The Demons of Z'toth

The Demons of Z’toth is an infamous and feared spell that summons a lesser demon to slay a victim.

Description

The ability of the sorcerer-priests of the evil cult of Tholendhu to summon demons to slay their enemies is whispered of, and then only during daylight. The spell summons a grotesque ape-like demon that then goes forth to attack and kill the unfortunate victim.

The Demons of Z’toth is one of the spells contained in the foul Scrolls of Tholendhu. It is an extremely risky spell, summoning a demon, binding it to their will, and sending it forth to do their bidding. Not much is known about about the full history of the spell, but it is known that many attempts to cast it have resulted in disaster for those attempting it.

To cast the spell, the caster must first have access to the dreaded Scrolls of Tholendhu. This foul tome is located in the hidden Temple of Tholendhu, in the City-State of Jurek. The priests of the Temple guard these Scrolls fiercely, and violently. The Scrolls include the instructions for not only summoning one of the demons of Z’toth, but binding them to the caster’s will.

The spell also requires something of an intimate nature of the victim’s person—blood, hair or fingernails. Clothing is not sufficient… it must be part of the victim.

Once begun, casting of the spell takes hours to complete. At the culminating part of the ritual, the caster must give some of his own blood and life-force to the demon, both to complete the spell and to bind the demon to his will. The cost to cast the spell does not end there—the caster is corrupted by the dark, evil energies of the magic.

After completion, the caster sends the demon forth to attack his victim, almost certainly killing him.

Stats

Setting: Sands of Sakhrat.
Magnitude: Second.
Path: Necromancy.
Cost: 6 AP.
Difficulty: Special.
Range: Special.
Duration: Special.
Damage: Per Lesser Demon.
Grimoire: Scrolls of Tholendhu.

Casting Requirements & Process

The casting requirements for casting the Demons of Z’toth include:

• Special Item. The ancient Scrolls of Tholendhu tome contains the specific arcane symbols and instructions needed to summon the demon—and bind it to the caster. The priests of the Temple of Tholendhu will violently protect these scrolls. (10 AP).
• Intimate Materials. The spell requires a part of the body of the intended victim (hair, blood, fingernails, etc.) (9 AP).
• Casting Time. The casting of the spell will take 2d6 hours of meditation, chanting, etc. to correctly cast. (8 AP).
• Blood. At the culmination of the spell, the sorcerer personally suffers an additional 1d6+1 of lifeblood damage. This spilling of his blood binds the demon and the caster together. (7 AP).
• Corruption. After casting the spell, the caster gains a new Flaw: Lesser Corruption. (6 AP).

The caster must make 2 task rolls: one to summon the demon, and another to bind the demon. The summoning task roll is Tough (-2), and the binding roll is Demanding (-4). If the caster fails either of these rolls, the Lesser Demon will appear and attack him, and anyone around him.

If the sorcerer casts the spell successfully, the Lesser Demon then disappears and goes forth to immediately attack the victim. The victim can only survive by defeating the demon—it will not rest until its task is completed and the victim is dead.

Variations

There are no known variations of this spell.

Design Notes

I love this spell. I got the idea of combining the normal Death Spell from The Fantasy Trip and AD&D with that of summoning a demon from the Conan story The Phoenix on the Sword. The concept of a death spell being more than just “Zap! You’re dead!” is pretty cool to me. Throw in that the “saving throw” can be seen as the chance the victim has to fight off the demon, and it makes for a cool spell.

To design the spell, I really went back and forth over whether the spell is a Second or Third Magnitude. The Mythic+ rules state that doing something like destroying a wall is a Second Magnitude. Third Magnitude spells are extremely rare, and can result in the deaths of entire cities. So—I settled on a Second Magnitude rating because it is target to just one individual, and not a wide area.

That decision drove me to having the spell summon a Lesser Demon. This clicked with me as well, because it gave the victim more of a “saving throw” chance to fight off the demon. OK, not much, but some!

After that, I selected the requirements that I thought were cool, and fit in with the themes of the spell. The spell book seemed logical, as well as a long casting time. One other requirement that I thought was needed was the requirement for a part of the body of the victim—obtaining that can be an adventure, too. Finally, the lifeblood cost is just something I love having, as well as the corruption. Those are just cool.

I also decided to combine the 2 task rolls for summoning and binding into the same spell. I didn’t see anything that says I can’t, even though the Mythic+ rulebook says there are two actual spells to do this. You can break this into 2 spells if you disagree.

The cost of the spell is calculated as follows:

• The baseline cost for a Second Magnitude spell is 10 AP, with a minimum of 6 AP.
• I was not really trying to target a specific cost, but I wanted to see the requirements drove me to.
• Special Item. This is the Scrolls of Tholendhu, and was a common sense starting point. This is the baseline requirement of 10 AP.
• Intimate Materials. The spell requires a part of the body of the intended victim (hair, blood, fingernails, etc.) This was another common sense requirement. Cost is -1 AP, now 9 AP.
• Casting Time. The casting time of the spell made sense to me as well, and helps reduce the cost. Cost is -1 AP, now 8 AP.
• Blood. I like to add a cost in blood for the caster just because it’s cool! Cost is -1 AP, now 7 AP.
• Corruption. The requirement to gain a new Flaw: Lesser Corruption, really makes sense to me, too. Final cost is -1 AP, now 6 AP.

And that’s it.

Marc