you read the title, I need a ritual to contact what equates to a great old one. Im looking for a ritual of many parts and will probably take elements of all the suggestions
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Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
It depends on the type of Great Old One, but you could create flavorful skill challenges as part of the ritual. For example:
If the Great Old One you are trying to contact is an abberation: Part of the ritual is to trace a star constellation of the Far Realm from the stars on the earth. The PC needs to use the night sky to find the correct sequence of stars and succeed on three Intelligence checks before they fail three in order to contact the entity. If you want to spice things up, you could have them find the constellation easy enough but need to succeed on three Intelligence saving throws vs psychic damage from alien energy.
If the Great Old One you are trying to contact is an elemental, such as a phoenix: Part of the ritual can be to construct a wooden tipi and burn a bonfire inside while the PC meditates within. The heat will become extreme and the PC will need to pass 3 Constitution saving throws before failing 3 in order to summon the Phoenix from the flames.
Why not just use the level 5 spell Contact Other Plane? Maybe add in some random items such as a tentacle annonted in the bile of a kraken, or have the verbal component needing to be said in Deep Speech, I belive the correct lovecraftian wording to contact Cthulhu is "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu r'lyeh whag'nagl fhtagn" which could make for some interesting thngs for the players to try and decipher, You could also use the Dream spell to try and infiltrate th GOO's dremas if you use the "sleeping god" metaphor or pinch the Black Book of Haemaaus Mora from Sjyrim and have the reader (and only the reader) planeshifted to a location where they have to complete a challenge to unlock "the mystical words of power!".
Clarification: I thought Great Old Ones referred to creatures like Cthulhu and others from H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
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In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
you read the title, I need a ritual to contact what equates to a great old one. Im looking for a ritual of many parts and will probably take elements of all the suggestions
If all you're doing is talking to it, contact other plane is what you want. If you want to summon it into the world, gate is the candidate. Unless you make it take some plot device spell.
For anyone who wants it, there is a "cthulhu translator" if you want something written in deep speech or maybe prinordial: https://lingojam.com/RLyehian
Another question is why do those other spells not work? You want multiple parts, but there is a single step spell that does exactly that. If you don't want this big ritual to boil down to a shopping trip for scrolls and incense, then make a reason for why the spell doesn't work.
The far realms is the dnd eldritch realm. That which is beyond. Maybe in your world, the far realm is the corpse of the first god, too wild for the new gods to control and thus is a chaotic brine of eldritch creation. Maybe its the world's that were once ruled by the gods, but was abandoned and left godless. The prospects for the far realm are endless, and it is very easy once you have a backstory to write why the gods don't want you to reach there.
In my world, the far realm is ancient worlds crafted by the gods and abandoned. Constant world resests makes the gods covet knowledge of this, as mortals might panic knowing they will one day be abandoned too. I've got too gods, a good and bad, who controls the flow of the between plane. The paths that lead between planes.
I would rule that the players may need to make contact or get their hands on an artifact of their power to mimic it enough to reach beyond the veil. The first part would be an adventure, find the artifact or meet the person. Step two is channeling or being guided through this inter realm, and pushing through the intense barrier between. Step three would be welcome R'Yleh as the players pass endless horrors at the edge of their vision, protected by the waning god or the quickly draining artefact.
From there, it depends on how you run eldritch and what you want the god to be. I can also recommend another way of going about it is actual old gods. Either like the Greek titans, locked in tartarus or similarly. I also have beings that inhabited the realm of the first god. They act more like concepts than beings. The endless void, the ceaseless whispers, things like that. Beings as old as the first god, but never gained the same drive as the god who made everything.
All in all, old gods either have to be just another god, or something far bigger. Faerûn has some good options for the "just another god" part, as the Obrinth are very freaky gods who ruled beside the Faerûn gods kinda, but were defeated. The Pale Night is a perfect god for what an old Faerûn god is. Mysterious, entirely alien, driven but in ways we could never know, and trapped by both those other gods and by her own means.
And I'm gonna go on like a run-on, but you could also go with ideas like the sleeping god. I might be wrong, but I believe Cthuhlu was on earth, sleeping deep under the sea in an ancient, Sunken city. Maybe the ritual is clairvoyance. Just trying to find where this god is. Maybe it's protection, in trying to stop yourself from losing your mind in the beings presence. Maybe it's some old god ritual. Not magic, but more cultural. Presenting the beating heart of one whos mad to the alter to unlock his chambers. Something like that.
I always want to include some kind of real sacrifice if anything meaningful is being asked for. And something the player chooses themselves very freely. Like giving them the idea that they need to make an offering, and the offering should be something that demanded sacrifice from them where the sacrifices value is accepted as it is seen by you. I make sure they understand player facing game mechanics are on the table for that if they want.
In return i have to honestly asses their level of sacrifice and provide boon accordingly.
So if there is a good story element for that i will abide by it.
Otherwise i'm kind of looking for something mechanically meaningful from the player as given by the PC.
Like the wizard that offered to take a permeant 5% spell fail chance for somatic requirements(a 1 on a d20 before the spell goes off), with their PC cutting off a finger in the ritual to story represent that. Of course i had to give them exactly what they wanted for such a meaningful sacrifice. A pile of gold? meh. a nice magic item, hhmm warmer. But a real mechanic hardship, that's a meaningful self sacrifice for the player and PC that needs no back story to uphold its offering value.
you read the title, I need a ritual to contact what equates to a great old one. Im looking for a ritual of many parts and will probably take elements of all the suggestions
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
It depends on the type of Great Old One, but you could create flavorful skill challenges as part of the ritual. For example:
If the Great Old One you are trying to contact is an abberation: Part of the ritual is to trace a star constellation of the Far Realm from the stars on the earth. The PC needs to use the night sky to find the correct sequence of stars and succeed on three Intelligence checks before they fail three in order to contact the entity. If you want to spice things up, you could have them find the constellation easy enough but need to succeed on three Intelligence saving throws vs psychic damage from alien energy.
If the Great Old One you are trying to contact is an elemental, such as a phoenix: Part of the ritual can be to construct a wooden tipi and burn a bonfire inside while the PC meditates within. The heat will become extreme and the PC will need to pass 3 Constitution saving throws before failing 3 in order to summon the Phoenix from the flames.
And so on...
Why not just use the level 5 spell Contact Other Plane? Maybe add in some random items such as a tentacle annonted in the bile of a kraken, or have the verbal component needing to be said in Deep Speech, I belive the correct lovecraftian wording to contact Cthulhu is "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu r'lyeh whag'nagl fhtagn" which could make for some interesting thngs for the players to try and decipher, You could also use the Dream spell to try and infiltrate th GOO's dremas if you use the "sleeping god" metaphor or pinch the Black Book of Haemaaus Mora from Sjyrim and have the reader (and only the reader) planeshifted to a location where they have to complete a challenge to unlock "the mystical words of power!".
Clarification: I thought Great Old Ones referred to creatures like Cthulhu and others from H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
If all you're doing is talking to it, contact other plane is what you want. If you want to summon it into the world, gate is the candidate. Unless you make it take some plot device spell.
For anyone who wants it, there is a "cthulhu translator" if you want something written in deep speech or maybe prinordial: https://lingojam.com/RLyehian
Another question is why do those other spells not work? You want multiple parts, but there is a single step spell that does exactly that. If you don't want this big ritual to boil down to a shopping trip for scrolls and incense, then make a reason for why the spell doesn't work.
The far realms is the dnd eldritch realm. That which is beyond. Maybe in your world, the far realm is the corpse of the first god, too wild for the new gods to control and thus is a chaotic brine of eldritch creation. Maybe its the world's that were once ruled by the gods, but was abandoned and left godless. The prospects for the far realm are endless, and it is very easy once you have a backstory to write why the gods don't want you to reach there.
In my world, the far realm is ancient worlds crafted by the gods and abandoned. Constant world resests makes the gods covet knowledge of this, as mortals might panic knowing they will one day be abandoned too. I've got too gods, a good and bad, who controls the flow of the between plane. The paths that lead between planes.
I would rule that the players may need to make contact or get their hands on an artifact of their power to mimic it enough to reach beyond the veil. The first part would be an adventure, find the artifact or meet the person. Step two is channeling or being guided through this inter realm, and pushing through the intense barrier between. Step three would be welcome R'Yleh as the players pass endless horrors at the edge of their vision, protected by the waning god or the quickly draining artefact.
From there, it depends on how you run eldritch and what you want the god to be. I can also recommend another way of going about it is actual old gods. Either like the Greek titans, locked in tartarus or similarly. I also have beings that inhabited the realm of the first god. They act more like concepts than beings. The endless void, the ceaseless whispers, things like that. Beings as old as the first god, but never gained the same drive as the god who made everything.
All in all, old gods either have to be just another god, or something far bigger. Faerûn has some good options for the "just another god" part, as the Obrinth are very freaky gods who ruled beside the Faerûn gods kinda, but were defeated. The Pale Night is a perfect god for what an old Faerûn god is. Mysterious, entirely alien, driven but in ways we could never know, and trapped by both those other gods and by her own means.
And I'm gonna go on like a run-on, but you could also go with ideas like the sleeping god. I might be wrong, but I believe Cthuhlu was on earth, sleeping deep under the sea in an ancient, Sunken city. Maybe the ritual is clairvoyance. Just trying to find where this god is. Maybe it's protection, in trying to stop yourself from losing your mind in the beings presence. Maybe it's some old god ritual. Not magic, but more cultural. Presenting the beating heart of one whos mad to the alter to unlock his chambers. Something like that.
I always want to include some kind of real sacrifice if anything meaningful is being asked for.
And something the player chooses themselves very freely. Like giving them the idea that they need to make an offering, and the offering should be something that demanded sacrifice from them where the sacrifices value is accepted as it is seen by you. I make sure they understand player facing game mechanics are on the table for that if they want.
In return i have to honestly asses their level of sacrifice and provide boon accordingly.
So if there is a good story element for that i will abide by it.
Otherwise i'm kind of looking for something mechanically meaningful from the player as given by the PC.
Like the wizard that offered to take a permeant 5% spell fail chance for somatic requirements(a 1 on a d20 before the spell goes off), with their PC cutting off a finger in the ritual to story represent that. Of course i had to give them exactly what they wanted for such a meaningful sacrifice.
A pile of gold? meh. a nice magic item, hhmm warmer. But a real mechanic hardship, that's a meaningful self sacrifice for the player and PC that needs no back story to uphold its offering value.
I just found this: https://cursivegenerator.space/
It's as good as this website, but it's free.