As I recall, Hastur was called "the Unmentionable" for a reason in D&D: his appearance chance was 25%, not 10%.
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Ever had a demon/devil/god show up by its name being spoken?
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
As I recall, Hastur was called "the Unmentionable" for a reason in D&D: his appearance chance was 25%, not 10%.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
When I was in junior high, it was popular to have Thor appear to pummel and or smite the PCs, as one of our recurring characters was a cleric of Thor. Since then, not so much.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
I don't imagine most deities (or their minions) would go after their own worshippers. Yeah, the followers may have called him, but it's the Cleric who was the enemy.
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Back in 2E, I had "The Book of Tables", an old 3rd party supplement that had a random % table of actions the diety would take if called. I made several checks to see if intervention happened, but it never did - save once.
Once, in desperation, the party cleric called on his own god while the group was facing a cleric of Orcus and a few undead minions, and the cleric's deity answered. However, this was a climatic battle the PCs could handle, and I was miffed it'd finally gone off (after about 2 attempts/session when the characters found out they might get a response). The deity appeared, stopped time, chastised the cleric for calling on him. The cleric tried to explain "We're battling the priests of your enemy, Orcus" - to which the god winced at the mention of the other power, but he gave the cleric two "favors" (read wishes) to rectify the current situation.
Just as the cleric was mulling over how to word the two favors, Orcus likewise appeared, having been called by the cleric's mention, and was clearly miffed over the interference. Ignoring the cleric, Orcus got into a heated debate with the deity and finally announced that for every favor the cleric's god granted, he'd likewise grant a favor to each of the three priests (a greater priest and two lesser) that were present and loyal to him. Shrugging, the cleric's god replied that was why he disliked to directly intervene - opposing gods could do likewise for the other side, and it just made things complicated. He then asked if the Cleric had decided on his two favors.
Realizing what would happen, the cleric replied he'd thought it over and he really didn't need the help, and that he and the party could handle things as they were. In a flash, the two dieties disappeared, and the fight resumed, though the party cleric had found himself in a better physical position (his god had surreptitiously let the cleric remain where he'd moved while time had stopped - at the feet of the group's fighter who'd gotten low on hp in the fight).
I didn't have any problems with god calls from there on out, and the characters were very careful not to use the name of opposing gods after that.
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
I had a greater demon show up once when its name was called. The demon's name was "Osh*t!"
For some unknown reason, my players didn't find that funny.
For some unknown reason, my players didn't find that funny.
Jack7
First Post
I always thought that was a good mechanic in AD&D, but I always played it differently as a DM, because of my setting. Neither a god nor a demon ever showed up just by name-calling alone. And I never did it by die-roll.
Neither ever came unless they wanted to, meaning it was a plot matter to advance the game, not a sudden shout out by mortals. And no god ever showed up and just started attacking players just because his name was called. Instead he would show up and engage in riddles or give useful information or would give misinformation or distorted information. Characters never attacked gods and gods never attacked mortals. Gods didn't consider mortals a threat (they weren't) and my players knew gods were a threat so didn't engage them in fights. You couldn't really kill a god, just hurt it's temporary physical form, which would piss it off and what good is that? That's not really a fight you can win in the long run. All the god has to do is wait til you're old or vulnerable. So god fights never made sense to any of us.
Demons, if their name was called might send something like a simulation of themselves, or an illusion of themselves, just to screw with and cause trouble to the characters but wouldn't bother to come just because a mortal called their name.
Demons and Devils had to actually be summoned by complicated ritual, you had to know their real names, and it was extremely dangerous to do that. Once my players summoned Orcus in an attempt to claim his weapon, he escaped his circle, they got their lungs handed to them, and three died before the summon spell could be broken and Orcus returned to his home.
Thereafter Orcus interfered with them quite a bit but always through minions. He didn't consider them worth the effort for personal attention. But he did like giving them hell, so to speak, through others.
In my setting back then gods and demons and devils just didn't normally consider individual mortals much worth messing with. So if they messed with mortals they had their own motives at play, and didn't give thought to what the characters wanted or didn't want, just because they wanted it.
Neither ever came unless they wanted to, meaning it was a plot matter to advance the game, not a sudden shout out by mortals. And no god ever showed up and just started attacking players just because his name was called. Instead he would show up and engage in riddles or give useful information or would give misinformation or distorted information. Characters never attacked gods and gods never attacked mortals. Gods didn't consider mortals a threat (they weren't) and my players knew gods were a threat so didn't engage them in fights. You couldn't really kill a god, just hurt it's temporary physical form, which would piss it off and what good is that? That's not really a fight you can win in the long run. All the god has to do is wait til you're old or vulnerable. So god fights never made sense to any of us.
Demons, if their name was called might send something like a simulation of themselves, or an illusion of themselves, just to screw with and cause trouble to the characters but wouldn't bother to come just because a mortal called their name.
Demons and Devils had to actually be summoned by complicated ritual, you had to know their real names, and it was extremely dangerous to do that. Once my players summoned Orcus in an attempt to claim his weapon, he escaped his circle, they got their lungs handed to them, and three died before the summon spell could be broken and Orcus returned to his home.
Thereafter Orcus interfered with them quite a bit but always through minions. He didn't consider them worth the effort for personal attention. But he did like giving them hell, so to speak, through others.
In my setting back then gods and demons and devils just didn't normally consider individual mortals much worth messing with. So if they messed with mortals they had their own motives at play, and didn't give thought to what the characters wanted or didn't want, just because they wanted it.
Herremann the Wise
First Post
EN World I am disappointed!
I saw this thread earlier and thought I should check it out but what do I find? No mention, not even a hinted inference! There is a devil being made to feel very bad even now almost 30 years later!
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
I saw this thread earlier and thought I should check it out but what do I find? No mention, not even a hinted inference! There is a devil being made to feel very bad even now almost 30 years later!
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
No-one ever says Ftumch. Why couldn't I be called William?
The Young Ones?
Interesting. I don't recall that this was a feature of every demon/devil/god.
I only remember it being a feature of Pazuzu and it required saying his name aloud three times. I had once prepared an adventure which included a 'magical phrase' required to open a magically barred door. The phrase consisted of four parts that could be found in the dungeon: "pazu" "zupa" "zuzupa", and "zuzu".
Unfortunately the pcs didn't manage to find all parts of the phrase, so the door stayed closed and nothing untoward happened...
