What kind of "Friendly" encounters could happen in the Far Realms?

[Lackofname]

I'm running a short-ish campaign where the PCs are trapped in a mega-dungeon dungeon that has been sucked into the Far Realms. The goal of the campaign is to get back home safely, which entails sending the dungeon back. Denizens in the Far Realms thus are going to come into various parts of the dungeon, but the PCs probably won't be stepping outside (Because that's fairly Unwise).

I realized though that the PCs are going to have very few NPCs to interact with. The home of aberrations and Lovecraftian horrors has a lot of beast-intelligent creepy crawlies. The intelligent life is quite... "Sure, we can converse while I eat your brains/enslave you." Aside from a few of the dungeon's original inhabitants that are still alive and not yet window-licking insane, there's no one to chat with.

Already I've put an imp (who vamoosed after they made a deal for info), and a sales-devil (who basically serves as a merchant because there is no other opportunity to sell/buy loot). So I'm at a loss as to who/what they could interact with on an at least not-immediately-violent context. Even better would be something that could possibly be a quest-giver, or someone who could create/upgrade loot/give other sort of power? The trouble is trying to wrap one's head around "Ineffable alien minds" and "hey here's a task I would like you to do for a tangible reward" that isn't like "collect twelve brass buttons while the Star of Archeon is in alignment with the 5th dimensional navel of Yog-Shoggoth". What could the locals want that doesn't amount snacking on the characters bodies/minds?

(Also I know some of you are going to be like "Just being in the Far Realms should destroy them before they get to the chatting part", but the PCs are already there, that's the campaign focus. The way I look at it is more like the PCs being trapped in Hell rather than the Elemental Plane of Fire; the former is incredibly hostile and dangerous, but you can actually go there and do things, as opposed to stepping through a portal and being instantly vaporized).

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The far realm is the most remote part from realitiy, it's the closest in my mind for the Moorcockian primal chaos from which reality was created. It's alien because it doesn't conform to our rules and our physics, but it's not alien for the sake of being alien, it's alien because it's made of opportunities to be shaped into whatever reality one could wish. Of course most denizen are dangerous because they don't share any values or concept with us... but there may be adventurers who actually seek to go into the far realm to create reality of their own. Most careful wizard do it safely, casting the tried and true Demiplane spell...but what if you seek more power? What can you do if you want your demiplane to extend beyond the boundaries of a small room, and you want to rule a valley, a country, a world, like the wizard of old (actually, of 3.5) could? That's when you venture into the Far Realm to shape it into a stable region conforming to your will.

Adventurers in your group could be confronted to a group of philosopher mages in the process of doing exactly that. And their megadungeon appeared RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR NOTHINGNESS. A few of them will be upset at the PCs (free opponents to talk to and fight), most will say "let's ignore that megadungeon and build our utopia elsewhere/around it" and a few could become sympathetic to the player's situation and accept to shape a good amount of nothingness into a +2 weapon for them if they provide some service, up to an including removing some of their rivals among the philosophers.

Ah, and of course, sales-devil will be very happy to remind them of their earlier deal saying that they can clear their debt by shaping sentient souls out of nothingness and selling them into eternal torment. What, you really thought the debt would be paid in gold?

 

[Lackofname]

Ohh. That's interesting.

Ramble Time

Shat sort of raw "everything flowing together" is kinda like 4e's Elemental Chaos (in that all the elements are braided together and flow, and so you can have floating volcanos and so on). But the raw chaos reminds me of Exalted's "Wyld", where everything is changing and thought can create reality. I.e. the ground you walk on could turn into a toothy maw or your sword into a bouquet of flowers if your focus and will isn't strong enough).

Side-note: one idea I've had in the past is that reality is a bubble sitting in the Far Realms, and that bubble is growing; Logic, order, etc is a cancer that warps the chaos, and so the Far Realms' desire to corrupt reality is the immune response. Using this kind of logic, the Mega Dungeon could be seen as cancer, and the locals want to eradicate it, mutate it, or send it back ASAP.

I've already planned to have the Far Realms bending time and space--time loops where they are caught turning the same corner of a hallway over and over again, or spots where it seems they are standing in 20 different places at once, and the outside local areas works like an M C. Escher painting--gravity for you is based on what surface you're standing on.

To the actual topic of interactions, quests and loot

In a place so undefinable, the players could theoretically upgrade/enchant their own equipment. Just have the right kind of materials--rub that armor on the psychic horror's body, put enough thought (and expensive coinage) into the effort, and tada resistance to psychic damage.

The Philosophers is actually kinda funny.

Lovecraftian fiction and such is all full of people contacting the Far Realms, and here the PCs could be on the other side of that phone call. Beings could want to spread their influence in the material plane (but since the PCs are on their side, they can't hepl with that). But providing some degree of worship, to kickstart the being's endeavers could work. Or carry a book it wrote back home with them. Or hell, let it ride around in the back seat of their skull--not interfering, but simply...watching, experiencing what they do, see how a human mind in motion works. Sure those motivations could be sinister, but It could also be as simple as curiosity or as base as wanting to experience the world through a different body that might process emotion or sensation differently.

It's really convenient one of the characters is a Psion.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm running a short-ish campaign where the PCs are trapped in a mega-dungeon dungeon that has been sucked into the Far Realms. The goal of the campaign is to get back home safely, which entails sending the dungeon back. Denizens in the Far Realms thus are going to come into various parts of the dungeon, but the PCs probably won't be stepping outside (Because that's fairly Unwise).

Which of course means going outside will be precisely what they do, at the very first opportunity.

Best prep for it...

Already I've put an imp (who vamoosed after they made a deal for info), and a sales-devil (who basically serves as a merchant because there is no other opportunity to sell/buy loot). So I'm at a loss as to who/what they could interact with on an at least not-immediately-violent context. Even better would be something that could possibly be a quest-giver, or someone who could create/upgrade loot/give other sort of power? The trouble is trying to wrap one's head around "Ineffable alien minds" and "hey here's a task I would like you to do for a tangible reward" that isn't like "collect twelve brass buttons while the Star of Archeon is in alignment with the 5th dimensional navel of Yog-Shoggoth". What could the locals want that doesn't amount snacking on the characters bodies/minds?

Maybe what they meet aren't true locals, but instead are others who have been sucked here either recently or long ago and have managed to make a go of it.

Of course, these people won't be in the megadungeon and so meeting any of them probably means going outside...see above...

 

[Lackofname]

When it comes to "motivations", an idea comes to mind of something understandable: spite. The Dungeon's existence has attracted the attention of two Aspects of...not gods, but powerful entities. Avatars of things like Eberron's Daelkyr. The Fleshweaver and the Thoughtrender, two opposing entities that sensed all this raw, untouched clay appearing in their back yard and so they are romping through, playing and making art.

Which means that some NPC might simply want to spoil the fun. Or make things interesting.

Which of course means going outside will be precisely what they do, at the very first opportunity.

Funny enough, I let them get a little look outside and their response was "NOPE".

I chalk that reaction up to my description.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Just go off the rails. Have them encounter a scholarly shark floating in the void. A little girl taking a floating fish for a walk, using a string as a leash. What about a gilibbering mouther that's late for a haircut? An intelligent, talking chair. Or sidewalk.

It's a plane of cosmos and coincidence. Go wild!

 

[Eltab]

Somebody has made a map. If you brave adventurers beat up the -scary monster- around the corner, you can take it from him.

The map might even be accurate.

 

[Li Shenron]

My first immediate idea would be to feature some NPC(s) who have been trapped on the Far Realms, and then saw the "arrival" of the dungeon as an opportunity to get back to their world, or at least out of the Far Realms, and are asking the PCs for help.

 

[Lackofname]

My first immediate idea would be to feature some NPC(s) who have been trapped on the Far Realms, and then saw the "arrival" of the dungeon as an opportunity to get back to their world, or at least out of the Far Realms, and are asking the PCs for help.

That could work. I can even see something from a different plane, summoned or trapped or anything else, that just wants out.

 

[Jd Smith1]

My first immediate idea would be to feature some NPC(s) who have been trapped on the Far Realms, and then saw the "arrival" of the dungeon as an opportunity to get back to their world, or at least out of the Far Realms, and are asking the PCs for help.

My thoughts, too. I would take it a step further and have the PCs' situation be a relatively common one; thus as a they trudge through said dungeon looking for the reset button, they can encounter groups of what they would normally consider foes who are stuck in the exact same situation.