Chaos Toad Lords

Chaos toads have no gods, but they have lords: a handful of former death toads who rival demon lords and archdevils in might without being deities. On the plane of raw chaos, the mirror of the plane of perfect order, only the strongest are truly free, because every toad bound into a rank is bullied by those above it. Some death toads therefore plunge into a single facet of chaos in a poorly understood, deadly quest for identity. Only four have emerged as lords, each embodying a different kind of chaos.

Aging toads instinctively journey into the plane's depths; a few return transformed, but most apparently dissolve into raw chaos. Lords are immortal and need fear that fate only if slain, so they never fight to the death. None has ever been killed, and whether one could reform afterward is unknown, though ordinary toads die permanently.

Oldest and mightiest, Zhulvessa drifts through the chaos-stuff as a vast golden amoeba with four pseudopods, swallowing anything nearby. She rarely takes her other shapes, a huge golden toad near the Birthing Stone or a golden-skinned elf warrior, and has never left her plane, though she reaches across the planes to drive mortals mad. Str 23, Dex 16, Con 18, Int and Wis 0 (unratable), Cha 18.

Her pseudopods can strike up to four foes a round; anyone hit by three in one round is pulled inside, unable to act physically, and takes 3d12 acid damage each round. A victim dissolved to 0 hp cannot be resurrected. As a toad she uses claws and bite. In either form, a target hit by two or more pseudopods or both claws must save vs. spells or suffer mindshatter. At will she can use: ESP, cloudkill, unholy word, wind walk, invisibility, teleport without error, know alignment, detect magic, continual light, darkness 15' radius, locate object and locate person, double-strength flame strike, shapechange into amoeba or elf, and three times a day each energy drain, any power word and symbol of insanity. She gates in 1 death toad per turn, never failing, and is immune to psionics and mind-affecting enchantment/charm.

She has no followers and is shunned by all who know of her; visitors are told to steer clear of big yellow blobs. She is said to feed on the trauma of the insane, especially those she broke, and seeks only to madden the multiverse one mind at a time. Legend makes her the Birthing Stone's guardian: when a horde of vrocks slew four death toads there, a giant golden toad tore through them and let one survivor limp home, and the tanar'ri stayed away for ages.

Nominal ruler of the plane, Morghast dwells in a fortress that drifts on the chaos currents and reshapes itself to his whim, cavern one moment and ruined temple the next; its halls lead wherever he wishes. He looks like a huge, winged toad skeleton of charred black bone, and away from home he may become a dark-skinned human warrior in adamantine armor. His mount is Vraskar, a coldly neutral great wyrm brass dragon of maximum ability who fights to the death for him. Str 21, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 22, Wis 19, Cha 12.

At will: sleep, fear, ESP, blink, advanced illusion, phantasmal killer, unholy word, detect invisibility, detect magic, darkness 15' radius, continual light, know alignment, double-strength flame strike, shapechange to human, and three times daily each death fog, energy drain, power word kill and symbol of hopelessness. Each turn he gates in a death toad (35%) or two grays (65%). His adamantine scythe +5, runed with the old toad word for 'death,' forces a save vs. death magic on every hit or the target is slain or disintegrated (even chance); a successful save still means 8d6 damage. At his will it disintegrates objects by touch. Death magic and other hostile necromancy cannot touch him.

Morghast created the Birthing Stone from pure chaos stuff to bind and focus the race, and he directs death toads to raise red and blue hordes that seed the wounded of fiendish wars and prime worlds. Wanting the lords to stay mysterious, he orders any traveler asking about 'toad gods' devoured and eats death toads close to ascending. He ignores Zhulvessa, tolerates Quillix, and loathes and fears Vivacor. Even so he is secretly grooming Thessik, a death toad terrorist favored by a faction of revolutionaries, to rise as Lord of Anarchy.

A gangly, chalk-white toad 20 feet tall, Quillix might shred a band of zerathi and then pause to sniff a flower. He cares only for his whims, loses interest in fights halfway through, yet always destroys real threats. Str 20, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 19, Wis 18, Cha 15.

One per round at will: chaos, confusion, fear, ESP, light, solid fog, cloudkill, wind walk, astral spell, advanced illusion, detect magic, darkness 15', flame strike, and any symbol three times a day. Chaos-shaped ground within 30 feet of him dissolves, and spells cast within 300 feet trigger a wild surge even off his plane, which never affects him. His hits and bites force a save vs. spells or the victim suffers a chaos beast's corporeal instability; clockwork beings instead save or turn chaotic neutral rogues. At home he gates in a gray (40%) or two greens (60%) each turn with 90% success.

He has no followers, though a faction of chaos-worshiping philosophers admires him from a careful distance. He loves cannonballing through zerathi towns, whose folk call any nasty surprise 'a visit from Quillix,' and his lone trip to the plane of perfect order spawned rogue drones everywhere and nearly got him killed by the Prime Regulator.

Youngest and cruelest, Vivacor is a gaunt, 12-foot toad with swirling radiant skin and a wild white mane who roams the planes recoloring things. Str 19, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 19, Cha 20. He prefers spells and magic items but will claw and bite. One per round at will: light, ESP, color spray, rainbow pattern, plane shift, wind walk, advanced illusion, darkness 15' radius, know alignment, flame strike and any symbol three times a day each, and prismatic spray and prismatic wall twice a day each. Each turn he gates in 6-8 reds or 5-6 blues (even odds) with 95% success. He is immune to illusion/phantasm spells.

His touch permanently or temporarily changes any creature's or object's color to any hue or pattern; only a wish undoes it, and temporary changes end after anything from seconds to years. He mocks foes as he recolors them. On his home plane he can transform a toad of one color into another, so reds and blues adore him and greater toads avoid him. Fearful, ambitious reds and blues staff his impregnable gallery of hoarded art. He delights in harmful palettes, like white drow, plaid dwarves, or gold dragon hatchlings in chromatic colors, falls into obsessive creative 'periods,' spares those with good taste, and will discuss art for hours.