Elder Evils

The gods blessed Zankar, but their champion failed. The
gods themselves came to the earth to punish the kingdom
and put Zargon to rest. When they appeared, the elder evil
mocked them. Zargon slew some of them and drove off the
rest. Survivors of the barbarian invasion witnessed Zargon’s
might and feared the world would end, so they fled into the
caves beneath their city. (DC 45)
Zargon seemed unstoppable, but he had one foe remaining.
Eons earlier, Zargon had ruled the Nine Hells of Baator
as father of the ancient baatorians, a long-extinct race
that preceded the baatezu. His kingdom was a terrifying
place, filled with running slime and rampant evil. When
Asmodeus and his allies seized the Nine Hells, they purged
the plane of the baatorians, enslaving them and destroying
their lords. Asmodeus butchered most himself, but Zargon
was resilient to the worst attacks. Asmodeus discovered he
could kill the flesh of the beast, but not the horn, so he tore
it from Zargon’s head and flung the ha eful spur out of
the hells and to the Material Plane, where it pierced deep
into the earth. (DC 35)
Driven from the Nine Hells, Zargon’s flesh re-formed
around his horn, and he turned his attention to the Material
Plane. It took centuries, but he crawled up from the depths
of the earth and set upon the soft mortals dwelling in the
kingdom above. To spare themselves extinction, the people
of the kingdom raised up Zargon as their god and fed him
endless sacrifices to appease his need to kill. (DC 50)
Although the death of the gods did not distress Asmodeus
in the least, the freedom of this elder evil did. Asmodeus
stepped in to stop Zargon for the last time. Since the lord of
Nessus was not a god, he was not vulnerable to the worst of
Zargon’s powers. Still, he knew he could not slay the beast.
Instead, he imprisoned the elder evil in solid stone, so only
the horn was visible. He then turned to Zargon’s Cynidicean
worshipers, burying them alive in the tunnels. (DC 55)
GOALS
After Zargon’s horn fell from the Nine Hells of Baator,
Zargon’s flesh grew again, re-forming his body around the
horn. Once restored, Zargon was enraged. He craved another
chance to fight Asmodeus and the other usurpers, but Zargon
knew without his armies he stood little chance of reclaiming
his realm. (Knowledge [history] or [the planes] DC 40)
Zargon climbed the shaft created by his horn’s descent,
pulling himself through the earth until he emerged centuries
later to find himself beneath a massive human city. Zargon
saw these creatures as soft, weak, and useless. He devoured
them in awful numbers, but soon they worshiped him as a
god, something he felt Asmodeus would never attain. Since
his congregation was so willing to feed his hunger, he played
along, killing and eating anything it gave him. (DC 45)
As a side effect of the cultists’ worship and the deaths of
countless innocents, Zargon’s influence contaminated the
land, and strange storms swept across the earth, poisoning it
with brown slime. The slime bred new creatures that Zargon
sought to corral and use as foot soldiers to reclaim his place in
the Nine Hells. But as his power grew, Zargon realized this
world could be his. He had no reason to return to his native
plane when he could claim this one. (DC 50)
ZARGON
IN THE CAMPAIGN
The particulars of the Cynidicean Kingdom, such as placement
and cultural specifics, are loose to make it easier for you
to insert Zargon into the campaign. The ziggurat holding
Zargon should lie in the middle of a large desert, but any
wasteland can serve. Legends about the lost civilization are
hard to come by, suppressed by religious groups hiding the
fact that divine intercession failed and Asmodeus saved the
day. If necessary, you can substitute any powerful evil force
CHAPTER 10
ZARGON
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SIGN: EERIE WEATHER
The worship of Zargon causes unrest among the gods, which is
made manifest with strange weather.
Faint: Eerie weather occurs once every 2 weeks and affects
an area of 2d20 square miles in a place of your choosing. The
effects last for 1d4+1 hours.
Moderate: Eerie weather occurs once a week and affects an
area of 2d% square miles. The effects last for 1d8+2 hours.
Strong: Eerie weather occurs once a day and affects an entire
continent or large surface of the planet. The effects last for
1d12+4 hours.
Overwhelming: Eerie weather occurs once an hour and affects
the entire world. The effects last for 1d3 hours (because
the duration can be longer than the frequency, the effects often
overlap).
Each time eerie weather occurs, consult the following table
and roll d% twice to determine the exact effect. See Weather,
DMG 93–95, for details.
d% Effect
01–20 Abnormal weather
01–30 Heat wave; temperature rises by 2d20 degrees
31–60 Cold snap; temperature falls by 2d20 degrees
61–90 Invert season (summer becomes winter)
91–100 Severe wind
21–40 Inclement weather
01–20 Fog
21–80 Rain/snow
81–100 Sleet/hail
41–50 Storm (duststorm, snowstorm, or thunderstorm)
51–70 Powerful storm
01–25 Windstorm
26–50 Blizzard
51–75 Hurricane (coastal only; reroll elsewhere)
76–100 Tornado (1d12 appear)
71–100 Rain of slime 1
1 Contaminates all exposed water sources as the black
dragon’s corrupt water ability (MM 71), and any exposed
creature must make a DC 30 Fortitude save or be
polluted by slime (see page 147).
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