What do GOOs want?

[Cheesegear]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

[Mith]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

Some hooks:

You can have the GOOs have an active care with the Warlock. In this case, perhaps they wish to wake fully from their slumber, in which case the warlock tries to raise their patron fully.

You could have the warlock having discovered an inkling of terrible knowledge that imbedded a sliver of the GOO's power into their soul. The GOO doesn't notice, but the warlock now cannot sleep soundly as they are haunted by nightmares and now have strange abilities that grow as they use them. (perhaps if this warlock dies without being resurrected, their soul is dragged to the GOO and is consumed).

Maybe the GOO cannot be brought back, but the warlock is haunted by feelings of rage and hunger for revenge on those that banished/slain it.

The possibilities are pretty wide.

[Lvl45DM!]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

To learn when the stars will be right for them to fully enter the world and spread madness. Steal books of astronomy and astronomical items.
To have a foolish adventurer unlock the gates that hold them at bay. Decode the secret formulae and follow its unusual instructions.
To spread the knowledge of their infinite power and wisdom. Get the ingredients to write a magical book that will drive the readers to worship the Old Ones.
The champions of Light and Darkness stand in the way of their dominance. Slay them.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

The Far Realm Incursion

In the deepest part of the Astral Sea existed the Living Gate, guarded by a guardian neither god nor primordial but kin to both. During the Dawn War, an unnamed god, in all likelihood Tharizdun, killed the guardian and opened the Living Gate, which allowed the creatures and defiling energy of the Far Realm to invade the Astral Sea. Many astral dominions were lost, and the gods had to turn away from the Dawn War to protect their realms.

Ioun and Pelor put a stop to the incursion by shattering the Living Gate, at the cost of Pelors own astral dominion. The race of the shardminds arose from some types of fragments from the Living Gate, and some stories claim that mortals were first able to use psionic power during the original incursion. While destroying the Gate stopped the Far Realm incursion, without the Gate it has since then become more easy for the Far Realm to intrude into reality in other spots (since a sleeping Gate acted as defense).

It can be inferred that the Far Realm incursion happened before Tharizdun was imprisoned by the other gods, since he opened the Living Gate, while it must have happened after he was turned mad by the Shard of Evil since that happened before the Dawn War broke out. It can also be inferred that Pelor did not make his home in the astral dominion of Hestavar before the loss of his own dominion at the shattering of the Living Gate.

Perhaps the GOO wants information on the living gate or they want to rebuild it so they can invade like Obyriths.

Tharizdun and the Obyriths

Before the Dawn War, there existed a dying universe that had been brought to annihilation by a race of unparalleled evil, the obyriths. Seeking a way to escape to a new universe to conquer and destroy, they created a Shard of pure evil that they pushed through the boundary between universes to a new one. The Shard was found by the god Tharizdun, who had been seeking the cosmos for something that would give him the power to fight the primordials without the help of the other gods.

When Tharizdun claimed the Shard, it linked his mind and spirit to the obyriths and drove him mad. Ignoring the obyriths attempts to manipulate him, he planted the Shard in the Elemental Chaos, an act that created the Abyss, birthplace of demons, and allowed the last of the obyriths to escape from their dying universe into the new one. For a long time the obyriths and Tharizdun fought each other for control over the Abyss, which ended in a stalemate that made both sides withdrew to plot each other's destruction.

The Shard of Evil the obyriths created may have introduced evil into the universe, which earlier might have been a place of impartial order and chaos. Some regard Tharizduns act of creating the Abyss as the starting point of the Dawn War, whether it turned the primordials hostile to begin with or just provided the last drop in a growing hostility.

An obyrith in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition a member of an ancient race that invaded the universe from their own dying universe in ancient times. These vile entities were responsible for Tharizdun's madness, the corruption of the first demon lords, and the birth of the Abyss. Each of the surviving obyrith is now a demon lord.

In 4th Edition, only the Dagon, Obox-ob, Pazuzu, and Queen of Chaos are explicitly confirmed as being obyriths; it is left to the Dungeon Master to decide which of the other demon lords are obyriths. It is said that only twelve remain.

Maybe the GOO wants revenge on one (or all) of the Obyrith for what they did to their universe. This GOO warlock would not be evil or against the deities of 5e specifically, maybe even an ally, but their goals could be the same.

[GloatingSwine]

Great Old Ones don't want things that are comprehensible to mortals.

The powers the warlock receives from his "patron" are expressions of an alien madness too large and strange to fit in a mortal mind. Trying to interpret them as wants will eventually drive the warlock mad.

(ie. you can give them contradictory and strange suggestions about what their patron wants based on their interpretations of dreams and visions they get)

[Man_Over_Game]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

Information, a cure to a problem, a stolen or sold metaphysical aspect of their being. One I used was a multidimensional information broker that came into ownership of my character and decided to let me work for my freedom.

You can do anything you can put your mind to it, as long as you remember that all that the GOO Patron really does, mechanically, is affect the mind.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

It looks like some warlocks just steal power from the GOO but the GOO are to powerful to notice.

From the GOO fluff in the book:

The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it.

The warlock can live in fear the the GOO will notice him.

[Cheesegear]

You can have the GOOs have an active care with the Warlock. In this case, perhaps they wish to wake fully from their slumber, in which case the warlock tries to raise their patron fully.

You could have the warlock having discovered an inkling of terrible knowledge that imbedded a sliver of the GOO's power into their soul. The GOO doesn't notice, but the warlock now cannot sleep soundly as they are haunted by nightmares and now have strange abilities that grow as they use them. (perhaps if this warlock dies without being resurrected, their soul is dragged to the GOO and is consumed).

To learn when the stars will be right for them to fully enter the world and spread madness. Steal books of astronomy and astronomical items.

I like the idea of combining these two.
As he's gained the knowledge of what the GOO is, and taken a portion of its power. He now realises the threat it poses, and needs to acquire star charts and astral and celestial rituals to prevent the GOO from entering the Material Plane.

This GOO warlock would not be evil or against the deities of 5e specifically, maybe even an ally, but their goals could be the same.

I'll pass this on.
Deities or servants of the same, did a thing to the PC, and the PC went looking for a Patron and/or knowledge to get...Closure and/or Revenge on what took place. The Patron he found wasn't a Demon, and wasn't even an opposing Deity, it was something else entirely, and what has been seen cannot be unseen.

(ie. you can give them contradictory and strange suggestions about what their patron wants based on their interpretations of dreams and visions they get)

My players frequently catch me out when I say something in one session that contradicts something from a session or two ago.

I can now do that on purpose, and in character. I love it.

It looks like some warlocks just steal power from the GOO but the GOO are to powerful to notice.

That's the 'Get Out of Roleplaying Free' Card, and I wont let that card be played.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

That's the 'Get Out of Roleplaying Free' Card, and I wont let that card be played.

There is no 'Get Out of Roleplaying Free' cards. There are only people that don't want to roleplay.

I personally play it like this: the warlock was in constant fear of the GOO he is stealing power from. He was checking his back everytime he had a chance. He was searching for connections to the GOO to avoid. He had nightmares. He was paranoid.

Did the DM needed to do anything for it to happen? No. Can he do stuff if the DM want to? Yes.
It is a 'Get Out of Roleplaying Free' card just like have a Demon as a patron is.
You may ignore it if you want(the Demons are pure CE, they will not care about the warlock for long and just forget it) and you may do something if you want to play it(the power do corrupt you. Or you made a deal with a Devil, Devils never forget and always respect the deals).

[HappyDaze]

I recently killed a PC (eat it, nerd). The player now wants to roll a Great Old One Warlock. Fair enough.
My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want out of their Warlocks?
What exactly can I make up, to make the adventure, well, personal?

Great Old Ones want:

• Their warlocks to call and visit more often.
• Their warlocks to come show them how to set up their new magic item (especially spell routers).
• Their warlocks to recruit another generation of warlocks.
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of earlier days (again and again and...).
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of their health problems (retirement beyond space & time isn't easy).

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Great Old Ones want:

• Their warlocks to call and visit more often.
• Their warlocks to come show them how to set up their new magic item (especially spell routers).
• Their warlocks to recruit another generation of warlocks.
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of earlier days (again and again and...).
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of their health problems (retirement beyond space & time isn't easy).

Reminds me of the folk hero that married a woman he found hurt out in the woods, saved her from monsters even... At least from his point of view. Turns out that his wife is a high ranking devil that found her way into the material plane and wasn't in any danger. She did fall in love with the guy, total tsundere type, and they even had offsprings.

The Folk Hero became a warlock. Before their wedding, she came clean about who she really was.

They got married and to keep him safe she shares part of her power with him.

Eventually she must return to her native land and take up her mantle as a devil queen. Years later, upon the old man's death, while the family is reassuring him that he will go to heaven he disagrees. He tells them that he's destined for one of the non hells (he ain't sure which) and he dies with a smile on his face as his loved ones are rather confused as he was always just and good.

The man appears before his patron, his new queen, his wife and they live happily ever after. She may even retire her position and they go to another plane of existence for a few centuries.

Their descendants are totally going to be Sorcerers.

[Cheesegear]

Great Old Ones want:

• Their warlocks to call and visit more often.
• Their warlocks to come show them how to set up their new magic item (especially spell routers).
• Their warlocks to recruit another generation of warlocks.
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of earlier days (again and again and...).
• Their warlocks to listen to their stories of their health problems (retirement beyond space & time isn't easy).

I lol'd... Am I a bad person?

[loki_ragnarock]

This seems like appropriate reading.

Frankly, what a GOO wants should be so far removed from the understanding of the servant that true comprehension is impossible.

[Xihirli]

They want every third pebble on every road in the world to be turned the other way.

[Ertwin]

If you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss stares back, and now it wants to see more. It will use your eyes, and if you're very lucky, it will allow you to keep them in your head.

[Addaran]

One of my idea for a GOO-lock.
The GOO is an impossibly huge entity that sleeps in the middle of space. Some of the stars are actually part of his body that can be seen. Cultists (or mindflayers or an aboleth) are trying to wake him up to harvest his power. He doesn't like being disturbed in his sleeps and it shows in his dreams. The dreams reach the character and pushes him to stop those cultists.

It lets you be a good character and shouldn't cause friction with the others. But it still leaves the possibility with weird interactions. Your character can tell them what will happen when GOO wakes up but be opposed to the party wanting to kill him ( like it would be possible) because that's not the order of things. It's just that GOO is supposed to do all that -later-, probably a few trillion years.

Since waking up a GOO is something so long and hard, even if the DM doesn't want to do some quest for your story ( he's running a module) it can all just be part of the plan anyway. GOO saw that you had to do Out of the Abyss or Storm King's thunder first. Then your steps would put you in the right place to fight the cultists.
If the DM want to do an adventure, it can be one little side-quest, the cultists are dead but you're changed forever, or a long lasting arc.

[Mud Puppy]

Reminds me of the folk hero that married a woman he found hurt out in the woods, saved her from monsters even... At least from his point of view. Turns out that his wife is a high ranking devil that found her way into the material plane and wasn't in any danger. She did fall in love with the guy, total tsundere type, and they even had offsprings.

The Folk Hero became a warlock. Before their wedding, she came clean about who she really was.

They got married and to keep him safe she shares part of her power with him.

Eventually she must return to her native land and take up her mantle as a devil queen. Years later, upon the old man's death, while the family is reassuring him that he will go to heaven he disagrees. He tells them that he's destined for one of the non hells (he ain't sure which) and he dies with a smile on his face as his loved ones are rather confused as he was always just and good.

The man appears before his patron, his new queen, his wife and they live happily ever after. She may even retire her position and they go to another plane of existence for a few centuries.

Their descendants are totally going to be Sorcerers.

This is an amazing backstory! Tiefling Sorcerers or Warlocks as descendants with loving parents and training in whatever the parents did.... oh man this sparked so many character ideas in me.... Thanks!

[Segev]

I played a Great Old One Warlock once (in a short-lived game, unfortunately) who was actually his own Patron. The warlock was what little of itself the Great Old One could actually push into the limited 3D reality of the world. It wasn't even the world he'd been looking for; he'd started as the human he looked like, and gone wandering in Places Outside, and having to survive there, grew in body and spirit and knowledge, and when he tried to find his wya home again, he found himself lost. And that places like his home were...cramped. He couldn't fit anymore. Much of his leveling up would have just been learning how to maneuver his bulk around the edges of that reality to influence it.

I would recommend talking to your player, too. He might have ideas about what he wants his Patron to be, why his Patron chose him, or the nature of their bargain.

A Kenku GoO Warlock might have made the bargain asking for a voice to speak with. The Patron might not overcome the racial curse, but the Awakened Mind ability would let him use actual words and concepts, rather than having to mimic and pantomime his way through a conversation.

In Tomb of Annihilation, while their motives are not spelled out, the Wind Dukes of Aaqa are used as Great Old One Patrons for an NPC Warlock.
Beholders and Aboleths could do it. Heck, even an illithid might. What do they want? Well, they're monsters...waht do their entries suggest?

But again, for it to work for your game and player, you need more specifics than we have. What does your player want? What is the plot in your game? What is the motive for adventuring? What events are going on in your world?

[Spiritchaser]

If ever read the later black company books (more confusing and less fantastic than the first books but still great) you come across Shivetya and Kina, two ancient beings of immense power.

Kina would fit the bill for a GOO quite well, and in a fairly simple to relate to way. The primary trick is to imagine a different sense of time. She barely cares about the here and now, instead thinking in terms of gradual shifts over years or centuries. She can barely even relate to short term actions that pose an immediate threat. If a warlock can take actions which will advance a slow progression towards whatever it is the GOO wants, their day to day actions likely won’t even be noticed.

[Vorpalchicken]

What a GOO wants
What GOO needs
Is to enslave all of humanity
And I'm thanking you for giving exactly..
(repeat)

[SpawnOfMorbo]

This is an amazing backstory! Tiefling Sorcerers or Warlocks as descendants with loving parents and training in whatever the parents did.... oh man this sparked so many character ideas in me.... Thanks!

You're welcome!

[greenstone]

Great Old Ones don't want things that are comprehensible to mortals.

Agreed. In a previous game I ran, the Great Old One patron of a warlock wanted only "purple."

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Agreed. In a previous game I ran, the Great Old One patron of a warlock wanted only "purple."

So GOO are just aliens trying to take over the Simpson's world?

[Iku Rex]

What is it, exactly, that GOOs want ...?

Hugs. Headpats. Yummy food. Naps. Pretty dresses.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Hugs. Headpats. Yummy food. Naps. Pretty dresses.

I prefer Space Mutants

[OldTrees1]

I don't really think of GOO's as trades.

Imagine stumbling upon a fortunate blessing from an inanimate source.
(A blind lizard is overheating but finds a cool patch of ground. What inexplicable fortune.)

Imagine taking advantage of that blessing. Starting to take it at face value.
(The blind lizard makes trips away from the cool patch but always returning for naps.)

Imagine realizing a dangerous false assumption. The source is not inanimate. It is conscious and noticed you.
(The cool patch starts to move. It starts to chase the blind lizard.)

What does the cool patch want! Tell me! Quickly, before it does whatever it is going to do!

[Arkhios]

Personally I like the idea of the Old Gods in Warcraft universe.

They basically want to remake the world in their own image.

[BloodBrandy]

My Cthulu mythos knowledge is basically non-existant.

Then don't use Lovecraft, go with something else. Bloodborne, Control (The new game from last year), hell even Kyuubey in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is kind of a Great Old One.

Great Old Ones could be caring or abusive, forgiving or spiteful, they might just not know or not give a damn you exist. You might just be a pet to them or a means to an end. Your part in their plan could be something grand or something so seemingly inconsequential you don't realize you already did it...

Or they could just be looking for some players to DM themselves...even eldritch abominations need a hobby >.>

Just put your mind to it, dude

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Then don't use Lovecraft, go with something else. Bloodborne, Control (The new game from last year), hell even Kyuubey in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is kind of a Great Old One.

Great Old Ones could be caring or abusive, forgiving or spiteful, they might just not know or not give a damn you exist. You might just be a pet to them or a means to an end. Your part in their plan could be something grand or something so seemingly inconsequential you don't realize you already did it...

Or they could just be looking for some players to DM themselves...even eldritch abominations need a hobby >.>

Just put your mind to it, dude

Why is Ctherine so THICC?

Also, this would make a great character for the next Cathrine game.

[HappyDaze]

I lol'd... Am I a bad person?

Perhaps. Is anyone making a list?