboleth is smart enough that it knows it cannot be found out early, so it strives to make sure his slaves appear normal. But his alien mindset makes human(oid)s like some primitive inferior. Ants, who the Aboleth could understand on an intellectual level but not at an organic level. He knows that the baker bakes bread and could replicate the whole process but it doesn't understand why each step is taken. All its ruses are superficial. Enough to go unnoticed at a passing glance butt any form of scrutiny shows that the play is hollow and pointless.

Segev
2020-05-11, 04:58 PM
So the first thing the Aboleth should be doing is isolating his Dominated slaves from the general population. Because a Dominated person is very easy to spot for those trained to do so, and even those untrained can still identify that their dad is acting strangely. So the key thing is identifying anyone a slave interacts with on a daily basis and making sure they are quickly brought under Domination.

What that means is soon, there will be 'Domination Ghettos' in the city. Areas where a huge portion of the population is Dominated as they tended to interact with each other enough to warrant Domination to keep them compliant. What that means for the PC's is that so long as they avoid these ghettos (intentionally or not), the PC's would likely wouldn't notice anything is afoot. At worst there is rumors circulating of people starting to act strange and then disseappering from the public eye. Not full disappearances, just a sudden change of routine after starting to act strangely.

Of course if the PC's do stumble into this ghetto, they should feel immediately out of place. The people move about with purpose but said purpose is never quite apparent. Merchants hawk their wares while staring off into the distance. No one ever buys but yet he still calls out to no one. People move about the street in an almost scripted way; no one seems to run into anyone else by accident. The baker rolls the same piece of dough for hours. Florists water their flower beds full of dead flowers for hours. The PC's very presence should feel like they've stepped onto a stage without their scripts. Interruptions of the 'play' should be met with quickly dismissal of the non-actors (PCs) as they continue on their pre-programmed routine or sudden, universal hostility as all the slaves attempt to coerce (physically or otherwise) the PC's into the Aboleth's clutches.

It should be noted that people who are Dominated do not have outside lives. They eat, they sleep and they follow orders. If not given orders, they sit and do nothing. The Aboleth is smart enough that it knows it cannot be found out early, so it strives to make sure his slaves appear normal. But his alien mindset makes human(oid)s like some primitive inferior. Ants, who the Aboleth could understand on an intellectual level but not at an organic level. He knows that the baker bakes bread and could replicate the whole process but it doesn't understand why each step is taken. All its ruses are superficial. Enough to go unnoticed at a passing glance butt any form of scrutiny shows that the play is hollow and pointless.

I think you're overdoing how obvious the domination is. I like where you're going with it, but it's too unsubtle. If the Aboleth's slaves are miming liberated life, they'll do it reasonably competently. It's an Insight/Sense Motive check to even notice something's off about those under such effects.

The people are welcoming and friendly for...a brief period. But they all seem to be eyeing the outsiders, and the PCs definitely feel like "outsiders." If they come in with business, efficiency will be high in getting them to their business, getting it done, and getting them on their way. If they seem to be browsing, asking too many questions, etc., things get stiff. Stilted. This is where the "on stage without a script" feeling should set in.

Perhaps the most notable disturbing element should be how well-behaved the children are. There isn't pick-pocketing from urchins (or adults). If children are playing, THAT is where the mimicry is most apparent. They may or may not get into artificial fights, but they will feel more stilted because they're poorer actors. If they don't artificially fight, children will be well-behaved, possibly helping with work. Possibly running around on mysterious errands because children aren't essential to the faux workforce maintaining the Aboleth's minions.

...which also means the most common disappearances are of children, partiuclarly with the "who?" reaction when anybody asks about them. Even if they do really know, they're enslaved and count on others not knowing one brat from another, so if one's missing, gaslighting them into thinking they just miscounted or are crazy for mentioning such a kid is easiest. Skilled deceivers will try to dissemble that "I'm sure he's around somewhere; you know how children are," and if confronted about it will wave off seeming to know who they're talking about as, "Well, you mentioned kids, so I figured... why do you think I would now them?" or the like.

But your point about it being "domination ghettos" is a good one, because as subtle as it is, minimizing contact with those who might notice something wrong is still desirable.

MesiDoomstalker
2020-05-11, 05:02 PM
I think you're overdoing how obvious the domination is. I like where you're going with it, but it's too unsubtle. If the Aboleth's slaves are miming liberated life, they'll do it reasonably competently. It's an Insight/Sense Motive check to even notice something's off about those under such effects.

The people are welcoming and friendly for...a brief period. But they all seem to be eyeing the outsiders, and the PCs definitely feel like "outsiders." If they come in with business, efficiency will be high in getting them to their business, getting it done, and getting them on their way. If they seem to be browsing, asking too many questions, etc., things get stiff. Stilted. This is where the "on stage without a script" feeling should set in.

Perhaps the most notable disturbing element should be how well-behaved the children are. There isn't pick-pocketing from urchins (or adults). If children are playing, THAT is where the mimicry is most apparent. They may or may not get into artificial fights, but they will feel more stilted because they're poorer actors. If they don't artificially fight, children will be well-behaved, possibly helping with work. Possibly running around on mysterious errands because children aren't essential to the faux workforce maintaining the Aboleth's minions.

...which also means the most common disappearances are of children, partiuclarly with the "who?" reaction when anybody asks about them. Even if they do really know, they're enslaved and count on others not knowing one brat from another, so if one's missing, gaslighting them into thinking they just miscounted or are crazy for mentioning such a kid is easiest. Skilled deceivers will try to dissemble that "I'm sure he's around somewhere; you know how children are," and if confronted about it will wave off seeming to know who they're talking about as, "Well, you mentioned kids, so I figured... why do you think I would now them?" or the like.

But your point about it being "domination ghettos" is a good one, because as subtle as it is, minimizing contact with those who might notice something wrong is still desirable.

Without knowing which specific system is being used, it is hard to determine what DC to use. But if its 3.5/PF (which I'm most familiar with) its a DC 15. Something even the dullest of dullards (Wisdom 1) could notice on rare occasions. And anyone with actual ranks will meet that DC easily. And of course, your average person won't be particularly good at Bluffing or Acting either.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you are right to a degree. Super frienldy, super efficient. But I'd amend that the Aboleth will isolate those who are actually goood at lieing and have them be the mouth piece for throwing off persuers. So whenever an outsiders comes in and starts getting too suspicious, its the nearest mouth piece that comes to the proverbial rescue.

Segev
2020-05-11, 05:15 PM
Without knowing which specific system is being used, it is hard to determine what DC to use. But if its 3.5/PF (which I'm most familiar with) its a DC 15. Something even the dullest of dullards (Wisdom 1) could notice on rare occasions. And anyone with actual ranks will meet that DC easily. And of course, your average person won't be particularly good at Bluffing or Acting either.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you are right to a degree. Super frienldy, super efficient. But I'd amend that the Aboleth will isolate those who are actually good at lying and have them be the mouth piece for throwing off persuers. So whenever an outsiders comes in and starts getting too suspicious, its the nearest mouth piece that comes to the proverbial rescue.

Perfect.

The reason I said you were being too obvious was things like watering the dead flowers or selling the same loaf over and over. That's something the "Wisdom 1 dullard" still should notice without a roll. The DC 15 is meant to represent having to talk to them, see them acting "normally," and realize something's "off." Not "oh, hey, you're staring vacantly into the distance and moving like an animatronic doll with no awareness of your surroundings."

You're absolutely right about the mouthpieces being "on watch" to shepherd people who seem too nosy or too likely to notice something wrong with the "street cast." The sudden prominence of previously-distrusted people might actually be another clue. They've cleaned up their act and everybody in their neighborhood suddenly trusts them? Either gang activity with him being an enforcer, or something weirder is going on.

Eurus
2020-05-11, 08:55 PM
One thing you could go with is unexpected side effects of having so much magical (or psionic, if you're using that) energy floating around. This is a pretty major working, it would make sense for some weirdness to pop up! Maybe all the clerics keep getting weird portents of doom and they can't figure out why, or anyone psychically sensitive is having terrible nightmares. Maybe the weakened mental defenses of the town are attracting psychic predators, or causing wildlife to act strangely.

Aliess
2020-05-12, 05:57 AM
Have you read Shadow Over Innsmouth? That's what I used as inspiration for something similar.

You could go for the classical story of a new chapel to the God of the Sea (Other appropriate God) is put up near the docks. PC's going there might notice that it's a new and interesting take on the religion, but everybody seems super in to it.

Or, similar to the Ghetto idea, the Aboleth deliberately targets a particular community (all the elves in town, the fishermen, the people living on the peninsular, whatever).