So i got killed and my DM sends me this E-mail(my PC is Duncan). Who is the deity?being he is describing. I think he may be evil...My guesses are Nethys, A servant of pharasma, or ancient old one, or azlanti god...HELP!
The pain is searing but brief as 5 enervation rays transfix Duncan's body and he drops to the floor.
He feels his soul unravelling, his consciousness floating into a cold, gray void.
On the threshold of hearing, then louder, then louder still he hears an inhuman chanting--an Aklo incantation clinging to his mind, seeking entry. The rhythm is throbbing. He sees a green lidded eye, unblinking, studying him with curiosity, and with something like hunger. It would be so easy to surrender. So easy...
A tinkling crystalline sound interrupts the chant, as a spiral of mirrorlike fragments scatter deep, barely visible purple light. The Eye recoils, then is gone. The swirling shards sweep Duncan away--down? up? as the gray void lightens into pale silver.
He is in a room, monumental in scale, before a throne of black marble with platinum fittings. On the seat of the throne slumps a pile of gray dust that begins to rise up and swirl like the shards. As he watches it takes on a humanoid shape, nobly proportioned with coal black skin, black teeth, snow white hair.
Duncan tenses--more of the Drow or their breed? But as he looks towards the black eyes with white pupils he has a sudden insight. He looks down at his own hand (exulting that yes, it is there) of slate gray, his scrolls of black vellum titled with white ink, and realizes where he is--somewhere on the Plane of Shadow or one of its demiplanes. Light is dark here, dark is light.
Now the figure before him is fully reconstituted and comes to a semblance of life--not exactly life but something like it. The figure is handsome and richly dressed, larger than a human but gracefully proportioned. His features are handsome but not exactly human with slanting eyes, pointed ears, an elongated jawline. White tattoos--like arcane sigils but none Duncan recognizes--trace up his fingers and arms. A ring on his right hand looks to be carved of a single gem, glowing with the deep purple light on the edge of vision.
The figure looks at Duncan and speaks, his voice like a distant bell, his language a mixture of draconic and Azlanti that Duncan can understand well enough.
"Greetings, mortal. Well might Yog'oltha have his eye on you, but he serves a purpose even he can hardly have guessed. Do you know to Whom you speak?"
I have no idea. Did he allow you to make knowledge planes or religion check?
I have no idea. Did he allow you to make knowledge planes or religion check?
not yet he is slow on the text returns
He did tell me the dc for knowledge religion on this dude is 35. Duncan is a very booksmart wizard, but I think I only have +12 in kldge rlgn so yeah...keep helping
That is rough. What level is your wizard?
Personally I think it was pointless to give you a DC you could not make, unless of course there are things that have not yet been mentioned.
Nethys likes the black and white motif and likes wizards, so it would seem Nethys would be a safe bet.
On a more Lovecraftian bent, the large room, color purple, and the fact that the figure is black-skinned make me think of Nyarlathotep, also known as the "Crawling Chaos". Then again, "Yog'oltha" is strikingly similar to "Yog-Sothoth"... Just my two cents.
I responded to his e-mail insinuating that i did not want to play guessing games with such a powerful individual for fear of hurting his pride...this is the response.
Azath Krin you may be on to something my DM loves lovecraft, and I should mention we are in the underdark part of serpents skull. Keep helping I want to use knowledge to strike a bargain in the brief moments of my demise.I will keep looking up stuff to based on his clues.
Peace, child of the First World. Evidently it has gone hard on your kind to descend into the world of men. But I judge you not for that. Your curiosity may serve us both well.
Regret not the impetuous circumstances of your--demise. Only such a passing could bring you to this place, and thus to Me. Such was according to My desire, for the time is nearly ripe for My return.
I take no offense that you, even you, a promising student of the arcana, cannot name Me. You speak in any case not to Me but to My simulacrum, to the ashes of a dead god. Long has it been since I Myself answered the prayers of My earthly servants; and LIssala and Nethys after Her have done everything in their power to bury even the memory of my true worship and name.
Even when men built temples to My honor, few there were who would look upon My face or hold converse with Me, or even seek Me out. My greatest and most accomplished devotees cared less about Me than about the power they hoped to access through Me. And for this I did not censure them, for the Power itself is the great end and the pursuit of it is the great work. Never did I or my true devotees care for fame, but for Power. Do not let your desire for fame blind you: faced with a decision between greater fame and greater power, only fools choose fame. The greatest power often chooses obscurity and invisibility.
But now things are changing, mysteries underway even now in the buried city of Ilmurea where you met with death. Vyr-Azul seeks a way to raise Ydersius, who has been dead even longer than I. Any sane surface dwellers, such as you and your companions, will probably be bent on stopping him from raising the serpent god. How could it be otherwise? But if you heed Me, you will not stop him too soon. For if Vyr-Azul truly possesses the art of restoring a dead god to life, such an art may be learned and turned to a better use.
ITS A TRAP!!
Some names that comes to mind would be Shyka the many or one of the great old ones.
Count Ranalc also seems like a possible option.
The only dead god I know of is Aroden, but that doesn't sound like Aroden to me. The fact that he speaks in Azlanti also leads me to think it might be some vestige of Aroden, but Aroden really hasn't been dead all that long. I'd be as confused as you, sorry.
ITS A TRAP!!
Clearly
Ill keep you guys posted. Perhaps ill post the whole conversation eventually some good roleplaying is gonna have to happen.
"There was the immemorial figure of the deputy or messenger of hidden and terrible powers - the "Black Man" of the witch cult, and the "Nyarlathotep" of the Necronomicon."
—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch House
The cthulhu mythos is positively rife with "dead" gods, he may have seen that as an easy way to blend them with Serpent's Skull. I'm half convinced that he is name-swapping Great Old Ones for use in Golarion. Though, he doesn't have to, iirc they are already named as official paizo deities. I'm pretty sure they have write-ups in Carrion Crown, but I don't know for certain, my group hasn't reached that module yet.
Yeah, I'm guessing he's a GM creation based in, or at least inspired by, the cthulhu mythos. The knowledge check indicates this being is either extremely obscure and secretive or doesn't normally fall under the scope of Knowledge (religion). The clear nods toward the plane of shadow could also indicate a link to Zon-Kuthon or one of the ghoul kingdoms.
Keep in mind that we probably can't identify this being. The fact that your GM had your character experience this series of events upon death, rather than a trip to Pharasma's Boneyard, indicates that he is comfortable enough with the setting to modify it in order to benefit the story. If this is the case, the being likely does not exist within the setting's official lore.
Duncan is a gnome, and i am not sure he would modify or add in. I think he would however use lovecraft and that is who i am going with. I know you cant tell me, but Duncan Prides himself on figuring this out. he is EXTREMELY SMART and he will let you know. though it was bravado and faith in the power of his magic that got him blasted. SO.....It's a trap.
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Nyogtha. I will not link you to the various pages for that, and I suggest you don't go looking case you ruin the story for yourself, however...
Nyogtha is an old one who slumbers below, the Dweller in the Darkness...
"Men knew him as the Dweller in Darkness, that brother of the Old Ones called Nyogtha, the Thing that should not be. He can be summoned to Earth's surface through certain secret caverns and fissures, and sorcerers have seen him in Syria and below the black tower of Leng; from the Thang Grotto of Tartary he has come ravening to bring terror and destruction among the pavilions of the great Khan. Only by the looped cross, by the Vach-Viraj incantation and by the Tikkoun elixir may he be driven back to the nighted caverns of hidden foulness where he dwelleth.
—Henry Kuttner, "The Salem Horror"