Doctor Agatha Shiny

Doctor Agatha Shiny

Image © @iguanodont

[Writing this entry was very cathartic. Doctor Shiny is not only my Villain OC (and trust me, there’s nothing even remotely redeeming about her), but also a way to process the trauma I experienced in grad school. You may have noticed that “collegial mad scientists” are a recurring theme in my work; Doctor Shiny is their boss in the Inner Sea, at least as far as mere mortals go. I’ve been meaning to create a Legion of Doom in my campaigns, and this is as good an excuse as I’m likely to get. As one of the most powerful alchemists on Golarion, I gave Doctor Shiny access to a ton of weird extracts; I’m just posting a link to the Archives of Nethys master list than linking to them individually.

Also? Without any visual reference, Iguanodont managed to make Doctor Shiny look an awful lot like me. Spooky.]

Doctor Agatha Shiny CR 20 NE Humanoid This woman is fat and cheerful, her brown hair done up in a messy ponytail. She is dressed in a lab coat, heavy gloves and boots. Two tentacles grow from her back, each studded with sightless eyes.

Everyone in Absalom knows who Doctor Agatha Shiny is; she’s a celebrity scientist. Head of the Biology Department at Endiron School in Eastgate, her lectures on everything from diet to material science to biodiversity are popular and well attended by the public for entertainment and education purposes. Her column, “Ask Doctor Shiny”, is carried by several broadsheets and circulations. “Ask Doctor Shiny” is a slang phrase in Absalom meaning roughly, “how should I know?” Her various grad students and colleagues have nothing but nice things to say about her. Because the ones who talk out of turn have a habit of ending up dead or transformed.

Despite her jolly exterior, Doctor Shiny is a sadist of the highest caliber, and someone who is disgusted with humanity in general. It is her studied opinion that humans have been the dominant species on Golarion for far too long, and the ultimate aim of her research is to find a suitable replacement. Her primary laboratory for these experiments is the Puddles, which is increasingly home to murderous monsters of her own design. Doctor Shiny and the headmaster of her college, Tontartigan Dellby, have a system of mutual blackmail; both knows the broad strokes of each other’s schemes, enough to expose and humiliate the other if pushed. Agatha knows that she would win any conflict if it were to arise—she would merely shred Dellby with her bare hands and replace him with a simulacrum that obeyed her every command.

Doctor Shiny’s main lab is underground at Endiron School, but she maintains laboratories throughout Absalom and the entire Inner Sea region, each one of which has a doppelganger simulacrum she can project her mind into. Each lab is a facility for collecting monsters from the region, running tests on their physical and magical properties, and incorporating their characteristics into fleshwarped abominations. Her raw materials for fleshwarping often include those aforementioned recalcitrant students, as well as indigents, adventurers and other people who go unmissed. Those that would be missed are replaced with simulacra, or turned into dominated sleeper agents. Doctor Shiny has done some self-experimentation; tentacles grow from her back (she keeps these under her lab coat in her role as a public figure), and her internal organs are no longer fully human.

Like any good scientist, Doctor Shiny maintains a network of colleagues, almost all of whom are just as depraved as she is. Her Number One Minion is a blue slaad named Ranna, who was once a graduate student named Marina Rhinne, and to most of the world is still known by that name and identity. Ranna serves Doctor Shiny as an assassin, collection agent and lover. Doctor Shiny was the first contact point in Absalom for a species of fleshwarping monsters from Sarusan who have decided that the Inner Sea is ripe for their exploitation—these are the zern. She is also the chair of CIS, the Committee for Ingenious Science. CIS is a network of mad scientists throughout Avistan and Garund who occasionally report on their findings and brainstorm new ways to exert their will on the world. And lastly, Agatha Shiny is a religious woman. Her primary deity is Shub Nugganoth, but she sees the Goat of the Woods as the leader of a small pantheon of gods and demigods devoted to nightmares of evolution and knowledge at any cost. These six deities are the kyton demagogue Raetorgash, the sahkil tormentor The Vermillion Mother, the daemonic harbinger Deceid, the demon lord Abraxas, Shub Nugganoth and her green (wo)man daughter, Briarpatch. Doctor Shiny refers to these six as the Xammux, a zern word meaning “council”.  

New Material: Shoggomer Shoggomer is one of Doctor Shiny’s miscellaneous inventions, although she typically refers to it as “self repairing polymer” in public. It is a form of latex, made with both tree sap and fleshwarping reagents derived from shoggoth ichor. Shoggomer can be used to make clothing, or any form of armor typically made from leather, hide or fur. As it is flexible, it cannot be used to make shields or typically metal armors. Shoggomer armor reduces its spell failure chance by 10%, increases max Dexterity bonuses by 2, and decreases armor check penalties by 2. Materials made of shoggomer heal at a rate of 2 hit points per day, or 1 per day if they have the broken condition. While healing, shoggomer materials manifest sightless eyes, small mouths or small flapping tendrils—this both institutes an armor check penalty of 2 when worn, and creatures within 30 feet must succeed a DC 15 Will save or be shaken for 1 minute by the eerie sight. A creature is only affected by the fear effect of repairing shoggomer once in a 24 hour period, whether it succeeds or fails the save. Shoggomer items are always of masterwork quality

Type of Shoggomer Item       Item Price Modifier Clothing                                    +750 gp Light armor                               +1000 gp Medium armor                           +1500 gp Other items                               +450 gp/pound

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First new art of 2024 and it's a figure commission for Kashti of their Kenku Misery! 🪶

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DND is all about imagination, the wonder of a world unlike our own, exploring and telling stories with friends.

And there are also the horrors.

Nothic, by me. I’m going to rest my wrist now bc owie that’s a lotta hatching

That's a neat observation. Like it's natural to want your character to already be cool, fun or interesting in some way. But the best stuff is when they get to do cool things or become special and interesting during the campaign. Whether they're already interesting or literally Some Guy, the real magic trick might be making a character that's gonna react and grow in satisfying ways. Not that your character has to experience an 'arc' to be worth playing, but that's what I've been chasing lately. It's a real joy if the player and the DM are in sync and have the experience to make it happen.

I've finally got my hands on Baldur's Gate 3 and enjoying it so far. But one thing that's funny to me as an experienced DM is the crazy backstories the companions have.

"I'm a famous devil hunting folk hero!" "I'm the handpicked gladiator of a demon lord!" "I've got an important artifact tha-"

YOU'RE ALL LEVEL TWO!

Losing Control in D&D 5E

I love trawling through Pathfinder 1E to find ideas for builds, character concepts, homebrew mechanics and encounters. There's just so much content for it on the Open Gaming Network, it's pretty much a bottomless well of ideas that translate pretty well to other TTRPGs.

But D&D 5E is the game I'm actually playing right now, and adapting stuff is effort. And since I still have lycanthropy and Path of the Beast barbarians on the brain right now, here's some thoughts on berserk rage and losing control. (I should probably get Baldur's Gate 3 to check out the Dark Urge as well, huh?)

Art by Borja Pindado from the card Monstrous Rage. Now I don't think you actually need to have mechanics that take away control of your character if you want to mess around with this idea. If you want to play a character that's possessed, a werewolf or otherwise loses control sometimes, you can just... roleplaying that happening. Freak out, make bad choices, do things you'll regret when you're back to normal. As long as the GM and the party are onboard, it'll probably be fun, and a good GM will reward suboptimal play in service of roleplay in other ways.

But what mechanics are there for losing it? Even if you don't hard-code them into your game, you can keep them in mind. Lots of players impose a private Wisdom saving throw on themselves when their character is tempted by something. So here's a couple more toys for that toybox!

Some of these are things you can do yourself as a player, others you need to sort out with the GM.

Order of the Lycan - Bloodlust

If you start your turn with fewer hit points than half your hit point maximum, you must succeed on a DC 8 Wisdom saving throw or move directly toward the nearest creature and use the Attack action against that creature. If you’re concentrating on a spell or are under an effect that prevents you from concentrating (such as the barbarian’s Rage feature), you automatically fail this saving throw.

Unlike the rage, the Lycan's Hybrid Transformation doesn't stop you from casting spells, but it does have a spicy downside similar to the Crown of Madness spell. I think this is a good way to represent a character that is completely lost in the sauce during combat.

Feeblemind

On a failed save, the creature's Intelligence and Charisma scores become 1. The creature can't cast spells, activate magic items, understand language, or communicate in any intelligible way. The creature can, however, identify its friends, follow them, and even protect them.

There are some evil enchantment spells out there, but Feeblemind might be the most upsetting to think about. I wouldn't usually recommend using this spell on players given how hard it is to remove, but if you want to bring your character low for dramatic effect, this is one way to do it.

Cannibal Compulsion

Whenever the accursed creature sees a creature of its own type within 30 feet take necrotic damage or a critical hit with a piercing or slashing weapon, it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or begin plotting to eat that creature’s flesh, but the end result of the accursed creature’s plotting is always a cannibalistic feast.

This particular curse is probably a bit disruptive for regular play, but I think it does a good job of demonstrating how you might embody a disturbing compulsion in-game (the above is just a snippet).

You can swap out the thing that your character is terrified of/terrifyingly compelled towards for just about anything, whatever fits your character concept. The main downside of stuff like this is that you and/or the GM need to be constantly looking out for the thing that triggers it.

Confusion

This spell assaults and twists creatures' minds, spawning delusions and provoking uncontrolled actions.

If you've ever failed a saving throw to this spell you'll know that it feels almost as bad as being paralyzed or stunned, so I'd recommend toning it down a bit for regular use. Skipping your turn isn't fun.

In fact, you probably want to tinker with the table quite a lot, replacing the 'do nothing' options with actions more fitting to whatever horrors your character has going on. But I think it's a good starting place for modelling madness or delirium.

Dominate Person

While the target is charmed, you have a telepathic link with it as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence. You can use this telepathic link to issue commands to the creature while you are conscious (no action required), which it does its best to obey.

Pretty straightforward; you can give the GM control of your character under specific circumstances. Works especially well in case of possession/particularly bad warlock pacts.

Suggestion

You suggest a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two) and magically influence a creature you can see within range that can hear and understand you.

Similar to the above, but subtler. Again requires extra work from the GM, but can you imagine if once or twice a session, the GM just hands you a little self-destructive or upsetting thought out of nowhere.

Now this is definitely making me want to try playing the Dark Urge.

#Decembugbear Day 22: Void When venturing deep within the Forsaken Realm, you might see yourself a little differently… 🎨: https://twitter.com/sintecta