Elder Evils

action, we instead wasted time on pointless wrangling. Only now
can we see the hideous truth.”
This sign first manifests with accelerated healing. Soon,
though, living creatures and inanimate objects become
covered with festering boils, which burst to expel swarms
of pests. As the sign strengthens, wounds close almost
instantly, but flesh grows pustulent and bones distend
as life becomes corrupted. At its peak, all undead but
the most powerful and hidden are obliterated. The dead
rise as gibbering aberrations, and the living mutate into
twisted progeny.
Effect: This sign manifests as a surge of corrupt positive
energy that resculpts life on an entire world.
Details: Ragnorra (Chapter 7) is associated with this sign.
See page 97 for more information.
ADDITIONAL SIGNS
When creating your own elder evil, use the following signs
as inspiration. Alter the effects to fit the theme of your elder
evil when necessary.
Alien Skies
“I peered into the heavens, searching for familiar sights, but found
nothing I knew. All was strange and disquieting, as though we
were adrift in alien seas.”
After the sun sets, the stars twinkle in the heavens as
always—but they are strange. They glow luridly with weird
colors, spreading fear and wonder in all who behold them.
Familiar constellations vanish, re-form, or shift to new
locations. As the sign reaches its peak, distorting the arcane
energies of the world, unsettling auroras and intense meteor
showers illuminate the night skies.
Effect: This sign interferes with arcane magic, making
spells harder to cast successfully. When a spell is cast, the
sign warps its effects, often with disastrous results.
Faint: The DCs of all Concentration checks related to casting
arcane spells increase by 5.
Moderate: Arcane spells are cast at –2 caster level. A character
whose effective caster level drops to 0 or lower cannot
cast arcane spells at all.
Strong: Arcane spells and spell-like abilities are impeded,
meaning that a caster must succeed on a Spellcraft check
(DC 20 + the level of the spell) or lose the spell or spell slot
without effect.
Overwhelming: In addition to impeding arcane magic,
the sign distorts its effects. A caster who succeeds on the
Spellcraft check to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must
then make a second Spellcraft check with the same DC. On a
success, the spell takes effect normally; otherwise, something
unusual occurs, as if casting in an area of wild magic (see
DMG 149 and the associated table).
Variants: If your campaign includes psionics or variant
forms of magic (such as soulmelds or truenaming from the
Tome of Magic supplement), this sign might interfere with
them instead. Use the effects described above or tailor them
to suit the type of magic involved. Alternatively, you might
have this sign disrupt the deities’ connection to the world,
twisting divine magic instead of arcane.
Appalling Fecundity
“The peasants believed they had been blessed: Their crops grew
quickly, women bore healthy children in weeks rather than months,
and the harvest was the best ever. At first, life was good. But the
growth never slowed. Everything birthed and died with such
speed that we could hear Nature suffering. Disease was rampant,
and vermin spread it everywhere; there was no end to the screams
of the afflicted.”
Growth and healing are accelerated. At first crops and animals
grow and reproduce with unnatural swiftness, and injuries
vanish overnight. As the sign intensifies, these early benefits
run out of control. Fruit bursts and rots on the vine before it
can be harvested. Weeds crack pavement and damage buildings.
Clouds of vermin boil up from the earth, laying eggs
that hatch and spawn new life in moments, and with them
come equally virulent disease.
Effects: This sign forces living things to grow, ripen, and
die at an alarming rate.
Faint: Ordinary plants are enhanced as if by the plant growth
spell (PH 262; CL 20th). Crops benefit from the enrichment
effect, while other vegetation suffers from overgrowth and
chokes open spaces.
Moderate: All areas of natural growth are affected as if
by the entangle spell (PH 227; CL 20th). Each week, living
creatures must succeed on a DC 10 Fortitude save or acquire
the pseudonatural template (Complete Arcane 160).
Strong: Living creatures that require sleep lose the ability
to do so, as their bodies fidget and their thoughts race. Physical
exhaustion sets in, and eventually minds break. A living
creature can go without sleep for a number of days equal
to its Constitution modifier (minimum one). Thereafter
it is fatigued, remaining in this state for a number of days
equal to its Constitution modifier (again, minimum one); if
it would become fatigued during that time, it is exhausted
instead. Each day after that period, the creature takes 1 point
of Wisdom damage. If the total Wisdom damage exceeds its
Hit Dice, the creature is affected as if by an insanity spell.
Once its Wisdom score drops to 0, the creature becomes
unconscious but cannot recover lost Wisdom naturally.
Only a sleep or deep slumber spell or equivalent effect can
grant rest for a time, after which the effects of the sign
begin anew.
Overwhelming: Flesh grows and heals with terrible speed.
Each hour, all living creatures gain 1d6 temporary hit points.
For each hour that a creature’s temporary hit point total
exceeds its full normal total, it must succeed on a DC 20
Fortitude save or explode in a shower of gore.
Dry Winds
“From the north came a hot wind, scouring the clouds from the
skies. It leached the water from our rivers and lakes, and the mighty
oceans receded with each gust.”
Unnaturally warm winds blow from an atypical direction,
growing hotter as the sign intensifies and carrying away
all moisture.
Effects: The dry winds destroy water as they whip across
the land. Eventually the winds grow so hot they ignite
whatever they touch, transforming the world into a flaming
ball of death.
CHAPTER 1
EVIL DOES
NOT SLEEP
9