The Voor Larva

[Knight Otu]

The murderous voor were once the ancient racial enemies of the illithids. The two races warred for many centuries, until the illithids managed to annihilate all the living voor. All that remains of the voor to this day are strange nebula where the voor were especially present.
These nebulas house voor dust, which can infect anything that moves through it with voor eggs, which grow into voor larvas (still needs more if acceptable)

 

[BOZ]

The problem is in using words like “nebula”… as far as I know, the whole outer space thing has been completely removed in 3E.

 

[Knight Otu]

Bah, replace it by fog or mist, then.

 

[BOZ]

well, what i was looking for was not that simple... i was looking for a whole new setting, such as why i mentioned the Ethereal or Astral... there needs to be a place, or a type of place, where you would find this "dust" of eggs, but that not everyone would be going to all the time. a place where you could have it just in the middle of nowhere that you could accidentally get "infected" with.

 

[Shade]

I like the Astral Plane, and maybe areas of the Underdark where the Far Realm has touched it.

 

[BOZ]

Astral plane might just work. let’s try this:

The murderous voor were once the ancient racial enemies of the illithids. The two races warred for centuries, until the illithids began to win, and the voor escaped to hide on the Astral plane. Eventually, the illithids found the last of them and managed to annihilate all the living voor.

Before they were destroyed, the voor formed huge clouds of mist on the Astral plane to store their dormant seed. This ancient mist stores voor dust, which can infest anything that moves through it. Active spores will attach to anything living or an object and begin to grow, forming its mass from the matter of its host. Over several hours, the spore forms into a chrysalis, from which a voor larva will hatch. Since the voor were eliminated so many centuries ago, no known voor larva has yet grown into an adult.


Of course, I know that begs the question of “what happens to a creature that has one of these spores attached to it” and if you guys want to try to answer that I guess we can…

 

[BOZ]

another idea... maybe the spores only grow when removed from the astral plane...?

 

[Shade]

Astral plane might just work. let’s try this:

The murderous voor were once the ancient racial enemies of the illithids. The two races warred for centuries, until the illithids began to win, and the voor escaped to hide on the Astral plane. Eventually, the illithids found the last of them and managed to annihilate all the living voor.

Before they were destroyed, the voor formed huge clouds of mist on the Astral plane to store their dormant seed. This ancient mist stores voor dust, which can infest anything that moves through it. Active spores will attach to anything living or an object and begin to grow, forming its mass from the matter of its host. Over several hours, the spore forms into a chrysalis, from which a voor larva will hatch. Since the voor were eliminated so many centuries ago, no known voor larva has yet grown into an adult.

Replace bold text with "attach to any creature or object". Otherwise, I like it.

Of course, I know that begs the question of “what happens to a creature that has one of these spores attached to it” and if you guys want to try to answer that I guess we can…

Yes, it most certainly does and I feel we must.

another idea... maybe the spores only grow when removed from the astral plane...?

I like that idea. Perhaps a mind-affecting ability or psionic power targeted on the carrier triggers their growth?

 

[BOZ]

Yes, it most certainly does and I feel we must.

well then, smart guy, I'm going to leave it up to you to come up with an idea. the original text doesn't say a whole lot about a creature that becomes host to one of these things, and in fact says more about objects (i.e., spelljamming ships) that do.

"If any object, living or inert, passes through these nebulas, there is a 10% chance that 1d10 specks of voor dust adheres. The dust are like spores, or seeds, and once contact is made with any medium, a particular speck sprouts tiny tendrils. These tendrils bore microscopic channels into the object to which it has adhered. Thus rooted, it begins to "grow," utilizing the material of the object itself as building blocks towards development. In only 1d4 hours, a chrysalis forms (if the object possess interior spaces, like a ship, the chrysalis forms in one of these hollows)."

I like that idea. Perhaps a mind-affecting ability or psionic power targeted on the carrier triggers their growth?

are you sure about that? Depending on the circumstances of the "host", that could take awhile.

Question on the Trill ability: if it causes a target to be sickened instead of stunned, do we still want it to be a mind-affecting compulsion?

 

[Shade]

well then, smart guy, I'm going to leave it up to you to come up with an idea. the original text doesn't say a whole lot about a creature that becomes host to one of these things, and in fact says more about objects (i.e., spelljamming ships) that do.

D'oh!

"If any object, living or inert, passes through these nebulas, there is a 10% chance that 1d10 specks of voor dust adheres. The dust are like spores, or seeds, and once contact is made with any medium, a particular speck sprouts tiny tendrils. These tendrils bore microscopic channels into the object to which it has adhered. Thus rooted, it begins to "grow," utilizing the material of the object itself as building blocks towards development. In only 1d4 hours, a chrysalis forms (if the object possess interior spaces, like a ship, the chrysalis forms in one of these hollows)."

are you sure about that? Depending on the circumstances of the "host", that could take awhile.

OK...here's my first attempt, modifying the slaad's iplant ability:

Voor Dust (Ex): A creature that passes through a cloud of voor dust while on the Astral Plane must succeed on a DC X Reflex save or several specks of the dust adhere to it. These specks are very difficult to notice (requiring a DC 30 Spot check), and even if noticed, will most likely be considered normal dust. A DC 30 Knowledge (the planes) checks reveals the true nature of the dust. While on the Astral Plane, the dust has no effect. If the creature leaves the Astral Plane, the affected creature must succeed on a DC X Fortitude save to avoid infestation. The save DCs are Constitution-based.

If the save fails, the speck begins to rapidly grow, forming a chrysalis in 1d4 hours. This is an extremely painful process, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage each hour. The chrysalis gestates for one week before hatching into a voor larva that eats its way out, killing the host. Twenty-four hours before the chrysalis fully matures, the victim falls extremely ill (-10 to all ability scores, to a minimum of 1). A remove disease spell rids a victim of the chrysalis, as does a DC 25 Heal check. If the check fails, the healer can try again, but each attempt (successful or not) deals 1d4 points of damage to the patient.

The dust can also infect objects. The object must be of at least Small size, allowing enough room for the chrysalis to form. If an unattended object passes through a voor dust cloud, it is entitled to a DC X Reflex save as if it were a creature. If removed from the Astral Plane, the voor chrysalis immediately forms in the object. The object takes no damage nor suffers any effects, but if the chrysalis is allowed to hatch, the object is destroyed. Since the voor dust can affect objects, constructs and undead are not immune to its effects.

Question on the Trill ability: if it causes a target to be sickened instead of stunned, do we still want it to be a mind-affecting compulsion?

Good question. I still think it should be mind-affecting (it "convinces" you to get sick"), but compulsion can probably go away.