If you are one of the players in my game turn back now or forever succumb to madness
Hey guys, one of the entities in my campaign that acts as an adversarial force through cults and attempted awakenings/summonings is a creature similar to Azathoth in the Lovecraft mythos. I have a hierarchy of cult members (called the Awakened) who have a general plan that the players have already begun to foil since session 1 to summon or bring their Old God into the material plane of existence. I'm not using a 1:1 of Azathoth but something similar. It's intangible, can't just be hit with some swords and spells to be defeated, and is somewhat of a nihilistic force that the cultists see as an eventuality (kind of like the heat death of the universe) and they're just here to awaken him and get this over with.
So I have a couple of problems when dealing with Azathoth (not its final name but we'll just use it for simplicity here):
1. There really can't be any physical encounter with it at the end game... It's not like they can just port to the far plane and attack it to stop it or even attack it whenever it begins to emerge into the material plane ala Tiamat dramatic entrance. Giving it a stat block would almost feel...idk, wrong? Like its stats are genuinely just 9999 repeating and that's it I would imagine.
2. If I were to have an encounter with it, I could say that it has some kind of an avatar that enters the world. But that would ideally be a level 20 campaign and I can't find any stat blocks that work for me. Some are ridiculous, others are really underpowered for what I think this should be.
3. If there is some kind of ritual to bring Azathoth into this reality, would it be something adjacent like Tiamat? At least the Tyranny of Dragons gives some kind of hope if there is defeat at the end of the encounter and the age of Dragons comes to fruition. Like SOME survivors would, over time and through great difficulty, be able to rise up and challenge Tiamat. If Azathoth is summoned, that's it. It's GG go next roll up for the next campaign. I can't imagine any kind of fail safe that could be put into place. Maybe some kind of artifact? A god that is able to hold back Azathoth...somehow?
These are my thoughts on the matter. I can have the party stab and kick cultists all the live long day, but once big daddy enters the chat, it's kind of over. What do you guys think about this and what would you do to handle it?
Well... you could just get the players to stop the ritual! Problem solved!
Oh, and for the fail safe thing, just make it so that he keeps human pets or something. Maybe he betrays the cultists and locks them in a sanctuary, and you were one of them? Although, to be clear, if this... abomination is SO strong, then how is he locked up?
The way I've imagined it is that he is in the Far Plane and he just simply...is. He's always been. And throughout existence he has tried and tried again to enter the material plane to consume it.
Just like any evil god like being or creature that gets summoned, he doesn't keep his promise of power to the cultists and they're consumed just like Tiamat does to the Red Wizards. But to make it not so punishing, I just need to find some kind of a way for the players (and to be fair, if he's summoned they're all going to die...but if there IS some kind of chance of escape, I'd give it) to narratively have a reason to roll up new characters to fight again without the world being completely consumed.
Another option would be to nerf this being to the point of tangibility, but idk if that would diminish its presence in the campaign.
Maybe try to make it so that he requires an artifact hidden away in the world in order for him to regain his true strength, because that's where their power is trapped, and our characters must retrieve the artifact and destroy it! PLUS, I think this fixes your "too strong" issue.
Omg, I'm a genius. You should change your whole campaign so the point is to destroy the artifact.
(maybe as mbeg(minor bad evil guy) it's your old characters who got mind controlled)
Bonus points if the artifact is sentient and evil too!
Normally I feel like Great Old Ones are just intangible, unfightable and just too powerful for campaign but since this is DnD we're talking about, I want to give them some kind of a fighting chance with a reasonable stat block for level 20 once they get there. An artifact sounds like something that could work that could give them some kind of a fighting chance.
So, I did something in the same vein for a campaign I recently finished. Maybe it'll help.
My players were up against a cult trying to summon five elder evil titans (the Hulks of Zoretha from 2e). I hyped up the titans as these planet-destroying forces that were ruinous in concert - so ruinous that the gods themselves had to team up to chain them last time they were loose. My players (wisely) decided to break into their prison demiplanes to assassinate them before they could be pulled into the Prime Material one by one to wreak havoc. After the first one, though, the baddies got desperate and accelerated their plans. So the final battle was the party (level 11) against the upper echelons of the cult who were in the middle of summoning the four remaining titans.
Considering the titans' power, things would have been bad if the party didn't stop the ritual. A completed summoning would essentially ravage the planet and turn the campaign into a post-apocalypse struggle for survival and maybe some journeys involving time travel to fix things, or perhaps a power-up arc in the divine realms to prep for round 2. It also meant that the stats for the actual titans had to be practically god-level.
I didn't want a straight combat with (admittedly OP) level 11s versus four minor gods, so I instead had the combat be twofold: 1) destroy the braziers connected to each of the four titans to stop them from being pulled into the plane, and 2) kill the BBEG mage powering the spell. I had a few mooks to slow the party down, a couple of cult lieutenants to protect the BBEG mage, and then I added some lair effects of the titans that were bleeding through the tear in the veil. I gave the party 10 rounds before an aspect of the first titan was pulled through the veil and they'd have to fight it, which they managed to avoid by destroying the braziers in the nick of time. The first titan had psychic abilities, so my fight's lair effects were extremely mind-screwy and hauntingly personal. Finally, the braziers were magically reinforced with a substance I'd introduced early in my campaign that boosted power at the cost of HP. Was a nice callback that allowed the players to double their damage, but at risk to themselves.
TL;DR - I went for thematic and anticipatory rather than Big Daddy's Here. There was always a chance Big Daddy would arrive, and I planned to make it a legendary pivot to rewrite reality or seek power directly from the gods in case they failed.
It sounds like narratively the cultists summoning the Titans could have been as the villains. Like sure, the Titans emerging is the endgame and really bad and would wipe out existence, but narratively there isn't much of a tie to them to the characters other than GG. Maybe the cultists could have been connected to the party some how and that's where the raw narrative draw comes from. Like they were the true narrative final boss or so.
Hope that makes sense! I think your story gives me some ideas to work with
Maybe try to make it so that he requires an artifact hidden away in the world in order for him to regain his true strength, because that's where their power is trapped, and our characters must retrieve the artifact and destroy it! PLUS, I think this fixes your "too strong" issue.
I like the idea of having the party find and destroy the artifact to prevent your Great Old One from destorying their world. As Dragonlouis said, you could have the artifact being a storage vessel for part of your GOO's power. Or this artifact could be a necessary anchor that allows the GOO to keep itself within the known reality versus being shunted back to the Far Realm (i.e., our reality is so alien to this GOO that it needs an anchor to help keep it from being repelled back to the far realm).
In fact, the anchor idea might be why it tends to be in the Far Realm. As it break free into the Prime Material worlds, the GOO consumes everything until nothing remains. The anchor (i.e., artifact) that it uses in each reality is the very last thing it consumes before going back to the Far Realm...and waiting to repeat the process in a new reality.
The way I've imagined it is that he is in the Far Plane and he just simply...is. He's always been. And throughout existence he has tried and tried again to enter the material plane to consume it.
And even if the GOO makes it into a material plane, you don't have to make the destruction of everything immediate. Sure, the GOO is going to consume things and speed entropy along to its final state... However, perhaps the process becomes years versus eons. Theme of the campaign could become more apocalyptic in nature as their world breaks down to dust. Or maybe it becomes more of a Spelljammer campaign as the PCs need to flee the planet and find additional support to send the GOO back to the Far Realm before the entire Prime Material sphere is obliterated.
I like the idea of having the party find and destroy the artifact to prevent your Great Old One from destorying their world. As Dragonlouis said, you could have the artifact being a storage vessel for part of your GOO's power. Or this artifact could be a necessary anchor that allows the GOO to keep itself within the known reality versus being shunted back to the Far Realm (i.e., our reality is so alien to this GOO that it needs an anchor to help keep it from being repelled back to the far realm).
In fact, the anchor idea might be why it tends to be in the Far Realm. As it break free into the Prime Material worlds, the GOO consumes everything until nothing remains. The anchor (i.e., artifact) that it uses in each reality is the very last thing it consumes before going back to the Far Realm...and waiting to repeat the process in a new reality.
I really like this idea. I'd imagine it would go something like this. We are 3 dimensional beings, Azathoth would be 4 dimensional. It would be incredibly jarring for us to comprehend it and it to comprehend us. This is why it uses the artifact to anchor it in our reality.
I mean, what would happen if 3 dimensions collided with 4 dimensions? I really like where this is going. Thanks for the input :)
I think that Great Old Ones do whatever they want and neither cultists not players can do anything about it. So, while the cultists may believe in some rituals or artefacts that would allow them to summon GOO and possibly control it, in reality it would not happen. They might summon something but it will be something else. Or not and players discover that 500 years ago someone mistranslated some rune and the ritual works differently than they (and the cultists) thought.
The Great Old One is the embodiment of Entropy. It has been the most relentless force in the multiverse since a billion-trillionth of a nanosecond after the creation of the multiverse. It is patient, it is inevitable, and it will win. The only question is - how long will it take? Even while it has been locked away in the Far Realm, its effects have been continually felt in this and every other world spinning since these worlds began. Its movement from the Far Realm to the material plane would be the equivalent to a tear in the fabric of spacetime - a Black Hole.
We have black holes in our world. There's a massive one in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. We have been revolving around that black hole for four and a half billion years. And yet - we're still here. The most powerful destructive force in the universe - the insatiable appetite of physics - the inevitable destroyer of both space and time literally fuels our galaxy! The Great Old One will win. Entropy always wins. That is as fundamental a law as physics has ever defined.
So it's all a matter of perspective. Your characters may only live another few decades, or maybe another few centuries if they're elves or dwarves. (And their inevitable deaths will not only feed Entropy, they will prove it right.) But Entropy works on such incomprehensibly long timelines that the players don't need to defeat it. They only need to maintain the status quo. If Entropy shows up in Times Square tomorrow, it's game over. But if Entropy shows up a few lightyears away, well, we've got time.
So how does this fit into the game mechanics?
For starters, the players could do direct battle with the cultists to prevent them from completing their rituals. That's the simplest and most straightforward option.
Or... if you're interested in a bit of a homebrew star trek meets spelljammer 2001 a space odyssey disco ball mind trip - you could have the party interrupt the cult just as the ritual was nearing completion, but instead of bringing Entropy into this world, the party and the cultists get transported to the Far Realm where they have to defeat Entropy on its home turf. Now obviously they're not going to defeat Entropy with a +1 longsword and a few Fireballs. This would basically be like that scene where Dr Strange meets Dormammu. "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" So now it becomes a battle of wits, where the party have to find some way to appease Entropy so it won't enter the material plane. Maybe they play the Three Billy Goats Gruff with Entropy and convince it that there's an even bigger multiverse next door that has even more galaxies to consume and the party just has to find a way to Gate it there. Or maybe the party tries to convince Entropy that our world isn't quite done cooking yet, and if Entropy eats it now it'll get sick. So if you could just wait another few million years or so (which is basically a blink of an eye for Entropy) then the material plane will be nice and ripe and perfectly cooked and much much more delicious than it is now.
And sure, whatever deal they strike with Entropy will involve the players coming back to the material plane to find a way to fulfill their end of the bargain. But at least they've bought themselves - and the multiverse - some time. It's all relative. Delaying Entropy for a few million years is a total victory for the players. But to Entropy, that's a blink of an eye.
Seems like you just need ot reskin the Nightwalker for an encounter with an avatar of this GOO, Nightwalkers are refered to s "beings of Anti Life" and although they are undead you just need to switch that to aberration and have some other cosmetic changes to appearance and you have your walking avatar that has a life draining effect on everything around it, their main abilities are called Annihilating Aura and LIfe Eater so thematically on point.
EDIT: For an arifact related ot said BBEG, a Sphere of Annihilation seems pretty on point too, could give the party a good little puzzle; How do you not only move the sphere but also destroy the Sphere?
Or... if you're interested in a bit of a homebrew star trek meets spelljammer 2001 a space odyssey disco ball mind trip - you could have the party interrupt the cult just as the ritual was nearing completion, but instead of bringing Entropy into this world, the party and the cultists get transported to the Far Realm where they have to defeat Entropy on its home turf. Now obviously they're not going to defeat Entropy with a +1 longsword and a few Fireballs. This would basically be like that scene where Dr Strange meets Dormammu. "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" So now it becomes a battle of wits, where the party have to find some way to appease Entropy so it won't enter the material plane. Maybe they play the Three Billy Goats Gruff with Entropy and convince it that there's an even bigger multiverse next door that has even more galaxies to consume and the party just has to find a way to Gate it there. Or maybe the party tries to convince Entropy that our world isn't quite done cooking yet, and if Entropy eats it now it'll get sick. So if you could just wait another few million years or so (which is basically a blink of an eye for Entropy) then the material plane will be nice and ripe and perfectly cooked and much much more delicious than it is now.
And sure, whatever deal they strike with Entropy will involve the players coming back to the material plane to find a way to fulfill their end of the bargain. But at least they've bought themselves - and the multiverse - some time. It's all relative. Delaying Entropy for a few million years is a total victory for the players. But to Entropy, that's a blink of an eye.
That's time for you. It's all relative.
I love this idea. Huge marvel fan too, so when you said Dormammu I completely got it.
In fact, some of the inspiration of this entity came from the idea of Galactus. As much as I favor Galactus, something like Azathoth would destroy him in moments. Which makes me wonder, should I go for something more tangible like Galactus though old god flavored or keep it as Azathoth?
My other idea that I had was that, if they do end up going to the far plane, there could be a scenario where the characters are immensely buffed by the remaining gods. For example, I was planning on ignoring effects of the far plane and just use their normal stat blocks but flavor it as such that they can interact and walk for a limited time in the far plane because of this buff. Then, they could potentially fight some kind of an avatar of Azathoth that serves as a final boss. The only way they're even able to touch it is because of the powers lended by the gods. If they defeat this avatar, they buy themselves time, that is all.
The idea I envisioned is akin to most Final Fantasy bosses where you go into a realm or plane outside of the normal material one, fight an avatar of god (kind of like Necron from FF9) or some higher power, and repel it. I feel like the only way to make things tangible and give entropy itself some kind of stat block is to give the players "god powers" just to even things out. What do you guys think?
Seems like you just need ot reskin the Nightwalker for an encounter with an avatar of this GOO, Nightwalkers are refered to s "beings of Anti Life" and although they are undead you just need to switch that to aberration and have some other cosmetic changes to appearance and you have your walking avatar that has a life draining effect on everything around it, their main abilities are called Annihilating Aura and LIfe Eater so thematically on point.
EDIT: For an arifact related ot said BBEG, a Sphere of Annihilation seems pretty on point too, could give the party a good little puzzle; How do you not only move the sphere but also destroy the Sphere?
Having used a Nightwalker against a tier 3 party...it's gonna need some beefing up, not just reskinning. Its mental stats are a joke, its AC is low, and it doesn't have any legendary actions or resistances. A first-level Dissonant Whispers would render its aura useless. As an avatar of a GOO for a tier 4 party, it's going to be underwhelming if you use the stat block as-written. However, with some tweaking, it could be nicely thematic and reasonably threatening.
Or... if you're interested in a bit of a homebrew star trek meets spelljammer 2001 a space odyssey disco ball mind trip - you could have the party interrupt the cult just as the ritual was nearing completion, but instead of bringing Entropy into this world, the party and the cultists get transported to the Far Realm where they have to defeat Entropy on its home turf. Now obviously they're not going to defeat Entropy with a +1 longsword and a few Fireballs. This would basically be like that scene where Dr Strange meets Dormammu. "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" So now it becomes a battle of wits, where the party have to find some way to appease Entropy so it won't enter the material plane. Maybe they play the Three Billy Goats Gruff with Entropy and convince it that there's an even bigger multiverse next door that has even more galaxies to consume and the party just has to find a way to Gate it there. Or maybe the party tries to convince Entropy that our world isn't quite done cooking yet, and if Entropy eats it now it'll get sick. So if you could just wait another few million years or so (which is basically a blink of an eye for Entropy) then the material plane will be nice and ripe and perfectly cooked and much much more delicious than it is now.
And sure, whatever deal they strike with Entropy will involve the players coming back to the material plane to find a way to fulfill their end of the bargain. But at least they've bought themselves - and the multiverse - some time. It's all relative. Delaying Entropy for a few million years is a total victory for the players. But to Entropy, that's a blink of an eye.
That's time for you. It's all relative.
I love this idea. Huge marvel fan too, so when you said Dormammu I completely got it.
In fact, some of the inspiration of this entity came from the idea of Galactus. As much as I favor Galactus, something like Azathoth would destroy him in moments. Which makes me wonder, should I go for something more tangible like Galactus though old god flavored or keep it as Azathoth?
My other idea that I had was that, if they do end up going to the far plane, there could be a scenario where the characters are immensely buffed by the remaining gods. For example, I was planning on ignoring effects of the far plane and just use their normal stat blocks but flavor it as such that they can interact and walk for a limited time in the far plane because of this buff. Then, they could potentially fight some kind of an avatar of Azathoth that serves as a final boss. The only way they're even able to touch it is because of the powers lended by the gods. If they defeat this avatar, they buy themselves time, that is all.
The idea I envisioned is akin to most Final Fantasy bosses where you go into a realm or plane outside of the normal material one, fight an avatar of god (kind of like Necron from FF9) or some higher power, and repel it. I feel like the only way to make things tangible and give entropy itself some kind of stat block is to give the players "god powers" just to even things out. What do you guys think?
IF the characters were able to pull this epic feat of 'negotiation' off, I can only imagine that whatever they return to do will end up casting them as even more epic villians... and I love the idea of the heroic party being forced to do something bad in order to stop something truly horrific from happening... and of course, no one believes them, all of their old allies are actively out to stop them, they have to turn to Devils or Demon Lords for help, etc... not to mention that it might be fun for the players to be 'bad guys' for a little while (all in the service of the greater good).
Of course, what are they left with if they manage to save the world...?
In the Lovecraft short stories, Azathoth is a sort of creator god. All powerful, but mindless. The most powerful beings in existence spend every waking minute trying to keep Azathoth asleep, because everything that exists is simply it's dream. You could have your players find the horrible truth, everything depends on them preventing Azathoth's awakening. Reality is no more solid than a soap bubble and if Azathoth stirs, all reality ends instantly. The cultists would have a belief that their reality would be replaced by a better one or maybe only the head of the cult knows what will actually happen if they are successful. Give them various rituals they have to stop, maybe they have to protect other eldritch horrors, so that those creatures could continue to placate Azathoth and keep it sleeping. You could get pretty dark with it, if you wanted.
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If you are one of the players in my game turn back now or forever succumb to madness
Hey guys, one of the entities in my campaign that acts as an adversarial force through cults and attempted awakenings/summonings is a creature similar to Azathoth in the Lovecraft mythos. I have a hierarchy of cult members (called the Awakened) who have a general plan that the players have already begun to foil since session 1 to summon or bring their Old God into the material plane of existence. I'm not using a 1:1 of Azathoth but something similar. It's intangible, can't just be hit with some swords and spells to be defeated, and is somewhat of a nihilistic force that the cultists see as an eventuality (kind of like the heat death of the universe) and they're just here to awaken him and get this over with.
So I have a couple of problems when dealing with Azathoth (not its final name but we'll just use it for simplicity here):
1. There really can't be any physical encounter with it at the end game... It's not like they can just port to the far plane and attack it to stop it or even attack it whenever it begins to emerge into the material plane ala Tiamat dramatic entrance. Giving it a stat block would almost feel...idk, wrong? Like its stats are genuinely just 9999 repeating and that's it I would imagine.
2. If I were to have an encounter with it, I could say that it has some kind of an avatar that enters the world. But that would ideally be a level 20 campaign and I can't find any stat blocks that work for me. Some are ridiculous, others are really underpowered for what I think this should be.
3. If there is some kind of ritual to bring Azathoth into this reality, would it be something adjacent like Tiamat? At least the Tyranny of Dragons gives some kind of hope if there is defeat at the end of the encounter and the age of Dragons comes to fruition. Like SOME survivors would, over time and through great difficulty, be able to rise up and challenge Tiamat. If Azathoth is summoned, that's it. It's GG go next roll up for the next campaign. I can't imagine any kind of fail safe that could be put into place. Maybe some kind of artifact? A god that is able to hold back Azathoth...somehow?
These are my thoughts on the matter. I can have the party stab and kick cultists all the live long day, but once big daddy enters the chat, it's kind of over. What do you guys think about this and what would you do to handle it?
Well... you could just get the players to stop the ritual! Problem solved!
Oh, and for the fail safe thing, just make it so that he keeps human pets or something. Maybe he betrays the cultists and locks them in a sanctuary, and you were one of them? Although, to be clear, if this... abomination is SO strong, then how is he locked up?
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
The way I've imagined it is that he is in the Far Plane and he just simply...is. He's always been. And throughout existence he has tried and tried again to enter the material plane to consume it.
Just like any evil god like being or creature that gets summoned, he doesn't keep his promise of power to the cultists and they're consumed just like Tiamat does to the Red Wizards. But to make it not so punishing, I just need to find some kind of a way for the players (and to be fair, if he's summoned they're all going to die...but if there IS some kind of chance of escape, I'd give it) to narratively have a reason to roll up new characters to fight again without the world being completely consumed.
Another option would be to nerf this being to the point of tangibility, but idk if that would diminish its presence in the campaign.
Maybe try to make it so that he requires an artifact hidden away in the world in order for him to regain his true strength, because that's where their power is trapped, and our characters must retrieve the artifact and destroy it! PLUS, I think this fixes your "too strong" issue.
Omg, I'm a genius. You should change your whole campaign so the point is to destroy the artifact.
(maybe as mbeg(minor bad evil guy) it's your old characters who got mind controlled)
Bonus points if the artifact is sentient and evil too!
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
YOOO! I like this I like this
Normally I feel like Great Old Ones are just intangible, unfightable and just too powerful for campaign but since this is DnD we're talking about, I want to give them some kind of a fighting chance with a reasonable stat block for level 20 once they get there. An artifact sounds like something that could work that could give them some kind of a fighting chance.
So, I did something in the same vein for a campaign I recently finished. Maybe it'll help.
My players were up against a cult trying to summon five elder evil titans (the Hulks of Zoretha from 2e). I hyped up the titans as these planet-destroying forces that were ruinous in concert - so ruinous that the gods themselves had to team up to chain them last time they were loose. My players (wisely) decided to break into their prison demiplanes to assassinate them before they could be pulled into the Prime Material one by one to wreak havoc. After the first one, though, the baddies got desperate and accelerated their plans. So the final battle was the party (level 11) against the upper echelons of the cult who were in the middle of summoning the four remaining titans.
Considering the titans' power, things would have been bad if the party didn't stop the ritual. A completed summoning would essentially ravage the planet and turn the campaign into a post-apocalypse struggle for survival and maybe some journeys involving time travel to fix things, or perhaps a power-up arc in the divine realms to prep for round 2. It also meant that the stats for the actual titans had to be practically god-level.
I didn't want a straight combat with (admittedly OP) level 11s versus four minor gods, so I instead had the combat be twofold: 1) destroy the braziers connected to each of the four titans to stop them from being pulled into the plane, and 2) kill the BBEG mage powering the spell. I had a few mooks to slow the party down, a couple of cult lieutenants to protect the BBEG mage, and then I added some lair effects of the titans that were bleeding through the tear in the veil. I gave the party 10 rounds before an aspect of the first titan was pulled through the veil and they'd have to fight it, which they managed to avoid by destroying the braziers in the nick of time. The first titan had psychic abilities, so my fight's lair effects were extremely mind-screwy and hauntingly personal. Finally, the braziers were magically reinforced with a substance I'd introduced early in my campaign that boosted power at the cost of HP. Was a nice callback that allowed the players to double their damage, but at risk to themselves.
TL;DR - I went for thematic and anticipatory rather than Big Daddy's Here. There was always a chance Big Daddy would arrive, and I planned to make it a legendary pivot to rewrite reality or seek power directly from the gods in case they failed.
It sounds like narratively the cultists summoning the Titans could have been as the villains. Like sure, the Titans emerging is the endgame and really bad and would wipe out existence, but narratively there isn't much of a tie to them to the characters other than GG. Maybe the cultists could have been connected to the party some how and that's where the raw narrative draw comes from. Like they were the true narrative final boss or so.
Hope that makes sense! I think your story gives me some ideas to work with
I mean, they were, lol. But you asked for endgame combat ideas, not my entire campaign.
I like the idea of having the party find and destroy the artifact to prevent your Great Old One from destorying their world. As Dragonlouis said, you could have the artifact being a storage vessel for part of your GOO's power. Or this artifact could be a necessary anchor that allows the GOO to keep itself within the known reality versus being shunted back to the Far Realm (i.e., our reality is so alien to this GOO that it needs an anchor to help keep it from being repelled back to the far realm).
In fact, the anchor idea might be why it tends to be in the Far Realm. As it break free into the Prime Material worlds, the GOO consumes everything until nothing remains. The anchor (i.e., artifact) that it uses in each reality is the very last thing it consumes before going back to the Far Realm...and waiting to repeat the process in a new reality.
And even if the GOO makes it into a material plane, you don't have to make the destruction of everything immediate. Sure, the GOO is going to consume things and speed entropy along to its final state... However, perhaps the process becomes years versus eons. Theme of the campaign could become more apocalyptic in nature as their world breaks down to dust. Or maybe it becomes more of a Spelljammer campaign as the PCs need to flee the planet and find additional support to send the GOO back to the Far Realm before the entire Prime Material sphere is obliterated.
I really like this idea. I'd imagine it would go something like this. We are 3 dimensional beings, Azathoth would be 4 dimensional. It would be incredibly jarring for us to comprehend it and it to comprehend us. This is why it uses the artifact to anchor it in our reality.
I mean, what would happen if 3 dimensions collided with 4 dimensions? I really like where this is going. Thanks for the input :)
I think that Great Old Ones do whatever they want and neither cultists not players can do anything about it. So, while the cultists may believe in some rituals or artefacts that would allow them to summon GOO and possibly control it, in reality it would not happen. They might summon something but it will be something else. Or not and players discover that 500 years ago someone mistranslated some rune and the ritual works differently than they (and the cultists) thought.
The Great Old One is the embodiment of Entropy. It has been the most relentless force in the multiverse since a billion-trillionth of a nanosecond after the creation of the multiverse. It is patient, it is inevitable, and it will win. The only question is - how long will it take? Even while it has been locked away in the Far Realm, its effects have been continually felt in this and every other world spinning since these worlds began. Its movement from the Far Realm to the material plane would be the equivalent to a tear in the fabric of spacetime - a Black Hole.
We have black holes in our world. There's a massive one in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. We have been revolving around that black hole for four and a half billion years. And yet - we're still here. The most powerful destructive force in the universe - the insatiable appetite of physics - the inevitable destroyer of both space and time literally fuels our galaxy! The Great Old One will win. Entropy always wins. That is as fundamental a law as physics has ever defined.
So it's all a matter of perspective. Your characters may only live another few decades, or maybe another few centuries if they're elves or dwarves. (And their inevitable deaths will not only feed Entropy, they will prove it right.) But Entropy works on such incomprehensibly long timelines that the players don't need to defeat it. They only need to maintain the status quo. If Entropy shows up in Times Square tomorrow, it's game over. But if Entropy shows up a few lightyears away, well, we've got time.
So how does this fit into the game mechanics?
For starters, the players could do direct battle with the cultists to prevent them from completing their rituals. That's the simplest and most straightforward option.
Or... if you're interested in a bit of a homebrew star trek meets spelljammer 2001 a space odyssey disco ball mind trip - you could have the party interrupt the cult just as the ritual was nearing completion, but instead of bringing Entropy into this world, the party and the cultists get transported to the Far Realm where they have to defeat Entropy on its home turf. Now obviously they're not going to defeat Entropy with a +1 longsword and a few Fireballs. This would basically be like that scene where Dr Strange meets Dormammu. "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" So now it becomes a battle of wits, where the party have to find some way to appease Entropy so it won't enter the material plane. Maybe they play the Three Billy Goats Gruff with Entropy and convince it that there's an even bigger multiverse next door that has even more galaxies to consume and the party just has to find a way to Gate it there. Or maybe the party tries to convince Entropy that our world isn't quite done cooking yet, and if Entropy eats it now it'll get sick. So if you could just wait another few million years or so (which is basically a blink of an eye for Entropy) then the material plane will be nice and ripe and perfectly cooked and much much more delicious than it is now.
And sure, whatever deal they strike with Entropy will involve the players coming back to the material plane to find a way to fulfill their end of the bargain. But at least they've bought themselves - and the multiverse - some time. It's all relative. Delaying Entropy for a few million years is a total victory for the players. But to Entropy, that's a blink of an eye.
That's time for you. It's all relative.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Seems like you just need ot reskin the Nightwalker for an encounter with an avatar of this GOO, Nightwalkers are refered to s "beings of Anti Life" and although they are undead you just need to switch that to aberration and have some other cosmetic changes to appearance and you have your walking avatar that has a life draining effect on everything around it, their main abilities are called Annihilating Aura and LIfe Eater so thematically on point.
EDIT: For an arifact related ot said BBEG, a Sphere of Annihilation seems pretty on point too, could give the party a good little puzzle; How do you not only move the sphere but also destroy the Sphere?
I love this idea. Huge marvel fan too, so when you said Dormammu I completely got it.
In fact, some of the inspiration of this entity came from the idea of Galactus. As much as I favor Galactus, something like Azathoth would destroy him in moments. Which makes me wonder, should I go for something more tangible like Galactus though old god flavored or keep it as Azathoth?
My other idea that I had was that, if they do end up going to the far plane, there could be a scenario where the characters are immensely buffed by the remaining gods. For example, I was planning on ignoring effects of the far plane and just use their normal stat blocks but flavor it as such that they can interact and walk for a limited time in the far plane because of this buff. Then, they could potentially fight some kind of an avatar of Azathoth that serves as a final boss. The only way they're even able to touch it is because of the powers lended by the gods. If they defeat this avatar, they buy themselves time, that is all.
The idea I envisioned is akin to most Final Fantasy bosses where you go into a realm or plane outside of the normal material one, fight an avatar of god (kind of like Necron from FF9) or some higher power, and repel it. I feel like the only way to make things tangible and give entropy itself some kind of stat block is to give the players "god powers" just to even things out. What do you guys think?
Having used a Nightwalker against a tier 3 party...it's gonna need some beefing up, not just reskinning. Its mental stats are a joke, its AC is low, and it doesn't have any legendary actions or resistances. A first-level Dissonant Whispers would render its aura useless. As an avatar of a GOO for a tier 4 party, it's going to be underwhelming if you use the stat block as-written. However, with some tweaking, it could be nicely thematic and reasonably threatening.
IF the characters were able to pull this epic feat of 'negotiation' off, I can only imagine that whatever they return to do will end up casting them as even more epic villians... and I love the idea of the heroic party being forced to do something bad in order to stop something truly horrific from happening... and of course, no one believes them, all of their old allies are actively out to stop them, they have to turn to Devils or Demon Lords for help, etc... not to mention that it might be fun for the players to be 'bad guys' for a little while (all in the service of the greater good).
Of course, what are they left with if they manage to save the world...?
In the Lovecraft short stories, Azathoth is a sort of creator god. All powerful, but mindless. The most powerful beings in existence spend every waking minute trying to keep Azathoth asleep, because everything that exists is simply it's dream. You could have your players find the horrible truth, everything depends on them preventing Azathoth's awakening. Reality is no more solid than a soap bubble and if Azathoth stirs, all reality ends instantly. The cultists would have a belief that their reality would be replaced by a better one or maybe only the head of the cult knows what will actually happen if they are successful. Give them various rituals they have to stop, maybe they have to protect other eldritch horrors, so that those creatures could continue to placate Azathoth and keep it sleeping. You could get pretty dark with it, if you wanted.