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 vaguely humanoid in that it had a head, two shoulders, and a torso, but the resemblance did not go much farther. A black horn with silver spots jutted from its forehead and oozed a yellow liquid around the base. Below that was a single eye, bulbous and bloodshot. Below the eye was a mouth filled with curved fangs that drooled brown slime that dripped off its chin in smoking blobs, usually landing on its torso. The mouth and skin were reminiscent of a reptile. Instead of arms it had six barb-tipped tentacles that sprouted like whips from each shoulder. Six much thicker tentacles formed its base and provided movement by flinging out and grabbing or stabbing the terrain and pulling its hulk forward. Its torso was covered in oozing wounds and cankerous tumors. It stood tall from ground to horn tip and left a trail of blood, slime, and undigested body parts when it moved.

Personality
Zargon was cruel and unfeeling. It demanded constant sacrifices of live mortals to feed its insatiable hunger.

Abilities
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.