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One of the more interesting legacies Night Below has bequeathed to D&D is the glyph-magic of the aboleth savant, as seen in its 2e-format "Monstrous Compendium" supplemental insert. Here are some other glyphs for the aboleth to spring on the party. Have fun :^)
The sinking of their island city was a bitter blow to the drow, but arguably it affected the Haranshire Underdark even more profoundly. The drow may not have been loved, but their merchant houses provided the vital service of trade. With Shaboath in their way, the caverns under Haranshire swiftly became a backwater.
The deep gnomes and the derro are both recent arrivals to this system, and would seem poised to fill the civilisational vacuum which they inherited. The gnomes provide much in the way of metals and the derro of foodstuffs. These peoples hardly need intermediaries to trade.
Yet the gnomes and derro are not trading; they are instead locked into a cycle of hatred. Some suspicion would be expected, but they carry on their vendetta with a fury worthy of orcs and elves. The gnomes, for their part, claim that their feud began with time itself, elevating the feud to a cosmic plane. The gnomish claim is difficult to credit, given that no parallels exist outside this region.
Neither the gnomes nor the derro profit by this state of affairs; but one of their neighbours does. The aboleth have few other rivals, and thanks to the gnome-derro feud their northeast flank remains secure as well. The truth of the matter is that this feud is artificial.
Some of the Grand Savant's more insidious means to this end appear here.
This master glyph imposes upon all non-aboleth who sleep within 30 feet a dream of the glyph-author's choosing; there is a saving throw, but only if the dreamer has some sort of immunity to inbound telepathy, or if s/he has another dream scheduled (for instance, s/he has previously cast a spell that grants clairvoyant visions). If s/he does make that saving throw, then s/he escapes the glyph's dream entirely.
If s/he has received the dream, the DM rolls a second secret saving throw for the dreamer to see if the dream took effect. If not, the DM should not mention the result to the player, unless the player specifically asks, or is generally in the habit of keeping track of the character's dreams. In that case the DM should roll a memory check. Repeated exposure to this glyph with repeated successful saves against its effect will improve the dreamer's chance to remember the dream's details, and eventually to guess something as to its cause. If the player recognises the dream as artificial, it'll be just like seeing behind the smoke in a magic show: the dreamer will not be affected by it from then on, and will always remember everything about it the next morning.
But if the character is affected by it, the glyph delivers its full payload. The dreamer will not remember the dream unless the glyph wants him to. Instead the dream will drip poison into his mind: suggestions that this one perform a certain action in a certain spot, visions of that one's deity delivering cosmic truths, "premonitions" of doom. The next morning, the dreamer will not remember any of it, but will seize upon the glyph's suggestion as his/her own idea. In addition, s/he gets a cumulative penalty to his or her saves against future exposure to this dream. Repeated failures could (at DM option) distort the dreamer's worldview, to the extent of rewriting his or her beliefs, up to and including an alignment change.
If the dreamer is confronted with the error of his newfound ideas and/or beliefs, s/he must make a Will save if the dreamer's player wishes said dreamer freed of these ideas. (Bonuses or penalties apply as per breaking a Charm, and also penalties for repeated exposure.) If the Will save succeeds, the glyph's suggestions are broken; if the player wants to know about any dreams that might have inspired them, refer to two paragraphs above.
This glyph lies dormant for an indefinite period - until triggered. In this it behaves like a glyph of warding, or like Wolfgang Baur's glyphs in Dragon #222. Like other one-shot glyphs, Nightmare can be used for warding, in which case it will appear in full view. Whether a public ward or hidden trap, on activation its nightmare transfers itself to all victims in its radius, and resides in their minds until they receive remove curse.
The Glyph of Nightmare is powerful and insidious, but static. Sometimes a more flexible solution is better. For example, say an aboleth lays down a glyph exorting everyone to fight against drow, and subsequently reaches a truce with the drow. The old glyph might set a new enemy against the drow, delaying the aboleth's work, weakening his allies, and wrecking his diplomatic standing.
The Dreamlink Glyph is a complex master glyph which merges the Glyph of Nightmare with a variant of the Glyph of Watching (as per Dragon #222 p. 92, Wolfgang Baur). On activation the glyph immediately attempts to establish a link between the caster and the victim(s). If the caster is interested, it can actually see into the victim's unconscious mind while it delivers the message. It can then mould the victim's dreams more specifically to its current goal.
The aboleth can also use the Dreamlink to gather intelligence. Of course, people dream up a lot of subconscious rubbish, including irrelevant and even misleading information. The Dreamlink extracts more information about the target's mental state than about the target's agenda.
As with the Glyph of Enslavement, the caster has to devote some of its energies to maintaining control; but aboleth rarely have a problem with this, and besides in this case they only need bother when the victim is asleep.
The Dreamlink Glyph might on the surface seem a more costly and less effective version of Glyph of Enslavement. And so it would be, if the aboleth were using it for domination, but they aren't. The Enslaved subject by definition does not think for himself. The subject under Dreamlink or even Nightmare is acting under what she thinks are her own ideas. The latter's activities are going to be more long-term and effective than the former's. In addition the former's compulsions will be obvious to his friends, who will likely then try to do something about it. The latter's friends are more likely to overlook her "odd" behaviour. Where the aboleth try standard telepathic domination, strong-willed targets have an unfortunate habit of suppressing useful information. Under Dreamlink, the target may never suspect she has been interrogated. Finally, it is much more difficult to make saving throws against a personalised, unadvertised Dreamlink than against the static Nightmare or the blunt Enslavement. The Dreamlink Glyph is perfect for those long-range missions that do not betray the aboleths' role.
And because the name of the game is subtlety, the aboleth never mix either glyph with the Glyph of Sleep.
In the Creature Collection's "Fiend Factory", Scott Greene and Erica Balsley erroneously declared the Glyph of Enfeeblement a Baur-style, Glyph-of-Warding-style dormant glyph. (I explain the nuances here.) In their defense, Enfeeblement could certainly be used as such. Likewise, some one-shots would be very powerful if cast as continually-active area effects. An ambient Nightmare, as an example, might reside in a minor corner of the priests' chambers, disguised as far as possible. This could potentially warp a population for generations.
Greene and Balsley also decided to limit the ambient glyphs' duration to one turn per level of the caster. The DM can decide where this applies in principle; but this site assumes that where a glyph (including the variant Nightmare) is employed according to Sargent's template - that is, ambient - the glyph's area-of-effect lingers until dispelled.
This year I've been wondering what the aboleth would make of the many feuds among their future slaves. They can hardly be oblivious. So far I can think of two ways to weave the subplots back into the overarching narrative.
Earlier I'd been toying with the idea of having the Grand Savant deliver a "Matrix Villain" speech, to the effect that the feuds are a disease, and that the Savant has the cure. Perhaps the best defense is that the Savant would be telling the truth. It would pose one last ethical dilemma on the party, and end the series in a final ambiguity.
Of course, I doubt players who've been dourly carving their way down here want to see themselves as George Orwell's pigs, indistinguishable from any other monster. It'd be a pretty mean trick for the DM to play after a year of campaign time. But my main problem with this is that the author didn't intend it. Carl Sargent did not set out to create a hackfest; it just turned into one while he was designing it. It's also unlikely he wanted the aboleths' motives to be understandable to humans. Turning the Savant into the good guy would subordinate the game's plot to one of the game's unintended features. There might be an artistic case for this, but it wouldn't be in the spirit of the game, and therefore this website cannot endorse it.
But then it hit me - what if the Savant and its Blood Queen were to blame all along? What if they've been deliberately sowing discord just so they could make that speech, and have their subjects accept their yoke gladly? Now the features of Night Below serve the plot: the aboleth are pulling the strings everywhere. It follows that the aboleths' motives are still unknowable, and therefore all the more diabolical.
- 30 July 2001: Pondering the intro. 31 July: Wrote out the Coda. 1 August: Wrote up the rest and published it. 2 August: Dreamlink. 4 August: other variants of Nightmare. 17-18 August: moved that variant into a separate section. 17 Dec 2005: moved the general glyph stuff off-page.