Planescape - Blood War XVII. The Battle of the Abyssal Undersump

I spent some time the other day mulling over the campaign I'm going to run after this. It's going to be a Spelljammer (D&D in space with magic ships, not technology) 5e game that involves a quest for the rod of seven parts. I read up on the Queen of Chaos, who will be the main villain. She is right up my group's alley!

The crew of the ship is going to be really important, as those are the NPCs that the heroes will interact with from beginning to end. I've been keeping a file on my desktop that lists ideas for the crew. Whenever I get an idea that I think is worthy, I add it to the file.

I will be a bit bummed when this campaign is over. I feel like I could run Planescape forever. It never gets boring!

I've always loved Spelljammer, and I really like the idea of showing readers who are new to the game all that awesome Spelljammer stuff. It's not for everybody, but you can do a lot of cool things with it. If nothing else, you will see how the neogi can be used to make first-rate villains!

Demon Lord Convention:This one's really long. Here's the super-short version:

• Graz'zt is angry that the group won't help him unite the demons and devils.
• Graz'zt is blowing up the group's homes and destroying a portal that is important to them.
• Iggwilv is trying to use this situation to please Graz'zt so that he will free her from her imprisonment.
• Iggwilv has sent some demon lords after the group, including one from an old, epic Chris Perkins adventure that I read yesterday.

There's a ton of NPCs involved. Here's a quick look at the many people involved in this thing:

Graz'zt, Iggwilv and the cloak that became Drokkarn the pit fiend

Bad Guys:

• Graz'zt, Demon Lord of Azzagrat: He is furious that the group won't help him win over the devils/help him hunt down Verin, his former ally.
• Iggwilv the Witch Queen: She's trapped in Graz'zt's palace, but she can send out simulacrums (clones made of ice and snow). She wants the group to convince Graz'zt to free her. She's also outraged that Graz'zt is making babies with Lamashtu.
• Lamashtu, Demon Lord of Monsters: She is the main demon lord supporting the demon armies in the blood war. The group wants to kill her and give her abyssal layer to their friend, a pit fiend.
• Korramzedah: Lamashtu's 20-foot tall balor general

Good Guys:

• Pazuzu, Demon Lord of Pazunia: Pazuzu hates Graz'zt and despises Lamashtu who is his ex-girlfriend. He ate her eyes and impaled her on a spike (she got better).
• Umbralinda, Queen of the Harpies: Pazuzu's current consort. She's tired of Pazuzu (he's very whiny) and keeps asking the group to get her a pile of soul larvae so she can consume them, become a demon lord and get away from Pazuzu.
• The Ferroliths: Graz'zt threw these succubi into a lake of molten iron long ago. Now they're ferroliths, demons covered in different types of metal. They obviously hate Graz'zt and are allies of the heroes.
• Bazuuma, Demon Lord of Positive Energy: She is the wife of one of the heroes and she's a good-aligned demon lord.

Wild Card:

• Juiblex, Demon Prince of Oozes: Juiblex rules the Abyssal Undersump, slime tunnels that act as secret entrances to abyssal layers. The devils have quietly been using them to get to Lamashtu's realm.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Elf Wizard

Last time, the heroes were at Theran's floating castle in Azzagrat. A chaos ship was flying toward them! A chaos ship is a huge, evil, living demon ship that shoots lightning bolts and force/disintegration rays.

The group spotted someone on the deck: Rule-of-Three, son of Graz'zt. He actually shed his disguise right in front of them. He looks like a spindly old githzerai, but in truth he is a cambion with charcoal-black skin, bat wings and hooves.

• The ship opened fire on the castle. The heroes rounded up the people who lived there:
• An old genie (I keep getting mixed up and calling him a giant) who sits in a sauna all the time.
• 3 alu-fiends who are friends with the giant.
• A succubus nurse. A few sessions ago, she got turned to stone and the group saved her, so she is loyal to them.
• 13 babies, all children of Graz'zt that the nurse takes care of. One of these babies is a child of Graz'zt and Lamashtu.

If you look at Rule-of-Three's stats in Faces of Sigil, you'll see that he has two javelins of lightning. Theran makes and sells those in Sigil. Rule-of-Three pull one out and goes to chuck it at the group, and George was none too pleased to see that this javelin was one of his own creation!

Bidam got hit with lightning and the javelin itself doinked off of his armor of invulnerability, plopping to the ground. The group used their cubic gate and their jar of Lord Stillborn to escape.

Refugees of Azzagrat
 

 The group owns a dorm-style building in Sigil. The refugees were left here. They sent the genie to their mansions in the Elemental Plane of Earth.

The players were really sharp tonight! They realized they'd better go to Allagash, Bidam's demon-making farm in Graz'zt's realm, as it was likely under attack.

Before they did so, a gnoll woman approached the group. She was looking for Eo Kaplan (the gnoll Michael Jackson NPC). George looked at me and asked, "Is her name... Billie...?" Billie Jean! Yes it was.

The group went up to Eo and told them that Billie Jean was looking for him. That gave me the opportunity to have Eo say, in a bad Michael Jackson voice, the lyrics to Billie Jean in a conversational way - but I kept the "hee hees", the "nyuh"'s and the "NOno, nono."

Eo mentioned that the group owned a mansion in Sigil, and how he always wanted to live in a mansion. It would let him have a place to unleash his inner child. Right now, Melnarnia Flumph and her son, "Baron" Gonard Flumph (Trump parody NPCs) live in the mansion. Eo seemed very keen on meeting the young Baron.

I plan on slipping them a Michael Jackson nugget each week if I can. I can do the chimp, naming a child after a blanket or some other household item, Lisa Marie Presley, Latoya (!), you name it.

Allagash: The heroes went to Allagash. In the distance they could see a horde kicking up dust clouds. It was the bloodseep demons, the demons that Theran accidentally dropped a huge chain on, killing dozens of them. Apparently, Graz'zt had sent them here to help them get their revenge.

The group repelled them in "adult" ways involving fluids being projected with the power of a riot police firehose. Then, the PROGENITORS (6 demon dudes that the group liberated from Lamashtu) beat the bejeezus out of them. The Mother of All (Also freed from Lamashtu) launched out monster egg projectiles. The bloodseep demons kept slipping in the fluid and were no match for the surprise counter-assault.

Now the group had more refugees to relocate:

• The Mother of All
• Areelu Vorlesh (the administrator)
• A succubus
• An ogre who is basically the Hulk
• 30 abat-dolor (the race Graz'zt may have come from)

The heroes relocated them to the Pathfinder festhall in Malcanthet's realm that I haven't had many ideas for. This worked out very nicely!

A few sessions back, Bazuuma created a new Abyssal realm and ultimately, I hope all of these NPCs end up living there in the Mithral City.

Graz'zt's Revenge

The heroes got a sending spell message from the Queen of the Harpies. She said that Graz'zt was in the abyssal undersump killing devils! The undersump is slime tunnels that connect different abyssal layers, They are sort of the sewers of the Abyss.

The devils were using this section of the undersump to get to Thanatos. Graz'zt is having a temper tantrum and is trying to teach the group a lesson.

Bidam and Theran geared up. Theran's apprentice, Selinza the cat lady, volunteered to come along. She had mentioned ways to overcome Iggwilv's counterspells, and she wanted to come along to back Theran up in case Iggwilv was somehow involved.

Jessie surprised me. She said, "We'd better tell Bazuuma to get everyone to the safe fortress in the Plane of Positive Energy." I did not expect that! The players were really on the ball. This altered the final thing I had planned for tonight!

The group drops into the undersump and is greeted by their hellhound friend, Fireball. Bidam can speak to hellhounds. Fireball informed them that Graz'zt has a big ship in here and that it is "immune to barking" (Fireball barks at bad guys and thinks he's helping).

The heroes started to head through the utterly trashed slime tunnels. Huge chunks of side walls had been obliterated and there was bits of ooze and slime everywhere.

A creature appeared before them - an avatar of Lamashtu! She is Graz'zt's ally and the group's enemy. The heroes were more then a little alarmed as a gooey maw demon plopped out from her undercarriage and hissed at them.

Selinza used buff spells on the group as they attacked the avatar. Allies showed up to aid them - an avatar of Pazuzu and Umbralinda, Queen of the Harpies. I played them as a couple on the verge of a breakup. Pazuzu is a big baby and she's over it.

Pazuzu has these elephant-sized dragon-cats called anzus. One of the anzus really likes Theran (he rolled a 20 when trying to befriend it back when the heroes were in Pazuzu's palace).

Together, the group were able to defeat the avatar.

Pazuzu angrily asked why the anzu liked Theran so much. "It's never that nice to me!" He got mad at Umbralinda when he tried to explain and it got uncomfortable. Ultimately, Pazuzu told Theran to keep it.

I should note that Selinza the cat lady hates cats. She thinks they're really dumb and embarrassing, a less-evolved version of herself. Theran paid her no mind.

Khorramzedah: The team followed the trail of destruction. They came to the big slime lake. Standing in it was the 20-foot-tall balor general, Khorramzedah. He and his zovvuts were fighting a few hell knights.

Rocks were falling from the ceiling... this whole section of the undersump was coming apart. Fireball alerted the group that their friend, the Fulsome Queen (she's a filth elemental - an "excremental"), was buried in the rubble.

Pazuzu and the Queen of the Harpies went after the balor, while the group tried to save the Fulsome Queen. A rock fell from the ceiling and hit Theran, knocking him off of the anzu and into the ooze lake. He took a pile of acid damage, and was barely able to get out of it.

Bidam tried to lift the rocks, but they were too heavy. Theran used levitate to free the Fulsome Queen.

Khorramzedah was destroyed. He has a demon amulet, so he didn't die. He reformed in the Abyss next to his amulet. Any demon worth their salt has this. Pazuzu and Umbralinda were hurt quite badly. Bidam used his positive energy "stream" to heal them (don't ask) and they continued on.

Graz'zt's Chaos Ship: They came to the big area with the conveyor belts loaded with gelatinous cubes. The portal to Thanatos was completely destroyed. The chaos ship was up in the air (this place has a really high ceiling). The group could see that their devil friends were fighting Graz'zt's avatar on the deck of the ship. Graz'zt was teleporting all over the place and slicing them up with his acid-dripping sword, Wave of Sorrow.

Also on the chaos ship were cambion rangers wielding special soul-swords. This was the Razor Legion, Graz'zt's elite soldiers, sort of like navy seals. They're from one of those weird no-man's-land issues of Dragon Magazine from the time between 3rd edition and 4th edition.

30 members of the Razor Legion flew at the group. Bidam, Theran and Selinza were on the back of the cat-dragon. Bidam started slicing into them with the sword of sharpness, and was dismayed to see that they were not mooks (each of them has 82 hit points).

The Iron Maiden: The heroes were relieved to see their friends, the ferroliths, swoop into the room and hack into the legion. They were led by the Iron Maiden, their ruler (I swear that's her name in the 4e Demonomicon book).

This cleared the path for the group to get to Graz'zt before he killed their friends Drokkarn (pit fiend) and Feurina (warder devil/Bidam's "sister").

Battle With Graz'zt: Bidam dropped onto the deck and hacked into Grazzt

Graz'zt has a legendary action that allows him to control your movement. He used it to force Theran off of the anzu. Theran fell to the ground below, severely denting the floor grate. Beneath the floor grate is an ooze river.

This room was also crumbling because the chaos ship had been firing off force blasts like crazy. This crumbling caused a stone to fall from the ceiling right at Theran! He rolled out of the way. The rock punched through the grate and plunged into the ooze river.

Selinza flew the giant cat down and Theran climbed on the anzu. He saw that the chaos ship had portholes in the form of translucent blue blisters. He peered inside, looking for some kind of control room.

He and his apprentice jumped through a blister and found a room with an arcane-locked door. They dispelled it and blew it open with a thunder-related spell. Inside was a closet-like space containing two big demonic hearts. This ship is alive!

He smartly scanned for traps. There's two in here! One stuns you, the other entangles you in vines. Selinza and Theran stepped back and launched off spells, damaging the hearts and causing the ship to shudder.

A big section of the place collapsed, blocking off Pazuzu, Umbralinda and the ferroliths from the group.

Juiblex: Up on the deck, Bidam was taking a lot of damage from Wave of Sorrow. A side wall of the huge room they were in burst open and a huge, black ooze with glowing orange eyes came at the ship like a tidal wave. It was Juiblex, demon lord of ooze! He was none too happy that Graz'zt was destroying his tunnels, and he was also aghast to see devils in here, too.

Juiblex slowly enveloped the chaos ship, angrily chastising Graz'zt. Drokkarn grabbed Bidam and Feurina and flew them to safety.

Theran and Selinza destroyed the hearts and saw Juiblex slowly covering the ship. They were about to get trapped inside the chaos ship and would probably be engulfed by the demon lord! The anzu flew close to the blister/porthole.

Selinza refused to get on it. It was very chaotic and Theran didn't notice. He jumped through the blister, his hands slipped on the oily hide of the anzu and he fell to the floor grate again. The grate almost gave way, but it didn't break. on the anzu.

The chaos ship sealed up. It was completely enveloped inside Juiblex.

Theran realized Selinza was in there and frantically looked for some way to get her out.

When they destroyed the hearts, they caused a decaying effect - the chaos ship would crumble apart in 2d6 rounds without even factoring Juiblex into the equation.

The group watching in horror as Juiblex compressed, getting smaller and smaller, finally ejecting refuse and detritus

Graz'zt's avatar had been destroyed. Juiblex slithered off to assess the damage to his realm.

The Fate of the Apprentice: I had another big thing planned, but I gave them a moment to see if they'd search the wreckage for Selinza. They did! Dodging falling boulders, the group tore through the refuse. Drokkarn and Feurina were hurt very badly, so they stayed in a spot where boulders weren't falling.

They unearthed a sheer black dome. Selinza has Leomund's tiny hut! She had just enough time to cast it before the ship came apart. I thought she was going to die until I looked at her spell list! As soon as I saw it, I thought of Paultin on Dice, Camera, Action and was quite delighted.

The group helped her up and regrouped with Drokkarn and Feurina. Someone came out of the shadows. Iggwilv!

Iggwilv

Iggwilv Triumphant: She looked at Drokkarn, who looked down at his feet. The group has been given a number of clues that Drokkarn was going to betray them and side with Iggwilv. For decades, Drokkarn was a sentient pit fiend-skin cloak resting on Iggwilv's shoulders. While in cloak form, he fell in love with her. Iggwilv was now using that to get him on her side.

I had this whole thing written out. The group groaned as I cleared my throat. The heroes were injured really badly! They couldn't possibly defeat Iggwilv in this state!

I read Iggwilv's dialogue. She gloated as she pointed out that Drokkarn was going to give Graz'zt what he wanted (an alliance with the devils) on the condition that he free Iggwilv from her imprisonment.

Drokkarn told the group that they shouldn't have trusted him. He's a devil! Deceit is what they do!

The heroes were extremely dismayed. They tried to talk sense into him. I wanted to give them space to see what they did here. I was wondering if they would attack him. They pretty much were letting this play out, unsure of what the truth was.

Drokkarn said, "I made a choice between the one I yearn for and the ones who brought me back to life and fought at my side against Socothbenoth..."

The group started getting mad now. I was getting heckled!

"...The choice was easy." He turned and tore into Iggwilv with his claws. "I am lawful! I stand by those who honor me!"

Iggwilv reeled, shocked at this turn of events. The group got a surprise round and proceeded to beat the crap out of Iggwilv. Bidam cut her head right off! She was a simulacrum, so the head hit the floor grate and became a melting ball of ice.

Recuperating: Pazuzu and the others finally got into this room. The place was coming apart! I asked them where they want to go, as there was one more thing planned.

The heroes went to Pazuzu's floating palace. Umbralinda whispered to them that she really needed those soul larvae. "You see how he is, right?" The group agreed. Pazuzu was pretty annoying.

There were two guest rooms here. I wondered how they'd split them up. Bidam, Drokkarn and Feurina slept in one room. Feurina is basically Bidam's sister, they've actually slept in the same bed before.

Theran and Selinza were in the other room. Theran has rejected Selinza before, saying something about sullying the master/apprentice relationship. Selinza almost died today! She heroically fought beside them, despite being quite a few levels lower! Would he reject her now?!

Yes. Yes he would. They slept in the same bed. Her knee touched his knee. Theran had no reaction. Her tail started getting animated.. and he rolled over, going to sleep.

Jessie and I were stymied. I think Jessie set up the living arrangement, trying to force this thing. Nope! Theran is a mysterious dude.

They woke up, fully refreshed. They got a sending from Bazuuma. Apparently, there was a problem. They went to her realm, Burningwater, which was evacuated. The inhabitants were all safe in the Positive Material Plane.

The Demon Lord Assassin: Something was in the center of the main island in the abyssal layer of Burningwater. It was a sphere of annihilation. It was growing!

Last night, I read through an old Chris Perkins adventure called Bzallin's Blacksphere. I had always wanted to run it, but it's pretty high level and it never quite fit into my campaigns.

I'm working on my "Emirikol' Guide to Demons" DM Guild product, so I read through this adventure (there's a new demon lord in it). Bzallin's Blacksphere is awesome! The premise: There's a sphere of annihilation slowly growing in the middle of a city. What do you do? That's pretty awesome, right?

The group took a look at it. Theran has a robe of eyes. He can see invisible creatures. Bazuuma has 20 magic eyes! She can also see invisible creatures. Both of them spotted invisible creatures creeping up on them. These foul beings slipped into this layer and set this trap while Bazuuma's demons fled to the Plane of Positive Energy.

Who are these dastardly villains? I've mentioned before that Iggwilv has 12 demon lords under her control (she knows their truenames). Avatars of TWO of them are here:

• Nocticula: Demon Queen of Assassins
• J'zzlshraak: A beetle demon lord, a general of the Blood War. The Chris Perkins demon lord!

J'zzlshraak also brought along the powerful wizard Bzallin and his 12 mighty apprentices. They're all from Bzallin's Blacksphere and they're really well-detailed.

Bzallin had set up the sphere. Nocticula kills demon lords - that's her whole deal. Iggwilv thinks that destroying this layer will convince Graz'zt to free her from his palace. 

Graz'zt once tried to take over this layer, but found that because it is infused with positive energy, it is utterly toxic to him. He has no use at all for Burningwater, therefore destroying it might please him.

So next time, we'll deal with that! I've been waiting to use Nocticula for a long time, can't wait to put her into play!

Dungeons & Dragons - Tomb of Annihilation Clues and Hints

First off, I see that you can pre-order the Tomb of Annihilation dice set. I don't know why, but I really like them. I guess it's the tin.

Today I'm going to roll up my sleeves and dig up clues as to what's actually in the Tomb of Annihilation. We know the basics, but we don't know a lot about the actual tomb itself.

There are two things out there that bear scrutiny. In Dragon Plus, they printed four pages of handwritten grung notes by Adam Lee, one of the authors of the adventure. Also, Chris Perkins tweeted out a massive list of things that may be included in the adventure. Let's do the grung first.

The Grung

The new issue of Dragon Plus has 4 pages of notes about the Tomb of Annihilation. They are full of sketches and pretty concrete ideas from an author named Adam Lee. I decided to check them out and see what we could learn. There's a lot there!

The grung are frog people. Most of these notes have to do with the place that the grung live in. Apparently, the new season of Force Grey takes place in this grung village.

It's been said elsewhere that this location was designed so that people could pull this out of the book and use it in their own campaign with no problem. First, let's go over grung basics.

Grungs are on page 156 of Volo's Guide to Monsters.

They live in a caste system, separated by the colors of their skin. They each have their own hatching pool. The castes:

• Green: Warriors, hunters and laborers.
• Blue: Artisans with domestic roles.
• Purple: Supervisors and commanders.
• Red: Scholars and magic-users. Their spells include cure wounds, barkskin and plant growth.
• Orange: Elite warriors. They can emit sonics that stun all those within 15 feet.
• Gold: Leaders.

In rare instances, a grung who does great deeds is allowed to move up in the ranks by taking herbal tonic supplemented by ritual magic. Other factoids:

• Their skin secretes venom.
• They take slaves.
• They must immerse themselves in water for 1 hour per day. 
• On the Perkins list below, they are referred to as "flower eaters."

OK! So what' in the notes?

Dangerous: Guides will want you not to go here unless you are seeking grung venom.

The Story: The Grung now live in a zombie wasteland. Their favorite dish, humanoids, is now scarce and it is very dangerous to go hunting. Their tactics currently revolve around lurking in treetops, waiting for prey. Their poison doesn't work on the zombies, and they're somewhat stymied by the entire situation. That seems like a way for the group to become allies with them.

The Grung Leader: Queen Groak is their leader. The grung live in a matriarchal society.

• She has quote: "Come, let us worship Nang Nang (a grung god)
• She is basically a female version of Immortan Joe from Mad Max.
• She does deals with "Jessamine", trading poisons for favors and gold.

Types of Grung: There are two types of grung mentioned. These might just be expanded ideas on existing types of grung:

• Poison Arrow Frogs: These grung have poisonous skin. Their highly-toxic grung skin is worth a lot of gold.
• Grung Shapers: They can reshape trees into unique designs.

How They Deal with Adventurers: If you look tough, they won't attack. They'll do one of the following:

• Welcome you to the village and at some point, try to poison you in a sly way.
• Hide!
• Take a hostage.
• Cut a deal.

"The grung are evil, but not stupid."

The Ancient Grove: The grung live in an area that has gigantic, weird trees.

Dungrunglung: This is the grung village. It has a massive tubtub tree in the center and is protected by a maze made from giant thorny vines. It has 15-foot deep pit traps full of zombies!

Pools: There's a sketch of a possible layout of Dungrunglung. Near the trees and the yoda huts are pools of poisonous liquid where eggs hatch tadpoles.

• Some of these pools are actually up in the trees, in bowls of fungus growing outward from the bark like balconies.
• The Grung Eggs: They might have special properties, maybe granting poison resistance or dulling pain.

There's some sort of frog-shaped temple. Inside the body is pool and it looks like if you're in the head you can see out of the eyes.

Tubtub Trees: There are short and squat "tubtub" trees, wide trees that look like they have bridges connecting them.

• Infested: There are dangerous "tubtub beetle larva". There is a quote: "When you see tubtub trees, don't touch the vines."
• Weird Wood: Tubtub wood is spongy and waterlogged, which is good for grung who need their skin to be moist and damp.

Falling: If you're traveling in the tree tops and you fall, there are a few ways to save yourself:

• Grab a vine.
• Fall in a giant plant (seems like a lot of cool things could happen there).
• Land in the canopy of a shorter tree.

Dangers of the Environment: There is a fantastic list of dangerous things in the Chult environment. Here's some of my favorites:

• Poison Dart Flower: If you sniff this flower, if shoots an "instant paralytic" at you.
• Dancing Monkey Fruit: If you eat it, you dance like a monkey.
• Tumbilli Leaves: When you chew tumbilli leaves, you see through the eyes of the monkey. You can't be surprised, you can track by scent, and "you act like a monkey person."

Chult Cuisine: The bats of Chult are delicious. "Bat with rice can feed a hearty adventurer."

The Tomb of Annihilation List

Apparently, they started working on this adventure two years ago. Chris Perkins recently posted a bunch of images of a wipe board full of notes presumably from a planning or brainstorming session.
One main thing I learned is the Volo's Guide to Monsters has a heck of a lot of monsters that are featured in this adventure.

There's a really good thread on ENWorld speculating on future adventures. They mentioned that Spelljammer was discussed on Dragon Talk, so I'll check that out ASAP. 

There is a free 2-page pdf from D&D 4e right here that gives some information on Chult.

I went over the Perkins list and googled this stuff. I don't know much about the Forgotten Realms, but this is what I dug up:

Mezro, the Lost City (ruins): It was destroyed in the 4e Spellplague and was a holy city. The pdf above has a few paragraphs on Mezro, which I think is a city important to one of the villains of this adventure. Mezro is a "vine-shrouded cavity in the earth", a pit that contains all that remains of the once-great holy city. There are zombies with blue triangles tattooed on their heads, liches and ghouls.

Omu, the Forbidden City (ruins): It has a flooded garden in which a froghemoth dwells.

Pterafolk Roost: Pterafolk are pterodactyl people. Their home is some kind of Elemental Evil beacon. In 2nd edition, pterafolk had three forms: a lizard man with no tail, a lizard man with webbed wings, and a miniature pteranodon with a 15-foot wingspan. They are vicious and self-centered, they live in huts up in trees and interestingly, they eat goblins. That might come up in this adventure, since there are tribes of mask-wearing goblins all over the place.

Goblins ("Batiri"):  "Howdah-town, Goblin 'town' and markers." The batiri are a collection of goblin tribes in Chult ruled by a single queen. They wear dinosaur skins (!). Every clan worships its own deity, each of which has a dinosaur avatar.

Yuan-ti: There's a lot of yuan-ti stuff in Volo's. Mind whisperers serve Sseth, and they focus on using their powers to convert new followers. Nightmare speakers make pacts with Dendar the Night Serpent. They send Dendar the fears and nightmares of their victims.

We know that a prominent villain of this story is a yuan-ti named Ras Nsi. Ras is an immortal, a Chosen of Ubtao. Ras leads an army and he often takes the form of a weak-willed noble.

Ubtao is the god of Chult, also known as the Father of the Dinosaur. Ubtao is apparently a primordial (a god-like elemental entity).

Girallons (bodyguards): These are four-armed white apes. Girallons are in Volo's page 152. Check this out. Girallons were "...created through magic to serve as bodyguards for some lost empire." Yuan-ti enslave them, turning them into border sentinels for their border kingdoms. Further down on this Perkins list is "girallon temple guardians", so we have a good idea what we're getting in this department.

Albino Dwarves: They're crazy. In the Chris Lindsay game at the Stream of Annihilation, the group needed to get dust from the corpse of an albino dwarf. There is a mention here about wild dwarves who make pilgrimages to an emerald crater in Chult, which is home to an emerald dragon named Esmerandanna, the Resplendent Queen. She guides their carvings.

Firenewt: Firenewts live in the peaks of flame, a range of volcanic mountains in the center of Chult. It is said that this will be the point of entry when Dendar the Night Serpent enters Toril at the end of the world. This is interesting, because Dendar is referenced at the end of Storm King, where a bunch of yuan-ti throw sacrifices to Dendar in a pit. Later on in this Perkins list is a "lava plain w/ firenewts."

Firenewts are in Volo's on page 142. It says that they worship Imix, one of the Elemental lords from Princes of the Apocalypse.

Vegepygmies: They're on page 196 of Volo's. Nothing too Chult-y, though at the end it mentions that nobody is sure where russet mold comes from. There are a few listed possibilities, including: A forbidding mountain range that has a strange metal dungeon, a reference to the space ship in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Su-monster: Primates with psychic powers. Don't see many connections.

Zhent Flying Snake Catcher: Flying snakes are in the MM on page 322. "A flying snake is a brightly colored, winged serpent found in remote jungles." The Zhentarim use them to deliver messages. I find the idea that the Zhentarim have people who chase these things around, catch and train them extremely amusing.

Dinosaur Detector Sticks: These are apparently dinosaur bones painted gold. Merchants sell them as "dinosaur detectors," but apparently it's a scam.

Dracolich: There's a note: "cult of the dragon explanation." The cult of the dragon were the bad guys in the first D&D storyline, Tyranny of Dragons. That cult wanted to bring Tiamat to the world.

Originally, the cult of the dragon was founded by a mage named Sammaster, who wanted to create dracoliches. There are still a few cultists loyal to the dracolich concept, so maybe this is where that sect ended up.

Sammaster believed that there will be an apocalypse, and from then on the dead dragons will rule the world. So... Dendar show up, ends the world and eats the sun. Dracoliches, also known as "night dragons" in Dragon #110, take over.

I'm trying to figure out if there are any named Forgotten Realms dracoliches that live in Chult. There's a huge list. It's possible that these cultists raised one of the dragons presumably slain in Tyranny, like the white dragon in the castle or the green dragon by the waterfall.

It could be Aurgloroasa, a dracolich who took over a cult cell.

Red Dragon Lair: On this page it says that red dragons are drawn to the Peaks of Flame, which makes sense. I bet it's on this list.

Crashed Halruaan Airship: Magic flying ships. No idea who crashed it. Maybe Artus Cimber?

Dinosaur Graveyard/Cultural Burial Ground: Can't find anything on a dinosaur graveyard, but it's an awesome idea. I'd imagine that this is where the zombie-barfing undead t. rexes are.

Monkey Swarms: I hope this is statted out. They should steal from you.

Ring of Winter "Event": I don't know what the event is. In Storm King's Thunder, frost giants are hunting for Artus Cimber, who has an extremely powerful artifact called the ring of winter. There's a whole novel about it. On the Perkins list is a "frost giant gang," which I presume means that the giants have followed Artus to Chult.

Abandoned Shield Guardian w/Amulet: On page 271 of the MM, it says that each shield guardian has a magic amulet linked to it. The guardian's sole focus is to protect the amulet's wearer. It looks like the group can get their hands on one. Or maybe some villain snatches it before they can get to it.

OK! That's it! I think we learned a little something here today, yes indeed-y.

Dragon Plus Issue 14

This is a really good issue, like the last one. It seems like they're finding their groove. There are some good Tomb of Annihilation notes in here!

Editorial: Bart Carrol says that the fiction in the previous issue was very well-received. 60% of the readers said they wanted more, and another 30% were fine with it.

Starting in issue 15, Adam Lee will be writing an ongoing story about the jungles of Chult.

I'm fine with the fiction as long as it isn't too long. I will like it if it adds to the lore and the Tomb of Annihilation story. It would be great if it has ideas I can use in my game.

He gives a nice list of the weirdest things characters have found in D&D games. Chris Perkins found a dead clone of one of the characters in the party.

Cover: We talk with the cover artist who makes gif art. He does some really cool stuff. Very unique!
He's Nicholas Little.

D&D in the World: There's an article on playing D&D in different countries. In South Africa, rent is really high, so game stores can't afford to have space. I didn't know that Japan has severe housing problems.

Story: This story is all about events tied to the Tomb of Annihilation.

There's a guy named Alfin Biscop who is a "living man molting into undeath" due to the raise dead curse. He has poison that "came from the tail of Geryon." How the heck did he get that? This poison has no antidote. Pretty cool!

Then we get a ridiculously awesome NPC near the end. A person named Rokh Manti is sailing through the Positive Material Plane..! Rock has a "golemic craft." Rokh's patron is Kwalish, maker of the apparatus of Kwalish. He repels some xag-yas with a blast of negative energy. Rokh is apparently a brain inside a construct, very awesome.

Rokh is investigating the trail of energy that is affecting raise dead. The energy meant for Toril (the world of the Forgotten Realms) is now being redirected to the jungle of Chult.

Tomb of Annihilation Preview

We learn a lot of new factoids about the tomb. New to me, anyway. Here's some of the basics of the adventure and the highlights:

• The Soulmonger is a necromantic device that is trapping the souls of the dead and using their power for a mysterious purpose.
• The Soulmonger is buried under a forgotten city called Omu in the jungles of Chult.
• It is guarded by a yuan-ti named Ra Nsi. The group can get special power from nine trickster gods, but their help will come with a price.
• The group will go through a dungeon made by "the archlich Acererak."
• There's one way to come back from the dead courtesy of a green hag named Nanny Pu'pu. She can use a "unpleasant" ritual to help slain party members continue on.  
• Papazotl: A trickster god whose bones are in a stone sarcophagus placed in an ancient chariot.
• The frost giants are still chasing Artus Cimber and the ring of winter... apparently all the way to Chult.

Acererak wears a green devil mask amulet around his neck. I think that the talisman of the spheres in the DMG looks just like that. I'd imagine Acererak has some special sphere of annihilation at his disposal. Maybe a giant one, or 5 small ones or something.

Real life factoids:

• They placed this adventure in Chult because fans want a break from the Sword Coast.
• This is a "deathtrap" campaign. Mike Mearls wanted this to be deadlier than the others.
• Chris Perkins wanted to use dead gods.
• Pendleton Ward was behind the use of "nine trickster gods of alignment with their associative powers and drawbacks."
• Meatgrinder Mode: You need a 15 to succeed on a death save instead of 10.

Garycon: There's a big article on Garycon and the Tomb of Horrors. It looks like they'll be rolling out some competitive D&D tournament events next year.

We get a big thing on the Tomb of Horrors riddle, and a new riddle by Maze Arcana's Ruty Rutenberg.

Then at the end is a riddle that involves the tomb of annihilation. I'm terrible at riddles. The worst! Since I spotted this right away, I don't consider it a spoiler: the first letter of each line spells out "Soulmonger."

There's an article on fantasy grounds and how stuff like that can make your life easier.

There's an interview with a DMs Guild creator named Jussi R. Foltmar Svendsen, who created The Bestiary, a book of animal and beast stats. He seems like an awesome guy. He runs a weekly game for kids.

List of Lich Phylacteries: We get a list of lich phylacteries (things in which liches keep their souls). I was going to pick out the 3 I thought ere the best, but this list is ridiculously great. There's too many good ones to list! I'll just grab some of my favorites:

• An acorn, which grew into a tree, which grew into a forest. To destroy the lich, every oak tree in the forest must be destroyed.
• A single coin in a dragon's hoard.
• "Another lich, whose phylactery is another lich. These twins forged their lichdom status together..."
• Inside a fountain in a desert town. Destroying the fountain "sentences an entire town to a slow, thirsting death."
• "A beautifully crafted elven prosthetic leg, buried within an elven heroine's tomb."

This is legit one of the best "lists" I've ever read. You should definitely consult this if you need a lich for you campaign.

Minis: An article on painting Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures, a line of unpainted minis. I haven't heard much about there.

Dragonfire: Article on the Dragonfire cooperative deckbuilding game.
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/board-card-games/dragonfire

Rat Queens Adventure: Article about Kurtis Wiebe, who does the Rat Queens comic. He made an adventure called The Hangover, where the heroes black out while carousing and wake up in the forest to a very interesting scenario. That's a really fun idea!

I just took a look at it. It looks like you're meant to actually play as the Rat Queens in it.

Old Issue of Dragon: They look at Dragon Magazine #26, reprinting an article about liches. There's a comment about an article of DMing advice in that issue that doesn't hold up well. Apparently it's very adversarial. I would have liked to see someone pick it apart and discuss why and how the mindset of the DM evolved.

Free Maps: We get maps for the unless Citadel and, interestingly, ship maps from the 3rd edition Stormwrack book. The ships can be used in Storm King.

Unearthed Arcana: Subclasses: (druid) Circle of the Shepherd, (fighter) Cavalier, and (warlock) Celestial. There's a couple devil-related things:

• Kiss of Mephistopheles: When you hit with eldritch blast, you can cast FIREBALL as a bonus action. Egad.
• Tomb of Levistus: When you take damage, you can entomb yourself in ice, gaining 10 temporary hit point per level which absorb the damage of the attack... really awesome.

Very good issue! It is definitely worth checking out.

Planescape - Blood War XVI. The Prince of Beasts

Planning for this one was not hard. I am more interested in the goofy stuff than the actual adventuring, which is a problem. If I can't get excited about Baphomet's maze, how can the players?

I had the group go through the Lyktion, which is the weird name for Baphomet's palace. I decided that the inside of the Lyktion was a maze, one in which Baphomet would hunt the group in. The old adventure Throne of Bloodstone has a whole section his mazes, so I took those and used them. They're fun, but I didn't develop them enough.

It was a good session.  I shouldn't have broken up the maze into two sessions. The maze I made last week went really well and I was really happy with it.

During this adventure, I had the group go a few rounds with Baphomet, whose stats are in Out of the Abyss. It was pretty cool, it felt like a demon lord should.

The heroes were going through Baphomet's maze, looking for a way to shut down the portal that connected Baphomet's realms to Thanatos.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Elf Wizard 

Right before going in, I reminded them that they have 3 NPCs with them:

• Bovina the cow lady
• Eravamont Glask (Sean Connery)
• Eo Kaplan (gnoll Michael Jackson). I declared when Eo died last session, he rose up as a Maze Demon, a 4e demon type created when... someone dies in Baphomet's maze! Fits pretty well, right? He has a power called "phantom assailants", which I modified so that he can summon shadowy figures to do this dance right here.

Plastic Surgery: Later I did a thing where Eo talked to Dr Stein, the guy who makes golems, into giving Eo a nose reduction and skin grafts to make his skin lighter. He's also looking for a hyperbaric chamber so that he can breathe pure air when he sleeps.

Eo has one other power. When he grabs his crotch and yells "OHHHH" all glass in a 30 foot radius shatters.

Maze #1: This was a traditional maze with stone walls infused with lightning. There were pit traps full of kalakas, a 4e demon type that spits acid. Bidam fell in a pit trap and got mauled. The group was barely able to pull him out.

Later, Baphomet turned the corner, stomped his hooves and charged. He came right at Bidam and rolled a natural 20. Bidam took something like 60 points of damage in one shot! Baphomet kept running and disappeared into the maze.

My idea for this was to have Baphomet show up, do one round of stuff, and then go away. 

Maze #2: The is a field of flat octagons floating in outer space. Not actual outer space - you can breathe normal and there's gravity. The walls were invisible, but Theran's robe of eyes lets him see invisible.

Bovina is linked to Haagenti, the mother of minotaurs, and she now has an innate maze-sense. She led the group through. About halfway through, Baphomet appeared above them. He was standing on a floating octagon. He cast reverse gravity on the group. Only Bidam made his save. Bidam grabbed Bovina's ankle and stopped her from falling up.

The spell sends you up in the air 100 feet maximum, so Eo, Eravamont and Theran were all hovering high above the maze. Baphomet flew up and hacked into Theran with three attacks at +17 to hit. Theran went down. Baphomet took off to maze #3.

Theran's silent imp sidekick, Barbagg, fed him some of the group's healing berries and he was revived. Theran cast fly, and safely got the NPCs to the ground.

Maze #3 - The Hexagon Maze: This one has teleporting rooms. I handled it in a very abstract way, where basically the group had to make three checks to get through the maze. A failure meant that they teleported into a room that Baphomet was in. They failed their first check and appeared before the demon lord. He cast Mirage Arcana, making them think they'd appeared on a crumbling tiny island in a sea of molten lava.

Theran immediately realized it was an illusion and the group snapped out of it. Baphomet was gone.

Maze #4 - The Pentagon Maze: This maze is full of 10-sided rooms with walls of darkness. In each room, only one of the 10 walls can be walked through. The rest of them do damage and destroy inanimate objects.

Bidam had a good solution - he chucked money at the walls. When a coin went through a wall and hit the ground, he knew where to go next. The group ran into Baphomet here and ran from him.

The Tower of Science: They'd made it through the four mazes, and found themselves in the Tower of Science, a place where Baphomet makes different types of demons, does experiments, etc.

They met a friendly succubus/scientist wearing slacks and a D&D lab coat. Her name was Felryss Prober. She was having a problem with demon breeding. The demon embryos were growing at a slow rate.

Bidam runs a demon breeding farm and knows the solution to her problem. Would he share it with the scientist? Bidam cut a deal with her. If she showed Bidam where the room that controlled the portal was, Bidam would fix her problem. The scientist agreed.

The solution involved an in-joke that might make no sense to you. I like to joke around/fake brag that I know a lot about the female anatomy, and then I purposely call a body part the wrong name. Usually it involves the "unerus" (rather than the uterus).

In this encounter, I was able to make the unerus a thing! In order to maximize demon breeding, you have to apply pressure to the unerus. That's now official in my campaign. Demons have a unerus. I assume you know by now that my campaign is stupid.

New Minotaurs: The group got a look at some new minotaur types. They're from the 4e monster manual 3. They're half-minotaurs, half-something else:

• Pale Bloodfiend: Half-vampire
• Cinderhoof Trampler: Half nightmare!
• Ironskin Warrior: Half-gorgon! I love this one.
• Shardhorn Hunter:Half-unicorn!??

The Control Gems: The group was brought to a room that had a panel of magic gems. Touching certain gems brought up images in a massive, demonic mirror.

With the gems, the group could look at two types of thing:

• Spies: They could look at Baphomet's spies throughout the planes.
• Portals: They could see the location of every portal in the Endless Maze, and where it went to.

They saw that if they shattered the correct gem, the portal to Thanatos would be destroyed.

The group went through and looked at the spies. They learned that Baphomet has a spy in the Velvet Realm in Graz'zt' Palace (where Graz'zt keeps some of the most beautiful people in the multiverse). Baphomet also had a harpy spy in the court of Pazuzu, demon lord of the 1st layer. Pazuzu is on good term with the group, presently.

Those were the two most notable ones. I wanted to see what the players would do with them. They had no immediate immediate idea. Maybe it will come into play in a future adventure.

I also established that Baphomet had three spies in Nocticula's realm. Baphomet seemed to have a particular interest in her (she's the succubus demon lord of assassins and shadows).

Baphomet stomped into the room. The scientist vouched for them. The group made a deal with Baphomet, agreeing to help his breeding program and hooking him up in an alliance with Nocticula if he would let them shut them shut down the portal.

The group doesn't even know Nocticula, but I've been dying to work her in to this campaign.

The group destroyed the portal to Thanatos, and used another of the maze portals to go home.

Back in Sigil

The first thing they did was to finally get some magical protection on their buildings that they own. I had written up all of the spells they might want to use: arcane lock, glyph of warding, and guards and ward being the big ones.

Ultimately, the group used arcane lock spells. They got 4:

• One on the office that Bidam that lives in.
• One on Bidam's bedroom door. Bidam's bedroom has a portal to Burningwater (Bazuuma's abyssal realm) in it.
• One on the wizard lab where Theran lived.
• One on the door to the room that he kept the sphere of annihilation in.

Waffle Crew: With that done, I had my alternate universe version of the waffle crew (heroes of the Chris Perkins show "Dice, Camera, Action") pay the group a visit. The Evelyn character in my campaign is a paladin of the Raven Queen. Right now she's a living toy/real doll, which my group found hilarious.

Diath paid Theran to examine his sword. Diath got this sword on a recent episode where, if he puts a key in a keyhole on the hilt, it summons Shemeshka, an enemy of Bidam and Theran.

I did this mostly because I wanted to see if the players had any cool ideas on what the deal with the word is. I also did it just so the group could see real doll Evelyn, as I knew they would find it funny.

They couldn't figure out the deal with the sword. Bidam and Theran asked around town, trying to learn about Shemeshka. They were successful, learning that she secretly runs 5 different organizations, including the guild of the touts (city messengers) and another organization that is a front for thieves.

I'm using Shemeshka as a side-foe in this campaign. She's a fairly prominent part of Planescape, so I want to use her so that the group gets the full Planescape experience.

Counterspell: I had Theran's apprentice, Selinza the cat lady, talk to him about Iggwilv's spells. She pointed out that there's two ways to get around counterspell:

1. Have two casters cast spells at her in the same round. She can only only counterspell once per round.
2. Theran can learn counterspell himself. You can actually counterspell a counterspell.

I just stopped and looked it up to make sure that's true. It's in here.

Someone on twitter last week mentioned the "Crotch of Vecna" to me and I knew that I had to work that into this game ASAP. The group learned that Kas the Betrayer has it, and that he's currently a general in Lamashtu's demon army.

This involves a long story involving old campaigns. The heroes of one of my 4e campaigns stole a chaos ship from Orcus and stole the Sword of Kas, so Kas and Lamashtu are working together to take those two things back.

We did some stuff you probably don't want to hear about involving tighty whities and a gnome... and another thing with a githzerai guru/sensei trying to teach Bidam how to take command of the power of his demon balls.

Then the group went to Theran's floating castle in Graz'zt's abyssal realm. They saw something in the sky heading their way. It was one of Graz'zt's chaos ships, getting ready to open fire! On deck was Rule-of-Three, an enemy of the group and the son of Graz'zt.

That's where we stopped. Graz'zt wanted the group to help him invade a layer, but they refused his request numerous times. He's decided to ruin them. That should play out next session.

Dungeons & Dragons – A Guide to Baphomet, Demon Lord of Minotaurs

I can't help but notice that Xanathar's Guide to Everything is extremely popular. Tons of people are pre-ordering it! From what I can see, I think that book is going to be a big deal.

Today we’re going to put together a resource on Baphomet. There’s ideas spread through many different old books, and I’ve done my best to pull them all out and put them in one place. If you ever use Baphomet in your campaign, this should give you a bunch of concepts to work with.

If you want just one source, I think that Dragon Magazine 341 has the most information in it.

AD&D 1st Edition – Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth

Baphomet has an ogre’s body, a bull’s head and he is covered in coarse black hair. What we learn:

• The mutual hatred between Baphomet and Yeenoghu is legendary.
• Minotaurs are his worshipers and servants.
• He can communicate telepathically with animals.
• He wields a bardiche that destroys armor, shields and weapons.
• Once per day he can bellow, causing all within 300 feet to save or flee in panic.

Monster Manual 2

• He’s 12 feet tall.
• He has “limited telepathic communication with animals.” 
• He can breathe a gout of unholy water 6 times per day. It does 16-64 points of damage. So... that’s... 16d4. No way am I ever rolling that many d4’s. They’re so hard to grab.

Throne of Bloodstone

Pentagon Maze

Baphomet gets a whole stat block and everything.

Baphomet has been captured by Orcus! He’s being kept in the dungeons. “This is the result of a rare (and no doubt temporary!) alliance between Orcus and Yeenoghu.” While Baphomet is imprisoned, Yeenoghu is looting Baphomet’s realm.

Baphomet must stay until he slays a certain number of creatures that intrude. When the group meets him, he needs to slay just one human and then he’s free. He’ll immediately teleport to his home.

They detail a bunch of mazes.

• Maze 1: The walls do lightning damage if you touch them. There’s a succubus in here with a wand of magic missiles.
• Maze 2: The Octagon Maze: There is a field of octagons floating in “outer space.” Awesome! They float freely.
• Maze 3: The Hexagon Maze: You have to enter certain rooms that teleport you to certain areas.
• Maze 4: The Pentagon Maze: The walls are made of impenetrable darkness. Some walls can be walked through, some can’t. Worse, certain walls do fire/lightning damage when touched (no saving throw). “Any object touched to these walls is destroyed.”

At the end, a huge iron golem greets the visitors and welcomes them to the castle of Orcus.

Special Minotaurs: As they wander the maze, there’s a chance the group will fight minotaurs with special powers! That’s cool. There’s a list. Lightning breath weapon, Flame breath weapon, high level cleric or magic user spells, all sorts of stuff.

AD&D 2nd Edition – Monster Mythology

In 2nd edition they say that Baphomet is a lesser god, in addition to being a demon lord.

It gives a possible origin of the minotaurs: a curse condemned a number of wicked humans, which drew Baphomet’s attention.

He can’t send avatars to the Material Plane. They have to be gated in by evil wizards.

Baphomet can grant minotaurs the power to cast maze or wall of stone. When they do this, there’s a 1% chance that they are plane shifted to Baphomet’s realm.

D&D 3rd Edition – Dragon Magazine #341

This article is huge. We learn a ton of stuff:

• He is the embodiment of all that is strong and virile, tempered with the keen mind and intellect of a scholar.
• He rules the 600th layer of the Abyss, an endless maze. 
• He can breathe negative energy on you.
• He generally doesn’t pay much attention to his followers on the Material Plane. He sends aspects of himself to do that.
• Baphomet is obsessed with war against Yeenoghu, personally leading armies of minotaurs, bulezau and goristro. They mostly do battle at outposts, not in their abyssal realms.
• They don’t usually invade the others layer, they go for other outposts.

Allies:

• Pale Night: Ancient, mysterious demon lord who lives here.
• Dwiergus the Chryalis Prince: He makes demons.
• He wants to be an ally of Malcanthet, the Queen of the Succubi, as they both hate Yeenoghu.
• Ardat, Demon Queen of Harpies: Baphomet betrayed her and her Soul Sirens.

Enemies: Yeenoghu, Graz’zt and Orcus

Thralls get powers:

• Breath of Baphomet: acid cold or fire.
• Immune to maze spells
• They grow bull horns
• Cast maze 3x per day
• Increase strength, con or dex to +4!!

Minions of Baphomet: We get a look at some demons who serve Baphomet.

Ankshar

Bulezau: Thin demons with writhing flesh, bulezau had ram heads with pale watery eyes and “froth-caked lips”.

Ankshar: This thing is a combination of a bull, a man, a bear and a reptile. If it bites you, you get a disease called “warpflesh” which deforms your body. It also has a “gaze of madness”, which... you know, it looks at you and you go nuts.

Baphomet’s Realm - The Endless Maze: We learn tons of stuff:

• 600th layer of the Abyss
• At the center is the Lyktion, Baphomet’s Palace.
• The further from the Lyktion you get, the more ruined the maze is. As Baphomet’s power grows, these areas become pristine.
• The sky above looks like gloomy clouds, but in truth it’s a stone ceiling.
• There are tribes of fiendish minotaurs who lay claim to areas of the maze.
• There are portals to many different Abyssal layers in the maze.
• The Lost: Desperate gnolls and humans being hunted by Baphomet.
• The Fields of Brass: An arena where adventurers fight monsters.
• The Lyktion: Hundreds of quasits clean it at all times. It is surrounded by a maze-like moat.
• The Tower of Science: This place is made of brass and iron. It has 16 floors, each devoted to a “science” Baphomet is interested in, like taxidermy, vivisection, breeding experiments, and death.
• The Maze of the Misbegotten: An unmapped underlabyrinth home to the “cancerous monstrosities that even Baphomet, Prince of Beasts, would rather see locked away.”

Pale Night's Bone Castle: Pale Night is another demon lord who lives in the Endless Maze. She’s mysterious, and is the mother of many other demon lords.

Her castle looks like a tower made of skeletal hands sitting in a circular plain of bones. Inside are galleries of the flickering shadows of her victims.

Here’s a little nugget for you: Pale Night often passes through a gate to Androlynne, where she spends a great deal of time toying with a generation of trapped eladrin children.

Fiendish Codex I

The Endless Maze: Connects to the Puzzling Hedge of Shendilavri (that sounds really cool) and the Valley of the Crypt Things on Thanatos.

When Baphomet was conquering this realm, he found Pale Night’s castle and she “somehow managed to suppress his rage enough to propose a pact that has lasted to the current day.”

4e Manual of the Planes

Baphomet is statted out in this book. Little bits of info:

• His worshipers include mercenaries, pirates (!), and savage tribes of barbarians.
• Graz’zt once imprisoned him.
• Howling Blades: Religious minotaur zealots that worship Baphomet and engage in ritualistic and profane activities that encourage chaos and savagery.  They are led by the Temple of Ire, whose followers conducts raids on patrol of local authorities.
• The Endless Maze connects to the Valley of Crypt in Thanatos. Wild goristros wander the maze.

D&D 4th Edition – Dragon #369

They did a demonomicon article in 3e, then for some reason they did another one in 4e. That’s weird, because there are so many demon lords that haven’t been fleshed out. Factoids:

• Baphomet’s Titles: The Prince of Beasts, the Trampler, the Minotaur Lord, and the Horned King.
• Baphomet coats his fur with “blod fat culled from his victims to accentuate his build.” So.. Baphomet is juicing.
• He wears an iron crown. Sometimes he impales the head of his victims on his crown.  He wields an axe called Heartcleaver and he is enemies with Melora, a sea god.

Origin of his Beef with Yeenoghu: Baphomet was a primordial who led armies against Kord, Erathis, Melora and Pelor. He fought alongside Yeenoghu. Yeenoghu fled the battle and hung Baphomet out to dry. Baphomet chased after him and ha been chasing him ever since.

Enemies: Yeenoghu, Graz’zt and Orcus.

We get stats for the aspect of Baphomet. He gets bonuses against bloodied opponents (opponents missed half or more of their hit points).

Exarchs of Baphomet: He has some cool flunkies:

• Asterion: A minotaur thief who loots the dead in the Endless maze. He has shifting tattoos all over his body. The tattoos map the Endless Maze. He wields two axes called Neckfinder and Headstealer.
• The Misbegotten: A bloated black worm “covered in quivering pustules that give it its distinctive smell.” Baphomet created this worm, and it was so foul that he sent it to the deep tunnels under his palace to destroy the other abominations he creates. It wants to kill Baphomet.

The Endless Maze: Some updated info:

• The maze has no roof in this edition. If you fly, you attract flying demons.
• The Bone Castle: Home to Pale Night, the Mother of Demons. She is a “shapely and frightening woman whose gossamer strands of white hair conceal her face." Anybody who can work the word “gossamer” into D&D text is pretty great IMO.
• The Fields of Brass: Now they’re in an egg-like chamber. There are stands and there is a throne of bronze and bone for Baphomet to sit in.
• The Horrid Spire: Baphomet’s retreat, a crooked finger of brass. It’s a new name for the Tower of Science. I wonder why they changed it? Maybe they didn’t want to use the word “science” in D&D?

Baphomet’s Servants: Carnage demons, balors, abyssal dragons, and glabrezu. Many mortal cults that Baphomet helps to “embrace the inner beast.”

Oostarix, Eater of Men: A minotaur who clawed his way to power in a minotaur fortress called Patoorn. He wants to be Baphomet’s main sidekick. His body is covered in tattoos and scars. He is a despicable villain.

The Knights of the Horned King: Virina Tabois leads a society of learned people who oppose civilization. They undermine law and dismantle progress. She is a priestess of Erathis by day, but in truth she hates Erathis.

Baphomet’s Fiends: We get some new demons that serve Baphomet:

Coflizu

 

• Coflizu: A swirling cloud of crimson droplets. I love the art for this one. When demon corpses collect, these creatures form out of the demonic energy.
• Kalaka: Each of these demons look different. Baphomet takes mortals and reshapes them. Their form depends on his mood at the time.
• Perditazu (maze demon): These form from those who die in the Endless Maze. They collect in packs, forming squads to hunt people in the maze. There is literally no description of what they look like, which is a bummer because I think they're cool.
• They have a power called “phantom assailant” which I think is funny-sounding. It forces a target to attack an ally. I like the idea that it actually summons phantom assailants.

4e Monster Manual 3

This book has some really cool minotaur variants, all of which are part of the Blood League, warriors that steal the power of other creatures by consuming their still-beating hearts. They sometimes work with mind flayers (!).

• Pale Bloodfiend: A minotaur who consumed the heart of a vampire. It can drink your blood to heal itself.
• Cinderhoof Trampler: This minotaur smells of brimstone. It ate the heart of a nightmare! It has black skin and its hooves ignite with hellfire.
• Ironskin Warrior: A minotaur that consumed the heart of a gorgon! How cool is that? A half-gorgon minotaur, sort of.
• Shardhorn Hunter: No! Guess what they ate? A unicorn heart! These things are assassins that can teleport. They wield a dagger made from a unicorn’s horn.

D&D 5th Edition - Monster Manual

In the minotaur entry, it says that minotaurs are descendants of humanoids transformed by cult rituals. The cults worship Baphomet. Baphomet turns them into minotaurs.

These people who join the cults are looking for power, or they want to be free from authority. They can breed, giving “rise to an independent race of Baphomet’s savage children.”

5th Edition – Out of the Abyss

They changed the way he looks. I like it, the others were pretty forgettable. All sorts of information:

• Cultists slowly transform into minotaurs, gaining bloodshot eyes, thicker hair, and small horns start to grow.
• Baphomet is 20 feet tall and he has 6 iron horns.
• The moat surrounding the Lyktion is a three-dimensional maze.
• Lair Actions: He’s got a lot of cool lair actions. He can seal doors, reverse gravity, and create massive mirages.
• Madness: 5e demon lords have madness powers. If you look at them and fail your save, you roll on the madness chart. Baphomet’s madnesses involve anger, savagery and a lack of control.
• Baphomet’s Goal in Out of the Abyss: In this adventure, the demon lords are stuck in the underdark (the massive tunnels deep underground, inhabited by drow and other weird creatures). Baphomet can be found in an underground labyrinth.  He’s looking for the maze engine, which is a modron item that sets up a really fun encounter.

There you go! Minotaurs are pretty cool, I think they're a bit underused. You can definitely make a good adventure out of this stuff.