Proposal: The Waiting Below

[SeaPainter]

THE WAITING BELOW:



A strange "cult" that is beginning to surface across The Transitive Isles.

• ORGANIZATION
  • separate, individual (or pairs of) cells
  • cells are usually unaware that any other cells exist
  • cells operate independent of each other
  • each cell has a different purpose/mission/goal
• MEMBERSHIP
  • each cell leader has a special template (for example, the "Demonic Acolyte")
  • agents don't come from any particular race or alignment
  • twin siblings are often leaders of paired cells
  • there will never be a single member with more than two pieces of "The Big Picture"
• PURPOSE
  • to worship "The Waiting Below"
  • to act in secret
  • work to achieve a particular task
• "THE WAITING BELOW"
  • an alien, Lovecraftian entity
  • iconography leans toward spirals, swirls & "tentacles"
  • its goals are completely indecipherable to our minds
  • getting an understanding of "The Big Picture" would drive one of us insane...

This is just a rough outline of some ideas I've started to work on in order to answer the question: "What was Hoofchew up to?" (thanks Lord Sessadore)...

It provides us a sort of catch-all, shadow organization that we can all adapt and add to in our adventures. We could even use it to bring about a zombie apocolypse.

I'm not saying everything would have to tie into it (at least, not that we know of ), but it would just be there if we needed an origin for a group of zealots.

[Atanatotatos]

Well... this works rather fine with the idea I had proposed of a huge Maze under the transitive Isles... I'd say we can work with this and expand the idea a bit.

[covaithe]

I don't see that this needs a proposal. Just do it. If other people are interested, they'll elaborate. In fact.... *goes off to jot down some notes*

I'd suggest not making it mandatory that every cell leader has that particular template. Common, perhaps, but there are so many other interesting templates and monsters to explore.

[SeaPainter]

Originally Posted by covaithe

I don't see that this needs a proposal. Just do it. If other people are interested, they'll elaborate. In fact.... *goes off to jot down some notes*

I know it probably didn't need a proposal, per se... I wanted to put it out there as an idea/tool, but I thought it would be a good idea to get people's thoughts & input.

Originally Posted by covaithe

I'd suggest not making it mandatory that every cell leader has that particular template. Common, perhaps, but there are so many other interesting templates and monsters to explore.

That's a good point... I'll probably edit that line.

[ukingsken]

I really dig it, and its a nice addendum especially with recent adds to the wiki pertaining to the depths of the transitive Isle. It would be nice to see it tied to the maze though. It has a very mazey feel to it, this cult.

[Erekose13]

yoink. I've got a mysterious cult a brewing in the Sibylline Idol and working this together with other adventures out there will be great

[Don Incognito]

I'm not good with wiki fu, but if I was, I would have created a "villainous organizations" page on the wiki some time ago. Just for example, in my adventure (spoiler for those playing in the festering drama cluster that is Echoes of O)

SPOILER

The PCs are eventually going to meet a character that will outline several of Daunton's gangs. I would prefer to say something along the lines of "THIS NPC OUTLINES SEVERAL OF DAUNTON'S GANGS" then post a link to the Villainous Organizations page, where I will have added information about Daunton's gangs.

Of course, I'm awful at wiki-ing, so I don't know how to go about making the page in the first place.

[SeaPainter]

The cells wouldn't necesarily have to be aware of each other, or realize that they're "worshipping" the same entity. Even if the cults refer to "The Waiting Below" by different names, there would still be consistency in the iconography... so, if some religious conspiracy theorist were to really delve into it & study them, he might start to draw links.


Also... the way the cells tie together may not even make sense to a rational mind. For example the entity could...

• found a good-aligned cell, in order to understand (or corrupt) his potential oppostion
• found two cells with the goal of wiping each other out, in order to create a spike of violent energy on whicg to feed
• direct a cell (or have different cells0 create a contagion to wipe-out a region, allowing the entity a place to surface

Just spit-balling a few more ideas...

[CaBaNa]

Love this!

gives plenty of room for open adventure, helps give the depths/maze/whatever-its-going-to-be-called a nice paragon or epic monster problem. it also helps to spur heroic tier problems.

The Waiting Below also gives room in the depths/maze/whatever-its-going-to-be-called for plenty of other action, that is separate and isolated. Leaving space for many other issues that don't know of or haven't interacted with The Waiting Below...(or has it)

Ha great idea!

[Dunamin]

It’s nice work, SeaPainter, and you should feel free to put it up on the wiki anytime.

Perhaps we need a page for "organizations" or "power groups" or the like?

[ukingsken]

This is still a wicked Idea, and I think Dunamin is right, whoever puts this into the Wiki should create an Organizations/Power Group entry. Then people can just start adding the various groups from their campaigns as they pop up!