So a zombie, a devil and a demon walk into a bar...

[Lord Loss]

I'm going to be running a Wargame/D&D 3.5 hybrid and the players have elected to play a Demonic army that follows Fraz-Urbluu (I think that's his name, at least), an army of devils (no Archdevil selected so far) and an army of Undead (with or without necromancers, we're not sure yet).

The armies are equally powerful, all made up of 400-800 creatures of CRs up to seven, as well as a CR 12 general.

The Undead army's leader has not been decided upon. The Devil army is playing an Assassin Devil (Dogai) with a level in Avenging Executioner or Assassin (the player's not sure from which the Assassin Devil benefits the most).

I need objectives for each army which are

A) More complex than "kill everyone".

and B) Allow for alliances, negotiations, backstabbing and combat.

The factions will only be told of their objectives, and not of those of the others. Feel free to come up with a setting and objectives for each army. NPC factions/creatures/encounters can be added in (or excluded).

[Mikeavelli]

The armies have met because the Holy City (insert name here) is momentarily undefended. Its armies and greatest heroes are off on a grand crusade, perhaps initiated as part of a separate plot on the part of the of the factions. Their defenses are strong enough to be a strategic concern, but any single faction could overwhelm them fairly easily if the other two weren't there.

The Demon armies need sacrificial victims from the city to please Frazzy-Poo. Thousands of them. They have no desire to rule the city, but it would please their lord if it was reduced to rubble after they've gathered their sacrifices, if only to spite the Devil armies who wish to conquer it.

The Devil armies want to take over the city, and fortify it against all defenders until their lord arrives to personally inspect the city. There is something in it that interests him, but he has not seen fit to say exactly what that is to his general.

Deep beneath the city is a vault containing a powerful and evil artifact that has been sealed away for thousands of years. The undead armies don't care about the people in the city, or holding it, and so could theoretically ally with one, the other, or both!

However, that powerful artifact is what the Devil Lord wants to possess, and it's also the thing that makes souls from this city so valuable as sacrifices for the Demon lord's followers. A success by the undead armies means both fiendish armies fail in their long-term goals.

[Honest Tiefling]

Frazzy-pookins is the demon of secrets, and the one hated by all other demon lords, right? Depending on your setting, maybe frazzy is betraying the demons to have the rest slaughtered by the Blood War while he ascends to the highest levels of power in the Abyss. He may be working on a pact with the devils to stamp out Celestia and the good gods once and for all. Once those forces are destroyed, there'll be ice cream and damned souls in plenty for everyone!

If the Devily army does not mind playing under Mephistopheles or Levitsus, then there is a great reason to betray Asmodeus. Maybe the two armies conduct a plan to form the two races into one superduper race. The demons enjoy the conflict this would ensue, and the devils would enjoy subjugating the demons, secure in the knowledge that their organization and hierarchies are more powerful then the demon's chaos. (Because the devils would believe they would wind up on top, of course).

Various undead do follow demon lords, so maybe suggest that Orcus got pissy at this undead for some reason (Or the undead was a former follower of Doresain or Kiaranslee, however you spell that) that while he/she/it switched sides, got a bit of a raw deal in the process and decided to do so again.

[EccentricCircle]

and the barman says: "you can all go to hell"?

[randomhero00]

Have you heard of Disciples II? A lot of this reminds me of that. Its a strategy (turned based) game that was released quite awhile ago. It had demons, undead, and I think dwarves and humans. But the main reason I mention it is that they all had plans and interconnected conflicts. Dunno if you have the time, but if you play through the campaign I think it'd give you many good ideas.

[Doomboy911]

Perhaps instead of a few npcs you need some pcs. If you're willing I could play a faction of humans to go against them. My characters have a kind of maverick tendency to them that has the potential to topple armies at level one without raising his hand against them.

PM me if you're interested.

[druid91]

Have you heard of Disciples II? A lot of this reminds me of that. Its a strategy (turned based) game that was released quite awhile ago. It had demons, undead, and I think dwarves and humans. But the main reason I mention it is that they all had plans and interconnected conflicts. Dunno if you have the time, but if you play through the campaign I think it'd give you many good ideas.

Yep, I always thought it was hilarious when I had my dwarves allied with either undead or demons.

Sometimes both.