Obox-Ob

The huge demon’s body is an insane thicket of spidery limbs, scrabbling for purchase with razor-sharp talons arrayed around a scorpion-shaped body. Where a face should be writhe three immense tails, each tipped with a jagged stinger that seeps black venom. Where a tail should be is a thick neck surmounted by a horrific face, complete with a vertically aligned mouth and three pairs of leering red eyes that seem horrifically human in shape. From its murderous maw extends a glistening red tongue, itself tipped with a hollow spike shaped like a corkscrew.

Obox-Ob Lore

Characters with ranks in religion or Arcana can learn more about Obox-ob. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC	Result
15	Obox-ob is an ancient demon from an era before the tanar’ri existed. He is associated with vermin and poison.
20	The mere presence of Obox-ob is enough to blast the minds of lesser creatures, fi lling their sleep with nightmares for the rest of their lives.
25	Obox-ob’s body creates a discordant drone of deafening, maddening sound.
30	Those who succumb to Obox-ob’s poison stingers are transformed into fiendish scorpions, and those subjected to his twisted tongue are consumed by the raw stuff of chaos.

Strategy And Tactics

Obox-ob’s response to attack is to lash out with his stingers, bite, and tongue. He uses his quickened giant vermin ability in the early rounds of combat to create Colossal monstrous scorpions. He then uses quickened telekinesis to bull rush enemies off cliffs or into solid objects. The Prince of Vermin greatly enjoys melee combat and generally resorts to non quickened spell-like abilities only against targets he can’t reach with these attacks. 

Servants, Enemies, And Goals

Obox-ob once held the title Prince of Demons during the Age before Ages, when the Abyss was ruled by the obyriths. He had this title stolen from him by the Queen of Chaos, who killed him and granted his title to Miska the Wolf-Spider. Although Obox-ob was slain, his most powerful aspect survived and went into hiding on a deep layer of the Abyss called Zionyn (layer 663). For many eons, Obox-ob lurked here, a shadow without a true form. In time, he grew bold and emerged from hiding, only to find the Abyss had moved on in his absence. The tanar’ri now ruled, and Obox-ob had been forgotten. 

Obox-ob is not content to rule Zionyn and constantly rages across the face of this layer, bringing destruction and ruin to the ekolids who dwell there and worship his fury. Obox-ob’s search for power extends to the Material Plane. On some Material Plane worlds, his cult is quite powerful—he recently almost managed to draw an entire world into the Abyss to fuel his ascension, but failed at his task when heroes of that realm opposed him by engineering a devastating disruption of the flow of magic at a crucial moment during the ritual. Since this humiliating defeat, Obox-ob has quietly observed his remaining cults, waiting for one to achieve similar chances at success in the future. Until then, these cults maintain a low profile, often basing their activities in ruined cities lost in vast deserts, where they can be close to the scorpions so sacred to his faith. 

Demon Lord Relationships

Reduced to the Prince of Vermin, Obox-ob wants nothing less than to murder Demogorgon, claim his title, and then cleanse the Abyss of the taint of tanar’ri and return it to obyrith rule. But before he launches this plan, he first seeks to reclaim the true power he held so long ago. 

Clerics of Obox-ob have access to the domains of Arcana, Death, Grave, Knowledge, and War. His symbol is a scorpion dangling by its tail from a jawless human skull covered with twisted runes (the scorpion’s tail is threaded through the skull’s eye sockets)