Elder Things are beings from some other plane of existence. They're not demons nor elementals, but something more strange. They are typically not effected by Banish spells, and are often not quite living.
Elder Things tend to be remarkably tough, otherworldly, and fearsome,[1] and are closely associated with psionics and more "sideways" magic.[2] As meta origins go, Elder Things as a concept are explicitly "Lovecraftian" on purpose.[3]
Fundamentals[]
Elder Things often combine basic horror, often being hideous, with some level of abstract concept -- some are evil colonists, some invasive species, some lost pets, and some merely the "loose lint" left behind by Elder Thing meddling itself.
No matter how much order some Elder Things may want, they always have a habit of calling upon the powers of primordial chaos and end up bamboozling themselves in the long run. That being said, they cannot be relied on to keep themselves bamboozled, and a "temporary" success by Elder Things may very well be a thousand years of darkness...
Known Examples[]
| Name | Description | OR[Note 1] | PR[Note 2] | CER[Note 3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient One[4] | An absolutely massive, ancient, immensely powerful creature. | |||
| Astral Hound[2] | A skilled stalker that tracks targets for other Elder Things. Possibly a very interesting pet. Possibly. | 17 | 29 | 46 |
| Astral Spider[5] | ||||
| Brainworms[6] | Not a fully-fledged "monster", but a swarm and possible affliction. Easily re-statted into a Back 4 Blood-style "alien parasite" that causes zombies. | |||
| Byle[7] | Amorphous creatures, like failed shoggoths. They lack the specialization that shoggoths have, and are effectively a supernatural water blob. The proper form is the Chaos Ooze. | |||
| Chaos Ooze[8] | Massive, shoggoth-like entities capable of forming limbs and organs from their primordial bodies. Used by some Elder Things as a servitor race, although many Chaos Oozes have rebelled. They don't particularly like psis, and have a fairly good resistance to psionics/magic, but are supposedly suggestible to mundane commands. Supposedly. | |||
| Deep One[9] | Froggy fish-men who seem to require humans to reproduce. They've got the Innsmouth Look for sure. | |||
| Demon from Between the Stars[10] | A shadow-like creature with a life-sapping touch. As Elder Thing leaders, they can quite literally become a "mystery man in the shadows", casting from total darkness. Oddly enough, they have Beserk -- they might be harder to put down, but at least they won't flee or teleport away like other bosses. | 44 | 30 | 74 |
| Demon from Between the Stars[10], Priest | This variant has spells and such. | 56 | 30 | 86 |
| Eye of Death[11] | Huge, floating eyeballs. They're effective against mages and magic, but are vulnerable to regular damage. They see everything... although they still have a blind spot behind them, which they compensate for with vibration sense. Eyes attack Spheres on sight, for an unknown reason. | 25 | 34 | 59 |
| Flying Squid Monster[2] | A relatively simple "space squid" that's good at grabbing and biting. It doesn't have the same vulnerabilities that most beasts do -- it can climb or fly quite effectively. It is however, still limited to a very long-grabbing melee -- spiked armor, decoy illusions, and damaging area spells can still work. Likewise, its large size means it's hit by more of an area-effect spell! | 23 | 37 | 60 |
| Fuzzies[2] | Fuzzy "imps" that are somewhere between cartoon weirdness and Star Trek weirdness. | var. | var. | var. |
| Grü[12] | Pronounced "gr-wee", this is a semi-solid patch of sentient darkness. They are thought to be the pets of Demons from Between the Stars. | |||
| Hungry Room[13] | A huge, SM+5 "cube" of creature that has a pit trap into its body. It can't dodge or defend, but it has attacking tentacles and a digestive spray -- and a mountain of HP. Can be outmaneuvered easily, with enough digging. These may be a failed experimental form of Chaos Ooze. | 21 | 112 | 133 |
| Intruder[14] | Very grabby, humanoid-impersonating entity that tends to lead or operate a Squid Cult. Is immune to a whole lot of attacks, and uses a strange, bonelike greatsword. | 42 | 57 | 99 |
| Living Pit[15] | ||||
| Mindwarper[16] | These creatures are highly solitary but immensely powerful, capable of rapid, crushing strikes with psychokinesis, several gaze-based afflictions(?), and a Terror aura. | 61 | 75 | 136 |
| Minion[17] | Powerful, intelligent, and independent creatures who serve an Ancient One. These are from GURPS: Horror, so they aren't built with "high adventure, dungeon fantasy" in mind. | |||
| One Who Eats, The[18] | ||||
| Sphere of Madness[19] | A grabby, crabby, eye-lined ball of flesh. tough as heck and hardy, but has middling Will. It's fearless, but can theoretically be affected by hexes like Drunkenness, Charm or Command. Likewise, they like crushing things, so they might be interrupted in their attack if a decoy object is thrown in their way, such as a stick. They attack Eyes on sight. | 30 | 40 | 70 |
| Tentacles(?)[20] | ||||
| Thing that Sleeps, The | ||||
| Void Wyrm[21] | Something akin to a draconic Elder Thing, with wings, claws, and a vast intelligence. It speaks all, understands all, and may one day swallow the world. | |||
| Watcher (at the edge of time)[22] | A boss-level melee monster with four blades and tons of parries. Their mere existence has lead to mages fearfully developing their own "magical superweapons" -- typically Constructs with Area and Cone abilities. Watchers are extremely mobile and must be "anchored" to a place to prevent them from simply leaving a fight they're losing. | 44 | 48 | 92[Note 4] |
Trivia[]
- Likes
- According to Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables, Elder Things seem to attracted to the smooth drone from a glass harmonica. ($500, 10lbs)[23]
- If, for some reason, Elder Things are appeased, they may give an adventurer a strange potion that improves their connection to the Elder Things, giving them Elder Gift.[24]
- Dislikes
- The Psychic Slayer (Psychic Swords against Elder Evil, Pyramid 3/76: Dungeon Fantasy IV) is built to fight Elder Things
- Bane Brewer doesn't have a special bonus against Elder Things... but it probably should. They probably hate basalt dust.[25]
- Abilities
See Also[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Offensive Rating
- ↑ Protective Rating
- ↑ Combat Effectiveness Rating, from It's A Threat!
- ↑ Includes the bonus from Warp
References[]
- Dungeon Fantasy: Monsters, p.14
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy Exploits, p.10
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Dungeon Fantasy 14: Psi
- ↑ Pyramid 3/60: Dungeon Fantasy III, p.34
- ↑ Horror, p.74
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.33
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.33
- ↑ Horror, p.153
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.33-34
- ↑ Pyramid 3/113: Dungeon Fantasies, p.24
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dungeon Fantasy: Monsters 1, p.9
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, p.14
- ↑ Pyramid 3/98: Welcome to Dungeon Fantasy, p.15
- ↑ Pyramid 3/76: Dungeon Fantasy IV, p.22
- ↑ Pyramid 3/76: Dungeon Fantasy IV, p.9
- ↑ DF Monsters 3
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, p.25
- ↑ Horror, p.75
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.14
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, p.28
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.34
- ↑ Pyramid 3/80: Fantasy Threats, p.34-35
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, p.34
- ↑ Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables, p.22
- ↑ Pyramid 3/75: Hero's Jackpot, p.6
- ↑ Pyramid 3/50: Dungeon Fantasy II, p.33
- ↑ Pyramid 3/50: Dungeon Fantasy II, p.19
- ↑ Pyramid 3/60: Dungeon Fantasy III, p.39
- ↑ Pyramid 3/68: Natural Magic, p.31
- ↑ Pyramid 3/108: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game III, p.14
- ↑ Pyramid 3/108: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game III, p.9
- ↑ Pyramid 3/108: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game III, p.9-10
- ↑ Pyramid 3/108: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game III, p.10