Demonic Dalliance
October 25th, 2011
Hello everyone, and welcome to anther exciting Grave Plots, where we bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week. This week, as some of you know, is Demon Week here at Necromancers of the Northwest, and so we're going to be talking about everyone's favorite chaotic evil outsider. Personally, I rarely get a chance to do a lot with demons: between high-level NPCs and more exotic monsters, I just can't seem to find room for more than a few mid-level encounters with demons. I did once run a campaign where an ancient demon was the big bad, but it never really got there so I don't count it. Still, when I do get a chance to use demons as something more than a random encounter, I find it can usually be quite an enjoyable encounter. So today I was wondering what it might be like to expand those few encounters into a full one or two session-sized adventure. Let's get started expanding some ideas.
The Summoning
One of my (many) favorite scenes in fantasy books and movies is the ritual summoning of a demon. The scene is iconic, the imagery grand, often exotic, and quite compelling. Usually a ritual demon summoning is a very tense situation, with the heroes racing against time. Whether the heroes need to put a stop to the demon summoning in order to avert a world-ending apocalypse or call up a dangerous ally just in time to save their lives from an even more dangerous foe, ritual summonings mean good solid drama. It’s not a far stretch from there to make this scene into a memorable encounter, or two if the demon summoners successfully summon their demonic servitor/lord.
So now our work becomes turning that cool scene into a tabletop adventure. Thankfully, a demon summoning encounter is fairly easy to turn into a demon summoning adventure. Really, you just need to expand the basic elements of your demon summoning encounter and set-up scenes. Expand the set up, have the PCs discover that a demon summoning ritual is going to occur over the course of a few encounters, have them investigate the details, and throw some additional road blocks (guards, time sensitive dilemmas, or even just treacherous hike full of environmental encounters) just before the climactic encounter.
For my part, I might have the PCs uncover that there is a secret society of demoniacs hidden among the capital city’s elite. After a cursory investigation into these rumors, the PCs discover that such an organization does exist, and that in 14 days the society will be summoning the horrific she-demon Itaka, who will lay ruin to the kingdom and make slaves or food stock of the people. The next phase of the adventure sees the PCs undertaking an intense investigation into the city’s nobility in order to ferret out who might be involved in the society and uncover more details about the ritual itself. At the end of their investigation the PCs should track down one or more members of the society, who reveal that the ritual will go ahead anyway (unless the PCs are really good at taking measures to shut it down preemptively), and that most of the society escaped their grasp. Armed with the knowledge of where the ritual is to take place, the PCs then go in, guns blazing, and have to fight through the demoniacs’ traps and guardians. At this point, I would start a timer to see how long it takes the PCs to grind the monsters/traps/puzzles portion of the adventure. If the PCs hack through the grinding portion of the adventure and there is still time left on the timer, they arrive in time to stop the ritual, kill the cultists, smash up the shrine, and generally wreck the bad guys plans. But if the timer has run out, then the ritual went off and the PCs are going to have to stop the demoness before she can destroy the kingdom. For my adventure, I would set the demon (though her power is vaunted) at 3-4 CRs above the PCs, so that she feels suitably impressive but is still defeatable.
The Demonic Villain
When I use demons in my game, they are most often just some powerful(ish) monster I throw at the PCs to make for a memorable battle somewhere in the middle of an adventure. Frankly, I do this mostly because I associate demons and devils with fairly powerful and intense monsters, and generally the monster seems impressive at first but once combat starts I find myself disappointed with the limited array of things they can do, or how powerful they end up being. Still, these encounters seem to go over pretty well at the table, and PCs rarely find a straight combat encounter more rewarding than when they’re crossing swords with one of the big D's from the Bestiary/Monster Manual (demons, devils, and dragons).
So when we're looking to turn the demonic monster into an adventure, it’s time to upgrade the demon from the status of monster to the status of villain. At its most basic, this means giving the demon a name, a motivation, a personality, and a goal which places him in opposition to the PCs. Since we're looking to make the demon in question into an entire adventure, I think we need to give him all those little extras that really make a villain a villain, i.e., minions, a stronghold, a back-up plan for when the PCs inevitably mess up his original agenda, and at least the potential to reoccur and threaten the PCs time and time again.
I might create a demonic villain adventure starring a common nalfeshnee that would look something like this. Brigor understood the workings of the abyss like few other demons, even among his own kind, which was famed for their knowledge of such things. Brigor reveled in the chaos and corruption of his primal home and sought to spread that corruption and advance its constantly shifting chaotic whims in everything he did. When the sorcerer Medan summoned him to lend him his vast knowledge, Brigor was more than happy to make a deal with the sorcerer. As Brigor was much smarter than Medan, it wasn't long before the sorcerer who had called a nalfeshnee to serve him found himself a slave to the demon, bound by ancient magic to serve him for all time. While Medan wasn't a particularly intelligent sorcerer, his lakeside tower did possess a rather extensive library, and Brigor obtained knowledge of a sacred ritual to bring the abyss physically to the mortal world. Deciding to use this ritual,combined with his own extensive knowledge of the abyss's inner workings, Brigor resolved quickly to spread the abyss to each and every corner of the mortal realms, beginning with the sacred grove of Elisoria. Traveling to that place with Medan and a few other cronies strong-armed by Brigor into joining the cause, he has set up operations in preparation for his ritual, establishing a base of operations in a handy cave which once served as a shrine to a god now long forgotten. While Brigor is preparing for his dreaded ritual, the PCs are contacted by a local municipal authority to address the corruption at Elisoria's grove, as well as see to the strange lights in the nearby cave. The PCs, filled with dreams of gold and glory, cross swords with Brigor’s minions until they come face-to-face with Brigor and Medan. During this battle, Brigor pretends to be in Medan's service and lets the PCs direct their ire at the sorcerer, perhaps offering some kind of demonic betrayal speech to a bewildered Medan before teleporting away and retreating to Medan's tower. The PCs whack the sorcerer and set things right, but earn a new enemy in Brigor, who, true to his chaotic nature, forgets about his previous goals in order to pursue a vendetta against the PCs.
Well, that’s it for this week’s Grave Plots. I hope you all join me next week for more great plot hooks and adventure ideas, but until then allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.