Shoggoth Lord
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Basic Information

A shoggoth lord is a putative but unconfirmed offshoot of the shoggoth - smaller and smarter than its primordial kin, it is capable of passing to some degree as human (albeit generally a large, doughy and hairless example of the species with a vaguely repellent mien). Opinions vary as to whether the passing is "merely" a masterwork of morphological control by the shoggoth lord or whether some of them hollow out an appropriate human specimen and then wear it as a disguise. These creatures are at least as smart as humans and most of them very old and cunning.

The Cthulhu mythos being what it is, it is entirely plausible for some of these critters at least to know magic.

Despite the "lord" bit, it is not clear as to whether that have any particular authority over or even influence on their generic relatives (which are themselves of unknown intelligence).

Sources

(originally) Fat Face by Michael Shea
See also Albert Shiney.

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

  • The original shoggoth lord ("Fat Face") seemed to be content to hang out in human civilisation snacking on stray animals and the occasional incautious human … Mr Shiney, on the other hand, went out of his way to encourage human population growth by a variety of "philanthropic" schemes and technical advances. But then he was actually "fattening the flock" for the coming of the Great Old Ones. Fat Face's lot are probably the better deal in context.
  • One of the Laundryverse adventure modules included a shoggoth lord that had taken over an oil company CEO and arranged for a rig to drill into an undersea cavern where the Deep Ones had a number of regular shoggoths stored. This, obviously, was bad for a wide range of reasons.
  • As an interim position, consider an appropriate cult stashing a small shoggoth inside the hollowed out skin of a grossly obese human: unlike a shoggoth lord, it doesn't need to actually pass as such, just not obviously be an eldritch monster-thing. It doesn't need to speak or move - sitting on a (reinforced) couch, moving only to push food into its mouth and grunting in response to attempts to communicate is within the pattern of normal behaviour for the sort of person it is pretending to be, and none of those behaviours (except maybe moving the arm) require anything complicated of the beast. You can even stash a binding circle under the couch if the thing is recalcitrant.

"Your uncle … not very communicative is he?"
The snotty, mishapen boy rolled his eyes at the vast bulk on the couch and snigger to himself as though at a private joke.
"Mistah, uncle Bubba weren't all together there before … an' now? Now he ain't there at all." The by sniggered again.
"Looks there's a lot there to me". Apparently unamused by the dig at his uncle's bulk the boy gave a sly look.
"'course you'se shoomin' that that is Uncle Bubba, whereas…" but at this point he was cut short by the entrance of the great bulk of the family matriarch at the kitchen doorway.
"Fo' shame Zeke, talkin' of yo' poor Unlca like that i'front of company. You get gone or you'll feel the back o' my hand!". As the boy fled into the heat and sunlight outside the huge woman waddled over to another of the equally lumpy and misshapen chairs and flopped down on it.

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