Demon, VilstethThis fiend seems carved from weathered ivory, and runes and symbols of power cover its pale flesh. Its eyes glow an eerie yellow, and horns curl from its eerie, mouthless head.Vilsteth CR 16Source Pathfinder #77: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth pg. 86
XP 76,800
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see invisibility; Perception +36DefenseAC 30, touch 14, flat-footed 26 (+4 Dex, +16 natural)
hp 225 (18d10+126)
Fort +18, Ref +10, Will +14
DR 10/cold iron and good; Immune electricity, mind-affecting effects, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 27OffenseSpeed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +24 (2d6+6), gore +24 (2d6+6 plus 1d4 Wis), tail slap +19 (1d8+3)
Special Attacks idolatry, labyrinthine mindtrap, mindrender, powerful charge (gore, 4d6+12), rend (2 claws, 2d6+9), unspeakable truth
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th; concentration +24)
Constant—see invisibility
At will—enter imageAPG, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), meld into stone, possess objectUM, ventriloquism (DC 17)
3/day—charm monster (DC 20), quickened dominate person (DC 21), stone shape, vengeful outrageUM (DC 22)
1/day—mass suggestion (DC 22), statue, summon (level 7, 1 shachathAP75 or 1d3 succubi 50%), symbol of persuasion (DC 22)StatisticsStr 22, Dex 19, Con 24, Int 23, Wis 16, Cha 23
Base Atk +18; CMB +24; CMD 38
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Deceitful, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Persuasive, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (dominate person), Vital Strike
Skills Bluff +31, Craft (sculpture, stonemasonry) +18, Diplomacy +31, Disguise +31, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (engineering, history, local, nobility, religion) +15, Perception +36, Perform (oratory) +15, Sense Motive +28, Spellcraft +16, Stealth +25, Use Magic Device +14; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; can’t speak, telepathy 100 ft.
SQ change shape (Medium humanoid; polymorph), no breathEcologyEnvironment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary, pair, or conspiracy (3–12)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesIdolatry (Su) When a vilsteth uses enter image, meld into stone, possess object, or statue to assume the appearance of a public or religious monument (either by entering or controlling an existing object or by taking the semblance of one), it can make itself an object of worship and adoration. This functions as sympathy (DC 25, CL 18th) upon either a single creature within 30 feet or all creatures of the chosen type or alignment within 30 feet. Any creature that fails its saving throw against this effect must attempt an additional DC 25 Will save after spending 24 hours within 30 feet of the object of worship. If the targeted creature fails this second save, it’s affected as if under a permanent mind fog effect with respect to the vilsteth. This is a curse effect and cannot be dispelled (although dispel chaos or dispel evil can remove this effect, as does break enchantment).
Labyrinthine Mindtrap (Su) Whenever a vilsteth is targeted with a divination or mind-affecting effect, including effects that simply facilitate mental communication, the caster’s mind is entrapped within the twisted corridors and pathways of the vilsteth’s intellect, causing the caster to become dazed (Will DC 25 negates). Each round on the victim’s turn, it can attempt a new saving throw to escape this mind trap, ending its turn, but each failed save deals 1 point of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma drain to the creature. A creature that successfully saves against this effect is immune to the same vilsteth’s labyrinthine mindtrap for 24 hours.
Mindrender (Su) When a vilsteth hits with both claw attacks and rends its target, it gains a +4 profane bonus on its gore attack for that turn. In addition, if the vilsteth’s gore attack hits, the target is affected by the vilsteth’s labyrinthine mindtrap ability, even if the targeted creature already successfully saved against that ability in the last 24 hours.
Unspeakable Truth (Su) A vilsteth is surrounded by a mantle of misinformation. Creatures within 30 feet are affected by a curse that manifests the next time they attempt to share information about the vilsteth, including things they have observed the demon saying or doing. This curse affects the creature as fumbletongueUM (Will DC 25 negates). A successful save negates the curse, but if the target fails the save, this curse manifests every time that target attempts to talk about the vilsteth. This curse is a mind-affecting compulsion effect and can’t be dispelled or suppressed with protection from evil. A vilsteth can order creatures affected by charm or compulsion effects that it creates to share information about it without triggering the curse.DescriptionVilsteth demons, also known as corruption demons, are calved from the essence of the demon lord Baphomet’s realm of the Ivory Labyrinth. Vilsteths form from the souls of corrupt and deceitful politicians, priests, and power brokers—those who in life abused and misused whatever ephemeral power they wielded. The defining sin of these souls was pride, fueled by vanity and a desire for adulation and ever-greater authority to be wielded in whatever selfish way they saw fit, coupled with a furious envy of anyone more beloved, respected, or feared than they. Vilsteths epitomize these traits, and can often be found lurking in monuments dedicated to important political figures or disguised within statues of prominent saints and heroes. In their natural form, vilsteths are over 7 feet tall and weigh 400 pounds.EcologyLike all demons, vilsteths aren’t born in a biological sense. Instead, the souls of corrupt mortals find their way to Baphomet’s Ivory Labyrinth after judgment, and in there gradually transform into these crooked beings. From their positions of power, the sinful souls that birth vilsteths manifested every kind of malfeasance, from pecuniary greed to self-indulgence of gluttony, sloth, and lust in life, but the common thread is always the arrogation of the self over the state or church or whatever organization upon which they presided, coupled with a narcissistic smugness that their pride and pleasures were of greater import than any other consideration. Of course, these sinful leaders’ cynical pragmatism demanded that they keep their perverted proclivities secret, as they knew those beneath them would never understand, so each spun an ever-expanding labyrinth of lies to keep their corruption under cover. Some succeeded, living out their days shrouded in their sinister secrets; others failed spectacularly, leading to dissolution, schism, treason, social collapse, and revolution when the extent of the awful truth finally surfaced. Whether their sins were ever exposed, however, their corrupted pride and devious secrecy drew their souls into the Abyss and the Ivory Labyrinth of Baphomet, where they formed into vilsteth demons.
Vilsteths do not eat or drink in the usual sense. Their faces are like ivory masks—unmoving, impassive, and implacable, with only the glow of their amber eyes to mark their attention. Instead, they are emotional parasites, feeding on the reactions of others, sowing confusion and suffering and feasting upon the psychic residue that follows. Likewise, they do not speak with voices that humans might understand. Their communication is purely telepathic, from a subtle whisper to a psychic scream, echoing down the corridors of the minds of those to whom they “speak” and pushing them, whether gently or urgently, toward acts of sabotage, sedition, and sin of every kind.Habitat & SocietyCorruption demons are often solitary creatures who work independently on their schemes, though they sometimes summon lesser demons of like talents to further their pernicious agendas of subversion. They amass vast monetary wealth for common bribery and for lavish parties hosted by their minions in order to tempt and corrupt the unwary and the unwise. They encourage and inspire artists and sculptors to raise great monuments and masterworks for their own glory, and through these graven images they spy and speak and exercise a quiet dominion upon the great and small alike, working through prominent and respected leaders to delude the masses and subvert the common good.
When vilsteths are encountered outside of the Abyss, these demons are often found in places where Baphomet’s cults hold power. In rural areas, such cults may form around insular villages that have abandoned the traditional gods of hunt and harvest, trading them for a predatory faith hidden from the eyes of outsiders. In urban settlements, cultic cells and clandestine rites conducted behind masks and veils work together to suborn existing governmental, legal, and cultural authorities. Vilsteth demons may visit Baphomet’s faithful in either milieu, acting as ambassadors and agents provocateur, often sitting in judgment of those who have violated the cult’s confidentiality and helping to design and implement their agendas for anarchy and societal upheaval.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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