Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

(Nancy Kaufman) #1
The size of the region begins
to grow, the effects of the

lethal environment expanding
from the original area.

The demon
s likewise begin to roam, and a small
force

capable
of establishing its own incursion might
travel

far.
If enough of these groups splinter off, the
incursion

could spread into a network
of similar sites, each open-


ing its own portal and
drawing in more demons.

Slaying all the demons in an infested
area ends their

direct threat, but the terrain remains twisted
and ac-


cursed, the portal dormant but still in
place. To repel the


incursion at this stage, the defenders
must not only slay

the demons but
also establish a permanent watch over

the portal, to
ensure that it remains unused. Ambitious

cultists, or even a random confluence
of planar energy,


could awaken the portal and start
the infection anew.


APOCALYPSE Now


If
the incursion remains unchecked or grows
strong


enough,
it enters its fourth and final phase
with the en-


trance of a demon lord.
As a portal continues to shunt


demons and abyssal energy into the world,
it begins to


attract the attention of the lords. Two or
more of them


might fight for control of it, or in the worst
case, several


might travel through the portal in rapid
succession.


The visitation of a demon lord to the
Material P lane

is a cataclysmic
event. The lord's presence overwhelms


the minds of other
beings to keep them from resisting,


and the lord's power enables it to
command the other


demons already present in the world.
They form a hor-


rid army that sets about stripping
the world of life and


clearing
the path for the lord's dominance.


At this
point, a besieged world's only hope for
survival

is the
expulsion of the demon lord. The lord's defea
t

leaves the other demons
again leaderless, and they re-

act by warring against
each other, which makes them

susceptible to attacks
from the world's defenders. The

longer a demon lord remains in control of
all the other

fiends, the more the world around it becomes
irrevoca-

bly changed. When
a demonic incursion runs its course,

no vestige remains
of the world that existed before- in

effect, the realm
has become another layer of the Abyss.

CHAOS
INCARNATE

Although sages group demons into types
according

to their power, the
Abyss knows no such categories.

Demons are spawned
from the stuff of the Abyss in a

near-infinite variety
of shapes and abilities. The com-

mon forms that
are familiar to demonologists represent

broad trends, but individual demons
defy those tenden-

cies. For instance, a vrock might
crawl out of a n oil slick

in the Demonweb
Pits with three eyes and vestigial

wings.
A chasme might appear on the layer of Azzag
rat

possessing
the ability to belch forth clouds of flies.

If
a demon survives for centuries, it accumulat
es

changes
to its form due to interaction with
the energies

of the Abyss. These long-lived demons often
become

demon lords, beings of such power that
they can hold

sway over entire re
alms within the Abyss. A few demon

lords have come
to the attention of mortals and a re even

worshiped as gods in some places, but
the vast majority

of demon lords remain unknown to
scholars and sages.

CHAPTER 1 I T H E BLOOD
WAR

25
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