Orcus

Description

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

Orcus is the Demon Prince of Undeath, known as the Blood Lord. He takes some pleasure in the sufferings of the living, but far prefers the company and service of the undead. His desire is to see all life quenched and the multiverse transformed into a vast necropolis populated solely by undead creatures under his command.

Orcus rewards those who spread death in his name by granting them a small portion of his power. The least of these become ghouls and zombies who serve in his legions, while his favored servants are the cultists and necromancers who murder the living and then manipulate the dead, emulating their dread master.

Orcus is a bestial creature of corruption with a diseased, decaying look. He has the lower torso of a goat, and a humanoid upper body with a corpulent belly swollen with rot. Great bat wings sprout from his shoulders, and his head is like the skull of a goat, the flesh nearly rotted from it. In one hand, he wields the legendary Wand of Orcus, which is described in chapter 7, "Treasure” of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Orcus's Lair:

Orcus makes his lair in the fortress city of Naratyr, which is on Thanatos, the layer of the Abyss that he rules. Surrounded by a moat fed by the River Styx, Naratyr is an eerily quiet and cold city, its streets often empty for hours at a time. The central castle of bone has interior walls of flesh and carpets made of woven hair. The city contains wandering undead, many of which are engaged in continuous battles with one another.

Lair Actions: On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Orcus can take a lair action to cause one of the following effects; he can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:

• Orcus’s voice booms throughout the lair. His utterance causes one creature of his choice to be subjected to power word kill. Orcus needn’t see the creature, but he must be aware that the individual is in the lair.

• Orcus causes up to six corpses within the lair to rise as skeletons, zombies, or ghouls. These undead obey his telepathic commands, which can reach anywhere in the lair.

• Orcus causes skeletal arms to rise from an area on the ground in a 20-foot square that he can see. They last until the next initiative count 20. Each creature in that area when the arms appear must succeed on a DC 23 Strength saving throw or be restrained until the arms disappear or until Orcus releases their grasp (no action required).

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

• Dead beasts periodically animate as undead mockeries of their former selves. Skeletal and zombie versions of local wildlife are commonly seen in the area.

• The air becomes filled with the stench of rotting flesh, and buzzing flies grow thick within the region, even when there is no carrion to be found.

• 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 Orcus table. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw can’t be affected by this regional effect again for 24 hours.

If Orcus dies, these effects fade over the course of (1d10) days.

Madness of Orcus:

If a creature goes mad in Orcus’s lair or within line of sight of the demon lord, roll on the Madness of Orcus 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:    “I often become withdrawn and moody, dwelling on the insufferable state of life.”

21-40:    “I am compelled to make the weak suffer.”

41-60:    “I have no compunction against tampering with the dead in my search to better understand death.”

61-80:    “I want to achieve the everlasting existence of undeath.”

81-00:    “I am awash in the awareness of life’s futility.”

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

The massive, bloated demon stands 15 feet tall, his immense frame a hideous combination of muscle and bloated flesh. His head is that of a ram with a great maw filled with tusks, and his thick-furred legs end in cloven hooves. Leathery wings and a barb-tipped tail complete the picture of the archetypal demon.

Of the innumerable demon lords of the Abyss, dread and vile Orcus, Prince of the Undead, might be the one most often worshiped as a god.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals: After becoming complacent in his eternal war with Demogorgon and Graz’zt, Orcus was recently murdered and deposed. But then, Orcus rose from the dead—an undead demon—and took the name Tenebrous for a time, hiding in the shadows of the multiverse and waiting to take his revenge. Now he has reinstated himself to his former position and reclaimed his realm Thanatos, and once again fi nds himself in a struggle for dominance with many other demon lords.  

Orcus is no longer content to grow fat and decadent in his castle. He focuses his anger and hate on the absolute destruction of his enemies and the spread of woe and havoc among mortals. He covets Graz’zt and Demogorgon’s realms above all others, and commands a host of undead and demons that ravage entire layers of the Abyss at his whim.  

Against Graz’zt, Orcus’s tactics are fairly direct. He constantly sends wave after wave of his limitless undead armies against Graz’zt’s three Abyssal layers, continuing these battles eternally since Orcus can replace fallen undead soldiers as quickly as they are destroyed by Graz’zt’s defenders. This relentless assault is inexorably penetrating deeper and deeper into Graz’zt’s territory, but at nowhere near the pace that Orcus wishes.  

He realizes that Demogorgon is a more powerful foe, and as a result, Orcus’s actions against the Prince of Demons are more subtle. He sends small bands of nabassu, vampires, and liches into Gaping Maw and other places Demogorgon holds sway to undertake missions of precisely calibrated assassination and sabotage.  

Yet while Orcus himself might not be as powerful as Demogorgon, and his realm might be dwarfed by the size of Graz’zt’s holdings, Orcus’s cult on the Material Plane is in truth his greatest resource. In particular, orcs, half-orcs, ogres, and giants revere Orcus, as do a large number of corrupt and despicable humans. His temples are usually hidden, and his worshipers form secret societies that commit atrocities and wage wars in his name. He demands living sacrifi ce from his cultists, and blood and skulls are important parts of the imagery used in his worship. Intelligent undead rarely serve him willingly, although many vampires, liches, and other undead creatures are forced into his service by dark pacts or compelling magic.  

Clerics of Orcus have access to the domains of Chaos, Death, Demonic, and Evil. His symbol is his wand—a skulltopped black mace.

Strategy and Tactics: Orcus relies heavily on his wand in combat, much preferring to engage foes in melee. Attacks with his free claw, gore, and poison tail are almost afterthoughts. If faced with numerous powerful foes, Orcus fi ghts more carefully. He summons undead and tanar’ri to engage foes in melee while he provides support with fi nger of death, wail of the banshee, and his other spell-like abilities.

Poison (Ex): Sting—Injury, Fortitude DC 36, 1d6 Str/2d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based. 

Summon Tanar’ri (Sp): Once per day, Orcus can automatically summon 1d6 vrocks, 1d4 glabrezu, or 1 marilith. This ability functions as a 9th-level spell (CL 20th). 

Summon Undead (Sp): Once per day, Orcus can automatically summon 4d10 wights, 1d8 spectres, or 1d3 mohrgs. This ability functions as a 9th-level spell (CL 20th).

Wand of Orcus The weapon that Orcus wields functions as a +6 unholy anarchic heavy mace. If the wand touches any nonoutsider, or any outsider with less than 15 HD, the target must succeed on a DC 25 Fortitude save or be instantly slain. This is a necromantic death effect. The wand also confers a +5 deflection bonus to the Armor Class of its wielder.