Demon Lord, Orcus

Image © TSR Inc, by Todd Lockwood.

[Sponsored by @tar-baphon. Orcus is one of the iconic D&D villains, and through the SRD and plausible deniability (he's a Roman god!), he's in Pathfinder as well. In Pathfinder, he is deliberately not a power player, and my flavor text takes that already metatextual decision and runs hog wild with it.

A note on the art: I feel like Orcus is emblematic of when D&D was seen as dangerous, and this piece absolutely feels like it should be the cover of a Black Sabbath album. It's no surprise that I was fascinated with the anti-D&D strain of the Satanic Panic when I was a kid. Also, although there has been some course correction in the 5e era, there's a trend with Orcus in a lot of art, including his official Pathfinder depiction, of making Orcus buff. Let Orcus be fat!]

Demon Lord, Orcus CR 28 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This humanoid is a corpulent giant with skin mottled like a decaying corpse. He has great black bat-wings growing from his shoulders, hooves for feet, and the head of a goat. He clutches a short staff, tipped with an oversized human skull.

Orcus, Prince of Undeath CE male demon lord of death, necromancy and wrath Domains  Chaos, Death, Evil, Magic Subdomains Demon, Divine, Murder, Undead Favored Weapon heavy mace Unholy Symbol a goat’s head with curving horns Worshipers liches, necromancers, sapient undead Minions boneclaws, deathdrinkers, demons, other undead For information on his Obedience and boons for his worshipers, see Book of the Damned

Orcus is one of the most powerful demon lords in the Universe. But not on Golarion. On that world, his is one of a number of undead cults, and not nearly the most popular. Orcus has a clear hierarchy to what undead he considers truly worthy, with those created from contagion seen as inferior to accident, and those inferior to those who intentionally seek out undeath. His most dedicated worshippers on Golarion are liches, some of whom have learned the secret of crafting a phylactery by teasing apart the Prince of Undeath’s wisdom from his threats. The followers of many other undead-focused religions, particularly vampires and ghouls, see Orcus as pretentious and unworthy of dedication, although few are foolish enough to directly oppose him.

Orcus himself knows that his star has fallen. In his extensive research into planar lore, Orcus has learned that he was once the most feared being in another universe, who went on a killing spree that left several gods dead and an entire race of lawful outsiders duped into being his pawns. That Orcus cannot accomplish this level of power in this version of reality vexes and frustrates him, and he takes his rage out on his minions as much as he does his foes.

Orcus is a genius tactician, although his temper sometimes gets the better of him. He enjoys combat as a distraction from his cosmic-level sulk, and as a way of expressing his power over others. He typically opens combat with a time stop to summon allies and cast defensive spells on himself, and then unleashes a potent death effect as soon as the duration expires. Against creatures that can resist his negative energy and poison, he uses dispelling magic. On more than one occasion, Orcus has beaten a cocky archmage to a pulp by centering an antimagic field on himself and wading into combat.

Orcus in the Great Game Orcus’ response to the brewing theomachy between Mormo and Lamashtu is cautious optimism. He desires more power in the Abyss, and Lamashtu could open the door for him to seize it. Kabriri and Zura are at the top of Orcus’ hit list, but views a direct assault on them as currently too risky to be worth the effort. If one of them were to make a move against Lamashtu and be punished for it, or if they were struck down in the scramble for power following Lamashtu’s (theoretical) demotion or demise, Orcus would happily swoop in to finish them off.  And if Mormo is capable of legitimately slaying a god, Orcus will be very keen to study her techniques.

Wand of Orcus (major artifact) The Wand of Orcus is the Prince of Undeath’s scepter of office, and it never leaves his side. Lesser versions have appeared in the Material Plane, often created by Orcus or one of his high-level clerics. The real Wand of Orcus is a Huge +5 anarchic, unholy heavy mace. In the hands of a demon, it grants a +4 profane bonus to Armor Class. The first time the Wand of Orcus strikes a living creature in a round, that creature is subject to a slay living spell (DC 30). Weight 24 lbs.; CL 25th

My boy be finally ready to run ops on the party. Though in all seriousness he turned out great and I'm excited to see how the party in the River Kingdoms will respond now to a fully operational Orcus.

WotC got caught stealth-editing a lot of their PDF back catalogue again, and some of the changes are just bizarre. Mentions of racism, even as fantastical as the Beholders' extreme xenophobia, and slavery and slavers, were erased. So what are the bad guys even doing in this high-fantasy pulp adventure world, embezzlement?

Illithids using brain parasites to turn people into indentured servants

So they work at McDonalds?

thank you for answering, I appreciate it, I like to use both but I’ve never really thought about in depth before until the question hit me.

Princess Galatea Cypress, Lady Whitemarch

“Legend of the Cryptids - Caella reg.” © Applibot Inc, accessed at the artist’s gallery here

[The yang to General Abdalla Aulorian’s yin, this character is definitely @strawberry-crocodile​‘s darling, the main NPC in the one-on-one Pathfinder game she’s running for me. The stats and flavor-text have been written with her approval. I find it delightful how we both brought a lawful evil, deeply resentful, character to the table, but they both have very different approaches and personalities despite that. Like Abdalla, I do intend to have more stat blocks of Galatea in the future, but she has changed less so far in the game.]

Galatea Cypress CR 12 LE Humanoid (human) This woman is statuesque, with blond hair reaching down to her waist and piercing indigo eyes. She is beautiful and youthful, but her face is as hard as the sword on her hip.

To Galatea Cypress, to love something is to control it. Her father, who doted on her and followed her whims until a runaway wife soured his mood. Her brother, who can be guided and manipulated like a dog. Her servants, who follow her orders on threat of punishment. And most of all, her wonderful toys, glimmering porcelain automata that obey her to the word. And anyone and anything she cannot control? Well, they can be discarded or destroyed.

Although Galatea is a skilled duelist, she typically fights with her rapier only to toy with an opponent or to put something out of her misery. She’s used to getting her hands dirty; in a fit of pique when she was fourteen, she stabbed her father’s prized stallion to death. Still, she prefers to stay in the back ranks, using spells to debilitate and distract enemies until she can finish them off, or one of her allies can do it for her. Galatea’s most treasured minions are her squad of porcelain soldiers and her right hand monster, the sahkil Baetrachulltchum (but call her Betty). Galatea would not hesitate for a second to sacrifice any or all of her followers in order to save her own life.

Galatea is the eldest daughter of one of the most powerful families in the Whitemarch province of Taldor, giving her the titles of Princess and Lady Whitemarch. Because of her gender and the Taldan legal code, she has no claim to her family estate, and has always felt deeply bitter towards her younger brother. She currently schemes for ways to usurp the power of her house, or at least redirect its wealth and prestige to supporting her projects alone. She is terrified of death because she has a sickening certainty about where her soul will go when she dies. As such, she is experimenting with combining construct and living creatures, with the ultimate goal of living forever in a magnificent porcelain body. Most of her humanoid testees/victims have not survived her ministrations, but rumors of a captured Chelish officer, a tiefling woman who survived a great fall with only a shattered ankle, have given her the idea for her next experimental subject.

Porcelain Construct (Simple Template) Galatea’s favorite medium for crafting constructs is porcelain. These creatures are beautiful and easy to control, but are somewhat more fragile than the average construct. “Porcelain construct” is a simple template that can be added to any creature with the clockwork subtype. A porcelain construct loses its vulnerability to electricity, and does not need to be wound. It gains vulnerability to sonic damage, and is treated as a crystalline creature for the purposes of shatter, shout and similar spells and effects. A porcelain construct uses the Craft (ceramics) skill instead of the Craft (clockwork) skill, but otherwise has the same cost and construction requirements.

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Fixed the lack of banned schools. Thanks to @tar-baphon for pointing that out! Her banned schools are Divination and Necromancy

no prob

Now that sounds badass and appropriately runelordy thank you.

That’s awesome and a coincidence since I use the in from that module the Sword Point Inn as a reoccurring locale in my biweekly Saturday campaign set so far in Cassomir. I don’t think the writers of that module had death cultists of the god of the Bloody Tongue in mind when they crafted that location but lol that’s water under the bridge now.

Thank you for the fast response I wasn’t expecting to get it this morning. So Zura and her “bloodline” could have been the first humanoid/mammalian vampires but there could have been other types of nonhumanoid vampires before her, interesting. That’s a cool take on it and thank you again though this does makes me wonder when would the Crimson Court have popped up?

Mind Flayer, Illithid

"Mindflayer" © Steven Bellshaw, accessed at his ArtStation here

[In designing a mind flayer, I wanted to avoid some of the pitfalls of the past. The 3.x mind flayer was very fragile, and the mind blast very disruptive, so that fights with them either resulted in the mind flayer getting pulped before it could do anything, or the entire party stunned long enough for the mind flayer to get halfway to a TPK. So I wanted to give them a bit more bulk. 5e gives them full on breastplate, but I wanted to keep the slick leather look from the 3e era. I did take the save every turn and limited uses for the mind blast from 5e. Although I'm not using the psychic magic ability for my mind flayer (because it sacrifices uses/day for versatility), I did use a couple of occult spells so they have some way to deal damage.]

Mind Flayer, Illithid CR 7 LE Aberration This lean humanoid has slick lilac skin and a head like that of an octopus. Multiple tentacles surround a lamprey-like maw. It wears leather robes decorated with skulls and other macabre accessories.

Illithids are the most common and most widespread of the mind flayers. Although some of them live in colonies close to an elder brain, the better to both share its knowledge and fertilize its eggs, many of them live solitary lives or in small communities more similar to a monastic cell. Every illithid desires power and knowledge, and they all go about obtaining these in different ways. Illithids with the same creed may come together in a circle, or illithids of several creeds may travel together in what is called an inquisition, similar to an adventuring party of humanoids. Many illithids keep multiple charmed or dominated slaves to serve them as physical labor and emergency rations.

Most illithids avoid direct physical confrontation if they can help it, instead sending their slaves to the front lines and fighting with their magical abilities. Illithids are masters of mind-influencing magic, and are capable of turning allies against each other or forcing their enemies into hazardous situations. Their most feared ability is the mind blast, which can incapacitate an entire party long enough for the illithid to close in and bore its tentacles into the brains of a victim or two. Illithids usually flee if combat turns against them, as they value their lives above all else.

Illithids are usually tall and imposing, averaging six feet tall but lean. Their skin is usually in shades of pinks and purples, although green and blue hues are not uncommon. They dress in a fashion suggestive of aristocracy—high collars, fancy robes and jewelry are typical. Their unique language, Qualith, is written only and similar to cuneiform; they speak in hissing, rasping tones when they use their mouths, but usually rely on telepathic communication. 

thank you, thank you this is going to be so useful and awesome for River Kingdoms campaign this was so well timed I know it was a random occurrence but its really appreciated regardless.