Page 16 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

ost races maintain as part of their culture deep-sea predator, but something that combines elements Illus. by D. Kovacs
elaborate creation myths, stories they pass down of all three.
through the generations with great respect, for
these myths tell of how their race came to be. EXTERNAL ANATOMY
Often, one race’s creation myths are at odds with another’s, An average aboleth measures 20 feet long and weighs

but this is of little concern, since a conflicting tale can easily 6,500 pounds, although many live to grow much larger.
be discounted as sheer fabrication. The largest aboleth encountered by reputable adventur-
Not all races have creation myths. The aboleths do not ers measured just over 40 feet long, but certainly even
share myth-stories for a simple reason. They believe it an larger specimens lurk in the deepest reaches of the

indisputable fact that they were the first, the primal race that unseen realm. Their streamlined shape efficiently

existed before nearly all else, second only to the unknowable slithers through the primeval seas of the ancient past
Elder Evils that spawned them. They know this because as well as through the contemporary underground
they remember the ancient past with crystal clarity. All else seas that fill the lower reaches of the world.

in the world is a pale imitation of their primal perfection. Perhaps the most distinctive of an aboleth’s features
Even the deities themselves are subject to derision, for the are its four tentacles. Used primarily to capture,
aboleths know that they predate the gods. They have seen the subdue, and transform prey and slaves, they serve the
world destroyed countless times by apocalypses both natural creature as a means of locomotion when out of the

and artificial, yet each time the world remade itself and the water. The powerful tentacles grab nearby surfaces
aboleths survived. They are truly nightmares out of time. and literally drag the creature’s writhing bulk along
behind. Each tentacle is little more than a power-
ful coil of muscles wrapped in a sheath of mucus
ABOLETH ANATOMY membrane. Down the length of each tentacle runs

Superficially, an aboleth resembles a fish. Yet it takes only a single primary slime duct (labeled 1 on the diagram
a few moments of observation to realize that an aboleth is on the next page) as well as countless capillary ducts
something else entirely—not fish, nor squid, nor boneless that transport the specialized slime created in its

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