Horned Devil
| Harper Field Dossier | |
|---|---|
| Combat reference | |
| Type | Fiend (devil) — a winged enforcer of the Nine Hells, all cruelty and fire |
| Vulnerabilities | None found; but radiant light bites deep, and a paladin's smite burns it as it burns all fiends |
| Resistances | Cold; and common steel that is neither silvered nor ensorcelled seemed to glance from its hide |
| Immunities | Fire and poison (the old infernal lore; not put to the test at the table) |
| Condition Immunities | Poisoned (lore) |
| Strong Saves | Shrugs off spells readily — the magic resistance of its kind |
| Senses | Sees in the dark, including the magical kind |
| Movement | Flies on great leathern wings |
| Notable Abilities | Hurls fire at range; lashes with a long barbed tail whose wounds bleed and fester until magically closed (an infernal hurt) and rot the flesh besides; when slain on this plane its body falls to dust and re-forms in the Hells — unless its soul is taken first |
| Provenance | |
| Knowledge | One encounter, at the infernal rift beneath Garmok's Mine |
| First Encountered | Session 44, the rift chamber |
| Filed by | The company's own account |
A fiend of the Nine Hells. See also the Bearded Devil, and the erinyes Zarchelia who wears the shape of Lady Calera.
The Harpers' Read
This is a jailer and an enforcer, and it fights like one: at reach, with fire and a flaying tail, content to let your people bleed out from wounds that will not close. The box at right holds what the company paid to learn.
Pin no hope on a hidden frailty — none showed — but radiant light and a paladin's smite tell on it as they tell on every devil, so bring holy fire and a hand that channels it. Look to its tail above its claws: the gashes it opens keep bleeding turn upon turn until someone mends them, so carry healing for the lingering hurt and not only the first blow. Expect your finest binding magic to slide off it. And mark the most useful thing the company learned in that chamber: a devil cut down by ordinary means does not die — its essence sinks back to the Hells to re-form. To end one for good you must take its soul out of the Pit's reach. Gootcha's crossbow, blessed of the Raven Queen, does exactly that — the soul goes to Her domain instead, and the devil does not return.
Encounters of Record
Session 44 — The infernal rift beneath the mine
Deep in Garmok's Mine, where a tear into one of the Hells had begun to swallow the dwarven workings, a horned devil hung bound in spectral chains — held fast by the ghost of Garmok the Chainbearer, who had kept his centuries-long vigil rather than let it loose. A bearded devil, a hell hound, and a lemure laboured to free it. Fighting beside the Bronze Blades, the company destroyed the lesser fiends and broke the horned devil with radiant strikes and Alexios's empowered smites. Its soul was claimed rather than allowed to slip back to the Hells, and with the devil gone Garmok's spirit faded at last, his duty done — leaving Garmok's Flail behind.