Maddened Dictat (Basic Lore)

Maddened Dictat (Threat; CR 32)
True Chaotic - Huge - Aberration
This creature possesses the Threat role, and therefore counts as 4 monsters for purposes of encounter size, XP award, and treasure. This monster frequently has the Threat role, but may be set to other roles if desired. It is widely accepted among most intelligent creatures, at a very general level, that the world we all live in is balanced upon the surface of a much larger, darker, and far more terrible reality called the Outer Madness. Most people have little understanding of Planes, and in the minds of most people, Demons, Devils, Aberrations, and most 'weird' monsters are part of this terrifying background reality. However, there are always those who think that 'larger and more terrible' means, 'a convenient way to get power'. As a result, all over the world, in every race, creed, and culture, civilized or not, there are those with far too much greed and far too little wisdom who seek out this Deep Darkness and pledge themselves to it. The Creeping Madness is easy to access, easy to draw upon...and insanely dangerous. A fair number of those who attempt this foolish act are consumed utterly by their very first sup of that dark well, their lives, essence, souls, and flesh consumed entire. Many of those luckless fools do not quietly disappear, however. Maddened Dictats are huge swollen masses of flesh and shadow and ectoplasm, with no semblance of features, no eyes, mouth, or any other recognizable feature. Their eerie voices boom and squeak, irritating the ears and resonating directly into minds with no rhyme or reason. They are uniformly terrible. Dictats will deign to work with Maddened Magnates, and such lesser fiends are often found near Dictats, mixed in with the ghastly remnants of former allies and enemies. Maddened Dictats are the pinnacle of the Maddened 'cult' in the Prime Material plane. The origins of Dictats are uncertain, their motives are insane, their methods a convulsion of seemingly random acts. But their goals are simple: Kill everybody, and everything. Dictats are vast swollen masses of filmy membrane, filled with swollen organs, the entire unwholesome mass floating about supported by ethereal tendrils and fronds. Eerie, eldritch power flows to and from the Dictat at all times, and they are often surrounded by animated fragments of other creatures, lesser Maddened that seek an audience with the font of power, and other clans and clades of monstrosity. Dictats must be opposed, because even if they look like they are quiescent, bitter experience has taught the world to expunge these affronts to reality as fast as the force to do so can be mustered. Maddened Dictats are frequently associated with Maddened Iotas. These creatures can often be found together.