So here's what's up. I'm planning out a campaign in the River Kingdoms in which a Demon Lord has been placing minions (mostly Invidiaks) in the courts of various River Kingdoms in order to establish cults and sow instability, with a mythic glabrezu orchastrating things from Daggermark. Their ultimate goal is to summon enough demons into the River Kingdoms and exploit the instability to quickly conquer the land and then take advantage of the weakened planar boundaries to attune the arches in Sevenarches to the Abyss, effectively creating a second Worldwound. The PCs, naturally, are going to try to stop this.
My question is, which of the Demon Lords would be most likely to try something like this, and would be the coolest to use in a long-term game? (Rule of Cool trumps all, of course). For the sake of presentation to my players, who are newish, I want a demon lord who is clearly demonic, has a sizable presence on Golarion's surface, and has a diverse sphere of interest and minions. So far I've been considering Abraxas, Nocticula, or Haagenti. Thoughts?
Sounds like Nocticula more than any of the others. Lots of Shadow Demons grudgingly serve her these days and she's also a very ambitious Demon Lord. I doubt that she'd copy Deskari's work though... she might want an addition for the Midnight Isles.
To clarify, the demon is not trying to make a carbon copy of the worldwound - they are only duplicating insomuch as they wish to create a large, enduring connection to the abyss that can be used as a beachead for an invasion of the material plane. They figure that if they can destabilize the river kingdoms enough they will quickly fall and that with everyone focusing on the worldwound - a couple of nations away - they will be able to march their demonic host into Southern Avistan. They aren't in league with Deskari or even cooperating with him, simply exploiting the situation he has created to their own advantage.
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Mestama could be interesting, having a three way combat between her forces, the PCs, and the followers of Gyronna.
Dagon and/or Gogunta due to all the rivers and swamps, could lead to some overall Lovecraft-ish feeling for the Kingdoms.
Shax, but not to bring out a Worldwound, to bring the material plane into the Abyss, having random travelers, towns or even entire kingdoms subtly fall into a sadistic game of being hunted without them even realising it.
Urxehl, due to the sheer number of trolls and his worshippers in the Rivers.
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Lamashtu was my first thought.
Though when Alleran mentioned Nocticula I admit, that's a heckuva good choice.
Dagon seems too under-the-sea for me but Gogunta is cool.
Yet the more I think about it, a coalition of two Demon Lords -- Lamashtu and Yamasoth -- is really scary. Made all the better since, if need be, their "alliance" can be fractured. And also made cool because the mixed messages and clues will keep the PCs guessing as to who is behind all this. When they find out it's Lamashtu and Yamasoth, well, let the good times roll.
Plus Boggards are scalable with character levels.
Pretty much any intelligent monster is scalable with class levels. Well, except dragons.