Demogorgon

Description

(from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes - 2018):

Prince of Demons, the Sibilant Beast, and Master of the Spiraling Depths, Demogorgon is the embodiment of chaos, confusion, and destruction, seeking to corrupt all that is good and undermine order in the multiverse, to see everything dragged howling into the infinite depths of the Abyss.

The demon lord is a meld of different forms. He has a saurian lower body and clawed, webbed feet; suckered tentacles sprout from the shoulders of his great apelike torso, which is surmounted by two hideous simian heads named Aameul and Hathradiah. Their gaze brings bewilderment and confusion to any who confront them.

Similarly, the spiraling Y sign of Demogorgon’s cult drives those who contemplate it for too long to delirium. As a result, all followers of the Prince of Demons break with reality sooner or later.

Demogorgon's Lair:

Demogorgon makes his lair in a palace called Abysm, found on a layer of the Abyss known as the Gaping Maw. Demogorgon’s lair is a place of confusion and duality; the portion of the palace that lies above water takes the form of two serpentine towers, each crowned by a skull-shaped minaret. There, Demogorgon’s heads contemplate the mysteries of the arcane while arguing about how best to obliterate their rivals. The bulk of this palace extends deep underwater, in chill and darkened caverns.

Lair Actions: On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Demogorgon can take one of the following lair actions; he can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row:

• Demogorgon creates an illusory duplicate of himself, which appears in his own space and lasts until initiative count 20 of the next round. On his turn, Demogorgon can move the illusory duplicate a distance equal to his walking speed (no action required). The first time a creature or object interacts physically with Demogorgon (for example, hitting him with an attack), there is a 50 percent chance that it is the illusory duplicate that is being affected, not Demogorgon himself, in which case the illusion disappears.

• Demogorgon casts the darkness spell four times at its lowest level, targeting different areas with the spell. Demogorgon doesn’t need to concentrate on the spells, which end on initiative count 20 of the next round.

Regional Effects: The region containing Demogorgon’s lair is warped by his magic, creating one or more of the following effects:

• The area within 6 miles of the lair becomes overpopulated with lizards, poisonous snakes, and other venomous beasts.

• Beasts within 1 mile of the lair become violent and crazed — even creatures that are normally docile.

• If a humanoid spends at least 1 hour within 1 mile of the lair, that creature must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or descend into a madness determined by the Madness of Demogorgon table. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw can’t be affected by this regional effect again for 24 hours.

If Demogorgon dies, these effects fade over the course of (1d100) days.

Madness of Demogorgon:

If a creature goes mad in Demogorgon’s lair or within line of sight of the demon lord, roll on the Madness of Demogorgon table to determine the nature of the madness, which is a character flaw that lasts until cured. See the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more on madness.

D100:     Flaw (lasts until cured):

01-20:    “Someone is plotting to kill me. I need to strike first to stop them!”

21-40:    “There is only one solution to my problems: kill them all!”

41-60:    “There is more than one mind inside my head.”

61-80:    “If you don’t agree with me, I’ll beat you into submission to get my way.”

81-00:    “I can’t allow anyone to touch anything that belongs to me. They might try to take it away from me!”

(from 3.5e Fiendish Codex I Supplement - 2006):

The demon towers a full 18 feet tall, his body at once sinuous like that of a snake and powerful like that of a great ape. Two baleful baboon heads leer from atop his lumbering shoulders, attached to which are two long, writhing tentacles. His lower torso is saurian, like some great reptile with an immense forked tail.

Savage and ruthless, Yeenoghu is the patron of all gnolls and commands the servitude of ghouls through the subjugation of the demonic King of the Ghouls.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals: Inside the Prince of Demons rages a secret war for control of himself. Demogorgon has two heads and therefore two minds, and each one seeks domination of the other. Aameul is the persona in control of Demogorgon’s left head, while Hethradiah controls the right. Each is unable to control the other, nor could one slay the other without also perishing. By most defi nitions, this internal confl ict would be described as insanity, but that would be applying inappropriate mortal standards to one whom such standards can never apply.

Demogorgon’s war with Orcus and Graz’zt has been epic in scope. Their armies have clashed throughout the Abyss since the dawn of the tanar’ri race. For a time, Orcus vanished (apparently slain), as did Graz’zt (who was imprisoned on the Material Plane by the archmage Iggwilv), yet never has the Abyss known complete peace from this eternal war.  

Demogorgon is served by all manner of demons, some of which (such as the retriever) were actually created by him. Many powerful and unique demons serve him as well, and he commands armies of evil lizardfolk, scheming yuan-ti, sadistic troglodytes, vampiric ixitxachitl, and countless shoals of Abyssal aquatic predators. His close alliance with the ancient demon lord Dagon has provided him with access to Abyssal secrets that the other demon lords could only guess about. The methods of creating the powerful undead warlords known as death knights represent the least of these secrets, yet they are horrific and potent nevertheless. 

Worshipers of Demogorgon are more likely to be scaly things that hide from the light than humans or members of other civilized races. Despite his statue in the Abyss, the vast majority of the Material Plane is blissfully ignorant of his existence, yet they know his works, if only indirectly. The troglodytes worship him as Ahmon-Ibor, the Sibilant Beast, and use his teachings to bring vile intelligence and fanaticism to the beasts of the wild. Yuan-ti know him as Siosivash and raise great temples to him in sunken caverns. The unknowable ixitxachitl are his chosen minions on the Material Plane, and even they dare not speak his name aloud. The rare human cults that venerate the Prince of Demons welcome piracy and cannibalism with open arms.  

While humanoid cults dedicated to Demogorgon might be rare, individual humanoid worshipers of the Prince of Demons are more likely menaces. These followers often control the societies they live in or have much influence over those who do. They keep their faith secret from society, and use their power to spread evil and misery in his unspoken name.  

Clerics of Demogorgon have access to the domains of Chaos, Corruption, Demonic, and Evil. His symbol is a forked tail.

Strategy and Tactics: Demogorgon is a powerful foe, yet he disdains direct confrontations. He would rather send his minions (of which he has many) into battle to settle his disputes. If Demogorgon must fi ght, he uses project image fi rst from a secure location protected by demonic minions and symbols of death. He uses his spell-like abilities (leading with dominate person and feeblemind), using two per round until he is confronted in combat.  

In melee, Demogorgon typically takes a full attack action, a move action, and a standard action to use a spell-like ability. He prefers to use his beguiling gaze and insanity gaze passively, rather than sacrifi cing opportunities to make physical attacks or use spell-like abilities. He saves his hypnosis gaze for when he fi ghts a single foe.

Dual Actions (Ex): Demogorgon, having two heads with distinct intelligences and personalities, can take two rounds’ worth of actions in any given round, as if he were two creatures. For instance, he could take two standard actions and two move actions, or he could take two full-round actions. 

Energy Drain (Su): Any living creature hit by Demogorgon’s tail slap gains 1d4 negative levels. For each negative level bestowed, Demogorgon heals 5 points of damage. If the amount of healing is more than the damage he has taken, he gains any excess as temporary hit points. If a negative level has not been removed before 24 hours have passed, the afflicted opponent must succeed on a DC 37 Fortitude save to remove it. Failure means that the opponent’s level (or Hit Dice) is reduced by 1. The save DC is Constitution-based. 

Gaze (Su): Each of Demogorgon’s heads has its own gaze attack. Any creature within 30 feet of the demon lord must make two successful DC 32 Will saving throws each round at the beginning of its turn, the first save against Demogorgon’s beguiling gaze and the second save against his insanity gaze. Creatures can avoid the need to make saving throws by averting their eyes or wearing a blindfold (MM 309). 

Demogorgon can actively target foes with his beguiling gaze and insanity gaze, in which case each gaze requires a standard action to activate. Thanks to his dual actions ability, Demogorgon can use both gazes in the same round. He must split these gaze attacks between two targets to gain their effects. Conversely, as a standard action, he can lock the gazes of both heads on a single target and use a special hypnosis gaze effect. Demogorgon cannot use his hypnosis gaze during the same round in which he uses his beguiling gaze, his insanity gaze, or both. 

Beguiling Gaze: The gaze attack of Aameul, Demogorgon’s left head, is the equivalent of a charm monster spell (DC 32) with a range of 30 feet. 

Insanity Gaze: The gaze attack of Hethradiah, Demogorgon’s right head, is the equivalent of an insanity spell (DC 32) with a range of 30 feet. 

Hypnosis Gaze: If Demogorgon locks the gazes of both heads upon a single target within 30 feet, that creature is affected as though by a hypnotism spell. Only a target with 15 Hit Dice or more is allowed a DC 32 Will saving throw to resist the effect. 

The save DCs for all three gaze attacks are Charisma-based. 

Rot (Su): Any living creature touched by Demogorgon’s tentacles must succeed on a DC 37 Fortitude save, or its flesh and bones begin to rot. The creature takes 1d6 points of Constitution damage immediately and 1 point of Constitution damage every hour thereafter until it dies or a remove disease spell is cast. The spell stops further damage, but lost Constitution points return only with natural healing and cannot be restored with magic. The save DC is Constitution-based. 

Summon Tanar’ri (Sp): Once per day, Demogorgon can automatically summon 1d8 vrocks, 1d6 hezrous, 1d4 glabrezu, 1d3 nalfeshnees, 1 marilith, or 1 balor. This ability is a equivalent of a 9th-level spell (CL 20th). 

Amphibious (Ex): Even though Demogorgon has the aquatic subtype, he can survive indefinitely on land.

(from 4th Edition Demonomicon - 2010):

The Prince of Demons:

Drawn by whispers promising power and dominion over the unfolding realms of creation. the first primordials entered the Abyss. The shattered realm they observed within the vortex was thoroughly corrupted, but these creatures were unconcerned with morality as they pressed on, beckoned by the whispering ofthe Abyss's evil heart. As they explored farther into the desolation. they came upon a great. blood-red ocean, and they knew they had reached that heart at last. Floating there in the shallows ofthe nascent Blood Sea. the shard of evil called out for one strong enough to step forward and claim it. 

The first to set forth was a petulant primordial of unbridled fury named Demogorgon. As Demogorgon waded into the turbulent surf, however, another being rose up from the darkened depths beneath the sea. The interloper Dagon challenged Demogorgon for the right to claim the shard, the mighty primordials clashing in a battle that turned the sea to a bloody storm. But as they fought, a third being crawled up from a hitherto unseen pit to claim the shard as his own. Obox-ob, a loathsome obyrith of putrescence and filth, had become the first Prince of Demons.