An aboleth is a powerful foe, though it might not need to fight at all due to its power over the mind. In the Shadowdark Core Rules, the aboleth is an “enormous, antediluvian catfish covered in slime and tentacles. They hate all intelligent beings.” Antediluvian means ancient or primitive. In Shadowdark, the aboleth has the power to curse, to enslave (controlling a creature for 1d4 rounds), and to read thoughts of other creatures. The creature is more powerful in 5e, being amphibious, having legendary resistances, and a few other powers. Either way, the aboleth can take full advantage of control of the mind.
The provided encounters and adventures might not require any direct battle with an aboleth, which allows some of them to be utilized with lower-level characters. Otherwise, the aboleth is a powerful foe (CR 10 in 5e).
Encounter Seed: A local sailor who was fishing on a break has been acting strangely ever since encountering a strange fish (an aboleth). [Mechanics: The sailor is cursed by an aboleth and will soon become a deep one. This utilizes the Shadowdark rules with the curse condition.]
Encounter Seed: When the characters are on the shore, in the water, or in a boat, an aboleth prowls nearby. The aboleth attempts to cause chaos amongst the characters using enslave (Shadowdark) or dominate mind (5e) on a single character to encourage that character to do something strange (e.g., throw supplies overboard, get into the water to swim, etc.). The aboleth otherwise stays out of view if possible, preferring to avoid direct combat.
Encounter Seed: While characters are in the water for some reason, an aboleth approaches and uses its mucus cloud on a single character. The goal is to keep the character in the water until the aboleth is ready to feed. [Note: This utilizes the 5e rules with the mucus cloud ability.]
Adventure Seed: Several peasants reported that a local fisherman (also peasant) returned to town covered in blood. His cousin was nowhere to be seen. Town guards headed to the nearby lake and found the body of the fisherman’s cousin beaten and bloodied. The fisherman swears he knows nothing about a murder, despite the evidence. He was under the influence of an aboleth.
Adventure Seed: The Red Flags, a crew of pirates, has been seen sailing the same path for the past few months. Some of their plunder finds its way to other port areas. Some of it never does. This is because they have made a deal with an aboleth to trade certain types of antiquities for sea gems. Lately, the aboleth has grown tired of the deal.
Ridiculous Adventure Seed: A bored aboleth is seeking human memories because, while it despises humans, it also envies the human way of life. The aboleth makes a deal with a group of sailors to trade safe passage for them to bring people with exciting memories aboard their ships. The sailors begin searching for “exciting” folk in the town. Perhaps the characters fit the bill?
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This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ legalcode.