'Grass feeds the cattle, who feeds the beast, who ends up warm on man's table. Man dies, and worms eat him and in turn feed the soil. Where do gods feature in this? What do they eat, and far more importantly, what could feed on them?'
It comes from no plane that scholars know of, and even beings from the Far Realm are not so terrible. This Elder Evil dwarfs many others in scope, from the ravages of Ragnorra to the bleaching scourge of Atropus. The Apotheophage is a being like no other, a parasite from beyond the ken of mortals, the mightiest wizards and even gods. Gods in particular fear the creature's attention, as it does not manifest directly on the Material Plane. As its name, the God Eater suggests, this eldritch form of life does not merely seek the souls of mortals, it seeks to infest the divine flesh of the gods themselves.
Background
The story of the Apotheophage is one that has been suppressed for aeons. The gods do not like feeling vulnerable, and there is nothing that makes them feel more vulnerable than a being that can subvert their ranks, portfolios and even their very essence, hiding within their forms, and feeding on their holy flesh like some divine tapeworm. Whenever the entity visits the regular cosmology of the great wheel, a god dies. Gods rarely even know they play host to such a malign influence until it is too late and the damage is irreversible. Like all Elder Evils, the Apotheophage has anathemic secrecy. It is safe from scrying, both from gods and mortal men, allowing it to do its insidious work within its host. (Knowledge Religion or the Planes, DC 25)
Those few beings who have attempted to study the creature's planar ecology have come to troubling results. Even in a place as cosmopolitan as Sigil, with the greatest minds and scholars of Abberations in the multiverse convene, the creature matches no being even dredged up from the furthest depths of the Far Realm. Mages who know whisper of something much worse, that the Apotheophage is something of a natural predator of the Divine, from a place wholly outside the known Multiverse. Because its prey are the gods themselves, the Apotheophage is immune to divine power of any kind, whether the natural abilities of the gods or divine magic. (DC 30)
The Apotheophage infects a deity, slowly turning its portfolio more and more bizarre, before it eventually devours the god from the inside out and vanishes again. Infected deities will act increasingly irrationally as the infection continues, as the Apotheophage feeds on their very essence, filling the God up with it's own malign influence. Clerics of the infected deity will mysteriously gain access to new domains, often related to filth, disease, sickness and worms. Many go mad and begin worshiping the Apotheophage itself. (DC 40)
One of the Apotheophage's many hooklike tendrils manifests within one of the main worshippers of its host, often the first one to come under the influence of its infection, as an aberrant monstrosity called the Umbilicum, which solidifies the being's connection to both the deity and its followers in that material plane, acting as something of an anchor, and a sympathetic link to the deity in question. When the Elder Evil feeds on a deity, it sends out Umbilica across all the planes of existence where the deity is worshipped, latching on to its main followers. The Umbilicum is a sensory organ, and is extremely sensitive. Destroying even one Umbilicum can send the Apothephage into a state of shock, where it will retreat back to the darkness whence it came, sparing the host. (DC 47)
One of the Apotheophage's many hooklike tendrils manifests within one of the main worshippers of its host, often the first one to come under the influence of its infection, as an aberrant monstrosity called the Umbilicum, which solidifies the being's connection to both the deity and its followers in that material plane, acting as something of an anchor, and a sympathetic link to the deity in question. When the Elder Evil feeds on a deity, it sends out Umbilica across all the planes of existence where the deity is worshipped, latching on to its main followers. The Umbilicum is a sensory organ, and is extremely sensitive. Destroying even one Umbilicum can send the Apothephage into a state of shock, where it will retreat back to the darkness whence it came, sparing the host. (DC 47)
The Apotheophage in the Campaign
The Apotheophage, despite its power influences the story slowly. The PCs may have heard tell of a dead god that had succumbed to some kind of divine ailment, and find that the agents of their gods try to cover the story up. As they gain more and more knowledge of the Apotheophage, they may begin wondering which of the deities currently active may be infected, and may be the next to go.
Timeline
EL 5: The PC's come across a town where the worship of a normally good deity has been subtly subverted. This god, Pelor, or Heironeus for example may be staying true to the tenants of its religion, but include some strange rites and myths relating to disease and parasites. The PC's may choose to ignore it, but if they do investigate, they find that indeed the religion has been infiltrated by strange cultists, who worship the Apotheophage.
EL 10 (Faint Sign): The PC's slowly but surely come to realize that this is not an isolated incident. The religion and church of the god has indeed been subverted by these strange, worm worshipping cultists. Thus far only those backwater temples and churches have been effected, but as they try to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, they find more and more worrying evidence that at least one cultist has infiltrated the high priesthood, and worse, may have been there for many years.
EL 14 (Moderate Sign): The public has slowly but surely turned against the religion, as more and more its followers become increasingly erratic. Signs from the deity have become oddly incoherent, and the overall feeling within its following is one of schismatic chaos. A High Priestess, who is carrying the Umbilicum within her, (possibly not the one the PC's were suspecting), steps forward, asking the faithful to participate in a ceremony that will unite them under their god's eye and allow them to commune with him personally. As this happens, she has become aware that the PC's are onto her and has sent one or more groups of assassins and other monsters to kill them.
El 18 (Strong Sign): The High Priestess is going to be taking part in a major ceremony soon enough, to commune with the deity, and through it, she plans to infest the other members of the priesthood. The PC's will naturally want to stop her, but an army of cultists and other monstrosities stand in their way. In addition, many horrid omens have happened, involving the god, who has by now gone more than a little insane from the horrendous worm gnawing at its guts. These signs, like high priests vomiting hordes of leeches to statues of the deity weeping blood and infected bile, and a strange sickness that infects those who have been healed by the deity's priests and paladins, have made the public rather suspicious of those following it.
El 20 (Overwhelming Sign): The ceremony is completed, and the entire clergy has been exposed directly not merely to the mind of their deity, but to the eldritch horror of the Apotheophage. The church immediately collapses into utter chaos, as many of its priesthood, their minds raped beyond all reason, begin sacrificing their followers to the Apotheophage to bring about its final victory over their former god. As cities around the world erupt into chaos, and the deity dies, the spawn of the Apotheophage hatches within those who were infected. As the PC's confront the High Priestess, who fights them as best as she can. If she is defeated, the Umbilicum, sensing imminent danger, bursts forth from her body, growing exponentially and uncoiling as an enormous, nightmarish tapeworm. The Umbilicum fights the PC's, attempting to devour them or infest them with its spawn, and if it is destroyed, the Apotheophage reacts with an unholy, psionic scream, before leaving the deity and retreating back into the darkness. At a GM's discretion, this may mean that the deity has been saved or that the damage is too great.
Sign
The Apotheophage's sign, as it slowly devours its host is known as the Consumption. Swarms of minor parasites fill the bloodstream of those who worshipped its current vessel, as well as those infected by the magics of the god. This disease afflicts first clerics, then those directly affected by their spells, then finally, everyone who believes in the doomed god. Attempts to remove disease and restore the afflicted work during the Faint-Moderate sign level, but have a 50% chance to simply make the disease go dormant, ensuring it will surface again. From Moderate-onward, only greater restorations, miracles and wishes can cure the disease.
Faint: Clerics and paladins of the infected god must make DC 15 fortitude saves whenever they call upon the power of their god. If they fail the save, they immediately feel hungry, and are treated as if they haven't eaten for the whole day.
Moderate: The DC for resisting the consumption rises to a DC 18 check whenever the god's power is called upon, and the hunger is much more pronounced until sated. Clerics and paladins find strange, white, thread-thin worms in their bodily fluids. Clerics also gain access to the Madness Domain. People who have felt the power of the infected god in any way (even if they've been smitten or harmed by the god's power) find the same strange parasites swimming in their fluids.
Strong: Anyone with a direct connection to the infected deity is constantly hungry, and can only be sated while they are eating food. They are treated as distracted if they are not eating. This malady, and the worms, are now contagious whenever the deity's power is used directly on a person, with a 50% chance that the person will contract the same hunger. Statues of the deity now weep bile and blood from their eyes and mouths, that can also infect people. The worms in the blood are now thicker and hardier, and the infected feel a near constant wriggling under their skin. All those infected experience horrible nightmares of being eaten alive.
Overwhelming: Clerics and paladins can only now be sated by eating raw meat, and despite the deity's alignment, they lose none of their power or favor from this. Whenever someone calls upon the deity's power, they make a DC 25 fortitude check, and if they fail, they are sickened horribly, vomiting up dozens of white worms, as thick as fingers and often several meters long. Infected who go for more than a day without feeding their insane hunger take 1d6 points of constitution damage, which cannot be healed until they have eaten raw meat. If they are slain by this, the unfortunate victims burst open like sacks of gore as the worms eat their way out of their innards, and crawl away into the darkness to grow into more horrific abominations.
The Umbilicum Host
The major factor in the manifestation of the Apotheophage is the appearance of an Umbilicum host on each world that worships the deity in question. These function as extradimensional 'feelers,' implanted into the flesh of a victim that comes to know the power of the Apotheophage and comes to revere it. It is unknown whether it is the infection of a deity that leads to a being becoming the host to the Umbilicum, or whether the host is infected first and then provides a vector to infect the deity itself, but either way, the host becomes a formidably powerful opponent.
Not just any being can become host to even a small shard of the Apotheophage's flesh. The being must have at least 12 hit dice, must be a devotee of the god that the Apotheophage is currently feeding on (at least a high priest or paladin) and must have the ability to channel the divinity of the deity in some way, be it laying on hands, turning, rebuking or smiting. The being can be any creature type, except for undead or construct. Only one Umbilicum host can be active on a particular world at once.
When the host is chosen, the parasite is implanted within them, and begins growing, subtly altering their minds and biology from within. The host's type immediately changes to aberration, it gains DR 15/Good, silvered and epic, and gains the regeneration and fast healing qualities. In addition, it gains the traits Anathemic Secrecy (EE) and Immunity to the Divine (EE). It also gains Elder Evil traits, and is considered to be under the effects of constant nondetection, true seeing, and tongues spells, caster level 20th.
If the Umbilicum host is attacked by any being that is currently suffering the effects of the Consumption, they immediately must make a DC 20 fortitude save or be incapacitated as the parasites within them will not allow them to hurt their master. Obviously, the touch, fluids and magic of the Host are tainted with the Consumption.
Breath Weapon: Bile
The Umbilicum Host can breathe a cone of corrosive bile, filled with writhing tapeworms at its victims. Victims who are caught in the cone take 12d6 acid damage and must make a DC 25 fortitude save or be immediately infected with the Consumption.
Command the cattle
The Umbilicum Host can use Dominate Person on any person who is currently infected with the Consumption as a spell-like ability. If the victim succeeds its will save, it is immune to this ability for 24 hours.
The Flesh Rebels
Three times per day, the Umbilicum Host makes a victim suffering from the Consumption make a DC 20 fortitude save, and if it fails, it will immediately be affected as if it had gone a day without eating raw meat at the level given in the Overwhelming Sign.
If the Umbilicum Host is slain, at the moment of death, the Umbilicum senses imminent danger to itself and bursts forth from its hosts flesh, devouring the last of it, and uncoiling to fight the protagonists.
The Umbilicum
WIP at the moment.
Followers
Because of its unique nature, clerics may follow the Apotheophage, only while it is devouring a victim. They have access to the victim's domains, as well as Madness. The Apotheophage cares nothing for followers, but permits them to worship it while they are useful. Clerics of the Apotheophage are immune to the Consumption, but only have access to domains when the Apotheophage is infesting a deity.
Of special interest is the wretched Tsochari race (Lords of Madness), a race of annelid Aberrations that infest the flesh of mortal men. There is a growing schism in their usual unthinking devotion toward the Nine-Tonged Worm, with the heretics worshiping the Apotheophage. The Apotheophage's own opinion of the Tsochari is inscrutable, however, perhaps sensing a kinship between the creatures and itself, it seems to like Tsochari clerics and favor Tsochari worshippers.
- Kephn
