User:Hammerhead/First Wave

Cosmological Minimus

Cosmological Minor

Cosmological Major

Cosmological Maximus

	Graham Cube
Size/Type:	Small Entity (Physica Inenodabilis)
Hit Dice:	243d12+5,346 (7,069 hp)
Initiative:	+54
Speed:
Armor Class:	361 (+54 Dex, +54 deflection, +243 natural), touch 118, flat-footed 307
Base Attack/Grapple:	+243/—
Attack:
Full Attack:
Space/Reach:	5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:	Move Aside, Move Everything
Special Qualities:	A Matter of Scale, Damage Reduction 81/-, Entity traits, Exosight 27 ly., Absolute Gravity, Number, Physica Inenodabilis traits
Saves:	Fort +146, Ref +178, Will +132
Abilities:	Str 125, Dex 118, Con 54, Int 9, Wis 27, Cha 81
Skills:	—
Feats:
Environment:	All Existence
Organization:	Solitary
Challenge Rating:	81
Treasure:	Quintuple standard in exotic matter
Alignment:	Usually True Neutral
Advancement:	—
Level Adjustment:	—

'

Heads Up

As the game progresses into epic levels, things change. As numbers swell in size, the d20 roll begins to count for less. As players become the more and more powerful, there are fewer and fewer souls able to stand against them or to tell them "no". As player's build empires and earn fame, they can conduct wars, pass laws, shape culture, and the player's word approaches equality with the DM's word. In epic levels, the game takes on new qualities. In order to threaten an epic character, a monster needs to be able to threaten anything. An epic challenge needs to be capable of redefining the entire world, rocking the foundation the PC has built their characters upon. Epic classes need to give the PCs new and noteworthy ways of changing the game. Packs of roaming bandits avoid the places that the PCs live. The government being infiltrated by a devil is not a campaign, but instead a facet of the political interactions between the nations that the PCs rule and the lower planes. Spells and feats are capable of doing things that even nature can't achieve. This article has been designed with the intention of being used in such a campaign. It hardly needs to be said that you should not use this unless the players are actually ready for it. This includes in-character and out-of-character concerns, because a player who takes the game very seriously might become upset when their character's plans start to fall apart. Use this material under advisement.

There was once a great master, Ronald Graham, who was faced with a mathematical puzzle. It was a strange puzzle; something of a parlor game for the mathematical genius. Asking what number of dimensions a cube would have to exist in before a particular configuration within it would be absolutely necessary. This game resulted in exceedingly absurd answers, hence the appeal.

However, his answer came to a place which no one else who had ever played the game had arrived at. In fact, it was a place where no mathematical mind had arrived in any circumstance. Unreal in it's immensity, the answer he provided was more than just a number. It was the identity of an entity far greater than his own universe, and, when he attempted to express the number, the first graham cube was summoned.

The number in question was beyond astronomical. To even write down the first few steps in the calculation of it would require more space than actually exists, and completing the first distinct set of calculations results in a number so large that, supposing we were to try and attain that many grains of sand, you would have to fill the entire visible universe, edge to edge, with densely packed sand, and then add another identical universe of nothing but sand for every grain you've already included, and then take that collective mass of sand-universes, and, for every grain present, add another mass of sand-universes equal to that mass you've already provided, and then, well, you'd still not be anywhere close to the number of grains of sand needed to represent this first number.

The second set of calculations contains a number of calculations equal to the previous number, an entire calculation for each grain of sand, with each calculation including a number of steps similar to that previous number. Though, as you progress, the number of steps in each calculation tends to increase, until the number of steps actually make that previous number look about as small as a grain of sand next to... well... the previous number. Naturally, this second set of calculations provides a number of unbelievable immensity, laughably large and unable to be accurately portrayed regardless of the analogy provided. Yet, this is truly only the beginning.

The math peeled away from our reality long ago, but it just continues to rocket farther away at infinitely increasing speeds. The third set of calculations includes a number of calculations equal to the end result of the second set of calculations, these calculations as immense in scale to "level 2", as the level 2 calculations were in scale to level 1.

Level 4 repeats the same pattern, and level 5, and level 6, creating increasingly more and more immense gaps between the ending numbers, when, already, level 1 made our entire universe a laughably small speck. Onward and upward, to level 7, 8, 9, 10, and so on. Endlessly large numbers fly past us as we long ago gave up on ever knowing anything that could possibly be relevant on such scales. Larger and larger, and we can't even accurate describe how much larger it has gotten with each subsequent level.

Still not large enough, we sprint past the limits of our imagination, reaching a point where only raw rationality can exist and the only true expressive word to capture the scale of such a number is "big", because that's what it is: it's a big number. We finally reach the place that Ronald Graham reached. Level 64.

Supposing a number could perhaps come out of that unfathomable calculation, that would be the essence of a graham cube, because a graham cube is simply a hypercube which exists in that number of dimensions.

Combat

Looking at the calculations that go into figuring up the pure numerical expression of a graham cube, most mortals can only laugh. But, when faced with a graham cube itself, most mortals can only die. After all, even if a cube existed with a width of only two particles, it would contain more particles than our entire cosmos uncountable times over. Commonly, graham cubes are far larger, and their presence results in gravitational forces that would put a supermassive black hole to shame. Whenever one exists, wherever it exists, the entire universe is forced to bow to it's will.

One cannot flee a graham cube, one can barely attempt to fight it. Gods must struggle to stand in it's presence. Even planets and the burning orbs we call stars shatter at their will. They define the direction of "down" and the concept of "size". Abandon all hope when you face a graham cube, because odds are that you will die, even if you are victorious.

Special Skill Options (Ex):

Move Aside (Su):

Exosight (Ex):

Physica Inenodabilis Traits (Ex):

Entity Traits (Ex):

Absolute Gravity (Ex):

Move Everything (Ex):

Number (Ex):

A Matter of Scale (Ex):

Damage Reduction (Ex):

Kugelblitz Inenodabilis

Tachyonic Inenodabilis

	Timelike Curve
Size/Type:	Medium Entity (Extrarius Quanticus)
Hit Dice:	100d12+1,300 (2,009 hp)
Initiative:	+42
Speed:	100 ft. (20 squares), fly 1,000 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class:	135 (+34 Dex, +57 deflection, +34 natural), touch 101, flat-footed 101
Base Attack/Grapple:	+100/+130
Attack:	Rift +150 ranged touch (8d10+8; 19-20/x3)
Full Attack:	3 Rifts +150 ranged touch (8d10+8; 19-20/x3)
Space/Reach:	5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:	Causal Placement, Open and Close, Special Skill Options, Without Place
Special Qualities:	A Thousand Images, Blindsight 1,000 ft., Eating the Past, Entity traits, Extrarius Quanticus traits, Fast Healing 50
Saves:	Fort +94, Ref +111, Will +106
Abilities:	Str 70, Dex 78, Con 36, Int 36, Wis 60, Cha 26
Skills:	—
Feats:	Combat Expertise, Distant Shot, Dodge, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess (x16), Epic Will, Far Shot, Improved Critical (Rift), Improved Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Precise Shot, Mobility, Multiattack, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Shot on the Run, Sidestep Charge, Superior Expertise, Superior Initiative
Environment:	All Existence
Organization:	Solitary
Challenge Rating:	60
Treasure:	Double standard in exotic matter
Alignment:	Usually True Neutral
Advancement:	—
Level Adjustment:	—

I huddled in a corner of that dark room, clutching my knife in both hands as I trembled and sweated. It had chased me here, he had chased me here. Sixteen years it had been hounding me, that strange blur in the air. I had been about to start my adventuring career when it came out of the sky and began to attack me. Since then, I had ran, not having even a single night of rest or a single good meal since. I had barely managed to survive for those sixteen years, and was constantly exhausted, yet still it hounded me.

I had sought oracles and wise men and even gods to try and explain this strange thing. They had claimed that I had been meant to become a great king one day, after a magnificent adventuring career. Yet, for some reason, this thing was chasing me, scrambling my time line and trying to prevent me from reaching my thirty eighth birthday, which was only four years away. Well, I had been doing okay, until it had summoned him. The king who I had been meant to usurp. Powerful and ruthless, he had aided the time-creature, and given me no rest since.

Perhaps this was the foe who undid me. Perhaps I had been a king, until I faced off this foe, but, instead of fighting me, it just went back in time and killed me before I had the strength to fight back. Or maybe this was just the way that it fought, and with each blow upon you, it moved farther back in time, until it is fighting you at a point that you would not win. Maybe I could use this to fight it? But I couldn't think about that right now. Better to keep the guard up, for the moment it attacked tonight.

Heads Up

As the game progresses into epic levels, things change. As numbers swell in size, the d20 roll begins to count for less. As players become the more and more powerful, there are fewer and fewer souls able to stand against them or to tell them "no". As player's build empires and earn fame, they can conduct wars, pass laws, shape culture, and the player's word approaches equality with the DM's word. In epic levels, the game takes on new qualities. In order to threaten an epic character, a monster needs to be able to threaten anything. An epic challenge needs to be capable of redefining the entire world, rocking the foundation the PC has built their characters upon. Epic classes need to give the PCs new and noteworthy ways of changing the game. Packs of roaming bandits avoid the places that the PCs live. The government being infiltrated by a devil is not a campaign, but instead a facet of the political interactions between the nations that the PCs rule and the lower planes. Spells and feats are capable of doing things that even nature can't achieve. This article has been designed with the intention of being used in such a campaign. It hardly needs to be said that you should not use this unless the players are actually ready for it. This includes in-character and out-of-character concerns, because a player who takes the game very seriously might become upset when their character's plans start to fall apart. Use this material under advisement.

In our reality there exist three spacial dimensions and a single temporal dimension. This did not have to be the case. For example, it would not be a world we necessarily understood, but there could have existed two or three temporal dimensions. In such a strange universe, it could be argued that time travel would not require vastly powerful magic. Instead, it would be just a part of life, a downright simple matter to move back and forth through the past and future, or whatever we would call the "sideways" of time.

A timelike curve is an embodiment of the rules which would govern that reality, and, by existing, it imposes those rules upon ours. An area of alternate physical laws of about 1,000 feet in radius with a 3 foot radius distortion at it's heart. A person looking at a timelike curve doesn't see any body, even when looking at the distortion at it's heart, but instead sees things misplaced in time. It could be nighttime within a timelike curve, when the rest of the world is at day. Perhaps a villain the party vanquished stands within the timelike curve, or an older version of one of the player's children. Or maybe just magma from the birth of the planet.

This particular form of entity is often warded off by any guardians of the cosmos that might exist, but, as it is an embodiment of how our universe could have existed, they can't always keep it out. So a timelike curve will occasionally just show up, and will need to be driven out, discorporated, or enslaved to our physics, before they wreak havoc on causality and unravel the foundation of our reality. Though, attempting to best a timelike curve is often a tremendous undertaking. One which even deities shy away from. Thankfully, the appearance of a timelike curve is an exceedingly rare event.

Combat

A timelike curve has no real body, and is instead simply a series of alternate physical rules imposed on an area approximately 1,000 feet in diameter, and, of course, you can't attack physical rules. However, a timelike curve does have a core, a place that holds it to the real world, a distortion of about 2 meters across. It is this core that is given stats above, and which must be attacked in order to banish the entity.

Physical laws technically don't have wills of their own either, so the timelike curve doesn't exactly think, yet it is still disturbingly efficient at defeating things which would try and harm it. It can teleport assailants into different time periods, assaulting them with a plethora of changing circumstances, or even drag up foes from their past, or perhaps their future, giving them plenty of distractions to deal with, while it erases history with it's "eating the past" class feature.

Special Skill Options (Ex): A timelike curve automatically succeeds on any unopposed Hide, Knowledge [Arcana, Dungeoneering, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Psionics, Religion, The Planes], Listen, Move Silently, Psicraft, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, or Tumble skill checks. In an opposed skill check, it is treated as having 103 ranks in each of those skills.

Without Place (Ex): A timelike curve can move literally anywhere with three consecutive full round actions. A timelike curve spends these moments folding itself in over on top of itself, until, at the end of the third full round action, it selects a location. This can be any location, even ones existing in other planes, other realities, or even just barely qualifying as a "location". The timelike curve then accelerates to near light speed while warping time, space, and the boundaries of reality, traveling to the designated location instantaneously. This is physical movement so anti-teleportation effects have no effect on it. This movement is too fast to provoke attacks of opportunity.

Extrarius Quanticus Traits (Ex): Immunity to fire, cold, and force effects. Immunity to being blown away, checked, or other effects of wind. +10 inherent bonus to saves against confusion, nausea, and paralysis. +20 inherent bonus to resist combat maneuvers such as bull rush, grapple, or trip.

Entity Traits (Ex): Hit dice "explode" when rolling hp, immunity to polymorphing, petrification, any form-altering attack, energy drain, negative levels, level loss, ability damage, or ability drain, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), and death effects, bodies cease to exist on death, no soul, and does not eat, sleep, or breathe. Unlike other entities, the chance of something not working on a timelike curve is determined by it's open and closed ability.

Open and Closed (Ex): A timelike curve can exist in one of two different states: open and closed. Switching between them is a swift action which the timelike curve must take at the end of it's turn if it's going to take it at all. When open, a timelike curve is essentially just a timeline that pulls away from ours. This is it's most natural form, and reality can almost coexist with it. Any action directed at the timelike curve while it is open has a 75% chance of not working on it. Also, if the timelike curve dies while it is open, then those inside find themselves lost in time, floating out of the reach of their original timeline, and must be capable of traveling through time to get back to their reality.

When closed, the timelike curve intersects with our timeline at both the entities beginning and end, meaning it become a form of time travel. Time travel which it controls. When closed, any action directed at the timelike curve has a 25% chance of not working. Also, with a move action, the timelike curve can move through time, and anything within 1,000 feet of it is carried along. Anyone outside this 1,000 feet just see everything within it disappear. The timelike curve can traverse any distance of time, even potentially to the beginning or end of it, making it so that characters need to be able to survive insane circumstances to reliably fight a closed timelike curve. The relative location in space is preserved. Only time is traversed.

Eating the Past (Ex): Whether open or closed, a timelike curve can still alter it's own past, and, slithering around through spacetime like a vast 6D serpent, sync it's history with those within it's area. At the beginning of each round that a character spends within 1,000 feet of a timelike curve, they lose a level, no saving throw allowed. This level loss is not exactly level loss in the traditional sense, but instead "level never actually gained". The timelike curve has now been fighting that character since they would have gained that level, changing history to allow for such an eventuality to be real. After each additional round, another level, and another chunk of history, is lost. This is real level lost, and cannot be gained back, not through any means imaginable, as they never existed to begin with.

A Thousand Images (Ex): A timelike curve can also bring creatures from the future or past into the present without moving things from the present elsewhere. With a full round action, a timelike curve can summon any number of creatures or NPCs with total CR 30 or less encountered previously in the campaign or world (or which will be incorporated into the campaign or world later) to any location within 1,000 feet of it. These summoned creatures might be lost and confused, but generally act to fight the PCs for one reason or another. DMs should probably focusing on summoning villains, so it's easy to explain why they attack.

Causal Placement (Ex): When something successful has impact on a timelike curve, it might not actually have an impact, because being able to shift events through time can allow it to shift attacks against it away from itself. With an immediate action, a timelike curve can take a cause that would have an effect upon it and move the effect to another point in it's timeline. The action actually happens, but it's either so far in the future or so far in the past that it doesn't impact the encounter. However, when traveling through time as a closed timelike curve, there is a 1% chance that it accidentally encounters something it moved away from itself, taking the full cause of the action at that time. If you have more questions about how this works, refer to the following: "Wibbily-Wobbily Timey-Whimey."

Rifts (Ex): Deals 1d10+1 untyped damage for each positive point of Cha modifier, normally has a maximum range of 1,000 feet and a range increment of 1,000 feet. Feats allow for infinite range instead, as well as ignoring total cover, ignoring total concealment, shooting into melee and grapples without penalty, movement before and after shooting, and +1 attack and damage within 30 ft.

Blindsight (Ex): A timelike curve can “see” anything inside itself, ascertaining the shape of everything within 1,000 feet of it's center.

Fast Healing (Ex): At the beginning of each round, a timelike curve heals 50 hit points, up to a maximum of it's maximum hit points.

Spacelike Curve Extrarius

Zero Point Extrarius