Dungeons and Dragons: Alkilith
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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Loathsome demons of corruption capable of forming their own portal to the endless Abyss.
aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, dungeons and dragons, roleplaying, tabletop, 5E, 5th edition, faerun, toril, forgotten realms, Eberron, pen and paper, Dungeons and dragons lore, monsters, magic, magic items, monster ecology, greyhawk, mystara, krynn, golarion, spelljammer, planescape, homebrew, live stream, Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, WotC, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Theros, Strixhaven, Fizban, Mordenkainen, Drizzt, cosmology, planescape, spelljammer, lore, stories, outer planes, elemental, artifact, toril, faerun
#monster #DnD #5E #demon
It's a comforting thought that the Abyss so embodies chaos that it ultimately can't hold together and disperse. Like a chaotic evil heat death.
*"Its like if you were a bag of wasps"*
Me smiling nervously - "yeah guys, imagine that."
Move along folks, there's no heresy to see here 😉👍😁
Just want to point out that I heard and appreciated the reverb for the names of the demon lords.
A bag of wasps deluded into thinking it is a person describes one of my past business partners so very succinctly. Thank you.
I… wha… uh… condolences..?😂😅
Great way to start off the week! Thank you my friend!
As a side note - I've been playing with the battle maps, and my toddler has discovered they also make great play/drawing mats! Two happy customers here
The Alkilith is only equalized by the Acidilith when combined cancel each other out with a puff sulphide gas and distilled water
Better living through chemistry!
Damn if only I was here a few days earlier, had the same joke.
Hahaha, I love this!
After working my way through your back catalogue, every new video is the most pleasant surprise
I used one of these as a plot device in a planar campaign, where someone had smuggled one into Bytopia and had grown into a portal on a secluded mountain that started spawning various demons. I basically put a timer for it to get situated, then 1 new random demon would come through every round. The party fought a few but decided to run instead of investigate where they were coming from, and thus never saw it. Eventually, several Adamantine Dragons had to basically blow apart the entire mountain to prevent the infestation from spreading.
I have never had a monster that made my players more afraid of common dungeon features than this. Great addition to mimic houses along with the Oblex.
One thing worth reminding people; this lore of Demons resulting from Tharizdun and the invasion of the Obyriths from another, dead, dimension is mostly AJ's own, a fill-in for intentional gaps in 'official' lore.
But one, it's a damn good fill-in.
Two, and this is mostly for me, thanks to this video I now have a consideration for the final boss of an eldritch horror game I'm running.
Yes, I should probably include a mention of the lack of literature regarding the true origin of Demons.
@@AJPickett It's in your....Obox-ob video, I think? Which serves as a jumping-off point for all of these, but it's also from a bit ago, and you talk so confidently about it all I legitimately wondered if there wasn't just some old lore I missed before I found the disclaimer (like with Glasya).
@@Pyre weeeeelll... There have been a few demon books and many demon articles and lots of fluff, plus... The Rod of Seven Parts, Greyhawk lore.. Tharizdun is from Gary Gygax after all.
I can imagine Asmodeus & his devils negotiating with Yugoloths & Night Hags with that "you're next on the chopping block, as soon as we deal with the Demons" look.
Hell yeah!!!
Congrats on 100k man!
You DEFINITELY deserve it.
In Krynn, they call it Tarbean tea.
That wasp analogy slaps
FOR REAL. fabulous description of what charisma means in dnd in general, in addition to being a great insight to what a demon is.
That bag of wasps analogy is the best I've heard for my silly mind to really get the idea of demons.
The more I hear slimes and molds , the more I want to runs away or join up. There is no middle ground for me. These things terrify me.
You make the destruction of the abyss sound like a really satisfying ending to a very long-running story.
Instant download for a listen at work!
This is a perfect explanation of why I somewhat sympathize with the Baatezu, despite the fact that they're utterly evil. This corruption must be halted and eradicated wherever possible and I can imagine it wouldn't take me long at all to be willing to employ ruthless tactics to achieve that end.
I'd love to see a video lecture on how Tharazdun, the Demons, the Abyss and the Baernaloths are all interconnected.
I will need a large ball of red string, a wall, two pots of coffee, a pack of cigarettes, no lighter, clothes I have clearly slept in, and a mild eye infection.
The epic party (24th) just encountered an aspect of Juiblix with a number of his entourage, including an Alkilith. "We are awesome, we are great, we are were completely unprepared for the horror of this thing!" It was a great night.
I've often feared that I am actually just a bag of wasps that thinks it's a man... This video hit a little too close to home for me, AJ...
"It's like if you were just a bag of angry wasps."
Haha, man wouldn't that be crazy? Glad that's not possible (the mammals suspect us! we must be cautious!)
I understand that reference...
There's no better way to battle insomnia than to listen to a sage discuss the lore of dungeons and dragons...
Nothing spawns nightmares like demonic entities which have no discernible form. True terror would be for players to happen upon a hidden temple to Juiblex with a massive pool the size of a pond which is actually a gigantic Alkilith. Watching wave after wave of foul demons emerge from it's coiling, undulating ripples of slime. Worse yet would be if the "pool" itself began to move around and beneath the demons it spawned making the battleground overtly treacherous.
I don’t think I ever realized demons are like corrupted elementals, but it makes sense.
Ohhhhhh, anticipation truly is worth it. Just listened to this absolutely amazing video while cooking dinner.
The analogies were on fire, especially the bag of wasps. Made me think deeper than normal xD.
The ending made me think, pretty stupidly but.. could limbo be a more effective counter measure to the Abyss than we know?
Thanks so much lore beautiful lore master xD
Limbo is in serious need of a defragmentation check.
This isnt nerdy, its metal!
It totally is! 🤘😆👍
It’s both!
The way you described how, if you see a demon, you’ll know it was so chilling.
As I scour the images of gorgeous bread for the horrific spot of mold, it dawns on me that those who had encountered the taunt of the abyss would find even perfectly fresh bread nauseating. The taint being a smudge on their very being they would see rot everywhere, the yawning hunger until the end of your days as well as constant nausea. The psychic backlash perfectly designed to weaken the endless masses of natural life when they attempt escape beyond the reach of the abyss after encountering it. No wonder mortals attempt to bargain with and worship them. Those who have not felt the touch cannot understand how people fall into the cults of the abyssal lords. Anything to ease the hunger and acclimate to the barrage of nightmares in an effort to hold onto your mind and soul.
Exactly so.
Great video as always, anytime Tharizdun gets involved I dont know what it, is but it gives me goose bumps!
Well @Aj Pickett
We obviously know where Juiblix got the name for this demon… Juiblix cried, “AL-KILITH YOU ALL‼️” 😜😂🤣
*chef kiss* now that was a spicy pun.
@@AJPickett 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Whenever the Abyss is brought up, I always wonder how Toril hasn't been completely overrun by now.
Blood War. Devils keep the demons busy.
Then You should send Asmodeus a gift basket
@@agentchaos9332 he won't return my calls. Glasya says it's because he thinks I'm to creepy.
Thanks for the video AJ! Glad your feeling better.
If the shard of evil was destroyed I have an idea of what would happen to the abyss. I think that it would slowly loss energy and it’s ability to corrupt over billions of years until eventually it lost the ability completely and disappeared into oblivion. Each time a demon reformed it gets weaker, each demon having to either accept death or join other realms/powers.
Interesting theory though no more abyss means that the blood war would end leaving the devils and other fiends with nothing stopping them form starting their invasion.
@@HeadHunter-mv2ht complete disaster but definitely an interesting story idea. Another one is… with the abyss gone would a new chaotic evil plane come into existence?
As I understand, Shard forms a new layer where it "falls", then falls deeper, and so on indefinitely, making abyss exponentially deep. Without it, Abyss would stop its expansion, and demonic energy becomes limited, so it would be just a question of time until fuel runs out
Do you know how you're the best DnD lore channel? Because ANYONE can read a stat block but your videos are like inspiration jet fuel! So much so that they require multiple listenings to extract the story based succor found within. And as far as my calculations can tell, the number of innovations are limitless!
It is my mission in life to make people want to skip to the gaming table, bursting with excitement.
Mentioning how the stellar dragons could have sourced materials for tharizdunns imprisonment actually fits with why Kurtlemakk would have known to construct the prison as it and it's brood serve all dragons.
Yeah, seems to track well.
@@AJPickett Well, our Kobold 20 int researcher with forbidden abyssal knowledge is gonna have a hey-day if he happens upon this strange lore.
There's a question that I've been mulling over for a while. It's known that the queen of chaos wiped her name from all knowledge. Did she do so because she was concerned about her enemies using her true name against her? Also, beings like the oberyth are what I consider god level threats. Can true names effect them or deities or great old ones? I know that mephistopheles, before he became a deity, and was an archfiend could be bound with his true name. Are great old ones & other far realm powers so utterly alien that true names hold no power over them?
A very good question that I don't have an answer to.
So you have to save every turn, if you fail the save you get disadvantage on all rolls, and if you fail by 5 or more you get confused...
"Oh yeah, it's death spiral time!"
100k looks good on you man
Word!
Destroying the Abyss and containing the shard of ultimate evil would make a crazy epic level campaign.
I love listening to the short stories at the start. Every episode is good but the short stories make them grate.
Oh shit I’ve been waiting for this video!
I get this feeling that the next edition of DnD is going to feature a breaking down and defeat of the abyss, with a smattering of surviving demon lords become fierce deities of wretched and foul domains.
Demogorgon as the God of Primal Fear, Orcus as (duh) the God of Undeath (he would definitely fight Vecna for it), not certain which fungal friend will win, and Dagon as the God of the Unforgiving Depths.
The Abyss always wins, eventually leading to the implosion of the multiverse that eventually causes it to explode into a new one. It can even do that after its defeated, destroyed. The forces that opposed it eventually turn on each other and when the factions of Law, Good, and Lawful Good are the victors and squabbling about who is to be on top or if they should find peace, the Abyss respawns from the ashes of the conflicts that happened once the enemies of the Abyss turn on each other... chaos is born from entropy and entropy will always eventually happen.
I used these beasties in the early 90s with a homebrew campaign that I based upon a computer game, SSI's Eternal Dagger, the sequel to SSI's Wizard's Crown. The party shows up to find the super-powered heroes that they summoned are all defeated, leaving corpses of Alkilith (they had a different name back then I believe) disintegrating with one surviving. The party must defeat that one or have the demon gate open for good. Lastly, to close the demon gate, the party must go through it and use The Eternal Dagger to close it from the other side. The sequel to that campaign was to find a way out of the Abyss. The slain heroes carved them a starter path. They picked coming back through the Underdark, so taking on the Lair of the Spider Queen was it. Watching their reaction in how casting Regeneration on a missing limb in the Abyss with the Spider Queen the power that grants priestly magic was fun.
Did…. Did they grow a spider leg/arm or something? You can’t just leave without telling!!!!!
@@Lh0000 First one *was* a spider limb, a left arm. Good guess though. The next one grew toad legs. He didn't agree to the Regeneration spell but he was unconscious, couldn't object. Nobody else lost limbs the rest of the mission. The funny thing is that the frog legs guy didn't fix them after the mission, he grew to like them. It's a boon that those were grown as a pair. The spider-arm girl used the last Wish in her ring to fix that right after the mission, was afraid of how the area would mess with a Wish spell before that. And no, the altered abilities of the regrown limbs were not awesome. They were more glitched than helpful. Toad leg guy was a ran by a good-strange player, taking up the nickname "Bullywugger" after everyone groaned when he first tried nicknaming himself "Toad" then "Toadster" then "Toad Man". There was a canon chart available but I was not satisfied with the number of mutations. I wanted more variety and made up a chart that expanded the possible mutations to 100. Toad legs guy saw my chart and read the dice wrong at first, he thought he ended up with his original legs facing backwards... so he was happy with the "less crippling" toad legs... and liked the hopping and swimming that they helped with despite the slower bullywug waddle for other motions. Since you guessed the spider limb by default, I assume you own an original copy of the Lair of the Spider Queen, which was (in the original chart) one of the most likely mutations. I loved that module, took me a month to fully study it and I had a high-speed teenage brain at the time.
@@That80sGuy1972 sadly I don’t own an original copy, I never really had a crew to play with, so most of my experience is just reading and listening to lore stuff like this whenever I find the time.
I’d certainly like to give it a shot sometime but like… being an adult is so ungodly time and energy consuming it’s a nightmare to find time for myself in general.
@@Lh0000 Word. I can totally relate to the being an adult sucks part.
that was a really good one. that last part gave me goosebumps =D
the stuff of nightmares, indeed! brilliantly insightful as always!
I was amused to see artwork of the Guild Wars Charr among the images in this video
Hey AJ, great video and loved the pic's. That Alkilith is super powerful and really scary. This must be where Gelatinous Cubes come from. Instead of a powerful Wizard creating a Gelatinous Cube, he or she probably Gated them into there own universe, either on purpose or on accident.
Off topic: The other day you and Woodwwad had a old school discussion video and it got me looking at some more of the old school weapons. Came across a weapon that I completely forgotten about. I like to call it converting, some call it Homebrewing and others are just making Sandcastles in the sand. Hope you don't mind AJ or find it annoying. We just need more OS!
Double Crossbow.
100 gp., 7 lb., 2d8 piercing, heavy, loading, range (80/320), two-handed.
This crossbow fires a pair of bolts at a single target with one pull of the trigger. Also, the bolts can be fired individually. (When firing bolts individually, the second bolt shot can be taken as a bonus action, until the end of the shooter's turn). (Each bolt requires a d20 attack roll).
Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
I want one!
Loved this one AJ... Can't wait for another video
Question: If (Heaven forbid) an Alkilith turned my bathroom door into an Abyss Portal, would tearing out the doorframe (Via long range Bazooka, I guess) work to break the link?
No
There is no hard evidence in the lore either way on the subject, so you will have to ask (or become) your locally sanctioned Dungeon Master.
Just when I was getting peckish! Thanks for the fresh gluestick, AJ :)
Your quality keeps improving, man. I'm proud of how successful the channel is becoming
Bless the Mighty GlueStick
I like the fact that finally expand on the obyrith obox-ob tharizdun/Ghuanadaur/juiblex story
Knowing this thing is somewhat intelligent, I wonder what the end result would be if merged, magically or otherwise, with a gibbering mouther. Reason I ask is one is intelligent while the other is mad. Of course, both have a degree of chaos. Just curious. Just seems like a good conversation on the dichotomy between intelligence and madness.
Gibbering mouthers may have many minds, all in torment and screaming desperation.
@@Fgway That is pretty interesting thought. I was wondering who would be dominant. Well the alkilith is demonic and the mouther has a lot of minds screaming like AJ said. Here is an idea... Think of a bunch of larvae mooshed together. Sounds like a fun home brew.
I don't think any demon would willingly fuse with a gibbering mouther. It would be...too familiar. If you get my meaning.
I always got excited looking through monster splat books and finding creatures that are allowed, by fiat of lore, to be as big and as powerful as you want them to be. The Akilith is just such a horror. I didn't quite understand why some of them work for Obox-ob. I guess he can direct them more effectively than Juiblex can.
Juiblex can only exert so much control over all the oozes in the multiverse, thus many still evade his domination to this day. I suppose that Alkiliths are the most desirable of his spawn due to their ability to create dimensional gates and are thus amongst the very first to be yoinked from his grasp when the occasion arises.
Plus, Juiblex might not care enough to worry about a few of his spawn missing.
If the multiverse is so big why won't it fight me?
It did, you are currently sitting in the shame box while other powers are continuing with their game.
Love the city drawing
Currently toying with one of these having opened a portal in a buried cathedral ruin in mountain caves...But it's not a mountain. It's a mimic. The mimic is mostly currently being controlled by an Elder Brain(Brain, duh) but cannot push further and prepare a colony due to a rogue Ooblex(soul). The Ooblex wants the alkilith portal to stay open as it has a constant food source. However, there are grell(cancer) within the mimic, and by building their defense against the demons they are killing it the mimic. They don't know or care of the alkilith and demons being spawned(gastric distress) in the mimic are mostly being dissolved by it, and if it dies, they go unchecked. However, there is a deepspawn(stomach) taking a few of the weaker(partially digested)demons for its own army, and is ready to pay handsomely for a swift end to the other 'organs'. The party find themselves trapped until they make a choice on who to support(not that grell and deepspawn are excellent conversationalist, but desperation will do that)or kill them all.
Your recent videos and Rick and Morty's 'Anatomy Park' episode gave rise to this horror. My players say 'Thanks'*. And so do I.
* Copious sarcasm and great disdain implied.
I ignore the obvious sarcasm and exuberantly sign my name to their Players handbooks and perform dice blessings, *"You are most welcome! always a pleasure!"*
What a f'n badass video - outstanding!
I love these nasty Bois
Now I'm just imagining them teaming up with portal and ooze drake's and other such cretures like phase spiders or blink dogs ( probably corrupted).
Great video. I think the best is at the end. Contemplating the ways that the Abyss may play out in the future, interesting stuff.
Love your videos AJ keep it up. For me, the longer the better on lore vids
Wehn contemplating how the Abyss could fall, contemplating it as a cancer on reality brings up one of the proposed reasons huge animals like Blue Whales seldom die of cancer despite how many potentially cancerous cells they have, Hypertumors.
Basically in order to become cancerious, a cell needs to break all it's safegards against mutation, which is why the DNA of turmos can vary from location to location. And with enough mutations, Hypertumors can form that basically attack the tumor their in like the tumor is attacking the organ is part of. The idea of full layers of the abyss that prey on other layers is an interesting one, Or something like mountain sized ticks that act as parasites to abysal layers.
Excellent metaphor BrendanKOD!
Thanks.
You just need to break the mold off the corner of the bread and then you can eat the rest, no problem! Hell, a barbarian friend of mine even told me the mold is supposed to be GOOD for you!
I haven't heard anything on stellar dragons in a while.
I'd love to see a video on those.
What is the relationship between Tharizdun and beholders?
ua-cam.com/video/6OAE2JDsPaM/v-deo.html That's the question Vecna doesn't want you to ask.
Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. Depends on what you want there to be.
Making Monday better, thank you.
Have you ever considered putting the audio of these videos on Spotify? I love listening to these during workouts and such
Yes, well, sort of, UA-cam should hopefully come up with its own solution.
Would love to see a video on the Nihileth, planar traveling aboleth liches sounds cool.
Edit: didn’t see any videos on UA-cam of them so you’d be the first too
Wow. Fantastic break down.
Love your content!:)
Is there a opposite of a alkilith? Like a celestrial ooze?
Probably an acidilith. ;)
@@Lh0000 unbelievably dumb yet utterly fantastic comment :D
@@leviroch sadly someone else beat me to it!
+moonringXD if only. I don't think there's any good spider deities either. :(
Dang now this a monster jeez
Confusion for 1 minute = 10 rounds, not 6. Horrifying.
True, sorry, miscalculated.
Another demon! Hell yeah....well...Abyssal Yeah!
yes indeed! great video!! by the way, I saw your NPC in Esper's book of Esoterica!! Congrats!! I'm in there too!! let me know what you think! I'm very excited about being able to be in some stories now... gonna add Albevazin to many of my games!
Yeah, I am hoping to do some gaming as Pickaroon as well! Greetings from the Highhand spire!
I gotta start doing some videos on the Abyss. But my next one is gonna be on Realmspace.
Mayyyybe after that, though.... >.>
You think tenari and similar demons might focus on corruption and incorporating more law in order to prevent the degeneration of their hierarchy? Or just try to hold it together wit will and ego while saying the abyss with carnage and corruption?
They hold it together with sheer will and ego. Only might makes right in the abyss. If you meet a cordial demon they're only nice because they're strong enough to pull it off.
Oh, option number two, 100%
If you got an angel, demon or a devil on a spell jemma and fluid out it
of the crystal, killed it what would happen to its existence?
It is unclear how the phlogiston interacts with the border ethereal plane, what is clear is that it doesn't block the transition of souls to the afterlife, that effect is very powerful.
How scared do you think they would be, even if you did it with of the elementals that would not lead to an explosion which would lead to?
@@keithellery2371 Angels and Devils already know (they have a handbook for that), demons don't generally feel fear.
@@AJPickett when I accidentally take a fire elemental into the incredibly flammable stuff they will
Another vid knocked outta the park, great vid bro
Tharizdun. the one that cocked it all up
Morning Loremaster Pickett
Wonder what kind of mess these would make for the Shoth.
great video!
Can you sell captured pieces for gold in a magic jar
So many Oozes, so little time.
Anyone have the source for the art at 8:30?
www.deviantart.com/tituslunter/art/Gelatinous-Terror-512570019
@@AJPickett Thank you!
Great video. Thanks AJ!
How does a warforged barbarian a dragonborn ranger and a human monk defeat it
Very carefully.
Kek
A excellent video as always aj👌 ! Do you think ixitxachitls would summon them to make a gate way too demogorgon btw?
Yes
Juiblex is a big bad in my homebrew world currently. Definitely putting these in!
The demonds already have won, they destroyed the last multiverse and that's where the oberith came from.
Oh and the devils don't want to win, so that's not going to happen.
Good point, debatable on the second one, quite true on the first.
@@AJPickett the second part depends upon your belief in the true nature of azomdeus. If he is truly ahriman, as Mr. Rhexx theorized, he want to continue the blood war so he can use the soul of mortals to heal himself.
So if a Demon dies in the Abyss, it turns into more Abyss, and that stuff might turn into a new demon?
Goddamn, even demons are one upping us in recycling
Yes
@@distracted_rogue If it's any consolation, other Planar Beings likely use a similar process.
Yes, demons are literally made of the concepts of evil and chaos given form, in the same way as fire elementals are made of fire and creatures from the prime material are made out of matter
Isn't the blood war over in contemporary D&D? I remember Pazuzu's lore sidebar in Misc and Boos Journal of villainy said the he likely had influence in the end of the blood war before being imprisoned in the iron flask.
It didn't end. It stopped for like 100 years when Asmodeus ascended but it did restart eventually
@@agentchaos9332 Yes, it kicked off again.
What do you think would happen if the abyss and the demons were finally defeated forever?
Good question! There would be a fairly unprecidented era of collaboration among the more powerful gods as they engage in massive dimensional engineering to repair as much damage as they can. I imagine a lot of that will be taken care of by the (often unmentioned) Immortals, who routinely move around moons and govern whole sections of prime material planes. Some parts of the Abyss rightfully would need to be cut off and tossed into the Far Realm, others would simply be heavily warded so that Nobody can access them, not even the gods. If possible, recycling materials into the Inner elemental planes and dumping the resulting void space into the negative energy plane is also a solution.
In my homebrew setting a few gods among which a freshly risen Drow god invaded the Abyss to try and get at Lolth, it resulted in alot of venting of frustration against the Demons though they should have listened to Devils.
Because regardless of vented frustrations, each creature and entity that ventured in was forever tainted.
That one Drow god is now hiding in Pandemonium to avoid having that taint draw him and his divine realm along with all of his devoted into the Abyss and assimilate them all.
BREAD
Hey! I like bread
Well this ended on a hopeful note. 😌