Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

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Nox
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Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Nox »

I ADVISE YOU: IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY PLAYER GO AWAY, SPOILERS AHEAD.

Let me explain a little before we jump to my questions:
VIEW CONTENT:
One of my players asked me to be a Demon.
Yeah! you heard me Right. Not a possessed human. A Demon.
Other characters would not know about this.

About the character:
In life he was a Wizard. He was not an evil person, but he wasnt good either.
What happened? Simple: He died. Well actually every PC in my campaign died before the start of the campaign. They got resurrected by a cult (now, with this player's request i need to adjust some details though). Initially it should've been an undead-Necromantic cult, but now i cant stand with that choice, unless i revise it a little.
PC are former heroes, who got resurrected for a very specific task (most likely Azalin himself asked his minions to resurrect them, in order to use them to fullfill the GC and other plans).
Now They dont know what are the circumstances of their resurrection. They just know very little about their past: They know they were heroes, they died toghether, and died to help others, fighting evil. They woke up in a cave, under the cemetery of Marais d'Tarascon, Right during the events of NotWD.

What's up with this wizard?
During the resurrection the cult (Still need to be defined) implanted a demon inside this dead body. The soul of the former character had been absorbed by this demon, that is now in charge (former character is definitelly destroyed, only whish or miracle could bring his soul back, but he would still need to defeat the demon). Actually the character is the demon, he just has human form. The goal of the demon is to regain his lost power. Infact he is actually as strong(or weak) as a normal character (no special power or property) and he fears to be destroyed because his shell (the body of the character) is his only chance to survive. If the body get destroyed his "essence" will also be shuttered and destroyed (= he dies).
Of course this is not a random decision, Azalin himself decided to implant this demon (the reason for this choice is still to be decided, Hope you can help me in this).
Mechanically the character works just like a normal human wizard. Role wise he is a demon, who wants to stay as much unknown as he can. He has a very high intelligence, thus he is wise enough not to kill people randomly and do evil stuff revealing himself. His goal (at least, the goal the demon wants to achieve) is to regain enough power to reform his diabolic body and be free once again. Ofc Azalin is smarter and figured this out in advance. I suppose (Because i did not developed it that far yet) that Azalin would use the "thirst" of the demon to fullfill some kind of dirty work that a normal lawful good human would not have done (see below in the spoilered Questions).
There are a couple of things I did not mention yet. This player last character was a Lawful Good Paladin. He doesnt know what happened to him after our last campaign. He begged me not to make that character die. I'm a merciful man, so i secretly decided to respect his request (Honestly I did not wanted him dead anyway :lol:).
Said this, I guess that some of you already figured out where this is going.
During the resurrection the soul of his former character got bound to this corrupted body. Why? Dark powers (i didn't bother to find an explanation to this), or if you prefer Ezra intervened, or his soul was just trapped near the ritual...
He doesnt know yet. But he will figure that something is happening.
His former character's soul will secretly fight against this demon while we play. One day he will wake up and find a big painful bruise in his back. Another day he will wake up and find his fingernail broken. Another one find his skin partially burned, and so on. All those wounds will heal in a very short time but give the player some clue of what is going on. At the end i'll have the player choose between the demon and the paladin's soul in a final interior fight (Eventually rebuilding his character into a paladinm depending on his choices).

I hope you like this idea. Let me know!
Now to the real questions (Spoilers for the story related questions):
1_ How does demons and demonic possession works on ravenloft?
2_ Any books I should take a look at?
VIEW CONTENT:
3_ What do you think of a Demon PC?
4_ Do you have any advice on how should I make him feel he is a demon (Without letting other players know it)? What he sould do to regain power? what are the basic needs of those creatures?
5_ Any advice on the cult? I was thinking about Ebon Fold (Edit: Confirmed)
6_ Why could Azalin want to bound the demon to the body? A possibility that comes to mind is that the demon wants to recover his power, but he's just being tricked by Azalin because he's really just harvesting souls for something (Eg Doomsday device?) and the demon will be squeezed (and thus killed) of his power(the collected souls) by Azalin at the right time, just to empower his magical device? let me know what you think.
Edit: I just got this evil idea: If the player decides to stay with the demon instead of the paladin's soul, he will be consumed by Azalin. :diamabel:
Edit 2: I have just a problem with this plan: if the player decides to stay with the paladin, the demon SHOULD be destroyed in the fight. This would free all the souls he harvested. The only solution i came up with is that the demon cannot be completely destroyed from the body untill he gets consumed by - let's say - the doomsday device. If the player choose the paladin soul the demon will just lay in the background, much more like a normal possession, with occasional shifts of power between the demon and the paladin. When he will be consumed by the Doomsday device there will be the classic "he's dead!" scene, where the character is not really dead but just unconscious. A good plot twist (another evergreen classic actually) would be that the demon survived the absorption of the Doomsday device and come back some time later, for a final fight, or a though coexistence. :diamabel:
I'm really intrerested in your opinion so let me know what you think about this.
7_ Any Mechanics i should implement to "force" the player to do something demonic?
8_ How could i link the Demon and the Ebon Fold cult to harvest Life-force? take into account Death shards if you can.
8_ use this for anything about the demons and the story i didnt come up with (Story holes, plot twists, mechanics, anything really).

Final Edit:
VIEW CONTENT:
I just took a look at one of my previous post. Gonzoron suggested me many cults. The one that fit the most this plot is without any doubt the Ebon Fold. With the life spell I can justify the resurrection (I can always say that they developed a different version of that spell and used to resurrect them). They collect life force for the Requiem with Death shards (i see some link with my plan for the demon here). and they work for azalin of course. Perfect! Thanks Gonzoron once again!
Please remember to put answers about the story in spoiler 'cause my player could be around. :mrgreen:
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Hamiclar »

I would look at trans possession rules in the main rule book or the dungeon master Ravenloft book. I would go that route and depending on the players actions the character could be lost to the demon. Other option being the players working for a priest to cast the demon out or slay the player if their lost.


The background is great with transposseion its a gradual take over of the body that at first can be hidden but as the creature manifests its harder. If its a palidan he may lose his power for being demon, but the dark powers have a way of granting devine spells if the path is lost. Good luck on that a demon may stand out to darklords also and over time even other demons may sense the pc as their powers manifest the whistling field would attack just because not counting the others which may try to befriend and separate the character from the others so they can be corrupted. Rex wise he could be working on another plan besides the GC I was thinking in mine having him working on the project which eventually destroys Il Aluk decades later.
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Nox »

Hamiclar wrote:I would look at trans possession rules in the main rule book or the dungeon master Ravenloft book. I would go that route and depending on the players actions the character could be lost to the demon. Other option being the players working for a priest to cast the demon out or slay the player if their lost.


The background is great with transposseion its a gradual take over of the body that at first can be hidden but as the creature manifests its harder. If its a palidan he may lose his power for being demon, but the dark powers have a way of granting devine spells if the path is lost. Good luck on that a demon may stand out to darklords also and over time even other demons may sense the pc as their powers manifest the whistling field would attack just because not counting the others which may try to befriend and separate the character from the others so they can be corrupted. Rex wise he could be working on another plan besides the GC I was thinking in mine having him working on the project which eventually destroys Il Aluk decades later.
The character is a wizard, the former character was a paladin. It is quite intricate, I know. The demon took possession of the body already, keeping his arcane ability.
The soul of the paladin is fighting against the demon 'cause it got stuck in the same body.
The soul of the wizard is already lost.
I am gonna check transpossession soon to check it out.
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Hamiclar »

A wizard even better with the demons spell abilities could be unlocked as they level up possibly as feats if you have access the book of vile darknessl, it actually has feats and other goodies that could be released.
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Igor the Henchman »

The Van Richten's Guide to Fiends is the (2e) go-to Ravenloft book for information on demons in the Realm of Dread. Most important new mechanics to keep track of are reality wrinkles, phylacteries and demonic transpossession. There are also special rules for how fiends interact with darklords. Since this is a spoiler-free thread, I won't go into further details, but you can check it out.
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Nox »

Igor the Henchman wrote:The Van Richten's Guide to Fiends is the (2e) go-to Ravenloft book for information on demons in the Realm of Dread. Most important new mechanics to keep track of are reality wrinkles, phylacteries and demonic transpossession. There are also special rules for how fiends interact with darklords. Since this is a spoiler-free thread, I won't go into further details, but you can check it out.
It's not totally spoiler free tbh , but thanks for the tips!
I'll already have Van richten guide to fiend, i checked it yesterday :) .
Feel free to go deep into details, i asked my player not to read this specific topic.
As far as i know Darklords feel the presence of demons due to their reality wrinkles, and are always aware of their position. I'm not sure but if I remember correctly Darklords and demons usually are enemies and fight each others, even if I did not got the reason for this to be honest (i remember the example of Strahd and the demon in the book).
I cant find the trasposession, where it is mentioned? I only found transposition (the act of a demon switching slowly with a ravenloft humanoid inhabitant), is that what you talk about?
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Igor the Henchman »

Transposition is what I meant, sorry.
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Nox »

Igor the Henchman wrote:Transposition is what I meant, sorry.
:) dont worry, thanks for the tips anyway.
Anything i missed about the relation between darklords and demons?
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Zettaijin »

Nox wrote:
Igor the Henchman wrote:Transposition is what I meant, sorry.
:) dont worry, thanks for the tips anyway.
Anything i missed about the relation between darklords and demons?
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/for ... f=1&t=2227

This past thread may have some information for you regarding fiends and darklords.

The part about Malocchio is interesting...
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Re: Demons & Demonic Possessions on Ravenloft?

Post by Nox »

Zettaijin wrote:
Nox wrote:
Igor the Henchman wrote:Transposition is what I meant, sorry.
:) dont worry, thanks for the tips anyway.
Anything i missed about the relation between darklords and demons?
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/for ... f=1&t=2227

This past thread may have some information for you regarding fiends and darklords.

The part about Malocchio is interesting...
Thank you, interesting indeed. I suppose the dark lord can enter the reality wrinkles of fiends but they just lose their land powers.they retain their dark powers granted by power checks and their personal ability. This just made me wonder a thing. I will open a new post about this.
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