What does a demon lord's stronghold look like?

[Kazyan]

Jedwiyan players: press the Back button, please.

So one of my players called up Pazuzu to get a Wish in order to Ctrl-Z a screwup. Relations with the demon lord are a subplot now.

It may become relevant later to know where Pazuzu hangs out.

Assuming Pazuzu has a stronghold or home base of some kind, what would it be? There would likely be wide open spaces, for flight, and a dungeon for horrible acts. Other than that...he is stated to have no particular interest in controlling land, so the place might be small, but he has a free wish on every day that a mortal doesn't bug him. What does he do? Assume I've already outfitted Pazuzu with nonepic magic items that don't contradict his illustration--I houserule 200k gp to be the limit on the value of a magic item created/improved by Wish.

[Flickerdart]

I imagine that Pazuzu might collect cameos of his conquests - whether everyone he's ever corrupted with a wish, or just every major success. Either way, such a collection would stretch on for miles if not literally into eternity. In some instances he might actually hold the souls of people damned in this way, or have the demons of the type that the soul became serving him.

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, so my knowledge, vastly exceeded by He Who Should Really Be Answering This (*whisper*Afroakuma), is that Pazuzu lives in a flying domain in the sky of whatever layer it was that he lives on. His throne, the Blinding Claw (or was it the Binding Claw...) can be fixed so that it doesn't move from its location. I believe the intent of this is that he can basically hang it in midair like an immovable rod. Pazuzu looks down on any creatures not capable of flight due to his primary area of influence, and so his "court" should be way up in the sky. If it were me, I'd feel fine with having Pazuzu disable flight-enabling magic and items in his area as part of his schtick, all the better for making it clear to the party just who is dependent on who in the relationship.

So, going with this flavor, here is my idea:

- A barren wasteland stretches beneath a dark-clouded sky. The characters look about, and suddenly the sky is full of dark-winged birds with eyes like embers. The birds almost look like ravens, except they have four wings and jagged beaks. Swarms of these birds swirl and churn, and then form into restless, hovering stairs made of birds ascending into the sky. The stairs dissolve into individual birds behind the characters as they climb.

- High, high above the land, so far that only dark clouds can be seen beneath the party, the birds form into a temporary floor, just big enough for the characters to stand on. Before them stands the Blinding Claw, the upturned claw and foot of mighty bird of some kind, frozen in the form of a throne. Upon it sits Pazuzu, his piercing gaze stabbing right into the minds and souls of the party members. Barely perceptible, his wings twitch restlessly; while he is composed and calm, a perpetual energy thrums about him, in synchrony with the flapping of the raucous birds that mill chaotically about, interspersed with large, winged demons and fiendish creatures. The characters have his attention, but there is so much, so so very much that he needs to be doing right now. A universe of evil and corruption that he must spread on the winds, to the very edges of reality; so much work, yet he does enjoy it so.

- Pazuzu forms any objects that he needs out of shadow illusions and darkness made tangible. As a demon lord, however, he needs for almost nothing. Moreover, he likes to show off his need for nothing, as most who come to him have need of something. What he values is not stuff, or even direct power, since he has or could have as much as he wants of either at a moment's notice. Rather, he trades in favors and souls, spreading the corruption and anarchy of the Abyss to distant shores by nothing so much as the whispered syllables of his name. Yes, that is all the power that he needs to work his evil. His name, and the hearts of the weak and stupid.

EDIT: Stats for the Blinding Claw were published in Dragon #329. I'd post details here, but they are extensive and I don't think it's allowed, as it's not open-source stuff. Suffice it to say it is a priceless major artifact that Pazuzu can gate to his side from anywhere, and that allows him a number of vision-related SLAs (including a blindness effect) at will, along with a smattering of evil-type stuff like blasphemy and meteor swarm 1/day. It also possibly has a "number of other powers known only to Pazuzu himself," a.k.a. carte blanche to the DM to customize it for plot purposes.

[Kazyan]

Phelix, I can only hop to make the actual BBEG of the campaign's description half as good as that.

I could combine the conquest-cameo idea with the staircase of birds, one bird representing one conquest, one voice pleading for the aid that leads to their demise. The stronghold itself would probably be multi-layered and lack walls, with the dungeon being represented by a giant cage. The Blinding Claw's open-season-for-DM clause will probably be used to no-sell flight methods that don't come from wings. Magic items simply don't work. Flight spells strip themselves from their targets, morph into eagles made of pure magic, and attack their former targets.

Now, if Afroakuma comes to smack down these ideas, so be it. The use of Pazuzu in the campaign was a major curveball, so, I'm not well-versed in how he should act. The wish that got granted isn't actually corrupting anything right now, but that's because it's part of a larger plan for Pazuzu to get very nice slab of innocence to dine on.

[Phelix-Mu]

The wish that got granted isn't actually corrupting anything right now, but that's because it's part of a larger plan for Pazuzu to get very nice slab of innocence to dine on.

This is the essence of Pazuzu, and the reason why I never mind him being used by my players. The small evil, the evil that happens for free, no repercussions, no compulsion, no price, that is the real evil. It's the evil that makes the person think that they can have something for nothing, that power without price is a reality.

And, once that crutch is employed once, it becomes a soft, silent seduction in the mind of anyone that relied on it. "That was so easy, and look at how well everything worked and the cool result and blah blah blah." The subtext is that employing personal effort, espousing virtue, and sticking to principles starts to seem like so...much...work. Pazuzu doesn't even need to do any corrupting beyond granting the wish (though he often does just for the heck of it); the wish itself works against the interests of good.

To me, this is a much more potent and fearful form of evil than Orcus and all his hordes, or demogorgon and his twisted mutations and madness. And I like to underline that the difference between good and evil isn't so much a bunch of undead or rampaging orcs. The difference is definitely there, but evil likes to make the difference look small and innocuous, likes to make your scruples look insignificant or situational. Surely, as long as the result is for the best it's all okay. Yes, thinks Pazuzu, that's right. Look to the ends, and forget the means, and grease the fire pole to the Abyss.

A much less iconic, but no less important aspect is the chaos factor. Pazuzu does favors that result in good outcomes, or that risk good outcomes, or that have uncertain outcomes, because, to a demon lord, chaos and evil are not two separate things. Those dice can come up any result; no self-respecting demon lord would load the dice (too often), as that would be diabolic, not demonic. No, the demon lords believe that, no matter how the dice land, all results lead to evil. Rolling dice at all is evil. They want you to treat your life like a game of chance, to search for power in dark places, and to treat matters of gravity as though they can be handwaved away, fixed with three little words. Stop caring, stop differentiating, start acting on impulse and giving into base instincts. Rule and order is for p@ssies. A real demon lord likes his evil random, raw, violating themselves as much as anyone else, an arbitrary debasement of good and evil by making everything irrelevant. Cause, effect, meh. Live without bound in the moment, deny even yourself, your own existence. Curse reality and tear away reason.

Wow. Time for me to go to bed, lol.