#Chavazvug

[dailycharacteroption]

Deity Drop 7: Chavazvug

Out of our vacation with the monitor demigods and we immediately hop back into fiends, starting with our first of a truly nasty, but actually interesting lot, Chavazvug of the qlippoth lords!

For those who aren’t aware, the Outer Sphere forms the outer shell of the cosmos of the Pathfinder setting, with the various outer planes like Hell, Heaven, Axis, and so on forming along that inside edge.

However, if we liken the Outer Sphere to an eggshell, that begs the question of what is outside of that egg, and what to do with the big fracture on one side.

Indeed, the plane of the Abyss is a series of chasms and cracks not unlike the shell of a hard boiled egg that has bounced a little too hard on the counter. It is possible that the vast rifts of the plane were all burrowed by Rovagug, or fractured as a result of him entering the cosmos as a whole.

Either way, before the advent of mortal sin and demons, it was the qlippoth that ruled the Outer Rifts. Indeed, they are among the oldest outsiders, and may very well have originally wormed their way into the rifts from the outside, making them originally denizens of whatever madness and unreality exists beyond the pocket of stability that the cosmos represents.

It’s impossible to say what the qlippoth were like in those early times, or indeed what their relatives outside reality are like now, but we do know they are all alien and inimical to the laws of reality we all know and accept in the most disturbing and hazardous ways.

What’s more, with the coming of demon-kind, these ancient spirits were overwhelmed by the sin-spawned fiends and driven back into the deepest depths of the plane. Whatever goals the qlippoth had before, they were all unified (as much so as chaotic evil beings can be) against the demon threat, but also against the fuel source that gave rise to their hated foe: mortals, who with their free will have the capacity to sin and thereby feed the abyss new souls to be converted into more of their fecund opposition. As such, every qlippoth hates demons, and they seek to destroy mortals as well in some hope of reclaiming their home plane by starving demons of sinful souls.

And the qlippoth lords are the greatest among their kind, powerful monstrosities of unique form and bordering on divine power, allowing them to grant power to worshippers. However, qlippoth lords care nothing for mortal worshippers save for their use in summoning forth their lesser kin to devour the mad cultists first and anyone else they can get their claws on next until banished or put down.

These minor divinities have to be careful though, for more than one of their kind has gotten too popular with mortalkind and become infused with enough mortal sin to transition in nature to a demon lord, making them traitors to their own kind.

However, even with those goals, each qlippoth lord’s methods are different, and such is the case with today’s subject: Chavazvug.

While other qlippoths hate demon-kind and mortals with equal passion, Chavazvug leans most of his hatred upon the demons first and foremost, and constantly raids against them, rising from his boiling lake home to range far and wide in the Abyss on suicidal runs destroying as many demons as possible until finally someone manages to put him down, only for him to return all too soon to do so again, a constant thorn in the side of demon lords and wicked gods of the Abyss that must be dealt with at least once a week on average.

Make no mistake though, Chavazvug is no ally of mortals. Chavazvug is something you see coming while on the Abyss and flee from hoping that you’re out of his perceptive range by the time he’s done slaughtering the demons that attracted his attention in the first place.

Chavazvug is also known as the Crawling Inferno, an appropriate name because, despite looking like a 50 foot tall pile of organs atop a set of seven spidery legs, the fiend demonstrates the classic qlippoth trait of defying logic by also being constantly superheated to the point where such organs should surely combust, but do not. Indeed, the horror constantly steams with their extreme heat, can spew superheated acid from every horrible orifice, and the very sight of their horrible form induces feverish discomfort that can cause even fire elementals to become susceptible to their burning.

If Chavazvug can be said to have a home, it is a nameless lake of boiling bile and other foul seepage, from which they emerge each time they rejuvenate. However, he spends no time there, only ever leaving it to lay waste to the parts of the Outer Rifts where demons rule. If there is a secret to putting him to rest permanently, it may lie in it’s depths.

Having no care to establish cults of mortals, the majority of The Crawling Inferno’s worshippers are solitary pyromaniacs that revel in destruction and hope to one day spontaneously combust (not by their own deliberate action, but as a final glorious reward for emulating their deity). However, as Chavazvug is also concerned with monstrous recursion and rejuvenation, I can imagine some cults of his might crop up with him as a patron to those that come to believe that being reborn as horrible monsters through some curse or corruption to be a form of apotheosis.

It is unknown what exactly Chavazvug thinks about other divinities beyond his seething hatred for demonkind. He probably also hates all other evil divinities purely because their presence inevitably spreads sin even if they seek to bring souls to other planes or personal realms far from the Abyss. If he spares any thought for goodly or neutral divinities beyond them getting in the way of the qlippoth goal of mortal and demon annihilation, it is unknown. (He’s not exactly the most talkative mountain of meat).

As his personal crusade against demonkind is constant and solitary, Chavazvug probably doesn’t consider any other qlippoth to be his servants, but it’s likely that he has attracted a fanclub of sorts that follow in his wake to pick off stragglers and survivors of his rampages, and answer the call of would-be summoners seeking his servants in hopes of overpowering lesser mages to go on a rampage.

Though not inclined to offer divine magic except as a side effect of worship, The Crawling Inferno does grant access to the Chaos, Evil, Fire, and Repose domains, with the Ash, Entropy, Smoke, ad Souls subdomains, all of which reflects not just his fiery nature, but also a constantly reviving destroyer that destroys fiend and mortal soul alike.

No qlippoth lords have been explored in 2E yet, so Chavazvug has no stats there quite yet.

He does have a lesser obedience though. For those that torture a living creature with brands and meditate on the results, the worshipper gains some measure of protection from fiery effects. Furthermore, they also are blessed with a few minor spells, namely those that inflect fiery harm either simply, in a following pillar of flame, or a spreading array of burning beams.

Curiously, qlippoths have not been mentioned AT ALL in Starfinder, and while they almost certainly do exist, this does mean we have no word on Chavazvug’s status in the far future. Presumably he is still around though, waging his continuous bloody crusade and inspiring monstrous pyromaniacs and maybe even evil evolutionists.

That does it for today, but tomorrow we tackle a different sort of evil, one that got a little bit revised late into 1st edition!

[monstersdownthepath]

Theme Bestiary: Chavazvug

CR 22

Chaotic Evil Colossal Outsider

Pathfinder Bestiary 6, pg. 232~233

Standing at a height of nearly 50 feet high, Chavazvug is a greasy beacon of hope for qlippoth-kind as he charges bravely forward into the demonic hordes, taking down as many of them as he can until the Chaotic Evil demons somehow find a way to bypass his Regeneration 15 (Lawful) and put an end to him... for a little while, anyway. 1d10 days after his death he springs from his bile lakes, ready and raring to charge back into the fray and continue his work.

There are few qlippoth that can properly claim to hate demons more than Chava here, and his single-minded devotion to their extinction means he’s the least antagonistic of all Qlippoth Lords to mortals he may encounter. So immense is his demonic bloodthirst that his Slaughter Demon ability gives him +4 to attack and damage rolls versus demonic life--including demonic Tieflings--and makes his critical hits deal three times as much damage as normal while also granting him the benefits of the Death Knell spell with each fiendish life he ends. Don’t let this fool you into thinking he’s friendly, GOD do not let this make you think he’s friendly, because once he runs out of demons? Then comes getting rid of sinful mortals to keep more from popping up. If you’re lucky enough to find him in a good mood, you may be able to convince him to bring you back to life once he’s finished splitting you like a log with his 3/day Resurrection... But it comes with a price. His Tainted Resurrection moves anyone he brings back one step closer to Chaotic Evil, while imposing a -4 penalty on their saves versus the abilities of any qlippoth, a penalty that can never be alleviated without dying again and being raised by someone else.

But we’ll get to why having a penalty on saves is terrible in just a bit. Before that, Chava’s melee offense is typically enough to carry him merrily through his rampages, his generous 30ft reach meaning his twin talon attacks (2d8+13 + 2d6 Fire) and quartet of bites (2d6+13 + 2d6 Fire) can hit enemies tripping over themselves trying to flee. That damage might not seem impressive at first, but anyone bitten by the mouths at the end of his intestinal coils risk ending up grabbed and Fast Swallowed into his horrifying innards, where they take 10d6 bludgeoning and 10d6 Fire damage every round they remain inside. His Scalding Flesh also means creatures that strike him in battle take 1d6 Fire damage, and anyone grappling or grappled by him (including those he’s swallowed) take 4d6 more Fire damage!

Java’s Bug, however, has a lot more than just his natural weapons at his disposal. Once every 1d4 rounds, for example, he can let loose an apocalyptically powerful sneeze from his various seeping orifices as a swift action, spraying everything within 60ft of his form with boiling, acidic bile. Anyone failing a Reflex save to get the hell out of the way takes 10d10 Fire damage and 10d10 Acid damage from the Qlippoth Juice, and must make another save to avoid being nauseated for a round! And that’s not all! Because if you think you can fight a literal towering inferno without getting set on fire, you’ve got another thing coming!

Contagious Flame, Fireball, and Wall of Fire all at-will, Quickened Contagious Flame 3/day, Delayed Blast Fireball 3/day to set up lovely little traps, Wall of Lava 3/day to make the battlefield as hostile as possible... And Meteor Swarm 1/day to really bring it all home! And, what’s this? You’ve actually thought ahead and brought some Fire Resistance or Fire Immunity? Well that just won’t do, and Chavazvug has a thoroughly unpleasant away around that.

Anyone who witnesses the repulsive true form behind Chava’s Horrific Appearance is struck red and orange with a fever so high that it feels like the victim’s about to burst into flames. Anyone who fails a DC 28 Will save when confronted with the cruel reality of the Qlippoth Lord’s appearance has all of their Fire Resistance permanently cut in half, takes a -4 penalty to saves versus Fire effects, and becomes vulnerable to Fire. This ability affects ALL resistance, even if it’s gained after the victim becomes vulnerable. This weakness is so intense that it causes creatures with the Fire subtype to lose that subtype, meaning Chavazvug can technically burn creatures made entirely out of fire! Even having complete immunity to Fire won’t save you, the curse of the Crawling Inferno removing the immunity entirely... Though, as a bit of a saving grace, having or gaining immunity to Fire while under the effects of the blighted fever prevents the other penalties, including the vulnerability, from affecting you. You’ll still lose your immunity, but any Resistance you have or gain will operate at full capacity!

Unless he hits you with his Horrific Appearance again, anyway.

You can read more about him here.

[thecreaturecodex]

Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night

Image by E. M. Gist, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Fiendish Codex I Art Gallery here

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82. Pale Night was originally referred to in Milton’s Paradise Lost (which popularized the name Demogorgon, incidentally), and was a bit of world building that crept in Planescape before being fleshed out by James Jacobs in the “Demonomicon of Iggwilv” articles for Dragon Magazine and the Fiendish Codex I. She’s an obyrith in those sources, and the obyrith are pretty much a one-for-one analogue to the qlippoth, except that Pale Night is referred to as “Mother of Demons” in FCI. I played with that ambiguity in my take on her flavor text.

I also wrote this before, but edited after, @arachcobra suggested the Parasol Initiative as the organization devoted to making hybrid monsters. Maybe Pale Night is their divine patron.]

Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night CR 23 CE Outsider This hazy figure appears as a diaphanous sheet draped around a lithe humanoid female. Hollows in the sheet suggest the contours of eyes and other facial features, which seem to shift unsettlingly.

Pale Night The Veiled One, Mother of Chaos Concerns forbidden knowledge, hybridity, mutation Domains Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, Madness Subdomains Corruption, Entropy, Insanity, Memory Worshippers iconoclasts, transmuters, motherless tieflings Minions chernobue and behimiron qlippoth, chimeras, mutants Unholy Symbol a white sheet before a star field Favored Weapon net Devotion tell someone a secret intended to hurt or disturb them, and threaten them harm if they tell anyone else. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against mind-influencing effects. Boons 1: touch of idiocy 2/day; 2: confusion 2/day; 3: legend lore 2/day

Pale Night is a creature that seemingly breaks the rules—something between a demon and a qlippoth, seemingly comfortable with both creatures in both worlds. As such, she represents the flow of information and bodies between discreet categories and into disturbing ambiguity. This ambiguity extends to her appearance. Creatures see her as the silhouette of an attractive female member of their own species, if their species has female members and a generally fertile and comely specimen of their species if they do not. Her true appearance is an abominable mystery—simply revealing it to the world is a difficult task for Pale Night, and those who survive the mental onslaught have literally no memory of what they saw.

Pale Night’s touch shatters minds and warps self-image—those who succumb to it find their exterior forms reflect their innermost fears and desires, becoming strange and terrible mutants. She “collects” creatures that interest her, be it for their rarity, bravery or physical markers, by transforming them into literal images of themselves. Her favorite tactic is to ride inside the body of a powerful demon or qlippoth, then abandon their form for one of her strongest foes after having had time to gauge their prowess.

Being intermediate between demons and qlippoths means that Pale Night is often feared by both. Despite her qlippothic origins, she is allies with both Lamashtu and Baphomet, ensuring that only the most suicidal Abyssal powers oppose her directly. The nature of her relationship to Lamashtu is obscure—the Mother of Monsters appears to respect Pale Night as a colleague, but the two maintain their distance most of the time. Pale Night is ancient even by the standards of qlippoth, and there are those that whisper that she was the entity that encouraged daemons to introduce sinning souls to the Abyss and create the first demons. As such, the most militant of qlippoth lords, such as Chavazvug and Yamasoth, would gladly see her destroyed.

Pale Night’s demesne is a tower of bone in the middle of Baphomet’s maze—its ever-shifting location and the protection of the King of Beasts is obstacle enough to keep all but the most dedicated enemies or petitioners from her door. Her cult is all but unheard of in mortal realms. Most of her devotees are lone figures seeking her blessings to uncover unspeakable secrets, or the creators of various hybrid abominations. Motherless tieflings, those pathetic and horrible planetouched born of qlippothic influence, make up the majority of her followers.

Pale Night           CR 23 XP 820,000 CE Medium outsider (chaos, extraplanar, evil, incorporeal, qlippoth) Init +18; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect law, Perception +38, thoughtsense 120 ft. Defense AC 39, touch 35, flat-footed 24 (+14 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 deflection, +4 armor) hp 429 (26d10+286); fast healing 20 Fort +19, Ref +29, Will +24 DR 20/epic and lawful; Immune cold, death effects, electricity, mind-influencing effects, poison; Resist acid 30, fire 30; SR 34 Defensive Abilities incorporeal traits Offense Speed fly 80 ft. (perfect) Melee incorporeal touch (20d8 plus 2d6 Cha drain) Special Attacks corrupting influence, embrace, horrific appearance (DC 34), part the veil Spell-like Abilities CL 23th, concentration +33 Constant—detect good, detect law, mage armor At will—greater dispel magic, greater teleport, telekinesis (DC 25), unhallow, unholy blight (DC 24) 3/day—blasphemy (DC 27), quickened confusion (DC 24), greater possession (DC 28), insanity (DC 27) 1/day—dominate monster (DC 29), freedom, greater restoration, imprisonment (DC 29), legend lore, polymorph any object (DC 28), summon demons and qlippoth Statistics Str -, Dex 38, Con 32, Int 25, Wis 28, Cha 31 Base Atk +26; CMB -; CMD 53 Feats Alertness, Blind-fight, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Hover, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Mobility, Quicken SLA (confusion), Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse, Whirlwind Attack Skills Bluff +39, Diplomacy +35, Fly +47, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (arcana, history, nobility) +29, Knowledge (planes, religion) +32, Perform (sing) +32, Perception +38, Sense Motive +38, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +39, Use Magic Device +32 Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Protean SQ qlippoth lord traits Ecology Environment any (Abyss) Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Corrupting Influence (Su) Any non-outsider living creature reduced to 0 Charisma by Pale Night must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save. On a successful save, they are merely comatose. On a failed save, the creature is transformed—it gains the mutant template, its alignment becomes chaotic evil and its Charisma is immediately restored to normal. A creature so transformed cannot be returned to normal without a miracle or wish, followed by an atonement spell to change its alignment. The save DC is Charisma based. Embrace (Su) As a standard action up to three times per day, Pale Night can attempt to embrace a Large or smaller creature with a touch attack. A creature so touched must make a DC 33 Fortitude save. Success means the creature is stunned for 1 round; on a failure it is made incorporeal and placed under temporal stasis. A creature so affected can only be restored with a freedom, miracle or wish spell. The save DC is Charisma based. Horrific Appearance (Su) A creature that succumbs to Pale Night’s horrific appearance is stunned for 1 round and staggered for 12 rounds as its internal organs become animate and rebellious. A creature that succeeds its save is merely staggered for 1 round. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected by Pale Night’s horrific appearance for the next 24 rounds. Incorporeal Touch (Su) The damage dealt by Pale Night’s touch is a mind-influencing effect, similar to a mind thrust spell. A creature touched must make a DC 33 Will save. If it succeeds, it takes half damage and no Charisma drain. If Pale Night so chooses, she can deal damage, Charisma drain, or both with her touch attack. The save DC is Charisma based. Part the Veil (Su) As a full round action once per day, Pale Night can reveal her true appearance. All creatures within 30 feet that can see her must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save or be immediately slain. Creatures that succeed this save are instead affected by a mental block spell that lasts for 23 rounds, or until the creature succeeds a DC 33 Will save on its turn. The save DC is Charisma based. Summon Demons and Qlippoth (Sp) Once per day, Pale Night can summon a combined CR 20 of demons and qlippoth with a 100% success rate. This is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.

[enddaysengine]

Combusted (Planescape)

Spontaneous combustion is one of those things that every seems to know about which rarely seems to pop up in RPGs, even when it feels like it should. The Combusted are here to fix that (aka there’s a reason they were in both the Occult Bestiary and Bestiary 6). These undead corpses are the vengeful, ever-burning remains of people who spontaneously combusted. They aren't intelligent by default, driven by rage and little more, but they have been known to wade into water to cool the flames engulf them, even if said blaze cannot be extinguished. Perhaps this speaks to some sort of hidden depth?

Combusted offer a fairly standard array of abilities for a burning corpse. They can throw gobs of fire as a ranged attack. They have a stench aura, because have you ever smelt burnt flesh? Their screams make the weak willed flee in terror, which is a nice and thematic reason to stick them in places associated with Pandemonium. The most interesting feature of these creatures, however, is that when they hit you, they pass on the combustion curse. That curse can't be based on to creature immune to fire, but it does bypass fire resistance, which could be a nasty shock for PCs and a plothook in the waiting for NPCs.

Also, a group of combusted is called an effigy. Have fun with that!

Most people are afraid of encountering one of the combusted of the Plane of Fire, but it is really the Plane of Ash where you need to beware of them. Most creatures burn too quickly on Fire to spontaneously combust, but Ash is much cooler and stray embers sometimes pass on the combustion curse. Like all undead, combusted are immune to Ash's heat draining properties, but they can still be damaged by other cold effects.

Benevolent doesn't always mean safe. A rash of spontaneous combustions have occurred in the court of Ragathiel after some unwise berks got too close to the Empyreal Lord. Ragathiel seems to be prevented from intervening by some law or geas unknown to mortals, so it is up to adventurers. Complicating matters is that oracles indicate that these combusted can be returned to their living state if one can determine what is causing the spontaneous combustion, so now the party has to subdue undead with destroying them and pry into the secrets of a celestial prince.

The Smouldering Corpse Bar has been in a funk since its namesake woke up and flew off with some nameless basher. The bar has attempted to revitalize business by suspending some combusted from the ceiling. The tactic seems to be working, but it has caused a change in clientele. While most Dustmen prefer their own bars, which are much quieter than the Smouldering Corpse, a number of scientist and necrologists have become regulars so they can study the combusted and theorize how they relate to True Death. Much more problematic and dangerous are cultists of Chavazvug, the Crawling Inferno. These qlippoth worshippers consider the state of the combusted to be sacred and occasionally one will intentionally attempt to contract the combustion curse, much to the barkeeper's chagrin.

[monstersdownthepath]

Demigod Dossier: The Qlippoth Lords

(Not pictured: Any of the Qlippoth Lords)

(VERY pictured: A CR [SCREAMING] encounter)

Chaotic Evil True Rulers of the Abyss

Shared Domains: Chaos, Evil Shared Subdomains: Varies

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 128~129

Welcome to what is technically our first Demigod Dossier, something I experimented with when I first touched up the Forsaken. Below, we will be going over the Boons given to the mortal worshipers of the Qlippoth Lords, which is a difficult thing indeed for a mortal to do, as the remaining Lords aren’t too keen on allowing mortal sin to contaminate them as it has their kin in the past. Mazmezz, Dagon, Jubilex, and even their brother Yamasoth have all fallen to the temptation to sup upon sin and revel in the power it grants (though to his credit, Yamasoth is trying to turn back).

Due to their lack of sinful power and their reluctance to allow mortals to worship them, their Boons are relatively simple; they are a trio of spell-like abilities, each of which may be used 2/day. Boons are normally gained slowly, at levels 12, 16, and 20, however entering the Evangelist, Exalted, or Sentinel Prestige Classes can see the Boons gained as early as levels 10, 13, and 16. Note that because they are not Demon Lords, you cannot enter the Demoniac Prestige Class to obtain their Boons without DM fiat.

Chavazvug, the Crawling Inferno Qlippoth Lord of Fiery Consumption and Monstrous Recursion Domains: Chaos, Evil, Fire, Repose Subdomains: Ash, Entropy, Smoke, Souls

Obedience: Torture a living creature with red-hot brands or small fires, and meditate on the cries of pain and scent of scorched flesh. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against fire-based effects.

Ah... A stark reminder that despite Chavazvug being generally ambivalent to mortal life--and one of the few Qlippoth Lords that will actually help mortals if the objective is ‘kill demons’--his ambivalence does not translate to benevolence in any form. It’s difficult to keep this Obedience hidden from any Good folk you may be associating yourself with, unless you’re some sort of appointed torturer tasked with extracting information from your enemies. Needing to do it every single day to maintain your power will eventually raise eyebrows, though.

While the jury’s out on whether or not you can satisfy this ritual by using someone who enjoys the torture, you CAN get away with using a Sack Of Rats to meet its requirements. You can also use yourself in times of desperation, an act I’m sure Chavazvug especially appreciates, though be wary of burning yourself so much and so often. It’s hard to hide those marks!

The benefit is something we’ve seen before, but with a bit of an extra twist; it does not specify Fire effects, but “fire-based effects.” Fire-based. This means spells, effects, and abilities without the elemental descriptor are also affected! This gives it a bit more flexibility, which is always nice to see on a Boon!

Boon 1: Scorching Ray 2/day. Boon 2: Pyrotechnic Eruption 2/day Boon 3: Contagious Flame 2/day

God I love Contagious Flame. I can’t pretend I’m not a little biased towards liking Chavazvug because he grants his followers the power to use Contagious Flame 2/day. For the uninitiated, CF fires three beams of fire (+1 beam at levels 15 and 19), each dealing 4d6 Fire damage. Not very impressive for a level 6 spell? Well that’s where ‘contagious’ comes in, because every round for 3 rounds, more beams shoot out of anyone damaged by beams in the previous round, with their only targeting limitation being that a beam can’t arch around and hit the creature it emerged from and each new target must be within Close range (25ft + 5ft/lvl).

It’s a very impractical way to set a lot of people on fire, but there’s more control over who or what gets damaged in CF than there is in most other fire spells. Plus, you CAN have all of the beams focus on a single target to deal 12d6 damage, though only one beam will fire on subsequent rounds. Still, it’s useful for dealing with crowds in a way Fireball can’t manage.

Scorching Ray is Contagious Flame but without the contagion. Up to three rays of fire each dealing 4d6 damage per shot. Practical, effective, but boring. Not like Pyrotechnic Eruption, which cages its victim in fire that moves with them--even if they teleport!!!--and deals 1d6 Fire damage per level (max 15d6) to them. Even if they succeed on their saving throw they take half damage... And are still caged in the fire, forcing them to make a new save every round to evade the fires encircling them. Fortunately for them and unluckily for you, half of the d6s fall off each round.

But that’s still quite a bit of damage you can force one unlucky target to deal with. And if they feel like sharing, they can! Anyone touching, grappling, or bull-rushing the victim also takes damage from the cage! Just be warned that another, hardier (or fireproof) creature can take the place of the victim in the cage by successfully grappling or bull-rushing them. It’s a delightful spell to throw at The Heroes, honestly, because the squishy caster already took the maximum damage dice from the spell, and the Fighter wasting their time pulling a switcheroo on the cage means they’re not hitting you.

Ruin their day by alerting them to the fact you can cast it twice.

——

Isph-Aun-Vuln, the Feaster Within Qlippoth Lord of Infestations and Poisonous Winds Domains: Air, Chaos, Evil, Trickery Subdomains: Deception, Fear, Venom, Wind

Obedience: Consume a handful of live parasites or infested flesh. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against disease and parasitic infestations.

Ew ew ew ew ew

It’s a hard one to stomach alright (HAH), especially since you need to repeat this process every single day. Where on earth are you going to get an actual handful of, say, ticks and fleas every day? How are you going to choke down living sand every single day?

Well, you don’t. See, the Obedience is worded in a way that allows you to eat one big parasite instead of a lot of little ones if you need to. You know what’s disturbingly easy to fill your hands with, relatively easy to get ahold of, provided you’re not in a desert or a tundra, and goes down super smooth? Yep, you guessed it: Leeches. Leeches, leeches, and more leeches. They keep for years, require only rare feedings, and can be purchased from most respectable apothecaries or found in swamps, rivers, and streams. Getting enough of them to sustain your awful appetite for parasite flesh for weeks on end is the primary problem, but Isph kindly gives you a second option: Consume infested flesh.

Mold is parasitic and easy to cultivate, either in your own flesh or the flesh of your enemies. A Sack Of Rats is helpful here if you can get your hands on some breed of parasite or parasitic mold and grow it on your pets. The infested flesh doesn’t have to be from a still-living creature, by the way, so you CAN get your munch on a creature after it’s died from some awful infestation, or nosh on some of the many zombies that rise from certain breeds of fungal invasions. One fungal zombie can keep you in the Feaster’s good graces for quite a while!

Good luck keeping any of this from raising suspicion, by the way. The benefit’s not even good, since exposing yourself to so much garbage will make you sick eventually. It’s also worded rather poorly in order to make it seem more impressive; parasitic infections are usually treated as disease effects anyway.

Boon 1: Summon Swarm 2/day Boon 2: Fleshworm Infestation 2/day Boon 3: Plague Storm 2/day.

I’ve spoken of the usefulness of Plague Storm when dealing with Apollyon, but in the spirit of getting information across: Blinding Sickness and Bubonic Plague being slapped onto every creature in a 20ft area can take the fight out of them real quick. It’s a Save or Suck they have to make every single round until they escape the cloud, though it’s little more than a glorified Fog Cloud against enemies immune to disease (of which there are many). Still, though, you can do worse than a gigantic and ominous looking fog bank, even if you only really use it to give yourself cover.

Summon Swarm is a nice, if dangerous, spell to have available to you. Its range lets you drop the swarm directly atop an enemy, typically someone who really doesn’t want to be in the middle of a swarm (which is everyone) and has a hard time getting out (like a caster). However, you have no control over the swarm once it’s summoned, and once there are no more targets within their area the swarm will pursue and attack the closest creature to it. Useful if you drop it on a faraway archer or spell-slinger, and little more than extra gross friendly fire if you use it on an enemy that your allies are in melee with. There’s also the unfortunate news that it falls off rather quickly--more or less by the time you learn it--but it still serves as a delightful distraction to hurl at people struggling to concentrate on anything, and the fragility of the swarm means that even if it DOES attack your allies, they can put it down easily.

Fleshworm Infestation, in contrast to the weak but practical Summon Swarm, is weak but unnecessarily, hysterically cruel. Its damage is an absolute letdown, dealing a paltry 1d6 damage each round, though it also inflicts 2 Dex damage and staggers its victim each round it persists and it lasts for 1 round per level... but really, the only important part of this spell is the stagger, which is turned into sickness if the victim succeeds their save. AND it requires a successful touch attack, which I’m always scared to do if the attack won’t end the battle instantly. Depriving a foe of their full-attacks is powerful, but not worth entering an enemy’s melee range in the first place, y’know?

I suppose the primary benefit is being able to slap someone full of worms, which is a delightfully potent intimidation tactic. It’s almost more useful out of combat, as you can deliver it without alerting onlookers to the fact you’re casting until ravenous worms erupt from your victim. A true power move would be going in for a handshake and then continuing to hold on as your victim screams in agony as they’re devoured. They’re more likely to end up paralyzed from the Dex damage than dead, but that just means you now have a stunned and thoroughly traumatized prisoner!

——

Oaur-Ooung, the Blistering Womb Qlippoth Lord of Tainted Waters and Vile Fecundity Domains: Chaos, Evil, Plant, Water Subdomains: Decay, Fear, Growth, Oceans

Obedience: Drink fouled water, and maintain yourself on the edge of regurgitation for an hour. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against poison effects. 

Finally, something simple. “Fouled water” is probably one of the easiest things you can get ahold of, as any good adventurer likely has a waterskin on them. Pour yourself a cup, scoop some dirt and grime from your environment into it, and drink that bad boy down! More or less anything nasty and inedible can be used to foul up water to meet the requirements for this Obedience, so long as it’s gross enough to make you want to throw up.

The problem is that you have to keep yourself from blarfing up your morning smoothie for at least one hour, which can be easier or harder depending on what, exactly, you’ve done to yourself this time. You may actually have to make concentration checks or Constitution saving throws to maintain this state, depending on what the DM may demand. Actually giving the world a technicolor yawn will foul up the whole ritual and force you to begin again from the beginning, so experimenting beforehand with specific mixtures of water and antiwater to see which mix makes you just sick enough can save you a lot of hassle in the future.

The benefit is good, of course. Nothing spectacular, but it’s always nice to have a little more resistance between yourself and death or paralysis via poison. It’s in a similar vein to bonuses against fire, if I’m being honest, though I’d put poison somewhere between Cold and Acid in terms of how often it’s encountered.

Boon 1: Disfiguring Touch 2/day Boon 2: Poison 2/day Boon 3: Greater Contagion 2/day

Eeeeeuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhh

Oaur-Ooung really doesn’t like her mortal worshipers, it seems. I mean, I get it--she’s the mother of thousands of qlippoth and even some Qlippoth Lords, and has seen what happens to her children when they get addicted to sin. Poor Cyth-V’sug was her baby, and he was steered away by the sway of that awful drug! Having bad Boons is, I suppose, another way for her to passive-aggressively get back at mortals for that.

Well, they aren’t unusable in their awfulness, but their in-combat applications are nothing. OUT of combat, though, they get MUCH better. Disfiguring Touch, for example, imparts a very minor penalty on an enemy you manage to touch... However, they also become hideously misshapen and stay that way for days. It’s useful to keep track of someone trying to flee or disguise themselves, and as blackmail against the vain and the prideful.

Greater Contagion prevents the victim from getting over the infection without magic; just sitting and waiting it out will do nothing, and neither will common medicines. No, only magic can fix this problem, and the DC to do so is increased by a whopping +5 to assure even skilled healers will have to put in extra effort. Best of all, though? Unlike normal Contagion, you can use Greater Contagion from a range. Without components to reveal you, you can slap a victim with a terrible, debilitating illness out of nowhere. Timing it to some boast or proclamation they’re making will take way more of a toll on their morale (and the morale of anyone watching) than just hitting them with it immediately, and perhaps you can use it even more cleverly than that... Like, perhaps, waiting for two enemies of yours to exchange pleasantries or a handshake, or for one to get angry and begin yelling at the other...

Poison is impractical, as always. Most creatures will not be impacted by its effects enough to make a difference in battle, and out of battle, if you need someone dead it’s quicker and more practical to just knife them than to let Poison tick away for 6 entire rounds they’ll likely spend calling for help.

——

Shiggarreb, the Marauding Maw Qlippoth Lord of Forbidden Magic and Wartime Atrocities Domains: Chaos, Evil, Magic, War Subdomains: Arcane, Blood, Fear, Tactics

Obedience: Study texts on the tactics of war, particularly those involving the use of powerful magic Benefit: Gain a +1 profane bonus to your Armor Class. 

Wait, who? Shiggarreb? Who in the world-- hold on let me just check something...

[Sound of a book opening]

huh. Well I’d like to say that this is a bit erroneous, given how Yamasoth has canonically been working on Golarion for thousands of years. Shiggareb is apparently important enough to Golarion earn a spot in the Book of the Damned, too! But where’s HER stats? also come on, Paizo, you can’t just tease me with a title like “the Engima Clot!” Where’s THAT things Obedience?! Where’s all THOSE details???!!!

Kinda weird that Shiggy’s title apparently changed between Bestiary 6 and the CBotD, too. Hmm. Anyway, this Obedience is so pathetically easy to both perform and keep hidden that it’s barely worth elaborating on; even if someone DID get weirded out by your passionate interest in Fighting Good (a useful skill on any adventuring party), at worst all you’ll have to do is swap the covers of your book with a different one. The most effort you’d have to put into it is making sure you don’t devolve into one of those weirdos that’s worryingly obsessed with World War II. You technically don’t even have to get different books; you can read the same ones over and over to commit them to memory.

The benefit you gain far exceeds the amount of effort you put into it, though. For one hour of study a day you, too, can enjoy a free +1 to your AC that maintains itself when you’re flatfooted, or even asleep, and stacks with more or less every other kind of armor bonus you can get your wicked little mitts on. The only letdown is that it’s +1 instead of +2, but one feat with simple entry requirements for +2 AC is pushing the boundaries of balance a bit too much.

Boon 1: Aid 2/day Boon 2: Curse Terrain 2/day Boon 3: Greater Heroism 2/day

Y’know, for a demigod of forbidden magic, there’s little forbidden magic here. Curse Terrain is pretty good, but you are not immune to the effects of your own hazards, and the full rules of the spell require the use of no less than three separate tabs because it’s a particularly infuriating example of “this spell works as [X],” but X in this case is not a spell but a curse in a completely separate part of the book (and which the spell page does not link to for whatever reason), which in turn requires you to know environmental hazards, which are in different books/tabs entirely, again with no convenient links.

hwoof.

At least its monstrous area of effect (an entire mile) means you’re unlikely to stumble into your own traps before someone else does, and it makes holding an area from invading enemies much easier, especially since you can use it twice and its effects stack with each other. They only last for 1 day, but without needing the material components, you can just layer them over and over again to make attackers miserable.

Aid’s only real benefit past levels 4 or 5 is that it lasts for minutes at a time and grants some emergency HP, but y’know if you don’t really have anything else to do with your actions before a fight, you may as well layer it on top of whatever buffs someone already has. Greater Heroism, on the other hand, offers a much more impressive +4 to attack rolls, skill checks, AND saves, ON TOP of complete immunity to fear and a generous scoop of temporary HP. With a duration of 1 minute/level and the fact it benefits skill checks, it’s a wonderful spell to have available. It’s boring, but it’s practical, and it’s never not useful whether you’re in combat or just need an extra few numbers for your skill checks.

——

Thuskchoon, the Everglutton Qlippoth Lord of Blinding Hunger and Revealed Secrets Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Knowledge Subdomains: Catastrophe, Entropy, Rage, Thought

Obedience: Destroy something someone else created, working the whole hour to wreck the object as much as possible. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against area effects that deal hit point damage. 

Another Obedience that’s simple to perform, as all things are things someone else created. If you want to be especially pedantic, you could claim that the world itself and all things upon it count for the purpose of this Obedience because the Gods created it. That all living creatures are born, and thus created by someone else. That interpretation, however, will likely get glares and rolled eyes.

Still, though, if you have a material object, you have an item someone else created. An extra weapon, a suit of armor, a set of dice, a deck of cards... A standard adventurer’s kit has enough items in it to sustain your Obedience for weeks at a time, because there’s no written limit to how small the item can be. You can smash copper coins or individual beads on a necklace if you want, though your DM may just have Thuskchoon revoke your blessings until you destroy something larger.

Hell, you don’t even really have to be an adventurer to fuel this Obedience. You can buy a stack of cheap wooden plates and smash them each day after day, or even get something as simple as a single sheet of woven fabric and slice it to ribbons. It’s super easy to do, is what I’m saying. You won’t even look particularly Evil if someone walks in on your ritual, just kinda weird!

As for that effect, this helps against things like area-hitting traps, draconic breath weapons, and damaging auras. There’s a LOT of effects this helps you avoid, to the point I’d put it on a pedestal above most other benefits because of how often it’s likely to come up in an adventurer’s life.

Boon 1: Shatter 2/day Boon 2: Hunger for Flesh 2/day Boon 3: Legend Lore 2/day

Well right away I’m severely disappointed with Legend Lore as a spell being offered here. I covered its uses and benefits in my article on Shyka, but its vanilla version is simply far too cumbersome to use with any regularity, taking days or even weeks to cast it when--as an adventurer--it would be often much easier to just go look for whatever you’re trying to research. The only real benefit beyond what the Plot demands is that it gives you something to do with your downtime between big missions, drifting through the waters in search of plot hooks. 

Both Shatter and Hunger for Flesh are also rather underwhelming spells. Shatter in particular being overly-specific in its wording in a way that makes it unnecessarily cumbersome when using (the DM will have to calculate the weight of every glass item in the spell’s area of effect). Aside from being able to cast it without components and thus being able to shatter windows from across the room without drawing attention to yourself, a thrown weapon will do mostly the same job. There IS the plus that you can also focus the spell on a singular item to destroy it, but that item can’t be magical and can’t weigh more than 10 pounds per caster level.

... Actually, now that I think about it, being able to shatter a 100+ pound item without making any moves is a lot more useful than I was originally giving it credit for. Hm. Perhaps I should put more thought into this...

OR

I could talk about how fun it is to slap Hunger for Flesh on someone out of the blue when they’re having a polite chat with a friend! It’s quite good in battle, actually, acting as a nice, fat stagger against a victim with a 25% chance to make them lose their intended action in favor of hauling off and biting the closest member of their race. However, it’s limited to targeting Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids and is entirely negated by a Will save, AND it gives them a bonus bite attack to stretch their full attack actions even wider.

Yes I mentioned it was a stagger, BUT if they manage to deal damage with their bite attack the stagger falls off until the end of their next turn. It’s a GREAT Save or Suck spell, especially at higher levels when enemies losing half their actions each round can mean death for them, but its limited choice of targets makes it far less useful than it could be. No plaguing dragons with unending hunger.

——

Yamasoth, the Polymorph Plague

Here! (gore and body horror in the link)

[monstersdownthepath]

I spent a while worried that Chavazvug was gonna get sniped by tumblrs Good Christian Bots, but it looks like he's dodged their fire so far!

[monstersdownthepath]

Chavazvug's hatred of demons is so intense and all-consuming that he's the only Qlippoth Lord that will willingly give mortals the time of day so long as they're also in the business of killing demons and their worshipers. He claims he doesn't care if his faithful live or die, but Repose is one of his divine Domains, and he's one of the few Evil-aligned deities with True Resurrection in his greasy belt that will freely use it to restore his allies... though anyone brought back in such a way always comes back with complications.

Chavazvug is also the only Qlippoth Lord that freely fights on the front lines, relishing in the opportunity to personally slaughter demons. Because of this, he's also the one that dies the most, but his Rejuvenation sees him reborn again and again every 1d10 days unless the bile lakes he regenerates from are all found and destroyed.

EDIT: Kinda weird that Chavaz dies to demons at all, because he can actually only take lethal damage from Lawful sources. Hmm.

[monstersdownthepath]

Okay, been a hot minute since you covered all these boys, but something I noticed is that all the Horsemen of the Apocalypse have something called "Apocalyptic Resurrection" listed under their defensive abilities, but I can't find anything elaborating on that. Any idea? (I actually recall noticing this before but I either never got around to asking or can't find your response (if the latter sorry lol))

ALL fiendish demigods in a have a similar ability; the Horsemen have Apocalyptic Resurrection, the Archdevils have Infernal Resurrection, the Demon Lords have Abyssal Resurrection, etc. It's an ability that transports their remains to their lair restores them, as True Resurrection, but it only works once per year (The only exception i recall is Qlippoth Lord Chavazvug, who regenerates every 1d10 DAYS). Most of the time, killing them again while their rez is on cooldown kills them for good. instead of being located in their stat block, these abilities are located waaaaay down at the bottom of the Bestiaries, where the traits of each type/subtype are clarified.

[monstersdownthepath]

I got asked for pics of all the dateable Qlippoth Lords, so here you are! Each are captioned, so click them go get that sweet, sweet closeup of them.

gore, body horror, and unsanitary warning on Chavazvug, though (third one on the top row), because he’s made of coils and coils and coils of fresh, writhing intestines.

[monstersdownthepath]

Qlippoth Lords Ranked from Least to Most Dateable

5) Thuskchoon: Barely sapient, and thus cannot consent to a date. A shame, too, because he’s also the most huggable-looking of all the Qlippoth.

4) Yamasoth: I wouldn’t recommend it, but there’s definitely potential for a good time with Yamasoth. A date with him is a truly transformative experience, but it’s a complete coin toss as to how things turn out.

3) Chavazvug: Dashing, and one of the least antagonistic of all the Qlippoth (towards mortals), but is completely married to his work, and almost every conversation with him leads to him describing a different wartime atrocity he’s committed against the demons. Has some extreme racism towards demons and all of their kin; tieflings don’t interact. 

2) Ouar-Ooung: A delightful lady. Some may hesitate to date a woman who has so many children, but Ouar-Ooung is welcoming and warm and will gladly invite another person into her ever-growing family. She’s also tall enough to get anything off any shelf, even a shelf three blocks over, so that’s a bonus. 

1) Isph-Aun-Vuln: You’re already dating her, you just don’t know it yet.

[monstersdownthepath]

Fire is one of the most common types of damage in Pathfinder, and it’s easy to see why. Fireball, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, and other such things make quick work of a lot of encounters, so it’s no surprise that many high CR beings have some kind of resistance or immunity to fire.

when I say “many,” I mean “it’s easier to list the high-level monsters that don’t have fire resistance.” Not only that, but fire is something of a common method of inflicting harm on both sides of the table, as a great many monsters have some power over flames and direct them against the player party.

But of course, anything with power over fire is useless against a being immune to it… Right? Not always. Go high up enough in the CR listings, and you start finding beasties with methods of getting around this supposed weakness. Creatures who can set fire on fire. Buffing the frontline fighter with elemental resistance is all but useless against beings like…

• Chavazvug, the Crawling Inferno, a Qlippoth Lord whose primary prey is demons, all of which have resistance or immunity to fire. Unfortunately for the hideous Abyssal hordes, gazing upon Chavazvug triggers his Horrific Appearance, forcing a will save vs a permenant curse that halves fire resistance and strips away fire immunity completely.

• Zeliskar, the Bitter Flame, a daemonic horror with the body of a cat but the heat of a volcano. Zelishkar’s namesake Bitter Flames ability causes half of all fire damage it caused to be treated as untyped damage, bypassing resistance entirely. In addition, anyone grappled by the daemon has their fire resistance and immunity stripped away, taking full damage from his blazing aura.

• And finally Archdevil Moloch. As if his existence as a gigantic, spike-covered, armored monstrosity that dual-wields adamantine weapons wasn’t enough of an excuse to stay as far away from him as possible, his Hellfire Furnace causes half of all his fire damage to be treated as untyped damage, much like Zelishkar above. Unlike Zelishkar, Moloch cannot steal away someone’s immunity to fire, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if he swallowed you into his inner furnace, where the fires burn so intensely that they can cause intense and overwhelming agony in any being trapped inside, regardless of any immunities they may have.