Qlippoth, ThulgantThis monster has ten spidery legs, a head writhing with dripping tentacles above a clutch of red eyes, and three whipping stingers.Thulgant CR 18Source Bestiary 2 pg. 226
XP 153,600
CE Large outsider (chaotic, evil, extraplanar, qlippoth)
Init +12; Senses darkvision 60 ft., true seeing; Perception +31
Aura cloak of chaos (DC 25)DefenseAC 33, touch 25, flat-footed 21 (+4 deflection, +12 Dex, +8 natural, –1 size)
hp 290 (20d10+180); fast healing 10
Fort +25, Ref +30, Will +18
Defensive Abilities displacement, evasion, freedom of movement; DR 15/cold iron and lawful; Immune acid, cold, poison, mind-affecting effects; Resist electricity 10, fire 10; SR 25 vs. lawful spells and creaturesOffenseSpeed 40 ft., climb 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee 3 stings +27 (1d6+8/19–20 plus ability drain), 5 tentacles +22 (1d6+4 plus 2d6 acid)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks horrific appearance (DC 27), savage stingers
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th; concentration +25)
Constant—cloak of chaos (DC 25), displacement, freedom of movement, true seeing
At will—dimension door, greater dispel magic, telekinesis (DC 22)
3/day—quickened dimension door, flesh to stone (DC 23), word of chaos (DC 24)
1/day—binding (DC 25), plane shift (DC 24), telekinetic sphere (DC 25), temporal stasis (DC 25)StatisticsStr 26, Dex 34, Con 29, Int 24, Wis 27, Cha 25
Base Atk +20; CMB +29; CMD 55 (71 vs. trip)
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Critical (sting), Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (dimension door), Staggering Critical, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +35 (+39 jump), Bluff +30, Climb +36, Fly +33, Intimidate +27, Knowledge (arcana) +27, Knowledge (history) +30, Knowledge (planes) +30, Perception +31, Sense Motive +31, Spellcraft +27, Stealth +31, Use Magic Device +30
Languages Abyssal; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ demon hunterEcologyEnvironment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary, pair, or patrol (3–4)
Treasure doubleSpecial AbilitiesAbility Drain (Su) A thulgant’s stingers each drain a different ability score on a hit. One stinger drains 1d4 points of Strength, another drains 1d4 points of Dexterity, and the third drains 1d4 points of Charisma. Any sting’s drain is negated by a DC 29 Fortitude save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Demon Hunter (Ex) A thulgant gains a +10 racial bonus on caster level checks to penetrate the spell resistance of any demon. Its attacks are treated as cold iron and good against demons.
Horrific Appearance (Su) Creatures that succumb to a thulgant’s horrific appearance are stunned for 1d4 rounds and take 1d6 points of Wisdom damage.
Savage Stingers (Ex) If a thulgant hits a single target with all three stings in the same round, it tears through the victim’s body, dealing an extra 3d6+12 points of damage and draining an additional 2 ability points from all six of the victim’s ability scores. A single DC 29 Fortitude save negates all of this additional ability drain. The save DC is Constitution-based.DescriptionThe dreaded thulgant is among the most dangerous of the qlippoth, for it supports an array of deadly and painful physical attacks with a wide range of potent magical powers. Born from the cannibalistic orgies of augnagar qlippoth, each thulgant exists for one purpose only—the eradication of all demons from the Abyss.
Yet thulgants do not spend all of their lives hunting and destroying demons. They rule horrific hives deep in the Abyss populated by all manner of hideous minions, many of which are bound into servitude via binding spells. These qlippoth are fond of decorating their lairs with petrified or enstasised victims of great power—the more powerful the victims, the greater the prestige held by the thulgant.Creatures in "Qlippoth" CategorySource Bestiary 2 pg. 218
Before the Abyss was taught how to process and transform larvae into demons—indeed, before larvae even existed or the idea of mortal life had been conceived—it was rife with foul life. These creatures exist still, yet in drastically reduced numbers and often only in the deepest pits of the plane. Known as the qlippoth (the singular and plural are identical), these fiends may well be the oldest form of life in the Great Beyond—certainly, they were already in existence before the proteans discovered them. Some believe that the qlippoth come from an unknowable realm on what might be described as the “outside shell” of the Outer Sphere, but if the qlippoth are to be taken as indicative of what order of existence rules in such a realm, it is a good thing indeed that this outer realm is so impossibly distant.
The qlippoth do not possess in their forms anything approximating the human shape except by cosmic fluke or sinister mockery. In their twitching, squirming visages, the mad might make comparisons to life’s most primeval shapes—spiders and cephalopods, insects and worms, and even baser forms of life. What this might imply about these lower forms of life has disturbed philosophers for ages, and is not a train of thought that many enjoy lingering upon.
Since the rise of mortal sin, the rule of the Abyss has passed from the qlippoth to the much more fecund demons. When the Abyss first “learned” how to transform mortal souls into demons, the resulting explosion of demonic life culminated in a violent and destructive war with the then-rulers of the Abyss—the qlippoth. For unguessed millennia this war raged across the countless layers of the Abyss. The qlippoth had the advantage of knowing their ancient realm and, as a general rule, were individually more powerful than most demons, but the demons had numbers on their side. And as the demons continued to win battle after battle, new powers among their kind rose—balors, balor lords, nascent demon lords, and eventually demon lords themselves. Over time, the qlippoth were hunted nearly to extinction on the upper layers of the Abyss, and were forced to retreat deep into that realm’s darkest and most remote realms, to places even the demons feared to tread.
Here, the qlippoth have festered and lurked for ages. None can say how many qlippoth survived that ancient war, for none can know how deep the Abyss goes. The qlippoth dwell in these darkest pits, periodically emerging to do battle against their hated demonic foes, yet their wrath is not limited to the demonic host. The qlippoth know that daemons played a role in “teaching” the Abyss how to birth demonic life, and their war with the denizens of Abaddon is one fueled more by a driving need to punish than any need for survival. Yet as the eons have worn on, the qlippoth have come to realize that the true enemy is not a fiendish race—it is mortal life itself. For as long as mortal life continues to sin and die, the Abyss can continue to birth demons into its pits and rifts. The destruction of sin, by changing the way mortals live, would halt demonic growth, yet the qlippoth have no concept of how this goal might be achieved—to the qlippoth, only the murder of all mortality can suffice.
As a result, all qlippoth possess within their minds a burning hatred of mortal life, particularly humanoids, whom they know to be the primary seeds of sin. When a qlippoth is conjured to the Material Plane, it seeks any way to escape control in order to maul and destroy humans—they have a particular hatred of children and pregnant women, and if given a choice between harming someone already dying or close to death and someone with a full life ahead of them, they always choose to attack the latter, save for the rare case where the death of an elder or a dying loved one might result in a chain reaction of death among the young.
When called via spells like planar ally that require opposed Charisma checks or similar mechanics in order for the conjuring spellcaster to secure the outsider’s aid, evil humanoids take a —6 penalty when interacting with qlippoth due to the sin in their souls. The promise of a task that would afford the qlippoth the opportunity to kill many humanoids, or a sacrifice of a pregnant woman or a child, can sometimes offset this penalty. When a qlippoth shakes off the shackles of a conjuration, it attempts to remain on the Material Plane as long as possible, and during that time tries to murder as many mortals as it can, doing its part to deprive the Abyss of possible future sinful souls to build demons from. Qlippoth Lords That the qlippoth have among their kind paragons akin to demon lords is indisputable, yet these powers rarely, if ever, emerge from the deepest realms of the Abyss to interact with the rest of the multiverse. They are only rarely worshiped on the Material Plane, but such cults, where they exist, are singularly destructive and ruinous.
Yet the power granted by mortal worship can have a curious effect on a qlippoth—it can, in a way, infect it with the sins of its worshipers. Qlippoth who become so infected are either murdered by their kin or forced to flee to the upper realms of the Abyss, where they complete their transformation and, instead of remaining qlippoth lords, become demon lords. One can know the nature of a demon lord that began life as a qlippoth most easily by its shape—those demon lords, such as ichthyic Dagon or foul and festering Jubilex, bear little or no sign of a humanoid frame.
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