Tarry Demodand

Also known as a farastu, the tarry demodand is “the grunt of the demodand army”—which, as the Bestiary 3 points out, tells you something about the demodands’ might as a whole, if their grunts are CR 13.  Capable of mowing down demons with their twin masterwork short swords, tarry demodands regard most mortals as little threat.  Whether serving as soldiers of the titans (in Pathfinder), as the multiverse’s prison guards (in 3.5’s Great Wheel cosmology), or pursuing their own dark ends, they are agile and inventive threats.

Pyrehenge has been snuffed out.  The famous druid stone circle with its ever-burning flame in the center has been attacked by tarry demodands.  The fiends hope to pillage the secrets of the druids’ green magic so that their race can be even more prolific.  Their faith-stealing strikes are particularly effective against the divine defenders.

The Firenzi Academy teaches a unique style of fencing, combining the two-handed Valyrian saber technique with an approach that favors improvised and other weapons, especially tanglefoot bags.  Only upon gaining their brown sashes do students learn that their fencing style reflects the natural abilities of the true master of the school: a tarry demodand.  Of course, they only learn this as they are being transported to the Abyss for their transformation into fiendish servitors and soldiers.

Betrayed and gassed into insensibility by a devil, adventurers awaken in a cell to the taunting laughter of a toothy, bat-winged beast dripping tar from every pore.  The good news is they are alive.  The bad news, as they will come to discover, is that they are in a prison, caged in a maze with the Planes’ forgotten hostages and misfits—and with a skeleton crew of tarry demodands as their jailors.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 3 71

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