Need help designing a lair

[FabulousFizban]

In my campaign there is an aboleth that lives beneath a lake in the mountains. The Aboleth has enslaved a town of High Elves that live on the lake, with the older elves being forced to transform and live in the lake itself with the aboleth - real shadow over innsmouth style. But I don't know what the lair of the aboleth itself should be like. Caves beneath the lake? an underwater temple built by the enslaved elves? (are aboleths interested in being worshipped?) what would the encounters and the layout be? what are the aboleth's tactics down there? I could use whatever help the playground can provide. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: The Aboleth became trapped in the lake when the oceans receded, but was mostly dormant until the elves arrived. The lake elves are refugees from a High Elf kingdom that was destroyed centuries ago (the elves have been at the lake for these interceding centuries). They didn't know the aboleth was there when they settled the area, and have become enslaved to it over time. If you would like additional info, just ask. I love and appreciate the ideas you all have put forth. Please keep 'em coming.

[Oramac]

an underwater temple

How about an abandoned underwater temple taken over by the aboleth? Or perhaps the aboleth killed the previous occupants and took the temple for itself (whether it wants to be worshipped or not).

I'm envisioning an underwater pyramid. Run the dungeon backwards. The PCs enter through the top, seeing what would have been the most lavish and extravagant chambers first, but only minor enemies/thralls of the aboleth. As they descend deeper into the pyramid, the rooms get a little larger, perhaps, but less and less gaudy.

I'd put in several small bands of thralls (Sea Elves from MotM?). IDK your groups level, but you could probably use stats for bandits/knights/priests and be fine. Traps would be a mix of ordinary ones set by the thralls and otherworldly ones set by the aboleth itself. I'm not super good at making traps, though, so I leave that to others. Maybe there's 2 or 3 puzzles in there too? For a hidden room, possibly? I don't know how well your group likes puzzles, so take this or leave it.

[Nidgit]

My understanding of aboleths is that they're generally very dismissive but want to be acknowledged as superior beings themselves. So you could potentially go with an old temple that has been strategically flooded and converted into the aboleth's palace.

[Unoriginal]

In my campaign there is an aboleth that lives beneath a lake in the mountains. The Aboleth has enslaved a town of High Elves that live on the lake, with the older elves being forced to transform and live in the lake itself with the aboleth - real shadow over innsmouth style. But I don't know what the lair of the aboleth itself should be like. Caves beneath the lake? an underwater temple built by the enslaved elves? (are aboleths interested in being worshipped?) what would the encounters and the layout be? what are the aboleth's tactics down there? I could use whatever help the playground can provide. Thanks in advance.

First thing to consider, IMO, is that it's not because the High Elves have been mind-enslaved by an Aboleth that they will not have cultural filters on how to treat such an entity

Instead of a temple, I could see the elves building a mage tower or a palace underwater, or even a tower that seems to be built on an island or floating platform on the lake, but actually continues below the surface deep into the water.

As for being worshipped, the Aboleths don't care about worship like a cult would worship a god (after all, they were there before), but they do think of themselves as inherently superior (in 3.X, it was noted the only other beings most Aboleths consider as deserving of respect/acknowledgement are *some* of the Elder Evils, IIRC) and want mortals who are single-mindedly devoted to whatever task the Aboleth gave them.

For tactics, well, if the Aboleth successfully enslaved an High Elf town, I think the two keys points to keep in mind are:

1) "Being underwater is a great advantage over most worthless mortals": the Aboleth knows most adventurers cannot stay underwater without some kind of magical assistance. If their slaves have Dispel Magic, they will make them use it on the PCs to dispel what let them breath underwater, and if it doesn't work, it will make them use Detect Magic to find where the magic item allowing them to do it is (assuming the Aboleth cannot deduce which item it is when they see the adventurers, of course) and then order their slaves to try to remove said item from the PCs no matter the cost to the slaves (if it doesn't work, the Aboleth can try doing it themselves), in an effort to drown the intruders or at the very least make them helpless for an easier capture.

2) "I have reserves": this Aboleth has a whole town to sacrifice against the PCs, and no reason to not do it if the PCs prove that it is a worthwhile investment. Enslaved elves should be hindering the PCs at every turn as the Aboleth uses the Aboleth the 3d mobility, their high WIS (Perception) capacity (which they can do as a Legendary action) and their Probing Telepathy to stay out of range of the PCs but keep an eye on the fight, only engaging if they're weakened enough. Furthermore, whenever they're hurt, the Aboleth should use Psychic Drain on their own slaves (prioritizing the ones they consider less valuable first, of course).


Aside from that, I would say the Aboleth should only use their 3 Enslaves after observing the PCs and determining to which is the most likely to fall under their power.

However, the Aboleth is unlikely to be ever attempting to actually flee (delaying tactics as they await reinforcement are to be expected, though) as there is nothing that most mortals can do to stop their immortality/the fact they just re-appear in the Water Plane if their physical body is killed. So the best the PCs will be able to do, in the Aboleth's eyes, is imposing a temporary setback on whatever they were planning.

How ancient and non-human the Aboleth is is another thing to consider. For humanoids, such a fight against an Aboleth is a nightmare-inducing struggle for their lives and freedoms. For the Aboleth, it is just another mundane situation in their eons-long existence to observe, analyse and deal with, without passion or fear or anger or surprise, while knowing it's quite likely to be similar to the thousands of memories of other conflicts with land-born humanoids they have in their mental libraries.

[J-H]

The Aboleth has had a lot of time to prepare. I suggest including several illusions. Walls that are illusions, illusionary floors over the water (through which the aboleth can cast), etc.
Mislead is a pretty good spell in that it allows the caster to be invisible and a safe distance from combat while still interacting with potentially hostile enemies, and even casting spells on them.

Mind games :)

[Segev]

From a dungeon design and game play standpoint, aboleths present interesting opportunities for semi-aquatic lairs. They come with a built-in way to make creatures able to breathe water (but lose the ability to breathe air while "enjoying" it), and thus can allow disproportionately low level parties - or just parties without water breathing spells or other magic - to explore aquatic dungeons. But they also need to expose themselves to the party to expose the party, unless you allow their minions to have bottled mucous or the like.

They can trap PCs in the dungeon, or at least against retreat into sunlight, as well.

The aquatic nature of it can keep an aboleth safe from powerful, non-water-breathing adventurers, and can trap weaker adventurers in the aboleth's reach.


If you go with the idea of an ancient temple, perhaps the aboleth conducts experiments in god-design. After all, as a more ancient and therefore more powerful (in its own mind) being, it considers gods its playthings. Going for the Innsmouth thing, what it forces the elven elders to transform into are kuo-toa, and then it uses them to create gods as per kuo-toa 5e lore. But their faith is weak and their purpose twisted by their loyalty to the aboleth, so their gods are stupid, if not mindless, beast-things. The Aboleth permits the kuo-toa elves to redesign portions of the temple to suit the god-beasts they're creating whenever one is destroyed (for whatever reason, often including the aboleth determining "they can do better").

This leads to the temple having a mish-mash of styles, and kind-of feeling like a Zelda dungeon with multiple mini-bosses.


I may also suggest that the town on the shore of the lake be what remains of what was once a larger town or even a small city, before a dam was constructed that flooded and expanded the lake. At the aboleth's instruction, of course. This is what swallowed the temple and the other now-underwater structures that make up the aboleth's lair.

[Oramac]

Loads of great ideas in here. I also want to throw out the Aboleth article from The Monsters Know (https://www.themonstersknow.com/aboleth-tactics/). Some great inspiration there as well.

[MrStabby]

I think that flooded buildings, especially temples are good.

Both as a DM and a player, I find caves... boring. No scenery, no story really. Fewer points of reference usually. SOmething being constructed is a great natural reason for a lot of points of interest being together in one place.

A temple is good, especially if the players don't know what they are facing. That there is some evil and they are in a temple may give just a little misdirection and help preserve the surprise at the end.

There are other buildings you can use (I had an Aboleth in a bathhouse once) but temples have lots of different differentiated rooms and can be of any size you might like. Other potential flooded buildings to add to the list:

Flooded Palace (a chance to show some history with mozaics, good treasure opportunities, an a chance to have grand oppulence thrown into decay)
Flooded Crypt (if you wanted to surprise people by NOT having undead. Still a flavouful place and a way to defy expectations)
Flooded Forge (Piles of slag, old rusting furnaces, piles of coal... the building can tell a story through the things produced and plenty of interesting things to find)







One nice thing about progress underwater is that you can get deeper and deeper, and the conditions change - really charting your progress.

At the surface its normal.

Go a level down and parts are flooded and enough water to make areas difficult terrain with mobility issues

Then underwater

Then underwater but only dim light penetrates

Then the dark depths where nothing can be seen (though dark vision being so common kind of undermines this)

Finally, if you want you could add some more rules for crushing depths



I think that this adds a sense of progress to the adventure, but it can add pressure to make he whole lair bigger than optimal to capture all these things. If you do do this, I would suggest making each deeper level smaller. Exploration on the surface is fine, and people signed up to this. Splashing around in the shallows is fine and gives a chance for some mobility abilities to shine. Underwater will be a pain for some characters and whilst it will let some others excell, there will be frustration if its too much. Underwater and dark can completely screw some characters - depending on preparation and too long at these last levels might not be fun.

[Mastikator]

I'd design it with the 5 room dungeon in mind.

The lair is a located inside a mountain, at the foot of the mountain is a trading port town where a river meets the ocean. The elves have redirected some of the river into irrigation fields causing the ocean to recede, thus trapping the aboleth (without their knowledge).

1) The first "room" is the outside area on the mountain, it contains the two entrances and maybe a watch tower of some sort.
The main entrance is guarded by mind controlled elite soldier elves. The second entrance is a hidden entrance, a small underground river that leads directly into the aboleths lake. This small underground river connects to the main river. Nature, survival or history checks can be made to hint at an underground river, passing merchants, locals or local library books can be queried for further information. Otherwise the main entrance is not hidden, well known.

2) Inside the first entrance the path leads to a temple built into the natural cave system, the temple has a collection of priests who worship the spirit of the mountain (aka the aboleth, but they don't know that, only the head priest does). They will present the players with a riddle of some kind to let them pass into the sacred lake.

3) The temple also has a secondary pathway into the sacred treasury, this treasury is hidden and locked. The priests can give access to the treasury to those who they consider worthy, those who have drunk of the sacred water and been blessed by the spirit (the party can trick the head priest into thinking they are mind controlled by the aboleth and he will give them access).

4) The lake, this is a huge cavernous room with a big lake in the middle, the lake contains the aboleth running the show. The lake also has two pathways both too small for the aboleth, one leading out of the mountain and the other leading to a false treasure area. The aboleth will try to trick the players to swim into the fake treasure area so it can access and mind control them. This fake area is well advertised as the real treasury by everyone (they don't know it's a trap).
The big boss fight happens here.

5) the fake treasury, this place is an underwater room with nothing of value, however the stream of water makes it difficult to leave. Maybe underwater ghosts also haunt this place?

You can add rooms to make it bigger, however I would add sub-rooms into the actual rooms instead, this is also a great way to disguise the 5 room dungeon in case the players know about it, the temple is a good option to have many sub-rooms. Each room presents a theme and challenge or reward. If you feel there are themes or challenges that need to be added then add rooms, add them with two pathways from 1-5. A looping fractal dungeon is more interesting than a linear one. What I mean by fractal is that for example the treasury room could have sub-rooms that also are hidden and locked containing even more treasure. The lake could contain smaller lakes or rivers that contain other monsters.

Edit-

Potential plot hooks.

1) The aboleth doesn't want to rouse suspicion so it will only mind control a few elves, the ruling body. The mayor, the sheriff, the biggest landowner, the richest local merchant, etc. These puppets job is to work normally and while subtly benefiting the aboleth.
Thus there should be limited rumors that they have changed somehow in the past, rumors that are very hush hush since the last time someone spoke about it openly they also changed.
Traveling merchants will be prevented from interacting too much with the locals, those who go sniffing around are killed. This leads to rumors from the outside world of "mysterious disappearances".
Players can be sent to investigate, or as adventurers passing through they notice weird stuff that pique their interest. Any player that asks too many questions will find themselves in a world of trouble/adventure

2) the elves have renounced Corellon (or whatever their previous deity/religion was), this has caused quite some stir among the elven community and they have become somewhat ostracized by other elves.
The players could be sent by an elven king to investigate this new lake-water religion. Which will instantly lead them into trouble.

3) one of the players is penpals with a local who reported on strange going ons only to suddenly declare they were only joking, lol, don't even think about coming here

4) Under the aboleth's control the local elves have lead a very successful campaign to remove nearby monsters that can serve as rivals for the aboleth, this has gotten outside people asking questions only to have those people mysteriously disappear

5) famous scholars and learned people have been kidnapped, all clues of where they went lead to this town by the mouth of the river.

[Oramac]

the 5 room dungeon

Always a good plan. I can't believe I forgot to mention it myself.

[Daffy Dutch]

Aboleths are insanely telepathic yeah? Why not crank up the illusions and horror angle?

Like, the players arrive to the town and everything is prosperous and gorgeous. The inhabitants all pay tribute to the lady of the lake, a spirit who dwells in the water that provided them with safety and prosperity when they were exiled. Everything seems hunky dory at first, but as time goes on the PC's start to notice inconsistencies within the town. Little by little the veil gets lifted until they realize that the spirit is actually an aboleth, and the clean and beautiful city is actually overgrown with moss and insects. The aboleth has psychically manipulated the entire town into thinking it was a paradise when in reality it is full of squalor and misery. Maybe the entrance to the creature's lair is a staircase that descends to the bottom of the lake where the aboleth dwells in a sunken temple.

[Unoriginal]

Aboleths are insanely telepathic yeah? Why not crank up the illusions and horror angle?

Like, the players arrive to the town and everything is prosperous and gorgeous. The inhabitants all pay tribute to the lady of the lake, a spirit who dwells in the water that provided them with safety and prosperity when they were exiled. Everything seems hunky dory at first, but as time goes on the PC's start to notice inconsistencies within the town. Little by little the veil gets lifted until they realize that the spirit is actually an aboleth, and the clean and beautiful city is actually overgrown with moss and insects. The aboleth has psychically manipulated the entire town into thinking it was a paradise when in reality it is full of squalor and misery. Maybe the entrance to the creature's lair is a staircase that descends to the bottom of the lake where the aboleth dwells in a sunken temple.

Typical Aboleths cannot do that, but it's true that nothing says this Aboleth is typical.

However, I would say that it doesn't fit an Aboleth to do that. An Aboleth wouldn't waste the effort of thinking a prosperous, gorgeous town/paradise for humanoids. I don't think they would want their slaves to advertise they're paying tribute to a water entity but still pretend to not be an Aboleth, either (if the Aboleth is confident enough to have the slaves be open about the domination, they're not going to bother making a fake entity to worship, and if they're not confident, they wouldn't want to have the fake entity as a front either).

If you want to ramp up the horror element, I would say the town would be more... strictly utilitarian. As in, all the things that where there before are still there, but anything beside what's needed to be functioning are left abandoned. Everything is at its place, without the typical mess one does just by living somewhere. Houses and streets are maintained, but nothing stands out. Artworks, statues, decorative plants, colorful paints for the houses, etc, are all uncared for, and fading away.

The people the PCs see do act like people doing their everyday lives, though, they are relatively friendly even, and they explain the state of their town as "we haven't recovered from [insert relatively believable catastrophe here, like a storm], we can't afford anything but the essential" or the like.

But the longer the act is up, the more it unravels. Those who are expected to speak with visitors are normally reactive, but far less care is given to the "background performance". Different sets of people keeps repeating the same interactions. The lady goes to buy bread the exact same way and says the exact same things every five hours. The coach driver drives in the same path without ever transporting anyone. The guard at the entrance greets everyone the same way no matter how many times they go through there.

And then something goes wrong. Maybe a carpenter who's nailing planks misses the nail and starts hammering their hand into pulp in an unfeeling, mechanical way. Maybe an horse gets spooked or hurt and tramples a passerby while fleeing, with no one noticing anything odd about it and everyone just tries to do their usual routine. Including the trampled, blood-losing passerby.

[Oramac]

Aboleths are insanely telepathic yeah? Why not crank up the illusions and horror angle?

Like, the players arrive to the town and everything is prosperous and gorgeous. The inhabitants all pay tribute to the lady of the lake, a spirit who dwells in the water that provided them with safety and prosperity when they were exiled. Everything seems hunky dory at first, but as time goes on the PC's start to notice inconsistencies within the town. Little by little the veil gets lifted until they realize that the spirit is actually an aboleth, and the clean and beautiful city is actually overgrown with moss and insects. The aboleth has psychically manipulated the entire town into thinking it was a paradise when in reality it is full of squalor and misery. Maybe the entrance to the creature's lair is a staircase that descends to the bottom of the lake where the aboleth dwells in a sunken temple.


Typical Aboleths cannot do that, but it's true that nothing says this Aboleth is typical.

However, I would say that it doesn't fit an Aboleth to do that. An Aboleth wouldn't waste the effort of thinking a prosperous, gorgeous town/paradise for humanoids. I don't think they would want their slaves to advertise they're paying tribute to a water entity but still pretend to not be an Aboleth, either (if the Aboleth is confident enough to have the slaves be open about the domination, they're not going to bother making a fake entity to worship, and if they're not confident, they wouldn't want to have the fake entity as a front either).

Unless there's a story reason for the Aboleth to want to see prosperity around it. I'm thinking here of WandaVision, just replace Wanda with the Aboleth. The super-prosperity illusion has nothing to do with being actually prosperous. It's a façade designed to help the Aboleth deal with [insert horrible thing in the distant past].


If you want to ramp up the horror element, I would say the town would be more... strictly utilitarian. As in, all the things that where there before are still there, but anything beside what's needed to be functioning are left abandoned. Everything is at its place, without the typical mess one does just by living somewhere. Houses and streets are maintained, but nothing stands out. Artworks, statues, decorative plants, colorful paints for the houses, etc, are all uncared for, and fading away.

The people the PCs see do act like people doing their everyday lives, though, they are relatively friendly even, and they explain the state of their town as "we haven't recovered from [insert relatively believable catastrophe here, like a storm], we can't afford anything but the essential" or the like.

But the longer the act is up, the more it unravels. Those who are expected to speak with visitors are normally reactive, but far less care is given to the "background performance". Different sets of people keeps repeating the same interactions. The lady goes to buy bread the exact same way and says the exact same things every five hours. The coach driver drives in the same path without ever transporting anyone. The guard at the entrance greets everyone the same way no matter how many times they go through there.

And then something goes wrong. Maybe a carpenter who's nailing planks misses the nail and starts hammering their hand into pulp in an unfeeling, mechanical way. Maybe an horse gets spooked or hurt and tramples a passerby while fleeing, with no one noticing anything odd about it and everyone just tries to do their usual routine. Including the trampled, blood-losing passerby.

This would also work really well, though it might require a more mature group to really pull it off. Horror settings in my experience don't work well with, shall we say, younger audiences.