#hezrou // demonic stench

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Hezrou // Demonic Stench

Artist: Brent Hollowell TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Yeah the Hezrou never left, they just made it to round 2 automatically for its performance in the loser's bracket! That said, moving into the big leagues hasn't made life eastier. On the left, the Hezrou, 8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Just bring some sort of protection against stench. They're simple creatures. They like to fight and they like following orders. They'll happily barter or try diplomacy, and can give orders just fine, they just prefer to be given a task to do. Preferably one that involves punching.

On the right, the Glabrezu! 12 ft (3.7 m) tall, and surprisingly enough these are actually all about trickery and temptation. They'll happily fight if it's the best option but typically just use thier incredible intelligence. So they've got it all! Brains, brawn, cool coloration, magic, and claws! They can even grant wishes!

[real-live-human]

Floor 7, Room 27

weekly theme: chaos

hezrous may appear slow-witted beasts, but are in fact possessed of a deadly cunning as well as tremendous strength. the ground here is covered in layers of rot and an awful stench permeates off the demon.

monsters: 1x weak hezrou

loot: there is nothing of value here.

[jonjmurakami]

#pungeonsanddragons •Bad puns of Dungeons & Dragons monsters: 021923 • Hezrou •aka Type II Demon - A demon of foul temper and fouler stench. They supervised lesser demons while being toadies of more sinister beings. They were horrors that were 8 ft tall, and 750 lb. • Anyone remembers that Lionel Ritchie song from the 80s? ^_^ •Keep smiling and stay safe! 🙂 #jonjmurakami #dandd #copic @copic_official_us #copicmarkers #comic #comicstrip #cartoon #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonsanddragonsmonsters #dungeonsanddragonscreatures #dungeonsanddragonsfanart #pun #puns #hezrou #typeIIdemon #helloisitmeyourelookingfor https://www.instagram.com/p/Co4KF4Tux0f/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Hezrou

CR 11

Chaotic Evil Large Outsider

Pathfinder Bestiary 1, pg. 62

These bloated, froglike demons seeth with Abyssal corruption and filth, their skin perpetually caked in grimy slime so foul-smelling that anyone that catches a whiff of their Stench is sickened for up to 10 rounds. Lazy and unambitious by nature, a Hezrou that finds itself in its natural environment (swamplands and marshes) is often content to find a pool deep enough to plop its entire mass in, contaminating the surrounding area with its presence and delighting in how mere proximity to its fetid form twists and corrupts the natural world.

Hezrou are deceptively intelligent for their appearance and their practices, but take more delight in the simple things in life--the screams of torture victims, the sound of valuables shattering in their meaty hands, eating--and they don’t often seek to make anything of themselves, making them the perfect summons for Demoniacs needing a bit of muscle. As always, though, beware actually offending the demon, because while they ARE lazy, one good way to see it spring into terrifying action is to drive it to anger.

The massive frame these demons possess is excellent visual shorthand that clearly conveys they will not go down easily. Their warty skin grants them DR 10/Good and their slimy coating conveys an immunity to both poison and Electricity, which augments their natural demonic resistance to Fire, Cold, and Acid (10 each). Their lengthy arms grant them a 10ft reach with their natural attacks. While their dual claws deal a decent 1d8+8 damage each, it’s their razor-sharp bite that deals a powerful 4d4+8 damage. With both Power Attack and Great Cleave at their disposal, a determined Hezrou can make short work of anything that gets too close to its massive bulk, and more resilient prey may find itself grappled and torn to shreds, as all three of its natural attacks have Grab.

The gunky sludge that coats a Hezrou is, in the words of the book, “particularly heinous to those the creature grapples,” meaning that anyone who begins their turn grappled by the toad beast must make a DC 24 Fortitude save or be nauseated for a full minute, with the only way to break out of the nausea early being to allow yourself to get grappled again and make the save. Nausea is a condition that prevents anyone suffering it from fighting back, meaning the poor victim is effectively out of the fight while the demon is free to continue tearing into them... or tossing them aside and attacking their allies. They are smarter than they look, remember.

Smart enough to have spell-likes, even. They can use both Chaos Hammer and Unholy Blight at will to give them some serious ranged power, striking both Lawful and Good targets for 5d8 damage, or 10d6 if there’s an Outsider in the crowd, and inflicting either Slow or sickened (respective) to everyone damaged by the effect. Should the Hezrou be confronted by its mortal enemies (any Good Outsider), it may be provoked into croaking out its 1/day Blasphemy, a word of dark power that can instantly slay low-level enemies and render higher-level ones weakened, dazed, or paralyzed. Blasphemy also has the added side-effect of banishing any non-Evil extraplanar creatures in its radius, so anything that survives hearing it may yet be sent back home for a full day while the toady demon continues its rampage.

...Or it just sits down and goes back to sleep. 50/50.

You can read more about them here.

[lichlairs]

Checkout our new post over at https://lichlair.com/daily-monster-23-hezrou

Daily Monster #23: Hezrou

Okay so, technically I rolled for a “reduced-threat” version of this creature but, to be quite frank I’ve never been a fan of those variants and, considering that the only difference is a couple of numbers, we might as well do the full thing. Also, this pirate is currently high as a kite on cold meds, pardon the amount of frogs. With those disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at today’s Daily Monster…

Hezrou

The basics

Already right off the bat, these creatures have really solid looking stats, but we’ll see how well that holds by then end of this article. For now, if you end up in combat with one of these, your best bet is going to be to rely on their extremely low INT (-3). Their WIS and CHA is only slightly better with a +1 modifier to both. With a DEX of +3 and STR of +4 you would think that those are the stats that you have to worry about but on top of that these creatures have a CON of +5.

These large chaotic evil demons have proficiency in STR, CON, and WIS saving throws as well as a pretty extensive array of resistances. They have a single immunity to poison and a Darkvision of 120ft. They can communicate in Abyssal via their Telepathy.

As expected from a 20 in constitution, Hezrous are very meaty with an AC of 16 and a substantial pool of 13d10+65.

Not only are these creatures resistant to weapon damage dealt from non-magical attacks but, they also have access to a Magic Resistance that gives them the upper hand against spell saves and effects.

Other than their incredible resilience, however, Hezrou fall a little flat in terms of other features. They get a single ability called Stench that can poison nearby enemies on a very low DC save. For a CR 8 creature, Multiattack is just sort of expected at this point, so I’m not even sure it counts to redeem the Hezrou statblock.

The Lore

Looking back at older editions we learn that Hezrous were in fact one of the very first demons created for Dungeons and Dragons. Unlike many other creatures who have undergone multiple changes throughout the various editions, however, Hezrous have remained mostly the same.

Also known as Croaking Demons, Hezrous are described as massive toad like creatures that secrete a foul smell so potent that it can be poisonous to anyone who approaches them.

As expected of demons, these creatures are native to the Abyss. Generally speaking they tend to be extremely simple in their nature, often content to just server higher demons such as the Demogorgon or Jubiblex as long as they get to partake in the carnage and torture. They are brutes and thugs that serve in the front lines and a very likely encounter for your party to come across when visiting this plane.

Although their origins are still uncertain, it is said that, like many other demons, Hezrou are created from the souls of evil mortals that have been sent to the Abyss by the Gods.

the face of evil.

Even though Hezrous are definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed, these demons will still make pacts with living souls. They seek desperate individuals willing to sacrifice their souls in exchange for what are often destructive tasks. Whenever a Hezrou enters the Material Plane seeking to make a deal it is called a Dark Walk as that is usually what follows after.

While on these walkabouts it’s not uncommon for Hezrous to be venerated or even worshiped by Bullywugs or other similar creatures. Likewise, Hezrous that remain within the Abyss can also end up with a small group of minor demons who follow them around picking at their scraps.

The Execution

The very first thing I would definitely consider when running this monster is to just, straight up just run the Summoner variant because I find them to be so underwhelming on their own. Since we haven’t covered what that is quite yet, it basically gives our creature a 30% chance of summoning some other demons (in the Hezrou’s case that would either be another Hezrou or 2d6 Dretches).

With that out of the way, let’s see how exactly we can have our players bump into this demon.

As mentioned before it is very likely that a party that adventures into the Abyss will come across a few of these. If that’s not the case, however, we can still make use of the Hezrou’s Dark Walks into the Material Plane.

It could be that your group of adventurers get in a little bit of a stinky situation by getting caught by a tribe of Corrupted Bullywugs that have taken to worship this demonic entity. The cool thing about this is that, if this is the case, you can also use the Bullywugs for a bit of combat variety. Heck, you might not even need to use the Summoner variant if that’s the case. The process of escaping the Bullywug alone is already interesting as it is, but imagine your players faces when they find out they’re about to be sacrifices to this:

F E E D M E S E Y M O U R

Another interesting approach to take with the whole Dark Walk shtick could be to have the players interrupt a deal. Perhaps a well-loved (and slightly misguided) NPC is about to make a big mistake out of desperation and it’s your player’s job to stop it before it escalates any further.

If you’ve read this far and would like to be notified whenever we post more pictures of fat toads consider following us on our social media to never miss any of our articles. We post new stuff every day!

[myth-lord]

CREATURES FROM MYTHIKA: A

A BAO A QU (Malay Myth)(Ooze/Shapeshifter)(Medium/Large)(Best Stat: Charisma): Beautiful, shapeshifting ooze creatures that drain charisma from victims to become the perfect lifeforms themselves, eventually evolving into a beautiful dragon-like ooze creature after draining many creatures of their beauty and charisma. They never get enough of Charisma and if they don’t feed regularly they eventually turn back into formless puddles of ooze again.

AATXE (Basque Myth)(Undead/Spirit/Beast)(Large) (Best Stat: Strength): The cattle of the Sinlord of Wrath, burning with red vengeful fire and a disturbed sense of justice these violent red bulls rampage into the night.

ABAIA (Melanesian Myth)(Beast/Fish)(Huge) (Best Stat: Charisma): Acting as the mothers of all lake creatures these powerful eel horrors protect their “children” with powerful elemental water and storm magic against anyone foolish to disturb the lake in any way. The creatures that live inside their lakes often come to depend on the Abaia’s protection and slowly grow or gain additional powers and strange limbs as the Abaia’s aura will slowly mutate creatures that spend too much time in their waters. Abaia are said to be the favorite children of Amhuluk.

ABUHUKU (South American Myth)(Aberration)(Medium) (Best Stat: Stealth): Brain-Eating horrors that can stick to any surface with their gecko-like hands and feet. Their long mosquito like proboscis is used to suck the brains from the skulls of their victims.

ACHERI (Native American Myth)(Undead/Shapeshifter)(Small) (Best Stat: Charisma): The daughters of the Horseman of Pestilence, with a treacherous shy smile these undead girls love to spread distrust and the worst of diseases into any community. Their touch and gaze spreads the most vile of diseases which only their kiss and blood can cure.

ADARO (Solomon Island Myth)(Humanoid/Merfolk)(Medium) (Best Stat: Speed): One of the more vile and dangerous merfolk, these horrors combine the features of merfolk, marlin and sharks. They use poisonous starfish, flying fish and urchins as weapons.

AFANC (Welsh Myth)(Beast/Chimerae)(Medium) (Best Stat: Defense): Combining the terror and strength of a crocodile with the creativity of the beaver, Afanc love to use the bones of their victims to build dams with or turn an entire sewer system into a deadly maze full of traps, giving rise to legends and stories about Sewer Alligators.

AGHASH (Persian Myth)(Demon/Aberration)(Large) (Best Stat: Intelligence): The demonic eyes of the deserts, these beholder-like horrors often work for Sinlords and Horsemen of the Apocalypse and can see through other creatures eyes, making them the perfect spies. Looking directly into their giant central eye will turn any living creature mad with violence, pain and insanity.

AGRIPPA (French Myth)(Construct/Possessed Object)(Medium) (Best Stat: Intelligence): A possessed animated Grimoire that can absorb other creatures into its dark pages and later summon them again from the same page to fight for it, creating entire armies when they collect more and more victims in their cursed pages.

AHKIYYINI (Inuit Myth)(Undead/Skeleton)(Large) (Best Stat: Charisma): Ogre-sized Skeletons that use musical instruments like violins and drums to create natural disasters with, turning a calm sea into a force of destruction in a handclap. Nature seems to dance to their rhythm, which is bad for their enemies and victims.

AHUIZOTL (Aztec Myth)(Beast/Chimerae)(Large) (Best Stat: Stealth): Probably created by an insane Aztec God these chimerae species combine the features of monstrous dogs, otters and monkeys. They lure their victims towards the water edge with their mimicry and use the claw on the end of their tail to pull victims from boats or the edge of the water to drown them, then they feed on their nails, teeth and eyes.

AITVARAS (Lithuanian Myth)(Dragon/Shapeshifter)(Small/Medium) (Best Stat: Speed): Created by the first hag Baba Yaga, these shapeshifting dragons look like fiery roosters during the day, but turn into cockatrice-like dragons during the night. Their gaze and touch curses other creatures with bad luck and burns their very soul.

AJATAR (Finnish Myth)(Demon/Dragon)(Huge) (Best Stat: Charisma): Said to be the mothers of all demons and snakes, though this is false these monstrous demonic cobra-horrors have a abyssal portal inside their stomach and can spit out various demons to help them win a battle, their poison slowly transforms other creatures into lemure-demons and their snake-like bodies are crawling with serpents of every type that protect their “mothers” body from any harm, forming a living shield.

AKANAME (Japanese Myth)(Aberration)(Medium) (Best Stat: Stealth): Horrifying and disgusting aberration humanoids that use their extreme long tongues to get to the filth they craves so much. Their salvia also turns metal to rust and they love to eat this rust as well. These pathetic creatures follow around other disgusting predators to feed on their leftovers.

AKHLUT (Inuit Myth)(Beast/Chimerae/Shapeshifter)(Huge) (Best Stat: Strength): Majestic looking predators with a bad temper, these orca/wolves are extremely protective of their huge territories and hunt for any other living creature that is foolish enough to enter their domain. They especially hate other large predators.

ALICANTO (Chilean Myth)(Beast/Bird)(Small) (Best Stat: Defense): These strange and beautiful silver and golden caracara-birds feathers react to the materials they eat, slowly turning into the same material. Alicanto love to eat silver and gold and so their feathers turned golden and silver and very sharp, they use their sharp wings in battle but lost their ability to fly. The Horseman of War fed some of these magical birds with Adamantium so their feathers would become even more sharp and powerful.

ALP-LUACHRA (Irish Myth)(Aberration/Fae/Parasite)(Tiny) (Best Stat: Defense): Horrifying fae parasites that enter other creatures (mostly humans) throats and start to turn them very hungry and gluttonous, eventually turning them into mindless fat living-zombies that just eat for their tiny aberration host which also uses the fat host as shield against their enemies. Their magical slime keeps their victims alive much longer than otherwise possible.

ALRAUNE (German Myth)(Plant/Fae)(Large) (Best Stat: Charisma): Looking much like carnivorous plants (all types possible) that spawn clones of the humans they once ate to lure more prey towards their waiting, snapping Venus-trap maws. The clones often look like beautiful versions of those humans and are mostly female, female victims are lured in with sweet aroma’s.

AMIKUK (Inuit Myth)(Aberration)(Huge) (Best Stat: Stealth): These slimy aberrations burry their egg-shaped bodies into the snow and patiently wait for prey to wander by, then their four tentacles that end in claws will erupt from the snow or ice and drag their prey towards their enormous maws which are over the length of their entire bodies. Their slime is very slippery and they are hard to grapple.

AMPHISBAENA (Greek Myth)(Beast/Reptilian)(Small) (Best Stat: Defense): Snakes with a head on each side of their long bodies, one of the heads is that of a Seps-Snake which poison turns every prey into a puddle of acid, the other head is that of a Bloodletter-Snake which poison will force all the blood from the victims’ bodies in a horrid show that turns the victim into a living fountain of blood, being bitten by both heads at the same time is the worst death you can have in the world of Mythika. These snakes are small but extremely dangerous for their poisons.

ANIWYE (Native American Myth)(Beast)(Medium) (Best Stat: Defense): Giant, dire skunks that love to eat humans and which poisonous musk will forever haunt the victims as only magical water can wash the stench away. The Aniwye can track any of its stinky victims that survived the smell and often uses its musk to track down villages where the victims flee to. Even dragons evade Aniwye for their horrid stench. Aniwye love dirty things and often sleep on piles of rotting corpses to absorb the stench into their dirty pelt.

ANKOU (Breton Myth)(Undead/Fallen Angel)(Large) (Best Stat: Charisma):  The Angels and messengers of death, these are the minions of the Horseman of Death. They hunt down weak victims to take away their souls and like Necromancers can create many types of undead with the spirits they stole. Wherever Ankou reside many dark and evil undead creatures collect in groups. Ankou can control all other undead monsters (but not bosses of course) in Mythika.

ARGOPELTER (American Lumberjack Myth)(Aberration/Beast)(Medium) (Best Stat: Speed): Very dangerous predators which escaped from an Alien-World and somehow turned up on earth where they thrive with their four tentacle-like arms which they use to whip their victims to death or to throw bullet-like wood-splinters with. Their faces and bodies are somewhat like those of baboons. (think of them as much smaller Demogorgons from D&D with only one head.)

ARGUS (Greek Myth)(Giant/Aberration)(Large) (Best Stat: Intelligence): Guardian Giants which disfigured bodies are covered with hundreds of eyes. They collect knowledge and secrets and can dispatch eyeballs from their bodies to scout for them, their eyeballs can also use various gaze-attacks, burning, freezing, petrifying, scaring or even outright killing their victims that meet their many gazes. Argus can see invisible creatures and spot traps and illusions with ease.

ASAG (Sumerian Myth)(Demon/Elemental/Amphibian)(Huge) (Best Stat: Defense): Toad-like (think Hezrou from D&D) rock Demons that like the Surinam Toads they resemble can spawn smaller underlings from their backs, four at a time. Whenever the mother Asag is killed but an underling still lives the Asag can reincarnate from her own offspring’s bodies. The Asag can also throw her own children like a giant throws rocks and her spawn can cling to her body and form an even thicker stone armor.

ASANBOSAM (African Myth)(Troll/Fae)(Large) (Best Stat: Stealth): These vampiric trolls have large iron hooks instead of hands and feet, they use these hooks to swing from trees and to grab their prey underneath them. Drinking lots of blood has turned their hooks and teeth into iron.

ASDEEV (Persian Myth)(Dragon/Elemental)(Huge) (Best Stat: Stealth): Beautiful female white dragons that can turn into mist and fog and which breath will freeze their prey solid. They often breed with Zirnitra (the shadow dragons) to breed new Asdeev Drakes. They often fake being gentle dragons and let victims ride them, only to turn into mist at great height and drop their victims to their deaths.

AWAHONDO (Native American Myth)(Undead/Vermin)(Medium) (Best Stat: Speed): Spirit and Soul eating wasp-like undead horrors. Their bites and stingers only hurt the souls and spirits of creatures, leaving the flesh without scars. Their poison separates the souls from their victims, turning the corpse into a zombie that protects the Awahondo that created it and the soul is hunted down and devoured. They also implant spiritual eggs into some victims which will hatch into new Awahondo after eating the victims soul from the inside out.

AWD GOGGIE (English Myth)(Fae/Vermin)(Large) (Best Stat: Strength): The strange and enigmatic guardians of the fae forests, gardens and groves. These enormous caterpillar-like monsters love to swallow interlopers whole and later disgorge them again as maggot-like monsters with the faces of the former victim still intact, these new Goglings will now forever protect the same fae forest/grove or garden they once sought to harm or enter.

BOSSESS: 

Ah Muzen Cab (Mayan Myth)(King of Bees) Akheilos (Greek Myth)(Lord of Sharks) Alastor (Greek Myth)(Sinlord of Wrath) Alberich (Norse Myth)(Right-Hand of Greed) Amhuluk (Native American Myth)(The Father of all Aberrations) Ammit (Egyptian Myth)(The Devourer of Souls) Andras (Infernal Myth)(Right-Hand of Wrath) Antaeus (Greek Myth)(Guardian Giant of Elemental Earth) Anteros (Roman Myth)(Angel of Hate) Arachne (Greek Myth)(Queen of Arachnids) Arzshenk (Persian Myth)(Lord of Minotaurs) Axex (Egyptian Myth)(King of Griffons)

FRIENDLY CREATURES:

Agloolik / Airavata / Alkonost / Alphyn / Amazone / Anansi / Anhanga (on the picture) / Arkan Sonney / Asena / Aspidochelone / Aziza

OTHER MONSTERS (I like them but aren’t going to list them): 

Abaasy / Abatwa / Abere / Adlet (on the picture) / Adze / Aerico / Ahool / Aigamuxa / Akashita / Amarok / Ame-Onna / Anggitay / Anzu / Ao Ao / Apaosha / Apocalypse Locust / Arragouset / Ashinaga-Jin / Askafroa / Aziwugum

@NOTE: All pictures found on GOOGLE PICTURES, not my own work, and mostly here to give an impression of what the creatures COULD look like.

If you see your own artwork and want it removed, just PM me about and I instantly remove it.

@NOTE 2: While all these creatures come from mythology, I gave my own spin to these creatures, many of these creatures don’t have the powers and abilities I gave them. Afanc for example aren’t intelligent in the real myth, they are dumb creatures that just look like beavers but they don’t do anything with their beaver features at all, in my project I give the creatures powers, abilities and looks I think fit the monster more.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, the Hezrou, 8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Just bring some sort of protection against stench, because they apparently have some of the worst.

The Worg (right) is a wolf-like creature, knows 2 or 3 languages, and are known for turning on thier riders if mistreated! Last they bothered listing the size they were 3 ft (91 cm) at the shoulder, 5 ft (1.5 m) long. But the picture shows it at nearly twice that, around 5 ft (1.5m) tall and 8 ft (2.4 m) long. Whichever works for you I suppose, maybe it's regional.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left is the Will o Wisp, a 1 foot (30 cm) ball of spongey stuff, that mostly appears as a hazy ball of light! Comes in any color, and has shocks and invisibility if that's your fancy.

On the right, the Hezrou, 8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Just bring some sort of protection against stench, because they apparently have some of the worst.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Now here's a fun one! Muscles vs Tentacles!

On the left, the Hezrou, 8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Just bring some sort of protection against stench, because they apparently have some of the worst.

On the right is the Grell, a floating creature from the plane of madness with 5-8 ft (1.5-2.4 m) tentacles and paralysis spikes. I forgot to mention last time, the spikes on those tentacles are retractable. Also, they look like brains, but that's actually thick leathery skin! So you aren't ACTUALLY putting your hips to a hippocampus

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

The dragon turtle on the left has steam breath! The shell alone is around 25 feet (7.6 m), but otherwise it's exactly what it sounds like, giant sentient turtle dragon. Pictured here with a crommesteven I think? 2 or 3 mast, a spritsail, most others I know of that design are way too big. Originally a Dutch design, though famously used by the British Navy in the 17th century during thier early colonizing rush.

On the right, the Hezrou, 8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Exactly what is seems like, big buff toad. Just bring some sort of protection against stench, because they apparently have some of the worst.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

8ft (2.4 m) spikey demon toads! Lotta bipedal toads on the chaos side of things. Just bring some sort of protection against stench, because they apparently have some of the worst possible. ...Is it time for toads? I think it's time for toads. There are far more than I expected.