Malshapers

Illus. by Daarken

EL 10 (Faint Sign): Stories abound of healing springs and mysterious adepts who control them. Throngs of people fl ock to the springs to be cured. The PCs are asked to investigate, perhaps by concerned authorities suspecting chicanery, or by a church or healing organization afraid of competition. Upon arrival, the PCs quickly discover that the waters do seem to have a curative effect, but the springs are plagued by bizarre aberrations. The “adepts” at the healing springs are in fact agents of the Malshapers. They watch the PCs and notify Irthicax Vane about their activities and effectiveness. EL 15 (Moderate Sign): Reports of “ghosts” circulate in small cities. These mysterious entities seem to be doing no harm, but weird events occur soon after their appearance. Strange rain falls for several days, often from a cloudless sky. Doors swell and burst with rats, roofs spawn spiders, and bats erupt from the sides of temples. The visitors are Malshaper observers who report the PCs’ investigations to Irthicax Vane. He warns his colleagues, who signal him to take action. At the same time, powerful undead appear in the cities and destroy the swarms in an odd frenzy. If the PCs parley with intelligent undead, they learn that the sudden swarms are a sign of a corrupt form of positive energy. Sages might ask the PCs to be on the lookout for legends about the appearance of a red comet—a distant, heretofore unknown specimen has appeared in the night sky. EL 17 (Strong Sign): The fi ery comet is now easily visible at night and can even be discerned during daylight. The undead are leaving the cities for unknown destinations. Civil authorities want the PCs to monitor this exodus and learn if the creatures are preparing for a major assault.

Meanwhile, Irthicax Vane makes his fi rst move against the PCs, sending Malshaper agents against them while they are on this spying mission. The agents (typically 4th-level rogues and bards) are no match for the PCs, though their numbers increase with every attack. They are disturbingly disfi gured, with distended jaws, prominent or horned brows, protruding teeth, or extra tongues. After each attack, more of the strange rain falls. Greater swarms appear, along with ravaged corpses, some seemingly fallen from a great height. After the last attack, the rains begin again. Then, an object falls from the sky, forming a small crater nearby. Malshaper corpses twitch with life, becoming aberrations that slither to the crater’s edge. A few moments thereafter, an impossible horror emerges—an aboleth mage (MM 9), which has enslaved the risen Malshapers to serve as its “legs.” This variant aberration is capable of breathing air as well as water. EL 20 (Overwhelming Sign): Ragnorra, blazing with a miles-long tail of corrupted essence, slams into the world. Most of her body is consumed in the impact, which creates a superheated crater 30 miles in diameter. The explosion can be heard a thousand miles away, and the tremors are strong enough to knock down buildings a hundred miles distant. The force and heat of the collision spews pulverized earth into the atmosphere. This material, along with spores, ash, and fragments of Ragnorra’s body, forms a towering plume visible across the continent. A twilight pall settles Ragnorra has arrived to remake the world in her image over the world, and a deadly, corrupting residue constantly drifts down. Larger fragments of the elder evil’s body spontaneously generate aberrations, some quite powerful. The surge of twisted life energy corrupts and kills the living, then raises them as aberrations again and again. Creatures that have Intelligence scores of 6 or higher become

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Ragnorra has twisted life not just on the Material Plane, but also on the Ethereal Plane and Plane of Shadow. A handful of refugees from her prior ravages on these planes formed the Malshapers, a cultlike group dedicated to helping the Mother of Monsters perform her grotesque art. These fanatics believe they have a duty to guide Ragnorra to every suitable world. Scholars note, though, that they never target worlds on their home planes. The Malshapers watch the Astral Plane for signs of Ragnorra’s ascent. Once they detect movement, they scout out a suitable location. They strew samples of native life along her likely path, then redraw the astral runes to lure Ragnorra to the target world. Fleshwarpers (Lords of Madness 189) are common among the Malshapers, as are psions uncarnate (EPH 149) and other students of shunned arts that warp body and soul.