Leviathans of Chaos #1

The first impression to give is that of immensity. The eyes - globes, suns, galaxies wide. Monolithic pales in comparison. Existences tremble at the mammoth synapse-equivalents of the thing. When a single one fires, entire histories are blasted, engulfed in the light. The intelligence powered by such machinery is utterly incalculable, but worse - it cares very deeply about a speck like you.

Indifference doesn't occur when there is such a limitless capacity for hate. You aren't special - it hates everything. Everything that thinks. Everything mindless. Everything still, moving, timeless, temporary, living dead. These very words.

EVERYTHING.

Tendrils. Tentacles. These are important. A tiny, infinitesimal crack letting in some probing member. Stretched thin, disconnected from the whole, and absolutely devastating. The deepest necropolises and caverns wherein reality breaks down and warps, these are the places it will intrude. The dull eldritch-purple tendril, flailing with mindless hate infusing every space, real or potential, filled by this isolated fragment of the Leviathan of the Sea of Chaos.

HD 6

AC AS CHAIN

3 ATTACKS - GRASP - Save Vs Paralysis, or roll below.

d8	The Hate You Take
1	Life. Embrace death as you ascend to ArchLichdom, fully imbued with the Mastery of Death.
2	Light. A great Extinguisher is born, ender of all Illumination.
3	Time. Explode into chunks to reveal a nascent Chronovore.
4	Sound. The Silencer blooms, a deafening flower of absence.
5	Thought. NULL. NULL. NULL. NULL. NULL. NULL.
6	Change. Calcificator, ending progress, perfection in marble.
7	Stillness. Anarch Chang Growt Deca Aliv Dea
8	Reality. A mortal light is snuffed out, a demon forms itself from the stuff of chaos afloat in the sea.

(all results above replace the character with the listings below)

Hateful ArchLich

A terrible skeletal mockery of the one before.

HD as Character

AC as Character

MOV as Character

ATTACKS as Character PLUS DEATH TOUCH - Target Saves Vs Magic or is released from the curse of life, and is now a wraith under your direct control.

SPECIAL - Healing magic does not function within 1 mile of the Hateful ArchLich.

[Seeks to remove all life]

Extinguisher

Cannot be seen due to pitch blackness. Feels like the previous individual.

HD 8

AC AS LEATHER

MOV AS MAN

1 ATTACK - LIGHTLESS TOUCH - 1D10 INT DAMAGE (Permanent until destroyed.)

SPECIAL - No light may be cast within 4 miles of the Extinguisher.

[Seeks to Extinguish the Sun. Will withhold attacking those that can help it.]

Chronovore

Something like a yellow-pink alien boar-dog. Hard to be precise, as it blurs and warps as time is shredded on it's tusks.

HD 5

AC AS UNARMOURED + PREVIOUS DAMAGE ROLL.

MOV AS HOUND

1 ATTACK - EATER OF HISTORY - EATS d100 x 100 XP.

[Seeks only to consume history]

Silencer

A 5ft ethereal flower, floating free yet not moving. Wisps of ghostly smoke occasionally drift upwards.

HD 3

AC IMMOBILE

NO ATTACK

SPECIAL - No sound is emitted within 3 miles.

[Only seeks to grow amidst it's silent garden. Spawns seeds for every year without disturbance.]

NULL.

Eyes go slack, empty, empty, empty, empty, empty, empty.

HD 10

AC AS UNARMOURED

MOV AS MAN

1 ATTACK - NULLMIND SHARED - 1D20 DAMAGE

[NULL.NULL.NULL.NULL.NULL.NULL.NULL.]

Calcificator

A perfect yet mobile statue. It hates itself, but cannot rest until it the Work is complete.

HD 100D1

AC AS PLATE

MOV AS WALKING MAN

1 ATTACK - CALCIFY - 8 DEX DAMAGE FROM TRANSMOGRIFICATION TO STONE.

[It seeks to remove all movement from the world. A perfect statuary.]

?

Nothing but a terrifying blur flinging itself around impossibly.

HD 1D100 - 1D100

AC CANNOT BE HIT (it has already moved)

MOV ENTIRELY RANDOMLY

1 ATTACK - 1d100-1d100 DAMAGE

[]

Commune Pit

The dungeon architecture shifts as you come around the corner. The old material is replaced with organically twisted stone like sinews, taut, wet, straining. The air becomes clammy as you walk down the corridor, although no moisture gathers on the walls nor floor. There is a slight suction to the movement of air, pulling you towards it. A circular room, perhaps 30 foot across, dominated by the huge pit below. The blackness within is impenetrable, like a sea of ink or oil.

It grows in places abandoned. Places forgotten. It is here those Outside will attempt commune, will attempt to worm some tendril through the gaps. Gaze too long into the abyss, and the abyss will whisper horrible secrets to you.

d8	Whispers, Impressions and False Memories
1	The Unhive of the Spirit Insects. The crowd, buzz, fly, skitter across your brain. Always. Sleep is impossible. Sometimes you feel your wings, lurking just below the surface. Other days, your chitin yearns to be free. You learn to analyse, but cool as a person. +1 Int, -2 Cha. One day you will emerge.
2	Magnitude of Grind. The millstone of ages, empires, worlds, suns. You can hear the grinding, and it grows louder. Sift through the dust which leaks into your head, and find inspiration, knowledge, history rendered to particles. 1 in 10 chance to know about something you couldn't otherwise. 1 in 6 if it’s extra-planar and old.
3	Resting Many. A single synapse-equivalent of one of those great slumbering leviathans of the sea of chaos is fired by your gaze, and you are blasted. Save-vs-Death. Survivors gain 2d6 random level spells, burnt into the brain. These spells must be prepared, and eat other spells when they are cast, expending the charge of another. The spells eat other parts of the brain too.
4	Hungry Sensate. Starved, wild, screaming, hedonist, it eats a sense of yours, randomly determined. Another is massively increased, although it now utilizes alien organs and biology. 10% chance these new organs are not visible. At night your body rebels, and at dawn the alien organs win victory once more. Each time you feel the taint spread.
5	( ). Time not space. Know this, but sideways, backwards, wrong. Always seeing ‘now’ (how laughable) and ‘then’ (equally) of six seconds before. Simultaneous, mixed images. Focusing on one (lying to yourself) helped with drugs, drink or meditation. -3 to activities relying on a solid grasp of ‘now’.
6	Cosmic Computation. The neural network of stars. Ponderous, ancient, slow, unimaginable in the complexity and knowledge. All is insignificant to these cosmic engines burning in calculation of The Great Question. Filled with the desire to find scraps of the answer in the little things, the things they cannot comprehend. Always hungry for it now.

Bound to a Higher Power

A wizard's power is often not entirely his. Legends are rife with mages bargaining and sacrificing to gather power from things not human. Often these bargains leave their mark, unique to the entreated thing. It is known that such spirits hate familiars not of their choosing, and that this feeling flows both ways. A magic-user balancing between two such bargains is walking a perilous path indeed.

To begin bargaining, one must first find the ritual to call the entity. Such things are hidden, and given up only grudgingly. It is worth noticing that such rituals only call - they do not bind. Such entities cannot easily be bound, and one powerful enough to do so has no need to bargain with them.

Once found, the ritual must be performed, and then the bargaining begins. Not everything these things want will make sense, but one can be assured of their malignant purpose. Once completed, the cast will be marked (table 1) and the entity departs, granting the user benefits to their power. (table 2)

Once an initial pact is made, those who serve their masters well may ask for additional favours. These may be at reduced cost, but will never contradict the entities wishes.

Bonds with weaker entities are possible, and are generally done in a more equal manner, although the gifts are far weaker. Most often, the exchange is that of magical power (slots, buffer points) in return for favours to be cashed in when the entity sees fit. These requests can be ignored, though this spoils the relationship with the entity who may decide to collect more forcefully. If the debt is great enough, additional entities may attempt to collect a soul-bounty.

Marks - Roll for mark and location.

d20	Mark	Location
1	Necrosis.	Forehead.
2	Single, large eye. (50% chance of being dead.)	Eyelid.
3	Cluster of smaller eyes. (Same chance as above.)	Neck.
4	Thick, ugly, matted fur. It stinks.	Mouth.
5	Area becomes bone, and obviously so.	Ear.
6	Pale, unhealthy light radiates from the area.	Right arm.
7	Permanent wound. (30% chance infected, 30% chance burn (not exclusive))	Left arm.
8	Blasphemous tattoo. (50% chance living ink, shifts to various hideous scenes)	Shoulder.
9	Needle-thin quills. (10% chance poisonous)	Back.
10	Minute feathers.	Chest.
11	Gaping mouth. (5% chance speech-capable. 15% chance requires feeding.)	Stomach.
12	Spike. (40% chance bone, 30% chance metal, 10% chance stone, 20% more exotic material)	Back of the hand.
13	Sigil in scar-tissue.	Palm.
14	Visible tumours.	Right leg.
15	Finger-width portal into nothingness.	Left leg.
16	Skin becomes fabric. The pattern shifts.	Right foot.
17	Insect limbs protrude, wriggling madly.	Left foot.
18	A single tentacle sprouts.	Groin.
19	The area is removed. If it is deemed essential, a replacement is offered. This replacement will be inhuman.	Inside the eye itself.
20	No visible mark.	Tongue.

Table 2 - Roll however many times seem appropriate given the bargain.

d10	Gift
1	Additional spell slots / buffer points.
2	Knowledge of spells appropriate to the entity.
3	Knowledge regarding a topic appropriate to the entity.
4	The use of a servitor bound to the entity.
5	The loyalty of lesser servants, on the condition you give the same to greater servants than yourself.
6	A specific item in the entities power to create or possess.
7	The ability to channel the entities power entirely once a month.
8	Counsel on one question a week.
9	Freedom from human frailties (i.e. no ageing, disease, hunger, thirst etc.)
0	A position of promise in the entities court. The invoker is taken to its realm permanently if they cannot offer something more.

Breaker of Prophecy

***TUESD&D GO AWAY***

To break prophecy is more than rejecting fate - it twists and warps reality, defying what was meant to be. Only that which does not value reality at all - a thing from that sea of chaos - could willingly embrace this knowing the full repercussion of this. And so it comes to our world, living in the deepest pit surrounded by it's imitators and hangers on. Nameless, it tempts mortals determined to defy what has been made for them by the weavers of reality. This unraveller of tapestries takes the form of a white worm the size of cities, writhing atop a sea of smaller reflections of itself.

It sends out servants to bring the desperate to subterranean lair (for the lower one is, the further they are from the reality enforcing sun) Once brought here, they are infected with shards of it's maleficent essence. This corruption allows them to hide in the corners of fate, avoiding the hand dealt to them, but also binds them to it's will. They will become swollen like a women heavy with child, and often need to vomit - but only worms will escape their gullet. These worms will infest and kill the populace, taint the land and sow the seeds of chaos.

d8	Reality twists and buckles…
1	Compress to a flat circle of space/time observable.
2	Kill the you of now to become the you of new-now. See all previous struggles of such.
3	The watchers press close – faces on surfaces on air grinning watching impossible.
4	All is an empty point of reference and now you see the connections – the real.
5	Engulfed by matter, time waits while you drown.
6	Stretch out on all possible planes to fill nothing before sharp contraction to everything.
7	The literal molars of reality grind you to paste and you cannot help but scream thanks to the astral dentistry.
8	Each organ votes on continued existence on this plane given the ability to ascend. They hate you, and so you stay. Every second.

Tearing of the Infesting Spirit

Infesting spirits are insidious, and rot their hosts like the foulest of plagues until the rotten core finally gives out. Only the foulest of warlocks would beckon such a thing from beyond, and even other spirits shun them for their abnormal interest in our world, and especially in us. They never manifest physically by choice, only when coaxed out using a purification ritual.

d6	What is required to purify the host?
1	The host must be drowned in sea water and then resuscitated. The spirit will slip out as a loathsome mockery of aquatic life, writhing tentacle and mad eyes. It should be killed by crushing before it slips out into the ocean, infesting the sea-life. It will promise great power if eaten, but this is a ploy to find a new host. Black cults are known to be led by individuals claiming to have made this bargain. Sailors speak of the evil whales said to carry the spirits and destroy ships for the sheer joy of it.
2	The host is to be smoked like a preserved meat. They will sweat, moan and cough until the spirit slips out as a violent orange liquid from any pore or orifice. This fluid must be contained in an airtight glass container. This spirit, if stored, will never again infect a host. It will be as an obedient dog if broken and trained, or so the heretics whisper.
3	The host should be hung as a criminal with a noose of thorned plants. If performed correctly, seconds before death a crow will claw its way savagely out of the dying victim. If allowed to escape it will seek a new host, so it is prudent to have a master-archer on hand. Witches are said to favour these terrible escapees as familiars.
4	The host should be kept in a stone tomb for 3 days without water nor food nor light nor company. At the end of this 3 days a terrible thing will stalk the tomb wearing the corpse of the host. It is physically shackled to this form, and destroying the monster destroys the spirit. It will use the tomb as a hunting ground, learning every possible ambush point. The sooner the physical shell is destroyed, the easier the task will be.
5	A child no older than 8 is to be made pleasing to the spirit using the foul symbols the spirits have taught the black-hearted summoners. The child should be kept in a glass cage will which intercept the spirit as it leaps from its current host to the child – if the cage is constructed correctly. If performed without this protection, the child will mature quickly (3 weeks) into a full adult with knowledge far beyond its years and a malign purpose. These possessed children are said to spell great calamity.
6	The host is to be restrained, and a blank book left before them. They should then be interrogated as to their nature, and the spirit they carry. After a relentless day of this question the spirit will leap for freedom. If correctly prepared, the blank book will contain the creature, and display its alien and terrible knowledge in a twisting and cruel script. These books are burnt, regardless of the baseless rumours of a library of such evil works being stored beneath the Inquisition Keep.

Essential Elementals

Fire Elementals destroy, dance, feed and fuck with a fierce passion for life and change within the span of about five seconds. If spoken to, they howl joyously about the extremes of sensation and the beauty of destruction even as they die before your eyes. There is no consideration of meaning or consequence - to enjoy sensation is enough. The act of doing something is enough of a reason for a Fire Elemental. They do not have names.

Wind Elementals see many sights and freely exchange information, although most are world-weary. It is not often a new wind is made, meaning the Wind Elementals are an ageing population. They speak highly of speed and impression, and feel the inherent failure of solid matter in everything. They do not rejoice in the ending of matter as Fire Elementals do, but simply accept it as another fact. They bear titles which serve like the titles of books - giving an idea of the knowledge the individual holds.

Water Elementals are communally minded, believing strongly in the greater good. Most prefer to remain in their homes, although the rebellious Rain Spirits insist on roaming to and fro, but lack in-depth knowledge on any great matter. The more conservative Ocean Spirits are dour, but hold the deepest knowledge of their kind, although their fury is nigh unstoppable. River Spirits are always up to date on the latest rumours, though any such information changes in the telling. Water Elementals are known by the name of their social grouping, whether this is Rain Spirit tribes of Ocean Spirit collectives.

Earth Elementals are timeless, numerous and relatively static. They shift over time, although their ire, once roused, is sudden and devastating. They struggle innately to learn things they did not know upon their creation, leading to a great deal of stagnation in Earth Elemental thought. Though considered slow and stupid, they are blissfully happy with their place in everything. They are known to sing to the mineral formations, causing wonderous resonances to echo throughout their chambers. Each bears and individual name with pride.

The Plane of Towers

***TUESD&D PLAYERS GO AWAY***

[music to read by]

The Plane of Towers is bleak and desolate. The titular towers burst from the landscape at skewed angles, all of them decaying. Anything could live in these towers, but a known inhabitant is the Realm Spider. For the price of an important memory, they can weave portals to allow return to your home plane. Information can be bought from them.

Each tower has d12 levels. Some of these may be below ground. The entrance will be on a random floor. Floors are not constrained by the size of the structure – they are as large as they need to be.

D30	Room
1	Realm Spider Lair – 80% chance of being present. 15% chance of other customers being present.
2	Larder – Randomly determine what the stored food is for. It should always appear appetizing until eaten.
3	Trap Museum – Everything in this room is trapped. A celebration to ingenuity and security conscious buildings.
4	Oracle – 30% chance of being ransacked. If not, the Oracle will give prophesy. The prophesy is locked in once spoken, this is the price to be paid.
5	Prison Cells – 1d8 cells, each with a 30% chance of occupants. These occupants are likely alternate party members.
6	Execution Chamber – Filled with the tools of messy, painful and slow death. 30% of being recently used.
7	Botanical Garden – All manner of strange herb and vegetable. 20% chance of sentient or carnivorous plants.
8	Exotic Zoo – Gilded cages contained a myriad of creatures fair and foul. Cages are nearly indestructible from the inside, but as delicate as the web of a spider from outside.
9	Sustenance Garden – The most meagre crops grown in poor earth. The crop is unnaturally bountiful, though only a trained eye would notice it.
10	Pool of Ooze – A stone bowl contains all manner of oozes, slimes and the like. The breed and grow, with the occasional individual slipping out of the edge before fleeing. Pushing over the bowl releases 100x d10 slimes, who object to such treatment.
11	Neutral Meeting Space – Two dimensional entities at war are conversing in this neutral ground. The party are viewed as either intruders or negotiators.
12	Observatory – Alien stars and the beasts that swim the void can be spied from the machinery here. The void beasts can see you too.
13	Apothecary – Dubious cures and tinctures for the discerning adventurer.
14	Splitter – This room allows the various alternate ghosts of the party to interact. 1d4 copies of the party flicker into reality in this room. Each will be one step further removed from the original than the last.
15	Room of Heads – A huge hall containing the heads of various species in jars. These jars contain preservative. The heads are very much alive and aware of their plight. Many are screaming.
16	Mechanical Animal Room – Clockwork animals stalk around this room. They are ignorant of organic life, and will only harm you by accident – they literally cannot see you.
17	Fire Chamber – A huge pillar of flame erupts from the centre of the room to the ceiling. It speaks, although it is quite mad from its extended lifespan – fire is meant to die and be replaced by its children every 7 seconds or so.
18	Meditation Chamber – This simple chamber is very calming, and helps those who take a moment within to focus their minds.
19	Dojo/Practice Room – A huge variety of arms and armour line the walls of this chamber dedicated to martial glory.  Weapons removed from the room are revealed to be practice dummies.
20	Feasting Hall – The food looks great. It is all putrid. The host of the feast appears to be laughing endlessly – he is crying.
21	Throne Room – A simple, unadorned stone throne rests in this cavernous chamber. One who sits on the throne sees their court before them, and will be reluctant to leave it behind.
22	Tomb – A single great sarcophagus rests in this highly ornamented burial chamber.
23	Skin Flier Aviary – A huge collection of the native Skin Fliers rest here. They are passive if not disturbed.
24	Library – A collection in a language foreign to conventional planes on a subject even more alien.
25	Adventuring Assets Store – The travelling magic store finds itself here. The storekeeper is most distraught that more than one of the party has entered.
26	Architects Workshop – Plans of various towers are scattered about, but the notes on contents are indecipherable – written both in a strange language and then encoded.
27	Theatre Room – Masks, costumes and great reams of screenplay are scattered about this room. There is a stage.
28	Personal Study – This cosy room has a leather upholstered chair of human proportions, a roaring fire and many detailed, eloquent works on the choice subject of cannibalism.
29	Brewery – A huge number of beverages are on the brew in this room. The yeast is psychic yeast, and screams for help even as they continue to hasten their own demise.
30	Statuary – Many statues line the walls. Some of them are smashed into pieces. There are corpses in this room.

Describing the Plane of Towers

Twisted ugly landscape grins

with rotten cracked tower

teeth scraping sky painted

in bruise and disease. To

glimpse it once more would

damn me thrice over, yet -

that plane haunts every

moment thinking or idle

tainting a reality more

wholesome with it's

foulsome canker.

The Towers

Nothing lives

within those

towers and no

hand built them.

Nothing changes

or ever has

yet the towers

are twisted

old and bent.

Crooked fingers

claw at the

sky, rotten

tooth in bleak

jaw resting

uneasy - pained.

Skin Fliers

They ride on

stretched skin

taught twixt

talon tipped

fingers too

human for

such horrors.

In that land

they can be

seen yet not

heard - the

cry of the

chosen echoes

from those

ugly towers.