The neothelid, as I’ve written before, was Pathfinder’s
answer to D&D’s proprietary mind flayers.
But it served another purpose as well.
Remember that, originally, Pathfinder was not a game system; it was a
game setting—and as such, it needed
to differentiate itself from the other 3.5 settings out there. Neothelids, with their wormlike shapes, suite
of mental powers, and seugathi servants, confirmed what other early Pathfinder
products had already begun to suggest: Golarion was a world where Lovecraft’s
Old Ones and Outer Gods had a definite footprint...or rather, a definite
pseudopodprint.
The neothelid overlord is a neothelid on its way to
becoming…something else. Something much closer to those entities that
dwell in the blackness between the stars.
The overlord’s head splits. Its
consciousness begins to transcend its biology.
Its tails dig as if they want to become roots. Its psychic powers become true psychic
magic. And just looking at it risks
madness.
At CR 20, neothelid overlords are campaign-ending
villains. Defeating a conclave of these
creatures should be the culmination of years of effort in game time (and
possibly even real time). Of course, failing to defeat a neothelid overlord
conclave…well, that doesn't even bear thinking about.
Adventurers bring
down a city’s ruling class of necromancers…in the process, exposing a
subterranean kingdom of ghouls to the notice of the surface world as well. But it turns out the ghoul kingdom is a
necessary evil, for they are all that keeps a neothelid overlord in check in
his mushroom-forest vault.
Strange benefactors have
aided a party of adventurers against demons and devils throughout their
career. But then these same benefactors begin
to suggest strikes against druid stone circles, goodly temples, and even
angelic redoubts and hidden celestial cities—a pantheistic hatred alarming in
its intensity. Careful investigation
uncovers seugathi cultists and rumors of dark wormlike lords older than the
gods themselves, who worship Powers from a reality that predates this one.
The world of Chasm
should have split in two—as is all too apparent from the near-bottomless
canyon that circles the planet like a hellish meridian. The only thing holding the shattered sphere
together is a monstrous bhole trapped in stasis long ago. Now, a neothelid conclave seeks to awaken the
bhole and free the worm to split Chasm like an apple in an offering to their
dark gods.
—Occult Bestiary
36–37
This week’s radio show had a pretty big AAA radio (adult
album alternative) feel to it. Listen
for new Courtney Barnett and Sunny & Gabe, some great Mason Jennings, and
even a Judy Collins song for the protest-minded, written by Where the
Sidewalk Ends author Shel Silverstein.
(I even play some songs I know you
like, dear online readers.) Stream or download it now till Monday, 10/02/17), at midnight.
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