Tuesday, May 15, 2012

New Monster - Infant Obscenity (Plague Demon)


The bastards had done it. The cultists had summoned a demon before we could stop them. Not just any demon, but a Plague Demon, an Infant Obscenity, right in the middle of an orphanage. The wailing cacophony of cries from the mass of dead and dying infants was nearly impossible to bear, and Noree suffered the worst of it, breaking and running for the exit. For the rest of us the sound made it feel as if we were walking through mud. Beorn's ears began to bleed just as his blade sank deep into the beast.

Several of the children huddled around the edges of the room began showing immediate signs of illness, one even coughed up thick bloody chunks and died on the spot. We had to stop this thing.

Plague Demon - Infant Obscenity

# Encountered: 1
Alignment: Chaos (evil)
Move: 90 (30)
AC: 0
Hit Dice: 13 + 13
Attacks: 2 (fist), see below
Special Attacks & Defenses: see below
Damage: 2d8 + disease
Save: F13
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: XVI in lair only, none otherwise.
XP: 6,000

Truly a horror to behold, one of the major plague demons, the Infant Obscenity appears as a shambling mass of babies in various stages of necrotic decay displaying numerous diseases and infections. The mass of infants cries perpetually and can be heard up to a half mile distant. The primary focus of this demon is to spread disease to infants and to bring about terrible plagues of infant mortality as it wanders.

Three times per day the creature may "wail" as if hundreds of infants cried at one time in horrible anguish. This will affect anyone within 120 feet. Those who save vs Petrify/Paralyze are slowed to half speed as long as they remain within 120 feet of the creature. Those who fail the save must flee in fear for 2d4 rounds.

The demon can be struck by normal weapons since part of its purpose is to spread plague, and injury to it often results in just such an event.

Anyone striking the creature with a melee attack causes gouts of puss, and bile to explode forth, causing all within 30 feet to save vs poison of contract a disease (DMs may wish to roll randomly from a table of their own design or just pick one) which incubates immediately. The victim also becomes a carrier of the disease, spreading it wherever they travel unless treated with Cure Disease followed by Remove Curse.

The creature regenerates 5 hit points per round unless a cleric succeeds at a turn attempt against infernal creatures, preventing further regeneration.

It is immune to sleep, hold, and charm spells. Cold based spells slow the creature, but also improve its AC by 2. Raise Dead cast on the creature slays it outright if it fails a save vs Death.

As with all demons it has the following abilities:
Infravision (90E)
Half damage from cold-based attacks
Half damage from electrical-based attacks
Half damage from fire-based attacks (all)
Half damage from gas-type attacks
Gate (varies in expression, not available to lower order demons)
Telepathy (allows all languages to be understood)
Teleport without error (not available to lower order demons)

Attacks by the Infant Obscenity are by "fist" which is a mass formed of infants. Such hits force a save vs poison. Failure indicates infection by disease.

The Plague Demon can detect invisible creatures within 120 feet on a roll of 1-4 on a d6.

Slaying the demon remands it to its plane of origin for one year and a day.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

I absolutely love this monster idea. Not in a "man that's so gross it's awesome" way either. I mean it, it's a really cool creature.

I would have gone with Vulgus Infantium, latin-ish for Mob of Infants.

Keep up the good work.

OSRbaron said...

Hey Matt, Thanks for the compliments on this beastie. I like the idea for the Latin-ish name. I think it might be the kind of thing Demonologists and Sages might use, or might be the name for it some great tome about such creatures.