Piscodaemon

Part lobster, part octopus, part human—so if you dug DavyJones in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, you’ll dig these piscodaemons.  The personification of death by poison (according to Horsemen of the Apocalypse) they also enjoy spreading other forms of slow death—bleeding out, dying of thirst or hunger at sea, drowning drawn out as long as possible, and so forth.  They’re likely to be accompanied by hydrodaemons, and their Con-damaging poison is a remarkable way of softening up armored paladins and fighters—ideally for further poisoning, starving, gutting, or drowning later.  And if the unfortunate knights abandon their faiths and damn their souls due to the torment, so much the better…

Piscodaemons hate cavaliers almost as much as they hate paladins, particularly the Orders of the Shield and Star.  When the Stars of Evening fall prey to death and madness due to cuttlefish poison—despite being many days’ ride from the sea—investigation reveals a sewer-dwelling piscodaemon is responsible.

A crusade in sun-baked holy land pits the worshippers of two gods against each other.  But the gods themselves have no stake in the conflict, and as the bloodshed increases, they turn their eyes from the field of battle (denying all non-healing magic above 2nd level to the crusaders).  Adventurers arrive with documents that could bring peace.  But they’re not the only new arrivals—an army of hydrodaemons led by piscodaemons surges up from the beach to harvest as many souls as possible while the gods’ backs are turned.  Already taxed by the heat, months of battle, and lack of spells, the heavily armored warriors are especially vulnerable to the watery daemons.

A red tide spreads blight and death, as do the fiendish sea drakes that follow in its wake. Both are the work of a knot of piscodaemons of exceptional power.  A group of adventurers is “approached”—attempted kidnapping is a more accurate description—by the faceless stalker servants of an intelligent devilfish cleric.  As his city is suffering a similar assault, the cleric proposes a pact of mutual aid…but that means traveling to his undersea home and allying with the servants of dark gods.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 72

For 3.5 fans who own the Book of Vile Darkness or Stormwrack, piscodaemons could easily serve Yeathan, demigod of drowning, aquatic calamities, watery death, and dark water.