Demon, VermlekA hideous, pale, wormlike head pushes violently up and out of a
corpulent man’s body.Vermlek CR 3Source Bestiary 6 pg. 90, Book of the Damned - Volume 2: Lords of Chaos pg. 54
XP 800
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init -1; Senses blindsense 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., scent;
Perception +8DefenseAC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, –1 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 30 (4d10+8)
Fort +8, Ref +0, Will +5
Defensive Abilities abandon flesh, flesh armor, negative energy
affinity; DR 5/cold iron or good; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 14OffenseSpeed 30 ft., burrow 20 ft.
Melee longsword +6 (1d8+2/19–20), bite +1 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks inhabit body
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +4)
3/day—mass inflict light wounds (DC 16), spider climb
1/day—gentle repose, summon (level 2, 1d4 dretches 50%)StatisticsStr 15, Dex 9, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 15
Feats Deceitful, Great Fortitude
Skills Bluff +10, Disguise +10
(+18 when inhabiting a
corpse), Escape Artist +6
(+14 when not inhabiting a
corpse), Knowledge (religion)
+8, Perception +8, Sense
Motive +8, Use Magic Device
+8; Racial Modifiers +8
Disguise when inhabiting
a corpse, +8 Escape Artist
when not inhabiting a corpse
Languages Abyssal, Common;
telepathy 100 ft.EcologyEnvironment any (Abyss; battlefields or
graveyards)
Organization solitary or nest (2–10)
Treasure standard (longsword, other treasure)Special AbilitiesAbandon Flesh (Su) As a swift action, a vermlek can abandon an inhabited body, crawling hideously out of its host and leaving behind an empty sack of skin and bits of gristle. In so doing, it absorbs much of the body’s flesh to heal itself, regaining 2d6+3 hit points. A vermlek cannot later reclaim this body with its inhabit body ability.
Flesh Armor (Su) When a vermlek inhabits a humanoid body (see Inhabit Body below), it treats the dead flesh and muscle as armor, gaining a +3 armor bonus to its AC.
Inhabit Body (Su) A vermlek can crawl into the body of any dead Medium humanoid, consuming and replacing the bulk of the humanoid’s skeleton and internal organs as it does so. This process takes 1d4 rounds, during which the vermlek is flat-footed. Once the process is complete, the vermlek appears for all practical purposes to be a living but hideously obese version of the previous humanoid—it gains a +8 racial bonus on Disguise checks to appear as a normal humanoid while wearing a dead body in this manner, but does not gain any of the abilities that the dead creature had in life, including natural attacks, unusual movement types, or natural armor. It loses its own burrow speed while inhabiting a body but gains the ability to wield weapons or wear armor shaped for humanoids (although the armor bonus granted by wearing armor does not stack with the bonus granted by the vermlek’s flesh armor ability).DescriptionVermleks 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.Creatures in "Demon" CategorySource Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 57
Demons exist for one reason—to destroy. Where their more lawful counterparts, the devils of Hell, seek to twist mortal minds and values to remake and reshape them into reflections of their own evil, demons seek only to maim, ruin, and feed. They recruit mortal life only if such cohorts speed along the eventual destruction of hope and goodness. Death is, in some ways, their enemy—for a mortal who dies can often escape a demon's depredations and flee to his just reward in the afterlife. It is the prolonging of mortal pain and suffering that fuels a demon's lusts and desires, for it is partially from mortal sin and cruelty that these monstrous fiends were born.
Demons are the most prolific and among the most destructive of the fiendish races, yet despite what some lore might preach, they were not the first forms of life to rise in the stinking pits of ruin and cruelty known across the multiverse as the Abyss. Before the first fledgling deity gazed upon reality, before mortal life drew its breath, before even the Material Plane itself had fully formed, the Abyss was infested with life.
Known to many scholars as “proto-demons,” these wretched and deadly beings were the qlippoth. Today, because of the influence of sinful mortal souls upon the Abyss, mixed with unholy tamperings at the hands of the daemonic keepers of Abaddon and the cruel whims of fate and evolution, the rule of the qlippoth has receded. The proto-demons dwell now in the noxious and forgotten corners of the Abyss, and the far more fecund and prolific demons rule now in their stead. With each evil mortal soul that finds its way into the Abyss, the ranks of the demonic hordes grows—a single soul can fuel the manifestation of dozens or even hundreds of demons, with the exact nature of the sins carried by the soul guiding the shapes and roles of the newly formed fiends.
The Abyss is a vast (some say infinite) realm, far larger than any other plane save possibly the primal chaos of the Maelstrom itself. As befits such a vast and varied realm, the demonic host is likewise diverse. Some carry in their frames humanoid shapes, while others are twisted beasts. Some flop on land while others flap in air or sea. Some are schemers and manipulators of emotion and politics, others are destructive engines of ruin. Yet all demons work to the same goal—pain and suffering for mortal life in all its forms.
Yet despite this, mortals have sought demonic aid since the start. Be it an instinctual draw to self-destruction or a misguided lust for power, conjurers to this day continue to draw forth demons with forbidden magic. Some conjure demons for lore, while others call upon them to serve as assassins or guards. Demons view such summoners with a mix of hatred and thanks, for most demons lack the ability to come to the Material Plane to wreak havoc on their own. They depend on the mad to call them up from the Abyss, and while they gnash their fangs and rail against the commands and strictures enforced, most demons find ways to twist their summoners' demands so that even the most tightly controlled demonic slave leaves a trace of ruin and despair in its wake. More often than not, a foolish spellcaster makes a fatal mistake in the conjuring and pays for it with blood, unwittingly releasing a terrible blight upon the world as his conjuration breaks free of his control.
The truly mad call upon demons to offer themselves, both body and soul, in the misguided belief that alliance with the demonic can buy salvation and protection when the demonic apocalypse finally comes to call. Tales of desperate kings who sought to engage demons to serve as generals for their armies or of lunatics who seek demonic sires to gift them with horrific children are common enough, yet worst are those mortals who worship the most powerful demons as gods, and who pledge their lives in support of that which would bring destruction to all. Demon SubtypeDemons are chaotic evil outsiders that call the Abyss their home. Demons possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry) as summarized here.- Immunity to electricity and poison.
- Resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10.
- Summon (Sp) Demons share the ability to summon others of their kind, typically another of their type or a small number of less powerful demons.
- Telepathy.
- Except where otherwise noted, demons speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Draconic.
- A demon's natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, is treated as chaotic and evil for the purpose of resolving damage reduction
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