This debate stared over at Dicefreaks (http://community.dicefreaks.com/viewtopic.php?t=4747), and I wanted to get your thoughts.
[note]Remember, supernatural and spell-like abilities don't work in dead magic areas.[/note] In this scenario a single pit fiend invades our modern world, as a result of an epic spell gone wrong or somesuch. Seeing vast potential for soul harvest and conquest, he begins his vile work. Could our world survive, or would a single Pit Fiend do us in? Assume Earth is dead magic.
My response:
Knowing how devils operate, it would more than likely establish a cult, either worshiping itself, or whatever devil it serves.
The pit fiend, being essentially immortal, would defiantly bide its time. I feel that it would try to corrupt young adults or teenagers who's parents are in some position of power that they would later inherent or easily acquire. The pit fiend then would slowly groom these young people, eventually gaining significant power over whatever area it developed its power base.
With their help, it would move on and start over. Effectively, it could subvert the entire world without anyone knowing any better.
I could also see the pit fiend corrupting people in the classical "Diabolic Cult" fashion, taking those on the fringes of society and creating people absolutely loyal to it and twisting them into a murderous cult that would do everything from simple sacrifices of random people to high level assassinations. Perhaps the pit fiend and its cult would find a way to use the pit fiend's poison to eliminate their victims. There would be no antidote, and most people would not be able to recover.
The rise in ritualistic murders would perplex the police due to the fact that the killers were so organized in every aspect of what they do, from their victims to their execution to their escape plans. They would leave almost no trace, and there would be a barely discernible, but truly horrifying pattern behind the murders.
Most people would remain skeptical, while a new "Satanic Panic" would resume among fundamentalists groups. As with the previous Satanic Panic of the 1980s, many people would simply assume that this is just another moral crusade, never realizing that these people were right this time.
If the pit fiend was ever caught, however, we would be powerless to do anything but imprison it. Even nuclear weapons (going off of d20 Modern's statistics) would do nothing to the pit fiend, simply rendering it unconscious and dangerously radioactive for a period of time.
Imprisoning it would be a problem as well. With its inhuman strength, a pit fiend would easily be able to break free of any restraint that most people would have handy.
Even if the pit fiend is imprisoned, it goes without fail that its cult would eventually find some way of releasing it back into our world. If it was in the first scenario, even if it was caught, its power-base would be so influential, that it would quickly be released. If it was in the second scenario, its release would take some time, and would defiantly involve much more bloodshed.
Perhaps the rituals of real-world religions would work in a quasi-magical sense, being able to effectively turn a weapon good-aligned. Then we would need to find someone good enough with said weapon to take on the pit fiend. Bullets could be so enchanted, but making them out of silver would pose a problem due to its low melting point. With a liberal view of the "rules," a silver alloy of some sort would make a decent enough bullet, as long as it could hit the pit fiend, who, even without regeneration, still has super-human reflexes and natural armor, not to mention countless people willing to take a bullet or kill an assassin for it.
I think that pretty much sums it up. We'd be hard-pressed to do anything against it, unless we actually had a group of inquisitors or what-have-you that could combat it with decency. In reality, things might be a little different than what d20 says. It might be killable by a fair-sized group of people armed with 'good' weapons, preferrably guns. It really depends on how things actually did work.
No single evil could do us in. If Hitler and Stalin and McCarthy couldn't do it, no lame Outsider could!
Silver can be used in a multitude of ways, through a multitude of delivery systems.
Ever see a claymore mine? Replace the 1000 steel pellets with silver ones. Pit Swiss cheese. Use two, they're small.
Colloidal silver mixed in octom, delivered in a Patriot sized missile. BAM!
A Ma Deuce (Browning M2) or two with silver tipped ammo. Set the timing on high.
And if all else fails, call Buffy.
Buffy's retired :(
Quote from: limetomEven nuclear weapons (going off of d20 Modern's statistics) would do nothing to the pit fiend, simply rendering it unconscious and dangerously radioactive for a period of time.
Where does one find the d20 stats for nuclear weapons?
No, seriously... I've always wanted to know what the d20 stats for nuclear weapons are, but I don't know where to find them.
Oh, and as for a balor in the real world, he's not really that hard to defeat. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and you can knock him unconscious with conventional weaponry. Then just smother the SOB with a pillow. Outsiders need air to survive, and regen doesn't do didly squat to stop suffocation.
d20 Apocalypse, in the d20 Modern line. Other people have done them as well. I think there are some on the d20 Modern boards... somewhere, as well.
You put a lot of thought into this, didn't you? It amuses me how something hypothetical and totally geeky can be presented in such an undeniably intelligent manner.