Hey all,
I currently run a Ustalavian horror game and one of the party's major villains are the Whispering Way, however they started also dealing with cults of the Dark Tapestry. As a bit of fun I made and threw in Illithids/Mindflayers as outworldly heralds of the dark ones.
Their plan is to help the Whispering way revive their lich master and then implant him with a flayer (alhoon) to then conquer enough of the world to allow their own masters entrance to the Material Plane.
However the Whispering Tyrant is too cunning, powerful and dangerous for that kind of plan.
Any thoughts on this exchange or even ideas for Tar Baphon to swing the machinations of the mad heratics in his favor?
You're talking about epic-level play; I tend to stay clear of that as a general rule. I would recommend you abandon the idea of using Illithids as your heralds, though. Natives of the Dark Tapestry already reside on Golarion, and if would probably fit better to use them in this capacity.
I recommend using intellect devourers.
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If you're running a home game though feel free to use Mindflayers. I fought some mindflayers and a beholder the other night and it was a big surprise and heaps of fun.
Here's an idea: They implant the flayer larva in the Whispering Tyrant, granting the lich crazy psychic powers. He is not however anything's mind-slave and it was all part of his plan to reawaken and use a combination of arcane magic and psionics to once again enslave Ustalav. Quite upsetting to the Mind Flayer agenda.
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Mind Flayers make perfectly decent homebrew Lovecraftian villains.
If your campaign has a decent body of water in proximity, you might also want to consider Skum and perhaps my own campaign's half-Skum, half Qlippoth-Spawn Tiefling:
@ Heaven's Agent & darkwarriorkarg
It is designed as the end game boss, ntellect devourers were in 3.5 as well. I think they were illithid pets ironically, do you know of any other Dark Tapestry heralds I might be able to bring in?
@ DM_aka_Dudemeister
I do like the idea of the psychic powers to the Whispering Tyrant, being a horror there can't be a happy ending. Something cool might be the party stopping Tar Baphon's revival but he retains his psychic power which he can use. kinda like The end....or is it?
@ajs
Why Skum? aren't they in the same kinda category as Goblins/Sahuagin/Lizardfolk. My party is currently terrified of water in general (I never knew how deadly plain water is when a PC falls in and doesn't have swim ranks). I am bringing them to the edge of lake Caliphas so I do have the oppertunity for an aquatic bad guy.
@minoritarian
I kinda treated the Illithids as a mix of template and creature, the creature is a Illithid larvae and they have the ability to add the Illithid template to a creature it inhabits. There are special varients called the Alhoon which reactivate dead brain tissue to animate the corpse, this is the type that can occupy undead. However its much harder on intelligent undead.
@ Heaven's Agent & darkwarriorkarg
It is designed as the end game boss, ntellect devourers were in 3.5 as well. I think they were illithid pets ironically, do you know of any other Dark Tapestry heralds I might be able to bring in?
Intellect devourers were present in 3.5, but in Pathfinder they've taken on a life of their own. They have their own city and society, and since they can take class levels they would be ideal as high-level threats with a body-snatchers vibe.
If you have access to A History of Ashes, its bestiary section includes stats for the Havero. More Lovecraftian horrors from the Dark Tapestry are detailed in the bestiary section of Wake of the Watcher, including the Colour Out of Space, the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, the Dimensional Shambler, the Elder Thing, Mi-Go, and the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu. Mi-Go could be an ideal choice for your game as well.
The denizens of the Dark Tapestry have taken no real interest in Golarion up to this point, which is lucky because it would be insta-poof-gone if they did; Golarion, its solar system, and its deities have absolutely no defense against them. As a result there are very few examples of these creatures on the planet.
Why Skum? aren't they in the same kinda category as Goblins/Sahuagin/Lizardfolk. My party is currently terrified of water in general (I never knew how deadly plain water is when a PC falls in and doesn't have swim ranks). I am bringing them to the edge of lake Caliphas so I do have the oppertunity for an aquatic bad guy.
Skum are the creation of aboleths, and it would be easy to tie the fish-like aberrations to the Dark Tapestry in some way.
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@ajs
Why Skum? aren't they in the same kinda category as Goblins/Sahuagin/Lizardfolk.
Read the short novel The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft and I think you'll see how Paizo has been using the Skum in Golarion...
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Read the short novel The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft and I think you'll see how Paizo has been using the Skum in Golarion...
I should be clear that in Golarion the Qlippoth and Dark Tapestry have no direct connection as written, however, both being closely related to Lovecraftian horror, it is my own assumption that there is a tacit connection, which is why I draw a dotted line from Skum to the Dark Tapestry through the Qlippoth (more specifically, the ex-Qlippoth demon lord Dagon and some of his demon and Qlippoth associates) in my own campaign.
I should be clear that in Golarion the Qlippoth and Dark Tapestry have no direct connection as written, however, both being closely related to Lovecraftian horror, it is my own assumption that there is a tacit connection, which is why I draw a dotted line from Skum to the Dark Tapestry through the Qlippoth (more specifically, the ex-Qlippoth demon lord Dagon and some of his demon and Qlippoth associates) in my own campaign.
Yeah, there are a lot of opportunities to tie things that share literary origins together, even if those links are severed within the basic setting.