Hordes of the Abyss: Q&A

Shade said:

Odd...it's working fine for me. It isn't a pdf download this time...just a series of web pages similar to the monthly previews.

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Crap, It's working now. I just tried close to 20 times. Cleared cache and all. Now it works.

JustaPlayer said:

Crap, It's working now. I just tried close to 20 times. Cleared cache and all. Now it works.

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Ahh, the joys of the internet.

Shade said:

Ahh, the joys of the internet.

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All information has now been assimilated into my database.

The latest WE is very nice. I especially liked the description of the Dreaming Gulf the little bits of stuff about old ruins in Vallashan (the timeline is a tad off, otherwise it'd be very tempting to link that to the Harmonium's utterly failed attempt to invade and destroy the Abyss, shortly after they expanded out onto the planes from Ortho).

One typo in the description of Durao however I found amusing. Five layers in Gehenna, the Fourfold Furnace of Perdition? *grin*

This is one of those situations where some snickering 'loths on their lunch break from the Tower Arcane just went around putting signs in front of bottomless chasms that read, 'Portal to 5th Furnace', isn't it?

Shemeska said:

(the timeline is a tad off, otherwise it'd be very tempting to link that to the Harmonium's utterly failed attempt to invade and destroy the Abyss, shortly after they expanded out onto the planes from Ortho).

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I thought the same thing! It's as if we share a common frame of reference and agree on many points! Bizarre.

As it is, though, Vallashan seems to be an entirely new material planar world, unless it's an obscure reference that I'm not getting. Which is fine - maybe someone can develop it.

The Forgotten Land works very well with Colin McComb's email to BOZ, but also with Zzyczesiya's original reference - apparently Xanxost forgot to mention Zzyczesiya again because Zzyczesiya, Lord of Ignorance, made it so. Which was probably Colin McComb's intention, though I thought he was just joking about how it was a lord we had no information on. I also like the description of the layer a lot - it's quite an expansion on something that we previously had basically only one line of information on!

I'm going to choose to ignore the '600 years ago' reference, though, as it puts the beginning of Fraternity of Order Abyssal exploration a few centuries too late for my liking. If you turn the 6 upside down, it's about right considering the age of the faction.

Woeful Escarand was quite a major expansion as well, considering the only thing we knew about the layer itself was found in the 2e monster descriptions of manes and nalfeshnee. Erik Mona seems to have been influenced by his layer of Black Regulus from Armies of the Abyss, which was another nalfeshnee tribunal. I had previously thought of Black Regulus as a layer seperate from Woeful Escarond, but now I'm inclined to say they're the same thing.
It was cleverly done, in any case - I particularly like the idea of rituals you can perform to force demons into trial. What a delicious way of defeating an enemy - or possibly not defeating them, depending on the judges' whims. Nice descriptions of the judges, too.

Thanks, guys! The short layers were the cut that cut deepest, so I'm thrilled that they're available for everyone to read. I could have written another 200 pages on the Abyss, easy (although I would have needed a _lot_ more time, as my editors can attest).

What a fun project! I can't believe they followed it up with an even better one!

--Erik

Erik Mona said:

What a fun project! I can't believe they followed it up with an even better one!

--Erik

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Tease.

Demiurge out.

There, how's this for a fixed Klurichir?

Klurichir Demon

Upped it 5 HD, fixed it's missing damage and attack routines, based its new ability scores by comparing the new balor to the old and since the klurichir I assume was based off the 3.0 balor stats, I fixed the stats accordingly, fixed DCs, skill modifiers, gave it true seeing instead of see invisibility, etc.

Still missing a range on the spine attack...not sure what to give it? 30 ft., 50 ft., 60 ft. increment?

So, yeah, did most of the work for you guys at WotC! How's about grabbing it, fixing it your special way and plopping it on the website as a fix?

High hopes, I know. Klurichir's become my best friend since FF...

Hey there Razz!

Razz said:

There, how's this for a fixed Klurichir?

Klurichir Demon

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Interesting. Though I would suggest it use the battleaxe two-handed, sacrificing one of its claws.

Also wouldn't a Huge Battleaxe deal either 4d6, 3d8 or 2d12 damage (rather than 3d6).

A +3 Battleaxe seems a tad weak in comparison to its Molydeus and Balor buddies. Maybe a +5 keen battleaxe of bitterness...?

Razz said:

Upped it 5 HD, fixed it's missing damage and attack routines, based its new ability scores by comparing the new balor to the old and since the klurichir I assume was based off the 3.0 balor stats, I fixed the stats accordingly, fixed DCs, skill modifiers, gave it true seeing instead of see invisibility, etc.

Still missing a range on the spine attack...not sure what to give it? 30 ft., 50 ft., 60 ft. increment?

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60 ft. for Huge.

Razz said:

So, yeah, did most of the work for you guys at WotC! How's about grabbing it, fixing it your special way and plopping it on the website as a fix?

High hopes, I know. Klurichir's become my best friend since FF...

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Maybe there'll be a Demonomicon article about the Klurichir? Perhaps the Klurichir represent the group of six powerful Balors (Klurichir are a bit like mutated advanced Balors) named at the back of AD&D Monster Manual 2, like Errtu and Balor.

Upper_Krust said:

Hey there Razz!
Interesting. Though I would suggest it use the battleaxe two-handed, sacrificing one of its claws.

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True, in such a case, probably a Huge greataxe would be more suitable.

Upper_Krust said:

Also wouldn't a Huge Battleaxe deal either 4d6, 3d8 or 2d12 damage (rather than 3d6).

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Battleaxe is 1d8, upgraded twice I'm pretty sure it goes to 2d6, then 3d6.

Upper_Krust said:

A +3 Battleaxe seems a tad weak in comparison to its Molydeus and Balor buddies. Maybe a +5 keen battleaxe of bitterness...?

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True, I was merely trying to stay to the core klurichir as presented in FF without delving too far off base. But compared to a Molydeus and Balor's weapons, a +3 unholy wounding battleaxe (or greataxe) sounds about right for it, especially as a CR 25 (I don't agree with the CR 17 it was given, taking all its abilities into account even in its 3.0 version).

Upper_Krust said:

60 ft. for Huge.

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Really? I probably missed that in the MM or something. Where'd you find that one?

Upper_Krust said:

Maybe there'll be a Demonomicon article about the Klurichir? Perhaps the Klurichir represent the group of six powerful Balors (Klurichir are a bit like mutated advanced Balors) named at the back of AD&D Monster Manual 2, like Errtu and Balor.

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I hope so, the klurichir would suck if they downgraded it though. It'll lose its flavor as the "demon that even gives balors nightmares."