As mentioned before, one of the things the Spellplague did a century ago was to bring parts of the world of Abeir into Toril, and vice-versa. These transplanted chunks of geography also brought whoever happened to be living on them. And one of these whoevers was the Abolethic Sovereignity, a kingdom ruled by these aberrant creatures.

Shortly after arriving, the Sovereignity built a flying citadel named Xxiphu to act as their headquarters. Interested in studying the phenomenon that isekaied them, the aboleths started searching for pockets of the chaotic magic that makes up the Spellplague and sending in research teams to investigate them.

One of the pockets they found was in the Underdark beneath Neverwinter. A branch of the Sovereignity built a permanent base around it and have been studying it for the past few decades, occasionally kidnapping people from the surface to serve as test subjects.

When the eruption happened, it opened a chasm on the surface that went all the way down to the aboleth base, potentially exposing it to curious delvers from the surface. Moving the base was not an option, so they instead fortified it and began sending the results of their early experiments up the chasm as a way to discourage explorers. This worked for a long time, since the city was a mess.

When Neverember arrived and began rebuilding, the aboleths felt threatened and began taking more active steps to divert the lord’s attention elsewhere and to infiltrate his organization.

Goals

After a century of research the aboleths have a pretty good handle on the properties of the Spellplague, and they have a planned use for it.

You see, they know where Maegera is. Their entry in the book off-handedly remarks that it was a brief awakening of the primordial that caused that city-destroying eruption. The AbSov’s ultimate plan is to expose the primordial to the Spellplague, using the techniques they developed to then dominate her mind or control her in some other fashion. With a genuine primordial under their command, the Sovereignity has a real shot at taking over the whole world.

In the meantime, they’re using that expertise on a steady stream of victims brought from the surface by their agents. These unfortunates are exposed to the Spellplague in a controlled manner. Those who fail to display the proper strength of mind and soul after initial exposure to the Plague become the monsters regularly released upon the surface. Those who pass this test are then subject to a very specific series of tortures and procedures that turn them into near-mindless members of the Choir that sings the Symphony of Madness.

This Symphony can channel the chaotic energies of the Spellplague in ways that the aboleths can control, and it’s what they use to mutate their kidnapped victims. They also use it to broadcast nightmares all over the region, which afflict its more psychically sensitive individuals. The stronger it gets the more people are affected. This could eventually be the tool they use to tame Maegera, or could lead to the development of that tool depending on the GM’s designs.

Player Tie-Ins

The nightmares mentioned in the descriptions of Oghma’s Faithful and the Spellscarred Harbinger come from the Symphony of Madness. The latter in particular has very strong thematic ties to the AbSov - their starting hook sends the PC right into their clutches, as we’ll see soon.

If the GM decides to make the AbSov a major antagonist in the campaign, then the Symphony’s nightmares will likely begin affecting more and more people. Its effects are not set in stone, but the book gives various suggestions:

  • They might make victims irritable and violent.

  • They might drain healing surges after a long rest.

  • They might impost long-lasting penalties from lack of sleep or psychological trauma.

  • They might provide hints about where to find their source.

Stepping up the frequency or severity of these effects over the course of the campaign will provide a very strong incentive for PCs to find the source of these dreams and shut it down, leading to a big confrontation against the AbSov in their home base.

One way the PCs might protect themselves from the nightmares is to buy these creepy little dolls sold by Helm’s Hold. If you place one of these Dreamthief Dolls under your pillow at night, you won’t experience the nightmares. Rumor has it that the dolls send the nightmares they catch to the Hold’s patients, but Rohini, who runs the hospice at the Hold, says they’re just imbued with minor protective blessings (she’s lying; the rumors are true).

Relationships

We already know the AbSov is busily infiltrating New Neverwinter. Here we also learn that they sort of disdain the Ashmadai, because all of the cult’s attempts to infiltrate them have only fed them more converts (including Rohini). They are however more circumspect when dealing with the Thayans or the Netherese, because they fear the powerful magic those factions might be able to bring to bear if they call on their far-away epic bosses.

Impressions

This is a comparatively huge entry with an extensive encounters section, as we’ll see in the next post. This leads me to think the Aboleths are intended to be one of the campaign’s top antagonists. A campaign where you start opposing (or even working for) New Neverwinter and uncover the aboleth conspiracy seems to be an easy one to make with the book’s default setup.