NotD Expansion Project: You request, I attempt fluff

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Good ladies and gentlemen of the Playground, I've recently decided Nation of the Dead (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38868) is nowhere near extensive enough and I'm in need of things to fill in the gaps where my imagination can't get it's hooks in.

So here is what I propose: Anyone who so chooses can submit anything in this thread, be it official, homebrew, or simply an idea someone might have brewing in the back of their mind. I will take each submission and I will do my best to write a few paragraphs at least to describe how it fits into Nation of the Dead. This doesn't mean I'll be using every single thing that's submitted, like say if it doesn't fit the setting in the least(like say Spelljammer stuff or d20 modern). Most especially, I'm interested in expanding on monsters and I would also be scarce to deny putting fluff to a prestige class that is otherwise fluffless or in need of fluff-modification.

Also, I am inviting anyone who wants to attempt to add fluff themselves to do so as they will. There is likely to be a case or two of me disregarding my own ability to write and simply pointing in the direction of that idea, or possibly even stealing ideas from other people and tacking on, changing or leaving off certain details.

So writers, homebrewers or anyone bored enough to have a go; Submit! Write! And Enjoy!

[The Demented One]

Question: is there a canon moon for the setting?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Question: is there a canon moon for the setting?

There's a moon goddess, but this being what it is, there is potential for hand-fulls of moon-deities.

[DracoDei]

Looks like it is time for some cut-and-paste from my extended signature.

I can edit this post to paste in the entries themselves (or I might have to split it if I go over the length limit), but for now I will just give links.

Martyr Flitter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51127): A gift from the Heavens that can be used to store up positive energy to be released (by killing it) to heal the living and damage the undead.
((Balance note: May need to speed up their "metabolism" or increase the number of vials needed to get one to reproduce.))

How to get a bunch of Undead out of one corpse:
Skulking Bladders (with attached kidneys) CURRENTLY BARELY BEGUN CONSTRUCTION.
(Also have future plans for crawling livers, and slithering spinal cords. )

Zooming Brain: Fly past on barely controlled course damaging all mental abilities for a brief duration.((Probably too light-hearted in its current form for NotD).

Fat Glob: Slow, weak, but LOTS of HD, and a fatigue effect if it hits.

Rolling Eyeball (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6178899#post6178899): Scouts, spies, and roving patrols. Zero offensive capabilities unless taken from something with a gaze attack or eye-rays.

Floating Lungs: (based around the Shout spell). Feel free to suggest a better name...

Hopping Stomach (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3301315): Spits acid.

Gut Snake (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3295643&postcount=8): Undead intestines that fight with constriction, filth, and odor. Comment HERE (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26636&page=16).

Empty Skin: Macabre, but not always aggressive. Freak your characters/players out without a single die rolled... Intelligent servants for the necromancer just starting to come into his true power.

Dark Hearts: Literally pulsing with negative energy these repair the undead near them, and damage the living.

[Eldan]

I've always had a special love for Ethergaunts, in one of my settings, mostly set on the astral plane, they were kind of like Necrons in 40k: an ancient and incredibly powerful and advanced race, sleeping in ancient ruins. When they were woken up, they annihilated other races when they met them...
There was an article on them on geocities (I think) or some other site, which has been taken done, which gave them quite some culture. However, the basics are what I said above: sleeping in the ethereal, very, very advanced and hateful of other live moving into their domain. Also, more intelligent than just about every other critter in DnD.

Think you could do something with them?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Martyr Flitter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51127): A gift from the Heavens that can be used to store up positive energy to be released (by killing it) to heal the living and damage the undead.
((Balance note: May need to speed up their "metabolism" or increase the number of vials needed to get one to reproduce.))

Martyr Flitters are creatures that have dated back beyond the written word, and their origins are shrouded in mystery. It is popular among humanoid races that these creatures were granted to them by benevolent deities who saw their plight when facing ancient creatures that once threatened them, such as dragons and any fiends that would rise from their lower planes to plague the Material plane.
Dragons however, believe a different version of the same tale. It is known by few that dragons were first created by the mortal gods as protectors and trainers for strong mortal races. Dragons would rampage and the strongest humans, elves, dwarves and other humanoids would come out of it alive. Many dragons also claim to have seen these small celestials on their first days of existence. Like snow they floated down on humanoids in need, a gift of mercy and love by gods of the Moon and nature. Those who were not strong enough to fight dragons were no longer doomed to die by them, the young and the old and the soft would be able to live on, to pass on whatever boon they could.


How to get a bunch of Undead out of one corpse:
Skulking Bladders (with attached kidneys) CURRENTLY BARELY BEGUN CONSTRUCTION.
(Also have future plans for crawling livers, and slithering spinal cords. )

Zooming Brain: Fly past on barely controlled course damaging all mental abilities for a brief duration.((Probably too light-hearted in its current form for NotD).

Fat Glob: Slow, weak, but LOTS of HD, and a fatigue effect if it hits.

Rolling Eyeball (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6178899#post6178899): Scouts, spies, and roving patrols. Zero offensive capabilities unless taken from something with a gaze attack or eye-rays.

Floating Lungs: (based around the Shout spell). Feel free to suggest a better name...

Hopping Stomach (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3301315): Spits acid.

Gut Snake (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3295643&postcount=8): Undead intestines that fight with constriction, filth, and odor. Comment HERE (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26636&page=16).

Empty Skin: Macabre, but not always aggressive. Freak your characters/players out without a single die rolled... Intelligent servants for the necromancer just starting to come into his true power.

Dark Hearts: Literally pulsing with negative energy these repair the undead near them, and damage the living.

Mertion is a strange land, perhaps for being the closest to Shello, and most definitely due to it's mad alhoon ruler. Because of their unusual way of doing most everything, the most grave punishments are not confinement to a tomb for all time, but to be broken down and returned to a useful state of being.
Their components will be stripped and taken apart, becoming squirming, negative-energy filled masses of mindless flesh and then left to the devices of experienced and experimental necroscientists. The end results of these aberrant experiments were creatures made of individual organs, creatures vile and strange enough that even the other two territories of Arcnus Mortis would rarely even imagine using them. And indeed Mertion does make frequent use of them, many front-line combat against living forces will consist of these mindless menageries of disembodied organs to a sickening degree.


I've always had a special love for Ethergaunts, in one of my settings, mostly set on the astral plane, they were kind of like Necrons in 40k: an ancient and incredibly powerful and advanced race, sleeping in ancient ruins. When they were woken up, they annihilated other races when they met them...
There was an article on them on geocities (I think) or some other site, which has been taken done, which gave them quite some culture. However, the basics are what I said above: sleeping in the ethereal, very, very advanced and hateful of other live moving into their domain. Also, more intelligent than just about every other critter in DnD.

Think you could do something with them?

For now, it is widely believed by anyone who knows of the Far Realm that the creatures that originated there are scarce to visit anywhere else en mass. A single daelkyr might come to the Material plane to indulge himself with experiments, but it is hard to move without grabbing attention unless you are alone. However, it is not unheard of in the stranger corners of the multiverse for these madspawn to come about and claim a home for an entire race.
The Ethergaunts are creatures that were once creatures not unlike the daelkyr themselves, creatures of mad intellect and nigh infinite wisdom. As random chance would have it, these creatures all moved themselves from the Far Realm to places closer to mortalkind for countless and unknowable reasons. The balanced nature of the astral plane, ethereal plane and material plane all seemed to have had an effect on their protean souls and have given them more balance than creatures originally from the Far Realm might be capable of otherwise. Not all of the ancient Ethergaunts have handled the shift well, for balance is not something that is natural to creatures so alien and the shift caused countless of them to wither, die or have their essence disperse into the void.
The few dozens that now remain sit in their perfected silence, finishing or starting whatever projects they may. None can know for certain what plans they may have for themselves and the Material plane, but there are rare few who believe their goals are ideal for the living or the dead.

[The Rose Dragon]

This. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1788588&postcount=5)

And this. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1522578&postcount=9)

Naturally, feel free to ignore the pre-packaged fluff.

[DracoDei]

Not sure if this is worth mentioning, but I guess I will go ahead...
Regarding the Organ Undead:
That works well enough, except for the skins, which aren't mindless, and usually aren't very useful on the battle-field (they are ok for ambushes though).

[Mulletmanalive]

While I would love to suggest my Le Cirque Funeste (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123587&highlight=cirque) project, that isn't conventional D&D so it's pointless.

I can kind of see it cropping up as a sort of Fae antibody to the undead...

What I would love to see included would be Djinn's excellect Sybil of the Blinded Eye (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6120792&postcount=3), possibly as some kind of plague spreading through the seers of the world...

As a final thing, I'd love to see a nation included in a setting that was a wide open space without having mongul/Soiux inspired horse nomads on it. Perhaps a herd driving culture similar to the Massai [? Not sure if this is the right group] of mid Africa or a sophisticated web of inter-breeding "aboriginal" tribes?

EDIT: Are you planning to finish your variant Assimar? I REALLY liked the Tiefling varients you did, so i was hoping that you were planning to finish the celestials? I forget, are Acherons and the chaotic ones technically celestials?

[NineThePuma]

I would figure ANY outsider with the Good sub-type is a celestial... >>

Oh great Krimm! I beseech ye! What has become of Kobolds?

[The Tygre]

*worship worship

grovel grovel

sacrifice grovel

worship grovel

sacrifice worship

etc.*

Oh dark lord of homebrews! Master of kick ass stuff involving demons and the Far Realm and the Tome of Battle! Verily, could there be more coverage of the Outer Gods, such as their cults, practices, and offspring in the world? Yay, the core four would suffice; Yog Sothoth, Shub Niggurath, Azathoth, and the Thousand Masks of Nyarlathotep. The last issue of Kobold Quarterly ran an article for being a cleric of them in 4e, and lo it makes me wish my players would just man up and give the freaking system a try, but I digress... Also, how do your Entities thou hast developed fair in Nation of the Dead? Or be they there by default?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

This. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1788588&postcount=5)

And this. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1522578&postcount=9)

Naturally, feel free to ignore the pre-packaged fluff.

The Cryocerebellus, as it was deemed by ancient Arcnus scientists and magicians, is a creature of eternal mystery. In places where the territory of Undus met with openings to the Underdark beneath it, it was frigid and unrelenting so not many men who had not achieved lichdom could not venture forth into these lands without preparation or a willingness to never return. Those that had found it kept it a secret from the rest of the world, a monstrosity of such terror that knowing of it would surely drive the populace to madness.
This was the lost era of science on Arcnus, and so even though it was kept under strict secrecy it was still studied relentlessly. It's dark, unknowable consciousness a strange mystery that everyone who knew of it wanted nothing more than to access and understand. For hundreds of years it was studied to no avail, even as the ice spread over Undus and the rest of Arcnus.
A new age was coming, however. Death itself was having a revolution, science was going to see it's end at the hand of necromancy. Scientists who clung to life, to their age of science would have no part in this, but even as they struggled to survive in this revolution they studied and prodded the aberrant organ. They were so close, perhaps only months away before the legions found them... Now the Cryocerebellus lays under layers of ice somewhere in the northlands of Undus, waiting to be discovered, waiting to be understood.

----

Gluttonous plagues are a scourge last heard of before the reaping of Shello fifteen years past. When Shello was alive with wild magic, freedom and indeed plentiful savagery, these strange creatures were a doom the world was bound to suffer. Natural crops, those tended to be Shello natives and the farms nearby Brasscoil were all subject to these monstrosities.
It is not known where these creatures came from, having the anatomies of devils and demons instead of the normal lifeforms that lived on the Material Plane. It was theorized that plagues of insect-like demons had erupted from some terrible portal on Shello at an unknown point in history and begun to breed with native swarming creatures such as locusts and bees.
As mentioned, they have not been seen since the destruction of Shello, but now that the Nation of Wild Magic is flattened and dead does not mean something as wicked and terrible as them are dead as well, and in fact it is likely more hospitable for such terrible creatures.


Not sure if this is worth mentioning, but I guess I will go ahead...
Regarding the Organ Undead:
That works well enough, except for the skins, which aren't mindless, and usually aren't very useful on the battle-field (they are ok for ambushes though).

Yeah I figured, I didn't mean most of that literally or in game-terms exactly. They're as mindless as any obedient foot-soldier. Also by front-line I had front-line-guerrilla-tactics in mind.


While I would love to suggest my Le Cirque Funeste (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123587&highlight=cirque) project, that isn't conventional D&D so it's pointless.

I can kind of see it cropping up as a sort of Fae antibody to the undead...

What I would love to see included would be Djinn's excellect Sybil of the Blinded Eye (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6120792&postcount=3), possibly as some kind of plague spreading through the seers of the world...

As a final thing, I'd love to see a nation included in a setting that was a wide open space without having mongul/Soiux inspired horse nomads on it. Perhaps a herd driving culture similar to the Massai [? Not sure if this is the right group] of mid Africa or a sophisticated web of inter-breeding "aboriginal" tribes?

EDIT: Are you planning to finish your variant Assimar? I REALLY liked the Tiefling varients you did, so i was hoping that you were planning to finish the celestials? I forget, are Acherons and the chaotic ones technically celestials?

In the primordial sea of infinite and impossible madness, the origins of existence exist. In the restless slumber of where Far Realm meets ocean and sky, viscera houses infinity. The Far Realm has no static time, it is a new concept that was created when the Material Plane was, and thus being outside of time allows the Far Realm and it's great and terrible entities to see time from start to end and any point in between with little effort, and all at once.
Sybils of the Blinded Eye are scholars who have studied ancient texts, tomes and scrolls that describe the ancient workings of creatures beyond mortal madness and have seen truth. In this truth, they have seen the darkness that is the inevitable future of the Multiverse. They have seen that all they know to be true about their Multiverse is wrong, it is not the world that is encased in the Far Realm... it is simply another nucleus in the eternity of the plane of madness, another instance of random chance with the illusion of fruition. One day, chance will grow tired of such stability and all will fall back into the madness...

----

I already have a plain-faring 'nation', but it isn't precisely like that. The halflings that nomad around the plains are more like a combination of gypsies and mercenaries that never stop moving unless they need to spend a few days in a bazaar on their borders. I could expand on them a bit later, though. Possibly altering bits of their fluff.
And yes, I do plan on making the rest of the aasimar variant soon-ish. I'll probably also create my own chaotic and lawful descendant races. More to do with the inevitables and the creepy-freaky-almost-far-realms chaotic outsiders Demented and I have worked on in the past.


I would figure ANY outsider with the Good sub-type is a celestial... >>

Oh great Krimm! I beseech ye! What has become of Kobolds?

The savage nobility of the orcs and goblinoids of Tanzen has had two effects on Kobold culture as a whole. In ancient times, it has proven to oppress them in ancient times when they had been predominant in the desert. This only means that those that were not driven out were the strong, the worthy.
Kobold clans stretch from the deepest orcish settlements to nearby dwarven strongholds as far as Hammerthrone. As stretched as their geography is, their various cultures are just as variable and widespread. In the deserts they are almost as savage warriors as the orcs and goblins, kobold barbarians and scouts that scour the plains looking for food, water and treasure. On the plains, you are as likely to find a kobold warrior as you are to find a kobold bard as kobold and nomadic halfling society have meshed strangely well despite the conflicts of the past. Perhaps the most impressive kobolds are the kobolds that have claimed the mountains as their homes. In underground fortresses with towers and walls that extend outside of mountainsides, there are kobolds of stound armor and broad-headed spear. The Kobolds of Greyhorn are a bastion of strength and resistance, warriors of justice for their people and all allied peoples. In Greyhorn, you are just as likely to find a kobold rogue as you are a kobold paladin or cleric.


*worship worship

grovel grovel

sacrifice grovel

worship grovel

sacrifice worship

etc.*

Oh dark lord of homebrews! Master of kick ass stuff involving demons and the Far Realm and the Tome of Battle! Verily, could there be more coverage of the Outer Gods, such as their cults, practices, and offspring in the world? Yay, the core four would suffice; Yog Sothoth, Shub Niggurath, Azathoth, and the Thousand Masks of Nyarlathotep. The last issue of Kobold Quarterly ran an article for being a cleric of them in 4e, and lo it makes me wish my players would just man up and give the freaking system a try, but I digress... Also, how do your Entities thou hast developed fair in Nation of the Dead? Or be they there by default?

Now now, young worshiper, stand before me for we are more as equals than you think! This task will be simple.
----
The Infinite Spheres of Yog Sothoth, the planes inside planes that compose the body of the Keeper of the Gate. The creature that imprisons law in spheres of chaos, the sheer embodiment of the opposite of the sheer chaos that reigns supreme in the Far Realm and indeed in the known Multiverse.
The cults of Yog Sothoth has come to worship this entity and it's ordered chaos, it's capsule of mad law. Unlike the rest of the cults of Old Gods, the worshipers of the Gatekeeper are most likely to have a hold of mainstream society...though knowledge of their involvement with such eldritch horrors would drive them out or even kill them.
--
I'm just a little tapped out on the imagination department, I'll finish the rest tomorrow morning or afternoon. Keep the ideas coming!

[peacenlove]

I would like to suggest the Descent of Shadows (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74519) project but that would take ages to incorporate :smalltongue:

So my favorite picks from that project are Epic Shadow Magic (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4077978&postcount=56)
the Abyssym (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4077909&postcount=36)
the Shadow Necromancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4077943&postcount=43)
the Dark Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4077943&postcount=43)
and the Magical Shrines (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4077975&postcount=55)

Sorry if i make too many requests, you can write only a few lines for each and it will be ok :smallsmile:

[arguskos]

The Golden Army (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86344), my second real brew on these forums, one that I need to revamp, cause it's terrible. :smallsigh:

The Magister (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139935), a different sort of spellcaster.

The Blade Lords (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146964), a project to craft some CR 20+ critters that deserve to be there. :smallamused:

[The Demented One]

Reposting every unique undead I've ever made. I expect fluff for all of them. And cookies.

Afterborn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10255)
Brainling (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75714)
Cyst Spider (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49162)
Darkwater Bride (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75488)
Darkwater Leviathan (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26401)
Darkwomb Mother (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39607)
Dreadling (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26346)
Drummer Ghoul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4632895&postcount=3)
Fingerling Swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39606)
Grave Trooper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73001)
Hollow Cadaver (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46978)
Jiang Shi (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29735)
Lament (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4601210)
Lifeless Servitor (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49158)
Necrozeppelin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4718646)
Penumbra Stalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48164)
Redspawn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67993)

And last, but not least. Our old friend, the Wombstrangler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10647).

[The Tygre]

Reposting every unique undead I've ever made. I expect fluff for all of them. And cookies.

And last, but not least. Our old friend, the Wombstrangler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10647).

Ahh, almost didn't see that last line there. Thought you were trying to weasel your way out of the Queen there for a minute. :smallamused:

[The Demented One]

Ahh, almost didn't see that last line there. Thought you were trying to weasel your way out of the Queen there for a minute. :smallamused:
Oh no. What do you think the moon is?

[Eldan]

Atropus. Duh.

[The Tygre]

Oh no. What do you think the moon is?

A security device for the human population?

A shifting silver goddess with a penchant for ultra-fury-furries?

Gorgo, Mormo, Hekate (look favorably on our dark sacrfices!)?

All three?

[The Demented One]

A security device for the human population?

A shifting silver goddess with a penchant for ultra-fury-furries?

Gorgo, Mormo, Hekate (look favorably on our dark sacrfices!)?

All three?
I think you underestimate just how bloated the Queen of the Bloated Womb can get.

[Eldan]

Is this just a long and particularly disgusting yo mama joke?