Blindness, necromancy nad greed: How to make these show up in a cult

[falcon1]

My players are encountering the cult of a demon lord of blindness, greed, and undeath. I'm trying to think of both some flavor things for each and monsters/obstacles

Blindness is fairly easy- a fight in the dark, a ritual sacrifice of eyes, a monster who blinds opponents etc.

Undeath is too.

Greed is the one I'm having trouble with. Any ideas?

[hamishspence]

Monsters disguised as treasures maybe? Hoard scarabs from Draconomicon (killer beetles that look like coins when at rest) might fit the theme.

[Dr paradox]

Fold gluttony in with greed. Include creatures like banderhobbs that actually devour characters.

[Stealth Marmot]

An undead dragon guard its hoard, and it's hoard is a pile of bones.

[WbtE]

The cruel but fair answer is to have the characters firmly warned that acts of greed make them vulnerable to the god's power, then follow through on this.

For example: every bit of treasure picked up in the cult's lair leads to a deterioration of vision. No saves or equivalent, as the curse is avoidable by not picking the stuff up. I would apply progressively stiffer penalties as the party loots their way through (and make sure there's some very enticing loot). Dropping the loot is no help, because it was the greed that made the character vulnerable to the god's power - the characters will have to seek some form of penance in order to regain their full vision.

[LibraryOgre]

Mimics.

On the "greed will slowly blind you" angle, a good option is to let them rid themselves of the curse by giving it to a more powerful entity... they can take everything and give it to a church, and the curse will be lifted.

[Segev]

Look for the Vitrious Drinker (maybe misspelled or slightly misremembering the name; hopefully others can help with this). It's a D&D monster in, I believe, Libris Mortis. It's a form of undead that snatches eyes for food and can blind people by stealing their sight and then use them as unknowing spies by seeing through their eyes. Cruelly, he can see through their eyes even though they cannot.

Even if you're not using D&D, you can crib the concept.

Have eyes be the currency of the cult, and let them sell some cool items. Are you willing to pay with your own eyes, or will you hunt others to acquire them? Make the items "reasonably cheap" in terms of how many creatures have to be blinded to buy them, compared to normal gp values.