Friday, May 30, 2014

Zoog


Alice found Wonderland by chasing a rabbit down a hole.  But what if the rabbit wasn’t a rabbit?  What if it was a rodent with the snout of a star-nosed mole—one who could see magic and bite spirits as easily as flesh?  What if it took her somewhere far stranger than Wonderland…and then tried to eat her?

Yet another Lovecraft creation from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, zoogs move between this and other worlds with seeming ease.  This is reflected in their ghost touch strikes and magic-detecting gazes.  As the Bestiary 3 indicates, they are loathsome little creatures liable to swarm upon and devour the unwary, but they can be spoken to and bargained with.  If successful, the party might receive a gourd of moon-tree wine, sage advice, or even a zoog familiar for their troubles.  They might also be led into a nest of gugs. 

Beneficiaries of the same eclectic scholar’s will, a group of young folk band together in an adventuring party to claim their respective legacies—all of which happen to be in the care of a leprechaun under a faerie mound.  One of the adventurers can call on the services of his family’s brownie servant to guide them there.  But the brownie has been too long out of the fey lands, and the path he takes them on leads not to Faerie, but to somewhere…else.  Soon the party encounters shrieking mushrooms, strange purple-black trees, and a village of lemur-like creatures worshipping scandalous gods.

Shadows threaten to overwhelm a party of adventurers until a conjurer with a zoog familiar drives them away.  The wizard has a price though: He and his familiar wish to accompany the adventurers—not on their mundane and trivial journey (he laughs to himself as he says this), but in their dreams.

A party of adventurers makes their way through a strange jungle not on any map.  Calamity occurs when a gang of rodents devours their leopard-spotted catfolk guide in mere moments.  The zoogs fall to arguing whether to devour the adventurers as well, which gives the party time to parley if they wish.  For the price of a magic ring or dagger, the zoogs will lead them to a safe path through the Ghoul Lands, to the (hated) City of Seven Hundred Cats, or into a dungeon half on the Ethereal Plane.

Pathfinder Bestiary 3 288

1 comment:

  1. I really like your adventure seeds. The hints of possible worlds and settings you give are extremely creative, but I fear that (judging by the posts on Paizo's own message board) they're going to be wasted on some players. The point of Dungeons and Dragons has always been to make up your own stuff, but there's a scary number of Pathfinder players who seem to want to be told what to do. Notice that we're getting a Numeria book next month - not that Numeria isn't awesome, but if you can't make your own story out of "Conan vs. robots," a book isn't going to help you.

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