Lamhigyn
This small, three-eyed creature lets out garbled, piercing shrieks as it flits about on ragged batlike wings, its barbed tail flicking with menace.
Lamhigyn (CR 3)
Small Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar)Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Initiative: +6
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet, See in Darkness ; Perception +9
Speed: 10 feet, Fly 60 feet (good)
Space: 5 feet
Defense
Armor Class: 15, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size)Hit Points: 27 (5d10)
Saving Throws: Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
Offense
Melee: sting +7 (1d3+1 plus poison), 2 wings +2 (1d3 plus Grab)Reach: 5 feet
Special Attacks: poison, wrap wings
Statistics
Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
12 (+1) | 15 (+2) | 11 (+0) | 5 (-3) | 12 (+1) | 8 (-1) |
CMB +5 (+9 Grapple)
CMD 17 (21 vs. Trip)
Feats: Fly-by Attack, Hover, Improved Initiative
Skills: Fly +16, Perception +9, Stealth +14
Languages: Abyssal
Special Abilities
Poison (Ex)
- Delivery: Sting-injury
- Fortitude Save: 12
- Frequency: 1/round for 4 rounds
- Track: Critical Wisdom
- Saves: 2 consecutive saves
Wrap Wings (Ex)
When a lamhigyn uses its wing attacks to grab an opponent, it wraps its wings around its opponent's head, causing the victim to gain the blinded condition for as long as the lamhigyn grapples that creature. A grappling lamhigyn automatically deals wing damage while grappling, but it takes the normal -2 penalty on attack rolls for its sting attack. This ability has no effect on creatures that do not have sensory organs in their heads.Ecology
Environment: AnyOrganization: solitary, pair, clutch (3-9), or hive (10-30)
Treasure: none
Simple creatures, lamhigyns emerged from the chaotic fabric of the Abyss. Abyssal pests might be a good description of these strange creatures; their stings have left many adventurers insane and debilitated, opportune victims for the Abyss's insatiable predators. Viewing intruders with evil disdain, lamhigyns are always looking for new victims, which they slowly lap apart, piece by piece, with their rasping mouths.
Lamhigyns are strange-looking creatures that are often characterized by mortals visiting the Abyss as overgrown, flying tadpoles with the wings of a bat and a stinger-tipped tail. They lurk within dark places in the Abyss and in similarly lightless places on the Material Plane near rifts to their homeland. Their bulbous, unblinking eyes are vaguely froglike, and are often the first and last things unprepared adventurers see, as the pesky creatures are fond of wrapping their wings around their victims' heads to blind their prey. Their tiny mouths house thick tongues that flicker when intruders arrive.
Lamhigyns have thick, scaly skin on their bodies ranging in color from red to green. Though lamhigyns are typically encountered flying, on the ground they stand on four insectile legs that they keep tucked beneath them while nesting. Although they are small, their 2-foot-high, 8-pound bodies pack an impressive punch when hurtling through the air at their victims.
Ecology
Lamhigyns are pests from another plane and have no proper place in the Material Plane's natural order. Chaotic creatures with an inherent streak of evil, they lie in wait, eager for mortal life to happen by. When this occurs, lamhigyns instantly attack and try to immobilize their victims before slowly devouring them alive.
Lamhigyns that have slipped through to the Material Plane breed in dark caves and shadowed forests. Their mating rituals are dangerous, messy affairs. Approximately once every year, the fertile females- which are nearly indistinguishable from the males- fly to the highest corners of the cave or den where they live. There, they squawk uncontrollably. The males hurtle toward these females; the ensuing flapping and screeching results in the females' three or five eggs becoming fertilized. The females then lay these eggs in slime-covered clusters, where they incubate for 6 to 8 weeks before hatching. Lamhigyn mothers typically die shortly after laying their eggs, their bodies exhausted by the violent process of reproduction.
As they grow, lamhigyn hatchlings join any others of their kind in nearby caverns or find their own comfortable, dark places in which to live. Some find the Material Plane uncomfortable and spend all of their energy trying to find a way back to the home world they've never known but feel intrinsically drawn to.
Being from the Abyss, lamhigyns do not need to sleep; however, many choose to stay very still within the darkness-their wings wrapped around their bodies and their tiny legs curled underneath-waiting for the simple pleasure of scaring anything that may wander nearby. Similarly, lamhigyns have no need or desire to eat, but they spend much of their energy focused on predation. Though they don't require sustenance, they delight in bloodshed and violence.
Habitat & Society
Found in all corners of the Abyss, lamhigyns often slip through to the Material Plane (or other planes in the Great Beyond) as a result of being caught up by portals or flying too close to a rift between worlds. The greatest known rift on Golarion is the Worldwound. Here, lamhigyns are found in great abundance, almost invariably in caves, cliffs, or even the fabric of the Worldwound itself-sites chosen because of their similarity to lamhigyns' darkened homes in the Abyss. In fact, some of these simple-minded creatures believe this region of Golarion is part of the Abyss. For the most part, however, they're more delighted with the abundance of food in the Worldwound than they are concerned with geography.
When it comes to their own kind, lamhigyns can be volatile and violent in nature. In general, they tend to get along with other lamhigyns, though almost anything can set them off: living in too close proximity to each other, mating disputes, or arguments over the torn bodies of victims. When this happens, lamhigyns turn the full force of their chaotic fury onto each other, tearing and grappling until only one-sometimes none-of the bizarre creatures remain. When lamhigyns turn against each other, they are even more vicious than when they attack other creatures. Sometimes a petty squabble between two boisterous lamhigyns can spread through an entire hive as they infect each other with a chaotic bloodlust. Before long, entire caverns full of lamhigyns erupt in screeching echoes that crash against the rocky walls.
When they're not fighting among themselves, lamhigyns occupy shared spaces in noisy, flapping hives, waiting for hapless creatures to stumble into their dens. Intelligent creatures susceptible to fear-such as adventurers, creatures whose minds have been warped by the Worldwound's infestations, or unlucky natives- then suffer lamhigyns' gleeful ire. Lamhigyns ignore most normal animals unless they have waited too long for fresh prey and have grown bored. When it comes to victims, lamhigyns prefer those that can think and walk, for they provide the most deliciously terrified reactions. There is nothing lamhigyns love more than to tear the life from terrified, screaming humans while they are out of their minds with fear.
Lamhigyns fill parts of the Abyss like pigeons fill large cities, and many demons regard the creatures as terrible pests. Some demons take to hunting the creatures for target practice or pest control. Lamhigyns avoid most demons, especially those more powerful than dretches.
They enjoy harassing dretches and quasits, however, and often flock around individuals, screeching and battering them with their wings. This hazing goes both ways, and in the Abyss dretch hunting parties scour caverns for lamhigyns.
Unlike many other creatures, lamhigyns show little racial preference between a solitary existence or one with others of their kind. Although lamhigyns are more potent in groups, a single lamhigyn might occupy a small cave near the Worldwound for generations, waiting patiently for just one victim. Lamhigyns can live to be nearly 500 years old, though most die through acts of violence before reaching half that age.
When the Worldwound first opened, lamhigyns poured through the tear in reality along with the demons. They were also some of the first to die, as the Sarkorians could defeat the strange, small creatures in combat more easily than they could the more durable demons. However, the winged creatures kept pouring through, foreshadowing the Abyssal onslaught that was to come. In short time, lamhigyns began populating the region, and now tens of thousands of these creatures are said to live near the Worldwound alone. Though lamhigyns are rare outside the Worldwound, their appearance elsewhere on Golarion is a sign that chaos-and the pain of draining, pesky stings-is sure to follow.
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