Calamar

Calamar in action

Overview

This enigmatic and dangerous race of beings seek nothing less than total domination of the known multiverse and extermination of all deities. Worlds under their control are ruthlessly controlled and ordered to a degree most beings regard as repugnant. They are the avowed enemies of all deities and are strong enough to pose a threat to these beings (and indeed have an inpressive kill rate). Other racial enemies are elvenkind, whose philosophy of dealing with 'younger races' is diametrically opposed to the control-mad Calamar.

Appearance

An adult Calamar stands some 6-7 feet high and they weigh in at 200-250 pounds. Their skin is a brillant purple with an oily, amphibian sheen. Their heads are ovoid in shape with large protuding eyes. Four 2 foot long prehensile tentacles surround a ringed mouth with two sets of teeth. Despite it's horrifying, lovecraftian appearance a Calamar will often speak with a calming pleasant voice with cadences and inflections to put most races at ease (with the notable exception of elves). They favour loose clothing and are often carrying arcane devices of an unfathomable nature.

Physiology/Life cycle

The Calamar, as an 'elder race' are immortal. The 'adult form' is actually one half of a bizarre life cycle shared with a group entity, the Calamar themselves term 'creches'. Within a creche, Calamar are born, old bodies are recycled and the dead reincarnated. The creche acts as a repository of all the knowledge of the Calamar (much like an elder of another race) and as the focal point of their communities. From what outsiders have been able to glean, apparently the 'adults' immerse themselves and dissolve within the creches. New juveniles are then born sharing in the memories of those recently dissolved. The upshot of all this is that even a 'young' Calamar has an impressive repetoire of knowledge and ability. Fortunately for almost everything else, reproduction is rare. Unfortunately it is very difficult to totally destroy one. Slay the body and it simply 'reincarnates' with a fresh body at it's home creche.

Capabilities

Void Cruisers

Calamar are strong and hardy beings, owing to their origin as aquatic beings. They are fully amphibious and seem to suffer no ill effects in air. Their head tentacles are fully prehensile and quite capable of strangling a large humanoid. While capable of using most weapons, a Calamar's true prowess is in it's magical ability. As such very few are warriors of any repute. Any Calamar met is an adept of the College of the Sorceries of the Mind and may be an adept of another college as well. It is this native facility with the Mind college that has led to the many legends and myths surrounding them as 'mind eaters'. Of course the sight of one garrotting a foe with it's tentacles has probably not helped. They have also developed knowledge of planar travel to a high art and many Calamar are practictioners of 'Dimensional Weaving', a wierd and bizarre college of magic with strange and reality melting effects. But it is their facility in manipulating other races that is perhaps their most fearsome ability. Honed over many centuries, the Calamar are adept in training and conditioning 'lesser races'. An unwary being can easily be seduced and manipulated by their silvered tongues. It is rumoured they know many words and phrases which cause a range of desired responses in their victims. Fortunatly this ability is most pronounced in those already in their thrall. Strangers to them, like most Guild Members (but not all), are more or less resistant.

Weapons

The Calamar are the rulers (they claim to be 'caretakers' but who are they kidding) of an Empire, the extent of which would dazzle even the most insane meglomaniac. And the resources of this empire are fully availiable to these beings. Giant nautiloids, the size of a sailing ship, carry them and their subjects across the multiverse wreaking havoc. These ships, known as 'void cruisers', after their abilty to traverse interdimensional space, are the most recognisable artifact of these beings. Along with walking siege engines, giant floating fortresses, fast growing crystal towers, 'living weapons', and even the avatar forms of their own slain gods their arsenal beggers the imagination.

Weaknesses

With all that, how can the average adventurer prevail against such potent beings? The news is not all bad. First, and most important is that Calamar are very few in number. There only about 20,000 of their number and with a reproductive cycle measured in centuries cannot easily replace their losses. Second, with their aims of total domination and universal deiticide, every hand is literally against them. They have many powerful enemies and are beset on all sides. as such the amount of power they can bring to bear on any point, though potentially overwheming is likly much less. Even for them, weapons capable of leveling entire kingdoms and splitting the continents asunder are rare and in much demand. Thirdly their desire for control often works against them. A Calamar will not destroy what it could control, would not eradicate what it could subvert. Often they do not project overwhelming force but rather act through guile and subtefuge. Lastly the Calamar do not lie. This is not a geas or curse, it is simply against their entire nature to tell an actual falsehood.

Noted Foes

Viscount Blitzkrieg - Mighty warrior and Namer.

Lady Sabrina (and Ajax the Thunder lizard) - Another mighty namer and valkyrie.

Engalton - Yet another namer.

Princess Isil Eth - Oddly enough, not a namer but a mind mage.

Known Calamar

Prince Villiathrana: The ruler and head honcho. Very much a 'hands on' dude and has met and battled several adventuring parties. Known to be a Namer. Commanded the 'Invictus' before it's destruction at the hands of Engalton.

Navliervorak: War Commander and overall strategist. A necromancer. Commands the 'Imperator'

Almarkatarn: A researcher and historian. Very much the 'velvet hand' and 'harmless appearance' type. Also a binder.

Previous Articles

The Calamar Situation – by Count Blitzkrieg of Barretskine, Reprinted from Seagate times issue 15.

This item was located off plane and a great deal off distance from the nearest portal. The party spent a good deal off time flying around in a boat that was made airborne by a magical "helm". Firstly, some background. The Calamar are a race o f humanoid squid like creatures with tentacled faces. They employ, among many magic’s, a college called Dimensional Weaving, which is one of the thaumaturgies. We are currently undertaking to obtain a counter-spell for said college [Editor's note: Such a Counterspell is now available]. For transport, they primarily use a craft/creature called a "Void Cruiser" which is a huge, nautilus like creature crossed with a ship. They fly at great speed and can travel between planes. We encountered one that had a bow weapon that disenchants magic, i.e. turns it off.

The Calamar are a honourable, but basically evil race bent on inter-planar conquest and slavery. Several planes have already suffered this fate at their hands. The Baleful Icon of the Foe was a crystal, which contained an avatar entity known as "The Force". Its place of rest was the temple in the Calamar capital, casting its green light over the surrounding area. The Calamar used this item to transform Humans into Beastmen, goat-like, humanoid chaos creatures subservient to their will. The Calamar had established a fort around a portal on Alusia that was neutralised; the fate of their island base is unknown to me at this time. We obtained several alchemical concoctions that, we hoped, would get us through the dome.

The capital is at one end of a vast canyon, previously created by some horrendous weapon used long ago. The whole, vast city (7 leagues across) is covered by a 100' thick crystal dome.

After a great deal of flying about looking for information, the odd skirmish with the Calamar and having talked to a number of dragons inconsistently high for your average adventure, we attacked the city, with the aid of one of the aforementioned dragons of the green, mind mage variety.

We agreed to meet it at the portal on the plane of destination. While en route we were attacked by two contingents of the enemy each numbering two large metal, crab war machines with fire bolt throwers and 20 infantry accompanied by mages. All the infantry had been cursed with deafness to avoid being controlled. One contingent was quickly dealt with, and the other fled. The dragon arrived late at the meeting point after having a tussle with something it described as a large insect. We did not ask for details.

We used cloud transport to approach the city, and then glided down. The dragon got summoned away and the last we heard of him through the mind speech was screaming, followed by the mind speech ceasing. We landed on the dome, applied the substances and found that we could tunnel through. Our air elemental was banished at this point. We tunneled through and glided down towards the temple.

By a stroke of luck, we detected an invisible, mind mage force wall and all but one of us avoided it. He crashed into it, slid off and plummeted into the temple 250' below. He got better later. One of our party was mental attacked but we pushed onward. As we engaged the enemy Calamar on the temple a dark sphere made it’s presence known. We replied with a double effect, rank 20 whirlwind vortex and an agony. I flew through a whirlwind vortex ward on my way in towards the spectre that had come up out of the pit that the Icon had gone down moments before.

We dispatched the enemy with ease and found that an iron lined tunnel descended into the temple. We decided that there was no way in hell that we were going into this death trap so we flew down to the base of the temple.

We proceeded to tunnel our way down through the cities many, hive like layers until we exited into another large. Open space at the bottom. We glided down and entered the temple through the 300’ high, 500' wide entrance. We walked along the entrance under vast tapestries until we reached the central room of the temple.

There were four large, sparkling, jellyfish like creatures (we later discovered they are called Battle Hellises) hovering around a large bowl shaped recess in the floor where the Icon rested. Combat was joined. Four Calamar mages warped in and started assaulting us with high ranked spells from inside a damage enhancement put down by one of their number. We took a lot of fire as we closed the distance including slowness, mental attack, molecular disruption, dragon flames etc. all enhanced.

We closed the distance and found out how brutal the Battle Hellises were and concentrated all forward firepower upon them. The Icon also attacked us with mind mage spells throughout and the Hellises fired energy bolts at us. After a short and expensive struggle, we vanquished the enemy. We then destroyed the Icon with ice bolts, shattering it into shards that proved to have a damnation aura on them.

We then banished ourselves back to Alusia.

The Calamar have been dealt a serious blow and their presence upon our plane should be somewhat lessened by this. They now have a great and well-founded hatred of Namers, especially the ones that wear red dragon-skin armour.