Deep one

Gilled masters of the deep seas

### Special Powers

**Breathe underwater:** Dwelling under the sea, deep ones require no exterior help to breathe underwater and are equally capable of breathing on land.**Spells:** Deep ones have a 40% chance of knowing 1d4 spells.

## Attacks

### Fighting Attacks

Deep ones can use weapons as humans do. They are skilled with their spears and tridents.

### Fighting

45% (22/9), damage 1d6 + damage bonus or by weapon type (e.g. spear, damage 1d8 + damage bonus)

## Defenses

### Armor

1-point skin and scales

The deep ones are an amphibious ocean-dwelling race, as evidenced by their name, with an affinity for mating with humans.

They entered a contract with the people of Innsmouth to keep the fish plentiful in their area. They also seem to have a supply of gold artifacts of unearthly design. The deep ones primarily worship Cthulhu and two beings known as Father Dagon and his consort Mother Hydra.

Locked in the timeless depths of the sea, the alien, arrogant lives of the deep ones are coldly beautiful, unbelievably cruel, and effectively immortal. They come together to mate or to worship Great Cthulhu, but do not crave touching or being touched as humans do. They are a marine race, unknown in freshwater environments, and globally have many cities, all submerged beneath the waves. One is off the coast of Massachusetts, near Innsmouth, while other sites are rumored to lie off the British Isles.

Deep ones may be worshiped by humans with whom they regularly interbreed, for deep ones are immortal unless slain, and so are any hybrid offspring. The vast majority of hybrids are shown coming from a female deep one and a male human. It is a safety measure based on the fact that both of those possess the limiting growth gene of their own species, otherwise the child would become much larger. It is similar to a liger, a hybrid born from a male lion and a female tigress who never stop growing until their maturity. This habit is also due to the fact that when an underwater city reaches a certain size, fertility decreases, as the females begin to eat their young. By giving birth on land, far from the city, they can avoid the temptation to do so and thus maintain a stable level of fertility.

## Description

The deep ones are humanoid beings with fish, human and amphibian-like traits, with greyish green, glossy, slippery skin and white stomachs. They have scaled, ridged backs, as well as webbed and clawed hands and gilled necks. Notably, they have heads similar to that of a fish, with mouths filled with sharp teeth and eyes incapable of blinking.

They move about in an inhuman fashion, by hopping oddly, and occasionally move on all fours. Robert Olmstead described them as having abhorrent, croaking voices that spoke a language other than English. Their form was so horrid that their mere appearance caused Robert to lose consciousness for a while.

## History

whose ancient disciples, in the days before humanity had grown into the toddlership known as "written history", forsook the works of nascent civilization and became one with the sea as the first deep ones

After the evil sorcerer Ohris Dehjmal's living head was thrown into the deepest part of the sea by King Kull of Valusia eighteen and a half millennia prior era vulgaris, he was found by the deep ones inhabiting an ancient city, who took him as their god (or at least that how Dehjmal presented himself to them). Sensing Kull close, on the coastline, Dehjmal incited them to attack the fort manned by Zardis, in order to assassinate Kull. Kull fended off the attack and, joined by Brule and Alecto, slaughtered the assassins. As the deep one directly attacked the fort, chanting his name, Kull deducted that they were in service of one of his many enemies. Regrouping and leading his forces, Kull pushed back the assailants into the sea. Returning to the city, the beaten deep ones grabbed Ohris' head, no longer obeying and worshiping him, and threw it in the lair of a giant squid. The head was somehow returned back into the box and in the city later.

At the time of the Great War, a group of deep ones living on an island in the South Pacific worshiped Dagon, and offered him sacrifices in the form of fish and drowned men. One man witnessed their unholy ceremony and the coming of the gigantic Dagon. Rendered insane by the experience, the man managed to flee the island and found himself in San Francisco, where he tried to learn more about what he had seen, and wrote down his story, until he was found back by the deep ones.

## Religion

Deep ones traditionally have worshiped Cthulhu, Father Dagon, and Mother Hydra. However, there are always exceptions.

During the Hyperborean Age, a city of deep one worshipers of Dagon took Ohris Dehjmal's living head (thrown into the deepest part of the sea by King Kull of Valusia) as their leader and their god (or at least that how Dehjmal presented himself to them). After a failed attack on Kull ordered by Dehjmal, his rulership was rejected.

The deep ones of the City Below the Seas worship the Undergod, Uluath.

### Deep One Pantheon and Their Associations

#### Great Old Ones

* **Byatis:** The cold of the earth, darkness, divination, forgetfulness, the ghosts of the past, gluttony, growth, hypnosis, imprisonment, petrification, serpent people, Severn Valley, toads
* **Cthulhu:** Anarchy, apocalypse, art, astrology, the breaking of bonds, cold, conspiracy, death, disaster, distortion, dreaming, dreams, enlightenment, falling, freedom, grease, immortality, imprisonment, Innsmouth, insanity, interpretation, the insignificance of humanity, liberation, madness, mi-go, oblivion, ocean depths, psychic powers, revelry, R'lyeh, rot, the sea, slumber, the stars, star-spawn of Cthulhu, supernovae, violence, wildness, worship, Xoth
* **Cthylla:** Aces in the hole/up the sleeve, cthulhi, back-up plans, failsafes, filial duty, hidden agenda, lies, limbs, motherhood, obfuscation, offspring, rebirth, secrets, yuggya
* **Idh-yaa:** Birth, cold, consumption, destruction, fear, hopelessness, the infinity of the void, mi-go, motherhood, stars, star-spawn of Cthulhu, timelessness, Xoth
* **Shuma-Gorath:** Black holes, chaos, death, destruction, imprisonment, killing, magic, mind control, multiple dimensions, power
* **Ythogtha:** Dampness, hunger, Mu, oiliness, repugnance, sculpture, sea depths, sleep, statuary, toads, voormi, Yhe, yuggya

#### Unique Beings

* **Father Dagon:** Age, the Bekyar, boggards, deformity, desperate or insane coastal dwellers, evolutionary regression, fatherhood, fertility, fish, fishing, gutaki, hidden depths, humanity, Ishiar and the Ishians, jealousy, krakens, longevity, marsh giants, rulership, heretical sahuagin and skum, sailors, the sea, sea monsters, sharlarin, size, timelessness, Ugothanok, wisdom, worship
* **Dagoth:** Kalumesh, the sea, wickedness
* **Khosatral Khel:** Ancient history, darkness, death, Empire of Dagonia, slavery, Yuetshi
* **The Living Head of Ohris Dehjmal:** Assassination, military action, necromancy, people who've lost an eye, religious outcasts, sorcery, undead, vengeance, villainy
* **Mother Hydra:** hidden depths, motherhood, rulership, the sea, sea monsters, timelessness, worship of Cthulhu
* **Quoggoth:** Gibbering madness, imprisonment, rebellion, service
* **Silent Ones:** ruins, silence, whales (as food source), Y'ha-nthlei
* **Uluath:** City Below the Seas, destruction, fear, ocean floor, sleep

## Realms and Cities

* The City Below the Seas
* Empire of Dagonia
* Kalumesh
* Ohris Dehjmal's city
* R'lyeh
* Ugothanok
* Y'ha-nthlei
* Yhe