Monster Monday -- Aboleth

Something’s Fishy

Blackbreach is a small trading post on

your way through the countryside, nothing special in your eyes. As you arrive at its gates, something strange happens; the guards ask you to hand over any fish you may be carrying, mayor's orders. An odd request, but you don't ask too many questions. You go to the local tavern for the night for rest and news, and decide to ask the bartender about the fish problem. He tells you people have been getting sick, forgetting things, wandering about with some sort of brain fog. You witness it firsthand as an elderly woman wanders to the town well, a vacant look in her eyes, as she tosses a fish in and it vanishes down the drain. You decide it's just strange enough that you need to investigate further; this time you go directly to the source. Mayor Tenpenny is a busy man, but he welcomes guests to their quaint little village. You inquire about the fish, the brain fog, the strange request, and he answers with a nervous lie: "Happens all the time, people forget, just don't eat the fish." You want more but he asks his guards to escort you out of the manor, his mood growing sour. So you ask a few strangers around town, but they seem hushed about it, dodgy even. Until you meet Lan, the town blacksmith. He tells you folk have been a bit odd ever since the collapse down in the sewers, requesting weapons, confiscating the fish. It's the only evidence you need to get your hands dirty. You enter the old access on the edge of town, lock broken on the iron grating. It doesn't take long trudging through the dank darkness of the sewers before you spot it: the collapse in the hall. Beyond the collapse, the corridor opens into a massive cavern featuring an underground lagoon, its waters black and still as a winter's night. You smell it long before you see it, the stench of a thousand rotting things. There before you a heap of dead fish, eyes removed from their sockets. You approach the edge of the black waters and notice the slightest stir, and then you hear it. A voice in the back of your mind, "I know why you've come... I know what it is you seek." At first the voice startles you but there's something almost familiar about it. You reach out and answer, who... how? It replies again, "Wendel, you've come far, but this was not your goal. Orphaned, looking for your parents, for answers... Yes, I see it now." How did it know, what is this thing? But before you can ask, you see something, stirring below the black waters, a great red eye opens in the deep. Then, above it, a second eye, then a third. The outline of the darkened spot in the water, amorphous, growing larger, wriggling with long slithering appendages. "Too late."

Creature of the Black Lagoon

Aboleths are otherworldly aberrations ripped straight

out of a Lovecraft novel. One of the best things you can use them for is building creepy, confusing scenes like the one above. Using an aboleth is a chance to add some far-realm flavor to any campaign, but what is their purpose in your world? Angry ancient being, spitefully enslaving servants of the gods? Prophet of some ancient beast, preparing the way for the destruction of humanity? Pious intelligent lifeforms bent on being worshiped, manipulating powerful figures from the shadows? There are innumerable ways this clever mind-slaver can be useful in your campaign. Perhaps the BBEG that has been stringing your players along has merely been enslaved by the aboleth; after all, it's not a lie if he believes it. If they happen to encounter the aboleth early on, it's a good way to dig into the backstories of your characters. Just speaking to the aboleth in its telepathic voice reveals the greatest desires of that creature. The aboleth is not beyond making empty promises to distract or lure the hapless adventurers into a deadly trap. Not to mention, the sheer information the aboleth will have on them may make them just curious enough to fall for it...

Leviathans of the Lake

It's important to consider the lair when inserting an aboleth into your game. 

They are intelligent creatures and will likely use their minions to do their bidding beyond their watery beds. Familiarize yourself with their lair abilities. Build a setting that's appropriate for an ancient domineering mastermind. An aboleth's lair should be well hidden, filled with plenty of water sources, not easily discovered, or escaped from. Don't be afraid to hint at the otherworldly feel of the lair, offering several context clues to the threat lurking in the deep.

Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.

Written by:
Jordan Cribbs