Unspeakable Things for ~Credits~

Shadow of the Demon Lord WRITING and Design:

Robert J. Schwalb
Editing & Proofreading: Jay Spight
War defines life in the Patchwork Lands. For decades, LAYOUT: kara hamilton
exiles, freaks, outcasts, renegades, and the disgraced ILLUSTRATION: Jacopo Schiavo
have come to this war-torn landscape and used their This Unwholesome Thing is ©2023 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.
moneys to raise armies in the hopes of carving out All rights reserved.
kingdoms for themselves. Warlords grow their forces This Unwholesome Thing, Unspeakable Things, Shadow of the Demon Lord,
Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos
and conquer their neighbors, pushing to absorb more are trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.
land, more peasants, more resources, until someone Schwalb Entertainment, LLC
bigger, stronger, and more determined comes along to
crush them underfoot. So often do the lands change
hands that the average person might not even know
whom they serve or why. They might see three or five
different lords, ladies, dark wizards, unhinged priests,
fanatics, or some other dreadful, ambitious figure plant PO Box #12548, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
info@schwalbentertainment.com www.schwalbentertainment.com
a flag only to have that flag trampled in the mud by the
next to come along.
As bad as conditions can be in the Patchwork Lands,
often the monsters with which people must contend are
human ones, mercenaries who have sold their swords
for the promise of plunder and glory; but travelers
tell of other, stranger things preying on the peasants
forced at spear point to till the soil and coax the crops
needed to feed the ignorant armies that clash in the
night. The stories about these new monsters confuse
and confound, sometimes sounding like known hybrids,
such as griffons, but, as the stories spread, the forms
combine more and more outlandish things—people
and dragons, elephant-headed giants, enormous worms
that crawl about on human hands, and worse. What are
these things? Are they demons loosed from the Void to
herald the end of days? Or are they monsters formed
by some mad wizard in a laboratory to prove such
abominations could exist. No one knows for certain, but
now the constant raiding and skirmishes have slowed
as warlords look to fortify their holdings against these
unwholesome things.
This supplement reveals a monster based on a great
piece of art created by Jacopo Schiavo, who created
the image as his first work for Schwalb Entertainment.
The illustration shows a thing made of two different
creatures, with the upper body of a dragon attached to
some quadrupedal nightmare. Who could be responsible
for such an abomination? Read on to find out!

The Exiled
Wizard
A year ago, a fireball streaked across the skies above the
Patchwork Lands and exploded somewhere far to the
south. Explosions being common enough in this war-torn
landscape, few saw it as the omen that it was and went
on with their fighting and losing and fighting some more.
Had they paid attention to this happening, they might
have readied themselves for the storm of horror that was
coming, for this was no weapon, no fallen star. This was
the arrival of the Black Magician, the one exiled from the
Tower Arcane and driven to civilization’s edge to make
ready his vengeance against the ones whom he believed
had wronged him.
The Black Magician, sometimes known as the Maker
of Monsters, the Shadowed One, or, even the Weird
Wizard, had held a position of some influence in the
Tower Arcane, but as his standing in the society grew,
his rivals’ enmity also grew until they conspired against
him and drove him out. Embittered and rageful, the Black
Magician retreated to the Patchwork Land, where he
could build a terrible army of monsters and lead them
north to exact his vengeance against his hated enemies.
From his laboratories came forth all manner of strange
things. The Black Magician assembled his unnatural
creations by fusing two or more creatures into one
form, such that bears with the heads of owls hooted and
growled in the darkness, serpents flew through the air
on bat wings, while people ran on all fours, their bodies
bristling with spines. These monsters, all rejected for
their flaws, he let loose to fend for themselves as he
labored over his greatest and most awful creation—the
Demodragon, which merged a demon with the body
of a dragon. But then, the Black Magician disappeared,
vanishing from Rûl and, perhaps Urth itself. What
remained of his efforts became free to wreak havoc on the
Patchwork Lands and beyond.
The
Demodragon
An imperfect fusion of demon and dragon, the
demodragon combines the worst features of each. The
dragon melded to the demon’s back, mirroring the body’s
functionality and yet appearing off, as if improperly
bound into a single form. The demon’s fluid nature adapts
to the merging, giving the base form the means of flight
with two, large leathery wings. The dragon’s neck extends
out from the chest, so that it’s lower jaw meets the
demon’s upper. Horns curl back from the head and fire
burns in the mouth to illuminate the eyes from behind.
Just one demodragon exists, but without purpose or
direction, demonic impulses to rend and ruin drive its
every action. It has no need for sustenance; it kills purely
for the pleasure of doing so. It roams the Patchwork
Lands, galloping across the barrens or taking to the air,
wheeling in the sky, peering down through the fumes
of its exhalations. When the monster attacks, it kills
everything it can, dragging back and piling up its victims’
remains until they form a mound.
The monster’s existence poses an existential threat to
the people of the Patchwork Lands and thus the various
rulers have set aside their petty disputes to put an end to
the thing. A few skirmishes with the thing have left entire
armies in ruin and thus a call has gone out to recruit
champions to deal with the threat. With enough wealth
in the offering to buy an entire kingdom, all manner
of scoundrels, heroes, and villains have descended on
the Patchwork Lands to test their mettle against the
demodragon. So far, all have shown to be wanting.
DEMODRAGON DIFFICULTY 1,000
Size 4 horrifying monster
Perception 16 (+6); truesight
Defense 19; Health 320; Insanity —; Corruption —
Strength 18 (+8), Agility 11 (+1), Intellect 11 (+1), Will 17 (+7)
Speed 16; flier (swoop)
Immune damage from disease, fire, poison; charmed,
dazed, fatigued, frightened, immobilized, impaired,
poisoned, sleep, slowed, stunned
Impervious Scales While the demodragon is not injured, it
takes half damage from any weapons if the total of the
attack roll is 25 or lower.
Spell Defense The demodragon takes half damage from
spells and makes any challenge roll to resist a spell with
1 boon. A creature attacking the demodragon with a spell
makes the attack roll with 1 bane.
Demonic Shadows Lit areas out to 5 yards around the
demodragon become shadows.
Ruinous End When the demodragon becomes
incapacitated, it explodes, dealing 6d6 damage to each
creature and object within 12 yards of a point within its
space. Then, 1d3 medium demons, 1d6 small demons, and
3d6 tiny demons appear in the space the demodragon
left and can take their turns during the next round.
ATTACK OPTIONS
Claws (melee) +8 with 3 boons (3d6)
Teeth (melee) +8 with 3 boons (4d6 plus 2d6 fire)
SPECIAL ATTACKS
Flurry of Attacks The demodragon attacks twice with its
claws and once with its teeth.
Warping Fire As an action, the demodragon sprays a
stream of warping flames from its mouth into a 12-yard-
long cone originating from a point within its reach. The
fire deals 6d6 damage to each creature and object in the
area. An object that survives the fire warps out of shape
until it adopts a disturbing appearance. Each creature
that takes this damage makes an Agility challenge roll
with 1 bane. On a failure, the creature takes 6d6 damage
and receives a random mutation (see Shadow, page 198).
SPECIAL ACTIONS
Wing Shield As a triggered action, when a creature attacks
the demodragon but before the roll of the dice, the
demodragon imposes 1 bane on the triggering attack roll.