The Dark Plea

[Orthos]

So, some time ago I picked up some of the 3rd-party OGL stuff from Malhavoc Press... specifically Hyperconscious and When The Sky Falls. A lot of the stuff is weird, some is interesting, some is useless, as it is with nearly every product, really. But I've been intrigued with the whole "Dark Plea" storyline introduced in these two books. A web search just redirects me to those books, and Wiki only gives it a passing mention in Bruce Cordell's article. Any place I can find more information on it? Other books published that feature it or anything like that?

Thanks again in advance :)

[tallforadwarf]

You're pretty much on your own, as the Dark Plea only features in a few Malhavoc titles (IIRC). The 3.5 version of Hyperconscious has a little more than the 3.0, but that's it.

The best thing to do would be to find some DM's home-brew stuff on online, I'm sure there is a Malhavoc community somewhere, just not anything I've tried to search out myself.

Peace,

tfad

[Robert Ranting]

Orthos wrote:

So, some time ago I picked up some of the 3rd-party OGL stuff from Malhavoc Press... specifically Hyperconscious and When The Sky Falls. A lot of the stuff is weird, some is interesting, some is useless, as it is with nearly every product, really. But I've been intrigued with the whole "Dark Plea" storyline introduced in these two books. A web search just redirects me to those books, and Wiki only gives it a passing mention in Bruce Cordell's article. Any place I can find more information on it? Other books published that feature it or anything like that?

Thanks again in advance :)

Near as I can tell, The Dark Plea is entirely Bruce Cordell's baby, and appears only in the Malhavoc Press books which he wrote. My assumption is that "The Dark Plea" as an intellectual property is jointly controlled by Malhavoc and Mr. Cordell, so any material regarding the Dark Plea must be published through Malhavoc, and must be written by Mr. Cordell.

That said, the Dark Plea is fundamentally Lovecraftian in nature, and is probably pretty close to one of the Cthulhu Mythos Old Ones, it's just a matter of digging until you find which ones are his inspiration. Once you figure that out, then you'll be able to open your search to include any Call of Cthulhu or Pathfinder material involving said Old Gods, and that should give you plenty to work with if you want to run a Dark Plea campaign.

As for a Malhavoc community, their website and forums can be found at www.montecook.com. While there is not a specific section devoted to the projects of Mr. Cordell, you should be able to find some people who know what you are talking about and might be more knowledgeable than I.

Incidentally, I myself have been planning a campaign using the Dark Plea and Engram Arks. The basic idea I'm working with is that the Dark Plea destroyed a world much like Eberron, which sent out engram arks to escape before the end came. One successfully colonized the moon of a gas giant in the same solar system, but the natives of the moon damaged the ark, rendering it inactive for centuries. The campaign would begin a thousand years later, when a priestess of a sky cult manages to repair the memekeeper sufficiently to give life to a handful of engrams...the PCs. Now we have people from a world much like Eberron, on a low-tech, brutal alien world, with themselves at the center of a prophesy that says they will save this world from the very power that destroyed their homeland over a thousand years ago. Instant classic Sword-and-Planet scenario, no?

Robert "Sadly, Sometimes the Best Ideas Are Left Unrealized" Ranting

[Orthos]

Thank you kindly. Some of your ideas are a bit parallel to mine, some are interesting and I'd never thought of them like that (the PCs being re-integrated engrams for example, that's a nice twist); I may borrow a few of those in the future. Thanks for the tips and links.

Looks like I'll need to pour over my Lovecraft stuff again shortly. :) It's been a while since I read through my Necronomicon anyway...

[Rockwell555]

Well, this is like a 6 year long late answer to this post, but what the hell ^_^

I've been going back through a lot of the Malhavok press stuff (mainly the Psionics supplements, which were my go-to source for updated psionics rules before "Psionics Unleashed").

People are right in that there is not a lot of 'hard' information about the nature of the Dark Plea, but I've cludged together a 'background' for it that involves another Malhavok product, "Chaositech", by Monte Cook, and also try to integrate it into the 'canon' history of the Illithids (according to 3.5

"Chaositech" introduces a 'race' of Lovecraftian-like beings called the Galchutt, who are Chaos incarnate, wanting nothing but the destruction of everything.

So in my 'story', The Illithids come from another universe that was invaded by the Galchutt (their current parasitic form my even be in reaction to the 'laws of the universe' changing because of this invasion).

The Illith could not defeat them, so they undertook a great project to 'tunnel' into another universe unknown to the Galchutt, which is the 'Prime Material' plane of the campaign.

However, they arrived some time in this universes Future, and it was there that they established their Great Empire. Unfortunately, the Galchutt followed them and began to destroy their empire.

In yet another desperate move, the Illith flung themselves into the far past of this universt, to start over again, and prepare for the eventual confrontation with the Galchutt in the far future (they lacked the resources to move to yet another universe).

The Galchutt have been sending psychic 'feelers' into the past to find the Illith, and this dark force that maddens thinking beings and eventually results in the destruction of whole worlds came to be called the "Dark Plea".

I know, kinda clunkly/cliched (I'm no writer), but I kind of like it ^_^