Here are three demons inspired by Goetic traditions and The Book of Ebon Bindings. Their summoning rituals are intended to be handled through narrative tasks and requirements, as described in this post on ritual magic.
Sifunoth is a Mighty Great President of Hell with forty-four legions of demons under her command. She is known as a patron of witches and is called upon at sabbaths and black masses to teach the secrets of magic to those who beseech her. Her cult is believed to have arisen in the last days of the ancient Nuwapian empire, but the rituals to summon her, and the secrets she is said to teach, have been passed down for generations, and cults to her now exist throughout the known world.
Appearance: Sifunoth typically appears as a large black nanny goat, and can assume the form of a normal goat in order to disguise herself. However, she prefers to manifest as a goat with a thousand writhing, spindly legs like those of a centipede.
Personality: Sifunoth addresses her mortal followers in an perversely grandmotherly tone, showing them cloying displays of affection and offering personal investment in their concerns. However, she is not wont to give good advice, and will always suggest acts of violence and cruelty as the solution to problems.
Summoning Ritual: Sifunoth may only be summoned under a full moon, beneath a clear sky, and when the moon appears directly above the summoning site. A scaffold of wood, eight feet tall, must be constructed, and atop it, three braziers must be lit with six juniper twigs and six aspen twigs each, before an incantation is read in Ancient Nuwapian. Then, the summoner throws themselves backwards off the platform; they may not look behind them to make sure it is safe. If the ritual is performed correctly, they will land atop Sifunoth's back, as she has miraculously manifested just beneath them, and expresses concern for her disciple risking themselves in such a fashion. The ritual takes three days to prepare and twenty minutes to perform.
Blessing: When summoned, Sifunoth will teach her disciple the secrets of magic. She will offer to impart the secrets of a random first or second-level spell from the Warlock spell list; ideally, this should be a spell that would be of use to the summoner and fit their personality and tactics. If the summoner does not think this spell would be useful, she will propose another until they approve of her offer. Then, she will press her forehead against the summoner's chest, and the summoner will instinctively know how to cast the spell. They may cast it three times per day (if first level) or once per day (if second level), using Charisma as their spellcasting ability. They can cast the spell even if they are not ordinarily a spellcasting class.
Price: Those who learn magic from Sifunoth are marked by her favor. They grow coarse black hair like that of a goat all over their bodies over the course of the next week; if they attempt to shave this hair, it grows back the next day. Others will likely regard affected PCs with suspicion and fear if they do not hide this effect.
Ritzenfauer is a King of Hell with seven legions of demons under his command. He rules from the center of the Labyrinth of a Thousand Torments, a seemingly infinite maze of corridors, pits, and deathtraps. He is known for his power over life and death, and teaches the secrets of transcending the limits of bodily mortality. Previously, he was imprisoned by an order of Torvaldic monks in the Silver Chains Priory in Togarmah, but was released by a ritual gone awry. Though he will still respond to summoning rituals, he has taken to his freedom and wanders the Mortal Realm looking for those he can lead astray. As a result of his imprisonment, he is resentful of Torvald and his faithful.
Appearance: Ritzenfauer takes the form of a shriveled, withered figure wrapped in a blue or red shroud, his face always obscured by shadow save for a pair of piercing red eyes. When in the guise of a mortal, he always walks with a hunch.
Personality: Ritzenfauer conducts himself in a stuffy, formal fashion, speaking to mortals from a place of power and dignity. He is not afraid to use mortals as pawns to accomplish his goals, and often makes offers to them that he has no intentions of holding up his end of the bargain on.
Summoning Ritual: Ritzenfauer may only be summoned on the Tenth of Winemoon (equivalent to October 10th, or the tenth day of the tenth month in the world's lunar calendar). A sigil must be drawn in black chalk with five candles made from human fat placed equidistant to one another around its radius. Each candle must be lit in sequence after an incantation is spoken in Old Golniri, and the center of the sigil must then be anointed with the blood of three different people mixed in a brass bowl. The ritual takes half an hour to set up, an hour to perform from start to finish, and must end at the stroke of midnight. If the ritual is completed successfully, Ritzenfauer will appear at the center of the sigil and offer his blessing.
Blessing: Ritzenfauer's blessing will allow his disciple to defy the laws of mortality. If accepted, the next time the disciple dies, they do not start making death saves. Instead, they will begin slowly regenerating, their mortal wounds knitting themselves back together over a period of three days. This will work even if the disciple's body was completely destroyed, such as through a disintegrate spell; their body and all equipment will regenerate from nothing. The period of regeneration is painful and the disciple remains conscious throughout the entire process; they cannot do anything more than lying around and moaning in agony until the three days are up.
Price: Ritzenfauer is amused by the fact that mortals are so afraid of their own mortality that they would not consider the greater picture. Although his blessing will work once, should the disciple die for any reason after regenerating, they do not regenerate a second time, and their soul is condemned instantly to the Labyrinth of a Thousand Torments. They do not make death saves, may not cheat Death, and cannot be revived by any means short of retrieving their soul from the Labyrinth directly.
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| Art by getsugadante |
Lagaaz is a Prince of Hell with two hundred legions of demons under his command. Like many demons, he is a bringer of pestilence and affliction, and his minions carry it forth unto the mortal realm. However, Lagaaz does not see disease as merely a way to inflict harm on mortals, but also as an incentive to further his own aims. He has the power to heal mortals of disease by taking it on himself, and he delights at inflicting mortals with plagues so that they will sell their souls to him for relief from their misery.
Appearance: In his true form, Lagaaz appears as a horrendously bloated decaying corpse covered in boils and weeping sores. His right leg is the foot of a crow, and his left leg is unnaturally short. He also sometimes appears riding a donkey. If disguised as a mortal, his face is always hideously disfigured with scars and boils.
Personality: Despite his grotesque appearance, Lagaaz does not behave as an afflicted person would - he is, in fact, incredibly spry and full of energy, and his lesions do not seem to bother him. He is a fast talker and a slick con artist, akin to a carnival barker or a used car salesman, attempting to dupe his disciples into selling their souls before they can realize the price of his offer.
Summoning Ritual: To summon Lagaaz, one must exhume four bodies that have died of the same plague after they have been buried in the ground for exactly three days. Their hearts must be cut out with a bronze knife and burned on a pyre with the four bodies arranged around it pointing in the four cardinal directions. As the fire burns, the summoner must walk in a continuous circle around the bodies, sprinkling their feet with water mixed with the dirt from the exhumed graves, until the flames begin to dim, at which point the summoner must stop at the feet of the closest body and hurl it into the fire. As smoke rises from the pyre, Lagaaz will appear inside and offer his disciple to come to him. This ritual takes five hours to prepare, and two hours to perform.
Blessing: When summoned, Lagaaz will invite his disciple to step forward and place their hands upon his corpulent, decaying body. If they do so, they will find themselves gripped by a surge of vigorous energy. They gain Inspiration, and any diseases or other conditions they are subject to are immediately removed as Lagaaz absorbs their affliction into his body. They permanently gain immunity to any diseases and poisons thereafter.
Price: Lagaaz has removed his disciple's afflictions and taken them into himself - however, the ritual must be continued in order to maintain that state. Once a month, Lagaaz's disciple must murder a person who is innocent of any crimes and who does not hold any antipathy toward them and hang their body from a tree as a sacrifice to the demon prince. In addition to compromising the moral fiber of the disciple, this often necessitates they keep moving, as the disappearance of the sacrificial victim will surely be noticed, particularly when their body must be displayed in so conspicuous a fashion. If a month goes by without such an offering, the disciple is stricken by every disease that Lagaaz has absorbed into his body; they have Disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks; automatically fail all saves (including death saves); and will die in three days. If they commit a murder within these three days, the effect is immediately revoked.
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