Aboleth, Young

Family: Aboleth

Medium aberration (greater), any chaotic alignment or unaligned

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 93 (17d8 + 17); Wound Threshold 24
Speed 10 ft., swim 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	12 (+1)	13 (+1)	18 (+4)	12 (+1)	15 (+2)

Saving Throws Con +4, Int +6
Skills History* +10, Nature* +10, Perception +4
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Deep Speech, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Amphibious. The young aboleth can breathe air and water.
• Mucous Cloud. While underwater, the young aboleth is surrounded by transformative mucus. A creature that touches the young aboleth or that hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is diseased and poisoned for 1d4 hours. The diseased creature can breathe only underwater.
• Probing Telepathy. If a creature communicates telepathically with the young aboleth, the young aboleth learns the creature’s greatest desires if the young aboleth can see the creature. The target of this effect can make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw to resist, becoming immune to the young aboleth’s probing telepathy for the next 24 hours if successful.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The young aboleth makes two tentacle attacks and one tail attack.
• Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become diseased. The disease has no effect for 1 minute and can be removed by any magic that cures disease. After 1 minute, the diseased creature’s skin becomes translucent and slimy, the creature can’t regain hit points unless it is underwater, and the disease can be removed only by heal or another disease-curing spell of 6th level or higher. When the creature is outside a body of water, it takes 6 (1d12) acid damage every 10 minutes unless moisture is applied to the skin before 10 minutes have passed.
• Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
• Lesser Enslave (3/Day). The young aboleth targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be magically charmed by the aboleth until the young aboleth dies or until it is on a different plane of existence from the target. The young aboleth and the target can communicate telepathically with each other over any distance. Whenever the charmed target takes damage, the target can repeat the saving throw. On a success, the effect ends. No more than once every 24 hours, the target can also repeat the saving throw when it is at least 1 mile away from the young aboleth.

ABOUT

Aboleths are aquatic, tentacled aberrations that look like a mix of cliones, cuttlefish, sea anemones, and none of them all at once. Aboleths are nightmares of the deep, covered in a dangerous mucus and possessing the ability to invade dreams. They prowl dark waters and hatch terrible plans that threaten the future of the entire world.

An ancient mind in a young body: young aboleths are strange, as befits their kind.

They’re created within the memory sanctum, and are born in limited numbers, because they carry the spirits of past aboleths or creatures straight from Blackwater. As a result of their rarity and the length of time it takes for them to mature, young aboleths are precious creatures. Yet, growing requires them to gain experience outside of past memories. Because of this, they cannot content themselves with staying sheltered and must head out into the world.

Origins of the Aboleths

On the surface, aboleths are all but unknown, while they are as mysterious as they are feared in the Netherworld. It’s difficult to gather and analyze information concerning them. The texts they leave behind are written in Deep Speech, a language that has nothing in common with other tongues on Eana, neither in its structure nor phonemes.

It’s possible to gain information from the chuuls’ sacred chants and the walls of their temples.

Their perspective is biased, just like subterranean or surface-dwelling cults looking for salvation in the worship of Blackwater. These groups are aware of some facts and details, but rarely see the whole picture.

There are also ruins marked by their presence. These are cultural sites for chuuls and humanoids, sometimes including an adult aboleth’s palace from where it dispenses revelations.

The Travelers brought many creatures to Eana through their portals, the ateaks. These beings, some of which are intelligent, learned to adapt to their new environment but frequently represent threats to natural balance as the druids see it. Bringing aboleths to Eana was certainly the Travelers’ worst mistake, and they paid for it with the annihilation of their civilization at the hands of a meteorite summoned by the aboleths that fell in the region currently known as the Eolian Isles.

Masters of Plots

Nowadays, aboleths roam vast networks of aquatic underground tunnels. Endless canals constructed with magic or servants’ hands-particularly the chuuls-allow them to swim between the depths of Cyfandir and Acoatl. Aboleths avoid acting in person: they dislike doing so, and their bodies are scarcely adapted to it. They make use of individuals’ curiosity, greed, ambition, and despair to tempt them and coax them into carrying out beneficial actions.

The Aboleths’ Memory

Aboleths preserve their memory in a nightmarish sanctum they access when dreaming. They deposit all their memories there, as well as most of those of their devoured victims. All this information is then shared among their whole kind. If one of them dies, their knowledge is not lost.

Psychurges enter this memory sanctum through their dreams, leading them to sometimes believe this place has no physical presence. Yet it does exist, deep in the Netherworld somewhere near Acoatl, under the Karakin sea.

The aboleths also use this site to keep in contact with Blackwater and are able to create new vessels (see Aberrant creatures: Category III Aberration, or Vessel).

One might speculate that destroying the memory sanctum would sever the bond to Blackwater and end its pernicious influence. Unfortunately, the energy emanating from this place is so strong that humanoid minds are almost invariably shattered and plunged into madness. To win, it is therefore necessary to have both precise information to find it, and sufficiently advanced knowledge about aberrations to resist their powers.

Seemingly Infinite Knowledge

Aboleths and their servants sometimes appear omniscient, reinforced by their solemn demeanor.

They’re certain the stars will align for them, and that their victory is inevitable. What they reveal may be unnerving, sometimes disheartening. Some fall into despair when they’re made aware of the sheer vastness of the unknown.

The greater aberrations’ power is real and their knowledge far from a ploy. These creatures are experts in History and Nature thanks to their access to the memory sanctum of their kind, and the bond they keep with Blackwater’s cosmic entity. They hold a depth of knowledge far greater than most of Eana’s inhabitants.

Their knowledge is not absolute, however, and their propensity for certainties can even make them naive in a way, in contrast to the potency of their intelligence. These beings are so sure of the depth of their knowledge of the world that they may delude themselves. The leeway to take advantage of this is tiny, but sometimes even a single grain of sand is enough to tip the scales.