Dopplegangers in Generica

"When the gods looked away, something slipped into the world. It held an elm branch in front of its face, so it could not be seen. It busied itself in the affairs of elves and men. It smiled and seemed friendly.

When the elves and men looked away, it wet its lips and ate them up. It crunched their bones and slurped their brains. It pulled the elm branch away, and it had the face of an elf and the face of a man. It was both and neither. 

When the gods looked back and saw this, they were confused. "Wh-what is that?!" they cried, "Did you make that? Who made that?!" All replied "Not I". "Wh-what is it? WHAT IS IT?!" they shouted, no one would take the blame. 

If someone busies themselves in your affairs, if they're not quite elf or man, if they smile and seem friendly, do not look away"
-Saul Spidermin, recounting an old fey tale.

Dopplegangers in Remlia

In the world of Generica there are many creatures that can change their faces. Ancient wyrms are said to take the form of bent travellers, hags and vampires can take the shape of comely lasses and nubile men, even goblins can imitate the traits of those better than them. None compare to the imitation that is a doppleganger.

Dopplegangers are scary in concept. They're a creature that can look like anyone and exist to steal your secrets and take your place. That can be pretty arresting stuff. Then again, there's a lot of monsters that can look like other things. Mimics can look like various inanimate objects, changelings can do most of the things dopplegangers can do, but less so.

So I propose that they're all one and the same.

The perfect imitator.

A doppleganger is an intangible and inhuman thing, trying to mimic other lifeforms. Perhaps they start out simple and formless; small creatures with rudimentary transformation abilities. Relatively harmless, until they begin to learn more.

Not especially intimidating at first.

Then they become Mimics, moving up the food chain, bettering their ability to blend in and change shape. With greater intelligence, they become masters at imitating inanimate objects. Only once they've devoured a sapient creature's brains can they shapeshift into one.

An especially large Mimic.

They then become Changelings; fully sapient and aware, able to blend in with the gatherings of other humanoid sapient creatures. Here the changeling can either fully adopt its chosen form permanently, or continue its more monstrous existence as an alien other. Most choose the latter. After they've consumed the brains of more than one race of creatures, they become true Dopplegangers.

Their imitations are now flawless.

True dopplegangers are masters of imitation and disguise, able to shift forms quickly and imitate creatures perfectly, even their most prized strengths and traits. This masterful imitation does not come without a price, however. Dopplegangers have assimilated many different creatures, and under extreme duress they have trouble differentiating between them. When this happens, they become a 'Thing'.

*Unworldly howl*

A Thing is a twisted amalgamation of all of the objects and people a doppleganger has assumed. Incredibly dangerous and unpredictable. This is the true form of a shapeshifter.

Family of Imitators

A doppleganger is an inhuman thing that looks human (or looks elven, or dwarven, etc). It can also look like any object of a certain size. The types of forms they can take depend on what they've encountered and consumed.

These monsters are statistically the same as how they're listed in the Monster Manual (type v), but with the following changes:

• Because shapechangers confound the divine powers that be, they are immune to radiant and necrotic damage, even if assuming the form of something vulnerable against such damage.
• If you encounter a doppleganger that is imitating YOU, you are immediately surprised and cannot save against this. However, this surprise effect can only effect you once during combat.

Formless Shapechanger (Ditto) - Challenge 1/2

More novelty than threat.

• A small blob-like creature, these shapechangers are often mistaken for oozes. 
• They can assume the shape, size, and texture of various small objects. However, this imitation is poor, and only a simpleton would confuse the creature for the real thing (low DC check to reveal).
• These roly-poly shapechangers are prized by rich nobles to be used in parlour games and during parties. Extremely rich families sometimes keep them as pets.
• Once a shapechanger has tasted blood, it becomes a Mimic, able to grow teeth.

Mimic - Challenge 2

A mimic midway through its transformation into a changeling.

• Mimics can only imitate simple and inanimate objects such as doors, walls, floors, chests, etc.
• A mimic forms inside of itself a blood-red gem. This gem holds the image of their true form and various other unworldly memories. It is worth 1d4 x 25gp.
• When a mimic consumes the brain of a sentient creature, it can then change its appearance to that race of creature. Consumption of brain matter also imbues it with all of that creature's memories. It becomes a Changeling.

Changeling - Challenge 3 (able to be played as a PC race in some games)

• A changeling can imitate any humanoid creature it sees. It also gains the 'telepathy' trait.
• A changeling can only perfectly imitate creatures of races who's brains it has consumed. 
• A changeling is susceptible to charm and sleep effects at this stage, but has advantage against them.
• A changeling cannot imitate weapons or inanimate objects while imitating a person.
• A changeling's internal gem is worth 1d4 x 50gp.
• Changelings can telepathically bond to a single creature, assuming that form perminantly. Now that they are functionally that creature's double, they are psychically linked. If one dies, the other dies as well. When one is harmed, the other feels the pain as well.
• This is the stage at which a changeling can choose to continue down the path of evil or attempt to fully hide its true nature. The changeling is compelled to consume brain matter, and must make Constitution saves (moderate DC) at the end of every ten-day to resist this compulsion. Once more than one sapient race's brains are absorbed, the changeling becomes a true doppleganger.

Doppleganger - Challenge 3-4

Seeing a doppleganger as yourself is psychologically unnerving.

• A doppleganger can imitate any race of sapient creature it has seen and encountered. While imitating these creatures it is identical to them in all but statistics.
• A doppleganger, using its telepathy, can peer into another creature's mind and memories, imitating any person that that creature has known or thought about. 
• Consuming a person's brain imbues the doppleganger with the consumed creature's powers. Now, when it imitates that specific person, its stats become identical to that person's stats, provided they're better than its own. This includes hit points, armour class, observed weapons, and class features.
• A doppleganger can only use the powers of the creature it is currently imitating. If it's a warrior, it cannot cast spells unless it assumes the form of a spellcaster.
• When a doppleganger imitates a creature using weapons, it forms those weapons out of its own flesh. They deal the same damage as those weapons would normally, and have the same tensile strength. Dopplegangers cannot imitate the effects of a magical weapon/armour, but they can perfectly imitate their appearance.
• A dropped doppleganger weapon acts as an extension of its body, able to imitate other things of a similar size. A doppleganger can create no more than 4 weapons at a time. When the doppleganger dies, these weapons persist. If they kill and consume the creature who killed their host body, they can reform with all of their memories and abilities intact.
• Dopplegangers are immune to charm person, hold person, and sleep spells. They will, however, still make spell saves against them. On a failed save, the doppleganger pretends to be affected by the spell, attempting to fool its enemies.
• A doppleganger's gem is worth 2d4 x 75gp
• When a doppleganger is bloodied (at half hit points or below) it must make Constitution saves at the beginning of its turn (low DC). If it fails it transforms into a Thing.

Thing - Challenge 5-6

• A Thing is a monstrosity, capable of three attacks per round, and a fear aura (Spell Save DC equal to the highest level spellcaster whose brains it has consumed, or whichever DC is referenced if you don't know).
• When transformed, a Thing immediately gains 8d6 hit points and has resistance to all non-magical weapon damage. It is, however, now vulnerable to fire.
• A Thing's attacks are randomly determined. Each attack draws on a creature that it had imitated in life. Attacks with an asterisk can only be used once. If you roll them again, the Thing uses a basic Slam attack (doppleganger stats).
• A Thing's gem is worth the same amount as its Doppleganger form's gem, but plus 100gp extra.

Roll 1d8	Attack	Effect
1.	Morningstar Swipe	+6 to hit, 1d8+5 bludgeoning damage.
2.	Pseudopods	1 or 2 targets, +6 to hit, 1d6+5 bludgeoning damage each.
3.	Impaling Tendrils	+4 to hit, 2d6+3 piercing damage. Target must make a Dex save (moderate DC) or be impaled, taking another 1d6 damage and is restrained.
4.	Magic Missile	Part of a wizard’s torso emerges from the Thing. It casts magic missile as a 2nd level spell.
5.	Suggestion	(Moderate Spell Save DC) It suggests that the target should attack its friends.
6.	Melf’s Acid Arrow	(Moderate Spell Save DC) It casts acid arrow as a 3rd level spell.
7.	Hold Person*	(High Spell Save DC) Part of a cleric’s torso emerges from the Thing.
8.	Cure Wounds*	It casts cure wounds as a 3rd level spell.

Oozes in Generica

"Listen...you smell something?" -Ray Stantz, Ghostbusters

"I have nothing more to say about slimes. They creep me out" -Saul Spidermin

Oozes in Remlia

There is no underground creature more odd and beguiling than oozes. They do not require sleep, they can live for hundreds of years on the most meagre forms of sustenance, and their form of reproduction is horrifying at best. They are driven only by their desire to consume organic materials.

Oozes are typically found underground, in damp dungeon complexes, abandoned wind catches, and watery caverns. They are normally driven away by heat, fire, and arid climates, but like any monster there are always exceptions.

For every ooze encountered there is a 1 in 6 chance that it is semi-intelligent, capable of communicating with its pseudopods, taking the shape of any creature’s face that it comes in contact with.

Intelligent ooze mimicry.

Many witches believe that black puddings carry the ability to absorb and amplify emotions. If kept in a space where negative emotions are abundant, black puddings will grow bigger and faster. A negatively charged black pudding causes the creatures it surrounds to be more aggressive, violent, and foul-tempered. Positive emotions cause the opposite to be true. Very rich witches keep underground rivers of black puddings, channelling their emotional energy.

River of slime.

Origins

It is said that long ago, the portly old god Gastromar pitied the elves who walked the lands of the northern continent.

Elves were made by the calculating efficiency of Ulaa, goddess of life eternal and endless warfare. The white elves were her magnum opus; a pitiless mortal creature that lived for centuries, needed neither rest nor food, and took pleasure only in conquest and victory.

Gastromar was a god of feasting and indulgence, of all pleasures culinary and cultural. To see such a beautiful race as these white elves be unable to enjoy such joys made him sad. “I know better than Ulaa, with that great stick up her ass,” Gastromar said to himself, “I will make a gift of my enjoyments to these pitiable elves”.

But Gastromar knew little of influencing mortals. He’d grown too comfortable in the warm halls of Celestia, and found the material plane to just out of his reach.

So he turned to an intermediary. He sought a helpful deity who could carry out his instructions. However, Gastromar was naive. He made the request of a Faceless One.

The Faceless One brought suckling boar and sweet ambrosias down from Celestia, basted and glazed with Gastromar’s love of food, garnished with his love of spirited drink, served with a side of his culinary snobbery. The white elves took and shared this food with one another. They ate and grew full, knowing hunger and desire for the first time. Gastromar was pleased.

But the Faceless One gave more. He gave them a jellied dessert, with ravenous hunger and almighty hatred floating in it like so much fruit cocktail. The elves who ate this grew too hungry. They turned on their fellow white elves and ripped them apart. They feasted on each other's skin and muscle. Their hunger for flesh could not be sated. Their bodies and their minds softened, becoming like jelly. Their stomach acids burned away at them, hungering for meat to dissolve.

They became the first oozes. Ulaa and the other goddesses were horrified.

So Gastromar isn’t allowed to influence the material plane any more.  

Slime Disease

If you come in physical contact with an ooze (taking damage, being grappled, touching one with bare skin) you run the risk of contracting Slime Disease. At the end of combat, or any form of encounter with an ooze, all characters that have come in contact with the ooze must make a DC 10 Constitution save. Failure means you contract Slime Disease.

• Symptoms: Slurred speech, itching and burning skin, heartburn, you absorb and retain water through the skin.

• Check: At the end of every long rest, make a DC 10 + CR of the infecting Ooze (Rounded down, minimum of 1) Constitution check.

• 1st check failure: Your body starts to lose cohesion. Your skin becomes translucent and gel-like. You take a -2 penalty to Intelligence and Wisdom scores, but any unarmed melee attack you make deals 1d4 acid damage.

• 2nd check failure: Your body becomes wholly slime-like. You can no longer gain the benefits from wearing armour, your speed is halved, and your total amount of hit dice is halved. However, you gain the Amorphous trait, and you can regain spent hit dice by absorbing and digesting organic material (like fallen enemies).

Treating a creature infected with Slime Disease as if they are still human is adorable, if inadvisable.

• 3rd check failure: You wholly become the same kind of ooze creature that infected you. You retain only a fraction of your former memories, and you treat all nearby organic creatures as hostile.

• Cure: If you roll 3 Constitution check successes before 3 failures, you are cured of the disease. Any changes and losses incurred from failures are permanent unless magically treated. Slime Disease (and all of its effects) can be cured and reversed with a successful Restoration spell.

Human noble succumbing to Slime Disease.

Random Types of Oozes Encountered in Remlia (d6):

1. Slimes. When babies and small children are eaten by a gelatinous cube, sometimes their consciousnesses persist, separating from the cube through mitosis. Slimes are the ooze embodiment of childlike beings; happy, curious, playful, and unaware of the damage they can cause.
2. Rust Oozes. These reddish-brown gels feed on ferrous and non-ferrous metals alike. They can engulf creatures, and will dissolve the metal off of their bodies in 1d4 rounds. Their digestive acids cannot eat through flesh, however.
3. Jellolopes. Sometimes the ambient magic of the Everwood distorts creatures within it. When an ooze begins to devour a deer, moose, fawn, centaur, or horse, sometimes the ooze portion will affix itself to the creature’s body, fashioning itself into a humanoid shape.
4. Silver Skeleton Cube. Rumours of a floating skeleton made of silver abound in southern Remlia. In actuality, it is a cursed succubus doomed to be eternally dissolved and reformed within a gelatinous cube; leaving only her silvered skeleton suspended within the ooze. Killing the ooze frees the succubus, who regrows her flesh.
5. Ooze Knight. An intelligent ooze within a solid suit of armour, wandering the countryside with its visor down, protecting it from the elements. The ooze knight was a former paladin who was devoured by an ooze. His faith was so strong that he retained his memories and purpose, now seeking to challenge others it happens upon.
6. Pudding Lord. The pudding lord is a highly intelligent sentient parasite. It disguises itself as a dessert, served at noble functions and banquets. Once eaten, it persists inside of its victim’s body, subtly altering their personality and taking over their mind. When the pudding lord is threatened, it violently erupts from the victim’s body and attacks.

"Come play with usssss..." -Slimes

Jellolope. An adorable abomination.

An angry desert ooze, feasting on goblins.

Ooze Knight. Once its metal shell is cracked, a slimy monster lies within.

Final stages of Slime Disease.

Drow in Generica

“Now our Syrinx’s gone to rest.

Down below. Down below.

Now his consorts have their jest.

Hear them crow. Hear them crow.

Collared gowns and dark perfume.

Broke their vow. Broke their vow.

Lock them up inside his tomb.

Call them drow. Call them drow.”

-Folk rhyme learned from Figaro slaves, recovered by Saul Spidermin

“You clerics talk of baptisms; fancy rituals you use to bless babies and soldiers in the name of your ridiculous gods. Oils and rosewater and prayer and blood. Drow have no use for such a thing, but us dark elves understand. First time I see the sun, my skin chars and blisters. My underdark clothes vaporize, so I’m exposed. My skin burns and blackens. You can’t imagine the pain. All over. Any time you see a dark elf on the surface, you know she’s felt the same burning. We’re all baptized by your sun” -Remlian surface drow

Drow in Remlia

In terms of appearance, drow are very similar to elves. Pointed ears, heightened senses, longer lifespans. However, they stand out like a sore thumb with their charcoal coloured skin and their shock white hair. They’re also the most iconoclastic race of surface people in Remlia.

Each one is an individual among individuals; a special snowflake holding fast to her/his new ideals, rejecting the beliefs of their ancestors. Emerging from the strange “below places” of Generica marks them (physically and emotionally) as outsiders to civilized people above and below. This could be why drow take to an adventurer’s life so easily.

Lemme Go On...like I Blister in the Sun

It has been observed that there is a distinct difference between surface drow (commonly just called dark elves) and their subterranean kin. Drow do not have dark obsidian coloured skin naturally. In their natural lightless habitat, drow skin is translucent and white, not unlike that of a pale grub.

The dark skin that drow have come from an allergic reaction to Generica’s yellow sun. Upon coming in contact with sunlight, underdark clothing evaporates from the radiation, and drow skin blisters and turns black. Pigment floods their skin in tremendous amounts in order to cope with sunlight. Surface drow are literally sunburned black.

It is said that underdark drow also appear dark skinned, but with a strange white glow about them. In actuality, this is because their darker organs are visible through their translucent flesh; pulsating and pumping strange green fluids through them.

Underdark drow vorpriestess.

Drow "History"

Few elves or drow will admit it, but drow are a sub-race of elfkind. Their origin is thought to date back to over a thousand years ago to the betrayal and death of the Elven god-magician Syrinx. His final words “...and the meek shall inherit the earth” were thought to be a warning against weakness.

As was deemed a fitting send off, Syrinx’s 107 concubines and consorts were buried alive with him. While recorded history states they were entombed with him in order to ‘pleasure his god-soul into a new greater form’, many escaped elven slaves believe that these concubines were buried with his body as punishment for his suspected murder. No one knows for sure.

Still, these elves were buried hundreds of feet underground in the subterranean underdark. They managed to eke out a miserable living underground, exploring and propagating and expanding. They cursed Syrinx and his bureaucratic priests, renouncing his name and eventually his dwindling magic.

It is thought that this is when they turned to Lolth, and became the first drow.

One of Lolth's many guises. 

Demon Queen Lolth

Lolth is a demon spider goddess. She is often depicted as an eight-armed drow or elf with the lower body of a spider. She is considered the patron deity of underdark drow, and her influence and magic is what has kept the isolated drow alive and viciously strong through the centuries.

The following is known about Lolth’s commandments, worship, and domains:

• Lolth embodies the Life and Trickery domains equally.
• Lolth is viewed by many monsters as a patron of fertility, secrets, and spiders.
• Lolth’s commandments are few. She seeks the propagation of spiders throughout the material plane. Male drow are often made “egg carriers”, their bodies bloated with the egg sacs of demon spiders. This process makes them completely servile. 
• Lolth prizes cleverness, self-importance, and decadence above all else. A life not lived for one’s self indulgence is a life to be killed off.
• Lolth regularly demands blood and life sacrifices (often fed to spiders). She is also appeased by bizarre and intricate displays of bondage.
• Each one of Lolth’s eight hands represents a different aspect of her desires. Lolth worshippers likewise have eight schools of worship, producing different kinds of clerics, paladins, cultists, and servants. These eight schools don’t get along with each other.

Surface drow are hesitant to speak of their native lands and cultures, fearing reprisal or punishment from seemingly invisible foes. What is known is that underdark drow society is intensely religiously hierarchical and dictatorial; where speaking out against Lolth’s webbed design or the selfish commands of her priestesses is suicide.

Some surface drow have let slip that almost none of their people actually believe in Lolth. None except the highest ruling caste. They typically are just looking to get enough to eat.

Shrines to Lolth are often cocooned driders, webbed to the walls of temples. For the price of a soul, a Lolth Shrine will tell you 1d4 valuable secrets. 

Egg Carrier. While painful looking, these Underdark butlers are often polite and well versed in royal etiquette.

Table of Random Generica Drow Facts (d12):

1. Drow royalty is notoriously inbred, as one of Lolth’s hands posits that incest strengthens Lolth’s influence over her chosen people.
2. Drow have a taste for spicy and sweet foreign foods. It is said a drow matron will send hundreds of drow raiding parties (many of whom go to their death) to the surface just to secure a shipment of sugar and spice.
3. A drow’s favourite food is curried crab and its favourite drink is Cherry Dr. Pepper.
4. A drow’s favourite wuss rock band is Smashing Pumpkins, but he/she also likes Fall Out Boy despite saying he/she hates them all the time.
5. Underdark drow dinner parties are decadent affairs said to last weeks at the dining table. Any drow that vomits from overeating is promptly cooked alive and served ala mode to the remaining guests.
6. Driders are a myth made up to scare drow children and do not actually exist. The Gran Remiel Taratologist guild still has a tremendous bounty on drider remains, tripled if captured alive.
7. Surface drow are often caught monologuing to themselves as they stare into the sunrise. Calling them out on this embarasses them to no end.
8. An underdark drow’s favourite Disney song is “Mother Knows Best” from Tangled. Surface drow are all into early Ralph Bakshi films and think Disney is shit.
9. Surface drow are thought to carry all kinds of plagues, and are kept from entering most human run establishments in Remlia. They are oddly welcomed at dwarven tables in the Praxis Territories, however.
10. Figaro elven nobles will often pay out the pointed ear for vintage drow pornography. There’s a 15% chance of finding a crude drow ‘Tijuana Bible’ in the spellbooks of elven wizards.
11. Underdark drow set up wards against purple worms, and are known to sabotage similar wards set up by underground dwarves and gnomes.
12. Drow blood is green and silvery, and is a highly sought after spell component of necromancers and dragon cultists.