Hezrou

Hezrous are brutes, but they come from the souls of poisoners—not the subtle poisoners employed by assassins’ guilds the worlds over, but the careless, indiscriminate poisoners: polluters, drug pushers and addicts, and placebo hawkers.  The woman who kills with an envenomed dirk becomes a babau; the mad who poisons an entire well to avenge one grudge becomes a hezrou.

The locals may call it Hell’s Swamp, but it’s demons and daemons that shape its deadly reputation.  It’s a war of amphibian fiends as hezrous, working through boggard and lizardfolk factotums, battle hydrodaemons and each other.  The reason is the weaver mushroom, a supremely rare, stringy, and lethal fungi that affects even outsiders.

A prolific inventor has just cut the ribbon on a factory to produce dragonfly-shaped ornithopters.  The metallic and magical wastes spilling from the edifice threaten the willow dryads downstream. They send emissaries to plead with the well-meaning but careless inventor, but the hezrou who has been whispering in his ear is determined that the corruption will continue.

A village births ogrekin and mongrelman children almost as often as human and halfling ones, through no fault of its own—it has the misfortunate to lie downstream from a gang of hezrous, stranded in the mortal realm for the past two generations.  But the high incidence of deformities also calls to the skum and their dark masters, who now eye the village and the demons with interest…

—Pathfinder Bestiary 62

Not being a 1st Ed. AD&D player, I was never inducted into the world of the type II demon.  (I do remember the croaking demon/fiend, though!)  As much as I am a monster taxonomist, I can see the appeal of an era where a demon was a demon, with only the DM needing to know the difference.

(Should I make the switch to writing “1e” vs. “1st Ed.”?  I’m starting to feel like a fuddy-duddy.  Oh God, I feel like a fuddy-duddy just typing the words “fuddy-duddy.”)

Something I should have mentioned last week: It’s always nice to see your friends succeed.  Especially when the place they succeed is Adult Swim.  Hell yeah, J. & A.

Speaking of which, I’m happy to report that this week’sedition of The New Indie Canon was a return to form: a tight two hours of great new music, including new Wye Oak, Pet Shop Boys, and Blur(!).  (Okay, okay, so there is also, a cringe-inducing 40 seconds of silence in the middle.  Pretend that didn't happen.  Concentrate on the Blur.)  Anyway, download it.

‎(Music starts about 17 seconds into the file. If the feed skips, load in Firefox or Chrome, Save As an mp3, and enjoy in iTunes. Link good until Friday, 7/13, at midnight.)