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So, to preface:
I'm currently running a game that started out in Kaer Maga, but has since spread into a planet-hopping campaign. At the moment, I'm having a lot of fun ripping off John Carter on Akiton, as the players are following the advice of a cryptic soothsayer and a trio of caulborn, trying to figure out what to do with their McGuffin.
Anyhoo, they've been led to the partially-excavated site of a buried Dominion of the Black spacecraft. The diggers were already killed or turned into Bodaks when they arrived, and now they're about to 'port into the craft's interior. I have a week to make the creepiest, brain-ripp'nest, geigerest dungeon I can manage. It's gonna be more than a series of combat encounters; puzzles, environmental hazards, tragic prisoners that can't be saved, the works.
I just need to populate the damn thing.
A band of Mi-Go and their minions are already prowling around the place, led by "Mr. Grey," an Alchemist (vivisectionist).
I'm also considering using the occasional bodak as a sort of "trap" (open door, bodak on the other side, everyone saves vs gaze before you have time to close your eyes).
Final boss might be an advanced Heresy Ooze (from Inner Sea Bestiary).
I'm also going to use a Devourer or two, maybe hooked up to the ship's systems somehow.
So, I come to you guys looking for ideas: I need suggestions for monsters in particular, but also traps and non-combat encounters. I'm paging through every bestiary I can find looking for creepy creatures.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm stealing HEAVILY from Prometheus for this.
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For a Giger-ish Dominion of the Black(which I am totally for): Anything that results in "And I Must Scream" type fates rather than straightforward death. You see this a bit with the Vespergaunts with their assimilation of their chosen victims, and it's all over the place in Giger's architecture.
Traps could lean heavily towards that. They don't even have to be real defense systems. They could just be repair/maintenance systems that upgrade, replace, or add to the living walls of the ship using whatever organic material is around. Namely PCs. It's one thing to die in a pit trap. It's another to be mutilated and turned into a biomechanical piston in one of the ship's engines and left wholly aware of that fact.
Same goes for that devourer. Perhaps instead of functioning like a vanilla devourer, it extracts and repurposes the souls of its victims so that their consciousness adds to the horrifically insane and tormented amalgamation of souls that make up the ship's mind or computer?
As for new enemies(pulling a bit from the update to another Dominion of the Black thread here): Perhaps incomplete creatures that weaponize their victims? This goes back to the Giger/Alien/Prometheus connection. It could be something that functions like xenomorph-style bioweapons, or they could be biomechanical constructs that become much more complex and dangerous when they claim victims.
One of the ideas I had for the other Dominion thread but haven't been able to stat up yet was a bit like a chitinous arachnid-robot with flailing tentacles tipped with spikes laden with neural endings and nanite-delivery systems. Whenever they render a foe helpless, these spikes are used to sever their spines at the middle of the back, driven into the spinal column itself, after which the upper half of the victim is torn free and transformed into the new "head" of the beast, their arms, mind, and senses now adding to the creature's whole and adding some of the victims talents to their own. And eventually they can add more and more victims to their amalgamated form.
Got a lot more, but I really need to take a day to put it all to paper when work isn't so busy.
The neh-thalggu can be a quick go-to for that sort of flavor too. Biomechanic 'em up, have the brain sacs that their victim's brains are stored in feature their silently screaming faces underneath the skin and bam.
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I'll have to try and find the pdf I made up for a creature based on the creature from John Carpenter's The Thing. A bit of a complicated creature since I made it have "Bio Points" so you can customize it like an animated object.
For traps, I have always wanted to do the laser trap from the first resident evil game. Starts out with a few lasers that cut through anything than escalates up to a grid that turns a person into a series of small cubes.
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To add a 'mysterious benefactor' to any group of humans I'd suggest Phrenic Scourge of the psionic variety or their regular variety. I'd say let them use anything that seems techno organic, I like going with some wondrous items reskinned as techno organic. If you are open to using Psionics I say make a NPC that is a Vitalist(Miasmic), it fits well with the disease and affliction the Dominion of Black 'dungeon' may release to attempt to purge its system of alien materials or at least gather materials to repair its system. I would also suggest the psionic Unbodied, they could be a built in defense mechanism that was built from past contact with psionicist. Their psionic powers seems like something that would knock a subject prone while its 'companions' came forward to take whacks at the organic material. A Unbodied seems to be able to appear as a normal humanoid or a floating glowing brain, a good way to pull your players in as a trap since the Unbodied will not be alone.
I agree wholeheartedly with Mikaze's wonderfully demented suggestions above. Inspired!
(Especially the neh-thalggu part! I've been a big fan of those since Castle Amber.)
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For traps, I have always wanted to do the laser trap from the first resident evil game. Starts out with a few lasers that cut through anything than escalates up to a grid that turns a person into a series of small cubes.
The nit-picker in me won't let me rest until I've corrected you on that being the first Resident Evil MOVIE.
For traps, I have always wanted to do the laser trap from the first resident evil game. Starts out with a few lasers that cut through anything than escalates up to a grid that turns a person into a series of small cubes.The nit-picker in me won't let me rest until I've corrected you on that being the first Resident Evil MOVIE.
that's what posting minutes before a meeting results in.
Creative Director
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We've got SOME Dominion of the Black stuff coming up in a few months in "Doom Comes to Dustpawn."
One thing to keep in mind though... the Dominion of the Black is NOT Lovecraft monsters. The Dominion and the Lovecraft monsters do share the Dark Tapestry (which is a big place), but they aren't the same.
I really really really REALLY like the idea that the Dominion of the Black is made up of neh-thalggu though. A lot. To a significant extent. That will likely have repercussions in future Dominion of the Black information.
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We've got SOME Dominion of the Black stuff coming up in a few months in "Doom Comes to Dustpawn."
YASE.
If the neh-thalggu officially "click" with the Dominion, should we start reading into similarities between them and the vespergaunts? :)
Another thing for OP on the matter of a Giger-approach: One of the best/worst ways Giger manages to get under your skin is that he isn't all "hideous monstrosities" 24/7. It's when he merges beautiful elements into them that things seem to be most unsettling. Like in some pieces where figures could be alluring from one angle and horrifying from another.
If the Dominion is big on assimilating and repurposing other races in your game, maybe you can have some emmisaries made from and designed to interact with your game's player races.
I'd link some examples, but I'm at work and this is Giger we're talking about....
One example that stands out is that piece of art that got turned into a genuinely benevolent character in the Darkseed games...the one with the female human head connected to cybernetics with the snake thing coiling down her forehead. The other is this person wrapped in what looks like regal looking biomechanical robes, with fine features on its face. Except that it's head above the upper lip is entirely missing. It's just and empty, hollow hole inside. Personally, that's the one that's really been screaming to be turned into something Dominion related.
I'll have to try and find the pdf I made up for a creature based on the creature from John Carpenter's The Thing. A bit of a complicated creature since I made it have "Bio Points" so you can customize it like an animated object.Very curious about this. :)
I'll have to wait till Thursday afternoon EST (when I wake up. graveyard shift) before I can scour my broken laptop for the files. But once I get them up there, I'll post them on Google Drive. I even had a Mountains of Madness meet The Thing adventure planned for it. Involved a lost expedition, a deranged alien cultist in a crashed spaceship, and the words "SALT THE WOUNDS" graffitied everywhere in the camp.
Fun times.
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From what I remember, I named it the Yashaloi. I got the name from the Nepal word (yarsha gumba) for the fungus that's in the same family as the one that infests ants and turns them into zombies. Salt/salt water was its weakness, though I forget if it stopped its regeneration/fast healing or if it did damage to it... or both! I just know that it'd infest corpses, reanimate them ala The Thing, and masquerade as that person to kill another victim to gain these "biopoints" and eventually reproduce. Even had a Yashaloi Prime that would've been the final boss. Thing is, the alien ship that housed these things crashed on an island surrounded by salt water, so they've been trapped here for a long time.
I had a lot of inspiration from The Thing, Dead Space, Metroid, Lovecraft, and good old Mother Nature being her scary self.
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We've got SOME Dominion of the Black stuff coming up in a few months in "Doom Comes to Dustpawn."
One thing to keep in mind though... the Dominion of the Black is NOT Lovecraft monsters. The Dominion and the Lovecraft monsters do share the Dark Tapestry (which is a big place), but they aren't the same.
I really really really REALLY like the idea that the Dominion of the Black is made up of neh-thalggu though. A lot. To a significant extent. That will likely have repercussions in future Dominion of the Black information.
YAY!
I planned from the get-go to avoid just Lovecraft Monsters, making it clear that the Mi-Go are as much interlopers and looters as the PCs. LovecraftIAN doesn't mean ripped straight from Mountains of Madness. I'm drawing on a bit of Dead Space, Event Horizon, Alien, and Prometheus for this. Thinking of using some of the more interesting oozes as environmental hazards; a lot of things are going to be mundane monsters re-fluffed to be more spacey; the devourers sure won't look human. I'm thinking that the original crew is long-gone, leaving behind the "automated systems" and servitor creatures. Saves me having to describe the Dominion.
Cosmic Horror isn't just "lol, lovecraft monsters," and I respect that you guys try to maintain some restraint when it comes to using them.
Also, I just statted up Mr. Gray, the Mi-Go leader. CR 12, 7th level vivisectionist, looks NASTY with his buffs and dex mutagen. 6d6 sneak on a grapple, AC 30. I think I'll toss in some acid-filled exploding bioconstruct minions to be his flank-buddes. Or some mutilated brain-extracted wildlife.
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Two things I think about in horror:
First, the horror of a deformed body is that you yourself will end up like that body.
Second, there is horror in facing something that looks horribly pained, disfigured, diseased, etc., yet still nonetheless decides that attacking you is more important than taking care of itself.
I find that the most dread of David Cronenberg and Masahiro Ito come from these observations.
I don't have time to describe more now, but I thought the observation might help.
I really really really REALLY like the idea that the Dominion of the Black is made up of neh-thalggu though. A lot. To a significant extent. That will likely have repercussions in future Dominion of the Black information.
Awesome! As mentioned earlier, I have loved these things since Moldvay's Castle Amber.
Along those lines, I would be interested in seeing other versions of the Neh-Thalggu; maybe mutants or different strains or servitors, etc.
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Hmmm....
The PCs enter a freezing cold, monstrous laboratory. No one even notices the horrific, and disturbingly large vivisection tools lining the walls at first, as all attention is drawn by the horrible bulk of twitching flesh splayed out on a table across from the door.
A moments study by a knowledgeable PC reveals that it is an expertly skinned Aboleth. Still alive, but pinned to the table by long rods that hold it as firmly in place as a still-living butterfly might be pinned down by a cruel collector. The creature appears to not even notice the party as it babbles horsely and insanely in it's own incomprehensible language.
Moving deeper into the room reveals other pinned Aboleths in various stages of surgery. Most still alive and babbling just as incoherently as the first. Displayed almost artistically, as if the vivisectionist were expecting company to come appreciate his work.
As the PCs approach the halfway point of the room giant figures (alchemical golems) rise up and advance jerkily, as though the brains controlling them weren't used to bipedal motion. And indeed, as they draw closer it becomes obvious that the large and disturbingly shaped brains floating in their chemical jars came from something completely inhuman....
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That combined with what little we actually know about the Dominion + Giger aesthetics strongly suggests a kyton connection, if not an outright Zon-Kuthon connection. (or better yet, a connection with whatever made ZK what he is now)
All that unnecessary surgery, the cold clinical curiosity, the imrpovement of themselves by cutting things out of others and adding it to their whole...
Maybe the Dominion of the Black is to the Material Plane what the Kytons are to the Outer Planes?
First, the horror of a deformed body is that you yourself will end up like that body.
"This hole...! It was made for me!"
Absolutely agreed that the Dominion should be filled top to bottom with terrifying Body Horror. :)
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The Dominion alchemical golem has been statted up in the composition book I use with the Bioconstruct modifications (heart and brain), a Rune of Defensive Shock, and a creepy doodle. Looks a bit Phyrexian.
Thanks for the ideas guys.
I'm a little annoyed with myself for accidentally re-using the dungeon "gating" system from a previous dungeon, but "Can't open the boss room door until you switch on the power, can't open the generator room door until you find the key at the other end of the dungeon" is a cliche for a reason. It works.
I've got it set up so that once they turn on the power, they can use the holo-map thingy that they're there for, but it ALSO switches on the anti-boarding system, a Dimensional Lock, that will stop them from dim-dooring out until they kill the ship's control system (the powered-up Vespergaunt).
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Well, as a big fan of the setting, might I suggest adapting some of Mortasheen's Unknown class of monsters. A lot of their powers and the weird quirks of their biology work a lot better at conveying the alien-ness of Aberrations than most of the D&D ones.
I'd reccomend the Xenogog, Longfellow, Radiovade, Visidron, Snile, Genetisaur and Genetimorph as the best ones to adapt,
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Also, if you're not too squeamish, check out Drainage City . But be warned, it's hentai, and really deranged hentai to boot, but it's just as (perhaps far more) readable for the sheer strangeness involved as well as for the really messed-up porn.
"This hole...! It was made for me!"
Thread Derail** spoiler omitted **
(Continuing Thread Derail)
It is impressive, isn't it? All the more so because it was filler to make up for Gyo not being long enough to fill two volumes by itself.