Today we are talking about the Ruby Lord, a powerful rakshasa that has been plaguing Rhadamanthus for years, giving rise to numerous cults, devious assassinations, and worse within the great city.
Back in a sandbox campaign I ran a few years back, based off a game I played in college, the group ran afoul a creature known as the Ruby Lord. It came about due to a large wild magic table and a poor roll from a player stuck on a wild magic island. He summoned a rakshasa that made a bond with him, deep magic kind of bond, also a bond the player was not aware of at the time. The character had some more wild incidents with a soul barterer and lost his body… a few times. He died as a human and came back as a dhampir or half vampire. He died again and came back as a centaur. The bond was with the soul of the mage, not just the body. The group encountered numerous hit squads of Ruby Lord cultists with ruby jewelry, or in the case of the troll, a giant ruby embedded within the beast’s chest. The hit squads were attacking everyone in the party normally, but seemed to be trying to take our wizard/cleric alive. After the first few attacks came and went the party was able to find out the Ruby Lord needed the character alive for some sort of soul anchoring body switching.
The group had a few tough encounters with the Ruby Lord’s tougher minions and it led to the death of the soul anchor character at the hands of the barbarian in the group. The bad guys did threaten the party and let it slip the boss needed the body alive for the ceremony, so for the barbarian it was an invitation to brawl, ending the first choice the Ruby Lord had. The group beat up his withered body in a giant golem like creature with brass legs and a giant glass tube he was floating in. The body was wrecked by its constant use of magic and it needed to switch bodies via a lengthy ritual. The same group fought the Ruby Lord again in his new underground lair, finding he had bound himself to an animate fighting suit of armor and was a very dangerous threat now, but was still defeated. Classic Ruby Lord. The group also let the barbarian put on the haunted armor and found he was unable to be healed. The armor did end up escaping and attacking them with all the other goons during the campaign finale.
When I started building my homebrew world, I ended up bringing back the Ruby Lord to vex my capitol city of Rhadamanthus. The Ruby Lord used his network of cultists to swindle the common folk of the realm, offering a way to become equals to the magic users in the magic school. The Ruby lord became a warlock patron for his cultists, granting them minor powers for a fraction of their soul and whatever tribute they could bring him. This worked well for The Ruby Lord and his minions, gathering a large following rather quickly. This has rocked the city in numerous ways, even more so that many people now can cast magical spells without training.
The game store group I ran encountered his cultists attacking people in a bar. They found a secret hideout, followed the clues, and went to disrupt the Ruby Lord’s depraved ritual in the ruins under the city. They witnessed a bit of his ritual, or as he called it his Miracle, in which he walked across the stage as an old man with the help of his assistants, said some arcane words, and climbed his entire body into the mouth of a prone elf, the body stood up and continued his monologue. The party took this chance to toss some magical glitter bombs on the crowd and attack the hopefully weak newly reborn Ruby Lord. There was some fire, the crowd, now covered in glitter fled and the city guard was able to identify the cult members by the successful tagging done by the party. The groups attack on the Ruby Lord did not go well for them, none of their magical attacks seemed to work on him, but they did kill a few of his goons. He ended up leaving the battle via teleporting away. The group chased off the few straggling cultists and returned to the surface victorious, but also making a powerful enemy.
I had another player later want to devote himself to the Ruby Lord, so I described the above ritual, he gained a level in warlock, and a cool amulet that would let him heal extra times per day but the recipients of the healing would be vulnerable to his suggestion spells depending on the number of times he healed them. It was a neat secret thing we hid from the other players. He even met with the Ruby Lord’s secret agent within the Rhadamanthian government. The adventures were short lived but the character did show the Ruby Lord that the Nabesh crystal wizards could grow gemstones, something now the Ruby Lord is using to advance his plans.
Now, how to use the Ruby Lord for your games.
The Ruby Lord has multiple plans and contingencies, so if one scheme fails, he can roll right into the next one, playing it off as if was an intentional failure to throw the cities protectors off the trail. The more followers he can get the stronger he will become. He has powerful enemies in his homeland that would seek his failure and could be potential allies for a party seeking to wipe him out, but only if they are willing to work with equally evil creatures. Since he is body jumping it is hard to tell if you have killed the right foe, the party could be fighting a fake Ruby Lord for numerous sessions only to find out it is a doppelganger once the deed is done. Here are some easy adventure ideas to help pave the way.
Rumor Mill: Have your characters over hear someone talking about a friend or rival getting magic powers after going to some kind of meeting in the sewers. If the party inquires the speaker, a simple townsperson, could clam up or panic and start telling them everything about the powers, or at least what he has heard of them. This could lead to following the friend or rival to a cult meeting and seeing the Ruby Lord and being in way over their heads and havinge to escape.
Corner Preacher: The party could witness a Ruby Lord cultist preaching on a street corner about the miracles of the Ruby Lord and see city guards arresting the preacher. Things could get out of hand when other cultists attack the guards and the characters have to intervene. The guards will inform the party of the cult growing bolder and the city is in danger.
Gem values: Unscrupulous gem merchants are selling rubies for higher prices, claiming there is a ruby shortage, causing the nobility to buy them as fashion statements. Very soon after many of the nobles are in trouble, having their secrets put out into the world, others are just blackmailed. The Ruby Lord can see through rubies, gaining the information he needs to run his cult.
Man on the inside: the kicker to the Ruby Lord is a mole within the government. The secret agent is in charge of the security forces around Rhadamanthus, knowing where to send the town guard so they will never catch the cultists at their rallies. The party could subvert this by helping the guard find the right places to set up ambushes or sting operations or rooting out the cultists themselves.
Accidental connection: there is a chance one of the players could have a connection to the Ruby Lord, possibly born under an ill omen, made a deal with a shadowy figure in their past, or like the character mentioned above, just happens to have the right body. The Ruby Lord will send minions to capture said character and bring them alive to him, he needs the vessel alive to make it his, otherwise the entire ritual is ruined. There is nothing quite as terrifying as a troll attempting to kidnap a member of the party while carrying a stone with silence cast on it so no one can call for help, this has happened a few times in my games now to show the group they are dealing with a resourceful enemy.
The boss fight: the real Ruby Lord is wasting away, his body is deteriorating, which is why he keeps jumping bodies. He needs a certain vessel to keep his soul from returning to the darker realms. Each body he has grabbed has been incorrect, each vessel dying after months of possession. If he can find the right vessel, he will be able to live forever in this realm. While fighting the party he will attempt to jump into an unconscious body when he gets low on health. The boss chamber should have a few bodies lying around in alcoves for him to use. If a character falls in combat the Ruby Lord will attempt to take their body as opposed to one of the normal bodies. There will be a contested charisma check to keep him out. On a failure the character is now “dead” and the Ruby Lord is piloting their body with both his and the characters abilities. The first time he does this to a character there is a chance this is the right body he has been seeking for ages. Rakshasas are normally immune to any spells 6th level and lower. Protection from good and evil will work to help expel the Ruby Lord and possibly help the possessed character, as a weakness due to the Ruby Lord wasting away. It is also advisable to add on more hit points and modify his spell list to give him a few spell attacks, like lightning bolt or fireball, possibly even some legendary actions and resistances. Lair actions would be nice too.
Minions: The Ruby Lord employs legions of shapeshifters, mostly Yuan-ti, he has a legion of trolls with rubies imbedded in their skin, and minotaur clans that have fallen sway to his teachings and coin. His humanoid followers can be even more dangerous, they can easily make trouble within the city and even after they are arrested can continue recruiting more followers within the prisons. When we were using Pathfinder rules, he had many lesser rakshasas as minions.
Thank you again for taking the time to check out this villain and please enjoy terrorizing your party with him, I know I do.
