What do you find in a city of aberrations?

[diaglo]

Mimics are aberrations, right?

shilsen,

do you have the old Dungeon Magazine... 19 i think... it had a sidetrek adventure in it? i wanna say the adventure was by Randy Maxwell... but my memory is kaput.

[sblock] a village of mimics. the houses were actual mimics. [/sblock]

 

[Kafkonia]

torture equipment in the homes. old jars filled with pickled brains and other organs. nasty odd looking surgical tools.

Ooh, good stuff. Draw on some video games -- Silent Hill stuff, maybe some Parasite Eve (I don't remember that game very well.)

Simple treasure. Blacklight sunrods (cast a painful blueish light, cause white objects to glow, maybe provide small negatives to some activities but are doubly effective vs. undead -- those pesky UV rays. )

Rooms strung with barbed wire and carpetted with broken glass. Strange enough -- and then they realize it's the bedroom.

If you have access to the Advanced Bestiary or Deluxe Book of Templates, give some of them a look. The swarm template can give you a swarm of smaller-sized versions of existing monsters... a swarm of tiny humans, say (a la Army of Darkness.) The flesh plant template is brilliant in its way -- apply it to a plant, it becomes a plant-looking animal that feeds on blood like a plant feeds gathers water with its roots.

Armour made out of humanoid ribcages. Gauntlets made out of human heads. Not hands, not skulls, but heads, flesh and hair intact. Petrified arm backscratchers (sometimes a mindflayer just needs a lufa!)

 

[Voadam]

Abberation treasure

Illithid treasures. Items that create telepathic images when touched, either illithid thought art, or literature/movies seen mentally like a full senses audiobook.

So you have journals and instruction manuals for certain items that the PCs want to "read" and then they also stumble across illithid art and psionic porn collections of things that should not be.

Valuable treasures they don't really want.

 

[shilsen]

Any city where the buildings slouch towards you is worth the price of admission.

"Hey, guys - I think that outhouse is following us. Really, really slowly!"

Mimics are aberrations, right?

shilsen,

do you have the old Dungeon Magazine... 19 i think... it had a sidetrek adventure in it? i wanna say the adventure was by Randy Maxwell... but my memory is kaput.

[sblock] a village of mimics. the houses were actual mimics. [/sblock]

Yes, they are. And coincidentally, I just statted out a certain room. A big, hungry room

By the way, damn nice suggestions for the items with drawbacks, diaglo. Thanks.

 

[Kafkonia]

It just occurred to me that, rather than a swarm of tiny humans, a swarm of mini-beholders would be the way to go if you wanted to give the players fits.

Because swarms are immune to weapon damage, and what's the central eye of a beholder project? An anti-magic aura. Even if you tone down all of their other abilities, they'd be a terrible pain to fight.

 

[cmanos]

Any suggestions for interesting treasure that the PCs might recover??

Grafts

Really, just take the magic items they do find and twist them. Instead of finding a +3 sword, they find a magical claw that when attached to an arm...permanantly....acts as a +3 weapon.

...stumble across illithid art and psionic porn collections of things that should not be...

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

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

 

[diaglo]

By the way, damn nice suggestions for the items with drawbacks, diaglo. Thanks.

i'm drawing a blank on the Death ward item. i was almost gonna suggest a miniforce field like effect. the drawback being that the item once activated makes it impossible to get healing or other spells to effect the user too. i was thinking like a bead of force.


the hoop of protection. a hoop filled with balls. goes round and round you. it makes a loud noise. (+5 to DC to hear things -5 to hide or move silently skill checks)


tabard of egotism - you think you are the BMOC - you swagger - you pose - you flirt. it increases your bravado. not necessarily an actual effect to your Cha score. but all cha based skills become class skills while wearing it. so now you think you are the bees' knees and can Use Magic Device.

 

[Kafkonia]

i'm drawing a blank on the Death ward item. i was almost gonna suggest a miniforce field like effect. the drawback being that the item once activated makes it impossible to get healing or other spells to effect the user too. i was thinking like a bead of force.

Mantle of Vital Force

Crafted from the intestines and skin of creatures from planes with positive-dominant traits, this mantle provides a continuous death ward effect by drawing on the wearer's life force. While wearing the Mantle, the creature ages at twice its normal rate, and any age or disease-related effects targeting the creature are doubled.

Removing the Mantle inflicts 1d4 negative levels. Fortitude (DC 20) negates.

 

[DMH]

A rather disturbing source for mimics is Goodman's Complete Guide to Doppelgangers. They also released a Complete Guide to Beholders with all kinds of neat variations.

 

[shilsen]

It just occurred to me that, rather than a swarm of tiny humans, a swarm of mini-beholders would be the way to go if you wanted to give the players fits.

Mob of beholders!