Illusions

Zuggtmoy is boring. Sure, you have the ready made dungeon with her in it, but....blech. Thematically, what kind of portfolio for a demon lord would fit your campaign? Maybe go from there. You could always flesh out one of the names EGG had for demon lords/princes in MM2.
 
The Heretic said:
Zuggtmoy is boring. Sure, you have the ready made dungeon with her in it, but....blech. Thematically, what kind of portfolio for a demon lord would fit your campaign? Maybe go from there. You could always flesh out one of the names EGG had for demon lords/princes in MM2.
Click to expand...
That's a really neat idea. Hmm...Which one...?
demonlist.png
All the ones with apostrophes are immediately discarded because---ugh.
I'd consider Ahazu, Anarazel, Ardat, Azael, Azazel, Eblis, Gresil, Mastiphal, Mekir, Nocticula, and Verin.

I could also go Lovecraftian/Outer Gods: e.g.
Nyarlathotep (The Black Man)
The_Black_Man.jpg
or Hastur (The Yellow King).
hastur.jpg
Both of which are very tempting.

You are also the first person I know to have echoed my feelings about how lamed and not-scary Zuggtmoy is as a demon.
Heck, the whole ToEE (as written by Metzner) hopelessly and utterly fails to bring the terror or wonder IMO.

EDIT: To answer the question posed: Demon Lord portfolio that fits the campaign --- pretty basic and open really.
  • made a pact with a human Witch Queen to grant her 1000 years of youthful life
  • pronounced a curse upon a high-level elven magic-user to imprison him in chains for an equal amount of time (like Merlin trapped by Le Fey)
  • otherwise fairly "off camera"
  • has to be a DEMON LORD --- in the classic sense, not some "themed" lackey/oddball. Looms larger-than-life. No hope. Fire, Brimestone, Terror, the Abyss. Seemingly all-powerful. Conniving.
  • the party has been "duped" into thinking all they need to do is find the demon's soul-amulet and compel it to lift the magician's curse. Easy peasy.
 
Last edited:
Maybe I'll steal the name Melkur from Dr. Who.

Quick! Name that episode (and villain for extra credit) WITHOUT Google.

First post gets a no-prize!
 
Also, I would be against using Nyarlathotep or the King in Yellow because that would cheapen the impact of the Cthulhu mythos. They should have no chance, no chance whatsoever when dealing with these beings. Hmm. I was going to get into this with my review of the Temple of Poseidon in Dragon magazine. I need to get back to that...
 
You make a good point. The agents of the Outer Gods are...well...god-like, and that's at a whole other level from demons.

However, I'd like this particular demon to invoke that same sophisticated sense of horror and fear --- and not be some sort of Big Flaming Orc.

To be clear, I was just going to rip off the names and appearance, not attempt to adhere to the Cthulhu mythos too closely.

Melkur is a Tolkien-name rip-off (Melkor) by Dr. Who. It was the 1970s---everyone ripped Tolkien off back then. Before the movies, Tolkien was like a secret club, especially the Silmarillion myths.
 
The Heretic said:
Zuggtmoy is boring. Sure, you have the ready made dungeon with her in it, but....blech. Thematically, what kind of portfolio for a demon lord would fit your campaign? Maybe go from there. You could always flesh out one of the names EGG had for demon lords/princes in MM2.
Click to expand...
Smash her together with Kyrzin from Eberron, and give her some affinity with the body's mucous, and parasitic slimes that infect your body, and other types of oozes like gibbering mouthers, and she gets more interesting. Cultists of Kyrzin often keep a gibbering mouther in the basement and feed their dead (or dying) to it, imagining that they can hear the voice of Kyrzin and their beloved ancestors in its babbling.
 
squeen said:
You are also the first person I know to have echoed my feelings about how lamed and not-scary Zuggtmoy is as a demon.
Heck, the whole ToEE (as written by Metzner) hopelessly and utterly fails to bring the terror or wonder IMO.
Click to expand...

I actually enjoyed T1-4 quite a bit. Loved it so much I bought and played the video game. But yeah, Zuggtmoy herself is kind of...boring.

Was I the only person who went first to the very back of the module to check out the cool new monsters?
 
No. I looked at the map, the drawings, and then straight to the back.
 
Last edited:
The Heretic said:
Also, I would be against using Nyarlathotep or the King in Yellow because that would cheapen the impact of the Cthulhu mythos. They should have no chance, no chance whatsoever when dealing with these beings. Hmm. I was going to get into this with my review of the Temple of Poseidon in Dragon magazine. I need to get back to that...
Click to expand...
@The Heretic : You need to know how much this has resonated in my head. The players are having such a run of luck, I really needed to check my expectations in term of future content. If I/they are not careful, the party is likely to get massively pwned by any Demon Lord---let alone a demi-god.

My mind has wander...drunk on Plane Travel. They are up against their first demon (ever) when they lead the realm's army to save the Keep. Going to use the ACKS rules---FINALLY. We'll see how that goes. I am thinking a Balrog (Type VI), just based on the size and fire power the PCs are packing. I'm think that with his teleportation ability and what-not, if I don't totally botch it, we'll see some causalities.

At which point, they may decide its wiser to steer clear of any future demons altogether.

Truth be told, I am a poor DM. Too inexperienced at this level.
 
Last edited:
An attempt to draw a map of the next likely adventure location:

...a natural feature called Dragonshead Ford...for (I hope) obvious reason.

dragonshead_ford_small.png

The map turned into a just perspective drawing because top-down waterfalls suck.

I got the vanishing point totally wrong, so squashed it vertically in GIMP --- helped a bit.

Kinda sucks. Shadows/lighting is inconsistent. Too small. Boring viewpoint. Etc.
Maybe it can be saved (or redrawn).

Hopefully obvious to them it's rocky on one side and forest on the other.

...and that an army crossing anywhere other than at the ford would be problematic.

Probably needs some figures in for scale.

Ugh. Trees. (Need shadows).

One thing I do like is the notion of remnants of old civilization littering the landscape. Not as major action points...but just setting. I think it also helps the players and DM mentally ear-mark a location. As in: "Back in that place with the giant foot..."

--------------------------------------

In contrast --- something done by a REAL artist (snatched from cyberspace), which is my inspiration for the Witch Queen Melice:



It was so long ago, I don't know where it's originally from.
(I think she looks like uncannily like Elon Musks' ex-wife, the actress.)
 
Last edited:
squeen said:
An attempt to draw a map of the next likely adventure location:
Click to expand...

Don't take this the wrong way because your artwork is nice, but in what way is a picture of a bridge, with no scale, grid, cardinal points, or anything beyond a road leading to and away from it, considered "a map"? That's just a picture of a bridge, not really a map, yes?

Not trying to shit on your work, but if that's a map, then what's stopping anyone from saying this is a map too? That is to say, what does your "map" offer that a simple text description doesn't, other than looking nice?
 
Was going to be a map --- ended up just being a picture.

Oh well.

EDIT: The real mapping pickle is how to hex-grid the space to use the ACKS Domains at War combat.
Why that turned into a drawing is anyone's guess.

Human army (8 units) vs two monster units (60 ogre light infantry, and 20 hill giants), with the latter having a serious terrain advantage.

The giants have been sent to slow the humans down so that they arrive too late to save the Keep. They picked the Dragonshead Ford as a choke point because the human army outnumbers them significantly.

Unknown to my players, the drow are pulling the strings (no surprise to the grognards, but my players are young). It was suppose to be a lead-in to G-series...back when I foolishly imagined it, oh so many years ago. Back then, I thought I'd get then chance to actually use some pre-generated modules (they are littered all over the map). We did B2, T1, Pod Caverns...and then...bupkis---never again in six years. ????
 
Last edited:
Dang! I used the "Perspective Tool" in GIMP (shear transform) to improve the viewing angle some. Now the river goes more "back" and less "up" (to me).

Who knew?!

dragonshead_ford.png

Another funny thing --- the color difference. I had an incandescent light on one side when I snapped the paper-drawing with my phone.
That's why it's brighter on one bank.

Last item of note: I did not use blue anywhere in this picture --- just a scan of a green piece of paper lit by a warm light, and greys. My eye tints the water blue-ish. Weird.
 
Last edited:
squeen said:
Human army (8 units) vs two monster units (60 ogre light infantry, and 20 hill giants), with the latter having a serious terrain advantage.
Click to expand...
Can I ask, how large and what type are the human army units, the number and level of officers, and the level of the PCs? In 1e terms, not ACKS terms.
 
Here's the stat sheat for the local (Valgard) army plus the vassals (surrounding towns) of the Realm. Some are staying at the Capital to defend --- and I am toying with attacking it on its opposite front now that some of its forces have been lured into a response on the borders.

The ACKS stuff helped me break it into units. I haven't stat'd them separately.

forces.jpg

The "Dozers" are triceratops, pulled from a "Lost World" type valley near the Military Academy/Wild West outpost.

UHP is unit hit-points (ACKS). AC is decending (1e) since I don't really understand the ACKS AC conversion.

A full unit is 120 for infantry, 60 for chalvery. Big stuff (giants, dozers, etc.) much less to make a unit.

Here's the bad guys:

ford.jpg

Does that answer the question?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top