What do you find in a city of aberrations?

[Kesh]

Yes, that's what the internet is for...

"Boy, look at her tentacles!!!!"

I'm reminded of an episode of Babylon 5: Crusade...

 

[Kesh]

Oooh, I almost forgot the classic: books.

Any experience Call of Cthulhu players will burn them on sight. Still, it can be great fun to have books of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know in the city, especially if they can't be read normally.

Perhaps a sheet of glass where letters can only be read if held up to face a certain wall, or at a particular (uncomfortable) angle to light.
Pages that can't be turned sequentially, because they keep reordering themselves... for everyone but the alienist.
A slim tome whose pages are blank, but whose words fill the PCs mind when it's held.
And, the big one: a humanoid, tied spread-eagled against a wall with words tattooed on its body. When a command is spoken, the "page" of text on its body changes to the next, the tattoos rewriting themselves as it screams in agony...

 

[shilsen]

And, the big one: a humanoid, tied spread-eagled against a wall with words tattooed on its body. When a command is spoken, the "page" of text on its body changes to the next, the tattoos rewriting themselves as it screams in agony...

Ooh, that's nice!

And it immediately suggests a scenario where the "book" contains some information that the PCs need to get to, but doing so involves searching through the pages and, in doing so, torturing the poor creature.

 

[Kesh]

Ooh, that's nice!

And it immediately suggests a scenario where the "book" contains some information that the PCs need to get to, but doing so involves searching through the pages and, in doing so, torturing the poor creature.

You're catching on!

 

[painandgreed]

Valuable treasures they don't really want.

We once aquired (via killing the previous owner) a large apartment filled with "mindflayer yaoi" in the form of tapestries & statues made of precious metals. We went for the money and arranged an art auction and invited everybody we could find who was interested. Luckily we were in Doraka and had lots of creatures to invite. We also hired a sucubbus to be our auctioneer and a vampire to do PR. It was a very high art happening in the capitol of Iuz that night.

We also encountered an orgy filled with beautiful men and women which was open to all. Of course, the orgy was being thrown by some evil god of disease who would require your worship to protect you from the things you'd catch there. There was also a bar that one character went into and ordered the most expensive drink they had. He ended up with a glass of hallucinogenic slime that only the priests of Zuggtmoy ever ordered. The surrounding patrons of the bar, some of them outsiders, shied away from him when it was delivered.

 

[shilsen]

Thanks, everybody, for all the great ideas.

I just had the first session on Saturday and it was a hoot. And I only scratched the surface of some of the things I'm going to be using. If you're interested, you can read about it in the story hour in my sig or go directly to the first part of my writeup for the session (it'll probably be three entries long eventually) here.

Thanks, again.

 

[diaglo]

Thanks, again.

you are welcome.


diaglo "i prod the sphincter with my pole -- in bed" Ooi

 

[Wraith Form]

Ooohhh... great thing... reminds me of Chaositech by Malhavoc

Exactly. First thing that came to mind as soon as I started reading the original post was this magnificent, horrible tome.

 

[shilsen]

Had another really fun session with the aberration city this Saturday. Here's a writeup in case anyone's interested. ajanders' bloated, regenerating, masochistic hobgoblin concept made a stellar appearance.

Quote for the day:

PC1 - "I unplug his butt."
Other PCs - "What?!"