Tanar'ri (continued)
Balor
The big guys! Type VI. Don't call them Balrogs. Because they are totally unique and distinct entities with giant fiery whips and wreath of flames surrounding their bodies.
Balor have a surprisingly simple set of spell-like abilities, especially compared to Pit Fiends. But I guess that makes sense, they're much more about direct and straightforward combat than their Baatezu counterparts.
* The PCs discover, in a treasure hoard (you notice how often I use loaded treasure hoards? That's because half these guys have signature items. Go figure), a lightning-bolt shaped vorpal sword that hands out 10d6 damage and a save-vs-spell or die to anyone who picks it up. Yup, it's a Balor's sword, but the fact that it hasn't discorporated means the Balor it belonged to is still alive. So... what do you want to do with it?
* A summoning gone horribly, horribly wrong unleashes a Balor in a crowded marketplace. High-level PCs to the rescue! But of course, if they kill it, its death throes will claim the lives of countless innocent civilians. Which is exactly what the Balor itself will do if they don't kill it. Hmmm.
* The dwarves delved too deep, too greedily, and awoke an ancient imprisoned evil. Now the Balor has claimed the entire stronghold as its playground, all of its inhabitants as its playthings, and while the ancient bindings prevent it from escaping to the surface (or another plane), no such restrictions are placed upon its summoned minions. It's hero time!
Bar-Lgura
Hulking, brutish, orangutan-like demons... with chameleon-like skin-color-changing ability, who serve as scouts in the Blood War. Okay. They've also go a pretty sweet set of spell-like abilities, including illusions, telekinesis, plant growth and entangle, etc. Also, they don't get along with other Tanar'ri much, and left to their own devices, will actually form giant tribes of 300 Bar-Lgura or more, with crude government (nevertheless more sophisticated than almost any other "government" to be found in the abyss) and all. These tribes have the numbers to disobey even the True Tanar'ri, with the exception of Balors, of course.
* The PCs come across a small scout group of Bar-Lgura on their way back to a nearby Tanar'ri host with word of a Baatezu encampment. The only problem? Between the two forces is a small innocent town that the Tanar'ri would completely wipe out enroute. Time to make sure that message never gets delivered.
* A Bar-Lgura learned something it shouldn't have, and was just smart enough to go to ground in Sigil, using it's invisibility and chameleon-like coloration to hide, and plant growth and entangle on ravorvine to render exploring it's hideout an unpleasant prospect. Of course, there's many people interested in learning what it knows, and some of them can either hire the PCs, or order them around in-faction, to go find it out.
* Rumors have it that an ancient relic of significant interest to certain wealthy collectors actually lies in an Jungle-dominated Abyssal layer completely taken over by a Bar-Lgura tribe of exceptional size and fierceness. Good luck!
Cambion
Because Alu-fiends weren't enough! Cambions are another kind of half-Tanar'ri, this time what you get when a Tanar'ri has a kid with a female human (who, of course, never survives birth.) Also of course, they're freaks and outcastes who aren't accepted by the societies of either of their parents, which has been a basic truism of halfbreeds since we had half-elves. Remember when that was edgy? Granted, Cambions' innate thief-like abilities make them fairly good assassins.
* One of those rare Good-aligned Cambion tires of being an outcast, and decides to start a community in the Outlands for Cambions, Alu-fiends, Tieflings, and all mixed-breed types in general. Thing is, being a Marquis (son of a True Tanar'ri), he's probably got the personal power to pull it off. Several factions, including the PCs, might be interested in such influencing the development of such an undertaking, or at least preventing eachother from doing so.
* The PCs piss off somebody high up in the Blood War, who sends a Cambion assassin after them. 80% hide in shadows and move silently, even in bulky (and no doubt spiky) metal armor's pretty impressive, actually.
* An impressively twisted cult seeks to breed an army of Cambion warriors by summoning lesser Tanar'ri and... um... well, let's just say the PCs should stop them once the first few local women go missing, yeah? (For an entirely different dilemma: they did this years ago, and the PCs stop them and end up with a couple dozen 5-8 year old half-demons on their hands.)
The big guys! Type VI. Don't call them Balrogs. Because they are totally unique and distinct entities with giant fiery whips and wreath of flames surrounding their bodies.
Balor have a surprisingly simple set of spell-like abilities, especially compared to Pit Fiends. But I guess that makes sense, they're much more about direct and straightforward combat than their Baatezu counterparts.
* The PCs discover, in a treasure hoard (you notice how often I use loaded treasure hoards? That's because half these guys have signature items. Go figure), a lightning-bolt shaped vorpal sword that hands out 10d6 damage and a save-vs-spell or die to anyone who picks it up. Yup, it's a Balor's sword, but the fact that it hasn't discorporated means the Balor it belonged to is still alive. So... what do you want to do with it?
* A summoning gone horribly, horribly wrong unleashes a Balor in a crowded marketplace. High-level PCs to the rescue! But of course, if they kill it, its death throes will claim the lives of countless innocent civilians. Which is exactly what the Balor itself will do if they don't kill it. Hmmm.
* The dwarves delved too deep, too greedily, and awoke an ancient imprisoned evil. Now the Balor has claimed the entire stronghold as its playground, all of its inhabitants as its playthings, and while the ancient bindings prevent it from escaping to the surface (or another plane), no such restrictions are placed upon its summoned minions. It's hero time!
Bar-Lgura
Hulking, brutish, orangutan-like demons... with chameleon-like skin-color-changing ability, who serve as scouts in the Blood War. Okay. They've also go a pretty sweet set of spell-like abilities, including illusions, telekinesis, plant growth and entangle, etc. Also, they don't get along with other Tanar'ri much, and left to their own devices, will actually form giant tribes of 300 Bar-Lgura or more, with crude government (nevertheless more sophisticated than almost any other "government" to be found in the abyss) and all. These tribes have the numbers to disobey even the True Tanar'ri, with the exception of Balors, of course.
* The PCs come across a small scout group of Bar-Lgura on their way back to a nearby Tanar'ri host with word of a Baatezu encampment. The only problem? Between the two forces is a small innocent town that the Tanar'ri would completely wipe out enroute. Time to make sure that message never gets delivered.
* A Bar-Lgura learned something it shouldn't have, and was just smart enough to go to ground in Sigil, using it's invisibility and chameleon-like coloration to hide, and plant growth and entangle on ravorvine to render exploring it's hideout an unpleasant prospect. Of course, there's many people interested in learning what it knows, and some of them can either hire the PCs, or order them around in-faction, to go find it out.
* Rumors have it that an ancient relic of significant interest to certain wealthy collectors actually lies in an Jungle-dominated Abyssal layer completely taken over by a Bar-Lgura tribe of exceptional size and fierceness. Good luck!
Cambion
Because Alu-fiends weren't enough! Cambions are another kind of half-Tanar'ri, this time what you get when a Tanar'ri has a kid with a female human (who, of course, never survives birth.) Also of course, they're freaks and outcastes who aren't accepted by the societies of either of their parents, which has been a basic truism of halfbreeds since we had half-elves. Remember when that was edgy? Granted, Cambions' innate thief-like abilities make them fairly good assassins.
* One of those rare Good-aligned Cambion tires of being an outcast, and decides to start a community in the Outlands for Cambions, Alu-fiends, Tieflings, and all mixed-breed types in general. Thing is, being a Marquis (son of a True Tanar'ri), he's probably got the personal power to pull it off. Several factions, including the PCs, might be interested in such influencing the development of such an undertaking, or at least preventing eachother from doing so.
* The PCs piss off somebody high up in the Blood War, who sends a Cambion assassin after them. 80% hide in shadows and move silently, even in bulky (and no doubt spiky) metal armor's pretty impressive, actually.
* An impressively twisted cult seeks to breed an army of Cambion warriors by summoning lesser Tanar'ri and... um... well, let's just say the PCs should stop them once the first few local women go missing, yeah? (For an entirely different dilemma: they did this years ago, and the PCs stop them and end up with a couple dozen 5-8 year old half-demons on their hands.)