Ok,
So, I'm starting a new game, and a new player had something he wanted to play. So I worked it in. I'll post the goddess he's following, and then I'll ask for some advice.
Goddess of the Wyld, Dark Dancer, Mistress of Madness
Alignment: Neutral Neutral
Power: Demigod
Symbol: A dark spiral in a perfect circle
Favored Weapon: Longbow
Domains: Animal, Darkness, Madness, Plants
Subdomains: Fur, Night, Nightmare, Decay, Growth
Worshipers: Centaurs, Sylvan, Dancers, Druids, Bards
Credo: Light and Dark, two sides of the same acorn. Without one, there is no other. Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, Push and Pull, Yield and Shove, Love and Hate. All things are balanced around a dark spiral that leads to madness. Know that the balance is that while all things have an opposite, there is also a point where any opposites must meet. This is where the dance has it's fastest beat, where madness transcends to enlightenment. If you know already what you believe, then you are already lost.
Description: Fel Shadowhoof is a centaur of unsurpassed beauty, her raven dark hair and skin the color of deepest darkest night. Her pelt is a black so deep that even shadows are envious of her, and shadows flit from her hooves with each step. Her great bow, Sunbane, creaks and drips shadow as she pulls it, firing a bow at the sun each evening, sending it sinking down to heal for another night.
Fel is an odd contradiction, she embodies both the ultimate expression of sanity, as well as the wild dance of chaos and madness. She espouses that it is not that Law and Chaos are mutually exclusive, it is that they are not understood properly and are actually one and the same. Just as Good and Evil are but the same acorn seen by different lights. Her followers tend to be considered dangerous for their mutterings about madness and darkness, yet they are as opposed to Evil taking over as they are to Good winning it's eternal battle. Fel's followers seek a swirling balance between all things, and often dance with wild
abandon within the very structured circle their patron is so beloved of, chaos within order.
Organization: Fel has no temples, and will not bless any. Her clergy, mostly sylvan creatures, number good, evil, neutral, lawful, and chaotic. All who follow her see some aspect of her great truth, although none can actually understand the entire dance of life and madness she espouses. Fel's followers are a ragtag bunch that show surprising ability to work together one moment, and then fall upon each other with holy schism the next. All of this is fine with Fel, for no one truth can actually be the truth for her. Fel's sometimes called The Nightmare, as a pun on her species and abilities. She is well known for sending her followers very timely visions. She's equally well known for these visions being nightmares that leave her follower awake, with heart pounding and unable to sleep for days sometimes afterwards.
Pantheon: Fel is part of the Sylvan Pantheon. This pantheon claims to have Bast as a member, but Bast denies it. Fel is mate to Kom Thunderhoof.
Ok,
So the player wanted to play an Oracle who worshipped the Old Ones (Cthulhu) but was working towards their defeat. Well, problem with that was, I don't have Ancient Ones in my homebrew. However, I have some world background stuff that would work with a few tweaks to his character concept.
So, he took Dark Tapestry as his Mystery (UM) and then took Haunted as his curse. We're reflavoring Haunted as Insomnia. Basically Fel's nightmares keep him from getting a good night's sleep, ever (but her nightmares are what fuel his spellcasting, so the fact he doesn't sleep right doesn't stop his spellcasting). All the dropped items and such are his nerves, he's permanently jittery from having never had a good nights sleep since he was 5 years old. He drops things if he doesn't move carefully, things go spinning out of his grasp, etc.
So, Fel is known for sending prophetic, if disturbing dreams. He saw a vision at the age of 5 of the world being swept up int utter anhilation, people, gods, land, water, everything rent into nothingness. Of course, it could be two weeks from now, or two million years from now, he doesn't know. But he's devoted his life to seeking out the cause and trying to stop it from happening.
The advice I need is ways to play with this in game. Not how to adjust the plot, I know what I want to do with that. What I'm looking for is ways to make his creepy mystery both fit in a good/neutral team, and also to make everyone a little creeped out in character about him. Nightmares he might have for prophecies (generic ideas, that I can fit into the plot), weirdness I can toss into the game that makes him seem creepier without making everyone want to run from him, that sort of thing.
Good imagery for nightmares can be pulled out of any real world apocalypse imagery. Revelations, Ragnarok, go looking for armageddon myths and you'll find lots of neat symbols and metaphors that are pretty rich material to build nightmares from. I'm partial to the Norse myths, but to each their own. Wolves swallowing up the sun, an endless, sunless winter, continents being submerged beneath the sea, armies of the dead clashing; it's all great stuff.
As for weird stuff around the oracle himself, keep it small and inexplicable at first. Doors slam closed. The sound of children giggling in an empty room. Water turns inky black or ice crystalizes in it in warm climates. Crows show up in great numbers whenever he stays in one place for a while. Babies cry and can't be consoled when he's nearby. Shadows curve and bend in strange ways if he's in the room, making distorted silhouettes. You can ramp up to heavier stuff as the doomsday scenario gets closer. Water turns to blood. Worms boil out of anything edible he touches. Grass withers as he passes through it. He's a harbinger of doom, not the cause, so signs of something wicked this way coming should be all around him, though not necessarily his doing.
I like the idea a lot! If I think of anything more later I'll post it up.
I don't want the doomsday scenario showing up in game. :) I prefer gods who take the very very long view, not those that wait until the last minute to try and fix things.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a plan, involving multiple gods of multiple alignments that takes centuries to complete.
Each step requires a handful of heroes to do something to further the plan. So, in this century, it's the PCs turn to turn the crank on the great gears of the plan.
The big issue is, there are multiple gods with multiple plans, so some are trying to monkey wrench others. :)
In that case, I guess don't worry about ramping up his creepy signs :) I was thinking, based on the deity you described, it'd be neat to have him followed around by Kodama (the little rattle-headed things from Princess Mononoke). Sort of fading in and out, making little noises. Not as creepy as some other options, but still sort of eerie and suits the Sylvan/Shadow deity.
In that case, I guess don't worry about ramping up his creepy signs :) I was thinking, based on the deity you described, it'd be neat to have him followed around by Kodama (the little rattle-headed things from Princess Mononoke). Sort of fading in and out, making little noises. Not as creepy as some other options, but still sort of eerie and suits the Sylvan/Shadow deity.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of ramping things up. :) Just not putting the big explosion in. I'm thinking about ramping things up as they get closer to certain parts of their quests. Sort of a psychic radar letting them know they are on the right track.