Shullen-Gat

Shullen-Gat

Location: Abyss / Pazunia

Oh, I know of Shullen-Gat, aye — although some old-timers still use its original qlippoth name, Shil’marok. Well, let me spill the dark on that, cutter. It’s a dark fortress made from iron teetering right on the edge of the Chasm of Forsaken Hearts. That’s the pit leading to Fraz-Urb’luu’s lair, Hollow’s Heart, deep in the belly of the Abyss, on the 176th layer. The main blood in this tale is Baltazo the Seeping Sovereign, a retired general who got fat off of his Blood War victories. You see, when Fraz-Urb’luu got himself trapped by that mad archmage, Zagig Yragerne, on the Material Plane, Baltazo saw his chance. Not aiming too high, mind, not trying to snatch up Hollow’s Heart for himself like the other greedy sods, no. He had his beady eyes set on Shullen-Gat, a fortress built on a former qlippoth foundry that overlooked the pit that led to the grand lair of the absent demon prince. 

Now Baltazo, he’s not your average demon lord. Imagine a fellow more corpulent than any you’ve seen, with skin the colour of deep green, fizzling and popping with pustules, spilling all manner of vile fluids all over his ill-fitted military uniform — adorned with more medals and ribbons than he rightly earned, if ye ask me. A proper ostentatious sight, he is, representing the excess and grotesquery of the Abyss in living form. So this delightful creature takes over Shullen-Gat, setting himself up as the gatekeeper to the Hollow’s Heart. He reckoned he’d wield influence through the sheer strategic position of holding that fortress and controlling access to Hollow’s Heart so potential Lords of the layer would have to play nice with him. Sly, ain’t it? Leveraging geography for power, making himself indispensable in the ever-shiftin’ politics of the Abyss. And ye know what? It sodding worked! When Fraz-Urb’luu finally waltzed back into his lair, he didn’t wipe Baltazo off the map like he did all the other pretenders. No, he saw the value in keeping a strong allied arm at the Pazunian gate, someone to keep the riff-raff out, so to speak.

So, here we have Baltazo, the groteqsue guardian of Shullen-Gat, a demon of not just brute force but a mind for diplomacy and strategy, meddlin’ in the affairs of the layer while reekin sickly fluids and wearing a smirk of self-satisfaction, no doubt. In the twisty paths of demonic politics, he’s made himself a diplomat on behalf of Fraz-Urb’luu. If ye ever find yourself in negotiations with this enormous creature, beware his silver tongue — well hidden amidst the drooling maw it may be — for it weaves tales and deals dripping with cunning and deceit as well as saliva.

Source: Fiendish Codex 1 [3] p115, expanded by Jon-Winter-Holt, mimir.net