Planars: The Grey Reach

Here continues the ongoing discussion and design of original planars, the various denizens of the multiverse, for Midgard—by Scott Gable (Warlock Editor):

Thank you for your wonderful feedback on the last post! You've convinced me that fungus was the way to go for our Evermaw creations. (I love fungus, so really it was an easy sell. However, there are not enough nematode monsters, for sure—especially sentient! So expect me to circle back to more worms at some point! Ahem...)

And I also feel compelled, thanks to your comments, to circle back to a remora-like creature and to visit the Eyes of Mot (the vultures) for additional design for Evermaw.

But for the right-now, let's take the first step—

The Grey Reach 

Here is a design overview of my current plans for the Evermaw planars. 

The Grey Reach (more formally the Myconid Unity) originates from the Void but is drawn to and thrives on undead flesh, hence their natural draw toward the Evermaw where the Reach exists in a symbiotic relationship with the undead there. (The Reach is a shadow player, working to further the schemes of the undead powers as it furthers its own agenda—which is simply to consume.) The core of the Grey Reach is a single intelligence, distributed over all its nodes. For whatever reason, the Reach finds it difficult to gain any traction on Midgard. However, it can spawn myconids and is the progenitor of the mushroomfolk of the Midgard Underworld, though they have been severed from the Reach and are free of its influence.

This would let us...

• Build up the mythology of the mushroomfolk.
• Expand on myconids as monsters, with a wide variety of different myconids to build and with a variety of encounter roles.
• Create fungal-undead necrotech!
• Create ties to both the Evermaw and the Void, and on Midgard to the Underworld and possibly the Wasted West, which perhaps supports their "weird" physiological needs a bit better than the rest of Midgard.
• Create some interesting relationships (as pointed out by the other kobolds) not just with the undead and the mushroomfolk but also with the Mi-Go and the Folk/Spiders of Leng. And maybe even with mushroom hunters out of Klingadesh, the Marketplace.

So this was just the "big view." Next up will be diving into some crunchy bits. I expect to start with a series of myconids to get into it. They'll be relatively straight-forward. But that will help to inform the design of the Reach itself, which should be different and more complex than the other myconids.

So until next time, let us know what you think, and help feed the Creativity Engine and build some cool creatures by leaving a comment (or several!).

<<PREVIOUSLY