Zargon

Zargon was an elder evil, an ancient abomination who hungered to drown the world in its slime.

"Who can stand against the might of Zargon the Returner? Surely, no man is strong enough of courage and skill to face my master in combat. No god would dare confront him, for he has brought low others before. Nay, when Zargon awakens, all shall tremble as the world is born anew in his foul image."

- Dorn, Ascendant of Zargon

Description
Zargon was a truly repellent monstrosity, a horrifying, vaguely humanoid figure whose only resemblance to ordinary beings was a head, torso, and shoulders. His exact height was unclear, but his hulking mass loomed over most others; from the ground to his horn tip, he was about  tall, but he had been reported to stand as low as  and tower to nearly. The calloused flesh of his muscular torso bore marks from endless injuries, crisscrossed with oozing wounds, cankerous tumors, and smoking clots formed from the dribbling brown slime that fell from his chin.

Instead of arms, Zargon had knots of flesh at each of his shoulders, three on each side, from which six long tentacles, each tipped with a razor-sharp barb, lashed out like a whip. Similarly, he had six muscular tentacles at the base of his body, a wriggling nest of thick appendages that managed to propel his putrid form. The tentacles shot out, grabbing or stabbing the terrain to pull him forward, but also slithered and slid in the thick pool of gray goo that he was constantly surrounded in. Wherever Zargon went, a foul trail of blood, slime, and undigested body parts was left in his wake.

Though all of Zargon's form was abhorrent, when looking upon him, one's eyes were inexorably drawn to his hideous head. His reptilian visage hosted a wide maw filled with sharp, curving teeth above his dripping chin. A long, black horn with silver speckles (its reported length ranging between ), from the base of which oozed a pale yellow liquid, curved upwards and jutted out from the middle of his forehead. Outdoing all these traits in repulsiveness however was perhaps Zargon's most disturbing feature; his bulging, bloodshot, cycloptic eye.

Personality
Zargon was an entity unaccustomed to dealing with problems that couldn't be handled using brute force, physical or otherwise. He was so direct as to be reckless, his arrogance so great that he scoffed at gods, though his overpowering strength and tenacity compensated for such hubris. He blasted his enemies aside with powerful magic before crushing any that still remained, and even the imminent threat of death would not stem his ferocity, since he knew that even if destroyed, he would inevitably return. However, it was important to recognize that Zargon wasn't stupid. He was a cunning creature with great amounts of arcane and religious knowledge, a keen ability to recognize intent, and a powerful force of personality.

While certainly evil, showing callous cruelty to those that saved it, it was unclear where Zargon fell on the scales of law and chaos. On one hand, he was a rampaging creature of destruction driven by a terrible hunger and seemingly unending need to kill, a far cry from the traditional diabolical dealings associated with devils. However, Zargon's hunger for flesh and death could be tempered, and in a sense, he embodied a kind of primal tyranny. Upon realizing that his status as a "god" made getting victims easier, Zargon was willing to play the part, using his fearsomeness to demand worship. The appalling appeasements made to him came in the form of living sacrifices (preferably humanoids) for him to devour, as well as various treasures, and in return for regular tribute, he refrained from going on a killing spree.

Whatever horrible place Zargon originally came from, he showed little interest in returning. Part of the evil he embodied, as could be seen in the society that twisted into a vile reflection of him, was decadence. Even before being propriated, he found the ample supply of weak, soft prey (humans) to be to his liking, and their worship granted him many unforeseen advantages. Rather than try and take some distant plane, Zargon sought to rebuild the fallen empire around him, to mold a new kingdom in his slimy image.

Powers
Zargon had phenomenal regenerative powers that made it practically impossible to kill. It communicated by telepathy and had the gift of tongues. Its many tentacles were incredibly strong, able to crush victims or hold them while it ate them with its acid-dripping mouth. It could spew this acidic slime like a breath weapon. If anyone survived being bitten or damaged by its slime, their fortitude was greatly challenged to avoid one of two fates: either fatally melting into a puddle of slime or becoming a whelp of Zargon. It could also summon oozes to its aid.

Zargon was particularly baneful to deities and their followers. It was immune to all divination spells of divine origin and all divine spellcasters within of Zargon were unable to receive or replenish their spells.

Activities
Zargon was known to take on selected warlocks as their patron.

Rumors & Legends
One legend states that Zargon was the first ruler of the Nine Hells. When Asmodeus first rose from his fall, he defeated Zargon and its armies with the help of his devilish children. Zargon was defeated, but its horn could not be destroyed. In frustration, Asmodeus cast it into the Prime Material plane, where it struck in what later became the Raurin desert and was buried deeply. Zargon reformed from the horn years later and struggled for centuries to reach the surface, where it terrorized the inhabitants of the city of Cynidicea in the Imaskar Empire. They eventually came to worship Zargon like a tyrannical god-king and sacrificed many to appease its hunger. It was said that some deities then tried to destroy Zargon, but it killed a few of their avatars and the rest retreated in defeat. Asmodeus (being unaffected by Zargon's anti-divinity aura) decided that Zargon was too dangerous to be allowed to remain free, so he encased Zargon in solid rock and then buried the Cynidiceans alive so they could not release it again.

It was rumored that Zargon slept fitfully, deep beneath the Giant's Belt Mountains on the edge of the Raurin desert. In those mountains, a brown dragon was said to watch over a sandy basin known as the Valley of Death to ensure that nothing aroused Zargon from slumber. Who or what bound the dragon to this task was unknown.

Other stories proposed that Zargon was a Demon Prince that was thrown out of the Abyss.