BagmanThis pale, pudgy humanoid is clad in a greasy traveling cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. A bloodstained burlap sack hangs over its shoulder.Bagman CR 4Source Pathfinder #105: The Inferno Gate pg. 84
XP 1,200
NE Medium fey
Init +2; Senses find children, low-light vision; Perception +11DefenseAC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 45 (7d6+21)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +6
DR 5/cold ironOffenseSpeed 40 ft.
Melee 2 claws +8 (1d4+4 plus grab) or handaxe +7 (1d6+6/×3)
Special Attacks bag preyStatisticsStr 19, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 17
Base Atk +3; CMB +7 (+9 bull rush, +11 grapple); CMD 19 (21 vs. bull rush)
Feats Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Step Up, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Acrobatics +5, Bluff +13, Craft (alchemy) +12, Disguise +13 (+17 to appear human), Knowledge (local) +12, Knowledge (nature) +12, Perception +11, Spellcraft +9, Use Magic Device +13; Racial Modifiers +4 Disguise to appear human
Languages Common, Sylvan
SQ fat extractorEcologyEnvironment any urban
Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3–5)
Treasure standard (potion of infernal healingISWG, potion of youthful appearanceUM, cauldron, flint and steel, sack, sewing needle, other treasure)Special AbilitiesBag Prey (Su) If a bagman begins its turn with a creature grappled in its claws, as long as the creature is size Small or smaller, it can stuff the target into its sack as a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. A bagman can stuff a grappled Medium creature in the sack, but doing so is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A creature in the sack can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon. The sack has AC 12 and 15 hit points. If a creature cuts its way out of the sack or the sack is damaged enough to allow a victim to escape, the bagman cannot use the sack to bag prey again until it has spent 1 hour mending it.
The sack has other special qualities while in the bagman’s possession. The weight of creatures in the sack do not count against the bagman’s carrying capacity, and the bagman can fit up to two Small creatures or one Medium creature in the sack at a time. If used by any creature other than the bagman that owns it, this container functions as a mundane sack. If a bagman’s sack is lost or destroyed, it can craft a new sack with proper materials and a week of work.
Fat Extractor (Su) A bagman can use the fat of intelligent humanoid creatures to create potions of infernal healing and potions of youthful appearance as if it had the Brew Potion feat. These potions are created at caster level 3rd, and the fat from one humanoid creature of any size is enough to make a single potion. Creating each potion takes 2 hours, and requires the bagman to flense the fat from its victims’ flesh with its claws, place the fat in a cauldron over an open fire, and mix it with whatever free ingredients are at hand. Unlike brewing a potion normally, creating these potions has no cost. A bagman can carry only four potions created in this way at a time, even if another bagman made them, but it can sell or give away an unlimited number of potions. Knowingly consuming one of these potions is an evil act.
Find Children (Ex) A bagman has the scent ability, but only with respect to humanoid children. Thus, it could sniff out a human child’s hiding place, but not the child’s parents.DescriptionSome monsters feed on humans, while others torture humans for their own sadistic pleasure, but few creatures go to such perverse lengths as to murder humans and then sell the processed remains back to their victims’ unwitting families. Bagmen are such monsters— degenerate fey creatures who specialize in kidnapping humanoid victims and harvesting their fat to produce potions. Bagmen disguise themselves as traveling peddlers and apothecaries, often selling the products of their depredations to the very communities from which they steal their victims. An average bagman stands 5-1/2 feet tall and weighs close to 300 pounds.EcologyBagmen are nomadic creatures, traveling from town to town to peddle their disgusting wares. They prefer to travel by lesser-used roads, or even through stretches of wilderness, the better to happen upon lone travelers. Bagmen are opportunistic hunters, and rarely bother to set up ambushes or execute convoluted plans. If one happens upon an individual it thinks it can kidnap without repercussions—especially if that individual is sleeping or otherwise unable to properly defend himself—it simply snatches that person up and adjourns to a more private location to kill the person and harvest his fat.
Children are an exception to this rule. Bagmen greatly value the fat of children, and employ a variety of tricks and threats to lure children away from the safety of their homes and families. When a group of children is traveling with just one or two adults, bagmen delight in attacking the group and bull rushing the weakest children away from their protectors; once the children have scattered, the bagmen find it much easier to snatch them and abscond with them to their lairs. Despite being far stronger and tougher than the average human, bagmen are quite cowardly. They eschew fighting with armed creatures, and hesitate to attack when outnumbered by combatants.
Many claim that bagmen consume the fat they harvest from their victims for sustenance, and in many cultures the name for bagmen directly translates to “fat-eater” or “fat-stealer.” However, this accusation is largely false, and is most likely based on bagmen’s waxen flesh and greasy complexions. In truth, fat is the one part of a creature a bagman almost never eats, having far greater use for it as an ingredient in horrifying potions it lures unsuspecting customers to imbibe. The rest—muscles, bones, organs, and all—the bagman consumes with unnatural rapidity in order to dispose of any evidence of its crime.
It is unclear whether bagmen are capable of reproduction, or even how new bagmen come into being in the first place. Some scholars suggest that bagmen are the result of unnatural unions among fey, or between fey and a variety of evil outsiders. A few believe that new bagmen arise when evil energies permeate a bagman’s cache of humanoid fat that hasn’t already been turned into potions. Others claim that bagmen spontaneously manifest as a representation of the society’s willingness to consume itself, such as when the rich and powerful profit at the expense of the poor and meek.Habitat and SocietyBagmen are adept at disguising themselves as humans, and they use this ability to spend prolonged periods of time in human settlements. Here, they sell the potions they’ve produced using the fat of their victims. The gold they earn from these sales is less important to bagmen than the perverse pleasure they gain from revealing the nature of their wares to their horrified customers. Of course, customers’ disgust is usually short lived; those who discover a bagman’s terrible secret are usually the next ones into its bag. Bagmen who worry that their secret has spread throughout a populace, or that the public is suspicious of their activities, usually flee the area immediately. This has led to more than a few hastily abandoned merchant stalls, leaving the requisite authorities to eventually discover, to their horror, the true nature of the strange being who was once living and committing terrible crimes in their midst.
While bagmen primarily delight in horrifying customers, they don’t scorn the profits they garner. Indeed, bagmen are profligate spenders, and exploit their ability to pass for human to partake in all the pleasures of the flesh available in human cities. Bagmen’s proclivity for gluttony often brings them into contact with cultists of Urgathoa, and alliances between bagmen and Urgathoans can be particularly fruitful. Bagmen provide potions and scouting services to Urgathoans at a steep discount, and in return they get to join the cultists in their dark feasts and rituals.
Associating with Urgathoans has other benefits for bagmen, as well. Those who are afflicted by plagues sometimes make pleas to the Pallid Princess, and bagmen are happy to answer those prayers, albeit for a price. Bagmen relish this chance to offer potions of infernal healingISWG or potions of youthful appearanceUM as false cures; many potential victims see through the ruse immediately, but some of the most desperate fall for the bagmen’s lies. The unluckiest ones are even willing to give in to the bagmen’s demands, which may go so far as to include the lives of the afflicted person’s loved ones or children, taken by the person’s own hands at the bagman’s urging. Other times, bagmen simply request information about their customers’ families, and eventually use that information to terrible effect.
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