Zoogs as Player Characters
over 8 years ago – Sun, Apr 03, 2016 at 07:22:16 PM

"Threading now the low phosphorescent aisles between those gigantic trunks, Carter made fluttering sounds in the manner of the zoogs, and listened now and then for responses. He remembered one particular village of the creatures near the centre of the wood, where a circle of great mossy stones in what was once a clearing tells of older and more terrible dwellers long forgotten, and toward this spot he hastened." (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath; H. P. Lovecraft)

The Dwellers of the Dreamlands Campaign Collection comes with four zoog models. We intend to give you full details about these Mythos creatures so that you can use all four and have a complete party of zoog Player Characters.

Zoogs are a well-known species of the Mythos who again, while sometimes malign and carnivorous, are not necessarily evil. They are small, about the size of smaller dogs, and have a society advanced enough to have a family structure, a highborn class, and even to sign treaties with other species. While they are probably too small to be highly effective warriors, they can make excellent rogues or magicians.

Zoogs are technically Small creatures, but just barely, as they are only just above the Tiny size category. As with any intelligent race, they can be of any alignment. They could be of any class, but lean towards those classes where their size is a benefit and not a determent. Additionally they are dexterous, with hands as well as tentacles protruding from their snouts. They are notably able to get along with many other intelligent races, with the exception of cats. There have been many recorded conflicts with Dreamland cats, from The Great Zoog - Cat War, to minor incursions. Some of these have ended with bloodshed, others with pacts and treaties, some ultimately both.

Monstrous Madness Semi-Final: Nightgaunt vs Leng Spider
over 8 years ago – Sun, Apr 03, 2016 at 07:22:02 PM

WHAT ABOUT THE STRETCH GOALS?

You may notice that there's no new Stretch Goal on the project home page. Well, that's because we're working up something really big and cool. We hope to have that update for you later today. In the meantime...

Mythos monsters are battling to receive YOUR adoration and worship. The ultimate winner will be featured in the inner sleeve as a beautiful art piece inside the Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder book.

The Nightgaunt and Leng Spider have already proven they’re worthy of your consideration by defeating one foe. Which one is bad enough to enter the final battle? That’s up to you to decide.

Here is what you need to do: In the comments below, sound off with which creature you think deserves to win.

The Stars Are Right! The Great Stretch Goal has Arrived!
over 8 years ago – Sun, Apr 03, 2016 at 07:21:36 PM

For those of you who want the quick and dirty list, here's what's in this Stretch Goal!

• Foulness from the Stars: Brain Cylinders
• Shadows out of Space: Quachil Uttaus
• Shadows out of Time: Ubbo Sathla
• Campaign Launch Adventure (PDF)
• Mythos Cats added to the book
• FREE Hero Labs Data Files
• $50 Bonus: High Priest Model
• $100 Bonus: High Priest Model + Tcho-Tcho High Priest Model + an extra model from each of the Horde Packs

Foulness from the Stars: Brain Cylinders

"There was a harmless way to extract a brain, and a way to keep the organic residue alive during its absence. The bare, compact cerebral matter was then immersed in an occasionally replenished fluid within an ether-tight cylinder of a metal mined in Yuggoth, certain electrodes reaching through and connecting at will with elaborate instruments capable of duplicating the three vital faculties of sight, hearing, and speech. For the winged fungus-beings to carry the brain-cylinders intact through space was an easy matter." (The Whisperer in Darkness; H. P Lovecraft)

NOTE: This image of the Brain Cylinder is a piece of concept art. The final sculpt is not finished at this time.

Brain Cylinders can hold the brain of any sentient being - human, elf and alien alike. Once contained in the cylinders, themselves, the disembodied minds of the original creature become effectively immortal, and can be used with any number of devices, allowing it to see, hear and speak. Mi-go frequently use the cylinders to allow long distance travel for humans - to other planets, or locations in the multiverse. However, other applications and technologies are also available. For instance, it would be possible to craft a cybernetic body for a Brain Cylinder.

When The Great Stretch Goal is funded, we will include a Brain Cylinder model in the Foulness from the Stars Adventure Kit and add details about Brain Cylinders to the book. You will be able to create Brain Cylinder NPCs and cybernetic monstrosities.

More terryinging then losing control of your mind, is having it preserved to watch and communicate with the living!

The cylinder itself is made from earthly materials, and can even be reproduced by humans. The true alien technology is not the cylinder, but the fluid inside. This material is partly biological in origin, partly other-dimensional. It constantly repairs and maintains the healthy state of the brain, preventing deterioration and maintaining permanence. It even prevents diseases and provides effective immortality. The cylinder is self-powered and never runs out of energy – it can keep the brain operating for millennia. It always emits a slight glow, and particles of light can be seen “crawling” up and down the brain and brainstem. The transparent portion of most cylinders is made from armor-glass, and is sword-proof. The Mi-Go have a large variety of devices they can hook up to their cylinders, including means of interrogation and even torture and punishment.

The true horror, and a great secret of the Mi-Go, is that it is as possible to plug in a whole new BODY for a cylinder to control as a simple voice or vision machine. For this purpose, they use bio-chemical-mechanical creations that are partly surgical in nature, mostly organic, and partly cybernetic. Typically the brain cylinder is clearly visible in a clear organic dome on the front or side of the Thing. They are mostly fungus, though with some crab- or spider-like parts, and they can speak mechanically through attached loudspeakers.

Shadows out of Space: Quachil Uttaus

"It was a figure no larger than a young child, but sere and shriveled as some millennial mummy. Its hairless head, it’s unfeatured face, borne on a neck of skeleton thinness, were lined with a thousand reticulated wrinkles. The body was like that of some monstrous, withered abortion that had never drawn breath. The pipy arms, ending in bony claws, were outthrust as if ankylosed in a posture of an eternal dreadful groping." (The Treader of the Dust; Clark Ashton Smith)

When The Great Stretch Goal is funded, we will include a Quachil Uttaus model in the Shadows out of Space Adventure Kit.

The Treader of the Dust, from Clark Ashton Smith’s eponymous story, is a terrifying demonic entity. Beware even reading his summoning formulae, for he may appear.

Shadows out of Time: Ubbo Sathla

"For Ubbo-Sathla is the source and the end. Before the coming of Zhothaqquah or Yok-Zothoth or Kthulhut from the stars, Ubbo-Sathla dwelt in the steaming fens of the newmade Earth: a mass without head or members, spawning the grey, formless efts of the prime and the grisly prototypes of terrene life... And all earthly life, it is told, shall go back at last through the great circle of time to Ubbo-Sathla." (The Book of Eibon; Clark Ashton Smith)

When The Great Stretch Goal is funded, we will include an Ubba Sathla model in the Shadows Out of Time Campaign Collection. Now you have the creature that guards those items important to the horrifying gods of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The primeval being placed upon Earth to guard the Tablets of the Gods.

Campaign Launch Adventure

"While my chosen form of story-writing is obviously a special and perhaps a narrow one, it is none the less a persistent and permanent type of expression, as old as literature itself. There will always be a small percentage of persons who feel a burning curiosity about unknown outer space, and a burning desire to escape from the prison-house of the known and the real into those enchanted lands of incredible adventure and infinite possibilities which dreams open up to us, and which things like deep woods, fantastic urban towers, and flaming sunsets momentarily suggest." (Notes on Writing Weird Fiction; H. P. Lovecraft)

This is an adventure designed specifically for introducing players and characters alike to the Cthulhu Mythos. Written to be used with characters of any level; we’ll include multiple challenge rating choices for Game Masters, so that they can tailor the challenges to the adventuring party. This gives your gaming group the benefit of being able to roll up new characters or have existing characters at a higher level enter into the adventure. Additionally, it is ‘world neutral’ so it can be dropped into any world setting. Lastly, it allows you to use the great miniatures you’ve purchased from this Kickstarter!

We have a couple of things up our sleeve for this adventure that I'm really excited about! Anyone who's ever ran in any of Sandy's adventures knows that he has great ideas!

Mythos Cats

"It was a stupendous sight while the torches lasted, and Carter had never before seen so many cats. Black, grey, and white; yellow, tiger, and mixed; common, Persian, and Marix; Thibetan, Angora, and Egyptian; all were there in the fury of battle, and there hovered over them some trace of that profound and inviolate sanctity which made their goddess great in the temples of Bubastis. They would leap seven strong at the throat of an almost-human or the pink tentacled snout of a toad-thing and drag it down savagely to the fungous plain, where myriads of their fellows would surge over it and into it with the frenzied claws and teeth of a divine battle-fury. Carter had seized a torch from a stricken slave, but was soon overborne by the surging waves of his loyal defenders. Then he lay in the utter blackness hearing the clangour of war and the shouts of the victors, and feeling the soft paws of his friends as they rushed to and fro over him in the fray." (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath; H. P. Lovecraft)

There are different variants of intelligent cats throughout the Cthulhu Mythos. There are Dreamland cats, cats from Saturn; it has even been proposed there are different cat races from every planet in the solar system. There is no knowing how many subspecies of cats exist on planets and moons throughout the multiverse.

After funding The Great Stretch Goal, the book will include everything you will need to know to play a cat as a Player Character race. Additionally, we will include different Mythos cat races to use as your Player Character race or as a the foundation for creating your own.

Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder would be cosmically unbalanced if it had rules for playing a Zoog as a PC race and didn't have rules for playing their arch nemesis cats, too. Not only can Mythos cats be "furry" fun, they can also be scary and powerful entities with inter-dimensional abilities and diabolical intellect.

Hero Lab Support

You asked about Hero Lab support. Based on the survey we ran, we found someone to make your requests a reality!

Every backer that receives the PDF or hardback of the book will also be able to claim a code allowing them FREE access to the Hero Lab data files for Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder.

Don't have Hero Lab? Fear not. If you add $30 to your pledge, we'll also issue you a Hero Lab license alongside your data files. And since Hero Lab comes with one additional choice of game system, you can choose the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and have everything you need to make Cthulhu Mythos creatures using Hero Lab.

Bonus for $50+ Backers

If we fund The Great Stretch Goal, every backer that pledges $50 of more will receive one FREE High Priest model.

Bonus for $100+ Backers

If we fund The Great Stretch Goal, every backer that pledges $100 or more will not only get a high priest model, but also a FREE Tcho-Tcho High Priest model.

In addition, every backer pledging $100 or more will also receive one additional model from each of the Horde Packs (Cultist, Deep One, Mythos Ghast, etc).