Bestiary

Hellion of the Pits- S.A. Robles ©2017 v1.0

Stats Description Hellions of the Xosian Larva Pits are among the most monstrous Xosian humanoids to be found in the Frozen Dark, averaging 20' when standing at their full height and weighing no less than a ton while bare: even more if armored. Due to the great strain of their proportions, though, Hellions are typically depicted as submerged up to the waist in the Larva Pits of Xos, oblivious to the ravenous larva slithering in the primordial ooze and gnawing at them. They are grotesque beasts with sagging and slimy skin pocked with calluses, scars, and wounds: fresh and festering alike.

While possessed of largely humanoid features, with sinewy and knotted black hair, two hollow eyes that smoulder with insatiable hunger, and vertically slitted nostrils, a Hellion's mouth is deformed beyond comparison to that of a human: lower jaw dislocated and sagging limply from the upper one's tendons, jiggling about as the monster moves. Oftentimes the lower jaw is totally absent, with the Hellion having ripped it off to fit something too big to squeeze into its maw down the esophagus. The weapons they use naturally are nauseating, comprised of a mixture of still-writhing Xosian larvae and the occasional mortal sacrifice that drops into the Pits, crushed together and contorted like lumpy mud into crude bludgeoning instruments.

Lore Born most from the indomitable souls of gladiators, Hellions of the Pits will also sometimes form from the vestige of slaves who spent their entire lives knowing naught but hunger and were ultimately consumed by their own insatiability, or cannibals who died unfulfilled. Whereas most Larvae will roam the Pits for decades, if not centuries to acquire the necessary sustenance for apotheosis via cannibalizing each other, some especially ravenous and aggressive ones reach the threshold in short order: too soon for any bastions of their mortal psyches to assert themselves, and although they transmogrify into a superior form their minds are left forever broken and undeveloped. Incoherent and broken, they continue to rampage throughout the endless sprawl of the Larva Pits with a mindset no different than the worms writhing beneath them.

Due to their stunted psychology, Hellions have little in the way of abilities that set them apart from other Xosian entities. The only things the monstrosities excel at is brutality and durability, but these are two things they do exceedingly well. Short of the Giants and Dragons, there exists no modern race or species capable of besting a Hellion in one-on-one combat, regardless of what armaments they might have. Their obscene strength is enough to bend even untempered Vocorium with relative ease, and Ancient Bane won't take noticeable effect before they have paved a trail of gore across the battlefield upon which they were summoned.

However, there exists one pressing weakness that is a side-effect of their great size. The otherworldly physiology that normally allows extraplanar beings to manifest on Adanum without concern for petty things such as physics is not enough to compensate for the Hellions, perhaps owing to their demented minds, and so whenever forced onto land they are in a constant struggle not to be crushed by their own weight. This is offset by the astronomical pace at which they regenerate, but they cannot remain on land indefinitely: the safest course of action when facing one is to deprive it of whatever body of liquid it might inhabit and flee.

There is nothing in the way of technique or skill to a Hellion's combativeness. They instead rely on brute force, that of which is plentiful, to simply obliterate their foes and everything around them wholesale, by either stomping, fistpounding, or bodyslamming if unarmed or wildly swinging their grotesque weapons about if armed. Defending oneself against their onslaught is nigh impossible, and even a proficient Guardian could only repel a handful of blows before being unable to raise their shield further from internal damage. Once their prey has been reduced to a bloody mess, they will pause long enough to messily devour it; if the meal is too large to fit conventionally, they have have been known to dislocate or outright rip away the lower jaw so it can be shoveled down the esophagus.

Assigned to the Xosian Caste of Molnahr, Hellions of the Pits are without even the most primitive culture and have never been known to vocalize intelligibly. They are regarded with a mixture of fear and disdain by most denizens of Xos, and only the most powerful Named demons willingly make use of them; the risk for others to be turned on is far to great. The only practice observed almost universally amongst the Molnahr is the fashioning of weapons. Newborn Molnahr are known to angrily rip out their own spines for reasons unknown to mortals but speculated to be an attempt to stop the impulses of hunger to their brains. These spines are subsequently carried, and when particularly large larvae are found, they are harvested and grafted to them, still wriggling and ravenous. Eventually, enough larvae are grafted to the spinal base for it to function as a weapon, the elasticity of the cord useful in preventing the monumental strength of their strikes from breaking it. When the occasional mortal sacrifice land in the Pits, Hellions will thrash through the larval feeding frenzy to claim the prize. Male sacrifices are usually eaten wholesale, while female ones are grafted to their macabre weapons as trophies.

Few mortals, even those steeped in Xosian politics, are willing to deal in Hellions. In the Frozen Dark, might makes right, and they are true symbols of the mercurial nature in which the slightest flicker of weakness can see an esteemed Demonologist extinguished by an unruly creature they summoned. While the corpses of Xosian demons generally smoulder and vanish back to Xos, chunks of meat and the like that come loose from the body prior to defeat often remain. Hellion fat is useful in preparing foul-smelling candles that repels Nameless demons from the vicinity when lit.