Daemon, AcrididaemonThis wicked creature has the claws and mandibles of an enormous insect, and its lower body is made entirely of swarming locusts.Acrididaemon CR 14Source Feast of Dust pg. 61
XP 38,400
NE Large outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect magic, see invisibility; Perception +23DefenseAC 28, touch 16, flat-footed 21 (+6 Dex, +1 dodge, +12 natural, –1 size)
hp 200 (16d10+112)
Fort +17, Ref +18, Will +11
Immune acid, death effects, disease, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 25OffenseSpeed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee bite +20 (2d6+5/19–20), 2 claws +20 (1d8+5)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft. (5 ft. with bite)
Special Attacks biting locusts, distraction (DC 25; biting locusts attack only)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +19)
Constant—detect good, detect magic, see invisibility
At will—feast of ashesAPG (DC 17), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), putrefy food and drinkAPG
3/day—siroccoAPG (DC 21), summon swarm
1/day—horrid wilting (DC 23)StatisticsStr 20, Dex 23, Con 24, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 21
Base Atk +16; CMB +22; CMD 39 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility
Skills Bluff +20, Fly +15, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (planes) +21, Perception +23, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +21, Survival +20, Use Magic Device +21
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ swarmlikeEcologyEnvironment any (Abaddon)
Organization solitary, pack (2–5), swarm (6–12)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesBiting Locusts (Ex) An acrididaemon’s lower body is composed entirely of buzzing and biting locusts. Medium or smaller creatures can share the space of an acrididaemon. An acrididaemon automatically deals 6d6 points of damage to any creature that begins its turn in the acrididaemon’s space.
SwarmLike (Ex) Much of an acrididaemon’s body has no discernible anatomy. Any time a creature confirms a critical hit against an acrididaemon or hits one with a sneak attack, there is a 50% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally. An acrididaemon takes half again as much damage (+50%) from damaging area effects such as fireball and splash weapons.DescriptionServitors of the Horseman of Famine, acrididaemons travel in sky-darkening swarms that spread abject terror into the hearts of mortals they encounter. Part humanoid and part swarm, acrididaemons devour everything they can.
These roaming terrors call no place home aside from the desolation of Abaddon. They wander the planes ravaging everything in their wake, and quickly abandon their ruined targets, like the parasitic paragons they were created to be.
Acrididaemons delight in the suffering their predations bring. Though they often favor tactics that result in the devastation of whole settlements, it is not uncommon for one of these daemons to take a single creature prisoner. They enjoy slowly starving captives to death in forlorn redoubts where rescue is beyond hope.Creatures in "Daemon" CategorySource Bestiary 2 pg. 62
Harbingers of ruin and embodiments of the worst ways to die, daemons epitomize painful death, the all-consuming hunger of evil, and the utter annihilation of life. While demons seek to pervert and destroy in endless unholy rampages, and devils vex and enslave in hopes of corrupting mortals, daemons seek only to consume mortal life itself. While some use brute force to despoil life or prey upon vulnerable souls, others wage campaigns of deceit to draw whole realms into ruin. With each life claimed and each atrocity meted out, daemons spread fear, mistrust, and despair, tarnishing the luster of existence and drawing the planes ever closer to their final, ultimate ruin.
Notorious for their hatred of the living, daemons are the things of dark dreams and fearful tales, as their ultimate ambitions include extinguishing every individual mortal life—and the more violent or terrible the end, the better. Their methods vary wildly, typically differentiated by daemonic breed. Many seek to infiltrate the mortal plane and sow death by their own taloned hands, while others manipulate agents (both mortal and immortal) as malevolent puppet masters, instigating calamities on massive scales from their grim realms. Such diversity of methods causes many planar scholars to misattribute the machinations of daemons to other types of fiends. These often deadly mistakes are further propagated by daemons' frequent dealings with and manipulation of other outsiders. Yet in all cases, despair, ruin, and death, spreading like contagion, typify the touch of daemonkind, though such symptoms often prove recognizable only after the hour is far too late.
Daemons flourish upon the plane of Abaddon, a bleak expanse of cold mists, fearful shapes, and hunted souls. Upon these wastes, the souls of evil mortals flee predation by the native fiends, and terror and the powers of the evil plane eventually transform the most ruthless into daemons themselves. Amid these scarred wastelands, poison swamps, and realms of endless night rise the foul domains of the tyrants of daemonkind, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Lords of devastation, these powerful and unique daemons desire slaughter, ruin, and death on a cosmic scale, and drive hordes of their lesser kin to spread terror and sorrow across the planes. Although the Horsemen share a singular goal, their tactics and ambitions vary widely.
Along with mastery over vast realms, the Horsemen are served by unimaginably enormous armies of their lesser brethren, but are obeyed most closely by retinues of daemons enslaved to their titles. These specific strains of daemonic servitors, known among daemonkind as deacons, serve whoever holds the title of Horseman. Although these instruments of the archdaemons differ in strength and ability, their numbers provide their lords with legions capable of near-equal terrorization.
More so than among any other fiendish race, several breeds of daemons lust after souls. While other foul inhabitants of the planes seek the corruption and destruction of living essences, many daemons value possession and control over mortal animas, entrapping and hoarding souls—and in so doing disrupting the natural progression of life and perverting the quintessence of creation to serve their own terrible whims. While not all daemons possess the ability to steal a mortal being's soul and turn it to their use, the lowliest of daemonkind, the maniacal cacodaemons, endlessly seek life essences to consume and imprison. These base daemons enthusiastically serve their more powerful kin, eager for increased opportunities to doom mortal spirits. While cacodaemons place little value upon the souls they imprison, greater daemons eagerly gather them as trophies, fuel for terrible rites, or offerings to curry the favor of their lords. Several breeds of daemons also posses their own notorious abilities to capture mortal spirits or draw upon the power of souls, turning the forces of utter annihilation to their own sinister ends.
The Four Horsemen
Four dread lords, infamous across all the planes, rule the disparate hordes of daemonkind. Risen from among the ranks of their terrible brethren to displace those fiendish tyrants before them, they are the archdaemons, the End Bringers, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the blasphemous annals of fiendish lore, they are the prophesied architects of multiversal ruin, destined to stand triumphant over cadaverous cosmoses and infinities of silence before also giving way to absolute oblivion. Undisputed in his power among their kind, each Horseman rules a vast realm upon the bleak plains of Abaddon and a distinctive method of mortal ruin: pestilence, famine, war, or death from old age. Yet while each archdaemon commands measureless influence, daemons know nothing of loyalty and serve only those they cannot overcome. Thus, though the Horsemen stand peerless in their power and manipulations among daemonkind, they must ever defend their thrones from the machinations of ambitious underlings and the plots of other archdaemons.
Upon the poisonous expanses of Abaddon, lesser daemonic peers carve petty fiefdoms and posture as lords, but despite their world-spanning intrigues, all bow before the Horsemen—though most do so only grudgingly. Ancient myths also tell of a mysterious fifth Horseman, the Oinodaemon, though nearly all mention of such a creature has been scoured from the multiverse.
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