Baalzephon
Baalzephon
of the Dark Eight
“Here… I am a god. And but one of eight!”
The throne – the Chair of Baalzy – is empty no longer. Nor is it filled with a vacuous outline of smoke and crackling lightning. The horror that now suddenly fills the chair defies imagination. The huge golden statue was like some caricature of the powerful demon who now – suddenly – appears in the chair. It is impossible to tell if he is angry or amused, so alien are his hideous, demonic features. From the darkest pits of an abyssal hell of torment, fire, and pain spawns this loathsome, terrifying creature. His head is adorned with large ivory horns and he is scaled, like a dragon, with a reddish-brown hide. Bits of lightning still crackle and sizzle and jump between his horns. His dark eyes are beneath a heavily ridged and scaled brow, but burn with an intensity of hatred that would send all but the stoutest souls fleeing in terror. From shoulder to claws, the fiend is armored and spiked with terrible horns over enormous muscles. Except for his large, and bloated belly.
In his right hand is a gigantic spear, the point of which is crafted of demonsteel and inset on the haft with a large, black diamond. The shaft is made of Gortha wood, from the plane of shadow and the length is inscribed with the last words of Mirra Ellaya – a curse on all of humanity, as she was tortured to death by the demons to which she was betrayed. Lightning crackles on its tip.
A golden amulet hangs around Baalzy’s squat and lizard-like neck, glinting in the fires of the hall and the flames around the combatants. Rings adorn his clawed digits.
Baalzephon is a powerful demon and a member of the Dark Eight. He is known as Baalzy in the Kingdom of Aerdy, where he is worshiped as a god. He is the "deity" of House Naelax, including Overking Ivid. The Naelax line long ago swore itself to Baalzy in exchange for extended life; this is evidenced, in the current generation, by the Overking, who suffers from a terrible disease but is kept alive by Baalzy's promise.
Baalzephon was first encountered by Ceridwen, and later by the rest of the party, in the capitol of Aerdy, Rauxes. After Ceridwen fell into Ivid's clutches, Baalzy identified her as a "vessel," a mortal woman capable of bearing vastly powerful, and potentially prolific, cambion offspring to a demon. He convinced Ivid to marry Ceridwen, and upon their wedding night, Baalzy would bed her first, to impregnate her. The party, with the assistance of Wee Jas and a knight of Hextor called Sepha Tri, rescued Ceridwen after the marriage and before the demonic consummation.
Following the Vessel's escape, Baalzephon and the rest of the Dark Eight conspired to free the one known as the Finder from his icy prison on the Layer of Eternal Night in the Abyss. Using his eight removed organs to control him, the Dark Eight have set the creature upon Ceridwen, bent on recovering her at all costs.