Libertad
Hero
So with Azrael's Guide to the Apocalypse on the horizon, I've been rethinking about the Biblical 5e adventure I reviewed back in September of last year. I've been working on some ideas I had brewing in my head for a while for this campaign as a possible DM, and figured to share with the greater community.
In the default adventure, Naamah the Seducer is the first Archdemon the PCs encounter, and also the one they have the earliest lead on in finding her lair. However, there are aspects in the adjoining adventure hooks and the encounter itself that many gaming groups may not want to deal with, namely pedophilia and mind-controlled sexual slavery. And there are of course people who may be uncomfortable with any sexual content at all, even if the aspects are retouched to be more consensual. Thus my rewrite is to remove this while still keeping things in line with her sin of lust.
While lust is heavily associated with sex both within and outside Christianity, it can more broadly reflect desire, including things that have nothing to do with sexual desire. As such, it is rather close to both greed and envy, and vice versa. But even within this framework we still have clay to make something distinct from Legion/Envy’s role in the adventure.
First Alteration, the Wish-Granter: Egypt has fallen far from its glory days. Once a power to contend with on its own, it is now yet another Roman province after its last pharaoh died to the serpent’s bite. Naamah sees exploitative potential in these Egyptians who find comfort in fantasies of a romanticized golden age. Having instilled a powerful herbal concoction with the aid of the Archdemon of Gluttony, the Shadow of the Beast created a powerful hallucinogenic that draws upon the subconscious’ deepest desires where one is immersed in a half-awake dream of contented bliss. The cult distributes this drug via the Luxor temple, which has been converted to a shrine of Morpheus, the Greco-Roman god of dreams. It is now little more than a drug den with fancy artwork and religious trappings. The poor and disenfranchised are particularly vulnerable to this drug, but even the more well-to-do citizens leading less than fulfilling lives have succumbed to the call of temptation. People whose desires are less socially acceptable or that would result in embarrassment or scorn (such as coveting a neighbor’s wife) are gathered by Naamah’s cultists, listening in on the lips of the dreaming to use as blackmail material.
The cult in Thebes is thus changed to being closer to a self-help scam, promising members ways of realizing their full potential. But in reality, they’re kept in line by the above coercions. The “Love, Sex, and Magic” event can be changed so that Faidra’s parents are cult members and addicts who are neglecting their daughter. She thus approaches the party for aid out of desperation. As for Seraphine’s correspondence letters with the other archdemons, Moloch’s letter can instead be discussing financial transactions between them. Moloch practically admits being behind the drug’s production with Seraphine as the purchaser, with mention of a meeting on the Laimargia Pleasure Cruise to negotiate payment for another shipment.
Changes to Aura and Lair Actions: The game mechanics for the Aura of Temptation can be kept the same, albeit reflavored. Instead of lustful thoughts, a character’s mind drifts to things left unaccomplished, things they wish they had but don’t necessarily need. Instead of posters and fliers for the brothel, the incense of the hallucinogenic wafts through the air, whether left out on windows or coming from the mouths of drugged passersby. Smelling it secondhand gives visions of the Luxor temple. People within the radius are still depressed, but the subject isn’t just strained marriages and more people who reminisce on how much better their lives could be.
As for the Lair Actions, the prostitutes are replaced with hallucinating people lost in their own fantasies getting in the way of combat; instead of a naked Seraphine, a character instead sees something they most desire that they are about to damage; instead of the psychic damage from despair of failed relationships, the damaging vision is instead of failed opportunities the character could have undertaken to better themselves.
Similarly speaking, the Induce Lust spell could change so that instead of being dumbfounded by the caster’s beauty, the affected targets instead see the caster as an ideal form of themselves who took the right options in life and have things they covet. It will thus be renamed Induce Desire.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The advantages of these changes is that it takes a minimum of work to use with the default adventure. It’s still in the same location involving the same characters, and the Aphrodite’s Touch brothel map is easy enough to remake as a drug den. As for the link to the Archdemon of Gluttony, drug abuse can be seen as a form of Gluttony, which ties in well as a link to that adventure and encounter. The disadvantage is that some players may not be comfortable with drug addiction.
Second Alteration, Whisperer to the King of Kings: In this reimagining, Naamah is based not in the Egyptian city of Thebes, but the Parthian city of Ecbatana. Here, she is a court mage and advisor to Artabanus II, the King of Kings and Emperor of the Parthian Empire. In reality, she is conspiring with Prince Gotarzes to get his brother and father slain so that he can ascend the throne. In this case she replaces the role of Ara as High Sorcerer.
Why is Naamah/Seraphine helping Gotarzes? Well, the archdemons are still unsure of who the Messiah is at this point in the campaign, but there are some who believe that he will be a Jewish warlord from the line of King David who will drive out the Romans. As the Parthian Empire is Rome’s primary rival in the Middle Kingdoms, they have a powerful incentive to find said Messiah to better fight Rome. There’s also the fact that Cyrus the Great, the first Persian Emperor, was the only gentile Messiah for helping end the Jews’ Babylonian captivity and helping their return to Zion. Thus, the Parthian courts seek to draw upon Cyrus’ legacy for propaganda purposes in hopes of making an ally out of Judea. Although Artabanus and Gortarzes both support this plan, Naamah believes that Gotarzes will be a more bloodthirsty and warmongering leader, which can force the Messiah’s hand in coming out of hiding all the faster.
In this case, the archangel Raphael is at a loss. Being single-minded and not on the up and up in regards to mortal politics, he is unable to penetrate the abundant magical wards set up around the city and thus his Animal Messengers risk getting intercepted. The PCs will need to find a way to strike at Naamah (with or without Raphael) in a way that doesn’t bring the royal guard down on their heads. Or at least have a ready means of escaping the city if they do!
The event can be run much like the subplot of Gotarzes’ Quest, although PCs who wish to remain morally clean can instead gain the aid of Ara into faking the death of Meherdates, one of Gotarzes’ targets, via magic. Alternatively they can safeguard him from a Sicarii assassin during an important meeting between Parthia and a neutral kingdom or vassal state. As Ara has been demoted and replaced by Seraphine as court mage, she is eager to get back into the government’s good graces, and exposing the conspiracy of a prince is the perfect way to do this. Right now she only has a hunch, but views the PCs as a useful third party to find out what’s up with the new advisor.
If the PCs save Meherdates, they can learn from him that he’s been on the outs with factions in the royal court, and suspects the new court mage Seraphine to be behind it. As thanks, he will give the party an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location, which they can use to let Raphael navigate Ecbatana without tripping divinations (or use it themselves for the same purpose). If the PCs fail to save Meherdates or they wish to follow up on who hired the Sicarii assassin, they can trace him to a hidden fortress (populate it with traps and monsters suitable for a level 4 party) containing correspondence letters with handwriting similar to Gotarzes’.
PCs who deign to investigate Seraphine can sneak into her personal chambers. There they will find incriminating letters like the ones in area 6 of Aphrodite’s Touch brothel, plus personal notes attempting to persuade Mammon (Archdemon of Greed) to fund Skiritai coup attempts against towns loyal to Parthia. This is to make the current King of Kings look like he has a weak reign, thus legitimizing Gotarzes as a replacement.
Attempting to inform the King of Kings about this conspiracy on its own won’t work, as he is not one to trust strangers in comparison to his own son barring extraordinary evidence and the word of someone he trusts. Prince Vardanes fits the latter category, although he will need to see evidence of his brothers’ treachery. If the PCs present two out of four bits of evidence (Meherdates’ surviving testimony, the correspondence letters between Gotarzes and the Sicarii, Prince Vardanes’ testimony, and/or Seraphines’ personal notes), then the King of Kings will realize something’s amiss and dismiss Seraphine. Three or four will have him put Gotarzes under house arrest until a trial is convened. In either case, Seraphine will not go quietly, and having charmed several royal guards during her stay, will attempt to assassinate the King of Kings, the PCs, as well as Ara and Raphael if they’re present. Prince Gotarzes will also join the battle alongside the Archdemon (if under house arrest he will be shackled during combat and Restrained). The number of enemies can be the same as in the Aphrodite’s touch brothel, but replacing a Centurion with a Spahbed, the Legionaries with SRD Guards, and the addition of Gotarzes and/or Ara as people involved in the combat as appropriate.
If the PCs fail to convince the King of Kings, he will accuse them of insurrection and attempt to have them arrested. Seraphine will not interfere in this case, only attacking if attacked herself. If she is forced into her archdemon form, this will cause half of the royal guards to switch sides and attack her, having not been charmed yet and had private reservations about the newest court mage.
As this battle will likely be in a Parthian palace and not a brothel, alternate battle maps should be used. There’s quite a few online, but these maps have enough environmental scenery to not be just a big open space:
If the PCs avert Gotarzes’ coup, the King of Kings will handsomely reward them for their service. In addition to changing the party’s status with Parthia to Allied, they will gain their choice of two of the following rewards: 5,000 gold, two rolls on the Research Table with a +4 bonus (or the PC’s Intelligence modifier if higher) in drawing upon the state’s resources in the library of Nineveh, or a bow wielded by the famed Arash the archer.
New Magic Weapon, Arash’s Bow (Rare): You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, you can cast Locate Object by firing an arrow into the air which will harmlessly land next to the object. This feature can be used only once, and is regained at the next dawn.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The bulk of archdemon lairs and adventure locations in general are heavily focused on the western side of the setting map. Besides the Archdemon of Sloth in Babylon, the PCs may not ever need to visit Parthian territory after leaving Teredon, and relocating Naamah to Ecbatana helps with this. It also turns Prince Gortazes’ planned usurpation into a plot point in the main campaign, which can make PCs feel more connected to the world rather than treating Parthia as a distant entity. It also lets characters specializing in social and investigative skills opportunities to flex their silver tongues and gray matter, and if things go right they can earn the favor of a powerful figure in the campaign.
The disadvantage is that Ecbatana’s location doesn’t lie along the route through Sheba, which means that PCs who want to go after Naamah immediately may pass up the Three Wise Men quests and likely face her at a very low level. There’s also the fact that the nearest archdemon, Sloth, has a rather dangerous lair for 4th level PCs on account of the exhaustion death spiral.
Naamah, Archdemon of Desire: A Villainous Rewrite
In the default adventure, Naamah the Seducer is the first Archdemon the PCs encounter, and also the one they have the earliest lead on in finding her lair. However, there are aspects in the adjoining adventure hooks and the encounter itself that many gaming groups may not want to deal with, namely pedophilia and mind-controlled sexual slavery. And there are of course people who may be uncomfortable with any sexual content at all, even if the aspects are retouched to be more consensual. Thus my rewrite is to remove this while still keeping things in line with her sin of lust.
While lust is heavily associated with sex both within and outside Christianity, it can more broadly reflect desire, including things that have nothing to do with sexual desire. As such, it is rather close to both greed and envy, and vice versa. But even within this framework we still have clay to make something distinct from Legion/Envy’s role in the adventure.
First Alteration, the Wish-Granter: Egypt has fallen far from its glory days. Once a power to contend with on its own, it is now yet another Roman province after its last pharaoh died to the serpent’s bite. Naamah sees exploitative potential in these Egyptians who find comfort in fantasies of a romanticized golden age. Having instilled a powerful herbal concoction with the aid of the Archdemon of Gluttony, the Shadow of the Beast created a powerful hallucinogenic that draws upon the subconscious’ deepest desires where one is immersed in a half-awake dream of contented bliss. The cult distributes this drug via the Luxor temple, which has been converted to a shrine of Morpheus, the Greco-Roman god of dreams. It is now little more than a drug den with fancy artwork and religious trappings. The poor and disenfranchised are particularly vulnerable to this drug, but even the more well-to-do citizens leading less than fulfilling lives have succumbed to the call of temptation. People whose desires are less socially acceptable or that would result in embarrassment or scorn (such as coveting a neighbor’s wife) are gathered by Naamah’s cultists, listening in on the lips of the dreaming to use as blackmail material.
The cult in Thebes is thus changed to being closer to a self-help scam, promising members ways of realizing their full potential. But in reality, they’re kept in line by the above coercions. The “Love, Sex, and Magic” event can be changed so that Faidra’s parents are cult members and addicts who are neglecting their daughter. She thus approaches the party for aid out of desperation. As for Seraphine’s correspondence letters with the other archdemons, Moloch’s letter can instead be discussing financial transactions between them. Moloch practically admits being behind the drug’s production with Seraphine as the purchaser, with mention of a meeting on the Laimargia Pleasure Cruise to negotiate payment for another shipment.
Changes to Aura and Lair Actions: The game mechanics for the Aura of Temptation can be kept the same, albeit reflavored. Instead of lustful thoughts, a character’s mind drifts to things left unaccomplished, things they wish they had but don’t necessarily need. Instead of posters and fliers for the brothel, the incense of the hallucinogenic wafts through the air, whether left out on windows or coming from the mouths of drugged passersby. Smelling it secondhand gives visions of the Luxor temple. People within the radius are still depressed, but the subject isn’t just strained marriages and more people who reminisce on how much better their lives could be.
As for the Lair Actions, the prostitutes are replaced with hallucinating people lost in their own fantasies getting in the way of combat; instead of a naked Seraphine, a character instead sees something they most desire that they are about to damage; instead of the psychic damage from despair of failed relationships, the damaging vision is instead of failed opportunities the character could have undertaken to better themselves.
Similarly speaking, the Induce Lust spell could change so that instead of being dumbfounded by the caster’s beauty, the affected targets instead see the caster as an ideal form of themselves who took the right options in life and have things they covet. It will thus be renamed Induce Desire.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The advantages of these changes is that it takes a minimum of work to use with the default adventure. It’s still in the same location involving the same characters, and the Aphrodite’s Touch brothel map is easy enough to remake as a drug den. As for the link to the Archdemon of Gluttony, drug abuse can be seen as a form of Gluttony, which ties in well as a link to that adventure and encounter. The disadvantage is that some players may not be comfortable with drug addiction.
Second Alteration, Whisperer to the King of Kings: In this reimagining, Naamah is based not in the Egyptian city of Thebes, but the Parthian city of Ecbatana. Here, she is a court mage and advisor to Artabanus II, the King of Kings and Emperor of the Parthian Empire. In reality, she is conspiring with Prince Gotarzes to get his brother and father slain so that he can ascend the throne. In this case she replaces the role of Ara as High Sorcerer.
Why is Naamah/Seraphine helping Gotarzes? Well, the archdemons are still unsure of who the Messiah is at this point in the campaign, but there are some who believe that he will be a Jewish warlord from the line of King David who will drive out the Romans. As the Parthian Empire is Rome’s primary rival in the Middle Kingdoms, they have a powerful incentive to find said Messiah to better fight Rome. There’s also the fact that Cyrus the Great, the first Persian Emperor, was the only gentile Messiah for helping end the Jews’ Babylonian captivity and helping their return to Zion. Thus, the Parthian courts seek to draw upon Cyrus’ legacy for propaganda purposes in hopes of making an ally out of Judea. Although Artabanus and Gortarzes both support this plan, Naamah believes that Gotarzes will be a more bloodthirsty and warmongering leader, which can force the Messiah’s hand in coming out of hiding all the faster.
In this case, the archangel Raphael is at a loss. Being single-minded and not on the up and up in regards to mortal politics, he is unable to penetrate the abundant magical wards set up around the city and thus his Animal Messengers risk getting intercepted. The PCs will need to find a way to strike at Naamah (with or without Raphael) in a way that doesn’t bring the royal guard down on their heads. Or at least have a ready means of escaping the city if they do!
The event can be run much like the subplot of Gotarzes’ Quest, although PCs who wish to remain morally clean can instead gain the aid of Ara into faking the death of Meherdates, one of Gotarzes’ targets, via magic. Alternatively they can safeguard him from a Sicarii assassin during an important meeting between Parthia and a neutral kingdom or vassal state. As Ara has been demoted and replaced by Seraphine as court mage, she is eager to get back into the government’s good graces, and exposing the conspiracy of a prince is the perfect way to do this. Right now she only has a hunch, but views the PCs as a useful third party to find out what’s up with the new advisor.
If the PCs save Meherdates, they can learn from him that he’s been on the outs with factions in the royal court, and suspects the new court mage Seraphine to be behind it. As thanks, he will give the party an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location, which they can use to let Raphael navigate Ecbatana without tripping divinations (or use it themselves for the same purpose). If the PCs fail to save Meherdates or they wish to follow up on who hired the Sicarii assassin, they can trace him to a hidden fortress (populate it with traps and monsters suitable for a level 4 party) containing correspondence letters with handwriting similar to Gotarzes’.
PCs who deign to investigate Seraphine can sneak into her personal chambers. There they will find incriminating letters like the ones in area 6 of Aphrodite’s Touch brothel, plus personal notes attempting to persuade Mammon (Archdemon of Greed) to fund Skiritai coup attempts against towns loyal to Parthia. This is to make the current King of Kings look like he has a weak reign, thus legitimizing Gotarzes as a replacement.
Attempting to inform the King of Kings about this conspiracy on its own won’t work, as he is not one to trust strangers in comparison to his own son barring extraordinary evidence and the word of someone he trusts. Prince Vardanes fits the latter category, although he will need to see evidence of his brothers’ treachery. If the PCs present two out of four bits of evidence (Meherdates’ surviving testimony, the correspondence letters between Gotarzes and the Sicarii, Prince Vardanes’ testimony, and/or Seraphines’ personal notes), then the King of Kings will realize something’s amiss and dismiss Seraphine. Three or four will have him put Gotarzes under house arrest until a trial is convened. In either case, Seraphine will not go quietly, and having charmed several royal guards during her stay, will attempt to assassinate the King of Kings, the PCs, as well as Ara and Raphael if they’re present. Prince Gotarzes will also join the battle alongside the Archdemon (if under house arrest he will be shackled during combat and Restrained). The number of enemies can be the same as in the Aphrodite’s touch brothel, but replacing a Centurion with a Spahbed, the Legionaries with SRD Guards, and the addition of Gotarzes and/or Ara as people involved in the combat as appropriate.
If the PCs fail to convince the King of Kings, he will accuse them of insurrection and attempt to have them arrested. Seraphine will not interfere in this case, only attacking if attacked herself. If she is forced into her archdemon form, this will cause half of the royal guards to switch sides and attack her, having not been charmed yet and had private reservations about the newest court mage.
As this battle will likely be in a Parthian palace and not a brothel, alternate battle maps should be used. There’s quite a few online, but these maps have enough environmental scenery to not be just a big open space:
If the PCs avert Gotarzes’ coup, the King of Kings will handsomely reward them for their service. In addition to changing the party’s status with Parthia to Allied, they will gain their choice of two of the following rewards: 5,000 gold, two rolls on the Research Table with a +4 bonus (or the PC’s Intelligence modifier if higher) in drawing upon the state’s resources in the library of Nineveh, or a bow wielded by the famed Arash the archer.
New Magic Weapon, Arash’s Bow (Rare): You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, you can cast Locate Object by firing an arrow into the air which will harmlessly land next to the object. This feature can be used only once, and is regained at the next dawn.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The bulk of archdemon lairs and adventure locations in general are heavily focused on the western side of the setting map. Besides the Archdemon of Sloth in Babylon, the PCs may not ever need to visit Parthian territory after leaving Teredon, and relocating Naamah to Ecbatana helps with this. It also turns Prince Gortazes’ planned usurpation into a plot point in the main campaign, which can make PCs feel more connected to the world rather than treating Parthia as a distant entity. It also lets characters specializing in social and investigative skills opportunities to flex their silver tongues and gray matter, and if things go right they can earn the favor of a powerful figure in the campaign.
The disadvantage is that Ecbatana’s location doesn’t lie along the route through Sheba, which means that PCs who want to go after Naamah immediately may pass up the Three Wise Men quests and likely face her at a very low level. There’s also the fact that the nearest archdemon, Sloth, has a rather dangerous lair for 4th level PCs on account of the exhaustion death spiral.
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