Daemon, SepsidaemonA long-beaked, crested head on a twisted neck rises from a formless, glowing mass of a body. Now and then, a grasping claw extends forth.Sepsidaemon CR 7Source Book of the Damned pg. 243
XP 3,200
NE Medium outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses dakrvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +14
Aura septic wounds (30 ft.)DefenseAC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+4 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 85 (9d10+36)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +7
Defensive Abilities amorphous; DR 10/good or silver; Immune acid, death effects, disease, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 18OffenseSpeed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
Melee bite +13 (1d8+4 plus 1d6 acid and disease), 2 claws +14 (1d4+4/19-20 plus 1d6 acid and disease)
Special Attacks necrotic slough
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10)
At will—contagion (DC 17), dimension door
1/day—summon (level 3, 1 sepsidaemon 40%)StatisticsStr 18, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +9; CMB +13; CMD 27
Feats Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Climb +16, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (planes) +13, Perception +14, Stealth +16, Survival +14, Swim +24
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.EcologyEnvironment any (Abaddon)
Organization solitary, pair, or infection (3-8)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesDisease (Ex) Fleshweep: injury; save Fort DC 18; onset immediate; frequency 1/day; effect 1 Con damage and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Necrotic Slough (Ex) As it moves, the sepsidaemon covers the ground with portions of its festering body, transforming any square it passes through into difficult terrain for 2 rounds, after which the filth evaporates. A creature that passes through or starts its turn in one of these squares must succeed at a DC 18 Reflex save or take 2d6 points of acid damage and become nauseated for 1 round; the nausea effect is a disease effect. A creature can be affected by this acid damage and nauseated condition only once per round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Septic Wounds Aura (Su) A sepsidaemon radiates an aura that causes wounds to fester. If a creature with lethal hit point damage begins its turn within 30 feet of a sepsidaemon, it must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save or become infected with fleshweep (see Disease above). This is a disease effect.DescriptionSepsidaemons embody the concept of death by gangrene, infection, and necrotic decay. Spawned in Abaddon from the evil souls of those who experienced horrific deaths under septic conditions, these daemons are most prominent in the areas of Apollyon’s domain where the waters of the Styx intrude and leach away life and memories. A sepsidaemon continually hunts, feeds, and appropriates the essences of creatures. These fiends perpetually slough a trail of necrotic flesh and exude a fearsome aura that festers and corrupts wounds. A sepsidaemon fuses its victims’ misappropriated forms to its amorphous core, where they dangle like rotting jewelry. Although sepsidaemons typically roam alone or in loose pairs, they are at their most fearsome when they form groups led by one of Apollyon’s leukodaemon deacons.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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