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There are a lot of Cthulhu mythos related creatures and entities in Pathfinder, but no Deep Ones.
However there are several piscine races that are close to fitting the bill, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts of which I should use to fill in for Deep Ones, as creatures of Dagon and worshippers of Cthulhu? (Assuming I didn't wish to make Deep Ones from the ground up -- Which I kind of don't.)
Skum pretty much = deep ones.
Creative Director
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Yup. The skum are absolutely the "deep ones" of Golarion. Their flavor text in the Bestiary even talks about how they "mix" with humanoid settlements along remote coastlines.
There's more info about how deep ones, the Lovecraft Mythos, and Dagon all fit together in Pathfinder #46.
Indeed, the Skum are presented as such in
Don't forget about their incestuous inbreeding with the villagers of Blackcove that drives the entire plot of From Shore to Sea.
How do the Deep Ones presented in Bestiary 5 fit into the existing Golarion lore?
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Creative Director
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Deep ones are more of a saltwater monster, while skum tend to be more associated with freshwater or underground stuff.
Skum are also generally not religious, whereas deep ones are VERY religious.
Of course, before Bestiary 5, when we didn't HAVE deep ones... skum kinda had to do double billing. That's not the case any more.
That said... there ARE more skum on Golarion than there are deep ones.
The deep ones probably think the skum are posers.
"Oh, you worship little aboleth fishies? How cute. WE'VE got a demon lord on our side! Top that!" :P
The aboleths were probably trying to copy the deep ones when they made skum.
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Creative Director
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Deep ones are more of a saltwater monster, while skum tend to be more associated with freshwater or underground stuff.
Skum are also generally not religious, whereas deep ones are VERY religious.
Of course, before Bestiary 5, when we didn't HAVE deep ones... skum kinda had to do double billing. That's not the case any more.
That said... there ARE more skum on Golarion than there are deep ones.
Does this mean that we should replace the Skum with Deep ones in the module:
** spoiler omitted **?
Nope.
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Nope.Deep ones are more of a saltwater monster, while skum tend to be more associated with freshwater or underground stuff.
Skum are also generally not religious, whereas deep ones are VERY religious.
Of course, before Bestiary 5, when we didn't HAVE deep ones... skum kinda had to do double billing. That's not the case any more.
That said... there ARE more skum on Golarion than there are deep ones.
Does this mean that we should replace the Skum with Deep ones in the module:
** spoiler omitted **?
What about
@ Rysky: I doubt it.
And then migo come invading, subjugate the skum (and kill most of them along with their slaves), and cause some of them to convert to Shub-Niggurath (including the skum high priest).
I don't know if mi-go and deep ones would've thrown down like that, and the deep ones wouldn't serve Dagon in the first place.
ALso, there's an interesting advantage to using skum over deep ones in a narrative - skum children are often born human and remain human until they "die" of old age, making them much easier to hide in plain sight.
While deep one hybrids... well, yeah.
Skum being primarily not-religious kind of surprised me, since my understanding was that they had turned to Dagon and similar entities after the aboleths abandoned them.
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Creative Director
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What about ** spoiler omitted **Nope.Deep ones are more of a saltwater monster, while skum tend to be more associated with freshwater or underground stuff.
Skum are also generally not religious, whereas deep ones are VERY religious.
Of course, before Bestiary 5, when we didn't HAVE deep ones... skum kinda had to do double billing. That's not the case any more.
That said... there ARE more skum on Golarion than there are deep ones.
Does this mean that we should replace the Skum with Deep ones in the module:
** spoiler omitted **?
Nope.
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Creative Director
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Skum being primarily not-religious kind of surprised me, since my understanding was that they had turned to Dagon and similar entities after the aboleths abandoned them.
Back in the day when we had to have skum pull double-duty as agents of aboleths AND the in-world deep ones AND the OGL-safe incarnation of the kuo-toa, they had to wear a lot of hats.
Today, now that we DO have deep ones, the skum can pull back from the religious fish person role and cede that more to the deep ones.
Had I done Shore to Sea or Wake of the Watcher today, they would be about deep ones, but having them be about skum works fine as well.
In a way, it's similar to arguing whether you should have painted your room violet or lavender. They're both purple flowers, and both do the same thing in the end but with slightly different connotations.