View source for Lagomaluschai the Everlasting Thirst (3.5e Elder Evil)

=== Lagomaluschai the Everlasting Thirst ===

===== Background =====

{{quote
|''Dust.  All is dust.  Ah ha ha ha ha ha...''
|orig=Unknown author
|src=Journal recovered from ruins of the desert planet Desicca
}}

The sky has not rained in years.  The oceans have receded over the horizon, and the ground lies cracked and dry as a bone.  Your heart is full of sorrow, but you cannot cry for the last of your moisture has dried up.  Soon, you too shall join the great swirls of dust that have dominated the world.  [[Summary::Lagomaluschai the Everlasting Thirst has arrived, robbing the world of the water vital to life itself.]]  It is that which drinks the oceans and parches all living things, leaving naught but deserts and dust in the wind.

===== Background =====

Was it a curse?  A magical mishap?  Perhaps some divine prank?  Or the cruel machinations of the gods of another world?  None know the origins of Lagomaluschai, the being which would be known as the Everlasting Thirst.  What little information can be divined is that their world was once rich in moisture, with deep fetid swamps, constant pounding storms, and great vast oceans teaming with life.  '''(Knowledge History DC 35)'''  Amongst this landscape lived Lagomaluschai whose talent for the arts was beyond peer and enjoyed by all.  Alas this world also teamed with gods both petty and vindictive, and so it came to be a classic story of god of arts and the sea set against a mortal in contest of the arts.  When the mortal won and proved their worth, the god condemned them to a world of suffering.  They would live eternally, but no drink would ever quench their thirst.  Thus they would be driven to madness and despair and the god would be threatened no longer. '''(Knowledge The Planes DC 35)'''

The story would end here in injustice, yet one other god older and more tempered than the others saw the plight of Lagomaluschai.  This unknown god of death who was tasked to bring an end to all things had little love for the gods which were, nor of existence itself, and took personal offense to yet another mortal who had escaped its grasp through immortality.  The deity could not undo the curse but it could twist it so that while its thirst would be eternal, they could drink any liquid and find temporary relief without the physical constraints of their body.  And so Lagomaluschai began to drink.  First, they consumed all the fluids within their house.  Then the town.  Then they set upon the river and drank so deep the riverbed ran dry.  They drank the clouds out of the sky, the springs deep below, and then set upon the oceans.  With ever gulp, their desire grew, and their body changed into an avatar of destruction.  For Lagomaluschai is was relief, and for the god of death it was his divine punishment upon the world and an end to existence.  '''(Knowledge The Planes DC 40)'''

The god of art and the sea did notice and set out to slay the monster he has created, but has he fought he found himself growing weaker and weaker, for Lagomaluschai would drink the sea and with every gulp the god lost power.  With horror he looked up at his drying hands and withered away into dust.  The other gods set upon this abomination, but Lagomaluschai has already consumed the power of a god, and soon drank them too.  The heavens were emptied, and Lagomaluschai returned to the earth and drank all the people.

And then, filled with all the hydration of the world, Lagomaluschai took to the stars and slumbered awaiting the day they could drink once more and growing ever thirstier.

===== Goals =====

Lagomaluschai thirsts, and will drink all water upon a world in due time.  Whatever original personality Lagomaluschai may have had been overwritten by the desire to drink.  This desire is so overwhelming it affects the populace that the Everlasting Thirst begins to manifest on.  It is said Lagomaluschai travels through the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt, drinking all in its way until it can devour the Prime Material and any Elemental Plane of Water beyond it.  With every sip, Lagomaluschai grows stronger and able to consume more in less time, and thus it saves the infinite expanse of the Plane of Water for last.  '''(Knowledge The Planes DC 30)'''.

It is said that Lagomaluschai and the elder evil known as Leviathan are in direct opposition, and that the two seek to end one another. '''(Knowledge Nature DC 45)'''.

===== The Everlasting Thirst in the Campaign =====

Through random unfortunate chance or the activation of some great and powerful water related magical effect, a world may gain the attention of Lagomaluschai wandering the most desolate parts of the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt.  '''(Knowledge The Planes DC 45)'''  It drifts across the sky contained in a crystalline prison to conserve its water on its journey, draining everything in its path like some desiccating moon of death.  Long before it arrives at the material its presence is made known, but because few creatures live on the obscure quasi-elemental plane and even fewer survive encounters with it, few actually can warn the world that the Everlasting Thirst is approaching.

A possible campaign arc follows, complete with Encounter Levels so you may design adventures for the PCs and include various events that foretell the approach of the Everlasting Thirst.

'''EL 5:''' A drought has begun.  It often is provokes by normal mundane means via poor agriculture, climate change, or natural processes in the world.  The world has experienced these events before but this time it is different.  Water consumption fills the mind of the populace, and worries about the future take hold in the zeitgeist.  For places already prone to violence this may result in destabilization and the murmurs of war.  However nothing yet is amiss or unexpected.

'''EL 10 (Faint Sign):''' As the drought continues some begin turning to magic or the gods and noticing something troubling.  Deities of water have poor connections to their followers.  Water elementals begin acting erratically when brought to the prime material as if in a panic they cannot explain.  And the discontent over dwindling resources begins to become a public health crisis.  People may begin stockpiling water and blaming sources real or imagined.

'''EL 15 (Moderate Sign):''' As if answered by a prayer someone from among the ranks of the people has arisen with a solution.  The Herald takes many forms, but they come with a cure for what ails the land in the form of new and reliable magic or technology and the leadership the world needs in these drying times.  In truth they are an aspect of Lagomaluschai to calm the populace and prepare for the great drinking.  As the world begins to turn to desert the Herald shows the means for which to produce oases from which cities can gather around and grow.  In fact the Herald may have already appeared to the PCs, who may aid them in their world-saving Fountains and setting them around the world.  These Fountains raised in their name soon becomes symbols of prosperity, even as the gods become unable to warn their followers of the terrible things to come.

'''EL 18 (Strong Sign):''' The world begins to become an arid wasteland as the last rivers dry up and seas become brine or completely dry.  Though no potable water exists in great number the world is surviving thanks to the Fountains.  If not before, then creatures of the sea may have risen up in panic against the drying world but there is no hope for them.  The Herald assures all that a great ritual to open the waters of the Elemental Planes to the material has begun and enlists all the greatest wizards to the cause, even as the forces upon the Elemental Plane of Water resist them.

'''EL 20 (Overwhelming Sign):''' If the ritual completes, the gateways connected to every Fountain shall open.  Yet no water comes forth.  From each gate a great vortex drains the world of its liquid in ever-expanding vortexes of desiccation and destruction.  Those outside of the cities may flee, but there is no place in the world the drying winds will not eventually touch.  Upon the sky a new moon rises, a crystal cage from which all liquid now flows.  As the last of the oceans dry up and the last mortal turns to dust, the moon shall grow and Lagomaluschai shall be sated once more until once again it is ready for its journey for new water to drink.

===== Description =====

The shape of Lagomaluschai is an indistinct haze within a cage of salt and crystal.  Some have described it as humanoid, while others more of an obscure beast with horns or long ears or tendrils which spawn from its head.  What little can be divined from ancient lore and powerful magic seems to express that the still mortal Lagomaluschai lays within, a dry and cracked humanoid surrounded by a body of water which they form its core.  The creature from which its herald transforms during the overwhelming sign into seems to fit this description yet it may only be a description of Herald itself and not which lays within the crystal moon.

==== Sign ====

[[Sign::The Thirst]]

As Lagomaluschai draws closer it begins to drink the world of its liquid resources, causing rain not to fall, the water cycle to stop flowing, the need to drink to intensify, and the consumption of magical water sources upon its arrival.

'''Faint:''' Precipitation becomes infrequent.  In places of heavy precipitation, now moderate precipitation occurs.  Moderate precipitation becomes light, and light precipitation become arid desert terrain.  [Water] spells begin to have a 10% chance of simply failing as the water or creatures conjured with it are consumed upon arrival, and [Water] creatures summoned or called are shaken as long as they remain on the material plane.  Water related deities have a 20% chance of not answering prayers or being able to communicate.

'''Moderate:''' The drought continues.  Heavy drops to light, and moderate precipitation and less become arid.  Water sources such as springs begin to produce half as much as normal, and water levels drop ever so slightly worldwide.  In places normally arid, these lands are now prone to dust and sandstorms as what little moisture remains leaves them.  The failure chance on water spells rises to 30%, and summoned and called creatures now arrive uncontrolled and hostile.  Water deities now have a 60% chance of not answering prayers or being able to communicate.  Creatures need twice as much water to avoid dehydration.

'''Strong:''' Precipitation has ceased.  Springs dry up, and artificial wells now begin to suffer and produce half as much.  All the world has become arid.  However with the appearance of the Fountains water does not become a problem, only the issues of transportation and irrigation.  [Water] spells now have a 50% failure chance and called and summoned [Water] creatures are both hostile and vanish after 1d4 rounds as if banished (in truth, they are drunk).  Effects which prevent planar shifting are effective but temporary solutions.  Deities of water have all but vanished from the world.

'''Overwhelming:''' The oceans begin to actively drain in great columns of water that spiral off into space.  The crystal moon appears, gathering all watery resources upon the planet.  Great drying winds sweep the world from where the Fountains once stood, stripping water with 1d6 desiccation damage a round of exposure.  Creatures need three times as much water to avoid dehydration.  If the draining is not stopped, soon the planet shall be stripped of all water from even the rocks within.

==== Malefic Properties ====

'''Anathematic Secrecy:''' Immune to all divine divination spells and effects.

'''The Thirst:''' Creatures within the aura are automatically thirsty and no amount of drink can resolve it.  As a result creatures that need to drink must make the [[Constitution]] check against dehydration every hour they remain in the aura, and can only find relief from refreshment after leaving the area.  In addition all water sources not covered and sealed evaporate immediately upon exposure to the air.

==== Encounter Information ====

{{:Herald of the Everlasting Thirst (3.5e Monster)}}
<noinclude>
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{{3.5e Elder Evils Breadcrumb}}
[[Category:3.5e]]
[[Category:User]]
[[Category:Elder Evil]]
</noinclude>

{{Navboxes}}
Alignment	Usually Neutral Evil +
Author	Eiji-kun +
Challenge Rating	20 +
Environment	Any +
Identifier	3.5e Elder Evil +
Level Adjustment	— +
Rating	Undiscussed +
Sign	The Thirst +
Size	Huge +
Subtype	Water +
Summary	Lagomaluschai the Everlasting Thirst has arrived, robbing the world of the water vital to life itself. +
Title	Lagomaluschai the Everlasting Thirst +
Type	Dragon +