After two spectacular accidents during each test of the Ships of Chaos on the field of battle, Demon Lord Grazz't is planning to deploy a new generation of entropic vessels and prepared the Triple Realm for building new Protection against Law wards.
Some diviners prophetised the new weapons may be huge flying ships created from the living flesh of the damned, an idea that Grazz't has probably stolen from demon lords involved in the Blood War. Grazz't uses Mind Blank spells to prevent further divination.
Grazz't has been seen by out spies last Accordant at the launch of one of these entropic war machines from the Mounts of Insanity on the 127th layer, which was part of a massive exercise of the demons' strategic forces described as the largest in more than 2000 years.
"The experiments conducted during these maneuvers ... have proven that entropy-powered magical constructs will enter service with the Tanar'ri Blood Warriors in the near future," our agents heard Grazz't say to an unknown balor that same day.
The new weapons will be "capable of undoing the very flesh of hundreds of their foes, and have powerful magic resistance and the ability of broad maneuver both in terms of altitude and direction of their flight," he said.
Grazz't caught this occasion after two embarrassing attempts to use the Ships against the Baatezu. A ship launched from the 13th layer two days before the battle didn't actually reach it, though the balor in charge of it later claimed that it had never received orders to do so and was subsequently quartered.
Recently, the tanar'ri sent another Ship of Chaos to the Gray Waste to repeat the test only to fail again. The ship levitated from the waters of the Styx and plane-shifted to the wrong layer 98 seconds later and crashed into the Third Gloom, a Yugoloth told us. We suspect the 'loths actually stole it.
Anthraxus, former Oinoloth of the Yugoloths, could be working to prevent the cause of the failed launch from being found, "it's hard to believe what a yugoloth says about tanar'ri strategic entropic devices," Factol Pentar commented.
The fiends kept mum about the failures. Grazz't wasn't heard talking about them, though it is possible that he sabotaged the exercises to steal their secrets.
"We have not had such exercises for almost 2000 years," Grazz't publicly said. "Naturally, in the course of such exercises there are minuses and pluses ... and those minuses will be detected, drawn and quartered. It is only for the better."
The military exercises were widely seen as part of campaign efforts to play down the recent successes of the archfiend Bel as a leader determined to establish a foothold on the Abyss' own terrain and from there launch assaults to the very home of the Tanar'ri. His luck is going to run out sooner or later.
In his private chambers, Grazz't focused on the new weapons, which he thinks would be unrivaled in the multiverse. He believes they would ensure the Triple Realm's dominance for eons to come.
Grazz't said that the Tanar'ri are continuing research in Magic Circles against Law and may research a new defensive spell. The last time that demons designed anything that could be described as "defensive" is forgotten in the mists of time.
Some diviners prophetized that his statement could indicate the discovery of ancient epic spells that travel through the Astral to approach their target, evading protective magic.
Such behavior would make a spell hard to detect and counter.
"On the other hand, its accuracy leaves much to be desired, making it unfit for dealing precision strikes," said Lepav Gehennaufer, a Torilian evoker specialist wizard.
He said that the research on planeshifting spells began before his world was formed in response to the Dark Eight's "Planar Closure" program.
Grazz't doesn't care about the new entropic ships being directed against the Baatezu, since he has backed out of the Blood War and is developing an Abyssal realm of his own.
"The Triple Realm has no otherplanar ambitions or hegemonist strivings," he often says.
Xander Lae Yakipev, a Sigil-based expert in Tanar'ri battle magic, said that the demons had experimented with a fleet of flying vessels during a Blood War assault several centuries ago, but voiced doubt about the fiends' ability to maneuver such formations in any effective way.
Grazz't could also be planning an entropy-powered magical weapon being developed for fiendish infantry, said Nvai Fruchnakrsm a representative for the Xaositect faction, a bunch of chaotic madmen. Or at least, that's what we figured he was saying.
In the Triple Realm last month, Grazz't watched the successful casting of a triple-Empowered, Maximized, Extended, Heightened, Anarchic, Unholy Word.
Later in the day, his minions successfully casted an Energy-Admixtured Meteor Swarm and a Quickened [Lightning] Polar Ray from the caster circle of fiendish wizards which allows for easy metamagic. The two are reliable attack spells straight out of the PHB.
