The demons have lingered on the fringes beyond the border of your reality since the Dawn of Time, and the Demon Hunters may be our last chance. One day the gates will burst open the gates and the world will end, or at least that is the beliefs of many loremasters.
These loremasters have always forged weapons to stave this off, and the Demon Hunters are the wielders of these weapons.
The Demon Hunter
Demon Hunters tend to be inquisitors, rangers, wizards or paladins. They are religious by nature, but their primary goal is to destroy the taint of demons where it is found, usually at any cost.
Their task is near-impossible, which often makes them doomed champions.
The Enemy
The Enemy has many names and guises: the Enemy, the Herald of Demons, the Herald of Darkness. The Enemy’s servants come in many forms, wearing many faces: friendly villagers, alluring seducers, false scholars, bitter sellswords, anyone you can imagine and no one you can trust. Others wear monster shapes, too horrid to describe.
The Order of Demon Hunters
They typically organize in loose templar orders with vast networks of passive allies.
The Demon Hunters are always on the move and must keep their meeting places, libraries, and vaults are hidden, and often guarded by trusted hirelings or allies.
The Order is disorganized, and its members are often short-lived and antisocial. This a weakness but also makes the Order hard to pin down and defeat. The demons often win, but the Order always returns, usually from an unexpected angle.
Tenets of the Seventh Sigil
Many Demon Hunters shun the Path of Light, finding it impossible to stay true and yet do what needs to be done. Only the Tenets of the Seventh Sigil give purpose and clarity to stay in the fight for any length of time.
The Hunt. A Demon Hunter travels tirelessly to destroy demons.
Vengeance. Hunt down demons and demonspawn whenever found.
Discipline. Only a healthy mind and body can resist and defeat demons, and weakness has no place among demon hunters.
Sacrifice. A Demon Hunter must be willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for the greater good of destroying the demon taint.
The Weapons of the Demon Hunters
Ordinary weapons harm demon servants but not the demons themselves. Thus demon slayer weapons, hand crossbows of the seven sigils and staves of the collapsing gates are valued and usually necessary tools for the demon hunters.
The Demon Hunters also seek secret knowledge. Lost schematics, true names, and secrets for extortion are all valued weapons in a demon hunter’s arsenal.
Secret Demon Hunter Patrons
- The angels of heaven walk among the Demon Hunters to guide and heal their bodies and minds. The angels grant spells, offer tutorship and forge weapons. In return, the Demon Hunters die for their causes.
- The archfey sponsor Demon Hunters to keep the fey crossroads untainted by demons and draw the supernatural war to the mortal world. The greatest demon hunters eventually become like fey themselves, beautiful and deadly as they slaughter their enemies.
- The elves founded the order of Demon Hunters to cleanse the world of demonic taint. They draw power from the moon- and starlight and the deep of the natural world.
- The diabolic forces of the multiverse founded the Demon Hunters to corrupt the forces of heaven and strike at the demons. The order fought off the diabolic masters, but this conflict remains in the Order even today, and only the wisest of loremasters know the truth.
Random Demon Hunter Missions
The Demon Hunters rarely linger, always looking forward to the next mission.
- There are rumors of villagers sharing the same prophetic dream of the end times, and skulking shadows roaming the village countryside at night. Surely the end is approaching. This unholy presence calls for action at once.
- Spies report of sellswords are asking questions about the hunters’ secret vaults. They must be diverted, or stopped, at any cost, and the Order must learn the identity of their patron.
- A band of brigands has moved into the province, and have sacrificed some villagers most gruesomely. These deeds are not the work of a whimsical amateur or upstart highwayman. The details of the sacrifice are too horrific to mention. This is the work of the Enemy.
- The servants of the Enemy are moving in secret in the royal court, and the royalty is not likely to believe the hunters’ claims. The Order needs to cut out the demonic taint, even if it means bringing down the kingdom. The hunters look for alternatives, but time is short and calls for drastic action.
- The church is investigating a fallen temple in the wilds, and believe. Their seekers report heretics gathering in this dungeon. Heretics are not our concern, but if there are cultists, we must deal with them and examine any lost relics in their possession.
- One of the Lord of the Abyss has appeared in visions before the Grand Cathedral, and one of the priests has killed himself. The church oracles are ecstatic, and the scholars are distraught by this event.
Rewards for Demon Hunters
Killing demons are its reward, but different tools are always welcome, and patrons and loremasters are advised to keep the hunters well equipped.
- A money grant.
- A land grant for a future stronghold, or to be sold off for more immediate utility.
- A letter of recommendation. The patron writes the Demon Hunter a letter of recommendation that will give access to the patron’s allies elsewhere. This letter may open many doors and may be a powerful tool.
- An ancient tome containing secrets of the ancient world: hints of old demon ruins, portals of fallen worlds and buried weapons.
Random Demon Hunter Secrets
- The Order is sworn to protect a secret and sacred bloodline. The bloodline will one day rise to save the world when the demonic gates open. Everything relies on the bloodline’s survival.
- The Order secretly supported the Northmen when they raided the capital of the Great Kingdom. The demons had irreversibly corrupted the king’s guard, and the Northmen proved valuable pawns to remove that taint. The city’s destruction was unfortunate but necessary, although many will not see it that way.
- The order has infiltrated the royal guard and poised to overthrow the rulers of the realm when the demons come. The kingdom itself will be the ultimate weapon and possibly sacrifice when the final battle is here.
- The order has secretly been cataloging tainted demon bloodlines for a swift response when the demon gates open. Some whisper a preemptive strike is necessary to ensure victory.
- Some whisper returned fallen hunters have overthrown the secret masters of the order. These hunters are undead succumbed to the demonic taint and will destroy the Order by sending the hunters after an impossible target, who also is an enemy of the demons. The demons will kill two of their enemies in a horrific war and lay the realm waste.
- The Herald of Darkness is already here, slumbering and bound by ancient spells in the basement of a nondescript church in the capital of the Great Kingdom. The Demon Hunters are tools to protect this site, often by diversion, and most do not know their true purpose. The darkest fear of some loremasters is that the imprisonment is a ruse, that the Herald can come and go as it pleases.
Fallen Demon Hunters
Fortunately, most demon hunters die young because those who survive long enough usually crack and become like demons themselves. Sacrificing friends, loved ones and wealth takes its toll and sometimes when all that remains in dark knowledge and terrible knowledge, the demon hunter lose sight of the real enemy and turn on those he or she swore to protect.