Stats and info for Mhar (Spoilers)

[Blackdragon]

What is Mhar? I'm feeling like I missed something. I gather it being released would be bad, but why?

[James Jacobs]

Blackdragon wrote:

What is Mhar? I'm feeling like I missed something. I gather it being released would be bad, but why?

Large (pun intended) spoilers for "Spires of Xin-Shalast" to follow...

Spoiler:

Mhar is an ancient, primeval, destructive entity from beyond Leng. If you're familiar with Lovecraft's writings, Mhar would likely be classified as a Great Old One. It's an immense alien monstrosity the size of a mountain. Releasing it would be bad because it's not meant to exist in the Material Plane—you could almost interpret its original incursion into the world and the resulting transformation into a mountain as a reaction the Material Plane had to it in a similar way to how a clam responds to a piece of grit in its shell by making that grit into a pearl.

If the Leng Device is operational when Karzoug emerges, Mhar is freed and unleashed upon the world. This is a pretty catastrophic and world-altering event, especially for the northern nations and regions of Golarion, and not the type of calamitous event we're that interested in supporting with much in the way of official stats and rules, since it changes the nature of what we're doing in Golarion too extensively.

IF, on the other hand, you're up for it—a campaign to banish Mhar back to the far side of the multiverse could be pretty cool for a group of high level PCs. Allying with the (also recently freed) Karzoug could be a pretty cool subplot in this case, since he probably understands what Mhar is and has some ideas on how to banish it better than most.

Mhar itself is a new creation of Greg Vaughan's and my work on "Spires of Xin-Shalast," in any event—there's no established lore about it in fiction or myth about it (although the word Mhar is, I believe, the word "mountain" in a European language... the exact one of which I can't remember, alas). GMs interested in taking a stab at its stats should check out the Call of Cthulhu d20 book that WotC published a while back for inspiration—Mhar itself is probably at least in the CR 30 range. The closest analogue from the Great Old Ones statted up in CoC d20 is probably Tsathoggua, but changed to be a Colossal monster. Tough enough that even epic characters would need to go on several adventures to discover its weaknesses or find a way to banish it without having to directly attack it.

Hmm... thinking a little bit more... you could probably do a pretty good Mhar by applying the non-epic pseudonatural template to a primal earth elemental, I suppose... although that still feels a little light on the flavor...

[GM Enaris]

Back from the dead!
Any way to construct Mhar using pathfinder stats if I don't own d20 CoC?

[dragonhunterq]

Depends on what you do own I guess. I'd start with Mythic Adventures and Mythic Realms - Realms has some awesome forces of(beyond)Nature such as the Oliphaunt of Jandilay statted out, so would be good place to work out where to start.

[James Jacobs]

Owning d20 CoC won't help. Mhar is entirely created for Pathfinder, and is not part of the Call of Cthulhu game itself (nor is he mentioned in any Lovecraftian story). He and Xhamen-Dor are Greg Vaughan and James Jacobs additions to the Lovecraft mythos.

I would suggest looking at the stats for Bokrug, Cthulhu, and Hastur in Bestiary 4 as guidelines as to what a Great Old One can do, and look to the stats in the same book for Kaiju to see what really enormous monsters can do.

[GM Enaris]

I mention d20 CoC only because you had mentioned he's pretty close to Tsathoggua, who is presented therein I believe.
Looking through bestiary 4 is a great idea, I'll be sure to borrow from there.
In the course of my research I've also been directed to check out the Divs, being destructive as they are. Any opinion on this comparison?

Finally, in your opinion, what would be the defining theme or ability of Mhar besides lovecraftian?
Earth or fire, perhaps sheer size? Ravenous-ness?

[Haladir]

GM Enaris wrote:

I mention d20 CoC only because you had mentioned he's pretty close to Tsathoggua, who is presented therein I believe.

Looking through bestiary 4 is a great idea, I'll be sure to borrow from there.
In the course of my research I've also been directed to check out the Divs, being destructive as they are. Any opinion on this comparison?

Finally, in your opinion, what would be the defining theme or ability of Mhar besides lovecraftian?
Earth or fire, perhaps sheer size? Ravenous-ness?

James' post that referenced the d20 Call of Cthulhu game was from February 2008-- more than a year before the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game was first published. The published stats for Tsathoggua were pretty much the only appropriate ones you could have used for inspiration.

If I wanted to stat up Mhar, I'd probably go with an Earth theme. He had been a mountain for 10,000 years, after all!