Aboleths

Inhabitants of the surface world don’t usually give much thought to aboleths, but no society in Underland has the luxury of being able to ignore them. The insidious aquatic schemers have their tentacles in everything, but that doesn’t mean they present a unified threat. In fact, while aboleths in general wish to rebuild their lost empire, individually each believes that they should be the ruler of that empire, a notion that frequently draws them into conflict with one another.

Sinister Designs. In rare instances, groups of aboleths cooperate with each other, and they can be terrifying adversaries when they do. These more organized pods of aboleths often dwell together in domed underwater cities, pursuing grandiose goals such as flooding the world, opening gates to other realms, or triggering an aboleth apotheosis. Rather than engaging in violence directly, they dispatch humanoid agents like aboleth champions and thralls to recruit expendable forces of mercenaries and adventurers to fight on their behalf.

Enemies and Allies. Aboleths have a special hatred for grimlocks. The grimlocks’ geostabilization machines often complicate or outright thwart the aboleths’ schemes to sink the continents of the surface world. The two groups are in a perpetual state of war, a conflict that dates back to the time before the grimlocks lost their sight. Aboleths have a much more amicable relationship with the deep dwarves. Neither group trusts anyone much, which makes their transactional dealings reassuringly familiar to both parties. Deep dwarves also tend to be exceptionally tough, which makes them prized as mercenaries.