Even Yeasts are chaotic evil, forces of chaos and destructions, not to mention those nasty edible mushrooms, those bastards are letting us do everything with them, but one day they will strike, and then we all doomed.
Awesome Video In my universe, Zuggtmoy spends most of her time fighting against Lorelai, the Drow Priestess who bested and imprisoned Orcus to becomes the new demon princess of the undead Zuggtmoy fears that this is a sign that Lolth is trying to replace the demon lords with beings loyal to her, a fear that is not entirely unfounded. She also already despises the undead as a fungus that she created (which is based off cordyceps) which infects and mind controls its host doesnt work on the undead, so now the armies of Lorelai and Zuggtmoy are often found fighting eachother in conflicts known as "The Wars of The Rot"
16:46 YESSSS. YESSSS The CRADLE!!!! This is why they need to look to D&D to make more horror movies. This is what makes D&D fun, I love the morbid rituals they preform. Thank you AJ for adding that part. Nothing more terrifying than the moaning bogs of fungal death to creep a player out.
I've never understood dnds naming system. Do they just come up with a character then bash the keyboard to come up with a name? Ggififtarlg, demon Lord of whatever the fuck.
Some are partially based off of mythical demons or creatures from across the world. For example, the Balor is named after the most dangerous demon in pre-Christian Irish mythology.
In the Gord the Rouge novels I kind of felt sorry for Iuz sometimes. Mother was Iggwilv father Grazzt, and girlfriend Zuggtmoy. Imagine having to deal with that crew.
Great work AJ. Zuggtmoy deserves all the adventure and lore love. Few things scarier than breathing in a big cloud of spores and then hoping to god you're not going to get sick afterwards. Not to mention that biologists have now discovered and documented fungi that engage in literal insect mind control. Those sorts of simple, animal fears of becoming infected and losing one's mind give her much more horrific resonance and effectiveness than some of the more obtuse demon lords. Waiting with baited breath for a rukarazylls episode! Incredibly gross fungus monster that is also a sneaky infiltrator? Sign me up. :3
Ever since the old mine flooded the water in the town cistern has had a curious, not unpleasant and yet oddly compelling flavor. It really just seems to satisfy. After a few quarts a body just sort of relaxes and moves beyond the worried world. Also, flushes of curiously colorful mushrooms have erupted all up and down the valley. And that poor family was found drowned in their well. Curious, unfortunate occurances to shroud our once quiet, tight knit community of friends.. ever since the mine flooded.
A perfect example of how to show a zuggtmoy cult is resident evil 7. A family of insane hillbillies living in a rotting mansion in the Louisiana wetlands. They are infected with strange fungus and kidnap unfortunate victims to join their messed up family.
People: ew fungus is gross and must be evil Me: fungus was nature's internet before we sprouted legs and is necessary for life on earth as we know it Poor Zuggtmoy
Here's a fun fact, the various Spore Servants (Chuul, Drow, etc.) from Out of the Abyss are considered Plants with a intelligence score of 2, making them eligible targets for the Druids 'Awaken' spell.
I really appreciate your use of older material, especially the Dragon mags...I so miss the quality that was produced from those days. It was when things started to shed most of the camp associated with published materials.
The reason for random hit points is that she can’t actually be killed. Demons just pop back into existence somewhere in their home plane if you kill them. Her hit points won’t be the exact same every time she reappears. Unless the PCs have the means to consume her soul, she’ll just come back again and again. It’s like the gods and their avatars in 2nd. Unless you can consume the soul of a demon prince or absorb the divine spark from a god, it’s probably going to come back to haunt you. Pray you didn’t piss it off enough to really want you dead. Think of it like a lich that doesn’t require a phylactery. The home plane just grows another body for demons.
16:15 This is like that crap they do in video games where you have to win to lose! I hate that😂 19:30 Jesus Christ. This reminds me of those Animal Planet specials that show the fungi that turn insects into zombies. These same fungi are what inspired The Last of Us series of games. Absolute nightmare fuel
This was a fun one! Fungus is cool. It’s a whole different type of thing that we don’t think about much. We only really think of plants and animals when we talk about creatures and environments in dnd most of the time, and when fungus is used, it’s so one note. This is a cool way to play with it. Thanks aj.
Zuggtmoy is one of my favorites. She thought she was an equal of Lolth before she regained her lost divinity. That takes unshakeable confidence to look at a being who was once divine. Who knew what it meant to be god and go "ehh I can take her"
Thanks for the video AJ, she with be the main villain in my fantasy “The Last of Us” campaign along with the twig blights from your earlier video. Beware the fungus amongst us.
I could see a setting where fire would be a highly respected element of damage for its ability to purge the corruption and unclean things from the land when i think of these kinds of beings like zugtmoy who are so vile and disgusting.
There were several cultures that venerated fungi in various forms in the real world. Mushrooms were a legitimate source of nutrition in the cold forests of the North and North East, not to mention a source of wisdom (visions caused by hallucinogens in the mushrooms) and health ( long before the discovery of penicillin people used molds/shrooms to treat various diseases). It's very weird to me that Zuggtmoy isn't a goddess yet
One creature I can see Zuggtmoy having interest in is the Thallids of Dominaria, these fungal creatures were cultivated by the Elven Druid, Thelon of Havenwood as a food source that would grow in the cooling temperatures caused by the dawning Ice Age triggered by the destruction of the isle of Argoth at the end of The Brother's War. Unfortunately they proved SO successful in the changing environment that they eventually overran the Elves of Havenwood & most of the forested regions of Sarpadia along with their spawn the Saporlings. I'm pretty sure she'd love to see this rapidly increasing species spread. Think of them like a more ravenous, less intelligent more bestial version of Myconids.
24:55 sounds like a great place to grow a cocoa (chocolate) tree. Though knowing that place, the cocoa tree would probably process YOU into “chocolate” (not to mention to Zuggtmoy’s delight, fermentation by fungus is necessary to produce chocolate).
I can't help but be enthralled by descriptions of evil places like this. I can only imagine the type of charcaters you'd need to build to even attempt to stop someone like this on their home plane
Currently rolling a Plasmoid Circle of Spores Druid. An accidental 'offspring' of Juiblex and Zuggtmoy, both of whom attempt to exert control / give commands from time to time. This is going to be fun.
Me updating an N/PC with circle of spores from human to drow, expanding the backstory. Haven't had this much rich content since seeing the connections between brass dragons and half elfs.
In Mad Mage there is a friendly Ettin named Jibber Jabber who is actually able to function because of how much fungus there is for him to eat. If the main foes on that floor died I could see an Ettin Cult to Zyggytmoy potentially popping up which would be interesting especially because one of the factions on that level is a relatively weak family of Drow for her giant cultists to sacrifice for even more fungus food to eat.
You mention the minor demon lord "Yibieru" (spelling?) who is a servant/child/mother of Zuggtmoy, but I have never heard of this entity, nor can I find it on forgottenrealms wiki. Where can I find more into on this being? I'm running a modified Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign and throwing in Zuggtmoy as an ultimate villain, and I'd love to throw out some of her minions.
In the north of Europe and parts of Asia mushrooms were an important source of food, especially during the colder months.Not to mention the hallucinogenic properties some of them have,that shamans and warriors used .Pretty sure there were some pagan gods that had fungi as part of their influence. So i think there's a huge niche there for Zuggtmoy in less civilised parts of Toril(or Oerth or whatever). She needs a better PR team though. I do think having her as a Demon Queen is more intetesting though. Less distant and more opportunities for engaging stories.EDIT : I just noticed i've made the same comment twice XD
34:06 I think the reason for including hit dice on a unique creature is because they're occasionally used for things other than determining hit points, such as healing in a short rest.
Also, maximum and minimum hit points! Kinda forgotten now, but it is an easy way to say that they have a lot more hit points or almost none. Good old AD&D days.
In an underdark campaign I played in (the one where we killed the purple worm from the inside) we saved a town of myconids (sorry if I misspelled that) from her. She was set to marry their chief of chiefs and control all myconids. We fought our way out, (everyone but the cleric being either dead or severely wounded) the first time. We had to go back (since me and the ranger were hired to escort the cleric through the underdark) and save the town, so we snuck back in on the day of the wedding, and challenged her as they said their vows. During the fight, we somehow managed to stun lock her until she was banished back to the abyss. We had no idea how we stun locked her, but if we hadn't, we surely would have died.
@@jarlsnake6023 Yep, ended up playing as what i dubbed the "road warrior paladin" because my character got infected with wereshark lycanthropy, turned once (which destroyed the plate armor i had) and got cured by the cleric. Never made enough gold to get a new set, so i just wore leather armor, which was constantly being ruined by shenanigans from the ranger.
🤔 I think to make things interesting I might make my next character a Spores Druid who worships Zuggtmoy for some reason or other. Not sure how far to lean onto the evil, but they would be sneaky about it.
Though I collected a ton of material about my fave demons, demon lords etc by myself (esp. loving the early D&D, AD&D 1st fluff), it's great getting it presented neatly here in your videos. I also highly recommend Gygax' "Gord The Rogue" novels mainly because they are blasting with abyssal settings, Zuggtmoy, Iggwilv, Graz'zt and other demon lords (even some little mentoining of Szhublox/Juiblex)
Juiblex was partnered with her once, Atropus gave them both strict orders to destroy a tavern but Orcus had to ruin it by announcing their location to the enemy.
I'm actually running a campaign with her as the big bad so it is nice to hear all about her before my players know they're dealing with the Lady of Rot and Fungus
I love using a fungus-based cult as the unseen force behind a horror-based AD&D mission. Tweak it enough and it can seem like some other kind of horror is the source in the beginning. 10/10 video AJ. I'm happy that AD&D didn't phase out fungus horror and even expanded upon it. I have several different home-brews on fungus-dominated Shambling Mounds as well as "pseudo-zombies" inspired by the Yellow Musk Zombie (I think that was what they were called, the zombie with the flower growing out of its head, not really an undead but a corpse animated by the fungal/plant organism infecting the brain). My "pseudo-zombies" are actually living fungal colonies animating a corpse, eventually eating it and being a form of fungal monster that looks like a full-flesh zombie. I digress... Zuggtmoy need not be around to be the source of some horror-based AD&D play.
Those sound kind of similar to the Golgari of Ravnica's Plant Zombies. They use a living plant feeding from the dead corpse to animate it, but I can EASILY see that being shifted to being a fungus instead of a plant, perhaps with a plant following from the fungus, and an insect animated zombie, thicket skeleton after that, in a disturbing "Circle Of Life" kind of thing. (Admit it "Circle Of Life" with the visual of a plant/infected skeleton is playing in your head right now.)
Have you heard about the cortyceps fungus before? Because thats a real fungus that creates zombie ants. Considering humanity, like ants, are also in a way a superorganism, only a matter of time(at least in the D&D universe) will a mutation occur that lets them spread to man.
@@jurassician3725 I did hear of cordyceps fungus. I think 1st Ed AD&D writers might have used it as an inspiration for the Yellow Musk and their zombies.
the fungus from "voice in the night"/ "Matango" would be good to have in her roaster of minions. and a bodyguards of fungus zombies and corrupted treents
This was excellent AJ, I thoroughly enjoyed the over half an hour experience. (I can't say the same for all the poor folk who got *spored* at some point in the video......I'll just head for the door.) *Pops head back in* Though I do wonder how aberrations would do with the fungi and spores, are they as vulnerable as everyone else or is it dependant on the specific abberant?
14:56 "But their true purpose is to honor their queens monsterous mouth!"........my Warlock Philosopher deity of death could do that 😉 hee hee hee! Dont think she'd like it much though!
I think it's more like mushrooms are the lifeforms she specializes in corrupting to evil, rather than mushrooms being inherently evil themselves. Like how Baphomet is the demon prince of beasts -- that isn't saying beasts are evil, they're just what Baphomet in particular uses for evil ends.
A vanilla summoner with a myconid as his/her eidolon would be cool. Easily explainable companion that can summoned and dismissed into the mycelium. The companion can die over and over again without hurting the emerssion.
Between its name, how old it is in dnd lore, and it's ridiculing attempts to change its shapes there is no way this being isn't an Obyrith in deep witness protection trying really hard to not look like an Obyrith but just doesn't understand the concept.
Most people don't know that Dr. Abraham Van Helsing has an old schoolmate who is also a demon hunter, but one focused on the children of Zuggtmoy. His name is Dr. Lotrimin Scholl. That started as a joke, but I'll be damned if that actually isn't a super cool name.
I was also confused. Maybe it's what AJ secretly tried to make his listeners feel. Maybe he's been inspired by David Lynch and just created a state of fugue with subliminal confusion.
@@AJPickett 37C is too hot for my Super Hot blood. Hell, even 30C is too much. Ship me to Greenland, I can power the entire region with my body heat alone.
D&D is published in the USA, we're the last hold outs on the old Imperial system that England gave us when we declared independence. It's funny how fiercely we cling on to the nonsensical system instead of adopting the measurements the rest of the world & EVERY scientific discipline uses. It would be a WORSE layer of the Abyss if it was 90 degrees Celsius, a burning hot jungle with water that's close to boiling at all times. It would effectively kill off both Princes of the realm who are currently there mind you so I can imagine a prince planning it to claim the layer for themselves. A jungle that's only kept from bursting into flame by the overbearing humidity.
Am the only one with the terrible idea for a lawful evil rival to Zuggtmoy? Some sort of Demon Princess of rot, perhaps a ... Princess Toadstool? For those of you old enough to remember the instruction manual to the original Super Mario Brothers that was the princess before they re-named her "Peach." Now you have to live with that visual too. Seriously i can also imagine one of the other mind influencing effects would be a insane hatred of any kind of slime & desperate need to eradicate any kind of slimes, this infection would be non-fatal as why wouldn't she want an army of paladins going after the servants of Jubilex?
It's funny how they never get lolth right... She's always been a diety... Araushnee... Alloooo. She just consumed one of the original tana'ri as he challenged her and she like usual freaked out... Everyone in the abyss from the obyriths to every demon Lord bows politely to lolth as a diety she has full control of their realms well she is present... There's enough novels that cover this heh. Always bugs me when they claim she ascended recently. She just achieved greater from lesser status. She's a top god now. Even demogorgon licks her boots when threatened physically by her...
@@AJPickett come on with that tongue... Lolth would never admit to such a lowly embrace(although she has done worse and certainly more noble creatures heh... Jarlaxle or Drizzt for instance or for the opposite those Balors). But something tells me she uses demogorgon as a rabbit...(NSF anyone) lol 😉.
Loth is powerful no doubt, but the real reason the rest of the demon lords don't tear her to shreds is that they believe that if they openly attack Lolth, the other demons will take their chances to attack them after the battle, a curious fact. and chaotic form of balance in the abyss that Lolth learned to take advantage of, because in a way it is similar to the constant chaos in every Drow city, practically the entire adventure of coming out of the abyss is one of their attempts to reclaim control over the abyss and certainly She failed her mission and now all the demon lords know her intentions and can attack her in retaliation while she is still weakened, rendering all her effort useless.
I always pictured Lloth as the hot prepe girl in High School who is banished from her cliques lunch room table and now eats with a less popular clique. The new girls secretly dont like her, but feel she adds prestige.
Just imagine cursed mushrooms of unknown origin that mutates any humanoid, mostly humans, into monstrous humanoids all due to this demoness becoming a deity. These monstrous humanoids would vary from having two heads, four arms, and various other abnormalties. Not to mention the ability to manipulate fungi.
You'd think the love, passion and worship of beer amongst humans and dwarves alone would have risen her to the level of goddess long ago.
and yet Yeasts make up only 1% if fungal species.
Even Yeasts are chaotic evil, forces of chaos and destructions, not to mention those nasty edible mushrooms, those bastards are letting us do everything with them, but one day they will strike, and then we all doomed.
More like exploited, not grown for its own sake
Yeast is the chaotic good mold fighting Zuggt's influence by creating its own disinfectant
@@alphaamino or is it a chaotic element that opens the door for mortals to indulge in the evils of excess; alcoholism and gluttony 😐
AJ is the best Warlock patron. luring us in with knowledge and with promise of more power to come.
ua-cam.com/video/SVi3-PrQ0pY/v-deo.html
Awesome Video
In my universe, Zuggtmoy spends most of her time fighting against Lorelai, the Drow Priestess who bested and imprisoned Orcus to becomes the new demon princess of the undead
Zuggtmoy fears that this is a sign that Lolth is trying to replace the demon lords with beings loyal to her, a fear that is not entirely unfounded. She also already despises the undead as a fungus that she created (which is based off cordyceps) which infects and mind controls its host doesnt work on the undead, so now the armies of Lorelai and Zuggtmoy are often found fighting eachother in conflicts known as "The Wars of The Rot"
16:46 YESSSS. YESSSS The CRADLE!!!! This is why they need to look to D&D to make more horror movies. This is what makes D&D fun, I love the morbid rituals they preform. Thank you AJ for adding that part. Nothing more terrifying than the moaning bogs of fungal death to creep a player out.
I've never understood dnds naming system. Do they just come up with a character then bash the keyboard to come up with a name?
Ggififtarlg, demon Lord of whatever the fuck.
Truth!
My running theory is they let a cat walk across the keyboard and call it a day
Some are partially based off of mythical demons or creatures from across the world. For example, the Balor is named after the most dangerous demon in pre-Christian Irish mythology.
Was just talking with my wife about making a warlock with Zuggtmoy as their patron. Awesome timing!
In the Gord the Rouge novels I kind of felt sorry for Iuz sometimes. Mother was Iggwilv father Grazzt, and girlfriend Zuggtmoy. Imagine having to deal with that crew.
No wonder he was an irritable bastard lol then rose Estes ruined his career lol
Great work AJ. Zuggtmoy deserves all the adventure and lore love. Few things scarier than breathing in a big cloud of spores and then hoping to god you're not going to get sick afterwards. Not to mention that biologists have now discovered and documented fungi that engage in literal insect mind control. Those sorts of simple, animal fears of becoming infected and losing one's mind give her much more horrific resonance and effectiveness than some of the more obtuse demon lords.
Waiting with baited breath for a rukarazylls episode! Incredibly gross fungus monster that is also a sneaky infiltrator? Sign me up. :3
I made a spores druid who had the blood of zuggtmoy running through her, the DM made zuggtmoy like a doting grandmother which I loved
Ever since the old mine flooded the water in the town cistern has had a curious, not unpleasant and yet oddly compelling flavor. It really just seems to satisfy. After a few quarts a body just sort of relaxes and moves beyond the worried world. Also, flushes of curiously colorful mushrooms have erupted all up and down the valley. And that poor family was found drowned in their well. Curious, unfortunate occurances to shroud our once quiet, tight knit community of friends.. ever since the mine flooded.
Stealing this, thanks.
that old thing? Have at. ;)
A perfect example of how to show a zuggtmoy cult is resident evil 7.
A family of insane hillbillies living in a rotting mansion in the Louisiana wetlands. They are infected with strange fungus and kidnap unfortunate victims to join their messed up family.
Dont forget mother Miranda
A woman who's attempting to harness the infinite power of fungus for her own purpose.
People: ew fungus is gross and must be evil
Me: fungus was nature's internet before we sprouted legs and is necessary for life on earth as we know it
Poor Zuggtmoy
Unpronounceable fantasy names: "I'm about to end this mans entire goddamn career"
On the topic of fungus I'd love to see what you know about Psilofyr, the world mushroom!
"Spores laden with gruel"
Implies a much more horrible and nasty thing instead of
"Gruel laden with spores"
The best way to avoid having your fireball blow up in your face is to cast lightning bolt instead.
In older editions lightning doesnt do so well against demons
5e? Kids party favors are probably super effective against them. 5e is so dumb
When asked why she broke it off with Luz, zuggtmoy said its because he wasn't a fun guy.
Who the hell is loz?
Luz kept complaining about dad Graz'zt.
That's my gluestick!mighty fine stuff old boy.
Guess I know what I’m going to be watching for the next 40 minutes.
*hands over a bucket of popcorn*
Im in the middle of running out of the abyss so this couldnt have come at a better time
Here's a fun fact, the various Spore Servants (Chuul, Drow, etc.) from Out of the Abyss are considered Plants with a intelligence score of 2, making them eligible targets for the Druids 'Awaken' spell.
I really appreciate your use of older material, especially the Dragon mags...I so miss the quality that was produced from those days. It was when things started to shed most of the camp associated with published materials.
Pretty hot considering really.
I mean think about what would normally come to mind when you think "Fungus/Mold God"
The reason for random hit points is that she can’t actually be killed. Demons just pop back into existence somewhere in their home plane if you kill them. Her hit points won’t be the exact same every time she reappears.
Unless the PCs have the means to consume her soul, she’ll just come back again and again. It’s like the gods and their avatars in 2nd. Unless you can consume the soul of a demon prince or absorb the divine spark from a god, it’s probably going to come back to haunt you. Pray you didn’t piss it off enough to really want you dead.
Think of it like a lich that doesn’t require a phylactery. The home plane just grows another body for demons.
16:15 This is like that crap they do in video games where you have to win to lose! I hate that😂
19:30 Jesus Christ. This reminds me of those Animal Planet specials that show the fungi that turn insects into zombies. These same fungi are what inspired The Last of Us series of games. Absolute nightmare fuel
This was a fun one! Fungus is cool. It’s a whole different type of thing that we don’t think about much. We only really think of plants and animals when we talk about creatures and environments in dnd most of the time, and when fungus is used, it’s so one note. This is a cool way to play with it. Thanks aj.
You're welcome ☺️
Black mold is rampant where I live. People talk about fungi all the time here.
Zuggtmoy is one of my favorites. She thought she was an equal of Lolth before she regained her lost divinity. That takes unshakeable confidence to look at a being who was once divine. Who knew what it meant to be god and go "ehh I can take her"
All hail Zuggtmoy!
Lady of the Fungi. Dread ruler of Plane 222
Thanks for the video AJ, she with be the main villain in my fantasy “The Last of Us” campaign along with the twig blights from your earlier video.
Beware the fungus amongst us.
Zuttmgoy is also really close ally of Graz'zt because he's such a Fun Guy.
right?
I could see a setting where fire would be a highly respected element of damage for its ability to purge the corruption and unclean things from the land when i think of these kinds of beings like zugtmoy who are so vile and disgusting.
Exterminatus.
In the words of Ross Scott: "There's no excuse for being what you are! You're the reason we have napalm!"
My Queen, my beautiful, beautiful Queen, I am unworthy to absorb that lightning bolt for you, thank you for such an honor, my Queen.
Ah, Momshroom, the progenitor of many of the world's wierd fetishes.
Vultiidsah The Memelord Please don't
@@ciarfah Too late.
I regret watching this while eating a pizza with mushrooms on it.
Thats just the mushrooms talking.... no seriously, roll a Con save.
Fungus is actually more closely related to humans than it is plants.
Dammit bright, get of this site, it's not cleared for safety, you'll let another coghnitohazard loose
YES thank you AJ i have been waiting for this one (:
All mushrooms are edible once…
I can see Zuggtmoy being worshipped by anyone gathering edible fungi.
There were several cultures that venerated fungi in various forms in the real world. Mushrooms were a legitimate source of nutrition in the cold forests of the North and North East, not to mention a source of wisdom (visions caused by hallucinogens in the mushrooms) and health ( long before the discovery of penicillin people used molds/shrooms to treat various diseases). It's very weird to me that Zuggtmoy isn't a goddess yet
Two words: Healing Magic.
Amung why I enjoy plant sorts of deity/higher powers
One creature I can see Zuggtmoy having interest in is the Thallids of Dominaria, these fungal creatures were cultivated by the Elven Druid, Thelon of Havenwood as a food source that would grow in the cooling temperatures caused by the dawning Ice Age triggered by the destruction of the isle of Argoth at the end of The Brother's War. Unfortunately they proved SO successful in the changing environment that they eventually overran the Elves of Havenwood & most of the forested regions of Sarpadia along with their spawn the Saporlings. I'm pretty sure she'd love to see this rapidly increasing species spread. Think of them like a more ravenous, less intelligent more bestial version of Myconids.
Vegepygmies...kinda.
Black/green fungal deck is the absolute bee's knees. . . Gimme like 5 turns and a lucky hand and let's see you deal with 400 × 22/22 saprolings lol
24:55 sounds like a great place to grow a cocoa (chocolate) tree. Though knowing that place, the cocoa tree would probably process YOU into “chocolate” (not to mention to Zuggtmoy’s delight, fermentation by fungus is necessary to produce chocolate).
I can't help but be enthralled by descriptions of evil places like this. I can only imagine the type of charcaters you'd need to build to even attempt to stop someone like this on their home plane
Need to research how to ssfely destroy fungus without getting poisoned or high.
Flames? Probably flames. Somebody call a pyromancer.
"Zargivesgoodhead" is what I heard every time you tried to pronounce his name. Lol
I worry for you Kyle.
@@AJPickett me too actually, me too. Lol
::Watching video on the Demon Queen of Fungus::
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Perfect timing, she's the main "villain" in an upcoming campaign I'm working on
Currently rolling a Plasmoid Circle of Spores Druid. An accidental 'offspring' of Juiblex and Zuggtmoy, both of whom attempt to exert control / give commands from time to time. This is going to be fun.
What do you mean by accidental offspring? Did he not pull out?
Yet more fiendish ideas abound! Thanks for another one AJ.
Yes! Been waiting for this, great work ^^
You had me gagging at the feast.. Absolutely horrifying..
Me updating an N/PC with circle of spores from human to drow, expanding the backstory.
Haven't had this much rich content since seeing the connections between brass dragons and half elfs.
Ngl, would smash.
In all seriousness though, it's a shame that Zuggtmoy is a demon lord, because I like mushrooms. They're cool organisms.
Stock up on Tinactin
@@matthewbennett1972 Yea
In Mad Mage there is a friendly Ettin named Jibber Jabber who is actually able to function because of how much fungus there is for him to eat. If the main foes on that floor died I could see an Ettin Cult to Zyggytmoy potentially popping up which would be interesting especially because one of the factions on that level is a relatively weak family of Drow for her giant cultists to sacrifice for even more fungus food to eat.
You mention the minor demon lord "Yibieru" (spelling?) who is a servant/child/mother of Zuggtmoy, but I have never heard of this entity, nor can I find it on forgottenrealms wiki. Where can I find more into on this being? I'm running a modified Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign and throwing in Zuggtmoy as an ultimate villain, and I'd love to throw out some of her minions.
In the north of Europe and parts of Asia mushrooms were an important source of food, especially during the colder months.Not to mention the hallucinogenic properties some of them have,that shamans and warriors used .Pretty sure there were some pagan gods that had fungi as part of their influence. So i think there's a huge niche there for Zuggtmoy in less civilised parts of Toril(or Oerth or whatever). She needs a better PR team though. I do think having her as a Demon Queen is more intetesting though. Less distant and more opportunities for engaging stories.EDIT : I just noticed i've made the same comment twice XD
34:06 I think the reason for including hit dice on a unique creature is because they're occasionally used for things other than determining hit points, such as healing in a short rest.
Also, maximum and minimum hit points! Kinda forgotten now, but it is an easy way to say that they have a lot more hit points or almost none. Good old AD&D days.
Also there are some things which are dependant on the number of hit dice something has, like the Imprisonment spell.
In an underdark campaign I played in (the one where we killed the purple worm from the inside) we saved a town of myconids (sorry if I misspelled that) from her. She was set to marry their chief of chiefs and control all myconids. We fought our way out, (everyone but the cleric being either dead or severely wounded) the first time.
We had to go back (since me and the ranger were hired to escort the cleric through the underdark) and save the town, so we snuck back in on the day of the wedding, and challenged her as they said their vows. During the fight, we somehow managed to stun lock her until she was banished back to the abyss. We had no idea how we stun locked her, but if we hadn't, we surely would have died.
Out of the abyss is the campaign, I'm DMing this campaign, my players are reaching neverlight Grove next week
@@jarlsnake6023 Ah, many thanks, couldn't remember the campaign's name for the life of me.
@@blackhawk3975 my players are probably fighting her when their characters get level 16 (I changed some things), you enjoyed this campaign?
@@jarlsnake6023 Yep, ended up playing as what i dubbed the "road warrior paladin" because my character got infected with wereshark lycanthropy, turned once (which destroyed the plate armor i had) and got cured by the cleric. Never made enough gold to get a new set, so i just wore leather armor, which was constantly being ruined by shenanigans from the ranger.
🤔 I think to make things interesting I might make my next character a Spores Druid who worships Zuggtmoy for some reason or other. Not sure how far to lean onto the evil, but they would be sneaky about it.
Im not certain that her domain is just Florida.
I could see evil myconids worshipping Zuggtmoy
In older canon they do.
I find 5e ridiculous in the fluff, so who the hell knows.
so a circle of spores druid and a fiend warlock could be the same thing
You think mushrooms and oozes would go hand and hand since slime molds exist, but I guess zuggtmony doesn't like them very much
Two rival demon lords competing for the same rancid, purifying turf, really...
13:45. Ohh... Surface realm. I heard Circus Realm, and now have much R&D to embrace.
Myconid art? I mean, yeah, they are fungal, but, theyre not her minions, as far as I'm aware; those mushdudes are pretty mellow.
14:10 are some bad hombres... Tres Ah-Mi-Gos... 3Z-Tops?
@@johncaccioppo1142
Wrong game setting, but, still a good one.
images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JuCxDD24L._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
The real question is can I roll a myconid warlock patroned to zuggtmoy. . .
Yes, yes you can.
Though I collected a ton of material about my fave demons, demon lords etc by myself (esp. loving the early D&D, AD&D 1st fluff), it's great getting it presented neatly here in your videos. I also highly recommend Gygax' "Gord The Rogue" novels mainly because they are blasting with abyssal settings, Zuggtmoy, Iggwilv, Graz'zt and other demon lords (even some little mentoining of Szhublox/Juiblex)
Juiblex was partnered with her once, Atropus gave them both strict orders to destroy a tavern but Orcus had to ruin it by announcing their location to the enemy.
I guess I’m just a Zuggtomy Boi! I’m in love.
I'm pretty sure my DM made her my warlock's patron..
TY for the video on the 1st demon lord I ever encountered on tabletop. (2nd edition TTOEE module)
I'm actually running a campaign with her as the big bad so it is nice to hear all about her before my players know they're dealing with the Lady of Rot and Fungus
It‘s really disturbing that a comment like that is coming from Bob Ross
Gotta make sure I beat the devil out of them.
Bob Ross Don‘t you mean ... beat the DEMON out of them?^^
Ooh, been waiting for this one...
The dice to roll for hit points are there becasue some people like to roll the hit points instead of taking the median.
I could go for a full 10 minutes of you trying to pronounce that druids name 😂😂😂
Fuck I can remember you uploading this and now it's 2 years ago
I love using a fungus-based cult as the unseen force behind a horror-based AD&D mission. Tweak it enough and it can seem like some other kind of horror is the source in the beginning. 10/10 video AJ. I'm happy that AD&D didn't phase out fungus horror and even expanded upon it. I have several different home-brews on fungus-dominated Shambling Mounds as well as "pseudo-zombies" inspired by the Yellow Musk Zombie (I think that was what they were called, the zombie with the flower growing out of its head, not really an undead but a corpse animated by the fungal/plant organism infecting the brain). My "pseudo-zombies" are actually living fungal colonies animating a corpse, eventually eating it and being a form of fungal monster that looks like a full-flesh zombie. I digress... Zuggtmoy need not be around to be the source of some horror-based AD&D play.
Those sound kind of similar to the Golgari of Ravnica's Plant Zombies. They use a living plant feeding from the dead corpse to animate it, but I can EASILY see that being shifted to being a fungus instead of a plant, perhaps with a plant following from the fungus, and an insect animated zombie, thicket skeleton after that, in a disturbing "Circle Of Life" kind of thing. (Admit it "Circle Of Life" with the visual of a plant/infected skeleton is playing in your head right now.)
Have you heard about the cortyceps fungus before? Because thats a real fungus that creates zombie ants. Considering humanity, like ants, are also in a way a superorganism, only a matter of time(at least in the D&D universe) will a mutation occur that lets them spread to man.
@@victorvaldez8869 How horribly delicious! Yes, that song plays in my head each time I hear those 3 words together.
@@jurassician3725 I did hear of cordyceps fungus. I think 1st Ed AD&D writers might have used it as an inspiration for the Yellow Musk and their zombies.
The Temple of Elemental Evil RPG video game (Troika/Atari), once patched by the Circle of Eight updates, is a very good game featuring Zuggtmoy.
the fungus from "voice in the night"/ "Matango" would be good to have in her roaster of minions. and a bodyguards of fungus zombies and corrupted treents
This was excellent AJ, I thoroughly enjoyed the over half an hour experience.
(I can't say the same for all the poor folk who got *spored* at some point in the video......I'll just head for the door.)
*Pops head back in*
Though I do wonder how aberrations would do with the fungi and spores, are they as vulnerable as everyone else or is it dependant on the specific abberant?
"A vast network of Kevins"
Pure undiluted nightmare-fuel, that.
14:56 "But their true purpose is to honor their queens monsterous mouth!"........my Warlock Philosopher deity of death could do that 😉 hee hee hee! Dont think she'd like it much though!
Played a Spore Druid who gave credit to Zuggtmoy for her abilities. She was neutral evil.
Is there a breakdown of power levels between archdevils and gods.
What's the benefits of being one of the other?
check out my Ecology of the Gods video (ignore the comments section)
>Me, a humble fan of mushrooms: yay
>D&D: Shrooms are evul!
I think it's more like mushrooms are the lifeforms she specializes in corrupting to evil, rather than mushrooms being inherently evil themselves. Like how Baphomet is the demon prince of beasts -- that isn't saying beasts are evil, they're just what Baphomet in particular uses for evil ends.
Mrs. Iuz ,,, when they aren't at odds with each other.
Warlock of Zuggtmoy anyone?
A vanilla summoner with a myconid as his/her eidolon would be cool.
Easily explainable companion that can summoned and dismissed into the mycelium. The companion can die over and over again without hurting the emerssion.
Priest would be worse.
Between its name, how old it is in dnd lore, and it's ridiculing attempts to change its shapes there is no way this being isn't an Obyrith in deep witness protection trying really hard to not look like an Obyrith but just doesn't understand the concept.
Most people don't know that Dr. Abraham Van Helsing has an old schoolmate who is also a demon hunter, but one focused on the children of Zuggtmoy. His name is Dr. Lotrimin Scholl.
That started as a joke, but I'll be damned if that actually isn't a super cool name.
So she's the Queen in yellow
Zuggtmoy really should take a page from Mal. If you want to build a cult, you need to look good for it. That and get a better profile.
"Temperature always seems to hover around 90 degrees Fahrenheit"
My European Ass: "What are these peasant units?"
I was also confused. Maybe it's what AJ secretly tried to make his listeners feel. Maybe he's been inspired by David Lynch and just created a state of fugue with subliminal confusion.
I looked it up after I did the video, its 32 C... so, thats a nope from me.
@@AJPickett
37C is too hot for my Super Hot blood.
Hell, even 30C is too much.
Ship me to Greenland, I can power the entire region with my body heat alone.
D&D is published in the USA, we're the last hold outs on the old Imperial system that England gave us when we declared independence. It's funny how fiercely we cling on to the nonsensical system instead of adopting the measurements the rest of the world & EVERY scientific discipline uses.
It would be a WORSE layer of the Abyss if it was 90 degrees Celsius, a burning hot jungle with water that's close to boiling at all times. It would effectively kill off both Princes of the realm who are currently there mind you so I can imagine a prince planning it to claim the layer for themselves. A jungle that's only kept from bursting into flame by the overbearing humidity.
@@victorvaldez8869 Even my country, the country that gave it to you in the first place, doesnt use it, lol
Dungeons & Dragons Online has the Temple of Elemental Evil and at the end you fight Zuggtmoy.
Am the only one with the terrible idea for a lawful evil rival to Zuggtmoy? Some sort of Demon Princess of rot, perhaps a ... Princess Toadstool?
For those of you old enough to remember the instruction manual to the original Super Mario Brothers that was the princess before they re-named her "Peach." Now you have to live with that visual too.
Seriously i can also imagine one of the other mind influencing effects would be a insane hatred of any kind of slime & desperate need to eradicate any kind of slimes, this infection would be non-fatal as why wouldn't she want an army of paladins going after the servants of Jubilex?
It's funny how they never get lolth right... She's always been a diety... Araushnee... Alloooo. She just consumed one of the original tana'ri as he challenged her and she like usual freaked out... Everyone in the abyss from the obyriths to every demon Lord bows politely to lolth as a diety she has full control of their realms well she is present... There's enough novels that cover this heh. Always bugs me when they claim she ascended recently. She just achieved greater from lesser status. She's a top god now. Even demogorgon licks her boots when threatened physically by her...
Demogorgon licks NOTHING
@@AJPickett come on with that tongue... Lolth would never admit to such a lowly embrace(although she has done worse and certainly more noble creatures heh... Jarlaxle or Drizzt for instance or for the opposite those Balors). But something tells me she uses demogorgon as a rabbit...(NSF anyone) lol 😉.
Loth is powerful no doubt, but the real reason the rest of the demon lords don't tear her to shreds is that they believe that if they openly attack Lolth, the other demons will take their chances to attack them after the battle, a curious fact. and chaotic form of balance in the abyss that Lolth learned to take advantage of, because in a way it is similar to the constant chaos in every Drow city, practically the entire adventure of coming out of the abyss is one of their attempts to reclaim control over the abyss and certainly She failed her mission and now all the demon lords know her intentions and can attack her in retaliation while she is still weakened, rendering all her effort useless.
I always pictured Lloth as the hot prepe girl in High School who is banished from her cliques lunch room table and now eats with a less popular clique. The new girls secretly dont like her, but feel she adds prestige.
Until Pale Night shows up.
Just imagine cursed mushrooms of unknown origin that mutates any humanoid, mostly humans, into monstrous humanoids all due to this demoness becoming a deity.
These monstrous humanoids would vary from having two heads, four arms, and various other abnormalties. Not to mention the ability to manipulate fungi.
Thank you - you just gave my homebrew it's origin story for the myconid race.
I find is mushroom demon similar like the plague God in nurgle from Warhammer 40K
Ok you've got most of the 5e demon lords down. All you need to do now is Jyublex and Yeenoghu. Please do Yeenoghu!
Demones lady of funguy.
You should put difficult names up on screen when you say them. Let us struggle with you 😂
Ps. What's with magically inclined people not liking vowels?
I really should, perhaps someone will make a compilation video of me mashing those stupid words with my face hole.
So, that mind effect is just PCs tripping balls on mushrooms