| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Because Todd Stewart f%*#ing rules!!!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
More to the point, it's as much an adventure path about Chaos vs Law, it stands to reason, the beasties reflect that dichotomy.
Also, Todd Stewart f@%%ing rules!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Because Todd Stewart f+@+ing rules!!!
*blush* :)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Because obnoxiously begging for more proteans paid dividends? Only slightly joking. ;)
But seriously I so very, very enjoyed getting to expand the protean stable in Hell's Rebels. While the core trio of proteans were an intentional nod to the historical Ogdoad of Hermopolis and thus the slaadi from D&D, chaos isn't restricted to just those three (and the voidworm and the pseudo protean in the Giantslayer AP which are both awesome).
I've had proteans brewing in my brain for years now, and the three in Hell's Rebels had the benefit of that longer process of mulling over them concept-wise compared to the shorter time on the core three when I created them in TGB. So a bit more thinking on my part as to protean ecology when I wrote the new ones up, and some little bits and pieces of plot hooks and name drops in their flavor text.
I would absolutely love to do more work on the proteans. They're probably my favorite thing to have worked on in RPG work (including daemons and yugoloths actually), and I've got tons in my head should I ever have the opportunity to put it to something other than personal headcanon if Paizo elects to revisit them and lets me on board.
If people want to see more and want me on board, letting Paizo know that couldn't hurt. I'm just very happy to have gotten to work on what I have. Extra thanks to Adam Daigle for getting me on board for the three in Hell's Rebels. :D
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
They're in there because we usually try to vary the backmatter to a certain extent so that there's stuff for folks who aren't actually running the Adventure Path... but THAT SAID... even though none of the new proteans show up in the adventure, they are a VERY good choice for creatures for PCs to call up via conjuration spells. Hell's Rebels is in a lot of ways the Chaotic versus Lawful adventure path, and more options for chaotic neutral spellcasters to conjure is a good thing for such an AP.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
They're in there because we usually try to vary the backmatter to a certain extent so that there's stuff for folks who aren't actually running the Adventure Path... but THAT SAID... even though none of the new proteans show up in the adventure, they are a VERY good choice for creatures for PCs to call up via conjuration spells. Hell's Rebels is in a lot of ways the Chaotic versus Lawful adventure path, and more options for chaotic neutral spellcasters to conjure is a good thing for such an AP.Yea, makes a lot of sense.
It's only helped me desire more Protean stuff :) (Protean Lords eventually?) I still find the idea of such a chaotic group having a caste system weird, but each individual protean continues to be great.
Well... there's not much more chaotic and unexpected than a chaotic group having a caste system, yeah?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I mean, unless the Proteans move around between castes, or lower castes actually being in charge of higher casts at times, so the who situation is a lot different than it looks at the glance of lawful types. I wouldn't put that past them, and there's so much on Proteans that just isn't covered right now.
They've been described in printed sources as having movement between castes, and it isn't a top down system except possibly with the keketars (and not always, since the protean lord Ssila'meshnik is directly served not by keketars but by hegessik proteans). Even then the keketars themselves are myriad and splintered amongst the various choruses.
I think the line that describes them best is "However, to imply that the protean castes operate according to rational and self-consistent rules would not only be incorrect, it would doubtless be offensive to the proteans themselves."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh! I feel a new alias coming on...
Thanks Todd!
Definitely have fallen in love with the Protean ever since I read the first entries in Bestiary 2, and was excited to see more added to their ranks in these latest adventure paths. Any chance of a race that has had mingling of protean in their ancestry?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yes! They're called Ganzi and can be found in Distant Shores in the section about Anuli. :-)
Yes! They're called Ganzi and can be found in Distant Shores in the section about Anuli. :-)
Woot, I have that book, but must not have read through it completely yet. Thanks for pointing that out.
Contributor
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yes! They're called Ganzi and can be found in Distant Shores in the section about Anuli. :-)Woot, I have that book, but must not have read through it completely yet. Thanks for pointing that out.
It bears mentioning that ganzi are not protean-specific by any means, although they can be. While aasimar and tieflings can be created through exposure to powerful planar energy, ancestry is the far more common cause. Ganzi are the opposite - planar exposure is the main cause, with occasional quirks of ancestry being responsible.
In every corner of creation, the raw chaos from which the world sprang gnaws, trying to drag reality back into the raging madness that spawned it. The Maelstrom extends tendrils into reality anywhere planar energies touch the Material Plane, like creeping ivy finding purchase in a stone wall. In any place influenced by the Outer Planes, those vines bear fruit: the ganzi. Unlike the crossbreed aasimars and tieflings, ganzi are mutations caused by generations of exposure to chaotic energies in the Material Plane.
The ganzi share many traits with the Maelstrom’s true children: proteans. They are fluid and flexible, resilient, resistant to the energies of decay and entropy, and can sense the delicate currents of chaos that bind the planes together, alerting them to danger and deception and allowing enterprising ganzi to stir those eddies and rewrite a creature’s fortunes. They also share the proteans' curiosity and disdain for order, compulsively wandering the world to see what can be seen.
Alternatively, you could just reflavor a tiefling. Ask Todd Stewart about that (and make sure you have some spare time to listen). :D
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Close enough for me. :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That is good to know, and part of why I want to see more of them- I feel I don't quite grok them as well as I do the others even though I love their look and concept. We've yet to go into the maelstrom, y'know?
Did you read the protean ecology 'Keepers of Chaos' back in the 'Legacy of Fire' AP? I think it goes a long way to exploring them, though you're right in that we haven't seen an adventure take place in the Maelstrom itself.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It bears mentioning that ganzi are not protean-specific by any means, although they can be. While aasimar and tieflings can be created through exposure to powerful planar energy, ancestry is the far more common cause. Ganzi are the opposite - planar exposure is the main cause, with occasional quirks of ancestry being responsible.
Yeah, they were written up to not be absolutely protean specific if you didn't want to play them that way, and more of a case of mortals exposed to planar energies than strictly physical descent from chaos wyrms. The scales and feathers that pop up with ganzi are pretty transparently protean of course. I really do like them as a race, and hope that they're explored further in the future. :)
Alternatively, you could just reflavor a tiefling. Ask Todd Stewart about that (and make sure you have some spare time to listen). :D
Yeah, my current PFS character Il'setsya Wyrmtouched is a tiefling (made her before the ganzi were around as a boon option). The version of her that I'm playing through RotRL right now is often described as a tiefling, but mechanically speaking she's a xaoling (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/127679/Planar-Races-Chaos-The-Xaolings) which are a 3PP race that I created with overtly protean ancestry (including subtypes for specifically naunet/imentesh/keketar).
They're in there because we usually try to vary the backmatter to a certain extent so that there's stuff for folks who aren't actually running the Adventure Path... but THAT SAID... even though none of the new proteans show up in the adventure, they are a VERY good choice for creatures for PCs to call up via conjuration spells. Hell's Rebels is in a lot of ways the Chaotic versus Lawful adventure path, and more options for chaotic neutral spellcasters to conjure is a good thing for such an AP.
They won't do the PC's much good if the PC's don't find out about them and somehow get the ability to alter Summon Monster spells to get that option.
They're in there because we usually try to vary the backmatter to a certain extent so that there's stuff for folks who aren't actually running the Adventure Path... but THAT SAID... even though none of the new proteans show up in the adventure, they are a VERY good choice for creatures for PCs to call up via conjuration spells. Hell's Rebels is in a lot of ways the Chaotic versus Lawful adventure path, and more options for chaotic neutral spellcasters to conjure is a good thing for such an AP.They won't do the PC's much good if the PC's don't find out about them and somehow get the ability to alter Summon Monster spells to get that option.
I'd guess that it was a reference to Planar Binding and Planar Ally.
|
Creative Director
|
They're in there because we usually try to vary the backmatter to a certain extent so that there's stuff for folks who aren't actually running the Adventure Path... but THAT SAID... even though none of the new proteans show up in the adventure, they are a VERY good choice for creatures for PCs to call up via conjuration spells. Hell's Rebels is in a lot of ways the Chaotic versus Lawful adventure path, and more options for chaotic neutral spellcasters to conjure is a good thing for such an AP.They won't do the PC's much good if the PC's don't find out about them and somehow get the ability to alter Summon Monster spells to get that option.
It was indeed a reference to the planar ally/planar binding spells. Also a reference to GMs who want to involve this as an option in the first place and allow the PCs to learn about them, either via normal old Knowledge checks when a PC asks "What sort of chaos thing can I conjure?" or even by mentioning them in the context of one of many libraries in the AP.
It's really not far from working for me and I still really like a lot of aspects of them, it's just not quite there! IMO they shouldn't be harder to interact with non-hostiley than inevitables, devils, or fey (Fey, who're also often CN!). An encounter with a protean should inevitably be a wary one where one doesn't know what it's gonna do, generally speaking.
Let me give some examples of how I used proteans in the just completed RotRL campaign I played in. On some level you can use some of the behavior of my protean-blooded PC Il'setsya as a model for proteans in general (at least my interpretation of them).
First example is how my PC interacted with a keketar that she brought through a gate prior to the last game session. It was banter written in-between game sessions between myself and the GM who added a few bits for the keketar. Lots of off the beaten path non-canonical content, but look at the interactions, behavior, language, etc. Hopefully I purged it of any NSFW content or language.
After witnessing the planetar Ayruzi either banish Valesh the succubus, Il’setsya proceeds to rant incoherently in protean for a solid twenty minutes, stomping her hooves and whipping her tail about and threatening to knock anyone over within its multicolored arc. Anyone trying to calm her down gets a murderous look and a series of symbols over her head that briefly take on the appearance of cartoon versions of herself giving a middle finger.
The ranting and raving then descends into drinking and a furious search for any drugs on her person (of which she has none since Cairn and Esper wisely took them away from her). A bottle of rumboozle in her system later and she finally loses it.
“If anyone wants to rest and recover anywhere other than here in Xin-Shalast, tell me now.” Actually bothering to ask anyone else’s opinion at the moment seems to be taking a serious amount of effort on her part. “Because otherwise I’m going to be bailing and getting myself royally messed up, or messing someone else up, or yeah, stuff. Son of an axiomite goodytwoshoes planetar emerald skinned well meaning busybody… GAH!”
The charisma drain has left her a bitter, angry, spiteful mess of a thing, and after acquiescing to party demands for transportation, she proceeds to bamf out with a planeshift to the Maelstrom, and from there to Galisemni for the evening.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Nine hours later Il’setsya returns without any fanfare, looking remarkably relaxed, with a look of eerily calm intent on her face. This is probably the first sign that something is up. The second being that she promptly clears herself a space to draw a circle in chalk, sand, and drops of her own blood when she pricks her palm with her dagger from Runeforge. Completing her triumvirate of crazy is when she proceeds to strip naked and sit in the middle of the circle, with a voidworm protean curled about her shoulders and a lit candle of invocation held in her hands, slowly dribbling molten wax on her exposed flesh without so much as a chirp from her before she starts chanting in protean in singsong fashion.
Moments later a spherical space confined within the periphery of the drawn circle goes oddly translucent, the air seemingly turning to a glistening blue liquid as if she were calling the underlying substance of the Maelstrom into tangible being by her very presence. The air and earth alike shimmers, glistens, ripples, and seethes as if it were a living thing as she begins to call out in supplication and request.
“Ssila’mesh’nik the Colorless Lord!”
The candle flame turns wane and clear, burning ever brighter with a fierce light.
“Il’surrish the Wanderer!”
Cerulean light begins to leak from every orifice of her body and those of the tiny protean curled about her shoulders.
“Mother of Tongues!”
A whispering chorus of voices rises on the wind, indistinct and incoherent, but somehow address each and every creature within a quarter mile.
“Narriseminek the Crownless, Maker of Kings!”
Burn marks and scars flicker in and out of existence across Il’setsya’s flesh.
“Lord of the Insane!”
Il’setsya cackles wildly but otherwise she seems to have that one handled all on her own.
“Lord of Entropy!”
The candle of invocation burns at a fiercely accelerated rate, boiling wax coating her hands and thighs, shimmering like a sheen of newer scales on her skin where it falls.
“Watcher in the Wheel!”
Purple, opalescent eyes emerge from the circle, glancing about and focusing them attention inwards on Il’setsya.
“Zolo of Hungry Teeth!”
Il’setsya smiles, baring a row of jagged, shark-like teeth, flickering in and out of existence moment by moment, replaced by and then replacing her own tiefling-like teeth and tiny fangs.
“All of you I beseech! All of you I invoke! All of you I beg for your favor and aid in the coming battle! All of you I would give of myself, but I am bound to others, and this you know.”
Il’setsya begins to smile as glistening letters erupt within the air, a cloud of names drifting through the substance of the void, each linked to others by tenuous, sinuous threads, and all of them linked to Il’setsya by the same gossamer chains of chaotic protoplasm.
The next words from Il’setsya’s mouth are grating upon the ears, and standing within a dozen feet of her circle causes blood to leak from your eyes and ears. It is protean, but not. Older. The first tongue of Chaos that echoed through the Deep when there was only the Deep and nothing else.
“Watchers of Galisemni, Seven in all I call to you!”
“Frozen Lords of Chaos wrapped in bonds of Regret and Sorrow I call upon you!”
“Lords of Paradox and owners of my soul I call upon you!”
“Wyrms of Jandalay!”
“You who molded me like clay!”
“You who made me as I should be!”
“You who cracked the gates of the Abyss and in your glorious, brilliant hubris made this reality what it has become, and You Seven who have suffered ever since, I call upon you!”
“Chorus of Malignant Symmetry I call upon you!”
The ground below Il’setsya erupts in a column of blue light, obscuring her form, and only after the light has faded, is what emerges visible.
Peering out from the column of blue light is a reptilian maw with colors dancing over this serpentine creature's scales. A crown of energy glows above it's head.
"pre@mBle –meAnde®ing – Starfall – il'sets¥a – s¥nc°pAtion – co££lapse – hOOves – i§uze§ikse§ – ©raZy – disjUncTive, ¿aSk wHat d° y°u °f mE?"
Realizing that the moment is less about her complete and utter lack of shame and more about gaining a powerful ally against Karzoug, the blushing arcanist manages to focus on the task at hand. Standing up, she reaches out a hand to help the keketar as it emerges fully from the gate.
“I’m nOt ¥our $tAnda®D mO®t@l dOLt ©a$tiNg Gate, and y⁰u aReN’t b¥ An¥ sTrƩt©h °f THE ImAgInAtIoN what °ne Of tHeM MigHt $umMon f°rth.” Il’setsya giggles and strums her fingertips against one another as her hooves and then the rest of her body slowly drift off of the ground, buoyed by the pocket of the Maelstrom sandwiched atop conventional reality. “It’$ a pLe@SuRe to m€€t y°u, and H°nEsTly thi$ Is lEs$ @BoUt Wh@t I w@Nt t° a$k °f yOu, @nd more @bout what yOu fƩƩL £ikE d°iNg @fter I/cr@zYhOoVes/ilsEts¥a/DzEniRu$ipHi@/I tell y°u m¥ SitUaTi°n.”
She grins and flicks her tail through the air, briefly intertwining with the keketar’s in a very not so subtle flirtation, especially as a number of the symbols drifting around her head like the keketar’s own crown but in microcosm, shift to resemble glowing cartoon heart shapes.
“You kn°w my namƐ, at lƐ@sT tHe onƐ thE 7/Watching S7v7n/7 g@vƐ Me, aNd tHe¥ t@skEd mE tO ComE hre t° this b°ring, st@tiC planƐ aND sToP @n aNcIeNt @rchMaGƩ n@m€d Runelord Karzoug fROm @wakƐning. He’$ teRriBly 1aWfuL, aNd hIs KinD glƩƩfuLLy dƩaLT wItH tHe sp@wn oF THe PiT @nd I pRe$umE b¥ vIRtuE of tHeiR u$e of cOn$trUct$, the cRysTaLLinƐ liVinG m@th f!$#Ers oF Axis. His risE wiLl onl¥ sh@cKlE thƐ co$mO$ furthƐr, and m¥ sTopPing him wiLl bƐ my wa¥ of @iDinG tHe wiLL of thE 2/Sp2ak2rs of the D2pths/2, and pa¥iNg m¥ sElf-OfFeRed dEbT tO tHe 7/Se7en/7.”
Still drifting in the “air”, Il’setsya curls her tail back and around, tugging on it and rotating herself like a turning ouroboros, looking at the rest of her companions from an upside down vantage point. “Sorry for all the protean banter, it’s really much more comfortable for the two of us. I promise we won’t ‘cavort’,” The symbols about her head provide a glyph of Il’setsya making air quotes, “At least not now, in front of you, maybe perhaps yeah I can’t promise.”
The protean-blooded whoseiwhatsit then rotates back around to face the keketar once more.
“I wOuLd dƩep£y aPPrƩcIaTe YoUr hƩlP in Wh@tevƩr w@y y°u dƐ$ire. I pLaCe nO sPEcIfIc$. I pl@cE nO rEstRicTi°n$/rule$/bEh@vi°r. I’ll EvEn gIVe y°u @ ki$s.”
Il’setsya’s eyes sparkle with both madness and the same glowing cerulean liquid that can be seen through the still-open gate.
“¿PlE@Se hELp u$?”
"The rest of you don't speak protean? Wait, no, that dwarf understood. You all are here to defeat this lawfulness?"
"Very well, I will aid the defeat of this wizard, but we will do so through Il'setsya's mortal body as she does through mine. The Starfall may direct the actions of our form while I embody his. Excuse us while we get acquainted with each other's body."
“Oh yeah, they’re all here to help defeat him as well.” Il’setsya smiles, bobbing her tail happily. The symbols above her head continue to largely telegraph her elation, showing their usual mixture of protean runes and doodles of a cartoon Il’setsya stabbing a cartoon Karzoug and then making out with a keketar.
As the keketar provides its irrational ground rules for its help, Il’setsya’s eyes go wide and a goofy grin plays across her face, at least until the keketar unknowingly and presumably uncaringly misgenders her. Protean biology being what it is, the wyrms of the Maelstrom don’t actually have distinct, immutable concepts of personal gender (or anything else really). Their bodies perpetually shift in color, shape, and even their internal organs resemble a polymorphic pudding than anything distinct. At one moment they might be male, another female, another neither, and another both or something in-between.
Il’setsya’s tail droops and hits the ground the instant that the keketar’s words define her as something other than the woman drifting in mid-air, naked as the day she was born and crazy as a loon that the other PCs have come to know. The fact that she’s been engaging in naked summoning of course leaves the keketar’s words rather odd, given as how the arcanist is very obviously female. She catches herself in a split second and her tail is back to its normal twitching, prehensile self, coiling around a fifteen foot length of the keketar’s multicolored serpentine body.
“Th@t sOuNd$ aMaZiNg!” Il’setsya’s hands begin to wander across the keketar’s shoulders before she pointedly glances to Cairn who actually speaks protean. Her expression is conflicted and complex, but for a fraction of a second she puts a finger to her lips to shush him the hell up if he even noticed. That moment of deep catharsis and unexpected revelation loses all poignancy of course almost immediately when the symbols above her head read out in dwarven, ‘I’ll explain later. Long story. Keketar and Il’setsya body-swapping time begins now. Take 2d6 Wisdom drain unless you roll a successful save versus Death, AD&D style. Yes I’m mixing editions and breaking the 4th wall, but f*** it, I’ve called a pocket of the Maelstrom into effect here, I’m in the arms of a keketar protean, and so all rules are off. Hail Xa0s!”
Il’setsya then proceeds to smooch the keketar, “G0 rIgHT @hEaD, hoW dO We d0 tHi$?”
Next example of behavior (again by the same protean-blooded PC and the same keketar protean just after they first encounter each other much earlier in that RotRL campaign):
In our campaign the GM replaced the pit fiend bound at Skulls Crossing with a keketar protean, which of course my PC (against every other party member's desire) gleefully freed and then spent the next downtime gallivanting around Golarion and beyond with.
The following document is found in everyone’s possession following the return from Skulls Crossing:
'The Amazing Adventures of Il’setsya Wyrmtouched and Mr/Mrs Creature, otherwise known as Issuzessiksess / Disjunctive Preamble to the Collapse, keketar protean of the Chorus of Meandering Syncopation.'
Several previous versions of the story title are scratched out in one or another variety of ink. Some of them are simply different styles of calligraphy, some of them written in protean by accident before she realized her mistake, some of them use different names for both herself and the keketar, and more than one of the previous includes the word “Erotic” rather than ‘Amazing’. These instances seem especially thoroughly crossed out, sometimes by what appears to be more than one set of hands, based on the penmanship.
The pages shimmer as you pick them up, flickering with chaotic energies before a large fraction of them transmute into metal, than peppermint, then a rapidly dispersing cloud of blue and yellow butterflies.
Whatever those particular portions of the story contained, the mind can only wander, or be thankful given the content and coherency (or lack thereof) of the remainder.
"It was pretty awesome how time stopped after we released the totally awesome keketar (and we didn’t even need to sacrifice either Siorm or Cairn like he first suggested). Well, time stopped for everyone except for me and the keketar. So there I was, star struck –and probably drooling like a total fangirl– waiting to see what Mr. Creature had to say, or what he might do, or what glorious adventures she and I might go on.
That being said, I felt so bad for what Karzoug had done to her that I offered to try to make her feel better and at the very least treat her to her first bottle of whatever her pleasure might be, maybe polish her scales, get a claw manicure, or just play sidekick, accomplice, or slavish toady for whatever wanton folly he wanted.
So, leaving everyone else frozen in time, Mrs. Creature opened up a portal and off we went. I’m rather vague on the details, but I recall having tea in a grove of giant, iridescent mushrooms. I’m pretty sure that we spent some time throwing chocolate bars at a trio of meladaemons, adding errant numbers into the equations of some axiomites somewhere on the painful ugly fringes of Axis, throwing our voices in a pre-riot crowd in Galt that quickly became a pitchforks and burning torches crowd with the pitchforks and torches that we provided, and I very distinctly remember streaking down the bridge leading to the Starstone Cathedral in Absalom screaming “I’m drunker than Cayden Cailean and you’re all in a whole flipping load of trouble if I gain divinity. Muahahahahahaha!!!!!”
Spoilers: I did not in fact gain divinity. I did not in fact even make it across the bridge. I don’t know what happened, but I woke up in the Velvet Imentesh Inn in Galisemni with a splitting headache, wearing a really badly stitched replica of a habit worn by the Sisters of the Golden Erinyes, and dappled with dried chocolate pudding.
I also have a tongue stud now. Thankfully though, no overly regrettable tattoos.
Don’t have regrets.
That’s my motto in life.
Mrs. Creature made breakfast. I paid for the room and the damages, and with a twinkle in his eye she popped open another portal and I found myself back here, staring off into space, seemingly none the worse for wear.
Except for the piercing.
Maybe.
All or some or none of that may have happened. Honestly I’m not really sure, though I’m perfectly fine with any of those options. I may have simply spaced out for a moment and daydreamed the entire thing up. I may have had a particularly lucid and hallucinogenic flashback and dreamed up what I –wanted– to have happened, which really says something about the way that I think. I’m normally not one for anything so terribly strong that it’s damaging in the long-term, and as far as I remember it’s been a while since I dropped daemonbleed or anything similar, and that particular drug was frankly a dangerous onetime thing. If I’d known what it was and how it was made, I probably wouldn’t have used it at all, or at least not the double dose that I did. Maybe. Perhaps.
(Note to self: Go back in time and reroll the dice on that one. Trippy!) Perhaps the stale pesh from Foxglove Manor was stronger than I thought?
Back to the story: Focus Crazy Hooves! Focus!
Wait. You already finished the story. Did you wreck this applecart of a story before you reached the cider mill and just sold the horse for glue to go buy booze? What’s wrong with you? That horse might have had a family. It might have had a destiny. Wait, what? Now you’re just writing in the third person. Are you drunk again? Oh that’s a staggering leap of logic right there.
Eyeroll.
Onomatopoeia of a raspberry.
Onomatopoeia of a cough.
So there you have it! The amazing and totally based on a true story 100% legit and all tale of Il’setsya Wyrmtouched and her new BFF who may or may not have left her true name for summoning purposes later."
Next example of behavior:
Abandoning the other PCs in Xin-Shalast in order to singlehandedly attempt to release Runelord Alaznist from slumber below Hollow Mountain. The rationale being that she hates Karzoug and releasing such a potently chaotic presence back onto Golarion would outweigh the risk of such a lawful presence like Karsoug. Sure she'd probably slaughter thousands, but who cares in the moment.
Atop the pinnacle of Hollow Mountain, the highest point of Rivenrake Island in the sparkling Varisian Gulf, Il’setsya smiles and takes a seat. She pauses for a moment in the sunshine and inhales a gust of the warm, pleasant wind, a sharp contrast from the chill of the Kodar Mountains. Five minutes or so pass as she sets up a hookah, pulls out a spellbook, takes a puff of flayleaf, and prepares to cast. Before starting however, she taps the ring on her left hand, calling into existence a tiny voidworm protean known to her for the moment as Esmeralda.
“So Esmeralda,” Il’setsya flits her tail joyously as the wind tousles her hair. “I want you to be here in case anything goes stupidly, spectacularly wrong, and also to give me a reasonable excuse in that event because you’ll be functioning as both my moral compass and the person to tell me when I’ve gone too far.”
Neither expecting a cogent reply from the tiny, living figment of Chaos, or desiring one at all, the tiefling-ish-thingamajig takes another puff of her pipe and prepares herself to cast.
“Given that we almost had our clocks cleaned by an ice devil,” She makes a face at the mention of the lawful fiend, “And I was nearly snapped in half by what’s his face’s now deceased blue dragon, I’m not entirely sure that we’re ready to fight Captain Greedyboy.”
The voidworm spirals in flight around her head, chasing one of her many ioun stones.
“So I’d like to get outside help.” Il’setsya cackles. “I have so many wonderful -WONDERFUL- ideas of how to go about taking down Balding McTransmutypants himself, and I could explain all of the higher order mathematics behind the magical theory that’ll let me do it… but let’s just say that none of the others would entirely get, well, much of any of it. Alas.”
Il’setsya puffs again on her pipe and glances down at her spellbook, unbridled chaos and frankly madness dancing in her eyes. Tiny proteans spin and cavort in the luminous orange sclera of her eyes for one moment, then she blinks and they vanish.
“I have every intention of calling down some favors and begging a keketar to come help us in exchange for well, whatever the heck they actually want me to do for them.” She sticks out her tongue. “I don’t particularly have any hard limits when it comes to paying for services granted. Besides, I’m not doing the whole ‘Be the Saviors of Varisia!’ thing for my companions, or even for Sandpoint, or anyone else on Golarion itself.”
The voidworm glances at her, she makes eye contact, chuckles and inclines her head with a smile and a blush at her ears. “Exceptions are made of course for Rynshinn. She’s a cutie and I care about her, so yeah, I’ll admit that I’m partially doing this for her, even if it didn’t start off that way. This of course began with my reason for doing much of anything, ‘Why the heck not?’. Being stranded away from home on another plane of existence also helped drive the point home of doing something to ingratiate myself to the local mortals.”
That omnipresent spark of madness returns to her eyes, with the entwined sigils of her patron protean Chorus visible, coiling about the circumference of her pupils. This time when she blinks, the symbols remain.
“So Esmeralda my little faux-shoulder angel, I’m here atop Hollow Mountain, formerly set within the Thassilonian domain of Bakrakhan, to do something in accordance with those same two reasons I mentioned before: why the heck not, and to ingratiate myself to the local mortals. Well, one particular local mortal who had a rather tumultuous history with Sir Flashy McPolymorph: Runelord Alaznist.”
Il’setsya cackles and prepares to cast a sending spell.
“Yeah I have absolutely no idea if she’s even still alive after all these thousands of years, but on the off chance that she is, or some fragment of her remains in one form or another, she’s the one person who might have a genuine vested interest in helping us take down her former arch-enemy.” Another puff of smoke and another laugh, “Sure we might end up taking down one evil archwizard and accidentally stirring another one from her slumber… but you know what Esmeralda? Who cares? I certainly don’t!”
The arcanist laughs and throws her head back, pointing the tip of her tail at the voidworm, “Besides! She’s totally a hottie! I don’t have a clue if she’d even be into me, but holy chaos and all, I mean… keep the hope alive!”
Il’setsya begins the ten minute casting time for sending, handing the waterpipe off to her prehensile tail and using it to bring the glass tip to her mouth for a periodic puff. Whether the spell reaches its intended recipient or not is immaterial, she’ll try it anyway and see what does or doesn’t occur in the future.
“Runelord Alaznist, you red-headed cutie, I’m Il’setsya Wyrmtouched. I’m going to murder the Runelord of Greed. Any help or advice would be lovely.”
Having cast the spell, she glances over at Esmeralda and shrugs as she awaits any response, “Well that’s that. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Next example is an actual protean, not just a protean-blooded PC.
In the last campaign I ran, I had the PCs wandering through the Maelstrom shallows and promptly getting lost in the perpetually changing landscape. They ended up running across and being accosted by a -very- loquacious imentesh bard who offered to aid them in their grand, fantastic quest (which it both knew nothing nor cared about in the slightest). The imentesh ended up being an amusing pain in the ass for the most part until they realized that it was intentionally keeping them lost for its own amusement and probably was the cause of two of the random encounters they happened upon. It just didn't care one way or the other, but upon being confronted it more or less shrugged, admitted nothing, and pointed over to the location that they intended to be at in the first place.
The same (maybe?) imentesh showed up again later, this time actually being helpful to the PCs and leading a group of demons away from them deeper into the Maelstrom. Not so much to help the PCs out from the kindness of its chaotic heart, but because they were demons in the Maelstrom that were better targets. The PCs got helped as a bit of a happenstance and also perhaps because they'd previously played along with and amused that particular protean (it said it was the same one, but who knew).
Naunets I've only used on their own on one occasion, rather than having them be the muscle in tow with an imentesh or keketar. Ended up having a PC meet a group of five naunets at a bar (in the city of Galisemni in the Maelstrom). They ended up getting drunk with the proteans, cavorting for an undescribed evening, and eventually having the proteans show up to help them defeat a bunch of constructs. The amusing part was having each protean go by a completely different name each time their initiative came up, along with some descriptions of cosmetic changes in their appearance that varied round by round.
The trick is to never know precisely what a protean will do in a given instance because it certainly doesn't either.
The protean in that novel is a really good example of it accepting a task simply for the hell of it all. It's a good example of uncaring, non-malicious, joyous mayhem that's one good facet of protean behavior that I've had fun with myself without any particular long-standing goal in mind
Vary it up between mayhem, actual destruction, whimsical and even beautiful acts of creation, and sure even some 2e slaadi-level nonsense. The more powerful the protean however, I would make its behavior and interactions with the PCs become more and more alien. They don't necessarily even perceive the universe in the same linear fashion as mortals, and it should be difficult to understand them, let alone meaningfully interact with them depending on the circumstances and the particular chorus (if any) that they follow.
Owners of sounds, binding, etc., I view that as lawful stuff. It's all too... hierarchal.Behavior-wise I think you do Proteans as chaotic exemplars quite well (Naunet excepted, since they'd hardly act like Il'setsya in their destructiveness. As you say, "The trick is to never know precisely what a protean will do in a given instance because it certainly doesn't either," but you pretty much do with Naunets). It's more organization that I note.
I'd want to see, "To whom I freely give my soul," "Should my will match your goals grant me favor!" "Fill me with your divine inspiration!".
Like, the Lords of Chaos in my mind aren't commanding bosses, they don't own their followers ala Asmodeus or even Empyreal Lords and wouldn't want to, but favor those who embrace their ways completely freely. True loyalty comes from those who could leave but don't wish to due to deep desire for chaos and all that.
So oaths-wise and the relationship between 'higher up' and . Heck, I wouldn't even say classifying them as 'higher up' would be the best way to say it, so much as 'they are both powerful and such personifications that their ways and influence are willingly followed by Proteans for inspiration, rather than them commanding it due to "position" or obligation. Even a lowly voidworm does not own a Chaos Lord subservience, but only when seized by the most chaotic of ideas are they likely to decide to go on their own.'
At least, that's my view. They may have titles, but the relationships should be far looser, less strict, and to a Protean, even the least instructing the strongest would be a cause for curiosity rather than outrage.
Let me add a little bit of clarity regarding Il'setsya and the whole 'owners of my soul' bit. She made a bargain with a specific protean chorus, but it was both entirely of her free will, and without conditions on the proteans' fault. There was a -very- specific and high price that was initially paid on her part, but afterwards it's mostly been a case of her having been empowered by those patrons and set off on her own crazy devices.
Any actual fealty she owes to them is purely defined on her part. They certainly don't claim ownership of her. The very concept is alien to their thinking really. The relationship is more that of a medieval patron to an artist, with occasional requests of theme for the work produced, but more an appreciation and empowerment on the proteans' part and vaguely aligned goals on the part of the mortal linked to them.
At the same time (and this is how I handle it in my own game), that particular protean chorus does not want you to pledge yourself to them. It does not want you to make a request and pay their price. It does not want the desperate or the willing. It only wants a very, very specific group of those willing to give themselves in every way imaginable because in the end, there really are no hooks in place. There is no contract. There are no bindings. There is only desire and free will that often aligns.
Occasionally they might drop suggestions or hints, and often that might spark interest to go there and act as their devotee might see fit.
This was the hook for Il'setsya getting from the Maelstrom to Golarion for RotRL.
'The Tide Calls to You With Seven Pairs of Eyes and Seven Tongues Tasting the Air the Scent of Conflict/Blood/Ashes/Ancient Things Stirring From Their Slumber/ and Child of Ours This Door Will Lead You There'
"That of course was the string of glowing words written above an active portal in a bound space framed by a lattice of roses and cracks in a marble wall. It spoke as I read it, and that’s probably the moment that I first realized that I read and spoke Thassilonian. I don’t know if I always had or if that was something burned into my brain courtesy of the Wall, but apparently I’m fluent, because that’s what the words were written in.
My patrons can be subtle with most people, but with me on rare occasions they'll tug me by the overly-long tail and nudge me, occasionally kicking and screaming, but most of the time laughing with glee to wherever it seems that my presence would be most useful for… who knows. I don’t ever get told instructions. I think that comes with the whole being linked to an ancient, inscrutable artifact itself linked to an otherwise vanished Chorus. Not that it matters for the moment because at the time I shrugged, muttered an ‘Ok!’ and stepped through what ended up being a one way portal to the Cage.
That particular chorus also I left open the possibility that they aren't a standard chorus, and might in fact be corrupted in some capacity by their role early on the history of the planes by their interaction with the Abyss. So keep that in mind for the particular language used. Corrupted? Maybe. I never answered that question and that particular rabbit hole went very, very deep in that campaign.
This thread is amazing and informative.