The Abyss in Abholos 7

Graz'zt

The figure standing before the throne is darkly handsome, an ebon-skinned man nearly 9 feet tall. His slightly pointed ears, yellow fangs, and six-fingered hands mark him for the demon he is.

Graz'zt Lore

Characters with proficiency in religion or Arcana can learn more about Graz’zt. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs

DC	Result
15	Graz’zt, the Dark Prince, is the patron of corrupt rulers and decadence. Sorcerers and wizards often revere him as well, for he is said to be the keeper of innumerable secrets.
20	Graz’zt fights with an acid-dripping bastard sword that he wields with great and deadly skill.
25	Graz’zt’s sneer and voice can inspire fear in even the bravest soldier.
30	Graz’zt is at war with Demogorgon and Orcus, and he has been known to grant audiences with those who can provide him with aid or intelligence.

Strategy and Tactics

Graz’zt does not hesitate to use his spell-like abilities in combat, and he has a particular fondness for dominate monster and crown of madness. Near the start of any combat, he attempts to use dominate person against an obvious fighter or rogue, hoping to turn the target against his or her allies. In melee combat, Graz’zt fights with a +5 acidic burst bastard sword (which functions with an extra 2d6 acid damage dealt in attacks, along with the statblock of the legendary weapon Blackrazor). He uses his fear ability against spellcasters and archers to prevent them from aiding those he fights.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals

Graz’zt’s war with the other demon lords of the Abyss is legendary. He controls the largest kingdom—his realm covers three adjacent layers of the Abyss. Unfortunately, control of a larger realm doesn’t exactly translate into an advantage to a demon lord.

Although a master tactician and accomplished swordfighter, Graz’zt’s true strengths lie in seduction and guile. It is not by force alone, he realizes, that one can win control, but by controlling those who think they are in control. He enjoys the notion that he is the most intelligent, cunning creature in the Abyss; certainly, there are few who can match him in this arena (with the possible exceptions of Malcanthet and Pazuzu).

Unlike many other Demon Princes, Graz’zt pays a great deal of attention (through spies, mostly) to what goes on in the Material Plane. He is fond of trading favours with mortals, giving aid or information now for services to be demanded later. His most infamous alliance with a mortal is his relationship with the witch-queen Iggwilv. Using lore stolen from the mad archmage Zagig, Iggwilv managed the audacious and shocking feats of conjuring Graz’zt and imprisoning him on the Material Plane. The two became unlikely lovers, and before long a child was born. But as time wore on, Graz’zt began to suspect Iggwilv had no intention of ever releasing him. He could see how his aid had elevated her power significantly, and the time finally came when he could use some of what she had taught him to increase his own power, if only he could escape.
Eventually, Iggwilv faltered in her control, and Graz’zt turned on her. An epic battle ensued, forcing Iggwilv to expend every spell, artifact, and ally she could, and although she managed to banish Graz’zt back to the Abyss, consigning him to a century of imprisonment, she was herself weakened to the point where she was forced to go into hiding. Eventually, Graz’zt had his revenge and managed to lure her into the Abyss where he imprisoned her for a time and was finally able to regain his stolen power, and then some. Iggwilv eventually escaped back to the Material Plane, and today she and Graz’zt maintain a love-hate relationship, each seeking to use the other to gain power in their own domains.
Graz’zt’s cult is small except among certain monstrous races such as the lamias. Most of his priests, known as the Chosen, are female—a testament to his insatiable libido, although the Dark Prince has been known to take on male priests as well. His temples are dark, secluded places often guarded by lamias, harpies, or Succubi with class levels. Graz’zt enjoys contrasts, oppositions, and mismatches others find jarring or disgusting. Despite his fantastic wealth and love of the grotesque, he lives fairly simply. Wily and cunning, he keeps his mind clear from distractions so he can focus on claiming more land and minions by defeating his enemies, one at a time.

Demon Lord Relationships

Graz’zt’s goal is nothing less than total conquest of the Abyss. He despises the fact that Demogorgon is known as the Prince of Demons—he covets that title more than anything else. His crusade to dominate the Abyss proceeds apace. His most recent triumph was the deposing of the Demon Prince of Madness, Adimarchus. With the aid of his son, Athux, Graz’zt was able to engineer Adimarchus’s imprisonment on Carceri. Unfortunately, Graz’zt was unable to conquer Adimarchus’s realm, Occipitus. The Dark Prince’s cold war of intrigue, sabotage, and slander against Malcanthet has also been consuming much of his time of late, and Abyssal rumour holds that an all-out war between their realms is drawing nigh.

Clerics of Graz’zt have access to the domains of Arcana, Knowledge, Trickery, War, and Blood domains. His symbol is a black, six-fingered hand.

Juiblex

A shuddering, glistening cone of jelly and slime striated with veins of black and green rears up from the pit. Baleful red eyes swim in the thing’s gelatinous body, and dripping pseudopods of tremulous ooze writhe with latent hunger in every direction at once.

Juiblex Lore

Characters with proficiencies in Knowledge (religion) or Knowledge (the planes) can learn more about Juiblex. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC	Result
15	Juiblex is the lord of oozes and shapeless things. He has few cultists and no real goals or schemes other than destruction and ruin.
20	Juiblex can crush and absorb those he sweeps up in his acidic pseudopods.
25	Juiblex’s amorphous body is difficult to damage. Weapons that aren’t cold iron and good-aligned can barely harm him, and bludgeoning attacks are useless altogether. Worse, the powerful acids in his body tend to consume or ruin anything that touches him
30	Juiblex can spew green slime at foes and summon both oozes and demons to aid him in battle.

Strategy and Tactics

Juiblex closes to melee reach as soon as possible, using teleport, fly, or plane shift if necessary to reach the closest target. He spreads his attacks among every victim in reach, attempting to constrict and then engulf them all. In the early rounds of combat, he augments his attacks with quickened hold monster spells. He generally uses his ability to create slime to attack creatures just out of reach or to create barriers to prevent other enemies from reaching him safely. If brought below 100 hit points, Juiblex summons oozes or tanar’ri to keep his enemies busy and then teleports away to recover.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals

Of all the demon lords of the Abyss, Juiblex is perhaps the simplest (and therefore easiest to understand) in his goals. Put simply, Juiblex has no goals other than to simply exist, destroying and killing and corroding anything he can get his tendrils around. He hates everything and revels only in destruction.

There is no organized cult of Juiblex, although a few demented souls do revere the Faceless Lord as a god. It’s doubtful that Juiblex knows of these few, and if he does, he certainly doesn’t encourage them or reward their loyalty. His primary minions are the countless slimes, oozes, and jellies that shudder in the depths of his realm. Of these, only one is intelligent enough to serve the Faceless Lord willingly—a unique demonic black pudding known as Darkness Given Hunger

Demon Lord Relationships

Juiblex shares the 222nd layer of the Abyss with Zuggtmoy, the Lady of Fungi. The two demons have a long history of conflict and war, with Juiblex’s constant attempts to surge upward into Zuggtmoy’s holdings a constant source of contention between the two. Other demons despise and loathe Juiblex, yet most see him as a faceless menace that poses a threat only to those foolish enough to stand in front of him, and they wisely choose to leave him alone.
Clerics of Juiblex have access to the domains of Arcana, Death, and Ooze. His symbol is that of a pseudopod dripping slime.

Kostchtchie

This bandy-legged, 100-foot-tall giant strides through the banks of blood-stained snow with a thunderous roar. He wields an immense maul crafted of cold iron, his malformed head jutting above his hunched shoulders and bearing a bestial mask of rage.

Kostchtchie Lore

Characters with proficiencies in religion or Arcana can learn more about Kostchtchie. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs

DC	Result
15	Kostchtchie is the fiendish patron of frost giants and looks like an enormous, deformed giant clad in hide armor.
20	As the lord of the frozen 23rd layer of Abyss, Kostchtchie is immune to cold damage but is vulnerable to fire damage
25	Kostchtchie is a formidable combatant, even more so when he calls upon the primal frenzy of the berserker’s rage. His weapon of choice is an enormous, blisteringly cold iron maul.
30	Blows from Kostchtchie’s attacks are so powerful that they can stun those struck when he lands a particularly solid hit.

Strategy and Tactics

Perhaps more than any of the other major demon lords, Kostchtchie revels in the frenzy of combat. He often forgets to use his spell-like abilities entirely, or uses them only on the opening round of combat. He might use his harm ability against a powerful warrior or blast a clustered group of spellcasters with an ice storm or unholy blight. When drawn into melee, he rages and pummels anything in reach with his +1 icy burst cold iron maul. He never retreats from a fight while raging. If reduced to fewer than 50 hit points at any other time, he’ll teleport to safety to plan his revenge. Given ample time to prepare for battle, the King of the Iron Wastes rallies his favourite mount—a great white wyrm named Svafnir — from the icy mountains of his domain and rides her toward his destiny.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals

Kostchtchie’s wrath and hate are legendary in the Abyss. This realm is utterly and completely under his command, yet Kostchtchie remains unsatisfied with its power. His giants conquer and claim a distant mountain in his name, yet from that mountain’s peak the Prince of Wrath can always see one more mountain farther out that remains unclaimed. Worse, he is constantly aware of the simple fact that there exists elsewhere in the multiverse legions of frost giants who do not revere him as their master.
The concept that these “lost children” exist enrages Kostchtchie like nothing else, and so he spends much of his time plotting incursions into regions on other planes (particularly Ysgard and the Material Plane). If he can avoid it, Kostchtchie prefers to convert new tribes of frost giants without slaughtering them. His favourite method is to appear to a new tribe, slay their current jarl, and then lead the tribe on a gruesome war against their enemies. If the tribe is slaughtered, Kostchtchie dismisses them as failures—not “true” giants. If they succeed, they are rewarded with entrance into the Iron Wastes, where the tribe can serve him eternally. Of course, these raids have done much in establishing his reputation as a war monger among those peoples he incites the giants to assault. Kostchtchie has a particular hatred of frost giant tribes who worship other deities and often launches assaults on these tribes simply to discourage such heretical acts. Most of Kostchtchie’s cultists are frost giants, although it’s not unheard-of for particularly brutal tribes of humanoid or ogre barbarians to venerate him as well. These cultists rank lower in Kostchtchie’s eyes simply because of their smaller stature, although he does begrudgingly admit that a tribe of fiercely loyal humanoid or ogre barbarians can have its uses.

Demon Lord Relationships

He has no allies among the other demon lords, but is allowed to rule his realm on the 23rd layer of the Abyss with little interference as a result of his ruinous temper. Clerics of Kostchtchie have access to the domains of Tempest and War. The Winter domain is detailed in Frostburn; if you do not use this book in your campaign, replace this domain with the War domain. Kostchtchie’s favoured weapon is the maul. His symbol is a hammer rimed in bloody ice.

Malcanthet

This statuesque beauty wears a sardonic smile on her ruby lips. Curved horns jut from her brow and hold back her long dark hair—and her eyes smoulder with dangerous red sensuality. Large leathery wings stretch from her back, the joints of which are laced with razorlike claws, and a sinuous tail ending in a thin curved spike completes the image of demonic beauty. She wears a revealing gown of diaphanous silk and razor-studded leather straps, and she idly toys with a glittering and sparkling scourge made of fi ne adamantine spiked chains

Malcanthet Lore

Characters with proficiencies in religion or Arcana can learn more about Malcanthet. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC	Result
15	Malcanthet is the queen of Succubi and the patron of hedonists and those who use their charms to control and ruin those around them.
20	Malcanthet’s beauty is so perversely intense that it can drain the life from good creatures that try to attack or touch her.
25	Malcanthet can control a creature’s will in a number of ways; she possesses many enchantment spell-like abilities, her sting drains wisdom and results in domination, and even her gaze can wipe away free will and make a person her eternal thrall.
30	Enchantment spells that fail to affect Malcanthet are reflected back on their original caster, possibly resulting in the caster’s enslavement to the Queen of Succubi.

Strategy and Tactics

Malcanthet is a formidable foe in combat, yet she finds no pleasure in participating in a fight. Rather, she prefers to summon allies to fight for her while she hangs back, observes the fight, and uses command, dominate monster, charm person, glibness, and suggestion to sow dissent among her enemies.

When directly confronted and forced to fight, Malcanthet responds with seething rage, focusing all her attacks on a single target. If possible, she flanks her target with an allied creature to gain her sneak attack damage. She usually fights with Combat Expertise at full effect, mixing up her attacks with disarm and trip attacks to keep her foes off balance and unarmed. Malcanthet uses battle master manoeuvres and superiority dice only if her foe seems particularly difficult to hit, limiting her to one attack with her scourge, but at her best attack bonus and with the possibility of dealing sneak attack damage.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals

Malcanthet dwells on an exquisitely beautiful plane of the Abyss known as Shendilavri (layer 570). To the casual observer, this realm might seem like a hedonistic paradise—in a way, this is exactly what it is. The problem for visitors is that it serves only as Malcanthet’s paradise, and the Queen of the Succubi often takes great pleasure in the torment and ruin of her guests.

Malcanthet is served in her palace by numerous incubi and Succubi, along with a cabal of 13 lilitu bards called the Radiant Sisters. These Lilitus do not exhibit their kind’s notorious intolerance for other Lilitus or Succubi, and their songs can be heard throughout Malcanthet’s palace at all times, haunting and erotic melodies that can have unwelcome effects on those whom Malcanthet has not invited into her realm. Lamias, harpies, and half-fiend nymphs serve her as well.

Demon Lord Relationships

Among the demon lords, Malcanthet’s greatest allegiances are with her sometime lovers Pazuzu (with whom she has sired numerous particularly deadly Succubi children) and Demogorgon (with whom she has sired things best left unmentioned). She has had trysts with most of the other demon lords, although these were idle affairs engineered by the Queen of the Succubi to gain some favour or prize. Many other minor demon lords such as Shami-Amourae and Lynkhab vie for the title of Queen of the Succubi, but none have been able to usurp Malcanthet from her throne as of yet.
She has long been in conflict with Yeenoghu, and her only contact with him now is when she sends armies to his realm to assault his kingdom (or vice versa). The exact source of their conflict is unclear, but it seems tied to the Maures, a powerful family of wizards who dwelt years ago in a massive castle on the Material Plane. Among the Maures, Malcanthet’s greatest servant was a woman named Darcy. Other factions in the Maure family served Yeenoghu, and when Darcy attempted a coup to gain control over the family’s holdings (with Malcanthet’s support), the resulting magical catastrophe ruined the entire family and left none (except perhaps Malcanthet herself) the victor. In any event, Malcanthet and Yeenoghu have been at war ever since.
Only her relationship with Graz’zt is worse. Malcanthet maintains that she spurned Graz’zt for being unworthy of her attentions eons ago when he tried to court her, and that his wounded pride created the legendary rift between the two. Graz’zt, of course, maintains the opposite. In any event, the conflict between these two is less one of open warfare and more one of constant scheming on how best to upset and ruin the other’s realms and plans. Malcanthet has many cults on the Material Plane—groups of courtesans, hedonists, and bored nobles seeking a dangerous thrill to add to their lives. Her clerics have access to the domains of Blood, Tempest, and Trickery. Her symbol is an iron thorn drawing a drop of blood from the lower edge of a pair of feminine lips

Obox-Ob

The huge demon’s body is an insane thicket of spidery limbs, scrabbling for purchase with razor-sharp talons arrayed around a scorpion-shaped body. Where a face should be writhe three immense tails, each tipped with a jagged stinger that seeps black venom. Where a tail should be is a thick neck surmounted by a horrific face, complete with a vertically aligned mouth and three pairs of leering red eyes that seem horrifically human in shape. From its murderous maw extends a glistening red tongue, itself tipped with a hollow spike shaped like a corkscrew.

Obox-Ob Lore

Characters with proficiencies in religion or Arcana can learn more about Obox-ob. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs

DC	Result
15	Obox-ob is an ancient demon from an era before the tanar’ri existed. He is associated with vermin and poison.
20	The mere presence of Obox-ob is enough to blast the minds of lesser creatures, fi lling their sleep with nightmares for the rest of their lives.
25	Obox-ob’s body creates a discordant drone of deafening, maddening sound.
30	Those who succumb to Obox-ob’s poison stingers are transformed into fiendish scorpions, and those subjected to his twisted tongue are consumed by the raw stuff of chaos.

Strategy and Tactics

Obox-ob’s response to attack is to lash out with his stingers, bite, and tongue. He uses his quickened giant vermin ability in the early rounds of combat to create Colossal monstrous scorpions. He then uses quickened telekinesis to bull rush enemies off cliffs or into solid objects. The Prince of Vermin greatly enjoys melee combat and generally resorts to non quickened spell-like abilities only against targets he can’t reach with these attacks.

Servants, Enemies, and Goals

Obox-ob once held the title Prince of Demons during the Age before Ages, when the Abyss was ruled by the obyriths. He had this title stolen from him by the Queen of Chaos, who killed him and granted his title to Miska the Wolf-Spider. Although Obox-ob was slain, his most powerful aspect survived and went into hiding on a deep layer of the Abyss called Zionyn (layer 663). For many eons, Obox-ob lurked here, a shadow without a true form. In time, he grew bold and emerged from hiding, only to find the Abyss had moved on in his absence. The tanar’ri now ruled, and Obox-ob had been forgotten.

Obox-ob is not content to rule Zionyn and constantly rages across the face of this layer, bringing destruction and ruin to the ekolids who dwell there and worship his fury. Obox-ob’s search for power extends to the Material Plane.

On some Material Plane worlds, his cult is quite powerful—he recently almost managed to draw an entire world into the Abyss to fuel his ascension, but failed at his task when heroes of that realm opposed him by engineering a devastating disruption of the flow of magic at a crucial moment during the ritual. Since this humiliating defeat, Obox-ob has quietly observed his remaining cults, waiting for one to achieve similar chances at success in the future. Until then, these cults maintain a low profile, often basing their activities in ruined cities lost in vast deserts, where they can be close to the scorpions so sacred to his faith.

Demon Lord Relationships

Reduced to the Prince of Vermin, Obox-ob wants nothing less than to murder Demogorgon, claim his title, and then cleanse the Abyss of the taint of tanar’ri and return it to obyrith rule. But before he launches this plan, he first seeks to reclaim the true power he held so long ago.

Clerics of Obox-ob have access to the domains of Arcana, Death, Grave, Knowledge, and War. His symbol is a scorpion dangling by its tail from a jawless human skull covered with twisted runes (the scorpion’s tail is threaded through the skull’s eye sockets)

Orcus

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.

Orcus Lore

Characters with proficiencies in religion or arcana can learn more about Orcus. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs

DC	Result
15	Orcus is the Demon Prince of the Undead. His worshipers either seek the secret of immortal undead existence or are already in his foul undead embrace.
20	The Prince of the Undead fights with the Wand of Orcus, a powerful and vile artifact whose mere touch can kill.
25	Orcus proceeded to climb through the demonic ranks over the next several thousand years, going from larva to mane, from mane to dretch, from dretch to rutterkin, from rutterkin to vrock, from vrock to glabrezu, from glabrezu to nalfeshnee, and eventually a balor. From there, he ascended to the rank of demon lord, becoming the Prince of the Undead and ruling the layer of Thanatos, the Belly of Death.
30	Although he is technically alive, Orcus’s return from death has gifted his body with the traits of the unliving

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 fights more carefully. He summons undead and tanar’ri to engage foes in melee while he provides support with finger of death, fireball, and his other spell-like abilities.

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 finds 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.

Demon Lord Relationships

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 sacrifice 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 Arcana, Blood, Death, Grave, War. His symbol is his wand—a skull-topped black mace.