Need some help with campaign building...

[FnordBear]

Hullo ENworld!

Im having a little trouble with one aspect of my current world building. I am planning a game where the far plane long ago tried to encroach on the prime material and via the creation of a mcguffin the farplane was sealed and barred from the prime material.

Fast forward 10000 years to a war between two powerful magical kingdoms (think Nethril from the realms for power scale) resulting in the mcguffin being damaged and thus the seal weakening and the farplane slowly starting to encroach on the prime material again.

Fast forward another 10000 or so years. The seal is weak to the point of non existance however with magical repair it could again work. Now the farplane inhabitants, still not able to freely enter our world except with great difficulty and aid dont want this thus the PCs get to have thier fun.

My problem is comming form this, I have Cthulhu D20 and plan on using many of the mythos dieties for the "powers that be" of the far realm. For thier aids and followers in the Prime I will be using lots of Mindflayers, beholders, grell, and aboleths. Im stumped though on what mythos gods they would follow. Mindflayers and aboleths are obvious (Cthulhu and Dagon) but I am stumped on grell and beholders.

Anyone have any ideas on who grell and beholders would bow to on the far plane? Also, what have people's experience been with incorporating the CoCd20 stuff in a standard D&D campaign?

 

[thompgc]

Lords of Madness has several deities in the back (6 IIRC)
Don't know if any of them match up w/anything from CoC

 

[green slime]

Do you need grell and beholders?

Grell are kind of cool with their tentacled floating thing going for them. But Beholders seem just kind of wierd, to me.

Grell could be followers of Hastur, perhaps? Not terribly strong on Cthulhu mythos, but that old wind fellow could certainly have levitating companions, if you were of that bent.

Perhaps Beholders are some kind of servant subspecies of the Great Race?

What about Shub-Nigurath?

 

[FnordBear]

On "needing" Grell and Beholders

Well, I would like to have them, Grell always seemed to me to be almost strait out of the mythos. Beholders...well what game doesnt need giant ticked-off xenophobic eyeballs:

 

[GreatLemur]

Well, you might be asking for more complexity than you really need (logically or logistically) by trying to match up specific D&D critters with specific Mythos beings, but beholders feel kind of Nyarlathotep-ish, to me. Just the fact that they're full of inherant arcane power seems like a reasonable connection. On the other hand, you could always go with Yog-Sothoth, just because he's often portrayed as a big cloud of floating spheres, and beholders are big, floating spheres.

Grell seem a little tougher to categorize, to me. Are they even intelligent, or are they just animal-level predators? I think Azathoth (or maybe Shub Niggurath) might work for them either way, really.

 

[Sigurd]

If you want to stretch out your plot, try and think about what a crafty far plane would do to prepare for an invasion. Without being able to act freely themselves they might have a whole network of power hungry alienists preparing for their invasion.

Mapping the current world for choice feeding\etc.

Beginning to corrupt the downtrodden and neglected for the new order

Establishing permanent hooks into this plane if things go wrong.


Remember to the far plane leadership (such as it is) this is pretty high stakes. If they are immensely chaotic and weird they might have multiple aims, goals and strategies happening at once.


sigurd

 

[FnordBear]

--Snip sound advice--

Thats pretty much the plot acctually Hence why I am using Grell, Ilithids, Aboleths, and Beholders, created servitors of the far realm but 'native' to the prime (well in my setting that is what they are).

Ilithid sorceror/alienist...mmmmm


Thanks for the suggestion on Subnigurath and Yog soggoth, I had not thought of those.

 

[Bad Paper]

Another vote for the Lords of Madness book. When it came out I read it cover to cover, and was a little disappointed, because I felt that it was missing something. Then Heroes of Horror came out, and at last LoM felt complete. Those two books will inspire you countless ways.

May I meekly suggest that you break up the symmetry in your setup? That is: event -> 10,000 years -> event ->10,000 years -> pending event is just...so...

 

[Sigurd]

May I meekly suggest that you break up the symmetry in your setup? That is: event -> 10,000 years -> event ->10,000 years -> pending event is just...so...

I'd agree with that too. Considering this is the weirdness of the far realms\cthulu I'd be tempted to really twist it.

1st event xyears, not on our plane but a then coterminate plane
2nd event 3000 yrs (within the life of the longest living sages or undead?).
3rd soon - This event might even be known to some of the creatures from the far realms. They may be cheating by going back in time to plant seeds before the door will be closed. (I'd hint at this and then reveal it if the players survive - if they don't never tell them.)


Oh and dont forget visions and dreams. Lovecraft makes a point of stating that his wierdos grow in the minds of the insane or sensitive - it helps the recruit in a typical populace.

S

 

[jefgorbach]

Dont have the tale handy, but irc Wilbur summoned a spawn of yogsoth? that was described close enough to an invisible barn-sized grell to make them one of his servant races.

Likewise, I believe he was occassionally described as a massive being covered with eyes, one of which is occasionally glimpsed peering thru a space/time rent -- so perhaps the first beholders where created to be "remotes" enabling him to see to the sides/behind such rents. Modern beholders no longer recall their origin, having become self-aware as the mind-link severed when far-plane was sealed off. Perhaps they are working for him again or perhaps struggling to retain their freedom.