I love the demon lords and I would like my campaign to center around one of their plots to destroy/conquer the material plane. Does anyone have a good idea for a campaign centered around the plot of a demon lord? Preferably something apocalyptic that ends with the party fighting the demon lord for the fate of the world.
The issue you need to resolve is the conflict between the 9 Hells and the Abyss, because that's what's stopping the Lords of Hell from taking over the material plane. Some ideas:
An agreement between Hell and the Abyss is reached. We get the material plane and you get hell (once we're done).
An agreement between an agent in the heavens that they will take up the fight with the Abyss, allowing Hell to turn their attention to the material plane. This one has potential as Hell would need an agent like a fallen angel or somesuch that could convince heaven that they need to fight the abyss while also diverting attention from Hell's true motives. Maybe that Angel has an agreement that they can be the 9th Lord of Hell once Asmodeus has the mortal plane.
The usual "Cult summons their Lord to the Material Plane" type thing. It could be one of the lower Lords willing to abandon their position to take Faerun instead.
Or the slightly less common "Someone does something stupid to unleash horrors on the world." Opens something best left sealed, reads something they shouldn't have etc etc.
You can set it in a large city, like Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Greyhawk og Stormhome. A demonic cult of Orcus, led by a lich, is working to take over, leading to a climatic battle when the cultists summon the big man himself
Could have a guild of monster hunters that stumble upon symbols of Yeenoghu in a monster den/lair. Over the course of the campaign, the monsters begin to unite against the monster hunters with an end goal of summoning Yeenoghu to the prime material plane.
This is pretty much the plot of Out of the Abyss. You might consider running that if you're hurting for ideas.
Although, that adventure takes place entirely in the Underdark. If you don't want to run a game there, you could potentially adjust it to take place somewhere else, but you'll be fighting the text of the book the whole way. Caveat emptor, YMMV, etc.
A circle of druids become infected by Zuggtmoy and now view her as the pinnacle of nature. They travel to a city and establish a cult with the goal to acquire resources and worshipers to help Zuggtmoy fully manifest in the world.
Adventurers arrive in city, or at least start to notice things. (Paths that can be revealed for players to pursue)
1) Bodies buried in the last few months are being taken from the local graveyard that serves the poorer citizens. The cultists are taking the bodies to create spore servants
2) A religious fervor has started in the slums, started by a proselytizing foreign priest. None of the scholarly authorities can identify what goddess of bounty and death is gaining this following, and given that the gods are real with verifiable impact on the world it makes some people nervous when an unknown one appears on the block. The priest is part of the cult, Zuggtmoy has used false fronts before, a cult that is used to lure in mortals and as they are drawn in and infected with her maddening spores they worship her directly. I think this is how the Elemental cults in the original Greyhawk setting got started.
3) A new drug is being sold by the local crime guild, that gives hallucinations of color and music and make people feel like they are at a party. It is made from mushrooms the cult is growing, which are not overtly magical but contain a small amount of Zuggtmoy's spores so habitual use leads to madness. The goal here is to acquire funds and infiltrate the crime guilds while continuing to spread her influence. If this is a high level adventure the cult may already have control over the crime guild.
4) a potential path, High end robberies. Wealthy homes, castles, the tower of a wizard, all attacked with valuables taken. Among the items may be key ingredients not available on the market.
With the money to buy material and worshipers the druids will enact a ritual taught to them by a demon that serves Zuggtmoy and is in the material world.
This is meant to play to the insidious nature of fungus. How it hides from the light of the sun while breaking down its rotting food
I've been writing something Flash Gordon-ish about my game planet being menaced by Atropus, the World Born Dead. The gnomes in a mountain observatory first notice it out in space through a big telescope and freak out. Necromancers around the globe start having their heads explode or something. Its erratic changes of course as it heads towards the planet suggest an intelligence guiding its progress. The desperate heroes have to take an airship jury-rigged into a makeshift spelljammer and try to contact this intelligence and alter the path of the cosmic horror. Once they crash on its surface (of course), they learn the undead planet is host to a crude society of scavengers and monsters trying to survive under the murderous eye of the Worm Emperor. They cobble together a small army from the different groups and assault the castle, and when they find the Emperor, he's revealed to be Orcus himself!
Meanwhile, back on the game world, Zhengyi the Witch King has assembled a massive army of the undead and demons and is beginning a march across the continent, wiping out whole kingdoms to prepare for the coming of his master. Somebody has to fight the war and somebody has to rally the combined forces of life: Humans, orcs, dragons, druids, good guys, bad guys, whatever.
I don't have any plans for a silver bullet/Infinity Gauntlet kind of artifact that the heroes can find and save the day, I'm just visualizing a massive brutal war. But that might change.
Honestly I would take a page out of 'That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime'. I liked the idea how their demon lords kinda create chaos by influencing monsters to do their bidding. But that idea can be molded or tossed lol.
It’s not quite the same to that anime but D&D Demons are supposed to create chaos as they are supposed to be the embodiment of Chaotic Evil, whether by their actions or sheer presence. In the Out of the Abyss module when you encounter a Demon Lord you are supposed to roll a WIS saving throw and if you fail you get a point of madness. And that is because the sheer aura of a demon lord is supposed to create a sensation that stretches a rational mortal’s mind to the limit.
Then there are the Demon’s actions. Some are natural manipulators like Orcus, Grazz’t, Baphomet, and Zuggtmoy and take direct control of groups and direct their actions to serve their own end. Others tend to let any cultists do as they will, uninterested for the most part unless there is destruction or carnage involved. But inevitably all cultists of demons are to become insane for the power they are bestowed.
Could start with some old heroes being murdered. Have more and more monsters and disasters happen as this goes on. The players eventually find out that these heroes sealed the demon lord in the past and that they themselves are tied to the seal and a cult is killing them off to release him back into the world.
I did a campaign a while back where the players traced an overwhelming amount of hyenas to Gnoll fangs of Yeenoghu. It was a really big Gnoll pack trying to summon the Beast of Butchery himself, and the players had to go through a few Gnoll dungeons before reaching a mountain on which Yeenoghu was to be summoned. The Gnolls succeeded before the players stopped them, so then the players had to fight their way through the Death Dells (Yeenoghu’s layer of the Abyss) and finally battle Yeenoghu.
I like demon lords too, and so I’m building something with Fraz’Urb’Luu rn.
I recently ran through a campaign similar to what you're describing. I used the demon lord Asmodeus, who is an actually demon in d&d. It turned into my player making trips into hell, and was really entertaining.
@Aramil_Siannodel2 Asmodeus is actually an archdevil, instead of a demon lord. Demons and devils in D&D are actually very different and are mortal enemies. I would recommend researching it!
I am aware of the difference. I literally spent an hour reading through the difference and types of both from the manual. I misspelled it, and thank you for pointing that out, but I don't need your help.
@Aramil_Siannodel2 Was this a homebrew campaign or inspired by published? I'd like to hear more, I'm trying to do something similar with an aspect of Asmodeus as my BBEG.
I had a plot where a demon lord had been collecting mortals body and soul on mass in his domain and corrupting them before letting a large number escape to the material plane. Players basically had to find and kill the anchors which were various different creatures with different levels of demonic corruption before the continent was consumed. I used Dagon for the water aesthetic but you could probably use any demon lord for the same plot.
Without going into detail, the Campaign I’m currently working on features as it’s main villain a powerful Wizard that is figuring out how to immediately transform himself into a Duke of Hell beneath Beelzebub, the Lord of the Seventh. In my Campaign, each of the Lords of Hell are at a minimum CR 27, Legendary and a variant of Mythic (Ala Auril from Rime of the Frostmaiden). Beelzebub and Mephistopheles are both CR 30, and Asmodeus is obviously beyond that, off any chart. A Duke of Hell is not merely CR 23+ minimum but also possessing a commensurate political authority to command whole legions of Devils.
Furthermore, this same - currently mortal - Wizard is creating alliances amongst the Yugoloths and in the Abyss to make himself even more powerful (while being extremely careful to keep those alliances secret and hold himself to a Lawful Evil standard (so as not to give Asmodeus reason to immediately destroy him)).
I know this is an ancient post, but I was looking for some feedback on a similar campaign setting. Figured I would reuse this post instead of starting a new one. I’m working on a fiend based campaign, as the abyss and hells are known as the underworld in my world, and act as one place. Devils/demons/yugoloths are interchangeable. I’m leaning toward a partnership/agreement between Grazzt and Rakdos to submerge the world in chaos. I wanted to run a strong theme of temptation and corruption throughout. The fall of society into self indulgence and instant satisfaction. Any ideas to bolster these themes or solidify lore would be appreciated.
Came across a YouTube video the other day on the lore around the 'Pale Night' from 2e, 3e, and 4e. Shocked there's not much mention of this ancient evil known as 'The Mother of Demons' within 5e at this time.
Being a supreme schemer and mastermind behind the scenes, the campaign idea is 'What would happen if all the Devil's of the nine hells simply vanished?' or 'What would happen if Pale Night got the upper hand over Asmodeus and a ripple effect took place?' What would that look like for the rest of the planes?
The Pale Night is located within the Endless Maze of Baphomet's layer and all the powers at be, fear the Pale Night and keep their distance. Her soul bound to her children.
So designing a campaign off of a 'cancerous demon plague' bursting into the material world as they realize that hell is no longer the vanguard keeping the peace. A step through Hell. A secretive cult to the Pale Night pulling the strings. Demon Lords rampaging and their cults standing vigilant nearby. Perhaps a step into the Outer Reach in the Astral Stars? Maybe the world is overrun with Demonic Plague and becomes the new vanguard against the bottomless pits of the Abyss. A Final battle with the Pale Night - A devastation so extreme that it cracks the fold of the lowest layer known: The Void and all have an epic 'falling/flying' combat encounter.
Idk - just some stirred up thoughts and I'll probably never get around to it haha.
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I love the demon lords and I would like my campaign to center around one of their plots to destroy/conquer the material plane. Does anyone have a good idea for a campaign centered around the plot of a demon lord? Preferably something apocalyptic that ends with the party fighting the demon lord for the fate of the world.
The issue you need to resolve is the conflict between the 9 Hells and the Abyss, because that's what's stopping the Lords of Hell from taking over the material plane. Some ideas:
An agreement between Hell and the Abyss is reached. We get the material plane and you get hell (once we're done).
An agreement between an agent in the heavens that they will take up the fight with the Abyss, allowing Hell to turn their attention to the material plane. This one has potential as Hell would need an agent like a fallen angel or somesuch that could convince heaven that they need to fight the abyss while also diverting attention from Hell's true motives. Maybe that Angel has an agreement that they can be the 9th Lord of Hell once Asmodeus has the mortal plane.
The usual "Cult summons their Lord to the Material Plane" type thing. It could be one of the lower Lords willing to abandon their position to take Faerun instead.
Or the slightly less common "Someone does something stupid to unleash horrors on the world." Opens something best left sealed, reads something they shouldn't have etc etc.
Any of those pique your interest?
You can set it in a large city, like Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Greyhawk og Stormhome. A demonic cult of Orcus, led by a lich, is working to take over, leading to a climatic battle when the cultists summon the big man himself
Could have a guild of monster hunters that stumble upon symbols of Yeenoghu in a monster den/lair. Over the course of the campaign, the monsters begin to unite against the monster hunters with an end goal of summoning Yeenoghu to the prime material plane.
This is pretty much the plot of Out of the Abyss. You might consider running that if you're hurting for ideas.
Although, that adventure takes place entirely in the Underdark. If you don't want to run a game there, you could potentially adjust it to take place somewhere else, but you'll be fighting the text of the book the whole way. Caveat emptor, YMMV, etc.
A circle of druids become infected by Zuggtmoy and now view her as the pinnacle of nature. They travel to a city and establish a cult with the goal to acquire resources and worshipers to help Zuggtmoy fully manifest in the world.
Adventurers arrive in city, or at least start to notice things. (Paths that can be revealed for players to pursue)
1) Bodies buried in the last few months are being taken from the local graveyard that serves the poorer citizens. The cultists are taking the bodies to create spore servants
2) A religious fervor has started in the slums, started by a proselytizing foreign priest. None of the scholarly authorities can identify what goddess of bounty and death is gaining this following, and given that the gods are real with verifiable impact on the world it makes some people nervous when an unknown one appears on the block. The priest is part of the cult, Zuggtmoy has used false fronts before, a cult that is used to lure in mortals and as they are drawn in and infected with her maddening spores they worship her directly. I think this is how the Elemental cults in the original Greyhawk setting got started.
3) A new drug is being sold by the local crime guild, that gives hallucinations of color and music and make people feel like they are at a party. It is made from mushrooms the cult is growing, which are not overtly magical but contain a small amount of Zuggtmoy's spores so habitual use leads to madness. The goal here is to acquire funds and infiltrate the crime guilds while continuing to spread her influence. If this is a high level adventure the cult may already have control over the crime guild.
4) a potential path, High end robberies. Wealthy homes, castles, the tower of a wizard, all attacked with valuables taken. Among the items may be key ingredients not available on the market.
With the money to buy material and worshipers the druids will enact a ritual taught to them by a demon that serves Zuggtmoy and is in the material world.
This is meant to play to the insidious nature of fungus. How it hides from the light of the sun while breaking down its rotting food
I've been writing something Flash Gordon-ish about my game planet being menaced by Atropus, the World Born Dead. The gnomes in a mountain observatory first notice it out in space through a big telescope and freak out. Necromancers around the globe start having their heads explode or something. Its erratic changes of course as it heads towards the planet suggest an intelligence guiding its progress. The desperate heroes have to take an airship jury-rigged into a makeshift spelljammer and try to contact this intelligence and alter the path of the cosmic horror. Once they crash on its surface (of course), they learn the undead planet is host to a crude society of scavengers and monsters trying to survive under the murderous eye of the Worm Emperor. They cobble together a small army from the different groups and assault the castle, and when they find the Emperor, he's revealed to be Orcus himself!
Meanwhile, back on the game world, Zhengyi the Witch King has assembled a massive army of the undead and demons and is beginning a march across the continent, wiping out whole kingdoms to prepare for the coming of his master. Somebody has to fight the war and somebody has to rally the combined forces of life: Humans, orcs, dragons, druids, good guys, bad guys, whatever.
I don't have any plans for a silver bullet/Infinity Gauntlet kind of artifact that the heroes can find and save the day, I'm just visualizing a massive brutal war. But that might change.
Honestly I would take a page out of 'That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime'. I liked the idea how their demon lords kinda create chaos by influencing monsters to do their bidding. But that idea can be molded or tossed lol.
-Sol
It’s not quite the same to that anime but D&D Demons are supposed to create chaos as they are supposed to be the embodiment of Chaotic Evil, whether by their actions or sheer presence. In the Out of the Abyss module when you encounter a Demon Lord you are supposed to roll a WIS saving throw and if you fail you get a point of madness. And that is because the sheer aura of a demon lord is supposed to create a sensation that stretches a rational mortal’s mind to the limit.
Then there are the Demon’s actions. Some are natural manipulators like Orcus, Grazz’t, Baphomet, and Zuggtmoy and take direct control of groups and direct their actions to serve their own end. Others tend to let any cultists do as they will, uninterested for the most part unless there is destruction or carnage involved. But inevitably all cultists of demons are to become insane for the power they are bestowed.
Could start with some old heroes being murdered. Have more and more monsters and disasters happen as this goes on. The players eventually find out that these heroes sealed the demon lord in the past and that they themselves are tied to the seal and a cult is killing them off to release him back into the world.
I did a campaign a while back where the players traced an overwhelming amount of hyenas to Gnoll fangs of Yeenoghu. It was a really big Gnoll pack trying to summon the Beast of Butchery himself, and the players had to go through a few Gnoll dungeons before reaching a mountain on which Yeenoghu was to be summoned. The Gnolls succeeded before the players stopped them, so then the players had to fight their way through the Death Dells (Yeenoghu’s layer of the Abyss) and finally battle Yeenoghu.
I like demon lords too, and so I’m building something with Fraz’Urb’Luu rn.
It could involve a cult, with a type of deathlock as a mini-boss, ending with a Demon Lord being summoned.
I recently ran through a campaign similar to what you're describing. I used the demon lord Asmodeus, who is an actually demon in d&d. It turned into my player making trips into hell, and was really entertaining.
@Aramil_Siannodel2 Asmodeus is actually an archdevil, instead of a demon lord. Demons and devils in D&D are actually very different and are mortal enemies. I would recommend researching it!
I am aware of the difference. I literally spent an hour reading through the difference and types of both from the manual. I misspelled it, and thank you for pointing that out, but I don't need your help.
@Aramil_Siannodel2 Was this a homebrew campaign or inspired by published? I'd like to hear more, I'm trying to do something similar with an aspect of Asmodeus as my BBEG.
I had a plot where a demon lord had been collecting mortals body and soul on mass in his domain and corrupting them before letting a large number escape to the material plane. Players basically had to find and kill the anchors which were various different creatures with different levels of demonic corruption before the continent was consumed. I used Dagon for the water aesthetic but you could probably use any demon lord for the same plot.
Without going into detail, the Campaign I’m currently working on features as it’s main villain a powerful Wizard that is figuring out how to immediately transform himself into a Duke of Hell beneath Beelzebub, the Lord of the Seventh. In my Campaign, each of the Lords of Hell are at a minimum CR 27, Legendary and a variant of Mythic (Ala Auril from Rime of the Frostmaiden). Beelzebub and Mephistopheles are both CR 30, and Asmodeus is obviously beyond that, off any chart. A Duke of Hell is not merely CR 23+ minimum but also possessing a commensurate political authority to command whole legions of Devils.
Furthermore, this same - currently mortal - Wizard is creating alliances amongst the Yugoloths and in the Abyss to make himself even more powerful (while being extremely careful to keep those alliances secret and hold himself to a Lawful Evil standard (so as not to give Asmodeus reason to immediately destroy him)).
I know this is an ancient post, but I was looking for some feedback on a similar campaign setting. Figured I would reuse this post instead of starting a new one. I’m working on a fiend based campaign, as the abyss and hells are known as the underworld in my world, and act as one place. Devils/demons/yugoloths are interchangeable. I’m leaning toward a partnership/agreement between Grazzt and Rakdos to submerge the world in chaos. I wanted to run a strong theme of temptation and corruption throughout. The fall of society into self indulgence and instant satisfaction. Any ideas to bolster these themes or solidify lore would be appreciated.
Came across a YouTube video the other day on the lore around the 'Pale Night' from 2e, 3e, and 4e. Shocked there's not much mention of this ancient evil known as 'The Mother of Demons' within 5e at this time.
Being a supreme schemer and mastermind behind the scenes, the campaign idea is 'What would happen if all the Devil's of the nine hells simply vanished?' or 'What would happen if Pale Night got the upper hand over Asmodeus and a ripple effect took place?' What would that look like for the rest of the planes?
The Pale Night is located within the Endless Maze of Baphomet's layer and all the powers at be, fear the Pale Night and keep their distance. Her soul bound to her children.
So designing a campaign off of a 'cancerous demon plague' bursting into the material world as they realize that hell is no longer the vanguard keeping the peace. A step through Hell. A secretive cult to the Pale Night pulling the strings. Demon Lords rampaging and their cults standing vigilant nearby. Perhaps a step into the Outer Reach in the Astral Stars? Maybe the world is overrun with Demonic Plague and becomes the new vanguard against the bottomless pits of the Abyss. A Final battle with the Pale Night - A devastation so extreme that it cracks the fold of the lowest layer known: The Void and all have an epic 'falling/flying' combat encounter.
Idk - just some stirred up thoughts and I'll probably never get around to it haha.