Closing on one of the last of the named mythos for One Man's God. I go to one that has a lot of importance for the creation of the D&D, the Nehwon Mythos of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series.
You can now get Lankhmar RPG products for both 1st and 2nd AD&D as well as for Savage Worlds and Dungeon Crawl Classics. To say it has left its mark on our hobby is a bit of an understatement. Yet I find I really know very little about the stories. I remember reading one of the books. It was either in late high school or my early college days, in either case, it was the mid-late 80s. I recall reading the book and not really caring for the characters all that much. I have been planning to reread them someday, but they keep getting pushed lower and lower on my to-be-read pile.
For this reason I had considered not doing these for One Man's God. But the more I thought about it the more I realized it was a perfect chance to "level-set" what I am doing here. Seeing if another culture's god can be redefined as AD&D Monster Manual Demon.
Now I am certain that others with far more knowledge than me will have opinions one way or the other and that is fine. They are welcome to share them. A key factor of "One Man's God" is just that, one man's opinion on the gods. And that one man is me.
So strap on a long sword and dirk and let's head to the City of Lankhmar.
Nehwon and Lankhmar in particular seems to have a lot of Gods. I kind of lank this to be honest. But how many of them are "Demons?"
We know there are demons here. Demons and witches are described as living in the wastes. The wizard Sheelba of the Eyeless Face is said to be so horrible that even demons run from it.
Astral Wolves
These guys are great! Love the idea, but they feel more like undead to me.
Gods of Trouble
Ok, these guys start to fit the bill. They are semi-unique, chaotic-evil, and have 366 hp. But they also have a lot of powers that demons just don't have. They have worshipers, but no indication that any spells (for clerics) or powers (for warlocks) are granted. They just seem to be powerful assholes.
Leviathan
There is a demon Leviathan and this guy looks a lot like him. But this one is neutral and does not have any other powers except for being huge.
Nehwon Earth God
This guy appears to be an actual god, even if evil and non-human.
Rat God
AH! Now we are getting someplace. Non-human, cult-like worshipers, described as the manifestation of men's fears, and chaotic evil. I see no reason why the Rat God here could not be a type of demon with a larger power base. At 222 hp he is actually pretty close to Demongorgon's hp.
The Rat God has some personal relevance for me. I was riding the bus home in high school one day and there was a group of kids that were playing D&D. I listened in and guess in their game if you wanted to make boots that aided in your ability to move silently they had to be made from the pelt of the Rat God! I always wondered what their other games must be like.
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 18'
HIT DICE: 222 hit points
% IN LAIR: 50%
TREASURE TYPE: P, S, T
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 4-40
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 20%
INTELLIGENCE: Supra genius (18)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Evil
SIZE: L (10' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: I
The Demon Prince of Rats is nearly powerful as other demon princes but he saves his interests and attention only for his rat and wererat followers. He desires to overrun the Prime Material Plane with his children and feed on the bodies of all the living.
Spider God
Same is true for this one. I mean if rats are a manifestation of human fears then spiders are as well. This creature is also CE and at 249 hp that makes it more powerful than Lolth at 66!
Tyaa
Could be a demon, but had more goddess about her. Again though, Lolth is both Goddess and Demon. We will later get a demoness of birds in D&D during the 3e days in the form of Decarabia. Tyaa requires her cult to sacrifice a body part, Decarabia cut off her own legs so she would never touch the ground again.
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| Bird Goddesses and Demoness, separated at birth? |
Obviously there a lot more here that could be done with these and the monsters/gods/demons that were not featured in the D&DG.
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