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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Vrolikai (Death Demon)

Unlike other demons, the dread vrolikai doesn't form from a sinful soul—they instead manifest from a nabasu once the nabasu finally satisfies their hunger and returns to the Abyss, and as such vrolikais suffer from no vulnerability associated with a specific sin. A vrolikai who survives this process and the period of vulnerability that follows gains great power and in time can claim large regions of the Abyss as their own domain. Also known as death demons, these murderous monsters often serve demon lords as executioners or assassins.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 41

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Proficiency without Level

VrolikaiCreature 19

UncommonCELargeDemonFiend
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 68 2.0
Perception +33; darkvision, true seeing
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Necril; telepathy 100 feet
Skills Acrobatics +37, Arcana +33, Deception +35, Intimidation +37, Religion +33, Stealth +33, Survival +33
Str +8, Dex +6, Con +9, Int +6, Wis +6, Cha +8
AC 44; Fort +34, Ref +31, Will +31; +1 to all saves vs. magic
HP 375; Immunities death effects; Weaknesses cold iron 15, good 15
Death-Stealing Gaze (aura, divine, necromancy, visual) 30 feet. When a non-demon ends its turn in the aura, it must attempt a DC 38 Fortitude save. If it fails, it becomes drained 1.
Speed 35 feet, fly 50 feet
Melee Single ActionSingle Action jaws +38 [+33/+28] (evil, magical, reach 10 feet), Damage 4d12+16 piercing plus 1d6 evilMelee Single ActionSingle Action black flame knife +38 [+34/+30] (agile, chaotic, evil, magical), Damage 3d4+16 piercing plus 2d6 negative plus 1d6 evilMelee Single ActionSingle Action stinger +38 [+33/+28] (evil, magical, reach 15 feet), Damage 4d8+16 piercing plus 1d6 evil plus mindwarpingDivine Innate Spells DC 43; 9th massacre, power word kill, vampiric exsanguination; 7th paralyze, regenerate; 5th dimension door (at will); Constant (6th) true seeing
Rituals DC 43; 1st abyssal pact
Black Flame Knives A vrolikai can manifest a dagger-shaped blade of what looks like crystallized black flame in each of their four hands. These weapons function as +2 greater striking daggers, although they fade away into nothingness 1 minute after a vrolikai no longer carries them.Consume Death Single ActionSingle Action (concentrate, divine, necromancy, visual) The vrolikai focuses their death-stealing gaze upon a single target they can see within 30 feet. The target must immediately attempt a Fortitude save against death-stealing gaze.
Success The creature is unaffected.
Failure The creature is affected by death-stealing gaze and becomes drained 1. If the creature was already drained 1 by the death-stealing gaze before attempting the save, a failed save increases the value of the drained condition by 1, to a maximum of drained 4. The vrolikai gains 10 temporary Hit Points, and the drained creature is temporarily immune until the start of the vrolikai's next turn.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature increases the amount of drain by 2.Focused Flames Two ActionsTwo Actions The vrolikai attacks a single target with all of its black flame knives. The demon makes a black flame knife Strike. On a successful attack, the vrolikai deals the damage from a black flame knife Strike to the target, plus an additional 2d6 negative damage for every black flame knife they wield beyond the first (typically 6d6 extra damage). Even on a failed attack, the vrolikai deals the damage from one black flame knife to the target, though they still miss completely on a critical failure. On a critical hit, the victim becomes drained 2 as the focused attack drains pure life essence as well as damage. This counts toward the vrolikai's multiple attack penalty as a number of attacks equal to the number of black flame knives the demon wields.Mindwarping (emotion, enchantment, mental) The sting of a vrolikai is mind-warping. A creature struck must attempt a DC 44 Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature becomes stupefied 1 for 1 minute.
Failure The creature becomes stupefied 1. Further failed saves against mindwarping increase the condition value by 1, to a maximum of stupefied 4.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature also becomes confused for 1 minute.Stolen Death A creature that dies while suffering drain from a vrolikai's death-stealing gaze rises as a ghoul the next midnight.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Vrolikai Newcomers

When vrolikais first manifest on the Abyss, they have no base of power and are, despite their abilities, relatively defenseless from denizens even more powerful than themselves. As a result, most rely upon stealth and patience for their first few centuries while they build up a network of minions and establish their own Abyssal fortifications before they turn their attentions back to the Material Plane.

All Monsters in "Demon"

NameLevel
Abrikandilu (Wrecker Demon)4
Babau (Blood Demon)6
Balor (Fire Demon)20
Brimorak (Arson Demon)5
Dretch (Sloth Demon)2
Glabrezu (Treachery Demon)13
Hezrou (Toad Demon)11
Invidiak (Shadow Demon)7
Kalavakus (Slaver Demon)10
Marilith (Pride Demon)17
Nabasu (Gluttony Demon)8
Nalfeshnee (Boar Demon)14
Omox (Slime Demon)12
Quasit1
Shemhazian (Mutilation Demon)16
Succubus (Lust Demon)7
Vavakia18
Vermlek (Worm Demon)3
Vrock (Wrath Demon)9
Vrolikai (Death Demon)19

Demon

Source Bestiary pg. 76
When a sinful mortal soul is judged and sent on to the Abyss, it can become a deadly fiend—a demon. Demons are living incarnations of sin—be they classic sins like wrath or gluttony, or more “specialized” depravities like an obsession with torture or the act of treason or treachery. Once formed, a demon’s driving goals are twofold—the amassing of personal power, and the corruption of mortal souls to cause them to become tainted by sin. In this way demons ensure a never-ending supply of new demons to bolster their ever-growing ranks in the Abyss.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Abyssal Newcomers

Though now the most plentiful fiends of the Abyss, demons are relative newcomers, spawning only as mortal influence—and mortal sin, in particular—began to shape the plane. For eons, demons fought with other longstanding residents of the Abyss for dominance, but eventually their sheer numbers allowed them to become the predominant chaotic fiends.

Sidebar - Advice and Rules Conjuring Demons

Conjuring demons is ill-advised, yet the desperate or wicked still do. Rituals like planar ally or planar binding are typical for long-term ends, and summon fiend for combat applications. For planar ally, demons sometimes accept offerings that aren't valuable if gifting them to a demon pushes the ritualist further into sin.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Deities

The most powerful demons are known as demon lords (the term is gender neutral in this case). Of these divinities, Lamashtu is the most powerful. Countless other demon lords exist, including Abraxas, Cyth-V’sug, Kabriri, and Zura.

Sidebar - Locations Demonic Locations

The sprawling, heaving, changing realm of the Abyss is the planar home of demonic life, but demons can be found anywhere the capacity to sin exists. Evil or foolish conjurers are fond of calling upon demons for advice or darker needs. When the Abyss wears through the boundaries of reality to create wound-like portals into other worlds, demons can spill over to wreak incredible havoc.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Possession

Some demons specialize in the art of possessing creatures or objects to spread fear and chaos. In such cases a demon gains a powerful disguise with which to work its evils upon the world, a subterfuge that delights the demon.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Sources

When a sinful mortal soul is consigned to the Abyss, it spends time wallowing in the mire and feeding on filth. If it survives and is not itself eaten, the soul eventually ascends into a demon, as influenced by the nature of its sin, yet most demons are themselves capable of reproduction as well. The fecundity of demonic life is perhaps the greatest—and most threatening—aspect of these dangerous fiends.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demons and Souls

Demons, like many other fiends, hunger for souls. In their eyes, the primary use for these souls is to spawn new demons, who can serve as soldiers, slaves, pawns, or even currency for their more powerful masters.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Half-Demons

The Abyss can corrupt living creatures through direct congress or supernatural infusion of Abyssal energies, resulting in monstrous hybrids. A half-demon should be a custom creature, but you can quickly generate one by giving an existing creature a few of a demon's abilities along with the demon's sin-related vulnerability. For example, a half-hezrou hill giant would gain purity vulnerability, but perhaps also a bite, swim Speed, and poisonous pustules. When swapping over abilities between creatures of different levels, be sure to adjust the numbers for the new level.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Other Demons

The Abyss may be the largest of the Outer Planes, and mortals have an equally large capacity to betray themselves, society, and the natural order of reality. With this limitless source for increasingly specialized sins, the Abyss is constantly generating new types of demons to plague reality. While the vast majority of these are swiftly destroyed and never rise again, enough survive that dozens, if not hundreds, of types of demons are known to exist beyond those listed here. The shadowy invidiak is a demon without a body, born of envious souls. The goat-faced, flame-hooved brimorak rises from the souls of arsonists. Slimy, horned blood demons spawn from assassins, boar demons from the greedy... the list goes on and on.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Sinful Destruction

While they enjoy causing destruction themselves, most demons prefer to trick and tempt mortals into falling to sin of their own volition.

Sidebar - Additional Lore The Nature of Chaos

Some say that the nature of chaos inherently precludes cooperation and subtlety, but demons are proof of the fallacy of this claim.

Sidebar - Additional Lore What Makes a Sin?

Some classify sin into seven categories—envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath. While these sins embody some of the most powerful and numerous demons, far more than seven demons exist. Any act of cruelty or destruction a mortal takes to gratify the self at others’ expense is, in effect, a sin, and any such act can spawn a demon from a soul in the afterlife.