Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or cult (3–6)
Treasure standard

Of all the strange and malefic denizens of the Dark Tapestry, few match the terror caused by this titanic race. Hailing from a mad star whose light cannot be seen by conventional telescopes, the smallest of these behemoths stand nearly 30 feet in height. Humanoid in shape, their immense bodies have rubbery f lesh that seems almost to wriggle and seethe like a half-solidified ooze. Tremendous draconic wings, murderous taloned hands, and a tentacled visage that evokes the alien gaze of an octopus complete the being’s monstrous shape. This malevolent race has a name, yet it is no name known to the sane. Among mortal scholars, they are known merely by the name of their eldest source—they are the star-spawn of Cthulhu.

Ecology

The star-spawn of Cthulhu have a strange, mutable anatomy—their form is not fixed. They can absorb parts of their bodies or enlarge others as they will—a trait they often use with their claws or tentacles to dramatically extend their reach in combat beyond that which might normally be available to a creature of their shape and size. Despite this mutable shape, though, the star-spawn generally do not deviate far from the form of an octopusheaded, winged humanoid, likely due to the powerful links their otherworldly minds have to their overlord and master who lies dead but dreaming in the lost city of R’lyeh.

Habitat & Society

Although they typically appear as immense humanoid creatures with rubbery hides and octopoid heads, the starspawn of Cthulhu are not any more aquatic in nature than they are terrestrial—that they are often found associated with a planet’s oceans lies more in the simple fact that oceans often cover the majority of a planet’s surface. The creatures themselves, being equally at home on land, at sea, or in the depths of space, make no real distinction between such regions, choosing them as the sites of their cities and temples for purposes only they can know. Servants of the alien gods of the Dark Tapestry, they work upon the worlds they invade to wipe them clean of indigenous life in preparation for the eventual expansion of the Dark Tapestry to replace all that exists with its strange realities.

The star-spawn of Cthulhu have little regard for indigenous life, yet they cannot proceed with their plans for a world while such life exists. Just as a man might move into a house he thinks to be abandoned, only to discover colonies of ants dwelling within the building’s walls, the star-spawn work to eradicate indigenous infestations. Their methods seldom vary from world to world—those whose intellects they can inf luence via dreams and nightmares are besieged as they sleep, seeding the growth of destructive cults and societies that toil to do much of the spawn’s work for them, preparing the world and bringing it to the brink of destruction. When such worlds are poised to tear themselves apart from within through unrest, civil war, excessive pollution, genocide, or worse, the spawn mobilize their cults to end all things. The only reward such cults receive for their (sometimes unwitting) aid is the dubious honor of being among the final few to be eradicated, for the star-spawn have no interest in and feel no responsibility toward their pawns. That these plans for eradication often span the length of centuries or even millennia should not be mistaken for sloth or lassitude—the spawn are inhumanly patient, and the preparation of the universe’s worlds must follow an unknowable schedule, for only when the exact cosmic convergences are set and the stars are right can they make their final moves to end all things. This does grant some worlds with the capacity to discover the spawns’ inf luence opportunity to delay or even defeat their world’s star-spawned doom, but such tales of triumph are unfortunately rare in the face of the Dark Tapestry’s relentless tides.

Great Cthulhu

While the star-spawn themselves hail from a distant world deep in the Dark Tapestry and can be found on countless other realms as gods and monsters, their lord Cthulhu dwells upon a distant planet far removed from Golarion. Yet while Cthulhu lies imprisoned in the corpsecity of R’lyeh deep under a great ocean, his dreams resonate still in the minds of his spawn, and from there touch upon the dreams of many slumbering poets and philosophers on countless worlds—including Golarion. Cthulhu himself is likely as powerful compared to his spawn as the spawn themselves are to the bulk of humanity, and thus statistics for this creature are relatively meaningless. Suffice it to say, if Cthulhu were to rise from his slumber, he could travel to any world upon which his spawn dwell, and as such, Golarion is far from safe should the stars ever come right for his awakening.