Demon, Vermlek

A hideous, pale, wormlike head pushes violently up and out of a corpulent man’s body.

Vermlek CR 3

XP 800
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init –1; Senses blindsense 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, –1 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 30 (4d10+8)
Fort +8, Ref +0, Will +5
Defensive Abilities abandon flesh, flesh armor, negative energy affinity; DR 5/cold iron or good; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 14

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., burrow 20 ft.
Melee longsword +6 (1d8+2/19–20), bite +1 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks inhabit body
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +4)

3/daymass inflict light wounds (DC 16), spider climb
1/daygentle repose, summon (level 2, 1d4 dretches 50%)

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 9, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 15
Feats Deceitful, Great Fortitude
Skills Bluff +10, Disguise +10 (+18 when inhabiting a corpse), Escape Artist +6 (+14 when not inhabiting a corpse), Knowledge (religion) +8, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8, Use Magic Device +8; Racial Modifiers +8 Disguise when inhabiting a corpse, +8 Escape Artist when not inhabiting a corpse
Languages Abyssal, Common; telepathy 100 ft.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Abandon Flesh (Su)

As a swift action, a vermlek can abandon an inhabited body, crawling hideously out of its host and leaving behind an empty sack of skin and bits of gristle. In so doing, it absorbs much of the body’s flesh to heal itself, regaining 2d6+3 hit points. A vermlek cannot later reclaim this body with its inhabit body ability.

Flesh Armor (Su)

When a vermlek inhabits a humanoid body (see Inhabit Body below), it treats the dead flesh and muscle as armor, gaining a +3 armor bonus to its AC.

Inhabit Body (Su)

A vermlek can crawl into the body of any dead Medium humanoid, consuming and replacing the bulk of the humanoid’s skeleton and internal organs as it does so.

This process takes 1d4 rounds, during which the vermlek is flat-footed. Once the process is complete, the vermlek appears for all practical purposes to be a living but hideously obese version of the previous humanoid—it gains a +8 racial bonus on Disguise checks to appear as a normal humanoid while wearing a dead body in this manner, but does not gain any of the abilities that the dead creature had in life, including natural attacks, unusual movement types, or natural armor.

It loses its own burrow speed while inhabiting a body but gains the ability to wield weapons or wear armor shaped for humanoids (although the armor bonus granted by wearing armor does not stack with the bonus granted by the vermlek’s flesh armor ability).

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Abyss; battlefields or graveyards)
Organization solitary or nest (2–10)
Treasure standard (longsword, other treasure)

Vermleks form from the souls of those who habitually violated the dead in life, such as grave robbers, necromancers, and necrophiles. Demonic armies often use them as disposable troops in war, with vermleks inhabiting the bodies of slain humanoid enemies to infiltrate and destroy any surviving humanoids from within their own society. When inhabiting bodies, vermleks tend to mutter and mumble rather than speaking clearly, as they know that a keen eye that peers into the body’s mouth can swiftly discern the horrible truth within.

Despite the fact that they are often used as battleground troops, vermleks have little taste for war and, left alone, prefer to live in hiding among humanoids on the Material Plane. There, disguised as laborers like gravediggers or dung sweepers, they can revel in their ghoulish, taboo lusts.

Outside of a host body, a vermlek appears as a worm with four long tails, each of which ends in a tangle of filaments.

In this form, the demon is 7 feet long and weighs 90 pounds.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 6 © 2017, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Robert Brookes, Benjamin Bruck, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, James Jacobs, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, Jason Keeley, Isabelle Lee, Jason Nelson, Tim Nightengale, F. Wesley Schneider, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Todd Stewart, Josh Vogt, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

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