Elfmaids & Octopi: War Against The Dark Lord 1: Dark Lords Forces

Every few generations some new dark lord comes. Some new demon noble finds a handful of cultists and then helps them finds a relic of the past. Then next thing they are forming an army and everyone on the borderlands becomes edgy as disorganised enemies of humanity unite. Where did all these monsters get so irate all of a sudden? It is like they don't want to be annexed and they keep increasingly making more desperate pacts with demons who just want to be set free on earth. Anyway here are some tables for the warzone that I never wanted to do from my old series.....Links to old ones at the bottom.

Obviously, I'm all for Dark Ladies or Evil Obelisks or any form of evil intelligence.
But I'm sure will do some more evil lady wars or an Amazon war.

War Against The Dark Lord 1: Dark Lords Forces
War Against The Dark Lord 2: Dark Lords Encounters & Wonders
War Against The Dark Lord 3: Dark Lords Rumours & Treasure

I could see my Southern continent of a shattered 3rd empire of knightly kingdoms in a decades-long civil war having recursive dark lords. Might even be why empire exists. Oops, exile Island and Shadelport to be fair probably would work for the dark lord strictly for cash. It is ruled by a devil-worshipping immortal masked Barron after all but might betray the dark lord for cash again. Every 3-6 generations you get a dark lord and some bit of the world gets whittled away.

d10 What Started war?
1 The events were set in motion thousands of years ago and predestined

2 Somebody awoke a great evil by accident allowing the lord to arise

3 A cult worked in secret spreading corruption and gathering evil relics

4 A great defender against evil stumbled in madness and has fallen

5 Famine among humanoids is uniting them in the thousands and the lord took power

6 Ancient oaths made to the commanders of a former great evil have been claimed

7 The evil one has escaped imprisonment due to some foolish mortals sin and vanity

8 A great ruler made a deal under duress long ago and this gives the dark lord power

9 Human adventurers raided numerous tabu holy sites outraging humanoids

10 The elves have instigated this to cull humans and other oafish uncouth races

d10 Objectives of invaders?

1 Destroy everything pretty or artful that is not functional or for war

2 Eat and enslave everything, send slaves home as cattle

3 Destroy a kingdom or civilisation and damage the world forever

4 Revenge against human mistreatment for ages and take the frontier back

5 Utter extermination of all humans not in thralldom forever to the dark lord

6 Utter extermination of demihumans and magical beings and forests

7 Destroy walls, wells, burn forests, poison wells, ruin land supporting humans

8 Destroy civilisation especially literacy, records, libraries, monuments

9 Destroy the holy places of good religions with fire and blasphemous rites

10 Bring about the apocalypse and force a final war to bring all the gods to earth

d10 What ends war?
1 Dark lord overreaches in zealousness to beat a prophecy

2 Dark lord minions keep being overcome by local heroes resisting tenaciously

3 The threat of a worse invasions makes humanoids head for their dungeons for cover

4 Somebody destroys the dark lords legacy for a while and hopefully does not replace them

5 Dark lord triggers the apocalypse, gods battle of the earth for supremacy in an age of horror

6 Some band of adventurers obtained secret knowledge to destroy the lords great relic

7 Crusade! allies come from far off lands to destroy the evil one, hopefully they go home after

8 Humanity managed to gain other great hidden allies in an important battle

9 Heroes uncovered an artefact to destroy the dark lord but it was so terrible destruction

10 The dark lord on the edge of victory starts their true plan turning everyone against them

d10 Factions of the Dark Lord (every good dark lord has a d3 sub-bosses)
1 Goblinoids, mad at humans for losing territory, exploitation and slavery

2 Orcs enraged by humanity who they see as rivals to rule this age at any cost

3 Necromancers have provided undead troops since humans first learned black magic

4 Black wizards schooled in the low tuition fee diabolic school serve for knowledge & power

5 Beast folk army, type created by the dark lord elder magic & secret breeding programs

6 Beast folk horde, wild tribal beastfolk tribe willingly serve for a chance to kill humans

7 Ogres unusually have united to eat and destroy humanity who they hate so much

8 Hill giants have come from the mountains to eat humans and the dark lords lies

9 Chaos horde, mutated warband of maniacs serving priesthood of chaos and demons

10 Dark elves are sworn to a former darklord reluctantly are made to fight this useless war

d10 Factions Against The Dark Lord
1 A local flawed ruler who earnestly does not want people to all be eaten by orcs

2 Mad lord sure can make a deal with the dark lord or they can reason with them

3 Cowards hoping to pay off or negociate peace or even talk terms of surrender

4 Crusader order formed uniting various churches and kingdoms richest fanatics

5 Crafty old ruler believes just delaying the dark lord will cause him to crumble again

6 Knowing the history of the former dark lord in the region a local ruler ready to swear to evil

7 A peasant army run by bandits living like wild men and fighting the carrying the evil army

8 Local ruler believes can easily defeat the dark lord and is destined to be a legendary hero

9 King wants to unite all lands and is targeted by the dark lord with corruption

10 An idealistic young ruler wants allegiance with demihumans against the dark lord. Trouble is the dwarves think humans are technology thieving bastards who eye off dwarf treasure (true) and the elves think humans are vermin gnawing away at the wilderness. Possibly wilderness protection might help get elves and guilds acknowledging dwarf as owning certain patents

d10 Quests of the war
1 Find the dark lords secret weakness, what is the great relic he requires for power

2 Make allies from one of the hidden peoples of the world like demihumans

3 Make allies from dragons or some other enemy of the dark lord (though a few did)

4 Who was the dark lord? where did they come from? Do they have any family?

5 Disrupt a meeting of the dark lord's minions so they fight each other

6 Destroy something essential to a faction so it drops out of the war to recover

7 Expose the dark lord's real plans and convince some minions they are on wrong side

8 Slay a great hero of the dark lord reducing stability and morale of the dark forces

10 Save a temple from attack that might hold secret to the dark lords power source

d10 What does the dark lord do to prisoners
1 Butcher for monster food

2 Sent into secret labour camps

3 Sent back to the homeland to be slave thralls

4 Sent back to the homeland as cattle to be eaten

5 Sent to evil priests to sacrifice to please evil gods and demons

6 Offer them freedom if they sell souls to powers of hell

7 Have them killed and turned into undead

8 Have them killed and reborn as savage fanatic orcs

9 Have them made into eunuchs and sold as slaves

10 Bewitch them into mutants or some kind of abhuman

d10 Which former dark lord is this one in debt to
1 Served Tiamat in the dragon war versus the gods before the creation

2 Joined Jotun, giants, Titans and trolls versus gods in the dawn of time

3 Ally of the gods of darkness who struck down the sun thus spawning the age of night

4 A succession of squabbling dark lords fighting other dark lords in the age of monster kings

5 Early in the time of humans, necromancers revived a new dark lord from a servant of the old

6 Dark lord tried to work with evil elementals which proved a terrible way to make unity against the first empire and lost, now called the elemental heresy

7 A dark lord found corrupted dragon eggs hidden from the dawning age and used them against the second empire even convincing other draconic and reptilians to join

8 The dark lord who waged war on the far western secret emperor and the orcs returned drug addicts and in debt bankrupting, the dark lord who was killed and eaten by own minions for drug money
9 The dark lord who evoked the elder powers of the outer void allowing things from beyond into the universe until a god sent a hero to slay them. Others copying this lord are likely satisfied with awakening powers from the void already lurking in this world but hidden imprisoned or sleeping

10 The dark lord who used a great relic engine of destruction that heroes turned on the dark lord to drain his life. The right use of the relic might revive some of the old master's life force

d10 Strange Schemes of the Dark Lord
1 Prisoners are taken into the gates of an ancient fallen mountain fortress and never seen again some say fed to some monstrous beast or soul-eating engine

2 Crack necromancers teams and dark elves are sneaking into settlements awakening the dead in local graveyards as part of a campaign of terror

3 Several villages have broken out in the taint of the evil one making more mutants

4 A species of monster unseen for an age returns amazing many

5 Strange foreign troops arrived having reached from the ends of the earth with strange customs, equipment, language and dedication to the dark lord

6 The dark lord has made a deal with seven demon nobles for supernatural support

7 The dark lord has become tight with hell and is recruiting an army of hell on earth

8 A long-dormant god or primordial monster has a fragment of life remaining and the dark lord plans to revive this god who will, of course, reward them because sometimes elder evil gods do that....

9 Certain key relics and holy places keep the nightmare worlds, the negeverse and overspace separate from our world. The dark lord wants to free all from the veil of illusionary sanity so we can all see the maddening void by smashing these places

10 The dark lord has recruited a force from the Underland nobody saw coming and doesn't give a crap about and surface factions really. Because he has vast rivers of albino hunchbacked goblins able to pour from cracks in the earth like cockroaches

Dark Lord Forces
The dark lord is a unifying force preying on the monsters who mostly lose at history because of their desire to have a dark lord save them from responsibility.

Humans & Orcs
Humans and orcs bread to monstrous proportions into abhumans have stood solid in dark lord armies for thousands of years until they became the majority and revolted. Common orcs freshly made or angry enough or hungry will join yet another dark crusade for a dark lord but they might also feel betrayed by esoteric plans that risk their chance at orc dominance. Human armies of bandits and pirates might join the dark lord especially at sea where his reach is weakest. Kingdoms might join the dark lord in some pact but service does not guarantee a dark lords appreciation.

Goblinoids & Dark Elves & Dwarves & Changelings
Some goblins are still thralls of elves especially dark elves who happily send goblins to die for them or fight first. Of course, some people can't tell bright from dark elves sometimes. But everyone knows goblins. Those that are not serving elves might still provide them with a buffer zone and be manipulated by elves. Other goblins are bitterly rebellious and over elves forever. Faerie stuff feel free to amp up cruelty - several tables of nasty pranks out there. Some dwarves joined the dark lord who promised them gold and revenge on humans who had stolen iron and gun powder and so many dwarven secrets. Some bad dwarves served evil monsters and wizards in the past but mostly they hide in secret places. Some changelings of evil planar bloodlines have serves the fark lord as agents and heroes.

Goblin 1 Goblin Forces
Goblin 2 Encounters Wonders
Goblin 3 Rumours Treasure
Faerie 1 Faerie Forces
Faerie 2 Encounters Wonders
Faerie 3 Rumours Treasure
Faerie Maidens
Faerie Land Encounters

Evil Wizards & Necromancers
From ancient necromancer cults or those schooled by minions of hell with the lowest tuition and wildest parties. Other wizards outcast for ethics happily joins the dark lord who encourages experimentation and crazy race theories. Necromancers command vast undead armies recycling the dead which the dark lord proves of. Wizards, of course, make and command own orc armies but they did make those Abhuman orcs and abhuman barbarians that ended up killing a dark lord once which they have to make up for. The dark lord trusts undead wizards the most only they understand the long term picture.

Wizard Wars 1 Causes and forces
Wizard Wars 2 Encounters and links
Wizard Wars 3 Rumours and treasure
Necromancer 1 Causes and forces
Necromancer 2 Encounters and links
Necromancer 3 Rumours and treasure

Mutants
These make up the bulk of mutants corrupted and tainted recently or perhaps crawled from foul places in the earth from pacts made long ago seeking to smash the perfect pretty face of the world and make it broken for mutants and chaos.
Mutant Wars 1 Causes and forces
Mutant Wars 2 Encounters and links
Mutant Wars 3 Rumours and treasure
Necromancer 1 Causes and forces
Necromancer 2 Encounters and links
Necromancer 3 Rumours and treasure

Giants
Many served the dark lords of the past to failure but some especially the most degenerate mutant formari or the moronic hill giants tempted by food and beer and blood.
Giant 1 Causes and forces
Giant 2 Encounters and links
Giant 3 Rumours and treasure

Monster King Mercenaries
Any strange troops from the age of monster kings could be an exotic troop type and making elves all gasp since they last saw such ugly things. Some of these were paid aeons ago by former dark lords with more money.

1 Goblinoids, mad at humans for losing territory, exploitation and slavery