Dungeons and Dragons Spelljammer Lore: Argos
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ย. 2024
- Found in close proximity to Beholders, the Argos are an alien species of formidable weirdness and horrific appearance.
Link to a fairly good direct conversion of the original 2nd edition Argos on D&D Beyond Homebrew:
www.dndbeyond....
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The comment about them lurking on ships as engineers makes me think of the classic trope of the creepy horrific alien lurking on a space ship's engine deck, but I could equally see them in a similar role in arcane workshops, foundries, boiler rooms, and factories. Any place that's cramped, hot, dark, and clouded with steam, with lots of corners, vents, nooks, and crannies to hide in or escape through.
I would imagine seeing something so alien "fly" would be terrifying. I assume it undulates through the air in a fashion similar to a sea slug swimming through water. I can just see it slowly winding it's way through the air blasting out spells via eye rays like a light show whilst snatching up felled foes to absorb into it's amorphous form.
Anyone who has seen that famous Dr Who episode where the Dalek's fly for the first time, will always have the Argos utter "ELEVATE!" before it floats into the air.
After the Baldur's Gate III reveal and SO MANY content creators doing Spelljammer videos, we're definitely getting Spelljammer in 5e. Right?
Oh yes, we are.
Well we can hope. I think there was a crashed ship in the dungeon of the mad mage
I wake up to a glue stick channel spelljammer guide!!!?! 🤯 Idk how this day could have started any better!💯
sounds basically like a beyholder crossed with a beholder in a horrific breeding experiment or genetic splicing
Just found this video. I can totally see one of these as a reluctant symbiote within an organic Spelljammer of some kind, that the pc's stumble upon and it ends up warning them not to hurt it lest they find themselves without air. Obviously, from a standpoint of personality and behavior, this argos will have to have been affected by its disposition over time to explain why it isn't immediately hostile. In fact, it would be neat for a side plot of the campaign to be the players finding some way to bond with and earn actual loyalty from it. It would have an annoying voice like cl4ptrp from Borderlands, because of course it would, and it would have a habit of showing up unannounced in various parts of the ship to chime in unexpectedly on conversations or to start talking to itself loudly while the crew tries to sleep. This is a very cartoonish version of what is described in the video, I know, but inspiration struck and I wont let a few details stop me! Maybe it doesn't even have to be an Argos specifically. It could be a formerly captive Argos liberated from Deep Imaska, (for example, since I last watched the stream where you built the city) its time there forever changing its personality and disposition toward other races in unpredictable ways.
Thanks AJ, I’m always impressed to see how much Lovecraft wizards of the cost can cram into D&D.
all that aberration grouping literally brings the Beholder's Spelljammer to life, if the ship itself isn't made by the assembly of these weird beings!
My little Shoggoth, Spelljammer Magic.
1-5 CR? They're sentient flying Gibbering Mouthers with lesser eye rays, which have a CR of 2 without all that extra stuff. They're also pets of beholders. I'd imagine the lowest in 5e would be CR 5, ranging upward instead of downward.
Yeah, they can dish it, they just can't take it.
My own conversion of the Argos to 5e came up as CR 10.
Its a Flying Polyp. Thank you HPL.
I would love a halfling lore video
Coming right up! :)
I can hardly imagine society of beholders. I can easy see civil war between them
Ooh, I can't wait for you to cover their sibling species, Tescos
Real talk love ya stuff
What an indispensable workhorse monster. A real tragedy they aren't widely known outside of the Spelljammer setting. Every evil overlord could use one as a handyman and waste management foreman!
Gold plated safety helmets and monocular safety glasses.
I used to use the "known" rays where appropriate, and roll on the "wand of wonder" table for the others (if I couldn't decide what would make sense to the argos)
I haven't heard about these creatures in a long, long time. I was still DMing. One of my players mentioned these creatures when the party ended up on a world that never developed multicellular life. All life was single-cellular, not all microscopic. Their "humans" were like Dralasites from Star Frontiers... they grew some pseudopods and could grow a head where their "face" was at. The Argos... my friend compared them to my "Predatory Amoebas". Those are elephant-sized highly intelligent amoebas that can grow pseudopods to move faster than just oozing along a surface. From what I saw in your video here (great work, by the way), an Argos would literally eat a Predatory Amoeba alive... bit by bit... just would take it a while because most of the Argos's attack magic wouldn't do much. Imagine an Argos vs. an amorphous Deep Spawn.
Getting strong shoggoth vibes here.
Ftaghn!
Speaking of using Spelljammer along with different settings. My PC for my current Spelljammer game is from Sigil.
Maybe Argos are an alternate form of Beholders that has been altered by zero-g environments. A phenomenon that has been capitalized by the Beholders to serve their vain needs.
I’ve always seen them as an advanced version (or perhaps the original strain) of Gibbering Mouthers.
Is anyone else thinking a Argos -Aliens 1 type of adventure? Players find a Spelljammer vessel void of life. Except for the Argos that has now infiltrated the players vessel.
You can have it seen from the corner of the eye for a week or two while it tries to hide until it gets too hungry to avoid attacking. Just enough to ramp up the paranoia before the horror starts to make people disappear. In this case I would have it never seen any of the crew's species before so it was uncertain and wary of them. Just think of how freaked out your players will be as they become more and more certain something is watching them...then it comes to light some of the crew is missing.
Add to that the crysolus can take on decorative features... “oh, let’s take the alien artwork back to our base and ignore decontamination”
Edit: spelling (I can’t spell)
@@tonyoliver4920 no worries, this is the internet. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation is optional.
Starfinder shoggoth. Got it. Thanks again!
I am so hyped right now, Thanks man will consume this video now thanks for all your work man.
My pleasure :)
That thing is awfully quiet for a gibbering mouther. Wait a second....
I would like to put forward my alternative that I plan to use for eye rays:
Make a table of 20 options of your choice, ensuring they get stronger as they climb the numbers.
Full health = 1d20
3/4 health = 1d12+3
Half health = 1d10+3
1/4 health = 1d4+4
Argos gains +1 to this per creature it is currently feeding on.
Argos suffers -1 to this per critical hit(nat20) suffered.
I imagine a massive one that’s grown bloated from eating the entire crew of a ship would make for a perfect sci-fi horror.
I love these, always thought of them as a Spelljammer Gibbering Mouther, just like Chaos Beasts are a planar variety of them.
Argos? You mean the UK catalog department store?
Well, where do you think they get all the gold plated equipment from bruv?
@@AJPickett
Those bastard's.
*Shakes fist*
Thats what i thought!
Gibbering beholder.
Interesting. I know most people would probably have these talk with a growling or gurgling voice, but I can't help but think of one sounding like Kirby (from the Kirby video game franchise), which is probably more terrifying. 'The massive blob covered in eyes and mouths moves towards you. One mouth stretches out in your direction. It opens and says "Hiii!" '
Kirbi is already terrifying . A being that can swallow you whole, never to be seen again, absorbed so he can use your abilities against your friends and loved ones.
I would you a gollum voice. Constantly switching pitches, sometimes low and sometimes high, but always from the back of the throat.
I like the idea that they are some sort of aberrant aberration. Something of a cancer for beholders or maybe a colony of them that travelled too close to Wildspace/Strangespace. Lots of ecology or story potential. Just neat.
Imagine a planet sized Argos that is held in stasis because it is too big to sustain its size. The beholders unleash it like a super-weapon in their time of need and lock it back in stasis when it has feasted upon an entire world... spooky
Ego and the Deathstar had a baby.
Better, having killing it part of a job by the beholders because they think it is getting to big to control anymore. That it's ravenous hunger will immediately overwhelm it the next time it exits stasis and they fear it won't care anymore.
@@jacobfreeman5444 Gotta escort a giant magic bomb into its brain chamber
Yes! At last, more aberrations-
I wonder if they (Argos) worship Juiblex or Ghaunadaur? Thank you for reminding me of these monsters. A little memory jog sometimes helps this old DM.
Possibly, they usually live solitary lives, so, they would have very individualistic ideals and beliefs most likely.
Oh hey. It's me after waking up for breakfast while trying to move with a confused body.
Welp, gonna have tea with this dude tonight. My dreams are never normal.
Hmmm. If Argos can channel the effects of a Burning Hands cone into a eyeray, that does leave to arcane pondering of the potential for a Burning Glare spell, should a sufficiently experienced thaumaturge get the time to experiment on these creatures. Ofcourse crushing an Argos eye everytime you cast the spell is going to get expensive, but surely there must be catalyst materials that can be used to make more readily available eyes, such as orphans, act as a component instead.
Give it wild shape.
"It's not a dog!"
Kudos for the flying dalek reference. almost as scary as this beast!
Argos are simps for beholders
yes...YES...I LOVE ABBERRATIONS! Especially how they interact with one another! Thanks AJ!
Good video AJ
This makes me think the beholders nightmare'd them into existance, like how other beholders can generate another by dreaming. Definitely using this in a future game I just started!
Edit: just got to the bit where was said that probably isn't the case ofc, but hey, never know!
Yeah, you never know 😊
I can tell you how an argos is born. the older one breaks apart in what seems like death. Each strand starts to wiggle and show fangs. Followed by a singular eye. A... no.... MANY Argos now infest this area. Give them a month and they'll be adults.
Thanks AJ, my players won't know what hit them.
Such a cool monster for a lost in space adventure
I'd never heard of these guys before this.
Another great video A.J. !
is Therizdun locked away in the Phlogiston or in a meta Astral Plane?
Deep Ethereal, within a massive artifact crystal 'lock' sealing away a pocket multiverse.
Never played with spell jammer but it seem interesting.
Okay man you got me. I just joined your discord.
How big could these monstrosities get? Oh, I'm getting so many ideas.
In the published lore, they don't get too big... but your table, your rules :)
they'd have to eat too much to become huge?
@@savagepinksock There should always be room for that moment when, all the regular sized Argos just stop and scatter, and then the HUGE Argos arrives for the Real Fight.
@@AJPickett you make good content tbh, wish my friends would play d&d with me lol
So their great engineers but horrible botanists. Due to their storage place being there stomach, elder things or a human can hold which scenes or flowers with tenderness flowers while this thing can just digesting them.
* seeds
1.) Are these D&D shogoths?
2.) are they conscious or flight capable in the chrysalis form?
3.) how many hit points before they can increase in size category (and probably eat more at once)?
4.) Will they serve other creatures, or just beholders?
5.) Do you only count the hit points that creatures had when they were eaten, or their ax hit points?
6.) Do you know of a good 5E conversation for these?
7.) Do they also exist on planets?
8.) how long can they normally survive as a chrysalis before shrinking: years, decades, centuries?
no the jabbering maw is the D&D Shoggoth's but these are kind of like Proto Shoggoth's
either that or Flying polyp's I'm not sure?
In 2nd edition, they are 2' in diameter per HD. It would be easier to determine how many HD the creature has when they eat it, instead of hp; but, you'd use max hp of the creature devoured, if you do it that way. When they're in crystalized form, they're hibernating, so they're not conscious or moving about. They do exist on planets. I was about to run a published adventure and a mage had trapped one in a dungeon in Anauroch in the Forgotten Realms. He never went to space to get it and there's no mention of the mage even being aware of spelljamming ships. At first it hated the wizard, but now it doesn't care so much, because it gets free meals--so I guess they can sere other creatures too. It also seems they can last a very long time in chrysalis. They atrophy down to a pretty small size over time and then just sit there in hibernation--when they wake up, they're ravenously hungry, because they've been without food for so long.
oooooooooo more spell jammer
Oh man, AJ these are awesome. I’m pretty much familiarizing myself with spelljammer as I see content from you and a few other sources so I don’t know a ton about it and as a result my home brew setting doesn’t have spelljamming (yet teehee), but I wanna use these guys baaaad. I’m thinking one Argos posing as a myconid sovereign with a bunch of enthralled fungi slaves, maybe.... thoughts?
Yeah, they can exist in a great many different environments, are fairly intelligent and given a plentiful supply of food, can be pretty good mid level boss creatures.
AJ Pickett ok cool beans that’s more or less what I was thinking. Any idea of a range of CR for these guys? I find that system as shifty as the next bloke but it has its uses. It’s cool that there’s kind of a sliding scale for them though; versatile monsters=the best monsters (also, as I just watched your livestream, lol @ mycelium priest. Hah. Sclerotium cleric? I dunno. Hilarious though)
Shoggoth-y
Why have them patch a hole in the ship when they can *be* the ship.
Space fleas.
Is planescape like spelljammer in your opinion. Like an accessory, it fits in forgotten realms?
Yes.
@@AJPickett oh good. Thank you. Opens up my game :)
Ahh the fabled Argos.
Renowned for its plastic book listing cheap s**t and their tiny blue pens.
Check out what Argos is in the uk 😅
This is not a shoggoth?
Negative.
Do they could be similar to the engineer that was symbiotically linked to the ship from the tv series Lex
Yay!
Here wuz Seamus!
Welcome back Seamus!
@@AJPickett is goot to be back. I quit the prison, and I'm trying to get back into making videos and trying really hard to get into voice over. Ya know, stuff that makes me happy and doesn't leave me surrounded by actual murderers.
Fun fact, I actually got my first gig singing for next week. It's small time, local restaurant, but it's a start and I'm excited.
@@seamusfish7009 So it begins!
In 2 edition they were mortal enemies or was they just native to beholder space
That's so funny! Lol
How come Lake don't do farming if starvation is a big problem for them
Well going from hunting to farming is a pretty difficult thing. Likely their starvation would skyrocket before they got any successful harvest.
As a Planescape fan, I've always found the Prime somewhat bland. Spelljammer actually seems like a great way of making it more interesting. Thank you for teaching me about it!
The Sage of Beast and Cheeses brings us... spees freaks, today! A prayer to the Machine (learning) God, for ye.
Gloria in excelsus Terra (I think. Its hard to get "gothic" right if you've learned actual Latin. The Emperor know what's what tho...).
Or, and bear w/ me: Ao = God Emperor of/in D&D? Both are incomprehensibly powerful beings that use that power to do fuck all. Except smite shit, on rare events. Enough evidence for me to make a "totally, 100% legal" crossover campaign, I think. The real Supreme Being is gonna be a hermit that lives in a bucolic, lush land -- with *many* lamb/sheep herds. This Hermit shall grant boons to visitors if they play a game of "Cellars and Critters (3.5ed)" with him; and those who bring gifts of finest cheeses will gain artefacts/relics that are OP af *or* an Epic (10th or 11th lvl) buff spell cast and Permanenced on the Cheese-bringer. Yes. This isn't a bad idea: it's *actually* a great one! No way it'll go off the rails (there are no rails)! Was just riffing, but tbh, I can see ways to make that insanity work. Well, except the Games Workshop™©® "problem".
Eh, the god Emporer isn't as macho as his religion makes him sound. I can see him equaling one of the chaos gods in a direct contest of their choice, but he was playing some twisted form of pyramid chess with all of them and that is why he is more corpse than man these days. He is far from the Supreme power of that universe. So far. Maybe that will change.
@@jacobfreeman5444 eh... since it’s my understanding that The Warp: GW, that’s the ultimate power of WH, lol.
Belief ($) = Reality (canon).
мне понравилось ! накрутка лайка и комментарий , для алгоритмов ютуба =)!!!11