Daemon, VulnudaemonA bloody, tooth-filled mouth that looks almost like a horrific gash gasps in the neck of this pale, childlike horror.Vulnudaemon CR 4Source Bestiary 3 pg. 63
XP 1,200
NE Small outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect magic; Perception +10
Aura aura of doom (30 ft., DC 18)DefenseAC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +3 natural, +1 size)
hp 39 (6d10+6)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +6
DR 5/good or silver; Immune acid, death effects, disease, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10OffenseSpeed 30 ft.
Melee short sword +10/+5 (1d4+2/19–20 plus bleed), bite +5 (1d3+1)
Special Attacks bleed (1d4), sneak attack +1d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10)
Constant—detect good, detect magic
3/day—blur, death knell (DC 15), invisibility, minor image (DC 15)
1/day—inflict critical wounds (DC 17), summon (level 2, 1d4 cacodaemons 40%)StatisticsStr 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 20
Feats Ability Focus (aura of doom), Combat Casting, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +12, Diplomacy +10, Fly +11, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (planes) +8, Perception +10, Sense Motive +10, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +16
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.EcologyEnvironment any (Abaddon)
Organization solitary, pair, or murder (3–12)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesAura of Doom (Su) As a free action, a vulnudaemon can radiate an aura of dread and hopelessness. Any creature within 30 feet of the vulnudaemon must succeed at a DC 18 Will save or become shaken for as long as it remains in the aura.DescriptionThese deceptive daemons personify death resulting from murder accented with betrayal. Most often formed from the souls of evil creatures killed by family or friends, vulnudaemons spread their insanity throughout the worlds by deceiving and killing all creatures they meet.
Vulnudaemons stalk their prey, infecting them with a sense of impending doom and watching their reactions, learning their responses before attacking and savoring their death. These daemons serve as excellent assassins, hiding in the shadows before debilitating their enemies, or striking from the protection of invisibility in order to deliver the killing blow. When facing stronger enemies, vulnudaemons seek to wear them down through a series of attacks, nicking at them and darting off, then repeating the process until their opponents bleed out.
Vulnudaemons often find themselves called to the Material Plane by cultists of deities associated with murder and assassination. These cultists often see vulnudaemons as sacred creatures favored by their deity, and rather than simply use the daemons as assassins, cultists often grant them a shocking degree of freedom to wander the region as they will, picking victims to fit their own agendas and murdering whomever they wish. Cultists who conjure vulnudaemons into the world usually take care to show the daemons a secret hand sign or other code that members of the cult can show them, lest the monsters decide to target one of the believers for an attack. Whether or not an accidentally targeted cultist has the time to flash her safety sign to the daemon should the creature attack her at a later date is, of course, another matter.
Vulnudaemons stand 3 feet tall and weigh 25 pounds.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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