Caterpillar Elevators (Part I)

Gnomish cities (or "skitter dens") are woven of web and sculpted of wax beneath bioluminescent lichen in vast underground grottos. In Cult of Aois the "deep gnomes" are the lords of insects. The deep gnomes' mastery of insect-husbandry is peerless because gnomes are taught at a young age the art of placating and commanding dire bugs. Dire wyrms and dire bees willingly cooperate with gnomes because they all expect to benefit mutually. By residing in the same delve they offer their partners communal protection from would be predators. Additionally, the gnomish presence seems to offer an uncanny boon to colony productivity. Gnome inhabited skitter dens have more resilient bug-labor, finer wyrm-webs, and purer honey than would be found in the natural environment.

Picture Link.

The bugs have long worshipped a bizarre pantheon.  Since joining the gnomes they have steadily impressed the influence of their alien mysticism. Even the dead are offered to the brood -- skitter dens generally offer corpses (both bug and gnome) to it's hungry. As I'm writing this article, I'm realizing that the Dune vibe lingers still. Well, no matter. Gnomes are generally against burial or cremation, and believe salvation is easier found from inside the digestive tract of a 20-foot-long millipede. Skitter dens usually consist of two or three family lines, but it is not unusual for a gnome patriarch or matriarch to have several spouses and dozens of children each. If the players aren't too intimidated by the gnome's inhuman cohorts, they might be able to hire some rather valuable hirelings.

Read Part II. 

The Illithid Faction

Having multiple factions in a dungeon encourages the suspension of disbelief. NPC's from factions usually seem more organic and significant because their faction lends them purpose. The dungeon with factions in conflict feels less like a caricatured fun-house, and more like an environment with the potential for evolving conflicts and resolutions. With that said -- the Illithid or "mindflayer" faction is one of the first factions my players might be unfortunate enough to encounter in the Cult of Aois megadungeon.

As mindflayers have the tendency to be rather potent adversaries, the level 1 players will probably not encounter these monsters in our first few sessions. But it is likely that plenty of the mindflayer's minions will be an ever-looming threat. I'm placing such an emphasis on the Illithid because my aim is to craft the Cult of Aois as a sci fantasy megadungeon. I've been cooking up ideas for some sickening and depraved mindflayer thralls, and I will post more about these minions after our game tomorrow night.

Every faction has a goal. In Cult of Aois, the mindflayer faction seeks to infiltrate the dwarven capital. The illithids hope to harness the mythical dwarven "Runewright," an artifact which is believed to be able to re-open the illithid's now-dead portal to the "space realm." The illithid are an antediluvian race that was once guided by their patron deity across the stars. But their deity ascended eons ago, joining the ranks of the forgotten. Their god abandoned his people as all forgotten do. Since then, the illithid have brooded beneath the darkness of their "material realm"prison while cursing the name of the god who used then stranded them.