16/08/23, 13:39 Zargon the Returner - Monsters - Homebrew - D&D Beyond https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/514771-zargon-the-returner 1/2 Description "Who can stand against the might of Zargon the Returner? Surely, no man is strong enough of courage and skill to face my master in combat. No god would dare confront him, for he has brought low others before. Nay, when Zargon awakens, all shall tremble as the world is born anew in his foul image.” - Dorn, Ascendant of Zargon Despised by the baatezu, feared by the gods, and all but forgotten by mortals, Zargon the Returner struggles to escape his prison to once more conquer the earth and drown the world with rivers of his slime. Zargon stands 30 feet tall from the nest of his squirming tentacles to the tip of his great black horn. One’s eyes cannot help but fall upon Zargon’s monstrous head. A wide maw filled with curving teeth stretches across his reptilian face, and oozing brown slime hangs from his chin and forms smoking clots on the hardened flesh of his torso. A 7- foot-long black horn speckled with silver flecks thrusts out from the center of his forehead, and pale yellow fluid weeps from its base. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Zargon is the bulging bloody eye just below his horn. The rest of Zargon’s form is no less repellent. A muscular torso bears the signs of countless injuries, crisscrossed with seeping wounds and pestilential tumors. In place of arms, Zargon has a knot of flesh at each shoulder, from which six long tentacles whip out, each with a thorny barb perfect for embedding into flesh and bone and holding victims fast. Six thick, muscled tentacles grow from the base of his trunk, and when he moves, one or more of these appendages darts out to find purchase and drag his awfulness forward, leaving a stinking trail of bloody slime, fingers, slippery organs, and other undigested flesh wherever he travels. Zargon the Returner Huge Fiend, Lawful Evil Armor Class 21 Natural Armor Hit Points 342 (52d12) Speed 40 ft., swim 60 ft. STR 30 (+10) DEX 15 (+2) CON 30 (+10) INT 21 (+5) WIS 28 (+9) CHA 30 (+10) Saving Throws CON +19, WIS +18 Skills Arcana +14, Athletics +19, Insight +18, Intimidation +19, Investigation +14, Perception +18, Persuasion +19, Religion +14, Stealth +11, Survival +18 Damage Resistances Cold, Fire; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren't Silvered Damage Immunities Acid, Poison Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned Senses Blindsight 500 ft., Darkvision 60 ft., Truesight 120 ft., Passive Perception 19 Languages All, Telepathy (1000 ft.) Challenge 30 (155,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +9 Slime. Creatures damaged by Zargon’s bite attack must succeed on a DC 25 Constitution save or become polluted with slime. Each day, the victim must succeed on another save or take (3d6) points of acid damage. Victims reduced to 0 hit points whilst infected lapse into a puddle of foul slime, dead. Zargon can then choose to reanimate these creatures into Whelps of Zargon. They retain none of their previous abilities. Only a Heal spell or stronger healing magic will cure this condition. Regeneration. As long as Zargon's horn is still attached to his body, he heals 50 hit points at the start of each of his turns. If any of his limbs are severed, he can reattach them in one turn by simply holding the limb to the location it was severed from. Horn. Zargon’s horn grants him regeneration and his resistances to cold and fire damage. Removing the horn requires a successful melee weapon attack, followed by a DC 30 Strength check. Removing the horn causes Zargon to lose the aforementioned benefits. The horn “regrows” Zargon after 1d4 days. The horn is destroyed if it is dropped into the Eye of Zargon, far below in the lost city, within one day of Zargon’s death. Anathematic Secrecy. Zargon is immune to all divine divination spell effects, and he can’t be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors. Legendary Swimmer. Zargon has advantage on all Strength (Athletics) checks to perform a special action or avoid hazards whilst swimming, and can use the Dash action whilst swimming, provided he swims in a straight line. When making a Strength (Athletics) save for swimming, he can choose to always roll 10 instead of making the actual roll. Innate Spellcasting. Zargon's spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 22). He can innately cast the following spells, without requiring any material components. At will: freedom of movement, magic circle 3/day: lightning bolt Divine Enervation. All divine spellcasters lose the ability to regain spells so long as they remain within 100 miles of Zargon. This interdiction does not interfere with spellcasting. Actions Multiattack. Zargon can make 12 tentacle attacks, one gore attack, and one bite attack during his turn. Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: (2d6+10) bludgeoning damage. This attack is a critical hit on a 19 or 20 for the attack roll. If Zargon makes a successful tentacle attack against a Large or smaller creature, it can attempt to grapple the creature as a bonus action with a successful opposing Strength check. On a success, the creature is grappled and takes an additional (2d6+10) bludgeoning damage. The creature can escape the grapple with a successful DC 25 Strength check. Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: (3d6+10) piercing damage. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: (2d6+10) piercing damage plus (3d6) acid damage. Summon Ooze (3/day). Zargon automatically summons 1d4+1 corruptures. Spew Slime (recharge 5 rounds). Zargon spews a 60-foot cone of brown slime as a bonus action. All living creatures within the area must succeed on a DC 21 Dexterity save or take (10d6) points of acid damage. The damage is halved on a successful save. Creatures damaged by the slime must succeed on a DC 25 Constitution save or become polluted with Zargon's Slime. Zargon the Returner ☁️ Take your game to new heights! Get Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants now DISMISS
16/08/23, 13:39 Zargon the Returner - Monsters - Homebrew - D&D Beyond https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/514771-zargon-the-returner 2/2 SpelljammerCreator ADD TO COLLECTION REPORT Background Many centuries ago, a mighty kingdom named Cynidicea stood in the heart of a massive and trackless wasteland. It reclaimed the land from the desert, transforming it into fertile farmland. The people prospered, and the nation achieved great advances in magic, science, and technology. As with all cultures, it didn’t last. The kingdom’s success bred complacency and decadence, and the population plunged itself into excess. This laxity enabled a bloodthirsty cult to come to power and perform unspeakable sacrifices to their dark god, Zargon. For years, the kingdom declined, languishing under the yoke of oppression, until a great barbarian horde smashed the nation, slaughtered the people, and scattered them across the lands. Though barbarians need little provocation to attack soft cities, the army attacking the kingdom had long suffered depredations at the hands of the cultists. The cult of Zargon needed human sacrifices to feed to its god, and when its members exhausted themselves of nonbelievers and criminals from their own people, they enslaved others for this purpose. A charismatic barbarian leader named Zankar gathered the tribes and sacked the city, having lost too many of his kinsmen to the madmen of Cynidicea. The tribal leader made a terrifying discovery when his horde tore through the nation’s capital city: The god they worshiped was no otherworldly being; it was a terrifying monster that lorded over them all, demanding appalling sacrifices to appease its dreadful hunger. The streets were slick with blood and a disgusting slime. Zankar realized the only way he could preserve his own people would be to destroy the beast-god, and so he fought the monster for seven days and nights. Although considered one of the greatest warriors in the land, he could not kill the beast—as soon as he struck a blow, Zargon’s wounds would heal. Zankar grew weary, giving the monster the opportunity it needed. Within moments, the climactic duel came to a sudden and bloody end. The gods blessed Zankar, but their champion failed. The gods themselves came to the earth to punish the kingdom and put Zargon to rest. When they appeared, the elder evil mocked them. Zargon slew some of them and drove off the rest. Survivors of the barbarian invasion witnessed Zargon’s might and feared the world would end, so they fled into the caves beneath their city. Zargon seemed unstoppable, but he had one foe remaining. Eons earlier, Zargon had ruled the Nine Hells of Baator as father of the ancient baatorians, a long-extinct race that preceded the baatezu. His kingdom was a terrifying place, filled with running slime and rampant evil. When Asmodeus and his allies seized the Nine Hells, they purged the plane of the baatorians, enslaving them and destroying their lords. Asmodeus butchered most himself, but Zargon was resilient to the worst attacks. Asmodeus discovered he could kill the flesh of the beast, but not the horn, so he tore it from Zargon’s head and flung the hateful spur out of the hells and to the Material Plane, where it pierced deep into the earth. Driven from the Nine Hells, Zargon’s flesh re-formed around his horn, and he turned his attention to the Material Plane. It took centuries, but he crawled up from the depths of the earth and set upon the soft mortals dwelling in the kingdom above. To spare themselves extinction, the people of the kingdom raised up Zargon as their god and fed him endless sacrifices to appease his need to kill. Although the death of the gods did not distress Asmodeus in the least, the freedom of this elder evil did. Asmodeus stepped in to stop Zargon for the last time. Since the lord of Nessus was not a god, he was not vulnerable to the worst of Zargon’s powers. Still, he knew he could not slay the beast. Instead, he imprisoned the elder evil in solid stone, so only the horn was visible. He then turned to Zargon’s Cynidicean worshipers, burying them alive in the tunnels. Goals After Zargon’s horn fell from the Nine Hells of Baator, Zargon’s flesh grew again, re-forming his body around the horn. Once restored, Zargon was enraged. He craved another chance to fight Asmodeus and the other usurpers, but Zargon knew without his armies he stood little chance of reclaiming his realm. Zargon climbed the shaft created by his horn’s descent, pulling himself through the earth until he emerged centuries later to find himself beneath a massive human city. Zargon saw these creatures as soft, weak, and useless. He devoured them in awful numbers, but soon they worshiped him as a god, something he felt Asmodeus would never attain. Since his congregation was so willing to feed his hunger, he played along, killing and eating anything it gave him. As a side effect of the cultists’ worship and the deaths of countless innocents, Zargon’s influence contaminated the land, and strange storms swept across the earth, poisoning it with brown slime. The slime bred new creatures that Zargon sought to corral and use as foot soldiers to reclaim his place in the Nine Hells. But as his power grew, Zargon realized this world could be his. He had no reason to return to his native plane when he could claim this one. We have updated our privacy policy. Click the link to learn more. ©2023 D&D Beyond | All Rights Reserved Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and all Wizards titles and characters are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. ©2023 Wizards. ☁️ Take your game to new heights! Get Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants now DISMISS