Ragnorra
| Ragnorra | ||
|---|---|---|
| Aliases | The Mother of Monsters | |
| Alignment | Chaotic Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Greater Deity | |
| Pantheon | Elder Evils | |
| Portfolio | Mutation, Aberrations | |
| Domains | 3e: Life, Deathless, Corrpution 5e: Life |
|
| Home Plane | Unknown, but has been sighted on the Material Plane | |
| Worshippers | Aberrations, star spawn, cultists | |
| Favoured Weapon | Themselves | |
Ragnorra, the Mother of Monsters is essentially proof one can have too much life/positive energy. This Elder Evil is a massive bitch (literally) composed of the corrupted form of that stuff, typically encased in a fleshy comet 200 miles in just length. Every 150 years she manifests on the Material Plane and looks for a planet to make 'perfect' - once she finds one, she promptly smacks into it and converts it to a place overflowing with life-energy and inhabited by aberrations. Of course, said conversion doesn't happen overnight, but a party facing her will be pressed for time to beat her before the planet is lost.
She can be considered the positive energy yin to Atropus' negative energy yang; while Atropus' approach causes the strengthening of the undead, Ragnorra's approach does the opposite, driving away the undead. Getting her to crash into Atropus could be an interesting event, possibly worthy of an entire campaign.
The approach[edit]
As with Atropus, Ragnorra's imminent impact is heralded by changes to the world. Things start relatively minor, with the strength of spells tied with positive energy increasing. However things start getting noticeably weirder shortly after, with said positive energy spells beginning to cause gross blemishes, as well as mysterious healing springs beginning to appear (and if Ragnorra was attracted by a worshipping group as in the suggested campaign, these will be controllable by said group). It only goes downhill from here.
As she continues to approach, Ragnorra's spores begin falling from the sky, spawning swarms of vermin that disrupt cities and such. At this point the undead start showing up to fight said vermin, but not for long - as the strength of positive energy has been increasing in the background, the undead will begin being driven off the surface after a while. Around the same time the Undead start up and leaving, people begin getting minor healing powers at the cost of being slowly turned into aberrations.
Close to impact, a variety of things happen: firstly, the dead begin rising as aberrations themselves, making necromancy impossible, while (presumably) the undead start becoming dead again. There's also the off chance that an Aboleth mage that can breathe air drops out of the sky and enslaves risen corpses.. Don't ask us, it's in the suggested campaign.
Impact[edit]
While there should be the obvious consequences of a 200-mile comet hitting a planet (for context: The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs in real life was only 6 miles across on average), somehow Ragnorra's impact doesn't royally buttfuck life on the planet she hits - probably has something to do with her effect on positive energy. Some think that she also deliberately impacts in a way that minimizes collateral. Could be a combination of both, as it's not elaborated upon.
Whatever the case, the crater left behind is filled with corrupt flesh that spawns powerful aberrations. In its center is Ragnorra herself, reduced by the impact into a fleshy form. In this state she begins spreading her "skin" and "nerves" (likely the remains of her comet form that is within the crater) across the planet.
Incomplete Ragnorra[edit]
Since this is the first stage of a Ragnorra attack that a party can directly fight back, this is also the first stage of Ragnorra to be statted. A Gargantuan CR 19 (in 3.5e, newer homebrew might bump this up to be above 20) Aberrations, the party will want to kick her ass as to banish her back to wherever she came from and revert the chaos she wrought. Defeating this form quickly is ideal, as stalling (or not going to fight ASAP) will result in having to fight something worse...
True Mother[edit]
Should a party fail to defeat Ragnorra's fleshy state (or not show up) in time, she will eventually merge with the neurotangle spreading across the planet and take on her final True Mother form. For some reason, this is still CR 19 in 3.5e, though newer homebrew will likely make sure the fact the party should have stopped her from reaching this form be felt. Regardless, dealing with her quickly is now paramount before she finishes converting the world into her 'perfection'.
As with her incomplete form, defeating her is not a death blow; it will just revert the destruction and banish her mind to whatever plane she came from. She doesn't seem to try the same worlds again each 150-year cycle, so you can ignore this fact. Besides, if she does come back, that's a problem for the next generation of heroes...unless you happen to be Elves.
Worship[edit]
Being technically a being of life, Ragnorra can attract worship. In the suggested campaign, this happens in the form of a cult that ends up initiating her approach and continues to assist it until being enslaved by LolRandom Aboleth. In newer editions Star Spawn might act as her heralds, creating such cults on worlds she was already targeting in the first place to quell any potential resistance. And there's always the option of her being taken as a Warlock Patron, though the DM will likely not allow this if Ragnorra herself is planned to be used in said Warlock's campaign.