#zuggtmoy

[dailyadventureprompts]

Adventure: Shadow of the Harvest Moon

Most imagine the shadowfell as a dreadful and dreary place, but there are islands of solace in the underworld, such as the realm of Dwindlehearth which manifests as a pastoral village rendered in an eternal autumn sunset. It is a place where those who were lonely in life find kinship in the folkish festivals put on by the attendant spirits, where those too stubborn to accept the end can work themselves to satisfied exhaustion in the fields before retiring in comfort, and where those never had enough can stay in on a rainy day and enjoy a filling meal by a warm fire. It is a good death, a good afterlife, the sort we would wish for those we loved dearest to allow their memory to fade most gracefully.

But Something is wrong in Dwindlehearth

Rot spreads through the fields and the shades can find no solace, foul things stalk at the edge of dark woods, clouds cover the face of the ember-warm sun and part to reveal a cold and leering moon, too low and with it's own strange, superntatural gravity.

If the dead are to know peace once again, something must be done.

Hooks:

After their latest bout of occupational grave desecration the party are called upon by the deathgod Nerull to help sort things out, whatever's causing the problem is hidden from his sight and he'll forgive them their literal and figurative trespasses if they can root out whatever corruption is twisting his pastoral realm into a nightmare.

Most shades in Dwindlehearth have varying levels of awareness, identities growing hazier the closer they get to moving on. The rot seems to remind them of all their regrets and failings, preserving their worst aspects while the rest of them atrophies. This is to say nothing of when the night descends unexpectedly, and those shades worst affected transform into monsters, or nightmarish hauntings.

Investigating the source of the corruption will prove difficult, but perhaps the party can get the aid of one of the attendant psychopomps ( most of whom are busy fighting the rot and fending off incursions from unseen enemies at the village's border) or by taking inconstant direction to seek out Dwindlehearth's mayor ( a position the psychopomps have no memory of appointing) who turns out to be a still living necromancer resided on an estate that she's transported to the middle of the death god's domain (especially if the party encountered hear early in the campaign). She's willing to help, but only if the party put in a good word for her with Nerull, as she's grown to quite enjoy the surroundigns.

Behind all the problems in Dwindlehearth is Zuggtmoy, demon queen of despair and decay, who saw the pastoral stillness of the village as the perfect place to spread her stagnation. Her influence drives souls to bitter, resentful, remembrance, priming them for transformation into foul minions.

Speaking of Minions, Zuggtmoy's influence was carried to the village by the departed soul of one of her priests, a poet mired in morbid melancholy by the name of Blaine Blackstem, who got one of the psychopomps to carry him over Nerrull's wards. Blaine was never a good poet, but his mistress's gifts and the nightmare landscape have transformed him into a looming scarecrow figure, striding through the fields sowing rot and then taking grisly inspiration as how the souls twist.

A number of Zuggtmoy's other fiendish minions probe the border of Dwindlehearth just waiting for a large enough breach to pour in, Blaine aims to accommodate them by creating an army of pumpkin monsters and setting them lose to overwhelm the psychopomps leaving the village undefended.

Art 1 Art 2 Art 3

[dnd-smash-pass-vs]

Zuggtmoy, the Lady of Rot and Decay. Fun fact, not actually an manifestation of mushrooms. Only the decomposition aspect, not the renewal part. She often crafts herself a human-like form to parody life, but truly is an unknowable mass of fungus and rot. I'm gonna be real, she has mind control spores and you're probably going to end up under their effects. Like, infecting everything with spores is her entire goal in life, it's going to happen. The mind control ones aren't lethal, they just charm you into liking her and let her influence you. I mean she does have deadly ones too, but I assume that's not what you're after.

[monsterfucker-showdown]

Top 4 gets in!

[ocelot-art]

Bringing in the new year with some cartoony demon lords!

From left to right(ish): Yeenoghu, Juiblex, Demogorgon, Orcus, Zuggtmoy, Grazzt, Baphomet, and Fraz-Urb’luu

[everybodyloveshippos]

Zuggtmoy, demon queen of fungi

[mermaids-ate-my-dinner]

The last Ravening War episode gave me whiplash. We just had a TPK in our campaign fighting against a cult of Zuggtmoy. This hit too close to home 😅

[kyuss6161]

Art by u/Ganondilf on reddit.

[temperancevalkyrie]

Temperance moodboard 🎭🍄

[knuxtiger4]

Brain told me to draw this because I daydream a day that Zula is going to destroy Zuggtmoy. So thus this doodle!

(I can go all day on my favorite demon lords of D&D if you haven’t guess who is my favorite)

[sonic-zombie]

New D&D character

[altbyssal]

Wip

My hand hurts

[dailyadventureprompts]

Dungeon: How Grief Blooms

After the tragic death of his wife, the halfling Earl of Eastbrook has become a recluse, abstaining from social functions, seldom seen in public, and conducting much of his concerns through various agents. Agents like you, paid well so that you conduct the Earl’s business promptly and without asking too many questions. However, after some weeks of gruntwork and strange favours, you can’t help the feeling that something rotten is going on at the Eastbrook estate.

Adventure Hooks:

Most of the party’s assignments are doled out by a Mr. Moiler, a functionary of the Earl’s who always seems to be under the weather and insists that they have their meetings while he takes lunch at a local tavern. Presumptuous and frequently unpleasant, Moiler is quick with the money when he has proof the work’s been done not wanting to waste any more of his finite time with the party than he has to.  It’s during one of these meetings that the functionary begins choking and coughing like he’s going to hack up a lung, and right there on the dinner table spits up a mass of rotten plant matter that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to a human hand. While the party is paralyzed with shock, the limb begins to skitter away, barely recovered Moiler demanding that they catch it before it escapes or the other inn patrons see it.

Eastbrook has many concerns that need tending to: Mines that must be checked on, merchants that must be negotiated with, monsters that must be driven off from tenant lands. Then there the more unusual jobs: travelling to nearby towns and escorting a member of the royal horticultural society to the Eastbrook estate without ever being invited in themselves, having a stern chat with a local priest who’s rabblerousing about all the body-snatchers that’ve been plaguing local cemeteries lately. These odd jobs pay the best, but there’s only so much weirdness the party can take right? ... Right?

Dressed fancy and forced to leave their weapons at home, the party are finally given a chance of meeting their employer when tasked with escorting him to a social function at which he needs to show some muscle. They’re given a very brief impression of the earl: tired eyes, fingers are stained with green and soil as if his servants plucked him out of the garden and threw a bit of finery over his thinning frame. Leaving them to attend whatever business he left his secluded estate for, the party are approached by a young woman with a knowing smile and a lot of interesting questions about Eastbrook. If the party are willing to do a little snooping on her behalf, she’d be ever so grateful, and is sure she can arrange some work for them in the future should  their current arrangement fall through.

Background: Before the death of his wife, Earl Wennley had a deep and abiding love for growing things. Taking far more interest in the upkeep and administration of his tenant lands than any of his peers, the earl would forgo social functions and ditch his noble finery to lend a hand when there was planting or fieldwork to be done, simply to feel the dark earth beneith his fingers.

His wife Ren was a firebrand and world traveller, and originally began courting the earl by brining him exotic flowers from distant lands to cultivate in his hothouse. They were different people who wanted different things from their lives, but they also wanted eachother, and that was enough for love to take root between them.

That was before the sickness caught up to lady Ren, one of those bitter hereditary things that lurks around in the family tree like a viper. In a matter of months it claimed Ren of Eastbrook and took Wennley’s every joy with it, but not before he discovered that one of the flowers she’d brought him was thought to have restorative properties, claimed by some occult scholars to be able to even be able to resurrect the dead.

Thus began Eastbrook’s decent down a dark road, cultivating the plant’s growth in his lover’s dirt-packed casket, fetching more cadavers for its trailing roots to feed off of while trying to bring its many strange flowers to fruit.  The process has taken years, resulting in spasmodic gasps of resurrection, twitches and mutterings, but no true return of the vitality or wholeness that haunts Eastbrook’s memories.

Further Adventures:

a sick vitality has spread throughout the Eastbrook estate, twisting the plants he once took such judicious care of and bringing forth strange hybrids and mutations. While most of this dangerous flora remains on the estate, a few have spread their seed over subsequent seasons and ended up popping up in surrounding lands. The disruption caused by such plants may inadvertently put the party on their employer’s trail.  

What poor Wennley cannot know is that his lover wasn’t merely taken from him by chance, but by the insidious will of Zuggtmoy, demon queen of despair and decay.  Eastbrook was unwittingly chosen as a saint of Zuggtmoy, who now awaits the moment she is summoned into Ren’s resurrected body to walk the world of mortals and enjoy the people’s sorrow first hand. 

Many of the Eastbrook estate staff are sick, some fungal infection that’s taken up residence in their lungs and produces a purple-green rash they’re all too quick to conceal. This sickness makes them dosile and unquestioning, and is spread by Moiler, a demonic agent of Zuggtmoy in disguise, who was likewise the one to slip Eastbrook the particular texts that hinted at the flower’s potential uses. Should any of the staff fall ( or be slain by Moiler should he be discovered) their bodies will rise as mould covered undead.

[justerithings]

A while ago, someone on twitter was recruiting artists for a D&D supplement based around reimagining the traditionally "evil" goddesses of the D&D pantheons and telling their stories. I meant this piece of Zuggtmoy to be a sort of audition piece, but I didn't finish it in time and I didn't get the gig anyway. But I still very much love this piece.

[maskedbeliever]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Zuggtmoy/Juiblex Characters: Juiblex (Dungeons & Dragons), Zuggtmoy (Dungeons & Dragons) Additional Tags: Demons (Dungeons & Dragons), The Infinite Layers of The Abyss, Demon lords, oh my god they were roommates, Unconventional Sex, enemies who fuck Summary:

Zuggtmoy the fungus demon and Juiblex the slimy demon lord share a layer of The Abyss.

Each represents the power of corrosion and decay, but they have a surprisingly pleasant enmity. Congrats to me on being the first to write this ship on ao3

[dungeon-marrs]

BBEG end game

I know it’s ambitious, but I want Zuggtmoy to be my home game’s BBEG. BQ is just a baby level 1 half-orc barbarian, and I’ve done my fair share of prepping basement rat quests and fun, friendly NPCs...now it’s time for evil. The main gist of things is that Zugg wants to spread her hold and power to the Material Plane, and she’s utilizing the war happening between the Empire and the Dynasty in Wildemount as a way to harvest corpses and spread her spores. There will be a slight twist though, as I’m throwing in a red herring - Juiblex - due to their historic rivalry. The below potentially unintelligible writings/internet gatherings are plot hooks/encounters that could easily be tied to either of these demon lords. 

Fevergulf Lake, Xhorhas: Eyes of the Lake [Wildemount Guide quest], sub Zugg for the long-forgotten god

Dreemoth Ravine, Xhorhas: Bones of Frigid Doom [Wildemount Guide quest], have the death knight have ties with Zug. Vorugal resurrected as ancient white dracolich

Charis, Xhorhas: small community of vegetarian farmers, forest guardians + druids - corrupted by Zug. Before corruption, they were hoping to cleanse the Lotusden Greenwood of the evils in the shadows 

Grimgolir, Dunrock Mountains: young black dracolich that has a breath weapon causing a cloud of disease-spreading spores. Thought to be called to battle by the Kryn Dynasty, really a puppet of Zug. Not meant to be fought, just witnessed.

[Jungle Location]: leaf cutter ants feed off of fungus they cultivate in their warrens, a group of giant ants have been corrupted by the fungus. Corrupt giant ant society (based on leaf cutter ants, creating fungus), one queen, ant hill is as organized and complex as any town the PC would expect to encounter. Bulldog ant stats (+1 strength), maze of tunnels, large encounter

[Mountain Location]: PC comes upon large nest with one single egg, flapping wings are heard and a large adult vrock swoops down to defend it’s offspring (Zugg can summon 1d4 vrocks/day)

[Bog/Swamp Location]: vathugus and hezrous demons stalk the bogs. Chasmes and rutterkin can also be encountered frequently. 

     - Vathugu Tanar’ri demon: solitary creature found in wetlands/swamp corrupted with fungi

     - Hezrous demon: solitary creature resembling a toad found in wetlands/swamp corrupted with fungi

     - Chasme: cross between human + fly. Reproduce via eggs + lay up to 10 eggs/year. Nest deep in swamp, near a destroyed teleportation circle to the Abyss. Arcana check to discern where the portal once lead

      - Rutterkin: malformed tanar’ri, wandered through rift in the planes. High DC check to find the rift somewhere in the area 

[Many Locations]: devout fungi-worshipers, comprised mostly of misguided druids, clerics + maddened academics such as wizards 

     - group of human cultists, maddened by the fungus eating their minds. not difficult, but impactful as the humans have already started tearing each other apart when the PC arrives

     - Parth, elite Death Cultist: leader of a small team of The Knights of Death

     - Circle of Spores Druid: lone half-elf found in the wilderness, crazed look in their eyes. They speak in a made-up language that the PC can’t decipher 

     - Cleric of Corruption: found alone at an overgrown, ancient altar to Zugg (high DC religion check to understand cracked and ruined symbols)

     - Dark Mage: an outcast that could befriend the PC, will eventually realize the dark power the mage holds is slowly consuming their free will 

[Underdark Location]: ruined underdark temple to Zug, myconids lead by a sorcerer/druidic priest with fungal-infested companion. PC is told this is where to find more information about Zug 

     - Ogre druidic priest with fungal-infested panther companion

     - Myconid workers and myconid guards have created a small settlement within the ruined temple

     - Multiple traps and puzzles throughout the temple, as well as encounters with molds and slimes

     - Underdark tunnels lined with phosphorescent fungi + filled with mushroom eating duergar in acid trip berserker frenzy 

Additionally, here’s some Zugg themed loot I saw a few people on Reddit (?) I think (sorry people of Reddit) talking about utilizing: 

     - A quiver that regrows arrows from hard mushroom-like wood and “thorn”

     - A bag of puffshrooms that act like a grenade exploding into a stink cloud

     - Ring of barkskin 

     - Shield that you can use a reaction when hit to spray a cloud of spores out, blinds the target and spreads Zug’s spores 

     - Scarab inscribed with “TZGY” 

     - A bow made of a sentient mycinoid, shoots better in darkness, speaks undercommon

     - Boots that give you advantage on stealth by growing little mushrooms each step, activate or deactivate as desired 

Hope you have enjoyed your time here. Bye bye. 

- Aspiring DM Margot Marrs 

[emapmaker]

Zuggtmoy secretly being the reason why The Last Of Us happened

cuz why not