Demons

Petitioners are the souls of mortals brought to the Outer Planes after death in order to experience their ultimate punishment, reward, or fate. A petitioner retains fragments of its memories from life, and its appearance depends not only upon the shape it held in life but also upon the nature of the Outer Plane to which it has come.

The depths of the Abyss house a particularly grotesque petitioner: the Larvae. These unsettling creatures, reminiscent of pallid maggots, possess heads eerily similar to their mortal countenance. The ever-present, corruptive energy of the Abyss influences these souls. Given enough time and sustenance on the malevolent filth, they can undergo a ghastly transformation into demons themselves.

Even the lowest demons of the Abyss are dangerous and filled with a driving need to spread ruin and dismay. The lowly dretch is as hideous and foul as it is cruel, even if it lacks the strength and power to realize its need to brutalize others in its native realm. The lot of the dretch’s existence is to serve more powerful demons as victims, and only the lucky few survive long enough to evolve. The dretch is a favorite target for dabblers in Abyssal summonings to call forth. Relatively weak and easy to bully, dretches can often be pressured into long periods of servitude with only vague promises of the opportunity to vent their frustrations and anger on softer foes. Yet the prospective dretch-summoner would do well to remember that these demons are as craven and untrustworthy as they come. A dretch faced with a more powerful foe is only too eager to trade what it knows for its pitiful excuse for a life. Unlike most demons, a dretch’s slovenly personality and disdain for prolonged physical labor rarely result in success. Advanced dretches are rare, but those who do find it within themselves to be more than they were at creation often become the pauper-kings of the Abyss, cruel and bitter in their rule over vermin, broken souls, mindless undead, and other dretches. Their empires are confined to abandoned stretches of sewers under backwater cities, unstable reaches of swampland avoided by more sensible minds, and other undesirable corners of the Abyss that even demons find uncomfortable or foul. Yet to the dretch lords, these realms are their empires, and they defend them with a pitiful tenacity. A dretch stands 4 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Dretches typically form from the souls of slothful, evil mortals—yet it only takes a small fragment of a soul to trigger such a hideous birth. A single soul can often trigger the manifestation of a small army of dretches, and the sight of a horde of fresh-birthed dretches pulling free from the heaving protomatter of the Abyss is a nauseating and terrifying one indeed.

When an incubus procreates with a humanoid in the Abyss, and the mortal parent resides on that plane throughout the pregnancy, the gestating child absorbs enough Abyssal energy to be born not as a half-demon, but as a type of humanoid demon known as a cambion.  Cambions are true outsiders. The majority of cambions have red skin, horns on their heads, and cloven hooves for feet—the fiendish aspects of cambions’ appearance don’t range as widely as those of tieflings. A typical cambion stands 6 feet tall and weighs 190 pounds.

The quasit is perhaps the least powerful demon, yet it is not the least respected—even quasits hold themselves above the dretch horde, and true to their natures, dretches lack the courage or drive to prove the quaits wrong. A quasit’s first role in life is that of a familiar to a spellcasting master, but those quasits who escape from this humiliating servitude become free-willed and much more dangerous. A typical quasit stands a foot and a half tall, and weighs only 8 pounds. Alone among the demonic horde, quasits do not form from the dead souls of evil mortals. Instead, they form from living souls—when a spellcaster seeks out a quasit to serve him as a familiar, his soul brushes against the Abyss and it reacts, carving from itself a quasit linked to that spellcaster’s soul and forming a powerful bond between the two. Newly created quasits are birthed directly into the Material Plane, where they become familiars, and while bonded to their masters’ wills, all quasits hate and loathe their lieges, as they can feel the pulse of their lords’ souls and know that they could have been more. A quasit serves, yet it watches and waits for mistakes that might cost its master’s life, or even better, an error that might let the quasit turn against its master. When a quasit’s master dies, the quasit can attempt to follow the master’s soul into the Great Beyond by making a DC 15 Will save. This functions as plane shift, but affects only the quasit and transports it into the Abyss and places its master’s soul in the quasit’s possession as a writhing larvae rather than using the evil master’s soul to create new demonic life. In this manner, a quasit can use its newly captured soul to bargain with more powerful denizens of the lower planes, and perhaps secure a vile transformative “promotion” to a more powerful form of life in the process. Rarely, a quasit elects to ignore its master’s death and instead remains on the Material Plane to seek other ways to entertain itself—usually settling in an urban area where there are plenty of folk to torment.

Known as wrecker demons, abrikandilus delight in destroying beauty, be it by rending a fine painting to shreds, reducing a magnif icent statue to rubble, or scarring a lovely face. Abrikandilus are formed from the souls of mortals who vandalized art or defaced objects of exquisiteness, particularly those whose acts of destruction were born from jealousy. All abrikandilus loathe only one thing more than beauty—their own ref lections. Curiously, the faces of other abrikandilus do not vex a wrecker demon, but the sight of its own deformed shape drives an abrikandilu into a furious, brutish anger, impelling it to focus all of its energy on breaking the object, usually a mirror, in which it can see itself.  Abrikandilus are often used as ground troops in demonic wars, for they are excellent grunts on the battlefield and don’t require weapons or armor to excel at combat. Their penchant for demolishing works of art functions as an additional demoralizing element in battle, for even when abrikandilus are defeated, the damage they have dealt endures as a constant reminder of the value of what they destroyed.  An abrikandilu stands 4 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds.

Vermleks form from the souls of those who habitually violated the dead in life, such as grave robbers, necromancers, and necrophiles. Demonic armies often use them as disposable troops in war, with vermleks inhabiting the bodies of slain humanoid enemies to infiltrate and destroy any surviving humanoids from within their own society. When inhabiting bodies, vermleks tend to mutter and mumble rather than speaking clearly, as they know that a keen eye that peers into the body’s mouth can swiftly discern the horrible truth within.  Despite the fact that they are often used as battleground troops, vermleks have little taste for war and, left alone, prefer to live in hiding among humanoids on the Material Plane. There, disguised as laborers like gravediggers or dung sweepers, they can revel in their ghoulish, taboo lusts.  Outside of a host body, a vermlek appears as a worm with four long tails, each of which ends in a tangle of filaments. In this form, the demon is 7 feet long and weighs 90 pounds.

A schir resembles a tall, muscular humanoid with the head and hooves of a demonic goat. A ragged hide covers patches of a schir’s body, usually around the forearms and lower legs, with a crest-like patch running down from the creature’s crown to the nape of its neck. Schir demons are 7 feet tall, though they usually stoop and so appear shorter, and weigh 300 pounds. Also known as spite demons, schirs are among the most violent and vile-tempered inhabitants of the Abyss. Schirs are formed from the souls of mortals who either committed or framed others for heinous crimes—acts committed for the sole purpose of petty retribution. Despite such origins, schirs occupy one of the lowest orders in the demonic hierarchy, often serving as front-line infantry in demonic armies or as guards for minor demonic commanders. Although not especially intelligent, schirs are cunning warriors and able sentries. Although they prefer to charge into combat, a schir’s natural jumping ability makes it a nimble enemy, capable of using its surroundings astutely. A schir will often jump on top of rocks, crumbling walls, or any other high place to hack with its disease-ridden halberd. For all of schirs’ capabilities, their spitefulness makes them distrustful of any creature that has not proven its greater power and strength numerous times. A schir set loose upon the Material Plane quickly seeks to set itself up as a leader of its own army— often, schirs seek out tribes of savage humanoids and attempt to replace the current leaders. They are particularly fond of infiltrating gnoll tribes.

Brimoraks are demons born from the souls of arsonists, and in their fiendish lives, they love nothing more than setting fires. A brimorak stands 3 feet tall and weighs 80 pounds.

The babau is an assassin, a murderer, and a sadist— certainly not traits unusual in the demons, yet the babau’s penchant for stealth and surprise sets it apart from its generally less-subtle kin. With no need to eat (although most babaus relish the flavor of mortal meat on their thin, raspy tongues), a babau can wait in ambush for years or decades—their inhuman patience in anticipating a well-conceived murder also setting them apart from the other denizens of the Abyss. Babaus obsess over the act of killing and take great pride in their grisly art, often leaving behind some form of grim marker or obscure signature, whether it be a distinctive modus operandi, an unnerving token, or other profane evidence. A babau typically carries a longspear or other weapon with which it can strike at foes beyond its normal reach, but given the opportunity, a babau prefers to fight with its teeth or claws. The foul, caustic sludge that constantly seeps from their flesh prevents them from wearing armor unless it is specially treated or resistant to acid. A babau is 6 feet tall but weighs only 140 pounds. They form from mortal souls of lone killers—those who, in life, took pleasure in more personal and intimate murders. Loosed upon the Material Plane, a babau often finds itself in the same role, haunting the shadowy corners of the world as remorseless assassins.

An incubus in his true form is always muscular and attractive, with long hair and intense eyes. His skin can be of any color, but is always smooth and silky. When not using his wings for flight, an incubus can fold them to drape across its shoulders like a cloak—many decorate both the inside and outside of their wings with tattoos, ink, or self-inflicted scars. Incubi stand between 6 and 6-1/2 feet tall and typically weigh 200 pounds. When not in battle, incubi serve as counselors, torturers, and companions for greater demons. They are also often conjured for similar roles by mortal spellcasters, although care must be taken in dalliances with incubi, for they delight in causing pain to their companions. Like succubi, incubi form from the chaotic evil souls of particularly lustful and rapacious mortals. Yet whereas succubi are subtle and methodical about using their charms to cause ruin, the typical incubus is forthright and forceful about his insatiable desires.

Violent progenitors of Lamashtu’s earthly broods, the yaenit demons’ purpose is to protect Lamashtu’s priestesses and their unholy spawn. Yaenits rise from the souls of evil mortals who in life were exceptionally cruel bullies and tormentors. Their resemblance to gnolls is no coincidence, as many yaenits form from the spirits of gnolls in the Abyss. Gnolls, for their part, revere yaenits as embodiments of Lamashtu’s will, and worship these demons as representatives of both the Mother of Monsters and her unholy designs for her devoted gnoll followers.  Terrifying predators, yaenits’ deceptively stooped and gangly physiques belie the 300 pounds of knotted and powerful muscle tied to their solid black bones. A yaenit is 6-1/2 feet tall.

Tales of demonic possession are common, used often by the ignorant to explain strange or violent behavior. While the majority of such cases are merely manifestations of madness or derangement, those that are legitimate possessions are often the work of shadow demons. Unlike many demons, shadow demons are incorporeal. When a particularly envious and evil mortal soul is pulled into the Abyss, it is transformed, split apart, and combined with other souls until what emerges is little more than jealous malevolence without the impediment of a physical body.

Among the demon hordes, a succubus can often rise to incredible heights of power through her manipulations and sensual charms, and many a demonic war has raged due to the subtle machinations of such creatures. A succubus is formed from the souls of particularly lustful and rapacious evil mortals.

Nabasus are birthed directly into the Material Plane from the Abyss, where they feed on innocent souls to mature. Only when finally sated can a nabasu return to the Abyss. Rumor holds that even then the nabasu’s lifecycle does not change, and that further developments await them as they continue to grow. These vile demons form from the souls of evil gluttons, particularly from cannibals, blood-drinkers, and those who prefer the tang of undead flesh.

Profane champions of the Abyss, vrocks embody all the rage, hatred, and violence of that despicable realm. As ravenous and grotesquely opportunistic as the scavengers they resemble, vrocks delight in bloodshed, relishing the sounds and sensations of ripping the still-pulsing entrails from a living husk. A typical vrock stands 8 feet tall and weighs 400 pounds. Vrocks generally form from the evil souls of hateful and wrathful mortals, particularly those who were career criminals, mercenaries, or assassins.

Known to some as “horned demons,” the kalavakus demons are hulking, muscled beasts. They work as slavers on the Abyss, sometimes as harem keepers or captains of the guard for a more powerful demon, and at other times as mercenaries who sell their captured victims for profit to anyone with the funds to pay. A kalavakus is 7 feet tall and weighs 450 pounds. They form from the souls of evil mortals who were slavers in their mortal lives.

The hezrou dwells in the vast Abyssal swamps, mires, and waterways, equally at home on land and in the water. The presence of a hezrou has an obvious effect on the nearby flora and water, causing plant life to twist and knurl and infusing water with a foul odor and brackish taste— signs much easier to spot on the Material Plane than the Abyss. Long exposure to this corruption can cause vile transformations and hideous deformities. Often, entire backwater communities of deformed mutants owe their twisted countenances not as much to incest and poor breeding as they do to a hezrou’s proximity. Although quite intelligent, a hezrou can fairly be said to waste its intellect. They prefer the simple pleasures—slumber, the thrill of torture, the bliss of feasting on a living meal, or the joy of feeling something beautiful breaking and crumbling in a clenched fist. They do not often seek to build empires or lead cults—although few hezrous would turn away prospective minions who came to serve the demon on their own. These monstrous and bestial creatures form from the souls of evil mortals who poisoned themselves, their kin, or their surroundings, such as drug addicts, assassins, and alchemists who cared not how their experiments polluted the environment.

Coloxus demons, known also as fly demons, resemble humans with the head of a fly and twin pairs of gossamer wings. Even their smallest movements and gestures seem infused with manic quickness and alertness. A coloxus prefers to wear opulent clothing and jewels that would rival the wealthiest nobility of any race. A coloxus is 6 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds. Ironically—given their grotesque, insectile appearance—coloxus demons are demons of vanity. They are formed from the souls of narcissistic mortals responsible for disasters or tragedy through their careless self-absorption. Despite their foul appearance, coloxus demons consider themselves cultured and elite. They are unusually patient and well mannered for demons, and as a result are often used as emissaries, diplomats, and negotiators by marilith generals, balors, and even demon lords. Even when facing hated foes, coloxus demons are the epitome of courtesy, but such manners are always a deceitful veneer, masking the creatures’ efforts to gain the upper hand. Evil mortal spellcasters are fond of conjuring coloxus demons for similar roles, but the monsters also work well as assassins. Even in this role, a coloxus is dignified and polite. Only when presented with a reflection of itself does the normally civilized coloxus show its true demonic colors—any creature foolish enough to trick a coloxus into looking at a mirror finds herself the eternal foe of an insulted and scandalized demon.

Amorphous beings of living slime, these repulsive demons lurk in fetid pools and lakes of filth, eager to drown unwary passersby. When summoned to the Material Plane, omoxes typically guard places of sacred filth or waters watched over by cults of Jubilex, the demon lord with which these foul demons are most commonly associated. A typical omox stands 7 feet tall and weighs 1,200 pounds. They form from the souls of those who destroyed beautiful things in life, or who befouled and desecrated objects of purity.

Whereas the succubus is a demon that works her wiles by exploiting the physical lusts and needs of her prey, the glabrezu is a tempter of a different sort. Ferocious and bestial in form, the glabrezu is in fact a master of trickery and lies. With its ability to cloak its true form in pleasant illusions, the glabrezu uses its magic to grant wishes to mortal humanoids as a method of rewarding those who succumb to its guile and deceit. A wish granted by a glabrezu always fulfills the wisher’s need in the most destructive way possible—although such methods might not be immediately apparent. A struggling weaponsmith might wish for fame and skill at his craft, only to find that his best patron is a cruel and sadistic murderer who uses the weapons to further his destructive desires. A lonely man who wishes for a companion might have his wish granted in the form of a lost love returned to “life” as a vampire, and so on—the glabrezu is nothing if not creative in addressing a mortal’s desires. A glabrezu stands 18 feet tall and weighs just over 6,000 pounds. These treacherous demons form from the souls of the treasonous, the false, and the subversive—souls of mortals who, in life, bore false witness or used treachery and deceit to ruin the lives of others.

Oolioddroos, known also as moth demons, are an especially insidious breed of fiend that can infest the brains of living creatures with their eggs, allowing them to manipulate their victims’ thoughts and minds from afar. This might mean an oolioddroo’s victim could go about its normal life for months or even years before the demon capitalizes on the link and forces it to undertake a particularly nefarious or vile deed. In the worst cases, the victim commits crimes or heinous acts at the oolioddroo’s bidding and then immediately forgets about these acts, creating the perfect sleeper agent who not only unknowingly does the oolioddroo’s bidding, but might, when not controlled, be significantly involved in efforts to oppose the acts of sabotage and terrorism the oolioddroo commands. To the oolioddroo, the torment, shame, and despair a victim feels upon realizing he’s been at least somewhat responsible for such actions is as delicious and delightful as the pain and suffering caused by the acts themselves.  An oolioddroo appears as a skeletally thin woman with gray flesh. Its shadow mantle typically appears in the form of a flowing, diaphanous gown of semisolid shadows and smoke, but the demon can make this defense appear to be black clothes or simply its own shadow. The oolioddroo’s deeply unsettling face is that of a horned moth, and her tongue, while flexible, is strong enough to penetrate flesh and bone with ease. An oolioddroo stands 6 feet tall, but weighs only 100 pounds. These sinister demons form from the souls of those who used brainwashing, mind control, and similar techniques, either magical or mundane, to trick or force the innocent into committing terrible acts of brutality.  Oolioddroos are particularly valued in more subtle invasions of the mortal realm, where the act of possession might be too blatant a tactic to use against the innocents of the world. When an oolioddroo does its job well, none even suspect demonic influence; instead they think that the devastating cruelties its influence has engendered rose entirely from the debased thoughts of lone fanatics or sociopaths.  An encounter with an oolioddroo can be rather complex due to the nature of the creature’s special abilities— especially if a PC is its intended victim. If an oolioddroo attempts to seize control of a lone PC, one tricky tactic is to simply ask the character’s player to attempt all the necessary rolls and checks beforehand. Typically, one of these demons attempts to implant eggs in a character who is alone or asleep, in which case that character can attempt a Perception check (at a –10 penalty if the character is sleeping) and a saving throw against the modify memory spell—if both fail, the implanted egg hatches without the player noticing. Thereafter, the source of the strange voices and compulsions in the character’s mind, as well as the source of the periodic suggestions and other magical attacks, can be as frighteningly mysterious to the player as they are to the character. Of course, the GM should take care not to go too far with this—and if a PC or an ally uses detect evil, for example, she might guess that something is afoot when a normally nonevil PC radiates an unexpected aura.

Few demons understand the inner workings of the Abyss like the nalfeshnee, and it is not unusual to see a nalfeshnee seeming to serve the Abyss itself rather than a demon lord. Some claim stewardship over the fleshy realms that birth new demons, while others guard sites of particular significance deep in the plane’s secret reaches. Often, a nalfeshnee’s realm in the Abyss surpasses the strength and size of the largest of mortal kingdoms, for nalfeshnees display a singular gift for managing and ordering the chaos of the Abyss. Mortal summoners often seek them out for their unparalleled yet mad intellects, ever taking care to comb through bargains with such demons for hidden and unwanted consequences, for there is little a nalfeshnee will agree to do that does not, in some sinister way, advance the needs and desires of the Abyss. Nalfeshnees stand 20 feet tall and weigh 8,000 pounds. They form from the souls of greedy or avaricious evil mortals, particularly those who ruled over empires of slavery, theft, banditry, and more violent vices.

Seraptis demons form from souls of those who inspired widespread despair or destruction by committing suicide.

Although nearly all the horrors of the Abyss prey upon one another in an endless, eternal bloodbath, shemhazians are predators among predators. They are more intimidating and physically powerful than most demons, combining the features of numerous insectile and bestial hunters into one massive, deadly form. Although they don’t require sustenance, shemhazians take perverse delight in mutilating and eating their victims. A shemhazian stands 35 feet tall and weighs 12,000 pounds. They form from the sinful souls of torturers and those who enjoyed mutilating living victims to death.

Lilitus are subversive and hidden horrors, demons who work subtly in their constant quest to destroy and devastate. Whereas most demons prefer to rend and destroy, the lilitu is more akin to the succubus—she prefers to do her work in humanoid form to infect society with sin from within. Lilitus enjoy few things more than leading mortals into all manner of sinful acts, in the hope that when the mortal perishes, its soul will fuel the Abyss. Despite some superficial similarities to succubi, lilitus are not solely concerned with the sin of lust. The exact nature of sin that a lilitu tempts a mortal into committing varies, for these demons are adept at reading mortal desires and secrets, quickly discerning which sins a specific target can be convinced to perform.  Lilitus have numerous tools at their disposal for the encouragement of sin, but they much prefer their humanoid victims to commit sins of their own free will. As such, lilitus generally use their abilities to deceive and beguile mortals rather than forcing them to execute heinous acts. A son convinced to kill for his mother (the disguised lilitu) to rectify a grave injustice elicits far more delight than compelling a mind-controlled humanoid to do such a deed.  In her true form, a lilitu appears as an eyeless, horned, snake-tailed—but otherwise beautiful—human woman. Despite her lack of eyes, a lilitu can see with ease. A lilitu forms from the soul of a mortal who lured others of its kind to commit sins.  Lilitus are more likely than other demons to devote their work to a specific demon lord, yet they do not generally view such devotion as true servitude. It’s simply convenient to have a specific demigod in mind when seeking to corrupt a mortal’s faith and to convince such fallen souls to shift their own allegiance from a prior deity to the lilitu’s chosen demon lord. When a lilitu chooses to ally herself with a demon lord, she takes on certain physical characteristics that reflect that demon lord’s personality or appearance. For example, a lilitu that serves Dagon, the demon lord of deformity, sea monsters, and the sea might bear scaly skin like that of a fish, webbed fingers and toes, and finlike ridges on her head instead of the more typical goat’s horns. A lilitu that serves Pazuzu, on the other hand, might have vestigial feathery wings on her back and bird’s talons instead of hooves for feet. These appearance changes are cosmetic only and never impact the lilitu’s options for natural attacks. Of course, the demon’s ability to change shape or assume the form of a captured husk allows the demon to disguise her true form at will. Lilitus who serve specific demon lords in this manner often have class levels. A lilitu typically focuses on class roles such as bards, rogues, swashbucklers, or any other agility- and deception-based classes.  Lilitus typically stand 6 to 6-1/2 feet tall and weigh 130 to 150 pounds.

The leaders of Abyssal hordes and queens of Abyssal nations, the dreaded mariliths serve demon lords as governesses, advisors, and even lovers, yet their brilliance as tacticians makes them most sought after as generals and commanders of armies. The most powerful mariliths serve no one, and instead command ravenous fiendish legions. A marilith is 6 to 9 feet tall and measures 20 feet from head to tail tip. It weighs 4,000 pounds. Only the most arrogant and proud evil souls, typically those of cruel kings, sadistic generals, and exceptionally violent warlords, can trigger the manifestation of a marilith.

Vavakias are immense demons of great power. Saurian in shape, appetite, and destructive power, they are most often encountered on the Material Plane, though not as demons conjured by spellcasters to serve, but rather as violent invaders come to the world through tears in reality or portals to the deeper rifts. On the Material Plane, a single vavakia is a formidable presence, for the strange demon is driven to feed on living souls and spread destruction— roles at which it excels.  A vavakia demon measures 30 feet in length and stands 15 feet tall, weighing in at 6,000 pounds. Vavakias form on the Abyss from particularly cruel mortal souls who, in life, practiced the vile act of extracting, enslaving, and even consuming other souls. When such a sinful creature arrives on the Abyss, it brings with it partially absorbed    fragments of souls from its victims, which it incorporates during its horrific transformation into one of the Abyss’s most dangerous forms of demonic life.  The creation of the first vavakias in this manner came at the hands of the demon queen Lamashtu, who was unsatisfied with the raw physical might and monstrous shape of her earliest demonic minions. In those early days, before she had become a deity, Lamashtu was already quite interested in the method by which the Abyss transformed the souls of sinful mortals into demons. When she learned that this process had first been triggered by the daemons, she was at once intrigued and enraged—intrigued because she knew that anything the Horsemen of the Apocalypse could do, she could do, and enraged at the idea that she owed her very existence to the curiosity of a daemonic lord. Though Lamashtu herself rose from the Abyss spontaneously, shortly after the daemons first “taught” the Abyss how to process sinful souls, that difference meant little to the Mother of Monsters. Fueled by rage, she waged war against Abaddon for many years and captured two Horsemen of the Apocalypse— predecessors of those who hold those titles now. She murdered one of them and forced from the other the secret method of manipulating the Abyss and its souls before murdering him as well. Both murdered Horsemen were soon replaced on Abaddon, but by that point Lamashtu’s wrath had been spent and all that remained was her own curiosity.  Most of Lamashtu’s earliest attempts to create demonic life were hideous failures, but Lamashtu found joy and delight even in these failures. It wasn’t until the demon used her own body as an incubator to shape and then eventually birth the first vavakias that she found real success. Lamashtu’s early work in creating and manipulating the Abyss in this manner may have much to do with her resulting rise in power to the position of queen of demons—had not her escalating war with Pazuzu forced her attentions away from this hideous art form, there’s no telling what other strange demonic races she might have birthed upon the world. Now that she is a true goddess, Lamashtu’s interests expand far beyond the curiosities of the Abyss, and she has little time or desire to wallow in her home plane’s fecund properties. Of course, other demon lords throughout the Abyss are eager to learn these secrets, but to date, none have managed to duplicate Lamashtu’s feats of creation.  In any event, the vavakias themselves have proven a phenomenal success and are among the Abyss’s most dangerous demonic races today—and since the creation of the first of their kind, the Abyss itself seems eager to spawn more and more of these deadly demons.  Though originally created to serve as living weapons of war, the vavakias have long since established their own presence as Abyssal warlords and conquerors. While some pledge their service to powerful demon lords, most vavakias rule small empires of their own in the Abyss, typically in remote corners infested with jungles, swamps, and other primeval terrains.

A vrolikai is 14 feet tall but weighs only 500 pounds. Unlike other demons, it does not form from a sinful soul—it instead manifests from a nabasu demon that returns to the Abyss after growing to maturity on the Material Plane. Not all nabasus survive this transformation, but those who do become powerful indeed—vrolikai usually rule large regions of unclaimed Abyssal land, and often serve as assassins or ambassadors to demon lords in need of an agent in a distant realm.

Kostchtchie (pronounced kosh-TIK-ti-kai) appears as an immense, deformed frost giant with twisted legs, tiny white eyes, and a thick matted beard into which are woven dozens of skulls—trophies of mortal kings and priests of rival faiths he has slain. Legends speak that each of these skulls is haunted by the ghost of its previous owner, and that he can commune with these spirits to seek their wisdom—although if the legends are true, it is more likely that Kostchtchie has little interest in anything but mockery and torment for these lost souls. Kostchtchie is never seen without his massive warhammer, an adamantine maul of such prodigious size that even the strongest frost giant would have trouble wielding it properly. Known also as the Deathless Frost, Kostchtchie dwells in an immense Abyssal fortress carved from the heart of a towering mountain in a frozen realm of jagged mountains and immense glaciers infested with manifold frozen horrors. Kostchtchie stands 30 feet tall. Kostchtchie was born of human parents, and became a murderer when his father forced him to kill his mother and sisters. Kostchtchie went one better and murdered his father as well. Later in life, after he had become a ferocious warlord well known for the slaying of dozens of giant chieftains, he confronted the Witch Queen Baba Yaga and tried to force her to grant him immortality—she agreed, but twisted his form, turned him into a hideous giant, and hid away the last fragment of his mortal soul in a magical torc. Kostchtchie fled to the Abyss to nurture his hatred and hide his shame, eventually finding a new purpose as a patron of frost giants despite his hatred of their kind. Kostchtchie longs for the recovery of the torc that contains the fragment of his soul, in the hope that its return might reverse his deformity without removing his immortality. In combat, Kostchtchie almost always uses Power Attack, taking a –8 penalty on all attack rolls but gaining a +16 bonus on damage rolls. The Deathless Frost is often accompanied by several frost giants, at least two of which are clerics. These clerics attend his every need, healing him in battle as best they can lest they forfeit their lives—or fall to some fate even more dire at the merciless hands of the Deathless Frost.

KOSTCHTCHIE’S CULT
Kostchtchie is worshiped by giants—primarily frost giants, although many ettins, hill giants, and ogres worship him as well. Some white dragons worship the Deathless Frost, and even certain barbaric human tribes in the frozen reaches of the world have been known to venerate him. He does not tolerate women in his cults, and never grants female clerics spells. He is served by half-fiend yetis, ice linnorms, remorhazes, and other cold-dwelling monsters of great size. Kostchtchie’s unholy symbol is an ice-caked, rune carved warhammer, and the warhammer is his favored weapon. He grants access to the domains of Chaos, Evil, Strength, and War, and access to the subdomains of Demon, Ferocity, Ice, and Tactics (although the Ice subdomain is normally not available without the Water domain, an exception is made in this case because of the demon lord’s close association with cold).

Dagon is the demon lord of deformity, the sea, and sea monsters. He rules an Abyssal realm that consists of an immense ocean dotted above with strange and horrible islands and marked below with countless deep sea trenches and sunken cities. Dagon is 35 feet long, with the lower body of an eel, a horrif ic visage that evokes images of deep sea predators, and four long tentacles in place of arms. Dagon almost always uses Power Attack in combat, taking a –9 penalty on all attack rolls but gaining a +18 bonus on damage rolls. He is never encountered without a large number of aquatic demons or monsters at his side that he uses as pawns in battles, often simply commanding them to attack foes while he hangs back in the shadows and observes the fight with his cold eyes. Immense sharks, hezrous, carnivorous whales, krakens, and shoggoths are the demon lord’s favored minions. Dagon began life not as a demon lord but as a powerful qlippoth—the reasons for his transformation into a demon lord are not understood by mortal scholars, but there is certainly no love lost between Dagon and the qlippoth race.

DAGON’S CULT
Dagon is worshiped primarily by boggards, heretical sahuagin and skum, marsh giants, and desperate or insane coastal dwellers. Most of his worshipers are grotesquely deformed or engage in various abhorrent practices of interbreeding with strange ichthyic or aquatic creatures that dwell nearby. His holy places are often decaying seaside churches, lighthouses, sea caves, or darkly beautiful underwater cathedrals. Often his worshipers also venerate various Great Old Ones, in particular Cthulhu, and it’s not unusual to find priests of Dagon and Cthulhu working side by side in a community. Dagon is also known as the Shadow in the Sea. His unholy symbol is a gold disk inscribed with sinister runes around an open octopus eye. His favored weapon is the trident. He grants access to the domains of Chaos, Destruction, Evil, and Water, and access to the subdomains of Catastrophe, Demon, Oceans, and Rage.

Pazuzu is among the oldest and most powerful of all demon lords. His Abyssal realm is located in one of that plane’s greatest rifts. This vertical realm includes an immense city, at the heart of which can be found Shibaxet, Pazuzu’s personal rookery and palace. Pazuzu appears as a four-winged, 15-foot-tall fiend. He takes great delight in corrupting mortals, particularly those of a pure heart and soul, offering them any one wish in return for nothing but their innocence.

PAZUZU’S CULT
Pazuzu, King of the Wind Demons, is worshiped by harpies and other evil avians, and by a large number of antipaladins who were once honorable but were tempted to chaos and evil—often by Pazuzu himself. His sacred places and temples are cliffside cathedrals, desert ruins, and spires atop mountain peaks. His unholy symbol is an image of himself with his right hand upraised. His favored weapon is the longsword. He grants access to the domains of Air, Chaos, Evil, and Trickery, and access to the subdomains of Cloud, Deception, Demon, and Wind.