Thoughts on Aboleth

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Aboleth. They originally showed up in the jungle ruins of the Dwellers of the Forbidden City and then soon after they appeared in the Fiend Folio where they were relegated to subterranean lakes. Both locations seem too impossibly remote to really use them in interesting ways.

The appearance of the Aboleth has always been a big part of the creature but why? It's basically a water beast that messes with your brain so who's getting a good look at the thing anyway? I like the idea of the tentacles but arms are just as good. I like the cold bizarre eyes but can you trust what you are seeing when its messing with your mind? The known image of the Aboleth might have been implanted to screw with folks trying to identify them. Or perhaps that's what they look like but they implant images of a more 'expected' type of sea monster in their victims to throw people off the scent.

Characters will never really have an opportunity to learn about Aboleth lifespan and culture so we can forget that. Aboleth are better when they are surrounded in mystery anyway. What is important is the Scum and the mind powers.

The idea of followers that are slowly transitioning into Fishmen has a lot of Lovecraftian horror. It is as if when they made Kuo-Toa they took Deep Ones and took everything interesting out of them to avoid upsetting Chaosium who controlled the Lovecraft properties. Then later made Skum to backfill that cultish fishmen connection except it didn't work because you can't set up a dangerous cult deep down around subterranean lakes can you?

Everything about the beast seems designed as if it will beach itself on the shore to fight like any other encounter but the descriptions hint at something better, far better. Aboleth aren't so much a boss fight as they are the big bad (or one of) in an ongoing campaign. The Aboleth cries out to be the baddy of the sort that the players only slowly become aware of, and that they eventually have to figure out how to confront as it lives underwater. To do that it needs to live in surface oceans where it can contact sea ports and ships but disappear into the depths if things get too hot.

As a powerful aquatic creature the Aboleth becomes far more useful. Imagine it swimming beneath a ship where it can't be seen, and slowly using its powers to take over the crew. Perhaps it dominates entire ships and then follows them out to sea leading those seamen into a life of piracy, dining on their victims or wounded. The 'pirates' may not even know why they changed career paths, they might even return to a normal life after a few attacks.

Now ally the Aboleth with Kuo-Toa that have also been freed from their subterranean purgatory and the Aboleth has additional muscle to do its bidding. The cult provides mystery, the missing ships provide mystery, the fishmen provide mystery. But at the heart of it all is the Aboleth living beneath a ship in the bay controlling a growing army of cultists to do who knows what.

That's far more interesting, and Lovecraftian than a psionic fish living in a subterranean lake.