monstersdownthepath

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Rust Devil

CR 12

Lawful Evil Medium Outsider

Adventure Path: Hell's Rebels: The Kintargo Contract, pg. 82-83

Also known as Ferrugon in the language of Hell, Rust Devils are typically found in the infernal cities of Dis, where they view themselves as gardeners of the great iron constructs erected by the endless toil of breaking souls. They flit from building to building like tetanus-filled gargoyles, using their at-will Make Whole to fix any breaks they may see and their 3/day Fabricate and Major Creation to whip up new features and decorations in accordance with their own aesthetic sensibilities. You may be scratching your chin by now as you read this, wondering where all the rust is supposed to be coming in, and there's a bit of... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... iron-y here, because Ferrugons are actually responsible for creative acts and playing the role of muses and inspiration for mortals in need of an artistic spark.

Ferrugon prefer acts of creation rather than destruction, but acts OF creation which LEAD TO destruction are their absolute favorites. This is primarily done with their Vainglorious Whisper, an incredibly dangerous ability as-written because of a few missing lines of text. Once per round as a swift action, the Rust Devil can whisper into an adjacent creature's mind, infecting them with delusional pride; the victim gets +4 to saves against fear, but takes a -4 penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls, caster level checks, and skill checks, and they cannot perform any defensive action (such as withdrawing, casting defensively, or using any healing on themselves). This pride is so powerful that a victim of it will be forced to make saving throws against any incoming healing effects, viewing them as unneeded, potentially dooming someone suffering from its bleed, but we'll get to that in a moment!

Why did I bold "incredibly" up there? Because as-written, there's no per-day limit to the number of times the devil can use Vainglorious Whispers, no 24-hour immunity clause, no duration, and no stated way to remove it. The Rust Devil can try round after round to give someone destructive pride until it finally sticks, and then the victim is stuck with that effect forever unless the DM rules that Dispel Magic, Break Enchantment, or similar removes it. It took until they reappeared in Second Edition for their whispers to gain any form of limit! If you're a DM hoping to use them, I'd install those limits into the 1e version; the whispers can only target a creature once on a given day, it's a curse effect, and it falls off an arbitrary amount of time later (such as an hour, a day, or until the victim is reduced to 0 HP).

Even without their whispers, Ferrugon are formidable enemies once discovered and forced into combat. As their name may suggest, anyone in melee with them should be as scared as they would be while fighting a Rust Monster at lower levels, as their stated preference when fighting is to utilize their Greater Sunder feat to shatter weapons and armor alike, potentially robbing players of the gear they've worked all adventure to maintain. They have Heat Metal at-will to punish anyone in armor and can use Rusting Grasp 3/day for destroying anything they do not wish to waste time sundering, though Rusting Grasp isn't especially scary for players at this level in anything but low-wealth campaigns, as it has no effect on magical metal. Neither does their at-will Shatter, though the chaos both Shatter and Rusting Grasp can cause to NPCs or across industrial zones is enormous, and a DM wishing to add some environmental hazards can have them introduced or exacerbated by the Rust Devil shattering an important support beam or rusting a weight-bearing chain.

Among their spells that are actually dangerous to a party around level 8~10 is a 3/day Suggestion and Wall of Iron, the former probably convincing someone to sit out of the fight while the latter makes a more forceful argument that some people should just stay out of this particular battle. Able to fly with a 60ft speed, Ferrugon aren't inconvenienced by their conjured walls, and trying to shoot them down without a weapon that can't pierce their DR 10/Good is basically wasting everyone's time. They've also got both high saves (+15/+13/+10) and 23 Spell Resistance, making most forms of magic less than reliable against them... but ironically (and weirdly), their Metallic body is actually vulnerable to being rusted, meaning Rusting Grasp damages them as though they were a ferrous construct, and any ability or effect which specifically affects metal also affects them.

This is dangerous for them, because they quite enjoy being in melee to affect victims with their whispers and pulverize them with Full-Attacks, but in order to rust them away, one must survive this Full-Attack first. Their two slam attacks deal a modest 1d8+6 damage each, but the real danger is their Slashing Wings, the razor-sharp feathers hitting twice in a Full-Attack and slicing 2d6+6 damage from their targets. Not only is their damage formidable, but they threaten critical strikes on 17 and higher, inflict 1d4 bleed damage, and infect anyone they strike with Scarlet Tetanus, a diabolic breed of tetanus that afflicts victims immediately upon failing a DC 23 Fortitude save, dinging their Dexterity for 1d4, draining 1 point of Con, and having a 50% chance of locking the victim's jaw up and preventing them from speaking or eating without immense difficulty. The disease ticks every 24 hours, meaning escape from the Ferrugon isn't the end of the pain it causes, though by this level the party hopefully has a means to cure the devilish disease. Every other commoner struck, however, is less than lucky.

The feathers are only slightly less dangerous from a range, as the devil can flick upwards to four of them out as a standard action every single round. Each feather deals only 1d6+6 damage, but they also have a crit range of 19-20 and afflict the struck victim with Scarlet Tetanus. Unlike the devil's whispers, there is an immediate and obvious sign that Scarlet Tetanus has affected a victim, allowing a Ferrugon focusing on spreading its sickness to focus its feather attacks against a single target, forcing them to make the DC 23 save four times a round, every round, until they're infected (or dead from the damage) before targeting someone else. That's only if it really wants to spread its disease for whatever reason; the most likely case is that the devil will simply affect every spellcaster it can see to force them to toss a coin at the risk of losing 70% of their spellbook for the day.

The feathers are just the backup, as the Ferrugon love being in melee far more, where their 27 AC and hefty DR prevent most enemies from harming them. They also have 5 points of Regeneration suppressed only by damage from a source of Good, but this healing is also suppressed if they're exposed to a rusting effect, so somehow turning their Rusting Grasp back around on them will not only deal some fair damage, but render them vulnerable to death for a round!

Ferrugon, like many higher level devils, are excellent background threats and final bosses. They prey on mortals seeking to master their craft, gifting those they favor with powerful infernal contracts which inspire astonishing creativity in the signee, not only improving their ability to perform their craft but making it cheaper for them to do so as they find new ways to work more efficiently! Most mortals, though, they curse with Vainglorious Whispers and sabotage with their spells, causing endless despair in their victims as the poor souls believe their projects are failing because of their own faults... and hey, if they really need help, if their vision is truly too important to let languish in the halls of their mind, the Ferrugon is there with a contract in one hand and a pen in the other.

True mastery of your craft is one signature away.

You can read more about them here.

[monstersdownthepath]

Idea

The first Asmodean wager, the ritual,involved a fiddle contest, with the winner getting a fiddle made of gold as his reward.

------

The downside is, unfortunately, that doing the ritual at all makes you Lawful Evil, so Asmodeus wins the long game no matter what. A musically-gifted soul for a worthless golden fiddle is a trade he would make any time of the day.

[monstersdownthepath]

Ah, you are correct; I was misremembering.

"Saint Fang’s death, the second in a painfully short timeframe, was slower and more terrible. The great dragon was toyed with by the greater god and eaten bite by bite over the course of several weeks in a fight that was no fight at all, but rather an undignified slaughter."

War of Immortals, pg. 49, for those curious. I had also forgotten that Smiad's arms were not broken, but torn off entirely after his sword shattered to pieces when failing to harm Dahak. Presumably, his arms and the fragments of his sword are divine artifacts somewhere in the world, but who knows what good they'll do anyone!

The death of Smiad the Dragonslayer, the Empyreal Lord of Dragon Slaying, a guy whose entire deal is Slaying Evil Dragons, is so darkly ironic that it loops from a tragedy into a comedy, and also serves as a good illustration for the unbelievable gulf of power between gods and demigods. During the chaos of Godsrain, he recruited Gorum's divine servitor, a metal dragon known as Saint Fang, to kill as many evil dragons as possible before the dust settled.

Unfortunately, they drew the attention of Dahak, god of evil dragons, who used the cover of Godsrain to appear before the two and kill them with basically zero effort.

Saint Fang was consumed instantly, and poor Smiad the Dragonslayer, Slayer of Dragons, a demogod whose whole deal is "slay dragons" and whose entire powerset revolves around how good he is at Slaying Dragons, didn't even scratch Dahak's scales when he shattered both his arms swinging his weapon into the dragon god's side. Dahak didn't even give Smiad the dignity of dying to his breath weapon, and slew him with his claws.

[monstersdownthepath]

Ever heard of Hell Girl?

I can totally see a devil or an Infernal Duke offering something like the Hell Correspondence to mortals as a quick way to gather souls

If you don't know Hell Girl,here's an explanation

If you visit the Hell Correspondence website at just the right time and enter the name of someone you want to damn to Hell (if I remember correctly) the Hell Girl and her minions will appear and give you s black straw doll with a red thread around the neck. If you pull the thread, the person you cursed is killed and damned to Hell, but the cost is, you will also be damned to Hell when you die.

I could see it being a type of diabolic contract. They take one soul in exchange for yours, with no loopholes aside from divine intervention.

-----

I'm afraid that's another hard sell. You can contract devils to carry out assassinations all day and night, that's common! However, to have a devil drag an innocent person's soul to Hell and keep it there for eternity? That simply doesn't happen in Pathfinder. Often.

Skipping the Courts of Purgatory is a BIG cosmic no-no, and while demons and daemons may not care, the devils at least pretend to play fair, and thus the souls of innocents who are bound for other afterlives are usually allowed to leave Hell unless the devils think they can get away with keeping them. If devils could just skip the waiting line, they wouldn't work so hard to get their hooks into people and corrupt them beyond redemption!

Now, there are ways to skip the waiting line already, including the Ebon Acolytus, the Malediction spell, and most infamously Hellfire Ray, but all these methods will draw the ire of the Boneyard against both the mortal using them and the fiends receiving the souls, who will send a polite correspondence to the fiend in possession of a soul that doesn't belong to them commanding its release. If the soul isn't released to a proper afterlife, THEN the attacks begin as the forces of the Boneyard mobilize against the fiend, either directly via hunting psychopomps, indirectly via sneaking infiltrators to pilfer the soul, or by using agents in the universe to begin exacting their toll upon the fiend's mortal servants to force their hand. Sooner or later, one way or another, the error is corrected.

Only archfiends tend to have the power needed to hold onto improperly-sorted souls; anything less typically falls to the forces of fate. The only reason they get away with it at all is because... well... a lot is happening in the universe. Those three line-skippers above I mentioned cause a lot of chaos; it takes a while for the error of a missing soul to be spotted, then the soul must be located, THEN the fiend holding the soul must be contacted, and if the contact doesn't work, a plan to retrieve the soul must be made, and further plans must be constructed if the first one doesn't work. In the bureaucratic courts, it may take a while for an imprisoned soul to be freed, but one way or another it will happen, if not by the psychopomps themselves, then by the agents of other gods who are alerted to the soul-stealing. If your Duke is going around stealing the souls of high-ranking worshipers of Good-aligned deities, it won't be very long until he's confronted by one of them directly, at which point Asmodeus is more likely to hold up his hands and back away than to intervene, because he's been playing fair this whole time. As far as anyone knows.

... that's a lot of paragraphs, but this awoke something in me. If you really wanted it to work, you could skip the direct involvement of fiends altogether and make it a ritual that a mortal can perform themselves, condemning themselves and their target to a lower plane. Malediction and Hellfire Ray are allowed to work because they're the result of mortal choice, both damning the user for using them and giving the fiends receiving the souls a bit of plausible deniability, especially in the case of devils, who appreciate and exploit the existence of loopholes. If a devil is found to have a soul that isn't supposed to be there and confronted by the psychopomps, they can just hold it out at arm's length and go "Goodness gracious! I had no idea! Honest and truly, I thought this one was mine! Please, take it and put it where it belongs! I'll be sure to tell my followers to stop blasting people with evil beams!" while silently cursing the fact they were caught cheating.

Now, much like Malediction and Hellfire Ray, there's nothing stopping there from being an archfiend who simply knows the ritual, and happens to leave scrolls of it around in old dungeons and happens to tell its mortal worshipers that they exist. Why, this fiend may even retrieve the scroll FOR them if promised a juicy enough deal! But it's up to the mortal to actually use the power for themselves, allowing the fiend to wash its hands of the incident if it's actually caught by the Boneyard by going "I was just helping this mortal here achieve some revenge! It's their fault, not mine!"

[monstersdownthepath]

Is it too weird to imagine Smiad looking like Dragonslayer Orienstien? The guy from Dark Souls.

-----

What, this guy? This shining golden figure?

Swap out his lance for a greatsword, give him wings, and you could probably pass him off as Smiad, yeah.

[monstersdownthepath]

The death of Smiad the Dragonslayer, the Empyreal Lord of Dragon Slaying, a guy whose entire deal is Slaying Evil Dragons, is so darkly ironic that it loops from a tragedy into a comedy, and also serves as a good illustration for the unbelievable gulf of power between gods and demigods. During the chaos of Godsrain, he recruited Gorum's divine servitor, a metal dragon known as Saint Fang, to kill as many evil dragons as possible before the dust settled.

Unfortunately, they drew the attention of Dahak, god of evil dragons, who used the cover of Godsrain to appear before the two and kill them with basically zero effort.

Saint Fang was consumed instantly, and poor Smiad the Dragonslayer, Slayer of Dragons, a demigod whose whole deal is "slay dragons" and whose entire powerset revolves around how good he is at Slaying Dragons, didn't even scratch Dahak's scales when he shattered both his arms swinging his weapon into the dragon god's side. Dahak didn't even give Smiad the dignity of dying to his breath weapon, and slew him with his claws.

[monstersdownthepath]

Ya know what's an unfilled niche for Sahkil?

Megalophobia. The fear of enormous things like massive structures and creatures like kaijus or the Oliphant of Jandalay.

------

I can tell you really like this idea, because you sent it four separate times today AND yesterday!

A mega-sahkil is definitely a topic not yet touched. Back in ye olden DND days, there was a third party book called the Immortals Bestiary, which was... not good, but had a TON of excellent ideas. One of them was the Nexus Dragon, an abstract spiral creature only really a dragon because of its scales, but one of its abilities made it appear to become larger and larger and larger every round until it swallowed the perspective of everyone looking at it and, essentially, became their entire universe. A Megalophobia sahkil could have a similar ability, growing larger in its targets perspective until it's all they can see.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Belker

CR 6

Neutral Evil Large Outsider

Bestiary 2, pg. 45

These wicked beasts hail from the Plane of Air, where they're usually found in service of Hshurha, the Elemental Lord of Air and a woman with a violent grudge against anything that impedes her vision. And I don't mean that in the figurative "she hates anyone who stands in the way of her ambitions," I mean it quite literally; Hshurha hates anything more solid than fog, and if something is too opaque for her to physically see through, she destroys it. The Belker here share this animosity towards all solid and liquid beings, attacking and killing any such being they see without hesitation, remorse, or mercy.

Despite their hatred for other elements, Belker ironically tend to "nest" in areas where some calamitous phenomenon just occurred which leaves the air laden with traces of other elements, such as a massive fire or volcanic eruption, or a huge storm, slaying any other living thing in "their" territory until they grow bored (or perhaps sated?) of the area and move on to the next. In addition, they are known to linger near areas where the air frequently fills with particulates, such as volcanic craters or even hot springs, making themselves dangerous menaces for anything else in the area. While many seem to believe this is because Belker feed on the "contaminants" in the air, it may also just be because they blend in better in areas where the air is often laden with clouds of smoke.

Belker's smoky bodies gives them a natural +16 to Stealth checks despite their size, and their perfect 50ft of fly speed means that most creatures simply won't see them coming until it's too late. They attack swiftly and without pause, coming as close to their targets as possible to cage their victims within their 10ft space and reach to Full-Attack them. Belker have a dizzying 5 attacks a round with their Full-Attack, and while the individual damage is low (1d6+2 for three of them, 1d6+1 for two), it racks up quickly, especially when critical hits start creeping in.

They're not super complex once a fight begins, and they aren't exactly intelligent enough to do much besides initiate a surprise round from above. They're not even really scary with their Flyby Attack, as the low base damage of their attacks and their lack of poison, curses, bleed, or Grab means Flyby Attack is just a waste of time for them when they could be setting up for their much more formidable Full-Attack. They aren't in a lot of danger at a range, as their DR 5 is insurmountable, taking the bite out of most ranged weapons and a decent chunk from melee weapons, especially the weapons and natural attacks of their typical victims (low-level travelers). Such are the perils of fighting smoke! But at least you don't have to ponder the mechanics of what would happen if you accidentally inhaled the thing.

... Hold on, I'm reading the statblock a little further, and it appears that there are, indeed, mechanics for what happens if you inhale the thing.

A Belker can manifest Smoke Claws within any creature that inhales a portion of its body, dealing an automatic 3d4 damage that cannot be avoided every round unless the creature succeeds a DC 17 Fortitude save to cough the smoke back out. Now, I know what you may be thinking: "Who would inhale a hostile smoke cloud anyway?" and the answer is "anyone in its space when it's in Smoke Form." Belker can assume Smoke Form as a swift action for upwards to 20 consecutive rounds a day, going from a threatening insectoid cloud to a nondescript plume of smoke which can fly at 50ft/round and whose DR rises to 10/Magic, effectively making it immune to nonmagical weapons. While in Smoke Form the Belker cannot attack, but it CAN force a portion of its body into the lungs of any creature who shares its space unless they succeed a DC 17 Fortitude save, exposing them to its Smoke Claws and 'pinning' itself to them, automatically moving with them every time they try and escape the cloud to keep shredding them from inside.

It's less damage than if it just Full-Attacked, but it's automatic damage that's difficult for most creatures to actually shrug off or fight back against, especially since the Belker has such high defenses while in Smoke Form, becoming immune to being flanked, critically struck, and all forms of precision damage. A victim may waste several rounds trying to strike the cloud, only for the blows to flow off its DR 10 as it continues to rip them apart from within. Even if they cough it out, it can do the same thing again next round to continue the pain train so long as it has rounds of Smoke Form left.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing it can do is similar to how some creatures fight with Statue on. Since assuming its Smoke Form is a swift action, it can Full-Attack before shifting into its defensive form to avoid reprisal from physical weapons. This DOES mean it can be damaged more easily every other round, but I doubt that means much for the poor saps in melee who just wasted time and effort batting uselessly at the cloud of gas after being hit for around 24 damage. Thankfully, despite its considerable physical defense, it has no magic defense, and anything that can harm or impede a creature in Gaseous Form will work just as well against a Belker in Smoke Form. In addition, a simple Oil of Magic Weapon makes its insubstantial state more vulnerable to weapon attacks as its AC goes from 20 to 14, though such attacks must still overcome its DR 5/--!

You can read more about them here.

[monstersdownthepath]

I make a lot of references to things in my drafts, so here's an incomplete list of what's in there so far:

--Homebrew Horror: Qlippoth Primordial, Aonarious

--Homebrew Horror: Underlord

--Spaghetti Staff

--Three more Homebrew Horror conversions of monsters from the Book of Unremitting Horror, refitted for the Golarion setting; one of them is a completely new creature inspired by a monster from the BoUH but which would not work in Golarion's setting due to a lack of technology, so I went a psychic route instead

--A homebrew for a symbiotic, psychic qlippoth that grants its host incredible psychic powers at the cost of inevitably mutating them into a horrific monster

--A homebrew for a boogeyman based on Pocket Cat from the game Fear and Hunger

--The aforementioned fey noble of beards and the fey noble of haircuts, as well as the Archfey known as the Harvest Lords

--A new Outer God: Hafemeriq, the Utopic Shepherd, and a Great Old One, Kalavall, the Fragrance Architect

--An artificial deity accidentally created by the Dominion of the Black: a Chaotic Evil Dominion Intelligence of Trepanation, Archives, and Psionics

--SEVERAL lists of half-ideas for deities, demigods, and monsters that I thought about and wrote down, but have yet to expand on. This includes the Empyreal Lord of Acupuncture, the Empyreal Lord of Meteors, and the Empyreal Lord of Sanitation and other unglamorous jobs which nonetheless need to be done.

--On one of the above lists, there's also mention of a daemon harbinger of death through sleep deprivation and the somnodaemons, which I had completely forgotten about until I made this post.

--Unfinished Monster Spotlights for: Maharishi Manu, Larabays, Enlightened Contemplatives

--Unfinished Spiritual Spotlights for: Brigh, Mestama, Alseta, Aldinach

And many, many more! hahah ahahaha help

[monstersdownthepath]

How would you make a Daemon harbinger that wants ol Trail Mix's status as Horseman of Famine? I know Creaturecodex has caracalla who's about inflation and price gouging. One I have is about winter and darkness; famine caused by endless snowfall,cold and denial of sunlight. Destroying ecosystems through winters most brutal aspects.

------

ironically, the same. I in fact have an Outer God with the same portfolio, a thus-far nameless entity I'm reworking, as its old incarnation drew too much influence from the W---igo. You can see its pictures and its old name here, though its title is the God of Extinction.

A deaemon that wants to supplant Famine outright is something I have not quite touched on, my closest is Molvulia, the Curdled Princess, who embodies death by food poisoning and sabotaged food, and is stated to covet the throne of Famine. The intentional destruction and infestation of edibles is her modus operandi, though a full replacement for the Horseman of Famine in my mind would likely be something similar to Caracalla, a being representing food hoarding and food destruction, forcing others to slave for just enough to survive, if that. The least subtle allegory for capitalism possible. I have a prototype for a capitalism daemon harbinger in my drafts, but it likely won't see the light of day for a while still.

[monstersdownthepath]

Hi, I'm from Second Edition and Teshallas went from a mid psychopomp usher to an ABSOLUTELY BALLER psychopomp usher with the dragon domain.

------

My complaints on Teshallas were never about flavor, her flavor is amazing, if also a little brow-raising (her purpose is more than a little rude and can easily be seen as cruel, something even the books acknowledge). My primary complaints were the mechanics of her Obedience and Boons, which were incredibly disappointing for what is arguably such an important Usher! Her third Boon is easily one of the worst in the entire game!

[monstersdownthepath]

I saw creaturecodexs daemon of ignorance, but what a daemon of innocence? Like someone who doesn't know better/does horrible things because they don't fully understand right and wrong.

-----

That's a hard sell. The Courts of Purgatory are harsh, but they're fair, and an innocent or ignorant soul that does terrible things may simply be judged for the Maelstrom, or Axis, or one of the Elemental Planes. Hell, depending on their age, they may be sent back for another go.

Surprisingly enough, there is a precedent for this, and it's one I've spoken of before: The Psychopomp Ushers Saloc and Vale argue, respectively, for mortals to be judged by the intentions of their actions, and for mortals to be judged by the consequences of their actions. A mortal doing evil without being evil because they do not know what evil IS would make for an interesting court case, especially if they're actually old enough to know better but were simply never taught better out of circumstance.

However, you also mention "does horrible things" because they don't know right from wrong. Depending on what those horrible things are, there may be more or less leniency from the Courts. It's awful difficult to stay innocent and ignorant if you, say, are murdering people left and right and just tune out the screams and never bother to ask why you're doing these horrible things. Sure, maybe you're raised from birth by an evil murder cult, but you're still a being with free will and curiosity! To never ask "why" wouldn't bode well for your soul.

... All this to say that a daemon would likely not result from such a soul. A truly innocent soul that's dropped in Abaddon would be pounced on like a wounded gazelle by the truly malevolent population, and one must recall that entering Abaddon is a choice that must be made by the judged; the soul may simply elect to go to Hell to atone or the Abyss to escape, if they're condemned to a lower plane at all in the first place. Again, their most likely destinations are Axis, the Maelstrom, or reincarnation.

[monstersdownthepath]

sorry ask but you pretend continue the sinister spotlight?

------

I'm not sure I understand this; if you're asking for more Spiritual Spotlights, I can try!

[monstersdownthepath]

Would a fiend associated with hair work?

Maybe a barber Velstrac or a demonic cousin Itt. A daemon of hair would pretty unique though.

------

Probably! It's a fun theme, and one I've pondered on two separate occasions myself; the Indomitable Radiance, an Outer God I've mentioned a few times in other articles, is partially associated with hair (though it's more concerned with hygiene and beauty as a whole), as its own luscious locks need to be pruned and cut to remain perfect. The castoffs become Shaggoths and Shaglings, hair-based creatures obsessed with their own hygiene.

I've also got a pair of fey nobles in the works: One who believes in the beauty of beards, and one who believes in the beauty of baldness. They're mortal enemies.

A barber-ous fiend is interesting design space! I like the thought that pops into my head when considering a barber velstrac, a small subsection of velstrac who cultivate amazing hairstyles on themselves and others before scalping themselves or their victims to preserve their "works." Hairy demons are also all over, but ones focused on hair are few and far between; you mention a demonic Cousin Itt, and that makes me think of some awful pillar of hair that spreads strands out like webbing to ensnare and slice people apart.

This isn't from Pathfinder, but in my love of Dead by Daylight, I've created quite a few fan-killers, one of which is called the Clog or the Clot. It is what happens when the blood of the eldritch Entity presiding over the game mixes with the effluvium and runoff from its infinite human victims, birthing a beast of unholy and slimy hair whose texture and smell can only be described with 30 seconds of retching. A demon (or even a qlippoth) along those lines would fit perfectly into the Pathfinder universe!

[monstersdownthepath]

Weird question

I know Lamasthu has a thing for madness, but what a fiend associated with a mental asylum/corrupt psychiatric treatments

Like a demonic madhouse/beldam house.

-----

Possible! But I'll preface this that you have to be extremely careful with these kinds of things. I say this, because this next paragraph is a doozy:

The closest existing fiend I can find with such a domain is the Harbinger Arlachramas, of which basically nothing is known, and of whom little can be inferred, but whose divine portfolio is "dehumanization, disposal, and euthanasia," though she seems more concerned with ignoring and disposing of people with physical sickness rather than mental illness.

So it's definitely unexplored territory, but I'd recommend steering away from it unless you can put some big fantasy spin on it (as in add a big overblown element that helps remind people that it's all a game). It's territory that needs very heavy trigger warning labels before you even consider adding it into a game, especially since this kind of horror is still happening. It's VERY easy to mess up and make your players or audience disgusted with the writer rather than the fiend. See: everything that happened with Folca.

[monstersdownthepath]

In honor of me thinking about Urgathoa again, have this reading material:

The Sarcovalt, her fiendish, fly-bodied servitors

The Daughters of Urgathoa (Children of Urgathoa in 2e), scythe-handed undead blessed by the goddess herself at the moments of their death

The Weaverworms, bloated, gluttonous, worm-like creatures with a hypnotic song

The Pallid Angels, her war-loving servitors deliberately crafted in mocking reference to the upper planes

The Mother's Maw, her Divine Herald and a one-monster zombie apocalypse

And Urgathoa herself in a Spiritual Spotlight!

[monstersdownthepath]

Every now and again I'll get to cleaning out my inbox and find something I meant to answer 6000 years ago but got distracted from. One day this may stop! but it won't be today.