Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Explicatae Incompositae - Being A Bestairy of the Sometime Lords of Chaos
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3370284" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p><strong>Ssendam, Lord of Madness</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Ssendam, Lord of Madness</strong></span></p><p><strong>Unique Huge Outsider (Chaotic, Extraplanar)</strong></p><p><strong>Hit Dice:</strong> 42d8 + 630 (966 hp)</p><p><strong>Initiative:</strong> + 11</p><p><strong>Speed:</strong> 90’</p><p><strong>AC:</strong> 50 (-2 size, +7 Dex, +9 deflection, +26 natural armor) touch 23, flatfooted 42 </p><p><strong>Base Attack/Grapple:</strong> +31/+54</p><p><strong>Attack:</strong> psuedopod +44 melee (2d8+15)</p><p><strong>Full Attack:</strong> 3 psuedopod +44 melee (2d8+15, 19-20/x2) </p><p><strong>Space/Reach:</strong> 10’/20’ ft.</p><p><strong>Special Attacks:</strong> Body weaponry, energy drain, engulf, extended reach, improved grab, spell-like abilities, summon slaad</p><p><strong>Special Qualities:</strong> Change shape, completely insane, fast healing 20, damage reduction 35/epic and lawful, dark vision (infinite), immune to ability drain, energy drain, mind effecting spells, polymorph, and petrification, lord of chaos, immune to sonic, resistance acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, and fire resistance 20, spell resistance 40</p><p><strong>Saves:</strong> Fort +41, Ref +30, Will +35</p><p><strong>Abilities:</strong> Str 40, Dex 25, Con 41, Int 24, Wis 26, Chr 29 </p><p><strong>Skills:</strong> Bluff +51, Climb +57, Concentration +60, Disguise +51, Escape Artist +49, Knowledge (Arcana) +49, Knowledge (Planes) +49, Hide +49, Intimidate +51, Listen +50, Move Silently +49, Search +50, Spellcraft +49, Spot +50, Survival +50, Tumble +49</p><p><strong>Feats:</strong> Blind-fight, combat reflexes, daunting presence, dodge, epic fortitude, epic will, frightful presence, improved combat reflexes, improved critical (pseudopod), improved initiative, improved sunder, large and in charge, mobility, opportunistic tactician, power attack</p><p><strong>Environment:</strong> Limbo</p><p><strong>Organization:</strong> Solitary or court (Ssendam + 3-18 of each sort of lesser slaad)</p><p><strong>Challenge Rating:</strong> 29</p><p><strong>Treasure:</strong> None</p><p><strong>Alignment:</strong> Chaotic neutral</p><p></p><p>Ssendam is in many accounts the eldest of the slaad, the progenitor of the race, and the mightiest of the slaad. The truth is that I do not know for a fact whether any of these things are true. The vast majority of the things which have been written about this being are plain bunkum. I place as much trust in them as I place in stories about little blond children encountering three talking bears, indeed less, for such a story is far less fanciful than many of the things written about Ssendam. </p><p></p><p>Ssendam is called ‘the Mad King’, ‘the Mad Queen’, ‘the Lord of Madmen’, and said to be the Lord of Madness. What does this mean? Ssendam is also called the Lord of Meaninglessness, and also the Lord of Joy and Despair. The impulse of Ssendam drives it to deprive everything of meaning, and to take away the power to determine the value of anything or indeed for anything to have value. In this way, one can say that Ssendam partakes at least in part in all the other impulses we see embodied in the Slaad.</p><p></p><p>So what can we say that is meaningful about this veritable incarnation of meaninglessness? To begin with, what does at least seem to be true is that Ssendam does occupy some special role amongst the slaad, and that at least at present Ssendam is the most feared of its race. Amongst the lesser slaad, I have noticed that while they refer to all other things as ‘it, they refer to Ssendam as ‘IT’ - where the capitalization refers to a particularly reverential and indeed terrified reference. I conclude from the unique distress and awe with which the lesser slaad hold Ssendam, that alone of all the other beings in the universe there is something about Ssendam which impresses upon the lesser slaad that this thing is a thing of true being apart from anything else.</p><p></p><p>The situation is not much better among the other Slaad Lords. All of them seem to despise Ssendam to one extent or another. If Ssendam is a ruler of the slaad, then there must hardly be a more despised ruler in the multiverse. But of course, like any slaad ruling over any other slaad, Ssendam is a ruler only in so far as it can bully, inspire, and manipulate other slaad. No slaad outside of reach is truly governed by anything else. </p><p></p><p>What is it like to come face to face with Ssendam? Well, first, you are stuck by the fact that you are dealing with a being without a face. You are facing an amorphous boiling chaos. This chaos does not speak. Ssendam never uses any words to communicate. Indeed, it is impossible to know for certain if Ssendam does communicate. Instead of communication, watching Ssendam you are struck by certain feelings; you have seemingly revelatory moments of insight. You cannot be quite certain however whether the origin of these feelings is some internal delusion, or whether they are projections from Ssendam. I’m inclined to believe that perhaps both are true, and that at a certain level it doesn’t matter. Only those of the strongest wills and the most powerful magical protections can avoid going insane in Ssendam’s presence. The strongest of the many delusions one experiences is the sense that until this moment, you have never seen anything that was real and that all your former existence and everything else you know are merely the tormenting phantasms of your own mind.</p><p></p><p>Ssendam is said to reside on its throne in the heart of Limbo, coming forth occasionally to visit the prime on mad and seemingly pointless quests or when called. While he almost always has the form of a huge golden ameba with the brain in the place it nucleus, he has been known to take the form of a naked long haired berserker bearing a golden two-handed sword or of a grotesquely obese hag. It is said that Ssendam takes upon occasion the form of a huge golden slaad, but if this is true there is no reliable report of it. In no form does he ever use verbal communication.</p><p></p><p>Ssendam has a small cult of mortal followers, which is almost unique among the Slaad lords. Whether the followers of this cult recieve thier powers from Ssendam or from some other being is not known. There is no evidence that Ssendam pays his cult much attention at all. Ssendam is said to be worshiped by the Gibberlings, but this may be simply a myth.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">Combat</span></p><p>Ssendam is likely to lash out at anything that annoys, and does not hesitate to destroy and utterly consume a foe with its lethal psuedopods. It prefers to let the foe come to it so that it can use its great reach to its best effect, but it will simply charge up and engulf a foe that tries to avoid its grasp. Ssendam strikes with repeated empowered flamestrikes or employs its powers of mass suggestion and mass charm to subdue foes. Weakened foes are subject to Ssendam’s power words and symbols. If a foe is subdued or rendered insane, Ssendam has been known to avenge insults against him by inflicting a geas on his hapless victims that forces them to do the thing which they would least desire to do if they were in their right minds. </p><p><strong>Spell-Like Abilities:</strong> At will – Analyze dweomer, alter self, animate objects, astral projection, black tentacles, chaos hammer (widened, DC 25), charm monster (DC 24), cloak of chaos (DC 29), confusion (DC 23), control weather, deeper darkness, detect law, detect magic, detect thoughts, destruction (DC 26), dimensional anchor, dispel law (DC 26), divination, entropic shield, emotion (widened, DC 23), fear (widened, DC 23), flamestrike (empowered, DC 24), fly, greater dispelling, geas, greater magic fang, hideous laughter (DC 21), insanity (heightened, DC 28), invisibility, magic circle against law, mass charm (DC 27), mass suggestion (DC 25), mirage arcane, misdirection, modify memory (DC 23), permanent image, phantasmal killer (DC 23), programmed image, reverse gravity, see invisibility, shatter (DC 21), symbol (insanity), word of chaos (widened, DC 30); 3/day limited wish, planeshift, polymorph any object (DC 26), power word (any), symbol (any); 1/day epic counterspell, full another’s wish, peripety, ruin (DC 29), spell worm (DC 28). Caster level 25th. The save DC’s are Charisma based.</p><p><strong>Body Weaponry (Ex):</strong> Ssendam’s psuedopods may inflict bashing, slashing, or piercing damage as Ssendam desires. All of Ssendam’s natural weapons are considered anarchic weapons, as the weapon property, and do an additional 2d6 damage to lawful opponents.</p><p><strong>Completely Insane (Ex):</strong> Ssendam mind is so alien, that for many purposes it can be considered mindless. Ssendam is unaffected by any ability which only effects intelligent creatures.</p><p><strong>Energy Drain (Su): </strong> Living creatures hit by a Ssendam’s attack gain 1d4 negative levels (Fortitude save DC 46 half, round fractions down). For each negative level bestowed, Ssendam gains 5 temporary hit points.</p><p><strong>Engulf (Ex):</strong> By winning a grapple check against an opponent that Ssendam has already grappled, or by taking a standard action to move into an opponent’s space, Ssendam may engulf opponents of large size or smaller within his gelatinous form. Engulfed opponents are stilled considered grappled, however Ssendam is not. Engulfed opponents take 4-32 damage per round and lose 2-8 energy levels (Fortitude save DC 46 half, round fractions down). Each negative level bestowed gains Ssendam 5 temporary hit points. Furthermore, Ssendam will begin digesting engulfed opponents dealing 10d4 acid damage and 10d4 anarchic damage each round. A creature which is reduced to -10 hit points or less when engulfed is permanently destroyed – not even true resurrection may recover them.</p><p><strong>Extended Reach (Ex):</strong> Ssendam’s psuedopods have twice the normal reach for a creature of its size.</p><p><strong>Change Shape (Su):</strong> Ssendam can assume any humanoid form as a free action. In humanoid form, Ssendam cannot use his natural weapons. Ssendam may remain in this form until he chooses to assume a new one. The change in form may not be dispelled, but the Slaad Lord will revert to its natural form if killed. Even true seeing does not reveal Ssendam’s natural form, only that Ssendam is a disguised shapechanger.</p><p><strong>Improved Grab (Ex):</strong> If Ssendam hits with a melee attack, it deals normal damage and may attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.</p><p>A psuedopod may be severed by a single hit that does 30 or more damage. While this does no additional harm to Ssendam other than the normal damage (Ssendam may grow new psuedopods as a free action), it does break any grapple initiated by that psuedopod.</p><p><strong>Lord of Chaos (Su): </strong> Any spell-like ability Ssendam employs gains the chaos descriptor. If the spell-like ability already has the chaos descriptor, the DC of saves vs. this spell is increased by +2, and it is automatically widened (when appropriate) as the metamagic feat widen spell. Three times per day as a free action, Ssendam may maximize any spell-like ability it casts as if the metamagic feat maximize spell had been applied.</p><p><strong>Protean Form (Ex): </strong> Regardless of apparent form taken by Ssendam, Ssendam’s fundamental nature is ooze-like. Ssendam is immune to critical hits, death by beheading, and death by massive damage. In the Amoeba form, Ssendam also cannot be flanked. </p><p><strong>Summon Slaad (Sp):</strong> Ygorl may summon 1d6 of lesser slaad (mud, red, blue, green, or grey) or 1 death slaad once per round at will. Treat this ability as a 9th level spell. Three times per day, Ygorl may attempt to summon a white slaad with a 30% chance of success. Treat this ability as a 10th level spell.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 3370284, member: 4937"] [b]Ssendam, Lord of Madness[/b] [SIZE=4][B]Ssendam, Lord of Madness[/B][/SIZE] [B]Unique Huge Outsider (Chaotic, Extraplanar)[/B] [B]Hit Dice:[/B] 42d8 + 630 (966 hp) [B]Initiative:[/B] + 11 [B]Speed:[/B] 90’ [B]AC:[/B] 50 (-2 size, +7 Dex, +9 deflection, +26 natural armor) touch 23, flatfooted 42 [B]Base Attack/Grapple:[/B] +31/+54 [B]Attack:[/B] psuedopod +44 melee (2d8+15) [B]Full Attack:[/B] 3 psuedopod +44 melee (2d8+15, 19-20/x2) [B]Space/Reach:[/B] 10’/20’ ft. [B]Special Attacks:[/B] Body weaponry, energy drain, engulf, extended reach, improved grab, spell-like abilities, summon slaad [B]Special Qualities:[/B] Change shape, completely insane, fast healing 20, damage reduction 35/epic and lawful, dark vision (infinite), immune to ability drain, energy drain, mind effecting spells, polymorph, and petrification, lord of chaos, immune to sonic, resistance acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, and fire resistance 20, spell resistance 40 [B]Saves:[/B] Fort +41, Ref +30, Will +35 [B]Abilities:[/B] Str 40, Dex 25, Con 41, Int 24, Wis 26, Chr 29 [B]Skills:[/B] Bluff +51, Climb +57, Concentration +60, Disguise +51, Escape Artist +49, Knowledge (Arcana) +49, Knowledge (Planes) +49, Hide +49, Intimidate +51, Listen +50, Move Silently +49, Search +50, Spellcraft +49, Spot +50, Survival +50, Tumble +49 [B]Feats:[/B] Blind-fight, combat reflexes, daunting presence, dodge, epic fortitude, epic will, frightful presence, improved combat reflexes, improved critical (pseudopod), improved initiative, improved sunder, large and in charge, mobility, opportunistic tactician, power attack [B]Environment:[/B] Limbo [B]Organization:[/B] Solitary or court (Ssendam + 3-18 of each sort of lesser slaad) [B]Challenge Rating:[/B] 29 [B]Treasure:[/B] None [B]Alignment:[/B] Chaotic neutral Ssendam is in many accounts the eldest of the slaad, the progenitor of the race, and the mightiest of the slaad. The truth is that I do not know for a fact whether any of these things are true. The vast majority of the things which have been written about this being are plain bunkum. I place as much trust in them as I place in stories about little blond children encountering three talking bears, indeed less, for such a story is far less fanciful than many of the things written about Ssendam. Ssendam is called ‘the Mad King’, ‘the Mad Queen’, ‘the Lord of Madmen’, and said to be the Lord of Madness. What does this mean? Ssendam is also called the Lord of Meaninglessness, and also the Lord of Joy and Despair. The impulse of Ssendam drives it to deprive everything of meaning, and to take away the power to determine the value of anything or indeed for anything to have value. In this way, one can say that Ssendam partakes at least in part in all the other impulses we see embodied in the Slaad. So what can we say that is meaningful about this veritable incarnation of meaninglessness? To begin with, what does at least seem to be true is that Ssendam does occupy some special role amongst the slaad, and that at least at present Ssendam is the most feared of its race. Amongst the lesser slaad, I have noticed that while they refer to all other things as ‘it, they refer to Ssendam as ‘IT’ - where the capitalization refers to a particularly reverential and indeed terrified reference. I conclude from the unique distress and awe with which the lesser slaad hold Ssendam, that alone of all the other beings in the universe there is something about Ssendam which impresses upon the lesser slaad that this thing is a thing of true being apart from anything else. The situation is not much better among the other Slaad Lords. All of them seem to despise Ssendam to one extent or another. If Ssendam is a ruler of the slaad, then there must hardly be a more despised ruler in the multiverse. But of course, like any slaad ruling over any other slaad, Ssendam is a ruler only in so far as it can bully, inspire, and manipulate other slaad. No slaad outside of reach is truly governed by anything else. What is it like to come face to face with Ssendam? Well, first, you are stuck by the fact that you are dealing with a being without a face. You are facing an amorphous boiling chaos. This chaos does not speak. Ssendam never uses any words to communicate. Indeed, it is impossible to know for certain if Ssendam does communicate. Instead of communication, watching Ssendam you are struck by certain feelings; you have seemingly revelatory moments of insight. You cannot be quite certain however whether the origin of these feelings is some internal delusion, or whether they are projections from Ssendam. I’m inclined to believe that perhaps both are true, and that at a certain level it doesn’t matter. Only those of the strongest wills and the most powerful magical protections can avoid going insane in Ssendam’s presence. The strongest of the many delusions one experiences is the sense that until this moment, you have never seen anything that was real and that all your former existence and everything else you know are merely the tormenting phantasms of your own mind. Ssendam is said to reside on its throne in the heart of Limbo, coming forth occasionally to visit the prime on mad and seemingly pointless quests or when called. While he almost always has the form of a huge golden ameba with the brain in the place it nucleus, he has been known to take the form of a naked long haired berserker bearing a golden two-handed sword or of a grotesquely obese hag. It is said that Ssendam takes upon occasion the form of a huge golden slaad, but if this is true there is no reliable report of it. In no form does he ever use verbal communication. Ssendam has a small cult of mortal followers, which is almost unique among the Slaad lords. Whether the followers of this cult recieve thier powers from Ssendam or from some other being is not known. There is no evidence that Ssendam pays his cult much attention at all. Ssendam is said to be worshiped by the Gibberlings, but this may be simply a myth. [SIZE=4]Combat[/SIZE] Ssendam is likely to lash out at anything that annoys, and does not hesitate to destroy and utterly consume a foe with its lethal psuedopods. It prefers to let the foe come to it so that it can use its great reach to its best effect, but it will simply charge up and engulf a foe that tries to avoid its grasp. Ssendam strikes with repeated empowered flamestrikes or employs its powers of mass suggestion and mass charm to subdue foes. Weakened foes are subject to Ssendam’s power words and symbols. If a foe is subdued or rendered insane, Ssendam has been known to avenge insults against him by inflicting a geas on his hapless victims that forces them to do the thing which they would least desire to do if they were in their right minds. [B]Spell-Like Abilities:[/B] At will – Analyze dweomer, alter self, animate objects, astral projection, black tentacles, chaos hammer (widened, DC 25), charm monster (DC 24), cloak of chaos (DC 29), confusion (DC 23), control weather, deeper darkness, detect law, detect magic, detect thoughts, destruction (DC 26), dimensional anchor, dispel law (DC 26), divination, entropic shield, emotion (widened, DC 23), fear (widened, DC 23), flamestrike (empowered, DC 24), fly, greater dispelling, geas, greater magic fang, hideous laughter (DC 21), insanity (heightened, DC 28), invisibility, magic circle against law, mass charm (DC 27), mass suggestion (DC 25), mirage arcane, misdirection, modify memory (DC 23), permanent image, phantasmal killer (DC 23), programmed image, reverse gravity, see invisibility, shatter (DC 21), symbol (insanity), word of chaos (widened, DC 30); 3/day limited wish, planeshift, polymorph any object (DC 26), power word (any), symbol (any); 1/day epic counterspell, full another’s wish, peripety, ruin (DC 29), spell worm (DC 28). Caster level 25th. The save DC’s are Charisma based. [B]Body Weaponry (Ex):[/B] Ssendam’s psuedopods may inflict bashing, slashing, or piercing damage as Ssendam desires. All of Ssendam’s natural weapons are considered anarchic weapons, as the weapon property, and do an additional 2d6 damage to lawful opponents. [B]Completely Insane (Ex):[/B] Ssendam mind is so alien, that for many purposes it can be considered mindless. Ssendam is unaffected by any ability which only effects intelligent creatures. [B]Energy Drain (Su): [/B] Living creatures hit by a Ssendam’s attack gain 1d4 negative levels (Fortitude save DC 46 half, round fractions down). For each negative level bestowed, Ssendam gains 5 temporary hit points. [B]Engulf (Ex):[/B] By winning a grapple check against an opponent that Ssendam has already grappled, or by taking a standard action to move into an opponent’s space, Ssendam may engulf opponents of large size or smaller within his gelatinous form. Engulfed opponents are stilled considered grappled, however Ssendam is not. Engulfed opponents take 4-32 damage per round and lose 2-8 energy levels (Fortitude save DC 46 half, round fractions down). Each negative level bestowed gains Ssendam 5 temporary hit points. Furthermore, Ssendam will begin digesting engulfed opponents dealing 10d4 acid damage and 10d4 anarchic damage each round. A creature which is reduced to -10 hit points or less when engulfed is permanently destroyed – not even true resurrection may recover them. [B]Extended Reach (Ex):[/B] Ssendam’s psuedopods have twice the normal reach for a creature of its size. [B]Change Shape (Su):[/B] Ssendam can assume any humanoid form as a free action. In humanoid form, Ssendam cannot use his natural weapons. Ssendam may remain in this form until he chooses to assume a new one. The change in form may not be dispelled, but the Slaad Lord will revert to its natural form if killed. Even true seeing does not reveal Ssendam’s natural form, only that Ssendam is a disguised shapechanger. [B]Improved Grab (Ex):[/B] If Ssendam hits with a melee attack, it deals normal damage and may attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. A psuedopod may be severed by a single hit that does 30 or more damage. While this does no additional harm to Ssendam other than the normal damage (Ssendam may grow new psuedopods as a free action), it does break any grapple initiated by that psuedopod. [B]Lord of Chaos (Su): [/B] Any spell-like ability Ssendam employs gains the chaos descriptor. If the spell-like ability already has the chaos descriptor, the DC of saves vs. this spell is increased by +2, and it is automatically widened (when appropriate) as the metamagic feat widen spell. Three times per day as a free action, Ssendam may maximize any spell-like ability it casts as if the metamagic feat maximize spell had been applied. [B]Protean Form (Ex): [/B] Regardless of apparent form taken by Ssendam, Ssendam’s fundamental nature is ooze-like. Ssendam is immune to critical hits, death by beheading, and death by massive damage. In the Amoeba form, Ssendam also cannot be flanked. [B]Summon Slaad (Sp):[/B] Ygorl may summon 1d6 of lesser slaad (mud, red, blue, green, or grey) or 1 death slaad once per round at will. Treat this ability as a 9th level spell. Three times per day, Ygorl may attempt to summon a white slaad with a 30% chance of success. Treat this ability as a 10th level spell. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Explicatae Incompositae - Being A Bestairy of the Sometime Lords of Chaos
Top