Welcome to the Dog Days of Podcasting, 2022 season. This year we’re taking part by creating 30 NPCs to use with table top gaming, writing projects, or other creative endeavors. These NPCs are system agnostic, but may include minor suggestions for how to run the characters with a party of adventures and explorers. They are written with a specific genre in mind, but will include notation for how to use them within at least two other realms.
That said, let’s get started.
Today, we’re visiting The Eldritch Friend, an NPC designed for Mythos and Urban Weird campaigns.
The Eldritch Friend
XXVII
The voice is that of a radiant songstress submerged within a cave carved deep into the mountain. The words are familiar terms of negotiation, but the accent sounds like both a dear family member and like something inhuman and vast whispering. They’re cordial, but every time the council glances at her they see what’s there and what’s not there. Not an illusion, but a substitute the mind presents to hide the truth. Whatever this being is, she is not of this world nor any other inhabited by mere mortals. But they live here now as part of this subdivision, and have every right to attend and speak at this homeowner’s meeting.
The Eldritch Friend may have a scheme thousands of years in the making, but their current goal is to get the HOA to get off their back about the privacy fence they put up. She knows the others are often unnerved at the creature things that reside in her yard, but the town’s council already approved the reasonably sized dimensional gate she installed last year. This objection to the fence is absurd and she’s hoping the party can help her smooth things over with the others.
She’s a powerful elder being, endless and myriad in thoughts. Here, she inhabits an avatar that contains a portent of her presence, and it seems to have taken a liking to the quaint farmhouse style neighborhood. Her desire is to see this portion of the world prosper, especially the new patch of herbs she planted last spring, lies at the heart of seeing the party’s desires fulfilled by her.
As an otherworldly, eldritch being, she can see all in the hearts of mortal kind, but she doesn’t like to pry and loathes the busybodies across the way, always darting behind their curtains in her presence. She is mighty, powerful, and has gotten quite handy with mechanical repair. Even helped fix up that broken mower the Stevensons were dealing with for months. For a party seeking aid, her expertise will come across as more mundane than extraordinarily.
In urban fantasy, she’s the neighborhood cryptic. A mystery to outsiders but extremely friendly once they’re welcomed in.
In Sci-fi, she’s the great shadowy veil along the edge of space that wants to point out all the great spots for photo ops. They’ll sweep away stellar dangers just to guide a ship to a lovely waterfall they found.
In ages of legend, they’re the god that settles down amongst mortals. Perfect and unfathomable, they try to keep mundane but others keep falling for their divine legacy.
The expectation that something so different couldn’t desire something charming and lovely is a joy to subvert. To create a friend out of something that could blink and undo the realm is both terrifying and alluring. The Eldritch Friend seeks not to break the world, only to break bread with its inhabitants.
The audio portion of this episode is shared on a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Sounds and music are provided by Syrinscape’s Mountains of Madness Soundset. Please see the website for individual song and sound usage. The text for this episode is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Have a good time with the character, and let me know if you use them for something.
Until tomorrow.