GitP Regulars as Elder Evils!

[Snowbluff]

Spoiler: Oh no, Snowbluff...

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I'm not running from anything, and the first thing a good mage learns how to do is to be immune to bullets.

Agreed here. I'm pretty much incapable of remembering to perma-permission Threadnaught even...

Right?

Boy this thread is really getting away from me. Expect a new one soon. Archetypes, PrCs or Dragons? Who knows?

[NeoPhoenix0]

Well, I don't bend the rules. But if I don't make my spot/listen check, how am I supposed to correct you?

What are these things called rules, they sound horrible.

[Extra Anchovies]

Boy this thread is really getting away from me. Expect a new one soon. Archetypes, PrCs or Dragons? Who knows?

I wouldn't call this thread over just yet. We've still got some steam left.

[Blackhawk748]

Im back, and wow did a lot of stuff get done here. Also im gonna do one for Jormengand, it shall involve curses....and birds.... I need to smooth it over a bit though

Edit: Also Elric needs more Choppy bitz, This might be getting close to enough:

Spoiler: Elric, maybe...

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[Snowbluff]

I wouldn't call this thread over just yet. We've still got some steam left.

Well I don't.

[Blackhawk748]

Well I don't.

*drops a bag of coal by Snowbluff* This help or do you run on wood?

[IZ42]

*drops a bag of coal by Snowbluff* This help or do you run on wood?

He runs on the tortured souls of the various incarnations of me. Completely renewable!

[Elricaltovilla]

I can take another crack at these tomorrow. Hurray for days off!

[NeoPhoenix0]

He runs on the tortured souls of the various incarnations of me. Completely renewable!

no, the souls are for the coal making machine.

[IZ42]

no, the souls are for the coal making machine.

Trust me, I'm a leading expert in what happens to my soul when Snowbluff gets ahold of me.

[Snowbluff]

*drops a bag of coal by Snowbluff* This help or do you run on wood?

Well, neither, but thanks. :D

no, the souls are for the coal making machine.

Shush, I'm hoping coal makes a comeback and making it out of souls is very lucrative.

[Zaydos]

I'm not running from anything, and the first thing a good mage learns how to do is to be immune to bullets.


Right?

Boy this thread is really getting away from me. Expect a new one soon. Archetypes, PrCs or Dragons? Who knows?

Ah I don't want it to be over yet, I'm not Evil yet. AND BEING GOOD IS LAME.

I am now tempted to return to my original avatar.

[Bad Wolf]

Hmm, I wonder which elder evil is the strongest...

[Snowbluff]

Ah I don't want it to be over yet, I'm not Evil yet. AND BEING GOOD IS LAME.

These threads run long after I start on the next one.

I am now tempted to return to my original avatar.

I like this one. D;

Hmm, I wonder which elder evil is the strongest...

Don't even start, or they'll have fights and whole cities will self-destruct.

[Extra Anchovies]

Hmm, I wonder which elder evil is the strongest...

Can't really compare them without actual stat blocks. Some of them may be implicitly stronger than others in their fluff, but that isn't necessarily a reflection of actual power. Atropus is the size of a fairly large moon, but the encounters required to repel it aren't all that bad. Father Llymic seems tame by comparison, but if a DM actually plays him to his 20 Intelligence, it's an unwinnable fight - his Summon Brood ability can call up anything with 24 HD or less three times per day, and has no stated duration (and doesn't replicate any specific other spells or abilities).

[Threadnaught]

Heh, I declare myself late and as I watch the thread unfold, waiting impatiently, I have still to be made into a God... Also Elder Entity of Anti-Reality.


Figures. This is exactly why perma-permission is a thing. *pouts and walks away sobbing*

[Zaydos]

Darinarxul, the Root of Darkness

Parallel to the Prime Material Plane is the Plane of Shadow. Not a plane of evil, as the various hells, it is still a dangerous plane, home to undead and fell creatures. The illumians (races of destiny) stand as one of the scattered lights on this plane of eternal night, and know much of its secrets and lore (Kno the Planes DC 18). The illumians whisper stories of how the plane of shadows can in fact connect one Prime to another, sometimes a wildly different world and sometimes a strange reflection of the world. There sages only rarely seek out the shadow gates necessary to travel between Primes this way, considering them too dangerous and too wild to risk venturing into lightly. As such even these dwellers of shadow knowlittle and what they know is very limited. (Kno the Planes DC 23) They can point, however, to one who knows much more. Xulda, the mad drow, outcast from his people he fled the Prime to the Plane of Shadows seeking solace in its eternal darkness so similar to the Underdark which he had loved. Xulda is an isolationist and a hermit who dwells now in the Screaming Canyon, a place filled with dangerous shadows and winds similar to those of Pandemonium, but no other living entity has traveled as far or as widely in the way of shadows between Primes. (Kno the Planes DC 28) Xulda makes no secret of how the sights of a hundred worlds, of a dozen or more where he returned to his city and found that even in these shadows of his life it was no home to him, have driven him to madness and hallucination. Even so he swears that something dwells in the dark between the Primes, something dread, dark, and ancient. He speaks of it only in hushed whispers, fearing that it will hear his words and come looking. He swears too that it is hungry (Kno the Planes DC 31). While Xulda's reports may seem incredulous to some given his madness, there are hints and whispers elsewhere that he may be right. Stories tell of a creature which preys upon those who wander too deeply into Shadow, a creature whose hunger goes beyond mere travelers, and that even in its sleep its warping presence destroys wanderers driving them to madness. A few of these stories date back to truly ancient days and warn of the creature's dangers, and its power not in the depths of Shadow, but in the Prime itself. (Kno the Planes DC 35). These stories claim to be penned by refugees, fleeing a world 'ripened' by the beast before it ate them, warn of the ways they have tried to stop it and how they have failed time and time again. Stories warn of the cycle as the creature feasts and slumbers, only to awaken and feast again. It leaves the worlds drained and unable to sustain life, before returning to its dark lair and sleeping once more. (Kno the Planes DC 39). This cycle has gone on for eternity, the creature, identified in some texts as Darinarxul or in the language of the Aboleths 'Root of Darkness', feasting upon one of the many reflections of the Prime every 500 years since the first primes were born. As it approaches the prime it sends forth first its roots throughout the plane of shadow, seeds spreading from them. Only when the plane of shadow is fully infested does it begin to stretch into the Prime itself, and once this happens... the ancient texts all swear it is too late. The Root of Darkness will twist and taint the Prime, making it corrupt and inhospitable, and as it does so it will drink its life force as a root absorbs the water from the ground. When it is done the plane is nothing but an eternal mausoleum, no new life able to grow upon it, and even what life comes to it from other worlds being twisted in madness and horror (Kno the Planes DC 43). Some aboleth texts hint that in a previous iteration of the multiverse the draeden held a way to drive off Darinarxul and hold the creature at bay, and that such a means still exists on the 92nd layer of the Abyss (Kno the Planes DC 52).

Goals

The ancient texts agree upon one thing. Darinarxul has but one goal and desire, to feast. It is a being of pure hunger, pure need to eat, no thought, no sentience, nothing but that primal desire. (Kno the Planes DC 38) A few, though, hint that the creature has something more to it than just instinctual desire. That the creature lures travelers between the worlds to it and takes them in, warping their mind into slavish devotion. It sends these individuals forth to soften a world for its coming, performing rituals to ease its passage, and committing atrocities to taint the land itself. (Kno the Planes DC 42) Darinarxul is fully sapient, even if driven primarily by simple hunger, and uses this intelligence to plan and prepare, offering great and dark power in exchange for servitude, this and the chance to escape to another world when it is done. Darinarxul's goal however is to sink its roots into the world and spread its taint throughout the world. As it does so the dark plant will render the realm incapable of sustaining new life (Kno the Planes DC 45).

Sign

Tainted Darkness

A chill runs through the night, a cold that is not physical. Those who dwell too long in it find their souls screaming with terror, their minds melting in horror. And where that chill sets in nothing can live, nothing can grow.

Faint: Creatures within tainted areas (see Heroes of Horror for Taint Rules) cannot regain hit points by any means, and cannot be resurrected or raised while in such an area. Any damage inflicted in a tainted area is considered vile damage, and nonlethal damage cannot be dealt in such regions.

Moderate: The Plane of Shadow conterminous to the afflicted Prime becomes a tainted area (depraved), as does any region in magical darkness for more than 1 hour until it has been in bright light for at least 1 hour. Creatures cannot be conceived in tainted areas.

Strong: The Plane of Shadow conterminous to the afflicted Prime now inflicts both depravity and corruption as does any region in magical darkness. Any area in shadowy or no illumination is considered tainted inflicting depravity. All growth stops in tainted areas, growing crops becoming problematic.

Overwhelming: The entire Prime Material Plane is considered tainted inflicting depravity. Any area in shadowy or no illumination inflicts both depravity and corruption.

Malefic Property:

Shadows of Madness

Madness wears at the mind opening holes in the armor it brings to bear.

Effect: Creatures suffer a penalty to Will saves based upon their current depravity (Mild -1, Moderate -3, Severe -5). Creatures with Moderate or greater depravity lose any bonus to saves specifically against or immunity to Mind-Affecting Effects and cannot gain bonuses to saves specifically against Mind-Affecting Effects or immunity to mind-affecting effects. A creature whose depravity would drive them totally insane within this malefic property's area instead loses all taint and becomes absolutely loyal to Darinarxul

Traits/Tactics/Etc

Darinarxul enters the world as hundreds of massive tree-like roots. They move first throughout the Plane of Shadow and then create portals from it into the Prime underground stretching its roots throughout it sending out taint. Massive roots of an extraplanar tree of doom destroying the roots are a set-back at most, though Darinarxul will use its mortal minions to protect them anyway. Darinarxul can be driven away from a plane by powerful elder magics predating the creation of the current multiverse, but the only way to kill it is to travel into the region between Planes of Shadow and destroy that bridge of shadows, an effect which will almost certainly destroy the heroes who do so (and render them vestiges) and the Plane of Shadow Darinarxul is currently infesting.

[Xuldarinar]

Darinarxul, the Root of Darkness

-Snip-

I absolutely love it. Thank you. Being a tree is suitable to me.

[Zaydos]

And the Dragon DM avatar is back

I absolutely love it. Thank you. Being a tree is suitable to me.

It was originally going to be a formless entity of primal darkness... I really don't know when it became a tree it just sort of happened. If tree had been intentional from the beginning it would have been ruined with Yggdrassil references.

[Dromuthra]

Mine isn't even a physical entity. It's a discordant virus-song that gets stuck in your head so you go crazy.

On the upside, at least the Seeker of the Song PrC has a BBEG they can fight against.

Hey, it manifests! As a colossal incorporeal swarm...

[Bad Wolf]

A silence spell seems like it would ruin that.

[Tvtyrant]

Here is one for Snowbluff. I based it around the logical conclusion of the Snowbluff Axiom.

The Living Plane

Eons ago a mage of terrible power sought to breach the wall between magic and reality. The mage believed that the prime material could be made more malleable by bringing it into alignment with the plane of Limbo, and using that malleability would tear the veil between magic and mundanity.

The mage was successful at this attempt, using magics both great and strange a shard of the Slaadi's Spawning Stone into the Prime Material. The mage was not present at this event, but far away in a personal demiplane and working through an army of simulacrums of the mage. As the stone was so placed the backlash across the cosmos was terrible, closing the borders of many planes of existence. The mage was bound to his/her demiplane, stuck forever in a prison of the mage's own making.

After countless years the plane slowly absorbed the life of the immortal mage, and the two merged together. The plane now physically moved through the planes, seeking to free the mage by removing the shard of Limbo still embedded on a world in the Prime Material Plane.

The Living Plane approaches the world you are currently on in search of the Shard, drifting across the outer darkness as a great cloud of sparkling light. The closer it approaches the more strange effects appear from it attempting to reach out to the Shard of Limbo stuck in your world.

Signs

Faint
Mists and clouds begin to appear at night on the planet, especially above pools of still water. The mists carry with them incorporeal undead, especially ghosts of individuals who died in the region. The mists can be shaped by some of strong will into semi-solid, none alchemical, mundane objects (DC 16 Will Save) which have a hardness of 0. These need to be concentrated on to remain solid.

Moderate
Mists now begin to appear in day time. Crops begin to wither from the lack of sunlight, and the amount of incorporeal undead increases. As well Living Spells of spells up to fourth level now appear in the mist.

Strong
The clouds are now incredibly thick, acting as a Solid Fog on all inside. They are also now too heavy to be moved by the wind, and seem to reach out with a life of their own towards any living thing. Slaadi and other outsiders native to Limbo begin to attack individuals within the fog. Additionally the fog is strong enough to be used to make any none-magical item with a DC 24 will save. These last for a number of minutes equal to the individuals will score.

Overwhelming
The Living Plane has moved into the world and is actively seeking for the Shard. The fog retains its strength, but has now gained agency. Every turn in the fog there is a 1/100 chance of it creating a Simulacrum of the individual, which then immediately attacks them. Living Spells of spells up to level 9 wander the fog, drawn to the intense magical power of the mage. Any individual can make a DC 30 will save to transform the fog as a True Creation spell, although the fog items disappear when the Living Plane is either defeated or victorious.

The Thing in Itself

The Living Plane appears as a colossal incorporeal blob. It has no hit points and ignores all attacks directed at it. Every round it vomits out either a Living Spell (applied to any arcane spell) or a ghost Mage. The ghost is a level 20 wizard with uncanny forethought and eidetic spellcaster who knows every arcane spell. There can be only one ghost Mage outside the Living Plane at a time, and in any round that the ghost is destroyed the Living Plane creates a new ghost rather than a Living Spell. Each time the blob is forced to emit a ghost Mage it loses one size category, and flees reality when it reaches Tiny size.

[Snowbluff]

Oh hey, that's pretty cool, Tvtyrant. Tha-

1/100 chance of it creating a Simulacrum of the individual, which then immediately attacks them.

HAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAH! XD

[Xuldarinar]

And the Dragon DM avatar is back



It was originally going to be a formless entity of primal darkness... I really don't know when it became a tree it just sort of happened. If tree had been intentional from the beginning it would have been ruined with Yggdrassil references.

I wouldn't say ruined, as they would be appropriate, but that is understandable. I like how it came out, and that is what matters. The beauty about it, I think, is that it doesn't need to change at all between settings, so long as that setting has a Plane of Shadow (even if by another name).

[Extra Anchovies]

Oh hey, that's pretty cool, Tvtyrant.

Agreed.

HAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAH! XD

I'm afraid I don't get the humor in that. Care to explain?

[Snowbluff]

I'm afraid I don't get the humor in that. Care to explain?

Simulacrum is my favorite spell (illusion + made of snow + powerful = fun). It's funny people would be randomly ambushed by themselves.

Also, the colossal glow cloud (ALL HAIL) would make a good boss fight for an epic team. "Marathon a series of wizards! If you're too slow living spells will accumulate!"

[Extra Anchovies]

Also, the colossal glow cloud (ALL HAIL) would make a good boss fight for an epic team. "Marathon a series of wizards! If you're too slow living spells will accumulate!"

Indeed. The periodically-spawning secondary enemies lends a bit of a World of Warcraft raid-like feel to it.

However, the fact that the wizards enter combat without any active buffs means it might not be a very difficult fight

[YossarianLives]

I now really want to write a D&D setting that includes all these deities and various awesome homebrews. Great job everyone. That's why I love this forum, when we're not arguing over alignment everyone here is so creative and imaginative.

[Snowbluff]

Indeed. The periodically-spawning secondary enemies lends a bit of a World of Warcraft raid-like feel to it.

Uh huh.

However, the fact that the wizards enter combat without any active buffs means it might not be a very difficult fight

Well, to tweak it to make it playable, something to compensate for that (but not too much) that and a way of determining which spells are chosen for living spell would be needed.

[Xuldarinar]

I now really want to write a D&D setting that includes all these deities and various awesome homebrews. Great job everyone. That's why I love this forum, when we're not arguing over alignment everyone here is so creative and imaginative.

Hmm..

all these deities

I love it! A setting in which all the deities, in some form or another, are out to destroy the world. Campaign enders would perhaps be relatively frequent occurrences as the mortal races fight constantly to survive. ..I think then if ends of the world coincide, things would get pretty messy.. With canonical EEs, I love the idea of Ragnorra plowing into Atropus, the two having identical arrival dates and ultimately forcing the two into an orbit of the world until one wins out over the other and can return their attention to the world below bathed in and torn by both negative and warping positive energies.