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I’m building a potential low level adventure where my players will be trapped in abbadon from the start, and their goal will be to survive and escape the plane. Because of it, I made up rules of how hexploration work here (as well as homebrewed some suitable low level monster/hazard since apart from the cacodaemon, all PF2 daemons are mid or high level), and I though I might share them to get some feedback (and for other people to use in case something like “low level abbadon wilderness survival” appeal to some people).
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Abbadon have a variety of different type of terrains, but all share the same basic properties.
The only “natural” source of light in the plane come from the perpetual eclipse which make everything appear bleached, and put the plane in a perpetual state of low light. If the group have a member without low light vision or darkvision, and don’t travel with an open light source, their speed is halved when considering the travel speed of the group. Travelling with any source of light (such as a torch) negate this penalty but is much more likely to attract the attention of the plane many predators (giving a “bonus” of +2 to any random encounter check, since random encounter check start an encounter if the check succeed).
Most of the plane being silent and open mean that it is hard to avoid notice while traveling there. If the group is trying to lay low and to avoid attention from the native daemon (which they probably should do if they are low level), traveling cost one more travel activity, as if the terrain type was one step worse. As most of abbadon is inhospitable, most of it is either difficult terrain or greater difficult terrain already, which mean that it typically take three to four days to leave a hex for a party with a movement speed of 25 feet. Not taking those precaution mean that any random encounter check is one step “better” than what’s rolled. If you don’t wish to roll for random encounter, simply follow this rule : if they stay discreet the player should encounter hazard that are dangerous but not deliberately hunting for them, such as hostile hunted, “Abbadon’s beasts” (see bellow latter), or a dangerous feature of the plane, while not taking precaution mean that the player should encounter daemons themselves that are specifically hunting them down, and likely to pursue them even if the players manage to escape with their lives.
While the plane is almost always eerily silent, and always seems unmoving, it coil around those that dare to travel through it, twisting their path to push them toward danger, away from their objective, or sometime in circle, even if they only ever marched in a single direction without ever turning. Even roads might twist like a snake beyond the horizon to guide the fools that trust them toward their destruction. All attempt to travel to a neighboring hex need a sense direction check (using either survival or abbadon lore) to readjust the direction of the group whenever the plane twist itself around them.
Even in terrains that should be easy to get a sense of direction in (such as a plain with easily recognizable landmark), this insidious shifting makes it hard not to get lost in. Not only does these checks always carry the -2 malus for not having a compass (as they simply do not work in this plane), the shifting impose an additional -3, meaning that all of those checks are done with a -5 malus. However, if one member of the group succed at aiding the one trying to sense direction (using either survival if the sense direction check use abbadon lore, or abbadon lore if they use survival), this secondary malus is negated, on top of the usual bonus for the aid action.
A critical success always lead the group to the chosen hex, while a normal success lead the group to either the chosen hex or one of the 5 hex adjacent to it (that aren’t the starting hex). To determine which hex they find themselves in, the GM can either chose it themselves (representing the malevolent will of the plane), or you can simply assign a number from 1 to 6 to each hex, and then roll a D6 (this may cause the group to jump an entire hex, as abbadon need not to follow the logic of the material world). A failure mean that the group is going in circle, and stay in the hex they started in (taking perhaps days of travel to find themselves in the exact same place). A critical failure mean that the plane is leading them toward danger, and the player should face a dangerous encounter, on top of which they either stay in their hex, or even move back a hex.
Players may decide to no actually try to go anywhere, but simply go where their step lead them, or may try to “trick” the plane by marching in the opposite direction of where they want to go, while trying to bait a critical failure. Any such attempt invariably lead to dangerous, yet strangely rewarding, situation. Doing so always end up triggering a severe encounter at the very least, but also guide the players toward important things, either uncovering landmark, resources or secret as if they accomplish the reconnoiter activity if there are any of them undiscovered in their hex, or moving them to an adjacent hex where such undiscovered feature exist if there are none. It’s better if this rule isn’t explain tho, and is left to the players to stumble into and discover themselves.
There is however a way to completely avoid these effects, certain important feature of the plane that simply cannot shift. If the player move alongside these path, they don’t need to roll to find a way, and always move as they want, as they do in the material plane. The most obvious of these feature is the Styx and it’s many affluent, following the river, either up or down, always lead the player in the chosen direction. Then, there is the border between the different domains that compose the plane, as each can be strikingly different and don’t quite obey the same rules (altho they all follow these rules). Finally, there are the “monolith roads”, special roads marked by the presence of monolith regularly spaced, just close enough from one another that when one travel on these road, one of them is always in sight (road without these monolith, or with monolith “too spaced out” so that you might spend stretch of roads without seeing one can twist just like the rest of the plane).
Those who know this feature of the plane tend to refer to these in a certain way, saying “the veins” to talk about the Styx and it’s affluent, “the scars” to talk about the border between domains, and “the nerves” to talk about the monolith roads (there’s a trend in my setting of people that know a bit about abbadon to talk about the plane as a whole as if it’s a single “living”, or at least sentient, entity). Daemon alone know how to travel the plane perfectly, without needing to either roll or follow these path. As such, another method to travel precisely where you want within the plane is to have a daemon serve you as a guide, although of course such daemon will require a suitable payment and might chose to betray you anyway.
Because following these path is often the only way for the hunted and the strangers to the plane to reliably get anywhere, they also are a prime hunting ground for daemons. Following the Styx at low level might be especially unwise, as it’s populated with powerful piscodaemon and thanadaemon, and it’s very waters are an anathema to life. The monolith roads meanwhile are arguably a trap themselves, here to funnel their prey onto a predestined path so as to make them easier to locate (meaning that encounters with daemon are far more likely here), but since it’s also used by “guest” of the plane, such as people involved in the soul trade and daemon cultist, the monolith roads might be amongst the only places where the group might “talk their way out” of an encounter with hostile daemon. The border between domain meanwhile tend to be less frequented by daemon themselves, but traveling alongside them mean that the group expose themselves to the dangers lurking in both domains.
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As I’m writting the "creatures, encounter and surviving" part, I’m noticing that even the mecanical aspect of it use quite a lot of my homebrew lore, so here’s a quick summary of how my Abbadon “work” lore wise, feel free to pick and chose what you find interesting :
- Abbadon petitionners, the hunted, still feel hunger and thirst and still all share the basic needs they had when they were alive. They can “die” again of thirst or hunger if they don’t feed, which mean that those that roam the wilderness of the plane can’t just hole up somewhere, they have to actually scavenge for food and water to survive, which in turn allow the daemon to hunt them more easily.
- In Abbadon, all ghost and other incorporeal souls start growing a mantle of flesh aking to their living self. Like the hunted, those that grow that mantle start suffering from the same urges they had when they were alive (but are still considered undead for things like negative energy healing). Once a soul have “grown a body”, it’s trapped in the plane as long as they wear that body, but any harm to that body also harm the soul itself, and death of the body mean destruction of the soul inside it (as such, it require a special ritual to leave the plane unharmed once that happen). There are magical to avoid growing flesh like that to begin with, it’s just that growing the body is the “baseline” and you need to take special precaution to avoid it.
- The souls of “mortals” (or anything that would normaly go to the boneyard to face pharasma when they die) that die in the plane but aren’t eaten/destroyed by daemons rejoin the boneyard as usual. The hunted’s soul however, as well as any other creature that would “regain the river of soul”/”merge with their homeplane” or anything like that can’t leave the plane. Abbadon exert something akin to a gravitational pull for those soul, who end up trapped here, even after they are supposed to be destroyed. When a Hunted, an outsider, a “ghost in a flesh mantle” or anything like that die on the plane and the remain of their soul isn’t collected or destroyed by the daemons, it start “melting” and manifest as some sort of slightly glowing gooey substance (that I named ectoplasm because it was soul goo, before I learned that it was also the name of ghost stuff found in the astral plane in PF1). It glow allow creatures that survive throught photosyntesis to "feed" if they stay at least 4 hours a day around it.
- After a few days, the ectoplasm will start to “grow flesh” like any normal soul, becoming strange, deformed creatures animated by the broken down remains of a soul. Those are what I call “beast of Abbadon” and constitute abbadon “wildlife”, both the flora and the fauna, and as such, are the main source of food in the plane. The Hunted hunt for them, and so will your player probably, and since they do have (fragments of) souls, even the daemons will hunt them, even if their soul stuff is so rotten that daemons won't target them unless they really have no other prospect in sight.
- Beast of abbadon are mindless and animated only by the impulse to swallow more “soul stuff” (both normal souls and ectoplasm work just as well), acting often like an ooze would, except with a non amorphous body that vaguely resemble that of an animal, a plant, a fungus or a mix of those. As such, they target petitioners, mortals or outsiders, but not the daemon, for they can sense no “soul stuff” in them. As they have no excretory system, they keep everything they swallow, and once they manage to devour enough “soul stuff”, they molt, shedding all of their previous flesh to grow a new, bigger body (that often look and act nothing like the previous one, the only constant being that they invariably always grow bigger). Despite their size and often their power, their mindlessness mean that they are easily tricked or trapped, which allow the (often weaker) hunted to usually hunt them down without much trouble, as long as they know what they're doing.
(Not really important, but in my lore those beast of Abbadon can actually become daemon if they manage to grow enough, which explain why even the biggest aren’t trully gigantic. This transformation, and their lifecycle, inspired the creation of the first demons, but the mindlessness of the beasts of Abbadon, and the fact that they sit even bellow the hunted in the plane food chain, mean that those that are lucky enough to grow that much into daemon are exceedingly rare.)
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As Abbadon is an especially hostile environment (and as my player won’t start the game with much provisions), the rules for hunger and thirst will be especially important. In such inhospitable place, low level player are unlikely to be able to provide for themselves using the “subsist” action, as even the most “livable” places of the plane ask for a DC 30 check at least, and much of it would require a legendary DC 40 check. As such, for the first few levels, the act of gathering food will require far more investment than a simple dice roll, as it will ask the player to hunt down a food source (which will likely end in an encounter, where the “reward” will be their food).
Water trouble :
Lack of water is unlikely to be a problem, even in this inhospitable plane, as create water is a 1st level spell available for three different tradition. If the party don’t have access to it, it become a far more pressing issue. The waters of the styx are oblivion taken form, and not only is it poisonous, but it also doesn’t quench thirst. To find some actual water, one must either travel to one of the plane corrupted marsh, wait for the acidic rain or dig a deep enough well, which ask for appropriate tools, a DC 20 survival check to find a suitable place, one day of work to dig the well, and another day for the water to start filling it (a failure merely indicate that no suitable place was encountered during the day exploration, and the check can be attempted against the following day).
In any case, any water found that way is always corrupted and expose those who drink it to an appropriate affliction (often a magical illness, but sometime a slow acting poison). It’s possible to purify the water thanks to the “purify food and drink” spell, or by filtering and distilling it (something that the player can learn with a mere untrained DC 10 survival or lore alchemy check if they seek to purify this water), but doing so require heat and is likely to attract attention if the player use a fire, unless they manage to cover the plume well enought with a DC 20 survival check.
It’s also possible to find water by filtering the blood of other creatures. A DC 20 medecine or a DC 17 lore alchemy check can teach that to the player and allow them to do it. Water find this way is free of disease and poison (as the filtering process also purify the water). This activity also require heat, and thus the player may still need to hide the plume if they lit a fire.
Hunting for a meal :
Hunting will constitute the main source of food in the early levels, and the beast of abbadon will likely be the main prey. As these “beast” constitute both the fauna and flora of the plane (often at the same time), even “gathering” food from plants will actually require facing on these strange creatures, and thus, be akin to hunting. As they are mindless, they never hide their tracks, and even people untrained in survival might attempt to track them with a DC 10 survival check, even if the character is fatigued (due to starvation for exemple). If the tracker is at least trained in survival, critically succeeding this check allow them to glance some information about the beast they are following, teaching them it’s size and letting them attempt a recall knowledge on the beast, or informing them that something is amiss if the track was faked (see hunting event bellow).
Abbadon is vast, the beast are relatively few and they are all tireless. As such, tracking a beast to hunt it is an activity that require a full day. At the end of it, make a DC 11 flat check. A success mean that the beast was found (and that the party may now engage it, see hunting even bellow), while a failure mean that while they got closer, the beast is still miles ahead, and another day of tracking is necessary (reduce the flat check DC by 3 for each time it was attempted while following the same trail. A new tracking attempt is require at the start of every day, but only a critical failure mean that they lose the track, while a normal failure simply mean that something else goes awry and slow them down (the flat check of the day is done with a -3 malus, or an event may occur).
Due to their strange anatomy, most of a beast of Abbadon isn’t edible, and gives off a frustratingly low amount of food. It take two tiny beast to feed one party member for a day, one small beast can feed two party member, and one medium one can feed six. Large beast require a day of work to prepare, but can feed four people for a whole week. Huge beast are incredibly rare, but a group of four could survive an entire month from the remains of one (altho it would likely attract attention). No beast can be larger than huge.
As abbadon don’t naturally houses lifeforms that cause rot to take place, food usually don’t spoil here, but rather simply dry up (a body left untouched in the plane will typically start to dessicate and mummify), as such special precautions usually isn’t needed to preserve food. The one exception is the realm of Apollyon, horseman of Pestilence, where everything is imbued with supernatural disease. In this realm, any food that isn’t magically preserved slowly start “filling up” with diseases. One hour after the death of an organism, an illness take root in it’s flesh, and anyone eating it is exposed to a random disease with a saving throw DC of 10. That saving throw augment by 1 for each additional hour to a maximum of 40, and the food start to visibly rot after it reach 20. If the organism was already infected by a disease (which in this realm is likely), or if the organism could naturally infect foes with a disease, it instead start immediately, at the same saving throw DC as the one that plagued the creature.
With these rules, and the fact that the beast yield a frustratingly low amount of food, it mean that the players are likely to spend multiple days with no food at all, so you should check the starvation and thirst rules in the core rulebook. I added the rule that while starving, you only heal half as much HP from resting, and as it’s a bit vague, I ruled that the fatigued condition start at the same moment as the damage (so a character with high constitution will hold on without being fatigued longer). Also, while it’s not very realistic, I ruled that a single day of eating enough food end all of the starvation, no matter how long it was (altho it doesn’t directly heal the HP, but it allow them to be healed). I chose to be “nice” with this rule because I fear that if they were too harsh, the player would be incentivised to do nothing but hunt all the time, while this open the possibility of voluntarily skipping hunting (and foods) during some days to do something else. Also because otherwise, a bad series of roll on the hunting flat check might mean that a week long hunt resulted in them still starving at the end of it.
The players can try to ration food. If they do so, each character eat only half as much, but also heal half as much HP by resting, as if they were starving. If they were starving, rationning don’t allow them to recover their “locked” HP, but it remove the fatigued condition for the day, and they don’t lose more HP this day. They start losing HP again if they start starving again. As such eating your fill is usually better to get out of starvation, and then you can start rationning yourself again.
Things are however different in the realm of Trelmarixian, the horseman of Famine. In his realm, not only do creature require twice as much food to be satiated, but starvation is always here. In this realm, each day of eating their fill (which once again require twice as much food) only counterbalance one day of starving. You might represent this with “starvation counters”. Each character get one for every day that pass without eating their fill, and as usual character start getting fatigued and loosing one HP that can’t be healed for each starvation counter above their constitution modifier. However, eating their fill does not reset the starvation, but merely remove one counter, only allowing them to heal the one corresponding HP and only removing the fatigued condition if the number of counter reach their constitution modifier. Rationning yourself in this realm is impossible, either you eat your fill, or your starve, eating only half as much have the same effect as eating nothing at all.
Creature that feed on photosynthesis can’t survive solely from the everlasting eclipse of the plane, even if it does help them somewhat. It takes twice their constitution modifier in day for starvation to settle in (instead of being equal to their constitution modifier). While true sunlighe in unknown in this plane, the faint light emited by the ectoplasm ooze from dead creatures (except daemon) can feed them if they spend at least two hours resting in their light.
There is however one very important thing that can trivialize this hunt for food: spells. Create food is available to three of the traditions, and a single casting is likely to be able to feed the group on any day. Because it’s highly likely that it’s gonna be available to your players as soon as they hit level 3, it mean that all of these food and hunting rule will be relevant mostly in the first two levels. This is actually pretty good, because it naturally divide how we can balance the plane. By making the search for food especially harsh, it can “define” the first two levels, and naturally prevent the players from running into overwhelming danger. Once level 3 is reached and this problem is lifted, the player can now explore more freely, and thus run into bigger danger than mere beasts of Abbadon or group of starving hunteds, and now have level high enough to actually survive more dangerous hazard as long as they provoke daemons. It also have the nice side effect of making level 3 into a good milestone that the player will be excited to reach.
Goodberry on the other hand is more difficult, as it can also “fix” the food issue, but is available right from level 1. However, simply deciding that “there’s no berry in that plane” isn’t a real solution, as it would needlessly punish the player by preventing them from using their (actually pretty relevant for a survival game) focus spell. As such, I advise that you take the opposite approach, and make “finding berries” into an adventure in itself, to make finding food still tense and an integral part of these early level, but by making the concerned player feel important instead of removing their agency. The “Fruitful beast of Abbadon” bellow is thus meant to be a “boss” for a level 1 group with a leaf druid, rewarding them with a good share of goodberry target if they manage to take it down.
Hunting events :
While following a beast of Abbadon might be rather simple, the result are far from certain. The player are unlikely to be the only one following the beast, and might find themselves competing with groups of hunted, or discover after days of tracking that someone else already killed and devoured their prey. Worse, they might be following a false track, leading them right into the open arms of a daemon. And of course, Abbadon is what it is, the plane itself present a variety of danger. Here are a few that I intend to use in my own adventure :
For when the flat check succeed and the “hunt” end (pick or use a d4) :
- Hunt successful: start an encounter with a beast of abbadon, that will yield food depending on ti’s size. A group of hunted might arrive after the beast is slain to try to steal it from the players tho, which might degenerate in a second encounter.
- Arriving late: the player arrive to the sight of a group of hunted fighting or slaying the beast. They might try to steal it from the hunted (especially if the player themselves are starving), which might degenerate in an encounter.
- Open molt: The player arrive face to face with an open carcass. This is the remain of a beast of abbadon “molt”, after it absorbed enough soul stuff to grow one size. The molt is of the same size as the beast the player was tracking (either small or medium most of the time, very rarely large), and the player can gather food from it as if they killed it themselves. A second track of a beast one size larger depart from the molt, that the player can track as usual.
- Sudden stop: the track just stop. Perhaps the beast was killed and it’s remains were already eaten by another inhabitant. Perhaps the beast had the ability to fly and decided to use it after walking for several days. The hunt is simply unsuccessful. Use this with caution, as it might feel really unfair and discouraging to the player to “succeed” their hunt just to find nothing. It should feel unfair and discouraging for the characters themselves who might be actively starving, and it should impart the fact that there is no “sure” way of surviving and that they can do everything right and still fail, but the player shouldn’t feel completely discouraged. If this happen, feel free to leave some kind of secondary trail that lead the character to a hunted encampment preparing the remains of the beast.
For when the tracking fail but not critically fail and something bad happen (same, pick or a d4) :
- Acid rain : the rain fall, obscuring even the dim light of the eclipse (the plane become dark instead of being dimly lit). While it have no effect on dead matter, the living can feel the water slowly digging furrows into their flesh. The group suffer 1d4 acid damage for each hour they stay in the rain, and can’t use mundane way to heal themselves as long as they are drenched. The rain last for the day and can be filtered into drinkable water as explained in my previous post. The group can protect themselves by building a shelter (which take two hour but make them stationnary, preventing them to track for the day, increasing by 5 the DC to track for the following day and increasing the flat DC by 3), or might try to build “umbrela-like” device, which require a DC 20 crafting check.
- The death pass: the group encounter a group of undead, which start an encounter. The group should be level appropriate, and build around low level undead that can reasonably wander the plane, such decrepit mummy, zombie shambler or husk zombie. Alternatively, they might find a group of skeleton guards and skeleton soldier guarding a charred corpse. That corpse belong to a necromancer that travelled the plane and had the displeasure of meeting the venedaemon.
- Flight of the cacodaemon: an important number of cacodaemon (more than the group can handle) cross path with the group, flying overhead in a specific direction, toward a venedaemon roaming in the area. The group must hide (save DC 25). If they fail, a cacodaemon (plus one for each 5 point away they were from the DC) notice them and decide to turn them into soul stone before continuing it’s way, starting an encounter.
- The trap: the player must make a DC 20 perception check. If they fail, the two front most player fall in a hidden pit trap (as described in the core rulebook, except that it’s twice as wide and covered in earth, increasing the perception DC). Wether they fail or not, they are then assaulted by a group of hunted as numerous as the players (who might be willing to back down if the player succeed in intimidating them).
For the critical failure (pick or a d4):
- False path: The path they were following turn out to be a decoy, a ploy mounted by the venedaemon to attract preys. When this is rolled, make a flat check as if it was a success, except that a success on this check now mean encountering the venedaemon. As long as they are following this path, a success on the flat check mean encountering the daemon, and a 25 or more in the daily tracking check mean that the group uncover the trickery (the group can’t critically fail that check anymore). The venedaemon is likely to be too much, so the first time the group encounter it, it should already be fighting (or slaughtering) a group of hunted when the party meet it, so that they can witness the danger from a “safe” distance and escape relatively unscathed.
- Acidic storm: as acid rain, except that it deal 2d4 acid damage per hour, and that it erase the path completely, making it impossible to follow for the day, and making it that the player must start from the beginning the next day.
- Cycling path: the group somehow find the rest of their own encampment from when they started tracking the beast. Somehow, abbadon twisted the path into a circle. The tracking fail, as if it was a sudden stop, except that no hint can be found anywhere.
- Down bellow: The path suddenly stop at a hole in the ground, marking the opening of a twisting tunnel. After descending down this tunnel twenty feet or so, the player will find it completely drowned by black waters. The players would be ill advise to drink it or dive into it, for this tunnel is connected to an underground portion of the Styx, and the water might rob them of their memories, identity, and then life. It emit a magical and evil aura, and those exposed to it must succeed a DC 25 will check for each or be robbed of an important memory forever, taking a permanent -1 for all recall knowledge check on a specific subject chosen by the GM. The check is attempted each time a character drink this water, or each round it is submerged under it, and the DC augment by 1 for each successive drink or round, to a maximum of DC 50. The character can feel the memory disappearing and automatically know the danger of the water after the first check.
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Beast of Abbadon :
The Beasts of Abbadon are meant to be the main source of food for the player, and thus their main target for the first two level. As such, they can’t be too hard, yet in a place such as abbadon, they can’t just be weak either. As such, I built them to have a CR higher than the party level, but act like a “puzzle”, with glaring flaws that can make the encounter relatively safe if the party manage to exploit them.
Appearance wise, they are akin to chimera, all of them exhibiting body part of various living organism merged together in a way that doesn’t quite fit. The main source of inspiration for those beast was the teratoma, a type of tumor that grow different type of tissue and bits of organs where they are not supposed to grow. The whole body of a beast of Abbadon grow around the remain of broken, rotten souls, making due with the few memories of life that remain in the soul. It know about legs, and it grow legs, but not necessarily in a harmonious “convenient” way that allow the beast to make good use of them. It know about a mouth and might grow one, but won’t necessarily grow the digestive track that goes with it.
As for their behavior, they simply wander around aimlessly until they can detect a soul, or a creature that might have one (which is pretty much anything that they can identify as a creature). As they don’t have a natural soul radar, they have to make due with whatever sense they grow (often with naked sight), and as such can be tricked into attacking an object they perceive as a creature, or into following light that might have been emitted by ectoplasm.
As for the specific, the Blind beast of Abbadon , and the Devouring beast of Abbadon are both “basic”, typical beast of abbadon. The blind beast is akin to an ostritch, but with a giant venus flytrap for a head, and huge bat like ear instead of it’s wings (and as such, have no eyes, and no way to emit sound pulse). The devouring beast is akin to a mix between a boa an earthworm, able to devour something of it’s own size, but when it do so, it become unable to move as well as before. Having no dark or low light vision, it also have trouble finding it’s prey, who are all concealed unless they carry an open light.
However, the Fruitfull beast of Abbadon was meant as a “special boss for 1st level party” to accommodate possible player with the goodberry spell, and the Great beast of Abbadon is meant to be a “special boss for 2nd level party that mark the end of the “hunting era” of the adventure. The fruitfull beast have hind legs that look like the mix between a gorilla and frog legs, incredibly powerfull and able to jump high and far, which are also covered in bramble and berries, but the lower body covered in tiny insect legs far too small to carry it’s weight, making it quite slow when not jumping (also having no low light vision, so trouble seing it’s prey.
The great beast is an event : the player don’t find it, but the huge molt of it’s previous form about to burst, surounded by hunted, who have laid trap and spike around it (waiting for it to burst so that they can collect both the large molt and the huge body). Unfortunately for the hunted, the beast is lucky, and have very few defective parts, ressembling a giant bull, with giant tusk on it’s head, and long, cutting “horns” protruding from it’s sides. To defeat it, the player will have to make use of the traps, walls and spike the hunted errected (while the hunted themselves are a bit overwhelmed).
The Hunted :
The inhabitant of the plane, and main source of roleplay of the begginning of that adventure. At low level, they are pretty much a foil to the players, wanting to survive and avoid daemon just like them, and trying to hunt down beast of abbadon just like them. Altho they already have a stat block, I added a few ranged option to complete the “primite hunter” thing they will have in my campaign.
While they are pretty weak, they shouldn’t be simply used “as is”, but paired with other type of encounter, or to create interesting roleplaying situation. The hunting event above already show a few of those, but you can easily create more. Most of them speak only daemonic, but it shouldn’t be impossible for groups of them to have at least one that know how to speak common.
Behavior wise, hunted are above all desperate, and a tad narcissistic. Infused with the evil aura of the plane, they have little compassion to show, and little trust in anyone but themselves, yet they understand that they are at the bottom of the food chain, and that they need to cooperate to survive. As such, groups of hunted are uneasy alliance were each member know they need the other yet fear that they want to betray them (and prepare their own betrayal as a way out in advance). More than any other afterlife, Abbadon is filled with people that shouldn’t have ended here, as the daemon poach soul through various methods. While all hunted are amnesic and doesn’t remember their lives, they know that they are in an afterlife, and the fact that a good portion of hunted don’t “belong” here is well known. Coupled with the narcissism that the plane create in them, it isn’t rare for a hunted to believe that they themselves are one of the few “righteous soul” unfairly condemn to Abbadon, while the other hunted they meet are scum that deserve their place.
Toward the player, the hunted will likely act greedily and try to claim the player food (and perhaps equipment) if they believe to be in a position of superiority, and act meekly if they believe to be at the players mercy. Desperation however can give them courage, and if faced with starvation, they might try to face the party even if they believe they don’t have much chance of success in order to secure some food. In such case, diplomacy can perfectly work, and if they are handled peacefully, they might impart to the player relevant information, such as the position of powerfull daemon they should avoid, or of important landmark. Likewise, if the player are willing to share food with them, the hunted might be willing to barter if they meet again afterward (which might actually be one of the only opportunity to “do shopping” while in the plane).
The Daemons
The daemons are of course the greatest danger of the plane. So dangerous in fact that the players are most likely not powerful enough to fight any at such low levels, appart from the cacodaemons. Their journey through the plane should undoubtedly start with them cowering and hiding from the daemons, for being noticed would bring certain doom, and for the first two levels, it should be a delicate balance between hiding from the daemon, and hunting in order not to starve.
There is however a few “lower level” daemon that the player could encounter, and that would not necessarily end in certain doom.
The lacridaemon work great as a perfect embodiment of the early dangers of the plane, thanks to it’s weeping aura. It’s aura manifest by the distant sound of whimper, that seems to come from all directions at once. It should be encountered long before the daemon itself is, and it’s adverse effect on travelling and hunting should unnerve the player to the point where they would try to chase down the source of the disturbance. However, the daemon ability to teleport, make itself invisible and erase all trail would make the endeavor very difficult, and it’s much more likely that the daemon find them rather than the opposite.
While the daemon itself should be manageable (if a bit difficult) even for a level one party, it’s abilities allow it to chose when to start the fight, and the lacridaemon is likely to chose a moment where they are especially vulnerable. It may stalk them for multiple days, waiting for starvation to settle in, and finally attacking them in the middle of the “night”, or when they are attempting to patch up after another encounter. Fortunately, the lacridaemon is also probably the only daemon that would be willing to leave it’s victim alive, even if it win.
As the daemon that represent death by exposure, it is likely to strip the victim of all protective clothing, tie it up (often by using it’s lay trap ability) and leave it to the elements. It might stand guard near it’s victim, waiting entire days sitting by it’s side for it to expire, or decide to leave it alone and come back around the time it feel the victim is likely to die. If the party escaped but leave someone behind, it could give them time to mount a counterattack and save their member, and if they were defeated, it would leave them a chance to free themselves and escape instead of suffering a TPK.
The lacridaemon would be far less lenient on those that already escape their death once tho. The second battle with it is thus likely to be far more deadly than the first, as the daemon won’t hold try to leave it’s victim alive anymore. Killing the lacridaemon however is pretty difficult, as it’s abilities mean that if it feel in danger, it can escape pretty easily. As such, even if the party win, they might fail to deal the fatal blow. Actually killing the lacridaemon would require either to overwhelm it before it have even time to flee, or to lay a trap by baiting it’s “use” of the invisibility and teleportation ability, so that once it’s backed into a corner, it can’t rely on them.
For higher level parties, lacridaemon by themselves shouldn’t be much of a threat, but their weeping aura would still be quite annoying. As such, “hunting party” of daemon seeking victims often include them for their ability to impede even the most masterfull adventurers. In such case “killing the lacridaemon” could be a necessity if the party want to avoid their pursuer, and could even force the party to engage the daemon even if they know that they have no chance of beating them all. A wise party engaged by a group of daemon would need to kill the lacridaemon before escaping, for their presence alone would make escape almost impossible (which can be used if you want your player to fight for a bit instead of just escaping immediately when faced with impossible odds).
The venedaemon meanwhile would be incredibly dangerous for low level players, while not being absolutely “one shot kill all” overwhelming. As such, it can safely be used to impart to your players the idea that they should run and hide from daemon instead of fighting them head on, without risking an immediate TPK. As such, I advise that you put a roaming one in search of victim near your player starting point, which would be the daemon they fight when faced with a “daemon encounter”.
The Venedaemon are representation of death by magic, and also have privileged relationship with cacodaemon, and thus you can easily track most cacodaemon your player face back to the venedaemon, making it the “early game end boss”, responsible for much of the player hardship. It is quite smart, know lots of languages, and won’t hesitate to taunt the player telepathically during battle or as it is tracking them, to taunt them into overcomitting, making mistake and into not running away. If it feel that the player pose no danger to it, and if they carry soul gems on them (which is likely as it is the money of the plane, and as cacodaemon drop them as loot), it might propose to spare them in exchange for all of their gems, and then add that they better be carrying more gems next they meet if they want to be spared again (thinking that he can use the group as a way to quickly gather all low level gems in the area before he kill them and turn them into gems themselves).
It’s high intelligence mean that the venedaemon will try to anticipate the player action after it meet them for the first time, using it’s cacodaemon as scout and using the path left by beast of Abbadon, as well as trap laid by the hunted to it’s advantage.
If the lacridaemon work as a living representation of the danger of the plane itself, the venedaemon is a representation of the danger of daemonkind as a whole. As such, killing their first venedaemon should be an important moment for the group, that mark the end of their period as the lowest of the low in abbadon, and the start of the “fighting back” arc, even if most daemon would still be out of their league.
Finally over, I'd like to know if anyone have suggestion to make, especially on the custom monster side, as these were my first ever custom monsters. I'd also like to know what people think about these rules, if anyone actually care to read so much stuff.
I haven't yet done any hexploration, so I can't give much feedback in that department, though I have liked all the scraps of lore about Abbadon and the Daemons I've read.
I will say the one thing that worries me a bit is the "getting lost" mechanic / navigation difficulty.
IMO, that's a really annoying complication that could get the party killed w/o much player agency, and it's kinda the complete opposite of what I'd expect if I'd gotten stuck in that plane.
Not only is there the river of souls to follow (which might be the main guide as to how to get out), but the one central feature of the whole plane, that perpetual eclipse, is the perfect immovable "guiding star" to navigate by.
I'd actually have navigating and choosing where to go be much easier than normal, but as it's a plane of dramatically different biomes,
I'd balance things so that the party has to constantly choose between going the long way around and starving in the low-food, low population wastes/ plains, and deciding to risk crossing through a biome, like the diseased swamps full of Leukodaemons.
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Heck, I'd even check if there's some way to have blended encounter charts for "skirting the borders" of a biome to allow the option to half-commit, letting some of the biome-specific encounters become possible while giving the players an important 3rd option.
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Overall, super duper cool, thanks for taking the time to share your stuff here.