Thanks for watching gang! What monster would you like to see on the channel next time? If you want to check out the Field Guide to Floral Dragons, you can do so by clicking right here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/hitpointpress/the-field-guide-to-floral-dragons?ref=ck8dq4
Missed opportunity. Coulda called them Pale Horsemen ( " And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death and with the beasts of the earth. " - Revelations 6 )
I don't know. Wordplay could be the name of some crazy Abyss layer ruled by an enigmatic, mind-game loving, as of yet undiscovered demon lord of puns. Maybe that demon lord is the originator of Vicious Mockery. Perhaps there are super secret cultists of said demon lord amongst various bard colleges.
-the bard has amazing sex -nine months later a female child of the same species of the bard is delivered to the party via demonic stork. The child is wrapped in a blanket of extraordinary magical power
_" As your megahorny bard character lifts her veil at the skirt like section, he can hear the primordeal Ladys amused chuckles._ _His heartrace is rising incredibly as his hand touches the smoothest skin his connoisseur'ish hands have ever touched._ _Just this much of a sensation has felt wonderful beyond everything that he had ever felt._ _So he could not resist the temptation to gaze just slightly at her after all._ _And in the last second, this decision was reverted._ _What he felt his hand touching, suddenly felt eerily cold, sharp and stinging._ _Not like the heatful sting of a burning flame, or the piercing sting of a rose's thorns but far less mercyful to recieve as a wound._ _Oh no! "_
You know, as a physicist, the whole shroud thing reminds me of the cosmic censorship hypothesis for black holes. By analogy, we can think of the shroud as the event horizon that "protects" the universe from the central singularity (the actual rip in space-time), aka Pale Night herself. It's an especially poignant analogy since anyone falling into a black hole will appear to get "frozen" or "stuck" to an outside observer. Plus, we're not even sure that all singularities are "clothed" anyway 😅 I'd like to think that Pale Night's immense power is probably due to the shroud itself: containing that horrible universal truth kept it from diffusing out to the rest of the universe thus allowing her power to concentrate over time. Perhaps her simple truth is nihilism, and the fact that spells like Sphere of Annihilation exist might be due to her presence. So destroying her and/or the shroud could vast cosmic consequences. Anyway, I have no preference on video length or homebrew monsters, Josiah...quality is all that matters. Do what you enjoy most and the rest will shine 😁 Thanks as always, DD! 🫡
That is not only really informative but also super insightful dude! I wonder if any of the science surrounding black holes informed some of the inspiration behind her, or if its just a happy coincidence.
@@DungeonDad Probably a bit of both! I used to chat with an Elder Scrolls writer from Bethesda way back when and he was a huge popular science dork with a religious studies background 😅 But lots of lore in that world is directly pulled from actual science and twisted or spun into fun (mis)interpretations. But yeah, now my silly campaign idea is that the Pale Night cult leader is actually just a scientist sending in more souls to her shroud to study DnD spacetime itself and doesn't care about worshipping her 👀
As a lifelong physics nerd I've never heard of the cosmic censorship hypothesis. I'll have to look it up after this video. Is it based on the idea that what happens beyond the event horizon would violate causality if one were to see it?
@@inthefade It wouldn't violate causality; it just means we would be able to directly observe that "point" of infinite density, aka the lack of spacetime...which doesn't seem right based on what we understand from quantum mechanics. Causal, in-falling worldlines would be visible to the exterior. But mathematically speaking, naked singularities are allowed in GR, and in fact, arise in non-static black holes. So if a BH is spinning enough or charged enough, the corresponding event horizons could vanish. I personally want these things to exist, but we won't really know until we find one 😁 (or find a compelling theoretical framework that would rule it out)
[Pulls head out of wikipedia pages on Lense Thirring and Kerr Metrics] Woah! This comment and the following replies were my favorite things I've read today. I'm a pastor and science nerd (similar to the Bethesda guy, I guess) and I LOVE the idea of taking inspiration from Censorship Hypothesis to interpret the Pale Night's shroud. So cool!
Genuinely: Can someone tell me who that woman in the thumb is/where the image is from/who the artist is?-- it's so hot I'm reacting to it both sexually and emotionally.
one of my favourite things about this channel is how it embraces both the more modern "telling a story together" style of game, and the more classic "deadly adventure where most of you will not survive" style of game
I'm a firm believer that both styles can and should exist! Sometimes I want to sit around with my friends and craft an epic narrative, and sometimes we want to run Tomb of Horrors!
My favorite part of Pale Night’s lore is that Asmodeus looked at that cosmic glitch so horrifying and alien that reality itself said no, and he decided to”Yeah, I’d tap that”
On the point of Pale Night's plans to kill/destroy the Shroud: You mentioned that there's essentially a nigh-celestial layer of the abyss, effectively caused by her own scheming. It could be that this was a long-term plot by her to cause the creation of a bridge between the heavens and the abyss, perhaps when the balance of said layer has been tipped far enough in favour of the celestials. This could allow her to ascend the the upper planes and attempt to properly destroy the Shroud. You could tie a plot to this wherein the party is told of this place by a mysterious stranger (likely Pale Night in a mortal shell), and sent to aid the celestials in their war to save the remaining eladrin children. This would in turn further the celestial influence on said layer of the abyss, and you can probably put the pieces together from there.
The parallels between Pale Night and the Lady of Pain have always intrigued me. Both are contenders for the oldest being in the multiverse, both are not understood by their contemporaries and seem to ignore their rules and powers(Demon Lords and the Gods respectively), both cause immense anguish to anyone gazing upon them and both of them love the imprisonment, maze and magic jar spells. There's already rumours that the Lady of Pain has something to do with the start of the blood war and that she might be a Demon Lord gone rogue.
She changed the war between the celestials and the Obyrith by nearly killing Obox'Ob and attempting to replace him with a litany of other beings that she created at the same time she was making the Tanar'ri
@DungeonDad I was gonna say, is there a lady of pain video that we should be keeping an eye out for? 👀 Because as someone who got the module based around sigil and the outlands, I would LOVE an in depth look at the lady of pain. The book only says so much about her, and I'm hoping that she has a spot somewhere in your magnificent library of D&D lore. Becoming a big fan, Mr. Dungeon Dad Sir! 🫡
Is she condemned to a time loop and immortality? Sees the beginning of the universe, lives until the end of the universe, loops back to the beginning of the universe, and repeat.
I think one thing the conversation about killing Pale Night missed is that she is an obyrith. The Obyrith are beings with contiguous multidimensional forms. What you're looking at when you see the shrouded body of Pale Night is like looking at the aglet on a shoelace. If you "kill" Pale Night, you're just cutting the end off the string. There's more string, and she can just move more of her form into whatever plane you killed her in if she feels like going for round two. Or she can retreat and heal the a bit before calling on the other demon lords to help her exact a brutal revenge.
Baphomet at least is going to show up, since they share a plane, and I'd imagine it's very hard to mess with Pale Night without messing with his stuff.
What if she's beautiful beyond compression instead of hideous.... Having to make a ...wisdom save.. and could easily lose 1 permanent wisdom sounds like you instantly are infatuated to the point it makes you permanently less wise... Imagine if the gods saw something beautiful beyond compression be all out war just to get her attention wrecking having on laws of reality so the universe had to permanently cover her up to keep everything in balance every got devil demon lord would be at war for her instead of power territory ECT.... Many wars hav been fought over an average chick ..... Much lest the ultimate gyaaaat lol
Considering that her veil is a completely natural process, i think that any memory, photograph, or exceptionally accurate drawing of her true form would quickly be covered by the veil to shroud the thing underneath.
"I did it...a portrait of the true form of Pale Night. Behold her unspeakableness!" 'Bro, that's just some girl in a curtain' "What? That can't be...oh gods above NOT AGAIN!"
Pale Knights gemstone amulet is a belly button piercing. You can't steal it without lifting the veil and looking at her. Driving yourself insane or killing yourself no matter how powerful you are. She has the ultimate safeguard against someone stealing it.😂
@DungeonDad Hurrah! I love forbidden knowledge! Except that time it turned me into a frog, I didn't enjoy that too much. But I love this video despite it being for a named creature, I'm hoping it opens the door to more unspeakable horrors lime Father Llymic, Ragnorra, etc, in the future.
@@Atlasbr001so when I upload and schedule videos they are “unlisted” on TH-cam. That means they won’t appear publicly until scheduled, however, if you go into the monster of the week playlist and go backwards through the video order it’s possible to catch my videos a day early before they go live, as long as I’ve already added it to the playlist. I could always make the video “private” to avoid this but it’s just a pain and it doesn’t bother me if a handful of people sneak a peak before the official launch so I just leave it as is.
i think its interesting that you mention the pale night having some sort of amulet housing some of her essence as her insurance policy to resurect, but you also mention that the pale night can give a part of her essence to victims (like the shrouded knights) effectively making any of her vessels a phylactery
I think the reason why there's one "good" layer in the whole Abyss is the cosmos' way of defining and accenuating all the evil. A twisted ying-yang. If everything was awful and evil with no exception, it wouldn't really be evil, just "normal." By having one layer be a lush paradise and the rest of the Abyss a nightmarish hellscape, it highlights just how awful this place "chooses" to be.
I think that, also, because it's a plane of absolute chaos and evil it cannot be purely chaotic evil bc, paradoxically, that would make it less chaotic, same way you can find theoretically the entire works of Shakespeare in binary within the decimals of pi you're bound to find nonsensical ordered things in places of true chaos
Hell yeah, I made a campaign last year where Pale Night was the antagonist and she actually led the Hundon thanks to your video on them. Thanks for the inspiration.
Just imagining players walking in the bone citadel and it's just that scene in the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video clip where there's just an infinite corridor of shrouds blowing in the wind.
25:03 "one of the source books specifies that she frequently takes over the bodies of a mortal she likes, and just runs it ragged until she gets bored or it dies of old age" Holy shit, I love the idea of an NPC that clearly has the vibes of an extremely powerful warlock or sorcerer that just is super mysterious that the party crosses paths with and is extremely strange and cryptic, and clearly knows A LOT about the nature of the multiverse.
I'm imagining a wrinkled old tiefling woman with completely chalk-white skin, a pair of ridged bony massive ram horns with forward-facing spikes splitting off and curving from them like another pair of horns, white hair and pupils, as well as, again, a completely white draped silken shawl that touches the ground, in one of her hands is a massive crook of warped bone.
I feel there was some rule somewhere saying if you fail the wisdom save for seeing past the shroud, you just don't process what you're looking at, but if you succeed at the save, THAT'S when you die, because you DO comprehend it.
Success: You comprehend. Of course. Why couldn't you see it before? Infinite. Divine. No. Just truth. An unending truth above all things. No exceptions. Infinitely complex. Something warm is in your ear. It's so simple. Something cold on your face. The Pale Night stands before you. Something bends. Above you. Something twists. She looks sad. Something shrinks. Mournful. Something breaks. You weren't supposed to comprehend. Something snaps. No one should. Something is growing. She touches your cheek. Something if folding in on itself. You don't have to hide from her. Something is wrong. She doesn't have to hide from you. Something pulls. She draws a sheet over you. Something billows in the still air. Not a sheet. Something stands. Just a veil. Failure: What you've seen can't be unseen, but what did you see? You become obsessed with knowing. If you could only figure it out. Piece it together... Perhaps you could paint what you saw and could make sense of it if you could just see it for a little longer. But paint isn't enough. Material paint can't capture her form. You need more paint. You need more canvas. You need new paint. New mediums. New media. New... No. Older. Older paints. Paints no mortal could know or have. That would work. That has to work. But the painting does contain something. Not any truth but the hint of one. It must be veiled. It's not ready. Those who gaze upon the unfinished work find it intriguing. They look closer. The weak minded become obsessed. What is this painting of? What is the subject? No. Who is the subject? Someone has to know more about it. It's part of a collection? Paintings like this pop up throughout time, across dimensions. Someone mentioned they've seen another... Where was it? Who has it? It's not enough. It's never enough. Just pieces. Hints alluding to a great truth. A form hidden just beyond a veil.
While I try my best to make the ads entertaining, I definitely don’t blame folks for skipping the ad (that’s why I include time stamps). Sometimes though, I get to do an ad for something absolutely awesome like this 💯
@@RisqueBisquet It's super cool! I can honestly say that had they not sent me a copy to check out before the ad, I 100% would be backing the project also. HPP has a great reputation for delivering on what they promise as a publisher and the book itself is really unique.
real ads made by real people are dope and fun, ads ran by dopplegangers like the ones running hello fresh, cryptobros or gods help us better help are an instant skip and dislike imo
Omg thank you for covering this!!! Never expected my suggestion to get a video simply because Pale Night is so out there as far as lore goes. This was great!!
I love the thought of someone seeing under the veil and going mad. A cultist is desperate to see and uses magic to read their mind which requires a hand to the head. And when he starts to scream from the visions he sees and someone tries to pull him away, pale night keeps him there and now their hand is fused to their head and watches an endless loop of madness and pain. Now both that person and the one who originally saw under the veil are locked up forever unable to die or age.
Re: the nature of the shroud, I like the idea that its sort of like what happens when you try to display an image file that isnt compatible with your system; you either see a weird glitched out image, or your computer crashes, or you get a default "image not found" kind of graphic, because your system just doesnt know what to do with the file. I like the idea that Pale night is similar; the cosmos itself doesn't know how to "display" an image of her so you get this sort of "image not found" thing of a shroud covering her. Not because of some powerful artefact or some divine being, but because she *just isnt compatible with reality.* And if you peek beneath the shroud and see her true form... Your system crashes and gets corrupted. But its not your operating system; its your nervous system.
I can truly say that I personally have never had a single issue with the length of your videos, the longer ones, like the False Hydra, Bag Man, and Sun and Moon Dragons have actually been some of my favorites. I enjoy this concept of detailing a specific entity and giving us new stat blocks to play with. As for a specific entity I would like to see your take on, maybe Malcanthet, the Queen of Succubi, and her weird interactions between the hells and the abyss, being a demon with what amounts to a summer home in the hells at Asmodeus' own invitation. I recall she had her own kind of demon under her command, something to do with a painting and at least one unique artifact level weapon?
The issue with the shrouded knights is what they do to the fight with Pale Night herself, if there is one. There's no reason for her to _not_ have a bunch of them on-hand, which means her fight with the party logically turns into a series of one-on-one fights while the rest of the party is trying to escape their mazes. So the presence of some Pale Knights effectively increases Pale Night's CR by a LOT. Way more than the presence of most other possible minions with the same CR as the knights.
Give the Knights low Charisma and wisdom so if the Pale knight ever reveals herself they are likely to die from the AOE which is not an uncharacteristic action for a Demon Lord. Especially if she doesn't regard the party as a particular threat she may just decide to unveil herself to not waste her time swatting flies and kill them alongside her useless servants that haven't dealt with the party already.
You could have a story where a painting of the Pale Night is the main artefact in your teams quest. The quest could be to safely transport the painting from one location to another while it is covered to avoid anyone looking at it, however you could have Pale Night cults seeking the painting for their purposes. Or your group could be on a quest to destroy it as a mayor of a nearby town purchased the cursed painting and everyone in town who saw it went insane.
One of the things I love about your channel and others like yours (such as Pointy Hat) is that it reminds me of how back in the day TDR and the magazines would release small bits of content to put in our binders rather than giant books. A monster or race or class or adventure. When I get a chance to do so, Ill look at what else you released and certainly compensate you for your work... even the free stuff. It looks very worth it.
I have two things to say: It seems one of the scariest things in the multiverse is a bedsheet ghost (and I love that), and that maze attack ability is amazingly creative (and thematic and flavorful)!
For any of you out there who play Yugioh, this should be very familiar! The Labrynth archetype was actually based off of a mashup of Pale Night's lore with Beauty and the Beast! ...Aaand for those who don't play Yugioh - yes, bizarre statements like that are entirely normal for that game.
Wait it is? I thought it was just vague mmo/rpg boss stuff. Let me look into this real quick... Okay I'm back, turns it is based very vaguely on the myth of the minotaur for some reason. Which makes Ms. Knight Theseus? Yeah that's weird.
Ya, I was watching a video about an archetype (I forget which one cuz I haven't played yugioh in about 20 yrs) where is was basically anime hotties meets Dark Souls n Lovecraftian eldritch horror. Ya, inspirations for cards in that game r crazy
I am absolutely down for more specific monsters with your take on additional creatures that might be associated with them. This was a super, super cool format for your video man. Really hope to see more of them like this. The video length is irrelevant to me, I'm here to listen and learn about lore that I might otherwise not know about (Been playing for a really, Really, long time) so, the more you talk on a topic the better as far as I'm concerned.
I love the "Lore creature + homebrew creature that compliments it" format! I'm sure it's infinitely more work for you, but it really does give something for everybody, so I eagerly look forward to if you do it again!
Dungeon Dad: "I made a minion for the Pale Night that can also act as a standalone monster" Me: "Oh yea neat" Dungeon Dad: "Acting completely separate from the Mother of Demons" Me: "the WHAT?!"
Oh, this is PERFECT. One of my players is a paladin assassin for a god of death, and part of that oath is catching souls who cheat death - undead for example. A shroud entrapping countless souls sounds just lovely, both as a plot hook and potentially an obtainable artifact (she wants to become Hel eventually). The icing on the cake is that ANOTHER player is a daughter of Morwel (Queen of the Court of Stars) who is trying to save her mother from imprisonment by Dagon, so the party will already be visiting Androlynne (which I also didn't know about yet). THANK YOU, and also you dropped this 👑
This was a phenomenal video in every regard. I absolutely believe that you should continue with other and lesser known named creatures from D&D history; you have such a great way of brining life to something that I would have never heard of in any other case. You take a small barely mentioned creature(s) and make such a compelling and fun analysis of it that I have to fight myself from instantly putting it into my own campaign! I believe as long as you add in plot hook suggestions (like you did in this video) that could help others to find a way to place said creature into a homebrew campaign that doesn't use the setting the creature is from, no one would mind more videos like this; I would certainly welcome them. And please keep adding some more of your homebrew creatures to entries when you can, they seem like a lot of fun and always add to the experience overall. Keep up the great work!
More homebrew monsters would be great tbh, your ideas are honestly super creative. I love the idea of the Shrouded Knight looking like a horse and rider but being one creature, it kinda reminds me of the Nuckelavee and is super creepy.
Thanks! And yeah I was definitely inspired by creatures like the nuckelavee and that one MTG card from Eldritch Moon depicting the horse and rider being merged by eldrazi nonsense.
@@DungeonDad It That Rides as One. I immediately thought of it, followed quickly by the shrouded night's cavalry from Elden Ring. I love my eldritch kin.
Honestly, this is starting to become my favorite D&D content on TH-cam. Your videos have provided me with inspiration for now two adventures. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact Pale Night has on my game, and the Pale Knight as well.
I think this might be one of your best videos, I really don't mind the length and I appreciate the tasteful use of homebrew to fill narrative/structural gaps with something interesting. I'm just starting to write a campaign where a demon lord tasks the players with determining the identities of the obyrith Quorum of Twelve if you know what that is (if you don't, it's a really interesting read that I'd highly recommend), and after watching this I think Pale Night should definitely play a role in that story.
This was a great lore dive and I really liked the addition of your own flavor creations. It gives a lot of great plot hooks. The video was a bit long but you filled it with great information.
My homebrew idea for the abyss is an infinite shaft with subjective gravity and randomly opening and closing portals to the various "layers". Moving in a straight line for too long within one of the layers will bring you right back to the central shaft. Random bits of things can be found falling in both directions, occasionally turning the central area into a meatgrinder.
Listened to a TON of your videos and I honestly love the addition of some named monsters/individuals into the mix. Especially ones that would otherwise have an intimidating amount of lore
Loved this type of video! Plus the idea of you going over the blood war and other goodies sounds like a great time. Or even a little (big) feature video with you and MrRhexx would be so sick
I love the fact you’re commissioning artist (as An artist myself) you have my support in your endeavors I see some DnD channels who talk about armor or something use Ai generated stuff. So again thank you ❤
I love working with artists! Truly some of the stuff that my artists have created are beyond what I could have even conceived for the project, which results in not only better art made by a human, but often informs the creature’s mechanics in a whole new way. Best example I can point to is the spammer and the chronotyryn. Anyways, thanks for watching and feel free to hmu on Twitter or something if you want to throw your hat in the ring for art commissions! I’m always looking for new folks to work with!
So 2 things 1 I'm not sure if the editing and animations are getting enough appreciation, so shout-out to the editors and animators. The style kicks ass. 2, I know THE ALGORITHM hates longer form videos but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents and say I love it.
One of my favorite demons and a real in depth look at her (madness intended). Thank you for the video and not cutting it short. This trend where videos can't be more than 5 minutes is insane.
How about this for a plot hook/campaign?: The one who asks the party to find the gem is actually the sheet itself, if we go by the idea it's celestial/divine in origin, and by secretly telling the party how to find it, its own goal is to finally kill The Mother of Demons? Or parhaps, due to her chaotic and changing nature, change her from chaotic evil to chaotic good or at least neutral?
Loved the video! This is something that can be pretty easily homebrewed into a lot of games/worlds with minor tweaking while still retaining a lot of the lore and what just makes her as scary as she is. For example in one world she might not be the big bad threat, but her influence on situations might be seen. Wether she's a benefactor to the Hero's or the BBEG might not be as crystal clear. Or she might just be pitting them against themselves for whatever reason... There is a ton to work with. I love these longer videos as well as the idea of wrapping a monster and some minions together. There's a lot of creativity there. Also there's so much we can work with. Great job my man. One of favorite videos you've put out.
Introduced to a really cool creature, AND getting clued in to something as neat looking as Floral Dragons? Love it, many thanks! Also can't understate how much I love just how colorful and full of life the Floral Dragons setting looks, been craving something like that for a while.
That hunting-PCs-in-a-maze thing you have for the shrouded knights immediately made me think of SCP-106, so it'd be very useful for a 5e Modern a friend of mine has ongoing. So thank you for that! Its always nice to see the outer edges of DnD lore get some exposure. I'm more that happy to see you create long videos about anything at all, named-NPCs or not. I'm still hoping for more races, like the Tibbits and Wolfen for players to use (and your own creations). I'm just as happy to hear about the crazy-powerful entity that lives at the very peak of Mt. Celestia and will one day meet with Asmodeus and The Lady of Pain to end the universe; or maybe how the God Lathander in FR caused the Dawn Cataclysm, and isn't a pure as many people may believe. Lots of stuff to tell people about and/or convert, so I look forward to what comes next.
As a long time Pale Night fan you have gone above and beyond with this video. Thank you so much. I’m just so happy this vid exists, and you produced it so well, and you expanded upon the lore of our Pale Mother. Thank you - and I for one would love more unique beings featured. Lady of Pain for one! (She’s interestingly quite similar in some respects)
dude i love home brew. but i also love old D&D being brought back in to 5e for new gen players and dms to play with and enjoy. ive played D&D in many forms from the 1990 tell now. you are giving me and the rest of the D&D world more stuff both old and new to work with in a 5e world. i thank you for all that you do and hope ya keep doing it.
I like to think that Jimmy Longarms is the name of the specific Odopi who was shown in the Odopi episode, was sent out searching for the one creature who ran off, and invited another horrific abomination over. Jimmy Longarms for channel mascot! XD On this actual episode though, this is a REALLY neat one, almost like a cross between Monster of the Week and Legend Lore with how it has a stronger plot focus with this singular entity compared to most MotW videos. Also, she's super interesting and terrifying! I also do really like the "adding a homebrew monster to fill out the role of an entity" thing that you've done here and with the pie fiend, it definitely helps to put the spotlight on a creature without letting the players go and smack it right away, stretching out its influence and making it feel more impactful when the encounter finally happens, which is especially important with very powerful and manipulative creatures like the two you've done it for. Fantastic work as always, and I'm VERY excited to see what's going on with Eclipse Giants next time! Also, do... do we know what was up with the mysterious obelisk in the Tungsten Dragon teaser in the Orange Seer video? I feel like I either missed a connection on that or it's still a weird mystery that I don't know if we have answers to yet. 0 v0
Pale Night Cultists and Warlocks dressed ONLY in cheer robes and vale -- totally gonna steal that. As for monsters...? Some of the monsters from B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, such as the Decapus or Ubue, needs more love. More so to latter. Especially since the Ubue, with their three-heads (one being a distaff version of the whole), they can be used as commentary on gender with reference to the psychic apparatus of the Id, Ego and Superego, or some thing else cool. There is SO MUCH one can take them, and so much one can make of them as they hardly appear in anything beyond the recalled version of the B3 module. There are still SO MANY obscure monsters and creatures within the deep lore of D&D.
Pale Night is one of my all-time favorite entities in D&D, and I love this lore run-down on her. But more than that, I love this stat-block you've put together for her - almost as much as I'm adoring this "Pale Knight" stat-block! If I were to offer another monster for next time, it'd likely be an Enveloper (from AD&D). I could see them as a long-term threat that grows in power over time, collecting skills and knowledge of its victims (much of this knowledge being over the party). It's a threat that could grow with the party in a really fun way, or just a nice one-off foe that throws the whole kitchen sink at the party.
I love the homebrew monsters you’ve been adding to the videos of late and would love to see more! But please continue bringing back to life the older monsters, so many of those old monsters really make D&D feel different from all the other fantasy games
100% I will always be committed to dusting off old monsters that have been left behind with new editions. It's truly something I love to do and I think the little piece of D&D history to be gleaned from each one is super interesting.
The Shrouded Knight is SOOO much cooler than the random demonic super spiders she had in older editions. I was planning on using a homebrewed Baernoloth in my next campaign, but this minion is making me reconsider.
Last night we used your pie fiend in my girlfriends campaign to replace the cook on our pirate ship we stole and it was awesome! I made a map of the crews quarters and kitchen with a big portal to his hells kitchen behind the oven. Thanks so much for all of the inspiration you give me and all the work you do!
In my mind her amulet are all the demons she created, each containing a tiny amount of her essence, infused into them as they were created by her. So as long as demons exist destroying her is virtually impossible🙈
Honestly, that would be quite legit. With her being an obyrith though, I don't know if she needs an amulet. Then again, when does an ancient schemer of unfathomable intellect not have an extra insurance policy?
I listen to these in the background while I work. I hardly ever have time to play D&D or Wrath & Glory but I love the ideas and the lore. I bring a lot of what you do to my daughter to inspire unique/creepy/cool/interesting art.
Love your adding homebrew content! I created a 1 shot for my friends purely based on the name of your last video... a food/bakery themed one shot with ALL of the food puns! It was glorious. I appreciate you and your videos!!
I like the idea of covering specific names creatures and add a lesser minion monster feels nice since these names creatures will likely be incredibly powerful or something to build a campaign around.
Honestly, if her form is that unholy it could be that her shroud disappearing or being destroyed could start off the end of the world. Maybe her true form in of itself is the means by which the world ends?
I’m just trying to imagine how I would play a warlock with her as my patron. I always love using actual official beings as patrons for my warlocks, so whenever I see a really interesting one like this, I get excited. Especially since, at least to me, a lot of the older, unupdated ones, like most of the Elder Evils, are just plain cooler than the 5e ones we have now.
I feel like if I was going to play a warlock of Pale Night, as far as subclass goes I think you could reflavour just about anything to make it work, but the strogest contenders for me would be Great Old One or The Undead (slightly reflavoured). If you go with the undead your "form of dread" could be your body wrapped in a sheet, much like pale night herself. Visually I really like that. GOO is just kind of what Pale Night is in a way, so pretty self explanatory. You could even multiclass into paladin (which works really well mechanically) and become a shrouded knight. Maybe lore-wise that's what her shrouded knights actually are, just warlock-paladins of a high level. As far as actually her as a patron from the DM side, I could see Pale Night being a pretty standoffish patron who doesn't speak much, but when she does, you had better listen. As a player, pinning down a specific goal is a bit of a challenge. Maybe someone obsessed with finding forbidden knowledge, or conversely, someone who seeks to keep forbidden knowledge hidden could be interesting. I also like the idea of all her warlocks scouring the multiverse for a way to destroy her shroud permanently, so maybe all the seemingly random little tasks she hands out to her warlocks are related to that somehow in a grander sense.
@@DungeonDad ooh, all good ideas. My favorite one of these kind of warlocks I’ve made is Ashonn the Hungry, a duergar GOO acolyte of Holashner, The Hunger Below, an Elder Evil from 3e who was never updated and never had a stat bock to begin with. He was captured by illithids and experimented on, and one of those experiments failed, accidentally connecting him to the forgotten ancient evil. He’s not even sure if his presence was noticed by the monstrosity, and now he strives to be reconnected to the being that gave him the power to free himself.
@@DungeonDad so I wanna say, I did actually end up making this character. I went with the reflavored undead pact idea, but with the horror visage being pulling off a blindfold made of the same fabric of reality as the Veil to reveal their eyes which were replaced with the same horrific matter as makes up Pale Night when he gleaned a short look at her true form. I also made them a Kenku, because a blindfolded raven is just too much of a classic look not to.
Absolutely love your stuff! The videos are well made, cover lore. Mechanics , and even the way to help slip what ever into a campaign or make saod creature the entire campaign! BUT i also appreciate having the videos cut into chunks of labeled content so I'm able to revisit distinct parts and the free stat blocks is amazing! Love and appreciate all the work you and your team do, thank you again
I had a warlock concept who was "contracted" to yog-sothoth with an ability that caused him to absorb a fragment of the memories of some random entity every time he goes unconscious His psychology gradually warps into a completely alien mindset, becoming more of a search engine than a person Perhaps he could process and remember what he was seeing since his job is to be one of the eyes of the omniscient outer god the memory would just be logged by his patron, and his inability to be frightened would make him a nice living camera
Loved both the Homebrew and the covering of a unique monster. I remember seeing Pale Night in Fiendish Codex for the first time, very interesting concept.
What a wonderful way to start my afternoon! Discovered your content last week and have been on a binge. You make amazing stuff! Would love to support you on Patreon once personal circumstances improve. I've actually been cooking a Deathdrinker BBEG for my long-time campaign idea because of your video! They're gonna be awful. :)
Welcome to the channel! I’m glad you’ve found my stuff useful! Also as far as patreon goes, while I appreciate support so so much from people who can swing it, definitely don’t ever feel the need to put yourself out! I’m just happy to have ya here watching my videos.
What if the shroud is actually just a metaphorical existence, she existed before everything, and thus outside everything, the shroud is her pressing up against the veil separating the universe from the outside.
First video I see of you. I must say that I've always preferred the way AD&D 2nd edition created their monster. An entire page for one single monster with it's habitat, it's lair, community, social interaction, ecology... So finding this channel is -- for me at least -- A gold mine! So... yeah. SUB!!!!
Thanks for watching gang! What monster would you like to see on the channel next time?
If you want to check out the Field Guide to Floral Dragons, you can do so by clicking right here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/hitpointpress/the-field-guide-to-floral-dragons?ref=ck8dq4
I would like to suggest the maedar, the male counterpart to the medusa, or the LeShay.
Jokes on you, I was bllnd!
Hecatoncheires would be an awesome conversion for 5e
Seconded on both counts@@jonathanbaughman8382
Missed opportunity. Coulda called them Pale Horsemen ( " And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death and with the beasts of the earth. " - Revelations 6 )
"Are demon lords above wordplay?" Obviously not. They're in the Abyss.
They're beneath it.
I don't know. Wordplay could be the name of some crazy Abyss layer ruled by an enigmatic, mind-game loving, as of yet undiscovered demon lord of puns. Maybe that demon lord is the originator of Vicious Mockery. Perhaps there are super secret cultists of said demon lord amongst various bard colleges.
@@Dragowolf_Rising Wordplay and puns are definitely lawful behavior. Demons sound more like the sorts to have a swearing contest.
@@Dragowolf_Rising Yamama, the Sick Burn. Demon Lord of Wordplay.
Beneath the "abyss"
BLACKED
I was going to like this comment, but there are 666 likes so I'm gonna leave it.
The bard: "Eh, guess I'm gonna have to wear a blindfold for this one..."
-the bard has amazing sex
-nine months later a female child of the same species of the bard is delivered to the party via demonic stork. The child is wrapped in a blanket of extraordinary magical power
_" As your megahorny bard character lifts her veil at the skirt like section, he can hear the primordeal Ladys amused chuckles._
_His heartrace is rising incredibly as his hand touches the smoothest skin his connoisseur'ish hands have ever touched._
_Just this much of a sensation has felt wonderful beyond everything that he had ever felt._
_So he could not resist the temptation to gaze just slightly at her after all._
_And in the last second, this decision was reverted._
_What he felt his hand touching, suddenly felt eerily cold, sharp and stinging._
_Not like the heatful sting of a burning flame, or the piercing sting of a rose's thorns but far less mercyful to recieve as a wound._
_Oh no! "_
for the record, I don't personally care how long they are. Continue cooking good sir.
🧑🍳
Same
i like them longer
@@Azriel_MRI see you take after your mother.
Same, I love longer videos
You know, as a physicist, the whole shroud thing reminds me of the cosmic censorship hypothesis for black holes. By analogy, we can think of the shroud as the event horizon that "protects" the universe from the central singularity (the actual rip in space-time), aka Pale Night herself. It's an especially poignant analogy since anyone falling into a black hole will appear to get "frozen" or "stuck" to an outside observer. Plus, we're not even sure that all singularities are "clothed" anyway 😅
I'd like to think that Pale Night's immense power is probably due to the shroud itself: containing that horrible universal truth kept it from diffusing out to the rest of the universe thus allowing her power to concentrate over time. Perhaps her simple truth is nihilism, and the fact that spells like Sphere of Annihilation exist might be due to her presence. So destroying her and/or the shroud could vast cosmic consequences.
Anyway, I have no preference on video length or homebrew monsters, Josiah...quality is all that matters. Do what you enjoy most and the rest will shine 😁
Thanks as always, DD! 🫡
That is not only really informative but also super insightful dude! I wonder if any of the science surrounding black holes informed some of the inspiration behind her, or if its just a happy coincidence.
@@DungeonDad Probably a bit of both! I used to chat with an Elder Scrolls writer from Bethesda way back when and he was a huge popular science dork with a religious studies background 😅 But lots of lore in that world is directly pulled from actual science and twisted or spun into fun (mis)interpretations.
But yeah, now my silly campaign idea is that the Pale Night cult leader is actually just a scientist sending in more souls to her shroud to study DnD spacetime itself and doesn't care about worshipping her 👀
As a lifelong physics nerd I've never heard of the cosmic censorship hypothesis. I'll have to look it up after this video. Is it based on the idea that what happens beyond the event horizon would violate causality if one were to see it?
@@inthefade It wouldn't violate causality; it just means we would be able to directly observe that "point" of infinite density, aka the lack of spacetime...which doesn't seem right based on what we understand from quantum mechanics. Causal, in-falling worldlines would be visible to the exterior.
But mathematically speaking, naked singularities are allowed in GR, and in fact, arise in non-static black holes. So if a BH is spinning enough or charged enough, the corresponding event horizons could vanish.
I personally want these things to exist, but we won't really know until we find one 😁 (or find a compelling theoretical framework that would rule it out)
[Pulls head out of wikipedia pages on Lense Thirring and Kerr Metrics]
Woah! This comment and the following replies were my favorite things I've read today. I'm a pastor and science nerd (similar to the Bethesda guy, I guess) and I LOVE the idea of taking inspiration from Censorship Hypothesis to interpret the Pale Night's shroud. So cool!
DAMN THAT SHEET CLINGS
GRANDMA CALM DOWN
Apparently you get a boner when you see her
ZIPES, GRANNY STILL GOT EGGS AND MILK
G-G-G--GYYAAAT!!
Genuinely: Can someone tell me who that woman in the thumb is/where the image is from/who the artist is?-- it's so hot I'm reacting to it both sexually and emotionally.
@@leedunkin3338 The artist is Paolo Giandoso, you can see the full piece in his artstation
one of my favourite things about this channel is how it embraces both the more modern "telling a story together" style of game, and the more classic "deadly adventure where most of you will not survive" style of game
I'm a firm believer that both styles can and should exist! Sometimes I want to sit around with my friends and craft an epic narrative, and sometimes we want to run Tomb of Horrors!
My favorite part of Pale Night’s lore is that Asmodeus looked at that cosmic glitch so horrifying and alien that reality itself said no, and he decided to”Yeah, I’d tap that”
🤣🤣🤣
In Christian demonology Asmodeus is the embodiment of lust.
This really puts the DEADLY in deadly sin.
"Don't put your dick in it Asmodeus,!"
"I'm gonna put my dick in it!"
good use of an avatar
Hey, bro knows what he's into
On the point of Pale Night's plans to kill/destroy the Shroud:
You mentioned that there's essentially a nigh-celestial layer of the abyss, effectively caused by her own scheming. It could be that this was a long-term plot by her to cause the creation of a bridge between the heavens and the abyss, perhaps when the balance of said layer has been tipped far enough in favour of the celestials. This could allow her to ascend the the upper planes and attempt to properly destroy the Shroud.
You could tie a plot to this wherein the party is told of this place by a mysterious stranger (likely Pale Night in a mortal shell), and sent to aid the celestials in their war to save the remaining eladrin children. This would in turn further the celestial influence on said layer of the abyss, and you can probably put the pieces together from there.
that’s actually a really cool idea
Damn. That's a pretty good idea.
The parallels between Pale Night and the Lady of Pain have always intrigued me. Both are contenders for the oldest being in the multiverse, both are not understood by their contemporaries and seem to ignore their rules and powers(Demon Lords and the Gods respectively), both cause immense anguish to anyone gazing upon them and both of them love the imprisonment, maze and magic jar spells. There's already rumours that the Lady of Pain has something to do with the start of the blood war and that she might be a Demon Lord gone rogue.
I hadn't considered that, and honestly I love the idea of them having a connection. Tons of potential to work with as a DM.
God that sounds sick, like Maybe the Universe needed some kind of counterbalance to Pale night and created the lady of pain
She changed the war between the celestials and the Obyrith by nearly killing Obox'Ob and attempting to replace him with a litany of other beings that she created at the same time she was making the Tanar'ri
@DungeonDad I was gonna say, is there a lady of pain video that we should be keeping an eye out for? 👀 Because as someone who got the module based around sigil and the outlands, I would LOVE an in depth look at the lady of pain. The book only says so much about her, and I'm hoping that she has a spot somewhere in your magnificent library of D&D lore. Becoming a big fan, Mr. Dungeon Dad Sir! 🫡
@@AppleJaxx4U One thing I always heard about, and loved for the Lady of Pain is she didn't have stats. It was just "You piss her off, you die."
Is she condemned to a time loop and immortality? Sees the beginning of the universe, lives until the end of the universe, loops back to the beginning of the universe, and repeat.
Details like that are up to you as a DM. Demon lore is loose at best, anyway.
I think one thing the conversation about killing Pale Night missed is that she is an obyrith. The Obyrith are beings with contiguous multidimensional forms. What you're looking at when you see the shrouded body of Pale Night is like looking at the aglet on a shoelace. If you "kill" Pale Night, you're just cutting the end off the string. There's more string, and she can just move more of her form into whatever plane you killed her in if she feels like going for round two. Or she can retreat and heal the a bit before calling on the other demon lords to help her exact a brutal revenge.
Very nice analogy. Also, very nice use of "aglet".
@@MemoristCed I can’t take all the credit. The string analogy was something I heard in an AJ Picket video about the Obyrith
...is this the true, sinister purpose of the aglet?
@@BigusGeekus Before you know it you are secured tightly in their grasp
Baphomet at least is going to show up, since they share a plane, and I'd imagine it's very hard to mess with Pale Night without messing with his stuff.
I see the thumbnail, I see the title, and all I can hear is my inner bard yelling “I ROLL TO SEDUCE!”
The mechanics of the Pale Night were made specifically to kill you
@@KeitieKalopsia 😏 you don't gotta see under the veil to have a good time
What if she's beautiful beyond compression instead of hideous.... Having to make a ...wisdom save.. and could easily lose 1 permanent wisdom sounds like you instantly are infatuated to the point it makes you permanently less wise... Imagine if the gods saw something beautiful beyond compression be all out war just to get her attention wrecking having on laws of reality so the universe had to permanently cover her up to keep everything in balance every got devil demon lord would be at war for her instead of power territory ECT.... Many wars hav been fought over an average chick ..... Much lest the ultimate gyaaaat lol
Considering that her veil is a completely natural process, i think that any memory, photograph, or exceptionally accurate drawing of her true form would quickly be covered by the veil to shroud the thing underneath.
"I did it...a portrait of the true form of Pale Night. Behold her unspeakableness!"
'Bro, that's just some girl in a curtain'
"What? That can't be...oh gods above NOT AGAIN!"
Oooh, so this is why I cover all my drawings in the sheet of my bed
Pale Knights gemstone amulet is a belly button piercing. You can't steal it without lifting the veil and looking at her. Driving yourself insane or killing yourself no matter how powerful you are. She has the ultimate safeguard against someone stealing it.😂
Easy solution: undead or golem plucking the piecing
Come on YT, how am I supposed to partake in pleasing THE ALGORITHM without even getting a notification
You found the video before it went live! The ultimate forbidden knowledge!!
@DungeonDad Hurrah! I love forbidden knowledge! Except that time it turned me into a frog, I didn't enjoy that too much. But I love this video despite it being for a named creature, I'm hoping it opens the door to more unspeakable horrors lime Father Llymic, Ragnorra, etc, in the future.
Is this released early on Patreon?
@@DungeonDad how?
@@Atlasbr001so when I upload and schedule videos they are “unlisted” on TH-cam. That means they won’t appear publicly until scheduled, however, if you go into the monster of the week playlist and go backwards through the video order it’s possible to catch my videos a day early before they go live, as long as I’ve already added it to the playlist.
I could always make the video “private” to avoid this but it’s just a pain and it doesn’t bother me if a handful of people sneak a peak before the official launch so I just leave it as is.
i think its interesting that you mention the pale night having some sort of amulet housing some of her essence as her insurance policy to resurect, but you also mention that the pale night can give a part of her essence to victims (like the shrouded knights) effectively making any of her vessels a phylactery
I think the reason why there's one "good" layer in the whole Abyss is the cosmos' way of defining and accenuating all the evil. A twisted ying-yang. If everything was awful and evil with no exception, it wouldn't really be evil, just "normal." By having one layer be a lush paradise and the rest of the Abyss a nightmarish hellscape, it highlights just how awful this place "chooses" to be.
I think that, also, because it's a plane of absolute chaos and evil it cannot be purely chaotic evil bc, paradoxically, that would make it less chaotic, same way you can find theoretically the entire works of Shakespeare in binary within the decimals of pi you're bound to find nonsensical ordered things in places of true chaos
I really like this comment and this take, but I'm just gonna let you know it's Yin Yang so that the replies don't flame you
Universe/Reality to Pale Night: "Good gods woman, have some dignity and cover up! Here take this sheet."
Hell yeah, I made a campaign last year where Pale Night was the antagonist and she actually led the Hundon thanks to your video on them. Thanks for the inspiration.
Oh man that’s a very cool connection to make!
@@DungeonDad Thank you man, that's high praise!
@@DungeonDad Please, can you do Tirapheg? I loved this monster ever singe learned about it from Bogleech
Just imagining players walking in the bone citadel and it's just that scene in the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video clip where there's just an infinite corridor of shrouds blowing in the wind.
25:03 "one of the source books specifies that she frequently takes over the bodies of a mortal she likes, and just runs it ragged until she gets bored or it dies of old age"
Holy shit, I love the idea of an NPC that clearly has the vibes of an extremely powerful warlock or sorcerer that just is super mysterious that the party crosses paths with and is extremely strange and cryptic, and clearly knows A LOT about the nature of the multiverse.
I'm imagining a wrinkled old tiefling woman with completely chalk-white skin, a pair of ridged bony massive ram horns with forward-facing spikes splitting off and curving from them like another pair of horns, white hair and pupils, as well as, again, a completely white draped silken shawl that touches the ground, in one of her hands is a massive crook of warped bone.
And a couple sessions later they meet the same NPC again but in absolutely terrible condition and with no memory of the last few months of their life.
@@leila13dnd holy shit actually a genius idea
Sounds like tom bombadil
I feel there was some rule somewhere saying if you fail the wisdom save for seeing past the shroud, you just don't process what you're looking at, but if you succeed at the save, THAT'S when you die, because you DO comprehend it.
Success: You comprehend. Of course. Why couldn't you see it before? Infinite. Divine. No. Just truth. An unending truth above all things. No exceptions. Infinitely complex. Something warm is in your ear. It's so simple. Something cold on your face. The Pale Night stands before you. Something bends. Above you. Something twists. She looks sad. Something shrinks. Mournful. Something breaks. You weren't supposed to comprehend. Something snaps. No one should. Something is growing. She touches your cheek. Something if folding in on itself. You don't have to hide from her. Something is wrong. She doesn't have to hide from you. Something pulls. She draws a sheet over you. Something billows in the still air. Not a sheet. Something stands. Just a veil.
Failure: What you've seen can't be unseen, but what did you see? You become obsessed with knowing. If you could only figure it out. Piece it together... Perhaps you could paint what you saw and could make sense of it if you could just see it for a little longer. But paint isn't enough. Material paint can't capture her form. You need more paint. You need more canvas. You need new paint. New mediums. New media. New... No. Older. Older paints. Paints no mortal could know or have. That would work. That has to work.
But the painting does contain something. Not any truth but the hint of one. It must be veiled. It's not ready. Those who gaze upon the unfinished work find it intriguing. They look closer. The weak minded become obsessed. What is this painting of? What is the subject? No. Who is the subject? Someone has to know more about it. It's part of a collection? Paintings like this pop up throughout time, across dimensions. Someone mentioned they've seen another... Where was it? Who has it? It's not enough. It's never enough. Just pieces. Hints alluding to a great truth. A form hidden just beyond a veil.
@@lemongambit BROOOOO THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING
"And that's this week's sponsor!"
me: hovering over the tracking bar to skip
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me: ... continue.
While I try my best to make the ads entertaining, I definitely don’t blame folks for skipping the ad (that’s why I include time stamps). Sometimes though, I get to do an ad for something absolutely awesome like this 💯
@@DungeonDadHell ya!
@@DungeonDad I actually did end up backing because this is exactly the kind of lore book I live for.
@@RisqueBisquet It's super cool! I can honestly say that had they not sent me a copy to check out before the ad, I 100% would be backing the project also. HPP has a great reputation for delivering on what they promise as a publisher and the book itself is really unique.
real ads made by real people are dope and fun,
ads ran by dopplegangers like the ones running hello fresh, cryptobros or gods help us better help are an instant skip and dislike imo
Omg thank you for covering this!!! Never expected my suggestion to get a video simply because Pale Night is so out there as far as lore goes. This was great!!
I love the thought of someone seeing under the veil and going mad. A cultist is desperate to see and uses magic to read their mind which requires a hand to the head. And when he starts to scream from the visions he sees and someone tries to pull him away, pale night keeps him there and now their hand is fused to their head and watches an endless loop of madness and pain. Now both that person and the one who originally saw under the veil are locked up forever unable to die or age.
Re: the nature of the shroud, I like the idea that its sort of like what happens when you try to display an image file that isnt compatible with your system; you either see a weird glitched out image, or your computer crashes, or you get a default "image not found" kind of graphic, because your system just doesnt know what to do with the file.
I like the idea that Pale night is similar; the cosmos itself doesn't know how to "display" an image of her so you get this sort of "image not found" thing of a shroud covering her. Not because of some powerful artefact or some divine being, but because she *just isnt compatible with reality.*
And if you peek beneath the shroud and see her true form... Your system crashes and gets corrupted. But its not your operating system; its your nervous system.
I can truly say that I personally have never had a single issue with the length of your videos, the longer ones, like the False Hydra, Bag Man, and Sun and Moon Dragons have actually been some of my favorites. I enjoy this concept of detailing a specific entity and giving us new stat blocks to play with.
As for a specific entity I would like to see your take on, maybe Malcanthet, the Queen of Succubi, and her weird interactions between the hells and the abyss, being a demon with what amounts to a summer home in the hells at Asmodeus' own invitation. I recall she had her own kind of demon under her command, something to do with a painting and at least one unique artifact level weapon?
The issue with the shrouded knights is what they do to the fight with Pale Night herself, if there is one. There's no reason for her to _not_ have a bunch of them on-hand, which means her fight with the party logically turns into a series of one-on-one fights while the rest of the party is trying to escape their mazes. So the presence of some Pale Knights effectively increases Pale Night's CR by a LOT. Way more than the presence of most other possible minions with the same CR as the knights.
Give the Knights low Charisma and wisdom so if the Pale knight ever reveals herself they are likely to die from the AOE which is not an uncharacteristic action for a Demon Lord. Especially if she doesn't regard the party as a particular threat she may just decide to unveil herself to not waste her time swatting flies and kill them alongside her useless servants that haven't dealt with the party already.
28:46 - No, they will engage in wordplay at the drop of a pin, especially if it causes unending suffering in those allergic to puns.
Pale Night's so old, how do we know she didn't invent Wordplay?
Absolutely adored this video and will definitely be using the Shrouded Knights - love the banishment mechanic and unerring lance combo *chef's kiss*
Aye bro this thumbnail is wild
You gotta do what you gotta do
@@DungeonDad never been so nervous upon opening youtube before 🤣🫡
Ain't nothing wrong with wilding out a bit.
Behold the beauty and dispair
those are the the two oldest creatures in DnD
I liked the specific entry and I'd LOVE to see a video about MALKIZID!
You could have a story where a painting of the Pale Night is the main artefact in your teams quest.
The quest could be to safely transport the painting from one location to another while it is covered to avoid anyone looking at it, however you could have Pale Night cults seeking the painting for their purposes.
Or your group could be on a quest to destroy it as a mayor of a nearby town purchased the cursed painting and everyone in town who saw it went insane.
One of the things I love about your channel and others like yours (such as Pointy Hat) is that it reminds me of how back in the day TDR and the magazines would release small bits of content to put in our binders rather than giant books. A monster or race or class or adventure.
When I get a chance to do so, Ill look at what else you released and certainly compensate you for your work... even the free stuff. It looks very worth it.
I have two things to say: It seems one of the scariest things in the multiverse is a bedsheet ghost (and I love that), and that maze attack ability is amazingly creative (and thematic and flavorful)!
A bedsheet ghost! Ahhaha that is hilarious.
Don't give her a rock on Halloween. I doubt she would appreciate the reference.
I am absolutely loving this new named creature trend, I’m excited to incorporate Pale Night into my campaign
For any of you out there who play Yugioh, this should be very familiar! The Labrynth archetype was actually based off of a mashup of Pale Night's lore with Beauty and the Beast!
...Aaand for those who don't play Yugioh - yes, bizarre statements like that are entirely normal for that game.
And also just a dash of Takeshi's Castle in how it all plays out.
Wait it is? I thought it was just vague mmo/rpg boss stuff. Let me look into this real quick...
Okay I'm back, turns it is based very vaguely on the myth of the minotaur for some reason. Which makes Ms. Knight Theseus? Yeah that's weird.
Actually? I never would've guessed and I'm going to build a labrynth deck, that's crazy
@@murphystegall5145 Yeah, I've heard about that
Ya, I was watching a video about an archetype (I forget which one cuz I haven't played yugioh in about 20 yrs) where is was basically anime hotties meets Dark Souls n Lovecraftian eldritch horror. Ya, inspirations for cards in that game r crazy
I am absolutely down for more specific monsters with your take on additional creatures that might be associated with them. This was a super, super cool format for your video man. Really hope to see more of them like this. The video length is irrelevant to me, I'm here to listen and learn about lore that I might otherwise not know about (Been playing for a really, Really, long time) so, the more you talk on a topic the better as far as I'm concerned.
I love the "Lore creature + homebrew creature that compliments it" format! I'm sure it's infinitely more work for you, but it really does give something for everybody, so I eagerly look forward to if you do it again!
Video starts at 4:30
Dungeon Dad: "I made a minion for the Pale Night that can also act as a standalone monster"
Me: "Oh yea neat"
Dungeon Dad: "Acting completely separate from the Mother of Demons"
Me: "the WHAT?!"
Oh, this is PERFECT. One of my players is a paladin assassin for a god of death, and part of that oath is catching souls who cheat death - undead for example. A shroud entrapping countless souls sounds just lovely, both as a plot hook and potentially an obtainable artifact (she wants to become Hel eventually). The icing on the cake is that ANOTHER player is a daughter of Morwel (Queen of the Court of Stars) who is trying to save her mother from imprisonment by Dagon, so the party will already be visiting Androlynne (which I also didn't know about yet).
THANK YOU, and also you dropped this 👑
Pale Night is one of my favorite NPC monsters to use as a DM whenever I get the chance! So glad you're covering her!
This was a phenomenal video in every regard. I absolutely believe that you should continue with other and lesser known named creatures from D&D history; you have such a great way of brining life to something that I would have never heard of in any other case. You take a small barely mentioned creature(s) and make such a compelling and fun analysis of it that I have to fight myself from instantly putting it into my own campaign! I believe as long as you add in plot hook suggestions (like you did in this video) that could help others to find a way to place said creature into a homebrew campaign that doesn't use the setting the creature is from, no one would mind more videos like this; I would certainly welcome them. And please keep adding some more of your homebrew creatures to entries when you can, they seem like a lot of fun and always add to the experience overall. Keep up the great work!
More homebrew monsters would be great tbh, your ideas are honestly super creative. I love the idea of the Shrouded Knight looking like a horse and rider but being one creature, it kinda reminds me of the Nuckelavee and is super creepy.
Thanks!
And yeah I was definitely inspired by creatures like the nuckelavee and that one MTG card from Eldritch Moon depicting the horse and rider being merged by eldrazi nonsense.
Definitely reminds one of the nuckelavee.
@@DungeonDad It That Rides as One. I immediately thought of it, followed quickly by the shrouded night's cavalry from Elden Ring. I love my eldritch kin.
That reminds me of Centaur from Fear&Hunger2: Termina
Honestly, this is starting to become my favorite D&D content on TH-cam. Your videos have provided me with inspiration for now two adventures.
I'm looking forward to seeing the impact Pale Night has on my game, and the Pale Knight as well.
I think this might be one of your best videos, I really don't mind the length and I appreciate the tasteful use of homebrew to fill narrative/structural gaps with something interesting. I'm just starting to write a campaign where a demon lord tasks the players with determining the identities of the obyrith Quorum of Twelve if you know what that is (if you don't, it's a really interesting read that I'd highly recommend), and after watching this I think Pale Night should definitely play a role in that story.
Thanks so much!
Also I feel like Pale Night would be a natural fit for that kind of story. There are so many different roles she could play there!
The Abyss is so fascinating. I think some of the more lesser-known demonlords could make for interesting videos
Everyone overlooks Pazuzu.
The question is "Should they?"
@@derekstein6193oh how I long for the Pazuzu statblock
This was a great lore dive and I really liked the addition of your own flavor creations. It gives a lot of great plot hooks. The video was a bit long but you filled it with great information.
Light just became the second fastest thing
It happens to everyone from time to time...
I love the idea of the named creature and the homebrew monster. It's really inspirational as a DM!
My homebrew idea for the abyss is an infinite shaft with subjective gravity and randomly opening and closing portals to the various "layers". Moving in a straight line for too long within one of the layers will bring you right back to the central shaft. Random bits of things can be found falling in both directions, occasionally turning the central area into a meatgrinder.
Listened to a TON of your videos and I honestly love the addition of some named monsters/individuals into the mix. Especially ones that would otherwise have an intimidating amount of lore
No matter how admittedly... Distracting, she may be. The only being truly worth admiration is the Prismatic dragon.
Out of all the Dragons, current and old, the Prismatic is my favorite by far
Loved this type of video! Plus the idea of you going over the blood war and other goodies sounds like a great time. Or even a little (big) feature video with you and MrRhexx would be so sick
I love the fact you’re commissioning artist (as An artist myself) you have my support in your endeavors
I see some DnD channels who talk about armor or something use Ai generated stuff.
So again thank you ❤
I love working with artists! Truly some of the stuff that my artists have created are beyond what I could have even conceived for the project, which results in not only better art made by a human, but often informs the creature’s mechanics in a whole new way. Best example I can point to is the spammer and the chronotyryn.
Anyways, thanks for watching and feel free to hmu on Twitter or something if you want to throw your hat in the ring for art commissions! I’m always looking for new folks to work with!
@@DungeonDadI love this interaction. This good humanity evidence right here❤
So 2 things
1 I'm not sure if the editing and animations are getting enough appreciation, so shout-out to the editors and animators. The style kicks ass.
2, I know THE ALGORITHM hates longer form videos but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents and say I love it.
One of my favorite demons and a real in depth look at her (madness intended). Thank you for the video and not cutting it short. This trend where videos can't be more than 5 minutes is insane.
This was fantastic! First time on this channel and I'm hoping for more named content like this! Pale Night is now my favorite demon lord!
Pale night is one of the major antagonists in my world and there isn’t much information about her. Thank you so much for this video!
There’s so much to unpack with the beyond ancient cosmic horrors. I love this and your videos are inspiring as always.
How about this for a plot hook/campaign?:
The one who asks the party to find the gem is actually the sheet itself, if we go by the idea it's celestial/divine in origin, and by secretly telling the party how to find it, its own goal is to finally kill The Mother of Demons?
Or parhaps, due to her chaotic and changing nature, change her from chaotic evil to chaotic good or at least neutral?
Loved the video! This is something that can be pretty easily homebrewed into a lot of games/worlds with minor tweaking while still retaining a lot of the lore and what just makes her as scary as she is. For example in one world she might not be the big bad threat, but her influence on situations might be seen. Wether she's a benefactor to the Hero's or the BBEG might not be as crystal clear. Or she might just be pitting them against themselves for whatever reason... There is a ton to work with.
I love these longer videos as well as the idea of wrapping a monster and some minions together. There's a lot of creativity there. Also there's so much we can work with. Great job my man. One of favorite videos you've put out.
Introduced to a really cool creature, AND getting clued in to something as neat looking as Floral Dragons? Love it, many thanks! Also can't understate how much I love just how colorful and full of life the Floral Dragons setting looks, been craving something like that for a while.
That hunting-PCs-in-a-maze thing you have for the shrouded knights immediately made me think of SCP-106, so it'd be very useful for a 5e Modern a friend of mine has ongoing. So thank you for that!
Its always nice to see the outer edges of DnD lore get some exposure. I'm more that happy to see you create long videos about anything at all, named-NPCs or not. I'm still hoping for more races, like the Tibbits and Wolfen for players to use (and your own creations). I'm just as happy to hear about the crazy-powerful entity that lives at the very peak of Mt. Celestia and will one day meet with Asmodeus and The Lady of Pain to end the universe; or maybe how the God Lathander in FR caused the Dawn Cataclysm, and isn't a pure as many people may believe. Lots of stuff to tell people about and/or convert, so I look forward to what comes next.
"And if it doesn't work out, remember: you did not get it from me."
Immediately shows thumbnail of Matt Coville.
I have been slain.
As a long time Pale Night fan you have gone above and beyond with this video. Thank you so much. I’m just so happy this vid exists, and you produced it so well, and you expanded upon the lore of our Pale Mother. Thank you - and I for one would love more unique beings featured. Lady of Pain for one! (She’s interestingly quite similar in some respects)
I think Mimikyu from Pokemon, and Pale Night would get along.
I was thinking daaaaaaaaaamn Mimikyu got a glow up! Like a Digimon style mega evolution lol. I'm a big mimikyu fan ❤❤❤❤😊
I personally love that we are getting longer videos from you. But honestly I love all your stuff regardless.
Steinhardts to the Eldritch Hunt is looking swanky with every little update
Real shit
dude i love home brew. but i also love old D&D being brought back in to 5e for new gen players and dms to play with and enjoy. ive played D&D in many forms from the 1990 tell now. you are giving me and the rest of the D&D world more stuff both old and new to work with in a 5e world. i thank you for all that you do and hope ya keep doing it.
I like to think that Jimmy Longarms is the name of the specific Odopi who was shown in the Odopi episode, was sent out searching for the one creature who ran off, and invited another horrific abomination over. Jimmy Longarms for channel mascot! XD
On this actual episode though, this is a REALLY neat one, almost like a cross between Monster of the Week and Legend Lore with how it has a stronger plot focus with this singular entity compared to most MotW videos. Also, she's super interesting and terrifying!
I also do really like the "adding a homebrew monster to fill out the role of an entity" thing that you've done here and with the pie fiend, it definitely helps to put the spotlight on a creature without letting the players go and smack it right away, stretching out its influence and making it feel more impactful when the encounter finally happens, which is especially important with very powerful and manipulative creatures like the two you've done it for.
Fantastic work as always, and I'm VERY excited to see what's going on with Eclipse Giants next time!
Also, do... do we know what was up with the mysterious obelisk in the Tungsten Dragon teaser in the Orange Seer video? I feel like I either missed a connection on that or it's still a weird mystery that I don't know if we have answers to yet. 0 v0
Pale Night was the patron of my favorite warlock. Thanks for the video
Pale Night Cultists and Warlocks dressed ONLY in cheer robes and vale -- totally gonna steal that.
As for monsters...?
Some of the monsters from B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, such as the Decapus or Ubue, needs more love. More so to latter. Especially since the Ubue, with their three-heads (one being a distaff version of the whole), they can be used as commentary on gender with reference to the psychic apparatus of the Id, Ego and Superego, or some thing else cool. There is SO MUCH one can take them, and so much one can make of them as they hardly appear in anything beyond the recalled version of the B3 module.
There are still SO MANY obscure monsters and creatures within the deep lore of D&D.
Great video! I enjoyed the slightly different style and wouldn’t be opposed to future videos like this
Pale Night makes me want to go down to the abyss and try to be the father of some demons if you know what I mean.
Pale Night is one of my all-time favorite entities in D&D, and I love this lore run-down on her. But more than that, I love this stat-block you've put together for her - almost as much as I'm adoring this "Pale Knight" stat-block!
If I were to offer another monster for next time, it'd likely be an Enveloper (from AD&D). I could see them as a long-term threat that grows in power over time, collecting skills and knowledge of its victims (much of this knowledge being over the party). It's a threat that could grow with the party in a really fun way, or just a nice one-off foe that throws the whole kitchen sink at the party.
I love the homebrew monsters you’ve been adding to the videos of late and would love to see more! But please continue bringing back to life the older monsters, so many of those old monsters really make D&D feel different from all the other fantasy games
100% I will always be committed to dusting off old monsters that have been left behind with new editions. It's truly something I love to do and I think the little piece of D&D history to be gleaned from each one is super interesting.
Amother certified banger. Love all of your homebrews you're throwing in, and the video lengths are never an issue for me (I love the longer ones).
The Shrouded Knight is SOOO much cooler than the random demonic super spiders she had in older editions.
I was planning on using a homebrewed Baernoloth in my next campaign, but this minion is making me reconsider.
Last night we used your pie fiend in my girlfriends campaign to replace the cook on our pirate ship we stole and it was awesome! I made a map of the crews quarters and kitchen with a big portal to his hells kitchen behind the oven. Thanks so much for all of the inspiration you give me and all the work you do!
In my mind her amulet are all the demons she created, each containing a tiny amount of her essence, infused into them as they were created by her. So as long as demons exist destroying her is virtually impossible🙈
That's a very cool idea!
Honestly, that would be quite legit. With her being an obyrith though, I don't know if she needs an amulet. Then again, when does an ancient schemer of unfathomable intellect not have an extra insurance policy?
I listen to these in the background while I work. I hardly ever have time to play D&D or Wrath & Glory but I love the ideas and the lore. I bring a lot of what you do to my daughter to inspire unique/creepy/cool/interesting art.
I feel very speedy and should not be awake at this hour, but here I am and Im hyped.
I loved this video. It gave me so many ideas for new campaigns. I would ABSOLUTELY love more videos on specific named entities from older editions
Love your adding homebrew content! I created a 1 shot for my friends purely based on the name of your last video... a food/bakery themed one shot with ALL of the food puns! It was glorious. I appreciate you and your videos!!
I like the idea of covering specific names creatures and add a lesser minion monster feels nice since these names creatures will likely be incredibly powerful or something to build a campaign around.
Honestly, if her form is that unholy it could be that her shroud disappearing or being destroyed could start off the end of the world. Maybe her true form in of itself is the means by which the world ends?
The stuff she did with the Eldaarin children is giving AM from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
I’m just trying to imagine how I would play a warlock with her as my patron. I always love using actual official beings as patrons for my warlocks, so whenever I see a really interesting one like this, I get excited. Especially since, at least to me, a lot of the older, unupdated ones, like most of the Elder Evils, are just plain cooler than the 5e ones we have now.
I feel like if I was going to play a warlock of Pale Night, as far as subclass goes I think you could reflavour just about anything to make it work, but the strogest contenders for me would be Great Old One or The Undead (slightly reflavoured).
If you go with the undead your "form of dread" could be your body wrapped in a sheet, much like pale night herself. Visually I really like that.
GOO is just kind of what Pale Night is in a way, so pretty self explanatory.
You could even multiclass into paladin (which works really well mechanically) and become a shrouded knight. Maybe lore-wise that's what her shrouded knights actually are, just warlock-paladins of a high level.
As far as actually her as a patron from the DM side, I could see Pale Night being a pretty standoffish patron who doesn't speak much, but when she does, you had better listen.
As a player, pinning down a specific goal is a bit of a challenge. Maybe someone obsessed with finding forbidden knowledge, or conversely, someone who seeks to keep forbidden knowledge hidden could be interesting. I also like the idea of all her warlocks scouring the multiverse for a way to destroy her shroud permanently, so maybe all the seemingly random little tasks she hands out to her warlocks are related to that somehow in a grander sense.
@@DungeonDad ooh, all good ideas. My favorite one of these kind of warlocks I’ve made is Ashonn the Hungry, a duergar GOO acolyte of Holashner, The Hunger Below, an Elder Evil from 3e who was never updated and never had a stat bock to begin with. He was captured by illithids and experimented on, and one of those experiments failed, accidentally connecting him to the forgotten ancient evil. He’s not even sure if his presence was noticed by the monstrosity, and now he strives to be reconnected to the being that gave him the power to free himself.
@@DungeonDad so I wanna say, I did actually end up making this character. I went with the reflavored undead pact idea, but with the horror visage being pulling off a blindfold made of the same fabric of reality as the Veil to reveal their eyes which were replaced with the same horrific matter as makes up Pale Night when he gleaned a short look at her true form. I also made them a Kenku, because a blindfolded raven is just too much of a classic look not to.
10:35
I just realized this is from Berserk. Man of culture
I feel like we just found Mimikyu's Creator. Sorry for the pokemon referrence, but its almost similar to her that Mimikyu could be a familiar.
Absolutely love your stuff! The videos are well made, cover lore. Mechanics , and even the way to help slip what ever into a campaign or make saod creature the entire campaign! BUT i also appreciate having the videos cut into chunks of labeled content so I'm able to revisit distinct parts and the free stat blocks is amazing! Love and appreciate all the work you and your team do, thank you again
I had a warlock concept who was "contracted" to yog-sothoth with an ability that caused him to absorb a fragment of the memories of some random entity every time he goes unconscious
His psychology gradually warps into a completely alien mindset, becoming more of a search engine than a person
Perhaps he could process and remember what he was seeing since his job is to be one of the eyes of the omniscient outer god
the memory would just be logged by his patron, and his inability to be frightened would make him a nice living camera
I absolutely adore that concept!
Loved both the Homebrew and the covering of a unique monster. I remember seeing Pale Night in Fiendish Codex for the first time, very interesting concept.
What a wonderful way to start my afternoon! Discovered your content last week and have been on a binge. You make amazing stuff!
Would love to support you on Patreon once personal circumstances improve. I've actually been cooking a Deathdrinker BBEG for my long-time campaign idea because of your video! They're gonna be awful. :)
Welcome to the channel! I’m glad you’ve found my stuff useful!
Also as far as patreon goes, while I appreciate support so so much from people who can swing it, definitely don’t ever feel the need to put yourself out! I’m just happy to have ya here watching my videos.
@@DungeonDad Understood!
I really like this, the lore part is always my favorite (closely followed with the plot hooks)
What if the shroud is actually just a metaphorical existence, she existed before everything, and thus outside everything, the shroud is her pressing up against the veil separating the universe from the outside.
First video I see of you. I must say that I've always preferred the way AD&D 2nd edition created their monster. An entire page for one single monster with it's habitat, it's lair, community, social interaction, ecology... So finding this channel is -- for me at least -- A gold mine!
So... yeah. SUB!!!!