#titivilus

[oldschoolfrp]

"The Hierarchy of the Planes of Hell," naming many of the Dukes of Hell and their patrons, roles, and lesser minions, from Gary Gygax's Monster Manual II for AD&D, 1983. This further describes the role of the dragon queen Tiamat ruling over devils in Hell, through her 3 Dukes Amduscias, Malphas, and Goap who command companies of lower ranking devils. Dispater's messenger Titivilus is given the specific title of Nuncio, implying high status as an ambassador. Some of these individual Dukes are detailed in the MMII, while others are left to the DM's imagination. Those marked by asterisks like Goap are meant to be pit fiends, though that clarification is missing from the text (they are identified as such in Gygax's preview of the new devils in Dragon 75, July 1983).

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Titivilus, advisor/ambassidor for the ruler of hell's second layer. His normal form is a 5' 6" (1.7‑meter) satyr-like creature meant to resemble his master. He can supernaturally frighten with a word, transform into other humanoid species, use illusions, modify memories, and magically charm you into doing as he says. He's also a teleporting ventriloquist that can make an illusory body-double whose senses he can control and hijack. while he hides invisible and undetectable. He's slippery, one of the multiverse's best charmers and manipulators. Hit smash and you won't be the first, but sometimes a pretty lie is nice for an afternoon.

Fraz-Urbluu, demon lord of illusion and deception. Size and weight unavailable, reality itself is at his whim. He has innate magic to basically control all of your senses. He can create things and terrain that your brain treats as real and make the whole area seem to be whatever he needs. Once per day he can even make you forget something or try to gaslight you with a fake memory. He can terrify, grapple, even make temporary clones of anyone he sees. He's also not just an architect of lies, he's also an architect in general and modifies his realm at a whim. ...Also, note that there's no domination, no mental orders, his charms are through skill. Frequently tricking even demon lords who KNOW what he's about! In the past he's shown to court clever and creative individuals, so if you're chosen I'm sure it'll be a ride of your life!...but not one in your control.

[wellthebardsdead]

Lucy: *walking to the empty fire pit and seeing it smoking* HELLFIRE INCOMING-

Everyone: *jumps back as the smell of smouldering iron fills the air and a rather unassuming devil emerges from the flames, around Lae’zels height, satyr like in appearance and sporting a pair of small bat like wings on his back, topped off with a bald head and friendly face that was disarmingly warm in its appearance, like looking at a life long friend*

Titivilus: *smiles and bows to Lucy* forgive the interruption to your evening, your excellency. I am Titivilus, hand to the iron duke, Dispater. I’ve come extending an invitation to his tower so you may meet him and his consort.

Lucy: …

Titivilus: *tilts his head* your grace?

Lucy: forgive my wariness- Dispater, in all his paranoia- is- inviting me? He doesn’t wish to court me does he? I heard Lilis was having a meltdown over that possibility.

Titivilus: Oh my no, she was upset the other arch devils had already started encroaching on you, making you a potential threat to our lord rather than an ally. But I understand you’ve rejected their proposals outright- we could hear Levistus screaming from three layers up. *chuckles* No this is merely to ingratiate himself to you. To get a better understanding of- where, you stand with him.

Lucy: well, Ive no real ambitions on doing anything beyond getting this tadpole sorted and then, maybe solving the blood war. Okay, I accept.

Titivilus: *taken aback, detecting only truth in her words, realising Glasya was telling the truth, she presents no threat presently* I- *smiles and bows his head* Wonderful, I’ll inform him at once. I shall come fetch you when he’s ready. *disappears back to the hells*

Karlach: Have you lost your mind?! You’re going into the impenetrable fortress of the iron duke! If he wants you dead-

Lucy: then he’ll be facing not just Asmodeus but Glasya. And potentially Meeps since his son is still set on me, and his other son is ‘helping’ me… He’s aware I can be a threat if I need to be just by the devils I’ve got on my back…

*several hours later*

Lucy: so this guy called gortash made a deal with Zariel and he’s built these massive automatons using infernal machinery. I need something powerful enough to either control them or blow them up.

Dispater: hm… let me see your- “pepperboxes.”

Lucy: *removes the arm mounted automatic pepperboxes from her wrists and hands them over*

Dispater: *turns and walks off*

Lilis: Just give him a moment dear-

*BOOM!!!*

Lilis: oh good he’s done.

Dispater: *returns and hands them back to her with an upgrade* there you go. I will warn you however, the recoil, is intense.

Lucy: thank you! I’m sure it can’t be that bad?

*literally the next time she fires it*

Lucy: *launched herself up onto the susser tree shooting a hookhorror* HELP- IM STUCK ON A BRANCH!

[crystalsamethyst]

Dnd time! TW: irl death content under the line.

In honour of our cleric player's dying sister, who is very religious, let's dive into hell!

We're about to follow the river to find that item to prevent Asmodeus from detecting us in his realm! And we're encountering a flock of imps right away. Yay. What do they want?

From imp 1: A... Cookie? From Fierna to our druid? Oh. It's a communication thing????

From imp 2: From Mephistopheles (the lord of the level we're on right now), a discounted rate to the druid for punishment therapy???? For an enemy being punished in the hells? Titivilus? OH FUCK IT'S HER ENEMY THAT SHE'S HERE BECAUSE OF. Apparently 100 gold will get him bound by her side and unable to do fuck all without her permission or something?

From imp 3: Levistus wants to send me a message directly through the imp touching my face? Thinkin' on it.

From imp 4: FROM ZARIEL???????? For our cleric? Also a communication? Why are we all getting communications. Also, Zariel isn't his sugar mommy?

Alright. I'm letting the imp touch my face.

I'm supposed to find and help a prisoner. Who will be in a group of prisoners. No other descriptions. Levistus, your description skills are lacking.

Now for imp 2.... We have no idea why this devil lord would offer this???? I kind of want to reach out to him and ask.

I'mma do it.

Rogue: Hey Mephistopheles? I was wondering why you'd grace our friend Lost with such a generous offer, seeing as how we haven't had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yet.

Cleric: Generous offer?

Rogue: I don't know his temperament and all devil lords like to have their asses kissed, at least.

Cleric: Or their feet...

----

Cleric is being asked by Zariel to smuggle in her weapons into a meeting in Nessus in 9 days.

Rogue: Hey, we're good with smuggling weapons!

Druid: What? We haven't done it before?

Rogue: I meant morally.

Cleric to Zariel: Are you okay with me putting it in a pocket dimension?

Rogue: Is she okay with it being put up the ass?

----

The druid is eating the cookie! Sweet and cinnamon-y. Like a sweet snickerdoodle. Yum. I want a cookie now.

She's gotten thrown into a vision of walking through a nicer version of Diss with Fierna, who is offering her confidence by magic to hopefully help give her a better chance of being made the devil lord of Diss.

HOLY FUCK HER CHARISMA SCORE WENT TO 20. DAMNNN. And her horn nubs are gone, and her claws are more manicured. Nice.

Are you still blessed if it's a devil doing it?

[horrorthatlurksinyafloor]

Spawn of titivilus

[oc-avalanche]

Never Underestimate Me

Lily never forgave her party members for the death of the only friend she truly made. She is the daughter of Titivilus, a descendent of the house Teken'duis. She can play them like dolls without them suspecting until the last move is made and when Lily presents her checkmate it will be too late.

[weekendviking]

Titivilus is why any time I look at my thesis, even lo these 20 years later, I still find typo's and formatting errors.

Listen, there is one (1) conspiracy theory that I am fully committed to and it is that little creatures do exist which randomly add typos to your text after you just hit post/sent e-mail/print document simply for their own entertainment. all our governments know about this but stay quiet because they fear their vengeance. 

[therefoream]

Some of the stuff I’ve drawn of my character Motcha’s adventure in hell. Psychologically bullying titivilus and then sleeping with dispater.

[oldschoolfrp]

Titivilus, a Duke of Hell, is the messenger of Dispater, the ruler of the second plane. He is "notorious for his ability to twist words, to use words to confuse, and to confuse those using words." Gamers with the same tendencies have long mocked his titillating name. (Harry Quinn illustration from Gary Gygax's AD&D Monster Manual II, TSR, 1983) In our world medieval scribes blamed Titivilus for any errors that crept into their pages, and he was said to collect the wrong syllables from writers and singers as evidence of their theft from God.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Titivilus, advisor/ambassidor for the ruler of hell's second layer. His normal form is a 5' 6" (1.7‑meter) satyr-like creature meant to resemble his master but shorter. He can supernaturally frighten with a word, transform into other humanoid species, use illusions, modify memories, and magically charm you into doing as he says. He's also a teleporting ventriloquist that can make an illusory body-double whose senses he can control and hijack. while he hides invisible and undetectable. If you're looking for personality, he's as slippery as you might suspect. He's in power over the second realm despite their being better people for the job, because he's the only person his incredibly paranoid boss trusts. He's incredibly clever and one of the multiverse's best charmers and manipulators. Hit smash and you won't be the first, but sometimes a pretty lie is nice for an afternoon.

[mossybunni]

So update on this: our party stumbled upon a cave that we're assuming has some kind of portal in it.

DM also asked the guy in our group who played Murdock in our first campaign if he (Murdock) would have investigated tales of an interplaner traveler. He immediatley said, "Yes, considereing that was a key part of the war in Arconis."

Our dm then had him do some rolls and told him, "You know three individuals who'd know about plane shifting/portals: Graz'zt, your demon servant Titivilus, and Lethe."

Well he went the Graz'zt route and the dm hinted that Mina may now be on the radar of a demon lord on another plane of existance.

Not my dnd group waiting for the crossover episode....

Mina got briefly teleported to Arconis, the world of our first campaign, where she met the uncle of the our rogue from said campaign, and we all know he is going to pass that interaction on to Murdock, the aforementioned rogue, who will undoubtedly pass it on the rest of his former adventuring crew.

[failfemme]

i was flipping through mordenkainen’s tome of foes and saw that there were stats for titivilus but they did not make him the minor demon who pesters scribes :-/ so what’s the point

[meolcwifes]

In 2022 I’d like to continue the past year’s trend and make art which is ever-more precocious, lo-fi, and without mass appeal. More long poems featuring sex and neolithic landscape cultivation methods; more comics written in Shavian; I’d like to make more paintings. Also I’d like to finish my icon painting of Titivilla (i.e. the scribal/printing devil Titivilus, but what if he was a hot girl goddess of typographic and pagination issues, patroness of hard drive failure).

[vintagerpg]

Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (2018), is also in the mode of Volo’s book, except with the iconic Greyhawk archmage acting as our tour guide.

The first chunk sees Mordenkainen filling in some of the cosmic conflicts that plague the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, after which he goes into detail on several topics. Two feel very good: the Blood War – the eternal war between the demons of the Abyss and the devils of the Nine Hells – and the ongoing hostilities between the Githyanki and the Githzerai. Both are long-time D&D staples, involve worthy foes for PCs and both have suitable epic trappings.

Other sections fare less well, I think. Mordekainen attempts to make a variety of Elven subtypes interesting – a tall order – and kind of sort of succeeds with a couple. The Feywild and Shadar-Kai elves at least approach something weird and alien, and the broad idea of an elven diaspora has some legs. The chapter on the war between Dwarves and Duergar is a bit dull. And then there is the chapter on Gnomes and Halflings, which seems entirely out of place in a book called Tome of Foes, but what do I know?

The monsters section is great. Lots of good, varied art here (dig that Zuggtmoy!) and a lot of attention is given to high powered extra planar baddies, including a solid selection of my faves, the Demon Lords and the Archdevils (Titivilus makes, I believe, his first appearance since 1E!).

I doubt that 5E will ever give me something I love as much as Planescape (for a variety of reasons), but Tome of Foes is a solid enough foundation that I have a good deal of hope I can hang on to.

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[wanderingmoonsword]

Titivilus (Duke of Hell)

Legendary for his skills at deception and manipulation, even for one of the Dukes of Hell, Titivilus is one of the smoothest, most effective liars in all of existence. Despite this skill at deception, his master Dispater trusts Titivilus, even bringing him along for his counsel – and his silver tongue – in matters that as a mere duke, he might otherwise be barred from participating.  Titivilus’s spell-like abilities are primarily mind-bending enchantments, twisting the thoughts of foes, and with a few useful utilitarian abilities and the ability to twist the body as well as the mind with polymorph. In service to Dispater, Titivilus is a messenger, ambassador, and adviser, serving as his master’s representative and one of his most skillful manipulators, making him possibly the most influential speaker on behalf of the city of Dis. That makes him more interesting and at CR 20, Titivilus is one of the more approachable unique devils, on par with a pit fiend. I’ve played up his role as a manipulator below but don’t forget that he’s a threat parties can go after. Imagine his arrogance when someone tries to call him on this, with much of the proof disappeared and the population half-convinced the party is crazy. A group of adventurers could easily win the battle and lose the war when Titivilus, defeated and banished or slain, wins anyway, with most people going along with his scheme because of a lack of attention to the public details.

Slain in life on the same day in separate places, a group of adventurers has banded together after finding themselves in the city of Dis. With none of them sworn to Hell – at least not knowingly – exactly why they arrived in the Infernal City is a mystery, and none of them remember being judged in the court of the yamaraj whose seal marks the splendidly official paperwork produced by a contract devil. After much questing – both to survive and to get answers – they manage to piece together one truth. The infernal noble Duke Titivilus produced the masterful and technically truthful documents – twisted, slanted, and manipulated, but truthful enough – before hoodwinking a yamaraj into consigning them to Hell. He has even acted as a distant sort of patron to them, subtly steering them to shelter and resources. But why?

Manipulated by canny words and subtle agents, the eladrins of the Celestine Order of the Broken Hunt – quixotic knights-errant motivated by passion and the lure of adventure, hunting dangerous beasts that threaten goodly folk and the wild – and the archons sworn to the memory of the crusading planetar Heknerne, defending the Sacred Beast of Gira from the hunters convinced it’s a brute intent on devouring entire towns. The entire situation was created by Titivilus, each side convinced the other is deceived or some fiendish plot in disguise, and neither will back down unless some proof is given, a situation ripe for worsening relations between the celestial races, spreading distrust and factionalism in the heavenly realms.

With a universe whose grand divide is the split between Order’s promise of security and organization, where everyone has a place and culture is virtually in stasis at its worst, and the bright creativity and anarchic destruction of limitless freedom of Chaos, Titivilus is one of the most effective and persuasive voices on the side of Law. He spends much of his time smoothing over the tensions between various factions. Manipulative and deceptive, his plots mean few archons – or even inevitables – fully trust the silver-tongued duke of Hell but even they can’t help but be persuaded by his rational, direct arguments.

The Sultanate of Samatha stands on a precipice.  Though the sultan secured his succession with his daughter , a young woman recognized as thoughtful and wise, her father’s claim to the throne is disputed by a supposed cousin. He arrived in court with splendidly official documentation of her lineage and proper claim, and a faction of nobles, eager to expand their power by playing kingmaker, is moving the land of Samatha closer to the edge of a civil war. All proceeds according to the plans of Titivilus, who found the last traces of a cadet branch of the royal family and fabricated the forged claim, then whispered in the ears of a few handpicked nobles to ease events along. The infernal “negotiator” sees it as an opportunity to recreate society, fighting the chaos he’s sown to introduce a lawful, orderly society, one molded in Hell’s iron image.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 216

If you want to give Titivilus a bit more heft as a liar, the inveigler template in the Advanced Bestiary could be a good starting point. Also, in occultism, Titivilus was a demon said to bedevil scribes, introducing errors. He may be the source of the printer’s devil, too, which is an interesting take as the patron fiend of scribes and printshops.

[crystalsamethyst]

We are loophole-ing the shit out of the teleportation system here. We can't plane shift in any way to lower levels unless granted permission by the lord of that level, but our cleric attached a wished teleportation circle in a magic mansion that's *technically* not hell.

But it's pointless because apparently the thing he went to find that he left with a person is gone and in their telepathic communication she's screaming so yay. Rip Titivilus ig.

Our ally was sent to the devil torture pit for some reason??? And the legendary artifact he gave her for help that he wanted to get back is missing???

Cleric keeps messaging other devils asking about what happened and finally decided to speak to the god devil himself.

Cleric: What happened to her?

Asmodeus: That's a secret you're not allowed to know!

Cleric: What about the forges?

Asmodeus: Hah! I don't really care, but stopping them adds tension to the story.

(4th dimensional being bs???)

Cleric: Fine. Where is the iron rod tower?

Asmodeus: If you want another toy, you just have to ask for it! I'd start by asking my daughter, sorry, your mommy-

All of us: pfffft

---

He did in fact message his 'mommy' and she said she might have something on the market??

Cleric: I am not above trading sexual favours for weaponry, and if it's an artifact, I'll even be the bottom. I don't care.

---

The cleric spent a channel divinity feature to regain one more spell slot for one more message spell.

Cleric to Asmodeus again: Alright, soon, your daughter's gonna be calling me daddy.

Crying.

The cleric and druid may end up sleeping with their devil lords but like hell my rogue is gonna. Levistus is an old dude stuck in ice. Absolutely not, and impossible anyways. He supports her for her chaos and we're leaving it at that.

---

We're just about to wrap up and we suddenly get told we find the flayed corpse of one of our crewmates right outside the door. Oh no. We're going to revive her but it's pretty morbid...

What a way to leave off the session. Our one female npc crewmate got fridged. Literally. We got sent a fridge to preserve her for now while we're going into the boss battle. 🥲

Dnd! We started off by being pulled away individually to be told what kind of dreams we have! Oh boy!

Our Cleric continues to roll (and fail) for divine intervention to spite that one devil who sold him shitty armor while the rest of us are busy preparing to get our Druid's soul from that market where everyone's an enemy!

---

Got to a suspicious ass manor in the middle of this awful market and it's filled with celestials. Sus. We crept in as flies but are now creeping around as spiders.

Why are there so many angels?? This is the 7th level of hell?? Sussss

I know things. I know thingssss. But I can't say anything until shit goes down because one of them is really prompting it. It's like I'm about to watch a car crash.