Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Atropal

Dreaded immortal abominations, the aborted attempts to create new gods and angels, the Atropals are in my top five most horrific and powerful monsters ever created for the dungeons and dragons role playing game.
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[@bray2964]

Noob DM: a Lich is the most terrifying undead. Me: Oh sweet summer child...

[@jgr7487]

an Apropal as an evil Celestial Patron of a Warlock is quite a terrifying thing!

[@randomdragon8245]

They’d be more akin to an Undead Warlock patron. Most associate it with Liches but forget that undead are so much more than that.

[@sagesheahan6732]

Ah. Now I know why asmodeus keeps around fusion warheads, a fiendish Tarrasque, and a wand of spheres of annihilation....

[@jonalynmisalang9447]

He keeps *WHAT?!*

[@TheStormyWonder]

Running a Greek Pantheon game, still gearing up for it, but the Atropal is going to be a miscarriage of Aphrodite. Making it's way through Chaos (Negative Energy Plane), Hades (Underworld), The Underdark, and then finally into the material plane to attempt to destroy The Daughters of Aphrodite (worshippers, organization) and make it's way to Mt. Olympus. Very excited to see my players level up and encounter this.....thing.

[@Giles29]

This critter could definitely be the BBEG of an "undead army" scenario - the party could kill the lich that they thought was behind the undead plague, only to have this thing appear and start everything ten times worse. If you're really in an evil mood, Atropus could be involved as well.

[@Golnax]

Oh goody, another undead uber boss I can add to my campaign when it's time to introduce Atropus as a threat!

[@muninrob]

I've used an Atropal as the god-king of an undead army - it's armies grew, initially one party of heroes at a time (loved that set of players, they kept trying to stop the wave of death), then one squad at a time (using the wights, vampires & other "template" undead versions of the parties of heroes that had fallen) Always raising every corpse in their path, growing increasingly large and deadly as more and more lifeforms fell before the rising tide of death. In the end, they discovered that if geometric progression goes unchecked, it does not take long at all to completely over-run a world. (Also, they learned that it's better to avoid a fight with undead that can turn their victims into reinforcements untill you are 100% sure you can kill them all)

[@brosephnoonan223]

What I love about D&D is like... You have these totally conventional monsters like giant men with limbs thick as redwoods, sentient fires, big lizards with wings that breath fire... These are fantastic things, sure but if you NEVER knew what a dragon was, if you were told "a red dragon is a giant iguana with trex teeth and bear claws and wings that breath fire" you can draw a picture of that in mind. Its like "wowee, that sure sounds dangerous and scary! Can't wait to mount the head on my wall!" But then you have shit like the atropol where its like "So... Its a rotting fetus floating and turning in a fetal position like a babe in utero. It has one giant, puss filled eye in the center of its skull, one empty socket that leaks a stream of viscera while the other eye is there, glassed over and bleeding. Its body is twisted like a rung out towel, it has one tiny limp left arm to the left that twitches and everytime it does, the skin peels back to reveal dying muscle tissue, puss, and bones. Its right arm is absolutely massive, swollen and bubbling under the skin, forcing it to fly on its side. It has a third arm where the left leg should be, and its right leg mimics the left arm. It has a sickly length of flesh where its belly button ought to be, a thick brackish wire of flesh that drips this shadowy gunk in perpetuity. It hovers, unaffected by gravity or the creature's orientation but swings around just a few hairs behind it in speed when the still-born thing spins to 'greet' you, eith a sickening malady that begins first in your mind, then in your body. Its reminiscent of the cries of a baby, if it were choking and played at maximum volume through a speaker..." Which is almost always met with a chorus of "nopes". I can't I "like" the atropol because even in the context of a game its nature is so horrifically appalling I would need a very, very, _very_ good justification to subject players to a description like that.

[@daniellewillis2767]

Well said..

[@andrewmorris9863]

my mom was a nurse and played d and d with me and friends but saw that in the Epic lvl hand book and cryed

[@jideoforojukwu4263]

Even a Deities failed attempt at an abortion is a powerful thing

[@daniellewillis2767]

An evil sorcerer could have a dried Atropal umbilicus as a staff..

[@fredanderson7728]

I never thought the planes needed EPIC undead heroes to fight abominations like the atropal. It's just like fighting fire with fire.

[@ChasoGod]

Undead clerics and paladins who are good aligned to take care of these creatures. Maybe it's a whole divine task force .

[@silasdeboer4596]

A long response: I recently (last month) ran an Atropal named Bill for one of my players (a Paladin Diplomancer in 3.5 who is trying to find her way back to her home plane after being stranded by her party). I took the tact of an Atropal on a quest to know who its real parents were, and who was deeply affected by its relationship with a playwright named William from the Astral Plane who so impressed the Atropal that it named itself after the "friend." Bill kept using anachronistic quotations from William's plays, and used Disguise Undead to affect a more palatable appearance (similar to a 16th century courtier, England) for interviews. Bill ran an Undead Lab for a local Dark Lord as a mercenary to stave off the boredom of immortality, invented a multi-layer version of Chess, and used hospitality to try to entrap the Paladin to force her to play the game for her freedom, and also as an opportunity to learn more about "living creatures" who, from its perspective, were the only method of creating more bodies for it to work with... it creeped the hell out of my player despite Bill not actively threatening her other than to win trophies such as hair samples and fingernail clippings (she lost one of the games of hospitality, but won the last chess game with much higher stakes). Bill's perspective was that "alive" was only a brief stage prior to Undeath, and the Multiverse was trending towards an inevitable future of Undeath. Bill appreciated the living only so much as a method of gaining new bodies to raise, similar to tolerating caterpillars because what he really wanted were the butterflies. The more powerful the living person, the more powerful the Undead he could craft. Polity was Bill's weakness as well as its strength (it was Lawful Evil). While Bill "worked for a Dark Lord" was true, its motivations were not subservience- it amused Bill to "work" for the Dark Lord, who at least kept Bill in necromantic supplies for experiments. In short, Bill the Atropal was so well defended by its creations within the bowels of its fortress that it could afford to play Lawful games to entrap and ensnare the Paladin in an attempt to use its genius level IQ to gain a new Lawful-Good Paladin lackey (and her pre-saintly sample body parts for its inventions). The player escaped the trap by organizing Bill's warehouse (think Hoarder x Interplanar Storage Wars booty from auctions on Sigil) and by playing a phenomenal game of multi-layer Chess (the mechanics were simple d20 + Int modifier + Wisdom modifier roll offs). Yes, the paladin was one of Wee Jas, so it was not totally beyond the pale. And yes, Bill has a large aquarium in his basement growing a new clone of the Paladin using Scrying and one of its Evolved Skeletons (Bill crafted skeletons in the hundreds for the Dark Lord, and picked up the 1% each century who Evolved for his own personal lab technicians). Book of Vile Darkness, Psionics handbook, and Libris Mortis was essential in picking crafting Bill (I rarely use monster stats as presented, modifying through class advancement). Also, it was an excuse to use just about every Undead in the Monster Manuals I-V as well as Libris Mortis for the minions. 3.5 is going strong in my group, we aren't afraid of math : P Anyway, I thought the video was well done, but want to point out that GMs can use Atropals (cosmic abortions) as more nuanced than what is presented. A little philosophy and conversations with a playwright concerned with the human condition can make for an interesting encounter. The player admitted that Bill was far more scary than the Dark Lord because openly attacking the host "was just wrong," and since the player was alone, it would be suicide -> undead existence to resort to violence. Failing to honor the hospitality games would result in loss of Lawful alignment, which meant the possibility of neutering the player's character. It was a feat for the player just to escape and play for freedom/information on the multiverse. As a Diplomancer, it was a win-win outcome and the player was happy to make her way to the Outlands with the goal of Sigil. I used a lisp / slurred voice for Bill's physical croakings, but since it used Telepathy (had a few levels in Psionics) so often, I affected a cultured and rich voice for that. The illusion/facade kept hinting at the true horror beneath as the paladin played chess in a parlor with the host. Bill also had a retinue of ghosts who basked in its aura of undeath, as well as a couple of Blaspheme bodyguards and a host of other undead minions for the stronghold. Good times!

[@AJPickett]

A Shakespeare quoting Atropal? hmmm. I agree, you can tone down the evil behavior of the Atropal to suit your needs, but, these things are abominations for a reason.

[@utaatu4576]

Damn, dude, that is some intense shit there. I know if I were the player, my nerves would be so frayed during those chess matches! There's something about contained evil that just makes a creature even more chilling- anything can be a spooky scary skeleton, but when them bones can manipulate and create... Horrifying~

[@Sgt-Wolf]

8:54 "I sent wave after wave of my own undead at them" - captain atropal

[@adammoore3703]

Their was a BBEG of a 2shot i was a part of.... It was an Atropal who's "Entropic Cord" was severed and was desperate to re-establish contact with the Negative energy plane. The bosses desperation combined with the urgency to kill it made for a fast paced adventure.

[@squirrellordsgaming2772]

Funny, I was thinking of writing a short horror story of a haunted Abortion Clinic. This is on that level.

[@JanusHoW]

The 5th edition atropal, in spite of its terrifying abilities, is actually much tamer than the atropal scion of 3rd edition. First, it has 5 Dexerity and no natural armor, meaning it has an AC of 7, which, even with disadvantage - assuming you're at exhaustion level 3 or so from its Wail - isn't too hard for a 11th-12th level party to hit. And since it's not proficient in Dexterity saves, it's going to have a hard time dodging stuff like _fireball_ and _lightning bolt_ even with its Magic Resistance. Second, it's vulnerable to radiant damage, so you can lob _guiding bolts_ at it without having to deal with any Legendary Resistance - hell, even _sacred flame_ will do pretty well, since it's probably not going to waste Legendary Resistance on a cantrip. If you can cast _sunbeam_ you've just about won right there, because atropals have to make normal saves against it, since the advantage from its Magic Resistance and the disadvantage _sunbeam_ imposes cancel each other out...plus, it's not immune to being blinded.

[@KJBH]

Do you know of any 5E stats for the more powerful version of the atropal?

[@JanusHoW]

@@KJBH No, but I'm sure you could make one up. The beauty of 5E's barebones stats is that it encourages DMs to add on to the base monster. For the most part, I would give the boosted atropal the 3E version's Regeneration and applicable spell-like abilities (within reason), double its Hit Dice, increase each of its ability scores by 2 or 4 points, give it some natural armor to up its AC, increase the damage on all of its attacks by 2-3 dice, and give it the ability to summon even more powerful ghostly undead, or even a Nightwalker. That would be enough to raise its CR to 25 or more.

[@khartog01]

Also, Nagash teaming up with a divine abortion is scary. Sigmar preserve us.

[@elricengquist9989]

Having one of these latch onto a god/goddess of life, and slowly corrupting her an her fallowers into a cult within her faith that sacrifices people to the Atropal would be fun to do.

[@dargo1183]

My PCs were playing a high level campaign (slightly evil) and the one became a lich and had one of these tethered to him. It was boosting him and his summoned undead.

[@AJPickett]

slightly evil?

[@dargo1183]

@@AJPickett yes one became a vampire lord but she's reforming her people. The Lich is straight evil found the OG ritual and became a "true Lich" sacrificed 3 people during the ritual.

[@samaustin339]

TOA was the first time I encountered an Attropal in game! It was an unforgettable fight. We had many magical weapons at our disposal, and the Aasamar Ranger by our side. We barely managed to defeat it. Unfortunately, shortly after the Aasamar died by falling into lava by the one of Soul Monger’s tentacles, but we still managed to shatter the device and free the souls trapped inside. It was an amazing fight, and we probably would have lost had it not been for most of us being possessed by the Trickster Gods.

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

Sam Austin Nice.

[@ronben-ezer8373]

Oh, yes, tomb of annialation, one of my favourite D&D adventure. Did you enjoy Chult?

[@nedyse7200]

I have 4 of these and we call them children

[@AJPickett]

OMG, lol.

[@williamozier918]

I want to DM an adventure in the classic module The Lost City. I want to replace Zargon with an Atropal. The idea being when the old gods of the desert empire died this atropal was going to be the empires new god, but he was killed while in the divine womb and fell to Earth. His worshippers built the pyramid around him to protect him. However here is how I envision Atropals, they have godlike power but they are still basically just infants. Whereas infants cry because they need food Atropal's cry because they need worship. When an Atropal needs worship it starts wailing, and starts flinging around godlike tantrums, plagues, earthquakes, droughts, etc. Because the Atropal's still a baby its worshippers have to do like parents do with an infant, you just do stuff until something calms it down. This is why the Cindiceans of the pyramid have degenerated into basic insanity, imagine an entire society trying to just constantly run around and keep a godpowered infant asleep and happy.

[@johnliller3032]

AJ: "Beware, this video is full of horrific and disturbing images." Me: (eating chicken nuggets) "Challenge accepted. . ." (edit) Challenge successfully completed. . .

[@AJPickett]

*awards golden chicken Nug*

[@couragew6260]

Me: (eating a hotdog) “Pathetic. . .”

[@DeggaTheDev]

Ah yes, that thing. Around seven years ago we did an epic level 3.5 game where we fought Orcus at the end. The bastard had four of them that he called his children. Nightmare fuel. We killed two, but then had to GTFO after our cleric was eaten.

[@dragonballtalk8527]

Blixxa2theRevenge holy shit

[@dragonballtalk8527]

Blixxa2theRevenge four rotting god fetusus were his children lol

[@richmcgee434]

I'm surprised you had a problem with them. Just have the party's face talk them into turning on Orcus. "You're all adopted you know. He doesn't really love you. He's just using you for your negative energy auras."

[@DeggaTheDev]

Rich McGee we learned early on when gaming with him that those types of persuasion checks would never work. He even BS's us once into thinking it worked just to trick us into a bad situation. Never again.

[@richmcgee434]

I was joking there, but if you're not that sounds like kind of a bad DM style. If you take negotiation off the table and utterly nerf the mechanical side of face characters you really turn your game into a hack-and-slash fest, y'know? While it's obviously silly to expect an atropal to break down crying when it realizes Daddy Orcus isn't REALLY Daddy, they are malevolent super-geniuses who hate everything that exists. That may give them commonality of cause with the equally-cheery Orcus, but it's shaky ground. Strikes me that an even halfway-convincing argument from the party that stepping back and letting them murder the Batpig would leave the atropals free to go about their business might work - with good roleplaying and a good skill checks to go with it. Even without that I could see some or all of the atropals taking a dive to avoid getting blenderized by a high-level party - they aren't stupid, and they can assess threats better than most monsters.

[@karlw7847]

I fought against this thing a while back and it was the most intense and frustrating fight I have ever experienced Everyone except one member of the party was on their last level of exhaustion

[@venkelos6996]

Ah, the stillborn godling; one of the nastiest pieces of work from Epic 3.0. I can't actually mention any experiences I've had with atropals, apart from reading the entry in the 3e Epic Level Handbook, and much more recently, agreeing that it meant no running Tomb of Annihilation. This is probably the one creature I simply had to bring to the attention of one friend, and then agreed we wouldn't use it in the presence of another friend, who we knew would have personal pain, and objections, to being forced to deal with it. There's a scene in another campaign where the party can encounter a very pregnant Drow; pregnant as in can't wear her armor, and I wasn't sure how to deal with that. She is an important Drow priestess, so of course she's a bit of an elitist batch, so the party was going to have to fight her, if they met, and then what? Do they just bash a pregnant woman's head in? Do they try to save the baby, and forgo their quest fir a while? Does she beg for her life, and that of her unborn? I truly believe this is there because it is possibly the only writing that could force sympathy out of a party; arrogant enemies are basically piñatas filled with XP, and possibly loot, especially when they instigate combat first, and this might be the only way to guilt them into letting her leave alive, but I knew even this scene was going to go over like a lead balloon, with plutonium weighters, so I was trying to plan for a different encounter. The Atropal is this, but worse, especially with my party, so we were like "let's just not play ToA." We thought we might change it to an incredibly wizened, little old man, spewing profanities in Celestial, but we just erred on the side of skip it.

[@H3xx99]

I was eating while I watched this, and I nearly vomited. Good job.

[@MrKago1]

seems like an excellent candidate for an Undying One patron. Is it possible for these things to have any of the aspects of what ever god attempted to create them? Like Bane making Xvim, several botched attempts leads to atropals with a penchant for mind effecting spells, or exarchs of Mystra trying to reach demi or lesser god status and failing, only to whither into Atropals. They would of course be sorcerers.

[@DelrithBorleo]

Let’s say my game has been leading up to a party of 5 level 15 players encountering a god who is attempting to rebirth himself anew since his mortal form has grown too old and vulnerable. In the process of attempting this rebirth into a newly born form, said players end up ruining the god’s successful rebirth and the result comes out to a malformed stillborn visage of it’s failed attempt. Would you say the Atropal is a good template for this final boss encounter?

[@AJPickett]

Yes, Yes I would.

[@DelrithBorleo]

AJ Pickett Cool! Thanks so much for the video and feedback. This will help a lot as I write the final chapter to a game long running for several years. Keep making amazing videos!

[@elricengquist9989]

Yup, and that it sounds alot like the god/goddess in Silent hill really, not a bad thing, but something that might be usable in the campaign. Such as that after the god's failed rebirth it began to alter, and corrupt the land around it, but because of the limit scope of it's power via the imperfect rebirth it could only create a pocket dimension that the twisted/corrupted lands exist in. Now imagine your party going thru this world wit having to access different areas via trans-versing the non-twisted/corrupted world an it's twisted/corrupted counterpart via different means, as they attempt to find the Atropal that rests at the center near it's old body attempting to try the rebirthing ritual again..

[@joshuazane3210]

Elric Engquist This is why I love the comment sections of AJ's videos. That idea is awesome. 10/10 would steal again. 😊

[@dralel1381]

This is so perfect, My group are begging me to run a celestial campaign for them, and I have been having a hard time thinking of a plot for it. But this makes perfect sense for my world. A prior campaign of mine saw a extra-planer-entity open portals around the world, When it entered the world its 'gravity' brought down all the gods from their plane (so now they're avatars walking the world). They took care of the portals but were unaware of what opened them. In this new campaign it could be that the angels (which remain in the positive plane) tried to create a new god to exist and it back fired horribly. The players are dealing with demons spawning into existence from sinful people (claiming to be 'the new gods'). This could all have resulted in the existence of a Atropal in the positive plane. all-in-all I think I found a BBEG. Thx, m8 Great video.

[@AJPickett]

Ooo, good plot!

[@StevenNosferatu]

I find it kind of funny that something very similar to the atropal ended up in South Park's the stick of truth game

[@TheGrizzlo503]

Imagine if wizkids tried selling minis of these things... even to a collector like myself, I don’t want a figure of a giant rotting figure on display in my house

[@bray2964]

You don't?

[@fuzzyzombielove]

Ahh, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is and can be. (Or some say "Kosm")

[@KyleJordanGaming]

"Byrgenwerth, Byrgenwerth... Blasphemous murderers, blood-crazed fiends..."

[@That80sGuy1972]

Eons ago, an ancient god enters the lair of his creator minion. "How's the project to create more of the divine coming?" The creator minion says "There was a problem, a lot of them, and they got loose in the multiverse." A war god minion runs into the room and says "Some floating fetus monster is in the center of an undead hoard attacking our mortals." The ancient god scowls at the now very nervous creator. Eons later, sages call them Atropals.

[@AJPickett]

"Damn it Nerdicus! Must I do Everything Myself!" *drops one of the Tears of Selune on top of the undead army*

[@jacobmendonca8571]

A Divine workplace comedy. I would definitely pay to see that,

[@That80sGuy1972]

Please, SOMEONE, do this!

[@dovakiin4257]

In my tomb of annihilation, the atropal ended up getting a wooping 4 wraiths and a bunch of specters from it all and the party was so happy after a hour of fighting and finally winning just to have Ascerak appear 😭😭

[@martincampbell4211]

Dova kiin I got a crit smite on it and dispatched it on turn two, as for Ascerak though, that was a hard fought battle

[@META_mahn]

In my campaign, there are certain universal 'aspects' which are essentially large amounts of power with rules attached. For instance, the 'law' domain grants power but also confines a god to essentially be in a sense "the people's champion" of justice and whatnot. Spirits, when they are created, attach themselves to domains in order to stay alive. When a spirit has attached itself to multiple domains, it gains a form as a god, its form dictated by some method of personal desire, actual age, and aspects. I could go on for a while how the planar politics worked, but essentially the more domains you try to be in, the harder it is for you to be in more domains as eventually domain ideals start contradicting one another. But some spirits just can't stick to any domain, which ends up with them sort of floating around in the abyss. Most of them are happy to simply die off, but some of them are terrified of death. And this is where I have to clarify that there's two "negative" things in my campaign. One is the negative energy we know, the essence of death and undeath. It's a measurable substance, somewhat like dark matter in our universe. The other is the negative energy created as a result of the universe's creation -- a by-product of existence, the impending doom of the approaching void. This is what makes the entity Atropus, the moon-sized elder god. The spirits that find nothing else find themselves sucked dry by Atropus, withering into their forms as Atropals.

[@AJPickett]

Hmmm, that's kind of how I feel about the stuff that gets lost between editions, particularly the really good 4th edition lore, now floating in the abyss, lost and reviled.

[@META_mahn]

I used to dislike 4e for how bad the mechanics were, but the lore is pretty solid and frequently I find my searches for lore jumping into the 4e wiki.

[@TheCraftingMuse]

Well that felt like a mini horror film. Don't laugh but I switched to just listening to this. Very creepy on its own lol.

[@AJPickett]

Understandable.

[@sylvaincousineau5073]

The cut umbilical cord from an Antropal could make a great MacGuffin for a Lich or a necromancer .

[@yawnos]

I'm imagining a DemiLich who is now just a flying skull grafting a still animated atropal umbilical cord to itself like some kind of spinal cord. So it gets the atropal's negative energy aura, or making a staff from it.

[@dargo1183]

If there's a remote possibility that there's a counterpoint for everything, hypothetically could there be a positive energy version of this.

[@VeteranVandal]

An alive dead God that's brought back via energy of the positive plane?

[@merchants393]

Whoa.... I'm reskinning a campaign with some eldritch horror shit in the background right now. This nightmare is definitely making an appearance!

[@iamkrohn]

Tomb of Annihilation would be a good resource to look at for this monster

[@AzraelThanatos]

Not exactly nerfing one, but I did start a campaign where one had created "avatars" of sorts, echoes of itself that popped up. Basically using the aspects as a basic idea for starting them and building from there. I'd put it as a newly "created" entity that was obsessed with trying to "fix" itself and as the campaign progressed, shifting from that to one that would view something of itself as a "better form" and trying to bring eternal "life" to the world...via undeath. Never got to the finish that campaign due to other things happening and the group falling apart, but making them less "evil" and more of the blue/orange morality thing combined with, well, this thing trying to figure things out as it went.

[@M4urMoM]

Imagine a party in the middle of a war between an atropal, beholder and mindflayers. Hell u should make a story like that. Would be epic. Also for good measure add an Aboleth

[@Insane-Howl-Cowl]

Just looking at this thing makes me think of the sound that Regenerators from Resident Evil 4 make when breathing.

[@theredneckunicorn9752]

Children of Bahamut and the dragon goddess Tamara (portfolio in the draconomicon 3.0 editon). 3 eggs, where the embryos were removed, stitched together and reanimated by Tiamat. The look on my players face as I described this thing descending from the sky. Instead of the decay aura, this monstrosity could use a breath weapon (half frost/half necrotic which reduced maximum hp) as a legendary action which recharged on 5 or 6. Anti-magic aura up 120ft from the dominant head. Creatures that ended their turn with 30 feet had to make a con save (DC 25) or spend their next turn retching. Oh I forget, it could misty step at will. Campaign ending monster.

[@quintoncraig9299]

A Monk with sonic boom and consecutive strikes attacking the ground could kill it in a few rounds, assuming he/she can avoid the misty step follow that is.

[@theredneckunicorn9752]

Ah... the infamous "Guile" build

[@utaatu4576]

Tamara of all goddesses??? Damn son, that's powerful. I'd love to see an eldritch-like abomination like that from Tiamat, I feel like she's so underutilized as a powerful background character

[@theredneckunicorn9752]

Uta Atu feel free to use my creation as your own if you like. My ideas are open source

[@CreatorCade]

Your one scary GM. 😧

[@joshuazane3210]

Hmm... Can the umbilical cord be prehensile? I can see an atropal using it to grapple and life drain say medium or smaller enemies. Plus it would be tremendously creepy.

[@triplebackspace3623]

I wonder what Atropals view of the gods are. I imagine not good , having been created as mere weapons. I can imagine the appearance of one of these would be of great interest to them. And the use of an Atropal in a ploy by one god against another god would be an interesting campaign plot. It would need to be plotted very carefully though . We wouldn't want a conflict on the scale of the Dawn War would we ?

[@smof1]

I used one of these briefly in my homebrew game. the party found a mirror of life trapping in this multi dimensional tower they were exploring and one of the panes had a sleeping one of these in it. I described it as a horrific fetus that appears to be undead and oozing black and green fluids. thankfully they didnt free it, instead freeing the trapped human and leaving the mirror in place hopefully never to be found again. there was also a black dragon, and other less dangerous creatures. the backstory my players never encountered was it was placed in the mirror by some long forgotten power and was prevented from using its own powers to escape. it had to be set free and then...well bad stuff. the players took one glance at it and were like yeah lots not set that one free

[@plague-dog9504]

Tomb of Annihilation features an Atropal. It's a fight for sure

[@biggusligma8036]

More like the Womb of Annihilation amiright?... because the Atropal is a fetus...

[@plague-dog9504]

AYYYYYYY!!!

[@AJPickett]

I didn't mention that because SPOILERS.

[@trustI17]

Spoilers dudeeee

[@TheFattdragon]

WOOT nice work A.J. love it. I lost my appetite on this one. If it was the end and had nothing left I might try a high yield hydrogen bomb or a portal gate to the core of a star =D

[@maytronix7201]

Meat rope...I'm so using that

[@KyleJordanGaming]

(Now Playing: “Hail the Nightmare”, Bloodborne OST)

[@tefnutstemple7433]

While unrelated to Atropus in canon, in the setting im designing for pathfinder, i'm adapting the 3.5 versions of these and Atropus itself, and having Atropus, in this setting, form these creatures from chunks of itself to attempt to wipe out threats. An interesting adaptation id say.

[@AJPickett]

That is a scary concept!

[@cthulhucultist8872]

I got the atropal in the I.O.T.R. boneyard blind box and it looks grotesque, but it's awesome, so glad I watched this now I know what it's capable of

[@wolvo5441]

IOTR?

[@jprp999]

Anyone wondering what to get Orcus for Christmas, you have your answer.

[@zmishiymishi5349]

Oh THAT was atropal...

[@lordinquisitor6233]

If someone says dnd is for kids, I’m showing this

[@noxure]

Time Baby

[@FfejTball]

Well that's a shit argument.

[@Promance2300]

I have to somehow take down an atropal wizard personally crafted by Lolth. Good luck, right?

[@Yuudaddy]

Even in the act of Abortion, the gods doom us all...

[@TotalTech2.]

They have *NERFED* the Atropal as of this writing he is only a CR 13 I liked it better when it was basically a god

[@tysondennis1016]

Well, it’s a miscarried god, fuelled by its undying hatred and envy of the living.

[@saeyabor]

03:18 I can't appropriately describe how much I hope that was "knotty" and not "naughty"

[@dr.calibrations7984]

The Orphan of Kos is worse :/ imagine a bigger Atropal pummeling you mercilessly with it's placenta...

[@lexsamreeth8724]

In our universe, there is one known as "Sweet Delilah". A miscarried daughter of the same goddess that birthed The Tarrasque, she is trapped in a deep cavern by an arrow shot by the creatrix, Io. However, she is served by a mob of crazed cultists - deserters from the titan-led army of Avalon, the deformed, heretics and atheists, and the insane. Anyone who dares oppose them or who tries to intervene are taken down to be strangled by Delilah's umbilical cord. Not even her brother, the Tarrasque, or her father, Jithrathrok the god of bloodshed, can stand to grow close to her.

[@Daimon-X]

He reminds me of Botchling from Slavic mythology and WItcher III. Creepy little buggers

[@RazeAVillage]

LOL As a severed head, I can personally certify this as completely gross! :-D

[@khartog01]

Is this 5th ed lore? I remember these from 3.5. described as a miscarriage from a goddess or other divine being.

[@Mondy667]

They are truly atrocious.

[@saeyabor]

Imagine the DM puts on the Family Guy "Prom Night Dumpster Baby" song while you fight this.

[@misterjoshua5720]

Well thanks, my nightmare tank is ful of fuel now.

[@quintoncraig9299]

My nightmare engine is still running on fumes after this, you must have a small storage tank. Thankfully my engine is highly efficient so even a small scare can power it for years. (My engine uses the fear of others, it shits itself when I'm scared though.)

[@charlesrussell467]

So as a player all I really got out of that is nuke it from orbit

[@wanderingshade8383]

Yeah...That sounds about right...

[@AJPickett]

It's the only way to be sure, otherwise it's like, game over man, game over.

[@mateobarrett6829]

Gonna need a couple level 20 paladins methinks

[@freakyfro99]

So happy to have found your two videos on Atropals and Atropus. I started running my first campaign recently and this gave me a great idea. My campaign is really just a broken homebrew for fun. Almost all of the Gods had died except the god of magic, Boccob, due to an internal power struggle. Boccob has been resting a few hundred years while the mortal world has just kind of gone in a very low magic setting. They started when he awoke and chose new people throughout the world to raise to go through the trials to potentially be raised to divine status. Obviously not all of these people will be good. I have one bad guy set up as a notorious thief from one of my PCs past. He killed another one of the "chosen" and gained their power. After seeing your video, I still have to watch the one on Atropus, that person who was killed will now slowly become an Atropal. Atropus will probably become the BBEG pulling some strings behind the scene, I know they aren't actually related but it still works. I figure, if I'm building them up to be the new gods then they should be able overcome it. Obviously playing a little fast and loose with rules and lore but like I said, it's just a broken, op, homebrew campaign that I really wanted to try. And so far it's going better than expected and thanks to videos like this it should be way better than I ever intended it to be lol.

[@rickeymariu1]

In all of my years of murdering players i have yet to use one of these. A.J. the deaths of my players will now be on your head an Atropal is going to show up in Barovia.

[@AJPickett]

Tell them I say Hi :)

[@scottmcley5111]

I agree it has to be one of the best of all time. Salute! Would make a great Warlock Patron.

[@ArtaxNOO]

...good lord....

[@zacharyhawley1693]

Now what process I wonder could be used to ascend an atropal to full divine status. Or perhaps using an atropal to ascend. Haha since each atropal gives glimpses of what kind of deity it could've been.

[@daniellewillis2767]

I think I would enjoy a Call of Cthulhu type homebrew based on the Masters of Horror episode Cigarette Burns where the David Lynch movie Eraserhead is discovered to have contained footage of an actual atropal by a group of cinephiles and amateur occultists who are waaay out of their depth....think Shadow of the Vampire meets Sprockets...

[@kevinchristiansen4348]

Tomb of the abyss end monster, good vid

[@jacobmendonca8571]

Giant undead zombie babies. well time to throw them at an unsuspecting party of Quirky adventurs,

[@RockyRodent333]

Damn, AJ, you weren't kidding about the pictures. This is one funky fetus that couldn't have come at a better time, as i was looking for an undead boss monster and was ready to settle on a somewhat cliche dracolich. Thanks for the great idea to scar my players forever!

[@MythosTheSophist]

Atropals: the reason the Gods are pro-life. Can't really blame them...

[@jordanwhite8718]

I don’t think I would ever run but I always thought it would be interesting if your party performs too many abortions due to tavern shenanigans or kills too many kids because they’re truly evil this could be a great monster to use the punishment. Being made of all of the souls of the children that they killed.

[@PrimordialAnnihilator]

Could only watch so much before I was totally creeped out by this thing.

[@levimorne]

First. Awesomeness to see some TMG! Keep it up you crazy Kiwi!

[@777Looper]

Second!

[@dogle9258]

Actually first

[@AJPickett]

Now now, one at a time, this way, this way *opens door to meat grinder*

[@muninrob]

Meat grinder? Have you never studied the works of Grimtooth? *Hands each person a set of robes with a jeweled clasp bearing 3 buttons* "Here you are, my worthies, with these robes of Cuisin artwork you will be able to "blend" in with the temple's cultists" *slinks off before anyone hits any of that clasp buttons that activate the blade barrier spell confined to the interior space of the robes*

[@DkKombo]

Could you create a god of war style hades scythe weapon out of the umbilical cord? That would be metal as fudge.

[@utaatu4576]

I'm loving your vids so far my dude, very informative, some creatures even I haven't heard of, which I love! Though haha your voice is calming and I'll admit I passed out twice listening to this XD

[@linguisticallyoversight8685]

I had assumed they were the stillborn remains of a god fetus

[@AJPickett]

Yes, many are, they can also be formed from stillborn demi-gods or attempts to re-animate chunks of floating god corpse in the plane of Limbo, or even the offspring of an angel and a demon lord.. many different origin possibilities, the end result of which is one of these wretched horrors.

[@linguisticallyoversight8685]

AJ Pickett are you ever going to do a video about the super Metropolis in the astral sea or the Lich Queen of the astral plane

[@AJPickett]

Eventually, I do tend to get around to things in a roundabout sort of way, it is a massive body of lore to make videos about.

[@avitus2]

This is a fantastic creature for a BBEG. I just know I can't use it at my table due to trauma's some of my players have experienced. Maybe for future games though, who knows.

[@jordanwhite8718]

It’s OK if you can’t answer this but what kind of trauma?

[@BuddyLee23]

Hint for Jordan: it looks like a particularly gory miscarriage/stillbirth… 🤰🏼💀🤔

[@kyskei]

good video. I think atropal's will fit very well in my setting

[@ShardofWant]

I wonder how large Atropal scions are. Since they are just a piece of an atropal can they be the size of an actual baby. An atropal Scion using a undead body as a shell to hide what is would be cool.

[@pennyumbra8818]

Didn't Gordon Freeman fight one of these?

[@gwyndolin1536]

What about the great Orcus's view on them? Can he control them? #suggetion More Lords of Ruin from the book Lords of ruin.

[@DkKombo]

Could it be possible to capture one at birth and siphon off its intelligence, replace it with happy thoughts, while converting the necrotic energies at your own disposal and eventually turning it good or using utter to your own ends? Either that, or what about opening a portal and pitting it against another creature of insurmountable power(assuming you would be Blessed to do that.)?

[@jacobwilson8579]

DkXboxer if so it would take herculean effort from epic adventures

[@thedarkmaster4747]

to unbirth it lol! maybe as therapy from fighting one.

[@DkKombo]

Technically I guess you could defeat any being by tricking it into a portal. My character should just learn how to be portal person. A portalmancer.

[@warlich666]

I've actually been talking with a friend about this more recently. He is our DM. More of the concept of the creature rather than encouraging him to put it in the game, because I like the character I'm playing and the two tpk's we very narrowly avoided where do too dumb luck.

[@AJPickett]

Sounds about right, these things are OP as hell.

[@tothetuneofwaffles]

Currently running TOA and now MUCH more excited about getting to the end! 🤯

[@nathanielchance9751]

Always love seeing a new video from you

[@willynthepoorboys2]

Soooo, nightmares tonight...lol. These things are wickedly terrifying.

[@victorvaldez8869]

I wonder if an Atropal could complete development if it were to gain enough intelligent undead followers to gain a portfolio. Obviously it would need to be a suitable portfolio like Entropy or Undeath. Would it become an full Undead Evil God?

[@AJPickett]

That would be a suitable world ending plot for them in a campaign.

[@ricahaurymn]

Since the Atropal consists of negative energy, could a player not counter with positive energy? Also, what about psychic attacks?

[@AJPickett]

Sure, it is not immune to positive energy (radiant) attacks, and it doesn't possess psychic powers or any special defences (other than it's inhumanly high mental stats).

[@ricahaurymn]

Having high mental stats would provide an Atropal natural defence, if one is using psionic rules of disciplined vs non-disciplined, a character would have to whittle down an Atropal's mental stats. It would be an interesting fight as it would be unseen. Another would be a character that possesses both a positive aura and a positive offensive. Positive aura could heal party members, so long as they remain within the aura. The offensive might have to something akin to sacred flame. The other would be having a player able to defend or counter necrotic energy attacks.

[@kurtoogle4576]

GAH!! Not going to use this one. Interesting though.

[@jacobwilson8579]

can you imagine some plane toched goblins perhaps descended fron imps, quasits or mephets

[@AJPickett]

I can

[@connorb1775]

Curious to see if there is a way to essential purify an Apropal Curious if it would be out of scope for a wish spell 🤔 I don't know much about the positive or negative energy planes as they aren't covered in 5e very much. But would be interesting to see what would happen to an Apropal bound inside the positive energy plane

[@JanusHoW]

An atropal on the Positive Energy Plane would almost certainly be annihilated within a few minutes of its arrival, assuming it has no way out. On the Negative Energy Plane, however, it would flourish. In fact, that's where Acererak found the one that's in the _Tomb of Annihilation_ campaign.

[@justnoob8141]

@@JanusHoW so you’re saying that the atropal follow him home so he keep it?

[@JanusHoW]

@@justnoob8141 Acererak took it to one of his many dungeons.