PDA

View Full Version : Roleplaying Need RP help for high level monster motivation...



Nefariis
2016-12-14, 03:12 PM
I need to come up with RP reasons why a Marilith would help a Lich.

For example:

What would be a Marilith's motivation be to be beholden to a lich?
Why would a Marilith be concerned about or travel to Faerun?
What could be a few reasons that a Marilith would care about the lich's cause at all?

Any help in pairing these baddies together would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys -

Connington
2016-12-14, 05:03 PM
It would help a lot if you specified what the lich is trying to do, and why you want a lich-marilith team up anyways.

So just looking at this generically: Mariliths are the generals of the demon world. Going off of 5e, they're massively outclassed by liches, CR 16 to the glorified skeleton's CR 21. A few thoughts:

* The marilith is planning an invasion of Faerun with a demonic army. She has sworn personal service to the lich in exchange for his assistance with the invasion.
* In the course of his travels, the lich fought the the marilith for control of her army. He won and spared her life, either allowing her to serve as his second (in which case she may be personally loyal to him, although that's more of a devil thing), or magically binding her to his service (in which case she's probably trying to subvert her programming and betray him when battle leaves him weak, Redcloak style)
* The marilith helped the lich achieve undead immortality. They could just be evil buddies that do favors for each other.

oudeis
2016-12-14, 05:24 PM
They were lovers before the lich's transformation. Actually they still are, but they are trying to keep it quiet: Chaos frowns on unbreakable commitments and there's no way in the Abyss the marilith will abandon her great love, especially after she went through such an agonizing transformation so they could be together eternally.

Freed
2016-12-14, 06:35 PM
Perhaps the lich is a wizard/warlock and has made a pact with this Marilith or this Marilith's master.

Nefariis
2016-12-14, 07:43 PM
The story behind the Lich/Marilith is that the good adventurers in the campaign are doing what they perceive to be right - but unknowingly are actually bringing about the end of the world. So the Lich in this story is actually trying to stop the adventurers from unwittingly causing the apocalypse. To do this he called upon 5 monsters to lead their armies against the adventurers and to attempt to save the world.

I thought a Marilith would be a bad ass general to lead the first army against the adventurers - but I was struggling with coming up with a reason why a Marilith would care about the world and not just want to watch it burn.

So - What motivation does the Marilith have to team up with the Lich and save the world from our hapless adventurers?

oudeis
2016-12-14, 07:53 PM
True love. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21492565&postcount=3)

If that doesn't work, maybe the particular doom the adventurers are going to bring about will prevent the forces of Chaos from harvesting any mortal souls. Perhaps the Devils or some other hostile extraplanars will reap the dead and use them as fuel/fodder/raw materials for their armies in the Last War.

Freed
2016-12-14, 07:56 PM
The Marilith is secretly working to undermine the Lich's plan by making the heroes think they are in the right by slaughtering children in front of their faces, and monologing about how the lich plans to destroy the world, so the world is destroyed. However the Marilith thinks that some of the adventurers should be killed and flayed to make the other work harder, so she won't be going easy.

TheTeaMustFlow
2016-12-15, 07:35 AM
A couple of questions - First, what edition of D&D is this (as this would effect some of the specifics of the answers), and what kind of 'end of the world' are we talking about here? Destruction of Faerun, destruction of the Prime Material, destruction of the Great Wheel, or something else?

The easiest and simplest answer would be to have the Marilith magically compelled to serve the lich somehow, such as by a Planar Binding spell.

The Marilith could have interests or assets on Faerun that they wish to preserve. If you've spent centuries building up a cult, seeing it go up in smoke would be most frustrating.

The Marilith could be in the service of a more powerful demon (Graz'zt is noted for his Marilith servants) that itself has reasons to not watch the world burn -or at least, not yet.

The Marilith could believe that demonkind are the rightful destroyers of worlds, and opposes anyone muscling in on that pitch on general principal.

The Marilith has a personal grudge against whatever agency is causing the end of the world.

The Marilith has a personal grudge against the adventurers, and wants to kill them personally.

The end of the world could threaten to give some enemy of the Marilith/Demonkind some form of strategic advantage (e.g. There aren't many Chaotic Evil souls on Faerun right now, but there are a lot of Lawful Evil ones, the deaths of which would comparatively strengthen Hell over the Abyss), and one of the Abyss's generals will be blessed if she'll let that happened.

The Marilith could believe that (to paraphrase/steal a quote from 40k) "This is our world. Ours to corrupt. Ours to enslave. The Demons will not be denied their prize."

RazorChain
2016-12-15, 07:40 AM
The Marilith has a secret crush on the Lich and does everything for him out of misguided love and loyalty. Or maybe the Marilith just wants to have fun with the Lich and play around with his bone....err....

Nefariis
2016-12-15, 03:36 PM
This is perfect guys, thank you very much.

I like the idea of the Blood War between Daemons and Devils being thrown out of wack if Faerun were to be destroyed - this would give a reason why a Lich would seek assistance from a Daemon as well as why a Marilith would leave the abyss and concern herself with the affairs of man.

Thank you guys.